Fearing the Dark

Matty Remembers

Again time passed, but time had no real meaning down here. Desi would always disobey our guardians, lucky for her, Dean or me would come in to defend her. Of course it always ended with all of us covered in bruises, but they rarely came down so we always had time to heal.

We became very close as sanity no longer seemed to elude Dean and I with a third person. I learned many new words from Desi as her memory hadn't been totally impaired like my own. I learned about colors and about the sky and sun. Every time she mentioned something it brought back faint memories, but nothing solid.

Sometimes Desi and Dean would be on their own talking and every time this happened an unknown emotion would take over. However, I kept this to myself because I knew it would upset Dean. I'm happiest when it is just the two of us though. Despite the unknown feeling I would get towards her, I still enjoy being in Desi's company. She is very different from us in that she still has a rebellious spirit, while we stay submissive.

It's been longer than usually since our guardians have last seen us and they would have come down by now, I think. I look at the direction of the door as my vision is adjusted to the dark and the figure comes easily to me now. The other two stay sleeping while I had woken up, but I'm not sure why.

"Hello?"

I look to the direction of the voice in shock because it's new.

My eyes land on a small figure similar to Desi's, but maybe a bit taller and not so starved. Her soft voice reaches my ears easily in this silence.

How did she get down here without us waking up? Maybe a better question is how did they get her down here? Our hearing is very sensitive and have adjusted to the sound of that door being opened. Fear tries to crawl its way into my mind as thoughts of what they can due to us when we are unaware.

I shake the thoughts off though when I see the girl trying to navigate through the dark.

"I'm here." I whisper back to her and I watch as she turns in a circle trying to detect which direction my voice came from.

I get up off the floor and walk slowly towards her as to not startle her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm not sure, but I go by Aero. How about you, do you remember your name?" Once I reach her I grab onto her outstretched hands. She jumps back in surprise, but I hold onto her hands so she doesn't feel so lost in the dark.

"I remember my nickname, Matty. The rest of my name is the only thing that I seem to have forgotten."

"The only thing?" I question her sentence because if that is true, then...

"Yeah, I remember being kidnapped and what those people did to me."

I tighten my hold on her hands. "Does that mean you remember your family?"

"Yeah, I remember my mom and dad." Joy overtakes me at her words and I quickly pull her over to the two sleeping figures.

"Dean. Desi." I tap each on the shoulder and they instantly wake up from the light touch. They look up at me in confusion, but then their eyes land on Matty and their mouths hang open in shock.

I roll my eyes at their reaction despite having had a similar one to seeing Matty.

"Who are you?" they say simultaneously as they scramble to stand up. They both come over to Matty who trembles in place as her eyes have not adjusted to the other two figures.

"This is Matty, but ignore the fact that she got down here without any one of us hearing." Both pause at my words and turn to look at me as my words sink in. "She actually has memories."

The urge to smile at their synchronized reactions overtakes me, but then Matty sighs and sits down onto the cold floor.

"I don't think that matters much. The fact that there are three other people down here means there is no way out." Her words penetrate my heart because I knew the truth behind those words. I sit down as well and Desi follows my own actions.

"No." All three of us look up from our moping and face Dean. He looks at us and sighs before sitting down as well in order to form a circle. "The fact that you remember means so much. It might allow us to discover who we are and more about ourselves. That is all the hope we have left, so would you please answer our questions?" I watch as Dean grabs onto both of Matty's hands and once again an unfamiliar feeling takes over. I recognize it as being the same familiar feeling I get when Dean and Desi are talking between themselves.

"O-O-Okay."

I'm not sure how, but I just knew that Dean is smiling at her. I clench my hand into a fist and hold back these ugly feelings that cloud my thoughts.

"What's your name?"

"Matty, the only thing she doesn't remember is her full name." I answer which causes Dean to look over at me and nod his head in understanding. I relax my fist at the gaze he sends me that I am unable to see in the dark.

He turns back to face Matty. "How old are you?"

"I just turned ten."

Ten... I'm ten. I look at my open hands and smile at this little tidbit of information.

"Is that a lot?" I ask causing everyone to turn and look at me.

"No, it isn't." Desi says with a serious voice and I look at them in confusion, not that any of them could tell.

"Aero people can live to be one hundred and we are only ten. We may even be younger or older, we don't really know we are just assuming we are similar in age to Matty."

I nod at him as I process what he told me.

"Where do you live?"

"I'm from Dansville and I think it's in Maine, but I'm not sure. I was just starting to learn my states."

That information causes no relapse in memory, so I can only assume we are in this state called Maine. Although this information really doesn't mean anything to mean as some of the words mentioned have no meaning for me.

"Yes, that sounds familiar. I'm sure I lived in Maine also." Desi bursts out in joy.

"Okay this is good. How did those two get you?"

"Dean you shouldn't call them that. They are our guardians." I say gently to Dean who sighs at me and continues to look at Matty for an answer.

"Don't start with that again Aero." I look at Desi who shakes her head at me. I frown at her words, but I knew that my words only convinced her more that I am a mindless puppet.

"I, um, I was at the grocery store with my mom when she told me to go pick a candy for me to eat. At the candy isle I saw the man and I tried avoiding him and just looked at the candy. But the women appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto my arm. I felt something poke me and I was unable to scream. They dragged me to their car and knocked me out with a wet cloth." By the end of her story Matty is a blubbering mess as she cries in Dean's shoulder. Desi is beside them and slowly strokes the girl's hair in comfort.

My gut seems to tie itself into knots, but not because of Matty's story. My eyes land on Dean as he whispers words of comfort to Matty and the knot in my stomach becomes tighter.