Chapter 36: Memories

I ran out of the bunker as if a hellhound chased after me. But all it was were memories, they weren't mine, but they sure felt like it.

I knocked the boulder aside, crawled out through the exit and then flicked the lever; sealing the cave off from the outside. I raced back to my cabin; constantly looking over my shoulder. I could feel my heart threatening to explode and jumping up into my throat.

When I made it to my place, I slammed the heavy driftwood door closed behind me and pushed my back into it; as if to try and block out the feelings closing in around me.

After locking the door, I staggered over to one of the beds and collapsed onto it and curled up into a shaking ball. Only when there was complete quiet did I let the visions and feelings completely wash over me and I sank into them like a drowning sea.

The words of Catherine came back to me from what I read I her journal. I felt as if I could feel everything she had, as if it were happening to me...

July 15, 1915 I made my way over to the hospital bed where they set Wallace after his surgery. I knew he wasn't dead, but he looked the very image of death. His skin, normally a healthy ebony was a washed out, ashy grey. His animated smile was gone, replaced by a still, flat line.

"How are you feeling Wall? Is there anything I can do?" I asked him with a quivering grin; but he didn't say a word and my smile faded away. "Oh this is all my fault. I'm so sorry Wallace. Please forgive me" I sobbed as I crashed forward onto the foot of his bed.

A presence loomed behind me. I didn't need to look, to know who it was. "Not now Mother".

A hand gently touched my shoulder and I forced myself look at her. My face had to have been red with tears streaming down like a pair of waterfalls. The goddess wanly smiled as she wiped them away. "I'm sorry Catherine. I know this was not what you were expecting. However, it is not best to become attached to this boy".

"Why?" I exclaimed indignantly "Is it because of the color of his skin?" Such comments have become all too common these days. Though the Yanks had long fought and won the war over slavery, equality was still a long time coming. "I will stay by his side. It is my fault he is in this bed and I made him lie in it. It was my idea to sketch the plane, and it was my propeller that sliced off his leg like a hot knife through butter" she cringed as she made herself stare at the foot of Wallace's bed. Where there should have been two, only a single leg paired with a bloody stump remained. "If only I wasn't in such a hurry to crank it up. If only I listened to him to check it over.

"He agreed regardless Catherine, it was an accident" Athena sagely concluded.

"The guilt is terrible regardless Mother. But I believe that is not the worst thing of all". The goddess appeared to tower over me as she waited for me to speak my mind.

"I know you don't understand. But Mother, Athena, I love him. And I believe the coup de grace of this sordid tale was that he likes me. He will forever think that he is nothing to me, but a nuisance who gets under my skin. When in fact, the truth is anything but. And he will never know" the tears began to flow anew and I knew that Athena had also left me…

A loud knock broke me from my thoughts. 'Go away' I cried as I pulled the blanket over my face.

"Not likely man" Maxwell broke into the cabin with a tackle that shock the whole place. "You ditched us back there. What happened?" He tenderly rubbed his shoulder as he walked off the pain and sat on my bed.

"Dude, did you really need to break down my door?" I dully asked him through the blanket.

"You wouldn't let me in" he simply replied.

I snorted and let the blanket slip down and revealed my tearing face and weak grin as I jabbed a thumb to the back of the cabin. A gentle breeze was blowing through the open back window facing out toward the Sound.

"Oh…" he slowly noted, before he shook his head and stared straight into my eyes. "Hey don't go changing the subject on me. What happened to you? You ran out of there like you saw a ghost".

My eyes grew wide and white with fright, "you'd think I was crazy or something".

"Try me" he simply replied with a shrug.

I reached under the covers and slammed the blue journal into Maxwell's chest quickly, dropping it in his hands as if the cover would burn my fingers off. "Open to page 66 and tell me what you see".

Maxwell opened it up and grinned when he realized what he was looking at, "Hey, cool drawing of Harley's plane, I didn't know you could draw".

"Check the date…" I told him tiredly as I blankly stared up at the ceiling.

"July 15th, 1915 di Immortales, this is ancient. Where'd you get this from?" Maxwell asked as he closed the book and his thick fingers traced the owl on the front cover.

"Some lady in a library gave it to me. But that's not the scary part. I knew Harley's plane was going to go bust. Read the next couple of pages, Max".

Maxwell looked at me like he wanted to strangle me. I could understand; forcing someone dyslexic to read 4 pages of cursive, no matter how neat, was miserable. However, somehow I felt he wouldn't have believed me if he didn't read the words for himself. As he skimmed over the words his face had gone from annoyed, to confused, to shocked and finally he looked up at me with horror in his eyes. "The plane's propeller flew off, just like what happened with Leo's plane. Except someone got hurt, Wallace".

I shuddered at the mention of the name, as if it were invisibly branded on me somewhere. And hearing the name made the mark burn like a red-hot iron. "I don't know why, but seeing Leo's plane there and hearing that noise, it felt like it was bringing back a buried memory or something. As if I'd been through it before".

He looked at me like I was a crazy person, "Alex…" he began to speak.

But I threw myself at him, leaned on him and started shaking. "You don't get it man. When that propeller flew off; I felt like someone almost died". I shook my head trying to shake the feeling, but failing miserably. "My head's going every which way and I don't know what to think. Just stay for a minute, please" I looked up at him.

He stared down at me like a deer in headlights. I almost thought he was going to get up and just go. As he shifted, he brought an arm around me and pulled me in close. I sank into his warmth and slowly went off to sleep, the shivers became fewer and farther between; until I had fallen completely asleep. "For you Alex, I will stay as long as you want me to". He sealed his promise with a gentle hug and kiss on my forehead…