Down to Ashes

When you are awake and asleep are two very similar things here, in the City of Vanta. You sleep and see darkness and when you wake you see the same things. However this bizarre concept is all too normal for me and everyone else. We wake up to the darkness, it has always been like this and it always will be.

Six o’clock. Right on schedule. I get up from my stiff bed and quickly get a light meal for breakfast. Just some regular toast seems fine to me. It’s easy to make and I can just carry on with other things while it’s toasting. And so I just take a few slices and place it gently into the toaster. I then leave it alone as I start packing up some stuff to head to the campus. Pencil, eraser, laptop, phone and keys. Good I have everything. I quickly got back to the toaster and checked the fresh toast just in case if it was burnt. Luckily it wasn’t so I swiftly start eating. It’s probably a quarter past six by now. Having some time to spare I decide to check on the news.

“Good morning everyone. I hope you had a lovely morning as today is supposedly the armageddon according to the Sumerian calender. Is this truly the end of the world or will there be a different outcome?” I chuckle to myself at the absurdity of it all. End of the world? That’s cute. Such childish rambling seems idiotic, to put it nicely. I don’t think much of it though so I just move on with my morning.

I try to grab my towel but my hand only feels the sharp coldness of the metal. Did I move it? I check my bedroom thinking that it might be there. It wasn’t. I check the bathroom. Not there as well. I quickly gave up looking and take a fresh towel. I wrap it around my neck and also snatch a change of clothes. On that note, I go ahead and take a quick shower. I should be on time if there aren’t any delays. I quickly rush and grab my bag, leaving my apartment for now. On the way I contemplate whether I should go down the stairs or go through the elevator. I turn right heading straight to the stairs when I immediately regret it, however I felt committed to continue. As I leave the building, I stop to catch by breath. I take breaths in a rhythmic pattern. I start to sprint towards the train station in hope that I can catch it in time, as well to make an effort to stop getting to class late. As I run I make sure I do not stray from the guidance path. Often people would hear my heaving step and move away to make room but for those who don’t I try to apoligise to them, but being out of breathe makes me incapable of speech. I just try my best to sound empathetic before I start running again.

I somehow make it to the station on time, in fact, I arrived early. The exhaustion causes me to retreat to the crowded seats. I normally wouldn’t do this as I don’t like interacting with people I don’t know, however this will be the only exception. “You seem out of breath. Have you been running?” a middle aged man asks, in hopes to start a conversion.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I snarl.

“Hey, no need to be rude, just trying to be friendly that’s all.”

“Well, I would be glad if you just leave me alone” I groan and try to fix up myself to atleast look decent, while the man attempts to talk with some of the other passengers.

I look at my ticket despite knowing what it says. I sigh and try to be patient as to wait for a few extra minutes. If I arrived here at a quarter to seven then I should have waited for three hours now. I luckily have early classes therefore I have no need to take the impossibly early trains and even so I still don’t get enough sleep. My nights are always filled with books, writing and more books - it almost seems sad.

“Arriving to Vanta college of history and archeology.” that’s my queue I hop up and speedily walk to campus. I wonder if anyone has seen the news yet, I hope not. I don’t want to deal with any pointless arguments. I hear other people trying to get through the narrow door so I decide to hop of a different exit near the front as I know I should have enough time. I was correct, with each cart the amount of people slowly trickled down to zero. Even though I have to walk an extra few metres, I don’t mind. I adjust my backpack around my shoulders and step off the train.

The campus yard is humongous, I has all the classes surrounding the grassy area with the centre lecture hall lined with ancient like oak trees. The greenery keeps the outside of the campus very fresh and peaceful.

Once I arrive to the classroom, pretty much all the students are present - at least the ones that I know of. I take a seat around the middle of the class so I can pay attention while not having any attention drawn to me - a perfect state to be in. We all wait patiently for the processor as she is known to be in her golden age. But throughout the time that I knew her, she always acted as if she was in her early twenties and radiating this wonderful atmosphere.

The day went by as usual if not better and I head back home but before that I suddenly feels very warm. The train felt the same way as well. I could tell that the passengers were feeling it as well since I can hear most using a fan and I can smell it too. With each second of the afternoon, I can feel the temperature rise more and more. However the strangest thing out of everything was back at the city where a crowd gathered near where a sort of faint glow in the sky seemed to emanate heat and a small percentage of light. My mind flashes back to the news. But I refuse to believe that a small heat wave can end an advanced civilisation. I wish I could take it back as right there, the faintest glow combusted to a ginormous ball of heat and light. Now the city is left in ashes.