Chapter 17 - What are you trying to remember?
"SONOFAF*CKINGHORSEB*TCH!" I shouted out impulsively. I was scared sh*tless when I turned to my right. There was a kid crouching right next to me.
I quickly shut my mouth with two hands and looked down.
'Did they hear me?' I thought to myself. The kid right next to me scared me half to death. I could still feel my heart thumping through my chest.
"Don't worry, they can't hear you." As if the little girl read my mind, she answered while still focusing on the fighting couple downstairs.
"Given up on you? Then why does he mention you in that goddamn forsaken book!?" And the two people indeed didn't hear me. They continued to argue and the man continued to shout.
"What do you mean?!" The man became redder and his shouting became louder, reminded me of that tomato Michael from earlier heh. I then paused for a moment as my expression turned from blank to shocked.
"Is that Michael?" I came into realization that this man was Michael, but why does he look younger?
"Yes, it's papa." The girl next to me said.
'Papa? Wait, then that means.'
"Yvonne?" I said in a low asking tone. It was a silent question, but I myself was sure that the little girl was Yvonne herself.
"But …how? Are you alive?" I asked. Why would I be dreaming of a younger Yvonne and a younger Michael, and who is that blonde woman anyway? My mind started questioning things around me. How can I dream of a younger Yvonne?
"Don't act ignorant in front of me Phoebe, who's his songbird other than you!?"
*BANG*
The loud bang made me look back at the scene downstairs. Michael threw down a hardbound book on the ground and knocked out a table in the process. It was such a mess downstairs.
"You're seeing my memories." The small girl shook her head and answered without taking her eyes off of the two people arguing.
"That man...I loved him so much to the point that I loathe him." She said while still staring blankly at the younger Michael. She didn't wear any expression in her face, it was void of any emotion.
"Are you out of your mind!? What does a book character have to do with me!?" At this point, the blonde woman was no longer on the ground but was already standing up and shouting back as well. She was so frustrated because Michael in front of him didn't make sense.
"Then, why am I seeing your memories?" I asked Yvonne beside me.
"I need you to remember something for me." She said whilst her eyes were still glued to the couple below.
"You forgot something?" The question seemed dumb, but I honestly wonder what a dead Yvonne would forget. Why does she have to show me her memories in a dream? Can I really help her?
"Don't you dare shout at me you whore!"
"I…I don't remember." The young Yvonne held her head and her face wore a pained expression, as if she was experiencing a severe headache. I reached out to her to help and alleviate her pain if I can.
*SHATTER*
The loud shattering of glass made me snap my head back downstairs. My instincts made me stand up in thought of helping the woman but I stood still and looked back at Yvonne once more; the girl looked like she was in excruciating pain.
"Why can't I remember?" Yvonne's breathing pattern became erratic and her expression became worse. I crouched down to look at her face as she was now putting her face on her knees and grunting loudly.
"I NEED TO REMEMBER!" Yvonne suddenly snapped her head towards me and held me by my clothes. She shouted at the top of her lungs which was soon followed by a shattering sound.
Everything went into chaos from then on. The surroundings started to shake as if a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit the area. The frames on the wall started falling down and shattering to the ground, the chandelier and other lights started to shake violently and fell one by one.
"Argh!" I heard a loud ring inside my head, and as if my head was under one ton of pressure, I started rolling into a ball and pulling my hair. It was an excruciating pain that my scream became synchronized with Yvonne's. I closed my eyes and could only hear the words "REMEMBER" repeatedly.
.
.
.
'Remember'
'Remember'
"Remember!" I sat up suddenly covered in sweat and breathing hard.
"Remember…" I whispered to myself while calming my palpitating heart. I held my chest and took a deep breath as I thought of what had just happened.
"Remember what?" Unlike most of my dreams which I always forget, the dream I just had was very vivid. It stuck to my mind and made distraught for a few minutes. I wiped my sweat off of my forehead and looked around.
'What are you trying to remember?' What is Yvonne looking for? Something she's forgotten and trying to remember. And how the heck do I help her remember?
"That woman, I've seen her before." If I remember correctly, I think I've seen her in my dreams before. And as if something clicked in me, I started remembering things I've neither seen nor experienced before.
'That singing woman, flower, mom?' It took me a few moments to connect the dots and finally make sense of what's happening.
It's not completely impossible for a dead person to talk to me in my dreams. Considering that an alien from another planet summoned me here, it really won't be that surprising as that. I took the lucid dream seriously and arrange my thoughts properly. I felt myself disassociating for a second there. 'I thought I had DID.'
I looked around and grabbed my phone. The time displayed 10:32 pm; a few messages were there as well. I took my bag and walked towards the bedroom. I was planning on taking a shower since I was covered in sweat.
After taking a shower and changing into my sleepwear, I took out an empty notebook and started taking notes.
"To raise a goldfish, Day lily, Henry Welsh, Phoebe, KoshMedicals…" I started writing down words and connecting them with arrows.
'I really need Nova right now, when the heck are you coming back?' I thought to myself as I continued to take note of what information I have right now.
'This impulse I have makes sense now.' Why I have an unexplainable urge to look for a random flower, a random book that I wasn't sure even existed, and a document, it all makes sense now. And now I have to look for or "remember" what Yvonne forgot. I had no obligation to do this, but this is Yvonne we're talking about, a living existing person asking for help. The sadness and familiarity I feel for her was also a factor as to why I'm determined to help her.
'What is she looking for?' An object she forgot? A memory? Maybe a person? I started making different hypothesis from the things I've gathered from the dreams I had, but it was not enough to form a solid clue
"Maybe reading the book would help." I said to myself and went to a clear space where I can summon the book.
" .̷̺̬̬͚̝̩̻̄̈̏̎̉͌̌̒ͅ.̷̡̨̨̼͕͖̻̖̪̪̅͐̒̐̚̚.̴̢̥̣͉̺̝̤̣̩̿̓̉͘.̸̛̘̰͎̭̖̂̆̈͌.̶̛̞̙̝̮̙̎̓͌̐͋̕.̴̨͖͓̳̝͘̕.̴̠̱̬̩̪̎.̸̤͖̹̈͌̀͜͝͝͠͝͠.̷̞̮̯̦͖̠̘̯͉͐̌͛̕.̸̘̳̖̹̖͖̖̈̒̀̄͊̂.̶̢̳͙͎̅͒̒̓̄̆̚̕͘.̴̼͍̓́̅̍́͝.̷̼͙̻̬̤̘͑̎͋̾̂͜.̶̨̳̪̲̻̰̤̦̅̌̊͋̌̋̑.̸̭̬̀̈́̑̔̀̓̋͘͘.̸̰̐̈́͆.̸̳͇͓͋͒͑̂̎ "
After summoning the book, I prepared for it to appear in front of me and held both my hands under the spot.
"Gawd!" I missed the book by a finger and it slipped through my hands. I held my left foot and winced in pain. It felt exactly like when you stub your toe on a corner of a table. I held it with my both hands and stood up to grab the heavy book on the ground.
I sat down the bed and opened huge hard-bound book and skipped a lot of pages. I skimmed through the chapters where Yvonne appears and tried looking for anything important.
The first time Yvonne appeared in Nova's book was when Natalie and Lucas were seen talking to each other and eating in the canteen. Yvonne was pissed by the fact that Natalie was able to get Lucas's attention and even hold a conversation unlike her. She tormented her many times and Lucas does nothing about this since he still hasn't realized his feelings towards Natalie. Yvonne finally gets humiliated by her brother Victor during the Festival. This was also the first time Natalie meets Victor. Victor gets somewhat attracted to Natalie's innocent personality.
"S-sir, you don't need to go that far, Yvonne wasn't the one who did it after all." Natalie gets a second degree burn from a hot pot during lunch break. The prison booth achieved the goal of earning more than they spent on the project during the second day of the Festivities and the class representative treated the whole year 11 with hotpot and samgyeopsal (삼겹살)
(삼겹살 – grilled pork belly dish)
Yvonne gets publicly humiliated and shamed by his brother while he performs first-aid on Natalie. Yvonne didn't actually do anything, it was another male classmate that tipped the heavy pot on Natalie, but the male classmate didn't speak up as Victor was a famous internationally known surgeon, he didn't want the Reeves to come for him so he, along with the other students didn't say anything. Some of them didn't really care and just acted like it wasn't their business at all.
Yvonne hated that, to the point that she'll hurt Natalie on her own accord since "everyone believes that she's bad she might as well just be bad". Yvonne's character wasn't paid attention to and her next scene was in the Winter vacation party that prestigious families from different cities attended. This time, since the Williams (Natalie's family) was invited, Yvonne saw this as an opportunity to show Natalie what high society really is like. But as I've already read, she gets humiliated by Lucas instead and scurries away only to be scolded heavily. It doesn't specify what happens right after since the book focused on the relationship development of Natalie and Lucas as well as Victor.
The next instance was during the school trip that will happen in February this coming year. The class takes a trip to the Sunni province, also known for its famous "Field of flowers". It's acres upon acres of different types of flowers.
Yvonne intentionally loses Natalie when climbing the mountain in a "partner system" where two to three students stick together while following the tour guide. Natalie gets lost and falls inside a pit. The book doesn't specify what Yvonne does after that or why and how Natalie gets lost, it just gets narrated that Yvonne purposely loses her and gets lost as well.
Natalie was found immediately before sunset but Yvonne was not found until a forest ranger sees a student lying below a tree. She basically stayed the night out. She once again gets scolded and wasn't even asked if she were okay, she got blamed for what happened to Natalie which infuriates her even more.
The next scene she's present at is during examinations, when Yvonne planted a test key inside Natalie's bag and Natalie gets in trouble big time. Lucas tries to find out the truth and looks at a CCTV footage only to see Yvonne put a paper inside Natalie's bag during lunch break. Yvonne denies it even though it has evidence and she gets suspended for it. She's basically gone for the whole month and has to assist a professor before being allowed to take the exams again.
Her final appearance was during the university's prom that happens in May. She tries to ruin Natalie's dress, succeeds, gets caught, and is expelled from school; that was her final blow. She gets sent to the states and dies miserably after her third year there as her "family" wasn't in contact anymore. The book didn't state that she died, but as Nova said, the book doesn't focus on the cannon fodder and extras of the story. The spotlight is mainly for the leads and leads alone.
"She's most likely looking for something after." She only appears in total of 6 times together with the leads in the story. It doesn't say when where and how she died. Even Nova himself doesn't know what happened to most of the extra's in the book he made. Nova only knows that she died.
"Is Yvonne perhaps, trying to remember how she died?" Since no one in the book knew how she died, it wasn't recorded in the book, it was just, there. She just died with no explanation; like a stage actor that went out as fast as she came in the stage; like an extra with only a few lines to say; Yvonne was only there as a factor to make Lucas realize his feelings.
"What are you trying to remember?" I rested my back on the back of the bed and sighed. The book refreshed me of the events, but it didn't really have any clues that can point me to what Yvonne's looking for.
*CREAK*
I sat up straight when I suddenly heard a creak which was followed by footsteps. It was indeed creepy but it wasn't enough to scare me.
I'm a 30-year-old doctor who's seen much more things than a ghost. I never believed in ghosts but meeting Nova and even talking to Yvonne was shaking my belief in the possibility of ghosts being a hoax. I believe firmly in the saying that "You should be more scared of the living rather than the dead" and besides, I've seen more guts and dead bodies in my life to be scared of ghosts.
I stood up and reached for a pair of scissors on my desk and leaned on the door. I could hear someone walking and stopping in front of my door as if hesitating to come in or what. I reached out for the doorknob and got my sharp scissors ready.
*Sound of door knob*
"Wha-"
