The Playlist Series

Hard Way, Scott Stapp.

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I stood over the young-looking woman. Her eyes stared up at me, unseeing; her open mouth, not breathing. Somehow, I knew she was incredible.

"Do you know her," the drawl of the younger man that was with me asked quietly. I searched my mind… There were no memories, but the dog tags I wore and faint voices.

"Coacuatchoo was the moon's lover," I muttered.

"These boys aren't goin' ta like what you've done in this place. We really need to go."

I knelt down to her side and closed her eyes tentatively.
"Coacuatchoo," her voice snapped slightly. "It means… 'the wolverine.'"

"I'll find my own way," I said aloud. He nodded, sprinting toward a nearby plane.

The woman felt as if she'd been torn from this earth, and I stood to look for my own path I'd said I'd find. My feet carried me so far away I couldn't remember where I came from.

-one week later-

"To forget," the older Vietnamese lady asked me, her accent stinging my ears for some reason as she poured another shot of scotch for me.

I chuckled a little, and sighed. I didn't know my own past.

"To remember," I replied, as I threw the shot back, the alcohol stinging the back of my throat.

"Trickster told Coacuatchoo that the Moon had asked for flowers… So he should come to our world and pick some wild roses…"

I set the shot glass down for another as the voices continued to remind me of things I couldn't remember; the everything I lost, and the nothing I'd gained.

"We're brothers, Jimmy. You have to be hard now."

The song in the background wrenched my heart, but even I didn't know why as the Vietnamese lady poured a shot for herself this time, too.

Just when I thought I had it all

Caught a sucker punch and lost it all

Just never thought it would have come from you.

I smirked. "To forget," I asked her and she smiled.

"Always," she told me definitely. We shared a glance of pain. I knew there was something I was missing, and I stood. My dog tags hit my chest. The playlist continued, but my feet carried me to places they'd been, and places I didn't know—one in the same, and I pressed toward memories I didn't remember.