Teachers in your world always go: “Imagine if we lived in a world where everyone is the same?” They say, “It would be very boring wouldn’t it?” But…would it? Everyone would be the same. It would be a ‘perfect world’ where no one would think differently. Just peace because there is nothing else to think about. Everyone is on the same wavelength, no one thinks different. Or well, if they do, they aren’t seen.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkf4Zp24ms
Living here is hell. There is only one version of humanity…us, we are never aging nor creating life, it’s impossible. No one new has been counted, as far as we can remember. We all just…exist. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡILUZHHJHIK
Everyone is grey with hair that ends just under our necks. Our cheeks are hollow, we have big grey eyes and flat chests. The only thing different with us is the tattoos on our arms, in thick black ink, a number is written. It’s our name.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEKaQ9evtQ
I am number 54. I am the 54th being here out of 1037, or well that was the last number ever counted. Many have disappeared since the last counting, I have only heard rumours but it’s said those that go missing rebelled against society.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpQBWtusAI0
I never batted an eye until I met her, the woman who changed my entire life, who showed me new ideas and introduced me to what it is to live. The day I met her was the first day of many great ones to come. I can remember when I first saw her as clear as day.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXWTJJd9aj5
Her skin was unusual and colourful, everything about her was different. I first saw her while I was just looking out the window of my apartment. She was just standing there with a white coat on and holding a clipboard. I don’t think she knew I could see her, she just stared at me and I stared back. Her skin was the colour of bark and her hair wasn’t like ours, flat and straight. Her hair stuck out everywhere and was curly, she kept it back with a black ribbon. Her hair fascinated me, it was so pretty. I felt something odd. I wanted to know more and see more of this person. I think the word was interest? I was interested in her and it felt dangerous. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3wNKhf6tz
I tried to tap on the window to get her attention, I think that’s when she noticed me. She made a weird face, her eyes went big and she opened her mouth in the shape of an O. Then she vanished, I didn’t think I would see her again. The pretty lady was probably a figment of my imagination after all, we are all the same. I’m not allowed to think differently. Until I saw her again.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPv6GKK6MuE
I was walking through the alleyways when it happened again. I felt a hand around my mouth then I was pulled around a corner. I shut my eyes. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cZMAu6SHD
“Hey, you. You saw me, didn’t you? Open your eyes,” I heard someone say in a whispered tone. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVCeKtiHwk
It was a voice I wasn’t familiar with. It was higher than the normal being. Sort of…elegant. I liked the sound of this voice, it wasn’t monotone and low like every other being. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zT83BSClp
I opened my eyes, to see the lovely person I had seen before. She was wearing black, this time though. Her hair was still pretty, she had done something weird to it though, she had split her hair into two snakes. They looked pretty, they were the prettiest snakes I had ever seen. I looked at the rest of her. Her eyes were the colour of grass. Was she a tree personified?
“Hey, you saw me didn’t you?” she asked again.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdKJY5vIii4
“Yes, I did. Was I not meant to?” I said, my low voice sort of muffled since she still had her hand over my mouth.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnZuyRTnzZ
“No…no, you weren’t. You’re…different. Follow me,” she said while she started dragging me around. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKCWZ9ebldY
I couldn’t do anything but follow. She took me through the fields and past every building. Others gave me strange looks. Could they not see me being dragged around?402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdY0RE2mQyS
After a while, she took me under a tree. No one ever came here. It was restricted, people who went this way never came back. Was I going to disappear? Oh well, at least it was with this pretty being. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGnwO0cQwS
She sat me down and started talking in her pretty voice. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79q8EK4vHy
“So, you can see me?” she repeated.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMomGuAYdGG
“Yes. I can and you’re very pretty.” I responded.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7j46OHBOw
Was this…flirting?402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIO10Q0s1CR
“Why, why thank you. That’s a first. But I need you to do something for me". She proposed. "I need you to return and pretend like nothing has happened, you need to go live your life like normal. Got it? I will visit you to run some tests but if you see anyone else pretend they aren’t there". 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrnrvMct1A6
Her voice sounded rushed, she had another emotion in her voice to but I didn’t know it. All I did was nod. She took me back to my apartment and then left. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAy0OCHoWQh
She started visiting me more and more, at least twice a day. She would do tests and we would talk, I would tell her about life here and us. She would write things down, then leave. She told me about these things called genders, how there were multiple and that she was a girl. I don’t know how they differentiate the genders though, she didn’t say. It was quite confusing. I learnt her name and she learnt mine. She had such a lovely name. Lyn is what she said her name was, I could repeat it all the time, it was such a pretty word. Lyn, Lyn, Lyn, Lyn like a flower or something delicate. I was surprised when I learnt she didn’t have a number. She didn’t like my name so she gave me a new one. Avery is what she calls me, I quite like it. I like her and I wanted to tell her that.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJpXI5OIAmv
She stopped coming as frequently after a while, I started to feel down. I was no longer emotionless, I had felt other things. Like as Lyn had told me happiness and loneliness, I was full of emotion. There was just one she hadn’t told me about, it was a fuzzy feeling that made me happy, it only happened around her though. Whenever she touched me I felt like I was going to explode and I always felt completely happy with her. I hoped she would explain that feeling too.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxYtNS6HgB
“Hey, Lyn…I want you to explain another feeling to me,” I asked one day. 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxwGMdHcCFl
“Hmm alright. Tell me what you feel, Avery, and I’ll tell you,” she said in her amazing voice.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvdwHl8Ilp
So I told her. She called it love. She told me that she also loved me. She then did something new, something I had never experienced before. She put her lips on mine. It was fast, but I loved it. I felt like exploding again, I was smiling, I could feel it. Something else I had never done before. It was just happiness all around me. Until alarms started blurring, I couldn’t think straight. Lyn tried to get me to move, she was saying things I couldn’t hear her over the alarms. They were saying things like.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSoLjIgoeS
“New thoughts detected. Eliminate number 54.” 402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMKLG8yDKc
That’s all I could hear. I was feeling sad and I didn’t know what was going on. What was this new emotion? I hated this one, I never wanted to feel it again.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOj04IL37qz
Lyn was trying to get me out the door. She had lifted me up and was dragging my light body through the door, Other things were coming into my door, I could feel my body being dragged away from Lyn, I screamed her name, I wanted her back. What was happening? Then it all went out…402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ozsdSOKbk
I woke up in a new place, Lyn was next to me. She wasn’t in her coat, she wore a dress, it was pretty. We weren’t in my apartment anymore, instead, we were somewhere new it was a place that wasn’t like home. There was white everywhere, I felt like I was floating. I didn’t know where I was I just knew I was happy, so long as I was with Lyn I would be happy. I love her after all.402Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYTlWhyPLKy
Please tell me your thoughts. This was meant to be longer but the comp had a 1400 word limit. There were meant to be more sci-fi themes and stuff. It was also gonna be a GL but conservative Christian college! So Avery is non-binary. They go by they/them. Feel free to tell me what you think happens at the end.
