64
She couldn't help thinking about possibilities, about what her life might have been like if she made other choices.
63
She didn't mind being lost and walking around the same block twice if it meant a chance at giving someone déjà vu.
59
Some days, all she wanted to do when she got home was play piano but she never learned how to play any instrument.
54
Charlotte was in one of her states again when the world twisted and folded into something horrible as it poured into her mind. Voices were shrieks of terror in her ears or whispers of terrible things about to happen. Every person was her enemy. She saw it in the way they looked at her with cautious but confident eyes. Everything became a weapon to be used against her. Her skin tingled in anticipation. Her muscles tensed.
Charlotte walked down the sidewalk and avoided eye contact with every person she passed. If even one of them saw her, they might know. Even the dogs wouldn't look at her. They could sense something was wrong with her, something that couldn't be fixed.
Buses and cars blurred in front of her, each one a threat to her safety. The black and yellow taxi at the corner transformed into a monster in her vision. The hood snapped open to reveal massive jaws. The low rumble of the engine became a roar as it lurched forward to devour her, to make her disappear forever.
Charlotte blinked and the monster was a taxi again. She knew the dangers she saw were hallucinations but when she was experiencing them, they felt too real. The traffic wouldn't harm her and neither would people, but Charlotte could see what was coming and that...that was something to fear.
She turned the corner and walked in the light from the street lamps. Everything was lit here. Street lamps, business signs, and store windows--everything was light except for the darkening sky.
The nightmares were rushing in.
Charlotte walked down the sidewalk and avoided eye contact with every person she passed. If even one of them saw her, they might know. Even the dogs wouldn't look at her. They could sense something was wrong with her, something that couldn't be fixed.
Buses and cars blurred in front of her, each one a threat to her safety. The black and yellow taxi at the corner transformed into a monster in her vision. The hood snapped open to reveal massive jaws. The low rumble of the engine became a roar as it lurched forward to devour her, to make her disappear forever.
Charlotte blinked and the monster was a taxi again. She knew the dangers she saw were hallucinations but when she was experiencing them, they felt too real. The traffic wouldn't harm her and neither would people, but Charlotte could see what was coming and that...that was something to fear.
She turned the corner and walked in the light from the street lamps. Everything was lit here. Street lamps, business signs, and store windows--everything was light except for the darkening sky.
The nightmares were rushing in.
52
I don't know when the world ended. People thought it would be obvious. Nuclear war, a natural disaster--something would mark the end of civilization as we knew it. People thought December 31, 1999 (better known as Y2K) would crash all of our technology because computers couldn't possibly switch their dates from '99 to '00 without total failure. People thought the Mayans predicted the apocalypse when they ended their calendar on December 21, 2012.
But we're still here.
No, the end of the world was not so abrupt. It came quietly, without anyone noticing for a long time what was happening. Word leaders signed agreements behind closed doors. Governments melded until there was one government, until there was no government.
Radiation didn't kill us and the sun didn't black out. The worst death is the one you don't feel, because you don't know you're dead. We were free. We were done.
The day they made the announcement that our trusted leaders dissolved our world's structure started out like most days. Except the day was a little more special for me.
It was my twenty-fifth birthday.
But we're still here.
No, the end of the world was not so abrupt. It came quietly, without anyone noticing for a long time what was happening. Word leaders signed agreements behind closed doors. Governments melded until there was one government, until there was no government.
Radiation didn't kill us and the sun didn't black out. The worst death is the one you don't feel, because you don't know you're dead. We were free. We were done.
The day they made the announcement that our trusted leaders dissolved our world's structure started out like most days. Except the day was a little more special for me.
It was my twenty-fifth birthday.
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