2031, December 24, Christmas Eve.
It was late; the moon shined its pure light softly through the night, all the stars faded away, singing lullabies to the people who could not fall asleep. The town was in silence, the falling snow gently kissed the cold ground, slowly covering everything in white.
Where am I? Why did I come here? Who am I?
I, wandered on the streets, like a stranger to the world. Walking through people who roamed around like soulless ghosts, I could not feel, neither had a destination. In my head, there was only a loud sound like an explosion and the cry of the crowd, nothing else. I was always interrupted by a strange feeling as I tried to recall more. I felt pain in my heart, and sore in my eyes. Deep inside, it was emptiness.
This morning, I saw this new world for the first time. I woke up in a small, hard bed in the corner of a large room. The lights were very bright, hurting my eyes. In the middle of the room, there was a crowd staring at the TV for the news. People seemed careless and ignorant, as if they were neglecting the whole world around them. The TV was quite loud, and the sound of it was somewhat familiar in my head, both trembled my heart. It repeated again and again, the strange feeling came along with it every time, yet it tasted like water to me, so plain, so monotonous. I snuck out of the place, nobody noticed me.


***
“The Day” is what people were talking about, a plane crashed when it was taking off, a group of scientists who were on the plane lost their lives, except for one 14-year-old girl. She was sitting by the window when her parents were having a conference with other scientists. Twenty people, no one lived from the plane crash, only the girl survived. “The Day” felt so close to me all the time in the back of my mind, the sound, the light.
I ran on the street. The air felt refreshing, the trees without leaves stood boldly on the sides of the street, as if they were sleeping for the winter. How long I ran, I did not know. But now, I am here, silently, in a little town at night.
The night got darker and deeper; I lied down in the cold street, a corner covered with soft, white snow. I watched the moon elegantly curtsied to the night, like a plate made of jade hanging in the sky. However she did not notice me, as if her beauty was too blinding for me to see. I closed my eyes, the snow slowly covered me, like mother’s hands comforting me; I fell asleep. I had a dream, a blurry shadow of a person appeared, and quickly ran away, left a trail of clear footprints in the snow. How long I slept, I did not know.
It felt bright when I opened my eyes, the new morning sang to me in the fresh winter air. I tried hard to get myself out of the thick snow that was covering me. Suddenly, I noticed something on the ground, it was a neatly written note, “Follow me” it said. I looked up, a trail of clear footprints lead right in front of me, and disappeared in the angle of the street.

With caution, I followed the footprints instinctively. They were covered with a light layer of new snow, some were deeper, and some were shallower. I kept on going, I went all the way through the country side, went over a frozen little stream, and across a wide field with growing corns.
Day light went by like a time-stealing thief, in the dusk, I stopped in front of a small shed. The sweet smell of bread came out of the shed, my stomach started to hurt badly, it reminded me of hunger.

I pushed the half-closed door open and carefully walked in. It was a dark, old shed, simple but warm. The fire was burning in the fireplace; the fragrance of bread came out of there. Beside the fireplace, stood a boy looking at me with a delightful smile on his face, as if we were old friends. He was about my age, tall and pale; the moon poured her light on his soft brown hair. His blue eyes were shining in the light of fire. Silently, he walked down to me, as he was trying to cover the dirt on the corner of his white shirt. “Hi”, he said, in a soft, comfortable voice like velvet. “You’re here. You must be hungry, here, have some bread.” He then handed me a piece of baked bread, I hesitated for a moment, and took it from him. “Who are you?” I asked in a small voice, “Why are you doing this?” A slight smile appeared on his face, he said, “My name is A. Creator, and you are Abigail.”

“How do you know my name, Creator?”
“I know everything about you. You are the girl who survived from the plane crash.”
“Plane crash?”
Suddenly, the huge sound jumped out of my head, so clearly, louder than ever before. The strange feeling came up again, yet the emptiness in my heart got even heavier.

“You have lost your parents in the plane crash; I carried you to the hospital when the people were all distracted by the horrible scene.” He said slowly, and sat down in the only chair in the room.

I watched him, disbelieving. He must have noticed the suspicion in my countenance.
“Emotions make humans blind.” he turned his eyes away from me, “They make you think very hard, however. Love, makes people become united; hatred, facilitates chaos; pain, triggers anger; and anger, becomes revolution.”
He looked up again, “The accident was completely a scheme of the Great Liberty Party; they planned to make emotions disappear in the world, and they said that emotions impeded human’s progression. Secretly, they started to blend a special kind of medicine called the “Great Mission No.5” into the medicines in the hospitals. “Great Mission No. 5” has the ability to affect the central nerve for emotions, therefore wipe out humans’ ability to feel; everyone was infected, including you.”
His blue eyes looked straight into mine, sharp, but passionate; intelligent but warm. He stopped for a moment, only the sound of the burning fire can be heard, “However, a group of scientists found an antidote to clear out the effect from the “Great Mission No.5”’, he went on, “they tested it on themselves, it did not work instantly, but they somehow slowed down the spread of the “Great Mission No.5”. They planned on doing some more research, but the lab was not safe for them anymore after they found that it was bugged by the government, therefore they decided to go to China.”
Suddenly he stopped, as if he was deciding if he should continue.
“However, the Great Liberty Party destroyed the plane when it was taking off.”
Silence proceeded; he was picturing the scene he saw. He stood up, walked closely to me and said, “Abigail, do you feel like your heart is getting emptier and emptier every day?”
I lowered my head, did not say anything. I knew he was right. “Your parents were a part of the scientists group on that plane, I think the antidote they found is getting weaker and weaker on you, and the “Great Mission No.5” is taking over it.”

The feeling of the pain inside the heart came back again. Deeply inside my mind, there was a burning desire of screaming and crying, but I could not.
I looked at him. “Why do I have to believe you? How do you know all of this?”

He turned around, sighed.
“My father worked for the Great Liberty Party, he used to be one of the leaders of the plan. However, somebody leaked the secret antidote for the “Great Mission No.5”, everyone thought it was my father.”
His voice sounded like music to me, only full of sorrow. In the dark, he wiped his eyes with his sleeves.
Sobbing, “On a night just like this, they murdered him.”

I walked up to Creator, the moon light shined softly over the roof, created a silver cold halo.
“Our parents used to be very close friends, the night my father was murdered, he told me everything about you, your family.”
He turned his head, held his hands softly on mine, warmly, melting all the coldness between two lonely souls.
“Abigail,” he said, “I followed my father’s will to find you, and bring you here. But the moment I saw you… you were sleeping so quietly, like you were dreaming, covered with white snow in the corner of the street. I realized that I would give all my life to protect you… I don’t care if…even though…Abigail…”
“Abby, call me Abby; that is how my parents used to call me…”
He looked confused for a moment. “A… Abby” he was stunned.
“You remembered, how…”

I did not know. His eyes were shining as the deep ocean reflecting the star light, telling the story of mine. Looking at him, I remembered, every drop of it.

I smiled, gently swept his soft, curly hair from his half-covered, winsome eyes. The sound, the explosion, the screaming crowd. They whispered in my ears, yet it ripped my heart, more than ever before. I felt weight on my mind again, warm fluid began running down my cheeks, tasted like salt, so bitter. Like water leaving the ocean, I cried. It snowed again, tonight, the moon was down, only star light still shined. Creator held me in his hands, looked at me with the deepest caring in his eyes. “Abby…You are tearing…” His voice sounded confused, somehow contained a little bit of excitement. It felt like a part of my heart was woken up by something magical, the pieces that were separated by the endless emptiness were coming back together. He put his arms around me. “Abby, let your tears flow, like water leaving the ocean…” He held me so tightly, yet so carefully, as if I was the water and he was the ocean, as if I would never leave him.
“I think…think…the antidote is… is finally working…on…you.” he sobbed in an excitement, and held his head up to the sky. I smiled again, even though the tears were still in my eyes, I want it to be like this forever, that he would never let me go.
The panacea runs down in my body, yet it felt like the uncertain glory of an April day.