Down Memory Lane ✓

14- Aunt Vera

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Aunt Vera

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I REMEMBERED.

It descended upon me like flashes of light blinking at first before merging into one full memory. The memory of the Cave of Memories.

I likened it to the visions I had when I was back in high school, but it was faint, only resembling a hazy dream. I remembered crying in the forest after Jane revealed my mother's habit and then seeing a girl who led me to this cave.

The cave was the same one I drew in high school—or rather, the first chance. The man I met, who the girl called her dad, was the same man Mariana drew and referred to as the Keeper.

I remember he told me his name, but that piece of information eluded me. And his face contorted before drifting away from my memory as soon as it came.

He had talked about three chances that I had to learn from and just as I was about to go through the door...

Pity, she won't remember this, the girl had said.

That meant Mrs. Morris was right. They somehow made me forget the conversation I had with them. Or was it the cave itself? If so, then forgetting my encounter in the cave would make it hard for me to realize the reason I was in my past.

That would increase my chances of being stuck here!

If Mrs. Morris hadn't told me the little she could, I would have never known I had seven days, and if I had stayed more than that, then what?

I placed the sketchbook beside me on the bed, willing my eyes to move away from the jarring image. It was... me!

This was still my second chance, but I had to get back to the cabin. My real life. If it was the cave making me forget, then one could say I've been pretty lucky to remember as much—or little—as I did.

What if I wouldn't remember anything when I got into the third chance and the memory loss was enough to make me forget I was at Grandma's place? What if I got stuck there?

I needed to find a way out and I felt it had to do with the event—or do I say, the person—that supposedly brought me here.

Aunt Vera.

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I ate breakfast with my thoughts swirling around, which almost made me miss Tony calling out to me. He looked dressed for the weather in his boots and black winter jacket and his beanie in his hands.

He'd been going out frequently if you ask me.

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking all about? You seem confused," he asked.

I was.

"Oh, nothing much, just this lesson that I have. It's like homework, but I don't know how to go about it," I said in an alternate version of the truth. There was no way I could begin explaining it all to him. It would most likely bore him or confuse him.

"Well, have you tried researching about it?"

"Searching?"

"Yeah. Google seems to have everything, or what least something on everything, so maybe you'll find something on your homework."

That's genius!

Why hadn't I thought of that? Well, that's if Google has any info on magic because that's what this was, right? At first, I didn't think magic was real, but now...