Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 58

~Ava~

Show me.

Opening her eyes to find herself sitting in the backseat of an old grey sedan, she blinked in surprise. Ava knew it must be the memory Halo had given her access to, but she wasn't expecting to experience it as an outsider. Beside her sat a little girl, brunette hair plaited in twin braids, a black and white soft toy puppy clutched in her hands.

Little Ava sang to herself while she gazed out the window, stroking her puppy's worn-out ears.

Doggy.

"What?"

My toy. I remember what I named him.

"Very original."

Hey!

"Mummy, are we nearly there?" Little Ava asked before the Halo bearer could bicker with the relic further.

Mummy?!

Ava sucked in a sharp breath as she loved over at the woman driving the car. The woman's shoulder-length blonde hair and the glint of her plain black glasses achingly familiar.

"Yes, Ava. Not far now." She sighed tiredly.

The Halo bearer leaned forward trying to get a better look at the woman. She never had any photos of her mother at the orphanage, really all she remembered about her now was the hair and the glasses, so when she spotted the detailed sleeve of tattoos running down the woman's right arm she gaped in astonishment.

Is that why Sister Frances always suggested I was the spawn of the devil?

"How much longer?" Little Ava asked and big Ava couldn't help but grin at the trademark pout appearing on her younger self's lips.

Perfected it early I see…

Pulling up at a red set of traffic lights, the blonde snapped her head around to look at the little girl. Her mother had deep smudges framing the underside of each of her sky-blue eyes. She was pale and gaunt, the hollow of her cheekbones sharp and angular, like she hadn't had a good meal in a while. But the thing that concerned Ava the most was the wild and unhinged look on her face, she definitely did not remember her mother ever looking at her like that…

"I told you, soon!" She snarled and both the Avas flinched at the venom behind it.

Taking a steadying breath, her mother softened her tone before continuing, “I’m sorry baby…It’s just been a long drive and Mummy’s tired. I promise it’s not too much further, okay?

Lip trembling, Little Ava nodded and hugged Doggy close to her chest while her mother turned back to the road. The Halo bearer frowned, wishing she could reach out and comfort her younger self but also instinctively knew that she wasn’t corporeal in this weird memory-scape.

The sun was low in the sky when the sedan finally slowed and pulled into a half empty parking lot of what appeared to be a sketchy dive bar. Little Ava stirred, lifting her head from where she had been using Doggy as a pillow against the door.

“Mummy?” She whispered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with her tiny fist.

“Wait here Ava, I’ll be back soon.” The blonde woman replied tersely, opening the door and stepping out onto the concrete.

Big Ava tried to follow, but discovered quickly that she couldn’t move from the backseat of the vehicle, she was stuck beside her 7-year-old self.

“It’s your memory Ava, you can only bear witness to what you experienced as a child.”