Stars Of Memory

Chapter 1

Jīvitaya walks down the narrow street with quick and silent steps, glancing around her in all directions as she moves hurriedly in the direction of her house. The wind whips her silky ebony hair into her face and she quickly swipes it aside to clear her vision, not even stopping to do so. You could never be too careful, too cautious, too anything now that planet Earth is occupied by aliens. Humans aren't at the top of the food chain anymore. Everyone knows that aliens are on the planet, but no one has ever seen them, at least no one who has lived to tell the tale. But Jīvitaya knows the truth, she saw the invasion when she was eight. She supposed eight more years had passed, considering she is now sixteen, but it doesn't feel like that many years had passed, it felt like both many, many more and so many less than that had passed, leaving her mind and body to feel at odds with one another.

She finishes making her way home and hurries up the steps into her house, closing the oak door behind her with a soft click as it locks once more. She shucks off her shoes with a quick and practiced motion to leave them in a tiny heap beside the door before meandering with padded feet over to the window that takes up almost all of the back wall of her living room. She drops onto the plush window seat with a barely audible plop, staring out at the vibrant forest surrounding her home with glassy eyes. Her ears strain to pick up any sounds from the forest, but the thick glass of her windows mutes all sounds except those within the cream-colored walls of her home.

Jīvitaya's house is on the outskirts of the city, mainly because she loves nature of all kinds, but especially because she is an introvert. Besides, it is easier to buy and maintain a house in the outskirts of a city than inside it, especially if you live alone. Her eyes clear and she pops open a panel at the bottom of the window before she continues watching the forest, sighing peacefully at the quiet sound of chirping birds and rustling leaves now wafting through the opening revealed by the panel.

The world was almost destroyed in the past, when humans ignored the effect their actions had on the planet. The ice caps were drastically melting, the sea was rising and becoming more acidic. The number of natural disasters rose exponentially, and animal populations were dying off at an alarming rate. Luckily, one person in power fully realized the dangers and miraculously persuaded every country on the planet to do whatever they could to save their home. Almost three decades since that miraculous point in time, almost everything is run by renewable energy. Of course, there are some people who pay the government a fortune to use non-renewable energy, even though renewable energy is free and better for the planet. Jīvitaya frowns at that thought. Why would you want to pay to use fossil fuels if you could get renewable energy for free? It's just not the smartest idea. But at least now the planet is back to where it was before humans ever started polluting now that people have actually become invested in taking care of it.

Jīvitaya stares out the window for a minute longer before unfurling her legs and walking towards her bedroom. It was similar to a tower in a castle in the sense that her room was, in fact, in a tower. Three-quarters of the curved walls were painted in such a way that they created the feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of trees. The last section of the wall juts out to create a small antechamber, the floor of which slightly dips to compensate for the mattress of the bed that covers the antechamber floor. The wall of the antechamber is a giant, floor to ceiling window that faces the forest a few hundred yards away.

Jīvitaya finishes walking up the spiraling stairs to her room and flips the trapdoor open, causing it to swing upward into her bedroom. She softly pads across the floor that is carpeted with a forest floor pattern towards the electronic bookshelf. In the past, books were physical, with paper pages and thicker pages or cardboard for the binding. Now, each book is on a thin tablet instead. The tablet protects the book from any type of damage, and also enables more of them to be stored in a smaller place. Each book can also be transferred to a personal tablet upon request. Jīvitaya slides the tablet for one of her favorite books off the shelf and pads over to her bed, curling up amongst the comforter and fluffy blankets. Five chapters into the book, she dozes off to sleep, clutching it in one hand.