The Memory Machine 2

Chapter 23 - Faces of Stone

Adrenaline coursed through her suddenly and she rolled away, coming to her feet in a heartbeat. But it hadn't moved. It was still on its knees, its sockets staring intently at the place where she had been laying. Ingrid wanted to run, but something caught her eye. Though its expression didn't change one bit, its body trembled with a motion that Ingrid recognised as sobbing. It was crying.

"What are you?"

She had meant to ask if it was okay, but this was the immediate question in her mind, so it was the first that made its way out. At her voice, the trembling stopped. Slowly its head turned towards her, and it attempted to stand. But its movements were too slow and weak to push upwards, and it fell back onto its knees. To Ingrid's surprise, she found herself helping it up. It was a heavy weight and it didn't offer much help, but eventually it was standing. It was ever so slightly shorter than her, which made it seem less intimidating. But by now it was clear that it didn't have malicious intents.

With an achingly slow speed it lifted a hand, running its fingers through the mop of hair that sat atop its head. Ingrid had initially thought that it was grey, but as its finger touched it, a cloud of stone dust flew upwards, uncovering a collection healthy brown locks. Though it looked dead on the outside, it clearly had at least some kind of life inside. And, strangely, there was something familiar about it. But what?

"Who are you?" was her next question, realising that her first had gotten her nowhere. She suspected that it didn't even know itself.

There was a moment of tension between them as she waited. But it didn't move. It just kept staring at her, the same pained expression fixed on its cracked face. Ingrid couldn't help but feel sorry for it. There was something in its behaviour that was lost and hopeless, like it was giving up. Its face was young looking, and that on its own made Ingrid's heart start to break: the fact that whatever life it had had ahead of it had been taken away. But what she was about to learn would break her heart completely, and possibly her whole body.

Its grey hand made its way into its jacket pocket, bringing up yet another cloud of dust. It fumbled for a while, its movement getting more and more frantic as time went on. Whatever it wanted, it was important. And then it suddenly went still, having found what it was looking for. It took a heavy step towards Ingrid, bringing the hand out in a closed fist and holding it at arms length towards her. Ingrid watched as the fingers curled outwards, revealing a small, crumpled piece of paper that, like everything about it, was covered in stone dust. Cautiously she picked it up, blowing the dust away. Opening it up, she saw writing on it. The handwriting was clumsy and rushed, but she could just about make it out:

Cheese and tomato. £11.52

And then, at the bottom, a phone number.

Her phone number.

The paper fell to the ground, followed closely by the shattered pieces of Ingrid's heart, and a never ending stream of tears.

Its hand was still outstretched, and Ingrid took it in both of hers, ignoring the coldness that it added to her own. She walked forward. The horrific face before her no longer scared her, just made her sad because she recognised it, and she paid no attention to it as she wrapped her arms around it- no, him. He wasn't an "it". He was just a pizza delivery boy. He deserved so much more.

"Jacob..."

Ingrid's eyes were squeezed shut. She had only known him for a few weeks, but this was too painful to see. Even as she held him, she could feel the hardness of stone instead of flesh beneath his clothes. The only thing that hadn't changed was his hair. She reached up with one hand, burying her fingers in it. She smiled, remembering opening the door on that day and seeing him standing there. Though she had rejected his love, she still felt a warmth in her heart for him - those conversations on the phone were the beginning of what could have been a great friendship. But now that was gone.

Then, something happened which pulled Ingrid from her memories. She felt his arms move gradually until he too was hugging her. More tears formed and fell down her cheeks as she cherished the moment. But the reunion didn't last much longer. Ingrid's eyes shot open as she felt his hair begin to go rigid around her fingers. She pulled away, wriggling free of his grip, and was horrified by what she saw.

She watched hopelessly as Jacob's brown hair turned a dull grey, now matching his skin tone. And then, as his clothes lost all their colour too. There was silence as she stood staring at him. His arms were still in a hugging position, and he made no move to lower them. There was something different about him now. He didn't even seem to be looking at her anymore; he was staring straight ahead at some distant place that she couldn't see.

"J-Jacob?"

There was no indication at all that he heard her. Hesitantly she reached forward, touching his jacket sleeve. It was no longer fabric. It was now stone, just like the rest of him. And so was each individual hair. Stone.

He no longer had any life in him. He was just an empty husk of the person he had once been. But that wasn't even the end of it.

Once more Ingrid touched him, this time on the cheek. She felt the surface crumble away at her touch, and no more than a second later did the rest of him follow. Ingrid heard herself scream in anguish. She fell to her knees, staring wide eyed and in disbelief at the pile of dust on the floor. Anguish was quickly replaced by anger. There was only one person who could be responsible for this. How else would he have ended up here?

Standing up finally, Ingrid picked up the piece of paper and tucked it into her pocket. With clenched fists she looked down one last time at the pile.

"I'll make Carrie pay for what she's done to you, Jacob. I can promise you that."

Furious tears welled in her eyes and she walked away, not daring to look back - she wanted to remember Jacob as he once was. Whatever he had become didn't bear thinking about.

But as she walked away, she felt a strange tingling in her finger tips, which slowly started to spread up to cover her whole hand. Looking down she saw patches of grey forming on her skin, and when she dared to touch it, she felt an uncanny hardness. Almost instantly her slow walk broke into a run. If this was what she thought it was, then she didn't have much time to waste. She had to find the others before it happened to them too.