Amnesia

Chapter 5

I  didn't get much sleep. How could I after what happened last night?

His face just keeps appearing in my mind. What confuses me more is how he got in. Was he even real? Maybe I was asleep the whole time. 

I decide not to stay in my room too long. Anthony said I could go to the garden, so that is where 
I want to go. 

I am not sure where I am going, but I ask one or two nurses on my way. To which they answer, but are very suspicious of me.

I step out of the building into the fresh air. How nice. The sun is still quite low since it is early morning. I sit on the grass and look out toward the fields. Letting the warm breeze refresh me.

I hear soft foot steps on the grass coming closer.

"May I join you?" Its Ahren.

I glance at the door, unsure. But I say nothing. So he joins me anyway.

I still don't talk to him. I am trying to abide by Anthony's rules.

He tries to spark a conversation, "Beautiful day isn't it?"

I smile and nod. I hate ignoring people.

Ahren chuckles to himself. I wonder what he's thinking about. 

"Did you ever have a really good friend, then after a long time of not seeing you, they don't recognize who you are?" He looks straight ahead.

"I...don't know." I say.

He smiles at me. But it quickly fades. 

"Do you really not remember anything?" He says unexpectedly.

"No, I don't. I wish I did."

We sit in silence for a moment, but then I notice something, "How did you know I have amnesia? I never told you."

He doesn't seem to mind that I am questioning him, "I just know."

I sit up straight and look at him, "No tell me. Please."

He just stares at me longingly, "Even with amnesia, you never  forget your manners."

"See, you keep talking like that; like you know me. But you don't."

"And how would you know that? You have amnesia."

I begin to feel tense, I can tell he is getting annoyed as well.

"Yes, thank you for pointing that out. But I'd prefer if you didn't stalk me from now on, if that's okay with you." Its strange, but I feel like I have wanted to say those words for a long time.

"Wow you really do believe everything they say, don't you? I have never stalked anyone!"

"They said you'd deny that too." I fold my arms.

I see him get frustrated, "You want proof that I know you?"

I sneer at him slightly, he is so confident in himself. "Fine."

He thinks for a moment, then something apparently comes to him, "You're allergic to water. You get hives when it touches your skin."

He obviously senses the disbelief in my face, but he definitely hears it in my scoff. He grabs my wrist and takes me over to a pond in the corner of the garden. I try to pull away but he is intent on proving his point.

He sticks my hand in the water, and draws it out almost immediately.

I glare at him and yank my hand away. 

As I look down at it, a red rash is slowly appearing on my skin.

I gasp, look at Ahren, then back down a my red hand. I suddenly feel faint. i fall but Ahren catches me. Then I suddenly black out.

I'm 5 years old, I  climb out of my paddling  pool and grab a towel to dry myself, then I look down and I'm covered in a red rash. I scream. Start clawing at my skin. It's so itchy. Then a woman comes rushing in to find me sobbing. 

She takes my hands, "Sh, its okay pet. The doctor said this would happen remember?"

"It's so itchy, So so itchy, make it stop." I sob.

"I know, pet, how about we go and put some of that special cream on it to make it go away?" She says and hugs me.

I sniff, "Okay mummy."

I wake up on Ahren's lap. 

"Are you okay?" He asks.

I sit up fast. "That was my mother. I saw my mother." I say quietly.

"Really? Do you remember what she looks like then?" He asks.

"No, its too fuzzy. But she was so familiar I..." I'm about to continue speaking, when I freeze at what I see.

It's him again, he's leaning against a tree. Those wide psychotic eyes and crazy hair- the man from last night.

I grab Ahren's arm tight.

"Do you see him?..." I whisper while staring at the man.

"See who?" Ahren says, scanning the area.

I look at Ahren in disbelief , "You don't see..." I look back and the man is gone. Just like last night.

I suddenly want to be alone. 

"Sorry Ahren I have to go. Please meet me here tomorrow."

"Of course. Shall I walk you back to your room?"

"No. I'm fine. Bye for now." i wave and walk away.

 So much to process. Why do I keep seeing that man? Who is he? Does Ahren really know me?

I look down at my now extremely itchy hand covered in blotchy rashes. Ahren knew That would happen if I came into contact with water. But the doctors said I don't know him. Someone is lying to me.

I'm walking along the corridor to my room. So many questions swirling around my mind. I suddenly get an excruciating pain in my head. Its thumping, i drop to the ground. And all of a sudden I feel the floor drop from under me. And everything goes black.

Then I wake up. I'm in a cold sweat, breathing heavily.

"Gave yourself a nightmare did you?" Anthony says as he takes some things from the counter by my bed and puts them in his little doctor's bag.

"It...didn't feel like a nightmare. Apart from where the floor disappeared." I contemplate.

Anthony laughs, "yes that sounds like a dream. Now I know I said you could go to the garden today, but I'm afraid there's a little bit of maintenance going on out there just now, so maybe another day."

I'm suddenly very confused. I have already been to the garden like he said I could. I look out the window. It looks like the sun has just risen, so I must have been unconscious overnight.

"But Anthony, I went to the garden yesterday. Then I blacked out in the corridor. That's why I was unconscious."

"Thalia, yesterday was the day I gave you your medicine and said you could go in the garden."

No, that can't be. That means I never spoke to Ahren. It means- 

I look down at my hand where the rash was. It isn't there. 

Was it ever there?