17: Names

Diego Ballesteros

by Diego Ballesteros

Story

Archie chased me down all the way into my room, but I slammed the door in his face and left him outside. He struck and banged the door, begging us to discuss what had just happened, but I ignored him and walked towards my window to look at the Nanamites in the distance. They all seemed to be looking back at me with a smile. My heart was racing.

The Nanamite inside the dream had explained to me that if I was to choose that humanity was worth saving, I would continue my life as a human, and they would move on to the next prey. However, she also explained that if I was to choose that humanity was an apt meal, I would go back to them and live my life as a Nanamite, eating civilizations for breakfast.

She showed me their world, their reality. They lived in one huge herd, and traveled around the cosmos visiting every single planet, gathering knowledge and wisdom from every corner of the universe, occasionally eating those planets that were actually inhabited and not worth saving. Their bodies didn’t die if they were fed. They were immortal. Concepts such as time, pain, and love were somewhat foreign to them because their quest for survival had given them a perspective so broad over everything, that nothing so miniscule such as death could alter their emotions and guide them like it does with humans. It was fascinating.

Tears rolled down to my lips. It was then that I realized I was smiling. I stepped up to my desk and hovered by my window. I could hear the soft chants of our graduation ceremony going on nearby. I thought about my friends and how special that day must have been for them. I thought about all of them saying hello for the last time, and then saying goodbye for the very last time too. I thought about all the people that I came across in these four years that I never said goodbye to, and all the friendships that would be left in the air lingering, simply because one day the lives that we knew came to an end. I thought about Kind, and all the dreams that him and my friends shared together. Mountains of hopes and dreams that never came to fruition. Countless plans spoken out loud, only to become a reminder that life never amounts to what you wish for it to be. It was bittersweet, and it was also extremely sad, but it was so, so beautiful too. We had so much fun.

As Archie kept banging on my door and screaming at me to let him in, I gazed at the beautiful world below the Nanamites in the skies. The trees, the rivers, the highways, the birds. I looked further down, and I saw the buildings surrounding my dorm, and all the tiny people hugging and laughing with each other. In the midst of all the tiny people, I saw Memory. He was shouting, screaming my name from below. He was limping, and he left a long trail of blood all the way from the hospital. He was trying to keep his organs from leaving his body, pushing them in with both of his hands as he did everything he could to reach me. He went inside the dormitory, splattering blood and tissue all over the lobby, then got inside the elevator, spilling even more blood all over the buttons as he went up. Coughing, spiting, and vomiting even more blood, with all the force he had left inside his horrible soul, he reached my door and slammed it open alongside Archie.

But I was gone.

© Diego Ballesteros 2024-08-02

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Novels & Stories