So I've been writing a story for this competition, but I don't know how good it is because usually I'm not very good at rating myself. So please read the following story and tell me what you think.
DreamScape by Sandipika Gupta
Prologue - Aaron
Infinity. What is infinity? Infinity is the idea that something doesn’t have an end - a more scientific way of saying something that will never end. Forever. The universe is often described as ‘infinite’, perhaps because we as humans don’t like the idea that our existence was made; the idea that it simply always existed stops people from asking questions.
Questions are always asked by curious minds. They always create and cause damage, since in everything we say there is always the element of a lie. Despite being curious, we have a tendency to accept most things we are taught without thinking to question if our entire knowledge is wrong, if the way we think as people is simply wrong. Perhaps because that would lead to a collapse in society, a real end of the world, unlike the stupid movies that predicted it would happen in 2012. It was already 2014 and I’m quite sure the world still existed.
The idea of infinity must have been created for a reason, so there would be limitless space to fill. But what else is also infinite? The human mind. It is capable of almost anything because we have an element of our mind, which enables us to think ‘outside the box’ - ask questions, create whole worlds; this part of our mind is called the ‘imagination’ and enables us to be the creative beings we are. Many argue that this must be evidence of God, as we do not need it to survive – but this can’t be true - creativity is the very thing, with help from opposable thumbs, which enable us to be the dominant species in this world.
We use this creative element to fill the infinite space of the universe.
Whenever we have a thought, an idea, or even have a dream or nightmare, it comes into existence; somewhere in the infinite universe it is real and dangerous. As humans, we hone this ability to create in childhood and in adulthood we manipulate it to create a living. We write novels, fund movies, sing songs, and for our whole lives we sleep every night with pictures on the inside of our eyeballs – these are our dreams. Sometimes our day has gone badly and we cannot help but notice the shadows lurking around our beds - this time the pictures aren’t sweet but bitter and sometimes petrifying – these are called nightmares.
And they are the things, which fill the inhospitable part of our infinite universe. But the main problem with all of this is one fact:
Everything we ever think of is real, every good or bad thought, every dream we have ever had.
It all exists.
And one day the figments of our imaginations will come back to get us.
In our world.
Chapter 1 - Maya
Someone yelling my name harshly interrupted my thoughts.
“Maya!”
“Hmm?” I awoke abruptly.
“Maya!”
“Yes?”
“MAYA!”
“What?” I shouted
Every time I looked at Eric I found it extremely difficult to be mad at him. His entire face shone with the innocence of a child and I could never imagine him upset when he was like this. His face was constantly, and annoyingly radiant.
Maybe I had gained immunity to his shining blonde hair, sea blue eyes and boyish charm. Although, admittedly I still found his jokes funny.
“What?” I said lowering the volume.
“You were ignoring my story of how I got an commendation with my latest essay on the French Revolution.” He said with fake hurt.
“How did the French revolutionize themselves?” I asked with a fake interest.
“Never mind. I can never hope to capture the interest of the greatest daydreamer of her time.” He spoke dramatically.
I smiled. He made everything look so ridiculously easy it was unnerving. He was one of the top students at the Academy and he wasn’t afraid to show it. He didn’t want to be the stereotypical blonde haired, blue eyed, pretty boy, and he made an effort to make sure he wasn’t seen that way.
We first became friends when we had Martial arts classes together, I was pretty pathetic then and he was forced to be my partner. He showed me that even his slender, lanky frame could be strong. It happened to be his special way of escaping the world, when times got tough for him. He would find a punch bag and try getting his anger or frustration out on it; it was his escape from reality, perhaps he thought that being physically stronger would help one to be mentally strong as well. But at the same time, he said the best way to learn about something is to find a question and put all your energy and mind on answering it. That’s what the best people do – focus of something specific. I assumed his focus was to be amazing at martial arts or to be the strongest he could, both physically and mentally.
Expulsion was a common thing in the Academy. The headmasters always justified this by saying that there were a millions of children out there who wanted this opportunity. And you were only expelled if you could be replaced by one of the ‘millions of children’. There were 6 billion people on earth.
To get chosen into the academy you had to be something special. ‘Exceptional’ was the key word. The very best at whatever interested you, whether that is the idea of infinity or martial arts.
You didn’t get to apply to this school, you were chosen. The job at the Institution, when you got it, was extremely high risk and specialised so your first salary would be a minimum of $100,000 per week. That’s the main reason people suffer through the pain and pressure of the Academy. The simple idea of money was something that seemed to drive most people. Unlike me who wanted to simply learn and unlike Eric who wanted to prove to his foster parents that he deserved to be their son. But this was only my educated guess, he had never actually told me that. He never wanted to linger on his family too long.
The current headmaster, Headmaster Smirnov, was according to older students, particularly harsh. However he was said to be one of the most talented headmasters at the academy so far with martial arts. He was able to take down an enemy with his eyes closed, or his hands tied behind his back in only 10 seconds. He would practise every morning in his house before he came to the Academy. Newbies were lucky to last two terms. I joined when I was 16 and had luckily lasted a whole year now. But only with Eric’s help and because I was particularly interested in the theory of infinity, and theory of creation thoughts, so this was commended by the previous headmaster.
Eric was the close friend of the headmaster’s son. Which meant he got private lessons from the headmaster himself. So of course he was amazing at everything. But this in itself made his life harder because, he had to have a focus, something he was particularly good at. The Institution didn’t want people who were perfect at everything strangely enough. They were looking for people who could focus and specialise.
Everyone had their own partner whom they worked well with, physically and mentally. Also they would be close generally. This was supposed to be a connection made by ‘fate’; you never really knew whether or not someone was your fighting partner, you could hazard a guess but usually you weren’t sure. Eric was lucky enough to have found his, or so he guessed. Many people went through their whole lives without finding their ‘propinquum’. That meant the one with whom you would be perfectly synced with. Aaron, the headmaster’s son, was Eric’s. When they fought together it was supposed to look so perfect it would look like they had rehearsed it, according to Eric and the headmaster. Unfortunately I had never spoken to or seen Aaron.
Eric also lived with the headmaster and Aaron, since Eric’s own parents had died from the monsters of his dreams. He never spoke about his parents because, I suspected, he blamed himself for their deaths. But from time to time he spoke about Aaron, who was 19, and talked about him as if they were brothers in everything but name. However Aaron was two classes above Eric and me.
In the Academy it wasn’t about how old you were, it was your amount of experience you had before you got chosen. So the first year had people of all ages, which ranged from 15-25 years old.
You got through to the next year when you did something exemplary.
There were five years and I was currently in Year 2 with Eric.
One of the ideas that got Aaron into Year 4 was a way to prevent a ‘creation thought’ from being created on a very basic level – by voicing our thoughts.
If we were to voice our thoughts, it was less likely the thought would infest our minds and turn into something in the infinite universe.
But even before I came here I had always thought about infinity. It was drove me the same way martial arts drove Eric. Eric called me a daydreamer all the time; because sometimes I forgot the world and lingered on a thought, a single idea that was usually about infinity.
The thoughts were usually something like; why do we need infinity? Do we want to live for infinity? The ideas in my head were like pollen in the wind, whirling swirling, each of them growing into another. But the irony is that we have all these infinite thoughts in our head, but really how many of our thoughts voiced?
Most of our thoughts are not voiced; they remain in our heads till we die and sometimes they will die with us. But some thoughts are too precious to discard; they are developed into something powerful through the energy and power of the human mind.
And that is why they break free.
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