I put on my glasses letting the sides create more scars against my ears. This is how I've lived for the past 14, soon to be 15 years. All citizens of Grealynn must live this way because of our sun. Ever since the deadly pandemic ended a few years ago, all people big and small must wear sunglasses. We have been told that the virus permanently changed our genetic makeup, altering our genes so much that everyone is born extremely sensitive to light. Once the sunlight touches our pupils we are permanently blind. I'd take wearing glasses over being blind anyday.
Every Halloween, the sun doesn't come up leaving us with 24 hours of moonlight. We call this the Solem Festum; we call this that because there is no sun and it is the beginning of a new season of suns. We have a big celebration each year with a feast of food, which I live for every year, that is the best part.
The thing about our city, Grealynn, is that it's dying. We are running out of power and have many shortages. The lights are flickering more than usual and I'm starting to think that one day soon our city will go completely dark. Sometimes I think about what it would be like if the lights went off permanently. It would be good for us because we will get to take off our glasses, but in some way it would feel different. Well, yes. It would be extremely different. I sit on my bed and pick up my journal; I begin to write the date.
All of a sudden the lights go out.
