Sands of Time [Short Stories Anthology]

Memories of You

The creature huddled in the shadows, hid his legs behind his cloak, and tried avoid the water dripping from the ceiling with no success.

In the outside, the rain storm showed him no sign of giving up, even when he is surrounded by the rising tide by now.

"Soon...." The voice said to his head. "When the sun rises, you will be mine."

Now the voice has locked its victory. He was already too tired. For a month his searching is proven to be useless. He should have known, yet he never wanted to understand that there is no point of trying to find something he can't remember. He can't just find out why the land rejects him, where he came from, and who is he actually by only lucks and will of fight. He need more.

But his chance is already over.

Now, he only wanted to die peacefully, as a living creature, not as a monster like all humans outside shouted about.

When he closes his eyes, he heard something move in the water, but he already too tired to find out.

***

Cathleen should have just ignored The Creature she saw in the basement. But the unbearable feeling that choked her neck left her with no choice.

Now, here she was. After she carried The Creature all the way from the basement to this unused room in the first floor of the BamburghCastle, had his fingers bleeding touching The Creature's thorny skin, and had her best to bring The Creature out of basement because The Creature's body is unbelievably sensitive to water.

Cathleen questioned her insanity, not fully understood of why she couldn't just leave The Creature be. As if all questions hadn't been enough, she doesn't feel any guilt for contaminating one of the rooms in the castle with this creature foul odour and slimy skin. She doesn't even know whether it is dangerous and yet, doesn't feel insecure at all.

She just couldn't get it. There was no one to be blamed, not even her experience as a children caretaker.

Cathleen stares blankly at The Creature on the bed. No matter how many times she watches it, she never got any explanation of what this creature actually. Half of his body covered in black scale. But the most disturbing about The Creature was his mismatching hands: while its left hand looked like a normal yet scally hand of a human, its right hand was an abnormally large claw.

She closed her eyes and sighed. She feels tired though there is nothing she did but watches over it for almost four hours.

Cathleen opened her eyes again, only to see a pair of glowing golden animalistic eyes stares back at her. She moved, but her reaction was too slow compared to The Creature.

In the blink of an eye, her neck is already on its claw's grasp.

***

The human's neck felt so small within his palm. In early days, he would have snapped her neck at the moment. But he shouldn't be too worried. This human is a female. Threat is more than enough to chase her away ... or so he thought.

Unfortunately, this human girl is an exception. Instead of fight or run with her life, the blonde girl was just staring at him. Her black round eyes stares at him with a look he is not capable of understand, not tearful or frightened like everyone he met on the land before.

He frowned. This is something he never predicted. A feeling he never know hit his chest hard. Something seems familiar about her sun hair and dark eyes, but but before he even know what it is, The Girl lifted a note.

My name is Cathleen.

The throbbing confusion that hit his chest before was not comparable to the pain strike to his chest right not. Cathleen. There was something alarming him as he spelled the name that he did not know what. Swallowed in all of the question, he slowly released his grip from her.