It was the night of the Founding Festival. It was always held on what was seemingly the coldest night of the year, at least Lys seemed to think so. The cold air wrapped its arms around the villages and choked them with cold air. That was expected if you lived on the planet Uranus, especially the Dark Side.

The Dark Side in which it was it was commonly called by the Maroon race or “emotion eaters” as they were commonly called due to the fact that they took emotions and used them as raw power, for attacking mostly. It was the darker side of the planet and was full of poor; rundown villages. But the energy in the village was nothing near poor. There were always people in the street selling, playing, dancing or hanging out; the Dark Side was a very close-knit community.

Today, however the energy was a little different, good cooking filled the streets and dancing and music was the normal sight as Lys walked through the town.

“Hey Lys, are you going over there again?” a girl’s voice shouted from in front of one of the houses that Lys just happened to pass.

“Maybe.” Lys replied to the girl; stopping at the house.

“I’ve heard the fireworks on the Light Side are beautiful. You’re lucky Lys.” The girl said.

“Lucky for what?” Lys asked her.

“Well… you know.” The girl replied blushing.

“More like a curse if you ask me, being half, I still have to live here on this side. I have to suffer seeing my other half have a good life on the other side.” Lys said starting to walk away.

“Should I… see you later?” The girl yelled from behind him.

“Sure, if that’s what you want!” he said.

Lys was a rare mixture of the two races on the planet. The richer of the two is the Psychic race and the poorer of the races being the Maroon race. Being half did grant him the ability to visit the light side, though he rarely did unless he was curious and tonight he was curious enough to visit to see the fireworks this year.

As he walked toward the border of the two sides he could hear the distant bang of fireworks and as he looked he could see the brilliant reflections of light against the black sky. Lys stopped short of the border at a wide expanse of land and stopped there, lying flat and looking up at the lights in the sky. For the first time he felt happy, just being there, there was no need to go further. The reflections across the sky seemed to reflect his life, messy and yet glamorous. It was soothing and he soon found himself into a deep sleep.

Just then a burst of energy awakened him. It was different, these emotions he now felt. They were happy, evil, and scared at all the same time. He got up, ignoring the pain from the emotions that resided in his head. He looked out at the Light Side and was amazed at what he had seen. The lights, those beautiful lights that had once graced the night sky were gone and replaced with the fire of the village which seemed to be ablaze. Building after building was being seemingly shot down from the cannons of the large ships that hovered in the air where the fireworks once were. This was the moment where his psychic power decided to work He could hear the tortured minds of the people on the other side.

“Save us!” voices cried.

“It’s the end of the world; the demons have finally come to take us.” Another of the voices that was audible enough to hear had said.

After a while the voices mixed and mingled and Lys just wanted to shut it off. Their thoughts were crowding his. He scrambled to get himself up from that spot.

“I know I’m dreaming. I have to be.” Lys whispered to himself as he ran back to his home village on the Dark Side.


“I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming, I’m—” he stopped in the doorway of one of the houses. One of the women inside was being tortured and he could feel her pain and hear her screams in his mind. But he stood there, frozen, solid, feeling and seeing every detail. He saw the pain her daughters went through the way they raped and killed them and now they were torturing their mother. They had beaten her and now were slowly hanging her. He wished right then that he didn’t have the psychic ability. He didn’t want to see what she was going through he wished he could stop her and to move but he stood there. He couldn’t bring himself to move… to try and save her.

After a while he had gathered enough strength to move and with that strength he had ran to the only place that he could, back home. His home seemed to be a safe haven in the midst of all the pain screams and chaos. What had the done to deserve this fate? Lys pushed open the door and saw his mother and friend huddled together in a corner. The both seemed a little shaken but at least they were okay.

“I just— I just saw--” Lys started to say but tears choked his voice.

“What horrible people! Why would they do this to us and our planet?” she said in tears.

“Why couldn’t I help her?! I just let her die, along with everyone else!” Lys sat down with his friend and his mother, defeated. “I should have seen this coming. Why couldn’t I see this?”

“It was destined to happen, Lys. No one could stop them from coming here. No one could stop them.” his mother replied holding his crying friend. “They killed her family too you know.”

“I’m glad you both are safe, although I don’t know for how long. I wish my psychic powers could work for a change.” Lys said scratching his head.

“It looks like we’ll be fine here, don’t worry. It looks like they have spared us.” his mother replied.

“It looks like they have raided every house except for this one.” Lys said now feeling a little sleepy. “I’ll trust that is the truth.” Lys said falling asleep.

His sleep was not peaceful; it was haunted by the yells of people being tortured, the bright orange flames, and the sounds of the woman being tortured in her house. No one deserved her fate. He wanted so bad to have done it over, to get a chance to stop them but then he realized that he was only one person and what could one person do?

Lys was awakened the next morning by screams. Lys was not sure whether they were far off or close Lys was not sure, he wasn’t even sure if it was real what he was hearing or not. When he opened his eyes, an army of demons had both his friend and his mother and was holding them captive.

“Hey what are you—” but before he could finish the sentence they were holding him too. “Let me go!” Lys continued to yell fighting back but horribly.

“Let you go, no we’re not doing that. You’ll be a great workforce for the Empress.” One of the demons said talking about them three.

Lys looked at his mother’s terrified look and he could feel the anger start to fill him up with power. He couldn’t hold it any longer and he unleashed his emotions at the two demons holding him, knocking them out. He looked back at the others holding his sister and friend and unleashed an attack on them too.

“Run!” was all he said as he ran out of the house, his mother and friend following.

He spotted one of the demons’ ships and made a run for it but before he could get there he heard familiar screams from behind him.

“Go on, Lys, we’ll be fine.” Both his mother and his sister said now being captured themselves.

“But I—” Lys started to say but a group of demons were chasing him. He ran into the ship closing them out. The last thing he saw was his mother’s and his friend’s tortured faces. His eyes filled with tears, he wanted to take them with him, but it happened so fast. He was here and they were there and he was riding slowly into outer-space; away from everything.