Forgotten

by Sarah J. Pepper

  “I’m concerned with how you did it.”

  “I told you, I’m a Healer.”

  Before I could question him further, the front door opened and slammed shut. Max started barking insanely. I heard Martha tell the person that I was in the dining room with Jace. They stayed in the kitchen.

  “Oh I forgot Jace was coming over tonight!” Bree exclaimed. “It must have slipped my mind.”

  She was a terrible liar.

  “Winnie had me going that he was the furthest thing from her mind. Isn’t he just to die for?”

  Elsie giggled. She whispered that Jace kissed me. I wanted to shout out that it wasn’t like we’d been making out; that it was just a little peck on the hand, but I controlled myself. Bree immediately demanded details. She didn’t attempt to hide her disappointment when Martha said that Jace had been a perfect gentleman. What did she expect the guys that I’d bring home would do – ravish me in front of my family?

  “He kissed her hand just like in the movies!” Elsie squealed. She made it sound as significant as it would have been had he asked me to marry him or run away with him.

  “You know I can hear you both, right?” I called out.

  “I’m just dropping off our daily Lit. homework. I finished the even questions, and left the odds for you. I would’ve done more if you’d let me know you were having company tonight,” Bree said, peeking her head into the dining room. “Found this flyer on your door. Coupon for a spa day. Maybe we could go sometime.”

  “Good evening, Bree,” Jace said.

  “I hear you’re quite the prince charming, Mr. Eatros,” Bree said. “If only someone could’ve predicted that…” The deeper my cheeks reddened, the louder Jace’s laugh became. “Details – about your homework – tomorrow, before class.”

  I knew it was code telling me I’d have to spill every little detail about Jace, rather than homework. From the way she said it, Jace would have to have been brain-dead, to not have picked up on her comment.

  When the others settled down in the living room for the evening, Jace stayed in the dining room to work on “homework.” I went upstairs to grab the files. Digging deep in my closet, I found the police records Jace asked to see. They were tucked safely under my blood-stained blanket. I sat down on the wooden floor and closed my eyes. This was all that was left of my family. The few folders were the skeletons in my closet.

  “Just let go,” I whispered to myself. “I have to give him pieces of my past, if I want any chance of understanding it.”

  A faint whimper echoed in the darkness. I didn’t know why the girl was crying, but I recognized her lovely voice. I walked toward her. A fragment of light began to gather around me. It reflected off the broken glass shattered on the ground. I carefully stepped around each piece, looking for the crying girl. When she clasped her hand around mine, I jumped. A dirty, young girl sat on the ground; scissors in hand. Cuts littered her skin. Her vindictive smile hid her true feelings – she was overjoyed to see me and felt nothing regarding her wounds.

  The reflection of another young woman with beautiful, wavy brown hair shone in the shattered glass. The girl lying on the shattered glass screamed into the night, and then laughed so viciously it sent shivers down my spine. She stood suddenly and opened her arms to us.

  “The unseeing past and unspeakable future are once again surrounded in death’s embrace.”

  The moment the three of us touched, three distinctive sensations had come over me. Rage erupted inside the young woman. Derangement tore at the girl’s sanity. Calmness encased my soul; I had to be patient if I was to find my revenge. I closed my eyes and reflected on my life experiences, my memories. The past would repeat itself… it always did, in one form or another. I only hoped to see something in my memories that I’d missed before, so this tragedy would never repeat itself.

  I heard myself whimper. It sounded similar to the dirty girl sitting on the shattered glass. Their essence tugged at my soul. The vision scared me. Not because of the images I’d seen, but because I hadn’t understood them. Before I let myself feel anything else, I grabbed the old police files and raced down to the dining room.

  “You’re in distress,” Jace said, when I handed him the files.

  “Clutching your family’s murder files will do that.”

  “But you smell like old blood… and lilies.” He rattled off half a dozen phrases I didn’t understand. His white silhouette blazed. My eyes burned. He grabbed my cheeks when I closed my eyes, forcing me to look at him. “Stop hiding from me! I’m catastrophically sick of arguing with you about the matter of your memory.”

  A tingling sensation shot through my face before he loosened his grip. If he wanted something from me, he had enough muscle to force me to tell him…. So why did he relax his grip?

  “Deino, I’m worthy of knowing what you’re thinking.”

  “Name’s Gwyneth,” I said, only after he released me. Rubbing my jaw, I glared at him. “I dare you - lay one more finger on me.”

  He immediately dimmed himself. He stood in silence and then made a faint gesture that looked liked he’d just bowed before me. When I didn’t utter a word he walked out of the room. He moved soundlessly as he raced up the stairs to my room. Knowing John would have my head if he caught Jace and me in my room together, I stayed put. After what seemed like forever, I actually sat down in my chair and worked on my Lit. assignment that Bree dropped off. It was frivolous, but it kept my mind off of what Jace was doing alone in my bedroom.

  “My apologies, Gwyneth, but you wear the Fates’ scent, old blood and lilies. Your closet reeks of your sisters,” Jace said, walking up from behind me.

  I ignored him and continued to work on my homework. He’d invaded my privacy, so I’d be damned if I was going to make his search any easier.

  “Your skin smells like the ocean,” Jace said angrily, standing directly behind my chair. He didn’t touch me, but his heat jumped onto me. It burned my skin, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of backing down. “How long have you been playing me? Did I not prove long ago you could trust me? Why can’t you tell me your plans? Why are you pretending you don’t remember what once was…what we once were?”

  Facing him, I crossed my arms. I said nothing as I glared at his beautiful figure. If whiteness could hold definition, his athletic body was immaculately shaped. He knew he was eye-catching, which bothered me enough as it was, but that he was intelligent and self-assured made him an unstoppable force against women everywhere. I got the impression that if he wanted a girl, he wasn’t going to stop until he claimed her, and he wanted me.

  “I don’t remember you, Jace!” I’d admitted it in my dreams; I could do it in reality. “You talk in riddles and expect me to take you at your word? News flash – if you lay another hand on me, I’ll die before I let you heal me.”

  “Are you guys doing all right in here?” John said, coming into the dining room.

  “Jace was just telling me how he had to leave early,” I said, not bothering to hide my resentment.

  “Yes, it’s getting late,” Jace’s voice trailed off. “Besides, I promised Analee I’d meet up with her later tonight.”

  Rage.Exploded.In.My.Heart. I gritted my teeth and breathed through my nose. Jace rubbed his arms, like he was suddenly chilled. I didn’t care. If he thought I was just going to be another one of his conquests he could wear his butt as a hat. I wasn’t going to waste any more time on him, especially if he was going to see Analee – whoever she was.

  After escorting him to the door, I slammed it in his face. But not before I got the last word in. “Don’t talk to me again unless you have something to tell me about my family, and good luck with that, because the case went cold after the agent died.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Who’s Analee?” Bree demanded after I told her, for the millionth time, the edited version of supper with Jace last week.

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” I said. I propped my feet up on the seat across from us
at the coffee shop. I tried not to crave his touch or charming voice or seductive mannerisms – I failed, miserably. He skipped class every day that week. There was a fifty-fifty chance he wouldn’t return at all. Which, again, wouldn’t be so bad, but he had my only copies of my family’s police reports. I doubted I’d be able to convince Ida to give me another copy…especially since she probably didn’t know that I’d stolen her copies.

  “I’m going to go hit something,” I said, and left for the gym.

  KnockOuts’s door chimed as I walked into the sweat-glazed building. Making my way to the front desk, I perked my ears for Charlie’s usual toss. The faint shadow of gloves caught my gaze, and I easily kicked one to the side. The other grazed my side. I was changed and punching the heavy bag within fifteen minutes.

  “Hey there, half pint,” Hector said, holding the weighted bag while I released my frustrations. Jace could do whatever he pleased; he didn’t owe me any explanation, so why was I so irritated that he hadn’t called or stopped by or left any form of message.

  “On edge?” Hector asked after my side-kick grazed his head.

  “Nope.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay, you want to duel?”

  “Nope.”

  “I’ll let you be to sweat it out then,” he said, walking away.

  “Jace hasn’t called,” I said, stopping Hector in his tracks. I didn’t stop beating the bag. My anger fueled me. “He said he’d help me with some stuff and hasn’t bothered to let me know how it is going. He’s skipped school without mentioning that he might take off for a few days.”

  “So? Why do you care?”

  “Because he has my reports,” I said and then immediately wished I wouldn’t have mentioned anything.

  “What reports?”

  “Just some reports for Lit,” I lied. The only person who knew I had the police records, was Jace, since I’d commandeered Ida’s copies. Even though I’d told Hector everything else in my life, I never mentioned those files.

  “Liar.”

  “Whatever, don’t believe me then.”

  He walked away. “Little advice, Winnie - Don’t complain about a guy not calling you right now.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Means you’re not always a peach to be around,” he called out. “Oh, and I looked into your security system. It checks out– you’re welcome by the way.”

  Losing myself in a punching haze, I swung my fists against the punching bag until my arms ached. My breath was rapid. Sweat saturated my clothing, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t lose myself in my world. No vision came. I couldn’t relax. And worse, I felt out of place. Even though I never felt in sync with everyone else, but now I felt utterly lost and alone.

  I walked home without showering. In fact, I forgot my bag along with Stella. I’d get them in the morning. I didn’t know what made me more upset – that I actually walked faster without Stella now, or that I couldn’t think of anything other than Jace’s deep voice.

  A cold breeze chilled me. I focused my mind on something, anything, so I didn’t notice the wind on my face. I didn’t want to encourage another vision. I couldn’t handle one right now; it didn’t help.

  Its starved body was bruised and beaten as it crawled out of the dried ground. Every vein, blood vessel, and artery pulsating deep purple, showed on its hairless head. Its translucent skin was pulled tight, especially over the joints. It smelled clean and crisp like the sea even though the few shreds of clothing covering it were stained. The sewn marks kept him from whispering of the unspeakable past. Empty hollowed holes were where the eyes should have been.

  It walked to me. Instead of running, I opened my arms to embrace it. Its ghostly skin was razor sharp, but never cut me. It brought my hand to its mouthless face. When my smallest finger brushed against its coarse lips, I felt at home again. The walking corpse wiped a fleeting tear from my eye. In my mind, I heard it speak in a mysterious language. Even though I didn’t understand it, a sense of immense sorrow washed over me when it released my hand and turned its back to me. I trembled as I watched it sink into the dirt.

  It’d been stolen from me, by the fallen angel.

  In my vision, my legs gave out, and my hands hit the hot dirt under my feet, but in reality, my knees slammed into the side walk. A cold wind whipped around me, chilling me to the bone. Tears ran from my eyes while I beat the sidewalk with my fists.

  “Why me?” I cried out to the night. I never asked for visions. Never once did I ever want to see the future, and now unfeasible images plagued me. Exhaustion overcame me. I threw myself onto my back and pressed my palms into my eyes. I begged the torturing images to never flicker in my mind again.

  Max greeted me when I got home, but quickly decided against being anywhere near me. I fell over a trash bag trudging up the stairs. Martha warned me that she was fall-cleaning when she heard the racket, but I didn’t have time to listen to her; I was on the brink of tears. I slammed my bedroom door, fell onto my bed, and buried my face in my pillow and screamed. Tears soaked into the feathers.

  I couldn’t think of anyone else but Jace. It was like he’d followed me everywhere, he was constantly on my mind, but I couldn’t see him, feel his presence, or even fight with him. I’d rather argue with him instead of getting the cold shoulder. Even after the vision where my soul was frayed, I’d wished he was with me. The once physical burden that once overwhelmed me when Jace was near, now presented when he was away. He was an obsession – my hang-up; even though I’d come to terms with it, admitting it to another person, especially him, wasn’t about to happen. Besides, Jace was still in love with Deino – he just thought I was her. Even if I dare say that I’d be interested in being more than just a fake girlfriend to him, but I’d never be able to compete with the ghost of some long-lost lover.

  “Police reports indicate the man who broke into your parents’ house entered through a bedroom window on the main floor, but left via the front door.”

  My cries fell silent instantly at the sound of Jace’s voice. I hadn’t heard him enter my room. I didn’t move, didn’t breath. My tears dried. Instead of replying, I let the close proximity of his presence absorb into my skin. My soul warmed. It comforted me, which irritated me. How had he made me crave his presence? I raised my head and pretended that he hadn’t heard me sobbing.

  “Your point?” I said, trying to sound strong.

  Jace leaned against the windowsill. My sight had improved to the point that I could see his hair with my eyes open. It fell around his ears and blew gently in the evening breeze from the open window However, when I tried to focus on the detail of his face, my sight still blurred. His chest rose and fell slowly before he answered my question. It was like he’d been trying to figure me out, piece my reactions and comments together to make sense of what he believed.

  “One report said the window was broken in the far right room, while another states it was the most southern room of the house,” Jace said and then sighed heavily. “There had to be more than one person who slaughtered your family.”

  “The most southern room was the far right room,” I said, and buried my head back into the pillow. He found another dead end. “I walked through the house a few years ago.”

  “How did you gain permission to walk through the house?”

  “I broke into it.” The pillow muffled my B&E confession.

  “You’re more aggressive than I remember,” he said softly and ran his hands through his hair. I wished I could see what he looked like – for real. I wished I could see life like I did in my visions. I wanted to look into his eyes and see if I could uncover the truth in them..

  “Stop comparing me to this D-chick. I’m not her,” I said, looking at his white silhouette. “My name is Gwyneth, not Deino.”

  He walked closer to the bed, carefully avoiding the creaky floorboards. I strained my ears, but I couldn’t hear a single footstep. I didn’t move as I watch
ed him come closer to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was breathtaking in my sight; I couldn’t imagine how I’d react if could actually see his every detail.

  “Will you admit it now?” Jace asked, sitting on the bed.

  “I’m not admitting any –”

  He interrupted by forcing out a deep breath. I followed suit, like we were connected metaphysically. “I’m not used to this side of you, but I must admit, it appeals to me.”

  He pressed his finger over my lips to keep me from arguing. I bit my tongue. My lips parted when he withdrew his hand and wiped an escaped tear with his thumb. His very touch was like a drug. The tortured hours of not being near him, returned the moment his fingers trailed away. A deep moan slipped by his throat. “Why do you lie to yourself, Gwyneth? Even if I couldn’t feel your heart race when I come close, it’s not difficult to see that you’re completely infatuated with me. Your ravenousness tempts me to simply steal your kiss. I can feel your anxiety ease when you hear my voice. Your need becomes mine… and you’re in dire need.”