A/n ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't written anything for this story in such a long time! But last night I was looking through my notebook that had been lost and found the next chapter! Yay! it's really short! Boo! But aren't all these chapters! lol…okay…anyway…on with it!

The Here and The Now

My life is just beginning and my memories of the past make me stronger. What will come will be far more painful and dangerous.

My life is now relatively comfortable. The Colored People do not plan to do anything in the near future because Christmas is upon us. However, a spy's work is never done. Even though I am not active, it is vital that I listen and watch for anything.

I have many contacts within the System. Mainly assistants of officials who want more for the truckload of that boss' work they do everyday. Luckily, the Colored People provide the money for my bribes. I have to be very careful whom I place my trust in. If they are not with the Colored People, I have an entirely different identity with them. It is quite a hassle to drive around to a friend's home and then have meet a contact in another identity. Disguises are often involved.

I often wonder what the conditions were life in the Old Times before the Uprising. They say people could live to be one hundred. They say people stayed in school all their childhood emerging as an adult with choices about college, or working, or anything.

Luckily, I was born intelligent. If your IQ is low, or you learn slow, or slack off you are branded. For the rest of your life you carry around that brand. In the Old Times anyone of any intelligence or class could work hard and make something of themselves.

The earliest system resembled what the Old Times called communism. Today's system resembles a twisted form of their fascist government or Nazi government. The Old Time people loathed these types of government but more people believed in causes back then.

Now, no one believes in the cause. Lately, the Colored People is being held together by a few strings because no one cares anymore. Everyone has been brainwashed for so long they feel comfortable and do not want to change. People have learned to accept it, except a few of us.

Humans by nature fear change after all.

But we need change.

Hundreds of cultures have died out because of the system. The few fragments of those ancient cultures barely survive. Slowly, all the other fractions of other cultures will die out and there will be only one culture: the System.

However, many old traditions have survived partially thanks to advertisement. Though, I suspect they have lost their original meaning. Holidays like Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and Halloween have survived the ages because of advertisement and greedy men in nice suits. The greedy men in nice suits earn no thanks, nor want it. They only want your money.

This Christmas, like every Christmas, I try not to think about my problems. I try to enjoy the little freedom I have with my small group of friends.

Sometimes I wish I did not have any friends, so I would not have to feel the pain every time one of them dies. But it's impossible to not have friends, humans latch onto other humans. It's unavoidable, and illogical, but aren't we all?

This Christmas I plan to go back to the café where my parents met. I haven't been there in years but I feel it is time to make my peace.

My mother and father's deaths always plague me at Christmas but I think going to the café will help me let go. Let go but not forget. My grandparents have all but forgotten us. At the age of eighteen I stopped receiving money but it does not perturb me.

I only hope that one day they will not remember and make more trouble for me.

a/n sorry it took so long. I just got an idea for the end so this should be over in a few chapters or so.

Comments greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!