Memory of a Nightmare Ch. 1

Chapter 1

A world filled with darkness

        It was dark. Then again, it had always been pitch black. I could not remember any other world but the one filled with black. I could not remember my name or my origins, not even what the other world was like, the world that wasn’t black. I wasn’t even sure there was another world.

        There was no way to tell time in this world. I may have been stuck there for minutes, days, or years. I could have assumed a second to be a minute or a minute a second. Thus, I cannot say when the light came. All I can say is that it burned my eyes.

        “Hey! I think she’s waking up!” A child was looking down at me. She smiled brightly when I moved. A similar looking boy came up behind her.

        “Wow! Lady, are you okay?” he questioned me. I tried to respond, but no sound came from my mouth. I just shrugged for an answer. The children looked at each other.

        “You can’t talk?” The girl asked incredulously. I shook my head in response. “Why not?” I shrugged. The boy and girl looked once again at each other.

        “That’s so weird...” they agreed, whispering and giggling together. The boy turned to me once he stopped giggling.

        “I’m Robby and this is Ana!” he yelled enthusiastically. “What’s your name?” I thought for a moment, hoping to suddenly remember, but nothing came, I simply shrugged in response. Ana tilted her head in confusion.

        “You don’t know your own name?”She thought for a moment. “Do you remember anything?” I shook my head again. Robby turned to Ana again.

        “If she doesn’t have a name, let’s give her one!” he said in an epiphany. Him and Ana sat there for a moment before Ana shot up.

“Tara. Let’s call her Tara!” She looked at me. “Do you like that name?” I nodded, and the two jumped up and down in joy.

“So, Tara, wanna come to our house?” Robby said happily. I nodded, not having anywhere else to go, and began following them through the forest.

Along the way, Robby and Ana kept talking to me, asking me if I knew about things, and telling me about them if I didn’t. We had been walking for nearly an hour before I heard a sound coming from my stomach. I looked down in confusion, causing both children to start laughing.

“I means you’re hungry.” Robby said, still giggling. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag before tossing it to me. ”Eat it, you’ll feel better!” I opened the bag and pulled out its solitary content- a small round lumpy object.

“It’s a cookie. Trust me it tastes better than it looks!” Ana giggled as I stuck the cookie in my mouth. It tasted delicious. Both started giggling as I hummed in delight, and we started our walk again, along with my education of the world.

We walked for another whole hour and I realized why no one had ever found me before. There were no paths and these children had been wandering in the woods for 2 hours to get to me. It wasn’t far longer before we reached their home- a large, 3 floor house with large animals in a large fenced off area on the side.

“Wait here! We gotta go ask Dad if you can come in!” Ana said before they both ran inside for several minutes. It seemed like forever before they ran back outside with a man behind them, looking sceptically at me.

“My name is James, but you can call me Jim.” he said, holding out a hand. I shook his hand and smiled at him. “So you can’t remember anything?” I shook my head slowly in response and he sighed.

“Can she come stay the night?” Robby begged his father. “She doesn’t have anywhere else to go anyway!” Jim sighed again.

“I guess so...” he agreed as his children hugged him tightly in thanks. “I suppose we should take her to the festival tomorrow. Someone may know her there. But first, you guys need to finish your chores.”

The children sighed, but ran inside anyway grumbling. Jim then turned to me.

“You should go inside and rest. It’ll be a hectic day tomorrow, and it’s already late.” I nodded and started walking inside, with Jim right behind me. When we got inside, he directed me to a room down the main hall. “This is the guest room. Make yourself at home.”

I smiled, followed his directions, and lied down in the bed. It was extremely comfortable and I fell asleep within seconds. That was when I returned once more to the world of darkness.

My sleep contained but one dream. I found myself running in a meadow, playing tag with a child with dark brown hair. She turned to me and spoke, but all that I heard was a horrible scratching noise when her mouth moved. She laughed and grabbed my hand before running with me to an oddly shaped tree. She spoke again, in the same scratchy sounds as before and started to climb the tree. She motioned for me follow while saying something that I still could not understand. I started to climb up the tree also and eventually made it to the top, where she was waiting. She smiled at me and said another thing before reaching to hug me. It was at that moment the branch started to break. I heard it cracking from beneath us and we both started panicking. The tree branch finally broke completely and we started to fall...

“Wake up Sleepyhead! We’re going to the festival today!” Robby and Ana were jumping on my bed. I smiled tiredly at them and mouthed “Thank you.” before getting out of bed and yawning.

“We got you something to wear too!” they said as they ran out of the room and returned with a beige sundress. When I looked at it wondering how they had gotten it, Ana explained.

“It was our mother’s. You can have it now.” She smiled. “Just get dressed while we finish up our chores!” she ordered.

I followed her orders and walked into the bathroom before stripping. However, when I saw the mirror, I realized it was the first time I had seen myself, at least that I could remember. I had medium length hair that was a reddish brown and was pretty uneven and ears that pointed out, unlike the others’ rounded ones. My face was covered in dirt, and my eyes were a dark reddish-brown. When I took off my shirt, I could see my own ribs and realized how I still hadn’t eaten more than a cookie since... well, my “birth”. I took off my pants also and put the dress on. As I slid my arms through the sockets, I noticed something odd on my forearm. It looked as though a tiny black and white snake was wrapped around my arm. I finished putting the dress on and ran back out into the living room.

“Tara, what’s wrong?” Robby said when he saw my look of confusion. I gestured to the snake on my forearm. “Whoa, that’s a cool tattoo...” he said in awe. “Dad, come see this!” His father walked up to me and turned to him.

“See what?” I showed him the tattoo. “Let me see that...” He grabbed my arm and looked at the snake. “Hmmm.. it kind of looks like the Chaotica symbol, but its too off, They have it on their wrists and it’s much smaller, and they wouldn’t screw their symbol up. Maybe its the Venom symbol? Naw, the snake goes on the other arm. Then again, it may be the-”

“Daddy! It’s time to go!” Ana screamed at him to stop his rambling. He rolled his eyes and started pulling me outside.

“This way.” He pulled me out to where one of the big animals were connected to a large wagon. I looked in awe at how it was at least a foot taller than me even though it was on all fours.

“It’s called a horse. It’ll be pulling our wagon.” Jim explained as he helped me up into the wagon. “Our ride will take about fifteen minutes, so it wont be too long.”

We had been riding for only about a minute before I remembered the tattoo. I gestured toward my arm at Jim and he seemed to understand immediately.

“That’s called a “clan symbol”. After the last great war, when society crumbled, everyone resorted joining into “Clans” to protect themselves. They were kind of like gang families. But not all of them were bad. Most of them based themselves over an animal or a prime motive.” He pulled up his shirt to show a tattoo of a dog on his lower back. “See? I was part of the Canine clan. We based ourselves on trying to live a simple life and being good people.”

“The Shield clan based themselves on protecting people. They were kind of like police. The Horse clan usually were more of a “robin hood” kind of people. They would steal from the rich and give to the poor. The lion clan was the rich that they stole from, and so was the Eagle clan. The Venom clan usually is full of power grubbing rapist and murderers. But anyway, you get the point. There are a bunch of different clans and they’re all different.”

The wagon stopped bouncing as it hit paved road.

“Three years ago, one clan rose up and Gained control over all the others- The Chaotica clan. It was run by a single man who always hid in shadow, Chaos. He eventually dictated everything. He ruled for one year over Ardesa, waging war against our neighboring countries and causing the deaths of tens of thousands, and then one day, someone hiding within his ranks captured him and executed him publicly. The festival we’re going to today is the celebration of his defeat and of Ardesa’s freedom from his rule, and it’s birth of it’s legislative monarchy.”

“After the Chaos incident, all of the clans disbanded in fear of a repeat of history.” The wagon stopped, almost on cue, when Jim finished his story. “It looks like were here. Time to get out.”

“We’re here!” Robby and Ana screamed in unison as they jumped out of the wagon.

“I’m going to the archery booth!” yelled Robby as he ran in a different direction as Ana.

“And, I’m going to the painting one!” Ana yelled also.

“Okay, have fun!” Jim yelled back before helping me out of the wagon. “Tara, I’ll show you around, okay?” I nodded and he held my hand and walked with me towards the booths.

We passed so much stuff that my head was spinning. He pointed out what each booth was for- Shopping, games, and other activities. It was almost too much to take in, almost.

However, what really got me were the people. They were, quite literally, all shapes and sizes. There were people over 8 feet tall and some under 3 feet. Some had weird shaped faces and bodies. Some looked part animal, like part fox, or part horse. Some even had wings. I noticed some even having the same ears as me. The booths weren't as important at the moment.

The sun was shining brightly above and there were people walking everywhere i looked, ignoring me. However, one caught my attention. He was short, bearded, and, to tell the truth, quite ugly. But the thing that stood out wasn’t what he looked like, it was what he was doing. He was standing there, staring wide-eyed at me, mouth agape. I looked behind me to check that it was me he was staring at and everyone who was there was walking along. I pointed at myself in question and mouthed “me?” to him. He just kept gawking at me, so I started to walk again, trying to ignore his gaze. However, it was only about a minute before I heard yelling from that direction.

“Christina!” I looked back to see a seven foot tall man with the same ears as me yelling with the short bearded man. “Christina! What are you doing here?” The tall one yelled. When I didn’t answer, they both ran up to me.

“Christina. How did you get here?” the tall one asked. When I looked at him questioningly, he seemed to understand. “Do you even know who I am?” I shook my head slowly.

“How about me?” the short one asked. When I shook my head again, he seemed disheartened. “Not even a smidge?” I shook my head. The taller one put his hand on the short one’s shoulder in comfort.

“It’s okay, Simon, I don’t think she remembers anything.” He gestured to my body. “Do you really think Christina would be looking like this in public? Can you even speak?” I shook my head again. Simon sighed.

“Oh okay.” He paused for a moment. “Wait! Lewis, how could she have forgotten?” Lewis  shook his head.

“I don’t know.” Simon bolted up. You could almost see the light bulb over his head “Ding”.

“Maybe it’s not her!” He yelled to his taller counterpart. “Lewis, what if she just looks like Christina? She doesn’t act like her at all, and how could Christina possibly lose her memories like this? I think it’s just a coincidence. That is definitely not Christina. I can just tell.” Lewis sighed.

“Are you sure? I mean, absolutely positive?” Lewis asked, in all seriousness. Simon nodded. “Well, then, ‘Miss’, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. We’ll be leaving now.” With that, they both bowed and walked away. I stood there confused for quite a few minutes before I was interrupted by a hand on my shoulder. I jumped at least a foot in shock.

“There you are, Tara. I was getting worried.” Jim said with a gentle smile on his face. “Is something wrong?” I slowly shook my head, still confused by the confrontation. He looked hesitant for a moment before getting to the point. “The fireworks show is going to start soon. Come on, lets go.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowds over to where Ana and Robby were. They were about to greet me when the sky lit up in a loud boom. My first reaction was to flinch, but when I looked up at the sky, there were colorful explosions covering the sky in beauty. I was amazed, and, if I could talk, I would have been speechless at the sight.  The explosions were so loud, it seemed as though they surrounded me, which put me on edge, but about 2 minutes in i started getting used to it.

Another loud bang was heard and people were screaming from the direction. Everyone was running haphazardly and the sky lit up again. Flames encompassed everything around me and all I could think was to crouch and cover my head. The screaming and running everywhere made everything difficult to take in, but there were two things I saw that I wished i hadn’t. One was a projection across the sky, showing a person in a black mask staring down at the chaos. The other was witnessing the clock tower that stood over everything else at the festival fall. Jim was running, holding Ana and looking for Robby amidst the insanity.They were crushed by the tower when it fell.  

“An announcement to the people of Ardesa.” The masked figure in the sky ordered with a distorted voice. “This broadcast is over all of Ardesa. Chaos and Chaotica is back, and you will all bow down to us once again.”

After he finished, the image dissipated, and I soon found hands wrapped around me and water dripping on my shoulder. I looked to the source and found Robby, hugging tightly on to me and crying heavily on my shoulder. I hugged him back, tears also forming in my eyes.

We sat there, crying on the field, for what seemed like hours without moving an inch. I still don’t know how the fires never reached us, but they eventually died out, and we fell asleep holding each other for comfort.

. . .

End Chapter 1