FRIDAY (the 13th) FICTION: Drain

Stories are important. Stories feed the mind and inspire the heart. They lift the spirit and challenge the imagination. They have the ability to predict what the future will be, and have the power to reveal the past in a light unseen before. Stories take people to worlds they thought never existed, worlds they thought couldn't exist. But they can, and they do. Stories make them a reality. Stories make them into truth. Don’t underestimate them (don’t tell me you haven’t before, we all have, even me). They are, collectively, the gateway to utopias, dystopias, kingdoms, planets and universes unlike anything on Earth—or, in some cases, all too much like Earth. Stories can wake people up from their brainwashed states and get them active in the world, doing things they wouldn't have had they not heard or read or seen them. Stories can save lives. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE STORIES, AND DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR ABILITY TO CREATE THEM.