Trip Down Memory Lane

Scaly Tones and Open Roads chapter 25

Patton's POV

     I help my stomach tighter as I grew hungrier. It has been... who knows how long. I want to see my friends again. I wouldn't even care if Remus was the next person I saw, as long as they are willing to give me a hug, I am okay with them being around. 

     The next trail was Deceit's. I am sure nothing too bad could be in there, so I continued on my journey without taking a rest. The moment I entered his area, my surroundings turned gold and everything had a glow as if the sun where setting on them. The air had become moist, damp, and cold. It felt as if someone was flicking ice water onto my arms. 

     I continued my walk to find a variety of past from Deceit. We were all so close as children. Roman and him used to hang out a whole bunch. Deceit was always willing to sing a harmony to his melody. Logan liked him around because he was the only one capable of having an intelligent conversation according to him. Deceit was even the dad of the family until I took the position. He is the one who inspired me, since we spent the most time together. 

     I would feel empty, alone, Deceit was there to hug me and tell me that I was important and that things would be okay. He was always there to cuddle when I needed it, and he made sure that death wasn't brought up in the movies we watched. Death has always been a touchy subject for me. 

     Deceit was my best friend for a long time. Although, I do know that Thomas comes first. Once I found out that Thomas didn't like what Deceit did, I panicked and shunned him out. I wish I didn't, I miss him. 

     I looked up where I came across the memory of the day I sent him to the dark mind. I already sent one other by that time, but they where gone before I got to know them.

     Deceit was sobbing, trying to get a hug out of me. I stood my ground. It was not right for him, but it was what Thomas needed, or so I thought. 

     We could have talked it out, we could have made a deal, I literally could have done anything else, but I crushed my friend. I ask Thomas all the time if he is a good person. I am his morality, so clearly I reflect how good he is. 

     I pushed away my friend.

     That settles it, Thomas IS a bad person, but I am not there to control that anymore. Although, I would like to be there to control it. I would like to be there with the comfort of my friends. I want to tell Deceit that he is welcome. 

     I continued trotting through Deceit's memories, most of them where unpleasant, so I tried not to pay attention. Deceit really liked starring in the mirror. There is countless smaller memories in the mind of just Deceit in the bathroom for hours, starring at his reflection. At first, I thought it was because of him being uncomfortable with his scales, but that didn't seem like a problem here.

     I remember when he told me he didn't like his scales. He took a big patch of them from his left hand and wanked them out. He burst into tear and blood gushed from his hand. I am sure he would just feel worse if I got Logan to help him, so I have decided to step up to the plate and help myself. 

     I grabbed the bandages and pulled his hand towards the sink. ¨This is going to sting a little, so be prepared.¨ I put his hand under the warmed water running under the spout and he flinched, but tried not to let them pain come over him.

     I went to work cleaning the hand, but it was kinda difficult since the bandage would get caught on the broken pieces of scale on his hand. That is the day he started wearing gloves. He also started wearing more layers to hide his other scales. He used to wear a black T-shirt with a weird line design on it and a black cape and black jeans. His wardrobe has clearly changed since then. I really like it though, so clearly it was an improvement. 

     It seemed like Deceit's old memories on his section of the road was bringing up my more repressed memories than me bringing up his like it has been for the other sides. I saw one of Deceit's memories coming up though, that surprised me. He was standing at my door, watching me on the balcony ledge. 

     He was there almost the whole time. I could hear some of his thinking while in the memory, but not all. ¨He is probably watching the sunrise.¨ He thought. His thoughts started swirling once he hear me counting and as I positioned myself to jump, he started... running after me. 

     He was running after me.

     I watched in his memory as he barely touched me. Water filled his vision as he looked right into my eyes. I can't watch anymore. I turned around to face the exit of his section. This was pretty recent, so I thought I was near the end. For some reason... I wasn't. The exit to the tunnel was still some ways away. 

     The floor beneath me sent dust clouds up as I stepped. I payed more attention to that than anything around me. Then, as quick as I came, I was out of Deceit's memory. Although, the section of the memory that was coming up, had me shook.

     I stared at the next, and last, section of the road. The hues of color where faded more than any other paths in this place. All the memories I could see from the outside where blurry, but that could just be me. Well, it is. 

     This is gonna be one heck of a journey.

Thank you so much for reading this chapter! We are now within the last 10 chapters. I dont know how many chapter there is going to be exactly, but there will be no more than 35. I want to try to get to 30 though. Thank you for reading into the book this far.