Flying through the sky, passing all the stars, the light bearer lies. A celestial being that is only a ball of light, but much more powerful than you may think. The light bearer has an important job, to deliver light to all the stars. Every morning it flies across the universe, maneuvering through asteroids and meteors. The light bearer has to deliver light each day, lighting up all the stars and warming back up the universe. And if the light bearer missed its delivery to every star in the universe even once, it could destroy the entire universe itself…

I do age like normal dogs—that’s a common misconception. People think I just look the same throughout my life but that’s still not true. I do age; visibly and mentally. I do get white streaks crawling up my fur when it’s my time to go. When I do go, I never fully go. I am the forever pet. When I’m in the void, I’m almost floating in an empty room that never ends. Then, as soon as new puppies are being born, I’m born again. The process repeats all over again without an end. Birth, death, and back all over again. I’ve been many different breeds too, but my favorite one had to be a German Shepard, it was just something about protecting people that I liked. Now I was one of the Yorkshire terriers. My previous owners didn’t like them. Every time I was on a walk they would be barking vigorously until we passed. As soon as I was born, every single Yorkshire was barking. It was like a repeated bark that just echoed throughout the room. I didn’t want to bark, but then my new mother nudged me, and all the barks that were contained in my mouth came flying out faster that in could think about it. I always hated being born because I could barely hear and I was always blind, which made me feel like I was still dead, floating endlessly in the empty void. I knew I wasn’t though because I could feel the immense warmth of the other puppies reaching my body.

I sometimes think about the generations I’ve been through. I’ve been through the times when every home looks antique and fancy, and now I’ve been through modern, more contemporary homes with flat roofs and grand pillars extending down the entryway like it was a castle. When I’m born I get a bunch of memories from my past lives all morphing and combining together to show a sort of video of all the generations I’ve been through. 
The thing is, I don’t know what has made me become a forever pet. My mother wasn’t forever, because I watched her die, and I’ve never seen her when I’m in the void. Sometimes I wish I could just be a normal dog, a normal, one life dog, without all the extra lives I have to deal with. 

I guess I’m just stuck forever, as a forever pet..

I was the last one on the bouncy castle at the fair. It was fairly big and could fit around 20 people. A bunch of plastic orange pillars came down on the sides, and I could look up to see the crimson top of the castle. My mom was going out to get some food for us, so she let me stay in here to pass time. I was surprised no one was in here—bouncy castles are usually always pretty crowded where I’m from. I continued to jump onto the bouncy castle, springing up and being launched into the air until I almost touch the ceiling. Loud, blaring fair music plays in the background, but screams of joy, fear, and happiness drown the music out. I jumped down into the ground, my heart racing and beating out of my chest. I was out of breath now. I pulled on the plastic exit path, but it wouldn’t budge. I started kicking at it but made minimal progress. I eventually just layed down on the hard plastic, the sound of the castle being inflated suddenly stopped. I looked around the bouncy castle. The floor was suddenly starting to droop down, faster than it normally does. I got up but the castles floor just sank down, and my head met the hard grass. Now a giant hole was ripped in the floor. I scrambled to get out of it, watching as the castle walls started to droop and collapse. The once vibrant colors reflected the inevitable collapse. A plastic wall collapsed on top of me before I tried to get on top of it but I was smacked with another collapsing pillar, sent flying to the ground where I ripped yet another hole. I turned around and scraped down the exit door, kicking and punching. Simultaneously, my body sank down oneo the ground. I could feel the air leaving the bouncy house as I tried to free myself, and it all happened so fast that I couldn’t even scream. I desperately attempted to climb back up but I was sucked right back down, now stuck in a deep, dark abyss. My arms were too short to reach the exit anymore as the walls caved in. The rest of them collapsed on top of me, all I could see was the light from the suns glare. Now felt like the right time to scream, but with all the music and happy children already, it was barely audible…

Fields of roses, With their leaves so close. Oh how that water would flow. With the wind and its blow.

Walking down the grassy red path, And feel the earths wrath. With fields of roses so bright, They shall not stop us, even in the night.

Fields of roses, with their flowers so tall, You’ll be walking till you have to crawl. With the sun shining down on you, And the violets so blue.

The endless cloud cover, Only so long until you recover. Trees so green, With their roots so clean.

Be careful not to trip, And always keep a steady grip. With the trees so close, And those fields of rose.

Nothing but me, And the buzzing bee. Me walking down the shimmering path, But I have not seen the earths wrath.

Fields of roses, how majestic they are, Just like a fading star. Their red so bright, with their pedals so tight.

Nothing but feeling the spring breeze, Nothing but the perfect number of degrees. With their flowers so soft, Now I’m beginning to feel lost.

But how can you ignore the fields of roses, With their leaves so close. Feeling their pedals sink beneath your toes, Oh how beautiful they are, the fields of roses.

Cooper —————

The sky had turned a greenish hue, and coming down were multiple small, glowing red dots. They seemed to blink too, and I could almost make out a faint saucer shaped disc flying through the air. The sky roared as the saucers invaded. I was cowering behind wheat in a field. My parents had already been taken away, but I didn’t know how it happened. A yellow light, or rather force had seemingly sucked them up, and the next thing I do, they had vanished. 
The sirens blared and repeated the same loud frequency. Then the same robotic voice spoke, warning us that extraterrestrial creatures were invading the planet. 
My heart had almost sunk the first time I heard those words, almost not wanting to believe it. I had to come to believe that what I was seeing was something out of the ordinary, and that I was defiantly not imagining it. It was below freezing outside, and I had ran outside when I had initially seen the saucers, then out of fear, ran to hide in the wheat. My parents urged me to get back inside, but before that, they had been taken swiftly and violently, their bodies flying into the air, catapulted upward into space where who knows how many more saucers resided. I never thought the world would come to this, but here I am, watching the end of the world unfold right in front of me. 

Amelia —————

The city was not the best place to be in the situation, and I hadn’t even finished my skin care routine in time before the sirens commenced. I scrambled to look outside, wondering what the heck could be happening. What my eyes saw was pure fear, and it was something I had been dreaming for years. The end of the world. 
These flying discs or saucer-shaped things flew through the air, causing miles upon miles of destruction. Beams of light shot down from the discs before they hit some of the large skyscrapers. I scrambled to hide as the glass shattered all at once and smoke plumed into the air, clouds obscuring the once warm, bright blue sky in a layer of smoke. Debris flew into my home, crashing through the outside siding and smashing through a window before finally losing momentum. Cars were flown into the air with a certain gracefulness, people inside screaming and scrambling to escape out, but the door was sealed shut. I just watched from a bunker that I had built, specifically for this situation. It was almost like I had predicted the future…

Dominic —————

The countryside was always a warm, vast expanse with just miles of farming and corn. Other crops were harvested, but lots and lots of corn. I had never expected to have my cows taken away by some alien creatures, and when they started flowing toward my farm, I shut my phone off and ran outside to examine the situation. 
There were no sirens in the area, and the closest one had to be at least 100 miles away, but their sounds echoed all around me. And as I stared into the sky, I realized I was already being pulled upward before being flown up into the air. Then my back hit something metal; I was inside the discs…

Benne the dog has been loyal; as that’s what his owner initially taught him. Benne protected him and often rewarded him a treat or lick his ketchup stained arm when he came home from a long days of work. Benne found his owner, in which he learned his name was Keith. Benne noticed that the ketchup on Keith’s arm was always sweeter and richer than the Heinz ketchup he usually bought—but Benne dismissed it, without thinking twice. For some reason, Keith was always fighting for his life, as people and policemen seemed to always be trying to find him. In turn, Benne and his owner always had to move to different locations to avoid being spotted and for his hunters to lose track of where Keith was. Oftentimes, Benne actually had to step in and fight against whoever was hurting Keith. Benne could never understand the human language fully, and never heard what the policemen said about Keith—like how he was actually the highest wanted criminal known to man… Benne sat down besides his owners side, licking the ketchup stained arm again. Keith sighed and said the one thing Benne actually understood. “Good dog,” Keith exclaimed, patting and stroking his fur. Keith repeated the motion and then with his other hand scratched Benne’s back, exactly what Benne had grown to adore. Benne sometimes continuously questioned himself. He was slightly confused of why his owner was always being hunted. Benne always thought of his owner as loving and kind, but that was something that should help Keith not get hunted, or perhaps there was a bigger reason behind it all this time. Keith knelt down, his old, worn out back cracking. Benne himself had also developed highlights of white in his fur, especially around his nose. The white fur had creeped up, stretching toward his eyes, but Benne hardly understood what he even looked like, so he never thought of it as getting to the end of his dog life. Not to mention it, but Benne had noticed Keith burying plastic bags in the backyard. Benne watched Keith struggle through the hard, winter ground as the whole process seemed to be immensely tedious. Benne sometimes laughed when looking at the large plastic bags, but never knew what could be inside of them… As Benne thought, head planted on the warm wooden flooring, staring up and down as his owner offered pieces of meat to him that he had gathered from the backyard. Keith dipped the meat in ketchup, and it was always unexpectedly chewy, but Keith never revealed where the meat had come from. Benne knew it couldn’t have been a cow, or a pig. The meat was even tougher than steak. But then Benne knew that the meat was raw, uncooked, so it had to be hard, and suddenly it all made sense. Keith never cooked meat raw, and never seemed to ever enjoy ketchup. Keith never ate ketchup. Suddenly it all came pouring into Benne’s mind. How could he have believed it was ketchup. He had really thought that the Mason Jar filled with a thick red liquid was ketchup…No, this was something worse than the confines of just regular ketchup. It was some sort of specialized, sugary ketchup, if that even was a thing. And then Benne became hesitant as his owner dropped the piece of meat into his rusting metal bowl and realized that his water bowl too was filled with the red substance. Benne had never realized any of this before, that he could have been protecting someone, someone who was evil…Benne was the protector of evil; he had been an accomplice to Keith’s own crimes that Benne thought were just friendly walks. And it all came to Benne, all at once. All the dark secrets that he had just uncovered. He did not yet know what the red liquid could be; his best guess was blood…

It’s impossibly ugly, this sweater, But I wear it each day no matter the weather. Through the rain that can puncture holes, From how long I’ve worn its shoals.

Plastered on the front is a red cloth, So old it looks like a tablecloth. Through the impossibly warm days, My life has become a maze.

Most walk past and say “let it go!” But I dismiss it and continue to show. It doesn’t matter what others think, Me and this sweater have a link.

Even my mother tells me I’m a disgrace, And that it ruins my face. The rain water trickles down my ugly sweater, But I still wear it no matter the weather.

No matter the heat, Just me walking down the street. No matter the cold, My sweater so old.

With hands of guidance, I will not worry about their abidance. New citizens become weary, With the streets so eerie.

It’s impossibly ugly this sweater, I think it’s about to tether. It’s so impossibly hideous, So much so that it’s insidious.

I say it then, I say it now, You still might be asking yourself “how?” it’s impossibly ugly, this sweater, But I still wear it no matter the weather.

As he puts on a shiny, newly polished uniform, that he constructed himself, he sees his glimmering pin. With careful consideration, he takes the shiny pin, which it reminded him of his childhood and all the academic achievements he achieved. With a careful and steady hand, he put the pin through the carefully woven fabric in which he wove himself. The suit was far from perfect, with few imperfections and some parts were slightly uneven. Holes were in the suit—all the mistakes he had made while constructing it. Even with his considerable gentleness, he was not able to wove it perfectly. The process was tedious, but it was the only thing he could do. The glimmering pin shimmered in the light, reflecting his stylish appearance through its shiny and smooth silver. The cloth was stretched out and littered with holes. The pin even looked out of place, as it was slightly curved and not straight. His tie was left slightly curved and his fly was left ajar, and he seemed to not care as he buttoned up the suit. The buttons were more like squares than circles, as he had also had to contract them himself, and it was possibly even more difficult than that of the suit. He grunted trying to fit the buttons through each, irritatingly sensitive hole. He felt like he would never get it, so eventually he stuck a piece of tape to it and called it a day. Since the tape was transparent, it was hardly noticeable besides the fact that the button was clearly not stuck into the hole. Making the holes, he had to carefully string a knife through the suit and keep pressing the buttons through it to see if he could even fit it through it. As he taped the rest of the buttons, his face stretched into a wide, stylish smile. Then he adjusted his collar, which still remained imperfect, and then proceeded to turn around. He was ready.

I live inside a bubble. I don’t know how or why I live inside it, but I do. It’s all I know, and I’ve never seen the outside world. I float around inside my bubble, with my body slowly bobbing up and down. I tap the bubble, it’s hard and seems to tap back. The room has always been dark and devoid of almost anything. There has been some things that I have noticed. There is some sort of panel sticking out from the wall to my right, with a red flashing light. To my left is another panel that looks almost the exact same, but it has a green flashing light instead. I have also noticed over time that the walls have a polish, a glimmer I should say, to them. It’s like the walls have some sort of metallic covering on them. Additionally, I have noticed that the walls have a zig-zag pattern that repeats around the entire, circular room. I can barely fit inside the bubble anymore, as I am now 13 years old and have started to grow faster. I have to hang my head downward to stop it from hitting the hard barrier. I have also noticed, through examinations, that the bubble isn’t in fact a circle, it is more of a cylinder shaped tube. I call it a bubble because I see air bubbles flying around it all the time. My hair has grown long and messy from so much time being in here. I have to sometimes pull at my hair to shorten it and keep it from getting too messy. My hair has also lost all of its waviness that it used to have, it’s too long now. I can see my reflection through the bubble, or tube if you will. My hair is outrageously long at this point, a and it hangs over my eyes irritatingly most of the time. My eyes have a greenish hue to them, and my skin is layered in dark freckles. My eyebrows are dark and untrimmed, overgrown, just like my hair. I have always wore a dark vest over myself, and I wear long, worn out jeans that are 7 inches too short on me. The vest has also shrunk on me as my arms lengthen. I have never gotten hungry before. Never in my 13 years of life have I ever been hungry. I’ve never dranken water, nor have I eaten food. I always have a dry, bitter taste in my mouth. Today, I feel like something will happen. I have this feeling in my gut. I will be freed today, I will be able to escape somehow. I’ve tried to escape myself, kicking the barrier of my bubble, but it just pushes back the same force I applied to it, but possibly even more force. Then I always grab my foot and cry, looking at how swollen it gets. Then I’ll pick my own fingernails and throw them into a pile that I’ve collected since the day I was born. There had always been a vivid memory I have. I remover it when I was just an infant. I was out of the bubble, but there were these creatures, something extraterrestrial raising me, nourishing me. They had these distinctly large eyes that were almost completely black, and they wore these large metal masks over their faces that looked uncomfortable. The creatures fit me into my vest; that at the time was almost 10x my size, and then fit me into pants, or rather jeans that were also way too big on me. Then they opened the bubble up through the 2 panels. One of the creatures held a button, while the other held the other button in the other panel. The bubble suddenly split into two pieces, opening up before my young self wandered inside out of curiosity. Then the bubble closed, and I was stuck in my bubble. That was what I assumed to be how I got in here. Every day I try a new method to escaping. Today I tried to push open the bubble by using all the strength I had in my arms. I pushed and stretched my arms till they hurt and ached with so much pain. Pain stinged across my arms, stretching to fill them both in the whole. I stopped trying after that. It was no use. I would never be getting out of here.

Just me and my bubble…
Then, suddenly, a loud mechanical squeaking noise alerted me. I turned to face forward as a door slide open, moving upward, revealing the two creatures I had seen in my dreams. They didn’t speak, nor could I understand the strange humming noises they used to communicate with each other. They were just two pale white creatures, and they looked to be older and optically more wrinkled. They both moved over to the panels. The room was filled with a bright light, and my eyes couldn’t adjust. The bubble suddenly opened, and I was free. The two creatures spun around to me, now carrying new clothes. Now I could understand everything they said, and I realized that I was one of them. 
I always have been…

The crickets sing their mechanical songs, the birds joining them in perfect rhythm. If water was ever so scarce, it would be now. 23 year old Crissa lives behind a hidden waterfall in the edges of a rainforest, lush and full of moisture. The animals seem to have become her friend, and so has the water. It’s not that water was a limited resource to her, it was just everywhere else. People were slowly drinking up all the ocean water. The water filtration factories filtered it for them, and people didn’t even now how fast they were beginning to take up all the water. Lakes have shrunk to small ponds, and oceans almost look like large lakes. You can now see land in the ocean not far ahead because the water has dissipated so much. The one thing they didn’t drink were waterfalls because even with a water filtration system, there could still be dirty water that passed through the tests. Crissa lives and a cave, with the waterfall crashing right beside her, acting as a secret entrance. Water drips from the ceiling. Crissa only drinks the waterfall water because it is clean. She has tasted in thousands of times before, and has never gotten sick from it. Because of the draining waters, the world decided to make the water resources extremely limited. People only get to drink half a gallon of water a day, and that can get harsh in the summer time when you’re always so hot. In the summer when it gets over 120 degrees almost everywhere, Crissa found it hard to only drink half a gallon a day. That’s when she found the waterfall. She was on a trip to a remote island filled with lush and rich rainforest. And on a large cliff, water came rushing down into a small pond beneath. When Crissa visited the island she could visibly see the cliff open up where the waterfall was, and what was behind it seemed like a small cave from what she could see. Even though there were little openings, as the waterfall dwindled as the day went on, she could clarify that the cave was in fact there. The thing about the rainforest was perfect, so many bugs and insects to devour, and Crissa also happened to bring lots of real food with her. It wasn’t her intention to stay in the rainforest forever, but she grew closer to it each day. The first time she stepped in the warm and refreshing water, she realized just how quickly it got up to her face. As she approached the waterfall, she braced herself for what was to come. Her clothes were getting colder and were already completely soaked. Before she knew it she had already stepped into the waterfall. Her hair and rest of her body was covered in water that crashed down onto her back. She noticed the ripples in the water as she trudged along. The waterfall hurt her back and it felt like a 50 pound weight was being pressed to her back. Before she could open her eyes, she stepped into the confines of the cave. The rocks were wet and slippery, and it was fairly bigger than she had anticipated. Large rock formation rose and dipped down, with spike-looking formations hanging upside down on the top, dripping water. As soon as she stepped into the cave, she knew she could make it home. It was flat in some spots—perfect to build a shelter. With how many trees there were and the help of her handy axe she had brought, she quickly chopped down branches and made a small makeshift shelter for the night. At the time she did not think she would stay in the cave, maybe get out in the morning, but she would’ve never imagined how many advantages her spot held. Bugs that were edible were everywhere for her, and with her knowledge she could pick berries that would not end up poisoning her. Around the waterfall there were so much insects that it could feed her for the rest of her life. The more she stayed the more she seemed to enjoy it, until Crissa had spent an entire 3 years inside the cave, with a luxurious shelter she had built years prior still standing tall and mighty. She had a collection of grasshoppers on her pocket that she had roasted over a fire she had made from rubbing two sticks together. And she felt like she had it all. It wasn’t the most comfortable shelter, but at least she could drink more than half a gallon of water a day.