In World A, the Original World, 2030, Pondicherry.
On the radio and TV, there was talk about the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the cataclysm.
The Bengali family, a family like so many others, lived in the special city of Pondicherry, in the south east of India.
Surish, an engineer had gone to France to meet his wife, a French widow with a daughter Sylvia. She was tall, blonde and had long hair.
She was going to secondary school, formerly called humanities, and was 15 years old, in the middle of puberty.
Sylvia arrived at school in Villeurbanne, near Lyon. She had a southern accent, sunny like her hair.
She spent her youth devouring fantastic stories, about vampires and dragons, all of which have unfortunately disappeared. Nobody knows why or how, but all those who knew them have disappeared too.
As if some force or someone had erased their traces.
But Sylvia sometimes dreamed of being one, that she was flying around a sinister castle. She would rant and rave with her mum and dad would tell her lots of stories before he died in a car accident on his way home from work.
She had just turned 10 years old but she remembers her beloved daddy well. His disappearance was heartbreaking for her.
Her mum often scolded her to get her back on her feet. And when she went back to high school she had to "put her toys away" and start her teenage life.
She loved playing the guitar and singing Patro songs.
Her mother, while she was studying, spent her time texting on social networks and she often spoke with an Indian engineer living in a zone in French-speaking India.
One day he came home,
It was a slightly old-fashioned house, early 20th century style with a beautiful square garden and some fruit trees. It looks like a mansion for the liberal profession but with a garden in the city, it was great. We even had a swimming pool and a garage attached to a workshop, dad's but now it's my office/playroom.
As we have space, we sometimes set up tents, BBQ's and all I need now is a dog.
Although no part of the world has been spared, the biggest chunk of moon fell in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and India to the west has been badly damaged by fire. All the dry countries had Dantean fires.
For a year, the sky was veiled by a mist of red dust .
Some species were eradicated and the deaths were counted in millions.
But once again, humanity did well.
Some buildings have been miraculous, like the Taj Mahal and the leaning towers of New Delhi.
"Mama... Mama... he's here...!" She went to hide behind her mummy, it was the first time she saw him in real life. He and his mum had met several times before but he was going to live with us at home a few days before the wedding.
According to tradition, it was the family that organised everything.
He worked in a company that made sandblasting machines and cleaning equipment for industrial moulds.
He held the high position of head of department and had an engineering background.
My mum was a secretary and we had inherited dad's fortune.
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I was wary of strangers and was often in my fairy and goblin world. I was always dreaming about it and I was afraid of the bad American representative. He would always appear in my dreams and tell me to wake up, it was time to pack my bags.
When Surish opened the door, I had the impression that I had seen this sinister man in a fleeting image [https://img.wattpad.com/bd64bacd0359b073cc64521af672134f04c432d3/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6c4267624354615f5467684155673d3d2d3939303131393936392e313634643032643965623833613235303737343737373632343438302e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
When Surish opened the door, I had the impression that I had seen this sinister man in a fleeting image. I'm sure I've seen him before... On TV? on the news?
Maybe he's the head of the reconstruction fund???? Yes, that must be it.
Mum was shopping and I could feel that big changes were coming.
We were going to move but before that, I had to go to her family during the holidays to discover the region and her family.
Surish: "You'll see, there are shopping centres like here and you'll find everything you need on site, it's warmer and there are thousands of things to discover."
then
"All the clothes you're wearing are made in India..."
This motivated me mainly because I didn't have many girlfriends because of my hobbies.
I also loved raw and bleeding meat and it disgusted them.
At school they called me the eel because I swam strangely and I stayed for a very long time.
At home the baths were a disaster. I used to put water everywhere and sometimes I would stay for an hour.
The days passed and I said goodbye to my classmates and then it was the big day.
Mum would come to meet me in a month's time to get married.
We took a 757-max flight to New Delhi and I got chills when I got on the plane.
Mum was gone and I was scared to death. I thought about the flight that disappeared on the day of the cataclysm.
According to witnesses, no debris hit the plane but a green halo, and the next moment nothing. Only the screams of the engines to escape the meteors....
Then I fell asleep and saw a scene where I was trying to push a button.
There was like a bomb, a rocket like in the film Planet of the Apes...
There was like a bomb, a rocket like in the film Planet of the Apes [https://img.wattpad.com/d18a9ae878f9c94ae4be5248f72d6e1db20bf251/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f576f656a447a55664276497169413d3d2d3939303131393936392e313634643032653366383366316462373736303834343232333636372e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
I often made the drawings of my dreams
But it didn't make sense.
I grew up cradled in the aftermath of the cataclysm, the films, the commentaries and the plots and legends.
Even now, the aftermath kept everyone busy and my father-in-law had a huge job on the board.
I dreamt of jungle, castles and the master of the dungeons, the infamous three-headed dragon.
He wanted to capture me and others to get more.
Sylviaaaaaaaaa I will devour you GROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRr!
Another voice, feminine: "I found her... It's stuck! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
I woke up sobbing... That awful nightmare again.
I was in pain or the claw had touched me and I had like a rash, a flare-up of eczema.
The doctor reassured me that the sun in India would do me a lot of good.
And I was woken up by the landing.
I was groggy and a crew member had been instructed to accompany me to the various counters.
When I came out the first impression was the burning breath of hot air. My sensitive skin burned quickly in the sun and often I got terrible blows.
The passengers got off and we took the stairs to an old bus.
Ah, they were from Belgium. An old advertisement "Au bon Sirop de Liège" was still hanging from the ceiling. The poster being pretty, they must have left it.
I took my light luggage, the rest being sent by pallet by freight transport. The heaviest arriving by sea. As it had left a month ago, it must have already arrived.
Chaos being an integral part of Indian culture, a hotel was assigned to us to take the plane to Pondicherry.
I will always remember the hunting scenes, the English colony, the painted maharajahs and all these objects.
I felt like I was in Gandhi's time.
Instead of air conditioning, huge fans beat the overheated air to make the room a little bit breathable.
It was a helicopter above my head. But I finally fell asleep.
I could feel the nightmare coming on and I could hear a knocking sound of a Dooong beating time.
"A whisper... come!! "and I found myself in dark corridors and I could hear claws, blows, demons sliding down.
come!! "and I found myself in dark corridors and I could hear claws, blows, demons sliding down [https://img.wattpad.com/0e99ef45a5fefae7922ae0b68181de5153f4555a/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f31384c6e5a744753336475485a513d3d2d3939303131393936392e313634643032663737353436333638643933333638303235313330332e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS"
A huge snake bit me and I woke up from this nightmare.
Mummy was right. I am now paying for all this time spent in fantasy instead of making girlfriends and friends. But deep down inside I wasn't enjoying it.
Slowly I was getting used to these nightmares and trying to figure out what they meant.
We picked up an old Ambrair and the plane landed after two and a half hours.
As it was an internal flight, no controls, just the luggage and I reached the exit.
There, a lady in pink veil beckoned to me. It must have been Surish's sister and her two children. 2 little boys, 11 and 12 years old, who insisted on coming.
I ran to them and they did the same. They gave me a big hug and put a wreath of flowers on my head.
A new life was beginning for me!