Our Darkest Day
As the creature reared its massive ugly head, we all trembled. We had never seen anything like it. Where had it come from? What was it capable of? And why hadn’t we seen it coming? The answers were more terrifying than we dared to imagine.
The sorcerer smiled thinly at the crowd from the platform. His beast towered behind him, held fast to the ground by a massive chain that rattled whenever it roared. We shuddered to think its master could unleash it on us at any moment.
“My friends”, the magician cried as the audience grew quiet, “I am honored to be your champion. My beloved pet and I will be proud to serve as your defenders in this new age of peace and prosperity. But trust me, we could not have succeeded in ending this terrible reign of oppression without your overwhelming support, courage, and spirit. We have all won a grand victory today. This day will be remembered for centuries as the day we ended tyranny, the day we crushed the bloodsucking rats who thought they could steal your freedom and leech off your hard labor forever.”
“He’s talking about us”, I heard one of my friends mutter next to me through the thunderous applause. It was true: every right we had worked for over the past decade, every step we had taken in the name of justice, everything we had thought was for the good of the people, was now being undone before our eyes because it was only ever good enough for us. It was a cruel reminder of how fragile our world really was; the harder you fought for change, the more afraid and resistant people became.
“This is your time, my friends”, the sorcerer continued. The cold look in his eyes as he addressed the people sent a chill down my spine. “It’s time you took back what is rightfully yours. Together, we can return this land to the thriving state it once was. Things are going to be very different from now on.”
The rows of people around the platform cheered, while those of us huddled in the back of the crowd remained more lost and confused than we had ever been in recent memory. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The queen and her army were supposed to save us, to fight the dark forces and vanquish the evil into oblivion. We were supposed to be celebrating today. Instead, she had been defeated and most of us were left cowering like frightened children in the wake of the revolution. What had gone so wrong?
Some of us blamed the town criers for carrying false news and exaggerated reports of the army’s successes. Some of us blamed the queen’s advisors for devising a military strategy that ultimately failed. Some of us blamed the queen herself for overestimating her own power and placing her trust in the wrong people. And some of us were reduced to blaming each other for taking our beloved leaders for granted and not doing our part to defend the progress they had made possible.
In the end, it didn’t matter. We were all to blame for this travesty, we knew that, and now it was too late to stop the storm. History had already been changed. So now what?
“He’s right.”
My gaze fixed on the stage, I saw the others turning to face me from the corner of my eye. It might have been the weight of my words that made them stare, or perhaps they were just surprised that I had spoken for the first time in hours.
“What are you saying?” said one of my companions, her voice small and nervous. I shook my head.
“Things are going to be different. This is just the beginning. The queen is gone, the army is scattered, even the scholars are starting to disappear. There’s nobody left to protect us… so we have to protect ourselves. No running, no hiding, no pretending that everything is normal. It’s time to organize. It’s time to fight.”
“But…” another friend stammered, “how are we supposed to fight them when they have that… thing on their side? It’ll kill us as soon as they know we’re coming!”
“And who’s going to see us coming?” I said, turning to the group at last. It was the first time I’d smiled in weeks. “We’re rats, remember?”
The monster roared again, flaming locks of fur flying as it convulsed like a raging madman. Somehow that horrible sound made the crowd cheer even louder. Stoic as I planned to be for the foreseeable future, I turned my back on the holes in the wall and jumped down to walk away into the darkening streets. I didn’t have to look back to know my friends were only a few steps behind, nor that nobody else saw us leave. They never even knew we were there.
We still remember it as our darkest day. And though none of us knew exactly what to say, to think, to feel anymore, of one thing we were absolutely certain: these were going to be the longest and hardest fought years of our lives.
Five More Books I Want to Read in 2017
Welcome to the second part of my top ten list of books to read in 2017! Looks like another Goodreads reading challenge is on the horizon! If you haven’t yet, feel free to check out the first half of my list from last week. Otherwise, enjoy!
6) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Here’s another selection from last year that I didn’t get around to reading in 2016. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with it this year! Wuthering Heights has been on my to-read list for a while, even before I received a copy as a gift some years ago. With quite a few dystopian novels making it on my list for 2017, I’m sure a break for historical fiction will be more than welcome!
7) The Martian by Andy Weir
After indulging in so many historical novels last year, it’s time I start picking up more science fiction. After watching this movie in 2015 and loving it, I decided to read the book on which it was based, though it would still be a while before I could get my hands on a copy. Now that I’m starting a new chapter of my life and should have a little more free time, I look forward to adding The Martian to my list of reads for 2017!
8) Shogun by James Clavell
This book was recommended to me by my parents, both of whom read it a long time ago and loved it. The fact that they want me to pick it up is a sign of how well they know me, because one of my greatest obsessions in life has long been the culture and history of Japan! Maybe it’s the fact that I’m part Japanese myself, but something about the country just draws me in and intrigues me to no end. It’s a long read for sure, but if I find the time this year, I’d love to give Shogun a try!
9) The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Here’s another selection that made it onto my list by recommendation, in this case by my boyfriend. He read this book a while back and really enjoyed it, though he did warn me it would be kind of depressing. Still, the author’s unique style of storytelling stands out and will certainly make The Road an interesting choice for my 2017 reads!
10) StarTalk, edited by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jeffrey Simons, and Charles Liu
Fully titled StarTalk: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond, this book is essentially a written adaptation of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s popular podcast and National Geographic TV series, full of scientific questions and answers about the Universe as we know (or don’t know) it. I know it’s not like the other selections on this list, but similar to last year’s format, I’d like to include at least one nonfiction book in my 2017 lineup. I gave this book as a Christmas present to my boyfriend in 2016, though it was really a gift for both of us as I have every intention of borrowing it! I’ve always been fascinated with science in general and space in particular, so StarTalk is definitely a book I’ll enjoy reading this year!
This concludes my list of books to read in 2017! I hope you enjoyed it, and as always, thanks for reading!
What about you? Any books you’d like to read this year? What other goals have you set for 2017?
Word of the Week: Inauguration
Word: inauguration
Pronunciation: i-nah-ɡ(y)ə-RAY-sh(ə)n
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: the beginning or introduction of a system, policy, or period
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
Was there any other word I could have chosen for today’s Word of the Week? Being American and a blogger only since April 2013, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write about this word while it’s relevant to current events. The event in question has been in the news for weeks, what the entire campaign of 2016 has been leading up to, and now it’s only days away: the “inauguration” of the next U.S. President!
An “inauguration” is the introduction or beginning of a period, system, or policy. The word is the noun form of the verb “inaugurate” (meaning to “begin or introduce a system, policy, or period”), which arose in the late 16th century and comes from the Latin verb inaugurare, meaning “to interpret omens from the flight of birds”. This verb consists of the preposition in “within” and the verb augurare “to predict”.
The history of the word “inauguration” dates as far back as Ancient Rome, when Roman priests would interpret through rituals and bird flight patterns if the gods deemed a public official worthy of assuming office. Notably, aside from its primary meaning, “inauguration” also has two sub-definitions. The first is “the formal admission of someone to office”, which applies to the aforementioned political event. The second is “a ceremony to mark the beginning of something”, such as the opening of a building or recreational area. If you like to write about the beginning of an era or the grand opening of a new facility, you could have fun creating a good “inauguration” scene for your stories!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
Fire Flowers
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
Our trip to the beach was an annual family tradition.
Every New Year’s, we’d go down to watch them.
The beach would always be crowded that night.
Everyone wanted to welcome the new year.
The final countdown to midnight began.
At one, they started flying.
All along the coast.
Exploding sky flowers.
Colorful embers.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Five Books I Want to Read in 2017
As everyone knows, with January comes a fresh batch of new year’s resolutions. Since I really enjoyed making a list of books to read last year, I decided to try my luck again with a new list for 2017! Well, semi-new; some of them will be repeats of books I didn’t get around to reading in 2016, but that I’ll hopefully have better luck with this year. Either way, here’s to a bright new year of reading!
So to kick off my 2017 goals, here’s the first half of my list of the top ten books I want to read this year. Enjoy!
1) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Oh yes, I’m still working on this one. I started reading A Game of Thrones a couple of years ago, but after school started taking up most of my time, I had to put it down for a while. My resolution from last year to read every day has helped me pick it up again, though, and now that I’m done with school, maybe I’ll finally be able to finish it this year! Of course, seeing how long it’s taking me just to get through the first book, I’ll probably have to pick up the rest of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga from the TV series!
2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
That’s right, I still haven’t read the Hunger Games trilogy! Crazy, right? I know I had wanted to start reading more dystopian fiction last year, but I guess I got so caught up in historical fiction that there just wasn’t enough time for anything else. These books are at the top of my list, though, so hopefully I’ll find the time to finally read them this year. I look forward to enjoying a new fiction genre in 2017!
3) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Speaking of dystopian fiction, here’s another book that’s been on my to-read list for a long time. I remember watching the film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 for an Introduction to Technology class in middle school, but to this day I haven’t gotten around to reading the book. I enjoy stories that explore the dangers of mass media, state-based censorship, and an ignorant society, so this book is a definite must-read for me – if not this year, then at least for my bucket list!
4) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
This one was recommended to me by my boyfriend, who started reading the book last year and has really been enjoying it so far. Ready Player One certainly sounds like the sort of novel I’d like: a science fiction story set primarily in a virtual world and rife with 80s pop culture references. I am planning to read more sci-fi this year, so this will definitely be an interesting pick for my 2017 list!
5) 1984 by George Orwell
I know, this book is on everyone’s to-read list, but it’s so iconic that I just couldn’t leave it off mine any longer. George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel is so relevant to modern-day society, it’s terrifying to think the most glaring mistake in the author’s prediction of the future may well be that he was only off by a few decades. Exploring themes of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, censorship, and historical negationism, 1984 is the epitome of political dystopian fiction. It doesn’t sound like the most uplifting choice for my 2017 reads, but… well, let’s just say, I have a feeling this novel will be more relevant this year than ever!
That’s it for today’s to-read list! Tune in next week for the second half of my top ten list of books to read in 2017! Thanks for reading!
What about you? What books do you plan to read in 2017? Have you made any other resolutions for the new year?
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