If there are newbies reading this, it would help if you read my first two stories, THE SERENITY GIG and BLUE HAND BLUES. Otherwise, you'll just be staring at the screen going "huh?"

And thanks must be given to ScrewTheAlliance who the best editor/beta reader I've met.

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As the shuttle engines faded away, three people picked up their belongings and began to walk towards the estate. One of them carried a medical bag, the brown leather faded like an old jacket with the stitching of the handle starting to come apart. Another one carried a square metal box. With every step the clink of metal could be heard coming from the box, which seemed to shine bright red despite the overcast weather. And a third one carried a battered guitar case. Stickers in English and Chinese covered the case as much to repair the rips and tears as for decoration. Two of the carriers would be returning to a place they had not seen in almost six years, while a third one, filled with joy and hope, would be visiting the place for the first time.

The estate was fairly large. The grounds around it gave it sense of isolation from the outside world, which was heightened by the old force field posts surrounding the area and the big iron gates with the hand scan pad and video screen to the side. But despite its stately surroundings, the house seemed depressed. If Serenity represented freedom and peace, the estate represented a time of long ago prosperity. Of a time when estates like these were compared to palaces. Only now, the only things it housed were painful memories, thick silences and all consuming guilt.

The man with the medical bag commented. “It’s strange. I always thought it would be brighter. More fancy.”

The woman with the guitar case replied. “Memory has a way of making everything seeming more brighter than it actually was.”

The woman with the metal box asked solemnly, “You feeling okay?”

He searched his thoughts and emotions and simply replied, “Not real