Outside the Bubble

Category A: Highly Commended (2025) Monash Short Story Writing Competition
Author: Katelyn Tjan

Nobody knows how the world went dark. Some say terrorists, some blame aliens, but everyone knows who brought back the light: the Tenebrae. They created the bubble; the only safety we know. Levitating above the tallest tower of the Tenebrae’s palace was our artificial sun. Curfew was at 9, when the ball turned navy. Strict protocols were placed as anyone out past curfew would be in grave danger. Monsters lurking outside the bubble could get inside.

The ball was still perched yellow on the tower as I made my way home, meaning I had plenty of time to get home before curfew, but the streets were eerily quiet. Blinds were shut. Locks, clicking. Something wasn’t adding up. I glanced up to the ball and watched as it turned creamy blue. I froze. The winter solstice. I had forgotten. Today, the curfew was at six. Something shifted in the shadows. A monster. We had been warned about these. Ferocious. Sadistic. Now one came to kill me.

But there was no monster, just a girl. A beautiful girl, with flowers in her hair that seemed to move to a breeze I couldn’t feel. The air crackled and the golden hum of the bubble flickered, then died.

“The bubble,” I breathed. “It’s… gone.” I took in the fields of grass surrounding our infrastructure; flowers speckled across them like stars in the sky I now saw.

“Looks better without it.” Her voice was calm. I had countless questions that I couldn’t ask. Rule one of the Tenebrae: curiosity = corruption. “Let me show you something,” she beckoned, taking advantage of my silence. I hesitated; I had never been outside the bubble, but something inside me urged me to follow.

She took me past the borders of the bubble, into lands the Tenebrae said were full of darkness and despair. My head reeled. Every lesson, every warning, were they all lies?

“But they… protected us.”

“No. They fed you fear so you wouldn’t see the truth,” She paused and handed me a flower, “But you’re different. You see things others don’t.”

 I didn’t know what she meant, but I hoped she was right.

We walked back to my house and as the familiar hum of the bubble returned, she disappeared. My mum sat crying, my dad pacing anxiously. Next to mum was someone I had only seen through the ball, a member of the Tenebrae.

“Mum?” I whispered. She moved instinctively towards me but was stopped.

“Don’t touch him, he has been corrupted.” He spoke of me like I was broken. Did they think I was broken? My mum’s eyes met mine, full of love, hollowed with fear. Dad flinched as I reached towards him. Neither of them wanted to help their own son, too scared of unknown consequences. My heart shattered. Guards gripped my arms, their metal gloves dug into my skin as they dragged me away. “Don’t worry, we will fix him.”

Let them try. They didn’t know I had seen the truth.