D is for Decision

I had made the decision that if I wanted to get home, the best way to do so was to put in effort. I thought with Cyrano's help somehow we could figure it out. Cyrano steps out of the boundary that is my room, and a portal opens. I hesitate.

"Oh come on, now! No worries, I just hid my ship. Martians, crazy little critters."
I step into the opening and he closes the portal. I become completely engulfed in the ship. It isn't normal. Rather, it is not normal in terms of Star Trek. It is a blue circular room with 14 doors. It reminded me of a hospital waiting room. Before I can ask for an explanation, Cyrano begins.

"Well now! This-" He motions to the room,"Is my ship. The fourteen doors all have several different things in them, but that's not important. This is the control room however." He walks to the center of the room, and out of nowhere a wheel and control center appears. Above each door is a window and out of them you see the red sand of Mars. I back up into a chair, and sit to steady myself. Cyrano stares at me with a worrying look. I take a deep breath.

"Alright. I need to get back to Earth. How do I even do it? Your ship can take me back, right?"

Cyrano looks down. "I don't know, actually. But its worth a shot." He begins twisting nobs, and turning the wheel. I run to one of the windows and see the surface of Mars disappear slowly, and then its gone completely.

C is for Curious

Cyrano began asking me all sorts of questions, but left no room for me to talk. This mad, strange alien seeked answers like a curious scientist.

"Well, if you don't know how you got here, maybe I could figure it out. Yes, lets see here now, you're from earth obviously senior in what you Americans call high school? Your favorite color is yellow, correct? Higher level physics student? Brilliant! Yes, yes. You were sleeping.." He pauses and looks me up and down, "Yes obviously." Walking around me in a circle he lifts my red hair and says "Ah, a ginger."

He walks away and returns to snooping around the remainder of my room. His rant has given me time to form something to say no matter how weak it is.

"I'm on mars."

Cyrano turns around to look at me sitting on my bed staring into space. He lowers himself to my eye level and whispers "Yes. Space."

I look him in the eyes. "Why me? Why am I on Mars?"

Cyrano laughs quietly. "You're just special. I can't figure it out but something has brought me to this exact point for a reason. A human on mars..." At this point I can tell he has gotten lost in his own mind. I walk to my closet suspended in space. I pull out two changes of clothes, my rain coat, my favorite pair of boots and a satchel. Even though I had no signal or WiFi I packed my laptop, my phone and my iPod. I looked at Cyrano, still mumbling to himself.

I sigh and walk up to him. "Okay, how did you get here?" He sees my bag and laughs.

"This way."

B is for Bold

I had never been a bold person. But I was confused and I wanted nothing more than an answer. So, I replied to his cheeky riddle with an answer that was just as snarky. Well, it was as best as I could do while in shock.

"How am I to answer that if I obviously am freaked out, eh?"

The figure turned his back to me and began to observe the sky.This gave me the chance to get a good look at him. He was at least 6 feet tall, and was wearing a very nice black suit. He had his two sets of arms were folded behind him as if he was deep in an intriguing conversation with the sky. He was as white as a sheet of paper, and had long black hair. I began to feel a bit under dressed standing there in only an over-sized Harvard sweatshirt and leggings, when he turned around.

He came within an inch of my face and smiled. His eyes and his bow tie were the same deep emerald green color. They seemed curious and all knowing. He untangled his long arms and extended one of them to me.

Talking fast, he says, "Well, one of us has got to start an introduction, and it obviously isn't going to be you. Hello! I'm Cyrano and as you can see I'm not made of you, you're human, you see? And me? Well I'm obviously not made of you." He releases my hand and hops around and inspecting the contents that were originally in my room.

I started to shake, and I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever be home in time enough for my test.

A is for Alarm

Every day my alarm clock goes off without fail, and every day I wake and enter my zombie-like state until my routine cup of coffee. But, the day that I forget to set my alarm, the most magical thing in the world happens, and I couldn't have been less prepared.

Earlier that night I had stayed up, studying for my physics midterm that wasn't until a week later. And honestly I was a bit fed up with forces and Newton and all of his laws. I had decided I most definitely was not going to school in the morning. I abandoned my physics book on my desk, and dumped the papers and charts I had spread out on my bed onto the floor.

I slept well into noon, and before I opened my eyes, everything felt normal. But when I opened my eyes, I wasn't in a place that was even remotely Lisle. Or Earth for that matter. Everything that was in my room had somehow magically been transported to a different world. I rolled out of bed in my ruffled day old clothes that I didn't change out of last night and felt the smooth sand between my toes. It was red... and the color of.. wait. Mars! I'm on Mars! I started panicking and asking for help.

Out of nowhere a person appears. Or what looked like a person. This figure in front of me possessed four arms. Instead of attempting to calm me down, it begins pacing and ruffling its hair.

 "Calm down, will you?! Such a fuss you're making. My god! You would think something is eating you."

I close my mouth and stare at this stranger who is acting like this is a perfectly normal occurrence. "Who..wha-Who are you?" I ask.

The strange figure turns around and smirks at me.
"Ah, but the correct question is, how did you get here?"

I can do nothing but look confused.

The Devil and Me

I should start out by explaining how I died, that way the event that happened after my death makes sense to you. I was a med student in my second year at the University of Chicago. I had been studying all night in Harper Library for my final exams. I was fed up with always studying. I had been working my butt off since 8th grade, trying to get into the college of my dreams, as my classmates coasted by. They were at the same level that I am, but they never did any work. Some of them did not even know what was happening in school because they missed so many days. I began to feel that I was not good enough to do the work anymore because everyone else had the ability to get by so effortlessly. I was done with life, so I packed up my books. I was leaving the quiet frenzy of the library, and soon this world.

I walked off campus, fighting the freezing wind. I began to think that I was going crazy because of my feelings towards life. Instead of catching a cab towards my apartment, I walked to try to clear my head. I walked down Elis Avenue, and turned on the corner onto Ingleside Avenue. The wind was so violent it ushered me into my apartment building, and I ascended up the stairs. When I got into my room, I put on extra socks and two scarves, laced up my shoes and grabbed a warmer coat. I left my keys on the counter and shut the door behind me. Coming down the hall was my roommate, Sam. I could tell from the dark circles that were becoming permanently etched into his face that he was feeling the pain of exams, too. I walked down the back hallway to avoid him. I was not about to be talked out of my plan. So, I walked into the snowy abyss.

I hadn't really thought a lot about my death. It was spur of the moment, really. The only thing that I thought about was the location. I had chosen South Campus Dining Hall. In my mind, it was the perfect spot. It had full glass windows that let in sunlight, making the room nice and toasty on a spring day. I did not want to die on the older parts of campus. If I decided to smash through the glass windows, something new was easier to repair than the windows of stone, gargoyle lined buildings. This was my final hour, yet I still had respect for the beauty of my school.

I never had a bad life. My parents were happily married, and to my knowledge never fought. I had a girlfriend, good grades, and tons of friends. I was not a lonely person, I was actually happy. I was just fed up with working so hard. If I just dropped out of school, I would be a disappointment to my family, and to all of my friends. Everyone expected me to be a doctor, but I was to the point that I did not believe that I would succeed. You may say death is an overreaction to a load of work, but I just did not feel cut out for it. I was tired and for once I just wanted peace. I was going to get it, one way or another. I stood outside of the dining hall for a long time watching people. It was breakfast time, and groggy students were flocking to the hall in masses. Inside, people were laughing and enjoying themselves. As people went in and out of the building they gave me funny looks.  I did not care, soon it would be over. I started crying because I knew that someone would never feel the same way as I did. I wondered how they did it. How could they carry the weight of a large load and still be okay? I sighed. I realized that if I was going to jump, now was the time to start. I pushed my glasses up on my nose, and the adrenaline sent me to scale the beams that held the floor to the ceiling windows. I climbed onto the ledge above the entrance, and scrambled to the one above the main dining room. Beneath me, a crowd of people were starting to gather. I stood up, and a huge gust of wind nearly knocked me over. I caught myself just in time. I was going  to jump on my own, not with Mother Nature's help. I positioned myself at the tip of the roof. I looked over and saw Allie, my girlfriend. I noticed here in the crowd as if a spotlight was singling her out. She had tears running down her bright pink cheeks; she pushed through the crowd, screaming my name.

                           "Victor! Don't jump! Please!"

A knot was beginning to rise in my throat. I loved that girl, but there was no stopping me. I jumped.

"Death is the cessation of the connection between our mind and body. When the body disintegrates at death, the mind does not cease." This is the Buddhism belief. I am the proof that this is true. When I woke up, in front of me was an eel shaped monster. It had the face of a human, and in its four hands it held four globes. I saw Allie, my school, my parents, and Sam frowning at the keys that I left on the counter. The eel monster circled me with its body, building up around me like a wall. As the monster coiled around me to form a taller wall, everything got dark.

All I could see were the yellow menacing eyes of the beast. It opened its hands to reveal the light of the globes. I could now see the outline of its frightening face. It changed form to become the face of a woman, a bird, a demon, and an eel. Its voice was a booming, thunderous roar. The ground shook as it spoke, and I bounced around its body, as it screamed:

"You have come to the realm of darkness in a dishonest way. I am the one who takes people's lives. For some reason, you humans believe that you are all powerful, when indeed you are not. I rule the darkness alongside another god like me. He is even more powerful. It is he that rules the light. Because of your trespass into this place you have two options; you may go back to  living, having everyone constantly worrying about you. You will finish med school, but you will never be able to sleep, or enjoy anything, even your success of graduating. Or, I can swallow you and for eternity you will sit in the bottomless pit that is my stomach. Other people will join you, along with those who are there already. You will be forced to hear their stories about coming to this place over and over, and you will be bored by them. You will have no choice but to listen, because there will be no way for you to become deaf to their words."

the monster grew silent and loosened its coil. Light filtered through its massive body as I mulled over my options. Should I continue my life constantly bored until the day I die? O r should I choose to be bored for all eternity? I answered the devil.

                                                " I choose to stay here."
The devil unraveled its body from me completely. The sound of it reminded me of a boulder rubbing against another.
                   
                                                  "So be it," He bellowed.

He swallowed me up with its ugly mouth, and the ties of my old life were severed. My final hour had come to pass, and I became immersed in the corners of my mind. That was all I had now.

Untitled

If you walk outside my door all you can see is white. Its empty here because its just us. The last people on earth. When I say its white I mean it. The earth has been completely wiped out. The ground I walk on is white, the sky is white.

I don't have much knowledge. But I know that white is meant to be a pure color. If its so pure explain why instead of starting over completely this white world continues on in its destructive manner. We got here by pollution. Why do we continue to pollute? I can't explain it. And neither can our government.

It wasn't white always. It recently became this way. Maybe mother earth just became tired and she made everything fade away to protect what little beauty she had left after we humans tore it up. I believe things can work in that way.

Its a miracle that the earth didn't just destroy us like a teenager destroying the millions of craters upon their face.

She saw too, that no matter what we would came back twice as strong. Because that's what we do. As humans we adapt to the impossible.  

The Knight of Mars

Sing O muse, of adventure.
Tell the story of the knight, who bravely defended the planet of Mars.
From the dangers of our universe.

Once upon a time,
When boys thought they were men because they could fight,
When the grass was as green as the sky is blue,
And the mountains were covered in snow,
A knight did not protect the Earth, like several years ago.
Instead he guarded Mars,
The planet that the humans chose,
When all of earth ran dry.

He fought with kings and lords of space,
Protected the human race,
From various dangers in the Milky Way.
A sword was not his weapon of choice,
He instead preferred his words.
He used them to negotiate great treaties in defense of his people.

He sailed in space, upon his ship,
Made if scraps of metal left on Earth.
It told the tale of his ancestors,
Who sailed into space as well.
Instead of landing on Mars,
They took a wrong turn and wound up on the moon.
His ship may have been scraps,
But the engineer who crafted it so well
Made it seem as if it was new.

On this particular day,
He hopped into his ship,
Ready to sail to Jupiter.
In the moment he was preparing his ship,
The gods heard his fate from the heavens.
They knew that this brave soldier
Was to die a rather gruesome death,
On the freezing barren windy lands,
Of the planet they call Saturn.

His wife and family begged him not to leave,
For the goddess of prophecy came to them
And told them of the knight's fate.
But, because his business was to protect the ones that he loved dear,
He had to leave to keep them safe.

He gave out kisses and lingering hugs,
But that did not stop the dread his family had.
Either way he had to go, and tell the king of Jupiter
Why his attack on tiny helpless Pluto
Was not something he should do.
The moons of Mars came into view,
As he boarded his lightening ship.
The crowd counted down from ten,
And he blasted into the open sky.

As swift as his ship would allow,
He traveled farther and farther
Into the scariest depths of space.
The god of the meteors spotted him at once
And started hurtling meteors upon his gorgeous ship.

The knight tried to veer his mighty ship away.
He did not succeed of course,
For that was not fate's way.
Into Saturn he crashed.
But the goddess of sailing protected him whole,
And attached a parachute onto his ship.

The gods were mad at her,
But she did not care.
She said she was just doing the job she was given,
And huffily she walked away.
The gods just shrugged and turned to Saturn,
To watch what was about to happen.

The people of Saturn
Greeted him kindly,
And agreed to give him gas,
So that his ship could propel deeper into space,
Real quickly and real fast.
They knew the job he had to do,
To protect the universe from war.

The farmer whose house he landed on
Did not really care,
As fast as the knight descended,
The rage of the farmer ascended
Because he had no place to sleep.

He developed his plan to kill this man,
Who ruined his precious land.
He did not have much,
So to lose it all was to lose his mind.

The knight turned his head,
The farmer steadied his knife,
And stabbed the man who was to save the universe.

He ran away gleefully,
But his glee did not last long.
For the next day,
The king of Jupiter issued his decree.
The truth was revealed by the end of May,
The war that took 300 centuries had only just begun.

This was written for my English class sophomore year.
I wrote it a tad bit like a children's story, because eventually I would love this published.