Chapter 1
November 10, 2026.
Ploc. Ploc. Ploc.
Each drop fell from the damp stain on the ceiling, landing right in the center of an empty cereal bowl. It echoed through the silence of my apartment like a relentless reminder: at thirty years old, I hadn’t managed to fix a single pipe—much less my life.
“—and experts assure us that Comet Clark will reach its peak visibility tonight,” chirped the enthusiastic voice of the news anchor on my ancient TV. “An event that only occurs once every ten years. Don’t forget to look at the sky, New York!”
I dragged myself out of bed, stretching heavily and letting out a long sigh. When I checked my phone, a groan escaped my throat.
“Six in the morning? I should get a trophy just for waking up this early without an alarm,” I muttered.
I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth. In the mirror, I analyzed my reflection: a scratchy beard, light brown hair that had grown way too long, and pale skin that screamed “zero outdoor life.”
“Hmm, I guess I could shave. I’m not old; it’s just that all this hair adds years to my face, ha,” I told myself while pouring a bowl of cereal.
Just then, my phone vibrated. It was Javier.
“Are you ready for the big strength tournament?” his voice boomed from the other end. “You better be there in twenty minutes, you moron. The gym is packed; we have to win that ‘Samson Circuit’ Coach River put together.”
“Obviously I’m ready, genius. I’ll be dressed in five seconds, easy,” I assured him confidently. “Can you imagine if we win? I’m gonna brag about the trophy to Hanna; she’ll be so happy for us.”
After hanging up, I dressed in a blur. Before heading out, I sent a “good morning” text to my girlfriend, Hanna Badger. As I hurried down the stairs of my old apartment building, her reply arrived:
“Can we meet tonight? It’s important.” —Hanna.
I felt a twinge of unease, but I decided not to overthink it.
“Yeah, babe, of course. I’m heading to the competition now, wish me luck.”
I waited for something more, but all I got was a cold “thumbs up” reaction.
“Whatever, she probably just had a bad day yesterday,” I tried to convince myself.
Without delay, I hopped into Javier’s car, which was already idling outside the building.
“Morning, bro. You bring empanadas or what?” I asked, suddenly hungry.
In response, he tossed a protein bar and a Gatorade at me.
“There’s your ‘empanada,’ haha. Don’t go stuffing yourself with grease before a competition,” Javi ruled.
As he drove toward the gym, I stared out the window, watching people submerged in their morning routines.
“Hey, you and Hanna have been together for five years now, right?” my friend blurted out while we were stopped at a red light. “Maybe you could look for a better rental and move in... you know, get married and all that.”
Right at that moment, I spotted someone I knew on the street and rolled down the window to break the awkward silence.
“Hey, Aaron! When are you coming to one of our parties? We’ve invited you eight times already, stop running from your friends! Hahaha...” I turned back inside. “Oh, were you saying something?”
Javier was looking at me with a seriousness that cut through the air.
“You know exactly what I said,” he stated firmly.
“Look, it’s a miracle I have any money left after rent,” I explained, trying to justify my life. “I buy food, I pay the gym membership, I go out with Hanna... Do I look like someone who can afford a house or a condo? Support a wife and all that? I’m a night watchman, Javi. I don’t make enough.”
My best friend nodded slightly, but I knew that face; it was his ‘I have a solution for your excuses’ expression.
“Yeah, okay, but you have a good credit score,” he insisted. “You could take out a loan and take the relationship to the next level. You’ll be in debt, but you’ll pull through, and I’ll help you. My ‘pizzas and comics’ restaurant project is on the right track. I even have the name: Comics & Pepperoni. You could be my partner; as soon as the first one takes off, you’ll manage the next branch.”
“Look, I don’t feel like owing my life to the bank,” I countered. “And I love your idea, seriously, but I don’t know how you haven’t realized that mixing pizza and comics is dangerous. People are gonna ruin the pages with those greasy fingers. Though the name is killer, I’ll give you that.”
“They won’t. I’ll cover them with a special protective film I bought on Amazon,” he explained enthusiastically as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Ugh, I am not staying up all night covering thousands of pages, hahaha...” I winked at him. “Well, maybe if there’s plenty of Pepsi and pizza involved, I might.”
I turned up the radio to change the subject.
“...Comet Clark is traveling at approximately forty thousand kilometers per hour. It will graze the Earth just as it did in 2016. If you thought waiting 75 years for Halley’s Comet was too much, fret no more: Clark will pass by every ten years, every November 10th...”
“Damn, they’ve been on about this comet for days and now that it’s finally here, it’s all they talk about. I’m tired of it,” I commented, switching off the radio.
“Don’t be such a grouch, bro,” Javi scolded. “Besides, don’t you think it’s incredible that you’re the guard for one of its fragments? We were working at McDonald’s when it fell, and now look at you: ten years later, you’re guarding that piece at the Rose Center.”
I smiled with a slight hint of annoyance, rolling my eyes while checking Instagram.
“Well, not the only one... there’s the day guard, Mike. By the way, that guy owes me fifty bucks. Fucking divorcee,” I snapped with frustration.
“Hahaha, don’t be so hard on him. He’s like sixty. Don’t let yourself get to that point; you need to expand your horizons,” my friend concluded.
When we entered the gym, the atmosphere was electric. Everyone was talking about the comet while gearing up for the circuit.
“Oh, please, put on some Usher or something motivational. Let the games begin—release the lions!” I joked while greeting familiar faces.
“How about some K-pop, huh?” suggested Stephanie, backed by her group of friends who were fans of the genre.
“You know what... at this point, with all the ‘Clark, Clark, Clark’ talk, I’m even in the mood for K-pop. Let’s win this!” I shouted, feeling pumped.
A while later, we walked out of the gym with the small trophy in hand, laughing our heads off.
“I told you, we crushed them!” I celebrated. “Did you see the coach? He nearly fainted when he saw we beat his favorite team by twelve seconds.”
“Yeah, that was the best. You want a ride home, or what are you doing?” Javi asked.
I polished the trophy and took a selfie to send to Hanna. She’s gonna love this, I thought.
“Oh, drop me off at the batting cages. I want to burn off this leftover adrenaline.”
When we arrived, I noticed Hanna had left me on read. As I got out of the car, I tried to leave the trophy with Javi, but he handed it back from his seat.
“Keep it, alright? I already got my picture with it. Your shelf could use a first-place decoration.”
“Thanks, man. Maybe I’ll marry you instead, haha,” I laughed, tossing my protein bar wrapper at him.
Nah, seriously...” his tone shifted, becoming more earnest. “I get you, to an extent. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what Hanna wants? Just think about it, okay?” He gave me a final look and drove off.
“Say hi to Stacy for me, old man!” I yelled as he waved his hand out the window.
I stood there, staring at the chat. That “read” was still there, stinging more than the workout.
“She’s probably just not in the mood,” I muttered. I spotted a group of regulars by the cages and shouted to distract myself: “I bet I can out-hit all of you, you bums!”
“Oh yeah? Come show us then, moron!” they fired back.
I spent a couple of hours batting until I made it back to my place at 2:00 PM. I showered and hopped on the Xbox.
“Look at me run you over twenty times, MancoMaster69!” I laughed into my headset, ignoring the kid’s tantrums on the other end.
Exhaustion finally won. I fell asleep on the couch with Dorito crumbs on my chest and the trophy gleaming on my makeshift shelf. It was 4:00 PM on November 10th, and in the background, the news was still talking about the same thing.
6:00 PM
I woke up parched. I splashed some water on my face and pulled on my security uniform. I bundled up in a heavy coat against the cold, locked up, and headed downstairs. In the hallway, the neighbors were talking about nothing but the comet.
“Be careful tonight, Charlie. People are very restless today,” Mrs. Miller warned from her doorway while watering her flowers.
“I will, thanks Mrs. Miller. I hope you enjoy the view of Clark,” I replied with a forced smile.
I checked my phone again. The photo I sent at 10:00 AM was still there, ignored.
“I think it’s time to start worrying,” I whispered to myself.
“Hey, Charlie. Worrying about what?” asked Sofia, an eighteen-year-old neighbor arriving from her shift at Papa John’s, shaking snow off her shoulders.
“Uhm... my girlfriend and I are supposed to be fine, but I sent her a photo of my trophy at ten this morning and she left me on read,” I confessed, scratching the back of my neck. “Earlier she said she wanted to meet up to talk. Do you think I’m in trouble?”
“Something is definitely wrong,” she declared with a look of pity. “Good luck, Charlie.”
She gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and headed for the elevator.
“Damn it, I knew it...” I grumbled.
I left the building and started walking toward the museum, the freezing New York air hitting my face. Right then, my phone vibrated. It was her.
“I’m a block away from your work, at Sasha’s Cafe.” —Hanna.
“Okay, let’s see what happens,” I whispered with determination. The clock marked 6:40 PM.
I saw her the moment I walked in. She was sitting at a table in the back, staring blankly at the decorations on the wall. She looked far too serious. I noticed she hadn’t ordered anything; not even her favorite hot chocolate.
Crap, she’s not even hungry, I thought, a knot forming in my stomach. I walked up and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, but she stayed rigid, not returning the gesture.
“Hanna? Hey, what’s going on? You’ve been weird all day,” I asked, sitting across from her.
Hanna looked up. Her eyes were glazed over and her breathing was ragged, as if she were holding back an internal storm.
“Charlie... I don’t love you anymore,” she blurted out. A single tear traced a path down her left cheek.
I went into shock. The noise of the cafe vanished; the world stopped.
“W-what? But we were fine... I mean... weren’t we?” I stammered, feeling the oxygen leave my lungs. “We made love a week ago, we went to the movies, had dinner... we laughed together. I don’t understand, Hanna. Why are you doing this to me?”
I covered my mouth with one hand, squeezing my eyes shut to try and breathe while tears began to betray me. Hanna just nodded, maintaining a painful calm.
“I was just saying goodbye,” she explained, her voice cracking. “I... I did my grieving during our relationship. I’ve felt this way for a long time, and I’m ready to move on. I told you once, Charlie: women break up with you long before they actually say it. It’s a woman thing.”
She stood up, grabbed her purse, and walked toward the exit. I followed her out to the sidewalk, where snow was beginning to fall softly around us.
“But you explained that as a curiosity, not so you could do it to me!” I barked, a cold breath escaping my lips. “How can you be so cold? I don’t get it... what did I do wrong?”
“Everything, Charlie. Everything,” she replied, turning around. “You don’t move forward, you don’t progress, you show no interest in being anything more than this.”
“I told you about my struggles!” I exclaimed, desperate. “I couldn’t pay for college, I didn’t have scholarships, I had to work to help at home... Do you think I don’t want to move forward? Everything is hard, I just work and never get a break.”
Hanna let go of my hand and poked my chest with her finger.
“You don’t try hard enough. So many times we wanted to help you and you wouldn’t step out of your comfort zone. You don’t want to better yourself because you’re terrified of losing energy in the process, not realizing it would be worth it. I waited for you, I believed in you... but I’m twenty-six now, Charlie.”
“And I’m thirty!” I reminded her firmly. “I’m in my prime. Since when is thirty and twenty-six old?”
“It’s not age, Charlie Allen. It’s stagnation. You’re in a hole and you don’t even look for a way out, no matter how many ropes we throw you. Soon I’ll be a general practitioner, then my residency... by thirty-one, I’ll be a full-fledged doctor. And you? You chose to be a museum guard.”
Her words cut through me like glass. I sighed, trying to swallow my wounded pride.
“It’s not permanent,” I argued bitterly. “Maybe I’ll take some courses, or get a certificate... those times I tried college didn’t work out, Hanna. At thirty, I’m just too tired to start a routine I should’ve done at eighteen. But there are successful people without degrees, you know that.”
“Yes, there are, Charlie,” she admitted as she backed away from me. “But I don’t see you wanting to be one of them either. I’m just tired... I feel like you don’t represent me. You’re incredible, you have good values, but you don’t move. You’re like a Ferrari without wheels.”
“A Ferrari without wheels?” I repeated with a bitter laugh. “Please, Javi said that as a joke.”
“Yes, but nothing is closer to the truth. You have so much to give and you prefer to stay like this. I can’t take it anymore. I hope you’re happy and that you do something with your life. And please... trim the beard and the hair. You look neglected.”
Hanna turned her back on me. I felt the urge to run, to catch her and beg, but I stayed pinned to the concrete. She paused for a second, as if waiting for me to stop her, but I didn’t move.
“Hanna Badger... I love you so much. Don’t leave me, you’re my world,” I pleaded from a distance.
“And I loved you, Charlie. I really did. But I deserve more.
When my legs finally reacted to go after her, my gaze drifted unconsciously toward the museum entrance just a few yards away.
“I... I have to go to work. I could get fired,” I stammered—cowardice disguised as responsibility.
Hanna wiped her nose with her hand and stepped back to hail a taxi.
“I know. Clark is waiting for you. Goodbye, Charlie. Take care of yourself.”
She got into the car and vanished into the traffic. I stood there alone, swallowing hard and trying to pull myself together to enter the museum. Old Mike was already waiting for me at the door with the set of keys.
“It’s seven already, kid. Seven o’clock sharp,” he mentioned, giving me a firm handshake. “I thought you weren’t going to make it.”
“Sorry, Mike. I’m having a shitty day,” I admitted, taking the flashlight and the radio.
Mike, with the wisdom that comes with age, patted me on the back.
“You look like Hanna left you,” he blurted out as he headed for his car.
“That’s exactly what happened. I feel weak, you know? If thugs walked in right now, they’d kick my ass.”
“Come on, Charlie. You’re over six feet tall and nearly two hundred pounds. You’re a tank. If anything happens, grab the weapons from the Viking exhibit, haha. You look like one of them, just with less hair.”
Mike drove off, and I locked myself in the museum’s solitude. I headed for the monitoring room.
“I hope there’s coffee,” I muttered, my spirits drained.
I turned on the desk TV while setting up the coffee maker.
“It is 7:10 PM. Comet Clark is expected to pass between midnight and 1:00 AM. It will be visible until 4:00 AM, so enjoy this long night.”
“Yeah... a long night,” I repeated to the empty walls.
The hours passed slowly, painfully. I spent them staring at photos of Hanna on my phone, crying uncontrollably, refilling my coffee cup again and again. I paced the hallways, checked the cameras, and made sure everything was in order, even though I was a disaster on the inside.
12:00 AM.
I woke up on the office sofa with my back feeling numb. I stretched, making every vertebra crack, and ate a couple of stale crackers I found on Mike’s desk. When I went for my coffee, the pot was as empty as my soul.
“Great, I can’t even be depressed with caffeine in this place anymore,” I grumbled. “Maybe the vending machine has enough Pepsi to keep me standing.”
I left the office and flicked on my flashlight. The beam swept through the corridors, illuminating the silhouettes of Viking warriors, American settlers, and Renaissance weapons that seemed to watch me from the shadows.
“If only this were like the movie... talking to these wax sculptures would be very therapeutic,” I whispered to break the silence.
At the vending machine, I dropped in some coins and grabbed my can. Just as I took the first sip, a strange luminescence from the astronomy wing caught my eye.
“They better not have left the Apollo 11 display turned on,” I sighed with annoyance. “Those blinking lights are enough to give anyone a seizure.”
I walked toward the source of the glow. The Apollo replica was dark, but inside the armored glass case, the Clark fragment was glowing with a sapphire blue so intense it forced me to squint.
“What the hell...?” I stammered, switching off my flashlight. I approached with a mix of fear and fascination. “Did you get anxious because your daddy is passing close to Earth? It’s not my fault you fell off ten years ago.”
I pulled out my phone to record. If this was a scientific phenomenon, maybe NASA would give me a nice reward. Through the glass ceiling, I saw the real Comet Clark grazing Earth’s orbit, lighting up the night sky with a force greater than any eclipse I had ever seen.
“Javi has to see this,” I told the camera, pointing it back at the fragment.
Suddenly, the air filled with static. A sharp scent of sulfur flooded my lungs, and I felt an unbearable heat at my waist. My radio and phone began to hiss and spark.
“Ahhh! Shit, I’m burning!” I screamed, dropping the phone and tearing the radio off my belt.
The heat vanished as quickly as it had arrived, replaced by a glacial chill. A thick mist began to emanate from the fragment, accompanied by electrical discharges that struck the glass walls.
“Okay, I’ve seen enough movies to know something very bad is about to happen. I’m out of here.”
I crouched down, preparing to bolt for the fire alarm.
“Time for the cavalry!” I shouted, lunging forward.
But I didn’t even make it three steps. An electrical explosion thundered behind me and a wave of green energy hit me full force, launching me through the air. My head slammed against the wall, and the world faded to black.
...
A high, constant whistling talled in my ears when I regained consciousness. Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
“Damn... this is the perfect example of ‘blurry hearing’,” I joked with a broken voice. I stood up, leaning against the wall, my vision completely distorted. “I need to lie down...”
I picked up my charred phone and felt my way back to the office. I collapsed onto the sofa, and sleep dragged me down again.
7:00 AM
I felt a few taps on my cheek and a voice that was far too young waking me up.
“Hey, old man, you alive? Wake up, yoo-hoo. You must be new, though they didn’t tell me about any new hires. Not that anything was stolen anyway, haha.”
“What...?” I asked, blinking until I could focus on a kid who looked like a hippie in a security uniform. He couldn’t have been more than twenty.
“Where’s Mike?” I managed to choke out.
“Who’s Mike, man? Look, if you decided to party with the alien sculptures I don’t blame you, but the day shift has started. Go home; I won’t tell the bosses the new guy slept through his whole shift. Peace!”
He took my keys and walked me to the exit. As I stepped through the door, the morning sun blinded me. New York was roaring with a strange bustle. There were cars with aerodynamic designs I had never seen before and advertising screens with astonishing clarity.
“Okay, something went viral while I was working and I missed it,” I commented, spotting a guy in an absurd outfit. “And why are his pockets inside out? Very Back to the Future... I guess it doesn’t look too bad.”
I tried to turn on my phone, but it was dead.
“Right, the explosion. I have to get home; I can get the video off my PC. Maybe it uploaded to the cloud before it fried.”
I started jogging toward my building, noticing the facade was spotless—freshly painted and modernized.
“I don’t know what company remodels buildings in less than twenty-four hours, but they nailed it,” I muttered incredulously.
I went up to the fourth floor, but my key wouldn’t fit in the lock.
“What? Come on, it’s 4B. This is where I live.”
I struggled with it until the door opened from the inside. I was greeted by three college kids with bewildered faces and a couple of girls asleep on the sofa.
“Look, don’t freak out, but I’m calling the cops,” I warned them sternly. “You broke into my place and this is illegal. My girlfriend left me yesterday and I am not in the mood. You better not have touched my trophy.”
One of the guys burst out laughing while using an asthma inhaler.
“Whoa, old man, I want whatever you’re smoking,” the kid with glasses mocked.
I shoved them aside and walked into the living room. Everything was different: the furniture, the paint, the smell.
“Okay, I’m starting to get pissed off,” I said with an expression that must have scared them, because one of the girls hurried to give me a glass of water.
“Drink some water, old-timer,” she told me.
“Thanks, kid. But I’m thirty. I’m in my prime. Don’t you guys read? It’s basic biology,” I snapped before drinking.
“Haha, he said ‘prime’. This guy thinks he’s in Transformers,” a dark-skinned guy in a Superman t-shirt teased.
“No, I think he’s referring to that slang word from back in 2024 or 2026,” a girl commented while taking bread out of the toaster.
“Alright, stop talking nonsense. Drink some Pepsi, it’s healthier. And how do you turn this thing on?” I asked, fumbling with a strangely thin remote.
The screen flickered to life showing a barren, reddish landscape with astronauts walking around.
“What movie is this? Did they put out a Mars movie and I didn’t hear about it?”
“Don’t play dumb, sir. It’s the Artemis 7 mission. Obviously, that’s Mars, live.”
I leaned closer to the screen. The ticker at the bottom read: “Artemis 7 Progress: Martian terrain exploration. October 10, 2036.”
I felt the floor vanish beneath my feet.
“Don’t fuck with me... it’s the year 2036?” I asked, turning toward the college kids just before everything went black and I collapsed in front of them.
“Seriously, I want whatever this old guy is smoking,” the kid with the big teeth repeated while the others laughed.
