Chapter 13: How To Walk Through Memories
I was in a black box. It didn’t look like a room at all. It was completely dark; but I could see everything. I didn’t know where I was, how I got here. All I could hear was my own breathing. In. out. In. out.
“Alexa,” A raspy voice called out to me.
I turned and held my breath to find where the voice was coming from. But it didn’t come. I waited silently, eyes darting around the entire black room, waiting for anyone. But nothing came. So I let my breath out in a sigh and stepped forward. The room looked endless; I could see walls, but they blended in so well with the floor it looked like nothing was there.
“Alexa,” The voice called again.
I turned to my left. It was definitely coming from my left. “Who are you?” I called out. My voice echoed across the room, which put me on high alert. The voice that said my name didn’t have an echo.
“Alexa.”
Because it was coming from inside my head.
“Who are you!?” I screamed louder.
The room before my eyes changed. I was put into an old house. It was made entirely of wood and didn’t look like this age. It looked more very early 1900s. There were no electronics anywhere. The walls had cobwebs on them. It wasn’t a rich house; more of a poor one.
I walked through the house until I found the kitchen. There were people there. There was a woman with a bonnet in her hair. She looked terrified and she was holding a baby, probably around seven months old. There was a man with brown hair that was swept back, giving him a tall height. There was a slight stubble on his cheeks and he was wearing a wealthy outfit.
The man next to him was the one I was focused on. It was Warren, but he looked identical to the man he was standing next to. The only different was the hair and eyes; Warren’s hair was darker. His eyes were brown, while the other man’s eyes were a light blue.
There were two more children sitting next to the mother, but there was a distance between them. They were just as young as the one she was holding in her hands. I could now tell the young woman was crying, but she was doing it very slyly. I wanted to go over to the woman, but I was rooted to the spot I was in.
The man I didn’t recognize slowly walked towards her. “You disgraced us,” He said calmly. His voice was as sharp as a knife that was hanging over your back. One wrong move and it would do the damage it was meant to do. “You lied to us,” He said. “And you dishonored us.”
“Please,” The woman said, hugging her baby tightly. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry?” The man echoed, giving a slight laugh. But there was nothing funny about any of this. “It’s too late to apologize, the damage is done.” He turned towards Warren, who was sitting there with no emotion on his face. “Do it.”
Warren didn’t even blink. He walked over to a candle that was sitting on her small, wooden table. He picked it up and took it towards the woman. The girl was crying profusely now, tears swimming down her cheeks. “Don’t hurt my children! Please, for the love of God, don’t hurt my children!”
“Don’t be afraid,” The strange man said again. “It will only hurt for a second.” The man gave a short nod to Warren as the cue. Warren waved his hand and the flame from the candle lifted. I watched it as it flew over to the girl and touched her hair. That was the start of it.
Her hair slowly began to catch fire as she cried. It flew down to her arms and legs, and over her face. But the flames never touched her. They hovered over her body, inches away from licking her skin. I could see the sweat pouring out of her body. The flames then started to lick over the baby as well. The baby started to cry louder than his mother.
The flames were still centimeters away from touching either of their skins. They were not being harmed yet. The intense heat from the fire was the only thing touching their skins. And then the strange man looked to Warren, and Warren looked back.
Just like that, the flames dropped.
The fire fell onto their skin. But they didn’t catch fire. They instantly turned to ash. The outlines of their faces turned to the fiery ash. The fire disappeared and the ash fell to the chair in a hump. The baby and the mother were dead.
Warren looked to the two little babies that were sitting on the floor, near the chair where there mother was just killed. “And them?”
The strange man looked down to them. “Kill them.”
“Yes, brother.”
The man walked out of the kitchen as the fire started up again. That’s when the vision blurred and I was back in the black room. I was shaking and I knew there must be tears leaking from my eyes.
“You killed that innocent mother!” I hurled out into the empty room. My voice was indifferent and strange to my own ears. I wanted to go back to that room and save the innocent children.
“Warren is not the man you think he is,” The voice said from inside my head. It was the same voice as the strange man’s.
“No,” I whispered.
“Yes,” The voice said calmly. “Warren must come back to me. He needs to be killed for the things he has done.”
“You took part in that too,” I seethed at the voice.
“Warren must be killed,” The voice repeated, ignoring me entirely. “Warren must be killed. Bring him to me. Warren must be killed. Bring him to me.”
I woke up, gagging and coughing noisily. I was drenched in sweat and I was gasping for air. Warren jolted up next to me. He sat up and looked over me, completely alarmed. “Hey. What’s wrong?” He went to touch me and I flinched away.
I kicked the covers off of me and turned the lights on. Warren stayed where he was on the bed and just stared at me. I leaned against the wall, sobbing and gasping all at the same time. My heart was beating like a drum and I knew I was shaking. I sat down on the chair next to me, heaving.
When I finally was able to calm down, Warren slowly sat on the edge of the bed. “Hey,” He said gently. “What’s wrong? Nightmare?”
I shook my head slowly. “No,” I whispered. My voice was dry and cracked. “A memory. Of yours…I think.”
Warren froze up entirely. We just stared at each other. Both of our eyes were wide open, sleep was the last thing on our minds. I didn’t even know what time it was. “What memory, Alexa?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “There was a woman holding a baby…and…and the candle…you took the fire and - ” A loud sob escaped my lips and I felt like heaving again. “W-was it real?”
Warren stared at me for the longest time. Finally, he opened his mouth. “I told you I wasn’t the good guy, kid.”
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I updated! Yay. So there's this boy that may or may not be asking me to Fall Formal this week. **Hint hint** If he screws it up imma kick his ass.