creative spark 2020

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“A glorious light shining through!” Sapphiria the Queen
alerted the others who are residing nearby.
“That figure… could it be?” Opalus, who had been sleeping
for a long while and blinded by the light when waking up, promptly
asked the rest.

“It is our savior who will finally banish the dark” Emeria
continued to answer with confidence and enthusiasm for their
messiah.

“How did they appear so blue, and so much shorter than all
others-” “Yet they look the most determined” Opalus asked just
as Emeria interrupted while bringing up a good point to note at.
Followingly, Rubus the Ruby Crawler informed the villages
about the knight, who the crawlers decided to call “Blue” based on
its appearance. The people of Verbys had never seen a vessel
appearing for several centuries, but the fact that this one seemed
to have no thoughts and emotions just make it that much different.
The vessel’s cryostasis must have changed the outcome of the
experiment somehow, even without the King to witness it, nor was
he intending to do so.

Back in the cave, Blue hopped from platform to platform
and reaching the first switch with ease, where a crystal fell atop of
the beacon to reveal the ancient flame from within. The light itself
was lit, and so did the hope of the Kingdom. As expected, the void
gazes back on the beam, leaving such little time for The Knight to
end their task. Now that the first of the trials was completed,
the King’s Garden became the next nearest destination.

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The gardens were shielded by the sphere of Influence from
the King, a great creation that unfortunately prevented anyone from
getting in or getting out for years and years. Back in the villages,
Rubus had ordered the great weaponsmith Shou to forge that
exquisite blade of Blue to its peak of willpower. With such a weapon,
the figure managed to break into the Garden’s shield.

Blue arrived into a place full of darkness, old vines, and
tablets. No assistance could’ve been given here as this place was
kept concealed for millennials. They had to pass through the ruins
of the area, filled with ancient text and confusing labyrinths. Using
the clues given along the way, The Ghost went through each
passage one by one, each stating the truth behind the kingdom
and the creations, despite many of the text that turned into total
debris.

“-ght constrained” … “total eclipse” … “has been consumed”
… “people succumb to the-” … “Lighthouse is the birth” …
“vessels” … “defeat the shaper of v-” … “using what’s given” …
“abyss” … “tyrant” … “the aby- extinction”

Through the path of moss and withered plants, there was
bound to be danger. Black spirits and tendrils appear to struck
Blue who mercifully repelled them away. With the blade, the knight
resorted to unravelling the lights upon their very “eyes”. Some of
the darkness reverted back to life, others were unable to handle
the shine and disintegrated into nothingness.

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As the shell approached the main pedestal, more and more
obstacles popped in their way, but it didn’t get out of hand for Blue
to not be able to handle the situation, meaning he eventually got to
commence the ritual.

“Sacrifice, o’ great one” A voice called out from a mysterious
tablet.
“Rescue us”, “Free us from Noxus”, “To The Abyss”, “Time
is running low” the phantoms chanted to the ritual as Blue stabbed
through the center of the obelisk and forever ending the ritual,
as well as the garden’s shield.

The stone shattered into nothing but dust, the mirror
illuminated into the back of the tower up the mountain. There was
only one path for The Knight now.

Blue advanced to the mountains, where falling once would
likely lead to a catastrophic failure of the mission. There was no
turning back then, everyone there internally recognized this. The
rough terrain of the mountains were enough to put many on edge,
thus many failed the climb and the rest didn’t even try at all to reach
the lighthouse as people were content with living down in the
chasms.

Spikes after spikes that Blue evaded over, but then an
eruption inconveniently occured in the middle of all this. Blue fell
over eventually, and had to be recovered back at the chasms.
It was only a matter of time until all of the lights dim, evident beacon
light turned from white to a light gray. Fortunately, some of the

52



stones had fallen into the spikes and clearing out the way for a
second time around, and thus the knight consequently took the
detour up the ranks. It still was a difficult goal to accomplish
however, since landslides still happened every once in a while.
Surprisingly, the building at the apex hdsn’t collapsed yet and the
basement is maintained like normal. By now, the Beacon of the
Crystal turned into a gray-pink color, almost at the end of its
lifespan. But then something happened.

Blue reached the mountaintop to reveal the light to the
entire world. The knight of great renown had found the lighthouse.
Inside the lighthouse contains a mysterious test tube faintly with
orbs in black and white, although what’s more important is Toro,
a true sibling of Blue, uncaged by the Knight themselves. The
bright and eerie lighthouse contrasting with the dark and windy
made the moment way more than just a normal task, as Blue was
unleashing the rays of light that had been sealed away for the past
few millennials. Switching and turning the room a bit, the beacon’s
light refracted through a prism and broke the seal on the tower’s
ceiling.

With this, their mission was finally completed, the great
mission that left people in despair for years and years, centuries
and centuries. The Knight had endured one of the toughest hurdles,
much deserving of the King’s recognition.

Toro reached out and alas enjoyed the outside world with
his sibling. In silence, the two embraced their nature with the best
view in the entirety of the world … The vibrant green gardens with
a truly wild life; debrises formed back into mossy husks, bushes

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and tree-like animals … the shiny crawlers celebrated happily with
crystal fireworks made out of the gems of their kind; ruby, sapphire,
amethyst, emerald, topaz, the list goes on. They were reliving the
colorful lifestyle that void took from them … the people of the
villages cheered for the heroes of the mountains. The vivid colors
and joyful atmosphere were all around town all of the sudden; the
caves, and the gardens; as if the kingdom had been resurrected
like how it was with the Sun existing. Verbys was finally brought
back to its former glory.
Until… they looked over at the other side. A seemingly
unreachable realm of great nightmares with an immensely steep
path. The darkness was lessened, but for the most part the blinding
white could only illuminate so much when the rays were out of
range from the deepest of the darks. The valley were barely visible
as Blue and Toro had seen their true destination they were destined
to reach.
The two gazed into void, and void gazed into the two.
A smell of deadly air has arisen from the deep dark. They knew that
Noxus was waiting for them, yet they were also waiting for Noxus
… Only if they knew that Noxus shaped and wielded void at the
same time. Blue had seen a mysterious dark figure, and both of
them could advance. With unification of two great knights, going
down the cliff-esque mountain slope was an easy task. The two
illuminated each other’s paths and kept both safe from falling
boulders from above. Just as the knights approached the mouth of
The Abyss, the whole land trembled, and Toro collapsed.

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Fortunately, the white shell was safe, yet slightly scarred
due to the incident. And thus, only the blue proceeded into the
depths of darkness. Blue encountered Onyxia the Dark Prince, and
had immediately notice something. It turned out that the guardian
of The Abyss shared similar traits to other vessels; the prince is
hollow, hushed, and had a shape similar to other vessels, albeit the
body is larger.

Onyxia challenged Blue to a battle, a sword versus the
sword. Slashes after slashes, Blue was tenacious enough to land
the first strike. The prince devised of a trick, however, he released
void upon the whole cave, which was a defense system within the
caverns. The Light Knight could have done nothing but performed
a cyclone from the slash, slaying all the dark particles and adding
the dark’s power to the light. With the power of equilibrium, Blue
overpowered Onyxia with the final blow of the blade. It was all over.
Was it not?
Just as Blue thought assumed Noxus was down, the dark
wielder himself consumes Blue into his own realm. The Knight was
on the brink of death, with the only chance of redemption being to
somehow defeat Noxus in his own realm. The Messiah of Verbys
attempted to use their sword, forged by the essence of the Kingdom
itself, to defeat Noxus in combat but to no avail. The glorious light
of the sword failed to overcome the darkness, but instead the dark
overwhelmed the light…

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Blue absorbed all the void, making the realm of Noxus pitch
black. Light was no more, and Blue was deceased… Noxus was
about to release the darkness back upon the world and consume
Verbys for eternity… for the glory of darkness.. “More spirits for
the god of the void, this way I’ll be immortal and assert dominance
all over every single place in the universe,” he thought. However,
the god of the void was indeed approaching him. In a turn of
events, the god himself casts an infamous “Abyssal Extinction”
spell and defeated Noxus. A vortex led the god of void to the
kingdom. The cave collapsed and all there was left were stacks of
rocks.

The vortex had also consumed away all of the darkness,
and all that was left when the god returned was a hollow, broken
“icy blue” shell resting atop of all the stones. The Abyss was
cleansed of darkness, once again, and the lighthouse freely shined
on the shell, spinning its red gears with shiny yellow light. A dead
knight remained in shambles, waiting for someone to notice a great
sacrifice.

“With the lighthouse standing strong, Verbys shall remain
eternal.”

The Family’s


Flight












- Thorphan (Didi) Tienboon & Tanyatorn (Rosie) Thienpaitoon -


The sobbing sound became hard to conceal. It was from a
thirteen-year-old boy. This boy, named Eddie Matthew Brown, was
determined to escape to a better place. He climbed down the
window, step by step, sobbing as quietly as possible. With only a
fluffy friend clutched under his arm, his decision became clearer
and clearer. He started walking faster and faster, as far as he
could. No destination. The only thing he knew was that he did not
want to stay here anymore. What a horrible place! All of a sudden,
the sweet, soothing voice of his mother popped up in his ears.
The sound was warm and familiar, filled with true love and
generosity. He heard himself weeping louder. He clasped his
mouth with his trembling hands and decided to run as fast as he
could before he changed his mind.

After running for a while, he panted heavily that he could not
stand on his feet anymore. His chest was in pain, and he couldn’t
breathe properly. He could feel his asthma attack on the verge of

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happening. Undeniably, it is the root cause of the problems in his
life. He decided to find a quiet place to sit and remembered that
the park at midnight had always been the best place for him.
He calmed down and settled himself under the big oak tree. As he
gazed up, he noticed a lot of bright beautiful stars in the sky.
He was definitely in his comfortable space right now. Even though
he had just stopped crying, his love for astronomy kept him excited
as he looked up into the sky where he was sitting. He had always
dreamed of becoming an astronaut one day. Tonight, his dream
had been reconfirmed. He kept on looking at those stars and how
brightly they shone. Slowly, he dozed off to sleep with a big smile
on his face.

Back home, warm milk and cookies which were his favorite
bedtime snack that his parents would bring to him every night were
still unprepared. Today was unusually quiet as there was tension in
the air. Ever since the big conversation in the afternoon, Eddie
hadn’t come out of his room. They knew that he did not feel well
and was upset about the argument, but it was a common discussion
that every parents had with their children. They tried to speak as
calmly as possible and hoped that he would understand their
reasoning. They approached Eddie’s room, wanting to go in to say
goodnight. They stopped at the door looking at the sign, “Eddie’s”,
decorated with myriads of stars and outer space pictures and
posters. Mrs. Brown’s hand was on the knob. She counted to three
and her heart dropped. Everything in her mind became blank and
tears welled up in her eyes. She felt light-headed. Eddie was not in
the room, and the windows were opened with a ladder near them.

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Dad and mom rushed from the second floor to the first and
ran out of the house. They could see nothing but the empty road in
front of them. Amid the silence, the light in the living room of Miss
Colleen’s house was turned on. Both of the parents turned in the
direction of brightness at once. Before anyone could realize, they
arrived at the front door of their neighbor’s house. Mrs. Brown
knocked on the door and waited anxiously. They still had hope.
Soon, they heard Miss Colleen's footsteps coming closer and
closer to the front door. The door opened gently revealing the prim
face of an old woman. Even though there were deep wrinkles on
her face, her enthusiasm made her young at heart. She smiled at
the parents with the face that contrasted with theirs.

“Good evening. Is everything all right? Your faces look so
…”, Miss Colleen started the conversation.

Before she could finish her sentence, Mr. Brown interrupted
her, “Is Eddie here?”
Instead of being surprised or confused, the old lady
remained calm as if losing a child was a normal thing. “Come
inside," said Miss Colleen, and they all entered the house.
It was a very long 5 minutes while Mr. and Mrs. Brown sat in
the living room waiting for Miss Colleen to prepare cups of tea for
them, and to begin the conversation. She came back with a tray
with three cute cups with pastel flowers painted on them.
“Eddie helped me paint these cups,” Miss Colleen started at

last, “Where is he today?”

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With panic and a little anger in Mrs. Brown’s voice, she
replied, “If he is not here, why did you invite us in?”
No answer came from Miss Colleen's mouth, instead, she
stood up from her cozy armchair, and walked to the shelf that
contained different kinds of items that looked like witchcraft tools.
The big wooden shelf on the far left side of the room suddenly drew
their attention. Miss Colleen walked straight to a blue-green sphere
made out of glass that looked like a globe in the middle of the case.
She picked it up and felt the weight of that strange globe before
she returned to her seat.

“You really don’t know where you kid is?”, asked the old
lady, leaving the couple speechless. “Let me show you where he
is."
At the moment, everything turned black. A pair of ocean
blue eyes were staring at four big eyes that were filled with love.
A newborn was lying in the beige crib with hanging seashells and
a teddy bear beside him. Other toys and clothes were still scattered
and placed lubberly on the floor. The room and the wallpaper
looked brand new as the Browns had just moved in a few days
ago. Even though there were many things still left to do at the new
house including unpacking boxes and installing furniture, the
young couple seemed to neglect those and focused only on their
son who was now giggling in the crib. “Peek-A-Boo,” the baby’s
mom kept saying. Thirty minutes had passed, and the parents of
the child were still playing Peek-A-Boo. In less than a minute, the
little angel started to cry. His dad quickly picked him up and held
him tight, rocking him comfortably until he fell asleep.

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“He’s so adorable,” whispered the mother of the baby
before he laid him back down in the crib gently.
Matthew Brown turned the doorknob quietly and left the
room. His wife, Nova, followed him and turned to shut the door
carefully behind her. They made sure that they moved quietly
enough so that their beloved son did not wake up to any noise. The
atmosphere outside of the baby’s bedroom was totally different.
Smiles from the Browns vanished, and the seriousness took its
place.
“Right… the asthma…,” said Nova, “We gotta find a way to
cure it promptly.”
Matthew frowned and replied, “Although some people die

because of asthma, they are very rare. Also, there are other
factors involved, and I think in his case, asthma might only restrict
some of his future activities.”

Both Matthew and Nova Brown were doctors, so they knew
that asthma was a disease that was incurable. All they could do
was to keep an inhaler with him at all times and remove him from
anything that would trigger the attacks. Eddie was their most
valuable gift. Therefore, they had been discussing his respiratory
disorder for years and planned to find a medical cure for their only
child while keeping him as healthy as possible in the meantime.

One night, Nova came up with a gripping idea while they
were in bed. She took hours to explain to her husband about the
thesis that she worked on when she was a medical student. With
her friends, she did a research project about relieving different

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incurable diseases. Without a doubt, one of them was asthma.
Even though she graduated a long time ago, she could still
remember her beloved professor, who was her advisor. She
instantly got out of their big bed in the dark and turned on the lamp
on her desk. She opened one of the drawers where piles of paper
were stacked and searched for a phone book. Seeing his wife
working, Matthew got up from the bed as well and walked over to
the desk where the telephone was. He dialed his doctor friend, who
specialized in the respiratory system, and asked him for more
information about asthma. Once Nova found the book she was
looking for, she turned the pages over to find the column that
contained names of people whose names begin with the letter L.
She looked up for the name of professor Lydia Smith and tried to
contact her. However, she received the news that her old advisor
had moved overseas with her husband’s family, and no one could
contact her for months. She didn’t give up. She worked even harder
to find a way to help Eddie. She stayed up all night trying to get her
thesis report back.
Several days passed, and she finally received a copy of her
work from a friend. Along with Matthew, they started to work hard
to find a cure, did a lot of research, and performed many
experiments. They worked tirelessly during the day and spared the
evening time for their only son. Eddie was now in kindergarten.
He was active and cheerful. The Browns always had dinner
together at the round table in the dining room and listened to the
talkative boy brag about mastering the alphabet or counting 1-10.
Some days he would talk about his friends, a cat at school, or
flowers in the school garden. These were the greatest moments for

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the family because everyone felt relaxed and destressed as they
shared their day’s experiences. After dinner, Matthew would take
Eddie upstairs to his bedroom, and Nova would follow closely with
a glass of milk and a piece of cookie for him. The three of them
would sit on the bed in the cozy room, and read a bedtime story
every single night. Eddie and his best friend, the teddy bear, would
snuggle in the middle of their parents’ arms waiting for the exciting
story. By the time he heard the word “and they lived happily ever
after,” he would probably be so sleepy that he could fall asleep
instantly. However, Eddie would not shut his eyes unless he got
gentle goodnight kisses from his parents.

The Brown’s normal routine was beginning to stray. Some
days, Eddie got out of the school bus and walked home to find no
one but a letter that read:

Dear Eddie,

Daddy and I will not be home tonight. We are so
sorry that we did not tell you in advance. Milk and
cookies are in the fridge. If you need help with
anything, please go next door to Miss Colleen.
We’ll be back before midnight.

Mommy.

Eddie was seven years old and was able to read and
understand the letter clearly. It wasn’t the first time he would be
home by himself. Unlike the other boys his age, he did not watch
television, ate chips, or stayed up late. Instead, he was always well-

63



behaved and stayed out of trouble. Whenever he felt a little insecure
without his parents, he would walk over to Miss Colleen's house.
She had always been kind to him. On several occasions when his
parents leave him unannounced, Eddie would stay with her. Her
house was full of snacks and games for him to play. Miss Colleen
was fun and chatty. Before long, she became one of Eddie’s best
friends that he could talk to about anything. Sometimes they spent
all night watching movies, or listening to the story of Miss Colleen’s
childhood.
The days without parents happened more and more often.
Eddie talked less and less to his parents, probably once a day
before bedtime. His parents were completely absorbed with their
work. The business for curing asthma was their priority. However,
the only child to this successful business wanted his parents to
have him as their priority. He began to feel like no one loved him
except Miss Colleen. Every night he would take out the fluffy teddy
bear, a bear that he got as a present since the first day he entered
into this world, and shared his daily events with it instead. This cute
teddy bear would become his other confidant listening to all his
daily woes or joys.

Matthew and Nova Brown saw their every movement and
noticed their every point of view through Ms. Colleen’s blue-green
sphere. Seeing themselves reminded them of how awful they are
as parents.

Then, the pictures sped up to the day Eddie ran away from
the house, and it was very rare to find a picture of all the Browns
sitting at the dining table having a meal. If there was, nothing much

64



was in their conversation. One of the moments flashed in. It was
when Eddie brought up a scholarship that he had secretly gone to
apply for and won. This scholarship would send him to an astronaut
camp in summer with all expenses paid. Eddie had been so
obsessed with all kinds of objects in outer space ever since his first
astronomy class. This camp would be a wonderful experience for
him. He had hidden the news for weeks, knowing his parents would
disapprove. Before Eddie could say anything else, his dad
vehemently said no. His mom was not supportive either. She
started to list the things that could go wrong with him at camp
without listening to the enormous educational benefits Eddie tried
to point out that he would receive. A big argument between them
erupted. Eddie was sad and angry at the same time. He couldn’t
hold his temper anymore and spoke up for himself.

“This is my dream! I want this in my future, Dad!” he yelled.
“How about our family’s medical practice? We have done so

much for you. We planned out the future for you. Listen, you can’t
be an astronaut with your asthma. I won’t let you go to this camp.
Do you hear me?” Dad yelled back.

Eddie felt his tears rolling down his cheeks. He clutched his
fist and shouted back,

“Are you sure you did it for me? I’ve never asked you to do
this much work for me. All I want is to have time together. Our
moments! This dream is my life. If you don’t approve, I’ll go on my
own path. And one day, I will show you that I can be the greatest
astronaut in the world! I’ll show you that can do much more than
what you think!”

65



He ran up to his room and slammed the door, ignoring the
calls from his parents. He threw books off the shelf. Everything that
is connected to his wonderful memories was ripped apart. He
punched the wall with anger, and grabbed his teddy bear before
he tumbled into bed.

“You know what, teddy? When I was younger, I was very
proud of my family. Everyone was jealous of me since I had so
much love and care. But now, everything has changed. They don’t
even listen to me. I hate my asthma! Why was I born like this?
I have nobody now except you, teddy. No one really loves me
except you and Miss Colleen. I don’t want to live here anymore.”
He wiped the tears off his face and started to pack.
The action and the sound were so clear. Matthew and Nova
now understood everything. Everything that they did caused this
whole mess. If they cared about his feelings and understood him
more, he wouldn’t have run away.

“Bring us back please, Miss Colleen. We want to fix this,”
said Nova bursting into tears.

“As you wish, and remember not to hurt his feelings
anymore,” answered Miss Colleen. “I warned you, Matthew and
Nova,” and all of a sudden, the three of them were back in the living
room again. Mr. and Mrs. Brown thanked Miss Colleen. What they
have learned totally changed their mindset.
Without wasting time, they started to search for Eddie, their
little angel. Fortunately, they remembered that he loved having
family picnics in the park. They realized with the brightest smile that

66



truly came from the heart. A lot of great memories were made there.
They rushed as quickly as possible to the park, and they finally saw
their little boy sleeping under a tree.They breathed a great sigh of
relief and started to walk over to him. They sat down looking at
Eddie Brown like when he was two years old sleeping with smiles.
Tears welled up in their eyes. Mr. Brown carried Eddie on his back,
and they all went home. They promised themselves that they would
never leave out Eddie, and they would return to be the most perfect
family in the whole galaxy. They gave him goodnight kisses, and
they whispered into his ears,
“We love you and will never love you less, honey.”

Eddie grinned as he was still sleeping. No parents would
mean harm towards their child. Once the Browns were reunited,
they promised to themselves to always value togetherness,
understanding and love.

The Selected



























- Natnicha (Focus) Ngerndee -


The sound of the last bell of the day rang.
“That’s all for today, tomorrow we’ll have a field trip to the
park in Gloucestershire, England," the professor stands in front of
the room announced to all students. All of the students were excited
because they’ve never been out of school this far. “Meets in front
of the bus stop behind the school at 8 am tomorrow, DO NOT BE
LATE!”
In the next morning, all students meet at the bus stop as the
professor asks them to do. They all scramble to find the perfect
seat by the window so that they can see the beautiful scenery of
nature along the road. They look outside to see how peaceful this
town are, the warmth of the sunlight reflects with the greenness of

68



the grass, the sound of the birds tweeting, these make them in love
with this place although they had just come to this place for the first
time.
The bus stop. “We’ve arrived”, the professor announced.
“Walk out of the bus and wait for others at the big oak tree at the
center of the park”. The students gradually walk to the oak tree.
“Students…. You are feel free to take a look around the park, but
the only prohibition is do not do anything that against the park’s
rule, be nice okay?”. Students separate into many different small
groups and start to explore the park.

“BOOMM!”, the loud noise comes from behind the bush.
One of the students is curious about the suspicious sound so he
carefully follows the sound.

“Hey, Perseus”, another handsome boy with flaxen hair
touch his back. “Why are you standing here alone?”

“I heard a strange sound came from the bush, did you hear
that?”
“Oh, I heard that too. It is the reason that I came here,
and I accidentally met you”
Two girls walk toward and ask them.

“Did you guys heard something, I think it comes from
somewhere around here”
“Me and Perseus heard it too, Did both of you heard the

sound also?”
“Yeah, Me and Gaia heard it”

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“Should we take a look?”

“Yeah, sure why not”
Four of the students slowly go closer to the source of the
sound. They see the blue light flashing beneath their feet. All of a
sudden, they all blacked out.
Perseus opens his eyes with dizziness. He looked around
and found out that this place seems unfamiliar to the place he
knew. He torpidly opens his eyes and promptly wakes the boy
who’s with him before he blacked out.

“Linus!! Wake up!!”, He shakes Linus body .
“What’s happened Perseus?”, He asked with bewilderment.

“We’re in another dimension” “wake up!!”

“Wait...What?!” “How is it possible”
“I don’t know, but where are the girls, they must be here
somewhere”

“Perseus!! Linus!!”, A sharp, small voice was heard from
afar.

“Are you okay Athena? ”

“Not really, but that’s doesn’t important, there’s something
more worrisome than that, Gaia remained unconscious, we should
go and help her”

Gaia awake while others were surrounding her. A while
after, a letter appeared on each of their hands. “You are stuck in
the world of Magimod, find the way out or you will be stuck here

70



forever. Your time is limited, Good luck", Two sentences written in
black ink makes them feeling frightened.
“You are the most intelligent boy in the class, you always
got full marks in an exam, what should we do now, Perseus”, Athena
asked.

“I don’t know, the only thing that I know is that we stand
on the side of the land that is full with different bright color of
trees and shrubs and we might have to go to another side which is
gloomy and seems scary to solve the mystery to get out of this
dimension”.

“So what is the plan,''
“Maybe today we should gather some fruits and make a

shelter because the sun will set soon, then tomorrow we’ll figure
out something on the other side," They all agree and they all
spread out to find some fruits and find a place to sleep tonight.

The moon rises in the darkness. They all sleep under the
tree that most likely to be a maple tree but it isn’t, the shape and the
color of the tree are different from what it should be.

The brightness of the sun reaches their eyes. They all woke
up and starts walking across to the other sides. They still didn’t
have any clues. Along the way to the scary land, Purseus heard
someone hums a song all the time, It was Linus who’s humming to
song to relieve his stress.

“Linus can you stop humming the songs. You're interrupting
me. I’m trying to figuring things out”

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“Sorry Perseus, I can’t live without music, but now I don't
have anything to listen with, so I have to sing instead”

“Perseus! Linus! Come here!” The girls see something on the
tree.

“There’s an engraving text on this tree”

“Linus - achievement complete”
“Linus what did you do”

“I didn’t do anything”, Linus never been confused as much
as this time before.

“A second ago I just tell him to stop singing,” Perseus tells
the girls.
“It might be something about singing” Athena uses her

intelligence to prognosticate it. “Linus! Keeps singing maybe
something might happen”
“Why should I have to sing”

“JUST SING!!”
“ Ok then, And darlin', darlin', stand by meeee-e,”

“Stop! Stop! Nothing happens”
“Nevermind lets keep going before the sunset”

They all continue walking and questioning about the
situation that just happened. They go across the land and they
finally reached the destination. They found an old village and they
immediately go to the village. However, no one lives here. They

72



decide to use this village as their shelter. But the village is fragile
and old, it needs a lot of renovation. Athena is in charge of
renovating it.
“I’ll do my best to fix and decorate this house”

While Athena doing her duty, Linus, Perseus, and Gaia go
around the dried forest and hope that they’ll find some sort of clues
and food for tonight. But it turned out that they met a middle-aged
man living deep in the forest alone. They talk and get to know each
other. His name is Damon, he stuck in this dimension for years, he
can’t find the way out. Linus tells him about all hints that he got and
invited him to join their journey. They walk back to Athena and feel
surprised because she uses only about 4 hours to do her duty, but
it came out so beautiful as though she had spent months on it.
Suddenly, the unknown envelope is placed on a table that painted
in beautiful white color. Athena opens the letter it says “Well done
Athena”, They observe closely to the letter and found another
brown paper in it.

“What does this picture means?” Gaia asks
“It’s the map of this land”, the man who had lived longer
than the kids answered. Perseus placed the map on the table and
marked all the place that they all got the hint from on the map and
he realizes that there's a red mark on the mid-corner of the map.

The darkness comes again but it tends to be the bad night
ever. The clouds thickened, blocking the moon’s light, The wind
makes the fences shake. its not a good time to spend outside. They
rush into a house. Their heart pounded louder and louder, tried to

73



close their eyes to pass the night rapidly as they could. Instantly,
They heard deep whisper voice outside of the house, afterward,
a loud knocking noise in front of the door occurs. Everyone is
dreaded and panic, except for Gaia she feels so calm and didn’t
feel scared or anything at all. She tries to console others and told
everyone that it just our fear, the truth is that it was just the sound of
wind blowing and the gray trees touch the door. They close their
eyes and another night passed by.

“Here it goes again”, Athena sitting at a table reading
another letter. “This time it is Gaia’s name written on it. Who’s
left?”
“Perseus and Damon still don't get any notes”, Linus
answered.
“Yesterday when you guys are sleeping I've been thinking
about the map and I figured it out that the red mark on the map
is the creepy castle on the faraway hill, maybe we should take a
risk to the castle or else we might be stuck here forever, the
castle must give us something.”, Perseus talking in a serious voice.
It turned out that everyone agreed with him since there
were no other alternatives. They head towards the castle, which is
the last hope they have. Along the route, They look up and found
a giant griffin, the greek mythology creature with a lion’s body with
a head and wings of an eagle, moving towards them. They never
saw this creature in a zoo or anywhere else on Earth except in
Greek’s history book. They run away as fast as possible to survive,
but because of Damon’s age, he runs slower than others.
It scratches Damon on his legs, holding him upward and tries to kill

74



him. Perseus shows his courageous by jumping on its hind leg
climbing to the back then towards the head while others distracting
it and using a sword that Athena made for him slit the griffin’s throat.
Griffin drops Damon to the ground. The grey ground covered with
green blood of the Griffin.

“Are you okay, Damon?” The boy with the sword asked.
“Yeah...Probably, but the blood still running out of my legs

and it tends to not stop”.
“Wrap the wound up with a piece of cloth first until we find
the medicine to cure it."

“I’m afraid that I’m going to need some help”.
“I’ll help you, We’ll never leave you here alone”.
Perseus helps him to stand up. They also receive another
message for Perseus. At this point, they don’t care about all the
letters, messages and clues, because they think that it’s useless
now it doesn’t help anything the only hope is to go to the final
destination. They continue walking, the castle becomes nearer and
nearer, they saw it slightly. When they arrived, the castle seems not
what like they thought. The castle full of the shattered window,
many vines spread around the wall, the statues of the mythology
creatures look like they’re staring at them all the time, and there’s a
stone in front of the gate with a word “GREEK” on it. They staring at
this stone for a while.

An idea jumped into Athena’s mind. “Guys, I know already
how all these puzzles works, the map tells us to come to this castle
and makes us come to see this stone and it is the word “GREEK”.

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And I just realized that our name comes from the name of ‘Greek
god’ like we study in history class and some of our traits will be the
same as them and when we develop that traits we receive the
message that tells us that we completed the mission or well done
or something. If to explain in more details, Me, My name is Athena,
there a greek god who are good at crafting things and justice or in
another words she works well with men, back then when there’s a
letter on the table it appeared after I’ve done crafting sword for you
guys and also after finished decorating and fixing the house. That’s
the reason. For Perseus, Perseus in Greek mythology is a God who
is courageous, intelligent and he is a strong fighter. So, Perseus
received a letter after he helps Damon. For Linus, after he singing
he got an engraving message on the tree, which corresponds to
the myth of a god name Linus who is a musician and he is a music
master. Then lastly for Gaia, in the legends of Gaia the goddess of
the Earth she’s like nature and peaceful and she is always calm
same as Gaia our friends, she always calm and doesn’t panic like
us.”
“And What’s about me,” Damon asked

“I know that there’s a greek god name Damon, but I don’t
know his biography in-depth or maybe we should go explored inside
the castle first”
Perseus open the entrance door, the freezing wind blows
into his face, he looks around finding nothing, he sees the stairs up
to the second floor, he and Linus slowly carry Damon to the second
floor to see is it anything that can help them, others follow them
closely. He found a brown chest covered with dust, he uses his

76



hand to wipe the dust off then he opens it. A lot of gray fog comes
out makes their view unclear. Afterward, A dark shadow comes
out. A large mythical creature that has a head of a bull and a man’s
body, it is the Minotaur who protects the spell inside the chest from
strangers. Minotaur directly dashes into Damon’s body, Damon
falls down to the floor. Linus uses a bow shoot into Minotaur’s arm.
While the boys are fighting, Athena run to Damon and bring him
who can not stand up by himself to hide behind the pillar near the
chest, Gaia uses the time that Minotaur get distracted and get the
spell out of the chest. The Minotaur is too strong, they cannot
overcome it, they can only distract it so that others can get the spell
and conjure. Gaia starts to cast the spell to open the portal to go
back to the normal world. But the Minotaur becomes more powerful.
The two boys start to not being able to handle it. Athena left Damon
alone, she quickly goes into the battle without fear. The mortal
starts to open. Unexpectedly, the Minotaur uses the horn charged
straight in and stab into Damon’s chest. All of them full of
exasperation, they all have the strength to fight. Since they use all
of their ability and vigor, Perseus uses the spear stick into Minotaur’s
leg, Athena breaks the Minotaur’s horn into two pieces, Linus uses
a sword stab into its eye and pulls it out. Minotaur fall down. The
portal completely opens.

“We have to go now before the Minotaur resurrects and
the portal close again.” Gaia shout.
“But we can’t leave he alone” Perseus yells.

“Then you go and lift him”

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Perseus and Linus tries to lift him, but they are very tired,
causing no energy to lift him and they’re still a teenage boy but
Damon is a man, Damon is too massive for them.
“You guys should go,” Damon tells the boys.

“We can't leave you here alone”
“Faster!!! Perseus!! It’s awake!!” The girls who wait in front of
the portal speak with a trembling voice at them.

“I said go! I promise we’ll meet again, You guys have better
future than I am, Thanks for helping me last time.You all helped
me a lot and I don't feel sorry to sacrifice my life for you guys.
Nice to meet all of you guys.” He uses the last strength he has to
speak with them.

They still don’t give up on raising him, but it’s too late the
creature awake and run towards them. They have to leave Damon
right there and runs through the mortal. The last picture they saw
was the picture of Simon being killed by the Minotaur.
They finally come back to the ordinary world. They noticed
that they still standing right at the same time and place that they
were before they got pulled into another dimension. They should
be happy to be back, but it seems to be the opposite. They still feel
guilty for not being able to save Damon’s life. They walked back to
the big oak tree in the middle of the park and ask the professor
about the history of Damon the greek god, the professor tells them
that Damon is a god which is loyal and risked his life to stand for his
friends. They all understand the action that Damon did for them
and they hope that they will meet Damon again.

Lost Sister



















- Napak (Im-Im) Arthasart -


Far away from crowded cities, there lied a beautiful village
upon a grassland. The village was not very large and the people
there were very kind and friendly. The sound of carriage on a brick
road, children laughing and playing and vendors setting up their
stall in the afternoon made this solitude village even more colorful.
Next to the east of the village was the forest that spread through the
grassland. People used to go hunting, cutting up wood or picking
some forest stuff, so it was quite safe to go there. Meanwhile, in the
forests where nature surrounded, there were two kids playing and
talking while their path going deeper and deeper into the woods.
“Do you think this stick looks like a skeleton hand?”
an energetic voice from a girl named Ella asked her twin sister, Lily.
Lily nodded and looked down to the floor, trying to find some weird
looking sticks. “I'm bored now. Let’s go somewhere else,” Ella said
while hopping around Lily. Lily nodded and picked up a long stick
from the dusty ground. “Do you want to go to the stream? How
about climbing the oak tree?” Lily asked back while swinging the

79



stick around. “Nah. They are boring,” she answered. “Can we go to
the fence?”
“That place again? What is so special about it?” Lily hit Ella
gently with a stick. “I don’t know. I just like the atmosphere there.
Can we go?” Ella begged while clinging to Lily. “Ugh. Fine,” Lily
gave a huge sigh. “Yayyy!!!” Ella jumped and ran forward. “Hey!
Wait for me!” Lily ran after Ella who went deeper into the woods.
Those two little twelve-year-old girls were twins from a
carpenter family. They were always together as if they were the
same person. They were like a mirror image of each other except
their behavior. Ella had a birthmark on her upper right arm. People
usually used that mark when they couldn’t tell apart who was Ella
and Lily. Sometimes their parents also confused because they
were very alike.
Soon, the twin finally reached their destination. Ella ran to
the fence that was in the middle of the forests. In front of them was
the fence that was made with woods and barbed wire. It was not
very tall, just a proper jump could cross it. In the past, villagers put
it up because, beyond that area, the woods were denser, which
made a great habitat for dangerous animals. “What do you think
about the forest beyond these fences?" Ella asked while staring
into the thick woods. Lily didn' t answer. She just stared into forests

that were filled with the unknown. "I think this forest is boring.
We have been playing in these woods since we were kids and now
everything is not so fun anymore. Maybe if we crossed this fence,
we might find something more interesting to do,” Ella smiled
nervously to Lily. “Well, it is true that this place is run out of fun

80


things to do, but it is a very bad idea if we go beyond this area.
Our mom will be very furious if she knows,” Lily patted Ella’s
shoulder gently. “I am sure that we can still find something fun to
do,” Lily made a huge smile to cheer her up. “Yeah, you are right.
Our mom will be very angry,” Ella sighed. The sky started to get
gloomier. Then the rain started. “What! Why it is so sudden!?” Ella

shouted as she looked above. “Let’s go home before the rain gets
heavier,” Lily grabbed Ella's hand and started to walk. They walked
for a while until they reached the spot where they picked their
sticks. Ella didn’t notice that Lily suddenly stopped and that made
her bumped into Lily. “Hey! Why do you stop walking? The rain is
getting heavier,” Ella patted her forehead. Then she saw a black
figure about fifty meters away from them. It was an enormous black
bear staring at them. Its angrily and growling noise made them
shivered. Both of them paralyzed with fear. They didn’t know what
to do in this situation. “What should we do?” Ella asked nervously
as holding Lily’s arm tightly. “I think we should stay still,” Lily
answered with a shivering voice. Suddenly, the bear dashed to
them at full speed. The girls screamed in horror as they ran in
different ways. The two were covered with fear that they didn’t
know which direction they were going. Lily ran as fast as she could,
feared of getting killed and not even looked back. Soon, the familiar
view of the village slowly came to her vision, which made her slowly
calmed down. Lily realized that she was on the edge of the forest.
She looked back again seeing nothing behind her. She stopped
and panted. The rain started to get heavier and heavier. Wait!
Where is Ella!? Her heart suddenly sank to the ground. “Ella!” she
shouted as loud as she could. There was no response. “Ella, where

81


are you!?” Lily tried again. The only sound that she heard was the
rain and her heartbeat. This is bad. I need to go back and find her.
Lily stepped forward and then stopped. She couldn't move. Her
body was paralyzed with fear. The forest from Lily’s view is not as
beautiful as she thought anymore. The darkness that covered the
forest made this familiar place horrifying. I can’t do this. I should tell
my parents. Lily thought to herself and ran to her house at full
speed.

“Don’t worry, dear. They will come home soon,” a tall figure
told his beloved wife who was staring out of the window. “It is
dinner time and they should be home by now. It is getting darker
and the rain is pouring like crazy. You can get lost in the forest
easily when it rains,” a slim, beautiful woman turned to her husband
with a worrying face. “They had played in that place since they
were little. They can’t get lost that easily,” a man answered his
wife with a chill tone, trying to calm her down. Then they heard
footsteps outside with a loud bang on the door. They shuddered.
Lily ran inside and her body was soaking wet. Panting heavily, she
tried to tell something but the excitement and fear made her
stuttered horribly. “Woah. Woah. Calm down, Lily. What happened?
Where’s Ella?” her father crouched down while making his kid
stopped panicking. After listened from Lily, his face turned straight.
He ran to the door, grabbed the lantern, and shouted, “Honey
stayed here and watch after Lily. I will go to get help and find
Ella.” He slammed the door and ran to the center of the village.
“This is all my fault! This is all my fault!” Lily shouted and cried
uncontrollably. Her mom hugged her tightly and said, “It is not
your fault. Trust me. Your father will find Ella in no time,” Lily

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cried until she fainted. Her mother put her into bed while hoping for
her husband to find her child. One hour passed, she heard the
door opened. Running from Lily’s bedroom, she saw her husband
picked up his shotgun from the cupboard. “Did you found her?”,

she asked trying to hold her tears. “We found one of the fences
destroyed like something big ran through. The trail led into the
deeper area of the woods. This maybe Ella running away from the
bear. The rain still pouring. This might be harder than I think”,
he answered while loading the bullets into the gun. “Will she be
okay? She never went into that side and it is already night time.
She might be lost and -,” huge tears came out like a stream running

down through her face. “I promised I will find her as soon as
possible. We gather people to help find her. We may find her
tonight. You don’t need to worry,” he hugged her tightly. He carried
his gun and ran out.

Five hours passed

“Ella may be in the cave. It’s raining and she needs to find
shelter from the rain.”
Morning came

“This will be easier. We have brighter light now and the
rain stops.”
Three days passed

“She must be out there. Ella is a strong child.”

A week passed
“She is a tough child. She can endure it”

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Three weeks passed
Their hope started to fade away.

A month passed

“We searched all the forests and we couldn’t find her.
Where is she? Is she still alive?”

“Ella might slip into the stream and drowned. That’s why we
couldn't find her. We decided that it’s best to put this to an end.”
said one of his father’s friends. The father figured crying and
crouched down to the floor while his beloved wife hugged him.
“We will help you with her funeral and -” “No! She is not dead yet!
She still out there. We can’t give up right now. She still alive and
out there!” Lily shouted. “Lily, It is pointless to find her. We
searched every part of the forest, still, we couldn’t find her,”
answered by a random merchant. “We should let her go and
accepted it," her mother told Lily with shivering voice while wiping
Lily’s tear. Lily couldn’t say anything, she was engulfed with rage
and sorrow. Soon, the funeral was held. Lily watched an empty
casket going down into the hole with the feeling of guilt deep down.

4 years passed by


The sound of a pencil scratching on a paper filled the room.
The outline slowly started to be the shape of a mountain. Lily took a
second to look at it. She closed her sketchbook and looked out
through the window. The sunset created a golden aura across the
village. It’s been 4 years since Ella passed away. Lily never set her

foot on that forest again. “Lily, about thirty minutes the dinner will

84


be ready,” her father shouted while knocking on the door. “Okay,”
Lily replied. Thirty minutes. I can have a nap before going to eat.
Lily thought as she got onto the bed. She yawned as her vision
began to blur. Then she entered the land of dreams.
Lily found herself in the middle of the forest. Her body was
soaking wet because it was raining a lot right now. She looked
around. Where am I? Where is this place? Lily walked around,
trying to make sense of this place. The surroundings were not
familiar. It is so dark. I can't see anything. In the raining noise, she
heard someone shouting something. She saw a dim yellow light
not far away from her. Lily slowly walked to that direction, not very
sure if it was safe or not. As she came closer, the light became
brighter and brighter. Then she saw a group of people holding a
lantern shouting something. What are they shouting? Wait. Aren’t
their faces look familiar to me? Soon, she recognizes that was
people from her village. Then some guy in the group saw her and
point to her with excitement. Lily shooked. They all ran to her like a
group of children seeing new toys. “Ella, there you are! Where
have you been? We were looking for you,” the librarian shouted
happily and relief. Lily was very confused. Why did she call me
Ella? “I am sorry but I think you mix something up. I am Lily, not
Ella,” Lily said with confusion. The villager's faces were also filled
with confusion. “I am pretty sure that Ella is the one that got lost,
not Lily,” a man said while looking at Lily. “Did you hit your head
with something? We should get her home now. Your parents are
very worried about you, Ella,” the librarian said as she holding
Lily’s hand. “No! I am Lily. I can prove it to you guys,” Lily shouted
as she lifted her right arm sleeve. Ella has a birthmark on her upper

85



right arm. I don’t have any. I can use this to prove it to them. “See!
I don-” Lily was shocked. Beneath the sleeve, there was a
birthmark, the one that Ella had. Her vision began to blur then
everything went pitch black. Lilly found herself in the middle of the
forest again. It’s still raining. Lily lifted her sleeve again, the
birthmark still there. Am I in Ella’s body? Her heart was beating like
a drum roll. She crouched down to calm herself. Why am I in Ella’s
body? What is happening? This is not making any sense. When
Lily finally calmed herself down, she slowly lifted herself up. She
started to walk again. When will the rain stop? It is getting very
annoying. Then she saw a lantern light about not far away from her.
Lily ran to the light source. She started to see figures holding a
lantern. Who are they? As she walked closer, the silhouette figures
were her parents.

“Ella!” both of her parents shouted and ran to her. They
hugged her tightly, tears ran down through their faces. The
warmness from their hug made Lily calm and relief.“We were very
worried about you!” her mother kissed her cheek while her father
holding her hand. Lily was pretty sure now that she was in Ella’s
body. “Let’s go home. Lily was very worried about you,” her mother
said, patting her head gently. Lily started to walk with her parents.
Even though this was just a dream, Lily felt happiness spread
inside of her. She wanted to stop the time and enjoyed this moment
to the most. Then, everything went black. Lily was now in the middle
of the forest with heavy rain again. She sat down to let herself think.
She punched into her face believing that she will wake up which
she didn’t. This is a very weird dream. Why I am in Ella's body?
Why I am always going back to this place whenever I meet

86



someone? How do I break this loop? The sound of the rain and
coldness made Lily couldn't think clearly. She tried to find a place
to hide from the rain. The mud sticking to her feet made her difficult
to walk. Finally, she came across a cave. She sat down and hugged
herself, making her body warm as possible. When everything
started to settle down, Lily realized something. Wait. If I am in Ella’s
body, is this the situation when she lost in the forest four years
ago. Her heart began to beat faster and faster. Then the reason
I always end up in this place whenever I met someone and took
me home because all of that didn’t actually happen to Ella. She
didn’t meet anyone in the forest. Nobody ever found her. Tears
started coming out. Just imagine her sister all alone in the darkness
in an unfamiliar place made Lily felt horrible. So, I need to play the
role that actually happened. Lily lifted herself up. I need to find the
stream. Ella drowned there. Lily started to walk again. Trying to find
the stream, which she didn’t take so long to find it. Lily looked into
the stream that flowed furiously. This is how she died. This is the
right way. She stared into the dark stream that flowed violently like
a monster that could crush her up in a few seconds. If I didn't let
her go to the fence, all of this will never happen. This is all my fault.
Although she felt scared of the thing in front of her, she must do it.
Lily wiped her tears, took a deep breath and jumped. The flow of
the streamed pulled her to the bottom. She twisted and turned. Her
body crashed into the rough surface again and again. The pain
was unbearable. Soon, she was out of breath. The water started to
come in her nose which made a great pain. She felt her throat and
lungs were filled with water. She struggled for breath. Then,
everything went black again.

87



Lily was standing in the exact same spot with rain pouring
on her again. Lily was frustrated and confused. Wasn’t that the
right way? Everyone said that she slipped into the stream and
drowned! Lily kicked the mud with anger. Her feelings were mixed
up between rage and confusion. Lily shouted with anger and ran.
She didn’t know where she was going. She just wanted to get out
of here. Then she saw a black object in front of her. Lily stopped.
When she made up what was in front of her, she froze. In front of
her, was the bear. It slowly walked to her, growling furiously at her.
Lily walked backward slowly hoping that it will ignore her. The bear
growled louder as its pace became faster and faster. Before
anything worse could happen, it suddenly stopped. The growling
turned into a whimper. Then the bear ran into the woods like a
scaredy-cat. What just happened? Suddenly Lily felt a horrible
feeling behind her. She quickly turned around and saw a tall figure
wearing a white mask and a black cloak. “What are doing alone in
the forest, little child,” the voice that sounds like a woman spoke
to her. Lily was shocked. She couldn’t move a muscle. “Come with
me, little child. My house is in this forest. You can rest there and
I will help you find your way home after the rain has stopped,” she
said while reaching her hand at Lily. Lily felt a terrible feeling
coming toward her. The sound of the thunder made her broke from
paralyzing. Lily screamed and ran as fast as she could. I need to
get out of here! I need to get out of here! But she felt something
grabbed her back and was pulled back by a great force. The
woman lifted Lily up face to face with her. “Let go of me!” Lily kicked
and struggled, she fought all her might. “What a stubborn little
child,” the woman said with a chuckle. “I am looking for a lost child

88


right now. You look strong. You may come in handy," the woman
said while observed Lily's body. “Somebody help me! Hel-", before
Lily can shout any further, the woman hit Lily's neck with her hand
which causes her to pass out. Everything went blurry and slowly
turning black.
Lily woke up panting and soaking in sweat. She looked
around. It was her bedroom. She finally escaped the hellish dream.
I finally wake up! I finally escaped! She quickly got up and ran to
her desk. She pulled out her sketchbook and drew a woman from
her dream before her memories faded away. When she finished,
she stared at her sketch, lost in her thoughts. Ella is still alive. She
is still out there. I knew it! She wiped her sweat while looking at the
picture. But where is she now? How can I find her? Who was that
woman? Many questions flooded into her head. Lily sat on her bed
with desperation, not knowing what to do next.

A+ Class




- Kanuth (Kanuth) Supthavichaikul & Tedat (Phupha) Noppapak -


“Beep. Beep. Beep,” the alarm clock sounded. Diego
instantly jumped out of bed. He glanced at the clock. It read at 3.30
am, 01/01/3019. He frowned and let out a large sigh. “Unacceptable.
I woke up late again,” he thought to himself. He had such great
plans for the day and it seemed that all needed to be postponed
just because he let himself slept for more than he should had. He
immediately put on his old school uniform and hurried out of his
fairly empty room and down the stairs hurriedly. He moved so fast
down the stairs he tripped over the final few steps, breaking his
ankles and some fingers in the process, but that was nothing. They
were just a few bones and one foot. That were too insignificant for
Diego to care as he knew there were other things more important
for him to attend to that just one foot.

90



“Hey sweetie, do you want anything” A voice called out from
behind the staircase. Diego’s mom was cooking breakfast in the
kitchen just as Diego arrived downstairs.
“No” he replied. It is very straightforward and very direct
“No”.

There was no annoyance or rudeness in that response at
all. In fact, there wasn’t any emotion or any sense of care from the
boy. It was just indifference. Diego then walked out of the house,
took the crowded hover bus, and was heading for school.

During the way, he saw nothing but large tall skyscrapers
made of glass, each was probably about 150 floors high with lots
of electronic billboards on them. He also saw thousands of faceless
people covered in suits and ties walking into these buildings until
he finally arrived at his school, the journey took around an hour and
a half from his house because of a few traffic jams one should get
used to living in the city and Diego was used to it. “It only took 90
minutes, lucky me!” He thought to himself as he has definitely seen
worse.
At school, everyone was rushing towards their classes and
so was Diego. In fact, because of the speed at which he was going,
he accidentally crashed into someone and tumbles.

“Watch where you are going!” shrieked Diego at the boy.
“Oh my, isn’t that the Diego? The famous Diego Ziel? The

only person in our school with a perfect 4.00 GPA and the highest
score in Maths, Science, Animal Social, Mars History, and Classical
Sanskrit? Nice to meet you! My name is Joseph.” The boy reached

91



out his hand and gleamed. He was a boy of average height, there
were several bruises on his shin, his hair was combed to perfection
and his uniform new, contrasting with Diego’s more messy and
rugged look.

“I don’t care” said Diego bluntly “and now if you excuse me,
I must go. This is 5.40 and Health class will begin in 15 minutes.
I can’t let some random, careless, and useless kid ruin my perfect
attendance record”.
Diego slapped Joseph’s hand and sprinted away to the
Marley room, named after a famous herb expert in the 2000s.

Diego entered the class, found his seat, put his backpack
on the floor next to his table, and sat down. The Health teacher
appeared through the screen and gave a lecture about the subject

of “Sharing is Caring”. “What a weird concept, ‘Sharing is Caring’”
Diego thought to himself “What good does helping others have?
What good does this class even have anyways? This class does not
even affect my GPA. This class is just some ancient artifact of my
ancestors’ schools thousands of years ago. It is pretty much
useless if you ask me”. His mind was occupied with his thoughts
until he heard the teacher said the magic word, “assignment”.
Diego’s face looked up instantly and stared intently at the teacher,
waiting for what she is about to say next.

“For this assignment, you must find a partner, or what
I want to call a ‘Study Buddy’ in short which for whom you help
with tests and homework for the rest of the semester and your
partner’s GPA must be above 3.80”.

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“Oh no… I don’t know anybody” screamed Diego immediately
after the sentence ended wondering what to do next.
It was now lunchtime and Diego was walking down the
school’s crowded hallway after the seventh period. He walked into
the lunch canteen and did not bother to join the food queue served
with robots. Diego had no time for that. He never had. He sits down
on an empty table, made sure no one was within a five meter radius
of him, reached into his backpack, took out his tablet and read his
advance Calculus notes quietly alone for a good 30 minutes until a
familiar figure approached him. It was Joseph, the boy he bumped
into earlier. He was smiling as usual, there was something about
his smile that Diego had never felt before, but perhaps that may
have been because he had never seen smiles in general. It moved
Diego slightly but just slightly, nothing more. Joseph sat down to
the opposite of Diego and waved his hand.
“Oh, hi” Diego said unenthusiastically “and bye, now get

lost, I need to review for the upcoming Quandrum Maths exams on
the ninth period”.

“Nah, let’s play electronic chess on this table right here,”
said Joseph who refused to leave his seat “The table actually has
a function to spawn electronic chess pieces that look and feel like
real ones my 250-year old great grandfathers and great
grandmothers used to play when they were younger or at least
that was what they told me last week, they really like me doing
these fun activities with them and stuff along with mom and dad.
They said it is how people uses to live thousands of years ago and
it was fun”.

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“Do you know how important these grades are to me right
now?” said Diego with a very angry look on his face. “Let me ask
you again, do you know how important these grades are to YOU
right now. Do you have any idea what will happen if you get below
a 3.80? What university will accept you? Which workplace will
even allow you to set foot in their building. What will you even
eat?”.

“Well, my grandad got a GPA of 3.63 and he did fine and
life is happy”.
“Of course, that was fine. It was back in the 2700s. Besides
which job did he get anyways”.

“A 7 eleven cashier”.

“That’s my point, your grandad didn’t even get that good of
a job and that was like 200 years ago. This is not the year 1919.
It is not even in 2019. We are in 3019 when robots have already
replaced most of our workforce and there isn’t even much demand,
if any, for us humans now. We can’t be competitive then we will be
replaced. And also, if I don’t do well in this particular exam,
my parent is going to do something it”.
“My parents don’t really care about my grades, and besides
college is like 3 years away so why the worry? You can only be a
teenager once dude” Joseph says with a smile. Besides what can
you do with the … hey! Are you even listening to me? Joseph was
forced to stop what he was saying when he realized that at this
point, there was no response from Diego. His mind had returned to
his maths test and it seemed that he may had forgotten that Joseph
is even with him.

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“By the way, do you want to be my study buddy? I don’t
really know anyone else at this” Diego asks all of a sudden.
“Of course. Of course!” said Joseph enthusiastically.

“Now, now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Diego
with a monotonic voice “I am only doing this because this is a
required activity assigned by the school. Don’t take it personally”.
“Yeah whatever, just glad we get to be buddies, man. Even though
we are not literally buddies but just this “study buddy” thing”.
“See you right after school at 21.00. I will help you with your
maths”. Joseph finished his lunch and each headd different ways
to their classes.
It was now 21.00. Diego had just finished his 12th and final
period of the day, Art. While he was walking home, he was thinking
and reflecting with himself about how ready he was to go back
home, his quiet and peaceful home, one away from the city where
he will finally be able to study for tomorrow’s English test in peace.
It was not as if studying for tests makes him happy. Neither the
tests nor the preparation for them a source of enjoyment for Diego.
Even though he felt that tests define him since it is the only thing he
does, he also found them tiring. It was just that he had no other
choice. Without his grades, the world will leaved him behind and
probably so will his parents, at least he thought. They never really
show any signs of affection to him or maybe it was because he was
never with them at all because of how occupied Diego is with his
exams. The fact that he was doubting his principles that he had
had since primary school astonishes him. What happened? Was it

95



because of Joseph and his niceness and his descriptions of how
people used to live? But there was no more time to think of that as
Diego then suddenly remembered Joseph and so his own health
project. He let out another large sigh identical to the one he did in
the morning although he did not feel as bad about the prospect of
meeting Joseph again for some reason. Some strange feelings
He went to the lunch canteen which is currently serving dinner and
finds Joseph sitting at the same table from earlier.

“How’s your maths,” Diego asks rather nicely which is
something even Diego himself is not so used to.

“Well, not so good, I can’t do any of these problems, and
these problems, and these and these,” says Joseph casually.
“Okay, let me help you, here this is how you do number 1…”
The maths tutoring session went on for about 30 minutes until
Diego says “Okay, put away your textbooks, copy down these
questions and do them. I will go to the toilet for a second.” Diego
headed to the bathroom, confident that Joseph had learned of
what he taught and would perfectly master the test about synthetic
divisions and absolute numbers. He is gone for a good 10 minutes
and then returns to the table only to find that what Joseph wrote on
his paper is not about synthetic divisions at all nor does it has to do
with absolute values. Joseph is actually doodling a comic stip on
his maths paper.

“What are you doing?!” Diego angrily asks.

“Drawing of course!” Joseph answers with his unique and
iconic smile.

96



“But these cartoons won’t do any good. What is the point
of doing something so useless and stupid? Did you forget what will
happen to you if you fail?”
“Oh, so you would not get a good university and get a good
job and whatever you are talking about right? Let me ask you, let
me repeat what I was about to say before you cut me off at
lunchtime: What can you do with these good university degrees
anyways? What can you do with that nice job of yours if all you do
your entire life is work.” Joseph asked with a real passionate
emotion that he never show before.

Diego started to think about his life through. He realized that
he has never actually had fun in anything, in any activities aside
from studying and never feel any sense of friendship or love from
anyone he knew. He remained silent as he cannot answer Joseph’s
question while the life he had known so far seems to be crumbling
down on him and that he is now questioning his ways.

“The reason I told you so much about my family and how
they live and how I want you to enjoy your life is that I used to
have this uncle who is just like you” explained Joseph solemnly
“He used to work and work and work all day long. Sure, his
intentions were good but he never really shows his affections
towards me or anyone in the family whatsoever. He seems cold and
nothing he does in his life ever makes him happy. In the end, his
health was affected and nothing he did, his degrees, his wealth,
nor his positions can save him. He made all these accomplishments
for nothing. It is a tragedy.”

97



Diego started to see himself as Joseph’s uncle, in a cycle of
endless work and productivity which ended with his own death.
It is at this moment when Diego finally realized that enough was
enough. He finally learned that there was something more important
than trying to save up for an enjoyable future, enjoying your life
right now because you may not know what will happen to you in the
future. “I have finally learned” Diego started to speak up “that
I should finally get a life. From now on, I will no longer waste my
time on something so meaningless like exams and give my life a real
meaning that defines me as a person. I have truly changed. Thank
you, Joseph, for opening my eyes”. Joseph smiles with happiness
that his friend has learned something from him even though that
said friend is supposed to be his teacher.

“I suggest you should start with heading home now and
take a good night's sleep for once friend” Joseph adviced.
“Then I will be heading off now, bye” replied Diego.

“Bye” Joseph answered back as Diego walks away.
Diego went back home, greeted his mother nicely, walked
up the stairs to his empty bedroom where he threw himself on to
the bed, looking forward to the fun waiting for him tomorrow. From
that day on, Diego’s life changed. He started to have fun and
became a more happy and relaxed individual. He seemed to find
out about the meaning of life and feels as if he was currently at the
best version of himself. Life was great for him...for a time. Soon
Diego’s grades took dive into the abyss without him caring or even
knowing. When college came along, he fell the admission because

98



of his low GPA. Soon he found himself on the streets without a job
as robots had already replaced most of the demand in the year
3019. Perhaps, his life might had been better had he been born in
a better society, say, in the year 2019 where the conditions were
more forgiving. He may had strived. He also may had strived had
he followed his original path considering the circumstances he was
in but based on Joseph’s uncle would beg otherwise. Diego’s life
might had been a tragedy from the start. Thus, the story of Diego
ended with the true moral of the story being that you can’t really go
against the world and the foundations were built upon… but at
least Diego was now happy?