“My, my, my. You’ve grown so much since I’ve last seen you, Clementine.” Chuckled my Aunt Lucy. Her eyes twinkled brightly, making her old age disappear completely. The brightness of her twinkling eyes made my eighty year old aunt’s age decrease by twenty years. Her smile was warming, and was better than anyone else’s smile. My aunt acts like she has seen me every month, but I, myself have only met her once when I was eight, so you can tell why she has seen growth in me. I was sitting in the rocking chair to the right of Aunt Lucy, and I continued to slowly rock back and forth. We chatted about how our days have treated us, and about life in general. I told my Aunt Lucy that everything was going great, that my life was practically paradise, but really life was h*ll. I faked my smiles, my laughs, and my innocence.

My name is Clementine Rose. I am fourteen years old. I have no memory about my past life before I was eight years old. I have the blackest eyes in the whole world. My hair is an unnatural color of green. It is real hair, but its color is unreal. My “family” is small. There are only two girls, including me, and one boy, whose name I cannot recall. For some reason, I do not recall the nights I had at “home” or the days I had at school. Yet, I do remember at age ten when I was taken from my “home”.





~(`;’)~
It was ten o’clock at night when I suddenly awoke from only one hour of peaceful sleep. I walked over to my window and opened it slowly so I wouldn’t wake anyone. The cold air swept past me as I stared into the dark night. The streets were bare of living things. Trash, branches, and dead leaves flew through the empty streets. No dogs barked wildly. I took a deep breath in and smelled the usual cigarette smoke, the whiff of baby powder, and then the calmness of upcoming rain that never arrives. It never rained at my neighborhood, but rained everywhere around it. It was like there was an invisible barrier that kept any weather from coming to this small neighborhood. I looked toward the sky and spotted my favorite star. It was just north of the North Star. It sparkled brightly and its radiance was brilliant. I named it Mary-Ann because I had always loved that name for unknown reasons. Every night, I would look up and wish upon Mary-Ann, and tonight I wished upon that star and asked, “Mary-Ann, my life has been odd. I cannot recall all that has happened before I was eight years old. If you can grant wishes, then may I ask for the truth to be shown to me.”

I gave a small smile to Mary-Ann and then sat down on the floor. The wind was now picking up speed and I had begun to have some hope that maybe rain will come. I closed my eyes and began to slowly think about what might happen tomorrow. Tomorrow, maybe “mother” will cook the “family” some pumpkin pie. It may even rain tomorrow! I chuckled silently because I knew that thought was just never going to happen.
Then there was a quiet knock on the door. My eyes shot open and I quickly and silently scurried up into my bed. I sat in my bed, waiting for whoever was at my door to walk away. I was waiting for the creaks that the floor makes when you walk on it, but the creaks never came. Then there was another knock on the door. This time it was louder. I still didn’t answer. Then the doorknob slowly turned. At the door’s entrance, there stood a muscular man. His face was covered except for his eyes. His sharp eye color of blue glared at me with a mix of loathing and h*ll itself, and even looking at him sent chills going through my spine.

I tried to scream for help, but I was stiff as stone and couldn’t move. The man moved slowly towards me. Soon he was close enough for me to hear his heavy breathing. In one hand there was a large brown bag, and in the other hand there was a small white cloth. The man walked towards me and tried to grab me out of the bed. I swiftly ran out of my bed and raced to the door, but the man was swifter and closer to the door. He quickly ran to the door and blocked it so no one could get out. So I ran to my window, I wanted to jump, but my fear of death was too much for me. I looked out of the window and saw the ground. Then I remembered my “mother” had planted roses right under my window. I heard the footsteps of the man behind me. I turned around as quickly as possible to run, but it was a split second too late. The man took the white cloth and put it over my nose. It smelled of alcohol, nail polish remover. I wanted to scream out for help, but I was getting woozy, and everything around me turned fuzzy. Then everything went dark.
When I awoke again, everything was dim-lit. I could see a small lamp hanging from the ceiling. Nothing else was inside the small room. There was a door that I could barely see. I tried to get up, but I felt too exhausted. It was like there were weights on my legs to keep me from getting up. I slowly lifted my hands up to see that they were tightly bounded with strong rope. I tried to untie the rope, but I was still weak in strength. Then the door opened. There was the same man that was at my house. The same man who kidnapped me. I was about to scream, but my mind told me not to. The man walked slowly towards me and then roughly pulled me up. I felt like my arms were about to be dislocated. I was taken through the door, and the light blinded me. I shielded my eyes the best I could, but I didn’t have my hands to shield the light. The man dragged me through the bright corridors. Then he opened another door, which was darker then the room I was in before. Inside there was a faint smell of cigarette smoke. Then there was a voice. Its voice was hoarse. He sounded grim and full of loathe. He spoke in a slow pattern to me. His voice gave me chills that ran up my spine when he said, “Bring the girl to me.”
The man pushed me towards the unknown person. I was pushed farther into the darkness, and soon I saw the unknown man a bit more clearly. The man was very round and he was wearing a black suit. In his mouth I could see a cigarette with fresh smoke coming from it. The man spoke to me again, “Do you know why you were brought here?”
“No.”
“Well, then you may know the star Mary-Ann?”
“Yes.”
“You wished to know about your true past, am I right?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should know that your darkest wishes are about to come true.” the man said with smallest smirk on his face.
“Darkest wishes?” I asked.
“You shall see in due time. Berlet, take the girl to the dresser and get her fitted into something that is not night clothing.”
Berlet nodded his head and then grabbed my left arm, practically wrenching it towards the door. When we had reached the hallway, I tried to pull away from him, but his arm strength was greater than mine. I was pulled to the very last room to the left. Inside the room smelled of vanilla. Berlet let go of my arm and gestured sharply to the chair toward the corner. I walked slowly toward the chair, while rubbing my arm because of how red it had become. I sat down in the chair and waited to see what would happen next.
Berlet left the room and shut the door behind him. Then you could hear the small click and that told me that I was locked inside the room. Sighing deeply, I knew what I was going to have to do. I walked over to the mahogany closet and opened it. Inside there were dresses. There were the colors red, blue, green, and even more that I couldn’t name. As for a decision, I grabbed the first dress off its hanger and changed. After I changed, I walked toward the mirror and stared at the dress I had chosen. The dress was a darker shade red, had a design of roses at the top of the dress, and was actually quite long. I could still run in it, but I wouldn’t be able to run as fast as I could. It was no gown, but it felt like one to me for some reason. I twirled around in my new dress a few times, and then started to head toward the door. Right when I had reached the door knob, I heard an eerie noise come from behind me. I stood frozen, and then slowly I pivoted around toward where the noise came from.
In front of me was a little boy. He wore the a white t-shirt that had rips throughout the shirt, a muddy green jacket, and ripped up dress pants that looked the color blue, but it was difficult to tell. His hair was a dark brown with highlights of blond. It was a very interesting hair color for at least me, but my hair was strange, too, so I had nothing rude to say to him. I was about to ask what the strange boy was doing in my room, but before I could. He reached his hand out gesturing me to hold is hand to show me something. I slowly reached my hand to his and when it was in his grasp, he clutched it hard. He looked up from the floor and smiled a dark smile. His unnatural blood-red eyes stared at me like they were staring into my soul. The next moment I felt my back crack, and then blacked out entirely.
I felt like I was falling, falling into the depths of h*ll itself. I felt myself land on something, and then I awoke. I sat up stiffly and looked around. There was nothing in the distance. It was like I was in the middle of nowhere. Then I looked down to see what I was sitting on, and found that it was a bed of flowers. I stood up and brushed my dress to get all the dirt off, and then looked to my left side and almost screamed in panic. Beside me was the little strange boy beside me.
“Where…where am I?” I asked.
The strange little boy spoke for the first time and yet he sounded like a grown man. His voice was deep and gruff, and odd enough he sounded like a ghost that had been dead for years. He was like a demon.
“A memory.”
“What do you mean by a memory?”
The demon boy chuckled, “All shall be revealed in due time, Clementine.” He spoke my name slowly as to indicate that he was talking to me directly. His voice brought chills through my spine, and I shivered as if I was cold. His voice kept repeating in my mind so I quickly shoved that memory away for now. Then the demon boy spoke again saying one word sharply, “Watch.”

I looked out into the distance as far as my eyesight went and saw a carriage. The carriage was the color of the ocean, and faintly I could see people in the carriage. I was about to walk up to the carriage when my whole body stopped me from taking another step. The little demon boy laughed a mocking laugh, “They cannot see you. To them you are a ghost, invisible.”

Tentatively, I walked up to the carriage and went inside, sitting on the left cushion seat by this woman with brown hair. Her gown was a light pinkish color. The ruffles on the dress were precise and delicate. Her smile made the whole carriage filled with joy and happiness. On the other side, there were two children, about the age of four. The little girl wore a sky-blue dress and her sandals had pearls that were attached onto her straps. The little boy wore a white T-shirt, green jacket, and… and blue dress pants. Wait! That was what the little demon boy was wearing. Oh, now I was confused so I listened to their conversation.

“Mama, where are we going?”

The mother laughed and answered, “Why, Nathaniel, I think you know exactly where we are going. Don’t you?” Nathaniel frowned slightly, “Oh, mama, please don’t play that game with me again. Can’t you please tell me where we are going?” The mother laughed again. Then the little girl jumped into the conversation saying, “Mama, mama! I know, I know where we are going!”

“Well then Edme, where are we going?” laughed the mother.

“We going to… Uncle’s Plantation!” Edme yelled.

“Hahaha, very funny, Edme.” Nathaniel said scornfully.

“It is funny!” Exclaimed Edme, “ ‘Cause you didn’t know the answer.”

“Hey! I’m not mister know-it-all so sorry for not knowing the answer.” Said Nathaniel.

“No wonder, Nathaniel Swift Rose.” Laughed Edme.

“Don’t say my full name, Clementine Primrose Edme Rose.” Yelled Nathaniel.

“ Ok, ok, that is enough, Nathaniel and Edme.” The mother said peacefully.

Then I zoned out from the conversation. Nathaniel was my brother. He had to be because he knew my whole name and had the same accent as I did. Then the little demon boy came over and sat across from me. His blood eyes stared intensely at me, and then said, “Have you figured out who everyone in this memory is yet?” I nodded my head and said, “Yes. This memory shows my mother, me and my brother, Nathaniel.”

“Correct, now continue to watch, but outside of the carriage.”

I followed the boy outside of the carriage and began to watch from the outside. My brother and I continued to argue about that stupid thing, and my mother was trying to stop the arguing. Soon I saw my young self pounce onto my brother, and my mother panicked and yelled at both of us so loud that I could hear it outside. The driver heard the noise and swerved to the right heading right towards me. The driver’s eyes widened and screamed, taking his last breath. The driver laid dead on the driver’s seat. I then looked behind me and screamed. Behind there was a panther. His claws were already splattered with blood. He growled fiercely, and showed his white teeth. The panther growled again, and this time the horses swerved around to retreat from the panther so the chase began. The panther quickly killed off the four horses. It was unnatural for this to happen. It was unnatural for this panther to have that much speed and agility. Now the panther was ready for the main kill. The carriage was still without the horses pulling the carriage. The panther ran toward the carriage and tried to tip it over. There was so much force that it fell. I ran over to the other side of the tipped over carriage to see what was happening, praying that they wouldn’t die.

My mother swiftly opened the carriage door that was not on the ground face-down, and lifted me and my brother out of the carriage, too. Then she jumped back into the carriage. I heard a sound of a sword coming out of its scabbard. My mother came out of the carriage with a sword in her hand. The sword was very elegant and deadly. The hilt was large enough for my mother’s hand and was shaped perfectly for her hand. She yelled to my younger self and my brother. Something that was too slurred for me to understand. My brother and I ran from the carriage, away from the panther. The panther saw the plan my mother was trying to do, but it was smarted and ran passed her and raced toward my brother and my younger self. Even when I was little, I was the fastest so I was in front of my brother. The panther pounced on my slow running brother and immediately I heard his spine crack. He died because of the panther’s weight.

I looked over back to my younger self, and saw how frozen I was. How scared I was. I knew that any second, the panther would come after my younger self, but then I thought, “If the panther had gotten me then I wouldn’t be here, right”? I nodded to myself; knowing that I was correct. So, what happened then?

A piercing scream hurtled through my mind and interrupted my thoughts. The scream had come from my mother. I quickly turned my attention away from my younger self and looked to see what had happened to make my mother do such a piercing scream. I looked towards my mother and screamed. Her right arm had a huge gash with blood flowing everywhere. The blood dripped from her arm to the ground. Every time, the grass turned redder than before. Soon, my mother was on the ground. Her back toward the ground. Her body was surrounded by the panther. The panther circled around her body, just waited for her to die so then he could feast on her body. My mother lay on the ground, her life slipping away. You could just see it through her glassy eyes. With her last breath she screamed out to my younger self. I couldn’t understand it, but I knew by the way she moved her mouth for my younger self to run for her life until she reached safety.

Then my mother died. She lay in the grass, dead, but the panther still circled around her. I walked up to my dead mother, and saw the real damage that killed her. There was a huge gash right where her heart was. The claw marks were dreadful. Just too painful to look at, but I had to see the other damage. Her left leg had shallow tooth marks all around the leg. Her right leg was a mix of claw marks and grass stains. Her arms were covered in her blood. Her body entirely was still. Just looking at my dead mother brought chills through my body. I tried to hold back the tears, but they were in control. I broke down crying, right in front of my dead mother. I fell onto my knees; kneeling there crying my guts out for my mother. I didn’t know why I cried. I hadn’t even known my mother ever before, but somehow there was just this connection. A connection that made me think that I had known her for forever. I stayed kneeling there crying for a long time, a time that felt like eternity.

Finally, I stood up from where I was kneeling. My knees where faintly covered in my mother’s scarlet red blood. My hands were wet from tears, and my eyes were going to red and puffy when I looked in the mirror. I wiped the blood off my knees. Then I dried off my hands. After that, I walked away from the body of my mother. Looking back one more time, I spotted the panther. I saw the hunger in its eyes. The panther looked towards the direction I was in. The panther stared at me. In his eyes, I could tell what he was asking. He spoke, “Your mother was an exceptional opponent for me to fight to the death. She has not died in vain for she has died with the knowledge that you have finally met her. Her soul has been carried up to the heavens. She shall be watching over you from now on. Mary-Ann shall always be your guardian. Go in peace, Clementine Rose, and may we hope that our paths never cross again.” I nodded my head, turning around. I didn’t want to see the panther feast on my mother when I was watching. I didn’t want to witness that.

I walked away from the panther, and headed back towards where the strange little boy was. Soon I found the little boy in another open field. There were no flower beds. The grass was brownish green. I walked up to the strange boy. I stared at his clothes. They were the same as Nathaniel’s. The only difference was that his clothes were ripped because of the panther. He wasn’t a demon, but he was my brother. Nathaniel stared at me, “Now you have learned one part of the past. The first part of your adventure and next you will learn more. Be prepared because sometimes there are just some things you would rather not want to learn, but must learn so you mind is not empty of crucial memories.” I stared at Nathaniel with confusion. What was he talking about? Why would these memories be so crucial? Was there going to be something important that I needed to learn from one of these memories? The boy glanced at me once again, “Your first journey has been completed.” Then Nathaniel faded away from me. The memory was about over. I started to feel drowsy. Everywhere around me began to turn foggy. Then I fell towards the ground, blacking out on the way down

I woke up on the floor in the room I was in before I went towards the memory. I was lying by the door where I say my brother, Nathaniel. I stood up slowly, thinking ‘bout the memory I had just witnessed. When the re-caption was over, I opened the door and spotted Berlet sitting to the right of the door. I walked out of the room thinking about why Berlet didn’t come in and check on me. Berlet looked at me curiously. He opened his mouth, speaking scornfully, “Miss Rose, you’ve finally come out of your little room.” I looked at him with distaste, “How long was I in the little room?” Berlet spoke sharply with every word he spoke. I t was like he was a viper. He answered, “Ten minutes or so.. Now will you follow me?” We walked through a few corridors, passing rooms like the observatory, library, and courtyard’s entrance. Finally we arrived at the dining room.

The dining room was very vast in size. There was a large golden chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. The wall was the color lavender with very faint designs of roses. The flooring was so clean that you could see a sparkle and your own reflection. The table was covered with white linen with multiple designs of stars. In the middle of the table was a bouquet of tulips and red and white roses. Berlet gestured for me to sit down. I walked over towards the table, sitting down at the first chair I saw. I looked across the table, and spotted another person on the other side of the table. He had a darkish brown hair color. He was sort of pale in complexion, but was not as ghostly as some people I’d seen before. His eyes sparkled from the light and his smile warmed me up. I continued to stare at the boy that I zoned out. When I zoned back in, the boy had moved over to where I was and was sitting next to me. I gasped because of how quick he moved towards me without me knowing. I kept thinking about the boy when he finally interrupted my thoughts.
“Hello, my name is ????????.”
“Excuse me?” I asked with total confusion.
“My name is ???????? ????????.”
“What language are you speaking?”
The boy chuckled, “So I see you do not speak Greek.” I nodded my head. The boy continued to speak, “My name is Nicholas Song and what is yours?” I started to laugh because I felt so stupid about what he had been saying to me. Nicholas looked at me funny, “Is everything all right?” I continued to laugh, but managed to say yes.
“Then why are you laughing so hard?”
“ I don’t know really.”
I laughed for a while longer. Soon the laughing stopped after a few minutes. Then gathering my common sense I introduced myself finally. I said, “Hey, um…sorry ‘bout that. My name’s Clementine Rose. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“So, why did you come over here, when you were all the way over there?”
“ I was just wondering why you kept staring at me.”

“ Oh! Um…I don’t really know why I was staring at you, Nicholas.”

The boy chuckled again, “You can just call me, Nick. Nicholas is too formal.” I nodded my head in agreement. Then I looked at his eyes again. Nick’s eyes sparked again with the chandelier lights. Oh, why do I keep staring at him? I forgot about that thought. I then said to Nick, “So, um… when did you arrive here?”

“I guess two days ago, but nothing really has happened. The man in the dark told me that ‘When that person arrives, your journey shall begin’.”

“ That person? What do you mean?”

“I have no idea.” Nick said with a funny look.

We both laughed for a second. Then the food arrived. The waiter brought the silver dishes towards the table. They set them down, uncovered them, and left. It was so quick that I barely got to say thank you. I took off the silver cover. Then the food smelled delicious or whatever the word was. I was going to eat chicken and rice and green beans. Thirty minutes later Nick and I both finished our dinners. We talked a while longer. Then I excused myself and went to go look for Berlet.

Berlet was sitting just outside the dining room. His chair was turned away from the doors of the dining room, looking towards the hallway. I tapped his left shoulder trying to get his attention. He didn’t move. I tried again, abut still he didn’t move. For a moment I thought he was dead, until I walked around. He was just sleeping. I sighed in relief. Then I heard footsteps in the distance. The footsteps were faint for a second, but the closer the footsteps came. The louder they got. I turned around when the footsteps stopped. In front of me was another boy. He looked about the age five. His blonde hair was ruffled. His shirt was a grayish white color. He wasn’t like, Nathaniel. There were no cuts in his shirt. No smudges or anything. He never died at least, I guess. The boy didn’t speak to me at all. He just reached his left hand out. I knew what to do. I grabbed his hand. I felt like I was getting electrocuted. Then I black out again.

I woke up in an alley way right next to a dumpster. I sat up and looked around. No one was around me except for the boy. The boy never spoke, but he pointed toward the street. I began to watch this memory. My younger self was walking along the sidewalk on the other side of the street. She was wearing the same clothes she had worn from the other memory. The only difference was that the clothes were dirtier than before. She had no smile upon herself. Her left foot was bare, and her right foot had a terrible hole on the left side of the shoe. She was limping along the sidewalk. It was like she didn’t know where to go. Her expression was flat. It was like she didn’t want to live anymore. She had seen the death of both her mother and brother. She kicked anything that was in her way. She continued to walk south, so I got up from where I was sitting down and followed her.

This led me to another place in the strange town I was in. I was now in an open area. There was a fence that had a sign saying, “Do NOT Touch Electricity is STILL ON”. I guessed it was an electric fence. My younger self thought so too, and she walked up to the fence. She reached out her hand, ready to stop living. Her hand was just inches away from touching the fence before someone yelled out, “Stop!” It was a young boy’s voice. He was about how old my younger self was. My younger self pulled her hands away from the fence. Then she dropped down crying her guts out. The young boy walked up to her slowly. He whispered something to her that made her stop crying. The young boy helped her up from the ground. Then lead her away from the fence. For a moment, she was hesitant, but then allowed him to shepherd her away from death.

When they were yards away from the fence, the boy looked at my younger self. Then he said, “What were you thinking?” She looked away from him to hide a single tear. Then she looked at him, and told him the story about what happened to her brother and mother. The young boy listened closely. He didn’t interrupt at all. My younger self stopped for a moment when she got to the death of her brother and mother, but continued to tell it. After she finished telling the story, she fell onto her knees. The young boy allowed her to stay there for a moment. Somehow he knew how it felt to lose loved ones. He nodded his head. He then said, “I know your pain because my brother and father were killed a few days ago, too.” My younger self’s eyes grew wide. Then she said, “What happened?” The boy sighed for a moment. Then he said, “It was just three days at least ago. It was weird how they died though. We were all in the car. All of us were in our red car. We were heading to the café by the dance studio. Everything was fine, but it happened so quickly; though. We had arrived at a street light. It was green so we kept going, but somehow it just turned red, and we were halfway past the streetlight. So my father continued driving to the café. Then a lost girl ran into the streets. I looked towards her, and could see the fear in her eyes. My father was about to run over her, but heard the girl scream. So, he swerved away from the girl, and then hit another car on the left side of the street. I panicked and opened the door beside me and jumped out. I landed on my left shoulder, and rolled away from my blue car. When I had stopped rolling, I painfully got to my knees, so I could crawl towards the side walk.” The boy took a deep breath, and I knew that this was going to be the toughest part for him.

“When I got to the sidewalk, I turned around and stiffly sat down on the sidewalk. Then I saw everything that happened to my father and brother. My father had crashed into a blue car. My father’s car had flipped over, but the blue car stayed right-side up. Instead of it being flipped the front part of the car was ruined. My car’s windows were broken. The door I had opened to jump out of was nowhere near the car. Instead it was by where the lost girl was standing. I wanted to walk over to the car and see if anyone was alive, but I knew that no one could have lived that crash. The street was a mess with lots of people trying to see who had lived the crash. Soon after the police arrived at the street. They began to look at all the mess that had been made. They opened the car doors carefully and I heard all the people around me gasp. When the ambulance arrived, the police brought out two, long, black bags. They brought out the dead bodies of my father and brother. My father was bloody everywhere, and same with my brother. Oh, it was too hard to look at, but I continued to watch. They placed my brother and father in the long black bags and then placed then in the ambulance truck. I stiffly got up from the sidewalk and tried to run away from the street, but ended up just walking fast.” The boy took another breath. Then he continued.

“Soon my legs began to give up. I began looking for a place to fall asleep. I didn’t care where, but just somewhere people wouldn’t find me. After a long time searching, I found an ally. The ally was filthy, but it was good enough to sleep in. I’ve been sleeping in that ally ever since. I find food in the dumpster that people throw away. The food isn’t that delicious, but its kept me alive. The water I’ve found isn’t as nice as the water I’m used to, but I’m not dead yet. Then I spotted you wandering around, so I followed you. And it’s a good thing too, because you were about to kill yourself.” The boy smiled.

My younger self stayed silent for a while. Her expression was fear. She looked at the young boy. She had a single tear run down her face before she said, “I’m so sorry.” The boy looked at her with confusion, but then sighed. It was like he knew what she was talking about, but still asked why she was sorry. She looked at him sadly, “ I was the girl who had run in front of the car. I was the lost girl. I’m so sorry!” The young boy looked at her with forgiveness. He said told her that it was ok. That it was on accident. She nodded her head in agreement. Then she asked, “What’s your name?” The boy chuckled softly, “My names Luis Darth. What’s yours?” The girl smiled, “The names Clementine, Clementine Rose.” Luis smiled at my younger self’s name. Soon after Luis and my younger self just began talking about random stuff that five year olds would talk about. There was laughing, giggling, and even random gestures toward the sky. I, myself began to giggle about their conversation. It made me want to be a kid again.

Soon the conversation ended , when a police officer came around the corner. When he spotted Luis, he started yelling words to him. Luis said his good-bye to my younger self, and then ran away from the police officer. When the police officer came back from chasing Luis, he spotted my younger self. He began talking to her about her coming with him for safety. She nodded slowly, and then she followed the police officer.

The memory began to become foggy. Then I was by that same electric fence. Luis, who had brought me here, stood by the fence. His eyes were a gray-blue color now. He stared at me intently. Then spoke slowly, “Clementine, now you have seen another mystery unveiled to you.” I looked at him with confusion. He then said, “ This memory was to show the kindness that two different people showed you that day. You’ve now learned the death of my father and brother, and of what will make sense soon.” I nodded my head. Then another question arose into my mind. I asked the question before I could stop myself. I asked, “How did you die, Luis?”

“ When the police officer chased me, he was chasing me towards the fence that he did not know about. I continued to run away from the officer. What I didn’t know was that there was a rock in my path of where I was going to do a U-turn. I stumbled upon the rock and tumbled on the ground. I rolled too close to the gate. When I lifted my left hand up to get up, it hit against the fence, so I was electrocuted to death. The officer ran to my side after, but was too late. I had already died.”

I wanted to say that I was terribly sorry, but Luis touched my left hand. He wished me good-luck. Then I blacked out. I woke up on the floor behind Berlet. My back was to the ground and I looked like I had gotten electrocuted. My eye sight was blurry for a minute, but cleared up soon. I sat up stiffly, spotting Nick by my side. He was pale in complexion. I tried to smile at him, but cringed in pain. I really did feel like I got electrocuted. Nick looked at me. The he asked, “????? ????;. Are you alright?” I was able to softly answer yes, but he didn’t fall for it. He looked at me, one eyebrow raised, and asked, “ I know you aren’t alright. Now what happened?” I sighed. Then I told him about the memories and when I got kidnapped. He stayed quiet during the whole thing without interrupting. When I finished, he nodded slowly to me. Then he said, “So ever since you were kidnapped by Berlet, you’ve been going through these weird memory journeys. The memories starting with your mother and brother’s death to two people who were kind to you, and then you learned what happened to Luis.” I nodded my head. Nick nodded his head again, “?????????? ???? ???? ?????????, You just need some rest.” I agreed with him and then I cringed in pain from another mental electrical shock.
Nick helped me get up from the ground. Then he assisted me to an empty bedroom in the odd compound I was in. I looked at him staring into his eyes and said, “ I can do the rest.” He nodded his head. Then he switched the light off, closed the door and left. I dragged myself into the bed. Pain surged through my hands and legs. I slipped into the bed, pulled the sheets over me, and placed my head on the pillow. Just doing this made me grimace because of how much pain I was in. I closed my eyes, but the shock from mental electricity was too much for me. So instead of sleeping, I thought about all that had happened tonight and knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy journey to the truth. Then another thought popped into her mind. Learning the truth was never easy to learn.