Tonight was the festival’s final night. The town expected the usual—thundering booms and synchronized gold rains. But Mateo had spent months on something different. He had been experimenting with "ghost shells"—fireworks that shift colors in mid-air, appearing and disappearing like spirits.
Elena had been gone for two years, but the house was still loud with her absence. Before she passed, she had left him a note tucked into his favorite matchbook: “Don’t let the sky go dark just because I’m not there to see it. You never stopped being my million fireworks.”
It didn't just explode; it exhaled. A million tiny, flickering points of violet and opal light expanded across the horizon. They didn't fall. Thanks to a meticulous chemical balance, they drifted, shimmering like a galaxy caught in a breeze. It was quiet—a soft, crackling hiss like a secret being shared.
The shell whistled into the blackness, higher than all the others. For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then, it bloomed.