Amnesia

XV.

Remy couldn't put it off any longer. She needed her medication, and soon. She had been able to control her own head for long enough, but she was starting to see the shadows flickering just out of sight. While they were on the ocean cliff, she could have sworn she had felt coldness surrounding her, despite the fact that it had been midday in the middle of the desert.

Or maybe not. There was an ocean, after all. She still couldn't get over that. Remy had assumed they were somewhere in the Death Valley region. It would explain the general dusty atmosphere and the complete lack of people. She had been to Death Valley once before on a trip to California to go to Disneyland. Her mother had insisted on seeing the area for some research or something like that, but Remy hadn't been too focused on the desert because, well, Disneyland. Nevertheless, this dismal place was more or less what she remembered the Valley to be.

Her hands shook as she set the gun down on the kitchen counter. Shaking hands was one of the worst things to have when trying to handle a gun. She stared at it for a few seconds. It looked so ominous just sitting there by itself. She picked it back up, double-checked the safety, and cleaned it with the bottom of the much-too-large T-shirt.

Jeongguk was waiting for her outside, she was pretty sure. They really needed to talk. He seemed to be the only other person that was fully accepting that maybe something unnatural was happening here. The others were all trying to find logical answers to their situation. But something in Jeongguk's eyes told her that he knew something that the rest of them didn't. Something that she needed to know to help figure out what to do. Because they all needed to get out of here, as soon as possible. If not, things were going to take a quick turn for the worse. Because apparently, they hadn't hit rock bottom yet.

Remy was hungry. At least that was something she could maybe help without risking being shot at or losing what remained of her mind. She opened a few of the kitchen drawers, hoping to find something mildly edible. Nothing, nothing, noth-

She stopped when she noticed a piece of off-white paper in one of the drawers. It was half-covered by a shard of wood, probably broken off one of the cabinets and placed in the drawer because the person didn't want to deal with it. Remy picked up the paper. It was smooth and shiny. Photograph paper. She turned it around. On the other side was a picture of a small boy, probably about four years old. His grin lit up the whole picture. He looked a bit like Taehyung, actually.

"Remy?" Jeongguk's voice was muffled. He was looking for her. She put the photo back in the drawer and slammed it shut. It interested her, but it wasn't hers to keep. Nothing here was theirs to keep. They shouldn't even be eating the food there or wearing the clothes that were in the house. Sure, the family that had been living there was definitely gone, and probably wouldn't be coming back. But the house almost felt like a grave, and one does their best to not bother a grave.

"I'm here!" she called. "I'll come find you."

Jeongguk was pacing back and forth next to the house. He looked anxious, to say the very least. It was clear he knew something that she didn't. She didn't like not knowing things.

"Do you by any chance know the first rule of sword fighting?" she asked.

The completely random question seemed to take him off-guard, and he stopped pacing. "Stick 'em with the pointy end?"

Remy smiled. "That's the general idea. Do you know the first rule of firing a gun?"

He appeared to think about that for a while. "No."

Remy smiled, and raised the gun in his direction, making a show that she didn't have a finger on the trigger. "Don't be the guy on the firing end of the barrel."

He crossed his arms, and she lowered the gun. It was heavy, anyway. "Is that a catchy reference to something?"

"Nope," she said, popping the p sound. "Just made it up now."

"Hilarious."

Remy gingerly set the gun on the ground and shook her head, causing her hair to whip around. "So what's been going on? At least, what have you seen?"

"Seen?" he parroted.

"We all heard you, Jeon. You said that you saw a cabin surrounded by snow and heard a little girl screaming for help. Those things weren't actually there, so you're seeing things. Also, last night you looked at me like you were ready to strangle me."

A fire was lit in his eyes. "So what, you think I'm crazy?" His natural accent was slipping back into his words, and Remy knew she needed to knock it down a few pegs.

"No," she said, her voice level. "Of course I don't think you're crazy. If I think you're crazy, then I think all of us are crazy. And I don't want that at all." She sighed. "But I think something is happening here. So while it might not mean anything, I'd like to know what it is that you've been seeing."

He ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah. That makes sense. I'm sorry. I'm just-"

She reached out and touched his arm. "I know. It's okay."

Remy didn't know who acted first, but suddenly her arms were wrapped around Jeongguk's body and his face was buried in her hair. The embrace caused her eyes to burn and before she could stop them, tears were falling from her eyes and falling onto his T-shirt.

This lasted probably only a few minutes, but to Remy, it felt like hours. She would be happy to spend the rest of her life like that, she realized. Unaware of all other problems in the world and only being focused on the person that was holding you in their arms.

But to only be focused on oneself was to be selfish. Remy pulled away. Jeongguk's eyes were red and his face was blotchy, but he seemed better. He let out a small, embarrassed laugh. "That was weird."

"You think that was weird for you? I just hugged one of my life's idols, angels are singing above me right now."

He smiled and wiped his face with a hand. "Okay. Thanks for that."

"Anytime."

"My dream didn't feel like a dream. That's why it freaked me out. Everyone's telling me that it was just a dream, but it wasn't. I could feel things. I felt pain. And I could read signs in English."

Why would he be seeing any English text? "What did you see?"

He sighed. "I was in this weird room. I don't really know what it was, but there was all this old junk just lying around. I think it was in a forest or something like that. Anyway, I'm there for a while, and then I hear a phone ringing." He began pacing back and forth again. Remy noticed that he was creating a well-worn path in the sand. "Of course, I thought this was real, so I go running off to answer the phone. It was this really old phone, and it was ringing even though it wasn't plugged in. I picked up the phone and this woman started shouting at me. I think she was looking for someone, but she was speaking in English really fast."

"She was speaking in English?" Remy interrupted.

He nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

Remy twirled a few strands of hair around her finger. "Have you ever heard English being spoken in one of your dreams before?"

He thought about that. "No," he said eventually. "Japanese a few times before I guess, but never English."

"Okay," Remy said with a nod, as if the information wasn't concerning. Something about what he was saying sounded oddly familiar, but she wasn't going to jump to conclusions. She was tired of panicking and being scared.

"All of a sudden I could sort of sense that there was this person behind me so I turned around and..." his voice trailed off, and he raised his right hand to his chest, right next to his heart. "And then he shot me with a crossbow."

A crossbow? None of this made sense. "He?" Remy repeated. "Who's 'he'? Who shot you?"

Jeongguk took in a long breath. "That's the part that scares me the most. It was me."