“Her name is gone. I remember her laugh, I remember her room, even her goofiness, but something is gone.”
Tears come to my eyes and I want to scream.
Jade places her arm on my shoulder and say, “It is okay.”
“No,” I speak, my eyes burning, “Something is wrong, I can’t remember my daughter’s name.” I pound my fist into my head. Where is she? Where is her name? Where are her eyes? I look into Jade’s eyes and I see a concern for me that I have not seen in years.
I whisper, “Her name is gone, her face is gone. I cannot remember.”
Jade stares into my eyes, “I will call the doctor, maybe he can help you. Look, I know you are invincible, everyone has seen your stunts on TV and heard about your suicide attempts, but it looks like you’ve done something different this time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well maybe you can heal from anything, any wound, any damage. Your memories are not you though, your brain is a memory device. I wonder if you damaged a memory and the part of your brain that housed the memory may have repaired itself, but it can’t bring back the memory from the abyss.”
She gets up, gives me a hug and leaves the room.
I am the Invincible Man and I have done something unforgivable. I have erased the very memory of the most important person in the world to me.
I have lost my own daughter forever.
Contributor Notes
Mike Adamson holds a PhD in archaeology from Flinders University of South Australia. After early aspirations in art and writing, Mike returned to study and secured degrees in both marine biology and archaeology. Mike currently lectures in anthropology, is a passionate photographer, a master-level hobbyist and journalist for international magazines. His most recent sales are to the anthologies Mind Candy Vol, I, Endless Apocalypse and Visions VII: Universe, and the magazines Compelling Science Fiction, Centropic Oracle and Phantaxis. Mike has garnered an Honourable Mention in the Writers of the Future contest on four occasions, and has placed a total of 39 stories to date.
William Delman’s work has previously appeared in many fine publications, including Little Blue Marble, SciFan, Salamander, The Massachusetts Review and The Literary Review,. New work is forthcoming from NewMyths.com, The Arcanist, and Stupefying Stories.
Nathan Driscoll is a graduate of Eastern Washington University and an avid horror fan. He’s had a fascination with monsters since childhood, whether on screen or in print, though he hopes to never actually run into one. He’s had work included in various other publications such as Literally Stories, Heater, and Fiction on the Web.
Russell Hemmell has recently had stories in Not One of Us, SQ Mag, Strangelet , among others.
Max Christian Hansen is a management consultant who also writes and edits for business publications. His non-fiction has appeared in Quality Progress, Harvard Business Review, and the Quaker environmental journal Earthlight. His poetry and fiction have been published in Haiku Journal, Stickman Review, and Dime Show Review. The first two novellas in his science fiction serial The One True Curse are due to be published in mid-2018.
Graeme Hurry edited a magazine called Kimota in the 90s and a horror anthology called Northern Chills in 1994. Now he has branched out by editing this kindle magazine, Kzine. He has a story in Terror Tales of The Scottish Highlands anthology and an honourable mention in Year’s Best Horror 2001 for a story he collaborated on with Willie Meikle called The Blue Hag.
Edward Turner III has been published in Bête Noire, the Florence Recorder, Straylight Magazine as well as a number of other places.
Subodhana Wijeyerante has been writing speculative fiction for over ten years. He has been published in Lamp-Light, The Coloured Lens, Liquid Imagination Magazine and The Future Fire. He lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Keep up to date on his work at www.suboworld.net.
Dave Windett is a professional comics artist and illustrator. He has worked for numerous publishers in Britain, Europe and America—among them Cappelen Damm, DC Thomson, Fleetway, Future, Marvel UK, Panini and PSS (a division of Penguin USA. Korky the Cat, Count Duckula, Lazarus Lemming, Inspector Gadget, Ace Ventura, Tails the Fox, The Loony and Tiny Toons are just a handful of the very many original and licensed characters he has drawn. With Writer John Gatehouse he self publishes some work under the Little Lemming Books imprint the latest of which is The Kaci Bell Mysteries. He recently completed work on Monster Hunters Unlimited a four book series for PSS. Samples of His work can be seen at - www.davewindett.com
Matencera Wolf was born in Australia. He met his lovely wife in 2012 when the world was supposed to end, and has since lived in Sweden, France, and Japan. He writes while traveling, and has so far managed to sneak his work into Phantaxis Science Fiction and Fantasy, and other online venues, but holds grand ambitions to one day sneak his work onto bookshelves.
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