The world could end.

The world could end today, and all that remained would be a small cafe at the corner of two busy streets. The traffic would be dead, of course, the world having ended within the previous few hours. Cars would have stopped in the middle of a left turn, traffic lights would have frozen between red and green, and a single note from a bad AM radio station would be suspended in the air for eternity.

The end of the world, Jillianne thought, did not have to be a calamitous event. It could simply transpire during some odd moment when the sun goes behind a cloud, and the universe decides that yes, it was fun for a while, but I'm quite exhausted and rather enjoy the prospect of relinquishing my existence.

Her watch had stopped at 11:11. Had the world ended then? Not a whisper or the soft chink of a ceramic coffee mug being set down on a wooden table top had been heard since then; perhaps it had. Perhaps her last moment was stretched out forever and ever, her eyes scrutinizing the scratched glass covering the hands of the clock, her hair falling over her eyes, the subtle hint of mint tea in the air; never changing, living but not living, only...still. Serene.

Maybe every moment a world ends, and another is born, and part of our consciousness leaps to the new world, leaving the rest of it fixed forever in one time and place, its existence naught but a memory.

Footsteps padded lightly across the floor and jolted Jillianne from her near-medative state. They stopped in front of her; once-black-but-now-faded-to-a-dull-grey loafers lead to light blue jeans and eventually to a brown jacket that belonged to a rather unremarkable man who was gazing inquisitively at her. She raised her eyebrows.

"The time. I asked you the time."

"Oh."

A pause. "Well?"

"It's past 11:11."

Annoyed, he walked away.

A single raindrop fell on the glass windowpane. A horn sounded. The wind blew a crumpled paper bag across the sidewalk.

The world could end.

.

Her name was Jillianne. Not "Jill" as some people took it upon themselves to refer to her as, nor "Anne" or "Jules". She liked her name, and didn't see any point in shortening it. It was JILL-ee-UHN, and would remain Jillianne until she died or was forgotten.

She strolled out of the cafe with a book shoved in the back pocket of her pants. There was a coffee stain on her white shirt, but she didn't particularly care; it would rain soon, anyways. There was a park a few blocks from the intersection she stood at, and with a glance towards the threatening clouds, she began walking there at a moderately faster pace.

Jillianne had been alive for sixteen years, three of which she didn't count because she had no memory of them. She assumed that there wasn't much interesting about those first years: she couldn't read. The next eleven were better; she had a fair grasp of the English language and lived somewhat peacefully. High school was pointless, she deemed, but she chose not to ponder upon it. She couldn't understand why people hated it so much, for it wasn't any different from the rest of their lives, but this may derive from not understanding people in general. They were an unfathomable lot.

In the park, a red ribbon was snagged on a tree. Gingerly, she unraveled it and wound it around her hair, which was dark orange in compliment. The tree felt some indignation at this; after all, the ribbon was pretty, and it looked awfully nice next to its green leaves. In effect, the same twig touched the clutch to Jillianne's watch and sent it falling to its roots where it would supposedly sit forever. She did not notice.

.

Close by but completely unbeknownst to the rest of the world, a rabbit dug a hole. It was a nice hole, Bernard thought, nice and wide and deep and cavernous. He peered down into it, and tried to see through to the other side. There was a path that could be seen in the dirt walls, but it was far too dark to discern anything else. Pleased, he retired to his den beneath an old tree and curled up again, his white fur bunching around his neck, and fell asleep.

Bernard slept until something hard hit his head. Peering out of one eye, he saw a glint of silver. With his full vision, the glint revealed a band and the band a face that held one long rod and one short.

S'not time to go yet, he thought wearily, s'not even nightfall. It's - Bernard consulted the watch, for he was sure now that that was what this object was, and gasped. It was 11:11. The sun had set hours ago! Then, with complete disregard for the daylight filtering through the clouds, Bernard shot away from the tree with the watch in his mouth.

He was very late indeed.

.

The world would end.

The world would end, and Jillianne would have never understood it. There wasn't much she could relate to. She didn't understand the prospect of time very well: everything seemed to either be too late or too early. When the world ended, time would no longer exist. But then, Jillianne liked the everlasting. It provided some escape from the inconsistence that life brought.

When her world ended, she thought it would be very nice to lay back and watch the rest of society, to see how they changed and progressed. That's really all she wanted: to observe the world, not live in it. She believed that she would learn more that way. She wanted to step out of time, if for nothing but her own edification.

With her peripheral vision, Jillianne saw a rabbit dart out from under the tree. She also noted that it was carrying a watch, one that looked strikingly similar to the one that she had on her wrist. She would have compared the two, had she not realized at that moment that the watch was no longer on her.

"Hey!" she shouted, running after the creature. She liked that watch. It was broken.

The rabbit hopped quickly through the grass with Jillianne in quick pursuit. He seemed to disappear for a moment, but that was before Jillianne saw the hole. And when she realized what it was, she was already falling. The hole was larger than anything she had seen before. Perhaps it was never-ending. She fancied that idea. The walls of the abyss appeared to expand as she fell downwards. And she fell. And she fell.

She could fall forever.

The world was ending.