They contacted us.
Earth, 2119. It’s the 100th anniversary of the first oficially-registered contact made by intelligent extraterrestial beings with Earth. Or how most people like to call it: “the day aliens finally contacted us”.
It took place decades before I was even born –a few years before even my parents were born–, but still, it’s regarded as the most important contemporary historic event, by far, so I’m pretty familiar with it.
First, when the sighting of a meteorite falling and landing near the border between southern Mexico and Guatemala was covered by the media, it went fairly unnoticed. The damages were minimal, and it was nothing too interesting. That is, until someone that had collected the meteorite made an interesting finding: the meteorite wasn’t exactly a rock, but rather, a metal capsule.
This created a massive media uproar. The coverage was huge, conspiracy theorists were thriving, and the tourism in that area increased drastically. Everyone was dying to see what the capsule held.
It was extremely hard to open. It took days and days, and many failed attempts. It seemed to be made of an extremely resistant metal, that not even the most refined of machines could cut it open or pierce it. It was nothing chemists and other metal experts had ever seen before.
But, at last, the day people in a very high-tech lab were able to break it open came. Inside was a small piece of a strange paper-like material with some pictures on it. But then, they realized it was not actually pictures. They were glyphs.
Soon enough, it was found out the glyphs in question were ancient Mayan glyphs. The people in charge of identifying the object got some archeologists who specialized on Ancient Mayan civilization, and they discovered that the message could be roughly translated to “the day is near”.
This troubled a lot of people. Was this a mistranslation? Was this a prank that went out of control? Was this a strategy for the media to sell a ridiculous yet interesting story?
However, this seemed to perfectly match a conspiracy theory that had been popular for a few years before. Years before, there had been speculation that the end of the world would arrive in December 21st, 2012, because of some misconception regarding the Mayan calendar. As we can tell, it didn’t end. But, there was speculation about the date not being exactly accurate with our own calendar, with there being a margin error of about 15 years.
And indeed, the date had been off for about 7 years.
The thing is, the date wasn’t really about the end of the world, as so many people had wanted to think. Instead, it was about a new beginning. A new change in the world. And indeed, a big change it was. When the highly speculated day arrived, people in Earth were contacted by “extraterrestial” beings, from a planet from a somewhat distant galaxy. There was an interesting thing about these aliens though. They were, in fact, humans. Or at least, they descended from them.
The most popular theory in this modern age is that they’re the descendants of the Ancient Mayan civilization, which was thought (apparenlty accurately) to have misteriously disappeared centuries ago. These Ancient Mayas, according to this theory, had such an advanced and refined technology that they were able to transport most of their people to a faraway planet, in pursuit of divine realization. They couldn’t find their gods over there, but what they did find was a hospitable, gorgeous planet, which they made their home. Given the fuel they used took quite a few centuries to be made –or rather, to fully understand how to make it– they couldn’t go back and retrieve their companions left behind, so they decided that they would contact them once possible, which, interestingly, matched the date they had calculated as being the day of the world’s renewal. Little did they know, Earth would have already changed beyond recognition by then.
Communication with them was extremely difficult. Their original language had evolved with the passage of centuries in relative isolation –since they were still quite populous–, which resulted in dozens of languages almost completely unrelated to any language known to Earth inhabitants, except for Ancient Mayans, of course. But as decades passed, both Eartheners and these foreign beings –we don’t call them humans, since they aren’t exactly that, anymore, given that their bodies somehow evolved to a more suited physique for their new planet– found a way to understand each other, and this led to a revolution in society, politics, economy, and life itself, as the world knew it, as the cultures from people from Earth and these “aliens” started interacting with each other.
A hundred years later, we still haven’t figured out the perfect system to interact with each other. However, the trade between both planets has been rapidly improving, and it is estimated that, in a few years, we’ll receive our first visitors from their planet, since now they have crafted enough fuel to power airships suited for people transportation.
Cruelty
There’s a little girl, being beaten by her drunk father. He blames her for the recent abandonment of her mother. “You’re such a bad child, you dissapointed your mom so badly she left!” he yelled. Her beloved dog, in order to protect her, bites her father’s leg. “YOU FILTHY DOG!” he shouts, enraged, now beating the dog to death, killing the creature she loves the most right in front of her.
A twisted sense of love
I thought I told you I didn't want to ever see you again. Yeah, it's been three years, but both you and I know that three years won't strip the psycho away from you, especially noting how you seem to be as obsessed with me as you were back then. Seriously? Do you really want me to forget how you killed my childhood friend just because he confessed to me that he was in love with me? And how you tried to manipulate me into thinking that his death was actually my fault, because according to you I "seduced him"? You are one crazy bastard. You think people are dolls in you pretty little world, empty dolls that you just get rid of when they don't go according to your game's plans. I wouldn't get back with you even if pigs did fly. You broke my heart, killing one of the most important persons in my life just because you were afraid that he would "steal me from you", even when you knew damn well that I loved you with all my life. Stupid me, I can't believe I ever believed you loved me too. What you call love, is actually a sick concept of ownership, having to be creepily devoted to each other, losing all individuality, not being able to ever freaking interact with anybody else. That's not love, that's slavery. You're messed up if you think there's even the slightest of chances of us being a thing again. Although we've both known for a while that you are not completely sane, haven't we?
Waste of life
Three weeks studying. Tyler had spent the past three weeks studying, Monday through Sunday, 10 hours a day, just taking small breaks in between to eat and freshen up, and to do a bit of cleaning. He completely locked himself up (at least socially, because he did go out every now and then to do groceries). After all, he had what was probably the most important exam of his life coming.
So, the day of the exam came. He was well rested, satiated, and prepared. But when he was just arriving to school, he was fatally hit by a car.
Living fire
My skin caught fire at the accident. I was scared. Was it an actual accident? A terrorist attack? Just a nightmare? The nightmare didn't seem like such a likely option though.
Everything seemed too real. The blazing, awful heat I felt, the liters of sweat escaping my pores, dehydrating me even more, and the blinding effect of such a strong light becoming all of my world. There was also the screeching yells for help and screams of pain coming from the lungs of those around me, noises exhibiting fear, and foreshadowing death. There was also the sickening smell, 5% cooking meat, 5% burning hair, and 90% smoke, itching, intoxicating smoke that made it nearly impossible to breath.
But there was also something that seemed unreal. The heat was absolutely unbearable, but the actual fire wasn't. In fact, it didn't even feel like the heat was coming from the fire consuming me, but rather from afar. The fire, in reality, felt quite nice. My clothes were suffering, yes, but my skin, and all of my body, had never been more relaxed. It was liberating, and exciting. Like if the fire was cleansing me completely, both physically and spiritually. Burning away all impurities, and giving me a new skin, a new flesh. A new life.
After what seemed like an eternity, however, I grew tired, and thirsty, and I was also running out of oxygen. So, with a newfound sense of power, not over, but stemming from fire, I waved away the flames, and I looked for the exit, not without a struggle, given all the debris and obstacles the fire had created. On my way out, I found a pair of miraculously unburnt curtains, which I used to cover myself, and sneaked out, trying to be invisible and silent as death itself, since I didn't want to answer any questions. Anything anybody asked would have been impossible to answer, either because I didn't know it myself, or because I barely even believed it myself.
So I went home, acting as if nothing ever happened, but in reality, I was now a completely different person. More fire than human.