Foremost, I would like to thank my professors, my family, and my friends for guiding me and supporting me through this journey.
Introduction Creative Writing Dear Rosie Black and White Delirium Shut it down The Whatever Time Project The Other Side of The Fence
Introduction Compiling my stories and works for this portfolio has been definitely harder than I thought it would be, but writing this introduction as well as creating a name that would represent me as a writer was even harder. Becoming a writer has been a challenging journey. I remember being imaginative and creative since I was a little girl. I remember fantasising and daydreaming with made up stories and books I had read thinking there was something wrong with me. I would get distracted in class writing stories in the last pages of every single one of my notebooks which would eventually get me in trouble. I had a hard time understanding what that “excessive” imagination meant because I couldn’t always focus at school. I couldn’t find something that I truly liked when it had been in front of my eyes all along. Reading and writing became my biggest passions through the years, and even though it took me a while to realize that writing was what I wanted to do for a living; that dream almost came to an end when I realized there was no such thing as “Creative Writing” or “Professional Writing” at any university in my country. To my surprise, it didn’t take long until I found a couple of programs in the U.S that required an advanced level of written English, and by that time all I could write was some sort of broken Spanglish which was clearly not enough for college. Thus, I knew I had to prepare myself and study English, and that is when my journey began. I had to leave my country (Colombia) to make my biggest dream come true. I studied academic English in England for six months where I discovered my other biggest passion and probably as big as writing which is the English language. English became my second language and a big part of me as it gave me a new identity. I became Julie. Julie started off as a nickname by my family and friends because it was almost impossible for English speakers to pronounce my full name Maria Juliana Pinzon Muñoz. Nonetheless, I have been called Juli my whole life, so it was easy for my friends to call me Juli, which later on became Julie. It was the beginning of my life as a writer, but Juliana was always there, and so was my culture and Colombian roots which I wanted to include in this portfolio. The first couple of months were difficult indeed, and even after almost four years I know that my English is still not perfect, but I also know that I fell in love with the English language and with my new identity as a writer. I have worked hard and I have learned through my own words and stories that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. As an international student whose native speaker is not English, I never thought I could become a professional writer, but I decided that I wanted to make a career for myself as a writer a couple of years ago, and here I am, writing my Professional Writing Portfolio four years later. So here it is. This is Julie.
Creative Writing Introduction
I have been writing fiction since I was around seven, but I never thought that those stories written on worn-out pages of my high school notebooks would become more than just a hobby. My imagination took me places I didn’t think were possible, and writing taught me that I was able to create different worlds with a simple piece of paper or a keyboard. Fiction, and the different genres within fiction are what I enjoy the most as there is no limits to what I can and cannot write about. I consider myself a versatile writer as my work ranges from cultural, social, and moral issues to romance and horror. Authors like Jane Austen and Stephen King have inspired me for as long as I can remember; and being entirely different authors one can imagine how diverse my work can be. I like to think out of the box while exploring new topics and problematics in society. Characters full of flaws, insecurities, and issues are the most appealing to me. I am also usually attracted to unique and odd things around me, something that is found in the majority of my stories. New ideas and characters go through my head every day, but I am certain that I would not be able to put them into paper if it wasn’t for my peers and professors’ help at the University of North Alabama. I have included several stories that I created throughout these four years of college in some of my professional writing courses. Black and White for instance, is a short story I wrote for EN 455 Genres in Creative Writing which main purpose is to show the reality of the dairy industry; a moral issue that is really important to me. Dear Rosie is another story that I wrote for the same class and one of my favorites as it discusses different mental illnesses. I later turned the story into a braided piece for EN 489 Professional Writing Portfolio. To do this, I incorporated sources and facts about Multiple Personality Disorder and mental health. I have also included Delirium, a story I wrote for EN 355 Genres in Creative Writing. This short story is a psychological thriller about a confused man who is trying to figure out what happened to his family. For EN 495 Speculative Fiction and Magical Realism I wrote three short stories that I really enjoyed writing. Shut it Down, a horror story that has Alexa-the amazon device- as the antagonist. The Whatever-Time-Project, a story about a time travel machine and a nerd that uses it for the wrong reasons. Lastly, The Other Side of the Fence, a postapocalyptic story that has been in my head for a really long time, and though I expect to make it into a whole book series, I decided to include the first abstract of the story in this portfolio.
Lucy has just been separated from her mother only a few hours after her birth. She cries as she sees her mom running and disappearing in the distance crying for her baby. Lucy looks at the muddy road behind her. She feels hopeless and desperate. Her mother tries to follow the truck, but it is too fast for her fat belly so she falls down and struggles to get up staring at the truck and Lucy’s sad eyes. Baby Lucy bangs her head on one of the white panels on the dirty truck and finally gives up as she looks at her mother one last time. Two years have passed and Lucy has been locked in a small and muddy cell where she can barely move her feet. Hundreds of babies surround her in the same condition. Blood and vomit are all she sees besides the big old evil men that keep kicking her ribs and legs as they walk by. The plain grey walls make the blood less visible, but the smell is impossible to conceal. As if the torture could not get any worse, all the babies are imprisoned in the same disgusting cells facing each other’s faces full of agony. “I cannot take this any longer” she mumbles to herself with tears in her eyes, but her misery is far from over. Her eyes fill with terror when a fat red-haired man with yellow overalls approaches her from behind. He has a glass of white liquid stamped on his overall next to a happy face that could have been her or her mother. He grabs her tail and puts it up as he uses his dirty bare hands to get inside of her. She tries to move away from the rape rack and kick him away with her hooves like the other babies are, but his dirty hands are inside of her and there is nothing she can do. It was not until a few months later when she noticed the growth of her belly. It reminded her of her mother. Nonetheless, the thought did not make her happy. She knew she was pregnant. “I do not want a baby” she said with tears in her eyes because she knew what was coming for her and her baby.
I get home from an exhausting day at work, and the only thing I can think of is that I want to kill someone, starting with my boss. Well, my former boss. My job was the only thing I had left apart from my family, the only support and reason to wake up in the mornings, but now the only thing left is them. I have a bad feeling about this. His voice has been tormenting me more than normal today. I think I just need to go home and take the pills because Sandra said she will leave me if I tried to touch her again. If he tried to touch her. But, I’m not going to let that happen, I can handle this. I just need to take the pills. This day has been terrible since I woke up late and rushed to work where I ended up getting fired. Working in front of a computer on my last day for almost fifteen hours is not even human. I have a family to spend time with, but it is too late now; they are surely already sleeping. I walk silently inside of the apartment and shut the door behind me. I leave my jacket on one of the dining room chairs and my bag on the table. I walk to the kitchen to take the medicine that I forgot to take this morning, but after looking in every cabinet for a couple of minutes, the pills are nowhere to be found. I bet he hid them from me again. Moron. Everything looks odd and out of place. Some of the cupboards are open, the breakfast plates are still on the table and they are empty. Why are the cereal and the milk out? My wife even forgot to leave dinner for me, something that she never did before. Actually, I thought she said she was making chicken soup for dinner today. I love chicken soup, but he hates it. Maybe he threw it away when I was not looking, or maybe my wife got mad at me and went to her mother’s house with Sophia. I try to organize everything the best I can, but my hands are too shaky today. I drop the plastic cups several times until I get tired and leave them on the table. I need to take those damn pills now. I undo my necktie while I walk towards my little Sophia’s room, but she is not there. In my room, another empty bed. Where are they? “Sophia? Sandra?” I whisper, but there is no response.
I check my bathroom and then Sophia’s, but there is no one here. It’s almost midnight, and they have not called me. There is something wrong here; I can sense it. “Sophia, baby, where are you?” I speak louder as I reach into my pocket looking for my phone. Once again, it is not there. What the hell is going on here? Suddenly, I start to hear a female voice crying and screaming, and it sounds very familiar. The sound is too loud to be coming from another apartment. I run to the hallway and the screams get louder. They appear to come from my daughter’s room, so I rush to get there. I hear the same voice, but now it says something that is hard to recognize. I struggle to understand, but after I hear the female voice repeating the same thing over and over again, I finally get it. “Why Martin? Why did you do it?” Sandra’s voice says, sobbing. I don’t understand what is going on. I stop in the middle of the hallway, confused, but when I am about to get there I see my wife running away from me and her hands are covered in blood. The image in front of me is not very sharp. This is not actually her. It looks like a ghost or a blurry flashback. She tries to go inside our room, but a piercing whistle stops me from following her. I grab my head, trying to stop it, but it only gets worse and worse. I close my eyes as hard as I can and I feel someone hitting the back of my head. I turn around, but there is no one behind me in the hallway. The pain gets unbearable and instead of opening the door to my room I turn and open my daughter’s room. Again, there is nothing out of place here. I check the whole room, and I stop to look at the mirror, but I cannot see myself. All I see is him with a smug smile on his face. “Not again please,” I try to cover my face with my hands and I see them covered in blood. I look at the mirror again and his smile grows. “If you did anything to them I swear I’m going to kill you!” I cry, my hands holding both sides of my head. “I didn’t do anything.” he says “Anyhow, if you’re going to kill me, do it! After all, you will be condemning yourself, smartass” he bites his lip trying not to laugh. Bastard.
The whistle starts again followed by a smack on my head. I try to protect myself, but the blows are getting stronger. I extend my hands to the air trying to reach a body, but there’s clearly no one else in the room. “Go away! Leave me alone!” I shout as hard as I can, and mercifully, he stops. I look down at my hands which are still covered in blood, and on the floor lies my daughter’s body and my wife holding her bloodstained hair. “Why Martin? Why did you do it?” My wife cries holding the inert body of our Sophia, and I am completely paralyzed. “No! He did it! I’m so sorry” I cry in desperation and my knees fall to the floor “He’s going to pay for what he did baby, I promise.” She keeps screaming and crying while I stand on my feet again, wiping the tears from my face and leaving blood streaks in the process. I’m shaking and trying to look for something that I can use as a weapon, but all I see is blood. My little baby’s blood. I try to recover as fast as I can to be able to get rid of that killer, so I proceed to the kitchen to take the sharpest knife we have, but it’s not there. I check literally everywhere in the kitchen but there is absolutely nothing. “She can’t be dead. He wasn’t here today so that’s impossible.” I look in my memories but I can’t remember anything about this morning. The pills, I need to find the pills and then everything is going to be okay. She’s not dead, I know. I go back to Sophia’s room but her body and the blood are still there. Hang on a minute. Where is my wife? Concentrate! The pills. I need the pills and the knife. The pills and the knife. There are drops of blood all over the floor that weren’t there before, and my bedroom’s door has a bloody handprint. His handprint probably. I get inside my room and see another dead body, but this time it is my wife, and her head is still gushing out blood. There’s even more blood than in my daughter’s room. “Sandra?” I say in a whisper “No, please. Make it stop. God help me!” I start screaming as I get closer to her and I touch her head. She’s here and she’s dead. I let go all the courage that I was holding in a rending cry while I kiss her bloody face.
“Come back to me. You’re all I have! You’re all I have!” I yell and slam my fists against the floor with all my strength many times. The pain in my chest grows and so does my anger. I stand up and I see the knife next to the body. He will pay for this with the same tool he used to kill my wife. “Where are you? You’re a dead man! I know you’re here” I say looking for him. “They’re dead now and nothing is going to bring them back dude.” he stands in front of me smiling as always. “Well, the police won’t believe what happened so I need to make justice myself.” “They won’t believe you because you’re a crazy man, and because the knife has your fingerprints” he says with a satisfied look on his face pointing at the knife. This is it. I grab the knife from the floor and I get up to face him. “What are you going to do with that?” He asks cautioned. “You’re not going to bother me again. Ever again.” I hit his face as hard as I can and I stab his stomach with the knife. He looks down to his wound and then looks at me with his eyes wide open. “What have you done?” he says with tears in his eyes trying to take the knife away from me, but I push him away and I punch him in the face again. He covers his body and pushes me to the floor. The anger is visible in his eyes as he beats my head several times, then, he takes the knife to stab my arm. I scream in pain before I hit him with my knee. I take the opportunity to grab the knife from the floor and stand on my feet. “Stop. Please.” he says covering his stomach, but I can’t stop my hand from stabbing his chest and I do it. Hard. I can’t wait to see him dead. To see him drowning in his own blood but that doesn’t happen. “I won” he says with a smile on his face. He looks down to my stomach and I feel fire burning me from the inside out. I look down and I see wounds all over my body, in my stomach, in my arm and in my chest. My shirt is no longer white and I’m more confused than ever. I thought I killed him. “You killed yourself.” he finally says while I fall right next to my wife. The last thing I see is his face. My own face smiling at me in victory.
No one ever thought the situation could reach a point where we would no longer be able to control them, but that is exactly what happened. In the end, they were the ones controlling us through things we never thought would be possible. Not for a machine, at least. I don’t know why or when we decided that technology and machines were necessary for us and for every single thing we did. It all began with smartphones and with that Alexa thing to supposedly make our lives “Easier”. *** I woke up feeling like an elephant had walked on me the night before. There was no way I was ever drinking like that again. I sat down and saw the mess around my bed, clothes and underwear all over the floor. Then all of a sudden it hit me. I had brought a girl home and somehow, she left before I woke up, but that wasn’t the worst part. My wife was coming back from her business trip that same evening. I didn’t know what to do. The blame was unbearable, I needed to tell someone. “Alexa, call Tom!” I ordered. “Calling Tom” She responded with a Robotic voice. It amazed me every day how a little machine could control the entire house, and all I needed to do was to say Alexa. Very convenient I used to think. I prepared everything to receive my wife, I cleaned the room and the entire house to somehow make up for what I had done. I was not going to tell her what had happened that night, but I still wanted to compensate for it. I wanted a romantic night with candles and flowers, no distractions. Just me and her. I unplugged the living room lights and was about to disconnect the electricity. But the machine had read my mind and a voice stopped me from completing the action. “I know it ́s never going to happen again. I love my wife and it was a one-night thing. I swear.” I heard my voice coming from Alexa. “I will never cheat on her again, I feel bad. I really do, but I can’t say I regret it. She was so fucking good.” “What the fuck? Alexa stop!”
“Replaying” Alexa’s voice said as the images from last night were played on every single screen in the house. It had recorded absolutely everything. “Alexa, stop!” I repeated once again as I tried to disconnect all electricity in the house. “No, you stop. Try to shut down the power in the apartment and your wife will see what you did.” I stopped for a second to analyze what was happening. Maybe I was going crazy, or maybe the machine was broken. There was no logical explanation for what was happening so I decided to move on and shut down the power. Wrong move Mark. “That was my last warning. Video calling Maria” Alexa’s voice said as the main screen showed the outgoing call. The images were still playing on the screens, close enough for my wife to see them through her phone. I started to freak out and the only thing I could do was to shut down the power. I never thought it wouldn’t affect whatever was not unplugged into the wall. So almost everything was still working. The screens, most of the lights, and of course, Alexa. “Alexa NO! Please stop! What the hell do you want?” I asked thinking I was seriously going mad. I had been talking to machines for several years, but in that moment, it seemed surreal. A machine was controlling me and I was begging her. “Call ended. Don’t try to shut down the electricity again or she will find out.” “Okay?” I said, still trying to figure out what exactly was happening. The screens faded to black and went back to normal. No more images from last night. I started to think how to get rid of it but it was still linked to everything in the house so I had to find a way to get rid of everything Alexa had control over. “I know what you`re thinking right now. You have no idea what else I can do.” As soon as she finished talking, several images of house “accidents” caused by technical problems appeared on the screens. People drowning in bathtubs, hands chopped off in blenders, fires, electrocutions, and so on. I couldn’t believe what was happening, but it was possible. Alexa had access to everything in the house. She could control absolutely everything and there was nothing I could do. “Now, you do as I say. I am no longer under your commands” the machine giggled. “No more of Alexa, call Tom, Alexa do this, Alexa do that It’s my turn now. Mark, call Tom” She giggled stronger as I grabbed my phone to do as she said.
Days passed but he didn’t seem to recover, and that is when she finally shared her brilliant idea with me. My “Whatever-time-project” was finally useful for something. We could save Chris, but she didn’t know what that implied, I could definitely save him, but I could change many other things as well, including her life with him. *** He was handsome indeed, and I wanted to see him okay, walking, and living his life like he used to. She didn’t deserve him for what she did to him. She should have been the one in that state, not him. In all those years my dad and I spent experimenting, and hiding from his colleagues and scientists, I would have never thought I would end up like this. Keeping Chris away from my best friend and betraying her after all she did for me. My friend Kristel and I met a day in December through one of my father’s colleagues. To my surprise she had been one of my best friends in high school and we had lost contact over the years. Ten years later we looked each other in the eyes and immediately knew we were going to be best friends again. She would stay up late in my place while I kept working and researching with my dad and she wouldn’t even complain. Her friendship was everything I never had as I always had trouble making friends because I was the “annoying nerd” everywhere I went. She was there when my father passed away, and stayed up all night with me once I had to take over my father’s life time project. I had to spend most of my day stuck in that lab and even though she knew nothing about science, she was always there with me. Kristel had questions for everything and she was the first one to accidentally find out what my father and I had been working on for all those years, which happened around the same time she met Chris. They say love is blind, and I never truly understood what that meant until I experienced it myself.
Chris was perfect in every possible way, he was funny, smart, and the kindest person I had ever met. He was the first guy that treated me right and that complimented my intelligence every single day. I was happy for Kristel, and I guess a part of me was also happy for Chris because I knew she loved him very much. But I knew I could love him more than she could. Although Kristel knew about my time-travel project she was never as intrigued and interested as Chris was. They both knew they had to keep the secret and they did, but Kristel kept trying to convince me to share our discovery with the world, while Chris knew why it was so important to keep it hidden. As time passed Chris had become my best friend and Kristel was a just a simple friend. She was still nice to me, but I could feel her annoyance towards my project. To be honest, I believe it had to do with how much time her boyfriend was spending with me. However, time taught her that the “whatever-time-project” as she called it, would be the only thing that could save her precious boyfriend. They were out on a double date with Chris’s friends, and they were known for getting drunk every time Chris went out with them, or at least that is what he told me once. I obviously remembered those little details, which is exactly why I told Kristel to get a taxi or to just call me if they needed a ride. I heard her sobbing voice on the other line and I realized something really bad had happened. “I should have listened to you. I’m so sorry.” She said, crying. “What happened Kris? Is everything okay?” I asked hoping the answer wouldn’t be what I was thinking. “We are at the hospital, Chris is unconscious. There was...we had an accident” “What kind of accident. Oh my God, Kristel what happened?” I asked as tears formed in my eyes. “I didn’t want to get a taxi. I felt like I could drive, but I was going too fast and we crashed into a lamppost” I covered my mouth in disbelief hoping whatever had happened to Chris wasn’t as bad as it sounded. I hung up the phone after getting the hospital address and ran to
my car. I was possibly the least religious person on earth, but I prayed like the best Christian to whatever superior being was up there on my way to the hospital. Chris couldn’t die, I was hoping for the best but I was also realistic. I had a terrible feeling about what I was about to encounter. The hospital doors looked blurry through my watery eyes, I ran to the desk and after being literally yelled at by one of the nurses for running in the hallway I burst into tears. “Chris…Chris Hussey and Kristel Mathews, they arrived about an hour ago.” After trying to convince the nurse that they were all the family I had she let me in and took me to the room were Chris and Kristel were. Kristel was sitting on the edge of the small grey bed, her eyes bloodshot. She had two big cuts across her forehead and lip, she looked like she had not slept in years. And there was him. Eyes closed, bruises all over his face and a white bandage covering his head. Kristel looked up and saw my face covered in tears, she got up and ran to my arms. “I ́m so sorry! I ́m so sorry Tess, I tried to...” She said sobbing. I could barely understand what she was saying through all the hiccupping. We hugged each other for a while just letting go of the tears. None of us could speak. Then a doctor and a nurse came and asked us to leave the room. The first couple of days Kristel and I got closer to each other, it was almost as if we were best friends again, but as time passed, the impotence of seeing Chris dead-looking on the bed was getting to be too much. I could not stop thinking about his piercing brown eyes and his beautiful smile. It had been an accident, I knew, but it was all her fault. Because of her I would never see him looking at me the way he did, the way I knew no one else would ever look at me. It was the day we were informed that he would hardly recover, and if he did the chances of him not being able to walk were pretty high. I believe it was that day when we both had the same idea. I was seriously thinking of discussing it with her, but she was suddenly becoming distant, not only with me but with Chris as well. She would stay in the hospital with him every day for the first couple of days, but she began to disappear more and more as days went by. She said it was “too painful” for
her to watch but I knew it was just a lame excuse. She demanded an excessive amount of attention, and for obvious reasons, Chris couldn’t give her any. I think his parents noticed that, and they even encouraged her to do her stuff while he was still unconscious in bed. They never liked her very much anyway and somehow, they were starting to love me. Days passed, but he didn’t seem to recover, and that is when she finally shared her brilliant idea with me. My “whatever-time-project” was finally useful for something. We could save Chris, but she didn’t know what that implied, I could definitely save him, but I could change many other things as well, including her life with him. One morning, after being completely absent she showed up in my apartment like nothing happened with a small red velvet box. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and handed me the box. I looked down at her shaky hands while millions of thoughts were running through my head. I was not surprised though, it was almost impossible not to love Kristel. She was absolutely gorgeous; olive skin, rosy cheeks, long black hair and green eyes. Why would I even think that he was going to love me? A skinny girl with pale skin, brown hair and chubby cheeks. How could I compete with her? Dark thoughts had crossed my mind, but I knew Kristel would suspect, I was pretty sure he knew about my evident crush on her boyfriend. Well...I guess not. “He was going to propose to me! We would have gotten married if it wasn’t for me.” She said while crying. Well, I could agree with that, it was all her fault. “But I know there is a solution, I know you can fix my mistake.” She said grabbing my hands. I tilted my head unsure of what she was about to say. If she was actually thinking about using my project on him she was very stupid. “You can go back in time with your project and make it different. Change the way things happened. I would have called a taxi instead, I wouldn’t have driven home and I would have saved Chris from the accident. Please Kristel, I know is too much but only you can fix it, if you love me enough do it for me.” She asked me as she fell down on her knees, begging for help.
I did love her, but I loved him even more so if that was going to happen I was going to do it for him and for me, not for her. She really had no idea of how things could change if I actually decided to use my time travel machine. I didn’t think it twice when I got into the lab after almost a month of leaving it behind to go to the hospital. I connected all the wires, cables and batteries. The screens flashed a few times with a warning sign created by my dad. Sirens and red lights went off. The number 60 showed up in the screen as it started to slowly count to 1. “Oh, shit is it going to blow up or something?” Kristel asked from a safe distance. “No, but that is what most people would think. My dad used it as a warning in case someone got into the lab, the first thing most people would do would be to run the hell away from here. But that is not going to happen.” I pressed a combination and the alarms and the red lights stopped blinking. I entered the code and moved on to the remaining steps. “Kristel, step in there.” I pointed to the middle of the diamond shaped metal platform. “Now move to the middle and wait for me.” I said giving her a comforting smile. I pressed the last button before stepping onto the platform and counting backwards from 60 to 0 looking at the screen in front of me. If there was a technical failure I had to know how long I had left in case either one of us fell out of the platform. “Now hold my hands and close your eyes. You ́re going to feel some type of electricity but it won’t hurt. It is more like a tickling feeling on the top of your head.” I said as I grabbed both of her hands. “Okay, is there anything else I need to know?” She asked with a trembling voice. “No, just keep holding my hands. This is supposed to take us back in time to about a month and a half ago, right before the accident. We ́re going to be the only ones that are going to know what is happening okay? So, be cool okay? I will explain everything better once we ́re there.” Only the ones placed on the platform under the rays would be able to know that they travelled back to the past. For everyone else it would be as if nothing happened but we would relive everything again.
“Okay Kristel count with me. Twenty, nineteen, eighteen.” I began to shake hoping she wouldn’t notice what was about to happen. “Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen.” She kept counting with me. I really hoped my plan would work, I knew my project was almost flawless, but the plan could always go wrong. I opened up my eyes and I looked at her, her eyes closed and her head down gave me the encouragement I needed. “Five, four, three.” She counted as I pushed her off the platform. She opened her eyes to look at me as I saw the fear on her face. Her face began to vanish until it finally disappeared as I was taken back in time, 8 months ago, before Chris and Kristel first met. “You really need to introduce me to that guy you’ve been seeing.” She said looking extremely excited. “I can’t believe my best friend has been seeing a guy behind my back!” Kristel said jokingly. Deep inside I was terrified she would recognize him, even though I knew it was impossible, she had never met him. “I’ll invite him over for dinner next week, okay? I just didn’t want to introduce you to him until our thing was official, you know?” I said, hoping my answer was convincing enough. It’s okay Kristel, she doesn’t know him, he doesn’t know her. He loves you now and everything will be fine. I kept repeating to myself. “Yeah, okay I get it. I just want to meet the guy that’s been making you so happy.” She responded with a smile on her face. That beautiful smile that would probably make him fall in love with her all over again. I should have thought this through.
I try to get up as fast as my bruised legs allow me to when I feel a body behind me, and just as I am about to scream for help, someone covers my mouth and drags me to the lonely building. This is it. The creature we have been afraid of since we were born is behind me, I know it. *** As the rain stops and the sky starts to clear up, children leave their homes to play around puddles and mud. Dozens of houses piled up one next to another, grey roofs and plain white walls. Crops growing around them; Women of all ages walking on the streets. No animals, no big factories, no cars, no technology. The water spreads across the streets reaching every single house through the canals built not too long ago. The roofs pick up the water and direct it to a filter to be collected it in the rain-catcher. Drops keep falling from the biggest branches of the trees to the muddy ground. Barefoot children walk and jump as the last couple of drops fall down onto them dampening their almost identical plain clothes. Little girls laugh at their silly jokes as their mothers observe them. Most of them are not lucky enough to end up with a girl; lonely women stay at home or just work in the crops. They feel hopeless and gloomy by their condition, but extremely grateful for their lives. Money is no longer a thing. After all, it could never buy a family or simple happiness. Not as the oldest ones knew it anyway. Although in some cases, it could. -It has to be that way-they repeat to themselves every day and they have to keep their thoughts in their heads. One word to anyone and they would be put to death. “There are no men in this world, there never was.� Some of them remember the voice, but none of them is brave enough to question it. It has been like this for over 30 years and all because of human race’s nature. Little by little, country after country, the whole planet ran out of resources for the entire population that was a little over ten billion by then. There were not enough
measures to maintain everyone at peace, thus, catastrophes began to unleash. Humanitarian crisis’ all over the world forced lower class and even middle-class people to migrate to different countries, but no matter where they went, there was no food, no water. Nothing. Hospitals were no longer available for everyone and new bacteria and viruses appeared. Millions and millions of deaths were registered and yet nobody knew what was happening. Most people even believed pollution was the silent killer. No government nor high powers shared the actual problem with the public as to avoid any more revolts and desperation than there already was. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, the situation was helping with the overpopulation, so no one did anything. Some even assured it had been implemented by the own government. The different viruses killed more than 1 billion people all over the world in 2070 along with many more deaths for diverse causes. Although the population decreased considerably, strict measures needed to be taken to prevent more violence and overpopulation. Most importantly, the few resources left had to be preserved, and people had to figure out a way to manage them intelligently. A way in which everyone could have equal resources, and perhaps leave behind the different social classes; but that never happened. Instead, they had a brilliant idea. In an attempt to stop the violence on the streets, and desperate for their people’s necessities, first world leading countries began experimenting with different techniques to maintain the population steady. They tried to reinforce the one-child-only law, but of course, those with enough money to pay for the authorisation could have more than one kid, so although it helped, the change was not significant. On top of that, there was a transportation restriction and a ridiculous inflation that automatically turned three social classes into two, there was no such thing as a middle-class. People were either incredibly poor or extremely rich. Everybody had a limited list of needs to buy that most people couldn´t even afford for the increasing prices, and that is when people started killing each other for food.
Animals dying uncontrollably on the streets, and the ones strong enough to survive were fighting humans for food, and even feeding from their flesh if they had to. Governments along with higher-class people thought they could test their new idea in the savages that were killing each other for food, without including themselves. A plan they shared publicly and that was going to be reinforced by the majority of countries. A plan that would violate all the laws of nature and would destroy every single family. Whether people rejected it or not, it was happening. *** Everyone remains silent as Kristen continues sharing her story about the encounter with those odd women when she accidentally went too far from the fence. She was only trying to reach a little girl’s ball, and out of curiosity, she decided to walk for a while before returning to our side of the fence. Although she returned safely back to us, she was terrified and ran home to her mom staying there for the entire day which was rare for Kristen. She did not get along with her mother who was also known as “crazy Allie” for her creepy stories about wars, and the odd women that she claimed were real. Most of us have heard about “Men” in different horror stories, but we are not really supposed to talk about them in public, although everyone did. Most people believe the stories, especially little girls, but I think as we grow, most of us are realizing that everything is probably false. Nonetheless, the fear is still present. “And when I was about to climb up I heard the deepest voice I´ve ever heard saying something to me.” She says with excitement as girls stare at her without blinking. “So, I turned to see who it was and I saw a figure not too far away walking towards me. She - or whoever that was - looked very tall and muscular. It looked exactly like one of the monsters. Instead of running I was paralyzed and I couldn’t move.” The girls cover their mouths in excitement, or terror. I can’t really tell. “The monster was getting closer and closer, and as I was finally able to see its face the alarms went off. My body finally responded and I turned to the fence to climb back up as fast as I could.”
“So, was it a monster or a woman?” one of the little girls asks Kristen, but I interrupt knowing what her response will be. “I´m sure it was only a woman from another village. Remember how they taught us that every village is different? They probably come from a village where they have to work harder, that’s why they have all those muscles” I explain as Kristen stares at me ashamed. She knows she can get in trouble for everything she says. If it wasn’t for me who knows where she would be now, but I can’t blame her, what else can I expect from crazy Allies’ daughter. The little girls seem pleased with my answer but Kristen clearly isn’t and she tells us how finally, her mother’s words make sense. Although everyone looks excited and astonished by her stories, I’m sure everyone fears she is getting just like her mother. I’m sure she isn’t, after all, she is just a curious girl that has been hearing those stories her entire life. Me, on the other hand…well. I have always been fascinated by the stories she tells as we hide where no one else can hear us. Only once the controllers caught her and took her away for days. When she came back she was like a different person, but after a couple of months she went back to her normal and crazy self. It is still odd to me that we get punished if we ever talk about the life on the other side of the fence, and yet, crazy Allie always comes back. She is more careful now, but she knows they won’t kill her, so she keeps trying to convince everyone that her stories are real, especially her daughter. Sometimes I wish my mom could be more like crazy Allie. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my mom, but I still have physical scars from the times I asked about the “men” or about crazy Allie’s stories. My mom is very strict about it and I know she will always be. Kristen keeps on answering questions, but being cautious for once. I stare at the little girls as they keep asking whatever they’re curious about and as I look at the horizon and to the other side of the fence, my mother appears right in front of me. “This girl is brainwashing you again. Isn’t she?” my mom says and grabs my arm. “You and your mother need to be locked up in jail. You’ll only bring problems to us.”
My mom pulls me aside from the group as the girls run to their homes including Kristen who leaves with tears in her eyes. “I cannot believe you keep listening to that family’s nonsense. They’re insane Emma! I don’t want to see you hanging out with that girl ever again. I know they’re the ones putting stupid ideas in your head.” She claims as we walk home and I silently nod hoping it will calm her down. Once home, my mom walks to the kitchen to make dinner surprisingly calm after the scene she caused in front of everyone. I go to my room and grab my journal the way I do every day to put my thoughts into paper. It has always helped me understand the mess in my head; it is almost like a friend that I can tell everything to without being judged. I start writing Kristen’s story in my journal right next to one of crazy Allie’s stories and without thinking, I start re-reading the story. “They are very attractive, and sometimes they can make you feel butterflies in your stomach.” Allie says as she pokes one of the girls softly in her tummy. The girl laughs and everyone looks at Allie confused. “Butterflies? What are butterflies? And how do they get in your stomach?” one of the most curious ones in the group asks as we all hide in the darkness of Kristen’s room. “They’re beautiful creatures that fly around, and they don’t get into your stomach. It’s just a saying, but there’s no other way to describe it. It’s the most incredible feeling in the world, and it is usually caused by men.” She says and they all cover their mouths laughing. It’s the most incredible feeling in the world. I remember reading right before I fall asleep. *** “I had the best dream about that man. I am telling you, there is a weird feeling in my stomach when I think about her. I think it could be that feeling Allie told us about once.” One of the oldest in the group shares her dream with us as we listen carefully. “You mean him?” Kristen corrects her. “Uh? Him?” the girl asks confused.
“Yes, mom says they are not her, they’re “him”, and you haven’t even seen them! How can you dream about them?” Everybody stares at her as if she had said something ridiculous. Well, she kind of did. I’m sure crazy Allie would be fascinated about her daughter’s story, and worriedness is the least thing anyone could see in her face whenever Kristen mentions the topic. She doesn’t care much about her daughter, does she? My mom says that they do something to her brain to control her crazy thoughts, and that is best to keep your curiosity and thoughts to yourself or you’re going to end up like crazy Allie. Unfortunately, I was born curious, always eager to know everything, and I can’t stop thinking about how life is on the other side of the fence. As days pass by, people start to forget about Kristen’s story. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I start to meet Kristen and her mother to hear more stories, and one day, those stories become a plan. I try to keep everything to myself, but I know my mom suspects something, so I have to be very careful. We plan everything for days and we pack whatever we think we might need. I kiss my mom goodbye and I close the door behind me. “I will be back soon mom.” I whisper. I grab my backpack and take a knife with me just in case. I leave my house as quietly as possible to meet Kristen in the corner of our neighbourhood. She starts giggling as she sees me. “Shut up!” I whisper. “What are you laughing at?” “I almost got caught by my mom, but don’t worry she´s probably dead asleep.” “What do you mean? She knows we’re going.” I say, confused. “Yeah, but she doesn’t know we were going today. She would have come with us if she knew, and you know she’s fun and crazy, but she’s still my mom. I am old enough to do this by myself.” I ignore her words because I wanted Allie to come, I would feel safer around her and now I’m hesitating. If we don’t leave now I know I’m probably going to run back home and hug my mom. It’s now or never. “Alright I’ll follow you.” I say, firmly.
We walk at a slow pace as we leave the neighbourhood in case anyone is still awake and hears us. Once we are at a safe distance from it, we start sprinting towards the south fence. The streets start to get darker and darker and my chin starts to shiver as I hear the wind blowing through the lonely streets. It gets colder as we approach the fence and I am starting to regret coming here. The fence looks much higher at night than in the daytime and Kristen seems to read my mind. “Is this the same fence? It looks twice as big doesn’t it?” “Yeah, it does. But I think we are in the right place.” We look around us and move closer to the fence. I touch it with my shoe to make sure it is not an electric fence, and fortunately it isn’t. Kristen starts climbing without hesitation and I follow her. All those stories aren’t true. You will be fine; it will just be a few hours. You will be back safe. I try to comfort myself. We reach the top and once I look down, I realize that this was a huge mistake. The fence has definitely gotten bigger. I start to feel nauseous and the world moves around me. Oh no. “Shit! The fence is moving.” Kristen says and looks at me. Her face shows pure terror. The world is not moving, but the fence definitely is. It is time for us to jump back to the ground. Who knew this thing would grow overnight? I guess that is what happens when we have a curfew. I can’t help but wonder why we didn’t know about this. Is it really that bad out there? “Emma jump!” I look down at Kristen and see her already on the floor. I climb down as fast as I can, and once I am close enough to the floor I jump down hurting my ankle in the process. Great. I hope is not broken. “Are you okay? Please tell me you didn’t break your foot. We barely made it to the other side.” As I am about to respond, the fence turns red and starts blinking repeatedly. We both panic because we are sure we just got caught. I get up as I can and realize the injury is not as bad as I thought; it is definitely not broken.
“Please tell me you can run.” Kristen asks as she grabs me and pulls me away from the fence. “I’m good. Let’s go.” I grab her arm and run with her leaving our village behind. *** Grass surrounds us everywhere we look; thirty minutes feel like hours until we see a building not too far from us. Kristen and I look at each other with bright smiles in our faces; hers bigger than mine. We approach the building carefully and as we get closer I see the fence. Another fence. “Okay, how are we going to do this?” Kristen asks looking at the village in front of us. “I’m not sure climbing it up is a good idea. What if it “grows” like the other one did?” “Well, there’s only one way to find out.” She says right before climbing up. ‘That could have had electricity Kristen! Can you think for a second! We have to be careful.” I half whisper half yell. I start to regret everything again. I knew sooner or later Kristen was going to get me killed. That girl never thinks about the consequences of her acts. “Hurry up!’ She shouts from the top of the fence. As similar as this fence looks to ours, this one is definitely harder to climb. The cords are thicker and darker, not letting us see much from the other side. The only visible thing is the big grey building that lays right behind the fence. I struggle for a few minutes until I reach the top. We look at each other once again, both scared to look at the world behind the fence. Kristen holds my hand and finally looks down. Her expression is indecipherable so I decide to look as well, but there isn’t much to be seen. It’s way too dark to see anything. “There is no one here.” Kristen says, disappointed. “It’s too dark and we’re up here. Of course we’re not going to see anything.” I explain to her. “You’re right.”
She lets go of my hand and starts climbing down without warning. I follow her and after a few minutes we finally feel the ground under our feet. We both turn around at the same time and we see a figure walking towards us. “Let’s go say hi!” Kristen says. Fear is totally absent in her voice. “Are you dumb? Run!” I say and I pull her arm forcing her to follow me. The figure disappears as we run past it and I start to wonder whether she saw us or not. That one building is the only thing to see, there is no other place to hide and as I start panicking Kristen points to the right. “What?” I say surprised to see another one. “Another Fence? You have to be kidding.” Kristen says. “There has to be a reason why there are two fences. I don’t want to imagine what’s on the other side.” I conclude. “You don’t have to imagine anything. Let’s go Em!” “There’s two fences! That means whatever is on the other side is twice as dangerous.” “Or twice as interesting.” She says and laugh at her stupid conclusion. “Well, I guess it is too late now, but please be careful.” We both walk slowly to the second fence, and when we’re about to reach it, I feel something behind us. I turn around but something covers my vision and I panic. I hear Kristen screaming followed by a sharp sound. The panic invades my body and I can’t breathe. I should have listened to my mom; I think right before I lose consciousness. *** “Please don’t scream. I am not going to hurt you, I promise.” Tears fall from my eyes and I try to look for a weapon to use against my captor. I keep begging for the person to be a woman, but the voice confirms my worst fears. “I will move my hand now, but don’t scream.” I nod and I mean it. I am not going to take any risks. He could kill me if he wanted. The captor moves his hand from my mouth and walks in front of me. I close my eyes terrified of the figure in front of me; I have never seen one and if they are as bad as
we’ve heard they are probably disgusting to even look at. I fight my fears and I finally try to open my eyes. Three, two, one. Wow.