By: Isabelle Wang

I woke up and panicked as my surroundings were unfamiliar, before my memories from the day before came back. Yesterday, I was preparing for training with my mentor when a servant rushed out of the throne room, and told me that m’lord wished to see me. I quickly rushed into the throne room and knelt at his feet. “You may rise”, said my lord, “For your bravery and loyalty in the Third Alien War, I have decided to promote you, Emilio Rifshore from the kingdom of Kiel from the planet of Atura, apprentice of Ezekiel Cadrange, to a soldier of the Upper Squad.” My heart jumped with joy, I struggled to contain my happiness but managed to keep a straight face. I bowed respectfully, and said, “Thank you, sir.” My lord just smiled, and said, “You deserve it.”

Now, I was a soldier who would fight in my lord’s honor. I trained hard and sparred with other soldiers for a whole year, before my lord finally sent me to a planet called Xenon to fight a battle against the corrupted Xenonians. I traveled for about a month with the Upper Squad on a spaceship which earthlings call a UFO.

When we arrived, all we saw was bloodshed as the corrupted Xenions slaughtered all of the neutral and loyal citizens of Xenon. A sentry saw us, and ran off, probably to report to the new leader. Moments later, an army marched out led by a man who looked around five or six centuries old. He had a flowing long white beard, a cloak darker than night, and a wand that had so much power flowing off of it that the Upper Squad struggled to stand. For the Upper Squad, the army was easy to finish off, but the wizard was hard to kill because he was constantly making shields to protect himself while occasionally cursing one of the Upper Squad. I was one of the handful of soldiers who were still fighting, but that’s when my luck turned, as the wizard turned to me, pointed his wand at me, and muttered an incantation. The second he looked at me, I felt petrified, and could only watch helplessly as a beam of pure red light hit my chest. Then, the last thing I heard was the war cry of my fellow soldiers.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital of some sort. When the medic ran in, I realized that I was back at Atura because I recognized the medic as the medic of the infantry soldiers. The medic told me that the Upper Squad had won the battle right after the wizard had cursed me because while the wizard wasn’t looking, one of the soldiers threw a sword at the wizard’s chest. The sword had penetrated the wizard’s skin, and the wizard screamed in agony before his body went limp.

Suddenly, my head felt like it was being split open, as I struggled to control my own body. The spirit that the wizard put in me tried to wrestle control over my body from me. My brain was torn between listening to the spirit or me, but it chose to listen to me even though the other spirit was slowly overpowering me. I started to lose control of my own body, but with one final burst of energy, I managed to push the spirit out of my body. When I pushed it out of my body, a bright red light shot out from my chest, and was absorbed into the air. I then lived the rest of my life happily and peacefully.