Nick - Unfair

This is a Blue Light story; the premise, outlined by Friday Conor here, is that The Blue Light appears above your head when your death is approaching.

. . .

Ellis was 22, insecure, and skinny. He was pretty quiet, but a genuinely nice guy. That morning he woke up hungover. He sat up and saw his blue light in the mirror on his closet door. He stared at himself and said nothing.

Adrian was 25, easygoing, and smart. She was working on her master's in political science. That morning she woke up, showered, and then saw her blue light when she went to fix her hair. She screamed and threw her hair brush across the room, then sat down on the side of the bathtub and cried.

Andy was 34, confident, and loving. He and his girlfriend used to party a lot, but now he had a job and lived a much calmer lifestyle. He sang to himself in the shower and didn't notice his blue light until he had gone downstairs, had breakfast, and looked out the window at his girlfriend's garden. When he saw his reflection, all he could think about was how he was going to tell her. They had been dating for almost nine years and she meant more to him than anything.

Ellis was still sitting on his bed staring at himself. He picked up his phone and browsed through his contacts looking for someone to tell. He noticed he was shaking. He put the phone back down.

Adrian walked across the hall, her eyes still red with tears, and sat with her housemate. They sat together and hugged, then they went and had breakfast. The housemate called up Adrian's friends to have a get together that night so that Adrian wouldn't feel alone.

Andy called in to work and told them he was sick; then he cooked a nice dinner. He set up candles and put out the good table cloth and glasses. When his girlfriend came home, they had a very tearful meal together.

Ellis was still sitting in his room. He picked up his phone, and then put it down again. He stared at it, hoping maybe one of his friends (he had many) would call him, and then he wouldn't have to do it. Like maybe his phone would know, and take care of it for him. If this were his last day, it shouldn't be going like this. He looked back to the mirror, and that stupid blue light was there, taunting him. He desperately wanted to beat it. "This isn't fair," he said aloud to the empty room.

Adrian's friends (she had many) had come to her house, and they all sat around in the living room. Adrian didn't want to spend her last day tearfully; she suggested that they all go out to a bar and have a good (albeit bittersweet) time. "We should enjoy the time we have left together," she said to her friends.

Andy and his girlfriend finished their dinner. He thought about calling his parents or his friends (he had many), but then decided that the only people he needed to have a good time were right here. The two of them decided to go out and have a drink together, for old times' sake, and then spend the night together, just the two of them. "I've had a good run, and I wouldn't want to spend today any other way," Andy told his girlfriend.

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Ellis walked into the bar. He pulled a gun out of his cardigan sweater. He fired into a crowd of girls, and Adrian fell to the ground. The whole crowd of everyone there flew into a screaming panic, but Ellis stood his ground, determined to beat the blue light; if he could break its rules, maybe he could survive his own blue light. He took aim at a woman sitting at the bar, who did not have a blue light above her head, and he fired.

Andy pushed his girlfriend out of the way of the attacker, and the bullet found him instead. Ellis pulled the trigger again, but the gun was jammed. He stood staring at his target, who was now crying over Andy's body. He kept pulling the trigger but it wouldn't fire. He felt like he was watching himself from outside of his body.

Gradually he became conscious of the sound of sirens and the blare of red and blue lights from behind him. The bar was mostly empty now, the crowds having stampeded out in terror. Ellis was brought back to reality by someone shouting something at him. He instinctively spun around and pointed his gun;

The cop shot him.

-Nick.

The Blue Light Parade, Pt. 1

"Are you alright, Emma? You look like you're getting sick."

Emma burst into another brief fit of coughing. When it ended, she cleared her throat and looked up at her older sister, Jennifer. "I'm fine, Jenni. It's probably just a little cold, that's all. I'll get over it in a day or two. I always do." Emma rubbed her mitten-covered hands over her arms in an attempt to keep warm. She could see her breath in the air. She hated the cold, but she always did love it when her breathing became visible. It was like little puffs of smoke coming out of a dragon's mouth. She smiled to herself.

Jennifer glared at her. "You know I hate it when you call me that. Jenni sounds like a little girl's name. It's belittling. If you can't say my whole name, at least call me Jenn. It's more...refined."

Emma rolled her eyes. "If you say so, Jennifer. Anyways, can we go home now? I'm freezing."

"Fine. Let's go." Jennifer picked up some of the wood she had been gathering and started toward home. "Well, are you gonna help me or what?" she called over her shoulder.

"Er...right. Coming!" shouted Emma as she scrambled to catch up with her sister.

They rushed home as quickly as they could. As soon as they got there, they dumped their cargo into the lumber bin right outside the door and hurried inside.

Emma and Jennifer started to shed their heavy winter shells of clothing. "Phew! It's freezing out there, Mamma. I hope it isn't this cold tomorrow for the parade!"

"Me too, sweetheart!", called their mother from the kitchen. "I made you both some hot chocolate to warm you up." They could hear her heels clacking against the floor as she walked toward them. They shared a private smile. Their mother was a classy woman, and she always dressed the part.

When the clacking stopped, Emma and Jenn both looked up from what they were doing to greet their mother. Jenn paused midway through unzipping her coat. Emma still held her slightly damp hat in her now bare hand.

Their mother had a strange look on her face. "What is it, M-" But she was cut off by her mother's horrified scream as she dropped the tray carrying the mugs of hot chocolate to the ground, shattering them. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

Jenn rushed to her side. "Mamma, what's wrong? I can't understand you..." She trailed off as she realized that her mother was pointing at something. Slowly, Jenn turned in that direction.

Then she saw what had upset her mother so. When she did, it took all of her willpower to keep from crying herself.

Emma stood by the door, hat still in hand, frozen to the spot by her mother's reaction. And there, above her head, was The Blue Light.

-Classic

Conor - The Blue Light

I was thinking about it earlier today, and I can't remember how it came up. We were driving through New Orleans, packed into this car and talking about something that wasn't our collective fear of death, the inability to deal with our mortality and whether or not we're in charge of our own fate when all of the sudden the conversation shifted and we were talking about the Blue Light.

The concept is simple, and probably very indebted to the brilliant Machine Of Death book which you can read in its entirety at that link right there.

The idea is this. Shortly before your death a blue ball of light will appear above your head. It could appear seconds before your death, or it could appear a week or two before anything happens.

It's a fun thought exercise.

I don't want to put too many rules into play, I just want to think of the possibilities.

You're walking down the street and you pass a stranger with the blue light. What do you do? What do you say? Do you apologize? I think I'd just apologize. I'd smile at them. I'd hope that they were on their way to do things they really wanted to do.

Would society embrace death? I mean, it would torture us in some ways, but we'd get more of a heads up than we usually get. That would be nice. Would there be "blue light parties?" 'Oh, sorry man, I'm busy Saturday, my friend's having his blue party.' What would you do if you couldn't make it to your friends blue party? How could you possibly make it to them?

One of the tempting ideas was to allow a friend to kill me in an awesome and preferably painless way. But if I did that, why did the blue light come on in the first place? I would be dying because of the blue light. It be both causing and forseeing my death. Can you beat the blue light?

My roommate Michael brought up how many euphemisms and slang terms we would have for the blue light. "She's been lit." "Feeling blue" would have a new emotional punch. We also talked about maybe the light changing colors, towards a red or maybe a white as you neared your death. You could watch the second tick away. One guy got his years ago, maybe, and there's been no noticeable change. Some unlucky people watch their light wither away before their eyes so quickly.

What if one day you woke up and you had an orange light, or a green light, or something?

I imagined all of my roommates and I in our living room, when all of the sudden all of our lights were there (would there be an accompanying sound? Something terribly inappropriate) except for one person. Let's say Caitlin. I feel like we'd all try to kill Caitlin. And according to our new lights, we would fail.

Could you die without a blue light or would it just appear a second before the event?

People are on a plane when everyone's lights suddenly appeared. Every single person on board. Somewhat reasonably, mayhem ensued. The pilot, fighting the urge to react in the exact same manner, manages to calm everyone down and he lands the plan successfully. Everyone walks away completely unharmed, but dies within the next of couple of days.

It's a fun thought exercise, I think.