By My Side - Sam/Aomaris Fanfiction

24) Memories

I made sure to tell Ronnie I knew about him and Matthew as soon as I could, resulting in a pretty interesting reaction.
"Wait, you knew?!" He screeched.
"Yeah, I knew," I smirked. "You and Matthew didn't really coordinate what you should say to hide your relationship. You're lucky Mika's oblivious, otherwise, she'd know too." Ronnie groaned.

We were in town on a warm mid-May afternoon, not for any particular reason other than to just hang out. Mika was out with Suzu and Naomi at the Pink Lady Café so I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with them into town. We'd been into Hot Topic, and unsurprisingly Ronnie spent all of his allowance on T-shirts depicting various anime characters and a Christophe Giacometti keychain, one of the characters from his favourite anime, 'Yuri!!! On Ice!'.
"D'you think Matthew would like Yuri on Ice?" Ronnie asked me, fixing the keychain to his backpack.
"Probably. He does seem like the type to like anime. I think he'd really like My Hero Academia, honestly. It's one that I actually really like, and you know me. I don't really-" I stopped short, staring past Ronnie's shoulder.

Far in the distance, down the high street, there was a figure standing still, staring directly at me. I squinted, trying to make them out. I stepped forward, confused. The more I tried to sharpen my view of this figure, the fewer people and colour I could see in my peripheral vision. All I could see was the figure stood in front of me. I quickened my pace and as I got closer and closer, I began to make out the person's features. Snow white hair, dark clothing...and bloodred skin. I froze immediately, uncomfortable and traumatising memories flooding back into my brain. I knew those features all too well. As the figure began to move slowly, my flight response kicked in and I turned to run, but I didn't get the chance. Sudden yellow light caught my eye and I found myself unable to look away from the person advancing towards me. There was nothing I could do to prevent the blazing yellow from filling my vision. And then... Nothing.

As quickly as it happened, my vision flashed black and then back to where I was, stood talking with Ronnie as he messed with his keychain. He was rambling on about his favourite characters from My Hero Academia, not paying any attention to me or the fact I'd wandered past him. But to be fair... I couldn't remember why I'd walked past Ronnie in the first place. I paused, but I had no idea why I wasn't in front of the bench with Ronnie. But I gave him a shout anyway and told him I was going to go get some food. Of course, he joined me.

By the time Ronnie headed home and I finally arrived back at the mansion, I was feeling sluggish and completely drained from being so social. I entered the living room and spotted Sam sitting on the couch, back on Breath of the Wild.
"Hey, Nix. How was your day?" I shrugged in response and flopped on the sofa beside him, snuggling into his side and sighing heavily. It was nice to be able to relax.
"You alright?" I nodded and he gave me a quick squeeze before returning to his game. He knew perfectly well that after a particularly draining day, I'd find it really hard to force any words from my throat. It had happened before after some of my days at school had been really stressful due to the upcoming exams. Sam carried me up to bed that night, giving me a kiss and a hug, then left my room to let me recover my energy on my own. The strange thing was that even after a full night's rest, I still couldn't talk to anyone. I chalked it up to all of my stress finally coming down on me, but by the third day, it was clear that wasn't the problem. Everyone had noticed by then, too. Mika, Suzu and Naomi, Mr Sawyer, Ronnie, and the incubi. But none were more worried about me than Sam.

The fifth night after this started happening, I'd wandered into the dining room, only for the incubus to instantly notice something was still wrong, but he still couldn't pinpoint what. I wasn't surprised, I couldn't either. It had been bothering him greatly but he knew me well enough to know I wouldn't talk if I didn't want to. Even so, it was driving him insane, but I didn't have an answer for him or myself. I ate in silence with my earphones still in, making the incubi and Mika rather worried. And when I'd eaten, I raised my hand in thanks to Matthew before instantly heading back to my room. Sam got up to follow me but Damien grabbed his arm, looking confused and concerned.
"I don't know what's happened to them..." He said quietly. Sam stared. "They're not blocking their mind from me, it's more like... they're not thinking about anything. Like their head is...empty..." Sam grew more concerned.
"What does that mean...?" He asked.
"More than likely, they're subconsciously trying to ban unwanted thoughts from themselves," Damien responded. "Usually it's caused by traumatic past events, but they've been fine up until tonight." Damien shook his head, unable to make sense of the situation and Sam headed up the stairs, more concerned than ever.