HIM

23. Bits and Pieces

My heart pounds in my chest at her words. My eyes scan over the image that she hold in front of me. It's from when we were just moving in, and we were standing amid our boxes. I had my arm around her waist, and her head was resting on my shoulder as we looked out the large window. I clearly remember hearing the click of the camera as my mother took the picture. Our figures are silhouetted against the window, but you can clearly see that it's us....if that makes any sense at all.

"You...you remember this?" I take the picture from her hand and just stare at it. I have a really fond memory of this day. "What do you remember about it?"

"Well," She says furrowing her eyebrows. "It's not very clear. I just remember feeling really...warm, I guess you could call it...and there was somebody behind us with the camera, like a middle-aged woman..." She holds her head in her hands, trying to remember. "Your mom! That was your mom, right?"

I enthusiastically nod my head. "Is there anything else that you can remember?"

She gives me an apologetic smile. "Sorry, that just randomly popped into my head...and it's the only thing, too."

"Well," I clap my hands together. "That's a start. Now we just have to figure out what triggers these memories to reappear."

I pace back and forth in front of the large window that overlooks the street. The traffic is a mess as per usual, yet looking at the bustling city calms me down. I look over at Enny who's biting her lip in thought. I sit down on the arm of the couch and try not to stare too much at her. I've been living too long without her.

She sucks in a breath as she gets ready to say something. "What if, sort of like you were saying earlier," She stands up and starts pacing kind of like I was before. "It's not just objects that trigger these recollections, but instead feelings."

My gaze follows her around the room as she continues talking. I don't even ask her to elaborate because I know she will.Her eyes go to the staircase which is still all scratched up from her angry departure a few years ago, but as quick as she looked at them, she tears her gaze away.

"That picture, for some reason, triggered the memory, right? And I said that I felt warm, right? So what if it's all the emotional moments in my life that trigger the memories to reappear? Like, I know this wouldn't be something we could do, but say we were at an amusement park. If I felt scared on a roller coaster, it might bring back a memory of a time that I was scared" She pauses, and looks at me. "Do you kind of see where I'm going here?"

"I guess," I say, sort of getting what's she's saying, but unsure of how we'd do it. "but how do you think we should pull this off?"

"Play around with emotion, of course."

"That sounds dangerous."

"How is that dangerous?"

"...I don't know..."

"Oh, people are too sensitive these days. Sometimes it's okay to have emotion and play around with it. We wouldn't go extreme, though. Like, I wouldn't go jump off a cliff to get the sensation of fear or whatever."

"Okay, so where would we start?"

"You mean like what kind of emotion?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if happiness triggered that last one, maybe sadness could trigger the next one?"

I give her a confused look, and she stops pacing. "So you're saying you want to...feel...sad? On purpose?"

She smiles the widest smile that I've ever seen on her face. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"This is kind of crazy," I tell her, and she waves me off.

"Without risk, there is no reward. No pain, no gain. All that kind of motivational crap. It works here too."

"Okay, so you want a sensation of sadness."

"yes."

I nod my head slowly, trying to think of a time that might work in this kind of situation.

"I've got it," I say, feeling kind of bad about what I'm going to show her.

***

We sit side by side in my car, my hand resting in the space that is in between us. The music is softly playing, the soft rock radio broadcasting a slow and calming song. A light rain has started to fall, but not enough to make me need to use my wipers. Enny slouches in her chair, staring out the window at the passing buildings. We drive until the skyscrapers become houses, and the houses become fields, and the fields become forests.

"Where are you taking me?" Enny asks me as we push the second hour of our drive.

"You can't know yet, it'll ruin the...emotions...you gotta be hit by the sadness, you can't just go into it knowing." I tell her, quickly glancing her way.

"You're not going to murder me, are you?" She laughs.

I roll my eyes and smile. "I mean, I could. But why would I want to hurt a beautiful face like yours?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her turn her head to look at me. I look over, and she's giving me a funny look. I regret saying what I just did. She must think I'm crazy.

"Are you implying that you..." She bites her lip and looks out the window. "...that you would slash my face open? That is so...disturbing!"

I breathe a sigh of relief, glad that she didn't think too much of my little...slip up.

"Oh, I'm sorry. How would you murder somebody?" I ask her.

She scoffs. "I certainly wouldn't cut their face open and let them bleed to death. I would shoot them so they would die quickly and painlessly."

"How nice of you!"

She grins. "Okay, but seriously, you're not going to drop me off in the middle of nowhere and speed off to leave me stranded, right?"

"Of course, not. I'm not a criminal." I tell her, lightly laughing. "But are you sure you wanna do this? I don't like intentionally making people sad."

"Caleb," she puts her hand on my shoulder and I tense up at her touch. "I am willing to do anything to remember."

A/n
Guys I have an issue. My science fair project is due in 9 days and my experiment just failed to produce any results worth using and I'm so torn. Idk if I should stick with what I've got or start overrrr aaghhhhh.

In other news...I HAVE WRITERS BLOCK so if you have any suggestions as to how the rest of this story should go...plz comment. This chapter took me ages to write, cuz I'm unsure as to what I want to happen.

Gracias

-meg 💕