by Dani Hoots
“In due time,” Emmerich whispered as he wrapped his arms around me. “Let us figure it out.”
I shook my head. “No, I have to know now. Who was I? Why am I so important?”
“Angel, just...”
My head was pounding and I couldn’t think straight. I wanted it all to go away. I shoved past him and headed towards the entry door. “If you aren’t going to tell me anything. I will go find my own answers.”
“No, don’t go out there!” he tried to grab me, but I shoved him back.
“Leave me alone if you aren’t going to help me,” my voice was dark, it sounded strange even to me. I had had enough with everything.
“But there are people—” he began.
I threw my hands up. “What people? I’m not hearing any explanations.”
“Listen to your cousin, we don’t know what it could do to you,” Isaac added.
“You’re treating me like a child, all of you. Don’t you see that? Leaving me in the dark, discussing what to do about me instead of just asking? Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? Everyone for the past year has treated me the exact way you are now. I am not putting up with it anymore,” I started to open the door. Elwood and Isaac didn’t try to follow. It was as if they knew it was up to Emmerich and somehow I understood. He was the only one who could calm me down, except at this point I didn’t want to.
“You have nowhere to go! It’s not safe,” Emmerich yelled as I started down the street.
I turned around to face him. “How would I know that? How can I know what is safe and what isn’t if you don’t tell me! Who should I be afraid of? I can’t fight if I don’t know.”
Emmerich ran after me. “I won’t let you!”
I shook my head and turned my back to him. “I must have been one hell of a little princess if I always let someone else deal with my problems.”
“Angel! Wait! Please!”
“I need to get some fresh air. Leave me alone.”
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. “No, you aren’t going out here alone.”
I looked at him squarely in the eye. “What does it matter to you, huh? What am I to you?”
His face was red. I had really gotten under his skin. Maybe he would realize I was right. “Stop acting like I am the bad guy! I’m trying to help you!”
“From whom? From what? The big bad wolf? The unseen enemy that I apparently have?” I shouted back.
“I saved you from those men back at your apartment, isn’t that enough?”
I frowned. “So what, you are my knight in shining armor? I should just follow you everywhere?”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He glanced around, worried. “Please stop, you are making a scene. Someone might notice you.”
“Oh really?” I turned to a person walking past, and pulled their sleeve to get their attention. I held out my hand. “Hello there, I’m Angela Starr. And what’s your name?”
I expected the person just to look at me like I was some kind of nut, and then go on with her day. Instead the woman stared at me with her aged eyes, her wrinkled mouth agaped. She looked as if she had seen a ghost. I was speechless. I didn’t actually think she would recognize me. I glanced at Emmerich and he was wide eyed, worried. The woman hurried away, pulling a child with her. I watched as she ran off.
I pointed at her. “Why... why did she do that?” I looked at Emmerich, who had a stern look on his face. “Did she actually recognize me? That’s not possible. How...”
Emmerich placed his hand on my back. “Angel, please come with me. I promise to tell you everything.”
I shook my head and pushed his hand away. My head still hurt, pounding, making everything spinning. I just wanted answers and I didn’t want anything else. The pain hurt so bad. “No, you tell me right now. Who was I?”
He grabbed my arm and started to drag me.
“Let me go!” I shouted, pulling out of his grasp. I should have just gone with him, but my head was pounding and I couldn’t think straight. So I started running. I didn’t know where or why, I just wanted to get away from it all. The pain, the confusion, the lies. I wanted all of it to disappear and for some reason the harder I ran, the more I felt like I could.
“Angel, don’t!” Emmerich yelled.
I ignored him as he tried to follow. I zigzagged through the streets. I could get through the small gaps between people that Emmerich could not. I could hear people shouting as he shoved past them. I hoped they would slow him down so I could just get away from it all. I just needed a break from everything; at least that is what the pain in my head was telling me.
I was still in the run-down area, but there were more people, and the towering wall was still not too far in the distance. The streets stunk of sweat and blood but I didn’t care. I kept on running with Emmerich not too far behind. He should give up, it would be easier if he just gave up and I could walk around in peace and escape all of this nonsense.
As I bumped into people, they stared at me, mouths wide and fingers pointing. They recognized me. My heart quickened, beating faster than I could keep up. Why did they recognize me? How could all these people know me? I felt like Alice in Wonderland as all the eyes were looking on me. Stop it, I wanted to shout. Just stop it. I tried to ignore them but as more and more turned to stare, I began to worry.
And I didn’t know why.
My head throbbed as I kept racing forward. Everything was so confusing, just a jumbled mess. I should just stop, I knew, and let Emmerich take me back, but something in the back of my mind demanded I run, telling me the pain would stop if I could just get away. Was it the poison working, because just a few hours ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of running from Emmerich, the one person I could trust. The poison was controlling me, now I knew. And I couldn’t do anything about it.
The world felt like it was spinning around me and I was about to lose control. I tried to steady my breathing, but everything felt rushed and I couldn’t do anything about it. Sweat began to pour off my skin and my vision was becoming blurry. My stomach hurt and every muscle in my body began to burn. So this is what it felt like to be poisoned. This couldn’t get any worse.
That thought was completely and utterly wrong.
As I turned around another corner, I felt a hand grab my wrist.
I spun around to tell Emmerich off. I wanted to be alone, at least I thought I did. “Rick, I told you—”
It wasn’t Rick. And now I really wished it was. Instead the man that had my wrist was a tall, muscular man with a large brown mustache and bald head. I screamed.
Two other men came and helped him subdue me, all wearing dark blue uniforms, similar to the one that I had remembered Michael wearing. On the arm of each uniform was a cross with two Xs underneath.
“Rick!” I yelled as one pulled me towards a hover craft like I had seen earlier, except this one had windows tinted black and the symbol from their uniforms was on the side. I tried to kick and flail, but it didn’t help. The three brutes forced me into the craft. I could see Emmerich rounding the corner and pulling out his gun as he sprinted for the craft. I was hopeful for a moment, but realized it was too late.
The door slammed shut and I could see Emmerich no longer.
The men didn’t say a word as the machine moved through the city. I couldn’t see out of the windows in the back, but I could feel as we flew around. It made me nauseous, actually, on top of the sweat that was pouring off my skin. I could hardly breathe and I didn’t know if it was from their flying or if something else was happening. My head still pounded, pain jointing through my entire body. I tried to not think about it as I fidgeted with my necklace, keeping hope that Emmerich would come for me.
I asked my captors again and again where they were taking me. They didn’t answer, but told me to stop talking. I finally did, not wanting them to shoot me as they threatened to do. No one here ever told me anything. I shouldn’t have even tried.
I felt like crying but I was stronger tha
n that, I knew. I had to keep my composure.
Pain was shooting through my body and it took all my will power to stay conscious. I didn’t want to pass out. I had to figure out who was kidnapping me and what they wanted. I had to stay strong, even though the poison that Elwood found was coursing through my blood. Why it had suddenly triggered now, I had no idea. Could it have been from some of the memories that were triggered? I just hoped Elwood would figure it out and that I wouldn’t have to suffer much longer.
I tried not to think about Rick. All this was my fault. Was he worried about me? Or was he mad that I had caused all of this? I wanted to go back and apologize. I hoped he had some new ingenious way of saving me, after all he had made it all the way across the galaxy to save me once before. How was this any different? I sure didn’t know what to do, I was on a planet in a different galaxy, I had no clue as to what to do.
But did I really need saving?
That was the question, wasn’t it? I tried to go through every scenario in my head. Maybe the person who captured me just wanted to talk. Or maybe they wanted me dead since the men in Portland had weapons and were ready to kill me. I hoped these weren’t the same people who had tried to kill me before, but I had a feeling they were. Taking deep breaths, I tried not to panic. I would make it out fine, I had so far.
Emmerich said many had thought me dead but he knew I was still alive. These people apparently knew also. These men were taking me somewhere so they didn’t want to kill me yet. I would get answers, in the end.
Before they tried to kill me.
After a while, we decelerated and landed. The men climbed out of the craft and pulled me out as well. I stumbled, not quite able to keep my balance by myself.
It was bright, the system’s star shining down on the planet along with the reflection off of the two giant moons. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light and when I did, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
“What the hell?” I breathed. “Where are we?”
It had to be a palace for some sort of royalty. Nothing I had seen on Earth could compare to the grandeur of this place. I gaped at the opulent fifty-story building. Dark green vines blooming with purple flowers wove along the stones and trailed down the mountain, with the rest of the city laid out far below us. Sculptures of beasts and people lined the walls. Magnificent didn’t even begin to describe it.
“Move!” One of the men yelled, pushing me forward. I almost fell when the other guard pulled me back up and dragged me into the palace. My legs felt like jelly and I could barely steady them. What was wrong with me?
The inside was equally spectacular, covered with carvings of flying creatures, like dragons, with serpent scales covering their bodies and their wings spread fifty feet across. Even though it was all white, I could imagine their colors being vibrant purples, greens and blues, shimmering if they were in the light. Their wings were larger than life. Their beauty surpassed that of any animal I had ever seen.
There were also four-legged creatures with large manes which appeared to breathe fire. A group was sculpted attacking a large bird-like animal that fought back with water. The detail was spectacular, it actually looked like the waves were moving. Maybe they were, for all I knew.
Additional small beasts were carved around them, fighting alongside their masters. The little ones looked like miniatures of their masters, and were just as ferocious. The carvings were so thorough, I could almost pretend they were real.
It was outstanding.
I wondered if the creatures were real or mythical. I had seen things similar to them on Earth, but they were all made up in someone’s mind. This place, on the other hand, might have these beings. It wouldn’t have surprised me that they were real, not after seeing the dragon in that one shop. In a way, this place reminded me of pictures I had seen of ancient Rome or Greece in textbooks, back when they were thriving empires and not just ruins.
Everyone stared at me as the guards marched me through the hall. I tried to ignore them but I couldn’t. I wanted to know how they knew me, why they stared. They all wore uniforms like those of my captors.
We came to a halt in front of a door which swooshed open. Yes, swooshed, like on a sci-fi show. My captors shoved me inside and pushed a button on the wall and I felt the room move underneath my feet. An elevator.
Only it didn’t just move up and down. I tried not to fall over as we also moved side to side. My captors didn’t budge with the changes in acceleration.
We finally stopped and the door slid open to reveal quite a different setting. Instead of bright white stone, the walls were painted a dark blue. Dim lights filled the hallway and shadows danced across the floor as we made our way down the hallway.
We passed only a few doors as we moved down the hallway, all closed. It felt familiar, as if I had been here before, only I didn’t feel it should be this dark or uninviting. I remembered it being lighter, warmer. I wanted people to feel welcome, not turn them away.
I did?
My head started to pound yet again. That was all I needed, for the headache to get worse. I didn’t think that was possible until I felt yet another jolt go through my mind. I focused on fighting it, frustrated with having to deal with this on top of whatever was going to happen in this palace, whether or not my captors were going to kill me or not.
Was it ever going to stop?
We finally came to a halt in front of a door and one of the soldiers slid a key card into a slot and then stepped in front of a scanner similar to the one Emmerich had, and it read his eye. A couple of moments later, the light turned green and the door opened. They shoved me inside and closed the door, leaving me alone to wait.
I stumbled and fell to the floor, scraping my hands on the rough stone. The jerks didn’t need to shove me, I would have gone in if they had just asked.
I got up carefully, and examined my hands. The skin wasn’t cut, but they still stung. I straightened my jumpsuit as I took a look around the room.
The walls were painted blue like the hallway; a color like that of the sky on a crisp winter’s eve, lined with a light beige that was close to the color of the stone used. A large desk took up part of the room, although the room was so large, the desk looked like a toy in comparison. A fireplace was on the opposite side of the desk, a fire currently blazing within. Despite that, the room was cold.
Paintings of battle scenes hung above the fireplace. There were eight, based on the changes in clothing, I assumed they were all from different points in history. I stared at them. They didn’t used to be there, but I had seen them before. More pain shot through my head.
The wars of centuries past.
One stood out from the rest. I studied it as I fiddled with my necklace. The battle scene took place in a forest, the water bird from the sculptures in the lobby flew above. The fire creature was there too, maybe it symbolized the fight between good and evil. Men in either white and orange uniforms or dark green robes lay dead on the forest floor. In the middle stood a man. His hair was ginger and eyes blue as the sea. He held up a sword in victory. I stared at the eyes, wondering. Who was he and why did he seem so familiar?
I gave up trying to recall the memory. I stroked the mantle. The same bird-like creatures were etched into the marble, a stream of water connected them. It was spectacular. If I wasn’t worried someone was going to come in, I might have enjoyed it.
Large glass windows took up the other wall. I could see the entire city below. The buildings were a lot lower compared to this palace, just like in my dream. I could see everything that surrounded the place, even the glistening water beyond the walls. So it was an ocean, I was right.
Mermaids. I couldn’t believe there were such creatures, but I reminded myself where I was— anything was possible.
I watched as several craft flew through the city. Everyone had things to do, places to be, and here I was. Kidnapped, probably waiting to be executed.
And none of them would ever know.
It was scary to
think how that was possible, how it wouldn’t matter to any of them if I lived or died. No one would notice. None except for Emmerich, Elwood and Isaac. It was crazy to think that, but it was true. I should have stayed with them, none of this would have happened if I did.
Other than this splitting headache.
Usually they went away after the memory came, or at least a few minutes later. This one had been building up since before I went to sleep. Why wasn’t it going away? Did it have to do something with the poison?
I saw one of the flying craft out in the distance, moving higher than the rest. It didn’t seem to be following the flow of traffic.
Before I could see what it was going to do, the door to the room opened behind me. I turned to find a man with dark hair, wearing a well-tailored suit. A smirk was on his face as he strolled over to where I stood.
“Who are you?” I asked, backing away towards the glass. I knew there was nowhere for me to go, but I wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
He stopped. “What did you just say?”
“I asked you who you were,” I repeated although in that instant, I knew him. He was Michael, but yet he wasn’t. Something seemed different from my memories.
This man was more menacing. That’s what it was. And cocky.
He laughed. “Does our dear Angela Starr not remember me?”
I slowly shook my head. “I don’t remember anything. I woke up a year ago with no memory. What’s going on?”
“Well, well, this changes things doesn’t it?” He grabbed me by the jaw and traced my chin with his thumb. I let out a squeak, half expecting him to hurt me. Surprisingly, he didn’t. “The poison did work, just not as planned. Maybe I won’t need to kill you.”
I pulled away. “You did this? Why?”
“Because you were the one thing that stood in the way of all of this,” he motioned around. “You and Emmerich.”
“What are you talking about, I don’t know...”