Friday: Enter, or Turn Back
The hologram flickered and faded, its warning still echoing in their minds like a dream half-remembered. A low hum vibrated through the ground. Then, with a whisper of ancient machinery, a door on the ship slid open, revealing a spiral staircase bathed in soft, unnatural light.
A voice—calm, otherworldly—spoke in their heads, not through sound but through thought:
“Enter, or turn back. The choice is yours.”
Jas swayed slightly, catching themself on Ivy Mae’s shoulder. Their skin burned with fever again. In their blurred vision, the shimmering auroras overhead twisted into strange symbols, dancing like memories from a past that never existed.
“Ivy...” they murmured, “Do you see it? The sky... it's still alive.”
Ivy Mae steadied them gently. “You’re just overheated again.”
Roman stepped closer to the threshold, his jaw tense. “No... they might be right. Ever since that sunspot—what was it, 4079?—the sky hasn't been the same. People thought the worst was over... but what if that was just the beginning?”
They all stared into the ship’s interior. The walls pulsed with a light that felt almost organic—alive. Jas blinked, trying to focus, their mind drifting back to flashes of a newsfeed they had barely remembered—something about the sun, the magnetic field, a warning ignored.
“We’ve come this far,” Jas said, their voice low but steady. “Are we ready for what’s next?”
Roman nodded once.
Ivy Mae hesitated, then swallowed hard. “We don’t really have a choice.”
Together, they stepped into the ship. The door slid shut with a hiss, sealing off the flickering skies and the world that once was.