Unwritten

Begin the Awakening

I awake in an unfamiliar room of the cave. The bed feels as if it is made of clouds. The sheets feel like they are made of pure woven silk. Damon is sitting in a velvet plush chair, sleeping, without a blanket. I give him the blanket laying at the foot of the bed.

As I pull the blanket up to cover his arms, Damon grasps my wrist and gives it a tug, pulling me onto him. "You need to rest." His voice is rough from just waking up. "You're putting your mind through trauma it doesn't need." He taps my temple. His eyes still closed, he chuckles and holds me on his lap. My legs swing over the arm of the chair and dangle in mid-air.

"How do I remember?" I ask, straight forward and sincere.

"You're not ready." Damon, with his eyes still closed, sighs and wraps the blanket I had given to him, around me so it covers both of us.

"That's for me to decide. Not you." I say looking at him, hoping he opens his eyes. "I can't continue my training if I don't know what I'm up against. Everything I've learned so far is general fighting skill. I need more specified attacks to adapt to my enemies. If I can't remember my enemies, how do I do that?" I take a break to breathe and open my mouth to continue. It only takes the time for me to blink for Damon to lean into me and kiss me. I kiss him back, my body betraying my desire for more. Damon pulls away, his chest rising and falling faster than it had been before. My heart is beating so fast, it feels like it will burst. I feel a shock, like I had just touched a doorknob that was charged with electricity. Instead of a doorknob, The shock came from within myself.

"Wh-What was that?" I look to Damon for answers. He doesn't give any. Instead, he kisses me again, this time more urgent. I feel the shock again, stronger, followed by a memory of someone-me-looking at a photo of Damon. Then I understand; I have to connect with Damon the way I used to, to connect my memories from my past lives. "Wait." I say between our lips. Damon doesn't hear me so I nudge his chest. "Is this really how I remember?" I ask him. He nods. "No dinner first?" I ask, only half joking.

He jumps up with me on his lap, scooping me up with him, and walks into the kitchen. He sits me down on the couch and brings me a cup of banana smoothie. "It's your dinner tonight. You can't eat too much right now; you won't be able to hold it down." He explains, standing next to me as I drink half the cup. I understand what he means.

After just half the cup is gone, I feel full. I reach up to him he meets me halfway. Wrapping my arms around his neck, he picks me up, kissing my shoulder and neck, he carries me back to the room we had come out of.

He lays me on the bed. Leaning over me, he lifts the long shirt I had on to expose my stomach. He traces lines over my skin and follows his imaginary lines with his lips. It tickles; I giggle. He reacts to my laughing by lifting up to kiss my lips. I sit up slightly to get comfortable. I tug off his shirt. Damon does the same for me. I cover my chest, suddenly conscious of the lack of undergarments and clothing separating us. "Don't do that." Damon talks to me soothingly. He traces his fingers up my side and glides his hand over my chest. "You're beautiful. You don't have to cover up."

I don't say anything in return but I feel my face heat up and I know I probably look like a middle school crush had just caught me staring. My initial reaction is fear. I see the gears grinding in Damon's head as he tries to assess the thoughts going through my head. He looks confused. "What's wrong?" I ask as he kisses my forehead.

"Your mind is closed to me. Usually it'd be open." I am confused for a moment but then I remember that we've probably done this before. My assumptions are confirmed when I see some of Damon's memory, leaking from his mind and into mine. We are laying in this bed more naked than we are now, silent, listening to each other's thoughts. "You do the same thing as the Sanctuary. Just whisper to me that I'm invited in and imagine a door unlocking in your head. It helps to vocalize it. But after some practice you'll only have to will it to be. It's like Harry Potter. They have to say the spell to start with but after practice..." He instructs me, understanding that I don't know how to let him in. I imagine a big door opening and whisper to Damon.

Come in. I imagine Damon walking through the door and soon enough I can feel him sorting through my thoughts. I know it's a mess in here huh? He looks at me and laughs. He kisses me.

A mess? Check out mine. I imagine myself walking through a door. We take our time to assess each other's memories and thoughts, paying careful attention to those we think are important. I can see all of his memories like pictures, and video and audio recordings, and hear everything he is thinking.

I can only catch a few phrases as each thought only takes a second to manifest. And there are so many.. I love you. You're beautiful. I want you to be ready to remember. I don't want this if you aren't ready. Some of the memories are about fighting with me but most are about a similar situation to this. One in particular stands out to me because of an interesting flash of blue color.

Tears well in my eyes and spill over when I see a memory of Damon looking at me, from afar, with a baby. That was six months after you had the baby. I couldn't let you see me; you would have been able to convince me to come back. I checked up on you every month and left you food and trinkets for the baby. I signed packages as your friends' names or neighbors' names. I did everything I could from a distance. That day you were having a particularly bad sequence of events happen to you. Your blue dress was always your favorite. It always did look good on you. I am crying full swing now as Damon tells me the story. I don't know how I should react to it so I just sit there.

"I love you Lily." Damon whispers to me. "Please don't cry." He catches my tears on his thumb and wipes them away. Slowly leaning over me, he kisses my neck and begins tracing his lines again. I place my hands on either side of his face and guide him up to my face to kiss him. My tears wet his face as we kiss.

Damon runs his finger over my body. A groan escapes his mouth when I wrap my legs around his torso and pull him closer. He removes the shorts he had put on me when he brought me back in from the drawing room. I stop crying to think about what I'm about to do. I had never had sex with anyone before. I know what it entails. Do I love him? I'm attracted to him. He says, in my past lives, I did love him.

No sex. Damon whispers to me. You nor I are ready for that. Just kissing. No further than this. His kisses get gradually slower and softer like he might break me. We have shared each other's memories. Once all of my memories have flowed to you, your memories will gradually come back. We don't want your brain to be overworked, especially during your training. He stops kissing me and lays down in the bed next to me. At some point, he had taken off his pants; the only material between us is our underwear and the sheets.

"So what now?" I break the silence, turning onto my side. Damon's hand rests on my waist.

"We lay here and enjoy the rest of our day." Damon closes his eyes. "Will you sing?" He smiles. I can see what he's thinking about-a memory of me singing to him. I decide to sing the song that I was singing in one of his memories.

"When I'm alone I sit and dream and when I dream the words are missing.... Yes I know that in a room so full of light that all the light is missing... But I don't see... you with me... With me." I sing the song until Damon's breathing slows. He had fallen asleep. I looked at his face. He had been crying. There are tear streaks running down his face. I wipe them gently with my hand and turn onto my other side to cuddle against Damon. I fall asleep in that position.