Her Song

Bedtime Stories

 "Hello Mr. Cormier. You've been selected to travel out of country, and explore the great world around us." my boss said as he smiled at me down the long table, like it was a good thing.

 "What?" I said, my throat closing up, "Sir, please, anything but that." I knew I was getting a promotion, but this was not what I had in mind. I squeezed my eyes shut and silently hoped that he would change his mind.

 "Felix you've been chosen, we can't just bend the rules," he stood up, and paced the floor, "No one wants to be an explorer."

 "I'm seventeen." I said, opening my eyes. "Every single person in this country knows that explorers never live. Ever." I tried to keep my cool, but it was a suicide mission, everyone knew that.

 "Explorers have lived in the past." he said with a sigh, "In fact only fifty percent die or go missing." he smirked like it was funny. "Maybe you can find your mother."

 I didn't know what to say. I wanted to stand up and scream at the man, but if I did that I would be killed straight away. I sat silently and took deep breaths to calm myself.

 He stood directly behind me, "You leave tomorrow morning."

 My mom always told the best bedtime stories when I was growing up. Every night was a different one. They were all so magical and distant... but she said they were all true. I trust her, but they're so far off of the real world, they just seemed impossible. She said they were based off of actual events that happened when she was a child, or books she read or movies she watched.

 My mom was born in 2006, sixteen years before the ending of the old world. She was young in that world, but remembers it vividly. She told me about it a lot when I was younger. I didn't notice it then, but when she would talk about it her voice would always choke up a bit, like she was upset about it. Like she missed it. But the other world was terrible and violent, otherwise they wouldn't have ended it, right? Now The Wise had complete control over us, but it kept us safe, safe from ourselves.

 Her stories were about the old world. And my favorite stories always had something to do with this thing called music. This is the one thing I am absolutely sure existed. Mom described it as the most magical thing in the entire world. It could change anyone instantly, in many different ways. She said when you heard it, it could make your worst days worth living, and all your sad thoughts vanish. It's kind of like speaking, but in a completely different tone, they called it singing. They sang to a beat. And beats were beautiful sounds made by something called an instrument. She never really explained those for me.

 Mom sang to me. Only once. It was on my twelfth birthday. Her calm voice changed into something stunningly beautiful. It was like nothing I ever heard before. I didn't even listen to the words, because her soothing voice took over my mind. I understood why people loved it so much in the other world. It was addicting right from the start. As soon as it was over I wanted more, but it never came. I tried to learn how to sing, but it seemed impossible. My voice wouldn't change into the calming, soothing sound. It was almost physically impossible, like singing had been cut straight out of everyone's bodies. Mom said music was the only good thing about the old world. I think she's definitely right.

 She said she would sing to me again sometime when I was older, but then she went missing. This world we live in is very unsafe. Things you've only dreamed about live here. Before the new world, there were several countries. Now only one exists, it's the only completely safe place. People live outside the country, scientists, explorers, and the banished or lost. But out there you have so much more to wory about. Creatures out of your wildest creations, most out to get you. Dragons, mermaids, werewolves, vampires, fairies, trolls, zombies, everything. They stayed in their land and if we crossed they killed.

 Mom got called into her office. Mom got told that she was now an explorer. The one job she was afraid of getting. All she had to do was travel outside of the country for a month, and record whatever she sees. I told her it was an experience when she cried about it, something no one would ever get to do. Something special.

 She's been gone for eighteen months.

 "So uh," I started as I pulled down the blankets on my bed. "I'm a uh, explorer now." I said quietly.

 Alyx, my wife, looked at me first with fear, but then kind of smirked. "Really?" I nodded, "Wow." she flickered off the light and laid down. She was never reassuring, never helpful.

Alyx and I were married, we've been married since we were both fifteen. Everyone got married at fifteen, it was required. If you didn't, you had to leave the country, forever. I just turned seventeen, and she's still sixteen. I never really liked Alyx. We simpily got selected by The Wise. I'm not really sure why we got paired together, most people get someone whose like them, someone they would get along with. Me and Alyx are complete opposites.

 She's pretty. She has long brown hair that curls a lot and big brown eyes. She's short and tiny. But she's self centered and easily annoyed. She's not really straight forward mean, but everyone knows she doesn't like me.

 Every couple has to have a child, one child to be exact. The couple only has to stay together until the child is fifteen, then they can go off and live on their own. That's not something I'm looking forward too, when we both turn eighteen, because that's when we have to have a child. I'm not ready to be a father, and Alyx is definitely not ready to be a mother.

 I want to have a daughter. I want her name to be Ariana Fae. I want her to look like her mom but act like me. If she looked like me and acted like her mom she wouldn't get anywhere in life.

 "I"m leaving in the morning." I said to the darkness of the room.

 She mumbled something inaudible, and I closed my eyes, knowing I wasn't going to sleep at all that night.