Black Bloodstains
Chapter 13: When the Levee Brakes
I walked out of the showers; my hair was still wet, and my stomachache turned out to be my period. That could explain how emotional and touchy I feel at the moment, but the pain bothered more than the emotional shifts. My mom taught me how to put on a sanitary pad. It feels weird, but I instead have that than staining any piece of clothing I’m wearing. My mom gave me some clothes she told the maid to buy. It wasn’t a big thing, I wasn’t wearing jeans but a set of very comfortable sports pants, and a regular t-shirt.
“Are you all set?” She asked me as soon as she sees me. She isn’t wearing any high society kind of clothing, just what I would call a cute sundress and some sandals. She is taller than me made me feel smaller and weaker. I also sensed something else, something weird inside of me. My mom was gorgeous, very very pretty — not only her face but also her entire body. The only similarities I could notice is the color of her hair and the accentuating curves we have. She caught me staring at her, which made her giggle and smile. “What you looking at sweetie?”
I blushed and looked away, not wanting to tell her the real reason I was staring at her. “The dress is beautiful, mom.” I gulped not wanting to lie to her. It just felt bad how I’m lying to someone who is trying to be sincere and friendly to me. “I was also distracted on how pretty you are,” I say it before closing my eyes and putting my head down. I felt so embarrassed that my cheeks could explode any second.
“That’s so nice of you to say.” She said patting my head. “So… are you ready to spend time together just the two of us?” I nodded and played with my hands. After my small breakdown, she proposed to spend the rest of this day together. Given the fact that I’m very sensible, and that it is the first period I’ve ever had. She took my hand and dragged me along the halls of the castle; I didn’t notice the twists and turns we did to reach our destiny. We arrived at a kitchen, it is clean and filled with many different cookware I’ve never seen before. “I thought you might want to eat something, you’ve got something in mind?”
I walked towards the fridge and was amazed by the variety of products it contained. It looked as if every corner was filled until it couldn’t fit anything more. “I know how to make an omelet, and I could make you one if you want.” She walked behind me and hugged me from my neck.
“I would love one sweetie.” She said helping me out with all of the ingredients. I grabbed a cutting board and a knife that was nearby. “Be careful, it’s very sharp and you could…” She became speechless as I cut with ease the mushrooms, onions, green peppers and tomatoes. Cutting them quickly first into strings, and then into small blocks. “Where, where did you learn to do that?” She said astonished.
“I used to work at a fast food stand, we had salads on the menu, and we were practically forced into cutting them as small as possible,” I said as I finished up cutting the veggies. “And where I used to live I had to make my food there. I remember going to a small supermarket, and cooking the things I bought. And since I’ve always eaten healthy, cutting veggies isn’t very hard for me.” I placed the veggies on a bowl that then I added four eggs, and now I’m just waiting for the pan to heat up a bit. My mother sat on a nearby chair, and she had this look of being very interested in what I was saying.
And she was, I practically told her everything that I could remember, from my “mother’s” affection to my first memories of being a ghost. We had fun, and she made some comments here and there that make me laugh. She also was a bit touchy since she felt a bit guilty of all that happened to me. In short, we cried and laughed, kind of a weird experience, but I must say we became a bit closer after that. “And how was your childhood? You haven’t told me anything about it yet.”
“My childhood…” I muster between my teeth. What do I remember from my childhood? Memory isn’t like a record for you to search for a specific memory, you find it since you can remember it. And now I’m standing in the middle of the kitchen, trying to remember something from my childhood. Now that I mention it, I’ve never had thought of my childhood, I was born in the outskirts of NY, and I know that because of my birth certificate. “I can’t quite remember, I just… AAH!” I yelled as I suddenly felt a shook passing through all of my body. I pictured something in my mind, even if it was just by a small frame of time, an image, I couldn’t tell what it was.
Suddenly I got drowned by images, every second there was something there, and something, something I had a feeling that I needed to remember. And it hurt, it hurt a lot. Each image a shock wave passed through all of my body. I grabbed my head in pain and fell to the ground immediately. I couldn’t tell what was going on around me, and I was focused on trying to focus on one single image. Before I passed out, there was this picture, this memory, which lasted more than the others. Something, someone, was standing there, in front of me, it was several feet taller than me, and then I passed out.
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I wasn’t quite sure of the situation; I don’t even fully understand it. First, it turns out that Elizabeth is an old classmate named Geoff, then she becomes this over the top criminal and is being searched by the FBI of ghosts, then she turns out to have an unimaginable source of power, and it turns out she was a princess all along? And now I’m at the gates of this enormous castle, which leaves the empire state to shame! From all five of us, I’m not sure why I was chosen to accompany Alice to this trip; I understand why she brought Kalyn, but me out of everyone else?
We had passed the main gates to enter this structure; the halls of this castle were as impressive as the outside. They were made out of some obsidian material, with marble details. Three guards ran up to us, acting a bit nervous as if they had reasons to fear Alice. “They are waiting for you, and please follow me.” They guided us through the halls of this place, filled with paintwork that I’m not sure what they represent.
It took us some time to get to our destination; it felt as if I walked the entire length of my school campus. They showed us the way towards one door, telling us that the king and queen and inside there, and that they are waiting for us. The room was kind of weird as if you combine a mad scientist’s lab and a library, filled with instruments and machines I have no idea what they do, and books scattered all around the floor. I noticed three people standing up, and one lying down in a bed.
If I have to guess, the king was the one who had handsome features and dressed up with the classiest attire. The other man looked like a healer, long hair, lenses and a robe that reaches to the floor. The woman that was with them is gorgeous, and it took my breath away the moment I saw her. We walked towards the object they were all looking at, and we found Elizabeth chained up and looking exhausted. “Elizabeth!” I yelled making everyone in the room notice us.
“She can’t hear you son.” The king spoke to me. “She’s in some shook state, and hasn’t moved for like two hours.” He patted my head and walked towards Alice. “Alice is a pleasure to have you here once more.” He grabbed Alice’s hand and kissed it. “I’m thankful for you to arrive on such short notice.” He grabbed Alice by her shoulder and walked her towards Elizabeth. “She went into some coma after she forced herself to remember something from her childhood. We’ve tried several methods, and not seem to be working.”
“I did notice that her brainwaves appear to be stuck in one thought, and her memory seems to be forcing that thought constantly.” The guy with the robe spoke up. “I speculate that she’s trying to remember something, but another source of magic has locked that thought. If so, someone needs to enter her mind and try to free her just by looking at her memory.” He walked towards Kalyn and I with his arms crossed. “Which of these two knows her the most?”
“The boy has been with her more time than any of us. Her mind would easily accept him.” Alice told the guy, and he immediately pulled me towards another chair. “Dad, we’ll have to discuss the terms about Elizabeth after this. I can imagine how badly you want to be with her, but your part of the deal is still in process.” They chained me up and placed me in a bed right next to Elizabeth, Alice walked next to me. “Sam, it’s a huge favor for me to ask you this. You’re going to enter Elizabeth’s mind and see what is going on inside of her. Sorry for not asking you if you’re willing to do this, but you’ve spent more time with her than any of us in this room.”
“You’ll be alright, so no need to worry.” The king told me as he placed his hand over my head and on Elizabeth’s. He began to mutter some words, and I felt something pulling my head, more like what’s inside my head. I got very, very sleepy, and then I just fell asleep.
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The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was running, somehow. I felt my heart beating faster and my lungs about to burst. I was running on a street, not sure which one, but due to the skyscrapers in the background I could tell I was back home. ‘Need to hide, need to hide, need to hide.’ This thought was continually repeating over and over again in my head. I wasn’t thinking about it, and it is as if there were someone else speaking in my head.
I felt my body rush towards a playground, scraping my legs with the ground. I felt the pain, but I immediately covered my mouth and nose with my hands. ‘Need to be quiet, need to be quiet.’ The thought once more appeared in my mind. My body twisted itself to hide under the main structure of the playground, hidden inside the tube slide. My body hugged my legs, and I felt tears coming down my cheeks.
My body tensed when the ground suddenly began to shake. I squealed and hugged myself even tighter. “Tenebris…” Some groggy monster-like voice spoke up. Since I was inside a slide, I couldn’t see who the person who made that voice was. But just by listening to it, I wouldn’t want to meet it. “I know you are nearby, not only I can smell you, but I can feel you. Don’t you remember we are connected?” He began laughing loudly, and my body hugged even tighter.
The ground trembled, I could tell the thing was approaching me. The playground suddenly began to shake; a girly squeal came out of my mouth. The creature lifted the stadium off the ground, my body stopped hugging itself and grabbed as tight as possible the closest thing that was in reach. The thing threw the playground away, with me catching it. The velocity he threw us was incredible; I almost let myself drop down. Luckily he had thrown the stadium towards the shore, we still landed heavily, but at least it was water.
My body quickly swam up to catch some breath. Black hair covered my face, and my body immediately removed it. I couldn’t move, but my body began swimming towards the shore. I think that we got lucky, a bit less force and we would have been smashed into the ground. My body crawled and coughed out both water and blood. I felt exhausted as if I had spent the entire day running. My body jerked up and stood up, my legs were trembling, and I felt as if I could fall any second.
‘At least the sunset is pretty.’ The same thought came up in my head. And indeed it was. You could see the sun slowly hiding between the buildings, and the sky with different shades of orange rather than blue. My body walked towards the shore, making my feet touch the water. I looked down and saw… Elizabeth!? I am Elizabeth, well duh I’m inside Elizabeth’s memories. This is not Elizabeth as I know her. This is a very young Elizabeth, perhaps eight or ten years old. Her eyes shined on the water reflection, and she was wearing something I would barely call clothing. She had no pants, no shoes, only a rugged and scrapped brown t-shirt, which at least was big enough to cover her private parts.
She sat on the shore and started crying, covering her face with her hands. I could feel her feeling scared, tired, exhausted. She was thinking of wanting to have a normal life. I could feel her remembering all the things she went through. I couldn’t tell what they were; I could feel her remembering and cry about things that happened to her. I wanted to hug her, and comfort her, to try to make her feel better. Time flew by; she was resting on the shore, tears on her face, trying to relax.
“Are you okay?” A voice, somewhat familiar came from behind us. Elizabeth got scared and fell towards the water, her somewhat dry clothes now were wet again. Elizabeth out of poor instinct took out her blades that appear on her arms and stood up in a battle stance. She tried to hold it, but she fell to the water immediately after. The boy ran towards Elizabeth and pulled her out of the water. “I’m sorry to scare you, but you shouldn’t do that if you feel sick.” Elizabeth turned around and faced the boy. ‘Geoff?!’ I try to say, but the words never left my body.
He had the features of Geoff, straight black hair, brown eyes, his face was softer, and he isn’t as bulky as he will be. “Hi! My name is Geoff, what’s yours and what are you doing here?” Yup, definitely Geoff. “Don’t you know there’s a public pool some streets from here?” He held his hand for Elizabeth to grab. With her body trembling due to the exhaustion, and how cold she was, with Geoff’s help, she could finally stand up.
“I don’t know my name,” Elizabeth spoke up. “But some people call me Tenebris….” Her body shook just by saying those words. “… so I think you can call me like that.” I felt her body tensed up, wondering if she should act aggressively or friendly towards Geoff. “I was forced into the water, and It is not like I wanted to get wet.” Or slightly she is feeling a bit offended by his comment. She’s ten I think it's normal for her to think like that.
“I also have some bully problems at school, and they keep on bothering me and hurting me.” Ten-year-old Geoff answered. Gosh, I remember the things we did to him, he was a funny guy to bother. “Hey, since both of us are bullied, maybe we could be friends.”
‘I don’t have a bully. I’m being chased by a dragon who wants to take my life at all costs.’ Elizabeth thought. Suddenly Elizabeth’s body tensed, she was scared once more, and she was feeling something weird inside of her. ‘Can’t you give me a break?!’ She thought of running, but due to her current state, she knew she wouldn’t make it far. ‘Maybe I could hide in the boy. I’ll lock my memories and erase any trace that Elizabeth ever existed. Would I still be me? I don’t know, but at least I’d still be alive.’ I felt energy forming in her hands, and then she pounced towards Geoff.
Elizabeth was in a position that would count as rape. Geoff was screaming while Elizabeth was saying some weird words while casting a spell on Geoff. Her hand was glowing with a black aura, and it was slowly entering Geoff’s head. Yes, Elizabeth was entering Geoff. I felt my legs phasing inside of his, and gradually Elizabeth’s body merged with Geoff’s. When the final part of Elizabeth joined with Geoff, my head hurt badly and I passed out.
This thought remains in my head. ‘I’m sorry. But thanks to you I live.’
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I told everyone else about what I saw in Elizabeth’s mind. My head was bursting in pain, and I was a little dizzy afterward. We sat in a nearby living room; they brought us several biscuits and brought me a special kind of tea. They were currently arguing about what I saw in her mind, and recent events mainly the ones including Elizabeth. “Look, brother, we cannot just let these events pass by!” One sort of old guy, who randomly decided to join us said. “We need to inform everyone that he’s coming back! His menace will bring all of the nations together once more!”
“We cannot start a war, while we’re on the verge of one!” The king said standing up and analyzing the mask from the guy who attacked Elizabeth the other day. “Besides, we don’t have enough proof yet, and it’ll only make Elizabeth be more in the spotlight. We currently have to things to prove that Romoth is coming back, this mask, and the disappearance of the Great Ones inside Elizabeth’s body. And I doubt they’ll believe us since we are family from Elizabeth, it’ll just look as if we were trying to cover her.” He sat back on the couch, still analyzing the mask. “Thankfully we have the best cover for her. Alice, please let us catch up with your plan.”
Alice almost chuckled with the tea she was drinking. “We’re getting quite close to the objective.” She answered placing the cup on the table. “My men are all working restlessly to gather the energy we need.” She covered her face when she looked at the stare the king was giving her. “Look I know I’m not getting the results you want, but I’ve been working on this for years! And I can’t collect a lot of energy for the cause, because the cause is struggling to survive!” She rubbed her face and rested on the couch next to me.
The king’s brother, who was looking at me while Alice talked spoke up. “Looking at this young man’s dumbfounded stare, I assume you haven’t told him about your cause.” Alice blushed and nervously shook her head. “And neither Elizabeth…”Alice blushed even more and slowly nodded. “God Fucking Dammit!” He shouted tossing the papers he had in his hand to the ground. “Why haven’t you told her!”
“What do you want me to do!” She sat up screaming, and it was kind of hilarious having an eleven-year-old arguing like that. “I can’t find any good moment to tell her about my plan. I couldn’t tell her when she came out of Geoffrey’s body, nor after knowing that she’s royalty, then she had her first job, Achilles attacked her, the great ones absorbed her, do you think it is a good idea to tell her after all she’s been through!? I don’t want her to have a heart attack. I need a perfect time to tell Elizabeth about…”
“Tell me about what?” Elizabeth interrupted. She was holding the arm of her mother, and she looked as if she struggled to walk. You could notice the similarities immediately between Elizabeth, and her mother, the face structure, the hair, the only difference was the height difference, which I assume she’ll gain it with the pass of time. She sat on another couch with her mother, of which she looked as if she would never stop holding her. “I heard most of the conversation, would you please explain to me, the reason you need me?”
Alice sighed and sat down. “Fine… it’s a bit of a long story.” Elizabeth looked at her with a face of ‘I’ve got the time.’ She sighed once more, drank some tea, and sat up straight to tell her story. “Well, my name is, Alice Monique Ruplant of Winterhail, daughter of the now dead, king Grogan, and queen Rosette, of the ice empire. That’s what I told you. It’s all true, my father is the dead king Grogan, and I’m the heir to the throne.”
“Until my brother illegitimately stole it from me.” She took a sip from her tea and continued speaking. “You see my brother, who is a couple of years older than me, used to be the original heir to the throne. But as he grew up he became distant from the family, and his personality changed, he became somewhat of a maniac. But my father had enough when he found out that his son was learning to use forbidden magic. He banished him from the palace, and wanted to hear no more of him.”
“I was born then, sort of in need of a new successor to the throne. I knew that’s the only reason I was even born, but I can’t complain, I was born into loyalty, who could say no to that.” She drank more of her tea and took a bite of a biscuit. “It was around when I was this age.” She said gesturing to her body. “twelve human years if I’m not wrong when he came back. It was a rainy night, the wind was blowing loudly, and there was thunder everywhere. I was still a bit afraid of thunder, so I slowly walked towards my parent’s bedroom looking forward to sleep with them.”
“That’s when I saw him for the first time. The window was broken, the wind was roughly messing around with the curtains, and the raindrops entered the room. The setting was kind of hellish. Everything was broken, there were pools of blood on the bed and the ground, and he was standing there, in the middle of the room holding something in his hand.” ‘So this is my precious little sister’ He told me before throwing the thing he had towards me.” She did a little rest, clearly hurt by the things she was saying. “A lighting lighted up the room, and gave enough light for me to realize that I was holding my father’s decapitated head.”
“Afterwards I can’t quite remember what happened. My brother banished me from the castle and placed a curse on me. My body can’t physically grow beyond this age, I’ve been twelve for quite a while.” She drank more tea, before standing up and walking towards the king. “Afterwards I just wandered around carelessly, I didn’t have nowhere to go. A few days passed until this fellow found me.” She grabbed the king’s shoulder and shook him. “He was looking for me, and after all that had happened he decided to adopt me.”
“How could I say no?” The king answered. “Grogan was a very close friend of mine, to me he was practically another brother. I still remember visiting your palace and play tea with you when you were even smaller.” Alice blushed, and the king laughed loudly. Elizabeth’s face changed in a second. She couldn’t believe what they were saying and just continued to hug her mother’s arm. “We adopted her long before you were even born Elizabeth, Alice is around the same age of Zachary, and we adopted her a bit after Rafael was born.”
“So we’re technically sisters,” Alice said smiling towards Elizabeth. “I remember looking forward to playing with you, and I even learned to knit sweaters and such. I also began to get tired of living in a body like this. No one could take me seriously, and the doctors of the castle couldn’t find a cure. My patriotism towards my country was and is still alive. After knowing the situation in which my brother left it, I couldn’t give my back to them. I started giving energy resources to the poorest sector of my country. And that’s where the idea of a revolution began.”
“I started with a small group of people, who started to get energy in legal ways. And that small group of people grew and grew. Right now all sectors except the nobles had joined to my cause. We tried to bring down the government, but we couldn’t.” She sighed and sat down once more next to me. “My brother had mastered illegal magical technics never seen by our people, and by himself, he could quickly destroy our entire army.”
“That’s where you step in.” She said pointing at Elizabeth. “Even before you were born, you registered enormous amounts of energy. By yourself, you leave my brother as nothing. And that’s when you weren’t even born. So after we had to send you to the human world, I decided that I would find you, and bring you back here. So you could properly develop your magical abilities, and that you could…” She blushed and couldn’t look to Elizabeth to her eyes. “… Help me bring my brother down.”
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Kalyn and I were finishing the last touches on the portal to get us back home. Using some red talk and an already printed version of the entrance, she guided me and corrected any minor mistake I did while drawing it. “Did you know about Alice and Elizabeth’s relationship?” I asked her standing up from the ground and cracking my spine. “And did you knew what Alice had in mind for us?” Since I finished the portal, I walked next to Kalyn who was sitting in a garden chair.
“She did tell us about her relationship with the new member of the group. Just a few days before Elizabeth joined the team.” She told me while I gave her the chalk so she could save it. “I remember Alice being overwhelmed in joy. She told us she had spent years searching for Elizabeth, and that she finally found her. It was the happiest I’ve ever seen Alice all the time I’ve spent with her.” She crossed her legs and looked at the sky. “She was even shy to talk to her since Alice is naturally a cold person, she didn’t know how to talk to her, she practically pushed her away.”
“Alice is a lovely person when you get to know her. She was way too shy to start a proper conversation with Elizabeth. Her hands trembled, and she acted all tough around her.” She laughed loudly and looked towards me. “I’m glad she was practically forced to confess the truth. Maybe she’ll finally bond with her little sister.”
We were distracted by a sudden sound coming from behind us. We turned around, and when we noticed that it was the king walking towards us, we stood up and salute him. “No need to act so formal around me boys.” The king said sitting on one of the chairs next to us. “I can see that you finished the portal back home. However, before you go, I have a task to give you Sam Johnson.” I approached him, nervously playing with my hands. “Every time you notice that Elizabeth is struggling in her sleep, I want you to enter her dream and do a dream diary out of it.” He handed me an amulet, which I slowly took. “Place it around your neck, and place your hands on her forehead. Her memories can contain important messages of her past, and due to her condition she won’t be able to remember by herself.”
The door opened once more. This time Alice, Elizabeth, and the Queen stepped out. Elizabeth continued embracing her mother in a hug. She didn’t look to have any intentions to stop doing so. They approached us, and Alice immediately stepped in the middle of the circle. Kalyn stepped up next to her, and I did the same moments later. Elizabeth took her time, and it seemed that she wanted to remain there, with her mother. The queen told her something, which made her slowly part away. But she couldn’t last long and hug her once more. She stepped to us quickly, but I could feel she didn’t want to go. The portal began to work, and we started to travel back home.
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“Elizabeth…” I knocked on her door and yelled her name. “You can’t stay on your room for the rest of the day!” When we got back from her father’s castle, Elizabeth’s attitude completely changed. She didn’t react to Shawn bothering her. She looks self-conscious, nervous, scared. She approached me and told me secretly if we could go back home. She hid her hands on her pockets and put on her hoodie. As we walked home, I noticed how she shivered and trembled whenever anyone passed nearby her.
As we got home, she immediately ran towards the guest room. I try to ask her what was wrong, but she shunned me away and hid in her room. I respected her privacy and let her be throughout the whole afternoon. It worried me a lot when no kind of sound was made from her office. She ignored meals and dinner, and has been on her room doing god knows what. I got tired of waiting, and I used the keys to get inside her apartment.
The room was dark, which didn’t surprise me at all, I was accustomed to having Elizabeth being very fond of darkness by now. There wasn’t any movement at all, and I walked towards the big bulge hidden inside the sheets. I sat next to it, and gently stroke her back, just as my mother used to do to me. “Come on Elizabeth, you might not even consider telling me what is going on in that head of yours, but I assure you it’ll make you feel better.”
It took time for her to get up. But she crawled away from her covers and sat up on the bed. Her eyes were red, probably of crying, and she still shivered and looked very nervous. “Who am I, Sam?” She told me slowly. I didn’t know what to say, so I kept silence and smile at her. “I don’t know who I am anymore Sam.” She stopped talking and looked away for a moment. “I’ve never been Geoff, and I was just a parasite in his mind.” She grabbed her face and began tearing up. “And now I’m supposed to take the role of a hero. I’m supposed to save everyone from this great threat. How am I supposed to do that! When I don’t even know who I am.”
She began crying once more. I didn’t know what to do, so the only common thing I thought was to hug her. She slowly and happily accepted it. “Look I might not be the expert on saying this. But you are who you are. You aren’t Geoff, nor Elizabeth, those are only names, and a name can’t define you.” I stood up and took her hand. “Come on, and you won’t feel better moping around trying to guess who you are. Just be you.” I pulled her out of her bed and placed a pair on shoes on her feet. I pulled her out of her room and headed towards any direction. While we walked there, she had a look of realization. Did my words mark her? Only time will answer.
She stopped dead cold. I turn around and saw her majestic face. The wind was currently blowing her black hair, giving her this gorgeous look. She was thinking something, it took some time for her answer or say something. “Are we heading to the base?” She asked me, with a tone I’ve never heard her speak before. I nodded back to her, and I’ve got taken away by her current beauty, and couldn’t say a word. “I’ll catch you up later, and I need to check on some things.” That’s the last thing she said before running in the opposite direction from me.
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I jumped to the top of the roof. I felt in the mood of doing whatever I want. Sam is right, and I need to find who I honestly am. The evening had a beautiful color. The sun was beginning to hide in the distance, making the clouds and sky had an orange tone. The wind decided to blow on this day, causing my hair to move all over the place. I was running on the roofs of houses, jumping and rolling each time one house ended. My feet felt swifter than before, my senses felt sharp, and my balance was outstanding. I still have this sensation whenever I run; I haven’t changed on that.
I stopped when I reached the corner of my previous street, of my last home. I slow down and continue being on the roofs of the houses. The musky scent of the opened sewer brought back several memories. The street filled with cracks brought me back to the several amounts of times I fell from my skateboard. I continued walking until I reached the roof of my previous house. “There goes nothing,” I said out loud as I phased through the ceiling and entered my home.
The smell almost made me fall to the ground. It was some combination of rotten food and general dirtiness. The house appeared not to have been cleaned since I was gone. The walls covered in dirt and several gooey substances. I heard the buzz of a TV monitor, and some music coming from my “sister’s” bedroom. I used my powers to cover my body in a veil of darkness, which made me transparent to the human eye. I phased through the wall and entered my sister’s bedroom.
The smell of perfume hit my nostrils immediately. The room was lighted up by an ancient and rusty lamp. It produced light but barely enough to light up the room. I saw her putting on make-up and wearing somewhat revealing attire. She was wearing a very bright yellow dress, her breast was technically out of the clothing, and the skirt reached, and in general, it was very tight. My sister had a gorgeous face, and she knew how to make her look even better, by applying perfect make-up.
I left the room wondering if I had any memories of her and I interacting as siblings when we were very young. The only thing I could recall was that we never got to get along well. I couldn’t remember anything else, probably because those are Geoff’s memories. I headed downstairs, not pushing another breakout trying to remember something.
My “mother” was sitting on the couch watching TV. Her fat body made it look like if she was part of the material she was sitting on. I could hear her munch on some fast food product and get disgusted by how food flew out of her mouth whenever she laughed. I stared at her for some time, before heading to the basement. The door was opened, so I didn’t need to phase through it. The lights were turned on, and that recognizable smell of books brought a smile to my face.
My old library was still here, books filling boxes and covering most of the ground. I picked up the one that I was reading before all of this happened and left it back with the others. The objects I used to get my body fit are still here, and my previous backpack with the skateboard still attach to the back. I headed towards it and grabbed it. The material brought memories to my head, I flipped it over and stared at the artwork on the back. “I still don’t know what it means,” I said out loud without even realizing it.
“Who are you?!” A very, very recognizable, yet strange voice said to me. I looked at where it originated from, and saw Geoff, with a huge bandage covering his entire chest area. Is he able to see me? I thought to make my veil stronger with magical energy. “Not sure how you are making to make the light not shine on you, but I can still see you.” I decided to stop covering myself in darkness and stared directly at my previous body. “You look familiar, can I please know your name? I had an amnesia attack, and I can’t remember a lot of things from my past. Did we meet before?”
“Ye-es, we used to be friends,” I answered him, feeling a bit nervous about talking to myself, literally. “What, what happened to you?”
“Some beast attacked me on my way home.” He answered back feeling more comfortable. “It cut me right open in the chest. The doctors said that afterward, I fell so harsh to the ground that I completely forgot everything from the past something years.” He sighed and looked towards me. “So tell me, what is your name, and what did we use to be?”
“Elizabeth.” And I used to be you. “And we used to be very close friends.” I ran upstairs and turned my invisibility back on. I phased through the main door and ran outside. When I had enough distance, I turned my invisibility off and placed the skateboard on the ground. I began riding it like I used to. I headed towards the shore; the sea breeze always helped me clear my mind.
The afternoon appears to be calm. The wind, no cars passing nearby, my old skateboard and me, the breeze crashing into my face, the day felt chilled. Everyone must be at their houses, or a restaurant, or somewhere else. The streets had this feeling of complete emptiness. And so was I. I stopped on one part of the shore that looked very familiar to me. I grabbed the skateboard and headed towards the coast.
The breeze and the sent of the sea distracted me for a while. You couldn’t say I had a beautiful view. You’re just looking at the Atlantic sea in the evening. I could spot cargo ships on the distance, and the lights of New York City began to shine in the sky. “Who am I?” I’m not Geoff, I’ve never been Geoff, and I’m someone else. But, who is this person exactly? I can’t remember anything that happened to me under the age of eleven.
Time flew by, and I never did anything else than standing on the shore. I decided to head back, my mind is still a mess, but at least I shouldn’t make them worry. As I started to head back, I noticed a little piece of fabric stuck under a stone. I walked towards it and removed the sand, letting a full-size children’s dress fly to me. It was an old dress, filled with dirt stains, and it was ragged pretty much everywhere. “I can tell you who you are.” I turned around and saw a man walking towards me from the shore. It seemed as if he was coming out of the sea, he had several algae stuck to his fancy suit, and his attire was drench in salt water.
Without hesitation, I took my blades out and shifted into a fighting position. The man chuckled and combed his hair. “That’s how you greet an old friend?” He laughed and began walking towards me. “My dearest Elizabeth, you had no idea how much time I spend looking for you.” His body began to shift, he began to grow in height, his skin turned a bit greener, his right arm started to grow proportionally compared to his left. “We’re friends Elizabeth don’t you remember?” His voiced changed to a more rough and rusty tone. “We are connected!” He shouted this last part.
Out of nowhere, his right arm stretched all the way towards me. It felt as some combination of tentacle and hand. It sticks on my clothes, and he had the force to grab me tightly. His arm easily stretched over two meters. He sustained me in the air, several meters above the ground. He laughed loudly, no longer sounding human. His left eye was twice as big than the left one, several parts of his body had this green squid-like texture. I saw his jaw cracking, opening to unimaginable proportions. He had long sharp teeth, and his mouth had a black tone.
I tried to get free from this guy’s grip. But it happened too fast for me to come up with something to do. In seconds, he swallowed me whole.
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“Hello, Elizabeth.” A tired horse voice woke me up. My body was numb, and when I stood up, I didn’t even know where I was. ‘This feels oddly familiar.’ I thought to myself as I removed some goo, which was stuck, on my clothes. “You don’t see at all concerned by this…” I turned around trying to find the source of the voice. This time, rather than a gigantic person, an enormous Lizard eye was in front of me.
“Not the first time I’ve been in a situation like this,” I answered him looking for a way out of here. For some reason, I had the feeling that he wouldn’t let me out peacefully. “Who are you and why did you bring me here,” I told him with a dominant and confident tone on my voice.
“I’m your best friend, Elizabeth.” He answered me back. “I’ve been with you all this time. Never abandoning you, constantly having an eye watching over you.” I felt some pain on my chest and looked down and the three holes that Alice cut me open, began shinning orange. “You might not remember me since most of your memories are gone. I know you are smart, I’m sure you already know who I am.”
“Romoth,” I answered back, ignoring the pain in my chest.
“Correct answer.” The eye started to move all around the place as if it was looking at all of the parts of my body. “You finally came out of your cocoon…” He said still looking over all of my body “Bit bothersome, but it won’t affect me.”
“For what reasons?” I didn’t know how to speak to him. I couldn’t look all-intimidating, I’m talking to the man who needed whole nations to bring him down. And the people who gave me their powers, couldn’t hold him by themselves.
“I’m late for doing the job the lazy way.” He said finally stopping in front of me. “You’re too powerful for my men to take you down. I have to do the dirty work myself.”
“So that means, you’ll stop sending your men at me?”
“Not really.” He laughed loudly this time. “I don’t have any significant relationship with my men. Even if I know that they’ll fail, I’ll still send them to you. They might not finish the job, but they will at least hurt you while trying.”
“Why would you do that! To the people who are loyal to you!” I interrupted him before he could say anything else.
“You know nothing Elizabeth!” He screamed preventing me from interrupting him. “My men aren’t loyal, and they are afraid of what would have happened to them if they were against me. They’ll do anything I want not because they respect me because they fear me. They’ll betray their blood, only for them to live a bit more.”
We didn’t talk for a while, I was afraid to say anything to him, so I kept quiet and just prepared my blades if something happened. “Anyhow, I’ve got more important things to do. Feel free to do what you please to this squire.” He disappeared, and color returned to my eyes. I was trapped inside a stomach. I prepared an orb of dark energy, and set it to explode everything around me.
The guy popped like a balloon. And the gallons of water push me downwards. My body immediately changed to a water type. I was several miles underwater. I looked around and saw the mask of the guy lying on the ocean floor. I picked it up and used all of my energy to propeller my self to the surface. In seconds I had the air touching my skin, I had gone so fast, that I flew and remained in the air several minutes. The moon shined above me. I finally know what I have to do.
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“Were you that stupid to leave her all by herself!” Alice shouted at me. I was back on base, and everyone was preparing themselves for a very formal evening. “She’s an emotional wreck. The poor girl is having identity issues, and you decide to leave her all by herself! Even if she told you that she'd be back, do you think that she will return already knowing who she is, and what is her purpose?”
As on cue, the door leading to the school opened up, and a giant mask landed some feet away from Alice. Elizabeth was in the door, her hair was blue, and her body was soaked. She smelled like salt water and had some algae stuck to her shoulder. She had her blades out, and they were covered up in some green gooey substance. “I’m ready.” She said closing the door.
To Be Continued…
