My Memory

Chapter 5

"We should probably go after that idiot or he'll burn the whole forest down." Lucy watched in the direction Natsu had ran off, feeling somewhat concerned.

"You're right. Everyone, gather your things; lets get moving," Erza ordered.

As we walked cautiously through the forest looking for Natsu, I spotted more incredible arrays of different animals. There where soft monkeys, fur like curly hairs on a mop; birds singing choruses competing against one another, and lizards of all shapes, sizes and colours.

"Wow, this place is amazing! It is really too beautiful to think of anything evil coming out of here." I breathed in awe, soaking up the scenery around me.

"Looks can be deceiving," Erza whispered next to my ear, making me jump and sending a shiver down my spine. "You never know what might be around the corner." It was then I noticed the tone of her voice and the almost hidden sadness behind her eyes.

"You're speaking from experience, aren't you?" I spoke softly, scared I would be bringing up something she didn't want to talk about.

"Yes," Erza dropped her head slightly. "But... that doesn't matter. What I want to know is why you have no memories, even though you have no signs of head injury at all. Are you sure you don't remember anything?" She looked me in eye, noticeably curious and confused.

"Well, there is one memory, but I'm not sure what it's about. Or rather, who it's about." I shrugged my shoulders.

"What happens in the memory?" she asked. "Anything significant?"

"I only get flashes of my memories, but I've been piecing them together. So far, I'm standing somewhere but I can't quite make out what's around me. I'm guessing they might be trees but it's so blurry that I can't tell. When I think back to this memory, I don't know why but I get a horrible twisting feeling in my stomach. There is someone with me... a girl. She's older than me and looking around, but I don't know what for. Then she turns to me with an unpleasant expression on her face, kneels down and pulls me into a hug. It's weird, though; when she hugged me, it was warm and comforting. The giant knot that was forming in my stomach loosened. After a moment, she pulls away and says, "Run as far away as you can! You can't let him catch you. RUN!" and then she just ran off into the distance. That's where the memory ends." By the end I had my head down, wishing I could remember more and understand this tangle of pictures in my head.

"So, you don't know who she is? Maybe she is a relative," she pondered as her body subconsciously walked at exactly the same pace.

"I don't know. Though, I don't think we are related; she has black hair and blue eyes." My mind flickered back to when she hugged me.

"And who do you think she is referring to as 'him', the one she told you to run from?" she raised her hand to her chin, her mind scrambling to think of something that would make sense.

"To be honest, I'm not sure of anything. For all I know, that could've been a dream; a disjointed nightmare of what I fear my past was." I still held a grim expression on my face. Not a pleasant subject.

"I envy you. Sometimes I wish I could forget about my past..." Erza looked at me sadly. After a moment her eyes widened slightly. "I'm sorry. That was rude." She dropped her head once again.

"It wasn't rude; it's your opinion, I guess. I know that there must be people out there who would want to forget their lives, but I'm not one of them."

Erza and I walked in silence for a while listening to Lucy, Wendy and Gray chat amongst themselves. Carla would've been in the conversation too, if she weren't still unhappy about Wendy, so instead she flew at the back of the group. Without thinking, I turned to Erza. "Erza, can you... can you tell me what happened in your past?" I stuttered as the words came tumbling, rushed and nervous, and faster than expected.