The message

Birthdays are supposed to be a glorious day were you celebrate the birth of a new born baby. but ever since the arrival of THE BALL, birthdays have now become a sorrowful day because parents know that they are giving birth to children who might be eaten someday. There's a slight chance that the child might not be eaten seeing that the ball only eats two children a month, so our leaders came up with a system that chooses which child gets to be eaten. The children are chosen by selection of names. Children's names are put in a machine created by the ball through its minions. The ball picks which country and province were the children will come from and the machine selects which child gets to be eaten. This time it's my province that was picked. However there have been missing case reports of children, so the ball might not be keeping its end of the deal. Because of this children live in fear of being abducted. Parents stopped having children to save them the pain of losing a child but when it found out, it ordered it's minions to execute them in front of everybody. Women who can't have children and men who are impotent are also executed. Only children who are seventeen years of age are selected and sadly I turn seventeen today and I just had to be born two days before the month ends. Sometimes i wish my mom could have just held me in for at least four more days. Since this day may or may not be my last birthday, I'm going to celebrate it by taking a ride on my bike with my best friend Josh who already turned 17 last month so it may also be his last time celebrating with me.

I have to sneak out before my mom finds me or else she'll get all emotional.

"And where do you think you're going birthday boy?", Said my mom.

"I'm just going for a ride with Josh", I said disappointed that I got caught.

"Mike, you know how dangerous that is"

"I know mom but I can't spend my last birthday in the house"

"Hey, we don't know that for sure"

"Yeah mom but I'm not going to wait and find out, I'm going to celebrate my birthday like it's my last"

"Okay but please be back before dawn"

"I will. Bye mom I love you"

" Bye Mike. I love you most", she said while hugging me with tears in her eyes.

I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay but deep down I knew it wasn't.

When I went out the door I was welcomed by a water balloon thrown by Josh.

"Happy birthday man, you've now turned the deadly age. My sister wanted to be here and wish you a happy birthday but she couldn't stand the fact that her crush was going to die", said Josh while laughing.

"Hey Karen does not have a crush on me and if she did that would be weird, I see her as more of a sister", I said while grabbing my bike.

"Harsh, you just sister-zoned my sister. I'm not mad though it would be really weird if you guys started dating. But you should probably tell her since you're going to die anyway", Josh said while laughing and punching me on the shoulder.

"Haha very funny, are we going or not?"

"I'll race you", immediately after saying that he sped off with his bike.

"Cheater!", I shouted as I rode my bike to catch up with him.

We rode our bikes out of town but not as far as the restricted area. There is a really beautiful lake we like to go to cause that's where we met and it's also the place where the ball landed. By that time Josh was ten and I was nine. We were there having fun with our families until something crashed in the lake we couldn't see what it was cause there was too much steam. When it had cleared we saw a large white ball with red eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth. some people started contacting the authorities while others started taking photos. I looked at Josh and saw him crying. Josh tends to cry when his terrified. The ball lay still for a while even when the authorities came it still didn't move. Then after what seemed like an hour it began to attack and eat us. Josh, his family, my family and I ran to our cars and drove away. The rest of the people there either ran away or were eaten. The authorities tried shooting it but the bullets couldn't penetrate it. The army arrived but they also failed. Suddenly the ball stopped and decided to make a deal with us. And that's when selection day began. My sister was the first one to be chosen and my dad accompanied her when she was being taken. Both they and the other child who was selected were being taken to the center of the earth but the plane suddenly disappeared. My mom was devastated and spent years trying to investigate what happened, eventually she gave up. It's been just my mom and i since then.

" We're here. This lake brings back memories", said Josh

"It sure does can you believe that it's been seven years since it all happened.", I said

"Yeah sometimes I wonder how life would be if the ball never came but them I'm brought to this sad reality"

"There's nothing we can do about it all we have to do is be ready"

"I'm going to miss you Mike that's if I'll be chosen"

"I'll miss you too Josh"

We then hugged knowing that this may be the last time.

Else where. "My daughter Aisha if you're watching this it means you and your mother are alive and that you've turned seventeen today. I wish I was there to see your beautiful face. But my child you know about this evil that has plagued us for so many years. I have come up with a plan to trap in the virtual world but for me to do that it means I and the whole planet will be sucked in so that even it's slaves can be sucked in as well. I need you to come and rescue me after your birthday. I asked your mother to train you so that you are prepared for this moment. I made a second device that can send you to the virtual world, it's in the ship that you and your mother will escape in. This one is only designed to send you and whoever is with you within a metre. You cannot escape the virtual world with that device because it uses a large amount of power to send you there, so in the process the device and anything electronic gets destroyed. The only way to escape the virtual world is to find a key that has been divided into seven parts which are scattered all over the virtual world. The map to these parts is with your mother. I erased the part of my memory that holds the location of these parts so that I wouldn't tell, if I were threatened to. I will be waiting for you my child." After that the pod with the message exploded.

"I guess dad didn't know that the ball had already made a second version of itself." Said Aisha to her mother.

"I'm sure he'll find a way to stop it when you free him", her mother said

"What if I fail?", Aisha said with fear

"What have I told you fear is your enemy. You even have the scars on your body to remind you". The scars on Aisha's body were there because her mother used to beat her up whenever she got afraid. "I'm sorry I had to inflict so much pain on But i had to the virtual world is dangerous and you're gonna face worse things."

"I know you did what you had to do to me strong and I will not let you down."

"Your father would be so proud. The device is still in the ship and the ball took it when it began to rule the humans. So on selection day you'll have to follow the children that have been selected. You should shapeshift into one of the minions and get on board the plane taking you to the ball. When you get there find the ship, get the device and transport yourself to the virtual world. do not waste even a second."

"I won't."

"Now eat your cake and enjoy your day cause we have a lot of work to do tomorrow."