climate change

"Honey, please don't just experiment on the fishes so casually. You're killing the fish and polluting the river, " said Rosalia to her beloved naughty child, Liliane. Although her mother was talking to her about something serious, Liliane paid her words no heed. The warnings of her mother was no different than nagging in her ears. "Mom, the earth is gonna die sooner or later. It doesn't matter who's making things worse, the end is inevitable," said Liliane before entering her lab to record the results of her experiments.

Liliane was an ignorant, selfish brat. She always litters everywhere and occasionally even tests the effects of her chemicals in small rivers too. Although her parents are environmentalist, she didn't inherit even a speck of the abundant love for nature that her parents had.

That night, she was sleeping with the air conditioner blasting in the room and air fresheners that sprays every 10 minutes. As she loses consciousness, her mind was dragging her into a whole new world beyond her imaginations.

Liliane opened her eyes only to find herself suddenly standing in a swamp-like land filled with withering trees and ugly soil. The grey mist that roamed about blocked the view so, she could barely see anything while walking. As she walks around recklessly, she accidentally slips into a puddle and some of the water even entered her mouth. The strong stinging taste of the water made Liliane immediately spit it out. Almost instantly, she realises that the water was as dark as night.

Seeing such a frightening colour, Liliane became shocked. She hurriedly got out of the puddle and wiped the water away from her clothes. It was then that she realises that the whole place was too ugly even if it was a swamp. Besides that, except the numerous mosquitoes flying about, there were barely any animals in sight too. It was as if the plentiful inhabitants of the swamp had suddenly vanished without trace. However, curiousity wasn't a very helpful thing at the moment so she just kept walking mindlessly until she finally sees a strangely wide open space just about 50 meters away.She ran towards that space only to be frightened by what she saw there.

Corpses of huge creatures like tigers, lions and elephants were everywhere, the trees looked like they died not much later too. Despite the slightly improved state of the land there, the scene looked much more horrendous than the swamp.

Liliane wanted to turn back but she couldn't endure the itchiness of the swamp mosquito bites any longer. So, she just forced her shivering legs to walk silently while trying to not scream or cry at the sight of the enormous animal corpses. As time slowly passes by, Liliane was finally a distance away from the scene.

She became slightly relieved with the situation and was slowly being capable of walking normally. Even though her legs was getting better, her stomach wasn't exactly making her feel any better. The grumbling sound of her empty stomach was so loud that the sound was almost echoing in her eardrums. However, despite her great hunger, Liliane was completely unable to feed herself. The trees around her were either withering or cut down. Before she even knew it, her eyes was getting blurry and she fainted shortly after that.

Despite her defencelessness, no beast nor animal was there to munch on her weak body. No scary tiger, no fierce lion, not even the hateful vultures or the lowly crow.

As unlucky as she may be to be seeing so many horrid things within less than half a day, she was still fortunate that her life hadn't end at that time. In fact, she was definitely very fortunate because not only did she not die, but she was also saved by a man who was just exploring the land.

Within the span of a few days, Liliane finally woke up. her eye lashes fluttered as she adjusted her eyes to the unfamiliar brightness. When her eyes was finally clear, Liliane was surprised to find herself in an unfamiliar scene that wasn't her room nor the horrific land.

" Oh, you're finally awake."

The first thing the confused heard gairl was the voice of a man whom she never knew. Although she wanted to be cautious, her weak body betrayed her and she was barely able to move a muscle.

" You are certainly insane, young lady. I've never seen anyone brave enough to venture the forbidden woods and come out alive before. You are truly fortunate," said the man in a sarcastic tone. Before Liliane had the chance to refute such insults the man continued, " If only that person could see the pain the younger version of her is going through, she would surely stop her ridiculous deeds."

Liliane was left in confusion. " A younger version ? Of who ? Her ? " she thought.

" Who are you talking about ?" asked Liliane who refused to be left in confusion any longer. The man just chuckled when he heard the little patient's question. " How does she not know such a person ? Even a country bumpkin knows about that vile woman, " thought the man. After contemplating whether to tell her or not, he decided to just tell her since there wasn't much harm in doing so. " Liliane Mikes, the female emperor of this empire, of course. There's no other villainess as heartless as her," said the man softly. His voice was so soft that only Liliane and himself was able to hear it.

Although the voice was soft, the name he mentioned hit her hard. " Liliane Mikes ? Isn't that my name ? How... no.... Why am I an emperor ? An evil one on top of that ?" thought the girl. In her entire life, many said she was selfish, mean and rude but none ever said such things to her face. Yet, here she is, listening to a stranger stalking about 'her' in such a manner right at her face. Liliane had no choice but to vent her anger in her thoughts.

The man just watch the girl's expression silently. Liliane wears her heart on her sleeves so, it wasn't hard to know what she was thinking. Even at first glance, he knew that the girl didn't understand what he meant. So, he explained further in a soft voice, " She's known as the 'Nuclear Queen' by the aristocracy but, most commoners just hate her. Many environmentalists even think of her as the world destroyer. The land that you just went to, is her latest prey. She's planning to build a toxic swamp in that place. For now, it's just the disgusting water and slightly poisonous air, but soon, that place will most probably become her greatest invention yet."

Liliane was beyond surprised to hear such words. Even if one was reckless, there was a limit to such actions. Yet, the person in question doesn't seems to follow such common sense. She couldn't imagine herself doing such things at all. Following her gut feeling, she impulsively plucked out the needle in her hand, and sprinted towards the only door in the room. As soon she got out, her attention was drawn towards a screen playing the news live at that moment.

An older version of herself was being featured in the news. However, she wasn't being featured for doing something good instead, it was just as the man said, she was publicly announcing the first phrase of her project, the Toxic Swamp.

"It can't be... I don't want this! I don't want to kill people !", Liliane shouted loudly as she kept her eyes and ears shut, refusing to listen to the news any longer. She was so distracted that she she didn't realise that even her feet was shivering uncontrollably to the point that she was about to lose all the strength in her legs. Tears, which fell on the floor like an endless river just kept dripping down from her cheeks. Soon, the girl's feet lost all their strength. The girl slips on her own tears and hit her head on the floor hard. As her consciousness fade away, the life inside her body was going away too.

"Honey! ", shouted Rosalia who was trying to wake her daughter up. The loud screams of her daughter awoke her from her slumber and her quickly went to her daughter's side, trying to awaken her from her nightmares. She gripped the young girl's land tightly to show her support and just kept calling her name infinitely, as if she was chanting an unabated hymn.

After a long while, her daughter finally woke up with cold sweat hanging on her forehead. The girl opened her eyes abruptly as soon as she was conscious enough to hear her mother's voice. She quickly hugged her mother as she mumbled her words through her tears. "Mom,... I swear. I won't blast the AC, throw rubbish everywhere or even use too much air fresheners anymore! So, please make sure I don't hurt anyone, okay ? Mommy... I don't wanna kill anyone...", Liliane swore as she buried her face in her mother's embrace.

Rosalia just smiled faintly as she heard her daughter's promise. She didn't know what actually happened inside her beloved daughter's dream but surely, whatever the dream taught her was truly the lesson that will protect Liliane and her loved ones in her lifetime.

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