I'm Ryn Calen, a sixteen-year-old boy living a simple life and going to high school.
The world had advanced enough to travel beyond the Milky Way, and that day, they were broadcasting the great launch live across the globe — the same day as my birthday.
Curious to see the broadcast, I rushed home the moment the final bell rang. My bag thudded against my back as I ran as fast as I could.
When I reached home, my little siblings — one brother and two sisters — were playing excitedly, while the elders looked tense. I asked what was wrong, but they stayed silent. On the TV, a massive meteorite, nearly the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, filled the screen.
All the nations had united, using powerful illegal nuclear and atomic weapons to break it apart. They succeeded only partly — the fragments scattered across the world. One of them crashed right in front of my house.
As an astronomy lover, I knew the government wouldn't let me keep it. It wasn't as huge as it looked on TV — maybe a heavy boulder, around four kilograms. I tried to break it with a hammer and nails, but it didn't even crack. After a while, its color began to fade, and the surface started to crumble. I gathered the small pieces and hid them just before a team of astronomers arrived. They picked up the main rock and left.
I hurried to my room — an airy space with a single bed in the corner and a desk beside a shelf full of guides and novels. I'd decorated it with plants and natural colors; they always made me feel calm. Above my room was a small attic connected to my workshop, where a telescope pointed out through the roof window. On a wooden bench sat drawers stuffed with research notes, empty diaries, and scattered tools.
I began studying the stones I'd hidden. I'd managed to collect eight fragments. Each had strange, undefined traits — they appeared in different colors to different people. My sister noticed something odd: three of the stones lost their color after being exposed to the Earth's surface for about three hours, while the others stayed the same.
The stones emitted a high-frequency vibration; every modern tool I used to test them broke instantly. Whenever I touched them, my heartbeat quickened, my hands trembled, and nausea rose in my chest. I vomited three times that day, my eyes bloodshot and my skin pale.
Exhausted, I finally fell asleep — and for the first time in five years, I dreamed.
In that dream, I saw something blurred — perhaps a woman. She came closer and whispered, "Be aware."
A blinding flash of light, heat, and sound swallowed everything. Before she vanished, she smiled and said, "Don't forget who you are. I have high hopes for you, my Calen."
I woke up trembling, tears in my eyes.
Why could I remember every detail of that dream?
And who was that woman?