Twilight's Flash Fiction / Relatos cortos crepusculares

The warrior The night took refuge in the caves of the mountain when the sun began to conquer the domains of the forest. The warrior, exhausted, dismounted and sat at the foot of a tree. He had ridden all night to inform the king of the proximity of the Muslim armies to the Acre town, the last redoubt of the West. No knowing the danger, a menace greater than that of the Muslim army was lurking. The treponema pallidum bacterium was waiting the right moment to attack. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. His muscles and nerves were paralyzed as a result of advanced syphilis. The deadly treponema pallidum was acting and changing the future of the world by deciding who would be victorious and who would be defeated. The warrior died at the foot of the tree. Muslims entered Jerusalem. It was the year of our Lord of 1244. El guerrero La noche se refugió en las cuevas de la montaña cuando el sol empezó a conquistar los dominios del bosque. El guerrero, exhausto, desca...

Christmas He worked at an astronomical observatory. That landscape and the special characteristics of the environment had molded his character, and during the infinite nights had lived in that place he had learned to love solitude. He had met astronomers and researchers, and had very good friends among them. And they taught him to see the stars in a different way. That night he made the usual round. He had done so many times those operations of supervision and maintenance, that he wasexecuted the movements and actions without hardly realizing it. But that night, when he accessed one of the domes, he saw a light at the base of the telescope. The light varied in intensity and changed color, spanning the entire spectrum from deep red to violet. As it approached, that luminous form rose to a height of several meters and flew toward the door. He followed her and she drove him to a nearby place, and among some bushes, the light of that thing allowed him to see a newborn who was smil...

Neurits The director of the department of operational research in artificial intelligence was euphoric. The team responsible for the development of neurits had found that in the brains of the robots, there was having connections between the circuits and neurons, forming neurits. These connections, similar to those that normally occur in neurons, had been produced endogenously, that is to say, without the intervention of any external process. The affinity of neurons for circuits was something that no one had been able to predict. Now, the new hybrid brains could multiply the performance of intelligence that is no longer so artificial. Neuritos El director del departamento de investigación operativa en inteligencia artificial estaba eufórico. El equipo responsable del desarrollo de neuritos había constatado que en los cerebros de los robots, se habían producido conexiones entre los circuitos y las neuronas, formando neuritos. Estas uniones, parecidas a las que ocurren ...

Wings He had always dreamed of being able to walk. As far as his memory goes, he remembers that he has been looking out over the same landscape all the time. At first, far from his reach, the birds was looking at him strangely worried. The days passed, and the years, and the birds learned to love him and to share with him their best moments, and from them he received the longed-for caresses. He has always been at the mercy of the whims of nature, but he soon became accustomed to the sometimes tender, sometimes ruthless language of the sun and the rain.   Although he loved everything around him, he would have liked to be able to travel, to know other landscapes, to learn other sounds, to harbor the hope of being able to contemplate the dawns in distant places. Someone came to tell him that some of his best friends would never visit him again. Two tears escaped from his eyes and fell at his feet, on the ground. And the earth, moved, consoled his sorrow. And he tried to r...

The Most Dark Darnkess Dark street. No word. Struggle. Screaming. Rape. Crying. La más oscura oscuridad Calle oscura. Ninguna palabra. Forcejeo. Gritos. Violación. Llanto.

Look for Me When I am gone, look for me in the roses of your garden, in the caresses of the sea breeze, in the red sunsets and in the worlds that inhabit your dreams. When I am gone, cross every morning the threshold that leaves nostalgia behind and take me with you to weave the day together, to savour the pleasure of every instant, so the night may gift us the moment when I can ask you to lend me your voice to tell you that I love you. Búscame Cuando ya no esté, búscame en las rosas de tu jardín, en las caricias de la brisa marina, en los atardeceres rojos   y en los mundos que habitan tus sueños. Cuando ya no esté, cruza cada mañana el umbral que deja atrás la nostalgia y llévame contigo para tejer juntos el día, para saborear el placer de cada instante, para que la noche nos regale el momento en el que te pueda pedir que me prestes tu voz para decirte que te quiero.

The morning The morning was opened itself through the heavy concrete walls of the prison. The prisoner was   waiting without waiting for the moment of his execution, without noticing how the rays of the sun, obstinate in illuminating his instants, fell on the black and white photo hanging from the wall. A happy family. His father was huggeing his mother's waist and he was kissing her, smiling. Those rays of sunshine stopped over the photo. -Son, don't be afraid, death is just one more step in our infinite walk through the stars. Don't let fear cloud your soul. We forgive you, but human justice does not. You took the lives of both of us and we both remain united and we love you. That statement was interrupted by the lock of the cell. The prisoner looked the jailer in the eye, thanked him and went down the hall to the room where the executioner was waiting, to fulfill his destiny. La mañana La mañana se abrió paso entre los pesados muros de hormigón de ...

Symphony of the inverse On a rainy day, gondolas furrowed the sky supported by ether. The drops started from the ground and was go up, whipping the hulls of the boats. The Earth was squeezing, like a lemon,   over the equator and fed on the water of the poles, and the ships followed the flows of the water. That was up in the sky. Underneath, in the water, fluvial highways through the solid water regulated the transit of the great interoceanic ships. The bowels of the Earth was illuminating the Universe which, black and helpless, depended on the Earth for its existence.   Sinfonía de lo inverso En un día de lluvia, góndolas surcaban el cielo sustentadas por el éter. Las gotas partían del suelo y subían, azotando los cascos de las embarcaciones. La Tierra se exprimía en el ecuador y se alimentaba del agua de los polos, y las naves seguían los flujos del agua. Eso ocurría arriba, en el cielo. Debajo, en el agua, autovías fluviales a través del agua sólida reg...

Unfinished Perimeter Robert, the spaceship's commander, gave the order to leave on August 30, 2040. The space base, located at the equator, allowed gravitational waves to act in favor of the trajectory to be followed by interacting with the ship's sequential waves, enhancing their effect. Destination: to travel in a straight line until reaching the confines of the Universe. They counted on the help of straight wormholes to reduce the time used, almost to zero. After an Earth time span of three years, the positioning systems had permanently confirmed the trajectory in a straight line and yet the teams identified a stellar system very similar to the solar system. As the spacecraft advanced, the conviction grew that the system resembled the solar system too much. In the end, the surprise was capital because, traveling in a straight line, they had reached the starting point. The Universe had an unfinished perimeter. The universe was finite but unlimited. El perí...

Bewoone The unicorn enters the forest without knowing that the world of darkness awaits him. Bewoone, the lord of the unnamable, tries to pass unnoticed among the unwary who unknowingly enter his domains. The unicorn, distracted, plants his legs in the magic circle and falls into the lost region. In his fall he loses his memory. He is aware of his supernatural nature, but does not remember his past. It is the first phase carried out by the evil Bewoone to make him his follower. The unicorn resists, concentrates to try to remember, but does not succeed. Bewoone then manifests himself openly and demands submission from the unicorn. -You in the back row! What are you thinking? We're in class, so pay attention and don't have with your head in the clouds. The child then thinks: -There are Bewoones in the real world! Bewoone El unicornio se adentra en el bosque sin saber que le espera el oscuro mundo de las tinieblas. Bewoone, el señor de lo innombrable, pr...

Catalinias I ran into them by chance. I had arrived at the International Polar Research Station to study the influence of cosmic rays on the Earth's magnetic field. I left the station for a moment to enjoy the colour of an extraordinary aurora borealis, when I heard something similar to a hissing sound. I stopped to avoid making noise with my steps on the snow, and I heard that sound again. Its intensity gradually increased, and suddenly it stopped. When I returned to the shelter, I told what had happened to me, and a colleague at the station told me that it was about flowers, the catalinias. They called them that because on closed nights, when the auroras borealis appear in all their splendour, the flowers whisper the word   'catalin'. You have to get very close to them to listen to them. Catalin was a 19th century Russian poet who, following his beloved, found a aurora borealis and was imprisoned in it. Since then, the flowers reproduce the voice of his beloved...

The transdutron It took me a lot of time and effort but in the end I did it. I have in my hands a transducer with which you can see the magnetic lines of the planet. The studies on birds discovered that by means of a protein in their eyes allows them to see magnetic terrestrial fields, with which they are guided in their migrations of thousands of kilometers. These discoveries encouraged me to design an equipment that would allow us to see the magnetic field as birds see it. The surprising thing about this equipment is that it has allowed me, besides being able to visualize the distribution of the terrestrial magnetic field, to discover the existence of a light codification, which when decoding it reveals an electromagnetic world in which auras with human form are observed that move, pass through objects and walls and in some cases seem to communicate with each other. El transductrón Me ha costado mucho tiempo y esfuerzo pero al final lo he conseguido. Tengo en m...

Uncertainty Since my madness, I know I'm completely sane. Today I saw two elephants having a few beers at a bar. One of them said to the other: "I have to change jobs. I can't make ends meet with the salary I'm getting now." "Try to enter the Ministry of High Flights. They pay very well there. I know because a crane, friend of mine, secretary of the hippopotamus responsible for equality policies, has managed to buy a luxurious chalet in the most expensive neighborhood of the city." When I approached them, they looked at me strangely and said: "Mr. Owl, how are you?" I jumped. When I look in the mirror, I always see a man with a boring face, but I've never seen an owl. When I wanted to answer them, my throat began to hoot, which left me even more confused. I went back home and I don't dare go out anymore. Inseguridades Desde mi locura, sé que estoy completamente cuerdo. Hoy he visto a dos elefantes tomand...

The Camerlengo We are dedicated to finding jobs for immigrants. Many factors have to be taken into account: origin, training, age, family situation... Today I took the case of an old man who can't read or write. It is expressed in a language that I do not know, nor can I identify the region of the planet where it is spoken. The old man has point to a piece of paper and a pencil and began to draw a dome. Suddenly the Swiss guards showed up in the office. They explained to me that it was the camerlengo in disguise. He has been so eager to help the immigrants that in the end he has lost his mind and is believed to be one of them. El camarlengo Nos dedicamos a encontrar puestos de trabajo a inmigrantes. Hay que tener en cuenta muchos factores: origen, formación, edad, situación familiar… Hoy he llevado el caso de un anciano que no sabe leer ni escribir. Se expresa en un idioma que no conozco ni tampoco puedo identificar la región del planeta en la que lo habl...

The Moon She imagined herself snacking on the Moon. There the restaurants have as background the turquoise image of the Earth. Or so she had been told by the schoolchildren that they had been lucky enough to be there. She grew up thinking about that adventure. Her boyfriend surprised her by buying tickets to spend a weekend on Earth's satellite. When the spaceship landed, a mobile surface engulfed her and became part of the armored structure of the hotel. Then they were able to get rid of their space suits and breathe freely, just like on Earth. The immense black background of the sky contributed to highlight even more the brightness of the terrestrial pearl. They felt lighter and knew they were living a special moment. What they could not expect to happen was the fall of the multicolored meteorite that flew over their heads and broke the reinforced glass surface of the structure, leaving escaping the air and destroying everything in its path. Many years later, she r...

Squeezing The Soul The morning ate his mood. She was defeated. The afternoon was more condescending but even so she did not make foot, she did not was finding anything to lean on to propel herself and get out of that hell. The doctor who visited her in the hospital was kind enough to tell her that for the rest of her life she would have to use a wheelchair. She had always been alone. She had not needed anyone. Now, she didn't know what her life could become. That's what I was thinking about when the door to the room opened and someone came in with a dog. That someone was her brother and the dog was a German shepherd's puppy. After fifteen years with that dog, it was time to say goodbye to him. He had taught him to love, to take care of him and to talk to him every day. He was accompany her when she was going out with her wheelchair and defended her from any intruder. He had given her life, and now he was leaving. Then she got up from the chair and hugged him, t...

InSight. The Chromatograph The InSight spacecraft landed softly on Martian soil in the area called Elysium Planitia. After exactly three hours, one of the gates opened, a ramp was extended, and then a motorized robot appeared, sliding down the ramp to touch the Martian surface. The robot moved for a few minutes around the spacecraft, and moments later something unexpected happened. The communication systems were muted for a few minutes. When the communication was recovered, the images sent by one of the cameras installed in the ship showed that the spectrograph and one of the cameras of the robot, located on top of it, had disappeared. On the other hand, the chromatograph, which had initiated the analysis of samples taken from the ground, showing traces of unknown elements, ceased to function. Something or someone was interested in the fact that certain images were not emitted and that the composition of the Martian soil was not known either. InSight. El cromatógrafo...

The gambler He felt good playing poker. He was one of the best. That night, the game had dragged on well into the early hours of the morning. Four players, alcohol and a good dose of adrenaline. As always I was winning. First left the game the most narcissist, had run out of money. Hours later did the second, and now faced the only one who had enough courage to try to beat him. Only they were in the room, the tension was at limit. There was a lot of money at stake. He, sure of himself made his last move and lost. Then, his opponent told him: -I have traveled thousands of miles to play this game with you. Until now nobody had beaten you. Now you can experience what it feels like to lose. But I want to tell you a secret: I've been training for years to beat you. You can't beat an intelligence a thousand times higher than yours, because my brain feeds on the calculations made by the hardware connected to it, which allows me to apply algorithms with which I have the se...

Walpurgis His face is fire. Huge, lively eyes, populated eyebrows, a white beard and a long hair. When he is called, he presents himself to his faithful in the forest -where bonfires welcome him-, on the tops of the trees. He is summoned by winged beings, spirits of the night and white souls waiting to be born to life. They all gather to bid farewell to winter and welcome spring. Before the eyes of Walpurgis, they cross the bonfires in a gesture of purification and choose the future of each human being for the entire life of each one. The ceremony lasts for a few moments. Then they disappear into the darkness, to appear after a year, in the night of Walpurgis. Walpurgis Su rostro es el fuego. Ojos enormes y vivos, cejas pobladas, una barba blanca y una larga melena. Cuando se le llama, se presenta a sus fieles en el bosque, en el que le reciben hogueras, sobre las copas de los árboles. Lo convocan seres alados, espíritus de la noche y blancas almas esperando nace...

Transfusion He began to feel bad after having a heated argument with his wife. So bad they had to call an ambulance. When he woke up in a hospital bed, he faced his wife's guilty eyes. However, he felt something strange. It was as if after what had happened he had transformed. Now he understood his wife, now he realized that she had always been right. He understood why he changed when he was told he had had a blood transfusion. The donor? His wife. Now he understood the change. His wife's blood circulated through his veins and he would never be him again. La transfusión Empezó a sentirse mal después de tener una fuerte discusión con su mujer. Tan mal que tuvieron que llamar a una ambulancia. Cuando se despertó en una cama de hospital, se enfrentó a los ojos culpables de su mujer. Sin embargo, sentía algo extraño. Era como si después de lo sucedido se hubiera transformado. Ahora comprendía a su mujer, ahora se daba cuenta de que ella siempre había tenido razón...

The Pigeon He set out to get out of his voluntary confinement. He had been for several days without a telephone, without a television, isolated from the outside world. It would be something unusual, but as far as possible it would be inside the possible, if not outside because it was three thousand meters from the ground. He opened the door to his room and headed for the living room. And a white dove came in his path, and landed on his shoulder. She had been missing him all those days, because he was the one who fed her, he was the one who caressed her, he was the one who told her every day that he loved her. And the pigeon drew his beak and caressed his face. La paloma Se dispuso a salir de su encierro voluntario. Había estado durante varios días sin teléfono, sin televisión, aislado del mundo exterior. Sería algo inusual, pero dentro de lo que cabe estaría dentro de lo posible, si no fuera porque estaba a tres mil metros del suelo. Abrió la puerta de su habitació...

WW3 The submarine, with an atomic charge capable of making the city of San Francisco disappear, docked at the pier. It was Christmas Day in 2025. A year earlier, the Russian-Chinese coalition had invaded the United States in the face of the passivity of the West, and the requests for asylum in European countries had exceeded all expectations. This massive flight precipitated the global confrontation. Now, all that remains of all that was are the thousands of artificial satellites dancing around the Earth turned into automaton zombies, accompanying the desolate planet in its course through the cold outer space. All civilizations invented their truths with the same innocence as they invented their lies. And they tried to turn man into a slave of himself and of others. The human being has not been able to discover the principle by which peace is a permanent state, and he will not discover it because already he has annihilated himself. Tercera guerra mundial El subma...

Sirius The route to reach Rome from Carthage: start on Hispania and cross the Pyrenees and Alps. It doesn't matter what test he have to face. In his heart he keeps his father always present, Amilcar, whom he had promised to destroy Rome. Anibal presides the march over an enormous elephant, Sirius. Man and elephant come to create an image so powerful that each of the men in his army would follow him to his death. Some believe that Anibal and Sirius were united by some supernatural spell. May 218 B.C. The army departs from Quart Hadast or Cartago Nova, in Hispania. In August it crosses the Pyrenees and in September the Rhone River. In October he leave the Alps behind. With a number of troops quite inferior to the beginning he takes the city of Turin without encountering resistance. In November he confronts Publio Cornelio Escipión in Ticino... and the story continues. When he retreats, after 16 years in Roman lands, Sirius, the only elephant that manages to reach the gat...

The volcano It was being a closed night, and the volcano opened, showing its entrails to the world, giving birth to all that singular beauty. Its cries of birth invaded the air reaching to the other end of the world. The three universes united in one: the roars of pain, the burning color of lava, and the strong smell of birth pain. It knows that he acts as an intermediary between the pregnancies of the earth and the outside of the world, changing it surface and feeding iit from its inside. El volcán Era una noche cerrada, y el volcán se abrió, mostrando sus entrañas al mundo, dando a luz a toda aquella singular belleza. Sus gritos de parto invadían el aire llegando hasta el otro extremo del mundo. Los tres universos se unieron en uno: los rugidos de dolor, el color ardiente de la lava y el fuerte olor a dolor. Él sabe que actúa de intermediario entre los embarazos de la tierra y el exterior del mundo, cambiando su superficie y alimentándolo desde su interior. ...

Thoughts Superman met Einstein in heaven. After greeting each other warmly, Superman asked Einstein: -Master, explain to me why we cannot understand everything. -The raw material of understanding is ideas. We use ideas about things to try to go further. But deep down, it's just ideas. And they have served us well, but sometimes they don't represent the real world. The qualities of space and time are human attributes. Let's say that there is the real world, on the one hand, and the world of ideas on the other. Sometimes we think that ideas are the real world. The usefulness of ideas is manifested when they can predict the behavior of the real world. -But ideas can be more real than the real world. Real worlds can be created with ideas. I am an idea, but that idea may become a Superman in the real world in the future. -That is the miracle, the force of creation and transformation of ideas. In the future I hope to meet you again, already you being a real Superma...

A Brief Story Of Windsor It was the year 1070 of the Christian era. William the Conqueror, after the Northern Massacre that had taken place a few months earlier, had allowed himself a break at Windsor. The intense aroma of the laurel forest near the castle works, located in a hillock, was one of the pleasures enjoyed by the king every time he approached to supervise the construction. That morning a great noise was heard. William rushed out of his tent. He had been told that part of the wall had collapsed. The state was deplorable. A breach had opened from the top of the wall to its base, and some large blocks had fallen off, one of which had come to fall on a man heading for the forest of laurels. The wounded man, lying on the ground, did not stop complaining. He was a small man and he was frightened. Guillermo leaned over to find out how he was, and the man, about to die, told him: "I take care of the forest of laurels. I come every day, because there are buried ...

The Eye of God In ancient Greece, in the garden of the academy, a philosopher, surrounded by his students, spoke about infinity. The infinite is an abstraction of the mind. Surely we, the human beings arrive at this idea from arithmetic, of thinking of an infinite number of numbers. But the existence of infinite distances is only a conception of the mind.  "Teacher, if there are no infinite distances, what is the structure of space? Is there anything beyond space?" "To think of the existence of something beyond space contains the same thought of infinity. It is a game of the mind. There is nothingness." "But the mind cannot apprehend nothingness." "Beyond the universes there is nothing. The whole of the existing is metaphorically called The Eye of God. Space is made up of light. The straight line trajectory is another invention of the mind. There is no straight line except in our mind." El ojo de Dios En la antigua Grecia, en...

Criticism He applied to study at Harvard. His intellectual abilities far were exceeding the standards required by the University. His father was a recognized politician and his mother a successful businesswoman. And they rejected his application. Reason: Potentially dangerous person. His school records indicated so.   He came to the Secretariat with a firearm. Several security guards riddled him with bullets. The gun he was carrying was a toy. When they searched his clothes, they found a note saying: Who is really dangerous? La crítica Presentó la solicitud para estudiar en Harvard. Sus capacidades intelectuales superaban ampliamente los niveles exigidos por la Universidad. Su padre era un reconocido político y su madre una empresaria de éxito. Y rechazaron su solicitud. Motivo: persona potencialmente peligrosa. Sus antecedentes escolares así lo indicaban.   SE presentó en Secretaría con un arma de fuego. Varios guardias de seguridad lo acri...

Charlemagne and the leper The frost of that cold morning had fallen on the camp, located in one of the narrow places, between the steep mountains, near the gorge of Roncesvalles. Charlemagne had summoned his nephew Roland to his tent to specify the route to follow on the way back to France. When the soldier left the tent in search of Roland, he stumbled upon a leper.    The leper asked the soldier to take him to Charlemagne, who had something very important to tell him. Why are you here? Your leprosy will infect my whole army. The leper knelt and answered him: If you'll allow me, I'll tell you what will happen in Roncesvalles. Speak! - Alda, Roland's wife sends me to tell you that because of the suffering caused in these lands and the destruction of Iruña, the Basques are going to attack the rear of your army, and in that attack will die the person she loves most in the world, Roland. For this reason, Roland's wife asks you to try to reconcile with ...