30 Days Later. 11:11 PM. Salem, Oregon.
The room was huge and empty now.
2 tables facing each other.
The Authors - 7 chairs. Pen, Violin String, Cracked Lens on the table.
The Artists - 4 shadows. Sketchbooks. Charcoal. Paint-stained hands.
No one spoke.
The Hunger floated in the middle. Bigger now.
_"Final Round. The Artists vs The Authors.
Topic: Loss.
10 minutes.
Winner takes all tables.
Loser... is forgotten."_
The Artists started. No talking.
Charcoal on paper. Shhhhk. Shhhhk.
4 images appeared:
1. An empty crib
2. A burned letter
3. A house with no lights
4. A name crossed out
Loss as erasure. As if it never happened.
Fritz: voice breaking "We can’t beat that. That’s... final."
Miri: holding Umi’s hand "Then we don’t beat it. We carry it."
Alex: "Use everything. The pen. The string. The lens."
Umi: picked up all 3. Pain hit her like a truck.
12 other people’s grief. At once.
Timer: 10:00
Minute 1-4: They break
Umi saw 16 lives. 16 losses.
She collapsed.
Umi: through tears "Okay. We use it."
Minute 5-8: They make their story
Umi writes with the Pen: We lost things.
Alex plays the Violin String: And the sound didn’t go away.
Fritz looks through the Cracked Lens: And took a photo of the hole.
Miri sings: _So we put flowers in the hole.
And called it a garden._
Fritz put the photo in the middle.
It showed: 4 empty chairs. With flowers on them.
With names carved into the wood.
Minute 9-10: The Hunger judges
The Hunger walked between both tables.
Looked at erasure.
Looked at remembrance.
Silence. 10 seconds.
_"The Artists gave me loss as an ending.
The Authors gave me loss as a beginning."_
The Hunger: "Winner: The Authors."
The Artists’ table screamed.
Shattered into paper and paint.
4 shadows dissolved.
The last chair flew to The Authors.
8 chairs now.
A full table.
All 4 other tables vanished.
The room collapsed back to Umi’s living room.
The Hunger was still there. But smaller.
"You won," it hissed. _"You have 8 chairs.
And 8 stories to carry.
Congratulations.
I’ll be back in a year.
Let’s see if you can still stand."_
It vanished in smoke.