If You're Reading This, Do Something

If You’re Reading This, Do Something

13 days, 21 hours, and 15 minutes remain. 13 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes, and 59 seconds remain. It never ends, the constant reminder of my impending fate. I failed. I failed I failed I failed. The day Manhattan was robbed of its beautiful lights and glorious people. 13 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes, and 58 seconds remain. Escape; that’s what I need, escape. Time is running out, and what have I done? Nothing. 13 days, 21 hours, 14 minutes, and 57 seconds remain. Secrets. Lies. Pain. It’s all that occupies my brain.

“Makayla! Come help me take in the groceries”

I snap out of my never-ending thoughts as I hear my mom yell. She doesn’t know. She can’t know. 15 years ago, I was born on December 27th, 2011. At least that is what everyone believes they know; it’s what they tell themselves. Now it is time for you to know the truth, I write in my notebook.

“MAKAYLA!”

“Gosh, I'm coming, I’m coming”, I shout in response shoving the notebook under my mattress.

The second I complete the task at hand I take the opportunity to run upstairs and slap a title on the notebook, a reassuring way to give it purpose. To give myself a purpose. I quickly scribble on the words “If You’re Reading This, Do Something”, short and to the point. Now, back to the truth. 20 years before my said birthdate in 1989 I was truly born, well you could say so. Where I come from, we are made from light and gifted with a specific power. I was given the ability to change into any age of my choosing. I was sent down to Earth with a mission and a timer. On the other side of the universe, people are made from darkness and come down to dim the Earth with their evil powers. My mission was to protect Manhattan and its people from the darknesses that lurk within the shadows. Easy, right? Not exactly. My first twenty-two years went uninterrupted. I was eliminating darkness and bringing back more light to the city. It was beautiful.

All until one night, December 14th, 2013, I came across a lovely family as I was in disguise. I morphed into a two-year-old to catch a darkness off guard, ready to send it back up to where it belonged. This family, so worried seeing a small child alone in the streets, believed I was lost and in danger and took me to a police station where fake stats were immediately plugged into the computer using the power of my light, giving me a name, age, and birthdate. I obviously had no Earth family that this couple could return me to, so they took me in as they were additionally desperate for a family of their own. Their house was so comforting, and a beautiful baby room was already set up signifying their hope. I was the hope.

13 years later I got attached. So attached that I forgot the one thing I was sent to do. December 14th, 2013, such a bright day. Somehow it was the day Manhattan lost its light, the light fighting for good. I was overtaken with the big bear hugs, school tests, beach days, and dinner time. Where I come from, I do not get a family. All of these normal behaviors were foreign to me at first, until I got too comfortable. I lived like a human. I became a human in a way.

13 days, 21 hours, 9 minutes, and 21 seconds remain.

Five days ago, it came back to me in a dream. Heat flashed through my veins and memories flooded through my brain reminding me of my mission. My only life’s purpose. Since then, all that I can think about is the timer causing constant distress over my head. 13 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes, and 34 seconds remain. Screaming erupts in my head. That’s it, I must be going insane. More memories come crashing down blurring my field of vision. I start to vaguely remember that we have connections to our planet, what we see through our eyes is currently playing through huge screens all around our main cooperation. The sound in my head is familiar, suggesting that it has likely been played before, but I can hear it in a clearer way and understand it's meaning now that my memory has returned.

I recall my commander stating “if you lose us for too long, we will send messages to you. You will know when you hear it. When you hear us”.

I am once again reminded that I failed. I failed I failed I failed. Disappointment walks over my soul, my thoughts, and my pride. I should never have gotten attached, lived like them, and forgotten my purpose. Regret is all I can feel, how in the world can I rid Manhattan of every darkness in 13 days?

It was a clear message my commander presented alongside the mission. “If you do not return from Earth before the timer ends, you will be infused”.

Where I come from, being infused is equivalent to enduring the most painful way to die, being burned alive. A deadly substance is injected into our light-made veins as we fight the agonizing pain and crumble away into nothing.

I am scared.

2 days, 8 hours, 17 minutes, and 42 seconds remain.

I spent days curating a plan in hopes of success. I need this to work. I filled the notebook with everything. Every single piece of information that was taught to me before becoming a venturer. How to spot a darkness? Why fight them? How do you fight them? This had to work. I needed a human to come across this and spread the message. I needed them to fight back when I could not.

After creating my long-lasting plan, I had to get to work. 2 days, 7 hours, 52 minutes, and 24 seconds remain. Time was racing against me. I have to leave, my mother who assisted me with my personality and growth, even if she was not the woman who gave me life and my father who only ever wanted to see me smile. Tears cloud my eyes as I think of how to leave. Would it hurt less if I snuck out? Our memories fill me up with a bittersweet sensation. Christmas movies and baking cookies, full out birthday parties, sweater shopping in June (ironic I know, but they're on sale!), vacations to Europe, and 9:15 pm each night where we always made tea together and shared a positive and negative of the day, a bonding experience my mother would call it. I have no choice I remind myself.

1 day, 7 hours, 29 minutes, and 37 seconds remain.

I don’t need to bring much with me as I am trained to live off little, I snatch a family photo frame from my 8th grade graduation day and run downstairs so fast I almost topple over.

“Mom!”, I erupt into tears when I see her, longing to give her a hug and once again forget about all my duties, but I know that can never happen. 1 day, 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 49 seconds remain.

“Yes honey?” She responds, glancing up from her book. I hug her and thank her, all my words coming out in a jumble knowing my time is quickly running out.

“What? Why are you so rushed, sweetie what are you thanking me for?” She ponders.

“I could never explain it in time, just know that I love you”, I say as I turn away to find my dad.

“Where are you going love? Dinner is almost ready,” He exclaims as I reach his room.

“Dad. I can never stay for dinner again. Thank you for everything, I love you forever” I exclaim, pulling him in for a hug. I’m sure he believes it’s a teenage crisis, it’s what I'm going to let him believe.

A wave of cold wind flushes my face as I hop outside. "Makayla!" my dad shouts running after me, "Come back! Where are you going?".

I cannot look back, I run the fastest I can, making sure I am out of sight. I know they will worry. I know they will call the police to find me. I know they will not find me.

1 day, 6 hours, 57 minutes, and 32 seconds remain. I panic at the reminder of how little time I have. I need to go. Running to the capital of darkness, I try to fight as many as I can. Morphing quickly into various ages and grabbing their heads and smashing them into each other. “Running out of time, running out of time” I gasp out loud. 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes, and 9 seconds remain. 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes, and 8 seconds remain. No, no, no, no. I can’t breathe. Panic flurries through my soul. I think of the notebook left in my room; my only plan. I need this to work. I repeat it in my head. Stress, I'm so stressed. My breath quickly hitches up and down, almost as quickly as I’m losing time. I need this to work. I need this to work. 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 5 seconds remain. I need this to work. I’m gasping and falling to the ground. Someone has to find the notebook. Someone has to save Manhattan.

Grabbing onto my neck I shout “HELP! Hel---” 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds remain.