Polar Opposites
Prologue: Lifebooks
Every life is like a huge storybook. Some are short, some are very long. Each book makes a whole new story for one person.
Some stories are exciting. Full of skydiving, competing in the Olympics, falling in love, bungee jumping, rollercoasters, and living happily ever after. Some are horribly sad and dangerous, filled with terror, abuse, and hate. Some are utterly boring. Sitting around on computers and electronics and eating all day, making nothing of the book. And yet, every story has to go on. At least, until it ends.
They can all end in different ways. Some end brutally at a short amount of pages. Some end peacefully after a long existence, their covers' worn out, a few pages torn and crumpled from age.
Each storybook has a title. Each title is a name. Every book is blank at the beginning of its being, but is soon colored with life and different things. Some are decorated with skateboards and bikes. Some are decorated with pink flowers and horses. Some are decorated with dogs and cats. Some are decorated with musical instruments and paintbrushes. But some are splattered with red blood splotches, put there by another life. It all depends on personality and circumstances.
All the lifebooks are stacked high and low in a large sphere. In the sphere, there is their creator and author, God. He is constantly destroying lifebooks and creating new ones, as is the circle of life. He takes personality and appearance pages of female books and male books and creates another book with them.
What if we are all just in a story, our lives being controlled by a single pencil? What if our whole lives are already laid out in front of us on a manuscript? Maybe we are all just words that others living beings are reading. Or maybe this is all a dream. Maybe our whole life is just a dream and soon we will wake up, only a small baby. Maybe you're not even a human. Maybe you're a dog. Or a cat. Or maybe even an alien. Maybe you're nothing at all. You could be a single raindrop. Or a wisp of air. You don't know. Then again, nobody really does. We can only wonder.
…
My uncle tells me that story a lot. I don't think he likes me very much. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm especially confused about this next part.
…
One day, God decided that he wanted to have a banquet. He invited his 15 favorite animal spirits, which were the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, the Boar, the Cat, and the Twin Spirits of the Wolves. God told them that the banquet would be held tomorrow and to not be late. The mischievous Rat went to see the Cat and told him that the banquet would actually be held the day after tomorrow. The Cat thanked him and happily slept in the next morning as the Rat rode on the Ox to the banquet.
The Wolves had attended, but looked as if they were doing so reluctantly, and looked as if they wanted to leave God's presence. They did not like to be ruled or controlled by anyone. They may be happy, carefree beings, but they are independent. When God happily declared that he would gift all 14 animals with immortality, the Wolves approached him.
"We are sorry, sir, but we cannot accept. We do not want immortality. We want to die when the time comes. We must leave now. Goodbye," they said in unison and started to walk away.
"NO!" God thundered. He looked around at all fourteen animals with fury. "You shall all stay by me in an eternal banquet! Even the Wolves and Cat! But you three shall be outcast, hated!" And with that God gave immortality to all of them and put all 15 animal spirits into a different lifebook with another human life. Then, God took part of his spirit and put it into another new human's lifebook.
"This will be the first person to rule over the Zodiac and outcast the Wolf and Cat at my command," he boomed, now giving his twelve animals a name. "The banquet will never cease!"
…
What is that story supposed to mean? I looked it up and it's based off some story about the Chinese Zodiac that they tell in Japan. I mean, I know Grandpa and my uncle are from Japan, but I was born here, in Britain! And I don't even have a lot of Japanese traits! I have slanted eyes, but that's pretty much all! Plus, I'm as pale as a ghost! Don't people from Asia have tanned, olive skin? I'm not dark-haired either; in fact, my hair is white-blonde. So what's the point of telling me this story?
My grandpa is always whispering things in my ear when no one is watching, like, "You're special, Ellie," or, "You'll understand someday." I'm not sure what he means, but he seems so kind and sympathetic when he says it. I don't understand, just like he says.
My name's Ellie Seeley and frankly, I don't know what to believe anymore.