Yes, three days for me are called soon. But this chapter is a big one. Enjoy.
Maybe I'll make some illustrations later. Follow me on Tumblr if you want some (nastya-dragon-rider tumblr com with dots instead of spaces)
Chapter 2: The Memory Remains
New day new beginnings they say. Well, for me it is finding the old ones. Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? Which language was I speaking? What is my mother tongue? I was the part of the resistance but that was all I knew. Not the reasons why I was resisting. Luckily, my new roommate Julia helped me a lot with that.
Ukraine is in a crisis and it's not only economical. The country is close to the civil war. And everything had started so peacefully...
Maidan... Lots of people associate it with revolution which is utterly wrong! People, who came there at first, were simply tired of their government, of bureaucrats, of poverty. Ukraine has been separated from USSR for twenty years but what has it achieved?... Nothing. Everything that could be taken was taken, everything that could be stolen was stolen. People had learnt to get over it, to go on and live further hoping for better life, better government. But no more.
They put their efforts into peaceful protest which in the last few weeks became fused with THEM.
The nationalists. The so called "Right sector". The ones who formed the new goverment because the others didn't have guts for it. The 'heroes' who are very good at street fighting and using it wherever they can. Who don't respect the rights of the quarter of Ukraine citizens. Who call them 'Russians' as if it is a swear-word. Who call them separatists. Who try to use army to shut them up.
But all of it was outside the window. The piece of our lives we couldn't take part in. Though we saw it. We saw people getting ready to defend what they believed in by building barricades, looking for guns and bandages. They will be glad if no blood is spilled and they prayed for it. But there was little hope...
The weather was laughing at us. The early spring made every tree in the street blossom and give off wonderful odor. No presence of that rich red color in flowers which could remind of the current events, no smell of rotting flesh to think of the ones who were injured during demonstrations. The nature was waking up and there was no way we could stop it.
- Okay, - I sighed and then slyly grinned. - After I have lost my memory I can read the book again and feel like never did it before. - Wha-ha-ha-ha-ha! - and ... I'm bad at evil laughs. Who knew?
- Yeah, have fun... - Julia said and gave me 'Dandelion Wine'.
It was her idea to make me read. It had to remind me what I was and what I am. As my old friend had said: ' Words are always more powerful than action. They make people see the things in the other light and change opinions. And action only forces them to do something. Unwillingly. Remember that, my darling, and you will be a good princess'. Though I couldn't recollect who this man was or is and why did he call me princess. What a pity.
"Dandelion Wine" was fantastic! No, it is not right. It was amazing, marvelous, splendid and all these combined. Ah, I will never be able to find the word like Bradbury would. The book made me laugh and cry. Also, it somehow reminded me that I never had a true childhood: I always knew how to survive and never had these funny childish superstitions... Those pure ideals and old traditions ... I have never really met them. I grew up too fast, like I never was a true child, like I was born when I was ten years old... No, this is impossible!
I didn't tell Julia my suspicions. I didn't want to open up to her. Actually, I have never wanted to talk sincerely with anybody in my whole life. I am not the one to blurt things out and I know I had learned it the hard way.
Every day I read a book and discovered something new about myself. For example, I learned that I was never afraid of heights, that I knew how it feels to have wind in your hair and I have even smelled the sea. Reading 'Frankenstein' I found myself in this monster. I felt like I was a lab experiment and my creator didn't like me. Maybe that's why I was never close to anybody. 'Gulliver's Travels' reminded me that I had visited pretty much places on Earth and liked to hit the road every time I was bored or stressed. And because of 'Inheritance' cycle by Christopher Paolini I decided to become a vegetarian. You know, it's much easier to resist the temptation to eat meat if you have never tasted it.
Of course, I was reading some classic Russian writers as well. The one, whose books cleared the situation the most, was Gogol. He didn't claim himself as a Russian or an Ukrainian writer and thus his books showed both cultures equally. A wide variety of different and similar traditions had opened to me as well as old problems, which aren't solved even today. You see, the west part of Ukraine had been so long under Poland's control that they had started thinking of themselves as a part of Europe. And then Russia had 'freed' them. The east part, on the other hand, was not so close to poles as they were to Russians. It's a long story I don't really want to discuss. I'm sure there are tons of information on this subject in the Internet. But you get the point.
Weird things were happening around me. There were a couple of times I was waking up under my bed (what a dusty place, don't they clean up here?), my limbs were turning invisible and intangible, some strange green rays were coming out of me and I could freeze someone I didn't like. But what worried me the most was that Julia seemed to know what was happening to me. She didn't ask any questions, send me suspicious looks or tried to hide from me. At first, I thought that it was normal reaction and there are other people like me but doctor's reaction convinced me otherwise. Julia knew more about me than she gave out and I will have to make her talk.
One day in the morning a new superpower showed itself. I suppose it is some ghost detector but that moment I didn't really care. It was freezing me to death from the inside but my body seemed to know what to do. A light blue mist escaped my mouth and I felt a wave of heat going through me. Though the cold didn't leave me entirely I felt a great relief. Julia had somehow noticed the mist and left the room without a word. As soon as she left a girl with light blue hair gathered in a ponytail appeared. She was wearing black tight leather trousers and a black tank top.
- So, why are you resting, baby pop? - asked the rocker girl. And the language she talked was my mother-tongue. How is it called? English! I remember something!
- How did you call me? - annoyance filled me. And I don't even remember why!
- Oh, sorry, your majesty! - there was bitterness in her voice like she was offended. - I supposed being a part of our group had learnt you not to pay attention to the labels.
- I'm sorry...- I didn't know what to do, so I tried to sound as guilty as possible in case she is the enemy. I'm in no form for fighting.
- You are apologizing to me, - stated the rocker girl. - Have you lost your memory again? - that was quick. She found it out in a matter of seconds. Did I know her closely? - Come with me.
- Duh, I can't!
-Then relax. I will carry you, - with these words she lifted me up like I weighted nothing. Well, the doctor had told me that I weighted too few for such a muscular woman. The flying girl had put me down in the armchair in the hall as gently as she could but it still hurt. Then she took her guitar and started playing a simple tune I have heard thousands of times. She began singing and it was hypnotizing. She did it passionately and gave her heart and soul to the music. 'It must be her obsession,'- a thought came to me. People walked into the hall and surrounded her. Nobody cared that she was hovering above the ground or that her hair started rising up.
- Tell me who you love!- she shouted in the middle of the guitar solo.
- Ember! Ember! Ember! - the crowd replied. Her pony tail was one meter high now. And then she hit the strings of her instrument and sent a pink ray in my direction.
- It was my memory spell. The rest is up to you, Danielle, - these were the last words I had heard before I lost my consciousness.
As soon as I woke up I realized that I could walk. With a terrible limp and crushing pain but that was something already.
People remembered Ember and they wanted to discuss it. Everybody had to ask me what my opinion is. The typical dialog between one of the patients and me sounded like this:
- Hey, did you see that ghost girl?
- She was a ghost? I didn't notice.
- It was difficult not to notice its light blue hair and white aura. Plus, it was flying. And it knocked you unconscious.
- She just wanted to help me. This girl could tell that I have lost my memory in a matter of seconds!
- Do you think so? I mean, we are always told that ghosts are evil.
- Then answer me, is Danny Phantom evil? - don't even ask me where did this name come from.
- You mean the ghost hero from Amity Park? I suppose no... Well, there were accidents when it robbed the banks and stole jewelries but that happened just once and its eyes were red instead of usual green. Like it was overshadowed. Can a ghost overshadow a ghost?
- Not it, Misha (or any other name), he. Ghosts do certainly have gender. And a ghost can't overshadow another ghost but there are thousands of amulets that can control them.
- Do you have any?
- No, silly. They are not so easy to find or make.
- Was Ember ( that's her name isn't it?) controlled?
- Of course no! She was too responding to be someone's zombi.
- So, you say the ghosts have personality?
- Yea, not as complex as human one but still. Obsessions make ghosts a little predictable. Because of them ghosts are thought to be emotionless but it's not true. Their obsession simply dominates above their feelings. There are old ghosts who understood how to control it. And they are very different from the ones who comes to the human world.
- You know some much about ghosts... And it's against everything that ghost hunters tell us.
- Why do you think they became the ghost hunters?
- Hmm... Scientific interest?
- Really? Do you think that apparitions would be called mindless if they were properly studied? Ghosts are harmless unless you stand on the way to their obsession. And they do not stop no matter what if the object of their obsession is close. That's how they ruin people's lives. That's why they are thought to be evil.
- Have you met ghosts before?
- Duh, memory loss.
- Oh, right, sorry.
- Never mind.
- Thank you anyway.
I liked to change people's opinions about ghosts. They really need to hear another point of view. I felt like it could help me and my friends. But how?
By the end of the day people became really annoying, so I found an empty closet and hid in there. I needed some time to think.
I needed some time to think...
Why did I remember the ghost boy? Well, he isn't the boy anymore but the nickname got stuck with him. Why did the name Phantom sounded as if could be applied to me? I felt that this is my name but how did I get it? Why wasn't I scared of the ghosts? Why Ember called me princess? Why I had no childhood? Why I was so good at fighting? I had to get to Amity Park to get the answers, hadn't I? Or do I have to find Danny? Questions were buzzing, blood in my head was bumping and I felt desperate. A headache started to form, my throat became dry. If only it was unreal, some strange dream where I am someone with huge secrets I can't recollect myself. My vision began to blur. Who am I? Who I was? Who I will be? And then two words came to my mind. 'Going ghost!' - I whispered in the darkness.
I was and wasn't ready for what happened next. A light blue ring formed around my waist, then split in two. They went one up and the other one down and changed my blue hoodie, red pants and white sneakers into some sort of superhero suit. It was black and white and I had the same DP symbol as Phantom. And this suit left my stomach open which meant that all my extra kilograms I gained while I was in the hospital are seen. Must get rid of them as fast as I can. While I was in my ghost form I tried to fly, but I couldn't. My last attempt made the ring form again and turn me back into my human form. I started to cry. My coolest ghost power was unavailable. In the evening when I managed to calm down and stop my sobbing I heard a male voice inside my head.
'Where are you, Danielle? Where are you?'
When I went to bed the voice continued to chase me. I wasn't afraid of it, no. It was worried and I knew that he was looking for me because he cared. The only man, who had ever cared about me.
Danny...
The Easter eve was pleasant. Everybody cheered and wished good luck to everybody. Everybody hoped that the new government will follow the Geneva's declarations and order the troops to stop moving forward. The kuliches were baked and the eggs were colored. People were full of joy and cheered that the Christ has arisen.
Nobody had expected what has happened in the night. A few observation posts in Sloviansk were attacked by the 'Right sector'. People, good people were dead.