The Most Popular Person in the World

It was back in the 1900s when I was born into a wealthy family in the wild, wild west. My father was an inventor, he had been since he was boy. He was a brilliant man, smarter and wittier than any other you'd ever meet. He worked in his own shop in the growing town of Las Vegas. We lived in a massive home on the outskirts of the town and my father had his shop deep below the house in a huge warehouse-like basement. It was common knowledge in our family that my father had made a recent breakthrough in his work, but we did not know exactly what it was, and we were forbidden to speak of it to anyone outside.

In school I was a smart boy as well, most likely getting some of those good old brain cells from my father. However I was a rather socially awkward kid, and didn't have any friends. You might say I was the most unpopular kid in my school, even if it was small. I tried to not let it bother me, even if I didn't have friends, the other kids mostly just left me alone.

But that all changed one day.

My father rushed into my room one morning as I was about to leave for school. He looked at me seriously and sat down on my bed.

"Son, you must listen to what I say. I have made a terrible mistake...I have doomed the world...but I know I can save one person...I must save you."

I tried to ask what he was talking about but he hushed me and grabbed my hand and pulled me along. He brought me down to his shop in the basement and showed me two large objects in the middle of the room. One was what appeared to be a large glass tube, standing upright with all sorts of hoses and wires coming from it. The other object was a massive cube-like thing, all black and smooth and not very interesting.

"The glass case there, you must get inside and stay there until you hear a high pitched noise letting you know it is alright to get out. That big black box...it is something I should never have created...it was a mistake….But you will be safe inside the case."

Again I attempted to question my father but he hushed me, grabbed my hand and pulled me to the glass case. He knelt down in front of me and looked at me while he held my hands. He kissed my forehead and gave me a little push inside and closed the door.

"I love you," he mouthed to me. The sound outside was completely cut off. I could hear nothing. Suddenly I noticed movement to my side and I looked and saw that the big black cube was vibrating violently and spewing out what looked like steam. I looked back at my father just as his whole entire body seemed to disappear before my eyes, almost like dust or sand being blown away in the wind. I screamed and cried and eventually passed out. When I woke up later everything seemed normal. I pushed hard on the door of the glass case and it fell open. There was no sign of my father. I rushed upstairs.

There was nothing. The house was silent and empty. I looked outside. There was nothing. No plants. No animals. No people. No nothing. Just absolute silence. I was alone. Quite alone.