Intermundia

I can’t stand the people who still have hope for this shithole.

The funny thing is, they couldn’t care less about Virelia; all they care about is their full bank accounts. We all drained this poor planet, forgetting that nothing is limitless. We took and took, without ever giving back, and while some bathed in blood and money, our world decided that we were no longer worth feeding. We became the unwanted parasites who demanded something that was not ours to begin with.

As soon as we realized that and came to terms with the undeniable future, a future where we all die at the same time, regardless of what our credit score is. Ironically, for most of us, life became easier. When you know you’re going to die in the near future, inevitably, you forget the lesser problems of your life.

Admittedly, some went mad. You could see it in their eyes long before their bodies gave in. And when the mind can no longer bear the weight of what it knows, it turns inward, sharp and cruel. People began taking their own lives, in every way desperation could imagine, some slow, slipping quietly into the dark, others violent, as if the faster they could shatter their bodies, the sooner the torment would stop. Streets became littered not just with ash, but with the remnants of people who could no longer stand to watch the end inch closer. It was strange how quickly death stopped being feared and instead became something chased, almost welcomed, a choice reclaimed in a world where choice had all but vanished.

Meanwhile, the rich, those who had watched from high towers while the rest of us drowned in the dust, finally began putting their fortunes to use. Bunkers deep underground. Towers fortified against the wind. Grand projects funded with promises of salvation. For a fleeting moment, their idea of hope was manufactured and sold like any other luxury. But hope was fragile, more fragile than the dying sky above us.

And soon, even their efforts faltered. The heavens that had embraced our world for millions of years began to change, slowly at first, then with terrifying speed. It was like watching glass crack under invisible pressure, small fractures that grew until the entire dome above us seemed ready to shatter. The sky, once endless, began breaking down.

Afterwards, our Virelia was plunged into darkness for five straight days. I started believing that I would never see the sun again. But on the sixth day, the sky changed again. I remember waking up and seeing nothing but white for a few minutes, I would never admit this to my one and only friend and spark of hope in this dying world, my Stella, but in those short seconds, I felt relieved that I had died in my sleep, without going through the torture of slowly dying with the others.

Unfortunately, my hope got crushed pretty quickly, literally crushed, as Stella jumped on me and dragged me out of my bed, screaming that something was happening and we needed to get somewhere safe. I didn’t know where she was taking me. If Virelia was self-destructing from within its core, as the scientists said, there was nowhere we could hide.

But she was always a fighter and refused to lose hope. As we were running, even in her panicked state, she tried to look calm and determined. Then I heard what she was saying. I think she was saying it more to herself than to me, just to keep us both going:I won’t let you die.She was repeating it nonstop, like her words alone could change our fate.

And you know what? Even though I had given up a long time ago, those words alone sparked the hope I didn’t know I had left in me. I didn’t want to see her die. But more than that, I could not bear to let her seemydeath, knowing it would hurt her more than her own demise.

So we ran. Two orphans in pajamas, sprinting through the streets. We didn’t know where we were going, but we ran as fast as we could. Our journey didn’t last long. Even though it was presumably early in the morning, the streets were beginning to fill up. Almost everyone had the same idea as us in the beginning. People were running and hiding all over the place, some even begging on the ground and kissing the earth they once spat on, begging it to spare their lives.

Honestly, if we weren’t so scared, I’m sure Stella and I would’ve had a marvelous laugh right then and there.

Soon, everyone started looking up at the sky, and the expressions on their faces alone let me know that something weird was indeed happening. But it couldn’t be the end of the world, because the fear and panic that had been plastered on their faces a second ago was now replaced with wonder and surprise.

“Lyra, do you see that too, or am I finally losing it?” I heard Stella whisper. She was looking up, just like the others, and her expression, I don’t even have the words to describe it. It was one of shock, fear, surprise, and longing all mixed into one. But at the same time, she looked like she was on the brink of a laugh.

Honestly, I thought she’d lost it for real this time.

I didn’t want to look up. There was only so much my mind could take this early in the morning, and I was afraid that whatever I saw would be too much for me to process. But for my friend’s sanity, and my own, or whatever was left of it, I looked up.

What I saw that day, seven months ago, baffles me even today. There, up in the sky, appeared a new planet out of nowhere. And amazingly, it seemed to mirror Virelia perfectly. None of us knew what we were looking at, but we instantly guessed that it wasn’t our planet. Virelia hadn’t looked that green or alive in decades.

Some thought the sky was punishing us by showing us what we had destroyed. But I knew we were looking at somethingnew.

As for how an entirely new planet appeared seemingly out of nowhere, I’m afraid I’ll never understand. Still, it was, without a doubt, a planet glowing with life, and something more. Something that had disappeared even from children’s storybooks a long time ago.

Something that set us on a path neither Stella nor I could have ever imagined, nor escaped.