(DISCONTINUED) Hidden in Our Souls

Memory

"Haha, hey, Soren!" I heard a female voice and then the sound of footsteps. I couldn't tell which direction they were coming from, everything just sounded muffled and echo-y.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I couldn't see farther than 15 feet at the most, since the area was shrouded by a thick fog. Everything was unsaturated, colored with shades of white and light gray, and the air felt cold.

A small cobblestone wall came into focus below me, and it became apparent that I was sitting on the top, my legs dangling down, a dirt road of sorts 4 feet below the top and a grassy hill behind me, the top of the wall separating the hill and the road.

"Soren, I'm over here! Ah haha..!" A figure of a small girl came into focus, her cat ears and tail fading in as well. She was running down the hill towards me, waving to me. I try to speak or move, but I can't feel my body.

The girl climbed up onto the wall with a few high-pitched groans of exhaustion, the running seemingly to have depleted her energy. She swings her legs over the wall so they dangle next to mine, and we sit side by side.

"Man, it took me forever to find you!" The girl chirped playfully. "It feels like I've been running for hours!" She takes a moment to catch her breath. I then feel a vibration in my throat, and I feel my mouth open. "But we were together about 10 minutes ago, so you couldn't have been running for very long." I had spoken, but I didn't speak. "Hnnng! Well, it felt like hours, then!" The girl pouts childishly, and my mouth chuckles lightly. "Whatever you say, Mika," I heard my voice say. The girl, or Mika, loses her composure and regains her smile and laughs with me.

Ah, I see. This is another one of those memories, that'd explain why I can't move or talk. I must be asleep right now, then. Let's see... I can almost retrieve the event of this memory, but I just can't tell. Oh, there we go, I remember now. This is the memory of my-

"I came over to give you your birthday gift, Soren! ...I do hope you really like it." Mika passed me a brightly wrapped box with a wrapping paper pattern of an assortment of cute cat heads. She looks away slightly, possibly a bit nervous if I was going to enjoy her gift. "Aw, thank you, Mika!," my voice replied. My hands began to unwrap the gift and open the box. Inside was a Japanese lucky cat, the one that supposedly waves away bad luck with it's moving paw. The colors on the cat were unlike any other cat, and it was clear this was custom made.

"I painted it myself, since I wanted to give you something, y'know, something special for your 16th birthday! Whadiyathink?" Mika perked up again, looking at me with an expression of anticipation. "Mika, I love it! The colors are so beautiful, you did an amazing job! This is better than any other birthday gift I could ever ask for!" I fondly remember having said that, and I feel a wave of nostalgia. "I'm so glad you love it, Soren! I worked really hard on it since I wanted it to be perfect for you!" Mika leaned into me and hugged me tightly.

My hands shifted the lucky cat to one hand so the other could wrap around Mika's back. Even though this was just a memory, I could vividly feel her hug. Suddenly, I realized why the feeling was so vivid compared to any other sense I could feel in my memories: this was the last time I hugged her, and the realization hit me like a truck.

"Soren? A-are you okay? All of a sudden you became really pale..." Mika had looked up towards my eyes, an expression of concern etched on her face. "Y-yeah, I'm okay Mika. I just really like the gift," my voice replied, but I was the one who said it. This wasn't part of the memory.

"O-okay, if you say so, then! I'm really glad you like it!" Mika's face returned to the carefree expression she usually had worn. I set the lucky cat down next to me and reach for Mika with my other arm, pulling her into a tight embrace. I felt myself start to tremble, a few tears falling down my face, and I just hug her tighter. "Soren?! Wh-what's going on?!" Mika exclaimed, clearly taken by surprised. "It-it's nothing, Mika. I'm just so glad to have a friend like you..," and this was true. I was so happy she was my friend. I am so happy she was in my life. Because now, in the real world, she's gone. Suddenly missing. Without a trace.

"O-okay, w-well, I'm so happy to have a friend like you too, then..," Mika's soft, comforting voice said, causing more tears to trickle down. She moves my head so it is resting on her shoulder, and her arms wrap around me tightly. The embrace felt so comforting, and I could vividly feel her body heat radiating into me, the pressure from her arms snugly pulling me to her tight. I didn't want to leave this memory, even if it wasn't a real memory anymore. I didn't want to wake up to the cold reality that I will never truly hear her voice again, that I will never see her face.

I wanted to stay here, with her.

But that was impossible, and I knew it was, and I started to feel myself waking up, the world I was in currently beginning to fade.

"M-Mika, p-please don't leave me... Don't go...please..." I begged Mika, even though I knew it wouldn't do anything. "I-I'm sorry, Soren. But you know that I'm gone, and I'm so sorry." This sent a stab into my heart, my tears falling faster, my hold on Mika tightening. "N-no, please, d-don't say that!" I shouted, Mika's face now almost fully gone. "...Don't go..." All I felt were Mika's small, soft hands rub my back, holding me steady while I shook with grief in her arms. "Goodbye, Soren, and take care, " she whispered in my ear, the dreamworld fully dissolving into a white void, the sensation of her hugging me now fully faded. My vision is now a white void.