Amnesia

Chapter 20

I don't give it a second thought. I rush over to him and kneel beside him. 

"Kaius...what happened?" 

I trace my fingertips lightly over his bruised eye.

He says nothing. Just staring at me with frightened and curious eyes. 

"I'll be right back, okay?" 

I quickly run to get a wet cloth and something to put on his eye. 

Making sure I'm not discovered or followed as I do so.

When I get back to him I see a bit more hope in his eyes. As if he didn't think I would be back.

I sit by him  and wipe the blood from his face. 

"Here, hold this on your eye." I hand him ice wrapped in a cloth.

He does as I say. All the while staring in to my eyes. Wherever I move, his gaze follows.

"It's you, isn't it?" He finally says.

I stop and look at him. I nod slowly.

He reaches out and runs his hand through my hair. 

I let him have his moment, while still tending to his wounds.

"What happened to you?" 

He tries to sit up slightly. Groaning and holding his stomach as he does so.

"I didn't do completely as I was asked." He chuckles grimly.

What that could mean I don't know. But he's in a lot of pain, I can't ask too much of him.

I have this built in urge to care for him that I cannot resist. I keep taking sneaky glimpses at him. 

Under the black eye and bruises, he's such a handsome young man. He has curly brown hair and ocean blue eyes. I find myself smiling as I look at him. But he catches me and I look away. I sense him smirking.

"I can't believe you found me again. I didn't think you ever would in this place." 

"I didn't know you were here. In all honesty, I didn't think you were even real. When I went back to see you at the hospital, the cage was gone and nobody knew who Lilly was. Except Ahren."

His jaw clenches for a second, then he asks: "how did you find me, anyway?" 

"Oh, I was wandering around. Then I saw Ahren-" The penny drops.

Kaius knows it has.

"Ahren didn't...it wasn't Ahren that..." I look down again at his bruises and cuts. 

The horror on my face must show. Kaius puts his hand on my arm and nods sadly.

I sit back and cover my mouth with my hands. Tears threaten to fall.

"I can't believe it...after everything..." I whisper.

I start to ponder what it could all mean. Trying to connect the dots.

"But why? Why would he do this? What does it all mean?" 

He leans his head against the wall and closes his eyes for a minute. Then he looks at me again.

"You want answers?"

"Please. Is Anthony bribing Ahren? Does Ahren think you're in cahoots with Anthony?"

He pauses, letting me throw all my questions at him.

He smiles sadly, "He really got you where he wanted you. You trust him, don't you?"

"Who? What do you mean?" 

Kaius leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees.

"Avy, It is Ahren."

I can't quite get my head around what he means. Or maybe I am pretending not to because I don't want to believe it.

"What?" 

"It's all him." He is trying to let it sink in, but I can't comprehend it.

"But Anthony-"

"Not Anthony. It's Ahren. He is behind it all. Everything that has happened to you, is because of him." 

I feel as though I have been stabbed in the chest. 

I stand up and walk over to the empty wine racks in the corner. The rage built up inside me cannot be contained. I kick it hard a few times. Then grasp a hold of my hair. 

My angered heavy breathing briefly turns into a sob. I turn around again to face Kaius.

"But why would he do it? Why would he do all this, only to have me miserable and pathetically trust him?" 

"Because that is what he wanted. For you to completely trust him."

"Please just explain everything. I don't understand." I say, returning to his side.

"Okay. Ahren was always obsessed with you from the moment he met you. He always tried to get rid of me. But you would always turn him down and make it clear that you would never be with him. And you might have noticed he acts very strangely." I nod, "that's because he has DID; Dissociative identity disorder. It means he has multiple personalities. Which can make him act really aggressive and a little strange sometimes."

That totally makes sense, he has always changed in the way he acted and I have never known why.

"Carry on." I urge him.

"So, even though this might be hard to take in, you need to know. He caused your amnesia. He hit you over the head and abducted you. I followed you, but I made a mistake and he caught me. He's been using me to teach him about you, and tell him things that no one else knows about you. He said he would hurt you if I didn't comply." He hangs his head for a second before continuing, "I tried to give you a signal when you got here; your last name. I didn't tell them that we used to shorten it. I thought when you remembered that that you would get suspicious of them." 

"I did. And they got really nervous and Ahren stormed away...oh no. Did he come and do this to you?"

He looks away from me and says nothing.

"Oh no, this is all my fault. I'm so sorry." 

"It's not your fault. You found me. That's all that matters." 

We sit in silence for a while. I'm attempting to take in all the information I have received.

"So everyone really was lying to me." 

"Not Lilly." He turns to face me, "not me."

I examine his face, his eyes. They are that of a trustworthy person. But what would I know? I haven't met one person I can trust. Besides Lilly.

I gaze upon him once again. He is leaning against the wall again with his eyes closed. Breathing as though he was sleeping, relaxing in the presence of someone he knows.

I wish I remembered.

I lean my head on the wall next to him.
"I don't know how you are so familiar to me- or why it feels like I am getting to know you more as though I am remembering who you are. How every smile, every Whisper brings me closer to the impossible conclusions that I have known you before, I have loved you before."