Don't Forget Me

No Holding Back

"What are you talking about?" Zach asked.

"Come inside," the man said motioning for us to follow him. "I'll explain and you can get dry."
Zach and I looked at each other and then followed him inside the building.
He led us through a maze of hallways and staircases filled with labs, offices, and meeting rooms. I tried to keep track of where we were going so we could get back out but I was hopelessly lost after just a few minutes.

"Holy guacamole," I muttered to Zach. "This place has so many twists and turns I feel like a lab rat!" He chuckled softly but his heart wasn't really in it. Something must have been bothering him. That shouldn't have surprised me. We did just barely escape a portal that would have taken us to a place of endless war.

Finally we arrived at the man's office and after seeing all the big spacious offices I had seen getting here I was expecting something pretty nice. What I was not expecting was a suite complete with a kitchen, sitting area, bathroom, and two bedrooms.
"Welcome to my humble office," the man said gesturing for us to sit in a plush couch that looked like I might sink into it and never get out again.! "I have to keep it small and simple because of budget cuts."

"This is hardly humble," Zach said in awe looking around. "Do you live here?"

"Only on Monday through Thursday. And this is indeed humble! My house in the country is much bigger!"
I continued looking around the room, if you could even call it that. On one wall a huge flat screen tv hung facing the couch while on the other wall there was a desk with a laptop computer and several hundred papers scattered around it. I peeked through the slightly open door of one of the bedrooms and saw even more papers and a desktop computer on another desk.

"Who are you?" I asked. Which I realize now sounded kind of rude but it was really cause I was so awed by everything.

"I am Dr. Joseph Thompson of the Thompson Time and Matter Research Company," he said proudly, puffing out his chest as he spoke. "I built this company up from the ground and have found many mind blowing discoveries about time and matter that you could never even imagine!"
It was a very good speech but it sounded a little rehearsed and pompous.

"Well, Dr. Thompson," I said a little annoyed. "Will you tell us now what you were talking about outside?"

"Ah, yes. I apologize for being a little confusing but I've been told by my friends that I tend to be very dramatic about everything."

"What friends?" Zach whispered in my ear. "His employees? The ones he pays to listen to him gloat?"
I giggled which was totally unlike me. Because it wasn't just a small laugh it was a high girly giggle.

"Hmm hmm," Thompson cleared his throat not pleased. I'm pretty sure he didn't hear what Zach said he just didn't like us not listening to him. "As I was saying you two are sporting time spots. The mark a time portal leaves on those who have escaped its grasp."

"Oookay," I replied. "But why these marks?"
I pointed to the blue flower on my face.

"I believe that the portal takes one of your more painful memories and leaves a reminder for you about it."

"Wait," Zach put his hands in a time-out gesture. "How do you know this? The portal has been sealed off for years wouldn't we be the first people with these so called time spots?"

"Yes the portal has been sealed off but it was people who built that wall. And quite a few of them ended up with marks very similar to yours. And all of the marks were some part of a painful memory."

Zach just looked at him skeptically.

"Well then tell me what your neon hands mean then."

Zach hesitated for a moment then started talking. "Well when I was 9 I had a glow stick. I was cracking it and I went a little too far."

"It broke open."

"It didn't just break open, it exploded! Glowing liquid covered my hands and some in my eye. I went to rub it out of my eye but I just got more in there. It burned like nothing else."

"See? Even you have a painful memory behind those glowing hands!" The doctor turned to me. "Would you like to tell us your story?"

I backed away a bit putting my hands up. "No. It's okay I believe you."
I didn't want to get into how I was allergic to face paint.

"Well if that is all," he picked up a paper. "Would you mind hearing about how I took-"

"No!"

"No?"

"I mean I have more questions!"

He frowned. "And what would they be?"
I searched my brain for a question that sounded good.
"How come the spots represent a painful memory?"

"Well you see when we came through a portal to this peaceful place we accidentally opened a portal to a warring place."

"Yea we know that. Go on."

"I believe that since the portal leads to such pain and destruction that when you escape it it takes one of your more painful memories from your past, to remind you where you'll go if you get sucked up by the portal. And now I'm just realizing that if you two have time spots then that means that you must have broken through the wall somehow. Why would you do that?"

"We wouldn't," Zach clarified. "Sky and I were with some friends looking at the wall when the wall started breaking up! Almost like the portal had been eating away at the stone."

"Is there any way we can stop it?" I pleaded. "That's the real reason we came here."

Doctor Thompson's face was pale and the paper he had picked up slipped to the floor, forgotten.
"There is no way that I know of. We've built several walls that we thought wouldn't be eaten away. That was our last option. Now that it has been destroyed there is no holding back the portal. It will grow bigger and bigger until it has sucked up the entire human race."