Heal

This is one of the performance pieces I wrote. I told this story to my fellow creative writing students, and I was assessed on my performance and the story itself. I will find out how I did this month! Eep! Anyway, enjoy


Heal

I would like to tell you a story. One about magic, mysticism and love conquering all. I really would. But I can’t. Not this time. Today, I am here to bring a message to all of you. I am Xephyros, seer of all that will be. Lately, the winds of change have been whispering of grave things, which I have come to warn you of. Everything I am about to tell you is based on truth. At least, this tale is very likely to come true, unless you heed my words. So brace yourselves, and prepare to know your familiar home planet as it may be.

There once was a world long since forgotten, where we dreamed our lives away and lived our dreams, before we lost faith in believing. Before care and compassion became cruelty and killing. That world was nothing like this one...

I wake up with those words still fresh in my mind. I try to put pictures to them, but the technicolour haze that usually occurs in my dreams doesn’t exist this time. It had been a strange dream. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I walk over to my bedroom window and open the curtains. For once, it isn’t raining. I go downstairs to the kitchen and make my morning coffee.

I drain my mug, and as my brain is slowly revved into action by the caffeine, it tells me that something isn’t right. I look at the calendar. The date is the first of January. New Year’s Day, 2021. Apart from that, there’s nothing else going on today that I’ve forgotten, but I can’t shake off the nagging feeling that I’m missing something. Then the sunlight blinds me for a moment. Shielding my eyes with my hand, I look out the window. The weather is perfect. The sky is a radiant blue, the sunlight is a radiant white and, in fact, the whole city looks radiant, shimmering in the sun’s rays. In the middle of winter.

Wanting to investigate the weird weather further, I dress quickly and head outside. On a normal day in January, an ocean of blank faces rushes past. When they aren’t hidden by hoods and you can catch a glimpse of their eyes, you see a dull acceptance of reality. Everything is grey on grey. But today, I walk out the door and hear my own footsteps. I see patches of grass at the edge of the pavement that I didn’t even know existed. And there is light everywhere.

Where is the traffic? Where is the ocean of faces? Where are any of the mundane routines, or minor crises of city life? Could it be that a merciful god has granted the world one day of peace?

What am I thinking? I’ve been an atheist ever since I can remember. But I can’t remember what I did yesterday, come to think of it. Something takes that worry from my mind though. The sunlight bathing everything carries something calming. I should enjoy this perfect day while it lasts.

It’s now the fifth. The one perfect day has become one unsettling hour after the next. The few other people that could be seen wandering the streets have been passing out one by one. There was a report about it on the news a couple of days ago. They were calling it “sleeping sickness”. Now the entire city has stopped. I haven’t watched the TV in two days. I don’t want to know any more. I would be surprised if any channels are being broadcasted now anyway. I wonder how many are still left unaffected...

I’m worried about how bad my memory’s getting. There are hours of the past few days just missing, as if they never happened. I have a feeling it has something to do with the light drowning everything, even when it’s supposed to be night. Every time I’ve been out in it, investigating what might be happening, the same feeling of calm has come over me. The next minute, I’ve been in my house with no memory of walking back. How long will it be before I black out altogether? Then it hits me. The ones in hospital with this sickness aren’t sleeping. Sleep is a natural thing. This isn’t natural. I have no choice but to stay inside to avoid being affected. But then, will help ever arrive?

Day seven of this. No change.

Day eight. No change.

Day nine. Nothing.

Day ten. It’s grey today. All the light is gone. All the dreariness of normal life is back, without any of the comfort of normality. Now the apparent cause of the sickness is gone, I should go out and see what’s going on. The thought makes me feel sick, but I feel like I have to. They say fear of the unknown is worst.
Outside, it’s just as deserted as it was before. The other survivors must still be in hiding.

There’s a flash of light on my left. As I look around, I only see the corner of my street. Curiosity takes over. I flatten myself against the wall and crane my neck to see round the corner. Nothing. Then something drives me to put myself in full view of whatever might still be waiting for me.

The white light hovers a few feet away. I collapse onto the pavement. My legs are dead. I can’t move. It drifts closer. It speaks.

“Don’t be afraid. We have come to heal your planet. When we’re finished here, this will be a perfect world.”

The words aren’t reassuring. My legs still won’t move.

“Our world is nothing like this one. This planet is suffering. We must eradicate the disease that’s killing it.”

I’m blinded in an instant. Something is wrapped around my heart, squeezing it tighter with every second. Waves of pain convulse through me. Everything is white.

I’m jolted back into consciousness. The world is slightly hazy as voices tell me about a New Year’s Eve party that I’d been brought from to hospital after collapsing. They go on about the dangers of binge drinking, but their lecture seems far in the distance.
As reality becomes solid again, I start to have terrifying moments where I think I’m back in the dream. There is no border between them. I now have unexplainable welts around my eyes and on my chest. I still see lights in my peripheral vision. Every time I turn to look at them, they’re gone. My mum’s in hospital after fainting and not recovering. The doctor said she’s in a coma, but her brain is still active. She dreams regularly, as though she’s deep in a natural sleep. Something’s being hidden from me. Everyday life has become a nightmare, where I’m constantly haunted by the same thought. Either I’m going insane, or the reality I depend on is a lie.

Loved it!!! AMAZING