Layer: 14 Memories
Memories are all we retain. They help us
to remember our friends and families. Take away our memories of someone and
they become dead to us. Forgetting who one person is may lead to forgetting who
you are. Was your life a lie? How did you end up that way? Trying to remember
these things about ourselves can sometimes be more painful than forgetting.
Alice walked to her school, late to teach
her class. It was ironic; she had become a teacher at the very school she used
to go to. She had a nagging feeling she had forgotten something, but pressed on
due to her lack of free time. As she walked, Alice passed by a child who was
wearing a school uniform. Staring out into space as Alice walked by, the child,
seemed familiar. Her hair bound at one side by a string, and looking as if she
wished to not be seen.
"Hello there, do I know
you?" Alice said as she stopped at the curb. The child just smiled and
walked towards Alice, not stopping as if she was looking through her.
"Are you alright? What's
wrong?"
Alice then watched as the child walked
straight through her, Undaunted by what had just happened and heading straight
for the school. Alice stood there as if she had just had a knife stabbed into
her gut, and someone had just twisted it. She had had this feeling before, as
if she knew who the child was. A cold chill shot down her spine as she then
passed out from the confusion of what had just happened. She laid on the curb
in a slump, holding her face in fear of loosing herself. Alice never made it to
the school that day.
Amnesia is a peculiar ailment. There is no
fast or definite way to cure it. All a person can do is hope that one suffering
from amnesia will remember themselves and the past after seeing familiar
things. Something even more peculiar is selective memory. Like amnesia, a
person forgets completely of a past event, but it is only one period in that
person's life. They most likely choose to forget that part. When memories of
these types surface, they can cause hallucinations and some physical pain due
to stress.
Several days later, Alice was teaching her
last class of the day. She could not put out of her mind what had happened
several days before. The child obviously was someone she once knew, but Alice
had not remembered anything about her, as if something wouldn't let her reach
the memories. Just then, she peered through the door as a student walked in.
"What is it Tsubasa? Do you
need Math help again?" Alice asked as the student walked to a desk.
Tsubasa looked back to her teacher with a polite smile, saying
"I just forgot my Pocket
Planner.... This is strange, there's a message from that person again."
"What are you talking
about?" Alice said curiously.
"The students have been
receiving E-mails from a girl claiming to be a student here, but nobody has
heard of her before."
"Does this student have a name?
Maybe it's someone I might know"
"Well, let me check. I saved
the previous message.... Rain or Reign was it? Oh! Here it is, someone named
Lain"
A sharp pain shot through Alice's head
from the mention of that name, and the flash of an image appeared in her mind,
of her talking to a girl on the street. She had her hair bound in the same way,
wearing a pink jacket with some casual attire, making her look younger than she
really was. Alice held her head sweating as one of the teachers walked in with
Tsubasa at her side.
"Alice! Are you alright?"
said the teacher with a nervous, but firm tone. The words did not reach Alice
though, as she breathed heavily, hyperventilating from the sudden shock of the
image.
"Lain..." Alice said with
a weak voice as she fell into the teacher's arms, staying limp and looking
sicker by the minuet. Why was this name so important, and how did it have
anything to do with her?
To be continued...
