Forgotten Memories (Shoey)

Ch 13- Almost

She's the one making this fire.

"Kimiko, stop!" Hayley screams. Tears streak down her face as she stares down the angry young woman before her. A powerful gust of wind sweeps over our heads and dance with the flames as heavy, cold rain attacks the fire. "I don't want to do this but you leave me no choice."

"What the hell is going on?" I ask no one in particular.

"Take cover, Shane." Hayley commands.

"But-"

"JUST DO IT!" she yells over the powerful storm. I immediately dive to the ground and place my hands protectively over my head like a school tornado drill. At that same moment, thunder booms through the sky, ringing in my ears and furiously shaking the ground.

"STOP IT!" they both scream at each other. I stand up and open my eyes, but it makes no difference. It's too dark to even see my own hand in front of me as the wind smacks me back down to the muddy ground while the rain soaks my clothes. All of a sudden, a low but powerful grumble erupts the already shaking ground. An intense sharp pain travels through the back of my head before I slip out of consciousness.

"Shane? Can you here me?" I hear a muffled voice ask me. It sounds like I'm underwater, but my hearing clears up as soon as I open my eyes and take in my surroundings.

"Where am I?" I ask the unknown voice as I sit up and look around the room through squinted eyes.

God, my head hurts so freaking bad.

"This is Kimiko and I's house." She answers. "We found it a really long time ago while we were exploring this vast world." I cock my head to the left to find Hayley sitting in a baby blue chair, reading Animal Farm. "This is my room." She continues.

"I see you really like blue." I say as I throw the blue comforter off of me and hop off the bed.

"I didn't choose this color; the room designed itself to fit my dreams and personality. It's blue because it corresponds with the sky. Wanna see something cool?"

"Sure." I say, shrugging my shoulders.

"Watch this." She flicks off the light switch and the room turns to pure beauty. The walls go from a light sky blue to a very dark navy blue, almost black. "Look up." I oblige and tilt my head up at the ceiling to find a scattered in tiny sparkling stars. We both hop into the now purple bed and lay on our backs to star gaze at the beautiful "night sky."

"This is amazing."

"I've always been fascinated by the sky. The sky holds many blessings and it only gives to the believers. The sky is your limit, but your limit is not the sky."

"You really think so?"

"Of course." She breathes out as if the answer is obvious. "Before I died, I had big plans and goals. I was going to be an author. I was going to start off as a freelance writer and work my way towards a more stable job in the writing career, but I wasn't planning on dying so soon. I was only 12 years old. My whole life was ahead of me and now it's buried six feet under. All I can do now is remember the past I lost and imagine the future I'll never have."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah." She says, wiping away her one fallen tear. "I'm going to go for a walk. Get some fresh air."

"Do you want me to go with you?" I ask her, sitting up on the bed.

"I think Kimiko needs you more than I do at the moment." She rubs the unshed tears out of her eyes and casts her attention down at the floor, avoiding eye contact. "Her room is last on the left down the hall. Makes sure you knock before you enter or she'll try to break your fingers off." That's the last thing she says before exiting the room and heading down the creaky stairs.

"Kimiko?" I ask, knocking on the door. No answer. "Are you in here?" I keep on knocking on the door until all of a sudden, the black wooden door swings wide open.

But no one opened it.

I slowly eneter the room, taking small, light steps as my eyes try to adjust to the dim lighting supported by half melted candles all around the room. The back wall holds four wide ceiling-to-floor windows but they are covered with heavy but astoundingly beautiful black curtains to block out the radiating sunlight. Its freezing in here. My feeble breath comes out as water vapor, swirling up and disappearing like I'm traveling up to the north pole.

"Go away, Hayley." A stern and steady voice comes from deep in the room. I follow the source of the sound and see a queen size bed with heavy, pretty sheets to match the curtains on the windows draped over it while it levitates about 3 feet off the ground. "I said GO AWAY." She snaps after a few moments when she realizes I haven't made a single attempt back to the door.

"Um, it's not Hayley." A long moment of silence takes place until the blanket gets thrown to the foot of the bed and Kimiko sits upright in the suspended bed.

"Shane..." she's says softly, staring down at me from high up. Dried tears cover her slightly swelled cheeks, trailing down to her trembling bottom lip. Her midnight black curls are nappy and combed out, drooping at her shoulders in a dying need for some conditioner.

"Can you let the bed down so I can see you?" I ask her, titling my head up to make eye contact with her.

"No." she whispers, looking down at her lap. "I'll just end up hurting you again. You'll leave right now if you know what's best for your safety."

"I'm not going anywhere." I say with a smile, shaking my head. I want her to know that I care about her. "You're more important than my safety. Now put the bed down so we can talk like two civil adults."

"I'm not an adult." She croaks out. "I'm 17. If I lived four more months, I would've finally been a legal adult, but that's just life for me: almost. Everything I do is never enough because almost is not enough. I got second place in my school talent show. I got the supporting role of the main character in all the plays I auditioned for. I was going to graduated to be second in the class, back up to the valedictorian. I was the middle child of three kids at home. I always came in second place in life. I was almost destined to do great things but I guess this is the universe's way of telling me I wasn't good enough to live and succeed."

"That's not true-"

"Yes it is." She chokes out with a fresh batch of tears streaming down her face. "Now get out before I end up hurting you again."

"Kimi-"

"I SAID GET OUT!" she screams. Her eyes turn pitch black as her bed slowly begins to spin. A huge gust of wind sweeps me off my feet and throws me backwards and out the door. An intense concentrated pain runs up my spine as my back slams against the wall of the hallway. The black wooden door in front of me slams shut as the candles lining the walls of the hallway goes out, leaving me sitting in complete darkness.

"So I'm guessing things didn't go that well with Kimiko?" I look up to find Hayley walking towards me with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. "Come on. I'll show you your room." She says, holding out her hand for me to take.

"My room?" I ask, confused.

"Just follow me." I take her hand and she helps me off the floor before leading me to the white door right across the hall from her blue door.

I guess Get Kimiko to Stop Feeling Guilty and Worthless 2.0 can wait a few minutes.

Sorry for the long wait. I had major writer's block for the longest time. I'm not going to make any promises for when the next chapter comes because I'm crazy busy. I know this chapter was pretty confusing but it'll all be explained in the next chapter. Bye-bye for now. c: