Break From Reality. Daily.
This story is by Laura Cookson and was part of our 2020 Summer Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here. One thing they never tell you about death is how incredibly boring it is. I waft aimlessly around the upper floor of West Hogsworth Shopping Centre, ghostly Nike shoes hovering an…
“Is there anyone out there? I repeat, is there anyone out there?”
The words had become automatic and no longer held any meaning for Karl. He sprawled on his back in the middle of the darkened control room, radio receiver clutched to his mouth. He stared up at the stars through the huge window above him as he mindlessly repeated the distress message.
He had been an astronaut for many years and had long since become accustomed to the sight of the stars, but now when he had little to do but look up at them and wait for death, he was reminded how beautiful they were. Their feeble light and that of the shuttle’s emergency power was the only thing that separated him from the true darkness that the inky black sky threatened.
“I repeat, is there anyone out there? Shuttle in distress, potential loss of human life.”
It had happened every Midsummer’s Eve since Fira’s grandmother had been a girl.
A beautiful woman would come walking out of the forest at dusk and take a single girl from the village.
“It’s an honour to be chosen,” the elders would say, but it didn’t seem that way to Fira. For no one knew where the girls were taken, and they were only ever seen once again: the following Midsummer’s Eve when it would be them walking out of the trees to take the next girl.
