Tomorrow

I remember it like it was yesterday, I was a small child full of smiles and unrealistic hopes and dreams. I would often be outside, playing with my friends, having the time of our lives as children. I remember all those crazy times we all just laid down on a patch of grass in our local park, looking up at the sky and pointing at clouds. My favorite though, was all those times we would think about the future, not only ours, but the future of everyone else as well.

"Tomorrow" is what we would often call the future. To some, it simply means the day that comes after the present day, but to us, "tomorrow" was the day that everything was perfect, in undisturbed harmony. We'd imagine the sky bluer than it already was at that time, that the trees and other plant life prospered along with the woodland creatures. We imagined that tomorrow would be the day that everyone and everything was in peace. Famine, poverty, wars, corruption, thievery, all of these would no longer exist once tomorrow came.

Tomorrow never came.

With every setting sun, nothing happened. Nothing extraordinary, nothing special, nothing nothing nothing... At least, that's what I always thought. I never expected it to turn out like this. All around the world, factories increased, while the forest decreased at such a rapid pace that no one quite even noticed. The air, from all the fumes emitted by the factories, has become unbreathable, the one of the requirements in our lives, to breathe, has been taken away from us. Gas masks, face masks, that's the trend these days. Braces? Retainers? Who cares about those now? To survive was what we needed to do.

Wrappers, bottles, plastic bags, they're everywhere. On the sidewalks, in our own houses, that's where they're found. One would think that this is ordinary but... Our oceans, the dams, rivers, lakes, they're all polluted. Our water supply is running lower by each second of each minute, of each hour. There is a war going on right at this moment, for water, something that was once available in each and every country, in every continent, is being fought over. Why? Just... Why?

Dull...

Everything's so dull. The grass, the trees, the creatures of the woods, I can't feel any life anymore. As I head to my previous home, explosions go off in the distance. I have no more care for anything that happens to me. I knew my fate, and with each step I took closer to my old home, I walk closer and closer to the inevitable conclusion to this, to all of this.

I stop in my tracks as I looked up at the grey sky. To my right, was my run-down home, rotten, broken from time. The tree that once stood tall and proud by the house was now uprooted, and broke the walls of the home. From where I stood, its bark was the color of black, the branches looked brittle and dead. The wind blew, and the dried leaves was then carried away along with it.

As I let out a heavy sigh, I drop to the cold-hard ground, the image of the dull sky burned in my mind.

Nothing.

I have nothing. My parents, gone. My sister, dead. My friends? Heh, we've drifted away from each other a long time ago. How childish of me, right? Often replaying those memories we had, that we had created together, I'm a pathetic fool who chose to cling onto the past and neglect my own future because my soft heart refused to let go of everyone.

I miss it. I miss our conversations, our idiotic shenanigans, their smiles, their voices... I miss them. I yearn for them, for their attention... I yearn to hear their laughter that chorused with mine once more.

I chuckle.

"How absurd could my wishes get? They're all dead by now..."

I hear laughter, from my left and from my right. My head dropped to the left, my eyes fooling me to see three other pairs, looking back at me. I then look to the right, only to see the same.

A smile crept onto my face as I looked back up to the sky. For a second there, I thought it was once again the color of blue.

The year is 2033.

Earth is no longer what it used to be.

I hear Death having a feast....

Tomorrow never came.