Forgotten Journey

Chapter 3

Their mom had been taking Morgan to a therapist for days now and she still hasn't remembered anything.

Alice was trying her best to be
supportive for Morgan and tell her that there was no pressure and
that she didn't need to beat herself up over this, but they could
both tell from the weariness in her voice that Alice believed her
words just as little as her sister did.
Ever since she'd had that dream about that house (The house that Morgan described to her therapist, the
one that Alice's mind just so happened to conjure up word-for-word
of her sister's description of it, from the chill in the air to the
creak of the floorboards) her world had flipped.

Each day Alice hurried down the
stairs before she had to leave for school and watch her mom leave
with Morgan to the therapist's office, and each afternoon she
waited by the doorway hovering on the balls of her feet as the two
approached desperate to hear if Morgan had remembered anything
else, only to be disappointed.

Alice's grades were beginning to
fluctuate from above average to decent to caution zone to horrific,
and she couldn't get herself into the mentality to care. The rug of
familiarity had been swiped from under her feet the moment her
sister had been taken, and now she found herself slipping and
sliding across the floor of her mind, trying desperately to find a
rough spot for the soles of her feet to grip on to, that wasn't
there.

"Alice, you look terrible." Alice
pulled her glasses off her face wearily and rubbed them with the t-
shirt that she'd been too exhausted to take off at school after gym
class was over. This week they were being graded with
nine weeks worth of workouts, and her body was giving a whole list
of complaints about why it was a bad idea for her to continuing to
stressing over this stupid house.

"Thanks, David. Why don't you point
out how trashed my room is while you're busy being Captain
Obvious," she replied, gesturing to the therapy reports laying on
my floor.

David scooped one up a drawing of the
house and a paper with notes typed up on it. He stared at it for a
moment, trying to process what he was seeing before glancing at his
friend in alarm. "You raided your mom's filing cabinet, Alice?"

Alice snatched the papers from his
hands and shoved them under his pillow not wanting to answer him.

Was he disappointed with her? Ugh,
why did he have to sound so disappointed? Now she felt like she had
to explain herself, and yet for some reason she didn't want to tell
him about her dream. Alice rarely kept things from David, she'd
even told him about her sister's return and remembering a house.
But not this...

"I know, I'm a bad person, but
Morgan's stopped telling me things, and I'm just so worried about
what's going on with her, David. I was desperate and worried... So, I
took the files and decided to try and do some investigating for
myself to help my sister." This was not technically a lie seeing as
it was partially true. She did want to help her sister, but she
also wanted to help herself. "I mean, it's not like there's anyone
else here that I can turn to for information," Alice continued.
"Seeing as they've all forgotten."

Her eyes trailed down to her
nails and she stared at them like they were the most fascinating
things in the world. She looked up in confusion; David had
gotten unusually quiet. She found him staring at her with an
indistinguishable gleam in his eye. "Well, we don't know for
certain that..."

She scowled at him, unsure about what
that he was implying. "Know what?"

"That everyone who gets taken loses
their memory."

The two stared at each other, neither
daring to speak as they evaluated the other's behaviour. Neither of them was lying, but they
weren't telling the entire truth.

"David, what are you trying to say?"
Alice asked slowly and cautiously, not wanting to do anything
sudden that would upset her friend.

"I happen to... Uh... Never mind. Forget I said anything." David's response was hurried and fearful as he
hurried out her bedroom door, down the stairs, and out the house.

Alice never got to say a word as her
best friend jogged down her street and out of sight.