Listening to you is how I got into this mess. How are you so sure you can get us out of it?

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City – Iathea
Current Date: August 18, 2039

Character: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human
Age: 32, physically about 22
Current residence: Arcadis Settlement, Iathea
 

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It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for nine years already. It doesn’t feel as though it’s been that long. Though I know that the day-and-night cycles are a little different here and the hours aren’t quite the same, it took the Doc—at least, the information came from her—a couple of days to get all of the information she needed to figure out some of that stuff and from what I know, that figuring out was done before we came down.

The days are a little longer as a whole, I think there are a couple more hours to the cycle but, technically speaking, I think it’s mostly that the hours are longer. I mean, there were options to ensure that people managed to settle more easily into the routine, and I guess we opted for more hours. Though I don’t know how many people really keep up with the passing time other than morning, midday, evening, and night sort of thing for meals and seasons—what passes for seasons here—for the crops.

The weather doesn’t really change from one month to the other—that’s different too but I know I got used to it—other than the fact that we have a dry season and a really wet season. The night takes up about a third of the hours of the day, give or take, and as far as I’m concerned, settling into a sleep routine was pretty easy.

It hasn’t been pretty for everyone, of course. It’s not even that I can pinpoint if it’s people from one age group over any of the others, it’s scattered through all of the group, even now I know some people complain about the time and the hours, they complain about sleep, they complain about the weather. They complain about everything, really. So, who knows what might ever please them.

One of the things, on the other hand, that does amuse me, is watching the younger generation just go on about their days. The kids that were born on the ship, born just before we got on the ship, or the ones born right here on the island. For the most part, the ones born on the ship were too young to truly remember our space journey, or so I figure. I mean, we were four and a half when the snow started, and I don’t remember much from the time before. The biggest memory being when Dad woke, of course. So, it’s just sort of a logic thing that these kids only truly know this planet.

When we’re out, helping with the crops, I take breaks at times just to watch these kids. They’ll play nearby, they’ll run around, and some will sit and complain at their friends about how listening to them got them in trouble in the first place and they were pretty sure that said friend didn’t know how to get them out of it. That’s more common than you might think, and it always makes me smile because the definition of trouble for these kids has nothing on mine.

The complaining kids make me think of some of the adults that still whine about everything on this planet as though it’s not good enough, but I know it’s not the same. I think these kids pick up that mindset from their parents. That’s just an assumption, though, there are enough of us out here that I know people by sight, but I don’t really know them that well. Like, I know these kids because I’m used to seeing them, but I have so few interactions with them that I wouldn’t be able to tell you whose kids they are. That kind of thing.

I wonder if I was that way as a child. I’m sure I could ask Mom and Dad, and they’d tell me, but I don’t know that this knowledge would change things at all. I mean, even if I was a complainer as a kid, I try not to be at this point in our lives and I think that this is the important part, in the end. Gotta make sure that we’re doing things the way we should, we behave and follow the laws, and so long as what we do behind closed doors doesn’t hurt anyone, we’re all good, right?

So, digging back into mine, Finn’s and even Hay’s past to see if we remember what kind of kids we were wouldn’t really change much. We’re grown adults at this point, even if we all look younger than we really are, so I don’t see the point in going backwards. The best option for all of us is to keep on moving forward.

Final Word Count: 784

Are you implying that I can’t handle this? Excuse you! Hold this and watch me work.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Current Date: July 4, 2058

Character: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human – Demi-God of Healing
Age: 64, physically about 22
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

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I know exactly what button to push to get Fionn to do exactly what I need him to do. Usually, it’s these things that I know he’s not really in the mood to do or the things he feels he’s not as good at managing but I know how well he can get them done. I don’t use this little cheat trick very often, there’s no point to that.

It’s mostly something I use when it’s just one of those last few things that need to be completed so we can consider our day done, or something to start us up but I know he’s hesitant to do because, well, that’s my brother for you. I’m not saying he has a hard time with a lot of things, he’s not indecisive or most things in life but these little things are just, well they’re there. I know I have my own things I don’t care to do because I don’t feel confident in doing them and yet, from memory, he uses the same slightly dirty trick to get me to do them.

So, I suppose it’s not that much of a secret and I think that if it were anyone else doing this, we might not bite quite the same. It’s a sibling thing. At least, for us, it’s a sibling thing.

All in all, though, the method is fairly easy. I can’t just taunt him about how I don’t think he can handle whatever task it is, that’s crass. It’s a little more subtle in the way that I mention that it’s okay if he thinks he can’t do it, I don’t hold it against him, I know that he’s tried his best before and well, we’re all human—so to speak. Little things and nudges that flip a switch in him and get him in that mindset of just barely-there frustration where his pride takes over.

His reply is almost always the same every time, too. He gets a little huffy and asks me if I’m implying that he can’t handle the current task at hand. Then, he gets a little more pumped up and asks me to hold whatever it was he was holding on to and to watch him work. I have to fight the little smile that threatens to take over every time.

By that point, though, I just watch him do whatever it was he thought he couldn’t do and most of the time, he does it better than I could have managed and that’s fine, I’m okay with that. Once he finishes, he huffs, looking validated in having shown me just how well he can do this thing that he hadn’t wanted to do just a short while ago and, again, I have to bite my tongue to not say anything because I think it would shatter this sort of balance we’ve achieved.

If I were to tease him some more about how it wasn’t all that hard after all, was it, I would possibly pull him out of whatever sentiment he’s feeling about having completed it all and then he’d just get frustrated at me. That one part I actually know from experience, and I’ve learned my lesson. He got so mad that one time that he didn’t talk to me for a good week. It made things awkward at home.

He yelled at me about how I had no right to do that to him, how he hadn’t wanted to do this, but I knew that he couldn’t say no to things when challenged and just, it went on. The thing is, though, I’ve learned from that day and others during which yeah, I’ve pushed him a little this way, that all he feels once he comes down from his little bragging cloud about how he’s done it all, is that he’s actually pretty proud of himself. That he knows he’s capable of doing all of these things but there’s always a little voice inside him that argues otherwise.

So, to be the one to speak louder than that little voice in his head that tries to belittle how good he is at so many things? I can do that. I can take him being huffy at me for all of five minutes until he gets going with whatever it was that he didn’t want to do. I can do with him looking a little cross with me since I know that a part of him realizes what I’m doing, but somehow, it’s like he needs it.

I’m not all that different in the end. I know that I need that push every so often too. I don’t know that I can claim it’s because there’s a little voice inside of me trying to make me believe that I’m not good at the things I know I can achieve, but we are just the way we are, right?

Final Word Count: 811

You didn’t even notice I was gone until someone pointed it out!

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City – Iathea
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human
Age: 30, physically about 22
Current residence: Arcadis Settlement, Iathea
Final Word Count: 757 words
 

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Growing up in the jungle was interesting. I mean, we weren’t born in the jungle. We were four and a half or so when the whole thing happened. Dad had been awake for about a year and a half at that point too. We were young when he woke up but it’s hard to forget it. It was on our third birthday that he woke up. Mom had Mathilda bring us to his room along with the cake and just, it was such a sweet, happy day for everyone.

I don’t remember how long it took before he was home, but mom being a doctor sort of helped, I guess. That part of our lives, after he came home, is a bit fuzzy. There just was so much happiness to things now that he was back with us, in the end.

So yeah, growing up in the jungle was interesting. I don’t really remember much of the time in the bunker; there was a common area that I do recall, and it was where we played most of the time. There weren’t many other kids in our age group but there were a few. I think that most of us got so absorbed in the games we were playing in that little room that we didn’t always notice when another one of the rare kids would come and go.

While I was looking at the few small trinkets that we had brought along with us to Iathea, I found one of the little wooden toys we used to play with, in the bunker. I don’t know if I’m the one who took it with when we went back up top, or if Fionn did. It’s a small item, it honestly looks like a carved wolf. It’s possible I’m the one that took it, I remember how much I used to be fascinated by wolves, even when I was young.

Finding that little toy, it brought back one memory of one of the last times we played in the bunker before everything outside was safe enough for us all to head out into it. I know that I was playing quietly with Fionn in a corner, there were three or four others with us, and we all were doing our own thing. It seems as though none of us in that general age group were loud.

One moment, we’re all just minding our own business, the next, this slightly older kid—I don’t know how old he was, maybe seven, eight?—comes into the room, clearly upset and starts screaming at us that none of us even noticed when he’d left and that we only now knew because he was bringing it up to us. That’s all he did. He screamed that we’d ignored him, doubly so when he left and that we were all mean and whatever else. I mean, we were young, we were five, by that point. How did anyone expect us to react?

It’s faint, that whole memory, but I do remember him. I remember how two of the slightly younger ones—younger than Fionn and me, in any case—started crying and parents, not very far off in the room, came to investigate.

The screaming boy was walked away by another adult and the two crying ones were comforted by what I have to assume might have been their parents or an older sibling, I don’t know. I just remember that this was the last time that all of us were together in that play room. I’m not sure why I took the toy back then if it really was me, but I think that it’s a sort of sweet memory, when I look at it from this angle.

Bittersweet, actually. Sweet because it’s a wolf lookalike figurine and I really loved wolves, and bitter because, well yeah, what kind of kid acts that way? Don’t answer that question, I’m more than aware of what entitlement looks like. I might have grown up in the jungle, but I still grew up around other kids and even certain adults who acted as though everything was owed to them without any effort. Hell, even while we were in space, certain people were acting that way. I never could wrap my mind around that kind of behaviour. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

It’s not because civilization as we know it collapsed that you’re allowed to have, well, anything extra that you wouldn’t have had before. Especially if you’re not going to make an effort about it.

I adore you, but the next time you make such a terrible joke, I am walking right out that door for at least two hours.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human – Demi-God of Healing
Age: 62, physically about 22
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 726 words
 

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I adore my brother, don’t get me wrong. I would go out of my way for him if he needed it but, at times, I can only stare at him, trying to think if he’s just lost his mind or something similar, and then I shake my head and sigh because he’s an idiot. I adore this idiot but he’s still an idiot.

I’ve told him, just this morning, that the next time he wanted to make as terrible a joke as what had just come out of his mouth, I was walking right out of that door, and I wasn’t coming back at least for a couple of hours. I figured that in that time, he’d have plenty of time to think about the idiotic thing he’d said.

Though somehow, I seriously don’t think it would do any of us much good. Mind you, I’m not mad at him, I’m not pissed, I’m not even angry, I’m just at the stage where I feel like I could facepalm at his jokes because over the last couple of weeks, he’s entered a ‘dad joke’ mindset. I don’t even know where it comes from. I think he’s been reading through too many archives, it’s the only thing that I can see as making sense. He’s an idiot, I adore him, but man, these dad jokes, I can’t take them.

He did look at least a little confused when I told him that I’d be walking out if he made another joke like that one, as though somehow, he wasn’t realizing just what he was saying. It was tempting to believe him, but, at the same time, I don’t know that I can. You have to be aware of what you’re saying when you say these things, right? Right. Possibly. Maybe? I don’t know, but you have to.

I don’t know how Hayden handles the jokes, though now that I think about it, Fionn has mostly been uttering this nonsense when it’s just me with him and now that I do focus on that, it makes me want to shake him some more. I only know about these things because yeah, I’ve been skimming some of the stuff he’s been reading on the archives. I don’t know why he finds them funny. Maybe I’m just the one that doesn’t have a sense of humour?

From what little I have read about it, not that many people used to find these jokes funny. They’re puns or play on words most of the time and just, they’re pointless, so why bother? Yeah, I know, a lot of things could likely be considered pointless but that’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s a fine balance between pointless and well, you know, pointless.

Oh, who am I kidding, I know that not everyone sees things the same way, but I really don’t know how much more of that I can take. I figure that I’ve made it fairly clear to him that if he does it again, yeah, I’ll be walking out for a while because I’ll need to cool down so I don’t wrap my hands around his neck, I can’t imagine anyone would care to take my side on things if I did that.

Mind you, I wouldn’t hurt my brother. He’s my twin. I spent far too many years trying to protect him to want to hurt him at this point in our lives, I just really need him to understand that I can’t take his dad jokes. They’re just, well they’re crappy jokes and they’re not funny. They bring forth little more than a groan of dismay that he’s managed something else like that.

For now, we’re fine. We’re side by side, working quietly to put dinner together. It’s times like these that I find myself just feeling almost the most at peace. It’s a strange thing to know that it’s when I’m at one of their sides and just doing something almost mindless—food prep, reading, relaxing—that I’m at my most peaceful. Not that it really surprises me, but I suppose that it does take all types of people to make this world go round and I am exactly as I am. I suppose that I can accept my twin for being an idiotic dork for a little while, but really, only for a short little while.

For someone so sad, you’re surprisingly optimistic when I need you to be.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human – Demi-God of Healing
Age: 61, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 719 words
 

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Is it weird that I remember this girl from middle school? I mean, I guess it’s not all that weird but I still don’t really know why I remember her.

I don’t even remember her name, so I guess you could say that, technically speaking, I don’t really remember her so much as I remember that she was constantly sad. I think that’s what stayed with me all of this time. She was just this constantly sad little thing—and she was little, I remember how slight she was, it made me feel weirdly protective—but somehow, she was always looking on the bright side of things. She was really optimistic.

It clashed.

Like, I remember one situation when I know she was sitting out there somewhere, nearby, it was dark and dreary outside. She had that sad look on her face as she scribbled. I think we were in a sort of art class but it’s hard to remember. I do know that someone complained about how the rain was going to make recess suck but somehow, there she was, stating that the rain would stop soon and that the clouds would go and that we’d even get a rainbow and we could play Find-The-End. No one else at that age wanted to think about how quick the rain could go, they just wanted to be sad that there was rain and that recess would be wet and we’d be stuck inside.

It was always little things like these. I guess they stayed with me.

I brought it up to Fionn a few days ago and he gave me this lost look. He had no idea what I was talking about and it actually made me laugh a little. I almost went through the archives to see if I could dig up some sort of scanned class photo because I know Mom was good about making sure we had digital copies of all of our school photos but I didn’t. It didn’t really seem worth the effort.

Looking back, I guess that it was one of those things, this bright outlook on things when she always looked so sad.

In a way, I wish I had thought to ask her why she was sad all of the time. Not that it would have entered my middle-school brain to ask her. I was already doing all I could to keep my twin out of trouble that I didn’t need someone else’s worries on my plate but still. I don’t know that she really had any friends and yet, despite looking and acting so sad all the time, she still seemed to usually manage a smile—a sad one—for anyone who talked to her.

I wonder now, but it’s been so long that I know it would be moot to look through the archives. I still don’t remember her name and that’s one thing I doubt that was digitalized back then. School information like that, while we were growing up, it was just in the beginning stages of the digital things for that kind of stuff. Again, though, looking back, I don’t think it would change much. Even if I were to find out her name and find out that, just maybe, she had cancer or her mom was dying or something just real sad was going on in her life and it would explain her behaviour, it wouldn’t really change anything about things, would it?

It wouldn’t.

It did get me thinking, though; I can’t help but wonder a bit. I suppose I could do with being a bit more optimistic about things. Not that I’m that much of a pessimist, the glass is neither half empty or half full, that glass is always just a vessel for delicious liquids and that’s all there is to that. Still.

It’s weird when you think about it. The things that stay with you, even some fifty years ago. I can’t help but think about it, in the end. I can’t be the only one who looks back to how things were when he was young and go ‘huh, you know, that actually stayed with me all of these years even though I might not really have given it much thought.’

You should try it now and again.

I’m going to have to lay low until morning, so put up with me until then.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City – Iathea
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human
Age: 28, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 704 words
 

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Are there bad people on this planet? Yes. We brought them with us, after all. They’re not terrible people, not that I know of. They’re not murderers or molesters or anything terrible, at least, I hope not, but there still are people who do bad things and who have had to spend time off-shore.

Off-shore. The thought makes me queasy a bit. I mean, I know that ‘off-shore’ is where the ship that took us to this planet now rests. It’s just floating there, not even sitting on stilts. Sure, it’s anchored so it doesn’t go anywhere but it floats there and every day, little scrubbing bots wander the bottom hull to keep it clean and make sure it’s intact. I think it’s supposed to be almost twenty miles off-shore or something like that, it’s where most of our technology still resides, it’s where the Doc goes when she does go but I don’t think she goes every day.

But really, on that ship, there are cells and that’s where the ‘bad’ people go to spend some time out.

And recently, they’ve had to send someone out there and I don’t know how long he’s going to be spending there. All I do know is that when they put someone in one of the cells, a team made up of a good few people take shifts out there on the ship, mostly so that the so-called prisoner isn’t just all on his or her own out there, so that meals are served and all. I mean, it could all be done technologically but they don’t. That’s fine. I don’t envy the people those jobs. I don’t think I could handle spending more than a day away from Finn and Hay. Pretty sure the rotating shifts are week-long, gross.

But really, all that because, a couple of weeks ago, we heard about someone who found a sort of stowaway in their home. It wasn’t someone whose face any of us were really familiar with but most of us are aware that, when we landed here, not everyone stayed by the beach, some went off into the jungle or deeper into the lands. So we figured it was someone who had gone out there but that person was battered and bruised and supposedly, they told the woman whose home he’d hidden away in, that he was going to have to lay low until morning, so she’d have to put him with him until then.

Of course, that didn’t work out so well, she started screaming, I’m pretty sure she started screaming louder when he started trying to shut her up—she came out of the whole ordeal with some nasty bruises—but all of the homes are still close enough and it was low tide that other people crossed over to check on her. Sure, we hear screaming every now and again but it’s usually because someone startles due to a bug or a new animal but her screams were different, it’s hard to explain.

So the guy got put into a boat with a couple of officers and he’s been off-shore since. I think he’s supposed to stay there for a month before he’s judged for whatever crimes he might have committed and then he’ll probably be banished back to the jungle. These people, they’re not part of our village, we can’t control them and our laws don’t really apply to them so I think he’s mostly going to be dealing with the results of what he did to the woman. I mean, if he’s killed or maimed someone else out there in the jungle, it’s not much different from learning that he’d have done something bad some cities away. What are we supposed to do, really?

Her screaming gave Finn nightmares. He twisted and turned for almost three full nights, never looking even just remotely rested but the last few nights have been more peaceful so I’m glad for that. It was pretty blood-curdling. She sounded as though he was trying to rip her apart and I suppose that after living here so peacefully, that sort of attack might very well have felt like that to her.

I can still see how many fingers you’re holding up without my glasses.

 
Timeline/World: New York City – Iathea
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human
Age: 28, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 614 words
 

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Kids are something else. It feels weird to think that there are kids who were born on this planet but I guess that it’s one of those things. We’ve been here long enough that there are a good few running around, playing, learning about the planet as if it were their own and well, I suppose that if you look at it. Iathea really is their home, it’s the only place they’ll ever know and that might not be such a bad thing.

I’ve been watching a pair of kids; they can’t be much older than four or so, maybe five. They do look like twins but I could be mistaken. One wears a pair of glasses, something I really didn’t expect to see here but none of us is perfect. We’re living much longer lives than we should—I don’t know if we’re meant to live forever or not, really—but we’re not perfect. There still are health issues and bad eyes are just one of them, I know.

A few days ago, they were sitting on the beach, talking back and forth, just… I don’t know, I guess they were just chatting, waiting on their parents to come back but there were adults nearby so it wasn’t really worrisome to see them on their own.

One of them, the one without glasses, eventually held up three fingers, waving them in the direction of the other and stuck out their tongue. The number of fingers was called out and then the process would repeat with a different number of fingers. As you can figure, the number of numbers was small but that wasn’t the point, not really.

At one point, the one doing the finger pointing half-heartedly complained about their sibling cheating, stating that the glasses were helping in counting the fingers. In a way, it wasn’t wrong, but at the same time, it really wasn’t right. Still, it’s not my place to say anything so I just kept on watching them. The glasses wearing one took off said glasses, hung them on a braided necklace about that neck and stated that they could still see how many fingers were being held up even without the glasses being worn.

That seemed to be a good enough answer for the other kiddo and they resumed their game.

It’s that sort of normalcy that just makes everything come together; at least, that’s what it feels like to me. I know that the planet I grew up on is a planet we’ll never go back to. We left behind a world that was set on a new cycle of ice age followed by jungle followed by another ice age. I don’t know that any of us could have survived that another time, let alone on a cycle in quite the way it looked like it was settling to happen.

It’s good to know that kids can be born here; they can grow up here, thrive, learn all about this place and discover it as a whole. I think it’s good that this is what they’ll know, this will be their history. Not whatever it was we lived with, that thing back on earth that was tainted with so many bad things. That’s not to say, of course, that there hadn’t been a whole lot of good that happened on the planet, but as a whole, I think a fresh start is really just what we needed and that’s what we’re getting.

Most people here are good people. There are a few bad apples but we deal with those when they step out of line and only when absolutely necessary. This place is a good place.

We could have worked together.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 2nd Generation
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human – Demi-God of Healing
Age: 60, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 649 words
 

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High school was a nightmare and I’m putting that lightly. It was a nightmare more for Fionn than me but that’s because he’s always refused to back down from dares. I think that’s the thing that got him in trouble often and when he was in trouble, I was there to get him out of trouble and that tended to get me in trouble and well, you can see how all of that would turn out to be a mess.

It’s also what ended up with us being pulled from public school and being home-schooled in the end and I suppose that was for the best, even if it was a bit of a frustration for our parents, I’m sure.

The thing, I think, is that Fionn often would go on to these so-called adventures all on his own. It was that one moment I had my back turned during which he’d be dared to do something or other and that’d be the end of that. I wouldn’t hear about it, the next morning it would be something new and I often ended up having to remind him that I was there with him, that I was a presence at his side, that we could have worked it all through together but that ended up with arguments more often than not.

Arguments that didn’t last long as half an hour later, we usually were making up but they still were arguments and I hated arguing with him. He was my best friend at the time, the only real friend I had before Hayden came into our lives.

I never felt bad for standing up for him, though. One time, probably one of the last times, someone dared him to wear the girl’s uniform and he did. I’m still not even sure about where he got that uniform from. He had it stuffed in his bag and during our first break, he went and changed. We only managed through one class before the teacher had sent him off to change again but the damage was done, so to speak.

People had tried to grope him, people had teased him in sexual ways and I defended him at every chance I got. I ended up with bruised knuckles and a split lip on that day. I think the school ended up calling at home, too. I’m pretty sure mom is the one who took that call because dad had no idea as to what had happened during our day and I had to explain everything to him while Fionn was tight-lipped about the whole thing.

Do I resent that he was so easy to sway into a dare? A little, maybe. There’s not much that could have been done about that. People knew that if they could corner him on his own, he was easy to sway in the heat of the moment; on the other hand, they knew they wouldn’t get him to agree to anything if I was there with him.

Not that I was always the clear-minded one, I wasn’t. There were days when someone just would say that one word that would set me off and it was Fionn who’d be doing all he could to calm me down. I never went into a rage, not really, but I was an angry little bundle of nerves through the rest of the day and I know I must have looked ready to maim anyone who got in my way, so I suppose we were even.

I don’t have anger management issues, mind you. I was just protective of my brother, just as I’m now also protective of Hay. They both deserve so much and at times I feel like I’m just not doing enough to let them know that, even know I know, deep down inside, that they know it. My brain is complicated.

I can’t keep biting my tongue. I have to say something.

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human – Demi-God of Healing
Age: 59, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 581 words

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Our time spent in public high school—although it was a private school so I guess that ‘public’ is the wrong word to use—is something I still think about every now and then. We didn’t go very long, we were pulled back home to be home-schooled after I defended Fionn from the jerks who kept on picking on him. Sure, stepping into the classroom wearing a skirt certainly wasn’t the best thing to do but it had been a dare and Fionn rarely refused dares, it was what got him into trouble often and I was always more than willing to get him out of it.

Not that I minded, he’s my brother and I would have done a lot to keep him safe from bullies and there were plenty of bullies. This thing about how uniforms somehow help minimize that sort of thing? It’s bollocks. There were so many bullies in that school that it was hard to keep track of who was and who wasn’t. We were better off going through our last bit of schooling at home.

There was one time though, I admit, that it was Fionn who got, though more like kept, me out of trouble. That kind of reversed situation was so rare that it stayed with me long after we were pulled from the school to study under the careful gaze of our father.

I’d been feeling pretty frustrated all week because I kept on getting on and off visions that were honestly really pointless and each flash of vision tended to add to the headache I had to deal with by the end of the day. One particular girl had been exacerbating that particular headache by being a complaining loudmouth. I still kept my mouth shut around her; I stayed my tongue though it was tempting to tell her to shut up. Dad had raised us well enough to know better. Don’t hit women—though really, don’t hit anyone unless it is an absolute necessity and your necessity might be different than the next guy over—and if you have nothing nice to say, it’s best to not say anything at all.

This girl though, her yapping on and on and on, especially in that slightly nasal and high-pitched tone of her, I wanted to shove a dirty sock in her mouth just to shut her up. I never did notice how much Fionn was watching me. It’s one of those things with the headaches induced by visions (mind you, I haven’t had visions in years, I’m glad for that). I did open my mouth, ready to tell her to do something I likely would have regretted uttering when my brother’s hand was on my mouth; his gaze was on mine, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hairline. I stared at him, confused about his actions until his gaze moved from me to the girl and back to me.

He shook his head, my shoulders slumped and he dropped his hand. I knew exactly what would have happened if I’d have opened my mouth. It wouldn’t have been hard to imagine. She’d have been outraged, she’d have started yelling and complaining and just generally bitching and I likely would have gotten in trouble for harassment though there was nothing that would have been anywhere near that coming out of my mouth but some of the rich kids at school could get anything they wanted from their parents, it was sad.

I can’t believe you’re making me watch this.

Timeline/World: New York City – Iathea
Characters: Audley Del Ray
Race: Human
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 526 words

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You can tell you’ve reached your highest level of boredom when you’re stuck watching a snail race. At least, that’s what I thought while we were growing up in this jungle world that had become the earth, before we became space-bound and before we found another place to call our own.

Though I know some would argue the fact, I did meet one girl back then, I honestly haven’t seen her in years so I’m not sure if she ever made it off the planet like the rest of us, she loved watching all things slow. Snails racing? She loved it, watching flowers slowly uncurl their petals to be able to soak in the sun of the day? She’d done it and loved it. The kind of person who could probably spend hours staring at something just waiting for it to move. I’ve never had that kind of patience.

Not that I don’t have patience, I do, but I’m a little on the brash side of things, I guess. I’m the type of guy who likes to keep his hands busy. I’ve learned, since we landed here, that I really like building things, carving things, creating things. So long as I can have my hands on materials and tools to work with, I’ll be a happy guy. I never thought I would, though. While I was growing up, I never could sit still long enough for anything to catch my attention. Learning from our mother after the world had ended? It was a chore, I hated sitting still. Settling down for a nap? Forget that. Learning to prepare food? That was a halfway point. I was interested in food enough to want to know if I could eat it or not but slowing down and just preparing that food was a little more complicated to me.

Fionn’s always had more patience than me as far as all of this was concerned so it was easy for him to take that ‘role’ when we were together, just the two of us. It really was when we landed here on this gorgeous new planet and essentially ended up on our own, living just the three of us—Fionn, Hayden and me—in our own little home on the water that I realized that I could actually focus on things, that I could spend hours just working on a small piece of wood to get it to look the way I really wanted to.

I don’t know if it was the time we spent in space, though the ship was so large there never was a moment for me to be bored, or if it was just the air from the new planet we called our home that made this small part of me come to the surface. I guess it doesn’t really matter.

In the time we’ve been here, I’ve created so many little figurines, I’ve made a few jewellery boxes, I’ve helped to fix up things around our home and not just for us, it makes me feel good, it makes me feel like I’m finally contributing to life as I should have been doing for years.