Below is my very first story I wrote. This was written in 2009 when I was in my second semester in college.
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“Sleep and dream what you are seeing! Preorder a Visualorb right now and get a free controller device! Another 3 days until soft-launching!”
“Gosh, not this commercial again; I am getting sick of all these Visualorb commercial advertisements” muttered a boy as he carried a cardboard box into the house.
“Van, what’s a Visualorb?” asked a girl who had been patiently looking at his brother moving around all the stuff into the house.
“That’s Shiva’s new product. That Shiva Company keeps on inventing new products and advertising them like shit”
“Wait no, no, I mean what does that visualorb do? I know that much about Shiva Company too.”
“Oh, I think it would enable you to stay awake when you are sleeping.”
“? I don’t get it. How do you stay awake and sleep at the same time?”
“You can put it this way, when you use Visualorb, you create a dummy soul that can move around and see things; and you can see the things that dummy see.”
“Oh, I got it. That’s fancy!”
“Haha, anyway, what do you think about our new house? Dad got this house really cheap!”
“It’s OK. I hate moving. Packing stuff and moving them all around the place are tiring.”
“Wait, you are not doing anything, I am the only one moving stuff here; how could you be the one tired?”
“Haha, its ok, don’t worry about tiny matters! I’m thirsty, you want some tea Van?” said Meredith as she rose up and walked toward the kitchen
“Yay, don’t put too much sugar in it. Oh and do you know where the kettle is?”
“Nop”
“I think I dropped the kettle somewhere around the warehouse when I was carrying all these boxes”
“Hmm, OK, I’ll try looking there”
“Oh, and don’t forget to put your jacket on, it’s snowy out there.”
It was one of those sunny snowy cold days in June, probably was somewhere around -10 Celsius. Meredith put on her scarf and her jacket, and she walked toward the warehouse. A kettle was lying in front of the warehouse.
Meredith was about to crouch and take the kettle with her when she finally took a good look at the odd warehouse standing in front of her.
The warehouse was locked.
The warehouse didn’t have any windows.
Overflowed with curiosity, Meredith stepped toward the warehouse and examined the padlock locking the warehouse. It was rusty. She tried pulling the padlock, hoping that the padlock would break; no good.
She looked around, looking for something that could be used to hit the lock.
She found a kinda big rock. She picked the rock up and started hitting the lock; deep inside herself, she knew that she wouldn’t be strong enough to crack the padlock open.
She was about to give up when suddenly, crack—! The padlock made a cracking sound.
The door opened.
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“Ringgg!” the phone rang, startling van who was moving stuff all around.
“Yes? Van Tibiele here” Van answered the call.
“Van? Its daddy” said the voice over the phone.
“Oh, wassup dad? How is the trip? Our moving is going fine here; I already put all our stuff into our new house—”
“I just got a call from the house seller; he said that the warehouse behind the house is not to be entered”
“OK, I got it, I will tell Meredith to stay away from the warehouse too. Go enjoy your trip, it’s not everyday you get a vacation from your boss, right?”
“Haha, that’s my boy! Take care then.”
Van hung up the phone.
“Now where is that Meredith? I just hope she would come back as soon as she got the kettle.”
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Meredith pushed the door open slightly. It was too dark for her to see anything. She pushed the door again, this time harder. Sunlight burst in, she could see a vague bluish light from inside the warehouse.
She stepped inside, and got a clear view of the inside of the warehouse. The inside of the warehouse was really dusty, with some spider webs all over the place. There was only one thing inside the dusty warehouse, a beautiful large tube made of a transparent blue glass with a push button on it. It was as if the tube came from the future.
The tube itself was pretty large; an adult could possibly fit in it. Meredith leaned closer to the tube, taking a better look inside the tube. It wasn’t really clear, but Meredith thought she saw a smaller tube inside it.
Still puzzled, Meredith tried to push the push button on the tube. To her surprise, the tube opened, she could feel the air pressure changed. It was as if the inside of the tube itself was vacuumed.
Meredith was right; inside the tube was a smaller tube. It was made of the same transparent blue glass as the larger tube was. Meredith took another look at the second tube.
‘what is that…?’ Meredith thought to herself. ‘it looks like a— ’
Meredith was finally able to see what was inside the tube.
She felt a chill go down her spines.
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‘Dith sure is taking her time’ van muttered to himself.
“I guess I would have to pick the princess up myself” said van as he stood up. He put his jacket and scarf on and walked toward the warehouse behind the house.
Van saw a kettle lying on the ground; he rushed there and saw that the warehouse door was open. Beside the door, a broken rusty padlock was lying.
“Dith? You there?” Van called his sister name softly.
No reply.
“Dith?” Van called again; this time louder.
Still no reply.
Van decided to step into the warehouse; it was too dark for van to see anything. When his eyes finally adapted to the darkness surrounding, he could barely see Meredith inside a large bluish tube.
“Dith!” van called again. Meredith didn’t answer.
Van walked into the tube, he touched Meredith. Meredith looked so surprised.
“Dith! Why didn’t you answer? I have been calling you so much!”
“Really? I didn’t hear anything… More importantly—”
“No, no, dad just called. He told us NOT to come near to this warehouse.”
“But—”
“No buts, lets just leave now, we can relock the warehouse” said van as he stepped out of the tube.
“But there is someone inside the tube!!” said Meredith.
Van didn’t react. It was as if he couldn’t even hear Meredith. Van turned around, “Dith? What are you doing? Step out of the tube.”
Meredith could see his brother’s mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear anything.
Van was getting angry, he stepped into the tube again, “Dith? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I can’t hear you from inside the tube” replied Meredith
“Huh? That’s strange, try stepping out of the tube and say something”
Meredith did so, and as Meredith said, Van couldn’t hear anything.
Meredith stepped back in. “See?”
“That’s strange…” muttered van. “it looks like something’s blocking this tube—”
“Anyway, let’s just leave these things alone. OK?” continued van.
“OK…” said Meredith without resistance.
They were about to leave the warehouse when suddenly a rustling sound can be heard from inside the tube. Van and Meredith turned around, and they saw before themselves a person rising up from the smaller tube.
They were both dumbfounded seeing the person before them. As he stepped out of the tube, Van and Meredith were able to take a good look at him. He was a middle-aged guy wearing a fancy looking suit that they had never seen before. On his right hand, he was holding an orb-like thing.
‘I swear I have seen that thing somewhere’ thought van to himself as he saw that orb.
“Doesn’t that thing look like visualorb?” whispered Meredith.
“Now that you mention it, yea it does resemble a visualorb, though it has some differences. Wait, why are we discussing the orb? That guy is the one who matters, not the orb” replied van to Meredith.
“Who are you?” asked van to the guy who just rose up out of the tube.
“Where am I? What year is it?”
“Huh? You are in xxxxx, 2030 A.D.”
“2030? 22 thousand years have passed…?”
“22 thousand years? What the hell? Does that literally mean you were from, wait, 2030 minus 22 thousand years, err, 18,000 B.C.?”
“Based on your calendar, yes”
“No, you are lying, right? That’s not even possible. How did you survive for 22 thousand years?”
“Haha, I guess 22 thousand years is not enough for you to catch up with our technology. The tube before you is a time capsule; it preserves whatever in it and holds it as such so that the condition inside remains unaltered. After it closes, it wouldn’t open until the environment supports. Temperatures, moisture, oxygen rate, carbon rate, et cetera. So, as soon as that girl opened the tube, my time capsule automatically opened.
Oh, I overheard you guys talking about how something was blocking the tube. No, the tube was designed to be sound proof. Any sound from out side would be cancelled when it reaches this blue wall”
Both Van and Meredith rendered speechless. They couldn’t believe what they just heard.
It took van another minute before he got a hold of himself, “I still can’t believe it. Do you have any proof—”
“Hey is that a visualorb on your hand?” Meredith cut van’s question.
“On my hand? Oh, you mean this Lapicto? What’s a visualorb?” the guy answered.
“Oh, it’s a fancy orb that lets you ‘see’ things when you sleep” said van.
“That’s basically what Lapicto does. This Lapicto was invented at my time too” replied the guy.
“Do you… seriously believe in him?” whispered van to Meredith.
“Why not? He is wearing a fancy suit that we have never seen before, and holding a visual orb which hasn’t even been launched.”
“You… got a point there, Dith. Well, it wouldn’t hurt us to believe in him, would it?” said van convincing himself.
“So, what brings you here? Mister…” Van tried to be formal.
“Erg, Erg Menses” replied the guy.
“So, you are saying that you came from 20 thousand years ago, which at that time you had more civilized technology than us?” asked van with a serious face.
“22 thousand years— and yes, it seems like we have an understanding here”
“Then why did you ‘seal’ yourself in that time capsule?”
“That… would be a long story”
“We are all ears” both of them replied simultaneously.
“22 thousand years ago, technology was developing rapidly, and I really mean rapidly. Well, to be honest, if you just invented Lapicto, or visualorb in your term, then your technology and mine don’t differ that much” said Erg.
“With all the technology advancement, our earth was damaged so badly, ozone holes could be spotted all over the atmosphere. The earth’s climate itself had changed. I could recall my grandparents told me that winter used to be over the December, but at my time, winter would start at June”
Van and Meredith fell silent.
“It was then,” continued Erg, “when everything went out of hands. I could still remember it clearly; one night, the moon turned red, and it became cold, very cold. We thought it was just a strange phenomenon, but when I think about it again; it could have been a sign from God; a sign that a doomsday is coming. Since that red moon incident, earth’s temperature had been declining exponentially; until approximately a year after that incident, the earth itself became uninhabitable. I believe you guys refer to this incident as ice age.”
“That sounds just right, how do you know our term—“ Van cut Erg’s story.
“I use Lapicto, remember? I was able to walk around using my dummy soul, and see what was going on, I even read newspapers and magazines by standing behind someone who was reading it”
“Ok, that’s creepy. I can’t imagine a soul would stalk me all around, anyway, carry on with your story, if you please” said van, his curiosity was taking over. He totally forgot about his dad’s order to stay out of the warehouse.
“Where was I again?” Erg stopped to think for a while, and then he continued his story, “The ice age came, earth became uninhabitable. That’s when the time capsule came into play. The time capsule was still under research. They had just soft launched the time capsule. Not many people had the privilege of using the time capsules to save themselves. I, of course, was one of the ‘not many people’ that got a hand on the time capsules. My wife, unfortunately, was one of the many people. The earth itself gradually became extremely cold, until the state humans could die, and it was still getting colder. Time passed, and those who got into time capsules, found themselves to be alive. It took earth around 2000 years until it became inhabitable again.”
“What happened then?” Meredith asked anxiously.
“The cities at that time were totally destroyed. The remnants were only 11 people—”
“Sec, we had our history class too you know. 20 thousand years ago was prehistoric age, if I recall correctly” Van stopped Erg’s story.
“Correct, that was a prehistoric age that we ‘created’” said Erg. “We, the remnants, decided to make 2 vows. The first vow, was a vow of abstinence of technology. We decided to make it as if no technology was invented, and the second vow, was a vow of silence. We would stay silent to our children about this incident—”
“Why is that?” Meredith asked, “Wouldn’t it be better if your children became aware of technology too?”
“We didn’t want our children to hate technology. The blame was not on technology; it was on us humans”
“I’m starting to see the whole point here” van talked as he closed his eyes as if he was thinking. “Then,” continued van, “If you managed to stay alive through the ice age, why did you get into the time capsule again?”
“Remember when I said the remnants were 11 people? They were 6 men, and 5 women; one man too many. I myself would rather live in a technology age; there was no way for me to live using stone and wood. Furthermore, having lost my wife, I didn’t really have a reason for living. Thus, I put myself back into the time capsule, not knowing where I would end up at; and here I am, in the year 2030.”
“I see, what are you planning to do now Erg?” Meredith asked.
“I honestly have no idea about what I should do now. Maybe I will go back inside that time capsule. Stalking people using Lapicto isn’t that bad actually” chuckled Erg.
The warehouse became dark. ‘How long had it been since I and Meredith came to this warehouse?’, van spoke to himself. ‘2 hours? 3 hours? It’s getting colder here. It probably is already night’
“Dith, I will go back and get some tea. You want some?”
“Thanks, make a cup of nice warm tea for me. I would stay here and keep Mister Erg company”
“And Mister Erg? Would you like some tea?” van asked Erg, trying to be nice.
“Yes, please” Erg answered shortly.
Van stepped out of the warehouse, and saw that the moon…
Was red.
“Gosh, not this commercial again; I am getting sick of all these Visualorb commercial advertisements” muttered a boy as he carried a cardboard box into the house.
“Van, what’s a Visualorb?” asked a girl who had been patiently looking at his brother moving around all the stuff into the house.
“That’s Shiva’s new product. That Shiva Company keeps on inventing new products and advertising them like shit”
“Wait no, no, I mean what does that visualorb do? I know that much about Shiva Company too.”
“Oh, I think it would enable you to stay awake when you are sleeping.”
“? I don’t get it. How do you stay awake and sleep at the same time?”
“You can put it this way, when you use Visualorb, you create a dummy soul that can move around and see things; and you can see the things that dummy see.”
“Oh, I got it. That’s fancy!”
“Haha, anyway, what do you think about our new house? Dad got this house really cheap!”
“It’s OK. I hate moving. Packing stuff and moving them all around the place are tiring.”
“Wait, you are not doing anything, I am the only one moving stuff here; how could you be the one tired?”
“Haha, its ok, don’t worry about tiny matters! I’m thirsty, you want some tea Van?” said Meredith as she rose up and walked toward the kitchen
“Yay, don’t put too much sugar in it. Oh and do you know where the kettle is?”
“Nop”
“I think I dropped the kettle somewhere around the warehouse when I was carrying all these boxes”
“Hmm, OK, I’ll try looking there”
“Oh, and don’t forget to put your jacket on, it’s snowy out there.”
It was one of those sunny snowy cold days in June, probably was somewhere around -10 Celsius. Meredith put on her scarf and her jacket, and she walked toward the warehouse. A kettle was lying in front of the warehouse.
Meredith was about to crouch and take the kettle with her when she finally took a good look at the odd warehouse standing in front of her.
The warehouse was locked.
The warehouse didn’t have any windows.
Overflowed with curiosity, Meredith stepped toward the warehouse and examined the padlock locking the warehouse. It was rusty. She tried pulling the padlock, hoping that the padlock would break; no good.
She looked around, looking for something that could be used to hit the lock.
She found a kinda big rock. She picked the rock up and started hitting the lock; deep inside herself, she knew that she wouldn’t be strong enough to crack the padlock open.
She was about to give up when suddenly, crack—! The padlock made a cracking sound.
The door opened.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Ringgg!” the phone rang, startling van who was moving stuff all around.
“Yes? Van Tibiele here” Van answered the call.
“Van? Its daddy” said the voice over the phone.
“Oh, wassup dad? How is the trip? Our moving is going fine here; I already put all our stuff into our new house—”
“I just got a call from the house seller; he said that the warehouse behind the house is not to be entered”
“OK, I got it, I will tell Meredith to stay away from the warehouse too. Go enjoy your trip, it’s not everyday you get a vacation from your boss, right?”
“Haha, that’s my boy! Take care then.”
Van hung up the phone.
“Now where is that Meredith? I just hope she would come back as soon as she got the kettle.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meredith pushed the door open slightly. It was too dark for her to see anything. She pushed the door again, this time harder. Sunlight burst in, she could see a vague bluish light from inside the warehouse.
She stepped inside, and got a clear view of the inside of the warehouse. The inside of the warehouse was really dusty, with some spider webs all over the place. There was only one thing inside the dusty warehouse, a beautiful large tube made of a transparent blue glass with a push button on it. It was as if the tube came from the future.
The tube itself was pretty large; an adult could possibly fit in it. Meredith leaned closer to the tube, taking a better look inside the tube. It wasn’t really clear, but Meredith thought she saw a smaller tube inside it.
Still puzzled, Meredith tried to push the push button on the tube. To her surprise, the tube opened, she could feel the air pressure changed. It was as if the inside of the tube itself was vacuumed.
Meredith was right; inside the tube was a smaller tube. It was made of the same transparent blue glass as the larger tube was. Meredith took another look at the second tube.
‘what is that…?’ Meredith thought to herself. ‘it looks like a— ’
Meredith was finally able to see what was inside the tube.
She felt a chill go down her spines.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Dith sure is taking her time’ van muttered to himself.
“I guess I would have to pick the princess up myself” said van as he stood up. He put his jacket and scarf on and walked toward the warehouse behind the house.
Van saw a kettle lying on the ground; he rushed there and saw that the warehouse door was open. Beside the door, a broken rusty padlock was lying.
“Dith? You there?” Van called his sister name softly.
No reply.
“Dith?” Van called again; this time louder.
Still no reply.
Van decided to step into the warehouse; it was too dark for van to see anything. When his eyes finally adapted to the darkness surrounding, he could barely see Meredith inside a large bluish tube.
“Dith!” van called again. Meredith didn’t answer.
Van walked into the tube, he touched Meredith. Meredith looked so surprised.
“Dith! Why didn’t you answer? I have been calling you so much!”
“Really? I didn’t hear anything… More importantly—”
“No, no, dad just called. He told us NOT to come near to this warehouse.”
“But—”
“No buts, lets just leave now, we can relock the warehouse” said van as he stepped out of the tube.
“But there is someone inside the tube!!” said Meredith.
Van didn’t react. It was as if he couldn’t even hear Meredith. Van turned around, “Dith? What are you doing? Step out of the tube.”
Meredith could see his brother’s mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear anything.
Van was getting angry, he stepped into the tube again, “Dith? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I can’t hear you from inside the tube” replied Meredith
“Huh? That’s strange, try stepping out of the tube and say something”
Meredith did so, and as Meredith said, Van couldn’t hear anything.
Meredith stepped back in. “See?”
“That’s strange…” muttered van. “it looks like something’s blocking this tube—”
“Anyway, let’s just leave these things alone. OK?” continued van.
“OK…” said Meredith without resistance.
They were about to leave the warehouse when suddenly a rustling sound can be heard from inside the tube. Van and Meredith turned around, and they saw before themselves a person rising up from the smaller tube.
They were both dumbfounded seeing the person before them. As he stepped out of the tube, Van and Meredith were able to take a good look at him. He was a middle-aged guy wearing a fancy looking suit that they had never seen before. On his right hand, he was holding an orb-like thing.
‘I swear I have seen that thing somewhere’ thought van to himself as he saw that orb.
“Doesn’t that thing look like visualorb?” whispered Meredith.
“Now that you mention it, yea it does resemble a visualorb, though it has some differences. Wait, why are we discussing the orb? That guy is the one who matters, not the orb” replied van to Meredith.
“Who are you?” asked van to the guy who just rose up out of the tube.
“Where am I? What year is it?”
“Huh? You are in xxxxx, 2030 A.D.”
“2030? 22 thousand years have passed…?”
“22 thousand years? What the hell? Does that literally mean you were from, wait, 2030 minus 22 thousand years, err, 18,000 B.C.?”
“Based on your calendar, yes”
“No, you are lying, right? That’s not even possible. How did you survive for 22 thousand years?”
“Haha, I guess 22 thousand years is not enough for you to catch up with our technology. The tube before you is a time capsule; it preserves whatever in it and holds it as such so that the condition inside remains unaltered. After it closes, it wouldn’t open until the environment supports. Temperatures, moisture, oxygen rate, carbon rate, et cetera. So, as soon as that girl opened the tube, my time capsule automatically opened.
Oh, I overheard you guys talking about how something was blocking the tube. No, the tube was designed to be sound proof. Any sound from out side would be cancelled when it reaches this blue wall”
Both Van and Meredith rendered speechless. They couldn’t believe what they just heard.
It took van another minute before he got a hold of himself, “I still can’t believe it. Do you have any proof—”
“Hey is that a visualorb on your hand?” Meredith cut van’s question.
“On my hand? Oh, you mean this Lapicto? What’s a visualorb?” the guy answered.
“Oh, it’s a fancy orb that lets you ‘see’ things when you sleep” said van.
“That’s basically what Lapicto does. This Lapicto was invented at my time too” replied the guy.
“Do you… seriously believe in him?” whispered van to Meredith.
“Why not? He is wearing a fancy suit that we have never seen before, and holding a visual orb which hasn’t even been launched.”
“You… got a point there, Dith. Well, it wouldn’t hurt us to believe in him, would it?” said van convincing himself.
“So, what brings you here? Mister…” Van tried to be formal.
“Erg, Erg Menses” replied the guy.
“So, you are saying that you came from 20 thousand years ago, which at that time you had more civilized technology than us?” asked van with a serious face.
“22 thousand years— and yes, it seems like we have an understanding here”
“Then why did you ‘seal’ yourself in that time capsule?”
“That… would be a long story”
“We are all ears” both of them replied simultaneously.
“22 thousand years ago, technology was developing rapidly, and I really mean rapidly. Well, to be honest, if you just invented Lapicto, or visualorb in your term, then your technology and mine don’t differ that much” said Erg.
“With all the technology advancement, our earth was damaged so badly, ozone holes could be spotted all over the atmosphere. The earth’s climate itself had changed. I could recall my grandparents told me that winter used to be over the December, but at my time, winter would start at June”
Van and Meredith fell silent.
“It was then,” continued Erg, “when everything went out of hands. I could still remember it clearly; one night, the moon turned red, and it became cold, very cold. We thought it was just a strange phenomenon, but when I think about it again; it could have been a sign from God; a sign that a doomsday is coming. Since that red moon incident, earth’s temperature had been declining exponentially; until approximately a year after that incident, the earth itself became uninhabitable. I believe you guys refer to this incident as ice age.”
“That sounds just right, how do you know our term—“ Van cut Erg’s story.
“I use Lapicto, remember? I was able to walk around using my dummy soul, and see what was going on, I even read newspapers and magazines by standing behind someone who was reading it”
“Ok, that’s creepy. I can’t imagine a soul would stalk me all around, anyway, carry on with your story, if you please” said van, his curiosity was taking over. He totally forgot about his dad’s order to stay out of the warehouse.
“Where was I again?” Erg stopped to think for a while, and then he continued his story, “The ice age came, earth became uninhabitable. That’s when the time capsule came into play. The time capsule was still under research. They had just soft launched the time capsule. Not many people had the privilege of using the time capsules to save themselves. I, of course, was one of the ‘not many people’ that got a hand on the time capsules. My wife, unfortunately, was one of the many people. The earth itself gradually became extremely cold, until the state humans could die, and it was still getting colder. Time passed, and those who got into time capsules, found themselves to be alive. It took earth around 2000 years until it became inhabitable again.”
“What happened then?” Meredith asked anxiously.
“The cities at that time were totally destroyed. The remnants were only 11 people—”
“Sec, we had our history class too you know. 20 thousand years ago was prehistoric age, if I recall correctly” Van stopped Erg’s story.
“Correct, that was a prehistoric age that we ‘created’” said Erg. “We, the remnants, decided to make 2 vows. The first vow, was a vow of abstinence of technology. We decided to make it as if no technology was invented, and the second vow, was a vow of silence. We would stay silent to our children about this incident—”
“Why is that?” Meredith asked, “Wouldn’t it be better if your children became aware of technology too?”
“We didn’t want our children to hate technology. The blame was not on technology; it was on us humans”
“I’m starting to see the whole point here” van talked as he closed his eyes as if he was thinking. “Then,” continued van, “If you managed to stay alive through the ice age, why did you get into the time capsule again?”
“Remember when I said the remnants were 11 people? They were 6 men, and 5 women; one man too many. I myself would rather live in a technology age; there was no way for me to live using stone and wood. Furthermore, having lost my wife, I didn’t really have a reason for living. Thus, I put myself back into the time capsule, not knowing where I would end up at; and here I am, in the year 2030.”
“I see, what are you planning to do now Erg?” Meredith asked.
“I honestly have no idea about what I should do now. Maybe I will go back inside that time capsule. Stalking people using Lapicto isn’t that bad actually” chuckled Erg.
The warehouse became dark. ‘How long had it been since I and Meredith came to this warehouse?’, van spoke to himself. ‘2 hours? 3 hours? It’s getting colder here. It probably is already night’
“Dith, I will go back and get some tea. You want some?”
“Thanks, make a cup of nice warm tea for me. I would stay here and keep Mister Erg company”
“And Mister Erg? Would you like some tea?” van asked Erg, trying to be nice.
“Yes, please” Erg answered shortly.
Van stepped out of the warehouse, and saw that the moon…
Was red.
