- Z -: Oh no! What was it? Where is it?! Come on!! The message was very clear. "06:10 pm. Please, be prompt.".

 

Suddenly, a tingling shook Zoe's body. She had received a message, but she was too afraid to see it. But maybe it was Lizzie, so she decided to take a peek.

- O -: "Where are you?". 

Zoe's heart stopped beating for a second. Then she took a breath: it was Oscar. "I forgot the password. Do you have it?". "Yes! She has been calling you, but you didn't appear, so I messaged you".

 

Finally, she entered the room and apologised for being late. But then, Zoe realised that something was wrong. Nobody seemed to react to her presence. Nobody could see her body or hear her voice. No matter how loud she spoke, nobody, not even Lizzie, was able to hear her.

- O -: "Zoe! Are you there?".

Yes! I am here!!, she screamed. But still, no answer. Zoe almost convinced herself that she was invisible. She thought that she was going crazy. And indeed she was, because the next thing she saw was Oscar flying through space, and Lizzie's face deformed into squares, and she started to feel sick.

 

 

- M -: "Zoe, can you hear me?". . . "Zoee!".

 

 

- H- Hi, Hi, I am here. What happened?

- Can't you remember anything?

- Not much...

- It's not easy to explain.

- Why? What exactly happened?

- You died Zoe, I am sorry.

- No, no, no, no. I can't be dead! I- I- Who are you??

 

 

"Zooeee. Are you there?" Yes, yes, I am here, sorry. 

"Could you please read your story? What is happening to you today? First you come late, now you don't answer me. Please, focus". Yes, miss, I am sorry. I was thinking of something else. I thought today's little experience could be a nice story, particularly when you forgot that our meeting password was 6thSup21. I love Zoom.

 

But there was a story I wanted to tell him so I did even if I hesitated. It was about a tragic event between a mother and her daughter. The mother’s name was Makani and her daughter was called Jade, that was what I told him even if it was a lie. Makani found that she had cancer when Jade was 15 and Makani knew she would die soon, but she was a warrior, because she would start her own war against cancer.

Everyone else was happy with that decision, but Jade was worried that her mother would only have false hopes, she didn't understand why her mother didn't want to enjoy her last days comfortably at home but in a lonely and cold hospital.

Jade was a witness to her mom’s long battle. She saw her mom die after being in pain for a long, long time. Ten years later that little girl, who was now a married lady, went to the hospital, that

same hospital, in the same waiting room to see the same doctor her mother did once, the one who later told her she had cancer too. My heart was breaking while I was telling him the last parts of the story and how it ended.

I don't know how I didn't cry at that point.

‘Why are you telling me this sad story?’, he asked. My mind and heart were like a big desert with a hurricane. I had 10.000 words I wanted to say but I didn't know how to say them. I just looked into his eyes, hoping he could understand my feelings without a word. Feeling the tears like a downpour on my face

He realized what I meant and he just looked at me with a smile saying beautiful words that sadly I don't remember now. The only thing I remember now is what really mattered: he said that he loved me and that he was there for me no matter what.

With a deep breath I decided that I wanted to fight too. I wanted to live my life as my mom had, fighting. Cancer won't beat me.

 

The end

Lottie came home after an exhausted day at the office. The first thing she did was take off her shoes and lie down on the sofa. At the same time, she quickly checked her social media. When she finished it, she started playing her playlist on Spotify that included songs from her favorite artists. After a relaxing shower, she decided to order pizza from the best restaurant. Meanwhile, Lottie continued to watch her favorite TV show.

 She turned on the computer and searched the web for Netflix. But something on the screen caught her eye. She received a notification from Gmail which seemed strange to her because a few minutes before she had checked her email and she hadn't seen anything new. The notification said that Lottie had an unread email from the airline she was flying with the next day.

 When Lottie opened it and read it, tears began rolling down her face. The mail said ‘Your trip has been canceled. We regret to inform you that your flight LA199 from New York to Buenos Aires has been rescheduled due to the weather conditions of the next few days. You will receive another email shortly with detailed information about the reprogramming.’

Lottie’s flight had been cancelled due to the thunderstorm and now she wouldn’t be able to spend her birthday with her family. At first, she felt sad because she really enjoys celebrating her birthday, it is a special date for her. But Lottie’s sadness didn’t last long. She called Louis, her father, and explained the situation. He told her that she needed to calm down and wait until the next flight.

Some days later, she received another email with news about the rescheduling. In a matter of hours, she was already in her plane seat. To Lottie’s surprise, her family was waiting for her at the airport. When she saw them, she began to cry with joy, and they all hugged. Finally, they returned home and celebrated with a delicious dinner.  

 

After some days I realized that maybe I wasn’t the only child my dad had. I would come home from school two hours before he arrived from work. In that little amount of free time I had, I got curious and started investigating around the house hoping to find the reason behind my strange gut feeling. Four days after I had started my secret mission, I found some photos of my dad with a kid that was actually in my class. This boy’s face was pretty similar to my father’s. Now I would have to see with my own eyes if they were actually similar or if it was only my mind.

 

I began talking more at school with the guy that looked suspiciously similar to my father. His name was Lucas, he was a friendly and really funny guy, you would never be bored around him. The exact same day that I sat with him in class, our teacher gave us a project to do in pairs. After school I went over to his house to finish our project. When we finished it we started talking about our bodies and how we shared some marks and similarities in our faces. The moment he pulled a photo to show me that his mole under his right eye was just like his father’s I had to tell him that the man in the picture was my dad as well. 

 

When we realized what our similarities actually meant we began planning how we would question our father. We ended up deciding that we would go to my house after school the next day and we would ask him to tell us the truth and his side of the story. The day came and we started talking but the peaceful talk ended with us fighting because my dad was a person that just wanted a lot of attention. He had two other girlfriends as well, and one of them was actually three months pregnant.

 

After hours of arguing with the man that had been lying to my face all my life, I decided to move back to Paris with my mom. She was the main reason why I moved to Buenos Aires but discussing every night what would be better for my future was a lot of times better than sharing a roof with the bad and self-centered person my dad was. I spent nearly a month in Argentina and I was moving back to France. At least now I had a new person in my life, Lucas, but we are still getting to know each other.

 

Knowing the existence of my brother makes me feel less alone but it still makes me wonder how did my father kept this a secret for years without raising any suspicion. Letting him go and stop seeing him as I did before hurts but I have my mom, my friends and now Lucas as well. We talk every day and the most important thing is that we are really good friends even though we had all the chances to hate each other.

John was a shy boy who just liked spending time with his friends. They had been inseparable since they were kids. John started to feel strange when he and his friends were entering a new stage: they were not kids anymore but teenagers, and John didn’t like that at all. He felt weird all the time and that he didn’t fit in. 

Every day at school, he saw all the other students being happy doing things that he didn’t even care about, also his friends started to do those kinds of things, and John felt very isolated. He was not interested in going to parties, smoking, drinking alcohol, meeting girls, etc. 

John started to spend most of the time alone, he didn’t t even meet with his friends anymore, they had changed a lot and John missed them so much. So he thought one way to get his friends back.

On a Friday night, John decided to go to a party where his friends were at, but that night everything went out of control. John started to drink a lot and after a few minutes he got drunk. One friend tried to stop him but John smashed a bottle in his friend’s head. Then his friend had to go to the hospital but he didn’t make it. 

After that night, John was never the same, he couldn’t live with the guilt. So his family decided to move to another city and tried to forget the incident but for John it was impossible. John learned that he had to be happy with himself and never wait for the approval of others  

Ava’s parents had decided to do a ceremony for her disappeared daughter. At the funeral, Katrina met her friend’s boyfriend, Dorian, with whom she spoke and lately got really close to.

After some days of Ava’s fake burial, Katrina got a phone call from Dorian; he invited her to go fishing at the lake in the forest. Mourning Ava’s death was, for Katrina, the most difficult thing she had ever done; that is why having Dorian by her side helped her in an incredible way. Only they both knew what they were going through. So when she received the call, she hadn’t hesitated one second; she accepted. 

Once they arrived at their destination, they walked to the boat carrying a strange heavy box. It was Dorian 's. When Katrina asked about it, he explained to her it was an emergency box. 

It took almost two hours until Dorian announced that they had reached the center of the lake. He had insisted on going there because it was the quietest place where fish bite the most. But they did not fish. They spent the time talking about Ava. And between word and word, time slipped from their hands. The sun was setting when Katrina suggested coming back to the coast; but a part of her knew that was not going to happen when she saw Dorian jumping on her. 

Never before had she felt so powerless. All she could think about was why she had accepted going to the lake with a stranger where no one could see them. Dorian tied Katrina’s hands and feet with a rope, which had been taken from the box. She tried to fight, but it was worthless; Dorian pushed her out of the boat. While sinking and losing her breath, at the bottom of the lake she recognized a familiar shape: it was Ava’s shape. And with the last of the air she had left she thought how... how had Ava’s boyfriend figured out there was the place where she had thrown her friend’s body away. 

 

I have been running for hours and trees are all I see around me; the moon watches the hunt from the sky, she is the only one who will know the truth about what happens tonight. I hear the howling of wolves along with the rustling of fallen leaves from the trees, as when something big and heavy steps on them.

 

I am tired, thirsty and hungry, luckily I found a river, hidden and small. I drank murky and dirty water from it that was as refreshing as it was disgusting.

Maybe it is paranoia, but I see shadows, as if they surround us and watch the show, waiting for the final act. The wolves wait for a corpse to feed from and the shadows for some entertainment.

 

Hanging from a tree I see a sign that says "Smith's hunting lodge". I followed the directions to it as fast as I could. As a gazelle, I ran swiftly and stealthily to get there before him.

 

I feel him running, he is in front of me, but not far enough to be caught; he knows I am behind him, but he does not seem to care, his only goal is the lodge. It's there, I see it, he's at the door, but to his misfortune, the door has a key.

 

Finally, I got him, it is mine, so much waiting will finally pay off. Hunting animals never compares to hunting humans, much less this one which has been the longest and most difficult hunt I have ever had.

In a last try to escape he fails, this time he won't be able to, the hours of chase were not in vain. The shadows will have their entertainment and the wolves their food.

He thought that little lodge would be his refuge but he couldn't reach it. Trying to open the door was the last thing he did and my face was the last thing he saw.

His blood on the door and windows was worthy of being called art.

Galaxy 1023

Planet 5

 

It was noisy in the streets. I got up to know what was happening and once I saw through my window, I remembered: 'Today's the great festival! We are celebrating our 16^th month anniversary; how could I forget about it?’. I was so excited that I cleaned and changed my skin quickly and I asked my parents to hurry up, how could they be so calm? 

While I was waiting for them, I looked at my family picture where my grandpa was and I thought that he would be proud of what our species have become. When everything was finally ready, I just couldn't contain myself and ran outside. The environment was just so cheerful and enjoyable that nobody noticed there was something unusual. It wasn’t until our dome made a sound, and our alarm started to ring, that we watched above and we saw it.

Our dome’s color was different, it is usually black, but this time it was yellow. When we finally realized that it was already too late, our dome collapsed. The songs became screams, the dance turned into stampede. Egg-like things started falling from above and once they hit the ground they consumed all that was ever there. I saw, with the corner of my eye, how my house disappeared, with all the people that were close to it.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by darkness, there was a ship above us, one that looked like a whale, but it was so big that I wondered if it had an end. It began to rain again, but this time it was no longer eggs, but silhouettes, things that released death in their wake. Those things were levitating and I could see how from their hand a light arose and people just vanished. My parents reacted and pushed me into a corner, just before the same light crossed in front of me, and then, when all the smoke was gone, they had disappeared. 

There in my hideout, I was able to see how the invaders got something off from their heads and stopped levitating. What was once a giant shape had become something even smaller than myself. When all the dust was finally gone, and a bit of starlight entered from our broken layer, I was able to see it clearly: they had a head, two arms, and two legs. There were two eyes on their face, a strange little rock in the middle of it, and a mouth… they looked like humans.

That morning I did the usual stuff, I missed the bus so I arrived late and the professor got mad at me for that. I’d never been a good student, what’s more, my grades had dropped a lot in the previous months and I didn’t have any friends to ask for help, for some reason most of my classmates disliked me, they said I was really quiet and that seemed to bother them, like if I were hiding something, so they used that as an excuse to be mean or to exclude me. But none of this matters anymore. 

School finished and I had to go. I remember passing by the church on my way to the hospital, just as a compromise. The priest gives me flowers to bring, and finally I was there, right beside him. He has been like this for a long time and doctors say that he will get better, but it hasn’t happened yet, and somehow I feel guilty about it, maybe because it was my fault. We were fighting like never before, it’s my fault that he had fallen and hasn’t woken up yet. If I had been a better brother, this wouldn’t have happened…

Maybe that’s why I’m here, looking at the floor where my body is, now all covered in my own blood. 

I did this to myself… 

I was alone and got to the tallest balcony at school, I thought it would be a nice place to think. And I thought until it was nighttime and the stars wouldn’t shine enough to see through the endless darkness. 

And then this shadow, something pushes me to the end of the balcony, the darkness finally wins as I fall.

Was I alone? I can’t remember. So I look up at the balcony. A silhouette is standing there. 

I may have been responsible for many stumbles in my life, but it seems that I am not to blame for this last fall.