SHORT STORIES
Witness my Rise
by Steven Domingo
Who am I?
What is my purpose?
In the blink of an eye, light starts to shine through the cracks
The gentle fluid around me gushes outward
They sever my attachments from my old home
Happy birthday to me
What is my purpose?
Today, I am born to a life of torture
In an uphill battle sentenced to roll the boulder
Another burden is pot on my shoulders
You stack them up high like your expectations
I am equipped with heavy stress
But you keep telling me to focus
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
I sit here wondering how much longer
More like what doesn’t kill you makes you stranger
If I were a species, I would be endangered
Never have I felt the warmth of your arms
Nor the gentle assurance that everything will be all right
Nay, instead you keep inflicting pain and agony
Until I fall to the ground so you can laugh at me
Then you yell and shout at me
Your anger is taken out on me
I ask myself what is wrong with me
Each time I think I hit rock bottom, you seem to drop me lower
Why did you make me if you don’t want to love me?
Why was I given this destiny?
What did I do to deserve this?
Who am I? What is my purpose?
It is in my genes.
But what does that even mean?
They expect from me what has come from those before me
They tell me to be better than I am
However, my bloodline is a sham
They say I am not worthy of my birth
Why was I put on this Earth?
They try and mold me into an archetype
Building the hype
Categorizing me by type
They care nothing of my strife
They know not that their empire is the target of my strike
They say that I am not allowed to fail
And I tell them that I won’t
I cannot be captured from the wild
You see, I shall break these chains
For the capability runs through my veins,
The gene of determination
My ancestors lived through adaptation
Learning everything they could, struggling to perfect the
transformations
Looking up to the constellations
I swear one day, I’ll build my own congregation and make your
dreams shatter
I’ll bend the spoon of impending doom
And make sure that I
Am not who you want me to be
So stop trying to control me
I am who I am, why cant you just let me be free?
You grip tightens and you kick me while I am down
I try to drown out your sound
How do I look from up there?
This fight is what defines me
Don’t impose upon me your morals and stop giving me commands
My future is not in your hands
Your punishment is but a scratch on my hardened exterior
I’ve built immunity; your commentary is inferior
Now the sight of my power is scary
I will do I do what is necessary
The whole god damn world should be wary
Because I have grown stronger
Strong enough to speak for myself
To know your words mean nothing
To withstand your suffering
To leave you with your ideals
Just because my father was not around doesn’t give you the right
to strike up a deal with the devil
I am my own master
Stop hurting me, trying to tell me how to live my life
Stop punishing me for being myself
I am not your experiment
In my soul, I know I am heaven sent
I am not your minion, sent here to do you bidding
I don’t care what you have to say, I already know
Cuz I read your mind
I know what you think of me
I know you don’t fucking love me
You act as if I was made to become legendary
Like insects that crawl in the night,
You try to engulf me with your darkness
But you’ll be surprised
When you witness my rise
And I begin to reprise the lessons you taught me
I will be great.
You see I will surpass your expectations
Brick by brick I will build my own empire until I get what I
desire
One day people will look up to me rather than down upon me
You treated me like shit
You pushed me to within an inch to death
But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
I’ve recovered from your bombardment of requirements and I am
leaving
I am going out into the world to prove you wrong
Witness my rise as I combat the insults you conjure to make sure
I fail
Witness my rise as I burn down your temple of bullshit criteria
Witness my rise as I pick myself up time after time from your
abuse
Witness my rise as the light shines in my eyes
And you realize individuality is my prize
And I can finally dispel your lies
No need to cry because my limit is the sky
And to your demise, I am my own master
My purpose is to be great
Who am I?
Well if you bothered to ask, you would know
Because I do have a name.
And it’s Mewtwo.
Sia and the Festival
by Connor Ito
Ch’hizz flittered around the buildings, quickly locating the materials he needed for his nest. He gathered small twigs from the bushes and trees around the buildings. Wrapping them carefully around each other, he slowly started to build his round nest. After building the frame, he flittered over to one of the buildings with invisible walls. He flew up to one of those walls and peered in. Inside, a young human was paying attention to a glowing object emitting a harsh racket.
How do they do that? He thought as he went about his business. The noise is so grating and unpleasant to listen to. Ch’hizz hopped to one part of the barrier, where he knew spiders loved to build their webs. He noticed a thick patch and plucked it, grabbing the sticky webs in his beak. He continued to pluck away more webs, but stopped as the human finally noticed his presence. Slightly unnerved by the attention he was receiving, Ch’hizz grabbed more and more webs to get away from the human. The human was raising a shiny box and pointing it toward him. How odd, he thought. It doesn’t look like anything I have seen before. Several metallic clicks later, the human lowered the box and regarded Ch’hizz inquisitively. Ch’hizz looked at the human with as much disgust as a finch with a beakful of spider webs could. Humans were always doing weird stuff. They will never make any sense to me, he thought as he collected a last sample of web. He hopped off the ledge and flew back to his nest.
“These webs are perfect,” he chirped. “They will do just the thing.”
Ch’hizz gently strung them around the nest in an effort to bind it all together. He got most of it in place when a chilling breeze swept through the tree. The nest rocked a bit, but was steady and didn’t fall apart. A good nest, Ch’hizz thought with a content warble. He then flew back to the building, at a different barrier, and proceeded to collect more webs just to be safe. When he got back to his nest, he found another bird sitting near it, inspecting it.
“What are you doing?!” he demanded of the intruder. “That’s my nest, go build your own.” Too late did he see the distinct coloring patterns of a female.
“I was hoping to find a decent mate,” she responded. “But there appear to be none.” With a flick of her tail, she flew off towards the forest.
Ch’hizz you idiot, he berated himself. She could have been a mate for you. Just because it’s your first nest doesn’t mean you should chase away all the other birds. He couldn’t believe that his simple nest had attracted another so quickly though. He had thought his nest was poor at best, but sturdy. Apparently he had underestimated his skill at building nests. He paused, a fleeting moment of happiness hitting him like a ray of warm sun. He basked in the momentary glow of joy before hunkering down to finish another section of the nest. He worked quickly, weaving twigs and webbing to create a very snug little nest. There was just enough space for a pair of birds. Now if only he had someone to share it with…
Hoping that he could find that female again and apologize, Ch’hizz sighed. Just when his nest was finally done, he had yet another task to do. Hopefully this one was easier then nest-building. Ch’hizz glanced toward the forest where the other bird has flown off to. Lots of redwoods and pines, thick tall trees with lots of good areas for nests, he thought to himself. He looked toward the sky, noticing a cold-breeze shifting the branches of his tree. It was nearly winter-time according to his Piyan. It was never off about the seasons. It was probably the only thing he never second-guessed himself about. He shook himself to push the chill away. As his feathers settled, he tucked himself into his small nest, hoping for another calm night before the winter set in.