The Cage Breaker

8- I black out... Again.

I wake up the next morning and bury my head into my pillow. As I wrap my hands into the threadbare duvet, the memories from the previous night flood back. I groan internally and try to loose myself to sleep again. It doesn't work. I'm forced to get up.

I'll have to work this out somehow. I'm just so confused. I want to know who I am, who Karis is. And the best way to do that is talk to Tori. I put it off last night, but I can't do that again. I don't know why I put it off, maybe because I don't know how to ask. I like to be independent, I hate to rely on others. If I want answers, however, Tori is the place to get them from. And so that is where I'm going.

*****

Preparing myself for the 'talk' with Tori, I round the corner and wave to my friends. Indi looks up from her fathomless staring at the extremely disinteresting floor of her cage and smiles. Chi-Chi waves tiredly, and Tori doesn't see me. I guess it's early, but the prisoners get little sleep. Someone's always awake. Most sleep at random times during the day and miss their meals, only to wake up and find the person in the cage next to them stole it. Many fights have begun this way.

"Hi!" I smile.

"Ah, Miss Cage," Chi-Chi mock bows," What brings you to our humble hovel?"

"That's a stupid question, Chi," Indi sighs," it's obviously my good looks."

I stifle a laugh with my hand. "Actually, Indi -although you are just stunning, I assure you- I came to see Tori." Tori looks up at the sound of her name and smiles at me. Again, I feel the same déjà vu I did yesterday. I know her. I'm 100% sure on that fact. But why? Why on earth do I know this completely random criminal?

We get new prisoners here every other week. It's nothing new. Men and women, young and old and in varying states of disrepair, we've go the lot. You want to talk to a murderer in their 30s? We've got 15. A child thief? We have 54. They come all the time. But why is Tori different?

"What you wanna talk to me about?" asks Tori, a teasing undertone to her strangely familiar voice. Ah. This is where I'm stuck. What do I say? 'Um, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I think we're somehow connected from the past that I've mysteriously forgotten'. Nu uh. No way José.

"Well, basically, I," I stutter.

"Are you going to declare your undying love for me and bless my parents for creating such an amazeballs person? Because if so, you don't need to be scared. I get it a lot." Well then. She's not full of herself at all. But I can't help but find it funny, and I find myself laughing along with the others.

"I think you were talking about me," Indi and Chi-Chi both fire through the wall of our giggles at the same time, and then we all begin the laughing again. Old Man Cirol gives us a dirty look from the cages opposite, but we ignore him. He doesn't know the effects of a good laugh. I'm pretty sure he hadn't laughed in 50 years.

"No, ok, I'm serious now," I take a deep breathe and turn away so I can't see them pull their odd faces. When I turn back, I'm in serious mode, and they can see it. They all stop laughing too and jut like that the atmosphere is cold again.

"Ok." Breathe, turn to Tori,"Tori. Basically, I'm really confused and I need your help." It's out. I'm so bad at asking for help or admiring that I need it that that was a big thing for me. A big step. I took that step. Phew.

"Spill." And so I do. I tell her how I don't remember anything before a year ago and about Avelyn and déjà vu and how I recognise her and how confused I am. I tell her everything with only one hope, the hope that she'll give me those long awaited answers. Once I'm done speaking we stand in slightly awkward silence for what seems like an age. Then she speaks.

Finally, Tori speaks," Karis. Your name's Karis. Avelyn and Karis. Karis and Avelyn. She's your sister, Avelyn is,"

"What? I... Sister?" A sister. Family. A sister... .I'm not sure why this feels so big. Maybe it's just that I presumed I didn't have a family, that they were dead or imprisoned somewhere. I'm not really sure. Maybe I jut thought I was alone. Alone's a good word. Because even though I have friends, when you can't remember anything, nothing, no mother or father, then you are alone really. Alone in the relative darkness of your mind.

"Uhuh, Avey's your big sister."

"Do I... Do I have other family?"

"Your mum. She's ok, I think. She was last time I checked, anyway. She's called Allysa. Your dads dead. You live in the countryside, outside the cities. It's a hamlet near a lake up on the Highlands by the borders to the Unknown," Tori pauses at this point and the next words are a whisper," I'm your best friend." And that does it. Best friend. Friend. The best one of them all. For all I know, the only. The dimly lit world around me begins to sway and spin, and before I can curse myself for being such a sissy, I've blacked out and entered the realm of the past.