The First and Last Kiss Read Online Free Page A

“Or its exact composition. Whether it was a hunk of rock, a ship, or a massive, sentient being. All we know for sure…is how it changed our way of life forever.”
    The display flickered and suddenly the comet smashed mercilessly into the side of the planet, creating an explosion that splashed the room in a light so intense, everyone, including Mr. Young, had to avert their eyes for fear of going blind. He kept speaking as the light began to subside.
    “The comet impacted the eastern hemisphere with a force that could be heard and felt all over the world, changing the terrain and taking half of our population with it. Millions…died instantly…” He paused to wipe a hand across his sweating forehead. “We all thought it was the end – the apocalypse, and in a sense, one could say that it was. That era had been eradicated in an instant…but it appeared that the survivors were destined for a greater purpose. The World of Obsidian had been altered, not just physically, but also spiritually. The population that had not been annihilated were transformed.”
    The universe display vanished and the room was cast back into its natural dim light for a moment. It then dimmed into a purple hue. White hot tattoos were revealed from underneath the villagers’ long sleeve shirts. Branded deep into their right forearms, each tattoo depicted a picture of six organ pipes with a long sword in the middle. Most of the villagers had only one tattoo of the image on their right arm, some had two of the same picture, and even fewer had three.
    Aidan pushed his sleeve down further though it made no difference. Even through the fabric, the tattoo burned bright as if it had just been seared into his flesh, as if he had been branded with the signature of the sun. 
    “Everyone was marked with these seals,” Mr. Young said, one of his own shining beneath the silk of his shirt. “Most were only given one, but others were blessed with two or even three. Each seal…granted the bearer a wish. A wish with no strings attached whatsoever, as long as the Judge approved it. It’s the only reason we were able to rebuild society so quickly…no one regrets being given these gifts, but we must still never forget the lives that were lost. These wishes came at a price, and that makes each of them a beautiful, wonderful curse.”
    He paused as the room reposed in silence. The purple hue was lifted and the lighting returned to normal. The seals on their right arms faded until they were no longer visible from underneath the fabric of their clothes. Aidan sighed wearily as Mr. Young bowed his head.
    “I perform this presentation once a year to not only remind you of what happened, but more importantly, to stress how much we need you here in Lowsunn. I know there’s a temptation to use your wishes for your own pleasure, but we ask you to suppress those selfish inclinations. In order to continue restoring our world to its former glory, we hope that all of you will stay patient until it is your time.”
    Most nodded at his words. A hand shot up from the left hand corner. Mr. Young took a deep breath and pointed at his young pupil.
    “Yes, Isaac? You have a question?”
    “How long do you think it will be until the world is restored completely?”
    “It’s hard to say,” Mr. Young admitted. “Significant damage was done to our way of life. Many wishes were used in the beginning of the 2 nd Era to restore the atmosphere, the wildlife and what not.”
    “Yet no one has wished for the half of the world that was destroyed to go back to its previous state, or to bring back the countless lives that –”
    “We’ve had this discussion before in class,” the middle-aged teacher sighed. “As I’ve explained, we don’t know what happened on that day.”
    “So it’s best to leave a hole in our planet?”
    “A contained, harmless hole. It’s been handled.”
    “There’s no way you could know that.”
    “That is the point of our scouting missions, or