Our Darkest Memories

~ Lost Memory

5 weeks before forgetting

We entered the abandoned store that seemed like an earthquake had ruined it. A part of the roof in the middle of the store had collapsed and we had to move around the rubble to find what we were looking for.

It had been three days after Blaze had her spastic attack and Raiden and I had our fight. At that moment, however, Raiden and I were walking down a shopping aisle in the middle of the night. We had left Blaze in the car, where she had been sleeping. Good, because she wasn't allowed to know what we were going to do.

Tomorrow it would be Blaze's birthday and, like the party people we were, Raiden and I had decided to set up a little surprise for her.

So we left Blaze behind and were now searching the shelves for the things we needed. We knew it wasn't gonna be a big event, but we wanted to have some extra food and we were trying to find some lights and a radio.

"We can't miss this when we're going on a shopping spree, am I right?"
Raiden held up a red shopping basket with a wide smile.
He handed it over to me, and I jokingly made a small curtsy.

"Why thank you, I did need that."

Surprised by my own silliness, I heard how a chuckle escaped his lips and we moved further down the aisle. We stopped when we found a little, dark purple radio. It was old and dusty, but we found that it still worked, and that was all that we really needed.

Next, we split up the tasks.

"You do the food, and I try to find lights?" Raiden suggested. I agreed and we both moved a separate  way – I went to the left and Raiden to the right.

I only managed to make a few steps before I came to a halt again. I was faced with a mirror that reached the roof, and my reflection almost scared me for a moment. When I realized that it was only a mirror, I took in a breath to calm myself again.

In the mirror was a girl my age. Like me, she was wearing black cargo pants, a white crop top, and a black vest over it. She had the same face as me, her eyes expectantly looking back. But I was surprised by her fitness. Was I really looking like that? Was I really that well-rested? And why did her whole body radiate positive energy?

I shook it off and my gaze moved up to my hair. It was hanging in a simple half up half down situation, but when I looked in the mirror, I quickly removed the little band that was holding my hair together. The hairstyle wasn't covering something that I wanted to be covered. It didn't cover something that I wanted to be buried deep in my memories, somewhere in a dark place. Trying to make my hair cover up the damaged skin on my face, I shook my hair loose.

Satisfied, I turned around to continue my journey to find some food only to see that Raiden was watching me from a few steps away. When he noticed I caught him staring, he quickly averted his gaze and moved further down his aisle.

I followed his example and moved down my aisle, where I found some bags of chips, a few cans of food, and a bag of marshmallows. However, my real prize was when I turned around and saw a small cake. I almost jumped in the air from excitement. It wasn't a fancy cake. It was a wrapped one, but it was still beyond my expectations. Happy with my catch, I shoved it all in the basket that Raiden had given me.

I was about to try to find Raiden when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I turned to my right to see a rack that was supposed to be full of jewelry. It was empty now. Or, almost empty. Curious to find what caught my eye, I walked towards it, only to find a small necklace, still hanging on the rack. It was silver and had a small pendant hanging from it.

When I inspected it further, I realized it was a moon, only it was split into two sides; a black one and a white one. The white one was bigger than the black one, creating an almost complete moon circle with the white. The black side was smaller but completed the white side with its lunar-shaped form.