Anamnesis

one

470

Sunlight streamed in through thin curtains, the beginning of the day nothing more than a nuisance in my exhausted state of mind. I rolled onto my side, glancing down at the fluorescent green numbers blinking at me.
The time read 5:41, and dread began to pool in the depths of my stomach. I had grown used to the thick, acidic feeling of terror; yet this was something entirely different. The mere thought of dealing with the dazed looks and smothered confusion was sickening.

The people stirring from their slumber-filled nights weren't like me.
My own family members, waking behind locked doors weren't like me.
My little sister, the greatest part of my life, soon to be asking my name over her daily bowl of cereal, wasn't like me.

They never remembered; couldn't remember. Their mind was a slave to The Reset. Their days were spent wracking their brains for whoever the hell was sitting across from them. Their solemn 'good mornings' and dismal 'good nights' were spoken to nothing more than a memory, the other drifting away hours after you first met them.

If you woke up next to them, bodies intertwined between sheets, a thin silver band on your finger, you knew they were your spouse.
If you woke up in the same house, separated by speckled plaster, you knew they were your family.
If you woke up alone, silence pressing in on you from every corner, you knew you were alone.

New families and friends were made daily, the same perfect couples falling in love every single morning.
The same broken relationships nothing more than a scratched record, simply forgotten about and thrown away.
Or, if you weren't as lucky, repeated.
Day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.

New identities and personalities were developed daily. The average person unable to recognize who was who from the days previous.
Every day ended with tearful goodbyes to any new friends made. Every night spent holding on to who you needed to remember; clutching onto your family members late into the night.

And yet, in the midst of this unmindful way of life, I was different.
I could remember.

I remembered every birthday and anniversary, weeks off from the original date of celebration.
I remembered all the friends I had ever made, every faked persona and smothered bit of gossip, never quite the truth.
I remembered every radio announcement, the citizens of Anamnesis being fed their news, day after day. Nothing more than sheep, led by a unseen shepherd.
I remembered every single person who had come up to me asking for directions, a simple wrong turn leading them to their inevitable end.

But that was the problem. Nobody knew where they were.

Where they were was called Anamnesis.
Anamnesis was an oblivion.

Nobody left oblivion.