Kone smiled up at the members of the coven, brushing her ash-white hair out of her face. She would always carry shards of them in her heart, equal parts ruthless and kind, as she ventured into the monstrosity of the wood.
Dark matter revealed itself in the movements of ash, snow, rain. The Reset had failed, and the errors were beautiful. “Life is beautiful, because it doesn’t last. It goes on and changes into something else, that is not life, but the next thing we live for.” – Joseph Conrad
The cloud of toxic pollution from the battle hung like a dark, motionless over the sky. The General surveyed the devastated landscape, dotted sparsely with survivors huddled around fuel-cell fires. The General had done the impossible. He turned back the Coalition Army and saved the people of Earth from their own mistakes, but he knew that they would never be grateful.
She looked over at her droid, which was pacing the floor of the ship and beeping in worry. The people of the 7th Moon were depending on her, and no one knew that their worst nightmare was coming true. The Hive-mind had awoken. "We can do this," she said to her droid, as much for herself. "They don't know about us yet."
After months of being trapped indoors by the pandemic, the pure joy of being around other beings flooded me, vying with my disbelief at the otherworldly weightlessness. I’d never been to a rave before, and this was far beyond anything I could have imagined. The music and the performers were incredible.