?"Phoebe! The evidence I wanted to show you—I’ve got it right here! Come over!"

  ?Teru called out from the lobby, iPad in hand, as Phoebe’s head peeked tentatively from the cafeteria entrance.

  ?"Teru, weren't you told not to bring any metal objects in there?"

  ?"I begged and pleaded every way I knew how. They gave me the okay as long as I stay in the lobby. I can’t bring it over to you, so come here! Ten, you too!"

  ?"Coming," Ten replied from the narrow corridor separating her private room from the cafeteria.

  ?"You two... listen to this. This is the sound of the earth shaking the very foundations of this century."

  ?The footage played. It must have been dawn. Beyond the slope that led down from Teru’s neighborhood, from a horizon or a direction impossible to pinpoint, came an unbelievable sound.

  ?It was a low, dull, mournful blare, like a steam whistle that made the very outlines of the world tremble. It felt as though a massive luxury liner were signaling its departure right before their eyes, yet it carried an eerie quality—its source was utterly unidentifiable. The sky was a bruised, dusky hue. It was a strange moment where it seemed the morning sun had used the heavy blanket of clouds as a medium to blow a colossal trumpet.

  ?"Play it again, please!" Ten urged, her voice uncharacteristically sharp with intensity.

  ?"Yeah."

  ?"It sounds like a giant trumpet," Phoebe remarked after the second viewing.

  ?"I’m moved," Ten said, her eyes alight with a newfound curiosity for the haunting sound. "How wonderful it would be to hear that in person."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  ?"Scared the hell out of me," Teru admitted. "Honestly, Letty’s the one who stayed cool enough to observe and film this. She’s quick to adapt."

  ?"In this day and age, it is vital to grow accustomed to paranormal phenomena from a young age," Ten noted.

  ?"I worry if she’ll ever fit into society," Teru replied, offering his honest perspective as a father.

  ?"And who, exactly, defines 'society'?"

  ?"Man... feels like a parent-teacher conference. It’s like I’ve shown you both something that’s going to dictate Letty’s entire future."

  ?"The society Letty enters is one she will compose and reshape herself," Ten began, her voice steady and powerful, as if some higher intelligence had descended upon her. "The key lies in the power of the individual. Anything can be changed. I couldn’t do it, but she was surely born into your home with a mission. Her being here is the culmination of choices she has made for herself. These days, many adults lament things not going their way, yet they fail to realize that even those circumstances are a result of their own choices. They don’t know how to produce a result. Isn't it time we achieved the opposite? Honestly, it’s been that way since the beginning."

  ?"Thanks," Teru said, looking struck. "I’ll carve those words into my heart, Amethyst-chan. For a one-night trip, it feels like we’re consuming years of time. I feel like I’ve gained a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. If I ever say anything stupid to my daughter again, feel free to crack my head open."

  ?Setting aside that last remark, Phoebe shared his sentiment. This lodging—which felt less like a vehicle and more like the interior of a spacecraft—had a lightness to its gravity. It wouldn’t be strange to wonder if they were in another world entirely.

  ?Phoebe recalled a scene from a movie she saw as a child called Interstellar. In it, a father searches for a second Earth, passing through a planet where time moves many times slower than back home. The young daughter becomes an old woman in the blink of an eye, finally reuniting with her father in tears, surrounded by her own grandchildren. It was a masterpiece that needed to be passed down before it became a mere "classic," but looking at the father and daughter before her, Phoebe couldn't imagine a "normal" future awaiting them either.

  ?It felt as though they were currently inside someone’s dream. But morning comes early. It was time to enter the dream themselves. Tomorrow, the resource extraction finally begins.