The Anomaly.

He was never quite like those around him, yet no one suspected. The ground wasn't solid when he stepped over it, neither was it liquid, nor gas. It rippled, but not because it wanted to, it rippled because he had passed over it. It wanted to shout out, wanted to get noticed. Not even the slightest insect noticed the anomaly. The ripple subsided as he walked farther away from it.

Humanity scuttled across the planet unaware of any irregularity, even the planet was unaware because it had stopped paying attention. People had stopped getting irritated, or angry, or jealous, or happy. No one would mind if a mosquito felt like quenching its thirst on their blood, they didn't feel it. He did. Everything around him felt wrong, as if wrong existed to get noticed. Wrong existed to tell him that it was there even when it wasn't supposed to be. He shrugged, he didn't care- no one else did.

He didn't like names, he found them peculiar. He didn't have a name. Maybe he did, but he never had time to inquire, no one did. The ground fluttered, it wanted to say something.

"What is it?", he had no desire to hear the reply.

"They have stopped feeding me. Someone needs to feed me!". It rippled in agony, yet no one felt it.

He passed over. He had heard the planet complain billions of times even when everything continued normally.

"Is that why no one cares?",he thought,"Is that the reason everyone needs to be alive? So that everything keeps being normal."- the planet would have to do with another day of starvation.

People had stopped dying, because no one cared when they did. They liked being cared about, thats why they had used to die. The planet liked it when someone died, it liked to look at their memories- it fed on their memories. That way everyone got to be the part of the world, even after they had died. But now, no one would ever die. The planet was half famished because it had no memories to feed upon.

Plants had stopped being green and the water had stopped flowing. As he passed over a dead leaf, he noticed it had turned green. It fluttered and settled itself on the motionless river. The water noticed the anomaly, it rippled. The ripples carried the leaf as far away as they could take it, but the river resisted. The water was adamant, it wanted to flow.He patiently waited to see what happened. The river coaxed the water into stop flowing. It didn't want to lose it to the seas, for the first time in centuries- it cared.