Megumi's Tempting Tango

There was something wrong with the sunset today.

Shota had been staring at it for a while, probably because it wasn't a sunset. It was just a big red rock that turned orange and purple as the light hit it. There weren't any clouds or rain or anything like that. It wasn't even hot out. It was kind of cold actually. Shota had his jacket on, but he took it off as he was walking to work.

He noticed the weird sunset when he got there. He saw that Deacon wasn't in yet, so Shota went around back to get the bags of trash out of the Dumpster for him. Of course, that meant he had to stand up on that old wooden plank of a staircase, but it was hardly ever wet out here so he didn't have to worry about slipping or anything like that.

He got one bag down and started taking out all of the plastic bottles and cans and stuff when he noticed something really bright moving through the sky. It looked like a star, but there were no stars out tonight. That's what made Shota look at the big red rock again. The sun was setting behind the rock and getting all those colors but there was nothing in front of it to block it at any point in time.

Shota stood up on tip-toes to see if maybe there wasn't another rock blocking him from seeing where this thing came from, but there wasn't any other rock out here. He could see wayyy past this one, all the way past his town to where Deacon lived, where his mom lived, where his dad died...

And then Shota saw her--or him?--before he passed out from shock and fell face first into some mud at the bottom of that rickety staircase.