What if you met yourself as a child? Would she/he be proud of you and of the choices you made in your life? Or would she/he be ashamed of who you turned her/him into?

This short story focuses on a conversation between the same girl at 7 and 27 years old. A little spoiler: the little girl's not happy.

Awakened from a life of fantasy and dreams, is there nothing more to life?

Reflections on the difficulty of creating yourself and finding your people

A man woke up in a grey and lifeless plain, the ground covered in knife-like stones. He walked aimlessly until he stumbled upon a great iron wall.

It was just a dream…. Perhaps… there is the possibility that I abused imagination and saw beyond the veil of reality. 

But I felt awake; so awake.. when I touched the moon. Or you.

Clara sat in the dimly lit room, her eyes fixed on David’s computer screen. Her heart pounded as she scrolled through the emails, each word a dagger cutting deeper into her trust. The passionate messages to another woman were bad enough, but it was the ones to his friends that twisted the knife further."She thinks she knows me," one message read. "But she’s just another pawn. They all are."The room felt like it was closing in on her, the walls pushing her towards a precipice of despair. Clara’s hands trembled, the damning words blurring through her tears. She could hear the echo of her own voice from the dream, pleading for understanding that never came.The sound of keys jangling at the door snapped her back to the present. Panic surged through her veins. David was home. She had to leave. Now.With shaking hands, she wrote a quick note, her pen scratching furiously against the paper. "I know the truth. I’m leaving. Don’t try to find me."She grabbed her bag and fled, the note left on the table like a fragment of the trust that had once bound them. As the door clicked shut behind her, Clara felt a weight lift from her shoulders. For the first time in weeks, she could breathe.Outside, the night air was cool and filled with the promise of a new beginning. Clara knew the road ahead would be long and fraught with challenges, but she also knew she had the strength to walk it. The dream had been a harrowing glimpse into the reality she needed to face, and now, armed with the truth, she was ready to reclaim her life.

On a mission to aid in the exploration of a new world an accident leaves Laura stranded in space. She soon realizes she is the sole survivor of the vessel that harbored her crewmates, save for the few on the surface of the planet which includes her husband.

There’s a monster in me.