She Who Minds

5

"Okay stone, what do you want to show me?" I mumble more to myself from my place on the windowsill.

I close my eyes and wait.

"Really, nothing? And here I was thinking I might be the key to saving the world."

I go back to staring out the window, watching the rain slide down the glass. This is unbelievable, and yet I find myself wanting it to be true. Wanting to finally be important enough for something or someone.

I sigh loudly, "So much for that pipe dream."

I take a sip of my hot cocoa before getting up and setting it on my nightstand. Crawling into bed, I wrap myself up into my blankets before collapsing into my pillow. Maybe my bed can make all of this go away, or at least this feeling I have in the pit of my stomach.

*****

"Emmaaaalissse"

"Hmm?" I hum, eyes closed.

"EMMAAAALISSSE"

My eyes shoot open suddenly and I find myself in a dark room smelling faintly of dirt.

"What the hell? Where the hell am I?"

"Emmalisse."

"Hello?" I ask, peering into the darkness.

"Welcome."

Suddenly torches light up all around me, illuminating everything. I find myself in a cave with damp walls, but there are so many things around me. A bed, a desk, shelves full of books. I am intrigued by all of it, but at the same time, I feel like I already know what's in every book and drawer.

"Emma."

My eyes shoot up to look at a woman with dark hair and violet eyes, "Yes?"

"Welcome home."

As she said the words, I find myself feeling instantly comforted. Like this whole time I've been alive, I've just been wandering around aimlessly, and now I actually have a place. This place.

"We are glad you're here, and we are sorry."

"We?"

Suddenly a bunch of other people faded into view behind the dark haired woman, before promptly disappearing.

"Wait where did they go, Florence?"

"Unfortunately the stone is a bit low on power at the moment. It is split into two separate pieces. Not to worry."

"Sooooo, who are you guys?"

"We are the previous Minders. Our subconscious are stored in the stone to help the new Minder. We feed all of our experiences and knowledge into the one who comes after us."

"Is it supposed to be like, a student gets better than the master sort of thing?"

Florence laughs, and it sounds almost whimsical, "Something like that, but we don't really spend much time teaching you. It's kind of like, updating a computer. We start from the oldest program and work up to the newest."

"Are you here now because you are the oldest?"

"Actually no, I am the newest, aside from you. Unfortunately, I am going to have to give the information from everyone else. It's not super problematic since I have all of their memories as well, it's just something we have to do while the stone is not at full strength.

"So wait, you were the one Cleo was talking about? The one who is alive at the same time as me?"

"I was alive. We will get to that later of course, you will get my memories last."