The Persistence of Memory | ✔

23

Drizzle began to soak through the jacket Nina was wearing and the wind had become even colder, the chill seeming to reach Nina's bones as she stared up at the small cabin the narrow path had led her to.

The cabin looked old, though well kept. A desolate air hung around it and the clearing it was situated in—still as if frozen in time. Nina couldn't help but stare for a moment, the small cabin seeming to stare back through dark windows. She stood there for what felt like hours before cautiously moving closer.

Still, nothing stirred as Nina reached the door, the inside of the small cabin remaining dark. Bracing herself, Nina reached out to grasp the doorknob and gave it a turn. She was almost surprised to have it open, but then she remembered that was what Alice wanted. That was why she was there in the first place.

There was a staleness in the air when Nina stepped inside. Dust mixed with the scents of wood and earth while shadows seemed to dance as light poured in through the doorway. Nina pulled out her phone, using it as a flashlight to look around the place.

It was sparsely furnished and consisted of a single room. Nina thought it had probably been used for hunting at some point. Most likely, it was a place that had been in Alice's family for a while. There were a couple of bunk beds on one end of the cabin, both bare though Nina could see some blankets folded and stacked on the top one. A small stove and a table with a set of chairs made up most of the other pieces of furniture. Nina looked through the cabinets in the room, all of them empty save for dust.

Nina stood there, the only light that which filtered through the windows and emanated from her phone, and found herself lost as to what she was supposed to find there. For a second, she wondered if there was even anything to be found. If the whole thing hadn't been some worthless hunt for something that was never there. Something her broken mind had conjured up.

No, there has to be something here, Nina thought. There was an undercurrent of desperation to that, one Nina didn't want to think about.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was searching the cabin. It was dark and cold, Nina's fingers feeling stiff and her body cold. The bag she'd carried was left on the floor as she searched every nook and cranny she could reach. Nina ignored it, all of it, and kept searching, only to come up empty handed.

Alice's eyes flashed in her mind.

Red lips smiled as mismatched eyes stared mockingly at her.

A mother's voice called for her child.

Nina sat back, her head aching and her heart pounding. A heavy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as a rush of panic rose inside of her. The cold seemed to finally settle upon her as she found herself shaking. Outside, the rain began to fall in a steady, harsh beat while Nina sat still. Her mind was a rush of thoughts and memories, enough to almost make her want to scream.

Her hands shook, and Nina could almost feel the scars on her arms pulling at her skin. Even so, the ones in her mind were ever more apparent. They tugged at the frail remains of her own memories, shattering and scattering them until Nina wasn't sure what was left was ever hers.

Green eyes flashed in her mind's eye once more, and Nina felt a surge of anger that she'd been fighting against for a long time.

There was anger at Alice. Anger at the way she'd tampered with her mind to get what she wanted. At the way she'd broken a man now sitting in prison. Anger at the woman she'd seen as a childhood friend for lying to her about such a big part of her life. And there was anger at herself for allowing memories that weren't hers to drag her into such a mess.

At that moment, Nina found that she didn't much care for the truth. She didn't care about who it was who'd killed Alice or what it was that the woman had known. All Nina wanted was to go home. To see her father.