Scars and Stitches

Chapter 12: "I believe in the power to forget."

It's not so easy loving me

It gets so complicated

All the things you've gotta be

Everything's changin'

But you're the truth

I'm amazed by all your patience

Everything I put you through

Chapter 12: "I believe in the power to forget."

In the middle of the night she woke to the soft crying of the baby from his crib. A knock at the door, and Maka heard Soul answer it. Then she heard a man say: "Can I come in and see the baby?"

Slowly the door creaked open to reveal a smiling figure in a dark suit. He walked into the light and his slightly shadowed face looked a bit weary, old even.

"Papa," said Maka with a gentle smile on her lips. "Of course you can."

On December 12, 2011, Maka's world changed forever; she gave birth to a baby boy. At the time she was only 19 years old.

They had caught the man who destroyed her innocence the same week of her violation. He was sentenced to death.

Years earlier, they had caught the man who had shattered Soul's innocence as well. That sentence was found to be true, and to this day he was in prison. Soul had thought he was, anyway. He didn't know for sure, because he had tried his very best to forget him. It was that, or succumbs to the hatred that threatened to define his life.

But now, both could not even recall the incidents that had created such pain, such raw and pitiful emotions.

When I'm about to fall

Somehow you're always waitin

with your open arms to catch me

You're gonna save me from myself

from myself, yes

You're gonna save me from myself

For a while Spirit had tried forgiveness in relation to Stein, since that course of action is supposed to be liberating. Now when he said "for a while," he really meant "for years", but it was there that he failed. There are some things that cannot be forgiven, at least for him.

Instead, he slowly, and carefully, wipes his name clean from the slate of his memory. Now and then something would happen; one of his old classmates would call and ask "whatever happened to whats-his-face", and he'll have to start all over to try and forget. He thinks about what could have happened, thinks about his death, and what had become of his soul.

My love is tainted by your touch

Cuz some guys have shown me aces

But you've got that royal flush

I know it's crazy everyday

Well tomorrow may be shaky

But you never turn away

Even now, as Maka tried to sort out her feelings, his name tries to emerge, tries to struggle free from the paper, the now blank paper where they erased it. The mark is still faint, a glimmer of recognition, but it remains pretty anonymous, she doesn't have to live with a constant, aching anger. It means that she doesn't have to be trapped in that moment of history. It means that she can continue with her life, never forgetting the love she has for her partner, or what it meant for him to do all the things has done, but not being possessed by a need for vengeance.

Don't ask me why I'm cryin

Cuz when I start to crumble

You know how to keep me smilin

You always save me from myself

from myself, myself

You're gonna save me from myself

"You must believe in the power to forget."

Ms. Marie had told her that. At the moment she was puzzled, she couldn't even remember the past few weeks to even forget. Neither could Soul, but somehow she began to figure out that everything was going to be okay no matter what anyone said about them.

How many old grudges still fuel the fires of revenge in this world? How often have more people had to die because of a fixation on a memory? How much better would things be if we could just clean the slate, forget the offenses we've suffered and the ones we've inflicted, and move on?

I know it's hard, it's hard

But you've broken all my walls

You've been my strength, so strong

But still it gnaws at her sometimes.

When she looks at her son's shadowed face in the moonlight, frightening marks shaped like stitches appear on his pale, creamy skin. His content, peaceful smile when he laughs, morphs into a maniacal grin. And sometimes, a blurred memory tries to rise to the surface of the sweetness now coating her daily thoughts. Sometimes, she just ignores it, but mostly it disturbs her senses, dulls them.

And don't ask me why I love you

It's obvious your tenderness

Is what I need to make me

a better woman to myself

to myself, myself

You're gonna save me from myself