July 21st, 2010

It was one of those days. You know the ones you have during the middle of summer. You’re lazy, everyone’s lazy, the sun’s beaming down on your face. But at the same time, as you’re desperately trying to cool yourself down from the immense heat, you feel relaxed and carefree.

Well at least that’s how I felt as fanned myself with an old newspaper and sipped at the cheaply made Styrofoam cup of instant ramen noodles.

I watched my little brother from the front porch as he drew cartoon characters on the white sidewalk with his new box of chalk. He was so excited when my mom had bought him the chalk at the local Wal – Mart. I remember getting frustrated in the car as we drove home because he wouldn’t shut up about all of the things he was going to draw with his chalk when he got home.

At the time, in my seven year old mind, I would have never realized how much I would miss those days. I would never have realized that in those moments, while I sat outside on the porch, would be the last moments in all of time before it happened. Before our “sin” decided to call an all out war against the beast called man.

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“Mom…?” I mumbled through all of the chaos. I called out her name again, this time a little louder. Hot tears streamed down my face as I desperately searched out for my family. As I searched for them, I had a feeling that they were already gone, or at least on the brink of vanishing, but still, I kept on searching.

It had only happened three hours prior. First the ground shook, then the skies lit up, and finally, the never ending screams began to ring through my ears. They had come-- the Litraras, of course. At the time, we had no idea who these “people” were, or where they came from. Oddly, we thought they were Russians, that is, until we heard that the same thing happened in Asia and Europe as well.

Who are the Litraras exactly? Oh, I’ll tell you who those demons are. They shouldn’t even exist on this planet, but yet, they stay to terrorize the living shit out of everyone. They’re destruction, they’re terror, and they’re pain. They have ruined everything—and they are like nothing we as people have ever seen. They are here to harm us from a different universe. No, I’m actually not lying; they came from another universe.

Scientists from our planet, Earth, poked and prodded around in an experiment called D082709E, or ELIAU (which is an acronym for who knows). Eventually, then began to find bits and pieces of the Litraras’ universe. Of course, like all humans do to another species, we pissed them off. So to the Litraras, the right course of action was to invade our planet.

Yes, they started a war with our planet and their fancy and highly developed technology. That special technique of theirs doesn’t help us much either. That technique frustrates everyone, including me. You see, Litraras look exactly like humans, but that’s not the only problem. They can change their appearance into someone they’ve only glanced at almost instantly.

We did our best to fend them off, but alas, they were unexpected and far too strong for us.

“MAMA!” I screamed as loud as I could, my throat raw. I pushed my way through the frantic crowds of people, looking for anyone whom I knew.

Bright flames turned the sky a light crimson red as they tore through the city and birds dropped dead in mid - air. Apparently, the Litraras thought that the birds were their enemies too. Loud booms from what I assumed to be from some sort of weapon, completely overpowered the sound of screams from time to time. Buildings from left to right were damaged, some of them even collapsing.

I put my hand to my forehead, my head was throbbing. I had already lost my little brother to those calamitous Litraras, and I knew I was going to lose my mother as well. My father is already dead, and I have no idea where the rest of my family is. Are they okay? Are they already dead? Are they hurt? Those are the thoughts that constantly brew through my mind.

I am on the brink of giving up.

“Watch it, you little brat!” an older boy yells at me as he pushes me out of the way. I fall onto the ground and begin to cry even harder.

“There you are, Konan.” a woman sighed in relief as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Mom?” I turned around to face the woman, my voice filled with hope.

I scanned the woman’s face to make sure it was truly my mother. Her long, dark brown hair was tethered, and blood dripped down from the top of her forehead. Though she looked exhausted and hurt, her big light eyes still shown their usual warmth. Without her kind eyes, I would’ve passed her off as an imposter-- as a strange woman whom I never knew.

“Yes, it’s me,” she reassured me, her voice rushed, “Come on, sweetie, we need to find safety.” My mom grabbed my arm and began to rush through the crowds. If it weren’t for the stability of my legs, it would’ve looked as if my mom were dragging along a small ragdoll.

I didn’t want to walk, I wanted to collapse onto the ground and close my eyes, but for the sake of my mother, I kept walking. We passed through what seemed like endless amounts of frightened people, some held hands, but most were alone. Where are their mothers? I wondered constantly.

“Where are we going?” I quickly asked as I swerved around a small and crying child. As I looked at the toddler’s face, I realized, my tears had stopped, but what about the rest of the population? How many of them are still crying? How many of them have lost all of their family? Oddly, I smiled. Wherever my mom is dragging me, at least I am not alone. I’m lucky, and I am grateful.

“You’ll see.” My mom replied.

“C’mon, why can’t you tell me? Please— I really want to know!”

“You’ll see.” She repeated her voice stern.

Oh! It all clicks. There’s a reason my mom won’t tell me where we’re headed. I’m so naïve sometimes. I really shouldn’t pester my mother so much. Of course I’ll see, of course she won’t tell me, because if she did give into my impatience, there’s a good chance an enemy would’ve heard. And if let’s say, a Litrara heard my mother answer me, our hide out would’ve been destroyed, and we would be dead.

As we traveled through crowds of people, my mother, as gentle as she is, turned to her hidden tough side and began to push people out of our way to get through. Some of the unfortunate people lay on the ground, trampled to death. Though my mother had turned a little rough, she still had respect, so we stepped over their twisted bodies instead of walking on top of them as if they were rotten leaves. I nearly fumbled over a small child as we walked. The little boy’s face was bloodied and his legs were twisted in an inhuman disposition. The boy’s body was so painful to look at that I almost screamed.

Who out of their right mind watches as toddler is trampled to death under hundreds of people? Is it because they’re scared? Are they scared they’ll get trampled too? I shook my head in irritation at the people, and in sorrow for the little boy. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

“Konan, watch it or you’ll fall and get hurt.” My mother warned me as she yanked on my arm to pull me upright. She was right; I had to be more careful.

“Yeah, sorry.” I mumbled as I tried to keep up with my mother’s pace. I looked down at the ground, and then back up at the sky as more bombs went off.

I squinted my eyes and noticed smoke trail into the sky. That bomb was close. Don’t keep your hopes up, Konan; this chaos won’t end for a very long time. In fact, this is only the beginning of what awaits. I remind myself. I think of my little brother and his ‘never give up’ attitude and blink away tears. I wish I was more like him—but where would that get me? I’d only be dead.

In remorse, I close my eyes and send a prayer up to the heavens. I pray that this will all end soon, I pray that my brother—in heaven, is okay—and last of all, I pray for those who have lost everything. “Mama... why…?” I ask as I finish my prayer, struggling to spit out the question, “….why are… Why are people so cruel?

“Because they’re bored.” She replied simply, picking up her pace.

“If they’re bored, why don’t they play with toys?” I question her, confused.

“Konan, toys cost money—and if you don’t have money, you can’t buy toys. Being cruel, on the other hand, is free.”

Another explosion sounded. This time, it seemed as if it had gone off right next to me. The ‘boom’ was so loud that I thought my ears would bleed. I took a deep breath, readying for another explosion, but instead inhaled smoke from the bomb. I choked on the repulsive smoke and squeezed my mother’s hand harder. My mom looked behind at me to make sure I was okay, her eyes full of worry.

“I’m—okay.” I assured her as my coughing fit went away.

She nodded and turned her head away from me, a loud gasp of fright coming from her mouth. Quickly, she picked me up and began to run in the opposite direction.

I narrowed my eyes and looked over her shoulder, curious about the sudden turn – around. It was hard to see through the dense smoke and ashes, but in the distance, an immense horde of Litraras where heading right our way. They’re gold and bright white uniforms stood out in all of the chaos and their expressions were cold. The Litraras faces held no mercy and their palms were bathed in blood. In their hands, they held the most terrifying weapons I had ever seen. Some held guns while others held steel weapons. It’s not like I had never seen a weapon before, but the fact that I could’ve been killed by one of their weapons, frightened me to almost no return.

A few of them wore elegant gold and white trimmed trench coats with high collars, the fabric billowing in the wind. Those ones stood aligned at the front of the group. They kept on calling out the same foreign command that trailed through the whole group, “Theeks, nei, theeks, nei, theeks, nei.” The command sounded full of rhythm as it followed accordingly with the Litraras’ marching.

“Make them go away….make them go away….” I whimpered, covering my eyes with my hands. I wasn’t directly asking my mother to do that, because I knew her power was scarce. If an entire army couldn’t defeat them, a single mother wouldn’t even leave dust on their coats.

My mother swarmed through all of the people. Everyone was heading in the same direction, away from them. She made a sharp turn around the old brick post office and stopped to catch her breath.

“We’ll stay here.” She told me through gasps of air.

“We can’t! Are you blind?! The monsters are all heading this way! If we stay here, they’ll find us! And we are we going to hide? Nowhere—because there’s nowhere to hide!” I spat out in panic at her sudden decision.

My mother let out a sigh and rubbed my head, “We’ll find somewhere to hide.” She told me as she glanced around at our surroundings.

I settled with her answer, trusting her resolve. I closed my eyes shut and gripped onto her shoulders, forcing myself to sleep. I thought that if I fell asleep, I’d wake up and everything would be okay because what I was going through right now; would be only a terrifying nightmare. My brother would be alive, and the neighborhood would be in one piece. I would still be sitting on the front porch eating my ramen as I watched my little brother smile.

“Aha! I found somewhere to hide.” My mother whispered as I came closer to my dream realm. I felt my mother bend down and fumble with some sort of handle. My mother almost laughed, but caught herself as she pulled something open.

I reached the kingdom of dreams, and before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep.