Alex

Since childhood, all your days have looked the same. You get up at 6 a.m. At 7 a.m., the adults go to work and the children go to school. At 2 p.m., the children come home. At 7 p.m., the adults come home. At 10 p.m., everyone goes to bed. And it all starts again.

It was a world where there was no room for error. Where your entire life was planned out for you. Where everyone worked for the "good of society," even though society itself had long since ceased to exist.

It seemed as if the sun never shone here. It did, but the smoke from the factories and mills blocked it out. Birds never sang here. They had flown away to more habitable places. Here, on holidays, people were allowed to leave work an hour early. But you had to make up for that hour the next day. No one showed off their new things here. There weren't any, after all, everyone was given the same things on the weekends.

And people didn't resist. They'd gotten used to it. They knew what the future held, and they were happy with it. They'd become a gray mass, for whom life is birth, study, work, and death.

You were the same. You had grown accustomed to this drab life, knowing no other. You thought you'd live your whole life like your parents, and before that, their parents.

But everything changed with his appearance.

Too bright, too lively, too willful. Too wrong. It burst into your dull life and stained it with all sorts of colors.

He was a mistake. And that mistake's name was Alex.

"Alex, we can't leave!" you pleaded as the young man, with a bright laugh, dragged you by the hand deeper into the park.

"Don't be a bore! Of course you can!" he shouted and plopped down on the grass under a tree. He sprawled out and pulled you to lie down next to him.

"My parents will kill me," you muttered, lying down next to each other.

Alex didn't answer. He just smiled his enigmatic smile, the way only he could. He folded his arms behind his head and began to admire the sky.

“Someday I’ll leave here,” he said suddenly. You frowned.

• You can't. They won't let you out.

"And I'm secretly. I can't be here anymore." Alex smiled dreamily and looked at you. "Do you want to come with me?"

He smiles and laughs often. His speech is easy and straightforward. His gaze is clear, often mocking and cheerful.