Thirty days.
The countdown has started, North America shivers under the shadow of a massive alien spacecraft, and humanity is hurtling toward an unknown future that lurks at the end of the timer. Somewhere, somehow, the heroes are making their plan...
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TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
August 15, 1:00 PM
Nothing beats the feeling of a book. The smell of the paper with each page flip and the sensation of pinching the pages softly between her fingers both add to the reading experience for Preeda.
Usually, just holding a book brings Preeda comfort, but the constant movement of her family's preparations deepen her conflicted spiral as a single thought dominates the forefront of her mind:
How is she going to finish all of her unread books?
She stares at her bookshelves and instead of her usual glee, she only feels dread. For months, while living with her now-ex, Jett, Preeda wasn't able to see her full book collection, and now that she's here, it only adds more pain instead of the excitement she had hoped for. There must be over two hundred books she has to read.
Where should she start? The unfinished series? But she didn't like the main character. There's a romantasy featuring a war between demons and angels, but will she be able to keep track of all the worldbuilding and lexicon? What about the contemporary story of a young teenager finding a ghost in her apartment? No, that would be too sad. There can't be a happy ending for a human and a ghost. She could reread an old favourite, but that would put her even more behind in her goal.
Finish as many unread books as possible before the mysterious countdown ends.
She felt a deep ache looking at all these books. Every single one has some form of exciting new romantic relationship, which is Preeda's favourite part of reading. At least, it used to be. This new feeling could only be described as "off". Weird.
Maybe it's because she and Jett aren't talking anymore. She doesn't find herself missing his touch or his affection like break-ups in the books she reads, but she still misses talking to him. They used to spend hours talking about stories. He's a writer and she's a reader, so it was a match made in heaven; at least, that was what Preeda thought.
Slapping one side of her face in resolve, her eyes flick to the bookcase once again. If she can't decide for herself, fate will.
"Preeda?"
Kosum lingered in the door frame with towels in her arms. Sweat dotted her forehead as she handed Preeda a towel. She must've been running around with their parents, trying to protect and secure the house.
"Mae said to stuff these at the base of the windows. She's worried about the spacecraft and thinks blocking most of the air from outside will help."
"Don't we need to breathe?"
Their mom always has some strange advice from the Thai side of social media, and Preeda can't be sure if this is her mother's own idea or if she's just doing what the internet told her to do. She wouldn't let the family evacuate because of the horror stories she had read, and with the reports of the sudden light in the Midnight Zone, she'd probably never consider it again.
