Activity

All right, um…here is a thing I recorded, of a work that I started but have put on the back burner for now. It’s the very beginning part, because I really didn’t write that much of it. I realise that I sound like I’m dying (probably because I don’t read out loud much and it’s been ages since I’ve done public speaking) and also I trip over words a lot. So, please, forgive me.

Book Title: In the Faded Light of That Day, Chapter 1, Part 1

Moniker: @devastate-lasting

Text: 874 words, 4:35 audio

May 25th, 2035.

The day that the world as we knew ended.

Chen Mai was sitting in the empty classroom, staring at the afternoon light outside the window. The breeze was warm for the first time in a long while. It would be summer soon, and school would be over.

He was standing by her desk, holding out a single rose. Embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck in the way that he used to.

“Chen Mai…I heard you like roses.”

“Who told you that?”

“Erm…Yan Ling from Class Three.”

“Is that so?”

She turned to take the rose, but he was gone.

The curtains were floating in the fresh breeze. White and faded but soft and reassuring. She swallowed, wishing that he was here so she could take the rose. She would place it in a vase of tap water by her bedside. That way, when she woke up too early, she could stare at it, listening to the machines outside, watching the sunlight strike the red of it and turn it warm.

Someone entered the classroom, whistling, and stopped, seeing her. “Chen Mai? You still here?”

Yan Ling from Class Three. He had dyed his hair blonde sometime in the winter, and right now she could see his black roots starting to reappear. He had gotten into trouble for it but he couldn’t un-dye his hair without another visit to the salon so they let him keep it.

“I forgot to leave,” Chen Mai said with all seriousness. “What are you doing here?”

“I forgot some books,” he replied, reaching into one of the desks. “So I came back to get them.Didn’t want to leave them at school over the weekend.”

“…this isn’t your classroom.”

He straightened up, shifting his backpack onto his other shoulder. “That is absolutely correct. The truth is, Li Jian is the one who forgot his books, but he was too embarrassed to come back and get them. So he had me fetch them instead.”

Li Jian. Glasses-wearing, top of the class. He wasn’t the type to forget, ever. So of course he would be embarrassed.

“Where is he now?”

“He’s waiting with Mei Yu down the street. Are you coming? Mei Yu’s been worried about you.”

“I’ll come, I’ll come.”

She took up her bag and followed him down. The school was empty at this time of day. She had missed cram school by now, surely.

“What were you doing up there anyways?”

“…I fell asleep.”

In the light of the early dusk she saw Li Jian and Mei Yu waiting for them underneath a tree that grew in the sidewalk. Li Jian’s hair was getting slightly in need of a haircut, and Mei Yu stood short next to him, her bangs reaching the top of her glasses.

“Don’t you guys have cram school?” Chen Mai asked.

“Well, we were going to wait for you, but then we were going to be late, so we went, but then found out that the teacher’s sick, so we circled back to see if you were awake yet.”

Yan Ling rolled his eyes. “We only came back because Li Jian forgot his books.”

“Shut it.”

“Hey, is that any way to talk to someone who just went up several flights of stairs in a closed school for your stuff?”

“Thanks,” Li Jian mumbled, taking his books and shoving them in his backpack.

Mei Yu took Chen Mai by the arm. “Are you feeling sick? You didn’t look too well today…”

Chen Mai looked down at her. Mei Yu was her desk mate and one of her closest friends at school. Of course she’d notice.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Mei Yu gave her hand a small squeeze. “All right. If you say so.”

Li Jian checked his watch. “Well, it’s too late for cram school, if there was any. But I think we can still make it to piano class.”

They were second year high school students. Chen Mai, Mei Yu, and Li Jian were in Class Two. The four of them did go to the same cram school, but the reason that they were friends was because they took piano lessons together.

As they walked towards the bus stop, Chen Mai felt her chest tighten. Was it because of the cool warmth of the day or the weight of her backpack? Was the road too steep? But they were going downhill…

She couldn’t breathe. She wanted to sit down. But before she could say anything…

That day, the world ended. The world which we knew was gone forever.

“Chen Mai…I heard you like roses.”

She felt bile rise up from her stomach. Why was the ground like that, all twisting and turning like some weird pudding? Were the windows supposed to be rattling so loud? Everything was shaking, bouncing, up and down like waves…

Someone was calling her name. But everything was so loud, so overwhelming…

“I think this is what they call an earthquake.”

She tried to look for the voice, because it was his voice, and she wanted to ask if he had anymore roses left…

Everything was falling apart, but everything had been falling apart long before this day, her whole world had been shattered long ago…

Audio file link (please please please work): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JabPKgjb1Et_gnL1QLNam5W4dc55mc-n/view?usp=sharing