Remember Me (ONC2020) ✔

Prologue (new)

The scent of rancid meat fermenting in sour milk made Runan cringe and pull his shirt over his nose. Beside him, his younger sister contorted her face and furrowed her dark brows, but the snapping of dead branches beneath her feet didn't slow. The heavy limbs of the surrounding thickly leaved trees loomed over them like mountain beasts deterring their approach. A bird's loud cry pierced the air three times, and he flinched at the echoing warning.

Around a bend in the forest path, a human body lay on a bed of crushed ferns.

"Ita, stay back!" He grabbed his sister by the shoulders and held her antsy form in place despite her scowl. Even though her frame was lanky, it took substantial effort to restrain her.

"Don't be such a coward, Ru!"

"Anything could have killed that person, and it could still be here."

He should never have driven them out here, but he struggled to say no to Messita, especially when it would distract her from the turmoil at home since their aunt disappeared.

"The mountain beasts are just a children's tale. We know who did this." She escaped his grasp and approached the body with light steps. He was hardly as brave at thirteen as she was at eleven.

Runan swallowed the lump in his throat, covered his nose again, and followed at half her speed. The corpse's twisted limbs and their unnatural angles confirmed his sister's theory, the one drilled into their minds in school. Those who defied birth order and attempted to reach Upper-Caldozza would plummet to their deaths from the craggy cliffs. The damning proof stirred unease in his gut. He fled the path to vomit, the stomach acid burning his throat and stinging his chapped lips.

When he arrived at her side, Messita's tanned skin had paled, and she squatted next to the bloated corpse. She stared at the victim's face, where liquid leaked from the mouth and nose. Runan turned away to ease the bile rising again. Long black hair flowed from the person's scalp, matching the shade and relaxed style of most Lower-Caldozzans. He'd only seen pictures of Uppers, and they sported fancy styles and every colour imaginable. Flies buzzed around, not fazed by the stench.

"Who do you think she was?" Messita's voice softened.

The victim didn't look like a teacher, the shopkeeper, or his best friend Solara's mother. "Mom and Dad might know."

Messita's eyes widened. "We won't tell them."

"Ita, we can't keep this a secret."

As much as he didn't want to stress them further, this was a grown-up problem.

"Mom's been off since Auntie Vynerva disappeared."

"You think this is Auntie?"

Despite the eerie bulging eyes and patchy grey-green skin colour, this could be Messita's favourite aunt. She'd criticized the treatment of Lowers and questioned why the Uppers took more from the Lowers, while offering nothing in return but so-called protection from the Ferron nation. She'd argue if they had so much wealth and tech, why didn't they share it and make the Lowers' efforts more productive with less physical labour and allow everyone to have enough to eat?

With a sigh, his sister folded her arms across her chest. "She wouldn't have just run off. Not without saying a word."

"That's more reason to tell them."

Aunt Vynerva had been missing for three months, and the theories he overheard at school and in town grew wilder each month. Closure could dispel the tension at home and end the late-night arguments where one of their parents stormed out.

Messita shook her head. "This will destroy Mom."

Runan dug his heels into the leaf-covered ground. She was right. She always was with people. "What do we do?"

"We come back with shovels and bury her. Then never speak of it again."

When they returned days later on the borrowed motorbike, the dead woman had vanished without a trace as if she had never existed. They searched the area for an hour for depressions, bones, or proof of life before standing at the spot with the crushed ferns where they'd discovered her. The plants rebounded, erasing the body's former presence. As his sister's expression grew vacant, he put his arm around her shoulder. She shook in his arms.

"Maybe we imagined it," Runan said.

Messita nodded without uttering another word. As promised, they never spoke of it again.