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Humans are always born too soon, and heroes are always born too late. Babies are born with open hands, ready to catch all the hurt in the world as if it were rain falling from the sky. All just to catch one good thing. They are innocent and naive.
Heroes. They always showed up after the tragedy. I don’t believe in heroes, and I don’t believe in miracles. I believe in humans, but not humanity. You must never mistake these two things. They may walk like a human, and talk like a human, but that person is as hollow as a decayed bone.
I was born different from the rest of them though. Mom called it “the thing that made me special.” But, call it what you will, it was unnatural. I came into the world seeing things with two different colored eyes. The left one was blue, the color of my dad’s eyes. It was the shade of faded denim, and it saw truth. The right was a glowing red, and it saw much much more
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The world falling apart didn’t happen overnight. The disaster was a collage of generations,each person added their piece to make the horrific picture. One painted in a dark grey. The world worked like a fantastic machine, but it seemed like perhaps there was a piece missing. Something that would change the nature of everything. That’s when I decided to find it. All the citizens were dragging themselves to the factory. A place that manufactures the fakeness of this place. Nothing was real in this world. Not anymore. It was all built here now. The trees, the clouds, the animals, everything was built here, and stitched into the world.
It was easy to sneak into the factory. The people walking into it almost seemed to be in a trance, so I was as good as the wall going in.
Dad used to tell me stories about the days when people used to course through the veins on the city like blood. They used to love interesting things, which turned them into interesting people. But that was a long time ago. A myth now. Dad told me the stories before he turned into one of these monsters. I wondered at times if he even remembered who i was. Probably not, at least…that’s how he acted….
Going into the factory, I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. Perhaps a big red button that said “push to save humanity”. I didn’t find one though. Instead, I found the control room. It was the only room with white doors. The door was unlocked since no one would dare go against the factory. Except me of course…
I slipped into the room as silent as a shadow. The room looked like a cockpit of an airplane. Buttons and levers littered panels all over the room. They all looked exactly the same, except for one stood out. I sprinted over to it, when suddenly I was stopped.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I shouldn’t have stopped, but the voice sounded so familiar. So human. I turned around to see him. His cloudy eyes. His face that was once dark with the sun, was now dark with exhaustion.
“And why not dad?” I said, the words tasting sour on my lips.
“I can’t have my daughter ruin all of the hard work everyone put into making this place.”
I paused for a moment. Daughter. Daughter? Is it possible that he remembered me? Is it possible that he still loved me? That he still cared? My blue eyes stung. I knew that it saw that he was telling the truth. It saw all the old memories. The recitals that he came to. The games we played. I almost believed it for a second, but no matter what, the red eye took over. Everything was much darker now.
“Don’t listen to it,” he whispered. He knew that he couldn’t stop this storm, I saw it in his eyes. However, he’s my dad, so I knew he would try anyway.
“Too late dad,” I said as I slammed the button. Then everything was silent. The factory had stopped. The workers were lying on the ground, not hurt, just asleep. It took me a long time to realize what had happened in this moment. Everything was manufactured here. Even the people. Turning off the switch stopped it all. No matter how fake it was, it wasn’t real anymore. I was left alone with the idea that there was no way to bring them back.
