Chapter 7
Mysterious memories
I was stone still for a couple of minutes, unable to process what just happened.
Eventually, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, getting rid of what Lucas left on my back.
I wanted to prolong the shower, but when I turned on the water, my thoughts headed straight to my dream and the piercing black eyes.
My brain tries to process what my heart can’t. Why did I run from my fiancé? Is it him or just another adventure like mine with Lucas? Is he looking for me? If he knew what I did, would he break up with me, or did I do that, considering I came here?
Did he do something that bad, and my mind wanted to get rid of it through amnesia and hot sex?
I feel extremely attracted to Lucas, but I know our story isn’t that simple. My intuition also says that the memory from the past is true, so I’m sure we know each other. It would've been something to meet here just to cheat on my real fiancé, but why does my intuition tell me otherwise?
I ended up alone, naked, satisfied, and with my mind more messed up and far more confused than before, with a whole list of questions in my head. I don’t even have to mention the million imaginative sceneries.
I am staying with a towel wrapped around me for minutes, which seem like hours, just staring at the ceiling.
I finally decide to dress up, but then I remember that all of my stuff is in the other room. I put on my t-shirt, the only thing that wasn’t destroyed. I am lucky it reached two fingers under my butt, and that it is pretty large. As I can’t face Lucas, I jump on the bed and hear that sound again.
As I am bored as hell and very curious, I stand and lift the mattress with a strength that I didn’t know I had. I raise an eyebrow and shudder at the sight of a chest with bloody fingerprints all over the broken lock.
My heartbeats intensifies as my shaking fingers get closer to it because, of course, my curiosity gets the worst of me and makes me open it.
I almost shut it closed, seeing what it contained. I try to stop myself from doing that by closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, and working up the nerve to look inside it.
A warning signal lights up in my mind to stop me from exploring further, but I ignore it, even though I know I will regret it. My curiosity always prevails over the fear of the unknown.
I open my eyes and look at a small suitcase from inside the chest, containing many empty syringes and containers.
Then I get my sight on what truly made me sick: a lot of photos with almost naked and full of blood girls that are most probably…
dead. I can’t see any trace of life in their wide-open eyes.
Just a colourless abyss forever lost.
I take the pictures in my trembling hands. Under them, I find a lot of bloody lingerie, and I’m sure they belong to the victims. I tremble just by thinking about that. Who the hell could do such a sadistic act? My mind goes to Lucas and the dark-eyed person from my dream.
Who do I need to trust? My eyes get full of tears of fear, and I feel my bottom lip trembling.
Whose is this room? Clearly not mine. Something tells me it was neither Lucas’s nor Blake’s.
Oh my God! Blake! With all the fucked-up stories and our lust, I totally forgot about him! We need to find Blake and figure out a way to get that dangerous device off his chest.
I hope he’s ok. I won’t forgive myself if he isn’t, even though I don’t know him. Or at least, I don’t remember I do.
I get startled by the door opening, but I calm down when I see Lucas.
His eyes go wide when he looks at what I have in my hands.
He squats next to me and takes the photos.
He then looks at the chest, and I can see him turning paler.
He gulps and looks at both the pictures and the lingerie.
His hands are shaking while he hands me one of the photos and shows me a piece of lingerie.
They are identical.
The same white model with yellow flowers hidden under the same stains of blood.
Tears begin to stream heavily down my face. I get my knees to my chest and put my chin on them, unable to keep looking at those disastrous objects from inside the chest. The situation just got way worse, and the ideas in my head only grew darker.
I follow Lucas putting back the photos, closing the chest, and rearranging the mattress. All faster than I anticipated. I suddenly feel his touch on my shoulder and tremble again.
“You don’t think I did this, do you?” he asks me seriously.
I slowly raise my head to look at him, and I can see the fear in his eyes. I shake my head because I don’t think he is responsible for this.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore, Lucas, but I can really feel you didn’t do this,” I answer him with honesty, already feeling exhausted. “First Blake and then the chest… God, could this town get any scarier?”
We both flinch when we hear a strong noise coming from the window.
We look towards it and see a hawk with a string around its neck and something that appears to be a small bottle hanging onto it.
The hawk knocks on the window, and it seems like he is looking directly at us through the soft curtains.
Is there a witch who lost her bird, or is somebody screwing with us?
Probably none of the above.
Lucas looks at me and whispers to me to stay put.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
He gets up and approaches the window. He slowly opens it, trying to hold it because of the strong wind from outside, remaining one step away from the window. The hawk bows before him, pointing to Lucas that he has to take the bottle.
I still can’t process what is going on. I’m too shocked because an animal appeared at our window in the middle of the storm. I’m feeling like I am in the middle of a horror movie. I’m 100% sure the vibes and elements are from one.
Maybe worse, because this is the reality we are living in.
I watch Lucas while he tries to take the rope from around the hawk’s neck with one hand. After he succeeded, the hawk immediately flew through the storm, and Lucas closed the window. He comes beside me with his eyes still on the bottle, and I can see that inside it is a small piece of paper.
We exchange glares, and Lucas manages to get the paper out.
He opens it, and I can see him turning red with anger as he reads it.
He puts the note on my legs, abruptly getting up.
I wince when he throws a punch at one of the walls, creating a perfect hole in it.
He swears and looks at his bloody fist and gets even angrier.
I then look at the words in front of me. Fury and dread are the only emotions I’m feeling in that moment.
Paul was only the beginning.
Blake was a test.
You negotiate, or Anmara is next.
You have 72 hours, Lucas.
You choose.
-C
I get my frowning gaze off the note to Lucas when I feel him looking at my reflection in the mirror.
I can’t read his eyes, but he looks like he saw a ghost, and I realise that the situation is even worse than we anticipated.
Lucas paces, while his hands comb his hair, colouring his blonde curls with blood, then turns to face me.
“I need to tell you something, and you won’t like it. At all,” he says, making my heartbeat go crazy.
And then I see it as clear as day in his gaze: he now remembers everything. I can feel it deeply in the air I’m breathing, and through the vibrations of his tense body. His eyes are full of regret, happiness, sadness, and profound distress.
I patiently wait for him to open up, really curious about what he is about to say, but he seems like he doesn’t know how to tell me what is going through his head.
He closes his eyes and lets a long sigh out. He sits down on the bed and puts his hands on his face, looking like he doesn’t wanna talk after all.
I go sit next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, only to make his gaze go to my brown eyes.
“I cannot tell you everything right now. The situation we are in is shitty as hell, and our plans have been turned upside down. All that you need to know at this exact moment is that I didn’t have anything to do with those photos,” he starts by telling me, making me relax with the last part.
Apparently, I was tense because of that uncertainty.
“Paul is the name of my brother, the one from the photo. The last time I saw him was on his wedding day.”
My eyes snap wide as my brain starts working better and connecting the dots. It’s so strange that when he talks about the past, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I’m not upset that the memories came through, but it is strange that they only appeared when Lucas was telling me about them.
I let him continue, curious about his take on the wedding and Paul’s runaway. I lived that day from a very different perspective.
“One day before it, he was normal, chill, having the specific emotions from before the big day. He was thrilled to marry the love of his life. On the big day, he was very stressed. He was constantly sweating, and his smile was fake. I knew something was wrong with him, but I thought the emotions got the best of him. He went outside after looking nervously at his phone, saying he had an urgent matter and would come back shortly. 15 minutes passed, and he didn’t come back.
I’ve gone outside to look for him, and I found you in that elegant red dress, having your attention set on something behind the church.
You weren’t moving an inch. You were too captivated by whatever you were watching.
Before asking you if you’ve seen Paul, I managed to see what you were so caught up in: Paul passionately kissing another woman.
You also watched him follow the lady in a van that quickly got away after the door closed.
And then, his future wife, the one I knew he was in love with, called for me, and I turned to face her. ”
“She probably wanted to ask you about her future husband, but she didn’t manage to do that because I’ve gone past you and hugged her,” I surprise him by continuing the story.
“She started crying after I told her what just happened before my eyes, almost melting on the ground from the shock. I looked at you, and I knew that in that moment a plan was forming in our minds because you nodded.”
He gets up and goes to the closet, where he searches his bag. He brings me the photo with his brother and looks at my tear-filled eyes.
“I found this photo in the room we were both in before he went away with the mystery woman," he says, finishing the story.
“Paul knew something was going on. I came into town two days before the wedding, and he seemed happier about his future marriage than on his supposed wedding day.
Unfortunately, I also know the real reason for his sudden change of character, and it is only my fault," he says, surprising me.
“He found me back then, now, and I could swear that he will find me wherever I go, however much I could forget where I came from,” he sighs, frustrated, constantly moving his right leg.
“Who’s meant to find you?” I ask curiously, not knowing if he would answer.
“My boss," he says, wanting to retract his words as soon as they left his mouth when he saw my gaze.