2110

• Isabelle Ma, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

Clicking, clacking, grunting. My father is angrily typing on his computer. He is CEO of an international company, bigger than YouTube, bigger than Facebook, even bigger than TikTok. He’s the owner of WPC, which stands for Worldwide Population Control. And his objective? It’s to control the population, by making life an endless and deadly game of Simon Says. I wish I wasn’t related to the man that is in control of thi-“BANG!” I squint my eyes closed as my dad is evilly smirking at the sight of another dead boy out the office window, I hate seeing this. The microchip that everyone has installed in them by doctors since 2097 blows you up if you don’t do the Simon Says. It could blow up me too… Simon Says questions pop above your head and you must do them in 24 hours. “DING!” I just got one, ‘Simon Says, steal something from your brother's room’ Wait, but I don’t have a brother…I go back to the office where my dad continues typing, I work up the courage and tap on his shoulder and ask. “Dad, do I have a brother?” My father yells in fury and anger and raises his hand above me. I duck away and forget the Simon Says question about my imaginary brother. I’m too scared to come out of my room for dinner, but I’m too hungry to care. I tip toe into the dining room to see my father on his end of our 12 metre table eating leftovers. I slip into my seat on my end of the table and eat without any hesitation or eye contact with my father. All you can hear is the sounds of the corn kernels getting chomped in my mouth. Father finishes his meal and goes back to work. I suddenly get a Simon Says to kill my brother now? I don’t even know who my brother is! I panic because I might get killed if I don’t kill my ‘brother’. I ask my father what this means and what I can do. He told me to just kill all the boys in the next 24 hours until Simon says the task is complete. I can’t do that. I go to bed to try not to think about it. I woke up after 24 hours and nothing changed. Except for the fact that my dad was sitting on the corner of my bed at 3 am. “Dad what are you doing?” I sleepily ask. He says nothing. My father raised a gun and points it at my head, without hesitation, he shoots and just like that its over...Or is it?…