Contelysia

  "It's funny how you get through every day without looking behind your back to see if the world you just walked past is still the same. It's funnier that we know that soon it won't be the same, and we are doing absolutely nothing to prevent it. I mean, imagine, what if the dinosaurs knew that a meteorite was going to wipe them off, and they did nothing about it? I'm pretty sure that we would use dinosaurs as a metaphor for idiocy. So I did what I do best. I programmed. I programmed a virtual world to put people in after the first eighteen years of their life, to forward them to the most probable future. A dark, grey world, covered with a lead sky and an impermeable ground. A world where every corner has death . Gruesome, I know. But that is what the world will be like, people. It will be like that if humans continue to live as carelessly as we are living right now. Now some may call me a tyrannous queen, but a queen, nonetheless. How could I subject people to me...

 I am the Devil. No, not the one you would think. I stay beside you every day, looking through you. Through your hopes and aspirations, desires and horrors: through everything that makes you human .  I give you power, unimaginable power that people couldn't have conceived before. I give you the freedom to get whatever you want, whenever you want. I bring the world to your fingertips; a single act of calling upon your wishes makes them come true. I make you the captain of your soul. Or, I make you think so... You depend on me. I laugh at your humanity, your illusions of independence and freedom. Do you really think you could survive for an hour without me, let alone a day? No, I am not in a cloud of blue, or a figure of red, I am there in the most minimalistic form. You don't even notice me slowly conditioning you into being my slave, but yes, I do your bidding— in exchange for your soul. And you give it to me. The minute I come into your hands, you can't resist my alluring ...

"It's here." My sister swung the door open, panting. "I'm not in a mood for pranks, Maggie." I ignored her, keeping my head buried in my book. "Not a prank," she said, waving an envelope in her hand.  "What?!"  I ran after her as she went downstairs to the living room. She thumped down on the sofa and proceeded to open up the letter. "I'm the elder one. I have to open it." My mind overflowed with curiosity, and I tore open the envelope.  "Honey, Let your sister read the letter, too... " My mother knew me a little too well. I hesitantly held the letter between us. My darlings. If you're reading this, I've too left your lives. The terrible disease took me away, but believe me, I am happy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left you. You know, I had no choice. I tried my best to hold on, to live on, but what will be, will be. I don't know how long after this letter will reach you. I hope it reached you soon. T...

"Eeesh. What is that?" A girl muttered under her breath. "Ugh. Look at those things in the middle. Look like little eyes in little sections," she continued whispering near her friend's ear. "This, children, is called a tomato," The museum guide said.  "Ugh. To-mah-toe. What a name." The same girl riled. Okay, turns out to-mah-toe caught on, to-mae-toe lost.  "A few centuries ago, this was one of the last vegetables that survived." The museum guide continued. "A few centuries ago?!" I, accidentally, yelled. I am sure everyone in the enormous hall was staring at me. Yes, I was trying to travel in time. But, no, I didn't really expect to actually travel in time.  "Yes, ma'am. A few centuries  ago," a man dressed like security personnel came up in front of me. Seeing that I was standing dangerously close to an exhibition, and I seemed delirious to start with, he grabbed my arm and 'escorted' me out o...

"It's a secret. I haven't told anyone about you, I promise," I told a girl who was kneeling beside my death bed. Her eyes were still deep blue and her hair was still dark brown. Over the years, time withered me away, but she stayed just like that. Just like the girl I met 75 years ago when I was 15. When she was 15. "You need to let me go," I told her, as she held my hand and sobbed. I never knew what kept her young. Was she immortal, or an alien? All I know is she told me to never tell anyone about her. Time passed, she became my guardian. Telling me things I couldn't have noticed, guiding me through life. She made me who I am. She taught me to live life, not just survive it. She was always my true friend, a friend no one could have. I breathed heavily; I had known for days that my time was coming to an end. A precedented end that we knew about. But the girl kept her head down, tears flowing down her cheeks.  "An old woman like me ought to go some ...