FICTION WRITING CONTEST

The Duality of Nonexistence in Existence

An apocalyptic end to the world with the promise of a new dawn

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Sienna had often wondered — if her grand kids would ever know what a book weighs or how the smell of rain on earth was.She looked around the room — what she saw were holographic projections and digital art. Data streams had replaced ink and paper. Maybe they would never know how soothing natural light, filtering through the leaves, could be.Maybe the moon would go red and dissolve into the sun like an ancient prophecy getting fulfilled. When born on a Sunday, Sienna let her mind wander much as the molecules of smoke knew precisely where they wanted to go within the streets of reflections and dreams — deeper truths were now seen at each twist and turn.She had a way of fighting it when her head spun with thoughts and now let them be whatever they wished, relishing the chaos. Mount Akoli’s eruption was imprinted into infinity in her mind — the day she gave birth to twins, two lives from one soul. She felt a connection with mount Akoli.To her, life is all about a journey of conscience through the plateau of existence. In one such moment, she first saw the end of Earth.In her vision, she stood among ancient seers on a mountaintop, her eyes meeting the rising Sun. They had come to watch the cycle of destruction and rebirth. Far above a sea of clouds, Sienna had felt stillness settling over her, pulling her in.That had been this until there was the bird.

Always the bird. What was it doing there? Who could have cared about the bird?

Remember the twins. In the mountains surrounding their cabin, Sienna turned over a rock to show her children the teeming life below. Her tiny twins peered down at ants and beetles. Sienna gazed at her daughter’s eyes, catching a spark of interest in them.“Hello, beetle,” the two-year-old Luna said. “Very good,” replied Sienna, quite content with the sharp vision of her daughter.Then, in that single moment of clarity so infinitely removed, whole world was wandered beyond perception. Hopefully, by then, into the cold darkness. The invisible ones that occupied the hollows and cracks of this planet would submerge, as humans did from the overpowering truths of existence, later into the evening once the Sun had set.Maybe they’d all live to see the next dawn. If Sienna had a wish, it was only that those very same visions would never come true, yet they always did.Perhaps the end of life as they knew it, wasn’t a disaster at all but simply a change. Yes, the sun would indeed burn them all, even inside their underground bunkers. Their burning bodies would set something eternal free.

Observe the Shape shifting cosmic rays approaching earth fast—Distorting time and space — Image by

Only on the last day Sienna would find herself on Mount Vermin precisely as she had envisioned. She counted herself as one of the elders, with the knowledge of old that had come down to her orally.The elders represented continuity, wisdom, and a bridge between past and present. It seemed to have solidified while Earth began the countdown of its ultimate demise in years that were closing its lids.Space shuttles glided high over the wars and skirmishes on Earth. Progress and regression had been knitted together and been bound by fear. People, if not bored, were terrified and incapable of processing life.Fear became a medium of distortion, ensuring that sensory experiences were amplified while the ability to glean from them was dulled down. A universal distorting lens — fear, whether you were human or deer or molecule.The Quantum-physicists believed in a knowable reality best experienced by computers, and the Metaphysicists saw reality as a projection of the live mind. Sienna held the duality of views with the help of her children. The reality, she came to accept, was neither binary nor a compromise of all possibilities.

Everyone was right.

A few days after, the insects running under the stone had dispersed, Luna and her little brother Orion presented Sienna with an important realization. Her body surged with adrenaline when Orion screamed from the river bank.She expected the fall, but Luna’s voice guided her to a stinger on Orion’s leg. Sienna went on a slow approach, making her presence felt to the giant scorpion.Lifting its hands up, the scorpion slithered away for some unknown reason. Orion, smiling but trembling, was scooped up by Sienna. Tears streamed down Luna’s face as if she, too, remembered the pressure of the scorpion’s touch.Sienna now understood how, through her children, life wove itself together. The Earth was one mind, a super-organism of infinite complexity.Up on Mount Vermin, under the crimson sky, Sienna saw a young hawk perch itself on a pine branch. She has some blurred recollection, which inquired if it was her presence, or even the tree’s, that invited the bird.She remembers how back then, as a child, it could easily be about the view, and beauty was revealed in a way entirely alien to the deep true understanding of it.

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As the moon and the Sun gathered all their strength to coalesce, the Sage asked Sienna, “Are you ready?”. “Yes,” she replied while she gazed at the bird. “This cosmic event should be felt, not seen.”The Sage nodded. “Yes, this is the moment to be present. Thank you, Sienna. It is an honor to face oblivion with you.”In one blinding flash, life was over, and awareness continued. There was no more duality, only oneness. This was peace, love, everything, and nothing. It was a ballet between time and space.The earth was back to the mysterious algorithm of life’s origin. And in this void, a new beginning was eagerly waiting, a potential energy ready to turn into creativity again.

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