CHAPTER 1

I closed my eyes and from where I stood on the cliff, I saw a brilliant view of the Red fields far below me. They seemed to welcome me and I eagerly leapt forward into their embrace.

As I fell, the shackles of gravity released me. I felt an overwhelming sense of freedom, but, as I looked back at the receding cliff, I also felt a fleeting stab of regret for all I was leaving behind.

The Red expanse reached up to grab me and pulled me into its comforting arms. As my new world came into focus, the undifferentiated Red around me resolved into flowers. They were poppies, as tall or taller than people. And as I lifted my head, I saw that I was in a field of them, stretching as far into the world as I could see.

I drank the Red in with my eyes, as it seemed to fill every space around me and I noticed something moving through the long stretch of Red. I thought it was a lone poppy shifting toward me, but as it got bigger and approached the cliff, I realized it was a boy.

Beautiful; that was all I could label him. His hair floated like a scarlet halo about his head, though he wore clothes that were either a faded Red or a White, which had become dirty and stained. He was statuesque and his skin was like ivory, but as he came closer to me, I saw that his eyes were dull and unfeeling like gunmetal.

The boy looked about the same age as me. He was not a child anymore, but he was not yet a man either. Even so, he spoke the words of one hardened with age and shaped by a grim world.

“What do you wish to find here?”

“I ... I don’t know,” I stammered. For some reason, I couldn’t look into his eyes. I knew instinctively that if I did, he might have seen exactly what I wanted, and that frightened me.

“Everyone wants something. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.” A forced laugh erupted from his lips. “What is it? Beauty, wealth, fame ...”

I shook my head and looked at my feet. I had no desire for any of those things.

“Is it to be the envy of all? To be the most beloved in the world?” He scoffed; scorn burned his beauty black. “Each one of you thinks you’re different, but aren’t you all the same? One wants all the gold in the world; the other wants all the silver. What do you seek that makes you so different?”

I forced myself to look up into his hard eyes. I was surprised when what I saw was a cool and collected calm.

“Any man would want wealth, and once he has acquired it, he would want the things he couldn’t buy with it. To deny that is to deny human nature. What is it that you wish to find?” I replied boldly, turning the question back to him.

He pressed his lips together into a tight line and stood frozen as silence enveloped the two of us. It seemed to settle around us, as if a heavy fog from the sea had brought it. When he finally uttered a sound, it was only a simple statement. “I need nothing.”

“But, surely, you must want something.”

I felt the hard gaze of his eyes on me, as he pondered what I had said.

“You’re a peculiar one,” he muttered, “the first who’s asked me what I want. But you still didn’t answer my question. What do you wish to find here?”

“I don’t even know where here is,” I admitted.

This time, it was the boy who silently shook his head. “But what do you want?”

“I want to feel.”