• The sun was slowly rising. It was 9:00 A.M. Warm, orange, our source of light pushed itself over the horizon to greet us humans. Birds were chirping in a maple tree. A dog was playing fetch with its owner. A neighbor of mine was mowing his lawn. Further downtown, the blind man who plays guitar every day at the curb for his own pleasure was starting off House of Rising Sun. The small city of Terreyno was, overall, very peaceful. Not a thing dared to disturb its serenity. Maybe one or two things could have gone wrong.

    Anyway, my name is Marc DuBois, and this is my story.

    I got out of bed and went downstairs to have a cup of coffee. I lived by myself. Life sometimes got lonely, and I longed to have company. I never got a dog or a cat or any pet, though, because I could barely manage myself. I didn’t have any economic or health problems. Oh, no, it wasn’t that. It was actually the fact that I had just been fired from my old job.

    <Good riddance,> I thought at first. Being a plumber was too dirty of a job. But then, later, I realized that my job had actually kept me occupied. So, that day, I decided to go off and see the town a little. I was only connected to the town through the newspaper and work, so I didn’t really know the place all that well. I thought that, maybe, a walk down there would be good for me.

    I left my house at about 11:00 A.M. and headed down to a nearby gas station. As I headed on towards the middle of town, I noticed the streets got thicker and people walked more by foot instead of car. After a while, I realized that the city was very socially active. People stopped and talked a lot, which was strange for a city, even a small one like Terreyno. I kept walking and eventually stopped to eat at a café around 2 P.M. I got out of there and kept walking.

    I then came across a monument that I had heard a lot about. It was some kind of spongy stone that had fallen from the sky a year before. After a man had approached it and mysteriously died of some kind of poisoning after a week, the mayor decided to close off the stone. Since then, it has been a major tourist attraction. It didn’t look so impressive at first when I saw it in the news. However, the real thing was just jaw-dropping…
    It was HUGE. The whole thing was about the size of the original World Trade Center. Plus, some kind of purple light came out of it. I could tell it wasn’t ultraviolet, because otherwise it would be dangerous to come as near it as the tourists were. I walked closer and closer. Eventually, I realized that I was right at the rope that separated the guards and the rock from us. I somehow lost my balance at that moment and fell.

    “Oh my God! Sir, are you all right?” I turned my head towards the voice after I was helped up.

    “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.” I responded politely. A young attractive woman was standing there with a worried look on her face.

    “Alright,” she said with a smile, “then we’ll be taking you with us, Mister DuBois.”