The Day Joy Hurt: Sci-Fi Short Story

The Day Joy Hurt

Theo had everything he could ask for. A quiet home in the clouds, weekly check-ins with his emotion dietist, and an endless supply of synthetic feelings. Red for joy, purple for calm, brown for confidence.

Ever since the Emotion Regulation Act passed a generation ago, unfiltered emotions were labeled dangerous as they are too unpredictable and too disruptive to social order. To maintain productivity and safety, especially among the elite, society turned to synthetic injections to regulate feelings.

Each morning, Theo pressed a vial into his neck and watched a smile stretch across his face. He grinned at breakfast and nodded politely at meetings. But inside, it was just hollow. At night, silence settled like fog in his apartment. His mind kept racing but his heart never responded.

Chicago 7: When Protest Went on Trial

A Nation in Turmoil

In 1968, the United States felt like a nation at war with itself. The Vietnam War was escalating, the civil rights movement was still fighting for equality, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had left the country in shock.

That summer, the Democratic National Convention was set to take place in Chicago, a city determined to maintain control under Mayor Richard Daley. Daley promised order, which in practice meant a heavy police presence and a willingness to use force.

Eighty Years After Hiroshima

The Morning of August 6, 1945

The morning of August 6, 1945, began like any other. In Hiroshima, children walked to school holding lunch boxes their mothers had packed. Some people were sweeping their doorsteps; others were already at work.

Then, in a blinding flash, the sky itself seemed to explode.

In that instant, everything changed. Buildings crumbled as if they were made of paper. The air turned into fire, and the streets were filled with cries, some loud, some fading too quickly. People wandered through the ruins, their clothes tattered, their skin burned, holding the hands of children who could no longer speak.

Hours later, as the fires still burned, the sky darkened again. From the clouds above, thick drops began to fall. Black rain, heavy with ash and soot. Some were desperate with thirst, thought it was clean water and drank. It ran down faces and clothes, into wounds, carrying a silent poison no one yet understood.