This week, Futures is delighted to welcome Christine Lucas with her story Requiem. A former Air Force officer from Greece, Christine has written for a variety of publications. Here, she reveals the inspiration behind her latest tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Requiem

Requiem was born from my partner’s fascination with the ancient astronaut theory. After watching one documentary too many about how aliens built the pyramids, my mind started to wonder. If aliens did visit Earth in the distant past, is that all they did? Built things and conversed with kings and sages? But what if they did more, some of them? What if there were some odd ones who liked to mingle with the primitives for reasons other than exchanging bodily fluids (and, apparently, DNA)?  Some of them might even be foodies and develop a fondness for Terran cuisine.

And perhaps some of them strayed a little too far from the mothership, and learnt a thing or two on their journey.

Scent and taste can stir up long-forgotten memories and powerful emotions. And so, Requiem became the story of one final pilgrimage to a place of life-shaping experiences before launching off to the next level of existence and a whole new adventure.