The Omniscrolls

  My life was simple until the day my parents were taken away from me. It was a sunny yet cool afternoon. I was just an eight-year-old girl enjoying the gentle breeze outside when people from our parish visited us. I didn’t pay attention to them because they were people we knew and trusted, but that day, they betrayed us. I heard yelling that soon turned into screaming. I rushed to the house to find them dragging my mom away as my dad fought with the others. A couple of them held me back when I tried to get to her as well. She pleaded with them again and again to let her go, but they cursed her, calling her a ‘witch’ and a ‘demon’. They tied her up and dragged her away as she struggled to break free. My father couldn’t overpower the violent horde no matter how hard he tried; there were just too many of them. He was beaten down to the ground and spat on before they left our home. One of them even hit me and broke my nose when I resisted them. I crawled away from them and towards my dad,

I was ready to leave for work when the phone rang. It was from the hospital. Karen, our nanny, had died after falling down the stairs. She had listed us as her immediate contacts because she had no one else. After the funeral, I was left with the task of finding a new nanny. A few days later, I was visited by an 18-year-old girl called Janice, who said she was Karen’s daughter. She said that Karen had given her up for adoption when she was an infant. I was suspicious of her story; Karen said she had a stillborn child in the past, but she never mentioned giving one up for adoption. However, Janice showed me a photo of a young Karen holding an infant that couldn’t have been more than two weeks old. After a long conversation, it seemed to me that she was genuine. Janice asked if the vacancy for a babysitter was still open, and that she would be willing to fill Karen’s spot. I was reluctant, but she said she had experience taking care of her adoptive siblings. I kept an eye on her for a fe

It had been a year since the aliens that called themselves the “Xuvarians” took over our world. Many humans were either killed or enslaved, leaving just a few of us wandering in abandoned underground tunnels with nowhere to go. We didn’t have the means to attack the Xuvarians; neither bullets nor bombs harmed them. Their skin and armour were near impenetrable. However, our luck seemed to turn for the better the day I met a man called Dr. David Avery. He suggested that getting a sample of Xuvarian DNA was our best chance at creating a weapon against them. However, that meant one of us had to let ourselves be captured by a Xuvarian—something which no one agreed to... until I did. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t scared; seeing those aliens catch bullets with their bare hands made my entire body tremble. However, I didn’t want to be forced to live underground for the rest of my life. Dr. Avery was hesitant about sending a seventeen-year-old girl alone on such a dangerous mission, and even offered

  “No, don't take my mommy away!” “Isha, wake up; you're having a nightmare.” “I want my mommy and daddy, Gil.” “I know, I’ll get them back. Now, go back to sleep.”   I tucked my sister back into bed and stepped out of her room to find Darrell standing outside. “Nightmares again?” “Yes, and they’re only getting worse. We need to take down the witch and free everyone.” “Easier said than done, Gillian. We can’t fight an army with farmers alone.” “I know we can’t besiege the castle, but we still need to rescue the people trapped inside.” “We need to plan this more carefully.” After a brief discussion, Darrell left, and I went to bed; but sleep didn’t come easily. I tossed and turned for over an hour before finally feeling my eyes close. Some time passed, and I began to hear a voice slowly creep into my head—it was Mom. “Gillian, wake up! Go to the basement and look for a box marked ‘Isiadora’. I woke up confused. I snuck into the basement without waking anyone up and looked for th