being nearly dead

Peckham Road

They were suddenly in another back alley, he seemed to favour them. He told her that no one could see them, yet he didn't make them appear on the busy side walk. She peered out the alley and saw people rushing about their own business, some dressed smartly, others not so much. She looked back at him.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked inexplicably.

He gestured out the alley. "Go, look."

She hesitated then stepped out the mouth of the alley. She almost immediately walked into someone but as she jerked back she saw her particles just flew around him, sent themselves back to her and reformed her shoulder. She looked down at the thin fabric that stayed on her skin.

  She smiled lightly and walked fully into the crowd, different pieces of her floated away as she grinned. All her segments came flying back where she wasn't disturbed by the passing strangers. She turned around to smile at him and saw the ghost of one returning.

"This is amazing..." she whispered to herself and started quickly against the rush of the crowd. She looked aside briefly at a passing bus and recognized the sign. "Twelve... Dulwich..." she gazed back to see him trailing her, "I know that bus."

"From where?" he asked as though he didn't know the answer.

She didn't notice the way he enquired. "I used to take it... from Elephant and Castle..." the words spilled from her mouth without regarding whether she actually documented them. "I went to visit..." then she got stuck, "visit..." she repeated but the thought had vanished. Without warning she took off running toward where the bus had driven from the station.
 
  She ran into the road, jolted back for a car but quickly remembered she'd go right through it. She followed the stream of traffic into the residential area at top speed. Forgetting that he could teleport them.

She didn't tire as she caught up with the bus. She waited for the doors to open at its next stop, bouncing on her heels and climbed on. She stood in the middle aisle whilst all the seats were taken. It was busy, she remembered: it was always busy.

  She peered anxiously out of the windows, trying to take in every house and bush, every sign and lamp post, trying desperately to remember them all. She didn't notice when Nix appeared behind her; she was too absorbed in her task.

The bus lady announced: "Harris Academy" she immediately went to the doors, waiting for them to open although she could easily pass through them. She herded herself out with three others and stood confused at the edge of the sidewalk.

"Do you know this place?" he asked beside her. She looked around hopelessly. He could see she was beginning, very slowly, to gain her emotion again. That could be a problem. He wanted to invasively edge inside her head and see what she was thinking but she didn't want him to. So, he stopped thinking about how much easier it would be. Why was he doing this?

"I- I don't know... maybe..." she looked at the reddishly painted Victorian building on the corner of Lyndhurst Way and Peckham Road. "That's the Peckham Hotel... I- I used to go there to Pizzapolli, an Italian restaurant..." she murmured.

"Who did you visit?" he asked.

She lingered and raised her hands to her head; a throbbing headache was coming on and she had a feeling it was a futile attempt to prevent her from remembering. She tried to push it away and focus but it only forced itself further upon her. "I- I can't remember..." she murmured weakly.

"Who were you visiting?" he pushed.

She turned to him, fingers pressed hard through her hair toward her skull. "I don't know!" she took a slow breath and tried to calm herself down. He watched her carefully. She took a few more looks around then crossed the street and again until she was standing at Lyndhurst Way, next to the hotel. Three stars, it was pretty.

She looked down the street and saw some houses, she made for the steps of the hotel. The restaurant was empty midday, breakfast had just finished and the last patron was now paying and leaving. She walked in slowly and tried to swat away the pain in her head from the inside. She blew away a stray lock of hair in her face when she saw something that wasn't there before.

Two people were now seated in the middle left of the room. They both had different pizzas in front of them. They were laughing about something that they thought they saw on the television screen to the younger ones left. It was her. Her and another woman. The other woman was fuller built with a cute smile and shoulder-length brown hair. The short laughter bubbled down and she continued eating.

"There..." she pointed to them but when she looked back again to show Nix, they were gone.

"Who were you visiting?" he simply asked, softer this time.

She lost her breath and quickly ran back onto the street. She glanced around wildly then turned down Lyndhurst way, counting the houses as she went. Finally, she stopped dead in front of a chipped-painted little two-story house with an overgrown garden. She took a shaky breath as a word entered her head. "My mother... I visit her every Saturday...." she glanced sideways at him, immediately he was there.

"Why?"

She looked back at him again. "I..." she was losing her grip on the memory so she tried to yank it back. "She's injured- I do her shopping and take her out for dinner... Italian's her favourite."

He smiled lightly but stopped abruptly as a warning sounded off inside him. Suddenly, he felt a gash form against his wrist so he looked down to it. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, it was just the feeling of being cut. A threat. This was the first time he was disobeying and it felt strange, so did she. He looked down the road and saw a dark figure forming from the gravel. A threat from the other side. "We need to go back."

She spun around harshly to face him. "No, no, we can't, I'm remembering-"

"It's not safe here anymore," he didn't want to alarm her but he knew that figure well. Protect her, at all costs. The words rung dully in against the walls of his brain. He took her hand without permission and brought them to the flat.