Here is another exciting installment of Forgetful Moon. I am happy that all of my readers enjoy the story. This chapter gives some insight into the title. I hope all of you will continue to enjoy the story. I really do appreciate all of your comments and reviews. I would like to take this time to thank my friend and Beta Seren147 for all the corrections she has made and will make on my chapter. ("Thanks, chica!") And now, without much further ado Chapter 3

Sailor Moon and all the characters of the show do not belong to me.

Chapter 3

Darien woke with a start from very strange dreams. As he pushed his blanket away he remembered seeing one face over and over. A heavenly face and it was the prettiest face he had ever seen. Then the dream had turned horribly distorted. That heavenly face had metamorphosed into one of a man. The man had greasy hair, was missing several teeth and had breadcrumbs and other such things in his sinister black mustache. A voice started to call in the background. The face of the man began to contort into an evil and cruel sneer then he had burst in to maniacal laughter. Then the screams had started and he had come awake with a slight ringing in his ears.

Darien pushed off of his couch and the evening before rushed to him and almost knocked him back to the couch. When his sleep fogged mind finally cleared he realized that the ringing in his ears was not ringing at all, but someone was indeed screaming and it was coming from his room.

"The girl!" Darien exclaimed and jumped over his own couch and sprinted for his bedroom.

Darien arrived in time to see the girl flailing about. He noticed that she still had her eyes closed. She was still asleep; she was having the nightmare of all nightmares, from what Darien could see. He reached the bedside and then he was helpless. He did not know what to do. Should he wake her? Or should he let her wake up on her own from the nightmare?

Darien did not want her to keep screaming. For one thing her screams were setting him on edge and for another she might wake up the neighbors and then they would come and complain. Since most of then were senior citizens they were very nosey, very nosey indeed. He did not want to have to explain what a girl was doing in his apartment. There was nothing he could say that would convince any of them that he was not a pervert.

Darien decided to wake her, but to wake her as gently as he could. He carefully leaned in and then gently placed his hand on her shoulder. She sat up suddenly with her eyes wide open and breathing hard as if she had just ran a marathon. Darien had fallen back when the girl had sat up. He now picked himself up.

When the girl noticed movement at her side she quickly turned her head towards Darien. Her blue eyes widened in surprise and fright. Darien did not move for fear of frightening her further. He had no idea how to remove that fear from her eyes. He wanted to so badly though. He did not want to be seen as someone frightening, especially not in her eyes. He usually did not care what other people thought of him, but at that moment he did not want to be what she thought he might be. Darien did not know what to do. He wanted to comfort her, but was afraid that if he got closer she might freak out and start screaming or fight him in some way.

And he was right. At that moment he girl was the most frightened she had ever been in her life. She was frightened because she did not know where she was. She was frightened because she had no idea who the guy that was standing above her was. But what frightened her most was that she did not know who she was. She could not remember her name. She could not remember her age, her birthday. She did not remember any of it. Sure she could tie her shoes and maybe even cook rice (in a rice cooker that is), but she did not remember anything else. And that frightened her more than the stranger, more than the strange place.

She knew however that she had to stay calm. She took a few calming breaths then looked over at the man. He might know who she was. He might know her name. For all she knew he could be her brother. He could be her boyfriend. Her eyes widened a bit at that thought. Or he could be her husband, or even her lover. She felt herself blush when that thought crossed her mind.

She took one more breath. She then suppressed her fears because she had to ask.

Darien watched her calm herself and he expelled a breath of relief. He was glad. She had probably recovered from her nightmare and realized he had saved her, and then she had remembered her request. He watched her steadily, waiting for her to do or say something.

The girl looked straight into the darkest blue eyes she could ever imagine. "Who am I? Who are you? And what am I doing here? Do I live here? Do you live here? Do WE live here? And where is here?" She finally stopped her questioning and took a deep breath. She patiently waited for him to answer her.

Darien looked at the girl that was sitting in his bed with amazement. He had never known anyone to talk as fast as she just did. And she had asked the strangest questions. How was he supposed to know who she was…? Then it dawned on him. When she was taken down with that man she had hit her head. That bump on the head must have caused her to lose her memory. She did not know who she was anymore than he did. They were most certainly in trouble.

Darien did not know what to tell her. He did not know what to say at all. Then he thought he would focus on the few questions he could answer. "My name is Darien. You are in my apartment. I live here alone, we do not live here. My apartment is in Tokyo." And he had nothing else to say.

She looked at him for a bit before she said anything. "But who am I? What relation am I to you? And if I do not live here, how did I come to be here? Please answer me, please."

Darien saw that some of the earlier fear was returning to her eyes. "I do not know who you are. I had never seen you before in my life until tonight. You see I was walking though the park, a shortcut I take from my job to my apartment when I heard a scream." He proceeded to tell her all that had happened up to when he had heard her nightmare induced screams. "I cannot tell you your name because you did not tell me it before you passed out. All I know is the name of your cat, Luna. She is in my living room, probably dozing." He had nothing else to say.

The girl was still looking at him. She looked at him with a look that said incredulous. She could not believe what was happening to her. She wanted to go home, but she had no idea where home was. She felt like crying. How could a thing like this happen to her? What had she done to deserve this?

Darien watched in horror as the girl's pretty face began to contort. He had not had any sister, but he had had a lot of girlfriends and he had seen them cry before. He knew what it looked like. And he did not want her to cry. He wanted her to smile and be happy, though he honestly could not see what she would find to be happy about. If he was in her situation, he would surely want to cry too.

The girl began to sniffle, trying to keep the tears in, not wanting to cry in front of a stranger. And a very handsome stranger at that. When that idea come across her head she wanted to cry even more, because how could she think such things in a time when she was in the most despair she had ever been. She did not remember who she was. She did not remember anything about how she got to where she was. And she did not remember any of her relatives, she did not know if she even had any. She did not even remember when the last time she had had any food was. All she remembered was that she supposedly had a cat named Luna. But she did not remember what she looked like.

That last thought sent her over the edge. She let one tear fall and once you let one tear fall it is as if a dam is opening up. Big tears began to fall onto the blanket that she had been using to cover herself.

Darien immediately wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her. He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, everything was going to work out in the end. But at the moment everything seemed helpless and he did not want to lie to the girl that was crying big tears from those huge blue eyes of hers. He moved in towards her anyway and carefully placed his arms around her and began to stroke her hair in a comforting motion. "There, there. No need to cry. We will think of a solution. I am sure."

The tears the girl had been shedding had been silent, but when Darien began to speak the girl felt her heart swell because she could not remember if she had ever been held like she was being held at that moment before. And when she realized how helpless she felt because she had no memories she began to cry in earnest. "WAH, WAH. This…this…this is hor...hor…horrible. I...I...I do not know who...who…who I am. I wa...wa…want to go ho…ho…home. WAH, WAH." Her crying broke up her words. And she was wailing.

Darien found it a bit irritating because the wailing was almost unnatural, but he kept holding her because he felt it was the thing to do. He also continued to stroke her soft golden hair. "Please stop crying." He pleaded. 'Or at least stop wailing,' he added silently to himself. Then he chided to himself for being insensitive, but then she wailed again and he forgot all about thinking that he was insensitive. He had two conflicting thoughts, as she wailed he wanted to fling her onto the bed and be done with her. Let her cry her eyes out as long as he did not have to hear that horrible sound of her wailing. But when he saw her trembling and crying (wailing aside) he never wanted to let go. Even if she did stop crying, he wanted to hold onto her forever.

He was utterly confused. No one, no girl, have ever made him feel this way. And she was a total stranger. He knew nothing about her. She looked so young and fragile, for all he knew she could be 15 or worst younger. He was only about to turn 21 and he was not into younger girls. One or two years younger was fine, but five or more was too young for him, at this stage in his life. Though she was pretty enough. No he was crazy to even think anything like that. He did not know what to do.

She suddenly stopped wailing, but was still crying. Darien breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad she had stopped making that horrible noise. She began to get calmer and relax, he felt her relax in his arms. She then pulled back and her blue eyes stared deep into his.

"Will you really help me find a solution? Do you really think there is a solution? I mean, I could stay like this forever. I could forever be without my precious memories. That would be absolutely horrible." She gulped, and tears continued to stream down her face.

"I am sorry to say that that prospect is possible. I am a med student and I know that amnesia can last years and possibly for the rest of your life." The girls eyes widened, she looked like she was a doe struck in the headlights. Frightened and uncertain. "But I also know that it could go away by tomorrow or a week from now. Amnesia is a very arbitrary thing. It can be cured by triggering a memory or it can be made worst by the same thing. But since you do not remember anything, correct?" The girl nodded solemnly. "Then I doubt your amnesia can be made worst. So it can only get better." He smiled reassuringly at her.

By then her tears had stopped, but her face was still wet. Darien opened a drawer in his night stand and took out tissues. He then carefully wiped her tears away. She gave a few sniffles and then smiled tentatively back at him.

"Do you really think that I will, somehow, get my memory back? Is there really a solution to my problem or problems, if what you tell me about the incident in the park is true?" The girl inquired hopefully.

"I may not be a doctor yet, but I will put forth all of my knowledge and skill to helping you recover from your amnesia." He spoke with a voice filled with a confidence he did not entirely feel. But it made the beautiful girl in his arms smile brighter.

"Thank you, uh, Darien?" She looked as if she doubted herself in remembering a simple name. Darien nodded and she continued to smile.

Darien was about to tell her to get some sleep and tuck her back into his bed when he recalled the carpet bag that belonged to the girl that he had brought along with the girl and her cat. "Stay right here, I will be right back. I think I already have something that will help you remember." He said hurriedly as he disentangled himself from the girl's arms and rushed to the living room.

Darien nearly stepped on Luna. "Meow" she said looking at him with what appeared to be an accusing look. He laughed, "Sorry, little one, almost got you there didn't I?" He looked around the room and spotted the carpet bag near the door. He ran toward it and grabbed it then ran back into the room, just barely avoiding Luna where she sat cleaning herself.

Darien was panting a little when he got back into his room, even though his apartment was relatively small. He figured it was the excitement of finding out who the girl was. He placed the bag next to the girl, turned on the lamp on the night stand next to the bed and sat on the bed with the carpet bag between him and the girl.

They both looked at the carpet bag as if it would sprout a mouth and begin to tell them the girl's life story. But after a few minutes passed and nothing of the sort happened, Darien looked up at the girl. "Well, are you going to open it and see what's inside?"

"Do I have to? Can't you do it? I'm a bit scared of what we might find, or better yet of what we might not find." She bit her lip and looked at him.

Darien was temporarily taken aback by the way the girl looked with her lip between her small, perfect teeth. Then he swallowed. "Yes, you should do it. It is your bag after all. But first let's look around the outside of the bag to see if there is a name tag or something that might tell us your name." The girl nodded and Darien decided that he could do that task.

Darien picked up the bag and carefully examined the bag. It was old and worn and looked like it had been repaired many times over the years. There was a tag, but it was also worn. All he could make out form the tag was the first letter, a very intricate, but faded S. He pointed this out to the girl and she looked at it very carefully. She was trying her best to read the rest of the name. Her thin blonde eyebrows were scrunched up in concentration and Darien thought she looked rather pretty with that expression, but he kept his opinion to himself.

She finally threw up her hands in defeat, "It is no use. I cannot read it. This is hopeless. I will never know who I am."

Darien gave a little chuckle. "Do not give up yet, we have not even opened the bag, we have just sat here examining the outside."

The girl looked a bit embarrassed. "Right." She said and gave a little embarrassed giggle.

Darien smiled to himself as he placed the bag on the bed beside the girl again. "Okay open it and turn it upside down and shake everything there is in it out so we can take a look."

The girl looked at Darien with a slightly scared expression then at the bag as if it might grow fangs and attack her with them. She finally took a deep breath and did as Darien asked. She grabbed the bag, opened it and turned it upside down. Clothing fell out without much ado. Then she gave it a little shake and a small hand bag fell out.

Before Darien could tell her to do the same to the hand bag as she had done to the carpet bag, she picked it up. 'It's heavy for a hand bag,' she thought. She then unzipped it and turned it upside down as she had done with the carpet bag. A bunch of things that you would not expect to fall out of a hand bag came tumbling down on top of the clothing.

Darien and she both leaned in to have a closer look at the strange, interesting, and arbitrary clues. Both Darien and the girl looked astonished as they noticed one thing in particular.

end chapter 3

To be continued…

Author's Notes: I know, I know. I am horrible for having left it at a cliff hanger. I bet you are all wonder what they are staring at. Oh but only I will know until the next chapter comes out. I will try to write chapter four as soon as I can, but expect a delay because school has started and it is in full-swing. How I hate being in college, so much to do and read for classes. sigh I wish it was all done with already.

I am currently listening to Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Marche funebre-Lento ("Funaral March") by Fryderyk Chopin. How I adore classical music.