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Maria Sara Muntean is participating in the 5th International Literary Creation Competition from Timișoara, Romania and she is 15 years old. She is guided by Mrs. Professor Monica Oana Bolog at the Banat National College in Timișoara. We thank for the participation and wish her success.

Whose Fault is it?

The Soul – Yulan Festival

First, I hear the screams. It always starts with the scream. But, on this day, the voices almost sound happy. I’m always the last one to leave hell. It’s not because I like this place, I hate it, it’s just that I need more time to collect myself and my thoughts from others. Every 15th night of the seventh month is different. At first, people were terrified of us. Now, they offer us incense, food and also, … spirit, paper money. I honestly don’t know why they think that we need money in hell, but I still take it. I wish I could enjoy this gifts, but I know that they’re still scared of us. During the month people avoid surgeries, buying cars, swimming, marrying and going out after dark. Still, I can’t blame them. Even I find myself terrifying.

So, I just walk until my so- called legs, begin to hurt, watch as year by year the weather get’s warmer, the Earth sicker; and I wonder: how much time do those humans have until their planet turns into hell too?

The Body – A prison somewhere on Earth

While I was used seeing criminals blocked in cells for their crimes, finding one of the smartest men behind the grey bars was something new. I didn’t really know how I should act around him so, for a while, I didn’t allow my feet to move. I was chosen to guard him and only him for one entire year, which wasn’t that hard because our new, intelligent prisoner was privileged with the luxury of not having any cell neighbors. A luxury that wasn’t really fair, cause, in the end, smart or not, he killed a woman.

The other guards didn’t tell me much about this man’s case, but I heard on the news that he got angry because he couldn’t solve some complicate problem about the end of the world or maybe the birth of the world, don’t ask me.

Because of his low emotional intelligence, he couldn’t control his angry and he just rushed outside and poured his nerves out on the first person he met, a poor woman. He beat her so bad that she died immediately.

Yes, I found it really funny that the man that understood Einstein failed in understanding his own emotions.

Finally, I let my curiosity win and I approached his cell with a superior look.

“Good morning”, I said trying to start a conversation.

“Actually, it’s a really bad morning”, he mumbled. “And you just made it worse”.

“Excuse me?”. His answer caught me completely off guard.

“I won’t excuse you”, he shrugged. “Dumb people like you always think that they can say anything and be excused after it”.

I looked at the man in front of me again. He wasn’t older than me and in the end he was the one in a cell not me, so how could he talk like that?

“If you think you’re so smart how come that you didn’t find a way to escape yet?”

“I’m definitely smarter than you”, he hissed. 

His need to always be right was incomprehensible. Did he act like that because of his low emotional intelligence? I didn’t really know. But I knew that I didn’t want to talk to him anymore.

Without any other word, I retreated to a dark corner where I could watch him without him seeing me. Desperate that he was alone again, the man crashed with the force of a tiger. into the bars. “Wait”, he screamed his eyes igniting from anger. “Come back”, he crushed his body into the bars one more time. He couldn’t control his emotions, I realized. Luckily, this time he couldn’t hurt anyone except himself.

I sighed. How could I resist a year whit this prisoner?

The Earth

Humans were always the most selfish creations. And that never changed. It’s hard to hate your own inhabitants, but I learned to get along whit that feeling. I like the animals and the plants though. Too bad that they’ll disappear soon.

When the heat doesn’t poison my view, I like to watch the creations that are living inside me. I usually start with the animals- watching them makes me smile, - but now they’re so few that I soon I have to lock elsewhere. Humans are killing to many animals; they don’t seem to understand that, if they don’t stop, they’ll consume every source of meat.

Disgusted, I turn to watch the plants. Cereal, fruits and vegetables are drying because no one eats them. Some resources are overused, some aren’t used at all.

The day the last animal was eaten- it was a dog, because humans were so desperate that they started killing their own friends- I felt lost. For the first time, I understood that I’ll die. 

People were, of course, blaming me for the huge loss:

ME THE ONLY ONE WEARING BLACK AT THE FUNERAL!