/// SAMENESS, WHAT WE STRIVED FOR SO LONG TO ACHIEVE. BUT WHAT IF YOU'RE DESTINED TO BE DIFFERENT? \\\
Nine months of Hibernation, three months of being awake--that's how the year goes for us. Half of us wake up tired and sore while all of us wake u...
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The person kept lifting its hands to its head and pressing against its temples, rubbing them as if it was trying to rid of something in its mind. It shook its head every now and then, talking aloud to itself, mumbling words I couldn't hear from way back where I was lurking. After a few minutes, every person had gone inside the cafeteria, leaving us two alone in the world.
It took a left, disappearing into an alleyway, and I jogged to keep up, my own head throbbing like thunder in heavy, gray clouds, but my gut told me to continue on, no matter what my brain was screaming.
My eyes stayed trained on its body, the raised spot on the back of its head scabbed over in a few places like the other person's I'd spoken to earlier had. It had told me our minds had been opened
A building came into view, one of the apartment buildings, the walls pristine white with its five floors, a staircase climbing around a square up the center. I followed him right to the stairs as it pushed itself upward with much difficulty, stumbling and nearly falling off the steps. It stopped for a moment at the railing, squeezing its eyes shut and leaning forward, looking like it was having trouble breathing. I just about asked if something was wrong, when it took off again, paying no mind to me, if it even saw me. I continued on the path it led, all the way up to the third floor, and stepped off the top stair. The person walked unsteadily to a door and opened it with the palm-scanner on the outside. I rushed to get there before the door shut, but no such luck met me as it slammed closed. The small window on the side was covered up, hiding its inside contents. I lifted my hand to knock, thinking it'd maybe come to the door and open it, my heart racing. But fear of truth got the better of me and I took a step back. My organs screamed inside of me that it wasn't time yet—it wasn't right to go ahead and ask the person what's going on, and why it's being so... different.
That word...
It latched onto me like a leech and began to suck my thoughts to it, my brain throbbing slowly. I made my way back to my room, not wanting to have another confrontation with the world I'd always known but had never realized its blandness. It bugged me like nothing else had, why everyone else was the same and I continued to be singled out as if I was different, and since I'd awoken... I couldn't help but feel like they were right and I was a freak. But how can someone who was raised to be the same as everyone else be told that they're different because of something out of their control? Or had I chosen to wake during that moment, my subconscious choosing for me, tired of the same for whatever reason. I didn't understand what this weirdness coming from inside me was. Being different was bad, and it always had been in the Society. Why else would they separate me from the rest by giving me a number, making me sleep longer, and with that person saying the word you to me in a normal conversation.
I stumbled to my door, my head in so much pain as I slumped against it. It slid to the right and I nearly tumbled onto the gray carpeted floor my eyes were glued to. I moved to the hovering computer, a thin slice of holographic technology that flickered on once I sat in the chair.
