Forgotten

Chapter 1 : QUESTIONS

Chapter 1 : QUESTIONS

I open my eyes to total darkness. My arms are folded over my chest. I appear to be in a box. A large wooden box. Only just enough room to move in. I slowly push my arms up. Damn it, I can't lift the lid. Oh, I wish I was smaller. I feel a tingling sensation all over my body...

It seems warmer in here now. Itch! Behind my ear... Can't... Quite.... Reach... Oh, that's better thanks. Wait. What? I'm in a box all alone, but now I can move around. In fact, I can now run from side to side. But that still doesn't answer my question. It actually gives me more questions.

Think, first question; why am I in this box? I probably can't answer that question 'till I'm out of the box. Ok, next question; why can I scratch behind my ear when both hands are on the ground? I don't remember being able to get my foot behind my ear before I was in the box. You know what? I can't remember anything from before I was in the box. I wonder, if I reach back and touch my ear... What?! Why is my ear big, round and soft? Like tissue soft. Only one thought comes to my mind, but I'm afraid to face it. I reach further back to touch my leg... It's furry! Not hairy like I haven't shaved in a month, but furry! Furry like a mouse! That answers why it's warmer now. Doesn't explain why I'm hungry now. I touch my tongue to my lips and feel two enormous teeth. Well, that proves it. I'm a mouse. That actually solves a couple questions. There are three questions that have not yet been answered: why am I in this box, how am I going to get out and why did I turn from human to mouse in the blink of an eye?

I guess I could chew my way out, I think mice can do that. But what if the box is underground? I guess I could just dig out. For now I'll just try and get out of the box. I'll chew near the top, just incase the box is underground. So I start chewing away at the box and eventually I taste something that isn't wood, it's dirt.

After about an hour or so of constant digging (with paws not teeth) my eyes were blinking in the harsh sunlight. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I looked around to see where I was. I turned around and saw a headstone, crumbling and bits falling off but when I looked closer, I could read it.

"Here lies Evangeline Brown,

(1845 - 1861)

Taken by sickness.

Let her forever rest in the arms

of our Heavenly Father."

How could that be? I was dead, but now I am alive. Why did they think I was dead? What was that?! I just heard a crunch. Oh look a person!

"Hey, excuse me! Oh, you idiot, you're still a mouse! How's he going to understand you?" Funnily enough, he's coming this way.

"What are you doing?" He scolded "shifters aren't supposed to talk when they are in animal form." Animal form? Shape-shifters? What is he on about? And can he really understand me?

"Luckily we are in a graveyard where only the dead can here us. Anyway, how did you get in here? I had someone waiting by the only entrance so no one else would come in, unless..." He looked towards the hole in the ground near where I had come out of the coffin. "Oh." He then walked away. After a couple of minutes he came back.

"Here" he said, and tossed me a deep blue hooded cloak. Then he pointed to a large headstone and told me to change into a human. So I went over behind the headstone, dragging the cloak behind me. When I was behind the headstone I thought about all the qualities of a human, sort of like the situation with turning into a mouse. They can walk... They can talk... They have opposable thumbs...It's not working! Ok, keep thinking... Some of them get bitten and turn into vampires... Wait, how did that thought get in there? Oh no, that same tingling sensation all over my body...

And now, of course, I crave blood. Perfect. Oh well, I'll put the cloak on and go back over there.

So I walk back over there and see the man (well, actually more of a boy) carefully placing rocks in the hole and pouring soil over them, almost so it looks like the hole was never there.

"I have a slight problem" I said, very sheepishly smiling at him. He saw the fangs.

"Seriously?" he said, "just don't let anyone see your teeth and keep the hood over you so they can't see your eyes". My eyes? I can understand not letting people see my teeth, but why not my eyes?

"Why do I have to cover my eyes?" I asked. Then I noticed that he too was covering his eyes with a pair of sunglasses. Then he took them off. Wow! That's weird. His eyes are like a galaxy, filled with billions and billions of stars.

"That's why" he said, obviously seeing my awed expression. "Each star is a form that I can take. For some of us, we have to choose by retreating back in our minds and searching for the one we want. Others can only change shape when they are in a certain habitat. Then, every couple of thousand years you get one that can change just by thinking and can also never be a human ever again..." He trailed off here, looking at my eyes rather sharply, "did you have trouble taking the form of a human?" He asked, very close to me now.

"Y-es..." I said.

Then he simply fliked his hand in a motion that sort of meant 'walk this way' and we started walking along all the rows of headstones. Soon we got to a pair of headstones that looked about as old as mine.

"These are your parents" he said. And, he was right. On the headstones, clearly carved was this:

'Here lies Richard Brown,

(1818 - 1928)

A husband to Mary Brown,

A friend to all who knew him,

A father to his beloved Evangeline Brown,

Taken from us by the devil,

Let him eternally sleep,

In the arms of our Lord.

AMEN

Here lies Mary Brown,

(1821 - 1931)

A wife to Richard Brown,

A friend to all who knew her,

A mother to her beloved Evangeline Brown,

Taken from us by the devil,

Let her eternally sleep,

In the arms of our Lord,

AMEN'

"They were both killed, just as they reached their prime" he said, a little sadness in his voice.

"Who killed them, and why?" I asked.

"We don't know who, but as for why... I'll tell you when we get to HQ." then he started walking away. I followed him all the way to the entrance of the cemetery.

"By the way," I asked "what year is this?"

"2861."

"Oh, ok." I quickly added up the numbers. I can't believe it! I've been underground in that coffin for the last thousand years! The question is; why?

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Not sure on how I should keep going, anybody got any ideas?