starry night

Imagine looking at a starry sky in the countryside, you will see many stars and the black canopy of the sky.

 

  A child from the city would say, " we cannot see stars at night in city because of the light pollution, so I had no idea the night sky can be so beautiful."

 

  Yes, if we separate stars from the night sky, it would become boring to look up to the sky.

 

  The stars are beautiful not because of its light or brightness, but through the contrast of the darkness.

 

  The darkness of the sky is pure not because of how deep the darkness is, but through the contrast of the bright stars.

 

 The world needs difference.

 

  However, in nowadays, some people think that sameness is beautiful, and that's why many of them are getting a plastic surgery in order to have a face like their idol.

 

  However, this sameness, just like dull darkness in the sky, without difference, without contrast.

 

 There must be a reason why God made us unique, and we are destined to follow it. Some people are beautiful, however, they might be lacking in other areas. Perhaps your appearance cannot compete with the others, what about your intelligence and your experience? For example, Nick Vujicic was born with no arms and no legs, but then he was still welcomed by the public! Why? Because he uses his experience of being different to inspire other people.

 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,  “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”  

 

Without difference, this world is not beautiful and interesting.

 

Without difference, life is not beautiful and interesting.

 

Who is the chess master?

  For the first time, Jack felt himself being old. Sitting on the sofa, he took a photo frame from the shelf beside him.  What in the frame was two people, him and his daughter. Thinking about his daughter, he managed to remember his daughter is in another country now, working in a big company.  He hasn't and hasn't been contacted by his daughter for five years. However, time wasn't a problem earlier, he was always so busy with his own bussiness.

  He opened up several big companies, and he donated money too, but he didn't get much honour. Most merchants knew the reason, he did too, but he just couldn't stop it. He couldn't start his enterprise without kidnapping a rich man, and it was the first crime he commited. But it is worth it, he thought, as long as I reached my being-rich dream.  Committing different crimes like smuggling, kidnapping for so many years, he knew the trick not to fail. Imagine you are a chess master, then everyone who works for you is your chessman. Surely, in order to get your job done, you need sacrifice.

  But somehow his enterprise's progress now was disappointing him, and his companies were facing more and more challenges and problems. What is worse, he didn't even know who the enemy was, and his workers kept disappearing.

  This disaster began last year, when his right-hand-man was kidnapped by an unknown organization. Though he did this deception before, he was too afraid to lose his intelligent worker. He lost 50 million (ransom) and a very good man. Then everything just got worse.

  His phone beeped, a new message from his assistant.

  Emergency, it read, a strike happened outside our headquarter in America. Our enemy has successfully convinced most of our best workers to work at their company because they will be paid at a higher salary and better working condition.

  Fuck! he cursed under his breath, everything was failing him.

  Tell them, we will pay a higher salary. He sent.

  According to our current financial condition, it is somehow impossible to pay them a higher salary. Came the ruthless reply.

  He calmed himself down, and thought deeply, our enemy has successfully convinced most of our best workers to work at their company... Suddenly, the sky was clear. He immediately messaged his assistant:

 Who is behind all these? Who is our enemy?

 Very soon, his phone beeped.

  Well, I didn't want to tell you that as you must be angry after knowing it.

  Just tell me.

  Okay, our enemy is a new but large company called The New Century which owns many stores around the world. Their main source of income are selling high-tech electronic devices, mostly for communications. Yesterday they brought down Samsung and Apple and signed a contract with them. The contract provided those who work for Samsung a tremendous amount of money, but everything originally belonged to Samsung belongs to The New Century now.

  After reading it, Jack jumped. Actually jumped. He felt his bead-like sweats trickling down his face, he felt his hands trembling, and he felt his eyes blinking fast. How could I have missed it? He grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV. Every news was talking about this matter. He couldn't believe it, if he couldn't bring down Samsung and Apple, then no one could bring down them. Now, something impossible turned possible.

  No, he screamed in his head, I need to bring down that new company before I am brought down.

  He closed his eyes and thought. He would have to have a plan to completely obliterate this company.

  He picked up his phone and texted his assistant.

  Arrange a meeting with the leader of the company in the Golden Crown hotel. Tell them I want to sell them some stocks. Bring 20 assassins to lurk in a right position. When you see me go to the toilet, take those bastards out.

  About 15 minutes later, his assistant replied him, they are okay for the meeting, assassins at ready. I arrange the meeting at 3:00 p.m., is it okay?

  Jack checked his schedule and answered. Okay.
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  When he arrived at the place, he walked into the room. A man he did not know was sitting at the opposite side of the long table accompanied by two guards. He had only one guard though, but he was the best, and he was his assistant. He originally had two guards, the original-right-hand-man, but you all know what happened to him.
 
  A silent moment dragged by. He broke the silence first, greeting the man.

  Inside the hotel, 20 people were paying attention to the room's door at their secret position.

  The meeting continued smoothly, and Jack would be too happy to see a plot-twist. Who would be the winner in the future? It is me! He thought joyfully, tomorrow you will disappear from this world and I will be the king! Hahahahahahahaaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  They must be in position now, then I will just...do it. He stood up and said, "Gentlemen, may I go to washroom please?" The man looked up from the 'contract' Jack had given him and said with a broad grin, "Sure."

  Jack went to washroom and waited for the helpless scream. However, he really wanted to go to pee, so he pee. When he was washing his hands, his assistant came in. There is no screaming, how come?! He thought, then he corrected himself, maybe they are sedated. It would be fun torturing them back at his home!

  He said joyfully, " How fast!"

  His assistant replied, "We haven't got our job done."

  He stared at his assistant and thought, is he insane, if he hasn't got his job done, then why come here to talk to me.

  He said with a stern voice, "Then do it now!"

  His assistant nodded and said as if he was laughing, "Of course, sir!"

  It reminded him something, it is... it is...

  Then a million things happen very quickly.

  20 assasins walked into the washroom, each pointing a tranquillizer gun towards him, and the one leading him was...was his own assistant.

  Then his ex-assistant laughed, "Old man, you surely will be more shocked afterwards."

  But the old man's head couldn't compute what his ex-assistant said and it would be too late when he figured out its outest meaning, because he would already be sedated.

  And he was sedated.
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  He woke up in a dark room, two men sitting beside him. He tried to move, but he was tied to...something.

  He squinted. His ex-assistant and someone were sitting beside him.

  His ex-assistant clapped his hands and said gleefully, "Now, our guest is awake. Let's do some self-introduction, I am Rony Mark, the vice-president of The New Century. It is our honour to have you to listen to our stories."

  Jack barked, "I want to see your president, not vice-president."

  "Then try not to get heart attack." Rony smirked and turned his head towards the door of the room, "Let's welcome our president!"

  Handclaping was heard from outside, at least 100 people outside the room. The person came in with a mask. When the person took off the mask, it revealed a face that was horribly familiar to him.

  The president was a she.

  Jack screamed as loud as he could. He really didn't see that coming.

  It was...it was his...his own...own daughter!!!!!!!!!

  " Jack, don't panick, I am going to tell you great stories." Came his daughter reply, too sexy and too unfamiliar. She talked like a stranger, Jack thought bitterly.

  Her daughter dropped herself into Rony's hug and began her stories.

  Jack, still remember your ex-right-hand-man kidnapped-and-killed incident. Yes, it marked your downfall. He was an intelligent and alert man which made him very hard to get rid of. However you were so absent-minded and arrogant at that time, and you didn't listen to his advice. We let more and more men into your company, and one of them became your ex-assistant. Though your ex-right-hand-man was smart, but my Rony was smarter. Rony managed to kill him without being noticed. And what made me laugh was that you couldn't identify the fake one and paid a large amout of gold to him. Then, Rony was the only assistant, and all your information and daily schedules will be collected by Rony. Everyday he pretended to be your good assistant, and when we know everything of
you, our victory comes. Jack, you are too old to do bussiness, I will do it for you, don't worry.

  His daughter tapped him playfully on his forehead, which was a disgrace in his view.

  Then his daughter showed him something like a scroll. To his terror, it was a contract and it was signed by him. No way, I wouldn't have signed it.

  His daughter smiled and said, " we forged it, we have experts. So tomorrow, all your stocks and companies, the whole enterprise belonged to you will belong to me. Then I will be the one to control the whole market. Rest, Jack, then you will leave this world peacefully." Her daughter chuckled before she headed for the door.

  When his daughter was going to exit the room, he asked broken-heartedly, "Why do you do this to me?"

  " I learnt from you, and I am the chess master, not you, I control everything, men and resources." His daughter answered with a cold voice.

  So, he thought, the thing that kills me is bacause of my own motto. My death will be caused by my own motto. He laughed, laughed as a lunatic. He sinked himself too deep in his painful thoughts, and he just couldn't remember what happened next.

 

The FOUR team-- Prologue

Jones’s fingers were fast tapping the keyboards, and an image of a town in Pakistan was shown. He stood up and presented the location searched to the two generals beside him. “Terrorists from different countries will come to meet in this building according to what our intelligence agency said”—he pointed at a yellowish building—“it will be a good chance to wipe them all out at a time.”

 

  When he turned to look at his super computer, the screen has blackened out. A malfunction?, he thought, no, not CIA super computers.

 

 One of the generals noticed the black screen and asked Jones skeptically, “I choose not to believe our conversation ends when we are discussing this important matter. We need this computer to plan a perfect mission to wipe those assholes out.”

 

  Jones immediately answered, “Nope, our conversation certainly hasn’t ended. And I know we still need this computer, but I don’t know why…”

 

  Then the other general cut in, “you turn off the computer?”

 

  Jones scoffed at the general under his breath. Why let a person who don’t know basic computer workings well be general and let him talk to a computer genius like this?! “Obliviously, general, neither am I holding a remote control, nor did I press the ‘power’ button.”

 

  The general knew Jones was annoyed and said, “Mr. Jones, that was just my speculation.”

 

  Jones looked at the black screen and thought, what can cause this to happen? Then a terrible thought struck him. But that is impossible, it would have been detected, and it at least takes 5 years for a… then the super computer’s screen brightened again, as Jones’s anxiety and fear lightened. However, it wasn’t the image on the screen, those were six words and two punctuations: Warning: More Shall Come, Be Ready

 

  Then hearty laughing burst out of the speakers, making Jones and the generals jump. Then Jones remembered what his grandfather joked, “When something that is impossible comes possible, it is when cats are being toyed by rats.”

 

  His grandfather was quite right, not totally right. It was rat, not rats.   

 

Maple leaves

Hope you all enjoy this story.
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The roof, the sky, the path...everything was covered in orange and yellow. The sky was dyed orange from the sun, while a canopy of fallen maple leaves colored the roof, the path, and the world with shades of yellow and orange. This wonderful color of the sky and the ground complimented each other, creating a divine picture.

 

The only thing that tainted this wonderful picture were the ugly and gnarly trees.

 

Trees were left with their ugly naked branches. Trees were shaking off leaves that once made them beautiful. The withered leaves fell gently to the ground, where they were looking back at the trees, sad and angry and disappointed. They were the ones that had beautify the trees. But it was no use crying over bad luck after knowing that a friend had betrayed you.

 

When I was in secondary school, I met and made friend with Audrey. We had to take an exam that determined whether we could go to a good university or not in that Spring.

 

Audrey had been my friend. She was always poor academically. She was like dust compared to other classmates that always got good results. She was always looked down upon, so being her friend, I had the responsibility to help her.

 

We decided to revise together. And in order to help her improve faster, I had done so many things for her: summarizing all the main points of different subjects and writing all of them on the word document. I even printed all of them out for her while she was still playing dodge-ball and computer games with her friends.

 

I stopped her from playing computer games, because she would become addicted and not get good results. Though she did complain to me sometimes, I willed myself not to waver so easily, because I know what was important for our future.

 

Days passed, and the exam neared. Even Audrey felt the pressure and became more hard-working.

 

The exam was a nightmare to me. On the second day, I caught a cold from nowhere. It was impossible to control my running nose, my swollen eyes, and most importantly, my malfunctioning brain. The nightmare became more and more terrible as days passed.

 

When I received my report card. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was...it was...it was a D. I should at least got a B-, I had been working so hard.

 

I ran to Audrey with watering eyes. She got a B+ in average; that meant she could get to the university that I dreamed of. Audrey looked at my grade, and patted me on my back. She then turned back and walked towards her friends and clapped hands happily as they all got good results, not once did she look back at me.

 

I was dust compared to Audrey, and I went in a college that was dust compared to Audrey's university.

 

I then spent six hard years studying in order to get a good job.

 

When I finished studying, Audrey was already working in a very good company which I wanted to join. It would be easier to be accepted into the company if  there was someone inside to recommend me, so I texted Audrey. The last time I texted her again. I received no reply for four weeks.

 

Day after day, I waited, but nothing came, and when I couldn't suppress it any longer, I waited outside her company. Finally, I saw her chatting with her colleagues happily. " Audrey!" I called. She glanced at me for a moment and continued talking with her colleagues! She ignored me! Fuming, I walked in front of them and shouted at her," Audrey, why you didn't text me back? Why are you acting like a stranger to me?" She looked at me for a few seconds and told her colleagues to head back first.

 

She sat down on a bench while I stood.

 

After a while, she drawled," so, what do you want me to do for you?"

 

I gave her the form I wanted her to fill in. She glanced at it and snickered.

 

" Why should I help you?" she asked.

 

"Why should you not help me?"

 

Her sarcastic smirk dropped as she looked down, possibly thinking of a good excuse. A silent moment dragged by.

 

I was so furious at her attitude that it was impossible to stop my piercing words from bursting.

 

" Why won't you face me now? I bet you are afraid of me, no, your past; speaking of the past, I was the one who stood beside you when you were teased; I was the one who helped you with your homework; I was the one forcing you to revise so you can get high marks in that exam and join a good company now! How can you be so horrible, how can you give up on a person who tried her very best to help you!"

 

I had a feeling that my words would hurt her. However, if she wasn't friends with me, I hope the words would make her learn. If she still cared for me, even it was just a little, I hope these words could wake her up.

 

I continued with a gentler tone. " We can still be...be friends now. We can still help each other out."

 

She didn't reply and look down at her watch, she said coldly," sorry, I have to go now, or I will be late for the coming meeting." She then walked across the path, leaving me once again in the dust, speechless.

 

" HOW CAN YOU BE LIKE THIS?" Audrey didn't reply, she didn't even turn back. Perhaps the wind caught my voice and carried away, perhaps, it was just Audrey who pretended not to have heard my words.

 

Maple leaves fell on the ground around me. They were fragile, the slightest step could crush them. They lay facing the trees that were once beautiful because of them. What were they possibly feeling? Perhaps anger, sadness, or even disappointment, But whatever could they do? And like them, whatever could I have done?

 

The crackling of maple leaves beneath my feet awoke me from my journey to memory lane. Yeah, there isn't anything that can be changed, and there is no use crying over bad luck after knowing a friend had betrayed you.

A letter to my keeper

21thJuly,XXXX

 

Dear my keeper,

 

Still doing good at school? You might not be aware that I always want to serve you, so you put me into that box. The grey lid of the box then becomes my sky, and it hasn't been opened for a long time (Presence of time flying away cannot be sensed there, as there is no change of light, only darkness is present in there). I thought of telling you my feeling, so I decide to use my feet (tip of a pen, as you call) to poke through the lid and write this letter to you with great bravery.

 

Do you still remember the moment you bought me? You are shorter than the last time I saw you, and you had your wide smile on your face as you were looking at me through the glass. You used your little hand to take dollars out of your pocket and brought me home. It was Christmas, you said I was the most beautiful present you had had. I was so happy at that moment that I could run around the Earth for three times if I could get out of your pocket XD.

 

You placed me carefully in your pencil case before you went to school everyday. You always use me when doing homework and exam. This attracts everyone's gaze at you and me. Though many people asked to borrow me, but you would always clasp around my body and shook your head. In recess time, the others were playing, chatting and laughing but you just sat in your seat quietly and took me out of the pencil case. We will then perform a face-to-face gazing with each other for 5 minutes, at least. I again saw your cute face and water blue eyes, and I knew it was the most beautiful thing I had seen.

 

Years passed, you become taller and I shrink.

 

But one day, there was a new comer into my pencil case. He is modern and cool with a hat on his head. At first I don't know who/what he is, but then one day I peeked through the small holes on the pencil case and saw you remove his hat and put pencil refills into his body. And I saw my sharpener is put aside. At that very moment, I knew I wasn't that important anymore.

 

I had quite a lot of arguments with the pen pencil as you call. He said I looked like rubbish to him, and you won't like me anymore because I was short and dirty. I really wanted to cry at that moment, really! Those words are still hurting and haunting me, it was even worse than being cut by the sharpener.

 

I don't care if I suffer a million or a billion cut from the sharpener, I just want to serve you till my end. You can draw your beautiful pictures using me. Really.

 

I will soon end this letter and I will just lie beside this letter. Please use me. If not, at least place me inside your pocket, so that I can feel the warmth of you.

 

Yours,

your pencil

 

 

 

 

An abandoned piano room

In the countryside, where the sky was as beautiful as a light blue jewel, where the streets were quiet, where trees were tall and healthy, an old building stood beside a large grassland. Hymns singing was heard in the morning, while teenagers laughing was heard in the afternoon. The students studying in that school were probably enjoying their life at this moment.

 

Mike was one of those lucky students.

 

This school was the oldest school in this area, but a lot of its places had already changed into a new appearance except one place, the oldest piano room, which one of the earliest kind of piano was placed inside.

 

Mike has always been eager to explore the room, but students were not allowed to enter the room, if they entered the room, they would be reprimanded by several discipline teachers. In fact, even many students were reluctant to go inside, because this room had a bloody history.

 

It was built in 1738, a piano room for the nobles. The first blood happened in a civil war, when a mother tried to teach her son piano, soldiers broke in and killed them. It was then peaceful for 100 years, as people were afraid to go inside and they tried to stay away from it.

The second incident happened when some workers try to renew the place, a worker fell from the balcony and people found his face contorted, as if he saw something that haunted him so much. There was only one survivor, a janitor who cleaned the top floor. However, after he went out of the room, he became quiet. When people asked him about the room, he immediately turned aggressive. All these strange things happened haunted the people living near it.

 

However, Mike's determination never wavered. He should have gone inside if it hadn't been locked.

 

The bell rang, and Mike looked at the balcony of the room and shook his head. Then he headed back to his home.

 

When he checked his facebook, he found a invitation from his adventurous friends: wanna go to the piano room or not?

 

sure, he answered, but how?

 

Easy, his friend answered, I will get the tools. Let's do it tomorrow, at night. We now have six men in total. Now, the truth of the room is going to be discovered.

 

It was so uneasy for him to get into sleep, all he waited was tomorrow night!

 

The next day, he waited for his parents to sleep, then he tiptoed out of his house to the meeting place. Then they headed quickly to school. They climbed over the old and low fence, then they climbed the tall tree that reached the roof. When they reached the roof, they jumped on the room's balcony which was just below them. Now, it was only just a door that separated them from the truth. Then, they used a hammer to crack open the rusty lock and opened the door.

 

Dust flew into their eyes and mouth to make them closed their eyes tightly and coughed. When they opened their eyes, they were so shocked to see the pictures in their history textbook reappeared. The books on the shelf were yellow and a canopy of dust was formed on the books, it reflected that they were old and hadn't been moved for a long time. The chair in front of the piano was a little broken, and it was made of pure wood, but some insects were already eating the wood. The piano was amazing, they just couldn't describe how wonderful it was. Mike pressed one of its keys, it was unbelievable that it sounded okay, at least it can be pressed and a little sound got into his ears.

 

He turned and spoke,' wow, isn't that amazing, for nearly 200 years it could still be played.'

 

He then saw a boy smaller than him had his face turned pale, as pale as paper.

 

' What is the matter?' he asked.

 

' I think I heard the piano playing when I was climbing up the tree.' he said,

 

' What the hell is going on here?' he said to himself. Looking at his trembling legs, a wave of fear came at him.

 

 

 

After John has gone in the hospital...

     John felt sharp pain in his lung six months ago, so he went to hospital to check it out. He was sent to hospital for further observation, and when the doctor visited John, the doctor's face told he that something was wrong, very wrong, totally wrong.

 ' I am really sorry to say this to you, you, you have some sickness that could not be easily cured. We will try any operations and medicine on you...' 

    John dropped the cup on his hand. He had  not expected so much, a sharp pain and his life was going to be over. After a while, after the doctor had left, he computed what the doctor said. He was unable to believe it. He wanted to check the report by HIMSELF .  

 

   When he was in bed, he buried his head under the pillow and sobbed quietly. He had so many things to do, to enjoy. He was just 54 , his eldest son's marriage would be a year later, he so wanted to attend it. He so wanted to look at his grandchildren. And he DIDN'T want to DIE!

  Five months later, a nurse found him muttering to himself,' thank you, Frankie. You save me!' John ran to call the nurse, saying that his sickness was cured and yelling that he wanted to leave the hospital. The doctor reluctantly offered him a body check, and was stunned to see that he was completely cured, and let him leave the hospital. Before he left, his roommate had asked him why was he cured, he didn't answer. He would like to keep the secret to himself, or he was told to keep the secret to himself.

   The secret was already deep inside his heart.

   Four months after he was in the hospital, he told the nurses his wish. He wanted to see his family, his friend, especially Frankie. His parents, who were both 83 at that moment, came here to visit him and talk with him. His wife visited him, too unhappy to have a teardrop. His sons visited him, they held his hand and cried with him. The eldest son even said that he originally wanted to let his son live with him.

   There  was still one of his friends that hadn't visited him. It was Frankie. 

   John has known Frankie since they were fifteen. They were in different school at that time, though Frankie always appeared on the playground near John's home. The first time they met was that John was playing football with his friends, while Frankie was sitting on a bench, alone. John then invited him to join them, * even Frankie didn't play it well enough so to compete with them, John accepted him.

   Sometimes, John would invite Frankie to have afternoon tea with him, while he paid the money. Frankie rarely talked, it seemed like he was observing people. However, he was an excellent listener, as he never interrupted when others were talking, so John would not mind always buying drinks for Frankie, as long as Frankie listened carefully to what he said.

   One night, when it had thunder and heavy rain outside, when he couldn't sleep, the door was opened, and a dark figure came in. John at first feared that it was Death, who was going to take his life. But then the figure put away something, an umbrella, and walked towards him. The figure created a chair out of thin air and sat on it.

   John hid his whole body under the mattress, shivering. Then he heard a 'click'. He opened a bit of his eyes and the figure revealed to be Frankie. He could not believe it, Frankie came in his room when it was dark, raining outside. 

   ' Hi, my friend, it has been seven months that I haven't seen you. Sorry to keep you waiting. I am so sorry to hear that you... yeah.' Frankie said.

   John didn't listen much,Che just pointed at the closed door, the chair and Frankie. Frankie nodded. 

   Frankie sighed and spoke again.' I am leaving this Earth too, to another place far away from everyone, becuz I have finished my mission here on Earth.' He stopped, waited for John's reaction.

   John gasped and covered his mouth immediately, as Frankie had expected. John spoke softly, with a slight tremble in his voice.' You mean you are not from Earth, you are from another planet?!'

   Frankie nodded. He then spoke in a grateful way.' Our planet's council has always wanted to explore another civilization. After they found that there were civilizations on this blue planet, they sent me to communicate and learn things from you. As all the things on Earth were so unfamiliar to me, so I just kept observing. Though observing did help, it didn't help much. Only after you became my friends, I started to understand the true side of you. There are so many feelings that I have to feel, and this is beyond knowledge. It is you who make me feel them.'

   He stopped again. A moment of silence dragged by.

   ' I want to do something to thank you. So I, being an alien, who wanted to help an old friend, would now try the healing on you. ' Then, Frankie put his hand on John's chest and muttered something. John has never had such a wonderful feeling, it was like he was turning younger, and all his sickness has vanished.

   Then, Frankie put his hand away and said,' my old friend, don' tell anyone what happened tonight. I trust you.' Then, he stood up and walked for the door.

   ' Would us meet again?' John asked hopefully.

   ' Yes... or no, I don't really know.' Then he vanished.

   Now, back to the present. John was at his eldest son's home. Although he really looked forward to seeing Frankie again, he now looked forward to seeing his son marriage. 

   After he and his son have talked for a while, he became deadly serious, and said,' you said that you wanted to let your son live with me, didn't you?'  Then his son showed a face like ' oh gosh, I didn't mean it!'

A very short distopian story ( It is how I define a distopian society)

" Ionization is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons..." Professor Athena was reading out loud what was Ionization. Being an eight, Ionization was still too easy for me. I, like my classmates, were more interested in the topics that the top grades were taught. Our society's motto: Age is nothing, knowledge and learning is all.

 

  Since all the people in our society were intelligent, our society was made perfect. There were no crimes in these 50 years, no stealing, no murdering and no... My parents always told me to be focus in lessons, why would I be not focus in lessons? Every time I received the knowledge well in lessons, I had a sense of satisfaction.

 

  I loved my timetable. Fourteen hours learning and remaining hours for knowledge and feeling sharing and sleep. Since I was two, I already had ten hours learning, learning about how people minds could change easily. How people could betray you. It was all written in the history, at least it was how it told us. I was grateful that I was chipped, so that I could store more knowledge, and learn more about the weakness of human's mind.

 

  After all the lessons, essentially, I said goodbye to my classmates and teachers, then headed back home.

 

  When I was forty more meters away from home, I heard someone groaning. Without hesitation, I  went towards the source and found a boy at my age moaning in the grass. From his clothing, he was not from our society, because all clothes of us had the motto, but he didn't. However, my intelligence told me to carry him back to home.

 

  This was the first time I ever used medication on others. I expected he would not ache soon and could sit up and talked to me, and it matched my calculation. I stretched out a hand to show friendliness to him, he looked at me with an odd face, but he shook it. If he was from my society, this hand shaking would be impropriate, as he shook four instead of three. I then politely some questions like," How are you now? Are you feeling okay?" Then, we exchanged our name and some other information. He was called James, and he was from another society. He looked around and suddenly said in awe," wow, you get so many books. I keep many books, though it was less than yours by half, I thought." He read a book without my permission and exclaimed," wow, this book was so difficult. There are lots of words that I don't know, and what is it talking about?" I was stunned as I read this when I was three. I explained, " it is about the elements of universe, this is the periodic table."

 

  I was suddenly curious about his society and him, so I asked, " can you please tell me about your society and you and your family?" He looked at me and nodded. " My society is wonderful. We have to go to school to learn stuffs for eight hours since five, including lunch and breakfast and two recess." I was suddenly aware that I didn't know the word 'recess'. A word that this boy know but I don't know? " Recess?" I asked. " You don't know what recess is." he said, obviously surprised. " We don't have it. Even in dictionary." I said, searching for the word in the brain," can you explain it?" He then explained," there is a time period between two lessons and it is called recess. It is a time for people to relax, play and have fun." Yes, there is a time period between one lesson, but it was not... never mind, it was for you to rethink of how you were doing in class, and what you unwisely did. I really have problems in these words: have fun and play.

 

  I knew relax, it was to read books, another way to gain knowledge. I was now very curious," what is 'have fun' and 'play'?" He exclaimed again," what? You don't know how to have fun and play?" I shook. " Ummm, we play hide-and-seek and other things like sliding down a hill with a sled!" He said, smiling broadly, I wondered if I had ever smiled like this one," but you don't know what is hide-and-seek, right?" I shook again, but I said," from the three words, I can see that there is a group hiding and a group seeking for them." He looked surprised, but it quickly disappeared," hard to talk with the too-clever guys. Yeah, it is something like it. You will be excited and happy if you seek someone and caught him. You will be excited and happy if you are unnoticed by the ones who are seeking you when they are really close to you. But how to show it to you?"

 

  Then, he said," go back to where you find me, I have a phone there." He crawled out of my house and was back soon with a very old type of phone (in our society). He touched the screen and many videos and photos were shown. He selected one of them. " Mom, you are filming us." a boy, obviously the younger version of him, yelled at the camera. Then, he giggled as another boy was chasing him, trying to catch him. Then he laughed," C'mon Ben, you are going to catch me." Then, they tumbled with each other as they were laughing loudly. Then stood up quickly, both with a big smile over their face. Some other videos were shown too, and I realized something. They look so...so innocent. " You were stupid. You don't know how people minds are, they are always changeable." I didn't know if I was matching the title, but then explained my lessons to him and he shook his head," yes, I was innocent. However, we were all innocent. We just want to play with each other, and be happy. There is another thing that you may not know. My teacher always stressed on a sentence:  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." The word "love" made me shock again. There were no examples of "love" in my society, not even a example sentence. " Love?" I asked, with so much curiosity and bravery. " Love, just like this." Then he picked up his phone again and selected a passage, and gave the phone to me.

 

  I quickly finished it and it stunned me. It made me start to believe in something that I was trying not to believe. It made me start to think of the knowledge I learnt, all those scientific facts, all those inventions and all those skills. It started to make some of the knowledge collapse in my brain. It made me think of the true meaning of this word.

 

  Just look at the title, it shook me. Greatest Love: Mother died to save her son. " The lady was holding her three-year-old son in her arms while rocks falling down the hill in a landslide. The life-saving workers later heard crying and found the lifeless mother and her crying son."

 

  It is a sacrifice, and there is nothing like this in our society. In the last flooding, a woman knew that if she tied her daughter who was only 2-year-old on the lamp, she might survive. So she did, tying the innocent girl on the lamp, and stood on her, so she could breathe and yelled for the workers to save her. Of course, her daughter died, but she didn't care really much. Then I thought of myself, would I do the same thing? Probably yes, I would not take the risk, I would let myself survive first. It was stupid to sacrifice myself for the girl, at least that was what the professor told us. We all know how people minds change easily, so there is no more trust, or no much trust. " Trust would bring you to hell sometimes." As the book said. Even my dad and mum do not completely trust in each other, I could tell it by their habit. They never tried to share their money, they would not help each other. When I asked them, they said they could manage their things.

 

  I suddenly came with a horrible thought, what if we are not that intelligent. Our knowledge seemed so small in front of " love". Love, seemed so difficult to taste completely. Maybe no sacrifice, no love. No trust, no love. No caring, no love. I always thought our society was the best of all, knowing all sort of things. And the truth was revealed during my conversation with this kid from another society.

 

  " Hey, smart boy, deep in thought again, huh?" He chuckled.

  " Don't call me smart boy, how do you call each other?" I said, after my deep thought broke.

  " Um, I will say " hey, dude" when I see someone?" he said.

  "Hey dude" wasn't a formal English, but it sounded so...so friendly. I would love to be called like this.

  Friendly...friendship.

  "Can I be a friend of you?" I asked.

  He glared at me, and said," okay, dude."

  And for the first time, I smiled broadly.

  For the first time, I would love to go away from my society, and go with my friend. I would learn to play, no, I would play there.

  Crossed the river, then I would be away from this endless sleep forever... 

Halloween and the demons attack

The moon was hanging high in the sky. Its gleaming light symbolized that everything was quiet, but not Mike and Beckett. Beckett managed to sneak out of his house and now he was having a private party with Mike in the garden behind Mike's house. Both of them loved this period of time. For Mike, he could bully Beckett as much as he wanted. For Beckett, it was the nicest time for him to trick the bully when he was bullying him. And Mike was always impulsive to revenge. However, their parents wouldn't allow them to meet each other. And now Mike's parents went to foreign countries, so night would be the nicest time for them to meet.

 

  Beckett was pushed and thumped on the mud. " I bet you don't have the gut to punch me." He said to the bully. Mike was annoyed, and so he raised his fist, ready to strike. " do you want to make the painful punch on the iron board again?" Beckett giggled. Mike hesitated, then he snarled,"  You will suffer soon, begging me to stop the punching." His fist soared through the air, making the leaves on the tree beside him flutter. 

 

  Beckett was ready for it, and so he rolled towards Mike and poked the stem of roses onto his leg. Then, he covered Mike with mud so that Mike would not yell it out. Mike spat out the brown mud and looked down at Beckett. He poked Beckett shoulder and said," you are just lucky." But they both know it was a wrong statement, as Beckett has outwitted Mike many times.

 

  That was when they saw a thing poked out from the mud between them, or you can say, from underground.

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Waffu the demon was having a lesson, which was taught by Professor Nikk. They were all about how bloodthirsty humans kill them with their bows, swords. How they destroyed many of their habitats. How they torture demons when the demons were captured by them. And the most important thing, the big plan to destroy the humans. Oh, these things happened seven thousands years ago. For heaven's sake, why wouldn't they have changed now.   And with all these brainwashing lessons, the only advantage was to make the team spirits high.

 

" Dismiss, imps." Professor Nikk roared. He walked. out of the gate of the brick building and walked towards a tree.  He sat under it, trying to digest what the Professor has said. No wonder I have my head ached, he thought, the things he said were total mixture or rubbish. He looked at the steel bridge which was fixed beyond a moat of magma. The bridge would reach the 'airport' which was full of crafts. The crafts were powered by magma flares and push the passengers up to the Earth surface.

 

I would try to figure all the things about humans out, he thought. 

 

When it was night, he sneaked out of his tent ( each imp got a tent to sleep in.) , easily got past the drunken demon security, and arrived at the airport at last. Now it was the difficult part, there were many guards in the airport, How was he supposed to get past them. He looked around, searching for something to distract them. Then he saw the emergency bell, and so he picked up a broken brick beside him and threw. The brick penetrated the glass and hit the bell. A high pitch was immediately produced, which attracted the guards. He was hiding behind a craft when the guards were checking what's wrong. 

 

He quickly got into the craft and magma flares caught it just in time, sending it straight upwards. When it was half way through, the craft was suddenly tilted. Oh gosh, they have already got control of the craft and he was about to day. The craft was shaking vigorously. The outer wall was colliding with the earth, making ' bang bang bang' sound. There were no lights and electricity then. With too much resistance, it finally stopped.

 

He crawled out of the craft, spitting earth. He needed oxygen now or he would die, and the fastest way was to go upwards. He dug crazily, his sight was already blurring, he couldn't hear things and his front hands were already sour. 

 

Then, fresh air ran into his big mouth, down his throat and to his lung. For once, the legendary warlock, Banik, casted a time spell which made the time of the living place of demons and humans different. Lucky for him, the time spell has already faded out  during these seven thousand years, so when he stuck his head out of the earth, his head wasn't crushed by the original time difference.

 

 But there was a problem, there are four eyes looking at him.

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Mike and Beckett was unable to explain what was happening. With the moonlight, they saw a thing with two horns, so the thing might be a bull's head. They both wondered why there was a bull underground. Then the thing spoke something, definitely not 'moo', but another language. "Do you speak English?" They asked quietly. 

 

The thing answered," no, I don't." in perfect English. " Are you playing around with me, thing?" Mike asked in a threatening way. "Did I just speak English, my friend?" The thing said. " you did. And lucky you did. If you don't speak English, we will hand you to NASA." Beckett said while he was trying to stop Mike hitting it. " and what are you?" The demon muttered," for sure, seven-thousands years, how can the humans recognize us without seeing us for seven-thousand years. Um, I am a demon or imp. My name is Waffu. Nice to meet you, glad to meet you, it is great to see you." Beckett then said," no need to say so many greetings, it is a bit unnatural in human world." Mike then interrupted," too many greetings annoy me, demon." as he smiled viciously at Waffu. " ignore him." Beckett  said while he was trying to push Mike aside, but failed.

 

Waffu suddenly felt that what Professor Nikk said was true. That big muscular boy was really aggressive and. Impulsive, lack of thinking.

But then, the skinny human beside him was nice and kind. His soft voice made a big contrast to the adult demons, which were sometimes even worse than Mike ." Why are you wandering up here? " Beckett asked softly. Waffu looked around and whispered," the adult demons are going to destroy the human race. Few of them has magic, most of them are good at bows and swords. Everyone of them was born with a special skill and they need a magic source. I can be invisible at any time. My dad can blurt acid. The best way for them to destroy the human race was to assault and slaughter." Then, he told them the entire plan.

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IN LIMPO the demon world.

 

  The leader of the guards in the airport always longed to visit other places rather than staying in the airport. Now he got the chance, as he was demanded to go to visit the counselor hall to report and explain the case just happened to the politic leaders and generals.

 

   The counselor hall was freaking beautiful, with lights shining on the golden wall. The golden wall reflected a warm bright gold light and the leader thought he was in paradise. " First time seeing wall which is made of gold, huh?" A hoarse voice came from his side. " Yes." He grunted, and he immediately added ' your mighty.' because if he didn't say it, he would be sentenced to jail because of disrespect to powerful elders.

 

  " Now, please tell us what just happened." One of the generals requested. So he told them from the signal of the emergency bell to the halt of the craft. Then, all the leaders discussed for some time. Finally, a general brought a question out," General Bikk, do you think we need to change the plan?" General Bikk hesitated and answered," no, we can't. We are running out of time." However, everyone knew that demons weren't good at thinking. All the battles they won in the past were led by an intelligent creature, centaur. However, the last politic leader was so stupid in speaking that he broke the relationship between them up.

 

" We keep the plan as the traitor might have died during the crash. Even if he survived, they have no time to form a counter-plan. Tell the soldiers to prepare their weapons and have more training. We are going to war soon." General Bikk finally concluded.  

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Two small humans and a shifted human were running towards a police station. Of course, they were Waffu, Beckett and Mike. They were going to tell the police about the plan.

 

When they arrived at the reception room, they immediately found a sergeant standing beside the door. Waffu showed his real self while Beckett told the sergeant about the plan. He spoke seriously but the sergeant laughed. He said," first, I have no excessive time now. And I want to say that I was always fooled in Halloween, so don't try to fool me anymore.  Finally, your costume was really good." He said with his finger pointing at Waffu.

 

After he had left, Beckett hit his head. He should have remembered that these seven days were Halloween holiday. Also, after Waffu had heard Beckett's explanation, he was horrified. He later explained that shifting needed magic, and there was always a certain amount of magic. With less magic used, the more magic they could save for their special skills.

A bad beginning for they three.

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IN LIMPO the demon world

 

General Bikk has just done his last revision of the plan and the last motivation. He was stunned by the roar of the demons crowd but then happy. In the battle of Tökun, which happened seven thousand years ago, never the demons were so united. This time, they will win, they must win and they have to win. He thought. In his mind, he was already celebrating the imaginary winning of the war.

 

The soldiers were then moved to the airport. Since they haven't been departed yet, so they were having their combat. Fireballs and ice spears bumped into each other in midair, vaporizing when they met, leaving a fizzling sound. Slashing of swords was like lightening, but the movements of fighting warriors were likely to be faster than light. There was not a bruise on the warriors' body. Arrows soared through the air and cut the flies which were flying in mid air a hundred miles away from the archers into half.

 

Oh, it worked so well. My soldiers are all elite. General Bikk thought joyfully.

 

Then, the elites were on board and the crafts were waiting for  fierce flares to send these fierce demons up to the surface.

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On the surface, they sat on a grassland behind the police station. Beckett and Waffu were trying to figure a counter plan out ( while Mike was practicing his fighting skills and his shooting accuracy.)They have marked all the possibilities of the places that the crafts would stick its head out. According to the plan, the demons would surround this place. The demons had whole bunch of armies while they had three because it was the Halloween holiday.

 

"We could set up some bombs beside the places that the crafts would stick their head out." Mike said, with the position of the Thinker. " Um, Thinker, this might work if the time is stopped. In two hours, all of them will be surfaced on the ground. Humans would be killed or demons would be killed."  Waffu was suddenly attracted by the phrase: Demons would be killed. So he asked," why? Demons are fast, fierce and brave." Beckett answered," machines are cold-blood, no-live things. Maybe I should show you something about gun." He thought for a while and pointed at Waffu.

" You said you could be invisible, right?" Beckett said. Waffu nodded, unable to see what his partner was going to do.

 

" You will have to go into the police station and take some guns for me. They are like this." Then he fumbled for his IPhone and searched for the photos of various kinds of guns that the police used. " Now we will go into the police station to find the directional signs for the whole building." Burglar, I am going to be a burglar, Waffu thought.

 

Then they ran into the police station again and do illegal things in it. They all thought, I won't miss this sarcasm.

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Soon, they found the directional sign, and they knew the weapons-storing room was on third floor. 

 

Now, the ten-year-old mastermind quickly formed a plan and explained it to Waffu.

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Waffu patiently waited for Beckett to finish his explanation. He was stunned. Never met a thing shorter than me that could think of a centaur plan. Delighted, he waited for the lift door to open.

 

He walked in the lift with two policemen on his left, of course he was unnoticed. Unfortunately, they didn't go for third floor. For three rounds, finally, he was able to get out the lift, safely reaching third floor. He was blown by cool air-condition breeze, he covered his mouth to prevent doing the stupid thing--yelling. 

 

Now he waited for the chaos.

 

Suddenly, there was an announcement. " B1, B2 team, pick your weapons and get to coordinates E4."  

 

" Ah, the human did it." He said under his breath, seeing some police officers rushing out of rooms and entered the weapons room almost immediately. He followed them, and he was the last to go in. He picked up  two guns, a long one and a short one. He sniffed for human's scent. Good, no one was here. He opened the door and shifted to be a naive boy, then he casted a image of a police officer, and grabbed the image's hand. This image could cause a large magic loss to me, he thought bitterly. 

 

He got to the emergency staircases and be invisible again. Now he waited again when he reached ground floor. He peeped through the window and saw Beckett and Mike laughing. Suddenly, they went to take something, and it revealed to be six large boxes, which could hold an adult demon. Adult demons were big, always with lots of muscles and some of them even reached two hundred and fifty centimeters. They stacked up the boxes and presented it proudly to the sergeant. The sergeant was enraged by these 'stupid' children and shouted at them," kids! This is police station, not a playground!"

 

In these few seconds, Waffu has already disappeared with his weapons. Beckett had said," when the officer shouts at us, you will have already go beside me under the cover of the stacked up boxes, which block the officer's sight. Then, before we close the empty boxes and seal them, you will have already put the two weapons in the boxes. Then you walked out of the door first when we dragged those boxes out. And the camera would -n't see the weapons as we have already sealed the boxes. Remember, we have you, the invisible demon, and we have two ten-year-children, and we have that image, so the police will not suspect we have sneaked the weapons past them."

 

And they succeeded.

 

Of course, the police would have the child, which was the demon and the image of policeman on the wanted list. And for several years, there haven't been anyone arrested.

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COUNTRYSIDE, 1.5 km far from the police station

" Now I have to make sure one thing." Beckett took the weapons out, the long one was an assault rifle while the short one was a pistol. He carefully unloaded the clips and found it was full of bullets, pistol with ten bullets and assault rifle with thirty bullets. He muttered a praise to himself, then explained." I had deduced that the guns are already with bullets inside because of convenience. And it turned out to be right."

 

" Can you please stop praising yourself? We only have forty five minutes left." Mike urged in a very threatening way, noticing he was almost useless in this adventure, and decided to earn some attention now.

 

" We will now see if the bullets work." He told the others, as Mike picked up the guns. Then Waffu piled two scales like armor off his body and placed them on the grass which was 30 meters far from their standing position.

 

Mike aimed carefully at the targets with a professional assassin's gesture.

After a stunning 'bang', Waffu dashed towards his scales and horrified to see there was a hole on two scales as they were connected by a string.

There was nothing in our world that can penetrate two scaled at one second. Even sharp swords in demon world could not cut a scale off the body. And if the demons fought the humans, demons species must extinct.

 

Someone tapped his back and he said," I deduce that demons have shortcomings like humans too, they are scared of death." It was Beckett. " And now we have to figure a plan to attract all the demons at the same place." Waffu looked at Beckett for a while and said guiltily," I think I can offer this help to you. Beckett smiled and said," please speak."

 

It was proved to be useful later.

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The demon armies were still waiting for the flares and General Bikk gave the last notice to the armies.  

 

" Who are we first going for?" He yelled to the crowd.

" The traitor!" They roared and opened their big mouth. Their big mouth was likely to eat a full grown bull.

" How do we find him?"

" We smell him out."

" Then what are we doing?"

" We surround humans, slaughter humans and retake our land."

 

Then, he stepped out of the armies' sight. The traitor spell was so good. Once the demon was considered to be a traitor by the generals and leaders, the traitor's body would be smelly to demons. He thought with delight, the traitor and all the humans would be slaughtered, and there would only be peace since the victory.

 

He looked at the flares underneath him and was delighted to see the flares coming towards him fast. The spirit of Lukos is helping us too, he thought and he yelled at the armies, instructing them to board the crafts now.

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Mike and Beckett were standing on a grassland behind a museum which stored antique things. Waffu was in the museum, still in his mission. The moonlight shone faintly on the two humans. Beckett looked nice and childish with his confident grin while Mike looked terrifying with his pistol in his holster and his assault rifle on his hands. If he put on a cowboy hat, it would be perfect.

 

Suddenly, there were stomping and roaring sound coming towards them. Beckett looked at his watch, it was six minutes earlier than what they heard from Waffu. Beckett started figuring out a plan to delay the tragedy.

 

As Waffu mentioned, being a traitor to his own kind, all the demons would come to him first.

 

At first, only several heads with horn appeared. Then, thousands of heads came in their sight. Moonlight shone on their sky-pointing silver swords and bows, making them glitter in the dark. It was surely beautiful, beautiful in an united way, but there was something more important at stake.

 

" You two, aren't you scared of us? So get out of our way now. No...wait for a second, did the traitor tell you everything about our plan?" Unfortunately, General Bikk said it in Demonese, their language. 

 

" Can you please say it in English, or we can't stop you demons from being slaughtered by the humans?" Mike shouted to the General, with a script on his hand.

 

Of course, this sentence was to make them halt and to pay attention on them. General Bikk surely understood it, as demons were good at any tongues. How could he bear such challenge? Did the filthy human say that humans can defeat them, no, slaughter them?

 

" No way, you guys are so short and humans  don't even have the strength to lift one of our swords." He shouted threateningly, three times louder than Mike, forcing Mike and Beckett to step back for three steps. Beckett was covering his ear, wondering if he had heard a flash bang beside him.

 

Mike then forced a chuckle and shouted again." Humans have changed, some of us are nicer now. Only few of us remain cruel. Humans have something that you don't know and you don't want to face." He halted for the General's reaction. 

 

As expected, General was furious. He stomped his feet twice and shouted," what is it?" 

 

" It is called guns, which could penetrate your armor scales. If you don't believe it, please peel off one of your scales and holds it in the air and walk towards us and stop when we called. Be careful not to form a straight line with it, or you may be hurt." Mike read out the instructions.

 

Enraged, General Bikk picked a demon up and peeled four scales off. He ran towards them. Then, Mike told him to halt. Without hesitation, he shot twice. General Bikk was sent staggering back by the force and he was shocked to see that big holes were on the scales. He suddenly shivered.It is bad, and general shouldn't shiver in battles. He stood straighter, and stomped the ground twice. He raised his hand, and yelled," soldiers, we are to kill the traitor and the humans now!"

 

Then, a cold but loud voice came behind Beckett and Mike," No, you aren't going to destroy the human race. And the traitor is not a traitor."

And the voice didn't belong to Waffu.

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20 MINUTES EARLIER

The two little men and the demon leaped off the bus and dashed towards the museum which exhibited antiques. They came behind the museum and Beckett told Waffu," good luck, I will be waiting for you here." Mike was beside them, trying to heard any piece of information. He is bullying me now, with his dull thinking, he thought.

 

Without a minute, Beckett disarmed all the alarms, cameras and sensors with his super IPone. Waffu was then climbing the outer wall of the museum with his moisture on his hands and feet. He finally reached the window. Shifting into an ant, he was able to get through the small gap beneath the window. 

 

The room was quiet, because the statue would be exhibited after Halloween holiday has passed. Once he shifted back to his original demon, he took a close look at the statue. 

 

The statue was like a demon. He shone the torch towards the statue. Under the light, the statue revealed to be a slim demon, which its height reached two meters. He looked at its horns, one blue and one green.

He had seen these horns in the history textbook. The figure in the caption was named,"legendary demon: Banik the time master" Banik was said to had been lost in the last battle which took place seven thousand years ago, but when he was going to die, he successfully conjured a time spell that separated humans and demons.

 

He looked at Banik's eyes, which were grey at the moment. Then, some words came into his mind:Touch my palm and send magic to me, little demon. Who was talking to my mind, Waffu thought. I am Banik and I am right in front of you. I need magic source to release my body from these freaking rocks.  I can sense danger around me, a old general has come here. I can sense him.  Without hesitation, he sent magic into the old demon's body. As he had used magic before in the police station incidents, there wasn't much magic in his body now.

 

His sight was blurring. He felt weak. Seeing the rocks cracking through his blurring sight, he had his last thought, thanks to Beckett's fortune, he picked up a magazine which had the cover of the statue of Banik. Thanks to his sharp sight, his eyes caught the cover instantly and he believed that Banik was found by humans. Hope Banik would stop the tragedy from happening.

 

The dark spread from the corner of his eye like malignant computer virus, drifting him into a sleep.

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NOW, BEHIND THE MUSEUM

Beckett and Mike turned towards the place where the cold voice came from. There stood a tall figure, at least 2 meters tall. He was holding unconscious Waffu in his arms. Even Waffu was not too heavy, but the demon's hands were shaking under Waffu's weight.

 

Words suddenly burst out from the demon armies. " Is he the time master, Banik?" " Is this real?" " Wasn't he lost in the last battle with humans?"

 

The old demon, Bandik, waved his hand twice, making the crowd quiet. Then he focused his eyes on General Bikk.

 

" Brig Bikk, why are you here? ( "Ah, his first name was Brig." said the crowd.) And why the demons behind you are having weapons on their hands?" 

 

" Ummmmm....."

 

" To destroy the human race!" said the crowd of demons and Beckett and Mike, then the demons added," so to complete the wish of the dead warriors in the last battle." 

 

" I think we had discussed not to take any revenge to humans in the last battle, Brig. And I still remember it was you who buried me in the rocks, which forced me to take the 'long rest' to prevent dying." He said firmly. Those words were convincing, thought all the demons except Bikk.

 

Bikk cleared his throat and shouted at the demon armies," after such a long sleep, our legendary Banik must have some crazy thoughts or wrong memories."

 

" I have already seen the history textbook content from the memory of this little demon, which is in my arms now. First of all, the obvious mistake was that we didn't wish for a revenge to the humans, but have peace. Also, the ten great warriors which included you and me in the last battle have words stenciled on their right arm, but it misses it. I still have the stenciled words on my right hand. I bet you have them on your right arm too. (You must be stunned by how old can a demon be, for example, Bikk was already over seven-thousand-year-old)" Banik said to the demons.

 

The demon armies looked at each other and nodded, no one had ever touched or seen Bikk's right arm, which was hidden beneath a layer of special armor, there must be some secret beneath it.

 

" Also, humans haven't discovered you all yet, of course, except us, but we will keep the secret. Humans have things that can kill you all in several minutes. Please obey the old and intelligent demon, do not take revenge to the humans." Beckett added.

 

" Strong human boy, come with me and guard me." Banik said to Mike. Mike was respected now, so he took hold tightly of his assault rifle and walked with the demon warrior. " Now, show your right hand to the army now." Banik said to Bikk.

 

Bikk then said," Um, it would be too painful to take it off my arm. After all these years, it might have glued with my arm."

 

" I will help you." Banik said softly to Bikk. Bikk knew what he was going to do, he would do the time-reversing spell on his special armor, reversing it to the time which the special armor hadn't been made yet. He quietly fumbled for his special-made spear which could penetrate any demons' armor. Mike was sensitive to movements, he leaped and landed on Banik. However, at this very moment, Banik realized what was happening and cast a time stopping spell on Bikk. As Mike and Bikk were wrestling each other, so both of them drifted to the second space.

 

" Oops, this is really bad, really bad. I have to spend a few minutes to send them both back to current space-time." Banik said regretfully, casting more and more time spells.

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IN THE SECOND SPACE TIME

Mike and Bikk was aware of the force which was pulling to another space-time. The space-time drifting nearly made them vomit. After they had recovered, they were curious of their surrounding.

The place wasn't changed, they were still standing on the grassland behind the museum. However, the demons and human surrounding them were motionless, as they all stopped at this particular space-time.

 

Bikk first charged. He was fast, like traveling light. Mike just stood there, as he knew the enemy would have to come near his body. When the blur was near, he kicked straight at it, sending the blur flying. The blur later revealed to be Bikk. His eyes were red, and his voice was layered with magic," Kill yourself, now." Special skill since a demon was born, I see that, he managed to think freely at this moment. Then, the next moment, his shaking hands were going for his pistol ( his assault rifle had lost during the space-time travel) and the demon's demand was irresistible. The red eyes, no eye contact! he thought through gritted teeth. He fumbled for his gun and pointed the barrel to Bikk, pretending to kill himself, no eye contact for sure. However, he was weak, he couldn't even lift the pistol.

 

Bikk stopped beside him and picked up the pistol and pointed the barrel to himself, as he thought Mike was trying to kill himself with the barrel was pointing at him, the General. He said, amused," kill by human machines, sarcasm, huh?" He searched for the trigger while Mike was pretending to be painful to accept his fate. " Ahhh, finally, I find it." he said as he pulled the trigger. The bullet sent the demon flying backwards. Mike stood up, and walked towards the motionless demon General with his exhausted and tired body.

 

He sat beside the corpse. The bullet had crush a part of the demon's skull, leaving a hole on his forehead. The last gleeful but evil smile still etched on his face.

 

He waited until another force pulled him to an unknown world.

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The time master created a Time Circle and mouthed a spell. Within a second, Mike and Bikk appeared again. Mike was sitting on the ground while Bikk was lying on the ground, green liquid oozing down his head.

 

" Oh, General Bikk is dead!" "The human killed the General..." The crowd spoke to the ones beside them. Banik then silenced them and said," firstly, this little demon was not our traitor, he was a good friend to us. Secondly, Bikk was the one who wanted to lead you all to your death, but we were lucky to meet these humans. They help us, so our breed will not extinct."

 

He turned and bowed to Mike and Beckett, and the demons followed him.

 

" The sun is rising, we must go now." He said, facing east. He turned to face the two kids and said," we aren't supposed to make friends with humans, but bow, my thought and my mind has changed. Thank you, our friend." Then he board the craft and disappeared.

 

" How did you beat the General?" Beckett asked.

Mike told the whole story to Beckett.

Beckett chuckled after Mike finished his story," I would like to tape the story, and name it: Mike uses his brain for the first time."