[BEDTIME STORY FOR SLEEPLESS CHILDREN]

Listen to this story, my child.

It takes place in a distant past, when Mankind lived on the surface.
It tells about two identical twins, one girl and one boy.
Separated at birth for mysterious reasons, they weren’t aware of each other’s existence.

As the years went by the boy became a young man and the girl became a young woman.
Chance put them in presence of each other and they fell in love.
Together they had a child.
Unfortunately, the birth didn’t go well. In spite of the care provided by the young man, with the help of an old, blind midwife, the young woman had lost too much blood during labour and eventually passed away.
The newborn was alive, but asleep, and nothing could stir it from his slumber.
Mad with pain, the young man entrusted the child to the old woman and left.

The nurse took the baby to the Eleventh City of Steel, to take care of him as she would have taken care of her own child.
The young man then wandered the earth, in the vain hope he might forget what had happened.
As an incisor, he provided care to the poor, but it did not soothe his soul in any way.
He became religious so he could be closer to God, but he only received silence in return.

Years went by, and the young man became a man.
He endeavored to find the child he could not forget.
He eventually reached the Eleventh City of Steel, and crossed the nine circular enclosures one by one, eyes closed and hands joined together, without ever stopping once.

After three days and three nights of feverish research, he found out where the old midwife was, and paid her a visit.
The child had never woken up and lay on a steel table, veins pierced with four needles and the temples wreathed with four electrodes. The nurse had been watching over the infant, washing its body, healing wounds and keeping the eyes hydrated under the parched eyelids.
The man tried everything to awaken the child, injecting many substances and implementing a great number of surgical procedures, but his efforts were all in vain.

After three days and three nights of unsuccessful attempts, he drew a third eye on the forehead of the child, incised the skin with a scalpel and opened it with his retractor.

Thus awoke the First Born.

With tears of joy the man fell to his knees by the bed and thanked the heavens for this miracle.
The child rose and stood up at the centre of the room.
Its gaze fell on the man and thus he perished.
Its gaze fell on the blind nurse and thus she perished.
Its gaze fell on the world and thus the world was changed forever.

And so ends the story, my child.
May peace be with you and your brothers and sisters.
Now go to sleep.