Hope

“So, it was during history class when it happened, let me tell you the story.” I hold tightly to the locket hidden in my pocket, take two deep breaths and look up at the stern man sitting across from me and I begin.

“I was sitting in class yeah, and honestly just alternating between dozing off and staring at the clock, missing practically every word Mr Gibbons says but it’s not really a big deal, I was there two years ago, I know what happened. Actually, now that I think about it, shouldn’t history class be about things I wasn’t there for. Whatever, I wouldn’t be listening to that anyway.”

A cloud shifts out of the way of the sun, and I’m temporarily blinded. I sit up straighter and take another glance at the clock. Still ten minutes of this. Gibbons catches my eye.

‘Do you know the answer?’ Probably.

‘Sorry Sir, can you repeat the question?’

‘You would probably benefit from paying a little more attention to my class young man, listen closely.’

‘Yes Sir, of course Sir.’

“You probably, won’t believe me, but I did honestly try to focus from there, he was talking about the American reaction to The Event, and what happened when their President stood up in front of the world and tried to reassure us. When he showed us pictures though, I just couldn’t look any more. I didn’t want to see her like that. I looked across the classroom and yeah, everyone else was looking away too, out the window or down at their desks.

“Or at me. Hope was looking at me. I could probably count the number of times that had happened up until then on one hand. She was the only girl in our class, you know. It’s probably not surprising then that I thought about her a lot. No, not like that. I was just … fascinated. I’m 15, OK give me a break. I don’t exactly have much experience with women.

“So yeah, she’s looking at me and I smile at her, and I smile back. There’s nothing else in the world but that smile, not in that moment and, I’m not sure, but I think that was the only time I ever saw her smile. It was one of those smiles you saw in photos or old 20th century movies. It was sort of like, fireworks, lighting up the darkness around it in an explosion of colour, tunnelling your vision so that you no longer notice anything else.

“Then one of her guards leans down and whispers something in her ear, she looks away and starts writing in her notebook again. I looked at the guard too, I think I probably know his name, but it doesn’t matter. He smiled at me too actually, but a normal smile, a sad smile that wishes it could be happy.

“I don’t think I heard another word Mr Gibbons said for the rest of the lesson, I was thinking about Hope and how I might go about asking her to hang out some time. It would be difficult; her father wouldn’t like it at all, but I should probably just ask right? What’s the worst that could happen?

“Yeah, I feel stupid saying it now, obviously but I honestly thought those exact words while I sat there in that stupid classroom.

“Anyway, there I am staring at this girl and just daydreaming when out of the corner of my eye I see motion through the window. It shocks me to attention, and I turn just in time to see that it’s a long black car. The same one that pulls up in front of our classroom at this time every day, tinted windows, bullet proof glass, the works. Ten years ago, only the highest-ranking politicians and the richest scumbags in the world would drive around in those beasts, but they’re all around nowadays.

“So, there I am right, the car’s arrived so I know that there’s only mere moments, perhaps a minute before the end of class. I look back to Hope, not lost in daydreams this time but intensely focused.

I have to decide right now, if I don’t talk to her now, I might never work up the courage to do so.

The bell rings.

Nobody moves except one of the guards, kicking the safety off his gun, he opens the door to survey the area. Satisfied, he signals to the other guard who shimmies Hope out of the room.

My heart falls out of my chest. I waited too long, missed my chance.

“Once they’re gone, Mr Gibbons lets the rest of us leave and I rush out just as Hope and her guards are about to get in the car. I called to her, suddenly confident and she hesitates. I’m making my way too her, quickly, her guards clearly aren’t happy.

“Then, a light flashed in the sky. Something was headed towards us. I knew what it was, we all did. The guards started shooting at it, but it wasn’t even slowed down. It landed right there in front of me, one of Them. There was a blinding light and all sound disappeared. In slow motion, I watched as it reached out towards Hope and, with her guards still showering It with slow-mo bullets, it simply touched her, and she wasn’t there anymore. All that was left behind was the locket she’d worn around her neck.

“They c-can’t, uh, can’t affect metals. We all know that.

“Then it was gone.

“Then you were here.

“What happens next? Does it even matter?”