I held the burned book in my hands, it's title, "My diary - Amelie - Year 0000" telling me it was the start of our new era.
I swallowed thickly, knowing, this was the documentation of the one year we had all forgotten and I hesitated in opening it, not knowing what it may contain.
My overwhelming curiousity quickly overwhelmed me and I lift the cover to reveal the pages held within, their edges lightly burnt but no important writing harmed.
I breathe in deeply and I go to read.
The beginning is nothing special, a normal year.
But I get to the middle.
"It is May 15th," the story read, "we didn't know it, but yesterday a war had been declared."
I hesitate to continue reading, knowing it could be very terrible going onward.
But I do.
"It will be a terrible war, I'll assume. Two of the biggest nations going to fight. Diary," I notice a dried tear stain on the page, "I'm scared. I live in one of these lands. Please please I don't want to die please." and tears of my own rush to my eyes.
There was a war and- I quickly flip through the pages I haven't read yet, my breath stops.
This...
This war definitely had casualties.
And this girl - Amelie - was one of them.
I see dried blood through pages stuck together.
I shudder and drop the book.
It should have burned.
I shouldn't have read.
What do I do now?
I do nothing, there is nothing to do as our world had already restored to peace and no one would know, so I bury Amelie's diary and I promise to remember her.
It’s been ten years since ‘The Gap’ when everyone on the planet just lost an entire year of their lives. Completely unable to recall anything that happened during that time-frame. We know life went on, but no one can recall anything. Then, you find one half-burned book and know why we forgot.