"The Seventh Cloud Children: How the Parent Generation Stole Their Grandkids’ Breath"

Opening Scene (Hook):

"On the day I discovered my brother was breathing my stolen air… I decided to steal something back from them: one hour of real time."

—Nora’s Journal, 2090

Chapter 1: The Debt of Breath

The smog choked New Eden like a serpent’s grip. Sixteen-year-old Nora pressed her palm against the glass pod where her brother Elias slept, his chest rising in sync with the Artificial Lung Unit strapped to his back. The government’s promise: 100 years of clean air… if their parents kept paying the "Carbon Debt."

But their father’s memories—the last ones of their mother’s laugh—were gone. Sold.

Above Elias, a hologram flickered:

"Payment overdue. Oxygen suspended in 48 hours."

Nora’s reflection in the glass showed sunken eyes, her skin ashen from a lifetime under synthetic UV lights.

Chapter 2: The Memory Bank Heist

New Eden’s streets reeked of desperation and ozone pills peddled in neon-lit vending machines:

"5 grams of air: 10 memories. 1 PURE MINUTE: 100 memories."

Nora’s gloved hands trembled as she hacked the Memory Bank Corporation. The gloves, frayed at the edges, barely muffled the screams of ad drones overhead.

The screen flashed. A file labeled "Calypso’s Collection" appeared.

Her mother’s face—smiling, alive—stared back.

"They’re not just stealing air… They’re selling her laughter."

Chapter 3: The Plastic Lungs

Guided by static-filled whispers from her mother’s AI diary, Nora breached the tower’s core.

The chamber stank of antiseptic and decay. Thousands of glowing plastic bags pulsed like diseased hearts, each labeled with a child’s name.

Elias’s bag glowed crimson.

Beside it, a holographic label hissed:

"CALYPSO’S LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM: 99% COMPLETE."

Nora’s breath hitched. The air tasted metallic, like blood.

Chapter 4: The Grandmother in the Machine

"Every breath you steal from the future… fuels my past."

The hologram of Ms. Calypso, CEO and ageless crone, flickered. Her left cheek was porcelain-smooth; the right, a sagging mass of wires and rot.

Nora’s gloves sparked as she uncovered the truth:

The "Carbon Debt" was a lie.

Calypso was her grandmother—the first to sell her memories in 2050.

The children’s lungs? Filters for the elite’s poison.

"Your mother begged too… before I took her voice."

Chapter 5: The Breath Revolt

Nora jammed her mother’s AI chip into the panel. The tower shuddered. Alarms wailed like dying beasts.

"You’ll kill us all!" Calypso’s hologram disintegrated.

"No," Nora gasped, her lungs burning. "We’ll taste freedom… even if it’s poison."

The Ending (Open & Haunting):

Nora collapsed as the dome split. Elias awoke to a crack of blue sky—a hue he’d only seen in stolen memories.

In the rubble, newborns wailed, their lungs tethered to threads of hope.

On the shattered screen, a message bled:

"BREATH IS A RIGHT… NOT A MEMORY. REBOOT?"

Author’s Note:

This story blends climate anxiety with family betrayal. If it left you breathless, share it before the air runs out!

Hashtags:

#ClimateHorror #DystopianFamily #MemoryThieves #BreatheOrDie

Engagement Prompt:

"Would you reboot the system… or let humanity choke on its past? Comment below!"