Escaping Death [Watty Awards]

Chapter 3-Gabriel

Chapter 3-Gabriel

As I walked out of the nurse's office, I couldn't help but think that I had almost caused Gwen's life to be in jeopardy.  I was afraid that there might have been a severe side-effect towards her health but nothing seemed out of the ordinary at this moment.  I was relieved that it hadn't come down to that.  I had cast a spell two days prior to my arrival and Gwen should have been affected by it immediately.  But it hadn't worked out that way.  Calder had warned me about the effects it might have, but it was the only way that I could have come back.  It was part of the bargain that I had made.

It made me wonder the other thing that Calder had said the day I had cast the spell.  "The spell might not work on her depending on how strong her memory of you is.  She will fight it, but she might succumb to it in the end."  He was right.  Gwen was probably the last person that the spell had worked on, but then again she was the only one who still held some kind of memory of me.  Everyone else had forgotten about me but not her.  She still held on to me when I she should have let go.

Her eyes gave away everything she felt when she saw me again.  I was always able to tell what she felt by the emotion behind her eyes.  She was disappointed and hurt by the fact that I did not remember her.  The only problem was that I did remember and I wanted to tell her that.  But she couldn't know; not yet at least.  This is how it had to be for the next couple of months.  We both had to start over and I most of all, had to earn the trust we had before I left.  One of us had to have no memory of the other, while the other remembered everything but had to lie about it.  I was the latter and it tortured every fiber of my being. 

She had changed in the years that I've been absent.  She was taller, that was a given but her short brown hair had grown longer and was lighter.  A sign that she was often in the sun.  Her skin was also an indication of it because it was fairly tan but not tanner than I was.  Her eyes were the same dark brown that held all her emotions.

One of the reasons that I loved her was because I knew her more than anyone else and it killed me to have to lie to her during my time here.  That is until her memory came back to her and she discovered the truth, piece by piece, and realized what I had done.  I hope that I would be given more time before that ever happen. 

As I walked down the hall, I noticed that several people were whispering in groups about what had happened this morning.  Gwen's outburst had circulated around the whole student body and now everyone was speaking about it.  The ones who were her friends were worried about her and the others were vicious and cruel towards her for "yelling at the hot new guy."  They didn't understand; none of them did.

She had a right for her outburst.  She was frustrated that she couldn't figure out why I had forgotten about her...if only she knew, I thought.  Erasing her memory of me was the only way that I could be here.  I couldn't tell her where I had been and what I had been doing for the last few years, she wouldn't understand.  If I hadn't erased her memory, those questions would have been asked eventually and I couldn't risk that.  So this was the only possibility that Calder and I could think of and that was for Gwen and me to start over. 

Being back in Fairfield, Virginia was strange and comforting.  Everyone I knew while growing up here had changed tremendously.  There were people that I would have never thought to see again.  When I had left, I thought it was indefinitely.  I always wanted to come back but I couldn't because of the restrictions that I had to follow.  But now here I was, in the town that I'd grown up in, trying to live a normal life.  There was a reason I came back; Gwen was that reason.

I came back for her.

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Picture of Gwen Hampton --------------------->>>>>>>> :D

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