This is a short story i wrote for school. this was required and it had to be sci-fi, and i enjoyed writing it. hope you enjoy reading it!!~!!!

Written by me, 19cougardistaga, or my real name: Gabe Distad

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I ran, not looking for the shelter that the thousands of dying were, but to the one place that I had ever cared about, and what it held. If the world was going to end, I needed to warn the next world of its fall, or the continuation of worlds may cease to exist— unlike the the last hope that kept me running. When one world ended, another comes after it, and so on. There was a world before this one, and there will be another after it. And my world had only so long to live, and the next world may not live as long. So I ran, and kept running: Past all the screaming. Past the pain and death. Past all the horrific things that I had never dared dream to be possible. My body burned with the agony. Yet I ran, all the way to the small half burned down– and still burning– building that I used to call home. It was a place of peace, a place to dream, a place to live life knowing that whatever happened to me, at least it wasn't the end of the world. But now I’m afraid I can’t say that anymore. I scrambled up to the front door, and without stopping, slammed into it. I had broke the door down, and I had fallen with it. I stood up quickly. Every second that I wasted was another second of pain, another second that the next world would never get to have. I had to save the world… not my world, obviously. It had already fallen apart so much that I had been surprised it hadn’t given in yet.
“Estelle!” I screamed. I was desperate for an answer. But there was nothing more to be heard than the fire that was devouring the world alive. It crackled in my ears, almost as if it were mocking me. But I couldn’t give in. At least I wasn’t too late to do anything. “Estelle!!!! Estelle! Estelle…” But I was too late. My very last hope had finally been torn apart from the fact that I hadn’t been fast enough. I let Estelle die. I collapsed, mostly from my weariness, but also from the fact that I had a slight chance to stop this from happening, maybe if I was lucky— even if I wasn’t anything heroic or special. And I had blown that chance. I could already feel my body shutting down…
~Hello Vülden~ spoke my mini machine friend Estelle. I couldn’t believe my ears. I wouldn’t believe my ears. She was dead. Or, was I dead? No, I could still feel my heart pounding away at my chest from all that all I had seen and done, almost as if it were trying to escape and run away. Estelle was still alive. And I smiled, despite the chaos and destruction and death that my world faced.
“Estelle, start recording me as a hologram, would you?” I asked the tiny computer.
~Yes, Vülden~ Answered Estelle. A transparent blue light shimmered in front of me. ~Ready to start recording, Vülden~ If I could record a hologram warning the next world of their end and send Estelle into the future, maybe, just maybe, I would be able to stop the world from ending– TWICE.
“Hello! Please, listen to me! My world is ending, and you are—” All of a sudden, the building collapsed around me, suffocating me to the point where my lungs turned inside out. And then, everything went black…

……….


“Harry! Hey, HARRY!” I woke up. My head hurt, I was dizzy, I was tired, and I was hungry.
“Harry! What’s today’s date?” yelled my roommate from across the house. I thought for a second. Then I had realized that I didn’t know the date. I… I couldn’t remember ANYTHING. Well, everything except for my dream. I had dreamt of some kind of robot trying to tell me something…. something that had seemed urgent, important, but most of all, dangerous. And then when I tried to figure it all out, my head hurt even more. So I got up out of bed, and walked over to my couch and sat down. But I couldn’t stop thinking about my dream. It had me worried, scared, and I had no idea what to do. Maybe I needed to see a psychiatrist.
“HARRY!” shouted my friend once more.
“Who’s Harry?” I asked slowly.
That’s when I started to lose even more of my memory. I hadn’t just forgotten the date, but the month and the year, too. I had to go my calendar just to reassure myself that it wasn’t the 1800s. Good. It wasn’t. It was still December, 2049. And things just got even worse. Like the other day, when I had forgotten to put on some pants. I didn’t realize what I had forgotten until some teenage girls started screaming and pointing at me and ran away. I quickly ran inside and found some pants and put them on. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
But why was I forgetting these things? And then I thought of my dream. Just thinking about it made my dizzy. I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I thought that my dream had become a memory, like I had experienced something. And that memory was growing, pushing other thoughts and memories out of my mind, one little piece at a time. And pretty soon that thought would take over, and I wouldn’t be able to stand it. But then I also thought how ridiculous and stupid that sounded. If I told that to anyone else, they would’ve thought I was crazy. But the more I thought about it, the more real it seemed, the more likely for it to happen. Or what was going to happen if I didn’t do anything. But what would happen? It was almost the new year. 2050 was right around the corner. But I just couldn’t stay optimistic. What if my head exploded!? But how childish does that sound? Even though it is kind of silly, It was becoming way too real for me to laugh at and throw aside.
And then I had started to lose more than my memory. I had started to lose my senses, like sight. My vision had suddenly become blurry. Close sounds had started to feel distant. Something wasn’t right. It was just too much, and I blacked out …


……….
“Hello! Please, listen to me! My world is ending, and you are—“
…..
~You are in grave danger. Your world is in risk of ending.
Just remember this:
Beware the Fire and the flame it wields
When Hell’s gates open to fiery fields
But when the sky surges with waves of air
The Flames that were feared will finally despair.
……….
I had woken up once again, or, had I? The world I had woken up in was not the same as when I blacked out. I had burn marks all over my skin, and my hair was singed and smelled of smoke. but surprisingly, I felt no pain. I felt… normal, almost. But what was going on? This was a nightmare. I had woken up to fire and death. This was a dream, right? How could this have happened? It didn’t really matter. The fact was it WAS happening. I was outside, and everything was on fire, even the sky. Buildings had fallen down and were falling down everywhere. I stood up. Every once in a while I would hear a scream, and another building would fall. So I had started to run. Don’t ask where I was running: I myself didn’t know. My heart started to race, and I started to sweat. What was happening? This couldn’t be possible. I saw a car right in front of me, and I focused on it, preparing to dodge the burning metal. Then all of a sudden the car exploded in a giant fiery plume, and I screamed. The back of my shirt had caught on fire right as I had swerved away from the car. But I couldn’t worry about that right now. I had to keep running. This HAD to be a dream. It just didn’t make sense. This kind of thing doesn’t normally happen overnight, right? But on the other hand, this isn’t normal. I fell to my knees, like I had taken a blow from behind. THIS HAD to be what my dream had been foretelling. This was the end of the world.
I had to find shelter. I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice the dead body of a man that was in front of me. I kept running, tripped over it, and was violently thrown to the ground. I rolled for about 4 feet, and then stopped on my back so that I was facing the sky. All of a sudden, deep within the fiery, yet dark, sky a bright explosion broke through the smoke, followed by the loudest, highest pitched, blood curdling scream I had ever heard. It had sounded far away in the sky, but, almost as if it had come…from me. It didn’t in the least sound human, though. I pushed on my ears to block out the scream, but the sound eventually squeezed its way in. It made my heart jump into my throat. When it had stopped after about 10 seconds, (even though it had felt like forever) my ears started to ring, and I hoped I was dead. But I was still alive. People were still dying. The world was still ending.
I stood up and looked up into the sky. What was that? I thought to myself. But I couldn’t worry about that now. And so I started to run again. I knew what I needed to do. I had to go to the New Empire State Building. But where was it? All of the ash and fumes that were coming down so heavily had made it hard to see, and my sense of direction was lost. Was the New Empire State Building even still standing? I had to get to the top no matter what.
I dashed down the street and made my way for the highway. I didn’t trust using a car; not since one exploded in my face. Once I had reached the scorching hot highway asphalt, I had spotted the New Empire State Building. I might be able to get there in time.
About 21 or so years ago, the United States government decided that a new Empire State Building was in order, because of some damage the original had taken in an attack from North Korea. The surprise attack led the United States to declare war on North Korea and then WWIII had begun. It had ended just about 5 years ago, and the US had enjoyed peace ever since– up until today.
Good. The NESB was still standing. It was about 2 miles away. The top of it was in flames and the bottom was crumbling away. Hopefully I could make it in time, which I didn’t have very much of. I madly dashed down the highway, hoping I would make it, and, BANG! The highway crumbled from beneath me, the whole thing in flames. Rubble fell on top of me, and everything was silent for a while. My eyes were shut tight, but I wasn’t dead. I opened my eyes. What was happening? The world was still ending, and I was on my way to the NESB. I had a job to do. I got up, and heaved the heavy cement from above me. It was fairly easy, considering how weak I had become. And I continued to run. And I ran all the way to the half burned down NESB. I had finally made it. The building wouldn’t be standing for much longer. I had to get to the top.
……….
Only three flights I thought to myself. Three more flights until I got to the top of the NESB. I jumped up the stairs 4 at a time, and every once in a while I would hit the stair hard enough and the floor would crumble underneath me. But I kept running. And then I finally burst outside. Once I had seen the city, I had suddenly forgotten what I had come up all this way for. For almost as far as I could see, the land was flat and on fire. Only the NESB and a few other building were still standing, though nothing was able to hide from the flames. I couldn’t see or hear anyone. Had they all died? Had they found shelter? And was the rest of the world suffering like this?
I came back to my senses once I had yet again heard that terrible screech. I immediately fell to my knees. It was still out there, whatever it was. The world was still ending, or what was left of it. I still had a job to do. I had to press on.
I had to get to the the radio antenna on the top of the NESB. But that was another 50 feet above me. The air was hot, and ash blew against my face as I reached for the skinny metal bar. After about 10 minutes later, I had reached the top. It had been easy, surprisingly, almost as if I had floated up here. All I had to do was hook up the antenna to my computer, and from the antenna I would be able to send radio waves into the air. I didn’t know what would happen, or how to do this, but if I tried maybe I would be able to stop ¨The Fire”. So I connected the wires, brought up the program on my computer, and waited for something to happen. I had been shooting out the radio waves, or was I? Now what? I had done it correctly? Was the prophecy talking about radio waves? What was the answer?
For the third time, my ears had to suffer that horrendous screech. I almost even fell off the tower! It was louder than it had been before. It felt as if it had come from me.
“Hello… Harry…..” said a fiery, sinister, crackling voice behind me. I turned around slowly. Nothing. What just happened? Was I making something up in my head? Maybe, but I had to stay focused, I had to keep shooting radio waves.
“Harry… Harry, Harry, Harry. Foolishness. Foolishness is all that this is.” said that voice yet again.
“Where are you. WHO are you!” I retorted.
“Right here.” I began to feel my chest start to get warmer, despite the heat I already was feeling. No, this heat was intense, it burned, and it melted my heart. I was this “Fire”. I was just hearing it in my head. I was doing this. But why. HOW, even? How could this be possible? What were these “waves from air”? All of a sudden it hit me. When I had woken up, all of my injuries had been from the destruction I had caused. I had made the car explode by focusing on it. I had destroyed the highway. I had controlled the rubble. And I had flown up the NESB. So all I had to do now, sad as it is, was to kill myself. Wait. Did I just think that? But it was pretty logical. Kill the source of destruction, stop the destruction. And the wind was the waves of air. The wind would carry me. Yeah. I had to stop myself from doing anymore damage. But would it work? WAS I really causing this? WAS I?!?! Whatever. It didn’t matter. All I knew was that I had something to do with this. And If I stopped myself, the world would just that much closer to being saved. I had to extinguish the flame within. And all I had to do to accomplish that, was to jump. Jump. Jump…

The Dream Hasn’t Ended. Only The World That Had It…

Nice! You're a good writer.

scratcher7_13 wrote:

Nice! You're a good writer.

wait. so u actually read the whole thing? thanks!! im not THAT good tho. thanks anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

19cougardistaga wrote:

scratcher7_13 wrote:

Nice! You're a good writer.

wait. so u actually read the whole thing? thanks!! im not THAT good tho. thanks anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't read the whole thing, but I will when I get the time.

Very good. Just the right amount of suspense. Hanging ending. Great!

I read it start to finish.

From a quick glance of it:
Your story has an exquisite sense of conveying emotion to the reader through the choice of diction and the pacing of the syntax. What do I mean by this? Let's take the beginning of the first paragraph for example. A reader could tell, after reading the few lines obsessing over the concepts of worlds, pain, death, agony, that the main character was flustered and indeed failing to keep his mind from somewhat panicking under the shadow cast by impending danger. The writing is some sort of crude, this-happened-that-happened sequence of events. But it somehow fits well with the themes of apocalypse and impending doom that you're trying to permeate throughout the story. It definitely felt like something conjured up from various pop culture references, but then melted into something a bit more original. Personally, I'm not a fan of using existing landmarks of the world in my stories (artificial constructs mimicking the real world at best for me), but I think you do it well enough to justify the action.

Your story's just under 2,700 words? Let me tell you: that's quite a lot compared to the short stories I've written. And I think you can make a logical inference between how prolix and long-winded my “quick glance” of your story was, that my writing consists of much fluff and frill. If this is what you do as required work, I could just imagine what you would be writing if you had free reign over what you were typing up.

You definitely have something going for you with your writing. I'll tell you that much. Keep up the good work!

Asjali wrote:

From a quick glance of it:
Your story has an exquisite sense of conveying emotion to the reader through the choice of diction and the pacing of the syntax. What do I mean by this? Let's take the beginning of the first paragraph for example. A reader could tell, after reading the few lines obsessing over the concepts of worlds, pain, death, agony, that the main character was flustered and indeed failing to keep his mind from somewhat panicking under the shadow cast by impending danger. The writing is some sort of crude, this-happened-that-happened sequence of events. But it somehow fits well with the themes of apocalypse and impending doom that you're trying to permeate throughout the story. It definitely felt like something conjured up from various pop culture references, but then melted into something a bit more original. Personally, I'm not a fan of using existing landmarks of the world in my stories (artificial constructs mimicking the real world at best for me), but I think you do it well enough to justify the action.

Your story's just under 2,700 words? Let me tell you: that's quite a lot compared to the short stories I've written. And I think you can make a logical inference between how prolix and long-winded my “quick glance” of your story was, that my writing consists of much fluff and frill. If this is what you do as required work, I could just imagine what you would be writing if you had free reign over what you were typing up.

You definitely have something going for you with your writing. I'll tell you that much. Keep up the good work!

wow. im, i-im speechless. absolutely speechless. thank you! i have never received such praise and in such depth before! its was FUN reading wut you wrote. i love this kinda stuff (no not the praise just the depth). i love engineering things and taking toys apart and finding stufff out and how things work on my owm, and your word choice, or, eh, the way you described my story kinda made me think that way. make any sense? ah, never mind….


could i show this to my teacher: what you wrote? please?

19cougardistaga wrote:

wow. im, i-im speechless. absolutely speechless. thank you! i have never received such praise and in such depth before! its was FUN reading wut you wrote. i love this kinda stuff (no not the praise just the depth). i love engineering things and taking toys apart and finding stufff out and how things work on my owm, and your word choice, or, eh, the way you described my story kinda made me think that way. make any sense? ah, never mind….

No problem, dude! I even showed off your story to a friend or two and they thought it was pretty good! Do you mean to say that the way in which I described your story made you think in a (literally) constructive manner? That's definitely a first, and what a genuine compliment it is! Thank you for your compliments and your wonderful story! (:

19cougardistaga wrote:

could i show this to my teacher: what you wrote? please?

Most certainly, dude! Although, I'm a little bit curious as to why you'd hand my piece of writing in to your teacher. I'm not against the idea (in fact, I'm all for it), but it would be nice if you provided some reasoning as to why.

Asjali wrote:

19cougardistaga wrote:

wow. im, i-im speechless. absolutely speechless. thank you! i have never received such praise and in such depth before! its was FUN reading wut you wrote. i love this kinda stuff (no not the praise just the depth). i love engineering things and taking toys apart and finding stufff out and how things work on my owm, and your word choice, or, eh, the way you described my story kinda made me think that way. make any sense? ah, never mind….

No problem, dude! I even showed off your story to a friend or two and they thought it was pretty good! Do you mean to say that the way in which I described your story made you think in a (literally) constructive manner? That's definitely a first, and what a genuine compliment it is! Thank you for your compliments and your wonderful story! (:

19cougardistaga wrote:

could i show this to my teacher: what you wrote? please?

Most certainly, dude! Although, I'm a little bit curious as to why you'd hand my piece of writing in to your teacher. I'm not against the idea (in fact, I'm all for it), but it would be nice if you provided some reasoning as to why.

Thanks! and yes, it did make me think kinda constructive-ish in a way.

and…about my teacher….um……. idk. when i was reading it i thought that my teacher would like to see what other people were saying about my writing, and i thought she'd find it interesting. but know as i look back i think it was sort of a dumb question. not that it WAS dumb. but anyway, when i was reading it, i thought my teacher would like to read it.