The sky was gray. Not because it was cloudy—but because it seemed to have forgotten how to be any other way. Above the silent apartment buildings, among the electrical wires, the morning light seemed to seep through with embarrassment, as if it didn't want to disturb anything. The city seemed to wake up with difficulty. But Neo was already awake.
He stood on the building's rooftop, a place no one ever went. His hands were in the pockets of his hoodie as he gazed into the distance. Beyond the noise of the cars, beyond the people. It was as if he were looking inside the world, and still he didn't understand what he saw.
"Why are we here?"
His voice was lost in the wind, but the question remained.
It was the 102nd time he had asked himself the question in the last month. He was counting. Why? He wasn't sure himself. Maybe because he felt that if he asked it enough times, the universe would be forced to answer.
Descending from the rooftop, he re-entered the chaos of the world. Cold hallways, hurried neighbors, advertisements plastered over others, ringing phones, and people who didn't listen. Everything seemed like a movie on fast forward. No one asked anything. Everyone just did what they had to.
At school, the teachers talked, the classmates laughed, but Neo was far away. He heard them, but he didn't listen. Instead, a thought wouldn't leave him alone:
"Everything dies. But why is anything even created, if everything dies anyway?"
After classes, he passed by an almost withered tree. On one of its branches, a single green leaf. He stopped. He looked at it.
"You... why are you still here?"
A voice, gentle, almost whispered, appeared behind him:
"Maybe because it forgot it was supposed to fall."
Neo turned around. A girl stood a few steps behind him. She seemed to have come from nowhere. White hair, almost transparent eyes. Dressed simply, but she seemed to be from another world.
"Who are you?" Neo asked, surprised.
"I am... someone who remembers."
"Remembers what?"
"How everything begins and how everything ends."
Neo stared at her. For a moment, he felt a cold shiver down his spine. As if time had stopped.
"And why did you talk to me?"
She smiled faintly.
"Because you ask questions. And questions... open doors."
End of Chapter 1.