"The Basis of Reason"

Part One, Simplicity

Alex,

            There is warmth in this world that we live in, but why does it exist? The sun, our source of heat and light, has protected us for so very long. Yet, when we gaze into the sky, why do we never think of the sun?

♪✦✩✦♫

            “Alex!” I heard someone call.

            Slowly, I turned around only to see that it was my friend Sarah. She had a glow in her face that could only mean one thing: something big was happening.

            “Jesus! Why are you still here? Aren’t you going to see the ceremony?” she asked me with such shock in her voice.

            I scratched my cheek with my index finger, not understanding any bit of what she was saying.

            “Alex! It’s the ceremony today! The one for the Sun!” she said, reminding me of something she thought should have been so obvious.

            “Are you sure it’s today?” I asked her.

            “Of course I’m sure! Why do you think this place is so deserted today? They’ve all gathered to the main hall in order to pay respects to the Sun,” Sarah told me.

            “Oh,” I said, simply unaffected.

            “Come on! I know how much you hate these ceremonies, but you can’t miss this one!” she said, quickly grabbing hold of my hand and dragging me along with her.

            I could have easily fought back and went my own way, but I’ve never been able to reject any of her requests. For as long as I can remember, she’s been the most precious one to me; these requests were much too easy to fulfill in order to see her smile.

♪✦✩✦♫

            “Isn’t this simply amazing?” Sarah asked, absolutely amazed.

            For a second, I was amazed as well. The houses were so luminous; it felt as though darkness never existed. “Where did they get all this energy from?”

            “Who knows?” she simply shrugged. None of these things ever seemed to matter to her.

            “It really makes you wonder…the luminous stars died eons ago,” I mumbled as I looked at the glistening lights that, for once, brightened our path to the main hall. Usually, the land we live in was consumed in darkness. We used to live very scared in the darkness until slowly, we created a source of light, but that light doesn’t last very long and is very dim.

            “I would like all of us to pay our respects to the new Sun!” the leader announced as we arrived.

            The crowd of people shrieked with excitement and clapped their hands so very excitingly.

            Slowly, a young man walked on the stage with a solemn face and stared at the crowd of people.

            “He’s so handsome,” Sarah commented. Her face was clearly blushing.

            I could only sigh as I whispered to myself, “So he’s the next victim, huh?”

            “Alex, pay attention! The ceremony’s going to start,” Sarah warned me as her elbow jabbed my armed.

            Obediently, I looked at the young man and bowed my head in his presence, as did everyone else in the crowd.

            “In the holiness of the stars that guide our fate, I pronounce you, Mathew Stevens, the new container of our Sun! Please step upon this throne and drink from the dew of the souls,” the leader said. His voice had a sense of authority and it was somewhat scary to me.

            As the young man did as he was told, the crowd of people slowly began to clap. “All hail our Sun!” the crowd shouted with glee.

            I did not join the crowd in encouraging the young man’s decision. It was a terrible fate to go through. I pitied him.

♪✦✩✦♫

            Have you ever experienced love? It’s a magical feeling that warms your soul and brightens your life.

            The sun loved the planets, especially Earth. Since we became the children of Earth, the sun cherished us as well. It gave us everything it wanted to give Earth: warmth and light.

            These two beings were so innocent with the love they held. They sheltered us, yet we betrayed them. We slowly destroyed Earth and when the sun could no longer offer us the same kind of light and warmth, we left. We found somewhere else to be, somewhere with warmth and light.

            The sun became angry though. Perhaps, it was angry at us. We had abandoned what loved us for our entire lives so easily, simply because they could not offer us something that we could benefit from.

            In desperation, the sun hugged Earth in its deathbed and held onto Earth forever. The sun didn’t want Earth to feel hurt or abandoned, so it held on until it died.

♪✦✩✦♫

            “I hate this part of the ceremony. It’s always cold beyond belief for four days,” I complained. As Sarah and I walked away from the main hall, the path to our house began to grow darker. We could almost no longer see where to head.

            “Well, four days for an entire year of warmth is a good trade to me,” she said.

            “I can’t believe that there are still people who are willing to sacrifice their lives to be the Sun,” I said, in complete disbelief. “What was wrong with that guy?”

            “It’s bad of us to speak ill of others, Alex,” Sarah reminded me.

            “Yea, yea. Whatever,” I said. I could’ve cared less. To me, they were all idiots. Who would ever give up their lives to save a bunch of ungrateful creatures? I know I wouldn’t.

            “They know what self sacrifice is. They have something they want to protect, I bet,” Sarah told me. She gave me a sad smile and I immediately felt a surge of an aching feeling in my chest.

            I paused in my tracks and looked at Sarah with apologetic eyes. She only looked up at the sky and sighed in regret. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, and I felt as though something had stabbed me.

            “…I wish we could still see the stars,” she told me, in soft whispers.

            I turned my head to look at the sky only to be greeted with more darkness. No one would ever believe that it was only the afternoon. There was no a star available in the sky to greet us with warmth and light.

            “We’ll see them again, someday,” I told her. My hand slowly reached for hers and I held onto it. I couldn’t help but to pull her to a hug the moment I saw that the tears wouldn’t stop. “I promise we’ll see them again.” My arms wrapped around her body and I placed her face against my chest.

♪✦✩✦♫

            In the world we exist in now, there is no such thing as stars anymore. They don’t exist for us anymore. It seems as though they all disappeared without a trace.

            How are we to survive without warmth and light? We created them artificially. It’s not the real deal, so it’s never been everlasting or as perfect but it’s been as close as we could ever get.

            Light was created through a charge. It was simple. It was the easier one to make.

            Warmth…we could never create enough warmth to supply the needs of an entire population. One day, an idea was suggested. A long time ago, there was an object that could create matter that was millions of degrees. As the years went by, we managed to make it so that it would affect organisms and not kill them instantly. So, how did we substitute warmth? We used a human container to be our supplier. The human would undergo the ceremony and be locked away somewhere secluded until the day they die. There was too much radiation emitted from their bodies after the ceremony, so they could no longer coexist with us without harming anyone.

            I don’t understand why people would suddenly give up their lives just to help a bunch of others that they don’t know. Self sacrifice? There’s no one in this world that would ever do it simply out of the goodness of their hearts.

            There are those who are blinded in our world by the glory of the title of the Sun. Maybe they’ll chase it out of stupidity. Most of them, however, do it through blackmail and bribery.

♪✦✩✦♫

            “Hey, Alex, do you think we’ll live long enough to see the coming of Aquarius?” Sarah asked me.

            I looked at Sarah and shrugged my shoulders. “Who knows? We might.”

            “I hope so. I would really like to see it before I die,” she said, casually.

            Sarah was born in February and her star sign is Aquarius. She told me that she saw it with her Mom when she was younger, but I highly doubt it. The stars were probably long gone by that time.

            “Sarah, tell me about your home planet,” I said to her, changing the subject.

            Immediately, her eyes lit up and she started to tell me about her previous planet, Hades. I wasn’t really interested though, I had heard her story a million times already.

            As Sarah spoke, I stared at her and smiled. She seemed so happy. I would give anything to protect that warmth in her heart. Sarah’s Dad didn’t make it with her to Nike, the planet we exist in right now. When I first met Sarah, we were both orphans and ever since that meeting, we’ve become inseparable.

☽♪✦✩✦♫☾

Part Two, Indifference

Matthew,

            They all thought I was stupid for going through with this decision, but they don’t understand. My homeland was about to die soon and if I hadn’t done this, the leaders would have destroyed us. This was our trump card into survival, yet they still call me an idiot.

            My mother cried and begged me not to do it. I think it was the first time I had ever seen her so desperate. I couldn’t stop myself though, I felt as if it was my duty as the son of the founder. I was sorry to my mother; I would be leaving her alone. I was also sorry to Sapphire; I was leaving her even though I had promised her an eternity.

            I think the most difficult part about it all was standing in front of a crowd of people I didn’t know. I was giving up my life for the sake of my loved ones, yet none of my loved ones showed. Was it too painful to see me off? Or was it that they just didn’t want to be bothered with me anymore?

♪✦✩✦♫

            How can I describe the process that takes over four days?

            It’s agonizing. My body feels as though it’s been split from my mind so many times. I fell close to death very often, but I was always awakened seconds later only to be found alive. I was no longer glad to be alive. I was wishing for death to come sooner.

            Inside the cup that I drank from was a deadly liquid. The effects of it didn’t take place until after they confined me to this crystalline structure. I felt my head cry out in pain and my heart bleed out.

            When I awoke from the pain, I noticed red beams aimed at me. I didn’t understand what they were for, but I was already scared. I felt as though my doom was headed for me. My body was feeling numb and I was wondering why.

            “Hello, we will begin day two of the process now,” a voice said to me. I didn’t know where the voice came from, but it came.

            I looked around in panic and backed up to a corner.

            “That’s the perfect position. Stay there as I pinpoint the lasers to you,” the voice said.

            I was baffled. Was this joy in the person’s voice? Had it been amusing to see me screaming in pain when I was trapped in the crystalline structure for an entire day?

            “Okay, it begins,” the voice said, very eagerly.

            I heard the beams start up. I felt them stab my body with a piercing, scorching touch. I screamed. I didn’t know how anyone could have survived this in the past. I could only try to grip onto the life I had left as each beam of red light touched me. Red light…did it signify my death? I pictured myself bleeding out to death and I was slowly losing grip of my mentality.

            “Stage one is complete. We will begin stage two in an hour,” the voice told me.

            I gagged. It was horrible. The experience was ridiculously painful. I didn’t understand. Why? Why was I not dead yet?

            “If you’re worried about your life, don’t be too concerned. The liquid you drank was a special mixture of matter in our universe. It numbs feeling in your body to a degree and destroys the nerves that send warning signals to the heart. You can’t die in this process because of the liquid,” the voice explained to me.

            I wondered if the voice could see how I was doing. I wondered if the voice was happy that I was sacrificing myself. I wondered if the voice even cared.

            Slowly, the pain disappeared from my body and I felt relieved. Then, my relief died as quickly as it started when I heard the voice again.

            “We shall begin stage two now,” the voice said to me.

♪✦✩✦♫

            How do we treat those who are willing to sacrifice themselves for us? We congratulate them once and become ungrateful to them afterwards. When they die, we grieve once and quickly move on. It’s the never ending cycle of selfishness. It’s the selfishness that brought us into the state we’re in right now. It’s the reason why we can no longer see the stars. We never learn, though. We never ever learn.

☽♪✦✩✦♫☾

“Obscurity”

Sarah,

I looked up to the sky,

in hopes that I could be forgiven.

Forgiven for my mistakes,

for my selfishness

and my shallow heart.

But the sky was blank

with no stars there to forgive me.

I soon realized that

no matter where I stood

the stars would no longer stay

only to be hated again

and again.

I looked at my hands

and asked my heart

why it was so hard to accept

the fate thrust upon us.

It was unfortunate

but I think we just never

wished to admit

that we were at fault

for the mistakes we made.

We could only move

and act as though

we never created

the life we lived in.

I looked towards the future

until I realized

for us,

there was none.

--;

I wrote this two years ago for a Physics assignment. We were supposed to find an article about modern science and write a summary about, as well as creating a story around the article's main point.

What was my article about? Well, it had to do with a laser that was about to melt or create heat out of something melting (I'm sorry...it's been so long and I don't remember the specifics...).

I created this story to reflect the advancements in technology and how we don't realize all the things we end up destroying with the advancements and our lack of attention paid to the dangers. It's a story written in three parts because I was trying to create different voices with writing styles. I think I did rather well, which makes me happy, since it was first attempt at something new. The third part was made to be a poem, purposely, to show that poetry has a voice that screams loud in a few lines and words--the same as how prose can create stories with many details.

It's apparently one of my most popular stories among my friends, haha. So, hopefully, you guys like it too.