The Rise And Fall Of

And The Spiders From Mars

By: Lilpopcorngurl

S: The tale of a simple city girl and her boyfriendand their doomedmartian rockstar Messiahwho has come to liberate humanity from banality.Based on the concept album Ziggy Stardust.

Disclaimer: this story is based on the concept album of the same title by David Bowie. The idea is not my own this is simply an interpretation based albums storyline. With each chapter being based on each song and yada yada. And no, it doesn’t count as fan fiction I checked! Enjoy, I intend on finishing this one.

Robert James was in my house, at my new yearsparty, drinking my shots and coolers. This was clearly the absolute best moment of my entire life! I watched him enjoy the music while talking to a friend of a friend of mine over hockey.

I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to sit with him and say ‘wow we should hang out sometime.’ When the friend of a friend left Roberts dark eyes focused intently on the TV screen.

I briskly made my way to where he was sitting and sat down next to him, “hey!” I said cheerfully. When I was nervous or in front of a figure of authority my voice tended to go higher . . .much like it was at that moment.

He didn’t even glance at me. His eyes were still on the TV, “hey,” he said monotonously.

I stared at my lap for a second then at the hockey game. It looked interesting, I guess. “Good game, huh?” I said.

“Not really,” he replied, “we’re losing.”

“Oh,” I patted my legs with my hands. My focus had gone from the screen to my denim skirt. I smoothed my skirt before trying once more to get his attention, “So what’s going on?”

“Hockey,” he said bluntly.

“You must really like hockey,” I tried,

“Not really, it’s okay. This party just really sucks and my Girlfriend is in Tuscany.” He said finally looking at me.

I smiled, “wow Tuscany, and must be exciting.”

“Whatever.” He said staring at the game again.

“See you later.” I said getting up from where I was sitting. I felt hurt and offended at my little chat with Robert. He didn’t even give me the time of day, not to mention that he already had a girlfriend.

I sighed at how pathetic I was.

“Hey Angel,”

I turned around to see Duncan Jones holding a champagne flute towards me. “Duncan, hey!” I smiled, “I haven’t seen you since the party started where were you?”

“I was over there.” He pointed to a group of girls giggling as he pointed at them.

“You know they think you’re an idiot,” I laughed.

“Idiot-schmidiot, they gave me a moment of their time!”

“Let me guess those girls are ‘going to be your groupies one day’?”

Duncan laughed, “of course!”

Ever since I had known Duncan, he had always dreamed of being a bass player for some wicked cool band or something. “Duncan, we’ve been friends for how long?” I asked him.

“Best friends,” he corrected, “and we’ve been friends since you were knee high to a pigs eye.”

“Exactly, and I should know more than anyone if your grandioso dream will come true!”

The crowd of people started counting backwards, grabbed drinks and got close to the person they were going to kiss for new years.

“Then you know for sure that I always get what I want,”

“4”

“You don’t always get what you want, Duncan!”

“3!”

“And what if I do, what will you do when I become a mega bass player?”

“2”

I didn’t reply. When the clock struck twelve Duncan leant down and kissed me. After the completely platonic kiss between two best friends had ended I blushed, “you’ve never done that before!”

“You never answered me, what would you do if I did become a megastar bassist?”

I smirked, “lets cross that bridge when we get to it mmkay?”

Duncan patted my back laughing, “I hate when you say that.”

“You also hate broccoli, speaking of which, we need to go shopping tomorrow and get some.”

Duncan’s eyes floated away from me and onto a stunning blonde, “whatever . . .tomorrow . . .” and he walked off after her.

I sighed, “boys . . .” I turned around at the mess before me. I knew people would probably start sleeping over because of how late it was and how drunk everyone was. I started picking up empty bottles and trash and went into the kitchen.

There was a couple making out in front of the sink. I pushed them aside so I could empty the bottles. The couple stared at me for a second then continued kissing. I looked at the double sink and saw that there were piles of dishes on both sides. I reluctantly poured soap in the sinks and ran hot tap water on one side of the sink that was full of dishes. As the sink was filling with water and suds I removed dishes from the other side of the sink. The kitchen window was in front of the sink. The same window I often caught Duncan looking through.

I stared at the sky and saw thousands of stars and thought to myself about how wonderful a new years eve it was. I turned off the tap and started washing the dishes.

“Hey!”

I turned my head a little to see who was talking to me, “hey Tina!” I said noticing the long dark hair bobble towards me.

“You know . . .” she drawled slowly, she was obviously drunk, “you and Dunk should totally go out!” she giggled.

I smirked, “Tina you know we’re just friends.”

“I saw him kissing you!”

I frowned, “yeah it was a platonic kiss between two friends Tina. Hey can you help me out by throwing out some trash and bringing bottles here?”

Tina laughed, “You love him!”

I turned around to Tina, “I would really appreciate your help, Tina.”

Tina gave me a dirty look; “fine then!” and she went off collecting a bottle then started drinking from it.

I stared at the dishes in the sink and resolved cleaning now would just be useless. I washed my hands and went into the sitting room people were still talking or making out everywhere around me. I sat in between two couples making out and retched at the sight of them. It only reminded me of Robert James . . .and of Duncan strangely.

My eyelids felt a little heavy so I closed my eyes just for a little sleep.

“Psst.”

I opened my eyes and saw Duncan’s face staring back at me. “Dunk?” I said loudly.

“Lets go to the Market Square, I need fresh air.”

I lifted my head off the body of one of the girls who was making out next to me on the couch. Everyone in the entire room had crashed from the party. I yawned, “Sure let me get my coat.” I quietly removed myself from the couch and stumbled over bodies on the floor to my aunt’s favourite coat rack. “Do you think we can leave all these people here by themselves?”

Duncan smirked, “well considering we’re dirt poor and the only thing worth stealing is my prize ball of twine, I think it’s fine.”

I grabbed my blueberry pea coat from the rack and put it on. We slipped out the front door quickly. As soon as we left the house I was surprised to see how grey the sky was. The sky was so clear the night before I was sort of stunned that it would be so cloudy.

Duncan and I walked in silence to The Market Square where I suppose we would buy some things before coming back home. I noticed as we walked closer to the square that there were a lot of distraught faces.

“Duncan,” I said slowly, “is it me or do you notice something strange going on?”

A man started screaming, tears falling down his face as he ran past us. Duncan’s eyes grew large with wonder, “I think I notice it too.”

When we finally made it to the Market Square we had to push through crowds of people until we finally saw what was wrong. On a TV set sitting outside an electronic store a news anchorman was talking through his tears.

“There you have it folks, we are doomed to destruction five years from now because the planet is dying!”

I stared at the screen in awe. There was no possible way that in five years we were all going to die, it’s an insane thought! As I watched the news anchor burst into tears on the screen it all made sense; the world was going to end in five years, what a pleasant thought.

My head started hurting; so many thoughts went through my mind. What was I going to do? I stumbled at the overwhelming thoughts luckily Duncan caught me. I stared into his eyes, “Duncan, were going to die . . .” I wept slowly.

Duncan held me close to his body, “I know,”

As I was comfortably close to his body I watched people full of rage and depression amongst the streets. I noticed mob mentality started to take over as people started breaking into stores around the square and rioting. I couldn’t move for the life of me. I was completely frozen.

“Lets get out of here,” Duncan advised. He didn’t wait for my answer and simply pulled me out of the Market Square. As he was pulling me away I saw a woman trying to hurt some children through the corner of my eye. I wanted to help but could I couldn’t do anything and seemed unable to communicate this to Duncan. A man grabbed the woman off of the children whom she had badly beaten. I sighed with relief.

Duncan brought me to Chamberlain Park where we sat on the bridge over a shallow pond. I knew that Duncan was being strong just for me it was just so difficult knowing . . .what we knew.

“We’ve got five years left,” Duncan mused to himself.

By this time my paralysis had worn off and I was able to speak again, “what a surprise. I didn’t think the New Year would start out like this.”

He chuckled, “my brain hurts a lot.”

“Mine does too. There’s so much to be done, it’s like five years isn’t enough to live your dream y’know?”

“It’s the end of the world,” Duncan laughed.

I laughed at his sarcasm, “Yes it is!”

“And in that moment, the one we found out the world will be destroyed,” Duncan smiled when he said ‘destroyed’ as if it were some sort of a joke, “I knew I wanted to be with you, Aurelia.” Duncan turned completely towards me letting his eyes bore into me.

I stared back in confusion, “what are you saying?”

Duncan put an arm around me; “I’m saying that I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Ray. You don’t have to answer me now, but know that I’ve put my feelings on the line here,”

“O.K.” I looked around the park, “can we go back to the house? I’m afraid it’ll be in shambles by the time we get there.”