19 parts Complete MatureIn the quiet desert village of Dey, living among the sand dunes and mirages, existed an anomaly - me. I was different, born without the ability to read, write or keep long memories. My scientist father hailed my uniqueness as a miracle, but my life was far from ordinary. To the village, I was just an oddity, a walking puzzle with missing pieces. My only solace was my best friend, always standing by me, his unspoken love for me etched in his affectionate gaze.
We lived under a cruel regime with a population no more than a hundred. Every year, one of us would be chosen on the Counting Day, a ceremonious banishing ritual, to become yet another outcast to the floating prison island far off in the ocean - our village's dreaded version of population control. Our past criminals, defiant to government, and more terrifyingly, our loved ones gone missing, were thought to inhabit that island, their fate, a terrifying enigma.
This year, as the Counting Day approached unrelentingly, and my loved one's life rested on borrowed time, I made a decision. I volunteered to be casted out. It was my turn to face the unknown with a hidden purpose - to locate my lost father who was sent there years ago.
