15. Another Side, Another Story
Another night in the Land of the Dead. The group had pushed on as long as they could to make up for all the time they had lost, but their journey for the day was forced to end when it became too dangerous to keep going. There were three days remaining before Kairi's deadline and they were going to be cutting it close.
The conversations throughout the day had been awkward to say the least. Ever since they reunited, Kairi had tried in vain to get Cade to talk to Sam. Every time Cade had brushed him off and chose to chat with Liam instead, though Cade was doing her best to get Kairi alone to speak with her in private. That night, when they were preparing to lay down, Cade dragged Kairi away before she had the chance to pull Sam into the conversation.
"What are you doing?" Cade put her hands on her hips and frowned at Kairi.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kairi feigned innocence. She clasped her hands behind her back and focused on her shoes.
"Yes, you do. Stop earbashing me to talk to Sam. I have no desire to speak with him at the moment. I've wanted to talk to you all day. Just you." Cade's arms dropped to her sides and she sighed. "Some... things happened when I was alone with Liam earlier."
"What kinds of things?" Kairi stared at her friend earnestly. "Did you learn more about him? Is he dangerous? Should we not be trusting him?"
"No, nothing like that," Cade interrupted before Kairi started to yabber. "Well, I did find out more about him, but he's a good guy. We can trust him. But I may have done something stupid and now I don't know what to do."
"Stupid? Cade you don't do stupid things. What are you talking about?" Kairi tilted her head and studied Cade. "What happened between you and Liam?"
Cade bit her lip and looked away. "I kissed him."
"You what?!" Kairi raised her voice, earning curious glances from everyone else around them. "Cade, how could you do that?"
"Shh!" Cade covered Kairi's mouth with her hands. "Keep quiet. I don't need the whole world knowing. I know it's bad. I acted like a total drongo, but that's why I want to talk to you. Can you promise me you'll be quieter?" Cade waited for Kairi to nod before lowering her hands.
"What were you thinking? Why would you kiss Liam?" Kairi paused for second. "How was it? What did he do?"
"I was looking for a way to get over Sam and move on. I couldn't get him out of my mind so I decided the best thing to do was to kiss Liam, so I did. It was... nice? I don't know. I know I wanted it to feel nice, but it felt wrong. And he-" Cade cut herself off, and her cheeks turned cherry red.
"What?" Kairi leaned forward. "Did he try to take it further? Did you do more than kiss him? I understand you wanted to get over Sam, but that's taking it a bit too far don't you think?"
Cade rapidly shook her head. "We didn't do anything else, I swear. We kissed and that was it. But his response wasn't exactly what I was hoping for."
"What did he say?" Kairi's eyes went over to Liam, as if staring at him long enough would reveal the answer.
"Well, Liam has never been married to a woman or even had a serious girlfriend. He politely explained to me that there was a reason he had never pursued a relationship with a girl." Cade rocked back and forth on her heels, trying to shake the embarrassment off of her.
Kairi's eyes widened. "You mean he's... Oh." Kairi looked at Liam with renewed interest. "Yeah, that wasn't the smartest thing you've ever done. Though I can't say I would've figured that out either. I've met a lot of gay men in my line of work and none of them behave like Liam does."
Cade shuffled nervously. "I apologized afterwards, and he said it was okay. He understood where I was coming from. It can be hard to move on from a man sometimes."
"Yeah, I bet he knows exactly where you're coming from." Kairi snickered, but stopped when Cade glared at her. "Sorry, but you have to admit this is kind of funny. Come on, laughing about it will make you feel better."
A slight grin appeared on Cade's face. She buried her head in her hands. "How could I have been such a galah? I can't believe I did that."
"Do you really want to forget about Sam that badly? He's really sorry for the way he treated your relationship. He wants a second chance, Cade. Sam deserves it." Kairi kindly placed her hand on Cade's shoulder.
"If he wants a second chance, then he can show me how badly he wants it." Cade took a deep breath to push away any leftover traces of embarrassment. "Actions speak louder than words. I cannot go back to a relationship that is leading nowhere. I want a family, and I feel like I'm not going to get that from Sam."
The corner of Kairi's lips turned down and she fiddled with a strand of her light blonde hair. "You can't just take him back?"
"No. Maybe I'll give him a second chance, but he has to prove that he deserves one. And you are not going to help him do anything. I want it to be one hundred percent Sam. So no Kairi-meddling. Understood?" Cade crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Kairi.
Kairi reluctantly nodded in response. She felt like she had been demoted. "Fine."
Another memory.
This time Sydney was standing in a forest. It was too dark to see anything beyond the clump of trees that surrounded her. Nothing about the scene seemed familiar, but there wasn't a lot to see. The memory Sydney pushed through the vines and climbed over tree roots.
Sydney followed along, not like she had a choice. Being trapped in her own head was weird, but at least she didn't have to worry about doing anything. She tried to think of where she could be, but her mind came up blank. These memories were supposed to be tied to her darkness, so what was so important about this memory?
The dream Sydney continued on, unaware that a future version of herself was watching over her. She finally came to a small stream that seemed to glow under the moonlight. She splashed some water on her face and when the ripples settled, Sydney was looking at the reflection of a total stranger.
The anonymous face stared back at her with vivid violet eyes. Their inky black hair was cut into a sharp A-line bob and framed their tan face. Sasha Kila.
It took a moment for Sydney to recognize the face, but when she did, a deep hatred bloomed in her heart. Sasha Kila was her alias she was forced to use when Nicole entered her into fighting competitions where immortals couldn't compete or made her to do something that required her true identity to be kept secret. So which Sasha mission was this?
The first time Sydney had been turned into Sasha, she thought it was fun and exciting. She'd always loved acting, so this was basically just playing a character. She'd even gotten free laser hair removal for it. Nicole said that some missions would require her to be gone a long time and growing hair everywhere would just be a nuisance. It was great, until Sydney found out what these missions would entail.
The memory Sydney/Sasha left the stream and went back to trekking through the woods. If she was Sasha right now, this memory couldn't be pleasant. She pushed her way through a thick patch of bushes and tripped over a root. Her battle reflexes kicked in and she easily rolled and popped back up.
And came face to face a mauled clown. The memory Sydney screamed and stumbled back, even the present Sydney in her head was startled. The younger Sydney took several deep breaths to calm her racing heartbeat. She glared at the demented statue. "Stupid abandoned amusement park. They couldn't have taken out the freakish clowns before throwing us in here?"
Abandoned amusement park? Sydney wished she had the ability to pause her memories so she could get a moment to think. When would she have been in an abandoned amusement park?
The memory Sydney kicked the hellish clown statue. It crashed into the ground with a thunderous boom. She stepped over it and continued on her way. Twigs crunched under feet, and the night was eerily silent, not even a cricket chirped. She knew she needed to find a more open area. This forest was not a good place for her to be.
Many trips, curses, and clown statues later, she broke free of the woods and finally entered a large clearing. Tall grass sprouted up through broken up cement on the ground. Metal structures loomed overhead and leaned heavily to one side as if they would fall at any moment. A large decrepit roller coaster stood in the background. The track was missing in several places and the old train sat in disrepair halfway up the hill. A faded logo was imprinted on a massive circle nailed to the side of roller coaster support beams. The image was so worn that it was impossible to see, but the words Mienope FunLand were plain to see.
Sydney's heart stopped. Oh, that abandoned amusement park.
She immediately tried everything in her power to make the memory version of herself backtrack, knowing it was futile. She couldn't even close her eyes to prevent herself from seeing what was going to come next. This was the last thing she wanted to remember. Not this, anything but this.
The younger Sydney started to explore the area, completely unaware of what was to come. Sydney pitied her younger self. She'd do anything to be that innocent and naive again, but she was about to lose any of the childlike ignorance that she still held onto. Sydney relented and sat back, knowing there was nothing to do but watch. Sage was making her relive this for a reason. She had fought the darkness in her for so long that she needed to get reconnected with it. No matter how much she didn't want to see it, it had to be done.
The memory Sydney had made her way over to the dilapidated roller coaster. Her intent was to climb to the top of the ride to get a better vantage point of her surroundings, but once she got close enough, she could tell that that was impossible. The metal beams were too unstable for her to climb on. There was no way she'd make it to the top without falling. She sighed and began to think of a backup plan.
Before anything could come to her, a stick snapped behind her. The dream Sydney tensed and spun around, ready for a fight. She hated being forced to compete in these fighting tournaments, but she had to survive. She always made sure the injuries she inflected weren't serious.
Sydney mentally sighed. How long had that rule lasted? It had worked the first few fights she'd been in, but things changed. The injuries became more serious and sometimes permanent. It wouldn't be long before she was willingly killing others.
A young girl stepped into the moonlight. She must have been hiding under the roller coaster somewhere, because this was the first time memory Sydney had seen her. She couldn't have been more than eight-years-old. She had copper-toned skin and large brown eyes. Her mousy brown hair seemed tangled on top of her head.
The younger Sydney paused, but made sure to keep her guard. She was awfully young to be in a competition like this. Sometimes the locations of the fights were near cities populated by locals. Maybe she had wandered over accidentally? She hadn't done enough research on Mienope history to know if this world even had people living on it. She took a moment to study the girl before making any moves.
"Hello, are you from here?" The memory Sydney asked. When the small child didn't respond, Sydney continued. "My name's Sasha. Who are you?"
At first, it seemed like the girl wasn't going to respond, but after a minute she quietly spoke up. "My name's Isabel."
A/N - If you don't remember who Isabel is, you might want to reread chapter 11 of The War of Time.
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