Happiness Capital {F O R G E T Book I}

1.2 Happy Place

One hour before

Their Happy Place. That's what we've always called it.

The building made of metal looms in front of me, like a black wave. Clients come in and out even though it is a workday. Many cast strange glances my way as they pass. Undoubtedly wondering what a Sector C scum is doing in the Equidistant.

Happiness Capital was never supposed to be a place for people like me.

I slink into a corner, away from the prying eyes, and look at the man in the blue business suit that moves up the steps. I look at him striding into the blue double doors of the building and wonder why he's here. If he truly is unhappy with his life.

I wonder how he was at sixteen. I think about my memories that hurt the most - to have lost someone I loved, to have a father with shiny eyes and a sister whose shoulders dig into you when you sleep. If I would bear not to see it all again, even if it pained me.

And I wonder what he wanted to erase.

Because entering the Happiness Capital means you've come to rewrite your memories.

I've seen the neon signs etched into planes and buses. Flashing vibrantly as they fly by. "A new you. A better you." Bad parts, the loneliness and sadness, replaced with lines of code. Better moments tattoed into an identity. Friendship. Family. Company. Love. Motivation.

Happiness.

Artificial Happiness.

I slide down against the tree, the bark running lines across my back. Closing my eyes, I inhale the sweet scent of grass. Again, it smells too sweet. Too vibrant. Enhanced, I think, recoiling. Just like everything else here.

As I think about Happiness Capital, the twisting feeling in my gut worsens. The worry has really set in. Memories and moments - they're too powerful to play with. What if something goes wrong? What if something happens to Sena?

Because we've come for a different purpose today.

For myself and my little sister Sena, we've come to sell our memories.

Today is Sena's appointment. Next week, is mine.

They duplicate our memories in which trigger happiness and copy them, bit by bit with other happy memories to piece together one coherent life. Memories are too complex a thing to create, therefore existing memories are implanted into the mind of a client.

Ther's not much more involved than an hour long consultation, but it pays well. Very well. Money our family desperately needs. And now, one of us gets paid. Sena. She is in there for her appointment today, and I am waiting for her.

That is why, for the first time, it is our Happy Place today.