..:Chapter 1:..

The soft green grass rustled softly as it swayed in the breeze. Small creatures could be heard all around going about their daily life, adding to the new sounds of spring. Every now and then a monarch floated past, seemingly leaving a shimmering path in the air above. Scattered among the grass were tiny flowers giving off a sweet aroma. Contrasting this smell was the pungent scent of pine. The cloudless, blue sky high above the flowers, trees and butterflies of the meadow completed the atmosphere of rebirth.

Fay stared up into the depth of the sky, wondering if it would ever end. The serenity of nature always made her calm; cleared her head. It was her favourite place to come and think. She rolled over onto her side breathing in the smell of the grass, so distinct from the flowers and the beetles and even the trees. Grass, she thought, this is what it smells like. She spotted a tiny ladybug crawling slowly up a blade of grass. Reaching out she caught it on her finger and brought it close to her nose to examine such a strange creature. The intense red of its shell mesmerized her. How it shone brightly in the warm sun. The single black dot on the shell was framed so perfectly by this powerful colour. The small shell lifted and the bug flew away. Fay watched it until the tiny black dot was out of sight.

Sitting up she looked at her watch, Twelve o’clock. Time to go. Standing she strode slowly to a tall oak tree. So slowly she moved, she felt as if she was not even moving, not that this bothered her. If she had the choice she would never leave. Feeling along the bark she found the protruding button she was looking for and pressing it the landscape began to shake until it burst out of existence. Like a piece of shattered glass the pieces of the image fell to the floor of the vision room. It always brought Fay great sadness when the worlds of the past disappeared before her eyes.

She stood for a moment and took in the metallic room, spherical in shape with a long platform stretching across its diameter. She turned to trace the rounded angles of the glass chair she was previously sitting in. What seemed to be a hard, cold industrial room held almost as much beauty as the meadow. She walked towards the door listening to the soft clink of her sneakers against the metal of the platform. She listened and thought of the difference between the rustle of soft grass, and this emotionless metal. The grass seemed to hold so much life – despite its computer-generated properties. The door made a hydraulic ‘whoosh’ as she opened it, and then closed it behind her.

The vision room, beautiful in both its present and past states.

Twelve o’clock meant she had half an hour to return to school before lunch was over. It was common of her to steal away during this time to her vision room at home. Passing through her kitchen she stopped to get a bottle of water for the walk. I wonder what water used to taste like, she thought. Fay had read in textbooks at school that the drinking water used to be taken out of fresh water lakes and filtered so humans could drink it without becoming sick. Now water was chemically bonded in laboratories and bottled. This was ever since 2010 when the sources of fresh water became too polluted to filter. She opened up her brushed steel refrigerator and retrieved a bottle. The light of the fridge glinted off of the other steel appliance in the room, casting double shadows on the black granite countertops.

Fay tucked the perspiring bottle into her purse when she reached the front door. She twisted into her black trench and slung the purse across her chest. Reaching back she freed her long black hair from the coat that held it hostage. She put on her aviator glasses to shield her gray eyes from the relentless sun and stepped out of her house into the revolting sent of car exhaust and fresh asphalt. The sky had faded from gray to yellow in the time she had been inside due to the thick haze of smog. There wasn’t a plant insight – no grass; no trees; not even small flower boxes on the windowsills of neighbours – just asphalt, and concrete at far as the eye could see.

This is the world of 2035. Fay bowed her head and sped off in the direction of Hillcrest District High School.

Upon arriving at school, she was met by her friend Bonnie, “Fay! Where were you?” her face taking on a look of concern.

“You know I go home at lunch,” Fay tried to remain calm knowing what was coming next.

“Well I know you like to…experiment.”

“Bull shit Bonnie! Just come out and say it! Do you think I was snorting coke?!”

Embarrassed, Bonnie looked at her feet. She knew Fay hadn’t done drugs in over six months but she felt obligated to double check once in a while, “I…I’m just worried sometimes. You’ve been spacey lately.”

“Forget it, let’s go.” Fay felt sorry for getting so defensive but it seemed as though everyone was interested in her drug habits lately. She thought to herself about her last hit. The feeling of the fine powder going up her nose as she inhaled, the faint feeling she felt afterwards. This faintness soon pasted into a crazed state in which her memory blanks. She was told that night she jumped off a bridge. Most thought it was suicide, but it wasn’t. She was following someone, someone she loved. Someone she hadn’t seen since that night.