A note for my loyal subscribers

In those first dark days after my son died, as I lay in bed crying myself to sleep, praying for a chance to see him just one more time, I realized I was looking at myself. I was literally standing next to my bed, looking at myself laying there, motionless. “Daddy?” His voice was soft and weak, as my son looked up at me. Forgetting everything else, I hugged him. “But Daddy, does this mean you’re dead, too?” “I don’t really know, and right now, I don’t care. I’m so glad to see you again.”

“You’d never believe what I thought I saw on my last shift, Jim,” I said to break up the night’s boredom. It was only 18 minutes into our shift, but felt like we’d been there for several hours, at least. “What’s that?” asked Jim idly. “Sam had called in and we couldn’t get anyone to cover,” I took another sip of my coffee, “so I was alone that night. I definitely need to get more sleep. So, I’m sitting here, trying to keep my eyes open, when I glance at the monitor for camera 5, and I swear I thought I saw--” “A puddy cat?” Jim interrupted. “No, asshole, it was this eight foot tall thing with arms that reached almost to the floor, and red eyes, and it was covered in this fuzz. Not fur, or anything, it was more just blurry.” “Hmm,” said Jim, “you really do need to get more sleep.” “Definitely.” I hadn’t slept well in weeks. Between the kid in the apartment next to mine learning drums, and the family above me having an English mastiff and two kids that like to get it rile...

I watched my son get on the bus, the sun glaring badly off the windshield. I wondered briefly how his driver, Ron, never wore sunglasses. I couldn’t see Ron because of the glare, but in the 4 months that he had driven Joey to school every day, he hadn’t worn them once. As the bus pulled away, I went back to the book I was reading. I looked up a couple of minutes later, and Joey’s school bus was pulling up. … “What do you mean, John?” Ron asked, “I just got here.” My heart raced as I realized that I had sent Joey on a bus without seeing the driver, or paying attention to the bus number.

As I walked into the lobby of the Hermetian Heritage Hotel, I had to agree with Rosemary; the place was a bit creepy, especially since the lobby seemed abandoned. I spun slowly as I moved through the lobby, taking the place in, and then leaned back against the empty front desk. It was all very Art Nouveau, a lot more elegant than quaint, and a large grandfather clock let out a single resounding dong. It somehow accentuated the stillness of it all, giving it an even more unsettling vibe. As even the clock’s intonation abandoned the vacant space, I felt a shiver run through me.

“So, you’re sure it’s not a problem, Doc?” “Absolutely certain,” said the Doctor who introduced himself as Nic, “Most people occasionally see dark figures scurrying away in the edges of their vision, especially when they are tired, or stressed, especially at night. It’s perfectly normal.” I believed him. Of course I did.

That fateful day was actually his 17th bank robbery, and if I’d known in that moment that he was wanted for 3 murders on top of the robberies, I never would have said a word to him. I didn’t know, so I opened my stupid mouth.

As the environment on our native planet began to change, we took notice. We realized that eventually, our planet would no longer be able to sustain life as we know it. Our science showed that though life would always continue to thrive, our lives would be snuffed out unless we did something drastic. We developed a technology that enabled us to convert another similar planet to be completely habitable to us. We found a planet that was similar enough; the new planet’s trips around its star were much shorter than our own years, but we could get used to that. The day/night cycle would occur a few times during a typical lunch break, and our lives would be many billions of years on this new planet, but adjusting our measurement of time seemed trivial compared to the looming extinction of our entire species. Also, this difference in orbital speed would be important to the timely success of our project. So it was; just over 4 billion Earth years ago, we sent this terraforming technolog...