Coming Back

Year: 2058

After a series of wars broke out, the earth remained in a devastating state for a long time, where more than half of its population got wiped out. That is until the surviving countries and their leaders decided to unify the countries as a whole, only separating it by their hemispheres. The world could not be ruled under a single power as the needs of the people varied according to the place they lived in.

The Northern and Southern Hemispheres are much colder as compared to the Eastern and Western Hemispheres so their needs differ greatly. From their food to their living space and even their clothes.

To make it easier to unify the world, this was the solution they came up with. Along with Democracy as the government, no matter which part of the world it is in.

Technology has advanced to the point that everything is biodegradable; from common household items to furniture and transport vehicles. The future refuses to make the same mistakes the past did. But it isn't 'flying cars' future just yet.

But humans will stay humans.

Though the world has become more advanced than the one before it, many things still stayed the same. Once life began to go back to normal, there is a group of people that slowly started to rise in society.

It is not clear how they became so influential, but they started as models for campaigns and the people realized that they would more likely buy products if an attractive person told them to, so they began to incorporate these people in everything they could get their hands on.

The tagline of 'you can be as attractive as this person, only if you do this', actually worked. So much to the point that people found a way to exchange years of their life just to make themselves as beautiful as they possibly could. But they never knew how much they were giving up until after they've given it up. Changing their eye colour could cost from five days to seven years of their life. There is no specific rule to the exchange, it just depends on how much they wish to alter.

By default, humans have anywhere around eighty to a hundred years in their lifespan. More than enough for a little tweak here and there. Well, that is, if all they are doing is making little tweaks, not entire facial and body reconstruction. It got worse as the years went by, the standards got higher and more difficult to attain.

Many saw how ridiculous the idea of using beauty divides the people into their standing in society but they can't deny the effect it has on the decision people make. The more attractive the person was, the most likely they are to get the job. The more attractive the person at the job is, the more likely it is that people will be drawn to the product.

With machines and technology being highly advanced, humans do not have to try as hard anymore. Meaning jobs have become scarce and difficult to get.

"If a machine can do something as well as any human, or even better why do they have to do it at all?"

So they have become only decorative pieces in a world of technological advances.

"And why are you telling me all this? I already know." Kaia signed. She wore the same blue dress she died in, only without the bloodstains and is seated on a white chair, in an empty white room. A blackboard in front of her with awfully scribbled drawings on it.

"This is important to fill the readers in about this world, its workings and how it got this way." A book with the mixed voices of a man and a woman spoke to her, it held a pointer stick on one side and chalk on the other.

How's that even possible? It doesn't even have hands.

"What was that my dear?" The book asked.

"Readers?"

"Ah! As you can see, I am a book. Books hold stories, good or bad and I'm yours. I contain your life story."

"Well, I pity you." She signed. "My life is as bland as mayonnaise."

Gasps came from the book. "But mayonnaise is delicious especially when mixed with ketchup and eaten with fries."

"Never tried fries." Kaia covered her ears right after she signed that.

Even though her covered ears, she still heard the "what?!?" from the book flying around the room. Carefully pulling her hands away, she looked at it.

"I never had the money for things like that, it's only because of Dawn that I even got to eat cookies. Are we done? Can I go?"

She stood up just to be pushed back down by the book. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Isn't this the afterlife? Aren't I dead?"

"You are dead. But you have been chosen to go back." It said with a triumph.

"Back?"

"Yes back. Back to life." It flipped open its pages in a grand gesture.

"No, thank you. Is that the exit?" She stood up again and walked to the door only to bump into an invisible wall and fall to the ground.

"See, the thing is - you can't refuse."

She turned from her seat on the floor to face the book. "Why would I want to go back to that hell of a life I lived?"

"Ah. The thing is, this time's different. You will go back to the age of twelve, still having all your memories up to this time. So you get a second chance to get the life you always dreamed of. Granted, you did die at nineteen so you only have the remaining seven years of your life to do it."

"And why would I want to?" She rolled her eyes.

This book is annoying.

"Hmmm . . . Some people have been haunting your mind and your dreams haven't they?"

Kaia's eyes widened as the scenery around them changed and now they are at a park.

Little kids played in the swings and slides, having the time of their life. Kaia stood up and looked at those kids.

"Do you know them?" The book inquired.

"Know them? They were my childhood friends. Aliya, Shia, Max and . . . Caitlyn. They were going to change the world."

A little redheaded girl played in the slide, a boy and a little girl were in the swing and a girl with a mixture of dark and light skin laughed watching them play. Kaia looked at the kids with a soft smile on her face.

"But the world got to them first."

"Kaia!" The kids called out to a little Kaia, running to them at full speed. They pulled her to the swings, the slide, and the seesaw.

"Even you can laugh like that?" The book asked. "Where did this Kaia go? Did she die with her body? Or has she been dying a little every day since the incident?"

She lost the smile on her face, turning away from the happy memory. It just became so painful just looking at it now.

"What I am doing is giving you a chance to right the wrongs in your life." The book tried again.

"The wrongs in my life started when I was born if you can stop that from happening then that will solve everything." She walked past the book just as the scenery changed again.

"Kaia!" Four voices shouted in agonising pain.

Nonononononononono.

She crouched down, covering her ears with her hands.

This can't be happening.

The four of them appeared in front of her. Their faces red and tear-stained, slowly degrading away.

She looked at them, unable to sign anything, unable to even move as fear gripped onto her. They had a faraway look in their eyes as they gave a final smile at Kaia and walked in different directions. Max stood just a few seconds longer while Kaia tried to grab onto him but he too left.

Stuck in her place, Kaia tried to call out to them, her voice sounds like an animal but she kept trying to call out. She knows what happens next, her nightmares remind her every time.

She stretched her hands out to her, willing her body to move. Saliva came out of her mouth as sounds that do not sound like they belong to a human came out. But they never turned back, even as Kaia begged and pleaded with the memory.

As soon as it appeared, the scene disappeared. Kaia laid a sobbing mess on the floor.

"Why did you do that?" She signed at the book, not looking up.

"Don't you want to save them?" The book asked again.

Kaia looked up, wiping her face with her sleeves. "You said that I can only live up to the age of nineteen even if I go back because I already died. Isn't that the same for them?"

"You are a smart girl. Yes. Caitlyn can only live until she turns fourteen because she died then, same with the others. But I am sending you back to when you were twelve and she was yet to be fourteen. Maybe you can change destiny?" The book said nonchalantly, flying around the room.

"How are my chances?"

"I would say fifty-fifty."

"And if I can't bring her back, I'll still have to live through all that again?" She scowled at the book.

"Yes. But you will have the knowledge and experiences from your nineteen years of being alive. Especially-"

"- killing someone to get their lifespan." She slowly signed out.

"Ding. Ding. Ding. Bingo! Use that big brain of yours." The book did a loop, fluttering around the room. It sounds really excited. "And you don't have to stop at your friends, what about the other people like you, you might just be able to destroy this cruel system."

Hearing all this Kaia started to feel excited. She hated this system all her life and there will surely be others that hate it too. If she could find them, maybe-

A thought suddenly appeared in her head.

"What do you get from this?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the book.

"Oh, you need not worry about me. I am a book, remember? The keeper of stories. I am your story. I love reading about how an underdog rises to the top. There is something so thrilling about the way they claw their way to the top. Will they go against their moral code for the greater good? How much are they willing to risk?" The book glowed brighter as it spoke. "To be able to carry the life of such a character is the greatest honour for me."

"So, you're a sadist?"

"No. No. No. My dear. I am simply an observer. It is only in very rare cases that I interfere. Like yours."

If it had a face, it would most definitely be grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"So, let me get this straight. You send me back."

"Yes."

"I do what I can to change the destiny of my friends. Maybe disrupt the system. Maybe."

"Yes."

"Then I die by nineteen."

"Most likely. But hey, if you can save your friends, why can't you save yourself?"

She really doesn't like the way it sounds like it's mocking her in some way every time it speaks.

"I don't care about that." She shrugged her shoulders. "Will I be getting anything to help me when I go back?"

The book laughed. "You want more cheats? You're already cheating by getting to go back in time to undo events you already know are going to happen."

She assumed the Thinking Man position then signed, "In case we forgot, I'm only thinking of going back to that awful life is because a book emotionally manipulated me by making me relive my most traumatic experience only to satiate its sadistic desires."

"Harsh. But true! How about this, I will give you the ability to see the lifespans of people."

"What am I going to do with that?" She looked at the book in annoyance.

"That's the best I can do. It is just the first chapter but it has too much Deus ex Machina already."

"Be serious here for once." She accidentally lost her temper.

"Alright. I'll let it go, for now. So do you want the one thing I can give you or not?" It said in a sulky voice.

"Fine, something's better than nothing." She was at her wit's end with this book.

It could at least look cooler.

"Blame that on the author's laziness. Now, to activate it just blink twice very fast. Ok?"

Will this even help me? Will I be able to do this>

One thing at a time, Kaia. First, you have to go back and figure out how to do . . . everything.

Exactly what did I sign up for?

"Maybe I can back out of this-"

"Too late. Oh, also, remember to check your house for your diary from your pervious life."

The pages of the book opened and she disappeared into it in a whirlwind of smoke. Right back to the day her mother died and everything went wrong in her life.