❝Speak❞ - A Memoir (Book 1)

16 - Into the Past

Chapter 16

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I walked through the forest for what seemed like the longest time which, in reality, was only about eight hours. Finally, as I was being to look for a place to rest, I came upon a village, or at least it looked like one. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was a ninja village or not, but I decided to investigate.

The village looked somewhat familiar, and as I began to think about it, I realized that I was there, my old village. As I stared intently at the extra large gates of the village, I thought about something slightly funny about how I ran away from this place thinking I would never come back, and yet, there I was, staring at the huge ugly brown gates of my so called ‘home’ village.

After staring for about a minute, I finally noticed that it was nighttime and people would probably be on watch for any invaders and such. I wasn’t planning to kill anybody; I just wanted some simple information. Then again, I never do get my way.

Seeing as I would’ve gotten nowhere if I had approached anyone at that time, I decided to wait until morning before making a move. There was only one problem with that plan. Unfortunately for me, I had no idea what it was.

So instead of me waiting until morning to approach them, they ended up approaching me. Not only did they interrupt my sleep, ‘they’ was only one person. It was rather weird because I could’ve sworn I had seen this person before, and actually, I had. That particular part in my memory was wiped until I retrieved it from the dark caves of my mind.

At the time, I couldn’t really identify the stranger well so it was a complete surprise when I heard him say he knew me. Well, it wasn’t a complete surprise that he knew me; it was more of a surprise that he remembered me because I surely didn’t remember him.

He also looked quite surprised to see me too. Thankfully, when he found me, the sun was rising and before long, I could somewhat identify his face as being slightly older than mine. I remember him staring at me for over a minute before finally uttering an audible sentence.

“I know you” a hint of a smile was soon visible on his young face. Meanwhile, I had no idea what to say to his statement. I had no doubt that he had probably seen me somewhere, but one question surfaced in my mind; why did he remember me?

He continued to stare at me with an unreadable expression on his smooth features, “Why did you run away?”

With that question, I was reminded of Sasuke and his parting statements. Because of that, I could only say one thing; “I wanted to survive” I looked up him to see his expression, but he was no longer looking at me, he stared off in the near distance at the gates of the village at the guards talking animatedly to one another.

When he looked back at me, it seemed that he finally realized that I had said something and proceeded to be surprised. “I thought you couldn’t speak”

A small smile managed to creep onto my face at that moment; “I couldn’t”

He looked a bit curious at my response so I decided to elaborate; “I was mute last time you saw me, so I couldn’t speak”

As he processed my sentence, I stare solemnly at the brightening sky. “It must’ve been frustrating” even till this day, I still remember the look he gave me; the look I still can’t decipher. It looked different from what I had been getting from others’ so different in fact that I had no idea what to make of it.

For that time, all I could do was stare at his handsome face. I finally realized that I had been staring for quite a while when he raised an eyebrow at me.

So I went back to staring at the sky; “What was frustrating?”

I could practically hear the laughter in his voice; “How they did all that to you, but even though you might’ve really wanted to, you couldn’t say anything” by the end of his sentence, the laughter was gone, and replaced by an uncomfortable silence.

“It was really frustrating,” a sigh escaped as well as a warm tear. “But you know, after a while, you learn to just suck it up”

When he didn’t reply, I looked at him only to find that he was much closer than I remembered. It also seemed as if he inched closer by a fraction. When he was about several inches away from me, I had to say something.

“What’re you--??” before I could completely finish my sentence, his thumb slid across my cheek wiping the tear off my face.

“I know the feeling.” He smiled at me and all I could think was that no one had ever done that for me. It might’ve seemed like a simple action, but it meant a lot to me.

Meanwhile, the sun was quickly rising in the sky and before I knew it, his entire face was visible to me, and with that came the only other memory I had of him.

The way I remembered him, he was the only person who bothered to pay me any sort of significant attention and I ran away from him.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” I stared at his confused face until he finally realized what I said.

At that, he smiles; “you just figured that out?”

“Well, I couldn’t really see you before.” That excuse was definitely not planned. It was true, but emerged out of nowhere.

He just grins; “Ah, of course, I only knew it was you because of your hair.”

I remember being curious at his strange way of remembering me. I never took the time to remember him, yet he had a unique way to identify me. To put it simply, I couldn’t believe it.

He decided to explain his reasoning further; “You’re the only person I knew with silver hair, so it’s not hard to know it’s you.”

“Really?! I knew two people who had hair like mine.” my hair was soft and dry in my small hands, “well, maybe not exactly.”

It took me less than a minute to remember why I had arrived at the location of my worst nightmare and as much as I really didn’t want to, I stood up and headed in the direction of the small village.

“Where’re you going?” he seemed a bit startled that I was leaving, or something like that, I’m not too sure.

When I didn’t stop, he sighed; “you do know that if you go back, you’ll be killed!”

I stopped right in my tracks once the sentence registered. Killed?! I don’t want to die yet, I’m too young!!

But before I could’ve effectively had a panic attack, a voice in my head informed me that if I didn’t go, I would probably never know who my parents were, why they abandoned me, and why they let me have such a nightmare for my short six-year past.

So I resumed my walk, much to the protest of my possible friend. Soon enough, his protests began annoying me, and before I knew what happened, it seemed as if he went mute. I could no longer hear him, even though his lips were moving. He seemed to notice it too, for he looked shocked and scared.

Meanwhile, I was frozen. I had no idea if I did that or if it was meant to happen. At that moment, I discovered my other “power”. I also never thought I would want to hear the voice that had annoyed me so very much. More than anything, at that moment, I just wanted him to speak.