Chapter 9: Lost Memories, Wasted Kisses, and Reconciliation

Nina didn't know what to expect when she burst through the door of Anubis house. An empty room with only the jewel at the center of the table? Her friends each glowing like mutants as a result of having touched the jewel? Or everyone lying dead on the floor of the dining room? She didn't know what to expect, and yet something in her knew that whatever was happening on the other side of those doors would be far from good.

Upon stepping into the house, she heard voices shouting at the top of their lungs followed by the strident sound of glass breaking. Nina frowned as she finally entered the room and saw Isaac and Fabian being held back from each other.

"What are you doing?" she cried as she rushed over to the pair.

"I told you that we couldn't trust him, Nina!" Fabian exclaimed. "He's keeping secrets to save himself!"

Nina's face dropped slightly at his words and she turned to face Isaac whose eyes were staring down at the floorboards.

"I'm sure there's an explanation," she told him.

Fabian rolled his eyes and slipped his arms out of Jerome's grasp. "For Christ's sake, stop defending him. You don't know anything about him."

Isaac lifted his head at those words and cast a sharp glance at Nina. His dark eyes were cloudy and full of something Nina couldn't quite put her finger on, and yet she didn't need any words to know what he was trying to communicate.

"Can I see the letter?"

Mick released Isaac and pulled the letter from his back pocket. "Here."

In sloppy handwriting it read: The boy can guide you to the truth.

"This could mean anything, Fabian," she said after skimming the note.

Fabian was quiet for a moment as he looked between Nina and Isaac before scoffing and taking a step forward. "You already know his secret, don't you? You're choosing to protect him despite you having just met him?"

"For fuck's sake, get over yourself mate," Isaac snapped at Fabian. "You're not her fucking keeper, so why don't you take a seat across the room and cool down for a few minutes?"

Fabian backed up from Nina and lightly shook his head before he stepped forward and swung at Isaac. Isaac easily deflected his punch before throwing his own and hitting Fabian square in the jaw.

Shouts and pleas flooded the room as Fabian fell back on his butt. He remained quiet as he raised his hand and felt the blood ooze from the new wound. He laughed a bit before standing up, stumbling towards the other boy and colliding his fist with his nose. Isaac stumbled back slightly and watched as Jerome and Alfie both held Fabian back.

"Isaac-,"

Isaac ignored Nina as he spat blood onto the floor and rushed to the front of the house, passing Victor on his way out.

"What in Anubis's name is going on here?" Victor snarled as he stepped into the dining room.

No one said anything as everyone exchanged looks. Nina briefly met eyes with Fabian before shaking her head and heading to her room.

(***)

"Isaac!" Danielle called his name as she followed him down the gravel road. "I know you can hear me!"

"Don't you ever get tired of chasing after me?" he asked without casting her a glance.

"You're my best friend," she replied.

"Oh really?" He scoffed and sped up a bit. "You sure about that?"

Danielle's face dropped and she stopped in her tracks. Over the past few weeks, she had noticed a bit of tension between her and Isaac. She had assumed it was due to the whirlwind adventure they had been thrown into and yet she had started to see that he wasn't keeping to himself. Instead, he spent his time sharing secrets with Nina and jogging at 6 AM with Mick. He was avoiding her, filling his time up with new people, people that he hadn't trusted a couple weeks ago, and she didn't exactly know why.

"Hey!" she shouted before running up to him and pulling his arm back. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Upon meeting her eyes, Isaac shrugged and looked down at the ground. "Nothing."

"We never used to keep things from each other. Not until you began spending your time with Nina and Mick."

"Didn't you want me to make friends?"

Danielle sighed and nodded her head. "Yes, but-,"

"But what?" he cut her off. "Now you want me to stop talking to them? Focus my attention only on you?"

She frowned and took a slight step back. "No, I just, I want you to talk to me. You're my brother, Isaac."

Isaac paused at her sentence and Danielle saw a flicker of something in his eyes. However, it was gone before she could properly decipher it and say anything.

"I just need some time, okay?"

"Why? Please tell me why?" she pleaded.

Isaac's jaw tightened and his eyes flashed red before he said, "why don't you ask your dad?"

Danielle furrowed her brow. She had known something had happened at the police station the other day, but she had chosen not to ask, knowing she would have been shut down by both her father and Isaac if she had tried.

Isaac didn't wait for her to respond, using her hesitation to take his leave as he turned his back to her and headed to his house.

(***)

Nina had never been in Isis house. On her walks home she never noticed the aging brown structure. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time anyone had ever mentioned Isis house in a conversation. It existed in the background of everything, cloaked by the shadows surrounding it. It was like its inhabitants in that sense. It had a lot of secrets to keep.

Nina hovered outside the door for a couple seconds before taking a deep breath and racking her knuckles against the old wooden door. It only took a moment for the door to open, and Isaac to be face to face with the girl.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Nina shrugged and walked past him, entering the house. Isaac sighed, but didn't protest as he closed the door behind her and turned to face Nina.

"I was worried about you," she told him. "Things got a bit intense back there."

Isaac chuckled a bit before nodding and taking a seat at the bottom of the steps. "You don't say."

Nina followed his action and sat beside him. "I'm sorry about Fabian."

"You shouldn't keep apologizing for him," he told her, lightly bumping shoulders with her. "Plus, he's right. I am keeping secrets."

"You shouldn't feel pressured to tell anyone your past unless you're ready."

"At this point, I don't think it's my secret to keep." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Everyone needs to know."

Nina didn't say anything then. She didn't want to tell him the truth. That she was worried about how everyone would react to his past. She didn't want them to reject him. Not when he was already such a crucial person in her life. She knew Fabian would get angry, but she also knew that Fabian wouldn't do anything that he knew would hurt her, and exiling Isaac would hurt her. She wondered whether Isaac knew just how much it would.

Suddenly, Nina looked up and spotted a familiar green and red-berried plant above them. She smiled a bit before locking eyes with Isaac and carefully running her fingers over the bruises forming on his face.

"It's nothing," he tried to assure her, but it didn't matter because Nina wasn't focusing on the bruises. She just wanted to look at him, and so she did until, without warning, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

Isaac's eyes widened at the action and he immediately pulled back and turned his head.

"Nina." Her name escaped his lips sharp and breathless, almost as if he had been choking on it before it left him, and she felt her heart drop at the sound of it.

"I should go," she stated before quickly standing up. She headed for the door, gripping the doorknob with her left hand before pausing, and waiting to see if he would call her back.

Isaac merely watched her, his hands clasped in his lap and his jaw tight. He wanted to say something, he just didn't know what.

And so when all that met Nina's ears was silence, she left before he could see the tears in her eyes.

(***)

Ever since the night at the planetarium, Mick had been thinking. He had been thinking about what it had meant, or, actually, what it could have meant to Isaac.

It scared him, for some reason. Mick was not one to put a lot of thought into his past actions, but there was something about Isaac that always had him stray from what he thought he knew.

Isaac scared him. Every time he smiled at him, cast his dark brown eyes at him, placed a hand on him, he felt a cloud begin to loom over him. It was as if the more time he spent with the boy, a new omen would appear and at the moment Mick couldn't tell if it was a good one or a bad one.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Amber's voice pulled Mick away from his thoughts and he turned his head to the blonde at the doorway.

He let out a small laugh before saying, "Trust me, you don't want to waste a penny on me."

Amber rolled her eyes and took a seat across from Mick at the dining table. "Try me."

Mick was quiet for a moment before he pulled his chair in closer and focused his eyes on his former girlfriend. Amber was smart, Mick knew that. He had learned the hard way that she had a lot more to offer than initially believed. For that reason, Mick knew he had to be careful about what he said. After all, Mick wasn't sure he was ready to face the truth of it all.

"I, I think that I'm feeling things… things that I have never felt before, that I shouldn't be feeling at all."

The statement hung in the air for a few seconds before Amber nodded and lifted her eyes to meet his.

"Why do you think you shouldn't feel these things?"

"Because… because I can't," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I just can't."

Something seemed to shift in Amber's eyes and she leaned forward and placed a hand over his. "Mick…"

He shook his head lightly and refused to meet her eyes. "I know that I'm being vague, but I just can't bring myself to say it out loud."

"I can't help you unless you tell me, Mick," her voice was soft in an attempt to relax him, but even from where she sat Mick was sure that she could hear his heart beating.

"I can't." It came out as a whisper and Amber squeezed Mick's hand in response.

She offered him a sympathetic smile and removed her hand from his. "It's okay. Take your time."

"I have to go."

The sentence came out abruptly and Amber frowned as she watched Mick retreat into himself right before her very eyes.

"Mick-,"

Before she could finish, he stood up and left the dining room.

(***)

Isaac had meant to go after Nina. In his head, he saw himself standing up and following her out the door, refusing to stop until he reached her. But he had stayed put due the sheer fact that he didn't know what he would say if she had stopped to hear him out.

He could tell her the truth, but that would mean opening himself up in a way he hadn't in months. It would mean opening himself up to the possibility that Nina would never look at him the same way again.

He hadn't meant to hurt her. He was just surprised. After all, there was a lot going on and the timing of it just felt so… inappropriate.

He had more important things to worry about like the fact that he had both an Egyptian God and a crazy group of middle-aged men after him. He also had a whole new set of memories to sort through.

Isaac had begun the process of slowly piecing together his past the other day. All around his room were half-drawn sketches of the 8-year gap that had existed in his memory. Drawings of his mom were mixed in with those of the men that had taken him. It all felt so unreal as if everything before him had been conjured up in an attempt to keep Isaac from remembering the truth.

And yet, everything that stood before him was the truth. It had just taken him eight long years to uncover it.

Isaac sighed and he ran a hand over a smudged image by his bed. His mother stood tall, her dark hair pulled back and her arm wrapped around his father's waist. His father's expression was warmer than he could ever recall it being, life in his dark brown eyes and a bright wide smile on his face. They were beaming at him as he ran into a crowded building, navy school uniform already wrinkled. He must have been six in that particular moment. His mother would be dead in less than a year.

Isaac turned away from the drawing abruptly, an uneasy feeling settling into his stomach as he was met with the dozens of images of torture and pain. His eyes lingered on one particularly moment that he had drawn: him getting his tattoo. He pulled the picture from its spot on his wall and brought it close to his face.

The room was practically barren. No windows, white walls, only a bed with fitted white sheets, and a nightstand with a small lamp. He was being held down by four adults as he yelled out in pain, blood and ink staining his arm and the sheets.

Isaac remembered what came after. They all had left the room, and he had tucked his legs into himself, wrapped his arms around his knees, and cried himself to sleep, his arm stinging the entire time, serving as a constant reminder that that was his life.

The next day, he had tried to kill himself.

One of the men came into his room with breakfast (a piece of toast and a cup of tea), and had found him trying to wrap the lamp's cord around his neck.

It seemed ineffective now that Isaac was thinking about it, desperate and rushed, but after all, he had only been seven. He had only been seven and already he had decided that life wasn't worth it anymore.

They moved him to a different room after the incident. This time there was no bed or nightstand or lamp. It was empty, as desolate as he once was.

Isaac wished that he could give some of it back. That he could gather up his recovered memories and throw them back into the dark pit that they had been lying dormant in for eight years.

He wished that he could pick and choose.

Isaac sighed before he stood up and began to take down some of the drawings. Once the worst of them were on Isaac's floor, he walked out of his room and down the hall to Danielle's.

He hesitated before knocking.

After a couple seconds, Danielle opened the door.

"Hi," she stated as she offered him a small smile. "Are you ready to talk?"

"That depends," he replied. "Is your roommate home?"

Danielle shook her head and she opened her door all the way, allowing Isaac to enter and walk past her. He took a seat on the end of her bed and watched as she closed the door behind him and took a seat across from him.

"Okay," she let out a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. "Talk to me."

"Do you remember meeting me?"

The question felt random and abrupt to Danielle, and yet it was the one question that had been bubbling in Isaac's memory since he had found out the truth.

She shifted uncomfortably and nodded. "Of course."

"I didn't," he informed her. "It was just another washed up memory in my fucked up head… everything was cloudy because of them. They pulled memories from my head that year that I was taken. I couldn't remember my childhood… I couldn't remember my mother."

"Wait," Danielle shook her head, her brow furrowed. "I don't understand. Who's they? When were you taken?"

Isaac scoffed before he set his eyes back on Danielle, a new fire in them. "Do you remember when I was seven?"

Danielle thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. You left school for like a year."

"What did he tell you that year?"

"Who?"

"Your dad." His jaw tightened as he mentioned him and he added. "What did he tell you about my sudden disappearance?"

Danielle shrugged and ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know. Just that you and your father had taken some much needed time away after your mother died."

"It didn't strike you as odd when I came back with a tattoo and no memories of the supposed 'time away?'"

She frowned at his inquiry and tried to search for a viable excuse before lightly shaking her head and saying, "my dad said-,"

"Well, your dad lied," Isaac cut her off immediately and stood up from her bed. "I was kidnapped when I was seven. For a year, I was subjected to torture as you slept at night, never the wiser."

"Isaac-,"

"And your dad knew!" Isaac laughed bitterly and lightly shook his head. "Your dad has known for years and I only found out a couple days ago. It was all buried in my head. The first eight years of my life, poof. I have spent most of my life living in blissful ignorance, making up memories, living off pictures. But now I know the truth… and I wish I didn't."

Danielle was quiet for a long moment then, before she stood up and began to walk over to him. Isaac retreated at her movement and she sighed.

"I didn't know."

Isaac's face didn't soften at her statement and he took another step back.

"I was only eight, Isaac! How could I have known?"

"I'm your best friend!" he countered. "How could you not have known?"

Her face fell at the question and she tried once again, in vain, to approach him. "Please don't shut me out because of this."

"I," Isaac paused before stating, more firmly, "I just need time. Right now, I can barely look at you without seeing him, so please, just give me a week or two. I need to sort out my shit and I can't do that with you there."

Danielle's lower lip quivered as she tried to fight the urge to cry before she nodded. "Okay."

Isaac nodded in return and, without casting her another look, slipped past her to the door and left her room.

(***)

Isaac found himself outside of Anubis house at 7PM. He knocked on the door in a rush and immediately shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from freezing.

It was Mick that opened the door. "Isaac, what are you doing here?"

"I came to talk… to everyone this time," he told him.

Mick nodded and he stepped aside, allowing Isaac to enter the foyer.

"Thanks. The snow is falling kind of heavy tonight," he stated, a small smile on his face.

Mick returned the smile and nodded towards the living area. "Everyone's eating."

Isaac let out a deep breath and he entered the connected room. As soon as he stepped in, all conversation stopped and everyone turned to him.

"Isaac." His name escaped Nina's lips and his eyes fell on her for a moment before he cleared his throat and focused his attention on Fabian.

"You were right," he confessed. "I have been keeping a secret, and I'm sorry for lying about it, but before I tell you, you need to hear something. I have done nothing to prove that I can't be trusted. I have gone through more shit in the past few weeks than any of you will go through in your entire lives combined. And let me remind you that I didn't even want to be a part of this, but you all insisted that I be dragged into it. You don't get to be pissed off. You weren't the one that was shot or strangled or kidnapped, which I will get to in a moment. You've just been along for the ride. Right now, I'm extending an olive branch because I'm done with the pointless drama. Frankly, I have more important things to worry about. We have more important things to worry about. So, I'm asking you, for the sake of all our lives, can we move on and focus on what really matters?"

The whole room was silent as Fabian and Isaac stared at each other. They were all waiting to see who would make the first move. Well, technically, they were all waiting for who would make the second move since there Isaac was standing in front of them, ready to bare his heart out.

With the screeching groan of his chair, Fabian stood up and walked over to the teen. Once he was in front of him, he regarded him carefully before extending his hand. Isaac nodded, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, and he took his hand and shook it.

As soon as the two shook hands, the room broke out in thunderous applause. Everyone at the table stood up and went to pat Isaac in the back and extend their own apologies. Isaac looked past the throng of people and met eyes with Nina, who remained where she sat, a grin on her face.

(***)

"You didn't have to tell them," Nina told him as they walked down a snow covered path.

After Isaac revealed everything to the Anubis housemates, Nina had insisted on walking him back to Isis house.

"I know," he nodded as he glanced at her, snow distorting his vision slightly. "But I was tired of keeping it a secret. Plus, the only way to find out the truth is to work together."

Nina beamed at his response before she lowered her head and cleared her throat. "Umm, so about earlier-,"

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he assured her.

Nina shook her head and suddenly stopped walking. "It's just… I'm sorry. I was out of line. With everything going on, it was just completely inappropriate."

Isaac offered her a timid smile before shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging.

"I mean, there was a mistletoe. The school has really stepped it up with their holiday decorations," he let out a small laugh as he gestured to all the twinkling lights around them.

She laughed in return, grateful for his understanding. "Yeah, I guess that is true."

"Don't worry. I think we're clear of the meddling faculty and their badly placed mistletoes out here."

Nina smiled at his playful statement and lightly hit his arm. She looked at him then, the dim lights of the tree behind them making his eyes shine.

"Isaac,"

His name left her lips as a whisper and yet he could hear so much behind it.

She had held it out for too long, the two syllables in his name sounding like the melody of her favorite song.

She had been falling, too fast and too deep. And Isaac was the one that had caught her.

He could see it now. The way she smiled a bit too widely, laughed a bit too loudly, kept her hand on his arm for a bit too long. It had been going on for weeks and yet there they were standing a bit too close, snowflakes surrounding them, and Isaac only just getting it.

"Nina,"

Breath curled out of his mouth and Nina's eyes closed for a moment. She just wanted to know if he felt what she felt, if he wanted what she wanted.

And maybe all she was doing was setting herself up for heartbreak, but there was something in the way the night had gone that pushed that thought to the back of her mind. He had stayed.

She needed to say something, but what could she say to keep him from turning away?

"Can I…"

It was Isaac's turn to close his eyes as the weight of her question sank in. It'd be so easy to just nod and say yes. It'd be easy to accept all that she was offering to him in that moment. It'd be easy to love her.

Isaac knew that, hell, he wanted that. Yet there was that damn voice in the back of his head reminding him that the easy option was not always the right one.

Isaac opened his eyes then and he looked at her, really looked at her. She was beautiful, all rosy cheeks and white flecks on pale eyelashes. To hell with that voice in his head, he needed to try. He needed to know. Maybe unfamiliarity could become his new home.

"Okay."

So she leaned in, breath against skin, and closed the space between them. His lips were just barely chapped from the cold and they parted slightly at the contact.

And it was everything and nothing all at once. Nina saw yellow and red and all the colors of fire dance in her head, ridding her of the cold that penetrated her body for the moment. Isaac saw black and blue, waves crashing into all his thoughts and space consuming everything in his head, leaving him with an overwhelming feeling of nothingness.

Isaac also felt hurt, a pain so sharp that it'd make someone envy a person that had just been shot. And he didn't exactly know why. All he knew was that kissing Nina hurt. It hurt because he wanted so badly to feel something, anything, and yet he felt nothing.

Nina also felt relief, a wave so calming it'd be a good omen to sailors. And it was all she had been hoping for. Kissing Isaac was calming. It made her feel safe and at ease all at once. It was everything.

Which is why when Isaac pulled away and lightly shook his head, a frown settling on his face, a piece of her broke.

"I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Oh,"

"It's not you or the kiss. I'm just,"

"Don't."

Isaac's face fell further at the word and he locked eyes with Nina. He reached up and brushed a tear from her cheek. "Let me ex-,"

"Please," she sighed. "Don't. Not now."

Isaac wanted to say something. He needed to tell her the truth. He needed to tell someone the truth because he knew that if he didn't, he'd end up burying it again and slowly become undone.

So he made up his mind. He was going to tell her, but then she looked at him again, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, and he couldn't. He didn't want to hurt her even more. And that's what his secret would do, right? Hurt her? So Isaac nodded, shoved his hands into his pockets, and let his thoughts eat away at him.

AN: So it's been a hot second. I'm not giving up on this story. I love writing it, but I'm also very busy. I try to post when I can. Hopefully you all understand that. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading. There's a lot more to come.

-Karina