The Chipenden Spook

Chapter 7: The Jar

 I slowly opened my eyes, feeling something intertwined with my hand and fingers. I looked sideways, to see Alice. When she noticed I was awake, her eyes widened, and moved her hand quickly as she stood up.

"Tom! How do you feel?" She asked anxiously, looking over me.

"I do feel way better, actually." I told her as she calmed down. I smiled at her, and she forced a smile too, I could tell she was on edge by the way she bit her lip.

"I gave you extra medicine to help with other problems such as your pains you said you were having. While you were asleep, performed the surgery, I did. Grimalkin helped a little too. We managed to clean the cut pretty well, then I had to put more medicine and inject other things so that I could make sure all signs of infections were nowhere to be seen. Then I stitched you up..."

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She still had a worried expression, but I'd told her I felt fine. At that she looked at me as if I was crazy, considering the fact that me asking the question to her instead of the other way around wasn't normal.

But then she realized I was talking about her anxiousness.

"Nothing, you've just been asleep for a while now. Three days exactly-" She said, sitting back down.

"Alice, that's not that long." I told her earnestly. She dropped her gaze and quietly mumbled, "To me it is..."

"Anyway... I was hoping that making you unconscious would, jog your memory maybe?" She asked with hopeful bright eyes.

I felt extremely bad, and waited a while before I spoke. I thought hard about it too.

"... No, I'm sorry..." I whispered lightly.

She sighed.

"Do you want to try and walk, Tom?"

I nodded, and threw the blankets off me. Then I swung my legs around and sat up, so that I was now sitting on the side of my bed. Alice stood up and put a arm around my shoulders and under my arm for support. Standing didn't take long, and I was happy, to realize that my cut looked way better than before.

Once perfectly balanced on my feet, Alice slowly let go a took a few steps back, giving me space, but also close enough to rush forward and grab me if need be.

I nodded in her direction, and and started to walk across the room.

Amazement plastered across Alice's face as we both witnessed how much progress the surgery had given me! I still had a limp, but not anywhere near how terribly bad it was before. And nothing hurt, I could raise my arms and my skin stretching while doing so would cause no pain. I looked over at Alice and smiled, tears prickling in her beautiful eyes. This was a big moment for me, of what I had heard, I died a bad death. Now I was sanding here, walking with no pain and no winces.

Grimalkin came into the room, holding a jar that seemed to be filled with liquid.

"How's that cut of yours doing?" She asked, with a wicked smile on her face. By that, I could tell she probably already knew about my improvement.

"Way better than before, thank you." I told her, although addressing my words to both her and Alice.

Grimalkin nodded and turned to Alice. I hadn't said anything to her yet about my memory's absence still, but by what she said next I concluded that she already knew about it.

"I've finished making the potion that you said might help him remember, Alice." She walked over to Alice and gave her the jar. Alice looked at it, and her eyes widened yet again with hope.

"Yes, Grimalkin! This could work!" After examining it one last time, she walked over to me.

"Tom, this is one last thing we'd like you to try. We hope it will make your memory flood back, as that's what it's supposed to do. Other than this I don't know what else could work."

She handed me the jar and I looked at it thoroughly. It didn't look as worse as it could have been, so I accepted it, and drank it slowly, while the two girls waited patiently.

I put the jar down, and we waited, looking for any sign of it kicking in.

After about five minuets, we knew it had taken to long. Grimalkin's eyes were downcast, as tears were streaming down Alice's face. She shook her head in disbelief.

"No. What if we tri-" I tried talk, but before I could finish, Alice had rushed into my arms, still sobbing. I returned her embrace wishing there could be some other way to help myself... But I had to except what had happened. We stood there, the sound of nothing but Alice crying, tears falling helplessly down her face.

After a few moments, I let go, as Alice wiped her eyes, looking lost.

But then as my expression changed dramatically, so did hers.

I stepped back, my eyes traveling from her to Grimalkin, back and forth, then finally to the floor. Breathing heavily, an expression of horror on my face, I looked back up at Alice, to see her catch her breath as she understood.

Everything, every last part of anything... My death, my career, my life... I had remembered. Remembered everything.

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I'm so sorry I took so long to update after the last one. I'll try to make sure it won't happen again! I hope you enjoyed reading!