Willow

Chapter Six

Chapter Six - Forgetting

I blinked open my eyes and looked around. I was lying on the floor, on weird gold and red carpet, and I was freezing. My body was all cramped up so I stretched and slowly got to my feet. Where the hell was I?

“Hello?” I called nervously.

Wherever I was, the place was enormous, and it was irritatingly dim. The windows were all blocked with metal and the only light came through skylights and it was scarce. It all looked oddly familiar, but I really didn’t know.

“Hello?” I called again, louder this time.

“Willow? Oh thank God,” I heard someone say, then I was pulled into a hug that trapped my arms by my sides and crushed my lungs.

“Get off,” I gasped, trying to push the person off me.

I looked up into the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen and felt my heart stop. He was gorgeous, beyond gorgeous, but who was he, and why did he call me Willow?

“Willow are you okay?”

“Who’s Willow?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“You don’t-” the guy cut himself off.

“I don’t what?”

“Will you come with me? I’ll get you some food, I bet you’re hungry,” he finally said, smiling at me.

“Um, okay. Where are we?” I asked as he tentatively put his hand on my back and lead me somewhere.

“You’ll know soon, I hope,” the guy told me in a pained voice.

“Louis! Was she asleep, how long was she out? She isn’t allowed to sleep more than ten hours. Willow? Willow,” I heard a new voice say, this one a girls voice.

She looked familiar, really familiar, but I didn’t know who she was. There was something about her big blue eyes and black bangs that rang a bell, but it wasn’t loud enough for me to hear.

“Willow, how long were you asleep?” the girl asked me seriously, bracing her hands on my shoulders.

“I don’t know, I just woke up on the floor! Why do you people keep calling me Willow, and where the hell am I?” I demanded, shaking the girls hands off my shoulders.

“Here, read this,” the girl said slowly, handing me a leather bound book.

“What is it?”

“Just read it, the whole thing, from the very first page okay,” she told me sternly, opening it for me.

I nodded and looked down at the inked paper. The very first page read ‘This is my journal, for my struggle. I have no memories, they’re all in here and when I read them they come back in a haze. I have to sleep no more than ten hours, otherwise I start to forget my mum and dad and my best friend Rose. If you’re reading this Willow, start on the next page. That’s where it all began for you, two years ago in the car accident that ruined your life.’

“Why don’t you take a seat,” the guy with the nice eyes said, holding out a chair for me.

I thanked him and sat down, then flipped the page and began reading.

It’s the first day of June, the year 2010. I’ve just got out of hospital where I stayed for a month, getting tested and checked every day. There’s something crazy going on with my brain, and anything that happened to me more than twelve hours ago I can’t remember, and if I sleep for too long, everything gets jumbled and I begin forgetting everything, even my parents. They came to visit me every day, telling me about what was happening at school and in the world. My best friend Rose started visiting every day too, it took a little while for me to remember her, which made both of us cry when it finally clicked who she was. I hate this, so much, I honestly don’t know how to explain how much I hate this, there is no combination of 26 different letters that can describe it – going to sleep with the fear of not knowing my parents when I wake up, it’s horrible. Um, well I guess I should write about Miles now. If I’m reading over this, Willow Maree Denver, if you are reading over this, don’t beat yourself up about forgetting, don’t you dare.

Miles was seventeen, and you were fifteen. The two of you were driving to get ice cream, he always loved to get ice cream, and you loved tagging along with him just for some quality time. His car wasn’t the best, but it had never failed on him before, ever, but for some reason, that day as you two drove over the train tracks, the car stopped, and for a reason you will never be able to understand, there was a train coming. Miles died instantly, because the train hit his side of the car. You got beat up, badly beat up and it’s a miracle you’re even alive. You broke every single one of your ribs, fractured your right wrist, dislocated your shoulder, cracked your skull, snapped your left arm and tore the ligaments in your left leg. It was a long recovery, a painfully long recovery, but you won’t ever remember any of it. That’s a good thing though Willow, a very good thing, it was the worst time in your life and is now nothing more than the weakest memory when you read about it.

I looked up at the girl and guy that were standing over me with damp eyes.

“I don’t understand, I wrote this? It’s so sad.”

“You have to read it all, you have to, otherwise you won’t remember, you won’t remember us,” the girl told me, her words catching in her throat and coming out strangled.

“Okay,” I nodded, and looked back down at the journal.

I turned the page and picked up where I’d stopped.

***

I put the journal down on the table beside me, slipped off the chair onto the floor, put my head in my hands and began to cry. I’d forgotten, I’d forgotten everything, even Rose. How could I have forgotten my best friend, Louis and Niall and Liam and Zayn and Harry, the blizzard, the lodge?

I cried harder, so mad at myself for forgetting. This hadn’t happened in such a long time, and I couldn’t control my tears. I told myself it would never happen again, but here I was, a blubbering mess on the floor because I’d forgotten everything that meant anything to me.

“Willow?”

I looked up into Louis’s warm blue eyes and choked on a sob. He dropped to his knees in front of me and watched me for a little while, unsure if I remembered him.

“I’m so sorry Louis, I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, reaching out for him.

He let out a breath and wrapped his arms around me tightly, rocking me back and forth and kissing my head over and over.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, shhh it’s okay baby,” he whispered, his voice shaky.

I gripped at his shirt tightly as I cried out all the fear and anger and sadness I felt, and he held me while I did, rocking me back and forth gently the whole time. Eventually I calmed down and the tears that had been rolling down my cheeks dried. Slowly I pulled out of Louis’s arms and looked at him.

“I’m sorry, it’s really hard-”

“You have nothing to apologize for, it’s okay, I’m just glad that you remember,” Louis told me, rubbing my arm.

“Where are the others?” I asked, wiping the tear streaks off my face with the back of my sleeve.

“When I left them they were sword fighting with the skis,” he chuckled.

“Can we find them? I need to talk to Rose,” I said.

“Of course,” he nodded, helping me get to my feet.

He linked his hand with mine and I grabbed my journal, then we walked out of the café and towards where they kept the skis, and sure enough the five of them were running around screaming out battle cries and stabbing each other with the skis.

Rose looked over and saw me, then dropped her ski and ran at me, sweeping me into her arms and almost knocking me over in the process.

“I love you Will,” she told me.

“Love you too Rosie, I’m so sorry,” I said, hugging her back.

Louis joined the hug then, and within seconds the seven of us were wrapped in an uncomfortably beautiful hug that warmed my heart.