Part 1

The books in the library, the movies in the cinema, the games we could play. All of them were limited to a specific collection. A way to mimic what was on the outside to give us a sense of having entertainment and choices when in reality we only learned and saw what we were supposed to.

Of course, I didn't know it then.

And I never should have known. I never would have figured it out if it weren't for that slight coincidence that got the suspicion rolling.

Alex says it might have been fate.

I believe it was my dad.

--

My name written on the stomach of a boy I'd never seen before had to mean something. Of course, after what I'd seen in the night, I wasn't yet sure whether I could trust this Alex.

I had been living a happy and fulfilled life in Agsbury. There was never anything that I missed, nothing I desperately longed for.

He was the only factor that led to the disruption of my belief system and what kind of person would I be if I let some random guy do that? I had a mind of my own after all.

So I tried to ignore the issue. I told myself that I'd ask Alex to leave me alone if he tried to bother me again. He should play his weird games on his own.

I was set on that but then Alex surprised me.

For the next few days, we saw each other occasionally. We'd get the mail from outside at the same moment, we'd be at the grocery store picking something up for our parents or we'd be at the sports center at the same time.

And every time he e was being awfully normal.

During each of those occasions, Alex acted just like everyone else. He waved, said hello, or he'd ask me something simple like "do you know where the green beans are?" but it never went further than that.

He treated me just like a regular neighbor, he had entirely adapted to our way of living.

And that's what got my blood boiling. He ignored the issue which resulted in me not being able to ignore it any longer.

This boy had brought some kind of change to town, I just didn't know what exactly was going on.

Of course, I couldn't talk to my parents about any of this. Not after the way they reacted on the night, I saw the strange act of Alex through his window.

I didn't even tell Jules, my closest and longest friend. For reasons I couldn't explain I felt I had to keep it all to myself. In Agsbury we don't voice criticism or speak of bad emotions. Most of the time we don't need to and when you do feel negative, it feels silly to bother others with it.

You don't want to be the odd one out.

So I thought the best thing I could do would be to befriend Alex to try and figure out more about him.

--

"So this is where you usually hang out?"

Alex's gaze switched between Jules and me.

We were sitting at the coffee house overlooking the marketplace. Getting him to join us for coffee was easy, I just acted like it was a spontaneous idea when I saw him helping his mum out in their yard. She was thrilled by the idea of him socializing as well.

"Not exclusively but often. We usually come after school but it's the holidays now," Jules said.

Alex nodded.

"It's nice. Good coffee," he said and added three cubes of sugar to his cup.

"Yes, it's the absolute best. Well, to be honest, it is the same roast you can get at the market as well but it does taste nicer when someone else brews it I think." Jules kept talking.

Alex nodded and kept adding sugar cubes to his coffee.

"That's a lot of sugar," I said when his cup was starting to overflow. Jules hadn't even noticed.

"Oh," Alex looked down. "Sorry, I think I zoned out for a moment. Last night I-"

He was interrupted by the waitress who came over with a pot full of fresh coffee. Without even asking, she started pouring coffee into Alex's cup which was already filled to the brim.

"Oh look at you, your drink is all sugared up! We should add a bit more caffeine or the sweetness will go to your head!" She cheerfully said as she removed his cup and filled a new one with coffee so hot that it looked like it was boiling inside of the cup.

--

Alex was really fun once he warmed up. He seemed witty and fit well into our little group. I was starting to think that he could hang out with me and Jules more often.

We sat in the coffeehouse for another hour that practically flew by, talking about all sorts of things. As it turned out we had a lot of the same favorite movies, books, and artists which made me wonder how he'd grown up.

"What was the place like where you lived before?" I asked.

Alex didn't even think before answering.

"Typical, not spectacular. A place to live, not to love. We had neighbors but no real community. And our house wasn't as nice as the one we live in now."

I thought his reply sounded a bit strange but Jules nodded in agreement.

"Makes sense, your old one wasn't built by Charlie after all"

"I didn't build anything," I rolled my eyes.

"What about you guys? Did you always live in Agsbury?"

I thought about it for a second.

"Well ever since I can remember, so I suppose always."

Jules nodded in agreement.

"So you were born here?"

Jules answered before I could.

"No, nobody is born here. You come to Agsbury when you become a family, my mum said you have to apply and they mostly consider people who already have children. It does make sense because the houses are all too big for just a couple or a single person."

"Sounds logical, so you were probably just too young to remember moving here."

Jules nodded.

"All I know is that our families must have come here only a year apart from each other because Charlie and I've known each other since kindergarten."

For some peculiar reason, she said that in a threatening tone. Was Jules afraid that Alex, as my new neighbor, would replace her as a friend? It felt flattering though unnecessary.

Alex ignored her and looked at me.

"What about your brother? How old is he, like ten? Do you remember him being born?"

I opened my mouth to answer but couldn't when I felt a pulsating pain going through my left hand that was holding my coffee cup. I immediately dropped the cup which started spilling all over the table.

"What the-?"

"Oh dear, I am sorry, I must be losing my mind missing your cup like that. Let me make that up to you with a free piece of pie?"

It was the waitress who, without me noticing, was back at the table.

I hadn't even asked for a refill.

--

On our cycle back home all I could think about was Benny. He'd always been my brother but I had never thought about his birth until Alex asked about it. It must have been here in Agsbury but why couldn't I remember anything about it?

Jules and Alex were talking about all kinds of things on our way home but I stayed silent, I was too occupied with my own thoughts.

I hadn't even realized that we were already back on our street.

"Do you guys wanna go to the cinema or something tomorrow?" She said once we were in front of my house.

"Yeah, that sounds good!" Alex said and I nodded.

We said our goodbyes and Jules cycled on.

Alex was just about to head home as well but I grabbed his arm before he could.

"Why are you acting like nothing happened?"

I surprised myself with my sudden courage.

Alex's face shifted for a second. His brows frowned but then he forced it back to a smile.

"I'm trying to be normal. Well, for my parents," he looked around the street. "They like it here, it makes them happy. I want to be happy too. I shouldn't have jumped on you like that. I just found it so weird that your name was on my skin when I'd never even met you before. And I'm pretty sure that it has been on my stomach before we even moved here. Like someone tried to make sure I wouldn't forget, you know?"

He shook his head before I could answer.

"Sorry, I think it's best if we just don't think about it any longer. I actually get an awful migraine when I try to. I'll see you tomorrow?"

--

Maybe Alex was able to shove his suspicions down but I couldn't any longer. I contemplated talking to my parents about Benny's birth during dinner but for some reason, I couldn't. It seemed like a bad idea, though I couldn't explain why.

I acted normal, just like Alex but that night I couldn't sleep again.

I'd never had trouble with sleep before, something about me had changed ever since the Lesters moved in next door. And it wasn't just me who acted differently.

That night I realized that there was something wrong with my family as well.

I was lying in bed, my eyes open and focused on the ceiling, my thoughts flowing in all sorts of directions.

And then I heard it.

A sound through the usually so suffocating silence. I got up to look at Alex's window but this time it wasn't coming from him.

It was coming from downstairs. That was strange.

My parents were never up at night.

My heart was racing inside my chest as I slowly made my way down the stairs, following the voice of someone to the kitchen.

It's hard to say where my nervousness was coming from. That was my home, after all, the place that should make me feel safe. And the thing is, I wasn't scared of an intruder. We didn't have any crime in Agsbury, it was the safest place you could imagine.

I was so scared because the person whose voice I was hearing was my father.

He was speaking so quietly that I wasn't sure what he was muttering at first. But then I realized it was a name.

"Lucia."

His whisper slowly became louder.

"Lucia."

"Lucia. You are dead."

"We are all dead."

The unusual sight of my father at night like this, talking that way, sent a shiver down my spine. For a moment I just stood in the doorway, not sure what to do.

Finally, I whispered.

"Dad?"

With a sudden move, he turned around and our eyes met. I can't say which of us looked more distressed.

"They are growing corpses, you die the second you set foot here," he said.

"Wha-?"

My breathing stopped when I suddenly felt a touch on my shoulder.

"What is going on here?"

It was my mum. And I'd never been happier to see her.

--

Mum walked dad back upstairs to their room. Then she came back and heated up a cup of milk for me.

"Your father did something horrible," she said after a long silence. "But he never meant to. He is a good man, a truly good man. Sometimes his head becomes a bit broken," she looked at me, wiping away a single tear from her cheek.

"But please don't worry, my child. I will call the doctor tomorrow and he will be fine. Go back to bed now, I will bring you the milk, okay?"

She smiled at me and we hugged. For a moment I really felt better and safe again. I walked towards the stairs but turned around one more time to ask my mother something that had been bugging me since the afternoon.

"Mum, what was the place like where we lived before here?"

My mother smiled and answered without thinking about it for even a second.

"Typical, not spectacular. A place to live, not to love. We had neighbors but no real community. And our house wasn't as nice as the one we live in now."