by Amy Richie
“Come on,” he screamed at Sols. Before I could stop it, the needle was in my arm. As the brown liquid seared its way into my bloodstream, my arm immediately went numb.
“No!” I screamed, horrified.
“Now Eva, this is the best thing for you,” Max panted into my ear. I went limp so that he would make the mistake of loosening his grip.
It worked. The moment I felt the slack, I ripped my arm from his grip and slammed my palm into Sols’ face. I heard the crushing of bone and he fell down again. Without stopping I took the needle from my arm and turned to thrust it into Max’s neck.
With slight panic I searched the ground for my fallen knife. It was just a few feet away. I had it back in my hand before the two men had fully recovered their senses. With the same sense of urgency I plunged the knife into Max’s chest. Sols got the same treatment. I knew it wouldn’t kill them, just slow them down. I should have taken the time to kill them but I was still in panic mode. Besides, I didn’t have a lust for killing. Except for one.
I felt the cleaner making its way through my blood. My heavy breathing sounded loud to my ears. How much had he injected? Not enough to make me lose my memory. At least not for long. But long enough. I had to get away. I had to hide.
I knew that I didn’t want to be anywhere near Sols and Max when they came to. They would surely kill me. I had to go hide until the cleaner wore off. Hopefully that wouldn’t be long.
I turned blindly to the surrounding trees. There would be a hiding place there. I would go far enough so they wouldn’t be able to find me. I had to. They would not be allowed to thwart my mission.
“Sols, you idiot. You let her get away,” I heard Max yell. There was no response from Sols. That was good.
I ran like a crazy person zigzagging through the trees. I was careful not to touch anything; I didn’t want them to be able to track me. My panic and desperation coupled with their injuries allowed me to gain ground quickly. After several minutes of not hearing them behind me anymore, I stopped to catch my breath.
I sank to my knees and clutched my numb arm. The numbness was spreading to my shoulder and side. I tilted my head back and let out a low sound of emotion. It was a cry of desperation, of fear, the agony of betrayal. I let my head slump forward and closed my eyes. How could David do this?
“She went this way, come on!” Max’s voice made me spring back into action.
My eyes snapped open and I rose to my feet. I had to keep going. I couldn’t let this be easy for them. My anger burst forward to determined energy. Damn David! How dare he think he could do this to me. The trees went by at a dizzying pace as I ran. Eventually though, the numbness went to my legs.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to go much further. Soon I would lose my memory. I heard the two men behind me more clearly. They were gaining ground on me. I searched the trees frantically for a place to hide. Something inside me told me I wouldn’t be able to hide from them, but I had to try.
Just when I nearly gave up, I saw something in the distance that gave me a surge of hope. There, in a clearing, was a small house made of wood. Smoke billowed out of the chimney that was situated on the top of the house. The relief I felt was overwhelming. If I could just make it to that house, I’d be safe. No way would my two would be assassins hurt me in front of any of the locals.
David’s biggest worry was that we’d do something to upset the past. If they were really taking their orders from David, they would have been told not to do anything to disrupt the past.
I pushed as hard as my tired legs would go. It was confusing that the house seemed to be getting further away while the two men seemed to be getting closer. I didn’t turn around to look behind me; I just kept the small wooden house in focus. But would I make it there in time? Would the presence of people even make a difference to Sols and Max? I felt dizzy with the conflicting emotions of hope and panic.
Chapter Seven
The trees around me seemed to suddenly come to life. My eyes were narrowed into thin slits so that I could barely see anything. The trees were swaying wildly, bringing their branchy arms dangerously close to me. I flinched back from them in fear. I was not used to being afraid, or acting on that fear, but I was also not used to being attacked by trees. Both sensations left me breathless.
I rubbed my arm where the needle had broken the skin. I wasn’t sure how much cleaner had gotten into my system and I didn’t know how potent the cleaner was. So many unknowns were making me nervous. I was having a hard time walking and an even harder time remembering why I needed to be walking in the first place.
I tried to hold onto the important part — that I did need to keep walking. One step, and then another. I focused all my energy on getting to the tiny house made of wood. There was a reason I wanted to get there. Maybe I knew the people that lived there. Two men were supposed to be helping me. I couldn’t quite remember what they were helping me do, but I was sure they would know. If I could just get to that house.
Without any warning the ground moved out from under my feet. I stared, unblinking, at the sky above me. My head lay on the cold ground. I could hear my heart echoing in my ears. I closed my eyes and then opened them again as if in slow motion.
I had no idea where I was but I felt strangely peaceful. Where had I been running to? I knew it was important to remember but my thoughts couldn’t go further than the fluffy white clouds above me. I smiled groggily and sighed contentedly. The wind brushed ever so slightly in my hair. I titled my chin into the breeze, perfectly happy to lay there forever.
I was vaguely surprised when the sun was blocked out by a massive black shape. I wasn’t bothered enough to move but I wished the shadow would move so I could see the clouds again. I pulled my lips down in a frown.
“Are you alright Milady?” the shadow asked.
Milady? Was that my name? With brief panic, I realized that I didn’t know my name or where I was. The feeling quickly subsided though and I smiled again. I had never felt so light in my life. It was as if I could have flown away right then, but I had absolutely no desire to move.
“Milady?” he asked again.
“Mmm,” I moaned softly through my smile.
There was a cold sensation on my arm. I turned my head lazily to see what it could be. There was a man kneeling beside me. My surprise came out in a slow, drawn out syllable, “Oh.”
“Are you ok?” His words were also unhurried and they sounded so far away. His voice was so kind. I reached my hand up, it felt so heavy and he was so far away, but I wanted to touch his face. I wanted to be sure he was real.
With agonizing slowness, my fingers finally made contact with the kind man. I stroked his cheek gently, like there was nothing else in the world but him. A part of my consciousness was firing warnings at me but the fog was too thick for me to understand what it meant. Besides, it was wonderful to just lie there and look at that man. I wondered what his name was. I opened my mouth to ask, but no sounds came out.
“You’ll be ok,” he whispered, “I’ll take care of you.”
My mouth curled up into a smile and I closed my eyes. Let the darkness take me, I didn’t care. I barely felt the sensation of the man picking me up off the ground. Right on the edge of the darkness I could barely make out the image of two men. They were laughing with each other and standing beside a strange looking machine. The machine was in the middle of a clearing, but it was out of place there. Out of the machine stepped a woman, a young woman with her hair tied back in a braid. Then everything went black.
***
The colors kept changing. First everything was black but then there were flashes of red, then blue, green, black again, then white. But the white was actually a light, a light so bright that it hurt my eyes. I squinted and covered my face with my arm.
As suddenly as it appeared, the bright light disappeared. I lowered my arm cautiously. I was in a forest. The trees were so thick that I couldn’t see very far ahead of me. I crouched down into a defensive position, but the
re was nothing threatening about the trees. I didn’t know if I should try to find my way out of the forest or stay where I was. Something wasn’t right. I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be, but it wasn’t here.
“Eva,” a woman called out to me. I crouched lower to the ground. The voice seemed to come from everywhere, it vibrated off of every tree. The voice was pleasant, a sing-song like sound, but it didn’t belong here. She shouldn’t be here.
I watched, mesmerized, as the woman stepped out of the darkness of the forest. This was no ordinary woman, I realized. She was the most beautiful woman in all of time, and she knew it. She walked towards me slowly, as if in a dream. And I wondered if maybe I was dreaming or maybe I was dead and she was an angel.
The Angel’s long hair cascaded down her back. It was so blond that it seemed a part of the dress that hung on her perfect body. The gown flowed past her feet, giving the illusion that the angel was floating towards me. The bodice was covered in hundreds of diamonds, throwing rays of light off of her. She must have been the light I saw, I thought. She smiled.
“Eva, I have come to tell you something.” I heard the words as if she had spoken them out loud but her lips did not move.
“What do you want to tell me?” I thought.
“You’re in danger here.” A deep roar sounded from somewhere in the dark forest. I peered around the angel nervously. She turned at the sound but when she looked back at me, her face was still peaceful.
“What was that?” I asked without speaking.
She reached out and put her hand lightly on my collarbone, almost as if she couldn’t reach my shoulder. “Do you understand what I said?” Her expression never changed.
I nodded quickly. “Danger. But why?” The roar sounded again, illustrating the answer to my question. My heart sped up in response.
“There’s nothing here to be afraid of.” She raised one delicate eyebrow just slightly. It was the only indication of her slight irritation.
“Is this a dream?” I asked out loud. The growling sounded closer now.
“Yes,” she confirmed my suspicions. “Eva,” her expression was suddenly tense, “you must not forget why you are here.” Her ice blue eyes bore into my less impressive hazel ones.
“Grrrrr.”
The angel ignored the growl. I tried to take a breath but it came out as a choking sound. She grabbed my shoulder then, very tightly. I was shocked that I could feel pain so sharply in a dream. I flinched away from her touch. “You have to kill him,” she said out loud, almost in a snarl.
“Kill who?” I asked in a frightened voice.
Her voice became sinister then and the sound of it sent chills down my spine. “You have to kill D…”
Her words were cut off by a sudden fury of black. The black shape flew out of the trees. It could have been a bear or a large dog. It tackled the angel to the ground.
I stared on in mute horror. I started screaming when I saw the red. I screamed over and over again, unable to stop.
I bolted upright in the bed, still screaming. I could still clearly see the wolf-like creature from my dream. I screamed until I was gasping for air. Eventually I became aware of two hands trying to comfort me. They touched my head and stroked my face.
“It’s ok,” a man’s voice crooned, “it was only a dream. It’s ok.”
He was sitting close to me on the bed, rubbing my arms. He was so safe. Impulsively, I grabbed the front of his shirt and held onto him. I buried my face in his chest without letting go of his shirt. “It was awful,” I sobbed.
“Shh,” his hands moved to include my back. “It’s over.”
“There was a wolf, a huge black wolf.” My voice was a little muffled from my head being buried in the man’s chest.
I felt him tense. “A wolf?” he asked with sudden urgency.
His reaction to my dream brought reality crushing down on me. I had no idea who this man even was, and here I was clutching to him like he was my own personal life preserver. I pried my fingers from his shirt one at a time and scooted as far away from him as the bed would allow.
“Did a wolf attack you?” he asked more calmly.
“Not me,” I clarified, “my angel.”
“Your angel? Is that your sister?” he asked, trying to understand.
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the angel being my sister but I instinctively nodded my head in agreement. I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t know if I should let this man realize how desperately alone I was. But maybe I wasn’t as alone as I feared. My mind was so fuzzy but it seemed like there was a small house in the woods. I must have lived there. Why couldn’t I remember?
“Don’t worry,” he said misreading my expression, “we’ll stop them.”
“Them?”
He reached for my hand which had gone strangely numb. “You must have been attacked,” he began very softly. I leaned forward to catch his words. “By werewolves.”
“Werewolves?” I asked loudly. I jumped back a little, surprised by his assessment. “Werewolves,” I whispered more to myself than to him.
“Did they kill your family?” He seemed genuinely concerned.
My thoughts jumbled around in my head, refusing to be straightened out. His words were making it harder to concentrate. I shuddered at the thought of the black wolf from my dream. The man just watched the emotions displayed across my face.
Considering the state my memory was in and the helplessness of my situation, I quickly decided it was best to let this man fabricate my truth for me. I would go along with what he said for now, just let him fill in the empty gaps of my memory.
“It was awful,” I repeated in a shaky voice. “I just remember a black wolf. It jumped on her. And there was blood.” My voice faltered and stopped. The details from my dream made me shudder again.
He pulled me against his chest and held me tightly. I tried to remember something, anything that would give me a clue where I was. It seemed all wrong, but I didn’t know why.
I let myself relax in my stranger’s arms. The angel’s face flashed through my mind and I closed my eyes. Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe I really was attacked by wolves. Certainly not werewolves, they weren’t real, were they?
Was I alone?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“Yeah.”
“There were no….” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud but he understood.
“No, you were there by yourself. And there are no other houses for miles.”
“But I saw a house. A small house made of wood.”
“It was probably my house that you saw.”
“Oh.”
After a few minutes he pushed me gently from him and got off the bed. “Are you hungry?”
“What time is it?” I thought it was still in the night.
“It’s midmorning.” He gestured toward the small window. Sure enough, the sun was streaming into the small space.
“I guess I am kind of hungry,” I admitted.
“What do you like?”
“I am not sure. Oatmeal?”
He gave me a blank look. “How about eggs?”
I smiled. “Sounds perfect.”
“Ok, I’ll be right back. You just relax. We’ll talk after you eat.”
I nodded my head. Did I have a choice? He brought his face close to mine, searching for something. I stared back at him, barely allowing myself to breathe.
Chapter Eight
Our brief moment of silence was interrupted by the rumbling in my stomach. “When is the last time you ate something?”
“I’m fine,” I quickly assured him. My stomach growled again, contradicting me.
He chuckled lightly. “I’ll go and fix you something now.” He pulled himself upright.
“Wait, I…” Panic overpowered my senses. I didn’t want him to leave me alone.
“What’s wrong?” He turned back to me, concern all over his dark features.
My breath caught in my throat. This man was b
eautiful. His eyes and hair were similar shades of dark brown. Every feature seemed carved by a master artist, they were so perfect. The kindness and concern I saw in him just added to his beauty.
I finally realized that I must have been staring like an idiot when he cleared his throat and gave me an amused wink. “I’ll go and get you some breakfast,” he said softly.
I just sat there smiling stupidly until it reached my thought process that he was leaving. I grabbed his arm so tightly that it forced him to sit back down on the bed. “I’ll go with you,” I said quickly.
His eyebrows crinkled slightly. “I can get it easily. You can stay here and rest.”
I looked down at the bed but I didn’t loosen my grip on his arm. He must have thought I was a complete idiot, but no way was I going to let him leave me there alone.
“You’re afraid.” It wasn’t really a question, more a statement of shock.
“What if he comes back?” I asked in a small voice. I couldn’t raise my eyes to meet his.
“He? You mean the wolf?” I nodded. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of here.”
His words brought back the chilling memory of my dream. I tightened my grip on his arm. He seemed perplexed but he didn’t say anything or pull away.
“How can you be sure?”
“In my house, you are safe,” he said with finality, “from whatever hunts you.”
I did look up then, and our eyes met. Something clicked then. His words went far beyond the wolves. “Ok.” I let go of his arm. I was afraid to look and see if I had left a bruise.
“Listen, I won’t be long.” He gently brushed away a tear that I hadn’t realized had fallen. “You’ll be alright. There is nothing to be afraid of here.”
I took a deep breath and nodded more vigorously. My growling stomach made us both laugh. I pushed my hair behind my ears and looked back at him. “I’ll be fine,” I said.
“Yes, you will be.” He winked again. “I’ll be right back.”
“Promise?”
He laughed and brushed his finger on the tip of my nose. “Rest,” he ordered. He pushed himself off the bed and crossed the room to the doorway. He turned once more to look at me and then turned and disappeared through the door.