Our Darkest Memories

~ Lost Memory

6 weeks before forgetting

The rain was falling from the sky and my shoes were soaked. I hated wearing wet clothes. The others didn't seem to bother it as much as I did, though. Raiden's childish side seemed to have awakened because he and Blaze were excitedly jumping from one puddle of water to the other.

I shook my head at the sight of Raiden, who was a 19-year-old boy – basically a man if he acted like it – jump into a huge puddle with a wide smile, causing Blaze, who was standing next to him, to be completely splashed. She burst out in laughter when Raiden lost his balance and fell backward. He was now lying in the pool of water, his clothes entirely wet.

Luckily, he wasn't wearing his backpack, because I was currently guarding those in a small bus stop that had a roof so my clothes could slowly dry.

Raiden got up from the water and, like a dog would do, shook off as much water as possible. He turned his head to me, and then bent down to whisper something to Blaze. She nodded her head up and down and chuckled.

Raiden ran towards me. At first, I thought he was going to grab some dry clothes, but his grin gave it away. When he almost reached me, I realized what he was gonna do, and I quickly unleashed the force in my mind to stop him from running to me to give me a hug so that I'd be even wetter.

He kept running, not realizing that I was onto him, and so he suddenly clashed with the invisible shield that I made with my telekinesis. He stumbled for a moment, trying to find his balance. Surprisingly, he managed to stay standing but gripped his nose while he exclaimed a loud 'Ow!'

Behind him, I saw Blaze bend down, completely losing it. She was laughing so hard that she clutched her stomach, and I just sheepishly smiled at Raiden.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked to tease him.

"I'm getting killed, that's what I'm doing! I think you broke my nose!" he dramatically accused me.

"Oh, get over it, you big baby. Shouldn't have tried to mock me. Let it be a lesson for next time."

He pouted, making me grin even more.

Blaze, who was still chuckling, started to walk towards us.

"Hey, what are you laughing at? Your sister over here just wounded me!"
His melodramatic voice made me roll my eyes, but I was actually quite amused.

"She does not hold back," Blaze agreed. "It's your own fault, really."

I started to chuckle and pointed her at the fact that I saw that she had agreed to Raiden's plan, but she just shrugged her shoulders at that, her eyes still twinkling.

In the meantime, the rain started to stop. After changing into dry clothes, we decided to start walking again. We didn't really have a destination, but we were in Tennessee now, heading east. We were close to the borders of North Carolina and Virginia, but we weren't sure yet where we were gonna go.

Raiden and Blaze started to walk ahead of me – in Blaze's case, hop – while I followed them.

Blaze seemed so happy. I had never seen her smile more. It had been such a long time since I have seen her genuinely hopping around. She was always optimistic, yes, but I could always tell that she was sometimes just pretending. It made me wonder if she was keeping that act up for herself or me.