by Rue Volley
Elliot flipped him off while he stared at me. I looked at Carver and he slammed the door behind him. I stepped back and held my hand up to him.
“I said that I was sorry about the… you know… shock and stuff,” I said.
Elliot smiled at me. “I know that you didn’t mean any harm,” he said all calm.
I would have felt better, but he still had the needle in his hand.
He started to pace back and forth. I watched him. It was an odd thing for him to be doing anyway. I started to wonder if it was a prelude to some trick. He stopped and grinned at me.
“I know you,” he said to me.
I tilted my head at him.
“From where?” I said to him.
“School,” he added.
“Oh, you went to Calvary?” I asked him.
“Yep, one year ahead of you, Rue,” he said.
“Oh my god,” I muttered.
“What?”
“I just remembered what school I went too!” I yelled at him.
“I figured you would,” he said.
“Wait,” I said to him as I looked at his face. “I think I remember you.”
Elliot stepped up to the bed and hopped up on it. He set the needle down next to him and I relaxed a little. I walked to the wall and leaned on it. He didn’t even look at me; he just stared at his hands.
“What do you remember?” he asked me.
“You had a class with my brother… oh my god… my brother Kai!” I said all excited.
“Yep, sure did. That class sucked. You know, I had a crush on you. I watched you in the yard. You always sat with Sara. I always wanted to ask you out, but I never got the nerve up to do it. I wanted to take you to the fall dance,” he said.
“The one in October,” I said as I looked at my hands.
Something started to feel funky, like a humming in my body. I held my fingers up and could see them vibrating. I looked at him quickly, wondering if by some chance I had been poked with a needle and was about to go into “lala” land.
“Yea, October. Ya know, that is my favorite month.”
He jumped down from the bed and looked at me.
“I am really glad that I didn’t ask you to go,” he said.
I looked at him and shook my head.
“Oh, I get it… how awesome that would be if you asked the ‘crazy girl’ out. I am sure that wouldn’t help you date now,” I said to him.
“No… I am glad that you are alive,” he said to me.
I shook my head and started to get flashes in my mind.
It started to feel like stutters of reality. I stumbled forward onto my hands.
“I don’t… I don’t understand,” I said.
He walked up to me and leaned down.
I pushed myself back as he touched my face. I hit the wall and stared at him.
“Elliot...? Elliot Marshall, right?” I asked him.
He grinned and sat down in front of me.
“Yes,” he said.
“You…”
“I wish I hadn’t drank that night, Rue… I just couldn’t control the car, when it hit the water… I couldn’t get out,” he said.
“Oh my god… Elliot, you died,” I whispered.
He nodded at me and the room started to vibrate and tilt. I held onto the wall, but I slid along it until I hit the ceiling. I cried out as I rolled on my back. I heard voices echoing in my head. I looked down and Elliot was gone. I am crazy… I am… I have totally lost it here.
The wind picked up in the room and it started to tilt again. I looked down at a mirror and it was rolling like water. I saw a hand come through it and I screamed out as I closed my eyes. I felt someone grab me and jerk me forward. I dropped into water and tried to kick my way upward. I could see light. Maybe this was it. Maybe I am dying. Maybe I took something that freaked me out so badly that my mind just cracked open.
I looked up and saw a hand. I took it. Why not? I am already crazy, already dead. The hand jerked me up and I was thrown onto the ground. I rolled a couple of times and then came to a stop. I felt a hand slam against my chest and I sucked in the deepest breath I think I ever could have. I levitated off of the ground and color started to swirl around me. I opened my eyes up and saw it. Blue… oil in water. It was beautiful, it really was.
I closed my eyes and then I felt myself fall and hit the ground. I lay there on my back and folded my hands on my chest. I heard some laughter and I peeked one eye open. I saw people hugging each other and giving high fives. Strange thing, this can’t be the afterlife.
I opened my eyes up and a very pretty boy leaned over me.
“Rue Volley… You, my dear, are a pain in the ass.”
I laid there and wondered why that would be my introduction to the afterlife. What a strange thing to say. I sat up and looked around. I was in the forest. Why the hell am I in the forest? I coughed out some water and blinked my eyes. I scrambled backward when I saw the pretty girl with the pointed teeth.
“Oh my god… it’s you!” I yelled at her.
The pretty boy lunged at me and placed his hand on my head. I closed my eyes as a wave of memory came over me. I sucked in my breath and fell backward. I shook my head and started to roll to my side. I hurled right there. I couldn’t help it. I really couldn’t.
I pushed myself up and looked around. There was my brother and Sam… there was Theodore. Then the two freaks who shocked the crap out of me. I couldn’t remember their names. I lunged at the girl and we rolled across the ground. I grabbed her hair and pulled it. She didn’t even scream. I find that weirder than weird. Who doesn’t scream when their hair is pulled from the root?
I rolled on top of her and hit her in the mouth; she opened it up as I hit, her teeth sliced into my knuckles. I ‘oww'd’ and jumped back from her. I stood there and pointed at her.
“You were not very nice!” I yelled at her.
Theodore flashed to me and grabbed my arm.
I looked at him and instantly started to cry. He hugged me and rubbed my hair.
“Rue… you were in memory. We all tried very hard to pull you out. Kai remembered Elliot and he had it introduced so that we could try to reach you.”
I pulled back from him and wiped my eyes.
“How long was I trapped in memory?” I asked him.
“Too long… you should have faded, but you are just too stubborn… I swear!” he yelled at me.
Theodore flashed to the mirror lying on the ground that I had come through and slammed his blade into it, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
Kai flashed to me and scooped me up in his arms.
“Oh my god, Rue… I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you,” he whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes and accepted his happiness to see me. I really didn’t want him to stop hugging me. Sam tapped him on the arm and he let me go.
“Hey… you brat,” she said.
I jump hugged her. She let me. I buried myself in her shoulder.
I heard a throat clear behind us and I turned around. Johnathan stood there grinning at me. He ran his hand through his hair and I jumped into his arms. He acted like he was shocked, but I don’t think that I have ever been happier to see anyone.
I pulled back from him and placed my hand on his face. I kissed him… kissed him like we had been apart for a thousand years. He let me. Thank god. I remember that we had not been on the best terms when I… when I…
I stopped kissing him and turned around.
“What the hell happened to me?” I asked.
Theodore looked at Sam and then he stepped up to me.
“Seems that you were able to defeat Caine. He was sent to memory. We were afraid that you were trapped with him, but you were not,” he said.
I remember bits and pieces of Caine. I remember that I hated him. I didn’t remember kicking his ass. I looked back at Johnathan and smiled.
“I want to go home,” I said to him.
He smiled and looked at Theodore.
Johna
than scooped me up and we flashed through the forest…
Home, yes... freakin’ awesome.
***
Sam touched Theodore’s arm and he looked at her and shook his head.
“She believes that Johnathan is the only one. Josh is not in her memory,” he whispered.
Sam took a breath and started to flash towards the only home she knew… 606 Hideaway Dr.
Chapter 2
You Are Kidding, Right?
As Johnathan flashed through the woods I leaned my head on his shoulder and tried to relax. I knew him, but I didn’t. I love him, I think. I opened my eyes up and watched the trees pass us in a blur. I looked up at him and watched as his face started to blur, rippling like water on Red Lake.
I closed my eyes and heard a voice in my head, it called out to me. I felt a vibration in my hands and I lifted my hand and touched Johnathan’s face. He threw his head back and started to fall. I flew from his arms and rolled a few yards away from him. I came to a stop with a yelp. I must have hit something, maybe a rock or a fallen tree. My shoulder had a familiar pain well up in it, like I had lived with it before.
I rolled onto my back and looked up. The sky was deep blue, I tilted my head as a rabbit formed and I pushed myself up and watched it… so pretty. I reached my hand towards it and everything started to go white… white and more white. I looked down and saw a needle in my arm and Elliot’s face in front of me.
“I’m sorry, Rue… I didn’t want to trick you,” he said. It sounded like an echo… a dream.
I started to blink and there I was… in my room at Rolling River. WTF?
I sat up, or attempted to anyway. I got pulled back down when I realized that my wrists were bound to the bed. I sighed and looked over at the window. No snow. Why? I heard the door open and looked over to see Holly walk in. She grinned at me and pulled a chair up to the side of my bed. I cleared my throat and blinked a couple of times.
“I am glad to see you awake, Rue.” She said to me.
I stared at the ceiling and shook my head.
“Where is Johnathan?” I asked her.
Holly scribbled something down on her paper and looked at me.
“Seriously, where is he?” I asked her.
“I am afraid that I do not know who that is, Rue,” she said to me.
I squinted my eyes and looked at her.
“I was just with him… I went through the mirror and I was heading home,” I said to her.
Holly tilted her head at me and tapped the pen to her lip.
“The mirror is what to you?” she asked me. I sighed.
“A way to portal, of course,” I said.
“Like a doorway… from one place to another?” Holly said.
“Yea… it can be from one place to another or you can get out of memory,” I said to her.
“Okay, now I think that we are finally on the road we need to be on,” she said.
I looked out the window and watched a bird land on the windowsill. I then looked at her.
“What road would that be, Holly?” I asked her.
“I think that you are finally starting to climb back,” she said to me.
I laughed at her. I guess I couldn’t help it.
“Oh, that is just great,” I said.
“It is great, Rue… You are fighting; that is what I needed for you to do.”
Holly stood up and walked to the doorway. She turned back to me and grinned.
“Today, you get to go outside… You should be excited,” she said.
She opened the door up and I looked at her.
“Is Elliot going to take me outside?” I asked her
“I’m sorry, I don’t know who that is,” she said to me.
“What...? He is the intern who rolled me into the torture chamber!” I said, trying not to yell.
I don’t need to come off crazy, right?
“Rue… your intern’s name is Carver, always has been,” she said.
I looked at the ceiling and then back at the window. What the hell is wrong with me?
***
Theodore flashed up to Johnathan and placed his hand on the side of his head.
Johnathan started to move and then he jumped up quickly and looked around.
“Oh my god, where is Rue?” he said in a panic.
“It seems that we lost her to memory again,” Theodore said as he sighed.
“Damn it! NO!” Johnathan said as he started to pace back and forth rubbing his head.
Sam skidded to a stop with Kai at her side and stared at the two of them.
“Do not tell me that she slipped back in,” she muttered.
Theodore shook his head and looked at the forest.
“I fear that Josh has caused something so powerful when he stripped her of her memory that she is trapped there,” he said.
“No… no, no,” Kai said as he looked at Johnathan.
“What the hell happened, dude...? You had her, now you don’t!” Kai yelled at him.
Johnathan stopped pacing and looked at him.
“I don’t know. She was in my arms and everything got all weird. I heard a voice, like an echo in my head. After that I went down. I don’t know what happened,” he said as he looked at the ground.
“Well, that is great...! Really, really great, Johnathan. I should have carried her myself!” Kai yelled at him. Sam touched his arm and shook her head at him.
“It is not Johnathan’s fault. I am sure that he would not have allowed it to happen if he could have stopped it.”
Kai looked at him with anger in his eyes.
“Josh would have never let that happen,” he muttered.
Sam tried to hold onto him but Kai flashed away from her.
She looked at Johnathan and tried to smile.
“He is just upset; you know that he didn’t mean it.”
Johnathan sighed and looked up at the sky.
“He is right. Josh would have found a way, anything. I failed,” he muttered.
Theodore stepped up to him and touched his shoulder.
“You need to realize that Josh put her in this state, when he stripped her. She must have had a moment where she regained her power… her memory, at least enough so to allow her to escape. We just need to keep trying; she will return… I know it to be true.”
“Maybe it’s me,” Johnathan said as he looked at him.
“What?” Theodore asked him.
“It’s me, Theodore, I won’t allow returning. She remembers me and she knows that she doesn’t love me… not like she does Josh,” he muttered.
“No, no… I don’t think…” Theodore tried to say.
Johnathan looked at him and touched his arm.
“You have to strip her of me, then I will go into memory with her. I will pull her out, I know I can,” Johnathan said with conviction in his voice.
“Oh my, listen to me. I cannot pull you out of there. You both could simply fade. It is enough that we have spent over a month trying to retrieve her; we do not need the added weight of you also,” he said.
“Well… then just get her out; I will clear the path for her then,” Johnathan said as he rubbed his neck.
“Do you realize what you are asking me to do?” Theodore said.
Johnathan closed his eyes and then took a breath.
“I do,” he said.
“Well, we need to all discuss it before anything is done,” Theodore said as he started to walk away from him. Johnathan flashed to his side.
“No… no discussion. We are running out of time, I can feel it. Get a mirror and we do it now.”
Theodore looked at him and shook his head.
“What?” Johnathan asked him.
“To be so in love that you disregard yourself… it is something that will destroy you.”
Johnathan smiled.
“So, where do we go?” he said.
Theodore grinned.
“We need to go to the library.”
Johnathan grinned and they both
flashed towards town.
***
Josh had pounded his fists on the interior of the mirror until his hands ached. He knew that he was alone, to face whatever it was that would transform him into the beast that he was designed to be. He stepped back from the mirror and turned. A table sat before him, with two blades gleaming on it. He stepped up to them and as he placed his hands on them he heard a song well up in his mind. He looked around the room and watched as it started too static. Josh closed his eyes and felt the warmth of Rue on his skin.
“Rue,” he whispered.
“Joshua,” a voice called out to him.
Josh gripped the blades in his hands and turned. His father stood before him.
“Father,” Josh said as he held his blades tightly.
“Joshua, you disappoint me,” he said.
Josh tilted his head and stared at him.
“Why would you say that?” Josh asked him.
“You need to be on point; you have not been in a long time,” Thomas said as he started to walk away from him.
“What?” Josh said as he followed him.
The room started to shift and it opened up to a field, one that Josh remembered from his childhood… the field that his father trained him, day after day. He looked up at the sky and then back to his father, who had stopped and turned to face him.
“You are a Lord, Joshua, it is a most honorable thing to carry in you. I had hoped that you would take your training seriously and one day take your place as her protector.”
Josh sighed and looked at his blades.
“I did take it seriously. I devoted everything I had to become what you wanted me to be, father.”
“You need to shed this human emotion that you have… it is a waste, and completely beneath you.”
“Me? You joined Grace and William, to fight against the ways here in Valon!” Josh yelled at him.
Thomas sighed and looked towards the sky.
“You see what it has gotten me, Joshua...? An eternity of regret. I fear that I steered you wrong. I was wrong to fight what I am; I was wrong to fight my lineage,” Thomas said as he looked back at Josh.
Josh shook his head. “No, you can’t possibly believe that,”