I don't know who I am anymore.
At one point, I was...I was a somebody. And by that I don't mean I had been special, oh no. If anything, now I was special. Special for being nothing.
I once had a name. They called me Amu, Amu Hinamori, the friends and family that I once had. That name had long since faded into the darkness, like everything else about me. I once had a face. I guess I still do, but no one can see it, not even me. It's been so long that I've forgotten what I look like.
Days, weeks, months, they all just blend together into one mesh of gray, one endless nightmare. I had never thought of three years as a long time before this, but now...it seemed like I had been wandering alone forever.
I spend my days skulking in street alleys, though no one can see or hear me. I steal food, which I surprisingly still need, watching it shimmer into invisibility as soon as it touches my hand. There was a time, an eternity ago, when I had refused to do anything wrong.
Nights I spend under the stars if it's summer, gazing up at the sky and wishing I was as free as the owls swooping over my head. Come winter I make myself a home in a stranger's home, sleeping in an unused room. After about a week they begin suspecting ghosts, and I must take flight once more.
It's been three winters, three endless years, since I was banished, punished to spend eternity in the mortal world. I'm only just getting used to it, only just falling in sync with the steps of this humanity.
I stepped through the snow, footsteps blending in with the countless others who walk this path. I began searching for a house, preferably as few people as possible. All the houses bustled with laughter and I eyed them enviously, suddenly remembering Ami and Mama and Papa. Everything that I had lost.
There seem to be no empty houses in this town. I grumbled angrily to myself and continued. I was not the toughest girl in existence, though. Eventually, my legs gave in to the biting cold, and, shivering, I stumblde into the nearest house.
I staggered up the stairs, listening for where the residents of this house were. I hear a girl's voice, whining, and an older boy's, groaning in frustration. I assume they are siblings who share a room, and I creep into the darkest, mustiest room.
Sleep claims me instantly.
Sleep, peaceful sleep, unknowing of the future.
I do not hear the footsteps.