A torrent of light divided my sunny day in two. It pushed apart the pastel clouds with a swirl of blazing fangs, darkening the blue in the sky to a smolder. Disaster crashed and echoed throughout these limestone-thicket streets. The City’s bustling, unstoppable mood converted to doom at the speed of light.

I was basking in peak daylight that Saturday, near the ripening buds of the raised rooftop garden. My high-rise skyline suddenly bathed in a blinding sea of white, and pulled me right out of my utopian trance. The gleaming phenomenon obscured absolutely everything, twisting the air into a searing clench against my skin. Jolts of heat revived suppressed memories of a bygone love. A lost desire time was healing.

Why did despair have to summon her? I thought. The silence I buried was unearthed so easily by a dazzling beam of light.

I accepted my stirring vulnerabilities amidst the chaos, yet despite increasing agony, nothing changed. The damn glare made it impossible to hear her voicemail one last time, a comfort lost as my hazy eyes strained to pierce through the overwhelming brightness.

In a last-ditch attempt to fathom my new reality, I just reached forward. While the hairs on my arms singed in the scorching air, my dreams slipped through my grasp.

As the sky tore open, the brilliant river of light widened, acting like a polarized filter. For just a moment the Sun dulled, exposing the boundary to the river of light. Its source stretched far beyond the sky, a bright path into infinity.

In a heartbeat, the trail’s farthest reach snapped like an elastic band sweeping across the stars. Every ray of light coalesced overhead into a blinding mass, exploding with even greater brilliance. Then the unifying light dimmed, while a terrible howl carried a force that nearly cratered the five boroughs. My skin steamed relief as I jumped to cover, right before that forceful gust screamed the roof clean.

After a period of silence, I opened my eyes to a chilling pitch-black void. I was hopeful my scenic view would be unblinded by brightness, but like the emptiness inside me, the shine had been consumed by midday darkness. Each blink of the car lights out in the distant shadows smothered the burns on my skin with an arctic vertigo.

As my vision adjusted, I found myself drawn to a deep orange glow hugging the very brim of the horizon. Then it hit me. From end to end, Earth’s first interstellar visitor eclipsed my entire sky.