I’m writing this poem at 3:12 in the morning the wind is howling and outside the rain is pouring

I can’t seem to sleep side effects of being a poet up if anyone needs me and everyone knows it

My crush is still oblivious my heart is still an idiot my love is still insidious and my brain is still too serious

I’ve made a daily writing goal write just once a day even if it reeks of pallor writing slump begone I say

A poet gets no sleep nor do they get quiet for their mind is always screaming deep into the dark night

They also make sketchy rhymes just like the one above because it is so late and my brain is too addled with love

Good night my fellow writers to the lovers and the fighters to everyone who dares to dream you’re never quite as alone as you seem

~e.a.p.

My friends and I were running in the field that overlooked the water when it happened. We were playing hide and seek, and I was looking for a place where no one would find me. Near the edge of the cliff, I could see the crashing waves below. Mother never let me get too close - none of our parents did. But they weren’t here, and my eyes could see the perfect hiding place in the sheer wall. Looks can be deceiving though.

I scurried down the steep ledge on the right, hugging the wall as I went, until I came upon what I had seen: a shallow cave the shape of a teardrop. I climbed inside and leaned against the back of the cave desperately trying to keep any part of myself from being seen.

That’s when it happened. I heard a crack, then I felt the wall behind me fall away, and I went with it. I landed on a slope not far below me and rolled for another while before the ground leveled out. I picked myself up and brushed off my shirt. It was dark wherever I was. The only light was a small beam coming from at thirty feet above me - the teardrop cave. I looked around for a good place to start climbing, but it all looked black and featureless to me. My eyes needed time to adjust.

I turned around to face the blackness behind me. My hands reached out and found nothing. There was no way to tell how deep the new cave went, but I didn’t want to find out. The heavy air carried a sulfuric stench and a foreboding of something evil. I looked back toward the light. I could see reflections along the sloping wall that looked like great places to climb.

Pebbles crushed and cascaded below me as I grew closer to the light. The echoing was loud and hollow, which could only mean this place was massive - large enough for someone to get lost and never be found again.

Then a different sound came echoing back toward me, and I stopped. After a moment, I heard it again. It was low and distant, and nothing like the bright clacking rocks. It was a moan, or a cry, like from a wounded animal. Only the sound grew closer and closer, and I knew whatever it was, it wasn’t wounded.

I climbed faster, my hands and feet slipping on the slimy rocks. Up, up, up, as the moan grew louder and louder, with more intensity at every iteration. The teardrop cave was just within reach - I stretched out my arm to grab hold of the ledge. It was wet, and my arms were tired and aching from the climb. But the moaning was right behind me now, and I hadn’t the courage to look below and see the source. I yelled as I pulled hard and brought my chest up to the cave and rolled onto my back. I was out.

I scrambled to my feet and backed away from the black hole. The light poured down the steep underground hill and onto the floor below. I watched with blinkless eyes as a creature stepped into the light. It’s flesh was as pale as the moon. It was hunched over with drooping arms, and it’s head tilted to one side as it looked up at me with solid black eyes. The creature’s jaw slacked open to reveal jagged teeth and a black tentacle that I think was it’s tongue. It shouted with a piercing cry that reverberated off the wall and went deep into the darkness beyond. As it released itself and took labored breaths, a low rumble came swiftly through the floor. My boots trembled as the rumble turned into a roar, and around the creature came a throng of pale monsters with their bald scalps and gaunt faces. They gathered together to stare at me.

I ran. I ran so fast and so far, I didn’t know where I was when I stopped. It was three days before i made it back home. My mother thought me dead, and she hugged me for too long when I walked through the door. She yelled at me, and then cried some more. She asked me where I’d been and what had happened, but I didn’t want to say. I didn’t want to believe what I had seen was real. Not that anyone would believe me anyways.

“We have evolved to live in an ever decaying world,” my teacher preaches. I tune him out for the lecture until the liberating bell releases us students from class.

“Zephyr!” A woman calls for me from a ways away. I walk faster, smiling at her. When I reach her we link arms out of habit. I grin wider, showing off my canines, and peer at the burning sun above. “Hitting the clubs tonight?”

“Yes, obviously,” I reply with extra skip in my step.

I don’t remember much between before and after. All I know is that when my friend and I emerge from our drunken comas, the moon has already began it’s ascent into the sky.

While the average Joe begins his day with a nightly jog, I stumble and stagger my way home. I take full frontal force of their disapproving glances, though I don’t bother caring.

I always expected this to happen. I fought to prevent this messy schedule, but it was impossible.

As the sun set over the ocean, a breeze swayed along my face. I tucked my dark, black hair behind my ear and adjusted my sunglasses to sit up on my face. Not that I needed sunglasses anyways. If I were to adjust to the new way of life, the sunset was the new sunrise. I forced myself up off the sand, and back inside. I put on a few layers of clothes; it was cold at night. Grabbing my bag and coffee, I opened the door and went outside to my car. I drove quickly to work, but the traffic was extremely bad that night. "This system sucks!" I yelled out loud as I slammed my hand onto my horn. A few other vehicles beeped back at me, but I didn't care. By the time I got to work, it was pitch black outside. I envied those who worked the "morning shift". Originally I volunteered to work the morning shift, but my company wouldn't allow it. They needed me during the main parts of the night to work as a floor manager. My company was in charge of everything related to time. We controlled most time changes, as well as the nocturnal laws. I'd always been very against the new nocturnal system, but surprisingly enough, I didn't quit my job. Over the past decade, I'd risen to such a high position with my company that I couldn't possibly consider quitting. Even if it meant I'd have to jump on board with this psychotic way of life.

When the nocturnal shift was first suggested, everyone thought it was crazy. Of course my position on the subject never really changed, it just changed depending on who I would discuss it with. When my company first decided to support the idea, I tried to convince them it was a mistake. Eventually, I began to act more neutral. If my company was in favor of it, I couldn't be opposed; otherwise I might have been fired. Originally the nocturnal system was supposed to be a major shift where 50% of all company staff would have to change to the night shift. However, it expanded after many people had complaints. Some were upset that their families were on different times than them. Others were jealous of the new experience. People ultimately came together and decided that shifting everyone to the night shift would be the best possible solution. That way, it was fair to everyone.

To me, there never seemed to be much logic behind the nocturnal system. Regardless, I continued to run my department of the company, and I followed along with the new measures. We were 8 months into the nocturnal system and everything seemed to be running smoothly. But that one day, on my way into work, it was the darkest night of the year. Everybody was a bit on edge throughout the days leading up to it. Mostly because nobody knew what could happen on a dark night like this. Conveniently, that night, the power shut off. The entire city was experiencing a massive blackout. Little did people, that night, everything was going to be a mess. Right off the bat, people were already crashing into each other. No matter how slow we went, it was too black to prevent this. I called my boss to find out what I should do. "Hello, sir. It's very dangerous out here. I'm not sure we should be telling people to come in today," I stated hesitantly. "No. Enough people have called in sick today. We can't afford to lose anybody else today." "Okay... I guess I'll see you at the office," I said. That phone call was pointless and short-lived. I continued to drive straight through the starry night, praying nothing bad would happen to me. I new this was a dumb system. Everyone was crashing and showing up late. When it's that dark, there's really nothing else you can do.

I always expected this to happen. I fought to prevent this messy schedule, but it was impossible.

The world was on fire. The light signaled the cycle of rest that accompanied the day. Only chinks of light sink through the deepest of crevices, shining and burning, giving the dark and depths echos of the inferno above. Gazing at the light burned, it was the only way I could imagine the world above and the sight of Aurus, our star, and how it would look with my own eyes. I looked away and around at my room allowing the brightness my eyes held of the light to slowly fade. The rock glowed with a brilliance that quickly faded to the dull gray. I could feel the heat sinking from the surface and I sunk into the cold rock underneath me preparing for the heat. It was the only way to survive the light, to sleep and allow the heat not to sap away strength. I sighed, rolling over knowing this feeling. Sleep wasn’t going to lull over me, not tonight. Nights like these happened infrequently but tomorrow was Landing Day. The underground was abuzz with festivities and celebration, surprises by the council kept secret until the festival. Rumors had been abound about the large surprise this year, the finding of an old part of the ship buried in rock with artifacts no one had seen, was to be the pinnacle of celebration. The connection and mystery of our ancestors was missing details, and those details had been theorized to exist. I looked at the door again. No one else beyond the council themselves knew where the artifacts were kept except Noune, and they had promised me to knock at my door when doing their rounds. Tonight was the night, all would be revealed.

Walking home from school, dead of night. I hear voices and whispers calling to me. For me. Whose horrid idea was this? “The sun has become too dangerous for our skin cells. The day will now be night.” the president says. “It is for your own good”. Isn’t it too dangerous for a girl my age to be walking this late at night? Anyone could creep up while hidden in plain sight. I miss the warm sun rays on my skin and the sunny beach days I use to take with my family. Skin that was once like the sun, was now the moon. Vitamin D is out of the picture. Is there nothing that can be done to reverse this? “No” the scientists with the biggest brains reply as I watch endless hours of the news. Hope is lost and there's no point in finding it. That is the kind of message they want to send, but is it the truth? I intend to find out.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I whispered, my voice echoing off the tunnel walls that surrounded us.

Shiv paused and turned around, his eyes glowing red in the darkness, “Reese…I asked if you were sure about this, and what did you say?”

I let out a deflated sigh, “I said I was willing to go with you.” I paused. “I’m just nervous is all.”

Shiv placed a hand on my shoulder, “Listen, Reese. There is a world out there, unseen by our eyes because of The Elders. Today we end this life of darkness."

There was a flair of ambition in his voice, and a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. I missed this version of Shiv, I hadn't seen him in years. Shiv had become morose, and unmotivated, simply going through the motions of our day-to-day lives. A hollow shell of the boy that he once was. It was The Outsider, a beautiful girl with auburn hair who turned his life around. Telling him of the daylight and the beauties that it held. I wanted to believe Shiv...but could I believe The Outsider?

Shiv picked up on my unease, "The Elders have never provided us with a valid answer as to why they've restricted us to the night. Does that not seem odd to you? Does it not frustrate you?"

It did frustrate me, it always did. But I just took it for what it was, I think we all did as youths:

Don’t go out into the Daylight!

The Elders always said it with such sternness that it left no room for debate. I had been curious about the Daylight for years, but my interest reached a new level when it became Shiv’s obsession. “Let’s just hope your Outsider friend is reliable.”

He smiled and patted my shoulder, "Then let's move forward Reese. Let us see the world as it should be."

Shiv began to climb the ladder to the manhole cover above. My heart raced faster with each rung he grabbed hold of, my mouth became parched due to the excitement. I reached for the canteen and took a large swig of the fluids within, I could feel my body surge with nourishment.

Shiv stopped at the top of the ladder and looked down at me, flashing that trademark smile of his. I couldn't recall the last time I'd seen him this happy, or this excited. He reached up and pushed the manhole cover from its place, a narrow beam of light seeped through the opening. He gave it one final push, a grunt escaping his lips as the manhole cover crashed onto the pavement.

A mesmerizing beam of gold cascaded through the manhole cover, over Shiv, and through the ladder. It glistened and twinkled, setting off every sense in my brain and causing every nerve in my body to ripple with euphoric bliss. I felt an energy surge through my body, one that I’d never felt before. A comforting warmth tickled the surface of my skin, flirting with the delicate hairs on my exposed arms. It was both inviting and invigorating, I stepped forward unknowingly. My legs moved on their own accord, and then I saw the glow in Shiv’s skin.

He clung to that ladder, head arched upwards, mesmerized by the daylight, he didn’t realize the concern of his skin until it was too late. I stood there in the darkness, staring at Shiv’s skin as it glowed a radiant yellow, I could see the veins under his skin, lines of orange fire that surged throughout his body. The color in his veins grew more intense, turning from bright orange to fire red, and then Shiv erupted into flame. I couldn’t hear his screams over the fire but after a few seconds, it was all I could hear. He feebly clung to the ladder as his body burned, as the flames singed through his hair, as it melted off his clothing. Shiv’s screams would die out long before the flames did.

I turned and ran, it was all that I could do. Running through the darkness with my eyes closed, trying to clear the image of Shiv burning on that ladder. Running back to my home.

Running back to The Elders.

Once, long long ago, humans could see during the day, and were fast asleep at night. Now, I know what you’re thinking; how did they stay awake? How did they survive? And how on earth did they not get feasted upon?

To those questions, I have no answers other then simply put, they did! Yes, they did indeed! One by one, the black smog devoured the tiny little humans! Just as they did to us! The little humans polluted our oceans, ripped down our trees, melted the polar bears ice! Well, fortunately for us, the smog that they created killed them as well! It got so terrible, to the point that any amount of energy would cause an explosion! The smog was far worse then natural gas! Toxic to breathe in, and to be around.

This caused them to run and hide into caves! They had to adapt to the darkness that they had caused! They hid just long enough for us in the animal kingdom to reproduce and stabilize our populations. Our friends, the birds, had trees to nest in. Elephants grew their huge tusks. Our lovely bees swarmed once more. Their huge, decaying fishing nets were stoned over; freeing our oceanic friends from dangers. Us foxes don’t have to worry about them stealing our skin anymore. All of this, while they hid from their own mess; denying it even existed.

Now, eventually there will be one curious little human that wants to leave the nest. Despite being told not to. Despite being told that the dangers that lurk beyond the rocks holding them in the cave, is too great. And when that day comes, it will be all over for us again. They will feast upon us. Use our trees for houses, and fires. Pollute our waters and soil. Hunt us for our tusks, skins, and pelts. Hunt us to make clothing that they show off to one another; like trophies.

But for now, my son, enjoy what you have while you have it. Sleep well, and enjoy being a young little fox; who gets to run the woods worry free. Good night.

It started with a bite—a fleeting act of hungering passion. One single moment that became the trigger to the end of the world...

Or the catalyst for a new one.

The world once saw us as fiction, a fantasy glistening in sparkles. But now we are that world, our past lives, our past bodies left behind, like dust gathering in the ink of old history books. That one moment turned the world...

And we never once looked back.

Over a century had passed since that single day—that last day when our bodies basked in the sun and revelled in its once glorious light.

History said we once needed that light, that warmth of the faraway star. That its burning, bubbling gas kept us alive, kept us living. But now, as my people lived, breathed and worked under the veil of the night, that once-required, sort-out source brought nothing but our doom.

Piles of ash would all but remain.

Our forms disintegrated like we never mattered at all, forgotten on the wind—particles lost in the sun's harsh glare. So my people hid. For decades. Afraid of the daylight, of the world outside.

There are still those out there, beyond the woods, tucked away in the furthest reaches of the planet. Those sprinkled few who managed to escape that change—that bite—their days spent living, breathing, working under the sun's rays, their bodies undergoing a change of their own. Perhaps their minds too.

My people called it The Devil Kiss. Several months throughout the year, those unchanged lay on the ground and allowed the sun’s heat to burn their skin and turn it beet red or brown.

A strange tradition and notion for someone such as myself to understand, but it was that small pass of knowledge that made me realise that the one that cowered at my feet was one of them.

One of the Unchanged.

“You have The Devil Kiss,” I had said, staring at the line of pale skin that poked out from the hem of their sleeve. The rest of their hand was a warm brown, matching the colour of their wide-eyed face. Stale sweat wrangled with the wet musk of the forest, and I wondered how long they had been there.

I had found them among the trees, washed in a puddle of moonlight. Dirt smeared the edges of their cheeks, the line of their jaw; their clothes ragged like ribbons. They had flinched when I had first approached, for their underdeveloped sight hadn't seen me, their lesser ears not yet accustomed to the sounds of the forest.

“What are you doing here, so far out into the night?” I asked, but the unchanged one didn't reply. Nor did they answer any of my other questions. They just stared, eyes wild, their arms wrapped tightly around their middle.

“Do you require sustenance? Food?” Crouching to meet them, I touched my translucent hand to their shoulder, the blue of my veins pulsing beneath. “The sun rises in two hours—is that what you need? Do yo—”

“Get-get away!” They stuttered. Their body twitched, and from their coat, they brandished a length of wood. “Monster!”

Time captivated their sluggish movements as they thrust forward. Aiming, they missed, and I managed to move as the pointed stick grazed my left arm.

Grabbing the weapon, I tugged them up, out from the moonlight, dousing the surroundings of their world. To them, my body disappeared, now shrouded behind a curtain of darkness they couldn't see through.

An owl hooted. A branch snapped. The wind whispered playfully through the trees. Beyond, I could see the outline of the village, silver and glistening blue under the moon’s light: our peaceful paradise, our haven in the dark...

Ruined.

The unchanged struggled under my grasp, and their body thrashed. Clumps of moss and leaves flew into the air. Their teeth gnashed, globs of spittle raining over their chin. Growling, they wrestled free, waving wildly. They attacked again, but I blocked their strike. Like a coiled spring, their arm sprung back, and they whacked themself in the nose.

I smelt the red before I saw it.

“Foolish!” I growled. “Blind!”

The sweet syrupy catalyst seeped from their nose, dripping down over their lips.

Forbidden.

A death sentence.

But oh, so delicious.

Saliva oozed from my mouth. My fingers twitched. My body ached—hungered.

I grinned.

“Get away!” they screamed, but my jaw bit down, and their yells drowned out any further words.

The world wasn’t always like this, the Elders once said. We weren’t always Children of Luna, basking in the soft, pale glow of the only thing strong enough to cut through the haze of the eternal smog and the space debris. They sometimes speak of a time when we were free to roam the surface under the Sun, our greatest threat. It was 3 times smaller then, a gentle warmth instead of an inferno. The Elders say a lot of things though, and none of them really matter in the grand scheme of things. The Sun is the Sun, and Luna is Luna - nothing to be done but to finish putting on a hazmat suit and follow the old maglev tracks towards the good scavenging spot.