Dark Christmas

Day 1

I found myself walking down a dark, narrow alleyway one evening. It was snowing, and I dimly perceived that it was about a week before Christmas. How I knew this, I didn't know. I just knew that I knew. 

I looked up into the grey sky, from which large snowflakes were falling. I exited the alleyway and took a walk into the city. Shops were on the left and right of the street, but they were all boarded up and closed. No one was about on the streets except me. No carolers were singing carols in the streets. No events were going on. No cars were on the streets. This Christmas, things were dead.

 Where was everyone? 

I'm Jonas, and I'm a half-asian, half-puerto rican male, and of small and short stature. I have black hair and white skin, and wear glasses. I'm dressed in all black. Black t-shirt, black sweater, black sweatpants, black sneakers, black gloves, black beanie.

I couldn't remember how I had gotten here. It seemed to me that my memory simply began with me strolling the streets of this unknown, deserted city, and there was nothing before that. I had to find the answers. To the rest of my memory. To who I was.

I decided to enter one of the deserted shops. I looked to my left. The name of the shop was "Christmas Cuties" and it sold Christmas toys. I pushed the door open and entered. The shop's bell tinkled as I did.

The ceiling lights were flickering on and off, so I couldn't see very well, and the toys were scattered on the floor and very disorganized, hanging on the pegs. The store was a mess. There were Santa plushies on the floor. There were small toy reindeer lying on a table. There were video games lying scattered behind a broken glass case. The register box was open, with a few bills of money still inside. Everything was disorganized.

I frowned, wondering what had caused this mess. An earthquake? 

Suddenly, I heard the shop's bell tinkle. I spun around.

In front of me stood what appeared to be a girl dressed in all black, blocking the door which led back outside. My heart rate jumped, and I started breathing quickly.

"Who are you?" we both said at the same time, looking at each other.

I fell silent, waiting for her to answer. She said nothing, but continued to look at me, so I said:

"I'm Jonas. I was just looking for someone, wondering where everyone was."

She stared at me. "I'm Sierra," she said, "and I was wondering the same thing. I don't remember anything before my arrival here. It's almost as if my memory has been wiped."

"Funny, I have the same problem."

She took a step closer to me. "What should we do? And I notice that we're both dressed the same way."

"Yes, that is odd." I took a deep breath. "I think we should stick together and keep looking for other people. We might meet someone who knows what's going on. Or maybe someone who recognizes us."

"Okay."

"Let's gather up some things we might need from this store."

"Isn't that stealing, though?"

"Not if it is necessary for our survival."

I strode to the register and pocketed the money, which was ten twenty-dollar bills and five one-dollar bills. Sierra grabbed some festive-looking iced cookies that were being displayed near the checkout lane and pocketed them, and I found a backpack in a corner of the store, went to the refrigerated section and put some eggnog bottles into the backpack. There wasn't much else of use, so we departed from the once-cute little shop and walked back into the snowy evening.