Prologue: To Show Them You

I love you, but this world feels much too cruel. Sometimes I wonder why we’re still here at this point. What’s really left here? What can we still save? Well, yeah, I do know the answer, but these thoughts never stop plaguing my mind. It hurts. I want to be strong and show how much I love you. Yet, I struggle even to begin. Is that really okay with you? I know you hate all that causes these fears of mine. That’s why I can continue to walk alongside them. That’s why I’ll try. The world didn’t end up as bad as it could’ve been, or at least, as bad as some people thought. Technology didn’t take over our world in some sentient uprising. Instead, most chose to abandon the world. Sure, from our eyes, plenty of people stuck around. I can’t say their hearts are truly any different though. Perhaps it was just everyone taking their preferred shot of hedonism. These thoughts only stop when I remember that place. Even in this world, this horribly battered world, what they created was warm and kind. It was somewhere cynicism and nihilism went to die. It was a place that could open even the most closed-off hearts. That’s what leaves me puzzled. Why take it away? I know I won’t understand, but I’ll still ask. I’ll probably ask a million times more. With or without the answer, I’m still here. And while I’m here, I’ll do all I can. I’ll create something, even if it just amounts to a fraction of what they made. I’ll do it because I yearn for it and because it’s the best way I can think of to show who you are through me. I’m weak, desperate, scared, and full of innumerable flaws, but you love me. I’ll hold tightly to your hand as I step forward and try to fill even a single crack in this world.