[ WP ] All my life I had been fascinated with the memories I can recall that were n't my own .

The beginning of my life started out pretty normal. I lived the typical American dream with both parents, a younger brother, a nice house, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was n't until I was about 20 that I began to have these strange dreams. In them, it was like I was living somebody else's life. One night I would be a 40 something man living alone and spending all his money on beer, the next I would be a teenage girl obsessing over her latest crush. 
 
 These dreams were atypical in the sense that I did n't just experience one scene, I literally *was* that person. I knew their likes and dislikes, their pets, where they worked, their hopes and aspirations. It was strange but I chalked it up to an over-active imagination. I was n't worried until these'dreams' started taking over my life. 
 It started slowly. I would walk past an old house and see what it was like when it had a family. A freshly cut lawn, kids running across the lawn, the whole deal. Or I would sit on a bench and just instantly knew that a single mother with a crying child had a meltdown here. Then it began to progress. One day I shook a man's hand and it was like lightning flashed. Memories began to flood in my head like pages in a flip book. I relived this man's life in less than a second. 
 
 I must have frozen because he was giving me a funny look, but this guy I had just met was no longer a stranger to me. I knew that his best friend had died a couple years ago because of a drunk driver, I knew his middle name was Steven, I knew that he had a scar on his knee from a biking accident when he was 12, I knew *everything* about him. 
 
 And he was n't the only one, at first I needed physical contact to access a person's memories. Once it was established, I had no choice but to ride the tidal wave of memories and emotions, I had no way to block it, try as I might. Nobody was a stranger and I found out things I never wanted to know about friends and family. 
 It was a huge shock to me and initially I was repulsed but eventually I became drunk on power. I knew everybody's darkest secrets and could easily use it against them whenever I wanted - and I did. I got out of speeding tickets, never paid for any of my food and got a promotion at work. 
 
 Soon, however, everything changed. In addition to knowing everybody's life story, I began getting just brief glimpses of memories. The first one I ever saw was of myself. There was a stranger who was watching 5 year old me play in the neighborhood park. I was running around and climbing on trees when suddenly I turned to face the stranger. And that was it. That's where the memory stopped. It was incredibly frustrating and I did n't know what to make of it and that I could n't even remember the memory myself, but I did n't have to wait long. 
 
 I kept experiencing the same memory over and over again but each time it got a little bit longer over the span of a few weeks. When I finally got to the end of it I did n't know what to do. My power that had so recently been an asset now became my demise. 
 
 In the memory, I finally noticed the stranger. He was the only one besides myself at the park at the time. Something about him was oddly fascinating even though his appearance was ordinary. I slowly walked towards him but as soon as I was within 5 feet of him I could tell something was off. He was breathing heavily despite not having moved and although his face was in the shadows, his eyes gleamed with a dangerous light. He asked if he could tell me a story and I agreed with childish innocence. 
 
 This stranger told me of a man with a superpower, he could read a person's memories. The man started off with good intentions, but with each mind reading he was stripped of a tiny bit of his morality. This superpower had the negative consequence of stealing the good in people. It was a great power to have but very easy to misuse. The man tried to control his power but it got the best of him and stripped him not only of his youth but also of all his ethics. He searched far and wide to find out how to get rid of it and learned that the power could be transferred to young children as they were still innocent and did n't have many memories. 
 
 At this point in the story, the stranger grabbed my head with both hands and I cried in pain. That pain was soon completely forgotten as lights started flashing behind my eyes and I felt a pressure in my head build and build until I passed out. 
 
 The memory ended at that point and I was left on my apartment floor back in the present day. I was distraught and distressed because I knew my future had only two options. In the first, I would have to try and preserve my remaining morality by completely stopping the use of my power. And the only way to cut a person off from any type of physical contact entirely would be to become a total recluse in order to avoid all people. In the second, I could continue using my power until I was so apathetic that I would n't care about transferring this disability onto an unsuspecting child. 
 
 I knew that the first option would basically be the end of my life while the second would be the end of another's. However, the damage to my soul had already been done. And so I picked myself off the floor and walked out of my front door leaving any hope of humanity behind me.
