It's been a couple of months since the first day of school.
In that time, I've come up with a goal for myself.
I don't remember much about my past life, but the older I get, the more I start to remember.
Not specific memories—just fragments.
Mostly... My age.
I remember a lot up to my current age. In my past life, when I was five, I was enrolled in kindergarten. I didn't have any friends. I kept to myself. Most of the time, I just did my own thing.
I can't recall his name, but my teacher would always try to reach out to me. He tried to be my friend.
But I always turned him down.
I wonder why.
Now that I understand a little about my past, I realize I can't use it to get ahead in life.
But I can use it to get ahead of who I used to be.
So that's my goal.
To be better than I was before.
When I recover new fragments—or even complete memories—I'll be able to tell if this life has surpassed the last.
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Quite a bit has happened in the last few months.
Winter's come, and where I live, it gets cold.
Really cold.
I live in a small rural town in ■■■■■■■. Seriously... why would you write that down?
Not much happens here. There's a mall, three schools, and a small ski hill about thirty minutes away.
Because it's such a small town, and hardly anyone comes through, I'm allowed to go pretty much anywhere I want—as long as I'm back by curfew.
I've grown closer to my friends and quickly became a core member of the group.
Which means I've learned a lot about them.
George is more eccentric than I originally thought.
In our free time, we usually end up chasing him wherever he wanted to go. Like he has too much energy to stay in one place.
Leo is the one who keeps George in check.
He's always aware of what's going on around us, making sure George doesn't end up doing something stupid.
Mel...
We get along better now.
It's still difficult to start conversations with her, but we sometimes talk. Usually about whatever she's reading.
Or what to do about George.
About a month ago, George got really bored. And we can't have him be bored, or he'll run off somewhere random.
So Leo came up with an idea:
"Why don't we bike across town as fast as we can?"
"Oh! Good Idea—let's go up Main Street and race to see who can get to 25th the fastest!"
As they talked, I mapped out the route in my head. That's when I remembered the old factory building off 24th street, right next to 25th.
It was on the way.
Dad told me the factory used to produce reinforced concrete once, but was abandoned a few years ago. Now it's just an empty warehouse.
"I'm in." I said.
Mel sat out of the race, and acted as the referee, waiting near the end of 25th.
"Ready... Set..."
"GO!"
The race was about as expected:
George was full of himself, he started off way too fast, and burned out quickly.
He still won though.
Leo and I kept a steady pace.
Our speeds were pretty much identical. I probably could've beat him, but decided to let him win.
It didn't seem worth the trouble.
When the race ended, George started asking us why we were so slow. Even though he was the one who stood out the most...
On the way back to Main Street, George noticed the factory.
"Hey, guys! Let's go in there!"
I had a feeling he'd say that.
"The old factory building?" I said after a short pause.
Mel did not like the idea.
"No way!" she said, "It looks haunted! And we might get in trouble or something..."
Her voice trailed off near the end, like she knew that wouldn't stop George.
Leo finally stepped in.
"The gates locked," he said, "And there's barbed wire on the fence."
"Oh..."
That was enough to shut the plan down.
We all lost interest after that, so we called it a day and headed home.
I thought they were serious about leaving it alone.
Until we dropped Mel off.
Right after we made sure she got home safely, George and Leo started talking about ways to get inside the factory. I suggested walking around it first, just to see if there was another way in.
So we did.
There was not.
But, there was a section of the fence that looked like it had been dug out by animals.
So we made it bigger.
After an hour or so digging with our hands, it was just big enough for us to fit through.
We thought about going in right then, but we were tired and decided to go the next day with Mel.
When I got home later that night, Mom took one look at me and immediately started scolding me for being filthy.
———————————————————————
The next day at lunch, we told Mel about the hole we dug.
She wasn't pleased that we did it behind her back, but after a bit of convincing, she agreed to come with us.
After school, I told Melanie I was going out with my friends and wouldn't be walking home with her.
She asked what we were going to do.
Because she's still young, I figured it wouldn't be much trouble telling her the truth.
She seemed interested in the factory—like she'd been curious about what was inside it for a while.
So I asked if she wanted to join us. I told her I would check with my friends first.
I brought her over and introduced them.
"Melanie, these are my friends—George, Leo, and Mel. You two have the same name, but she goes by Mel."
Both Melanie's seemed excited to meet someone with the same name.
"Nice to meet you all. Hello Mel!"
"I was wondering if Melanie could come with us to the factory?"
The three of them discussed it. George wasn't convinced.
"What if she snitches?"
Leo didn't seem to mind.
"I don't think she will since she's asking to join us..."
Mel quickly nodded in agreement.
They all then headed to the factory, making small conversations with each other.
"Hey... don't the two Melanie's look alike?" Leo asked.
I hadn't thought about it before, but they actually do.
They both have short, neat dark hair.
Mel tends to hide her face behind her hair more. And when she's wearing her glasses, it's pretty much impossible to tell what she actually looks like.
But if she pushed her hair back and took off her glasses, they would probably look almost identical.
"Hey Mel, could you push your hair back and take off your glasses?"
She did.
"Wow... they look like twins, Melanie's just a little taller!"
"Same name, same face... what is this town?!"
George laughed.
By then, we had reached the factory.
We went to the side fence and checked the hole we dug.
I crawled under first and helped the others through. Melanie was a little taller and struggled a bit more, but made it in the end.
After that, she decided to be the leader of the group in case something happened.
Probably because she felt responsible for us, being the oldest one there.
George was practically beaming now that we were inside the factory grounds.
We walked around the entire building, but every door was locked.
There wasn't a way in.
George wasn't happy anymore.
"How are we supposed to get in now?"
I suggested we try the window to the office. When we walked around, I noticed a hole in it.
It looked like we weren't the first ones to try to get into the factory—there was already a rock sitting just inside. Whoever did it must've gotten scared after throwing it. The hole wasn't big enough for a person to fit through.
Leo picked up another rock and threw it.
Then another.
George joined in and they threw a few more rocks at the window.
Before long, it was almost completely destroyed.
I didn't expect Leo to start throwing rocks first—Especially without saying anything—let alone keep going until it shattered.
Melanie used her coat to brush the broken glass off the frame.
And we climbed inside.
———————————————————————
The office was small, just big enough to fit three people and a table.
There was no table though. In fact it was empty. Even the door was gone.
We stepped through the doorway and entered the main warehouse.
Empty.
Just a massive, hollow space.
It was about two basketball courts placed side by side. There wasn't a second floor, but the ceiling was high enough to do about anything in there.
George looked around, excited.
"Wow... there really is nothing here!"
"Oh... it echoes." Melanie said.
Leo seemed just as excited, too.
"There's so much we can do here."
We spent the next couple of hours playing, yelling, having fun.
We were kids after all. No one watching. No one to stop us.
Best part about it though...
It was private.
It was tucked away in an empty part of town.
No one else knew about it.
Mel picked up on that too, surprisingly.
"We should keep this place a secret... Like a secret base of ours or something..."
She really likes trailing off at the end of her sentences.
George laughed.
"I like it! Our secret base!"
Leo was on board.
"We should bring toys and games here. Make it feel real."
"Good Idea, We can even set up a makeshift basketball court."
———————————————————————
Over time, our base started to fill up with games and random stuff we found.
I found a metal disc, that Melanie somehow managed to nail into the wall so we could use it as a basketball hoop.
George brought a net we could hang up to play tennis, too.
Leo and Mel brought comics and books.
All in all, our secret base was starting to feel... real.