Keditha's End

Chapter Twenty

Louis offered to take me back to his hotel room and introduce me to his friends, to which I cautiously agreed.

"I followed you guys and uh and saw your car crash. I was able to, to fight them off long enough to get you to safety." Louis tells me as I follow him into the room.

"What about Julian?" I ask.

Louis shrugs. "They got to him before I could and his sister was already dead. Collateral damage."

I shove Louis against the wall. "He wasn't just collateral damage!" I snap him.

A man slightly shorter tugs me off of Louis. "Athena chill!"

I elbow him in the stomach. He stumbles back, giving me a weird look. "How do you know me? I swear to goodness, if someone doesn't explain what's going on, I'll start you picking off one by one."

The man runs his hand through his thick black hair, looking behind him. "Um, D? She doesn't remember us..."

A another man sits on one of the beds, typing away on a laptop. He murmurs something to the man next to him with a dark red beard. "Well, there's many things to factor to that." He says.

I narrow my eyes, glancing between all four of them. "What?"

The man drops the computer on the bed, hopping to his feet. "But my theory is she hasn't been triggered enough." He says, tilting his head as he glances down at me.

"If you don't back up, I'll show you triggered." I snap.

He backs up. "What I was saying is we all got our memories from something that triggered flashbacks. You haven't had enough flashbacks to remember your past life, uh lives."

Louis nods. "We all knew you from a past life Athena."

I study the four of them intently. "No, you're wrong. There's no such thing as past lives." I turn, reaching for the door. "I don't have time, I need to find Julian."

"Athena wait!" The man with the red beard says.

A sharp pain shoots through my head. No, not this again. I stumble back, groaning in pain. Louis grabs my arm. "Athena, are you okay?" He asks as the voices echo through my head.

"Athena?" A deep voice echos. "What? Where's Julian? Wait, whose blood it that?"

The sound of a women crying fills my head. "I don't want to talk about it. Let's just go." The voice says. 

"Oh..." The male says, sounding eerily familiar to the bearded man.

"Brynjar, we need to go." The woman says.

"Why? My brother is dead. I don't care if they kill me."

The woman's voice pipes up. "Brynjar, I lost my parents and the love of my life all in one month yet I'm still fighting. Now I know I didn't knock that guard out for no reason, so let's go." They say in a agitated tone. "Brynjar please, I can lose anyone else."

I gasp, looking up. Louis crouches next to me, giving me a worried look. "Athena are you okay?"

I look at the bearded man. "Your name is Brynjar. You're Julian's brother, aren't you... weren't you?" I ask him.

His eyes widen is surprise as he grins. "Yeah, I am! You remember me?"

I shrug. "I-I don't know...I just remember hearing your voice and you were talking about Julian...He-he died."

Brynjar glances down at his feet. "Yeah, he did. By Philip's hand." Brynjar offers me his hand and I instantly take it.

"Who was Philip?" The man with the black hair asks. 

Brynjar shakes his head. "The scum of the Earth. He had some weird obsession over Athena and used it to kill Julian."

"Okay...What does this mean?" I point to the man who was talking about past lives. "You, can you tell me more about this past life stuff?" I ask.

"It's Donnie, Donnie Tenno."

"I don't care, just answer my question." I tell him.

Donnie sighs, picking up his laptop. "Like I said, we've all had experienced past lives. And when we enter a new life, we have no recollection of that past life. But something will trigger that memory, say a dream or flashback."

"I've been having flashbacks then?" I ask.

Donnie nods. "Looks like it, Kenny had dreams." He says, gesturing to the man with the black hair.

Brynjar, Louis, Donnie and Kenny. Got it.

"But this doesn't mean we had our first life at the beginning of time, you know with Adam and Eve. It was just Adam and Eve. Everyone had their first life at a different time in history. I suspect You, Brynjar and Julian all had your first life at the same time, during the 1500s."

"And you were there too?" I question, raising a eyebrow.

Donnie shakes his head. "No, mine was in 1862, Louis' was in 18... something." He mutters.

"1893..." Louis mutters, his tone somewhat aggressive.

"Kenny's was in 1899." Donnie says. "This also means we start a new life at a different time then others. So the fact that we have started our new lives together is most interesting." He clicks his tongue, lost in thought. He starts typing aggressively on his laptop.

"So I know you all from a past life? And it's just a coincidence we're all here together?"

"I don't think it's a coincidence but it also does peg the question...Why you and Julian keep ending up in the same date and time."

I slam his laptop shut. "It's just a coincidence, that's all. I wouldn't think too much about it."

Donnie gives me a look, nodding slowly. "Right..."

I sigh deeply, leaning against one of the dressers. "I know this is alot to take in." Kenny says.

"What are we going to do about Julian?" I ask.

"I'm sure he'll get his memory back." Donnie mutters, not looking up from his screen.

"I mean about him being kidnapped." I tell him. Donnie's mouth forms a o but he didn't looked concerned.

Louis taps his foot repeatedly. "May-maybe they took him back to America?" He asks.

I give him a look. "Why would they do that?" I ask.

"Well, I was just, just thinking they kidnapped him inste-instead if killing him. Surely they wanted him for something. Maybe they, they uh took him back to America where their main headquarters is?" He shrugs.

Donnie shuts his laptop, climbing off the bed and swinging the door next to the beds open, revealing a whole different room. "Well, discuss this all you want. I'm going to bed."

"He's right, we should get some rest before we decide our next course if action." Louis sighs.

"You can take my bed Athena. I'll take the floor." Kenny says, grabbing a pillow.

I shove him away from the bed. "Oh no, I'm taking the floor. If you treat me different because I'm woman, I'll gut you right where you stand." I snap.

Kenny freezes, glancing at his friends. "She's changed." He says.

"Feistier." Louis says.

"Deadlier." Donnie grins, leaning against the doorframe.

"What?" I question.

Kenny shakes his head, handing me the pillow. "Nothing, have a good night." I narrow my eyes at them before ripping the blanket off Kenny's bed. "My blankie..." He says in a mock whine.

"Fine, Good night then." I tell them.