Crimson Rivers

15) Memories

Sadie reached towards a hand that was never there and found herself plummeting down into the oblivion below.

She braced herself for the living darkness to consume her like always and gritted her teeth in anticipation. But somehow, she kept falling, passing through the veil of shadows, and into another place entirely.

She blew through the clouds, and eventually, her feet kissed the ground. The warm wind passed through Sadies' hair, carrying with it the gentle song of a bird flying overhead. She looked around.

A sea of golden wheat swirled around her, waving in the wind. The sun shone high in the sky, accompanied by a blanket of blue that enveloped the area. Not a cloud could be seen.

A warm smile spread across her face as she ran forward, nudging the grass with her fingertips as she passed. She'd been here. It was just like the painting in her room. Memories of The Beast faded as she embraced the world around her.

Aimlessly running through the field brought her to a herd of cows and a small red shed nearby. She spotted the top of a man's head over the wheat and walked towards it, a feeling of familiarity ringing in her head. She brushed past the wheat and reached the empty clearing, finding the man there, sitting on a stool, milking one of the cows, whistling. The mooing of the cows filled the air. She stopped in place, fighting back tears.

"Mark?" Sadie said, the name suddenly hitting her.

The man turned around from his cow and smiled as their eyes met. "Sades! It's so good to see you."

Sades. There was only one person who ever called her that.

"Where... how?"

"Easy, take it slow now. We're in your head, darling. I'm just a memory." He waved her down.

"I remember. I remember now! How could I ever forget? We met here, didn't we?" She looked around, the memories returning to her in waves.

"That's right." He nodded, still smiling. "You were a much different breed than you are now, that's for darn sure."

She remembered sitting in the backseat of her mom's car, staring longingly out the window at her town shrinking in the distance. Mom ranted to her the whole way there, claiming she had no one to blame but herself. She tried to tune her out, but mom was quite the yeller. Sadie thought Mom was being overdramatic just like usual. So, she'd skipped class a few times. Whatever. She was a teenager, she thought that was part of the deal. Mom was no saint either. She'd shared her fair share of high school horror stories.

Sadie reached into her pocket for a cigarette then remembered mom took her smokes away. She huffed and leaned back, banging her head against the seat in frustration. Dad sat in the passenger seat, silent and meek like usual. A real vegetable of a man, the perfect fit for a woman as domineering as Sadie's mom.

They sat in silence, driving for a few hours. Sadie didn't know much about the place. Just knew it was where they sent troubled youth, whatever the hell that meant. It was probably just one of those places where they make kids milk cows, and make them pretend their learning something. One of her friends got sent to something similar, someone she bummed cigarettes off of, and when he came back, he had completely changed. He tried harder in school, he respected the teachers more, his whole demeanor changed and he didn't roll with Sadie's crew anymore. Total bore.

She dreamed up a mind-control facility where they pump out perfect boys and girls to usher in a new era of prosperity. Mind-control or not, she'd have liked to see them try and fix her. Mom constantly said she was a lost cause, so why would some sleepaway camp think any differently.