Chapter 1 - The Meeting

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"AAH!" I screamed suddenly, not fully comprehending what was happening around me. My body was soaked and felt heavy, and an unseeable force dragging me away. Coughing and panting I realised I was in water being led downstream by the river currents. 

SHIT! This is bad, so so bad! I'm gonna die-

I tried to stay above the surface, frantically kicking and waving my arms in hopes of reaching the riverside. Unfortunately I never learnt how to swim so that method wasn't very effective. Seems like it was time for me to unleash my power, a power hidden deep within my chest. As I bobbed above the water again I inhaled deeply before releasing that power.

"HELP ME OH GOD PLEASE I'M DYING! PLEAS-" I screamed as loud as possible during the mere three seconds I had before being submerged once more, accidentally swallowing more water than my body could handle. Desperately clutching my throat as the pain quickly spread throughout the chest area, my vision slowly began fading, and the only strenght left in my body went to the arms holding my throat. As it may seem this was the end for me, however, something miraculous happened just as I was on my last breath. 

A stick had reached into the water and grabbed ahold of my shirt, slowly pulling me towards the riverside. The person holding the stick pulled me close enough to grab me entirely, pulling me out of the river. That is about the last thing I remember before blacking out; seeing a tall, lanky figure standing above me, shaking my body and slapping my cheeks. 

...

"Ah!" I gasped loudly as my consciousness returned to me, and I grabbed my chest to make sure the heart inside me was still beating. Sure enough it was. "God fuck-" I groaned before realising I was inside someones house, or tent, or whatever. It was a fairly small, so I assumed whomever lived here was by themselves. My head was aching terribly as I sat up, hovering my feet above the floor. They weren't quite long enough to reach it, so I concluded that the tall figure I saw before passing out owned this place. Rubbing my temples I began looking around properly, noticing how cramped things really were in here. 

"where... am I?" I asked for no particular reason, it wasn't as if anyone was inside with me right now. I jumped of the bed, feeling my bare feet hit the wooden floor, sending a chill down my spine. I didn't really notice until now, but I wasn't wearing my clothes. Okay, I was wearing clothes, just not mine. It was a dark blue pyjamas with yellow bunnies and a white collar; it was a little too long for my arms and legs, but the fabric was very soft. I began walking around the room, inspecting every little object and trinket lying around. I eventually came over what seemed like a family portrait, so I picked it up and studied it. 

On the picture I saw six people, two women and four men, three of them looking fairly younger than the rest of the people. One of the younger-looking ones had a sad look on his face, despite smiling with the rest of them. That person also happened to be the tallest one of all the people depicted here, so with my amazing detective skills I deducted that this was the boy who saved me yesterday, as well as the boy who lived here. 

"Amazing work, y/n. Truly you are a person befitting of the title ultra cool." I snickered to myself, patting myself on the shoulder. The reality of what was going on quickly dawned on me again though, and I started worrying more about my condition, why I was here, and most importantly, where the stranger was now located. Maybe I should escape? I could get away, I'm pretty fast, I think. Before I could make any decisions of what to do I heard the door behind me open and I turned my body around faster than I had ever done in my entire life, staring with wide eyes at the person entering the room with an axe in their hands. 

"Woah- okay, hey, good morning. You're finally up." he said with a hint of suprise in his otherwise cheerful tone, approaching me slowly. I stepped back instinctively, as anyone would when a scary, albeit cute, stranger came towards you with an axe. 

"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you." he said, realising that he was holding the axe still. "Hehe, whoopsie doo! Didn't mean to bring that one." he laughed awkwardly and dropped the axe to the floor, kicking it behind him with his foot. I relaxed a little knowing I wasn't going to get chopped up like a log about to become firewood. "Who are you?" I inquired, eyeing the stranger from head to toe.

"I am the guy who saved your life. You're welcome, by the way. I also go by Onceler, if you're the more casual type." he answered and turned around towards the kitchen counter, fetching an apron and putting it on. "So, my turn, who are you?" he asked curiously while he began getting cooking ingredients such as eggs, bacon, avocado and toast. "I'm the person who's kinda worried I might've been kidnapped and brought into the forest to be dismembered. I also go by y/n." I answered sarcastically, sitting down on the bed again. 

"Ha ha veeery funny, don't you think I'd do that while you were already blacked out? Which reminds me, how did you even get in that river?" he turned around and looked at me, awaiting an answer. While he stared at me I saw black smoke emerge from the frying pan he was cooking the eggs and bacon in.

"You're burning the food." I answered and he looked back, shrieking as he quickly flipped everything around with the spatula. Afterwards he turned back his attention to me, with a very unimpressed expression on his face. "What?" I pouted, crossing my arms and looking away embarassed. "I don't even know how I got there. I just remember waking up in the water." I eventually gave in and told him, thinking back to yesterday. I soon realised that was the only thing I remember.

There were nothing before that, not one memory, which was super weird. I felt my heart drop a little as it dawned on me that more than 20 years worth of memories were missing from my mind. I was 20, right? That was the first number that came to mind when thinking of my age, so it must be right. I can only remember things that happened from the moment I woke up in the river. I must've completely changed my demeanour because the Onceler caught on to my worries. 

"Why so gloom?" he asked as he came over to the bed, handing me a plate of eggs, bacon and avocado toast. He sat down in a wooden chair by the window opposite of me, digging in on the food straight away. "I just..." I stopped for a second, considering whether or not I should tell him that I might have some sort of amnesia. After a few moments I sighed, and began talking.

"How I ended up in the river is not the only thing I don't remember.. I can't remember anything before that, literally nothing at all. I kinda feel like a baby, except I have the knowledge and experience of a 20-year old." I chuckled sadly at that statement, trying to find some sort of comfort in sharing this with him. "But let's not talk about that right now, I'm starving." I said to end the conversation and started eating my breakfast in silence.

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