And we're back! Even though I don't know what we're doing at all… I'm broken!
Hey Shawnee! Where are you?
Oh no… Here comes crazy girl again! Gotta run! *runs away*
"You have to remember something!" Brenna pleaded with her clueless companion. Shawnee gave her a wide eyed look.
"If I remembered anything, I would tell you. Although I'm sure I don't NEED to remember anything at all." Brenna slapped her hand against her forehead.
"Trust me. You need to remember." Shawnee smirked.
"Whatever you say crazy girl. But I still say you're wrong. I don't remember you so therefore, I do not know you." Brenna sighed in annoyance and twined her fingers together.
"Look, why don't we talk a walk? Maybe some fresh air will help." Shawnee smiled happily.
"Finally! I'm sick of sitting in here listening to all this stuff I'm SUPPOSED to remember or so you say." Brenna didn't respond but walked out of the room and down a flight of stairs to find that her sudden arrival had interrupted a discussion between the musketeers and the king. She stood there awkwardly for a few moments before speaking.
"I was wondering if maybe we could go out into the city? Maybe Shawnee will remember something out there." D'Artagnan smiled.
"Very well. We'll accompany you. Do you know where the boys are?" She nodded.
"Good. We'll bring them with us. Give us an hour and we'll leave alright?" She smiled and nodded.
"Thank you!" She chirped before taking off back up the stairs. She returned to the room to find Shawnee flopped back on the bed in boredom.
"Sit up you. We've got to keep trying to get you to remember." Shawnee groaned.
"But I don't want to! Can't we take a break? This is so boring!" She gave Brenna a pitiful puppy pout which had no effect.
"I'm immune to that. Too bad for you huh?" Shawnee just pouted and sat there as Brenna began.
"Let's start over alright?" Shawnee said nothing and Brenna sighed.
"You know I'm doing this for your own good right?" She huffed and didn't look at her. Brenna frowned.
"Oh come on! You only remember up until you're thirteen for God's sakes! You can't honestly believe that you ARE thirteen right?!" Shawnee gave her a blank stare and Brenna stood up.
"Fine. If you don't even want to try, there's no point in doing this. I'll see you in an hour. We're going for a walk." She turned to leave and put her hand on the door when she heard a small voice.
"Don't go… please?" She looked back over her shoulder to see her friend watching her with scared eyes blinking behind her glasses.
"I'll try harder I promise. Please don't go." Brenna let go of the door handle and sat back down beside her.
"Fine… I'll stay. But we have to keep trying!" Shawnee nodded with a smile.
"Alright! Let's do this then!" And they spent the hour with Brenna telling stories about some events that had happened in their time, hoping to jog her memory.
The hour had passed quickly and soon they were outside in the streets of Paris on a leisurely walk. Despite the constant complaints for the boys.
"Why are we doing this? We're not going anywhere so what's the point?"
"Come on! Let's go back already! It's not like she'll remember anything anyway!" Brenna ignored it and kept walking and pointing out interesting things along the way. Shawnee saw all of these things and more but it still sparked no recognition, although it wasn't for lack of trying. The musketeers looked on with curious interest at Brenna's seemingly futile efforts to help. Chris frowned.
"Brenna, there's no point to this. You know that right?" Brenna spun around and faced him angrily.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Everyone stopped to watch the sudden quarrel with interest. Chris shrugged.
"What I mean is that, if she was going to get her memory back, wouldn't she have gotten it back by now?" Brenna felt her fists clench.
"That doesn't mean a thing and you know it! Don't say that, don't even think it!" She turned on her heel and began walking again as Chris snickered.
"Yeah… Just watch. Something bad will happen when she actually does get it back." This comment resulted in a slap upside the head which knocked off Chris's baseball cap.
"Hey! What the hell was that for?!" He said annoyed as he rubbed the back of his head and picked up his cap. Brenna looked past him to Porthos who was standing behind him and smiled. Then she turned to Chris again with a grim expression.
"If you keep talking like that, you'll jinx what luck we have had!" Chris smirked.
"Jinx." Brenna gave an angry sigh, threw her hands in the air and kept walking. Shawnee watched her with a small smile.
"Silly crazy girl. Chris always acts like a complete idiot. At least if something goes wrong, you can blame him for it!" Brenna froze as she passed her before spinning around and grabbing her by the shoulders.
"What was that you just said?!" Shawnee gave her a frightened look.
"I just called him Chris… Did I do something wrong?" Brenna gave her a bright smile and then looked at Chris.
"I told you so! She remembers who you are now!" Brenna grabbed Shawnee's arm and began to lead her through the crowd, forcing the others to try and keep up in the busy street.
"Come on! Let's see if we can get you to remember anything else!" Shawnee tripped over the hem of her dress and stumbled but forcibly pulled to her feet again by Brenna as they kept going.
"Can't we slow down?! At this rate, I'm going to sprain something!" They stopped to catch their breath and wait on the others to catch up to them. Shawnee looked around curiously before her gaze settled on a man selling bread at a stall in the street. She frowned and moved closer to the stall to get a better look at him. The man looked up at her and frowned.
"What are you looking at missy?" Her eyes narrowed angrily at the sound of his voice and something seemed to spark inside her. She picked up some bread and whipped it at him. Brenna turned at the sound of the angry man's voice.
"Shawnee! What are you doing?! Stop!" Shawnee threw more bread at the man with an angry cry.
"I'll kill you!" The man went from angry to fearful and turned to run. Shawnee went to begin pursuit when a strong hand on her shoulder forced her to stop. She looked over her shoulder to see D'Artagnan standing there. She spun and shoved him hard in the chest, causing him to spin to keep his balance. When he turned back, she had taken off up the street after the man. Brenna looked at him quickly before starting to run when Athos grabbed a hold of her arm.
"What do you think you're doing? You should not get in the middle of this." Brenna frowned at him.
"All for one, one for all remember? I won't let her do something she'll regret!" With that, she wrenched her arm from his grasp and ran down the street after her friend. The rest of the group stood there frozen for a moment before beginning pursuit. As they ran, D'Artagnan felt like something was missing from his person. He felt his sword sheath and found the sword still in it when he reached the handle of it. He reached underneath the back of his coat where he had tucked a pistol into his breeches and found it wasn't there. He felt panic rise as he thought back to what had just happened before Shawnee had taken off.
"Athos! My pistol has been taken!" Everyone stopped and looked at him. Athos had a blank expression.
"What do you mean taken?" D'Artagnan looked around on the street to see if he had simply dropped it and found it was nowhere to be seen. His face became grim.
"I think I know where it is… Follow me!" D'Artagnan led the group along the streets, following the sounds of angry cries up ahead and the path of disarray in the streets until they reached a gate in the walls leading outside the city. It was cracked open slightly; enough for a person to fit through easily.
Brenna panted and hiked up the hem of the dress in her heads as she climbed a small hill outside the city. She dropped to her knees as her feet slid from underneath her and she stayed there on the ground, regaining her breath. She looked up at the sound of yelling.
"I'm going to kill you Louis! This is for all the trouble you've caused me!" Brenna stood and sprinted up the hill to see Shawnee, her face twisted with rage, holding a pistol pressed between the innocent and scared man's eyes. She felt her body go cold with fear and she ran to her.
"Shawnee stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Brenna grabbed at her hands, jerking them up so the gun was raised to the sky. Shawnee gave a vicious snarl and fought back.
"Let go you crazy girl! This has nothing to do with you!" As they struggled, the man stood and ran away, tripping in his haste. Shawnee pulled Brenna around so they were facing each other and they both had hands on the pistol. Brenna gave the pistol a gentle tug.
"Shawnee, just give me the pistol alright? This isn't right and you know it." Shawnee's eyes narrowed into blue slits behind her oval shaped wire frames.
"This is Louis! Someone I immortally despise! Let go of the gun!" She yanked the pistol back to her. Brenna frowned and pulled harder, jerking Shawnee slightly off of her feet.
"He's not who you think he is! That is not Louis!" Shawnee snarled and tried to rip the gun from Brenna's hands.
"Yes he is! Let go of the damn gun right now!" The two of them began wrestling over the gun and Brenna grabbed the barrel end of it as it became a battle of tug of war. Brenna wrenched the gun to her and almost dropped Shawnee to her knees. Shawnee shifted her grip on the butt of the pistol and yanked it back.
BANG!
Brenna gasped and let go of the gun like it was a hot coal as she felt a searing pain along her right side. She pressed her hand to her dress and when she pulled it back, it was tinted red. She looked at Shawnee with a pale, shocked face, eyes wide with horror.
Shawnee stared at her in shock, her normally reddened face a frightening sheet white. Her blue eyes paled behind the glasses and her whole body began to shake. Her mouth went completely dry as fear and disgust at what she'd did set in. She looked to her hand and saw the gun still there, looked at it for moment, before pulling her hand away from it towards her trembling body.
Brenna remained crouched on her knees as the stain on her dress grew darker and more furious looking, her face growing paler, her breathing becoming more labored. Shawnee felt her head begin to throb and a name came to her at that exact moment.
"Brenna…?" Brenna tried to look up at her but weakness overcame her and she dropped to her side on the ground. Shawnee felt her head sear with pain and tears stream down her face as she was bombarded with an onslaught of memories. She curled into a ball, waiting for the pain to abate so she could at least see clearly. When the pain had dropped to a small slight throbbing, she crawled out of her ball and stared over at her dearest friend's limp form and felt incredibly sick.
"Brenna?" Shawnee pulled herself to her knees and slowly began to crawl over. She was an arm length away and she reached out to shake Brenna's shoulder.
"Brenna? Are you alright?" The tears came again, thick and fast and she crawled until she was right alongside her.
"Brenna! Say something please!" The cry provoked no response and Brenna remained still. Shawnee had the sudden feeling as if she swallowed a whole ice cube and remained there frozen. She didn't dare reach out to see if she had a pulse.
She didn't hear the pounding of feet as Chris, Jordan, and the musketeers found them and never felt D'Artagnan drag her to her feet roughly, like a common prisoner, not even looking at her for if he had, it would have been in disgust. She kept her eyes locked on Brenna's body as the entire group rushed her as fast as they could to a doctor, despite her constant tripping over her own feet as she was forced to keep pace.
Oh God… What have I done?! I think I may have killed my best friend!
That's the end of the chapter. Merry Christmas and have a Happy Holiday. Although, I don't think I will after this…
Special thanks to TurtleJustice for reviewing and to IgnotusAngelus for reviewing as well and for the picture she drew to go with Chapter 11. Go to my profile to check it out and to hear the theme song that Brenna and I chose for this story. Enjoy!
And don't forget to review!