((I wrote this a while back in my notebook. I have no idea what it is or where I was going with it. But I seem to like dystopias. :p ))
The memory was dim enough so as to be almost invisible, like a tiny flickering light in a vast cave. Arianna was pretty sure she had been young when it happened, although her exact age was vague. She also wasn't clear on why it mattered to her, why she had held onto the fragment for nearly ten years. But she found herself thinking about it now, in the absence of any sound alone in her room.
It had been before Grandpa went Deviant, of course. Before the old house had been burned down. Arianna supposed he had been a Deviant all along. His house was filled with strange things. Old knicknacks and decorative art lined the walls, made of a smooth material that wasn't plastic or metal. She had asked him why he had them around. She was young, after all. Grandpa had said they were remnants of his youth.
His house had a musty smell that came from the extraordinary amount of dust on it. After all, he didn't have any cleaning robots. He had a TV, but for some reason it didn't work. There were no shows on it, only ancient movies with a really lousy picture. He had an upstairs too, but who would want to hang out in an old man's sleeping quarters?
This time was different, though. Grandpa had been looking after her while her parents had gone to the shopping district in his town. Arianna begged and begged to go with them, but no such luck. The merchandise there was apparently not age-appropriate, and there were no family-friendly stores for them to peruse together. So she was stuck sulking there on Grandpa's weirdly designed antique rug. She didn't even have her Child Cell Phone with her. Grandpa wouldn't allow any form of Communications Technology in the house. How stupid can you get?
Suddenly the crazy old man had sat up and said, "Come upstairs. I want to show you something."
Considering that he'd never spoken a word to her other than "Goodbye" and "Hello" before this point, she couldn't help but be intrigued by his proposition.
((It stops here. Weird stuff, eh? ))
