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I could see it. The big Planet, in the sky, veering ever so close to our planet earth. It looked almost inconspicuous with the night sky, like it had been there all my life. The extraterrestrial planet was going to crash into the earth soon, and almost everyone was boarding the spaceships that would take us to a new planet. 

Surprisingly, I didn't even really care. I liked my home. The memories I had playing outside in the grass, splashing in the stream, and playing with Boof, our tiny white dog. I also had fun playing racing games with my friends, even though they didn't understand why a girl liked video games. I brushed a lonely strand of hair from my face as I stared at the vastness of space. Then, I heard a very recognizable voice behind me.

"Hey there, Helena. You weren't at work today so I became kinda worried." It was Jacob, the hardworking intern at the company where I worked as a programmer. We were good friends, and often visited each other. "Yeah, I just needed a break from the panic of work. I'm just thinking about my decision to stay." 

As soon as I said that, I saw the disbelief hit Jacob like a semitruck. "Are you crazy, Helena?! Do you have a death wish?" Jacob shook his head as he sat down, making a small gesture with his hands. "I'm not mentally ill in any way. I just think that it would be better to spend the rest of my life free, where I can roam, then trapped on a spaceship for the rest of my life." I argued, subconsciously ripping a tuft of yellow grass from the lawn. My T-shirt and dark skirt rippled in the light breeze that the sky offered. The stars above twinkled brightly, like burning gemstones. "What if we make it there really fast? Hmm?" Jacob suggested. "Look, Jacob. I know you care about me. But, it is my personal decision to stay on Earth." I mumbled. Jacob sighed, and stood up. "I always knew that you were the most stubborn employee." Jacob halfheartedly chuckled, rubbing the top of my head. He turned, and waved a single goodbye before disappearing over the hill.

I looked back up at the sky, pinching the edge of my skirt. What if they do make it early? I asked myself. All of a sudden, I realized. People just do that to make a situation seem better then it is. Yes, I shall stay here, where I grew up. But even now, as I stare at the ever looming planet in the sky, which has already stopped the cycle of the moon, I break into tears. My parents would be going off, as all my friends as well. I would have no one that I would know to comfort me. Boof, my now very elderly companion, shuffled up to me. I picked Boof up, cradling him in my arms as I silently sobbed to myself, my indecisiveness taking over my mental capacity to think clearly. Boof nuzzled my arm, helping me somewhat. I carefully laid my body flat on the grass, brushing away a tear from my cheek. As Boof curled up in the space between my arm and my body I looked out into the sky once more, and tried to think of something. I finally realized that, while I thought I was, I was not alone. The animals, the trees, the bugs, the dogs and cats and some other people on this doomed Earth. Either they didn't care or they knew that perhaps it wasn't over for them. I smiled to myself as I looked out to the Milky Way, visible by the lack of artificial lighting and as vibrant as could ever be.

It was a quiet night, and I wasn't alone

Night fell fast in Confectionery City, and sunrise was slow to come. As darkness overtook the city, it came to life, neons and fluorescents bursting in every window, above every door, on signs and billboards, streetlamps, stoplights, twinkling Christmas lights not yet removed, and warning lights for construction zones. It was an unassuming place in the daylight--boring buildings, a bit drab. The citizens weren’t all that interesting, most of the time.

But at night, that changed. Suddenly everything glowed, and in that glow, the streets, the people, they looked different.

Winter in the city was different, too. It was dark by six o’clock, and frost glistened on window panes, sidewalks and cars, but nobody could tell that it was cold out just by looking. It was only once someone stepped out without a coat that they realized it was January, and still freezing.

Perhaps if they had had a white winter, the cold would come as less of a surprise. But snow rarely fell in the city. Some suspected the nuclear plant on the edge of town, while other residents blamed global warming. It was more than likely some combination of the two.

On a street lit up in neon pink and green, two blots of black ink floated along, cheering and laughing at one another. One of the shadows cackled, a raspy but feminine voice, and as she came into range of the street lamp, the dark figure became clear. It was a Cat, not a cat, not that housepet, but the type that spoke and walked upright. Some called them Jellicle. Most Cats took offense to that terminology.

“Oh Haaaaalley,” the Cat sang, her orange eyes glowing like sparks. “What should we do tonight?”

“I hope Mr. Courtenay will reveal we won’t be having exams after all,” Edmund laughed as he sat on Oliver’s desk, swinging his feet in a carefree manner.

“There is no way he would do that,” Oliver said, and from under the desk tried to playfully kick Edmund's leg with the tip of his shoe. 

“I hope it’s just nothing bad,” Jonathan, who was sitting next to Oliver, mumbled. “Back in my old school, we once had an announcement at the end of the school day because a student had gotten hospitalized after an accident. They didn’t want us to know how serious it was while we were still at school.”

“You’re worrying for nothing!” Edmund laughed and reached out to pat Jonathan brotherly on the shoulder. “I bet it’s something trivial.”

“Hey Claude, what do you think?” Jonathan then asked from Claude, who was sitting behind him and reading their textbook in advance. 

“Huh?” he asked as he raised his head from the book, seemingly unaware of the conversation topic at hand. 

“What do you think Mr. Courtenay is going to talk to us about?”

“Ah, that,” he shrugged and nonchalantly turned back to his book. “Didn’t he do something similar when Jonathan arrived last autumn?”

“He did?” Edmund piped in, tilting his head like a dog. 

Claude nodded, eyes still glued on the book. 

“It was the day before, mind you, and it was at the end of the last lesson of the day, so I didn’t expect people to pay much attention to it.”

“Ah, yeah, figures. For the last 10 minutes of the last lesson my mind is already outside playing football, so I definitely didn’t listen.”

“I’m pretty sure I was skipping on that day,” Oliver added. “Sorry Jonathan, we swear we were very excited about your arrival once you really showed up!”

She still couldn't get over how dark it was here.

The woods were silent, the only sounds being the crunching noises Henri's feet made as she trekked over the brambles on the floor. She flashed her flashlight over the tangled branches and upwards toward the vaguely moonlit canopy, and even then, she felt all she could see was shadowy, black shapes. She could see the glow of the pale moon (the only real consistency between home and Transylvania in her book) shining faintly over the leaves, leaving them silver, but it still didn't lift the unease she felt.

Why did I come here again? she thought. Wait, trick question. She knew exactly why. Henri considered herself to be a resilient girl, since she did manage to keep her sanity after finding herself in a giant gothic castle with vampires when she could have sworn she had been on Earth an hour prior, but even she had times where the long, dark hallways, giant cobwebs  and the growling of the thing in the basement was a bit too much.

Which is why she came to the woods. Despite the absolutely uncanny darkness and the dangers of monsters (the bad kind) coming to suck on her marrow, it was the only place within travelling distance that felt halfway familiar. She thought back to traipsing around in the Erwin Woods back home with her friends, hiding to scare trick-or-treaters, and she suddenly didn't feel as scared.

Henri heaved a sigh and kept walking. She didn't dispute that she liked it in Transylvania - against all odds - because it was different. She didn't feel bored in school anymore, for instance, not when she was ignoring evil eyes from the jiangshi twins in the lockers and eating peanut butter cupcakes made with magic by a teenage witch. She got to experience having older siblings, even if it meant fighting with Jeremiah for two hours about leaving his gardening stuff everywhere and the dangers of tripping, or having to listen to Charlotte gush about ancient vampiric literature that she had never heard of. She got to go on extraordinary adventures and do extraordinary things, and see extraordinary sights.

But at the end of the day there's no place like home, and that's where she wished she was right now.

"What do you do? When I'm not home I mean." Joanne said, following Seiji around the house and helping him with his daily chores. 

"I do the chores after I wake up and brush my teeth, Then I usually cook, do a bit of exercising and sometimes I go out with my friends but, we're not the types to out that often anyways. So I usually just stay home in front of the computer," He smiled, easing Joanne enough into letting out a giggle. That was so in character for Seiji, the quiet, homebody boyfriend she loved. And that was the end of it, at least she thought so. When they arrived back in their bedroom, she sat on their bed while Seiji was plopped down the laundry basket between them and sat down not too far from her. She saw his lips move, but he hesitated to say anything else. Her instincts told her to prod further and poke at him until it finally blurted it out but, this was a rare moment for her and especially him. Finally home and spending time with her boyfriend. quietly folding clothes together, it was like Joanne always dreamed of; finally calming down and getting to live peacefully with Seiji until they were old. "Well, I wait for you to come home too."

Joanne's mind stopped in their tracks, her daydream shattering back into reality. Even though her hands kept folding clothes, her eyes were staring at the floor in disbelief... There was no way, right?

"But you know, recently I stopped. So that when you're home, I make that I can spend more time with you and cherish it before you're gone..." He quietly said. It took all of his willpower to finally say how he felt, he'd been holding it in for so long and within this moment in time, it felt so right to finally tell Joanne. As he finished up with the last of his half of the laundry, his gazed moved up from the drawers to his girlfriend's face. Trails of tears running down her cheeks, her eyes puffed up and face red. Even though she was overwhelmed with guilt, not a single sob or cry left her mouth. His foot moved the laundry basket out of the way, scooting himself directly next to Joanne. His hand moving over and letting her hands fall to her lap and drop the shirt onto the floor. Her eyes moved from the ground to him, staring at his worried, loving face. 

Her static composure immediately broke into a sobbing, guilt-ridden mess. She leapt into him, wrapping her arms around him tighter than ever before. Her body pressing up against his made him fall back first onto their bed, letting her cry freely while he held her in his embrace, gently caressing her head as the weeks and months of built up remorse found its way out. 

"I'm so.. sorry!"

You had known of humanity beforehand. You learned more of them when you had risen from adolescence in their atmosphere, sided among their flank of growth. In the further- you designated yourself to jealousy, turning your withering wings on their kind with a putrid envy, hostile and selfishly hurt. The tongue you bore cursed God’s name in a horrible language; mouthing poisonous inklings of bile and malice to the bare philosophy of carrying on an angel’s legacy. 

You sank deeper and deeper into a cherried ocean, breathing through your gills the taste of scarlet waters as they inflamed your throat, riddling both lungs with pulsing wrath.

You abhorred that life. 

From the beginning it was fair, a child’s fantasy. You bestowed upon yourself the virgin’s concept of a relationship; your worries grand, but your curiosities bolder. Sketching the perfect anatomy of an ideal, flawless spouse, you performed a showing like no other, confidence embellished with an adrift note of youthful arrogance. A former friend wandered unto your production, encoring his hands together at the invisible words you sang upon the imaginary stage you danced along. He fell into you, his beating heart glowing beneath a fragile ribcage; ribboned with pink passion.

Your own heart sought inquisitive reaction, peering shyly from behind a forbidden fruit it knew not to savor.