I am an aspiring author for the sci-fi/fantasy genre and decided to post my story here on Steemit. Forgotten is the first book in my first trilogy about a woman who remembers a life she never had and has forgotten everything about her real life.
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Forgotten (Rose of Petrichoria Book 1) - Chapter 4
In that moment, time stood still for me. I couldn’t open my eyes as I flashed back to a moment in time I shared with David. The gun I just shot had just been purchased a little over an hour before and we were standing at my gun safe. It was a big decision for me to buy a gun. Only recently had I felt the need for it while he was away. The house two doors down had been burglarized and I wanted to be prepared should something happen while David was on a business trip.
I put the pink-handled Walther PK380 gun in the safe for the first time and locked it. David gently put his index finger under my chin and turned my head so we were looking straight into each other’s eyes. I knew he was about to give me advice from the look he was giving, but I had been momentarily distracted by the deep blue color they were. I always felt at peace looking in those eyes; like I was escaping into the sea of his soul.
He took a deep breath and said something I would never forget and had considered before I pulled the trigger on the strange man.
“Miriam, this gun is not only yours by right as an American citizen, but it is a major responsibility. Before you ever pull the trigger to shoot an attacker, remember that it is something you can never take back and it will change your life forever. There will be lawyers and police reports and possibly even news reporters. However, the most important thing to protect is your soul. So when you are looking that person in the eye, keep that in mind.”
I had been surprised at the advice; at how fatherly he sounded. A lot of women would have been offended at his tone; they may have thought he was being condescending. But that was not how I felt; I knew that he said it out of genuine concern and desire to protect me even if he wasn’t home.
Little did I know at the time that the moment would arrive; the moment I would have to think it. David wasn’t just away on a business trip; he was dead. Harmony was catatonic across the room for some unknown reason, I was drugged, and a stranger stood before me to make good on his promise to take me out.
Everything had been considered. What it came down to was that if I died, Harmony would be left all alone; her dad, mom, and brother gone. I couldn’t do that to her. After all consideration, I pulled the trigger.
BANG
In the relatively small space of my bedroom, the sound was deafening. My ears rang and hands shook from the impact of the recoil. Despite all the strange things that had just happened, I was positive I didn’t miss; he had been standing right in front of me. For another couple minutes, I kept my eyes closed, breathing deeply and rapidly, not wanting to face the gory dead body I knew I would see once I opened them.
I can’t believe I just did that. But we’re safe now. He can’t hurt us if he’s dead.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes, but saw no dead body. Instead, I saw the man still standing in front of me, smiling at me. Terrified, I stumbled back and fell on my rear.
“How is that possible?! Who are you? What are you?” I asked as I tossed the gun unsafely onto my bed.
The man put his hand back into his breast pocket. I knew that he would just do whatever he planned. If I couldn’t shoot him point-blank, then there was really nothing I could do to help my circumstances. I held my breath.
He paused and pulled out what looked like a picture frame. As he looked at it, I exhaled loudly and gawked at the situation. He had no weapon; I just shot at an unarmed man. Horrified with myself and scared stiff at what this man was getting at, I brought my hands to my face and began sobbing. I had reached the point that I had enough.
“Please. I can’t take the madness around me anymore. Just do what you’re going to do and stop messing with my head!”
Holding out the picture to me, he gestured for me to take it. Shaking even harder, I reached out and took the framed picture from his hand. It was a portrait; a picture of me, but not me. I was much younger in the picture with a tiara of gold jeweled with emeralds. Instead of a necklace, I wore a broach that matched my tiara and the dress was a deep green, made of some expensive material. The color of my green eyes seemed brighter and my black hair seemed darker.
I was so confused. When I looked up from the picture, I saw that the man had gone to his knees so he was at eye level with me. His face began to shift and change until he became recognizable. He was Doctor Smith. I dropped the photo to the floor and pulled my folded knees in front of me, wrapping my arms around them.
“This world is not your own, Miriam,” he said, lowering himself again to my level.
“Doctor Smith? What have you done to me?!”
“You can call me John.”
“Whatever you want to be called is completely irrelevant right now, John.”
“It isn’t. It’s important to me that we are on a first name basis, that you will recognize me.”
“Okay then. John, what have you done to me?”
“Saved you.”
“That’s a leap. You may have been there for me when David and Tom died, but I don’t remember you saving me. This is certainly not saving me. You’re literally driving me mad and have somehow made Harmony catatonic in the middle of the room.”
“I’ve done no such thing to either one of you.”
“I’m not stupid! Look at her,” I said, pointing in the direction Harmony should have been; but she wasn’t.
“Where is she?” I screamed as I jumped to my feet and began searching my room. John just sat in the middle of the room, like he was patiently waiting for me to come back. Not finding her in my bedroom, I opened the door to the hall to search the rest of the house. Behind the door was a blinding light; the rest of my home appeared to be gone. I slammed the door shut and turned to face John again. When I did, my bedroom had disappeared, being replaced by white space and a table with two chairs.
John gestured for me to have a seat. Feeling utterly defeated, I sat down and put my head in my hands. I wished I could pull myself together to be stronger, more defiant, but I was overwhelmed at the nonsense of everything that had happened so far in my day.
This must have been how Alice felt when she was lost in the woods of Wonderland.
“Where is my Harmony? I can’t lose her, too.”
John tilted his head with a look of empathy spreading across his face. He clearly knew what was going on, but wouldn’t say it. As if trying to figure out what to say, he looked down at his folded hands on the table. There was a long silence as I stared John down, knowing that repetition of my question was getting me nowhere. As silly as this seemed, I had been told that my stare could bring anyone down and it was my last resort; in all the nonsense of the day, I figured I would give it a shot.
John looked up and stared right back into my eyes. Unlike David, his eyes were brown; they didn’t seem cruel, as I expected them to be. I concluded that he must be psychotic and had brought me into his psychosis somehow.
John finally responded to my question. “Miriam, Harmony is no longer here.”
“I can see that. Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “She has found somewhere to be, though.”
“That is not a satisfactory answer! I demand to know where she is right NOW!”
“I can’t give you an answer I don’t have, Miriam. I’m not the one in charge here, believe it or not.”
“You’re not making any sense at all. You are going to make major bank selling this drug, by the way. I think I’m officially crazy.”
John laughed. “Miriam, I have not drugged you, at least not in the way you’re thinking. I’ve saved you.”
He was leaning in now on his elbows. “This will all become clear in time,” he said.
I turned my head and saw that the picture was now propped up on the table. Pointing to it, I said, “What is this about? I have never worn a dress as nice as that, much less a tiara. And I’ve never been that thin.”
Again, John laughed. What he was finding so humorous, I had no idea. I wasn’t trying to be funny; I was trying to get answers.
“I assure you that it is, indeed, you,” he said with a smile.
“Okay, so you’re really good with some photo editing software.”
John just shook his head. I ran my fingers through my hair starting at my face and working back to just above my ears and held my head there.
How am I going to get out of this?
I thought to myself, but was shocked when my thoughts echoed out loud in the room for both John and me to hear.
“Don’t worry, Miriam. We will be taking you out soon,” John said. Then, he disappeared; so did the table and chairs. I was left standing in the middle of the whiteness. I looked around to try to settle myself into my new surroundings. Looking up, I saw the same bright light I had seen when I opened my bedroom door. Everywhere else around me, there was nothing. Being that there was no floor, I didn’t even know how I was standing.
“Miriam.”
I heard my name behind me with an impossible familiar voice. It was followed with two more voices synchronously speaking.
“Mommy.”
I turned around to see my whole family; David, Tom, and Harmony all stood there. Harmony spoke first with excitement.
“Mommy, I found Daddy and Tom! Are you so happy?”
Wide-eyed with confusion, I nodded and approached my family while beginning to weep with joy. If I was going to be stuck in this psychosis, at least it would be with my family. I strode straight up to David and gently brushed his cheek with my hand.
“David? Is that really you?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes. It’s me,” he replied as he gently brought my hand down and pulled me into a kiss. I held him tight; I felt that if I let go, he would vanish and I would wake up from all of this being a strange dream. I felt tugging on my dress.
Great. Now I’m in a dress. When did that happen?
Looking down, I saw Tom holding on to the end of my pink sundress. He had a giant, toothy grin and blond curly hair. I dropped down to my knees and pulled him into a tight embrace with tears in my eyes.
Jokingly, Tom said, “Mommy, I can’t breathe!”
We all laughed with him and I turned to hug Harmony, too. Harmony decided to copy her big brother and said the same thing, which made everyone laugh harder. David came down, too and our whole family hugged each other.
“I’ve missed you all so much” I said. “I don’t know how all this is possible, but I don’t really care at this point. If this is a dream, let me sleep. I don’t know how I could possibly live my life without all of you again.”
“I don’t know how we’re here either,” David said. “But I agree. I’m just glad we’re together again.”
“Let’s play Duck, Duck, Goose,” Harmony suggested. Though it was odd timing, we all decided to acquiesce to her request. Harmony declared that she would be it and circled everyone several times before making Tom the Goose. She would get his seat and he would do the same thing; he chose Harmony and took her seat. That’s how it went the whole time. Tom and Harmony just kept selecting each other while David and I took in the joy of our children playing together again.
The game eventually transformed into a game of tag between Tom and Harmony. I moved over to David and sat next to him, putting my head on his shoulder and holding his hand. Somehow, we went from sitting on the floor to sitting on a white bench. Not caring that my thoughts would be broadcasted to everyone, I thought –
This is perfect. I could live like this forever. I never want this to end.
I had the terrible feeling, though, that this wouldn’t last forever. I knew that David and Tom were not really there; they were gone and were never returning. Whether or not Harmony was actually there, I didn’t know. I didn’t care that I was experiencing some kind of hallucination; I was happy.
At the peak of my joy, I saw John appear.
“It’s coming close to time,” John said.
David and I stood up together. “Time for what?” David demanded protectively.
“Time to take your wife out,” John responded nonchalantly.
“I guarantee you that you will not be doing anything of the sort today.”
“I guarantee you that I will.”
John snapped his finger and David disappeared.
“No!” I screamed and began crying immediately. “Bring him back!”
“I can’t, Miriam. He is gone forever now.”
Tom and Harmony ran over to me. “What’s going on, Mom?” Tom asked.
“I’m not sure, honey,” I said, trying to be as calm as possible for my children.
Harmony walked right up to John. “Please don’t take my mommy. We love her.”
John snapped his finger and Tom disappeared; he snapped again and Harmony disappeared.
“It’s all for the best, Miriam.”
I was beside myself in agony, reliving the tragedy of losing my family again. “How could you do this to me? What kind of game are you playing here?”
“I am playing no game,” John said. “We simply thought you might want to visit with your family one more time before we take you out.”
“How did you even do that? Where are they now?”
“Technically, you did it yourself. We just guided you into it. As to where they are now, I have no idea. They have found somewhere to be, though, and you can be sure they are together and happy.”
I sat back down on the bench.
“Why are you doing all this? Why not just kill me now? Why do you have to torture me before doing it?”
John sat next to me and looked me in the eyes. “We are not going to kill you. We are going to take you out. We have saved you.”
I frowned in confusion.
“It will all make sense in time. I promise,” John said. “We haven’t done it yet because things are not quite ready for you yet.”
“What things?”
“I would rather not say here. I would rather you wait and trust me.”
“Trust you?! You’ve been tormenting me with hang-up calls for weeks, threatened me, and have taken my family from me. How can I possibly trust you?”
“I’m sorry about those calls. We were having a hard time communicating with you so deep into it.”
“Into what?”
“It will all make sense in time.”
I stood up, angry. “Stop saying that! I don’t want things to make sense in time; I want things to make sense now!”
“I can’t give you answers now. It would not be safe. We are so close to taking you out; you just need to be patient a little longer.”
“I haven’t been patient and I have no intention of being patient.”
I tried to pull myself together again.
I’ve had to do this quite a few times today.
I closed my eyes and tried to cement my new memories of David, Tom, and Harmony into my brain. I didn’t trust John, but I did believe him that my family was now gone forever. I would never see David’s blue eyes or my children’s curly hair. There would be no more games or cuddling. We would never sit on the bench at the park. I was pretty sure I would never see Emma again, either.
John put a hand on my shoulders. “I’m sorry that this is so difficult for you. We never expected it to be this long or for you to go so deep. We really only thought it would be a couple months.”
I stopped trying to make sense of what he was saying.
It will all make sense in time.
John smiled, having heard the thought broadcast. I still believed he was psychotic and had no idea what he had done to me, but I was sure I was doomed. My life as I knew it was over.
John disappeared again, leaving me sitting alone. “We’re ready for you now, Miriam,” I heard John’s voice, but didn’t see him anywhere. I stood and looked around.
I felt my feet begin to dangle and I felt like I was floating. A bright spotlight shone on me; I had to cover my eyes. Slowly, I started being pulled up toward the blinding light. Not knowing where it would lead, I lowered my hand and closed my eyes instead. When I reached the light above me, I felt cold, as cold as ice. A few moments later, the light flashed brighter for a moment, then everything was dark.