Chapter 5: "Remembering What Was Forgotten"
-"Deep inside of you, those "vanished" memories lay as eager prisoners waiting for you to free them. The only thing you need to remember those moments is to find the key that seals them away. "
The late night at the city of Koza was much like every other night at every other city; it was silent, with empty streets, lighted by the bright neon lights of the buildings and billboards and with a white opal moon over it. The way back to the center was long and silent, not even one word was spoken between them, the only sound that was heard was the sound of the engine running and stopping when they got to the warehouse. The late night and the moonlight created a game of lights and shadows that made it look like a place for a ghost hunt, rather than the secret location of a top secret underground facility. As the car stopped, Kai noticed Saya had been asleep for a while now, with the rose close to her heart and with tears on her white cheeks. As he stepped out of the car and opened Saya's door, he decided to carry her to her room, using the elevator from the "backdoor" rather than the main gate.
As he walked through the tall grass in the moon lighted garden, he noticed that her room was not that far below from the ground as he thought it was, as a matter of fact, the window in her room lead to a beautiful view of the garden. He pressed the button of the elevator, and entered, after descending a few feet the doors opened again, but this time into the dark and empty hallways of the center. He walked the halls until he found Saya's room in mere darkness and left her in her bed to rest after a day of strange surprises.
"Tomorrow will be another day." he said as he sighed and left the room.
The night was long and painful for her; it seemed she couldn't find a peaceful moment in her dreams, there for she was having a nightmare, but like every nightmare, it's all harmless fantasy, and it ends when you wake up in the middle of the night or in her case, in the morning. The alarm clock beeped, and she opened her eyes slowly, it was morning, and she was late for her appointment with Julia. She woke up unwillingly, Saya as every other, does not liked an appointment for an IV first thing in the morning. Her morning routine was faster than usual, bath, change clothes; brush her teeth and hair, and leave to Julia's wing. Now the halls seemed clearer than the previous days, full of light and of people working; and most of them not even realized that what they did day by day as part of their now daily routine, had involved them in the strange and complicated mesh of the unknown Chiropteran world. She walked through the medical wing, and stopped at the end of the hallway where Julia's office was, to her surprise the door was open and little and familiar voices where coming from the inside. She stepped in, and found her two nieces and another kid around Aki and Aoi's age; his hair was honey blond like David's and his eyes were grayish green like Julia's, Saya immediately thought he was Julia and David's son, who has not even been born when she went to her short hibernating period a few years ago.
"Aki stop moving or the IV will . . . "Julia said as her eye caught a glimpse of Saya's red dress, "fall. Morning Saya, it's good you remember your appointment."
"Morning, Julia, Aki, Aoi. And I guess your Julia's son, am I right?" she said looking at the blonde boy sitting on his mother's chair.
"Yes, Saya, he is David Robert. Last time you saw him he was not even born, has so many time passed since then?" Julia said as the twins laughed at the sound of Robert.
"Mom, I like to be called Robin, not Robert, not David or David Robert." he complained and then rested his head on the oak desk in Julia's office, and the rest just laughed.
Saya waited and saw how her nieces where having an IV, after all they where Chiropterans and they needed blood in order to survive; and she wondered what excuse will Kai and the others will be using to explain to so young children about what was going on and when will they plan to tell them what was really going on. She sighed, and looked back at Robin who was playing with a pencil and still looked annoyed, then she looked back at her nieces Aki had stopped moving and Aoi was looking at the wall, trying to avoid Saya's sight. The morning moved slowly for her, until a knocking was heard, it was Kai.
"Knock knock" he said as he entered.
"Come in, the solution is almost over." Julia yelled as she stands up and both girls looked eager to leave and see their uncle.
"Hello little David, morning Saya" Kai greeted and Robin complained again, he hated to be called "little David", it just remained him how people would associate him with his father.
"Morning Kai." Saya greeted her brother with a sleepy voice.
"And, we are done. Kai can you take Robin," Julia said as she looked at her son, "I will pick him up later on the afternoon."
Kai nodded and took the three kids with him, after he left the room it was just Julia and Saya, it has been quite a time now since Saya had not attended an appointment with Julia; she prepared the solution and Saya laid down in the bed where Aki was a few moments ago.
"Saya, how are you feeling?" Julia asked with interest.
"Fine, I guess I missed the transfusions." she answered with a fake laugh.
"I mean, emotionally, I might be no shrink, but I can see you are worried." Julia said as she put the syringe in Saya's arm and connected the IV.
Saya hummed this time, and guessed Kai might have slip something this morning when he left the twins for the transfusions.
"Did Kai tell you then what happened last night?" she asked looking back at her doctor.
"As a matter of fact he did, and I am worried as well to see why those memories and events look blurry to you." the doctor answered politely.
"So now we are also talking about knowing who the father of my babies is?" she said angrily.
"Deep inside of you, those "vanished" memories lay as eager prisoners waiting for you to free them. " Julia said she took her glasses off and cleaned them, "The only thing you need to remember those moments is to find the key that seals them away."
"If so, what is the key we need to awaken those moments?" she asked now interested.
"It can be anything, a smell, a song, a picture, a place." The doctor answered as she removed the syringe from the queen's arm. "But I guess that might be harder than remembering."
Saya looked at Julia this time, and gave her smile. What would help her remember what it seemed vanished, the smell of the pink roses she liked, the song Haji used to play in his cello, the picture of them at the zoo in Bordeaux? A thousand thoughts like this came to her, some more important and relevant than others. She laughed and thought about buying meters of blue ribbons and eating grape jelly, but she realized it was not the best thing to remember those vanished moments.
Julia looked at Saya laughing and smiled, asking "Why are you laughing?"
"I thought about buying meters of blue ribbon." she said trying to hold her laughter.
"I am serious Saya; think about things that may relate to the moments and memories"the doctor said smiling, "and if that was the case, maybe you should consider buying cellos."
They both laughed for a long time; buying cellos, meters of blue ribbon, grape jelly and dozens of pink roses, which would not get Saya anywhere, but it, was rather fun to think about these items actually helping her in her quest for the memories. Their laughter continued for another while, until they were interrupted by a young intern who left some papers on Julia's desk and left as soon as possible. After the transfusion, the afternoon went faster, at least faster than the morning, but still, Saya's idea of fun was no where near to walk through the aisles of the library, seeing the huge collection of old, ancient and antique books that might have been similar to the ones Joel I used to read when he was young. She walked through the halls of tall bookshelves, thinking about what Julia said about finding the key. She grabbed a couple of books, books about the Metropolitan Opera House, books about music, about cellos, about France, anything that seemed slightly related and could help her; she sat on the big table where few days ago they had their meeting, and opened the books, it didn't took long for her to realize that these books where taking her nowhere. She leaned her head on top of the open book, she was falling asleep, and said: "I don't see how researching in this library can be more helpful than buying roses."
"Neither does me, dear." a familiar voice said sarcastically,
"Hmm? Am I dreaming again?" she said as she raised her head trying to know where the voice came from. "Or is he actually real this time?"
"I don't know why you are calling me imaginary, if I am as alive as you are." the voice said louder but this time sounded quite offended rather than its previous cheerful tone.
"Go away, I am trying to rest." she said as she closed her eyes once again.
"As I told you before, I am no product of your imagination," the voice said louder, "so you cannot make me disappear. Just open your eyes my dear queen."
As instructed by the voice, she opens her eyes, and founds the blond queer chevalier holding a book about the operas of the last century. Saya could not believe her eyes, she assumed she was still asleep and that the person that was seated in front of her was actually an illusion or a dream, but it seemed quite too real for being an illusion and far too noisy and annoying for being a dream.
"You again, why do you always appear when nobody calls you." she said annoyed.
"Well excuse me, my dear queen." he said putting the book down, "But I thought I could pass by and see how you were doing with your "research", if that's what you call trying to remember what you forgot."
"What do you know about what I forgot?" She asked interested.
"I know enough, to tell you that a book about New York's architecture of the late 1400's will not help you" he said as he changed seats in a blur. "And that your memories are not as hard to remember as you think they are."
She once again closed her eyes and put her face on the wooden table, slightly impressed by Nathan's assumption on what she was doing.
"But then, how can I be sure you are real and that you are not dead?" she said sleepy.
"Because, how many illusion or dreams do you know that can make and actual damage?" he said ferociously as he move from an edge of the room, to where Saya was seated and stabbed her shoulder with a dagger with a blue rose motif on it. Screams filled the room and as he always did, he vanished in a glimpse of an eye.
Pain ran down her body, and the only thing she could think about was why he could appear when nobody called him, and always with such an air of mystery making his "riddles" even harder to understand.