DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Sigh.
A/N: I wrote this in grade 7 as a school project. We were studying this text and the teacher decided to give us a 'creative exercise'. Enjoy~
Jonas' eyes stung as the sled raced past tall trees. The happy singing seemed to be closer now. Jonas felt tired, unbelievably weary. Gabe wailed suddenly and the sled hit an outstretched tree root. Jonas fell, tumbling head over heels with Gabe clutched protectively against his chest over even more tree roots and snow-covered boulders. Jonas finally rolled to a stop, with his back against the snowy ground. He took deep laboured breaths, trying to regain a feeling of warmth from rapidly fading memories. The snow against his aching back provided temporary relief from the pain. After a few moments, he felt the dull throbbing of his previously twisted ankle. Still groggy and clutching Gabriel, he staggered uneasily to his feet and groaned as his knees buckled.
Jonas lay in the snow, swirling flurries of snow chilling him to the bone. He felt a strange lassitude overcome him followed by an euphoric feeling drowned him. Looking up a blue, rising moon and then, down at the slumbering Gabe, Jonas felt content. The snow even felt... warm and somewhat toasty. It enveloped him like his mother's embrace. Jonas swam in and out of consciousness for a while, thick lashes fluttering in an attempt to keep awake. Gabe started crying next to him. With his final thought, Jonas transferred all the memories he still contained into the infant- and fell down, spiralling into oblivion. Into the light.
Cold. That was all he felt. Brutal reality rammed into him. Jonas was aware of the cold, a cold so merciless that it started in the pit of his stomach and radiated out in freezing bursts. He raised little chubby fists and wailed whole-heartedly. Thoughts of sleeping, and warmth, and blue-eyes overcame him. Then Jonas realized, the blue-eyes was him. He was Gabriel. Well, not exactly... it was like he was seeing through Gabe's eyes... and feeling his pain...
Looking around from this new vantage point, Jonas saw himself. His... body was lying on the snow, with its legs twisted below its rapidly freezing body. He was dead. And he was alive.
Jonas felt puzzlement for a while, there he was- lying on the snow. And here he is, seeing everything from a toddler's point of view. He was living within Gabriel! Like a memory! The initial gush of excitement soon stopped when Jonas realized that Gabe was also close to death. Jonas hurriedly probed through the soft memories of Gabe's mind- and brought out the ones which contained warmth, and the Christmas memory. The baby's wails soon subsided and laughter echoed down the lonely hill.
"I swear that a baby was crying just now!" A girl's childish voice pierced the soft silence of the winter hill. Jonas abruptly felt alarmed, and tried to influence Gabe's mind to flee. But the toddler felt one word at upon hearing this statement. Home.
Despite a protesting Jonas, Gabe's tiny gurgles of laughter started rolling down the hill like an avalanche, and soon enough- two people came onto the thicket. One was a small girl, about a Three with a red hair and colourful clothes. The other person was a woman. "Why, it is a baby!" She exclaimed, in a voice like honey. Jonas relaxed after hearing her soft, gentle way of speaking.
Gabe held his arms up towards the woman, she laughed. "Mummy, are we going to adopt him?" The young girl said hopefully.
"Well, of course we are! I'm not that heartless as to leave an innocent child alone in the snow like this. And look at the sky! We better head home soon, there's going to be a blizzard heading our way." Her grey eyes turned to the sky worriedly, and back down at Gabe. She comfortingly took him in her arms and walked back home- a girl trailing after her and holding on to her skirts.
Jonas finally settled in Gabe's mind, pressing slightly against the malleable matter of his memories and carving a little niche for his own consciousness. Gabe smelt the soft, rich aromatic scent on the woman's hands. Chocolate. Jonas told Gabriel, inhaling the smell too.
The toddler giggled, and the girl laughed along happily, skipping beside her mother.
'Gabriel!' A loud voice woke him up, resounding in his head. The dark-haired teenager woke up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes slowly. 'Good morning, Jonas' He said to the familiar voice in his head slowly while staring at the ceiling, trying to remember why he felt like today was special.
'You don't remember, do you' The familiar warm voice asked him dryly. Gabriel searched his mind again, attempting to find that elusive memory. He drew a blank.
'Your eighteenth birthday Gabe,' Jonas reminded him. Something seemed to click in the tall teenager's head. Yes! He was officially of age! Without a word of thanks to his conscience, Gabriel hurriedly changed his clothes, dunked his head in freezing cold water and walked out of the door.
Turning of age didn't really change one's mental view of the world, Gabriel thought reflectively. He still had that feeling of not belonging, that he wasn't a part of this civilized society. Like a caveman among cultured humans. "Gabe!" May's voice called out to him.
Gabe turned around to look at his sister, who had recently turned 21. "Happy birthday! This is from Father, Mother and me." She said brightly, handing him a neon-wrapped present. Trying to smile despite the bright pink wrapping paper, Gabe grinned back in response.
"Thanks," He said while tearing aside the paper and exposing the present inside, "Wha..." The paper was written in his sister's writing. Go to the living room, your present is there. Love, May. He stared up at her and walked down the brightly lit hallway to the living room.
In the centre of the room sat a piano. It was a baby grand, with its mahogany lid lifted up to showcase the numerous glistening strings. Gabe was overcome with emotion and he immediately rushed over to the carpeted floor to play it. He closed his eyes for a moment as great sweeping waves of melody engulfed him. Then he opened sapphire eyes and reproduced the melody exactly on the keys, his fingers moving deftly over their polished surface. While playing, he admired its perfect tones and the practised ease at which his fingers danced on the keys.
After he finished, Gabriel heard slow clapping from behind him. "Great job!" His mother said with her usual ecstatic tone, and planted a kiss on his cheek. He started blushing at her show of affection in front of everyone. The feeling of not belonging grew even greater, and Gabe began thinking that someone would suddenly jump up and shout, "Impostor!" at him.
"You've done your father proud, Gabriel." His father, William said in a sonorous voice. He couldn't resist a broad grin coming over his face as his father finished his praise. These words were so meaningful to him, since his father was scanty with compliments. May just responded by grabbing him and giving him a hug.
"Flora will be so obsessed with you when she hears!" She laughed. Gabriel's face flushed again, even brighter this time.
"I don't like Flora!" He said loudly, to his parents' amusement.
"Of course you don't. You love her!" May giggled. Gabriel snorted, sauntered to the nearby kitchen counter and started microwaving last night's pizza. He stood around, tolerating his family's gentle teasing with a smile but inside, he was shouting with laughter. He finally got the piano of his dreams and could, at long last, be a pianist.
The doorbell rang, and Gabe ran to get it, ignoring his sister's mocking calls that it was Flora. He almost tripped over Dragon, his sleepy Rottweiler, in his rush to open the door. He almost yanked it off its hinges and stared for a moment at Flora. "Are you going to just stand there gaping at the tree behind me or are you going to let me come in?" She asked, in that acerbic voice he knew and... loved. Jonas started laughing in his head.
"Oh. Yeah. Come in, come in." He said, holding the door open for her, "Mother! Flora's visiting!" He called to the back of the house, where his mother was doing the daily laundry. Gabriel could have sworn that he heard May singing, "Gabriel and Flora sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"Happy birthday, Gabe," Flora said a little shyly. Apparently, she had also heard May's childish rhyme, "I knitted a sweater for you to wear when you go hiking. It's just a little something, a token of friendship." She smiled tentatively, holding out a grey jumper with the same texture as cashmere. It definitely took her a long time to make this.
"Thanks, Flora." He responded by grinning (his face was already starting to ache), "I want to play something for you." He walked over to the uncovered piano, trying not to notice the brunette's impressed stare.
He closed his eyes, and out of his memories floated another song. 'Are you sure you want this? This is a love song you know. Sure it may be old, but Flora's a student of music history- and would definitely know this piece.' Jonas reminded him. Gabriel grinned inwardly, opened his eyes and started playing the notes which formed in his mind.
A few minutes later, Flora was dumbstruck and blushing more than a little as well. "That was... so sweet!" She squealed suddenly, and gave him a disturbingly possessive hug. The two chatted the morning away, and William brought his family and Gabriel's universally known but not acknowledged girlfriend for lunch, dinner and a movie which just happened to be about two star-crossed lovers, whose passionate love was never meant to be due to their families hatred of one another. Much to Gabriel's dismay, the movie ended with the two committing suicide over a simple misunderstanding.
The day passed rapidly, like a dream. After dropping Flora off in her house, and returning to his room upstairs- Gabriel fell onto the bed, still not feeling satisfied. He felt that there was something else meant to happen today, something special. 'Come onto the balcony,' Jonas' voice echoed in his head for the first time that evening, sounding strangely from outside. A little puzzled, Gabriel opened the glass doors and stifled a cry of shock in time.
A boy stood outside, his blue eyes similar... no, exactly the same... as Gabe's. Straight black hair tumbled freely down his neck and ended at his nape. The boy... no, Jonas smiled at him. "Hello, Gabriel." He said in a penetrating voice, leaning against the railing.
"Who are you?" Gabe asked, more than a little terrified. He pinched himself once, hard, and flinched at the sudden pain. Well, he wasn't dreaming then. He had thought that the voice... Jonas in his head was just a figment of imagination... and those musical memories which surfaced every time his fingers touched a piano was just...deja vu from his earlier childhood before he got adopted. But now... he wasn't so sure.
Jonas had been more of a conscience to him, he was also a friend. He had told Jonas stories of a mysterious community, many many miles from this place where everyone lived a rigid structured existence- and didn't know or care about it. Except for the Giver, the Receiver of Memory. This person was the repository of all the memories from the human race before the Great Cataclysm. This unique human being would be kept in a secluded room with books stretching as far as the eye could see. And the Giver usually took an... apprentice (to use the rough term). This apprentice, known as the next Receiver of Memory, would be given the Giver's memories through contact from his back. Eventually, the Giver would be released and his apprentice would take his place as the community's next Giver.
"Jonas, of course," The tall boy grinned at him with eyes that had seen too much cruelty in the world and gave Gabe a mocking little bow, "At your service."
"Wait, weren't you the voice in my head... How is it that I can see you?" Gabriel asked confused.
"You're not actually seeing me... since I reside within your memories, I'm making you think that you can see me. But May, or Flora won't see me. To them, I'm just a ghost, the phantom of a terrible past." Jonas' sea-blue eyes wandered and grew distant, relieving macabre memories.
"Anyways, I need to tell you this. All of the stories I've been telling you your entire life... they're true." Jonas stopped, waiting for Gabe's reaction. Gabriel was split between three emotions. First was relief because the special thing was happening to him right that instant. Second was worry because this Jonas clearly wasn't just dropping by on his eighteenth birthday to give him a present. And third was expectation tinged with a hint of dread. Why did Jonas decide to show himself at this moment anyway? And what meaning did all those... stories hold inside them?
"I used to be the Receiver of Memory for my community. I couldn't take it any longer, that constant feeling that I could change everything. And when I realized that release meant an unfair death, I took the baby my father was Nurturing, as the baby was planned to be released the next morning. I stole my father's bicycle and ran away to Elsewhere. Which happened to be here," Jonas explained- apparently still able to read Gabriel's thoughts.
"The baby was called Gabriel. I died on the journey here, you see Gabe- when one is the Receiver of Memory... you need to have memories inside you. Otherwise you just... waste away and die. When I died, I found myself in the baby's body. The baby was also going to die, but I still had a few memories of a memory in my head, and I passed all of it into the baby. I felt both Gabriel and myself growing stronger- and at that moment, I knew that my destiny was irrevocably entwined with yours. Your mother and May found us then, and you know the rest of the story. Yes. That baby was you, Gabe." Jonas finished his extended explanation and stared deeply into Gabriel's eyes, seeming to bore into the depths of his soul.
"Why are you telling me all this now?" He asked, a little puzzled but believing everything Jonas said.
"Just letting you know about your heritage. You know Lily and Fiona in the stories? They were my sister and friend, respectively. I liked Fiona the same way that you love Flora. I'm giving you a choice, Gabriel. You can stay here, in Elsewhere for as long as you want. But you can also go back to my... our community. Who knows? It might be just as good as the one you're leaving behind- where are you going?" Jonas asked loudly, as Gabe rushed in and started changing into sturdy travel clothes.
"I'm going to the community, of course," Gabe said, a heady rush of excitement making him briefly dizzy. The feeling of not belonging grew less, and was replaced with a familiar emotion of expectation and impatience.
Gabe grabbed a few packets of gum, matches, instant noodles, some energy drinks and water from the fridge outside, a first-aid kit which his mother insisted that everyone kept in their bedrooms and a change of clothes. As a second thought, Gabriel laid the sweater in the bottom of his skiing bag and turned back to an amused Jonas.
"What?" He demanded, a little hurt from Jonas' lack of enthusiasm.
"Wouldn't it be a good idea to write a note to your parents?" The younger boy suggested, a mischievous light twinkling in his eyes.
"Oh. Yes, I'll do that now," Gabe scribbled a short letter to his parents and laid it in the middle of his bed.
"And you better get something to eat. And go to the toilet first. And-" Jonas was cut off.
"Yes yes, I know... hold on!"
"Jonas," Gabe asked sleepily, his eyes smarting from his early encounter with smoke. It was a very educational lesson- never sit facing the wind in front of a fire, other wise you will not enjoy the next half-hour.
"Yes?" Jonas asked, his skin seeming to glow ethereally in the moonlight reflecting off the snow.
"Why did I even agree to come along with you in the first place? And why did I have to eat so little before I left... and what possessed me that made me bring gum and instant noodles?" Gabe complained, warming his hands over the fire. Snow was falling freely above their make-shift tent, making the raincoat sag down, giving the two teenagers barely enough room to turn around. Jonas chuckled.
"It was your idea to come." The memory suggested.
"It was your fault to tempt me." Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"It was your fault for being so impatient and not planning ahead." Jonas countered. The two boys continued jesting until Gabriel fell asleep.
"The community is just over this glade, perhaps a five days of running." Jonas informed a panting Gabe who started relieving memories of hyperactivity. In the last couple of weeks, Gabe had started relieving memories to sustain him when the noodles ran out and only the gum was left. "You know, this trip was much better than our first one. I didn't have any idea how to catch fish or make a fire that didn't blow out within the first few minutes. And I didn't have any instant noodles or hiking shoes. And we were on the run."
Gabriel glared up at Jonas, "Can we please just-" A terrible but distant sound could be heard in the distance. Jonas exchanged a terrified look with Gabe, neither of them wanting to say it. Both Jonas and Gabe knew- this was a bomb. And it was aimed at or from the community. At an unspoken signal, the two started running rapidly at the sound. Gabe crashed through the undergrowth but Jonas just floated through it like mist.
"The Giver," Jonas' words tumbled from his mouth rapidly, "He must've released the memories. The people couldn't take it," He moaned, "The freedom of thought must have been too much for them to bear... I could have thought about this earlier... what if they aren't mentally prepared to have the memories?"
Idle conversation didn't exist the next week, the two of them intent on returning back to their homes as soon as possible. One early morning, as they finally crested a hill which led down to the community, they took a moment to confer. "What is the worse that could happen if we go down there?" Jonas asked, more out of the need to jog Gabriel's flagging strength than any doubt.
"We'll die. They've probably discovered guns by now." Gabe said softly, trying to conserve as much strength as possible.
"What's the best that could happen?" Jonas inquired.
"We'll show them the freedom of choice. We'll show the community the joy of feeling emotions, especially love; of seeing colours; of having a choice in your job and of just living your life the way you want to live it, within certain rules of course. And the elders... they would be a ruling council but they wouldn't make people's choices for them. They would be something where people elect others they think are responsible. These elders would support the people, help them in their times of need, and improve everyone's lives." Gabriel ended his short speech, his chest heaving with emotion. Jonas smiled proudly, unshed tears of relief in his eyes.
The sun gradually rose over the horizon, illuminating a figure walking determinedly down a hill, his eyes set on the destruction ahead. The previously lush courtyards were now a mess of blood and gore, like some scene directly out of a horror movie. People moaned in anguish in the streets, and others wandered aimlessly in and out of Dwellings- not necessarily their own- marvelling at the colours. The latter was only a minute fraction of the Community. Others had somehow developed guns and it was evident to Gabe's shocked eyes that there had been a massacre not too long ago.
As he walked cautiously though the streets teeming with the smell of rotting bodies, Gabe saw a young girl holding a gun uncertainly, with a painful and deep-looking gouge on her upper arm. Her shirt was blood-soaked, and she was wheeling a broken red bicycle along, wavering slightly as she staggered through the streets- horror evident in her eyes. Horror that someone her age should have never seen.
Jonas, next to him and unseen by the girl stepped forward reflexively. "Lily..." He whispered in horror, "What has happened to you?" Gabe instantly felt pity for the memory next to him and ran up to the girl.
"What happened here?" He asked her, falling in pace. She turned her dirt-smudged face away from him and shook her head in despair. She tried saying something, but the words got caught in her mouth.
"The Giver was released... memories started going everywhere. People died, they killed themselves... they jumped off bridges... they got sharp metal objects and killed other people with it... so that they weren't the only ones to die... they killed everyone..." She croaked hoarsely, tears running freely down her face, "They killed Mother and Father!"
Lily finally sobbed, throwing herself into Gabriel's arms and weeping for all the needless deaths, for all the lost innocence, for all the painful memories that were now spread out across the community and for her childhood, which would forever be scarred by this terrible event.
Jonas looked on in pity and yearning to comfort his sister, real tears running down his face. To any observer, it would seem that drops of water were running down a slightly curved surface and then falling to the ground, collecting in a small puddle. Gabe stroked Lily's tangled hair and told her softly,
"There is pain in these memories you possess, but there is also happiness." He sent the memory of Christmas to her, the one that the Giver gave to Jonas who passed it on to Gabe- who is now giving it to Lily. "There is also family," He sent memories of numerous picnics on grass with May, both of them laughing at the daisy chains in each other's hair. "And there is also love," He sent one of his memories of Flora.
Lily smiled up at him, her sunken eyes glimmering with tears of hope now- instead of despair. "And there is also hope," She said happily, sending him a memory of Jonas. The two of them laughed and cried together, and deep inside- Gabe knew that though his dream for the future might not come true yet, it was off to a head start.
Meanwhile, Jonas looked on approvingly. And he nodded- satisfied that his duty to his people were done. The Giver appeared beside Jonas, and looked at him with piercing blue eyes unhindered by age. Jonas merely smiled back, and the two of them vanished.
End.