1000th Anniversary

Chapter 1: Forgotten

 I snatch a hammer, swing my door open, and leap outside plummeting 60 feet down onto the alley below. I crash onto my feet unsteadily, flailing my hands, struggling to gain balance. "I've jumped from there 1000s of times and I still can't get the hang of it," I mutter in disappointment, brushing some grime off my shirt. The intense smell of concentrated gas in the air. Unbothered by it, I walk off towards the flight of stairs down to Jase's workshop, hammer in hand. Down the stairway, I drag my palm along the wall. Wishing I could feel the cold, misty, dew drops from last night's rain. Wishing I could feel the coarse gravel shards between my fingers. Wishing... I could only wish, wish that I could go back. Wish that none of what happened... happened... and that I could turn back the clock. Turn it back 1000 years, when I was 17 years old. When I was normal, when Jase was normal, when life was normal. The memories I have from back then are blurry... Yet somehow, I manage to dream about it every night. Dream... I can't tell anymore; I can't tell if they're dreams or nightmares, and I would explain them as painful, but I forgot what pain feels like. I've forgotten what everything feels like... sand, spice, warmth... all I have are my emotions, the bare minimum.

"P-paisley...?" Jase stutters, breaking me out of my train of thought. Realizing I was standing in the middle of the staircase touching the wall, I quickly run down to pass Jase his hammer.

"Here you go J," I whisper sheepishly, tossing the hammer onto his bright blue table, nearly knocking it over.

"Having another one of your daydreams?" He smirks, grabbing the hammer off the table.

"Mhm..." I mumble, slumping into a beanbag chair.

"What was it this time? Flashbacks, ranting... both?" He questions, fiddling with some huge orange and green machine beside his table.

I sigh, "Just another ranting session."

"Ahh, was it your, 'I wish everything could go back to normal,' or your, 'I should have never become a criminal,' rant?" He says mockingly.

I roll my eyes, "The first one."

"Well ranting about it can't change it Pais, and I think what they did was for the best." He shrugs.

"But don't you miss it, don't you miss feeling, miss eating, miss how things use to be?" I protest, sitting up in my beanbag chair.

"Sometimes..." He admits, "But it's not like I can even remember any of that."

"That's the point, they took everything from us, our feeling, our pain, death. DEATH!!" I boom.

"One, don't yell at me, two, you want to die?" He replies.

"Noo, but I don't want to live forever. You are aware we're still gonna be alive at the end of the fricking universe!?!" I explain.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about that Pais." He shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess..." I agree, sinking back into my beanbag chair.

"Anyway, wanna come over here and see what I'm working on?" Jase asks, nodding towards the large orange and green machine I saw him fiddling with earlier.

"Ooooh, sure!" I reply excitedly rushing towards it. Then lean over to inspect it, "It looks like a rocket." I chime, taking a closer look at it.

"That's because it is a rocket!" He expresses proudly.

"Woah!! What can it do!!?" I ask excitedly.

"Fly!"

"Is that it?" I ask, unimpressed.

"Well that's all it can do right now, but once I get the right parts I'mma add some... Well, I don't know what I'm gonna add yet but it's gonna be awesome!!!" He exclaims, giving the machine a pat.