1 Dystopia

The world was over. A small portion of the world had been lifted off the face of the earth. Too small a portion for Yemin's taste. He had been left as the meek or the sinner. But there were still sunny days. Yemin chose to focus on the sunny days. After the reckoning the world was scarred. Technology was useless. But that wasn't what he missed the most. What did he miss the most? Yemin missed all of the forests. But today he was walking down beautiful hills near town with a few trees in the distance. He was looking at houses that were no bigger than the size of his thumb, from his distance at least. The tumbling grass and strolling hills were accompanying him. The wide range of empty space was filled with little green hairs of grass.

He laid out his plaid blanket in the usual place, the last hill before the nuzzled field. He threw it up in the field, both hands grasping the edges of it. And placed it out over the grass. He opened out his tot bag. In it lay an apple, a book, and, strangely enough, a heart shaped locket.

He looked in his tot bag and found the locket. It was a heart shaped locket as you know. Not beautiful like a cartoon heart, but shaped like a real heart, vascular and repugnant.

How did it end up in his tot bag? He thumbed it delicately. The heart itself was

crimson while the veins were purple and green. Through his persistent fingering, it opened in half. There were two pictures located inside the locket. One was the boy, fair haired and stoic. The other was of a man blonde and handsome. The second was her father who he lived with. He had always been very kind to him.

He contemplated who it belonged to. It wasn't him. "His father?" He wondered. He would have to go back and check. He preferred what were once emoji hearts. After some hours enjoying the sunset he walked back to town. He just couldn't shake the question of who the locket belonged to. Was it really his father?

Yemin opened the book and read the words: "deeply he regretted his choice, but couldn't escape the journey. A tree with only one branch does not know choice."

He looked out into the sunset. This sunset had meaning to him. The rise and fall of a man's life just like in his book.

He read for an hour and left.

He walked back saying "hi" to all the clouds. The town he was going back to was hidden from the world in mountain cliffs. They were careful as to who they let in. It had beauty everywhere. The balconies had squiggles for posts. And the street lamps all bent down and gave him a warm hello. It was dark out now and the cobblestone streets all winked at him with the light that came off the street.

It was still bustling though filled to the brim with people of all kinds, all of the townsfolk. He was just passing through the market when he felt someone watching him. He walked around a little bit. But, he still felt eyes on him. He met the man who served the bread at the bread shop. His name was Al. Al talked to him. "How ya' doing?" Al asked.

"Fine, dad is getting pretty old." Yemin said.

"That wrinkly old fart." Said Al.

"He's a good man" Yemin said.

"I know." Al said smiling like he had a pain in his arse.

He smiled. Life hasn't been so bad since the solar flare.

Europe had that everlasting beauty, effervescent, passing through time and space to end up perfectly attractive.

But the nighttime hustle and bustle was giving way to a more solitary stroll. People were finding their way home like he was to his. All for the better, after all, wolves were known to stalk these streets at night.

As he was going home he saw a strange sight: a teenager standing under the streetlamp at night. He was making eye contact with him. The gaze penetrated him.

clearly he was the boy from the locket's picture, maybe. Yelling through the street, he followed him. "Your locket!" He called.

But the teenager just walked away. He tried to traverse the cobblestone streets."Excuse me." He exhales to the few passers by.

Finely he reached him. The teenager was stuck between Yemin and a brick wall. He approached feeling like a villain. "I'm not trying to hurt you" he told him. "You lost your locket."

"What's that?" He feigned interest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is this locket yours?"

"Ugh such an ugly thing, I wouldn't own that…" he said with eyes closed in a smile like the perfect mask.

"But, look here," he said. "It has a picture of you in it."

Yemin opened it up to reveal the sepia picture.

smiled, a knowing smile.

He plopped his bag down.

"Here, let me show you my treasure.

He took out of his bag a can of beans, three beers, and a picture of himself.

"This is what I looked like in my childhood." He showed him the picture."

He smiled.

Then he took out his last treasure: the caviar in a tin.

"You have caviar" Yemin drooled.

"I'll share it with you."

Yemin giggled.

The teenager raised an eyebrow.

Yemin laughed.

"And beer too." Yemin said.

"Here, have one." The teenager offered and tossed Yemin a beer.

He cracked it open and sucked it down. Then came the burp.

"Want another" the teenager offered.

"C'mon,'' the teenager said, packing up his belongings. Let's go to my place.

"Alright" Yemin said.

Yemin walked over to his place. It was a short walk.

They went over to his place and one thing lead to another, and Yemin was naked eating caviar. The apocalypse never knew such luxury.

The teenager's brain behind his eyes watched him, measured him, and sized the young man up.

The events of the night became somewhat a mystery to young Yemin. All he could remember were eyes buried in anger glaring down at him during.

Lighted eyes but dark all the same. With so much hate inside them. What was it he hated him or the apocalypse.

He was crouching in a corner when Yemin left, glaring downward at the caviar. "My brother, my caviar, and your negligence has lead us to this moment." He said. "Eat your tin full of shame."

The teenagers eyes looked like fire with yellow rims burning brown. Yemin was still naked but he grabbed his underpants and hopped into them with one hand around the door knob. Fear moved him as did something else.

He went home

When he got there he felt it the necklace around his neck. The teenager must have placed it on him. He took it off and opened it. Inside the necklace was a picture of himself. How did the teenager find this picture? How did he place it around his neck? There was another picture of a boy who looked similar to the one previously there. The teenager. He took the picture out of its framed spot in the necklace and found it had been folded in two. He unfolded it and found it had been the same picture all along. Two boys were in the picture. And that's when he realized why he wasn't lifted to heaven. He was the meek and the sinner, left only to sin. No punishment. No beauty. No heaven.