The lunch room filled with what felt like thousands of students. They poured in from directions I didn’t even know were possible. A red-headed girl with a constellation of freckles sat across from me and was quickly followed by a tall boy with dark green eyes. They quickly introduced themselves, but their names quickly vanished and I was left with only their faces. My dramatising mind decided on new—although not better— names:constellation and forest. I don’t know why I did this to myself every time I met new people especially since it would now take me forever to learn their actual names. But I continued conversation anyhow and they remained blissfully unaware that they were now creations of nature.
The cold brightness left the sky as the moon filled the land with heat and blackness. I shifted uncomfortably in my desk chair as I attempted to study for my final exams. The Moon didn’t used to give off heat; before, it was always the Sun. It made more sense, too, if you think about it. Fire gave off heat and the Sun was, well, a giant ball of flames. I remembered learning about it how and why their positions switched in school when I was younger, but I don’t remember the lesson, only that the lesson happened.
I brought my attention back to the numbers and equations; I couldn’t put off studying for math any longer. Eventually, hours seemed to have passed with me in my trance-like studying phase. The next time I looked up from my paper with consciousness, it was two in the morning and red glow was emancipating from my window.
The moon was as red as a strawberry in June. In a daze of fascination, I moved toward the window to get a clearer view of the moon where it wasn’t blocked by the oak tree growing outside my window. The next thing I know, I’m climbing onto that very tree and lowering myself to the ground. The heat burned my skin in ways I had never felt before, but my mind was too curious to stop moving, and I kept moving until I reached a plain corn field. Then I saw the bodies. Hundreds of bodies scattered through the growing corn stalks. Each one a little more burnt or melted than the last. I tried to run, to scream, but my body just moved me further into the field where I would remain.
