Pardon Beach

A Pure Cry

                  Camellia POV
It was like a wasteland full of dusty grey stained wooden houses, each one following the long line of the other. They were all scrunched together as if in some type of weird group hug, except this one lasted forever. Each one of their roofs looked about ready to collapse if you were to just stand close to the building, same going for the walls and doors. As for the windows, they had been left perfectly intact, glass shimmering a bright radiant smile as the sun glimmered down on it. Not one had any hint of a crack, all solid as can be and still very visible to see through.
"What the.." Wort mumbled under his breath.
I could barley make it out, but I heard Larky soon cut him off by a series of jumbled cuss words to sum up the place.
"I thought you said you saw a town, not a rundown place full of leaning houses of death!" Larky spat out at Dahlia, finally allowing his words to be more clear to my ears.
Dahlia looked more so annoyed than any shock or remorse for bringing us here with a false sense of hope.
"I forgot it looked like this." Was all she replied back with, short and curt.
That really blew Larky over the edge this time, Wort had to pull on his arm to make sure he didn't start pounding her with his fists.
Not a good start.
I stepped in,"Look, whatever messed up reason Dahlia had for bringing us here in the condition that its in without telling us is her own business," I looked over at her and flashed a warm smile, she only grinned weakly in return. "But it won't do any good to ridicule her for it. So I say we split up and look around, try and see if we can find anyone, or anything that'll help us understand why we can't remember what the heck happened."
Pride swelled in my chest as my little speech began to infect the others by making them all nod in agreement to the plan.
"I'll stick with Wort," Larky said in a much calmer tone now.
It didn't surprise me in the least, the two had been talking nonstop the entire trip we took to get here, about what, I had no clue.
Wort shook his head in agreement at the arrangements, and scooter closer to Larky, being as they had somewhat gotten separated during the mini word war.
Dahlia had decided to join them, leaving me and Sun together in a group.
"Let's check the sheriffs office first," he said motioning to one of the various building we had been walking towards.
I simply nodded as we began to pick up the pace to a small jog.
I didn't even bother questioning how he knew it was the sheriffs house, it just felt kinda pointless.
I had pulled out in front and made it to the short and stubby building first, the white paint on the outside walls slowly curling up from being so old. The paint on the door was the same way as the walls, flaking off at any slight amount of contact. I felt a surprise coldness emitting from the door as my pale fingers touched down on it, several paint chips falling to the floor as I did so. I continued to push it open to reveal a large main room -compared to the looks of the others at least- with a desk at the center of the dark creaky wooden floor.
Wood. Almost everything in this town was made from one kind or another of wood. But why? Didn't they have modern types of bricks and steel?
Suddenly it struck me that this was a kind of old type western town found in movies.
How do I remember that?
I don't know how I do, but one things for sure, I know for a fact that I hate beyond hate that kind of genre. Not only the screen version, but this real life one laid out in front of me as well.
Sun walked out from behind me, being as I had stayed still the entire time I had my brief experience of de-ja-vu.
He seemed to be more fascinated by it all than anything, how, I will never know the answer to.
The ground seemingly shrieked as I walked across it to catch up with him, as he had already wandered into the next room.
"Shouldn't we check the desk drawers?" I asked, right on his heels like a lost child looking for their parent.
He stoped, but didn't turn to face me. At first I thought he was mad at me for pointing out his small flaw, and began trying to think of something to say to make it sound less rude. Then I saw -heard- a small droplet of water splash on to the ground and slowly soak into the old already partially molded floor boards.
He was crying.
"Are... are you okay?" I questioned, inching closer to lay a hand on his shoulder, his warmth breathing through his dark green jacket and onto my palm. It sent a shiver down my spine.
I finally found a glimpse of what he had been looking at, a small poster lying inside a trunk full of magazines of three siblings that were all frowning, their mouths almost drooping off their faces. They had all been staring in the general direction of a mouth with a thick red circle around it with a line crossed though it.
"Hey, what's wrong..?" I repeated.
He finally had snapped out of whatever daze he had been in and turned back to face me. His face wasn't red and stuffy like most people's would've been. Instead he looked.. pure. Almost like a small child that had just learned something terrible was about to happen to either him or someone he knew. One small streak of water was still lining the distance between his eye and his chin, glistening from the light projected through the window.
"I.. I remember." He said absently, as if still in some sort of trance.
"Remember what?" I asked, still fighting to keep my curiosity at bay.
"That.." he trailed off and began to mumble illegible words, as if afraid to admit he'd done wrong.
"I can't hear you," I cringed at the hint of harshness that had been unintentionally tossed into my statement.
He took a deep breath and sighed, then lifted his face up to stare directly into my eyes. His light blue eyes spoke a thousand words, as they moistened and softened with a sadness. I swear I felt my heart start to break.
"I used to be mute." He spat out fast and absently, trying not to let me on to what he was really trying to convey.
"What do you mean? I can here you taking right now..?" I rambled without taking a second thought about what I was saying.
"Before I somehow got my memory wiped, that poster in there made me remember, I used to be mute. And how.." he had said more than he initially had planed.
What wasn't he telling me?
"And how..?" I prodded, my hand still resting on his shoulder.
He looked down at the ground as he began to weep again.
"And how my siblings made fun of me left and right for it.." he managed to get out in between sniffles and sobs.
A million words of hatred towards his family, tons of sympathy for the poor guy, millions of ways to try and comfort him with words flashed though my mind all at once.
I ignored them all and just pulled him into a hug. He stood frozen for a second as I embraced him before he wraped his arms around me and wedged his head between my head and shoulder.
I began to tear up, seemingly just as he stoped.
"They're a bunch of idiots if that's how they treated you," I spat out between heaves of breath from all of the crying. "I wish I could've been there to woop their butts for it." I stifled a laugh as the words slowly poured out of my mouth.
He slightly giggled at the threat, taking it all as a joke.
But I was serious. I wanted to go back in time and knock every last one of them upside the head with a hammer.
Just then, almost as if it's source had sensed that I'd gone too into thought about the whole thing, a loud piercing scream sounded, seemingly half way across the small town.
It was Wort and Larky, possibly Dahlia buried underneath the other two.