A piece of flash fiction I wrote, a few months ago. Loosely inspired by my experience of reading Illuminae on the train home.

I was reading about a spaceship being attacked; being blown up, with thousands of people on board, some of which I’d spent the previous three books growing attached to. The final missiles were fired towards them, and my heart clenched. They bore down on them and… the train I was on shuddered around me, throwing my thoughts off the rails.

Was the engine that loud when I got on? I shook my head, deciding it didn’t matter. I needed to know what happened, and I needed to know now!

Turning the page, I jumped right back in.

The fallout was devastating, but things weren’t over yet. It seemed the attackers were now heading after the rescue ships, sent in to patrol the area.

Bang, bang, bang! The first fleet of emergency vessels went up in a ball of fire. Heart clenching again, I didn’t notice that they’d called my stop. Only when the train started to slow did I realize I needed to get off. If I didn’t get off, I’d be stuck in the middle of nowhere for the rest of the night, but there was just half a paragraph left, and I couldn’t leave it.

Distressed, I snatched up my bag and ran to the carriage doors, glancing back down at the page after every step.

The doors shut as I reached them, and I looked up.

Heart clenching one final time, the last three words went unread.