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It was considered abnormal to forget your past life, and for that reason, you are shunned. I've tried so hard, but nothing has come of it. I don't even know why I have an eye as a head. People pretend to be welcoming of me, but I'm sure they just feel ashamed of me. I don't really care though. I'm in my early-mid 20s, so I just take whatever comes, like most do. I laid in my bed, just thinking. Why do people think? How can people speak? Why is the world so beautiful compared to the other planets? What happened? Weird. My eye itches. Oh, wait, my whole face is an eye. Does that mean everything hurts? No, that's dumb. I should stop procrastinating. I'm procrastinating while thinking that I should stop procrastinating. Alright, get up. I walked into my kitchen and realized how bland it looked. No food or drinks. I don't use my kitchen much, because I don't need to eat. No one needs to eat in Nexternity since we don't have all the necessities of a real body anymore. We're like ghosts still tethered to gravity. Luxuries like eating and drinking are just meaningless comforts we carried on from Earth. Creatures with mouths still feel the discomfort of hunger and thirst but they do not die from it. Even creatures without mouths can eat but you can be just fine without it as well. While perusing my house, I heard a knock on the door. Of course it would probably be the nosy neighbors telling me of some fake party they made up just to give me two careless sorrys to make them feel better about themselves. But.. I had nothing else to do, and maybe the party wouldn't be so half-reared. I opened the door, waiting to hear the little click of Euclid's lens or the tink of Erodius's glass, but I didn't hear that. I heard the sweet humming of a lady. She blinked once, taking in my appearance, not sure if she could trust me, then she started slowly.
"Hi. I'm Trine, you're neighbor! Condo 116! I- um, s-sorry we never talk, but I'd love to get to meet you."
I didn't respond right away, but I took in her appearance too. I almost never see this woman, I don't even know her name, and she's never talked to me, but it seemed she was getting restless just as I was, and wanted to see something new. She was a bit shorter than me and her head was a light pink 2-D triangle. She had no mouth and her eye was a blood red oval with sparkles in it and one eyelash on top. She certainly was strange as well. All the people in this world were strange, so I guess it's not so surprising.
"My name is Exe, nice to meet you."
"That's a cool name! Executable file!" Trine said this in an excited tone, but after she said the last sentence she shifted in an awkward way.
"No? That's weird. Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
I let out a short chuckle.
"It's fine. Do you want to come in?"
"Sure!" Trine walked inside and looked around. "Wow, this place is beautiful! Did you make these paintings?"
"Um, yes. I did."
"They are amazing! So intricate and lifelike, yet exotic and emotional."
"Oh, thank you. I just paint what I see. So, what's your deal?" I asked.
"I'm an astronomer. I love learning about planets and stars. My dream is to be an astronaut someday. I get so focused on my work that I forget to go outside or talk to people much. What's your deal?" Trine's eye sparkled as she talked about her job, she must have really loved it. But there was a hint of unknown sadness in her eye as well. Maybe astronomy was the only thing holding her together.
"Just living basically. I'm unemployed for the moment, but I like to paint and occasionally write."
"Ooh! Nice! May I see some of your writing? I bet it's just as good as your paintings." As she asked enthusiastically, I panicked.
"-No! Well.. I don't know. I-I haven't shown it to anyone before. I write some fiction and some sci-fi. Mostly just things that twist the real world."
I grabbed my notebook and put it in Trine's hands. She smiled. Even though she had no mouth, the expressions she made with her eye could be identified.
"You sure? If you don't want to show me, that's okay."
"No, no. I'm sure. It'll be good practice. I'm thinking of publishing it someday. It's called "Captain Aphrodite and the Dark Leviathan". Just read the first chapter and tell me what you think."
Trine nodded and then opened the book. I watched her read, making note of her expressions. I was always intentive of that, but maybe that was a weakness, noticing everyone's expressions, even if they're negative. I sat down in the chair next to her and I fidgeted with my shirt. I tried to distract myself from what was happening and I looked around the room for a few minutes or so, then I got distracted by the wrong thing. What if she doesn't like it? What if she thinks it's nerdy? Am I nerdy? Is she nerdy? Agh! Stop thinking! I was about to get lost in my frantic mind when she closed the book and looked at me with a big grin.
"This is amazing! You should be an author already. Captain Aphrodite is such an interesting character and the way you wrote the details on her ship was so good! I'm excited to read more and see how she'll deal with the death of her father throughout the book. Woah, what if there was a twist where her father is actually the sea monster!!"
I was startled at first by how enthused she was about my book. I blinked two times and then I felt my eye shine with happiness. All I wanted was someone to share my nerdiness. God, even the word "nerdiness" was nerdy.
"Thank you. Your suggestion is fantastic! You could help me write some chapters if you want, it's not finished yet."
"Perfect!"
This is weird. I don't usually feel like this with other people. But then again, I don't have many friends. Maybe we can hang out more.
"Do you want to become my friend? We can go walk around the town sometime or go to the library and get ideas for the book."
"Sounds good! Do you want to come over to my house? I can show you what I've been working on for the past couple of months!" Trine got up from the chair and waved eagerly for me to come with her.
"Okay." I said, sitting up from the chair.
We walked out of my condo and headed right to hers. I ignored two deer-wolf people behind me shaking a vending machine loudly to get a bag of chips. Trine looked back, giggled, and then turned to her door. We went inside and it had a completely different atmosphere than mine. The walls were a light maroon color, the lights were bright, and the room had 4 bookshelves filled with many different color books. There was a dark brown table at the back of the room, and there were books stacked up onto it and pencils loosely drawn about the table. There was a colorful rainbow mat on the floor and a computer laying on it. This room was cluttered, but in a homey, comfortable way.
"Oh! I apologize, I didn't realize how messy this looked! I'll go clean up! Feel free to look around!" Trine said as she hurriedly started picking up the books and pencils off her table, some of them falling out of her hands.
"Here, let me help you." I said, while taking some of the books out of her hand. Her face turned a little redder than usual from embarrassment but then she made a gracious look. I followed her and put some of the books back.
"Just a few more things." She said, "No use showing you my home when all you're doing is helping me. Go ahead!"
I nodded and then walked towards her kitchen. It had some paintings of fruits and well, normal kitchen things. I noticed she had food in her cabinets and fridge. A bowl of salad, some popcorn, pizza, and a box of strawberry Popsicles. It almost made me want to eat food again, but when I think of how people with no mouths eat, it turns me off. They open a special hole in their necks and they absorb it. I shiver, disturbed, and then I head to another room, it was her bedroom in the middle left of the hall. I only looked in there quickly, just so I don't invade her privacy. It was a nice little bedroom decorated with little glowing stars around the edges of the room and a nice pink and white bed on the left. There was a soft dark red carpet and off-white walls. A book with a moon carved into it was sitting on a desk, the book had little spots on it like tears had been dripping on it. I glanced at everything when something caught my eye. A bright machine flashed inside. I opened the door wider and inspected the machine. It looked very technical and I couldn't make much sense of it, but the one thing that grabbed my attention was the thing inside of it, shining really bright. Trine showed up behind me and realized what I was looking at.
"Ah, you found it. This is what I've been working on. The "Exhilarator". It recreates the molecules from big stars into tiny, pocket-sized reinvigorated stars. It has many uses, like providing energy for plants and other things that utilize it. You can't touch it though, it has enough force to melt your hand like the actual Sun! Haha!"
I looked at it with wonder.
"This is astonishing! How did you... what.."
"It's simple. In this world, access to space dust and cosmic molecules is easier." Trine explained. "All I had to do was find those missing pieces, and voila! It's not done yet though. I'm trying to figure out how to make them a bit less destructive."
"You could be the next amazing scientist with this! You could help the whole world!" I remarked.
Trine's eye twinkled proudly.
"Would you like something to eat?" Trine asked.
"No." I said. "But we could start heading over to the library. I wanted to exchange some books anyway."
"Sure!"
I glanced one more second at the Exhilarator and then at the moon notebook.
I left Trine's home to get my books and then we were off.
While we were walking we talked about different things we liked and listened to and read. I understood her. She was fun to be around. Trine's face then adjusted into the same curious look as Euclid had. I hated that look.
"Yknow, I was wondering something- "
I knew it.
"-Before you ask, I know what you're going to say. What was my last life like and how did I die, right? I don't remember. So just get that into your head now and don't feel sorry for me, because I don't."
Trine looked at me wide eyed. She looked shocked. I was waiting for the pity or the confusion or the 'whys' but she didn't say those things.
"Me too!" She gasped. "I didn't know there were other people like me around here!"
I gasped as well. She really did understand me. She knew it.
"Well, that's great! Knowing that there's more of us."
It looked like gears were turning in Trine's mind after this.
"... I heard talk from some of the neighbors that there's a place far away where many people have forgotten their past lives and created a new life with each other. They talk about it with aversion but I heard one person say there are rainbows everyday over there and a beautiful lake and garden, the others didn't believe it, but I believe it! The "Paradise" they call it. I don't know if it's real... but I've been curious. It was described to be on the border of the East side of the Earth. I think we just have to follow the rising sun! Would you like to go with me? I know we just met, but we've already got some things in common."
I thought about this opportunity for a good minute while we were getting closer to the library. I always liked solitude, but after so long it does get lonely. Exploring the world has always been on my bucket list, and sometimes I like to think that's why I'm an eye; because I've always wanted to see every part of life. Maybe I'll finally find what I've been looking for all my life. The missing piece.
"Yes. I think it would be nice. Surely we'll see a lot of amazing sights on the way. Nexternity never disappoints."
Trine looked intrigued.
"Nexternity? I just call it the After."
"Hm, we have a lot to learn from each other," I said. "I've been meaning to get out of this repetitious place anyways. Maybe we should see if others have written books that implied it in the library though, just so we aren't chasing some imaginary psychedelic trip.."
"I agree. Let's go!"
We arrived at the library entrance and headed inside.
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