Equilibrium
They’re here.
We had been warned of their coming. Nobody believed it. Except me. I told them, but they didn’t listen. They never listen. They act as if I were an insignificant piece of dust.
I should have tried harder. Now the Caelus will come to Earth and kill us all. Billions of lives will end, and it will be my fault.
But can I really be the one to blame?
“Let me in Rory!”
“One second, Madison. I’m not done packing,” I said.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
That was a mistake. I never told my family that I was going somewhere, or that I had been secretly building a shelter and storing food in it for the past three months. They are my family, though. I guess I should invite them to stay in the shelter too.
“Umm, get mom and dad and I’ll tell you where. You need to start packing too.”
“Is this about the aliens?”
“Just go,” I said with a sigh.
Once we all got gathered in the living room I explained why we needed to leave as soon as possible.
“So what you’re saying is that aliens called the Caelus are coming to Earth right now to abduct us, probe our brains and in the end destroy the entire human race,” laughed dad.
“Pretty much,” I responded. I knew they wouldn’t believe me.
“Okay, we believe you,” they agreed.
“Wait, what? I’ve been trying to tell you this for months and you didn’t believe me then.”
Yes we did. Did it never occur to you that we never asked where you were taking all of our food every day after school?” mom asked.
I couldn’t believe it. They knew this entire time and never lifted a finger to help me. They must not value their lives very much if they didn’t care enough to save themselves.
Dad stood up.
“Well, I guess we should get to packing then,” and he walked off.

Tap-tap-tap. We all froze. Someone’s at the door. Pushing my family behind crates of food, I mustered the courage to open the door.
Slowly. Slowly the door creaked open to show the face of whoever was behind that door.
It was a Caelus.
At first I was so shocked I didn’t know how to react. Then when it finally hit me there’s an alien standing right in front of me, I slammed the door as quickly as possible.
But the Caelus was quicker. It grabbed the door right before it closed.
I am so dead, I thought.
Then all of a sudden, a sharp pain entered my mind. The Caelus was searching, probing me for a piece of information so important it could save their race and ours.
“It’s him!” the Caelus said. That was a surprise. They speak English. Their accent was strange and definitely not from anywhere on Earth, but it was a strange sensation for this one-eyed green creature to be speaking my own tongue.
More Caelus gathered around. They all looked exactly the same. Exactly the same! I bet they were identical down to the number of curly yellow hairs on their head.
“Greetings. We are the Caelus. We come in peace and hope that you humans will accept us and not think that we are here to take over your planet,” announced the first Caelus I met. He seems to be the leader of the rest of the group. “We have come to Earth in hopes of finding a new sanctuary. Ours was recently destroyed in a terrible war.
“We have been looking for a human with the ability to bring peace between our race and yours. You are that person. You have that ability.”
Wow. That was a shock. I’d never been important. Never really meant anything, and then come the Caelus telling me I can save us all.
“Mom, Dad, Madison, come over here. They’re nice. They aren’t going to hurt us,” I said. Madison came first. She looked so calm. She knew they wouldn’t hurt us.
“Hi! I’m Madison. It’s nice to meet you. I hope we can be great friends and bring peace to the whole wide world!” she said with a smile. Mom and Dad did likewise, without the unnecessary cheeriness.
“Ok, so, that’s one family. What do I need to do next?”

It’s been a month since then, and I’ve almost got our town to be at peace with the Caelus. It’s taking longer than expected, but one day we will come to that point. We will reach an equilibrium.