Lost

“Humanity,” cursed be that name, cursed be their soldiers, cursed be their world that they call Earth… and cursed be the empress who declared war on them, the scientists who devised the phase change, the officers who conceived the “Surprise Squad,” and me, who volunteered for this mission.

Everything was going well. The phase change devices made us invisible to human eyes; we could walk through walls, listen in on conversations, infiltrate the deepest parts of their strongholds, and sabotage them from the inside. But somehow, they discovered us. They couldn’t see us, but in a short time they installed sensors that detected us and alarms that sounded at our presence. In a few days, an energy weapon capable of harming us appeared, and when we communicated with command to report the situation, they only responded by saying: “Thank you for your service to the empress.” For a moment we didn’t understand what those words meant, until suddenly our phase devices began to explode one by one. I saw three of my comrades flying through the air. “Take off your harnesses!” I shouted frantically while removing my device and throwing it as far as I could. I looked around and no one was left. I was the only survivor. I don’t know the reason, but I can imagine it: some silly thing like the devices not falling into enemy hands or something like that.

A lot of time has passed. The war has ended, the humans won, and they have rebuilt their world. I remain here, in a state out of sync with reality, unable to interact with anything or anyone, to age or die; just a silent observer trapped alongside my own thoughts… or so it was until a few moments ago.

I was sitting in a corner watching the humans who seemed to be preparing a celebration or a ritual, feeling pity for myself, when a creature approached me. It was small, covered in white, curly fur. It walked on four legs and wagged its tail with joy. It approached, looking at me with its deep black eyes, jumped up into my lap, and licked my face with a pink tongue that emerged from its snout full of characteristic carnivore teeth.

I never believed there would be other forms of life out of phase, so I tried not to move in case I scared her. The creature slept on my lap for a long time, then jumped, returned to the ground, and began to move forward. I respectfully followed her at a distance, and she seemed to not go too fast so as not to lose me. She led me to a residential neighborhood and entered a building. I followed her inside while humans crossed from side to side without noticing our presence. She walked through several hallways, climbed stairs, and arrived at a door. She sniffed for a moment and let out a sound that sounded like “warf” before running through the door without waiting for me anymore.

When I crossed the door, I noticed that on the floor there were orange flower petals forming a path. I followed that path through the rooms of that building and arrived at a place where there was an altar filled with flowers and candles, adorned with human skull sculptures and incense burners in which a substance burned, which, for some strange reason, I was able to smell. On that altar there were images of that creature and plates with food. “Warf,” I heard again, and I saw her eating from one of the many bowls that were on the altar.

Since I was trapped, I stopped needing food to live; nevertheless, hunger was constant. To my surprise, I took something from the food in one of the bowls and brought it to my mouth. The taste was bitter and earthy, but I believed I would never eat again for all eternity.

“That is not your offering,” I heard someone say behind me. I turned scared and saw three humans, all of them out of phase like me. “This is the offering for the pets,” he continued. “The offering for the people will be in a few days. Wait for your turn.”

And now I find myself here, watching the creature eat happily along with other animals unknown to me. They have explained that there is an entire world where the out-of-phase humans live, and that every year they travel back to visit their families, who place offerings and food for the out-of-phase, it is a time of togetherness, and even offer extra food for those who are lost like me. They have offered to share their food and guide me back to that world.

Now I feel that this is not the end, but the beginning of something that will be wonderful.

License: CC-BY

Image created with AI