Retired Student

The village was nearly four hours from the city, and once the bus dropped me on the small road outside it, I had to walk the rest of the way alone. Nobody in the village wanted to take me there. When I asked an old shopkeeper for directions, he studied me for a long moment before asking why I wanted to go. "I'm a writer," I told him. He laughed without any real humor in it. "Then write about another place." When I pressed him for a reason, he only looked toward the forest and said, "Some houses are empty because people left them. That house is empty because something stayed." I assumed he was just trying to scare me and honestly, I welcomed it. I wanted to be scared. I thanked him and kept walking. The road narrowed and the village disappeared behind me until there was nothing but trees. After nearly an hour I finally saw the house standing alone three floors, a broken roof, filthy walls, windows black as ink, and behind it the enormous tree from the...

My name is Arin, and I was a writer, though not the kind whose name anyone knew. I had no big office, no famous publisher, no wall of awards, just a small rented room above an old tea shop, and most days I wasn't even sure I could call myself a real writer at all. I was an orphan. I never knew my parents, and I grew up drifting between hostels and borrowed homes until I was old enough to fend for myself. Eventually I started writing small pieces for a local newspaper, comic strips, mystery columns, the occasional little horror story and sometimes they even published them. My dream was simple, to become the best horror writer in the world. But lately there had been one problem standing in my way. I had stopped getting ideas. Every night I sat in front of my old computer and stared at a blank page, whispering, "Come on, Arin. Just one good idea." Nothing came. I deleted half-written stories, threw away notebooks, and spent hours online searching for haunted houses, abando...

Vimal returned to Earth. Raju contacted him through the smart watch."We detected thousands of unknown signals." Vimal looked toward the stars. "From where?" "Different universes." Vimal remained silent. Raju continued. "There are civilizations out there." "Some need help." "Some are peaceful." "And some..." He stopped. "...are coming for us." Vimal smiled. He looked at the people of Earth. The same planet where he had once been an ordinary college student. The same planet where he had learned that anger could create more anger. The same planet he had promised to protect. He activated the Green Sun watch. A portal opened in front of him. Raju asked, "Where are you going?" Vimal looked into the unknown. "Wherever someone needs help." He stepped toward the portal. Then he stopped. He looked back at Earth one last time. "I used to think being powerful meant being able to defeat everyo...

Several months later, Vimal was walking home. Suddenly the sky turned dark. A gigantic spacecraft appeared above the city. People looked upward. The ship was enormous. Much larger than anything Raju had ever built. A voice echoed across the city. "People of Earth." "You have been discovered." The spacecraft doors opened. Hundreds of strange creatures emerged. Then someone stepped forward. His name was Varun. He smiled. "I don't want your planet." "I don't want your resources." "I don't want your technology." Vimal stared at him. "Then what do you want?" Varun smiled wider."I hunt." The crowd became silent. Varun continued. "Your planet has something I enjoy." "Intelligent life." "You are my next hunting ground." Vimal's expression changed. "You won't hurt my people." Varun laughed. "Who will stop me?" Vimal slowly reached into his pocket. He remove...

Vimal didn't want fame. He returned to Earth quietly. He continued living an ordinary life. He went to college., He talked to people. He helped students who were being bullied. He stopped fights before they began. He never told anyone about his powers. But eventually, the truth came out. Someone had discovered what Vimal had done. The world learned that the mysterious hero who had stopped an interplanetary war was not a soldier. He wasn't a king. He wasn't a billionaire. He was simply a young man who had decided that violence wasn't always the answer. People celebrated him. Even the boys who had humiliated another student on his first day of college came to him. They apologized. One of them said, "We saw what you did." "You could have destroyed Raju." "But you chose to save him." Vimal smiled. "I didn't save only him." "I saved everyone who would have suffered because of his mistake." The boys finally understood. Vim...

Raju finally gave an order. "Stop the invasion." Every robot stopped. The entire battlefield became silent. Earth had survived. But Vimal wasn't finished. He asked Raju to return with him. Together, they went before the people of both worlds. Raju admitted everything. He admitted that he had used fear. He admitted that he had treated his people like slaves. He admitted that his plan to destroy Earth had been wrong. His people were shocked. But they listened. Vimal then proposed something completely different. The two Earths would cooperate. Resources would be shared. Technology would be exchanged. Neither civilization would rule the other. Both worlds would work together. The agreement changed everything. Earth began using advanced technology from Raju's planet. Raju's civilization received access to Earth's natural resources. But Vimal demanded one condition. Neither civilization could waste what they had. Factories became cleaner. Cities began using renewa...