Well, if you were looking for something both fun and dangerous, look no further.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Project: Lucifer
Current Date: June 1, 2024

Character: Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 38
Current residence: Brent, Ontario
 

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If you were to ask me how I got into race car driving before the Silencers came, I don’t know that I’d really be able to give you a detailed explanation. It was just one of those things. I’d always been comfortable driving and I had a knack for speed. It took a whole lot of training, certainly, but I wouldn’t change a single thing. It did lead me to where I was in life, after all.

It led me to Ainsley. When the world ended as we knew it with the Silencers, it was through Ains that I survived for that first while and then London came into our lives and that was another beautiful addition. I don’t really think either one of us was prepared for him to be an addition to our lives, I mean, we’d talked about that sort of thing a little before the Silencers but it hadn’t been on the subject at all since and when things first got interesting between the three of us, we learned to be even quieter, of course. Even now with our lives that have resumed something as normal as it might ever be, we’re still quiet. Not as quiet as we used to be, but we’re still quiet.

All of that is sort of beside the point, as is.

The laughter of children is what makes all of this survival and maybe thriving thing worth it, in a way. I was never one for kids, with the type of, let’s admit it, fairly dangerous life I lived, raising kids of my own wasn’t an option and with my sexuality as it was, unless I adopted, that wasn’t an option either and I’d never even given that one thought.

Not that there are a lot of kids around, though there are a few and we’ve seen two more come to be in the last year alone. Our community might not be small, but it amuses me to think that our population is regrowing. Our population growing isn’t what amuses me so much as I’ve heard some of the slightly older ones that linger around the area that serves as our little market talking about the young couples hard at work repopulating our area. I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s not why, but if you want to believe that people are having sex so our population can grow back up a little, that’s your choice.

During the winter, the kids will make hills out of the snow. They’ll make mountains, as far as their eyes are concerned, but they’re good sliding hills and surprisingly, some of them are pretty tall, even to me, they’re tall. That, in itself, it’s not such a bad thing, it gives the kids a place to climb and slide down from and we get enough snow that piling that up in a general area when we shovel certain places just makes sense.

What amuses me, though, is that some of the slightly older kids—the ten and twelve-year-olds respectively—have been taunting the younger ones about going up on that hill to slide right down. To the older kids, it might not seem like a big deal, but to the younger ones who might still be getting into the idea of bigger things, it seems like it could be a little frightening.

The kids are talking about it as though it’s something that’s both fun and dangerous, fun, yes, dangerous? I don’t know that I’d call it that. It’s wide enough that even if the kids slide off to the side, they’d tumble down into more snow, most of it fairly packed, but the whole snow hill, when it’s up in the winter, is in an area that’s kept empty of everything else for that reason. Sure, there are trees way down that way and all the way around, and there’s the river and lake not too far off, but that body of water is on the backside of the slide and the trees are far. There are snow stoppers everywhere and, well, kids will be kids.

They’ve been rediscovering the joys of winter—though the younger ones probably have very few memories of the Silencers—and their squeals of laughter when they slide down are just one of those things. It brings a little bit of extra life out and about and it keeps the kids entertained while their parents might be busy with something else. Not that they’re ever alone, I’ve noticed that and it’s a good thing, really, but no one ever really tries to stop them. We have to learn from our mistakes, and I think this is one of the safer alternatives to a lot of options out there.

In the warmer months, the kids mostly just run around the beach, they chase balls, they help their parents with this task or that one but, all in all, I don’t know that anyone has really talked about the time before the Silencers recently, it’s not such a bad thing. We’re just living in the moment.

Final Word Count: 845

Whatever you want to say? Say it to my face, you coward.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Project: Lucifer
Characters: Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 35
Current residence: Brent, Ontario
Final Word Count: 784 words
 

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If I hadn’t witnessed it, I think I wouldn’t have believed it. We used to spend a lot of time near the water during the evenings. This place is so small, there are only a good few of us and all and from what I’ve learned during our stay here, is that this place hadn’t had any permanent residents until the Silencers came. I guess it makes sense. Some forty years ago, this place had a population of maybe four hundred but with passing years, I guess people all left.

So when we settled here, we were just glad that there were others and that they were willing to welcome us into what felt like a bit of a ghost village. We discovered the lake—that we thought a river, at first—a few hours in. We spent those first few hours cleaning up the cabin more than anything else. There was—more on that in a bit—a Silencer on the very far edge of that lake but it was oddly small compared to what I guess we were used to, at that point. We couldn’t really see much of it, but we could tell there was one by the sort of permanent dusk that came to be, at night.

A few months for us to gather the courage to spend time at that lake seems like a short enough time but we were just so quiet, as we’d learned to be. We weren’t the only ones who spent time there but we all still were scattered enough that we all had enough ‘room’ in our little spot to just appreciate things without anyone else stepping on our toes.

It’s from our spot there, one evening, as we’d decided on spending most of the evening by the lake, that we realized that the Silencer was fading. Usually, when the sun would go down, the light of it would fade until we hit that dusk stage and that would be that, but the sun was going down, down and with it, darkness was settling, much darker than it had been in the time we’d been here and once night had settled, it was dark as it could ever have been. We had a clear sight of the sky and all of its stars and, let me tell you, as someone who grew up in the city, this was breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking.

Now, we didn’t assume it had just faded and no one has celebrated anything just yet. Most of us seem to think that it might have moved, but it had been in its place for years at this point, that it might have moved makes little sense. Someone did pack up their things and stated that they were going to check it out. We haven’t heard back from them again.

There have been a few fights, however. They were near-silent but not completely so. No one was snagged from those, and it gives us a small bit of hope, just a little one. The fights were about petty reasons. Some people tired of living in close quarters to others but afraid to go elsewhere, uncertain as to whether or not they’d find another place to call home.

Others have just been picking fights for the sake of them and petty frustrations are just growing. People getting in other people’s faces, telling them that whatever they’re hiding, they can tell it to their faces. It’s sad really. To think that it was so peaceful—forced, clearly—while the Silencer still was a very clear threat to us. Things are different now and it’s just sad.

Ain and myself have been keeping our distance. We’re the most recent additions to this place but we like it well enough and the little house we’ve picked is a bit off from the others, it feels like it was a last-minute addition after the rest had been built. We mind our own business and so far, people have given us the room we’ve wanted. I really don’t want to have to get in a fight with anyone, even if it does look like the Silencers might have left.

Our life isn’t perfect, but it is what it is, and we make it work as best as we can, I think that this is what’s important. Ain still helps wake me up in the mornings and I’m content to do my part of things as they happen. Taking care of the garden has been an interesting skill to learn and fishing, man, don’t get me started on fishing. Man, I sucked balls when we first started. I’m still not great but I think I do pretty well.

I’m going on a road trip and you’ve just been invited. You should feel honoured.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Project: Lucifer
Characters: Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 33
Final Word Count: 661 words
 

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I think I can say with certainty that we’re the last people who have come to this village. At least, I’m pretty certain that no one new has cropped up after we did. That is until a few weeks ago. This guy came up on his own, no one at his side, he was riding a bike that wasn’t much different from Ain’s and mine though it was clear that it once had been a battery-powered bike. It still had the casing and all but with electricity no longer a thing, it was useless.

There was something shifty about him and, much as they had done with us, the villagers were wary of him and they didn’t know what to think of him. I couldn’t blame them. At least, when we’d come up, we’d made it clear that we were looking for shelter and we wouldn’t cause them any problems. This new guy, though, he’s something else and none of us feel really comfortable with him. He’s louder than need be, though clearly still quiet enough to not be heard by the Silencers and he’s just frustrating. He keeps on asking everyone to supply him with food but makes no effort to pay for any of it back. Which, I’m aware is difficult in this day and age but helping someone else with their field isn’t that hard to do.

He hasn’t come to our home yet and I hope he doesn’t. Somehow, I don’t think Ain would be able to keep himself from putting the guy in his place if he tried to pull the same shit over us as he’s done to the rest of the village and I’m worried about him raising his voice. I don’t know what I’d do if the Silencers took him from me. He’s all I’ve got left in this world and I don’t want to lose that.

I’ve spoken a little to some of the other residents though and the stories I’ve heard so far make me think that we all need to be careful around him. I was told that he approached several of the younger women and even a few of the younger men, telling them that he’d decided he was going on a road trip and he was taking them along with him. He wasn’t inviting them to go with him; he was telling them that they were coming with him one way or another. They should have felt honoured.

Thankfully, the people he approached weren’t on their own—which is probably their saving grace—so they were able to get away from the guy I am effectively calling a creep without any real issues. Once he’s gone through everyone he thinks he can kidnap, I wonder if he’ll just finally leave? It certainly would be nice.

Most of us are keeping an eye out for him at this point, or well, it’s what I was told. We live just far enough on the outskirt of the village that he might not even really realize we’re there. Our bikes and the trailers are stashed in the little shed that’s at the back of the house, they’re not visible. We tend to keep the blinds usually mostly shut but open just enough for light, again, mostly on the front of the house but it’s the back that faces morning light so those blinds tend to be open all the way.

I’m still not a morning person, I don’t know that I’ll ever be but Ain makes it manageable. He makes it easier to get up in the morning, easier to get through the day. If I have to do something to that creepy guy to keep Ain safe from the Silencers, I will. I’ve never felt like this before, Jeff would have given me that slightly amused, slightly knowing smile. He knew I was mostly all about one-night stands but Ainsley has changed me, I’m not going to lie.

There’s not enough duct tape in the world to keep me from speaking up when I need to.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Project: Lucifer
Characters: Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 33
Final Word Count: 689 words
 

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Life went to hell mid-October, three years ago. That I somehow managed to keep Ainsley with me so far makes me feel as though everything is a miracle. I lost Geoffrey, however, and it still hurts me to think about it.

If it weren’t for Ain, I would have been in a race car on the day the Silencers came and they would have taken me with them. That’s what happened with Jeff. He’d been working on a car and putting it through a few road tests and they just took him away as though the car’s sounds were his own.

This change in our lives changed us. I’m not going to lie; it changed us almost more than I thought was possible. Ainsley used to be a bit of a chatterbox. The type of guy who’d always have something to say though he wasn’t always talking. He didn’t let anyone keep him silent when he felt the need to, however. He used to say that there was never going to be enough duct tape in the world to keep him from speaking up when he needed to. It made me smile.

With the Silencers, though, we’ve had to learn to be silent. Even the slamming of a door somewhere is enough to get someone swept away. Parents have been teaching their kids that this new world is difference and safety lies in silence. It’s heartbreaking.

I miss being in a race car. I miss the speed, I miss the sharp turns, I miss the competition. I miss the crowd cheering.

About a year or so after the silencers and once we realized that the little store where we were getting our food from—canned at that point since nothing else had lasted long though we found some jerky every so often—was beginning to become a bit bare, we knew we had to go. We weren’t the only ones making use of that store but there weren’t any looters, not like I’m sure there were in other places.

So one morning, as the sun rose—and by that point only Ain could get me out of bed easily since I could no longer wake up to my favourite songs—we packed up changes of clothes, we packed up things we figured we would need, we packed up as much food as we thought we could carry and we actually got two bikes with trailers behind them so we could actually pack up a bit more than not. We had a tent, we had sleeping bags, we had all we figured we’d need.

We walked our bikes until we got out of the city. It only took us about two hours since we’d been on the somewhat edge. It took us away from the nearest Silencer and only once we were sure that we were on clearer roads, we got on the bikes and we left.

I lost count of how many nights we spent camping. Eventually, we had used up so much of our food supplies that we could have ditched one of the trailers but we kept it, in case. I’m not sure how far we travelled but we came upon a small sort of village that seemed to be a few hours—by bike, at least—away from the nearest Silencers. The people were a little wary at first but welcomed us in easily enough once they realized that all we were seeking was shelter.

Thankfully—though I feel bad for the old residents—one house was without its residents, most likely because they had been taken. The Silencers seem to know no distance limit. We have been staying there since and the little garden we tend to at the back of the house keeps us fed as far as vegetables are concerned. Meat is something else altogether but we’re adapting and there’s a river not too far from the village that is teeming with fish, so we have that going for ourselves as well.

Nothing like a good song to get you moving.

Timeline/World: Modern Monotony – Ticking Clocks
Characters: Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 529 words

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I was never a morning person. Which I suppose is surprising because I do love watching the sun as it rises. Then again I love watching it as it sets and all in all, I just love the sun. I think I’d spend most of my life sprawled in a chair and sunning myself if everything was so simple but I know it’s not and I’m glad it’s not.

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to find a way to really wake up in the morning, to get my blood going and get my butt out of bed. That particular method is very simple though, I just dance. I have a few songs I’m really fond of, on my playlist and that’s set with my alarm clock, so when it’s time to wake up, instead of the ugly buzzing from the alarm clock, it’s one of those songs I love so much.

Even when I’m sick, I can feel the beat of the song as it pours out of the sound surround setup I’ve got my room done up with and it’s hard as can be to not get up. It’s like the song takes a hold of me and I’m out of bed, stretching, humming, hips swaying to the beat though I know I can’t really dance to save my life but I guess that hardly matters. I’m doing this for myself and there’s no one with a camera or a judgmental eye to tease me about it.

Well, that is, until Ainsley made it into my life. I’m still not sure what to think about this, but he’s there with me day in and our, he cheers me on when I’m on the track, we share meals, talk about our lives, it’s just—everything. Sure we jumped right in with the sex on the first night but it was mind blowing—no puns.

Now, even when my song of choice plays on the alarm clock, he seems to wake with me, his eyes always bright and amused as he watches me sway and pretty much dance—very awkwardly—around my room, our room. Watches me as I disappear into the bathroom, take care of morning business and then come back out when I’m done. By then, most of the time, we’re onto the third song and he’s lowered the volume a bit, something I usually do too.

On certain mornings, he’s half-propped in bed, his eyes partially closed, watching me like a predator watches its prey seriously and that look of his just goes right down to the one spot it matters and that’s it, I’m back in bed with him and we don’t get out for a shorter or longer while until we’re both sated and then ready to get out of that bed again.

I love him. I really do. I haven’t managed to tell him that much yet, the words just get caught in my throat but I try to convey my feelings for him in every which way I can. It’s not just lust, it never was about lust but I just don’t know how to tell him.

Who?

Timeline/World: Modern Monotony
Characters: Geoffrey Daniels, Dominique Travis
Race: Human
Age: 33
Final Word Count: 758 words

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Some relationships just didn’t last. They were more about the physical aspect of things, the lust more than what the heart really might have felt and just watching Chance made him cringe a little. His childhood friend still didn’t seem to be able to really hold onto relationships and Geoffrey couldn’t tell if it was because he just wasn’t mature enough or if it was his still ever present love for the races.

After a particularly bad accident on the road, not even on the track, his friend had been kept from driving a car for almost a year and with his depth perception off, he had been warned about getting back in a race car. It didn’t stop the man from going there after hours, on his own. Still dangerous and reckless and while Geoffrey didn’t like it, he knew that Chance could not be asked to simply stop, it was not that easy.

One morning however, there had been a knock on his door, a knock he had been more than willing to ignore if not for the fact that he knew only one person could bother him this early on a weekend.

Groaning and rolling out of bed, having spent most of his night up until barely a small handful of hours ago, working on the car sitting in his garage, Geoffrey moved to his feet, stretched his arms above his head, rubbed his eyes and slowly moved towards the door, already hearing the key turn in the lock. He made a mental note to later try to remember why he’d given Chance a key.

“Jeeeeeffffff!” The singsong voice called out and Geoffrey ran a hand over his face, turning to head into his kitchen while his friend stepped inside and made himself at home in his living room. He’d need coffee if he were to survive this morning, it felt like.

He prepared two cups of steaming hot coffee, adding just a small dash of milk to his own and a small teaspoon of sugar into Chance’s cup before both were brought out to the living room where his guest was half-sprawled on his couch, wearing a shit-eating grin.

“..so who is it this time?” The words murmured tiredly as he offered the cup over, perching himself on his recliner and tucking his legs slightly next to himself.

“Who what?” The words were innocent sounding enough but the effect was completely ruined by the grin still present and the brightness to those eyes.

“Spill, Chance. Who was the lucky guy who made you all sparkly and bouncy this morning? Because obviously it wasn’t bob, you’re nerver this perky with bob and last I knew, you’d gotten frustrated with it and had thrown it out.” He quirked a brow, willing his friend to argue the point. In answer he merely earned a flush and a sheepish sort of grin and shrug.

“I met this guy at a bar last night, took one look at me and didn’t even double-take, like the mismatched eyes wasn’t a bother for him.. approached me and all and just started talking to me and just.. it felt right!”

“They always feel right, Chance. What made this one different that you let him into your bed after just, what, a few hours, a few drinks?”

Chance shrugged gently, features calming a little as he studied his cup a moment, merely warming his fingers on it. “Just one beer each, to be completely honest.. we walked after that, just out along the park and back again, talking. Like somehow we’d known one another forever. He didn’t even try to ask me anything too personal or even about the scars, I’m the one who invited him back to my apartment. I’m the one who coaxed him to my bed. I didn’t force him, he didn’t force me. It was slow and sweet and-”

He stalls when Geoffrey lifts one hand to let him know he’s not fond of the idea of details. He misses his own sex life but he has no time, there always is a car waiting for him in the garage to be worked on and no one seems willing to deal with the grease stains, even if he’s always scrubbing up good and clean once he’s done.

“Well I’m glad you’ve had a good evening and night, mate.” He meant it, too. So long as Chance was happy, who was he to preach anything at all about potential one night stands? If it turned into something else, why not?