Stuck In the Unknown

Walk Down a Lost Memory Lane

Flames dancing wildly all around me, I'm on the floor with severe wounds oozing blood. Metallic taste in my mouth, squinty eyes and pounding head. Worst thing I see is tones of dismantled body pieces around me. Ripped muscles, broken bones, even a heart that was as red as rage. I felt bile in my mouth as horror arose in me. Walking around I hear sound that proves survivors, I see someone stuck in despair under a metallic wing. I rush to help and soon there is another sound...Ash. Ash, "you're alive!" speaking too soon, a metal shard flew right to her head splattering blood all over me. Then all is blank.

I scream and shoot up in my bed as sweat drips down my forehead and along my neck. I just had a walk down my lost memory lane. So this was what I had lost, more than just mere memories. Just a day back I was relieved that I survived not knowing that I was alone now with no Ash. I feel like so hallow right now because I lost my anchor in life. I need to clear my head...so I head out for a walk.

Leaves crimple under my footsteps as I walk past the trees surrounding me. I don't know where I'm headed but I just need to keep moving and forget my dread. Continuing I'm my steam of thoughts I walk aimlessly till I hear the rustle of leaves which were not in rhythm to mine. I certainly didn't want to be a huge bear's late night snack. I start moving faster, looking for any immediate hiding places. I see a huge tree with a wide trunk, immediately I fasten my pace and put out of sight myself. Resting my back against the hard crisp brown bark which has soft moss, I gasped to catch my breath.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I let out an ear shattering scream when I feel a hand rest on my shoulder. I sharply turn around and sigh in relief.

"Is it a must to have you everywhere with me," I say as I continue to walk, "you just love stalking me don't you?"

"Dream on love," he suggests with a smirk.

I continue to ignore him as I prolong my walk maybe he will get tired and leave. I walk till I find an eye catching view. My eyes widen to saucer size and my breathe hitches when I see the sight in front of me. Multiple neon colours: purple, green, blue, magenta, red, fill up the sky each flowing separately with glow-worm like flies flying beneath adding their body light to enhance the colours around them. Many small plants growing around them moving gently along with the cool breeze moving about. In between this majestic view is a large tree with a wide spread of leaves above it. Before I know I'm moving towards the tree and then sit down under its large canopy.

I merely sit and take a blink when my memories flood to my head and flash before my eyes.

"Daddy lets go the park," I say in my little five year old squeaky voice.

"Okay lets go call mummy then we'll go," he says as he heads of to his bedroom.

We walk and as soon as I step into the park I start running about and playing. I first went to the slides and then I sent to the sand pit where another little girl dressed in her pink sundress was making her sandcastle. I join her and we made a huge yet crumbling castle fit for any prince of our childish fantasies. She leaves as soon as we finish and that's I go on the swings, my most favorite place in the park.

"Daddy help me go higher," I whine as my childish attempt to reach the sky fails.

My dad gives my swing a boost one after the other as my mum watches when suddenly she falls to the ground limp. We immediately rush her to the hospital where she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The tumor was malignant and had spread to the rest of her body. As a child I didn't know much about this but I my dad did tell me that my mum wouldn't be with us for long. I simply thought that he meant that she was moving away, I didn't know that she would move away so that she couldn't return even if she wanted. I realized this after two weeks when my dad had left to go to work and I went to wake her up. Rushing through her bedroom door because I was starved, I run up to her sleeping body and try to shake her awake. Surprisingly her skin was starting to become cold this causes me to jolt my hand away from her skin. I sprinkle some water drops on her face but yet she didn't wake up. This terrified me and I scramble out of her room and cry on the living room couch. My dad comes home to find me still crying, I tell what happened in the morning and her jolts to his bedroom. I chase after him to find knelt over by the bedside pulling my mum into his arms as he yells 'nooooooo!' I ask him what happened but instead of answering me, he pulls me into his tight embrace and tells me that my mum has left us. Confused by his words I just stand there as he calls the ambulance while in denial as he thinks for a way to prove that all this is a lie and that my just fainted. We had a burial for her two days after and that's when I realized that my mum had left me for good, not even a goodbye from he, not even one last hug. My mum died leaving me alone with my dad, no body to guide me through life. My most loved person in my life had left me to survive on my own in a world filled with strangers. Then I realized what a great punishment I had received but the sad bit was that I didn't know what my felony was. From then on I survived on my own.

I feel a hand move against my cheek and that's when I notice that I'm crying. I turn to the owner of the hand and find him seated next to me.

"Hey, why are you crying?" he asks with sincere concern in his voice.

Thinking that I couldn't keep this pent up in me for long otherwise I would end up like an erupted volcano, so I narrate my early life hood story to him. After I finish, I feel a bit lighter. I also feel like I'm hugged by a bear and that's when I return the hug to him. This simple gesture made it better to know that I have actual friends to rely on while I'm stuck in this place. We just sat here with his hand around on my shoulder and my head on his chest. The comfort I feel at that moment can't be expressed in words.

"By the way, you know my name but I don't even know your initials?" I inquire with a curious voice.

"I go by the name......

*******************************************************************