“Disappearance: a Lottery Winner's Monologue” by Chiro 8A

In a little house with a panoramic view of the bright blue ocean, I get up with the sun, brew my coffee and turn on the TV It has been my morning routine since I started to live on this green island about two years ago The TV says, "MrJohn Smith, who won a lottery of 10 billion US dollars two years ago, is missing A neighbor said that Mr.Smith was carrying a massive suitcase and his pet cat in a cage into a car in the dark when she saw him the last time and that she thought he was going for a trip with his cat; however, he still has not yet returned home since then She is wondering if he is alive or not " I opened my eyes wide and heaved a deep sigh At that moment, my pet cat, Fluffy, is jumping on my lap to remind me to feed him.

To tell the truth, I call myself Robert Jones on this small island, though it is not my real one, John Smith. I was born in a poorly-known town in England and was raised there Before moving to this island, I had been an ordinary office worker at a local company since I graduated from an unknown local university I simply imagined I would continue living this uneventful life in the monotonous town until that morning when an event suddenly changed my life

The alarm rang. I stretched my hands to stop it as I heaved myself up from the bed and sighed. I didn't want to go to work Apprehensive, I headed towards the dining room and made my breakfast cornflake As I carried a spoonful of cornflakes to my mouth, I opened my phone and scanned the QR code on my lottery ticket to see the result. I waited for the page to load, wishing I won the lottery -10 billion US dollars-. After a few seconds, the word Congratulations popped out on my screen My spoon clattered as I dropped it The next moment, I screamed in delight, "YAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Fluffy jumped out of bed, and my next-door neighbor, an old lady, yelled, "Shut up! This apartment's wall is paper thin, you know!?"

I took my ticket to get validated at my town's official state lottery organization. Soon after my passbook showed 10 digits numbers that I had never seen before, I emailed a resignation letter to my boss "I am a billionaire!" I roared, raising my arms toward the ceiling After calming down, I decided to keep this from the people around me in order to live a peaceful life. That night, I slept in my bed restfully, thinking I would have a happy life from now on, but things weren't as easy as I expected At five o'clock in the morning, my sleep was disturbed by the sound of knocking and chimes. I walked towards the entrance door a yawn. When I opened the door, a crowd was in front of me. People with greedy smiles waited for me and started to ask me about the lottery, prize money, and so forth I wanted to say something, but my throat froze as a fish pulled out of the ocean I was so confused that I swiftly slammed the door closed. How come they know my lottery win? I have never talked to anyone about it! WHY?! WHY!? WHY!? From that day onwards, I started seeing the dark side of humans

Day by day, people with dark intentions approached me. They talked about donations, investments, clubs, gambling, jewelry, and religions My parents spoke to me about their dreams of retiring from jobs, traveling worldwide, and purchasing a new Benz car and how they expected me to grant them since I was born My distant relative, whom I had never spoken to, came to my house suddenly and said he wanted to have dinner with me at a three-star restaurant My kindergarten friend said she opened a jewelry shop and suggested I buy a diamond ring that cost 1 million US dollars. An unknown man spent his whole hour trying to persuade me to buy a magical stone that would make my wish come true My phone rang all day long, mainly from unknown numbers I glanced at my Email and saw the spam box full of phishing emails Mass media and YouTubers followed wherever I went, and some even tried to get into my house! I have no privacy anymore.

In the dead of night, when I was sleeping, the window suddenly crashed, and tiny pieces of glass landed on the floor. I leaped out of my bed. It took me a moment to recognize what was happening. A stranger dressed in black came in, holding a backpack and a knife As fast asthe wind, I slid down my bed, face pressed onto the ground I took out my phone with my hands slippery due to thin layers of sweat to call the police, but before I could, a sinister shadow approached me, footsteps echoing louder and louder. My heart knocked my chest, washing me away with fear At that time, out of nowhere, light beamed into the house It was two police officers holding a torch The panicked burglar ran away, but the police were after it After a few minutes of chasing, the stranger was caught and handcuffed. I slowly crawled out from under the bed and stared at the broken window and messed house, lips pressed hard I couldn't stand this anymore

"Enough!" I miserably cried out, feeling exhausted from everything that happened after my lottery win Like ants swarming to sugar, people throng my 10 billion and try to sponge on me all the time I became disillusioned with the people around me and decided to disappear secretly. I crept through the door with a suitcase and my beloved cat at midnight To live our peaceful life, we are running away into the darkness I turned back for the last time, got into a one-way rented car, and drove off to Liverpool, where I dropped my car and headed toward the cruise terminal. On the ship, I grinned, my cat beside me. Now we've left our hometown, who would notice we were gone?

by Connie 9A

I sat in class not knowing what I had eaten this morning, how I got to school this morning, it seemed as if my memory had been erased but not quite erased I sat next to a classmate who looked familiar but I just couldn’t remember their name Outside of the classroom, the sky was gloomy, resembling a scene from a horror movie According to the clock sitting above the whiteboard, it was nearly 8 o’clock, but the bell still hasn’t rung yet. Strange People were running around in the corridors but no teacher seemed to care In fact, there were no teachers around, as if all the teachers went on vacation

I lay on my desk, wondering if I had strayed into a parallel time or into another world Everything and everyone around me seemed familiar but strange. I just couldn’t explain why. My brain was a mess.

After what seemed like forever, people finally started filling up the classroom I was in Then, out of nowhere, a movie started to play. First, the trailer, I didn’t understand what was playing. After the trailer, the trailer played again, and again in a loop As I tried to ask around to find out whether or not there was a mistake, I noticed that everyone else seemed to be staring at the screen Everyone, except me, was sitting upright like robots

I lost count of how many times the trailer played and started dozing off That's when things got even weirder I heard a high-pitched scream coming from outside, the lights switched off all at once, the buzzing that came from the air conditioner stopped ...

I followed the rest of the school onto the field. Upon looking up, the sky turned pitch black with hints of purple and the sun was nowhere to be seen I squinted my eyes, that's when I saw it Asteroids? No, spaceships I’ve read about alien invasions but never thought they were actually real

The arrival of the spaceships quickly dominated the news and television headlines, people from all over the world went out to look up at the sky to see if it were actually true or not Contrary to their expectations, there were countless spaceships circling the entire planet. In fact it felt as if there were more spaceships in the sky than stars. It was believed to be the harbinger of the end of the world and destruction. People were worried, in fact, worried was an understatement However, the spaceships didn’t do anything except hover in the air

By the next day, people realised they couldn’t do anything about the aliens Planes were sent out to try and take down the spaceships, but no matter what method was used, none of the planes were able to get within a few yards of the spaceships. There seemed to be a strong repulsive force surrounding each and every one of the ships

The long discussion between heads of state was fruitless, some advocate to attack, but others want to wait and see what happens, and some even proposed using nuclear weapons, but this idea was immediately denied as it could result in not only the end of the alien invasion but also the end of mankind. The world paused, governments shut down everything they could, and told people to stay at home World leaders tried to keep everyone afloat After all, the fear of the unknown is hard to imagine Then, on a random Tuesday, there was a sudden movement in the air.

From the centre of each spaceship hovering in the air, was a beam of light that shot straight to the ground People assumed it was the aliens leaving their spaceships like they do in the movies but after a few minutes, the light beams disappeared into thin air Along with the light beams, the spaceships with the aliens disappeared without a trace All that was left were millions of scattered pieces of paper on the ground

The most advanced detectives and researchers were gathered to try and put the pieces of paper together After what seemed like forever, they finally managed to solve it The pieces of paper made up a complete image of the earth, but with visibly less land mass and in a terrible condition. Above the image, there was a block of writing:

‘The Earth is being destroyed at an insanely high speed, in order to maintain the ecological balance of the universe, humans must take full responsibility for this In another 3 days, we will come back when the clock strikes 12 to take away half of mankind to another planet. You will all receive bracelets at midnight to vote on who will be your sacrifices Men or women, children or elderly, you choose ’

Some people claimed that it was just a joke that shouldn’t be taken seriously, but everyone for sure had a bracelet strapped around their wrists, meaning that it wasn’t just a prank And this time, there was a massive spaceship hovering above the Earth, bigger than all of the previous spaceships combined Was this the ship sent to take the people away?

As the timers on the bracelets count down, people start to get nervous, countries in conflict have reached armistice agreements, soldiers lay down their weapons, employees put down their work, children rushed home, the various external identities of human beings were laid down, leaving only the kinship of parents, children, and family.

On the night where the aliens were meant to come and pick up half of the human population, almost everyone spent their time with family and friends, cherishing their last moments together: lovers huddled together, young children in the arms of their parents, and in those final moments, kinship, love and friendship surrounded the world. People turned off their lights and prepared to accept the disaster that would befall them in their sleep. But at midnight, the spaceship seemed to have received instructions and disappeared without a sound, leaving only a line in the sky:

‘Who would notice that we were gone?’