A Short Story

Written for Emma Leynse in December 2022. This is a short story I’ve had in mind since high school, and finally got about to writing it in the middle of my Senior year at Cornell.

The Last Person on Earth

Frederick Brown, 1948 and the shortest horror story wrote the brief two sentences below. This is an extension to Brown’s story to create an original interpretation of where this could go. 

“The last human on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…”

            Her eyes grew wide. She gazed at the door with a vile churn to her stomach, petrified at the occurrence. Terror mixed with a fleeting sense of hope was cut short by the sudden shaking of the ground. It started as a gentle rumble, but in just moments it escalated to a massive quaking of the Earth beneath her feet. The sound of concrete collapsing for miles assailed her eardrums, compelling her to hold tightly her ears in protection from the sound. The ground beneath her moved violently in all directions. She wrapped her arms around the edge of her bed which sat in the corner of her small, unkempt room. In the brief moment she released her ears, she could’ve sworn she heard the sound of rushing waves mixed within the sound of tectonic chaos outside her home. Did one of the remaining bombs lodged beneath the city go off? She wondered. Plates erupted from of the cupboard, ink spilled from its container onto the page she was writing on before it hit the floor, and the windows above her bed frame shattered from the intensity of the quaking. 

Suddenly, it stops. In its place takes the sound of a kind breeze, harmonized by the lull of the sea gently breathing upon a new shore. She opened her eyes and slowly released her ears and looked around her ravaged room to see the damage. Honestly not much messier h-heh.. Still rattled by the earthquake, she stumbled a bit before she got on her feet. A second knock from the door sent her screaming back into her bed, to which she hesitantly replied “C-COME IN.” Wait why would I say that?? This could be anyone!!! But no one survived the war, so who could this be?? What’s going on??! Instinctively, she looked around for something to defend herself with. In the mess of her room that was curated to host a farmer and not a solder, the best defense she found was a cracked pot with the remains of another failed attempt to grow a yellow rose. “Well, at least you’ll be good for something.” she thought. She moved the debris of her room off the corner of her bed and stood as ready as she could be, with a cracked pot ready to be flung at any intruder.

The rusted door slowly opened.  

Her racing heart and defensive stance was slowly relaxed by the feeling of a presence she had never before felt. She could feel it radiating from behind the door, halfway across her room. Like the warmth and calm that ensues a mother’s embrace, every hostile and defensive emotion leaves her, replaced with a surreal comfort that somehow felt nostalgic, somehow familiar.

The door opens to a simple person. Modest in height and relaxed in posture, she locked eyes with a quaint individual robed in white. Their skin, not quite the pigment of any particular race, was adorned with a soft radiant glow that pulsated slowly to the rhythm of the wind. Their eyes stood out from the context of their silky black hair that sat gently on their right shoulder, glimmering a translucent glow of shifting colors. She was unsure of their age, as their eyes creased lightly at the edges, yet their cheeks maintained a healthy flush. 

They smiled and said, “Hello, Risa.” Their voice sounded not of one, but of many people speaking in unison, all of different pitches and genders. “It’s wonderful to finally see you.”

Risa, having never seen this person before, thought of how she wanted to be afraid and should’ve felt confused in this moment for so many reasons. Despite every logical reason to not feel as she did, she felt okay. Something about this being repelled logic, and left within its place a distinct sense of peace – just peace. As though she was seeing an old friend, Risa smiled back.

“Although I do regret the circumstances which have brought us together, I have long waited this day, finally having a chance to talk to you, Risa.” 

Finally summoning the courage to speak, Risa responded, “I h-haven’t spoken to anyone in such a long time. I didn’t know there were any survivors from the war, but… you don’t seem like…” 

Risa stopped mid-sentence because she somewhat began to process what had happened in the last few tumultuous minutes. Her perplexed gaze read clear to the Being, to which they replied,

“I know. I too was confused when I was in your position. Come, we have much to discuss.” 

Risa curiously met their eyes to discern what they just said. 

They motioned towards the table which stood just a few feet from Risa’s bed. The chairs had fallen from the earthquake, and the slew of miscellaneous objects that once crowded the table now found a new purpose to clutter the floor instead. Risa laughed awkwardly at her mess, and quickly rose to fix the table for their conversation. The Being gently smiled and chuckled. 

The last time she had done this, Risa thought, was before her brothers broke the news to her that they had enlisted. As she returned the chairs to their rightful positions, she couldn’t help but fall into the recesses of her memory, to when they sat there to promise her that they’d return to her. She remembered how they called it humanity’s greatest struggle, proclaiming that this was finally the war to end all wars, the chance to determine the fate of the world and to at once end centuries of needless conflict. Ever since then, Risa couldn’t help but wonder if they would’ve thought differently, had they truly known the cost of ending all war. She liked to think that they wouldn’t. 

They sat. The Being closed their multicolored eyes and took a deep breath before they spoke. 

“As you may have wondered, Risa, you are the last human alive. The Great War, as they called it, turned out to be their last. Their inability to resolve their disputes, see past their racial and ideological differences, and relentless desire for dominion over another coincided uniquely with their technological advancements this time around. Fueled by the worst within them, they refined their methods of violence against another to profound levels of sophistication. Just when I had hoped this means of mutual annihilation would terrify them into cooperation, leading powers chose the trigger over the quill. They betrayed the very laws they set to protect the world from themselves, and let fear become the arbiter of their decision. 

It was the infusion of nuclear and biological weapons that delivered the final blow. They reached a point where they created a weapon so powerful, they could not contain. And, against all reason, your leaders chose to deploy it prematurely in an effort to win this war. Of course, a weapon unchecked as such grew beyond their control, and evolved to infect and kill indiscriminately. This plague they designed with astonishing efficacy surpassed their insidious intentions and became a balanced force of nature. Your leaders failed to control it, and as the Earth is best as its capacity for self-regulation, it nurtured this virus to a profound level of lethality that first killed in the millions, and quickly moved into the billions.

They deemed it the war to end all war, and well… they succeeded.”

Risa grimaced. 

“Now, you are all that remains of humanity. Every dream, every theory, hope, sorrow, and cruelty that was conceived from the first human and throughout all time, all will meet its end with you when your heart performs its final beat. Just like that.” 

A light breeze sailed through the room. With tears clearing a path through the dust on her cheek, Risa placed her hand over her heart and broke eye-contact with the Being. She looked around to see that the page of which she tried to chronicle her thoughts as the last human was ridden with ink, blotched as though the Rorschach of her mind laid astray amongst a paragraph of humanity’s final words. For the last few months, Risa had attempted to find the words to properly conclude humanity. To her, she found that centuries of art, literature, struggle, myth, religion, law, debate, sexualities, perspectives, mysteries, and experiences would all coalesce to sing their final refrain in this piece. An insurmountable odd. A necessary conclusion. One final meditation on it all. 

It had been years since she discovered that she was the last person left alive. Understanding the daunting weight of her task, and the grotesque inadequacy of one person’s words in accomplishing this, Risa found that the words never really came out right. So, she tried, and tried, and tried time and time again to lay to rest the thoughts of humanity at the tip of her pen. Is it my curse? Am I meant to do this? Why has this vexing responsibility been left to me? What exceptionalism do I possess to accomplish such a hellish task? These questions aged her, and she knew it. 

The Being reached out in kindness to hold Risa’s hand. Her eyes, sullen with the weight of her failure, collided with the poignant, yet loving eyes of the Being. Risa tightens her grip and shouts, “Am I actually dead? Are you here to help me pass on?! Did I fail?”

The Being gently chuckled and with a smile says, “No, Risa. I’m here to give you a choice.” They stood up from the table, and lightly tug on Risa’s hand to follow them. She obliges and follows them towards the door. “Ready?” The Being asks. Risa nods, and the Being opens the door. 

Upon a glace, Risa’s eyes light up with wonder. Expecting to see the street she had spent most of her adult life on, she instead found that her home was now on a gorgeous little strip of land, surrounded by a vibrantly blue sea that gently crashed on the sandy edges of the island. A row of trees created a delicate path from her doorstep to the edge of the island, where a single bench faced an endless sea and bespeckled horizon. It was in perfect view of the sun, which sat peaking over the horizon and painted just a portion of the sky like a glittering dawn. This dawn eventually clashed with the night sky, like the direct intersection of day and night. Risa looked up and saw that a starry-filled night surrounded this rising dawn. She also noticed how a red halo ran from the tip of the sun and raced from this early dawn across the night sky. Like a concentrated beam of the aura borealis, Risa marveled at how this halo was enriched by millions of luminous colors that ran within this red beam like shooting stars driving in lanes of a street. Risa released a joyful laugh as her eyes feasted upon this spectacle. The Being smiled as they recalled to when they too first witnessed this majestic sight and reacted just as Risa did. 

The Being pointed up and said, “That red halo, Risa, is the essence of all life. That is where everything and everyone that had, and ever would live, now resides. That’s where I’ve been, watching the world for millions of years, eagerly awaiting to see whether my decision would yield a different outcome, and finally break the cycle.” Risa curiously looked at the Being, whose eyes became sullen as they stared at the halo. Risa started to understand. They looked down and began to guide Risa down the steps of her old brownstone home, and towards the bench. 

“I’m here to pass on to you a legacy of thousands of Beings, like myself, who chose to become the steward of humanity. I am who has been thought of by humans as God, the creator, or the highest spiritual life-form. But, due to my restraints on directly communicating with humans, I have been misperceived and misunderstood.”

Risa looked up at the Being with a bit of fear.

“No, don’t worry. I was human once, too. I was born into a world that, just like yours, destroyed itself from an inability to resolve its differences. When I too was the last person alive in the world, I was met by a Being much like myself now. They came to give me, just as I am to give you now: the choice to become the steward of humanity and restart this world over, or to finally let humanity rest.”

Risa stopped in her track and stared harshly at the Being. An incoming breeze conducted the leaves from the trees to orchestrate a tune of gentle rustling that speculated of Risa as the successor to life’s continuation. With a million thoughts racing, she stood dumbfounded as she tried to speak, again finding herself at a loss of words. The Being continued,

“I come from a deep lineage of final humans who chose to rebirth this world, and restart humanity out of a hope that this time, things will be different. The Being that came to me, my predecessor, told me of how there have been many of us who made this same choice. I couldn’t bear to leave our story to conclude as it was, but…”

Risa felt anger billowing within her, and let go of the Being’s hand. She spoke up. “But you knew how our story ended and chose to restart it anyway?! You saw exactly what humanity was capable of, its brutality and profound capacity for violence and suffering, and chose to recreate that?! With all that knowledge, you chose to restart us but did NOTHING with that insight?! Where is the justice in that?!!!”

The Being calmly responds with noticeable remorse, “Risa, you must know that I am not omnipotent, nor am I omniscient. When I was given the choice by my predecessor, they revealed to me their mistake of communicating directly with humanity. Enraged by the Steward of his world that failed to utilize their knowledge of humanity’s demise to prevent the end of his, my predecessor decided to intervene. Their intervention was perceived as divinity, which quickly became weaponized, and served as the root of immense conflict and violence. Their attempt to right the wrongs of their world is what ultimately ended mine. That was the world in which I was born into, and my succession of this lineage tracesdirectly to my predecessor’s intervention. Risa… what is justice?”

Risa’s eyes swelled again. She broke through the trees and rushed onto the sand, only to trip into the water as a calm wave crashed against her. The leaves all moved to face her, and the water moved around her as though to console her grieving heart and catch her streaming tears. Risa thought of her brothers again, sitting at that table with hopeful eyes of returning one day. The Being looked upon Risa with empathy.

They walked past the tree line and said, “In the grand calculus that each Steward is allowed to see, this outcome composes an overwhelming majority of all possible outcomes of human history. In my estimations, the odds of a peaceful coexistence are several millions to one. It is h-”  

Choking still on tears, Risa turns around to face the Being and interjects. “Then why?! Why did you choose to restart this world if you knew that catastrophe was the most likely outcome? Why recreate billions of suffering souls to reach this inevitable conclusion?!”

The Being walked into the water and sat next to Risa, soaking their elegant robes. They held up their hand towards the sea, and the water beneath jovially rose up to form different shapes upon the Being’s palm, playfully jumping around their fingers and palm. Their eyes creased as they smiled and said, 

“Because of how my father loved me. 

When I was young, to shield me from the horrors of the war, he used to carve small wooden horses out of the tree’s branches that hid our home within the valley we resided in. I was always so fascinated by their detail, and the stories he would tell me about the amazing journeys they’ve been on. But, I tended to break them from how much I played with them. He would always give me a deep hug before surprising me with a new one, which always came with a new story.” The Being chuckled at the memory as they watched the water play on their hand. Risa smiled at the Being and noticed that the color green became the predominant color in their eyes as they reminisced. 

“That’s what I thought about when my predecessor gave me this choice. I thought about the odds, and much like I’m sure you’re considering, really leaned towards closing humanity’s book for good. But… I couldn’t help but wonder to myself that despite the odds, there had to be a reason why their predecessors chose to give humanity another shot.” The Being returned the water to the sea and stood up. “That’s when I realized something beautiful, Risa.” The Being’s eyes returned to multicolor. The water, as though saying get up silly and follow them, crashed against Risa to motion her to get up. So, she did and followed the Being back to the path.

The walked past the tree lines and kept walking forward. “I realized that to end this cycle and to release the Stewards of their impossible task, humanity had to get it right just once. Several million to one, humanity embraces coexistence and endures. Love had to win just once.” They arrive at the end of the island and stand in front of the bench, looking out at the gorgeous juxtaposition of night and day. Risa looked up to the halo and smiled at the thought of how her brothers were there, dancing somewhere along the racing lights. The halo starts to blink. The Being takes notice of this and takes in a deep breath.   

“Well, Risa.” The Being says as they take both of her hands and face her. “It’s seems that my time to rest has come.” Risa looks up at their kind eyes. The Being then kisses Risa’s forehead, marking her with the Choice. A glowing dot appears on her forehead that shines brilliantly as the multicolor dance is illuminated by a gentle, radiant glow. At once, Risa started to experience the emotions and memories of people she had never met, from all places of the globe and from various times.

The Being said, “You now have access to the memory of every human to have lived up to now. Take your time to make your decision, as you are now the Steward of this world and, if you choose, the next. You’ll never lose the memories of the old world, but you won’t have those of the new.” The Being’s multicolored eyes settled to an emerald green, and their body started to glow brighter and brighter.  

“Wait! I-I have so many questions! How do I know what the right path is?!” Risa cried out. The Being laughs heartily and exclaims, “Find your answer within their memories! Trust in them.” Risa embraced the Being with a giant hug. They wrap their arms around her as they glow brighter and say, “You have all the love in the world to decide now.” She feels their warmth rise up, and just like the wind steals from us the autumn leaves, the Being dissolves into a million bits of light and is lifted up into the sky, towards the halo. 

Risa opens her eyes slumps herself onto the bench. She releases a giant breath and worryingly looks up at the night sky. Suddenly, a rustling in the bushes behind announces a presence, prompting her fear of another world-altering encounter. Instead, from the bushes emerges a little furry friend that jumps onto the bench, looks up curiously at Risa and meows. She smiles. The soul of the world in the shape of a cat prances to her, sits on her lap, and purrs.