Sorry, I Can't Remember

Chapter One

I was waiting the day it came. I don't remember why I was waiting, but something important was supposed to happen. I could feel it.

Sitting by myself outside the little wooden cabin I was staying in, which itself is outside the Laban Rata Guesthouse, I wondered- and not for the first time- where my memory went.

It's really odd, for I could still read and write. I knew my name. I knew how old I was. I had premonitions every now and again because I'm used to bad things happening to me. In fact, I'm sure that they like happening to me rather than anyone else; it's as if bad luck follows me round wherever I go.

I must've had a childhood. I didn't just appear into thin air, because that's not possible, is it? Well, I suppose that most of the things that had happened to me over the last few months are generally classified as impossible, so I suppose anything can happen.

So, as I said, I was waiting. It was colder than usual up here, but I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt nonetheless. Jenna gave them to me as, when I mysteriously turned up here, I had none of the possessions I guess I had before I lost my memory with me. I had the clothes I was wearing when I got here, but a thick hoodie with skinny jeans and ugg boots were very unfit for the climate in Malaysia. Jenna stays in the Laban Rata because her father is a tour guide further up Mount Kinabalu. She snuck me some food every once in a while, but usually I ate whatever everyone else in the wooden house had, which wasn’t very much.

The cabin I was staying in accommodated seven children, including me. Aaliyah, a very quiet girl from Nigeria; she liked to think and read a lot more than the rest of us, and scarcely came out of the hut. Rayelle hadn't told us where she's from or any of her background, and she didn't have the excuse of my memory loss. Her personality was rather complicated and hard to describe, but I'll try anyway. She's like a river. Wild, crazy and dangerous, but at times she's calm and gentle. See, I told you it was hard to describe. The twins, Zain and Zahra, were like two identical peas in separate pods. Zahra is outgoing and energetic, while Zain prefers to rest back and talk, and I've never met a more easy-to-talk-to person before in my life (which, obviously, I don’t remember much of). Zahra's best friend was Quinten, who's her sidekick, I guess. They're always plotting pranks and things together, which isn't as good for the rest of us.  Finally, Carter was a mental chap. He's as crazy as Zahra but can be as laid back and easygoing as Zain, which is why I prefer him to everyone else in my cabin. Rayelle gets along most with Carter, though, which is good as he always managed to calm her down during one of her strops.

Sitting there in the eerie silence, I expected something to happen. Something that would change my life, maybe forever. And the answers. I wanted to know why my memory was erased. Did I just have amnesia, like the people here thought? No, I couldn't have. I know I didn't. The thought didn't feel correct. When, finally, after two months of waiting for this single thing, I hadn't expected it to be so surreal. And, not for the first time since I lost my memory, I didn't know what to do.