RESET, 12 AM
The mind is, and has always been a delicate and the most important part of a person. Most would think that the uses of a brain is to be able to compute, to be ingenious, to have thoughts unique only to yourself but they leave out which is actually, the most important. Memory.
And without memory, a person is not alive in a sense of being alive.
People are made out of memories, of thoughts and ideas that accumulate throughout the years and without them, it wouldn't be a loss to the person in fact, but a loss of what the person could achieve. And in most cases, what they could have had.
My name is Jeff Sterling, and I have short term memory loss.
1 January 2013
Hot air blows from a single direction tracing all the way to the opponent he could barely see through his light bangs. His slippery fingers grasp the ball he dribbles and the rhythmic thump of rubber against concrete floors ring loudly in his ears. Jeff sees the glint of the hoop behind the towering figure in front of him, and he urges his feet to make a dash to his ally in the corner, waving madly and awaiting the ball.
"Jeff! I'm open! Hurry!"
His hair flicks off his face and he quickly doges his opponent with the quick movement of his feet and Jeff could see how the opponent's fingers manage to only brush at the fabric of his clothing as he passed it towards the open arms of Sebastian. Jeff watches with bated breath as Sebastian barely catches the ball and barely even gets it near the hoop before David snatches it back with a powerful jump in the air.
He shut his eyes at the miss and makes his hands into a 'time-out' signal. He sucks in a breath as he walks over to the bench to take his drink. He hears ringing in his ears and his whole body felt like it had been set on fire as soon as he stopped playing. Breeze tickles the hairs behind his neck and he feels a slow trickle of sweat forming near the creases of his forehead as he continued gulping the water.
He places his hand beside him on the bench for support when his bag falls to the floor. Jeff watches the players still playing harshly and laughing mindlessly as Sebastian fumbles with his own feet when Hunter tosses the ball towards Sebastian, before looking down to pick up his fallen bag.
A harsh scent of chocolate and coffee seeps in his senses and his eyes fall to black office shoes. He reaches over to take his bag slowly and looks up at the owner, one eye slightly shut from the relenting sun beating down on his light, sticky hair.
"Jeff." The man smiles as he drops his brief case to help Jeff bring up his bag to rest it on the table.
Jeff couldn't help but flinch when the man's hand accidently brushes against his and his eyes darted back to the players and then back at the unfamiliar man. The man smile falls an inch and he clears his throat, straightening his tux. Jeff's mouth felt suddenly dry and he can't understand how he had just drunk a whole bottle of water but feel dehydrated all of a sudden. He knew his friends were right over in the basketball court, but he had gone far back near the forest and there was a strange man standing in front of him.
He needed to get away really fast.
He inches away slowly to get away and almost makes a break from it before the man laughed a bit dully and wrings his own hands in awkwardness. He swears he hears the man mutter almost inaudibly, "Of course he doesn't remember, stupid." But soon Jeff hears the man clear his throat to look at Jeff with a strained but kinder smile and tone.
"Reset, 12 AM."
Jeff feels his lungs tighten as the words slip easily from the man's mouth. A maze of questions entered Jeff's mind all at once. How was it possible for the man to know his name? Where to find him? How does he know about 12 AM?
Jeff quickly gives into the thought that he might just be killed in this very moment with his friends only a few feet away. He gives one last look at the suited man and dashes back to his friends.
"What's wrong?" Sebastian asks, out of breath and chewing on a banana as he approached Jeff after seeing his friend run all the way towards them.
Jeff hesitates and turns to the direction of where he was sure he saw the man but he sees the man's shoulders droop down and he sees him look at him one more time before vanishing into the forest. He looks back towards Sebastian who was still awaiting his answer. "I thought- I thought." Jeff babbled anxiously as he looked back one more time to see if the man was back but he seemed like he had left.
He doesn't remember him. He doesn't remember his voice. He doesn't remember his face, his clothes his everything. But he knows one thing. He knows that he doesn't know the man, but the man knows him. The man knows about 12 AM.
"Never mind. It's nothing."
A/N: Thoughts?