The Memory Game: Extension

  ...

Trapped. Darkness. Alone. Pain. The words swirled around my brain, though I couldn't connect any of them. I shivered. The AC here wasn’t the best, and the window was stuck open. How long had I been sitting here, staring into space?

I got up off my cot and headed for the mini-fridge. This place was tiny, but it was the best Naomi could get. That girl was nice… I think.

She’d pinned a character file about me to the fridge, but I hadn’t known why until a few hours ago. Apparently, I’d had my memory modified against my will and this would possibly help retrieve it.

I stopped and looked over her messy cursive. At least, what I presume was her messy cursive. Strangely, I didn’t remember what her writing looked like. Even odder, I didn’t really mind the fact that I couldn’t remember it. I began to read for what felt like the hundredth time:

Name: Leo Rodriguez Valdez.

Age: 17.

Birthday: April 21st.

Hobbies include piano, reading nonfiction, learning new languages (that was partly why you loved anime), and travel .

Career plans: Archeologist and/or historian.

Educational plans (college, starting job, etc.): Major in Culture Studies, double-minor in Archeology and History. You planned on attending Columbia University and  joining the New York Historical Society once you were done with school.

It continued like this, listing my favourite colours, my relationship status, even my allergies and weak points. I wondered if Naomi had always been this detailed and worried.

I opened the fridge. A fly buzzed out of the only semi-chilly fridge and into the autumn night.

The only thing in the fridge was a small, round blueberry cheesecake in a plastic container. It looked like it had been bought from Costco.

When had I bought it? I took it out and placed it on the rickety dark wood table.

In the dim light, it looked like it was about to go bad. But I didn’t have anything else.

I plopped down on a spindly chair and lifted the lid of the sheer plastic.

It smelled like how I thought a fruit tart would smell.

I took a slice out with my bare, unwashed hand and took a big bite out of it. Hmm. Sweet, milky, and a little bit tangy on the end. Overall, not bad. I continued eating, trying but failing to savour the food.

A gust of wind made a delicate flower pot fall over and smash. Water spilled onto the floor and wilted red poppies were scattered everywhere. I jumped.

That’s when it happened. 

Fragments of pictures--memories?-- flashed through my head, as though waiting for the right moment to present themselves.

I was eating cheesecake just like I was now--with someone I didn’t recognise. Someone with dark purple hair and eyes. I fell to the floor, unconscious.

I was chained up by shadows that were creeping slowly down my arm towards my heart, each tendril of darkness feeling like a burning wound. The woman who’d sedated me was trying to make me tell her something. Something to do with Naomi. I wasn’t telling.

The same woman was still trying to force me to talk, through mental pain this time. Through a movie-like, nightmarishly realistic film, where Naomi admitted she would leave me to die, and that it was a relief to be rid of me. I screamed that it wasn’t real and tried to shut out the voice I’d known so well.

Now she was trying to hurt the other side of the friendship: Naomi. She forced my face underneath clear, sparkling water. I choked and gagged, thinking she was drowning me, and then-- then it was gone. All of it.

I dropped my cheesecake slice. It smashed onto the table. I didn’t care. I needed to write these down so I wouldn’t forget them.

I grabbed a stray sharpie and began writing them down on the best surface I had.

Then I started to head for the door. Wait a second. I couldn’t just tell Naomi right off the bat, she’d kill me for waking her up so late. I’d have to make sure I needed to tell her.

Frantically I pelted to the fridge, carefully avoiding the vase remnants, and flipped through my friend’s character files.

There it was. Concrete proof.

Greatest fear: Being abandoned… by me.

I bolted out the door and down the freezing fall sidewalk, then snuck up the fire escape and quietly rapped on Naomi’s window, flashing back to when we were little and would still talk after it had grown dark.

When Naomi lifted the window up at my knock, dressed in a light blue sweatshirt. She swore loudly when she saw it was me. “Leo, what the hell are you doing here?” she hissed. “It’s almost eleven and I have school tomorrow!” She crossed her arms, clearly not pleased at my sudden appearance.

“I’m sorry Mimi, but it’s too important to wait for tomorrow.”

“What could possibly be so important that it would risk my--” Her dirty look turned into one of shock. “You--you remembered my nickname!” she gasped.

“I’ll explain once we’re inside,” I replied.

“Give me a summary, then I’ll let you in.”

“Fine.” I took a deep breath. “I remembered way more than I did when we played that game, and I need to piece it together with you.”

Naomi’s eyes widened slightly. “But how…?”

“I ate some cheesecake.”

“You ate some cheesecake...And it worked as a memory trigger.” It wasn’t a question.

I nodded hard.

“Well, that’s a new one.” She stepped aside to allow me to climb through the window. “You know the rules: Quiet.”

Her bedroom was painted mint-green with a white loft bed.

Naomi wordlessly pointed at the ice-blue carpet, and we both sat. “Explain,” she said bluntly.

I held out my hand, palm up, for her to see. She grabbed it in her own. “Dang,” she said, scanning the list. It reached my wrist. “You really had nothing better to write on?”

“My main concern was getting it to you,” I said, slightly amused.

“What’s ‘Tortured by darkness’?” she asked. “And… ‘psychological torment’?”

“Darya didn’t know what Kali was doing to me, so I assume she thought I was just trapped.”

Naomi convulsively seized my wrist tighter, looking slightly sick. “Details,” she whispered.

“Are you sure you want to hear them? You’ll probably never want me out of your sight again.”

“You don’t know if that’s true yet.”

“So, yes?”

She just looked at me with her burning black eyes, waiting.

“The physical pain was like—like shadows burning my flesh and slowly killing me.” I pushed up my hoodie sleeve, revealing deep scars trailing up my arms like snakes.

Naomi’s eyes widened again until they were the size of quarters.

“The psychological pain was…” I shuddered. “Well--you should know what that is. You put it in my character files.”

“...which are about five pages.”

“You wrote them!”

Naomi let go of my wrist and went deep in thought, trying to figure out what it was that’d hurt me so badly. It didn’t take long.

“You… saw me deserting you,” she whispered.

I flinched slightly, and nodded.

She grasped my forearm tightly again and gazed fiercely into my eyes. “Leo Rodriguez Valdez, I will never abandon you until the end of time itself, and even after that. You’re practically my world.”

I gave her a tiny smile, then winced. “Thanks. I really mean that, but ouch, could you please let go, before you give me a bruise?”

She hastily did so. “Okay, now that you’ve told me, more or less, what you’ve been through, let’s piece it together. Right now.”

“But where do we start?”

Naomi looked at me like it was obvious. “With the secret Kali wants.”

“But what is the secret?” I was starting to get a little frustrated.

“To sum it up, there are five kingdoms in the U.S alone: Sun, Moon, Light, Shadow, and Sky, but the Elements change depending on the place. That’s why Darya’s a Water Elf, she was an exchange student from Puerto Rico. 

“And I know for a fact that Switzerland has a Chocolate nomad group--don’t ask,” she added, spotting my confused look.

“Anyway, each Kingdom is connected to a Core, which gives them their unique powers. But the Cores are all hidden, and nobody knows where the other Cores are except me.” 

She paused to shiver a little. “Kali knew I’d found the most powerful Cores because Darya told her, that’s why she was my enemy.

“The skulking shadow spawn’s been trying to get it out of me for years, but if I told her, she’d overthrow the government and force humans to retreat.”

“Retreat where?”

Naomi took a deep breath. “Retreat to death.”

I stared at her. “That’s… dark.”

“I know.”

“And… what are we doing to stop it again?”

“I’ve been refusing to tell Kali since I was thirteen. I was going to ask you to unknowingly recruit other Elves for a ‘school social experimentative project’, but then--” 

And she shrugged as if to say, stuff happened. “So--now we’re knowingly going on a trip to enlist magical people.”

“...Wow.”

“Yup.” Naomi looked at her digital clock. “Looks like I’ll have to fake-sick tomorrow rather than get late detention,” she laughed. “Do you want to stay here tonight? In case you get any more nighttime realizations?”

“Are you serious?” I stared at her again.

“Um...ye--”
“YEAH!”

Naomi jumped a little, then laughed. “You really are becoming yourself again, Valdez.”

And then, she turned out the light.

Virtual high five to you if you know the reference in this story! (Hint: Check out A Writer's Wonderland ;D)

--Dreamstar