“Maria, Maria! Wake up! Hurry!”

As Maria slowly regained consciousness from the comfortable feeling of her bed, she saw her father, in his usual white lab coat, ran around his laboratory mixing vials. Some mixtures on the table appeared to be overflowing, some were shining brightly, some even puffed out smoke that looked like a skull. When he added them together with the vial that he was holding on his hand, it strangely mixed together without any indication of change or increase in volume. It was as if the vial was absorbing all other mixtures like a bottomless black hole. It was very fascinating for Maria to watch her father’s work. However, due to many incidents in the past, Maria wasn’t allowed to enter his workplace. This was the first time he lifted the ban and allowed Maria to enter. While he hurried around feeding more mixtures into the vial, Maria left the bed and looked around the laboratory. It was a very spacious room filled with different specimens stuffed in tall glass cases filled with lightly glowing chemicals. Upon closer inspection at some of the glass cases, Maria was fascinated as she realized that some of them even appeared in mythical folklore. As Maria was spacing out from seeing so many creatures that only appear in storybooks, her father came closer and gives her the strange black vial.

“Here Mary, go on, drink it.”

Under his intense observation, Maria gulped down the entire black vial and then… Nothing happened… as it had always been. However, for the first time, her father's face showed a smile of satisfaction. He proceeded to pick up a remote by the side of the table and pressed a button. It soon opened the ceiling to reveal a clear crimson sky full of stars circled a dark sun. Maria’s father, whose face was still smiling led her on a big platform. It then surrounded them in a glass dome and slowly elevated toward the sky. As they elevated higher and higher, Maria was dazed from witnessing the beautiful scenery of shooting stars rained down from the horizon. When the platform stopped in the middle of the sky, Maria father lifted her on his shoulder:

“Happy birthday, Mary. I believe you will be turned 11 this year, correct?”

Maria doubtfully asked while staring at the sky:

“Father, that is quite unusual for you to remember your daughter's birthday let alone her ages, is the world going to end tomorrow or something?”

“Not tomorrow Mary, it going to end today. This might be the last time I can attend your birthday. No worry though, this will not be the last birthday you can have.”

While Maria still processing his answer, her father put her down and pat her head:

“Mary, I know you have a lot of questions but it is no fun giving out the answers right away. You are my daughter. I am sure you will figure it out given the time you will have. Also, this is your last birthday with me, your father, so don’t make it turn into a lecture as a birthday gift, will you?”

Staring back at her father, Maria shake her head:

“Can I at least get a hint at what is going on?”

Maria’s father pressed another button, this time, a field of flower spread all around the big platform.

“Thanks, but I don’t need flowers right now.”

Maria’s father let out a sigh of defeat, lay down on the flower bed, and began to talk in his casual tone:

“I suppose giving you the short version of the story will not hurt your enjoyment in the future. Well, the world is ending Mary, not just the worlds or the universes though but the entire existence. Science has bought us far, but this is our limit. Not even migration to other planets or universes can save us from mass extinction now. However, you can survive this. Although I can’t give you the full detail of my works, I can assure you that you will be alive and well under all circumstances. I hope you will treasure this gift as it is what your mother had used her life to exchange for. Now, with all that aside, will you sit down and enjoy the scenery that I have prepared so hard for your birthday?”

Shocked, Maria sat down emotionlessly beside my father, looking at the crimson sky glowing more and more radiant. she asked:

“You are leaving me alone?”

In a mocking smile, her father replied:

“What? Our cold, smart and beautiful princess is scared? I thought you always hate the fact that I conceal you in our base and not letting you explore the world outside? Now I let you free and you start to like the idea of cuddling your father?”

Maria silently lay beside her father. The beautiful scenery did not lift her worried feeling.

“But there is nothing to explore now, you said it yourself that everything will cease from existence. If I took your words at face value, wouldn’t it be the same as before, only without anyone or anything to interact with?”

Her father turned to the side and play with Maria’s hair.

“For that, you need not worry. As for why it would be, a spoiler wouldn’t be fun for our little explorer now, wouldn’t it? Trust me and put your worry aside, if even a chance that the scenario in which you fear might exist, your mother and I wouldn’t put you through it in the first place.”

Then father sat up and stared at the horizon.

“You know, this scene reminds me of that time when we meet you for the first time. At the time when you were born, the sky was as calm and beautiful as this. Your blank expression was so funny and unfitting just like you are now, minus the crying of course.”

“Eh? ”

Suddenly realizing something out of place within his words, Maria lifted herself up and was about to ask him a question, but a huge blast of winds interrupt her from speaking. After the blast stop, she was able to look at the cloudless sky, where the stars started to accelerate around the ever-expanding sun. Some stars had begun to crash onto the land near them, creating more and more shockwaves and destruction. Some stars directly crashed onto Maria and her father's location revealing an invisible shield protecting them and disintegrated. Maria’s Father stood up with his hand behind his back and walked forward.

“Well, my daughter, this looks like a signal for our farewell party. Do take care of yourself when you wake up, ok?”

Just as he finished his sentence, a large array of piercing light penetrates the seemingly invincible shield and disintegrates everything within Maria’s vision, including her father. His back is engraved as the last memory before her mind wanders aimlessly in the blinding light. Maria was forced to close her eyes for just a moment but when she opened her eyes again, she could no longer see her father or the familiar sky. All she saw is the dark empty space between her and the light fading out in the far distance.

>> A voice suddenly rang out in Maria's ear. Before she knew it, her eyes feel heavy and she drift into sleep.

When she woke up from what seemed like an eternity, what appeared before her was a beautiful scenery inside a forest with warm sunlight reflecting on the surface of a lake. This was the beginning of Maria’s adventure in this strange world.