The journal

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James found a journal that claimed to be written by a time traveler on the dusty shelf of the old city library. Not a lot of people read books anymore. The library was a wreck. In time, it had become a historical monument to the city, but not to people like James and Mrs. Stone who tried to maintain it as best as they could. He would come in on weekends to dust the shelves and books, throw out the books with very bad pages, and arrange the rest alphabetically.

The journal looked old, like no one had opened its pages in a long time. "They don't make books like this anymore," he thought as he dusted the cobwebs of it. His curiosity piqued as he sat down to check it out. He had a lot of time, nobody visited the library anyway.

He opened up the large leather hardcover to reveal several brown pages that looked like it was gotten from a fantasy map.

"I hope this gets to you before it's too late. The end is coming, prepare yourself."

James' heart pounded a little. There was no such thing as time travel, but something in him believed it.

"It's the year 2045, mankind has grown, and there have been so many technological advancements. We've found the cure to cancer, ended world hunger, and even discovered time travel. It was all thanks to them, the aliens," James continued to read as his imagination ran wild.

"At first we were scared, discovering we weren't the only intelligent species was frightening but when we established they came in peace, we accepted them. The human race thrived, we developed faster than we could ever imagine. There was technology to stop earthquakes and tsunamis," the journal continued, "We enjoyed too much that we forgot nothing comes for free, we were right to fear them."

James continued to flip through the pages, what he was reading was something out of a science fiction novel but it felt so real. His fist clenched to the edge of the table as he continued.

"They had an agenda, they were secreting terraforming the earth to be more suitable for them and the rest of their species. We were so blind, that anybody who spoke up against them was turned down by the government. They were doing so much good it was hard to see the evil beneath. Once their plan was complete, there was no way for us to survive, they were driving us to extinction. My team and I were humanity's last attempt to save our species. The plan was simple, we were going to come to the past and stop the invasion before it started, but they found out what we were up to and tried to stop us. I was the only survivor of seven brave men and women. I didn't have enough proof to bring to the past but I tried to warn us as best as I could. People dismissed my predictions as madness so I chronicled my story in this journal, hoping that someday, someone would take it seriously. I am old and won't last much longer here. I just pray I am not too late."

Shivers ran down James' spine as he took a minute to soak in everything. He picked up his phone to call Mrs. Stone, hoping she could shed more light on its authenticity. Mrs. Stone however chucked, "Oh, that old thing. It's just a work of fiction. The author died years ago, and hardly anyone paid attention to it. That's why it ended up in the fiction section."

He looked back at the shelf he had taken the book off, the sign read "old science fiction books." James let out a heavy sigh as he looked at the journal. He thanked Mrs. Stone, stood up, and placed the book back. It was time to close the library already. Reading had taken up all of his time so he couldn't clean at all. He planned to come in the next day which meant he would miss his reunion but he didn't care, he barely remembered any of them. The cold wind snatched at his jacket as he made his way out of the library. Something felt off about the evening, maybe it was the journal or the fact that he had a lot of cleaning to do the next day. As he walked down the street with his headphones on, he could see the children playing and laughing, the men sipped their drinks by the side of the road. Everything was great until it wasn't. He noticed people staring at the sky behind him. People froze in terror. He turned his head to look and the sight made his jaw drop. There, hovering in the sky were three huge spaceships.