The music played in the air from a nearby boombox Pearl Jam’s Better Man. She knew the artist and the song and all the information like a database was inside her. It felt like I had just walked into a photograph from a museum but with smells. The history books never prepare you for the smell of the past. I would have to get used to all of it. My head still buzzed with uncertainty as to how I got here back in time. It’s like having only the table of contents and chapter titles in your mind. What was I doing here but no time to worry about that just taking care of the basics. I wonder if I ever get back to home or even if I miss it. I don’t want emotions to get in the way. She wondered why she was not freaking out but that didn’t seem to be the kind of person she was. She headed down the street and walked blocks down the street and looked for a pizza place that looked good. She ordered two slices and a tea.
I looked at the cash bills in my hand that I had found to look for clues but they were all dated 1990 to 1993 and the numbers were non sequential. Who ever left them knew I would get out and it felt like it was some kind of game. The pizza with extra cheese sure tasted so much better than she ever remembered but that was because the water was filtered differently in her time. She could get used to this.
She asked a pizza maker who was named Anthony where it was a cheap but clean place to get a motel room around here. She did not want to stay at the house she had been trapped in because it was not safe and she had to get out of reach of her capitor. Who knew what kind of traps that could be there. Anthony said there was a Page motel that had pretty good lots of tourists staying there. She walked to the hotel and got a room for a week. She grabbed a bunch of pamphlets to get intel on the local area.
She slept that night with unease and flashes of who she was and woke in a cold sweat and still no answers. She still knew stuff but who she was washed away. She wished she could remember her name because that would provide comfort to her. She would just go by the name she gave the hotel Suzy Wood which she knew wasn’t right but it would work for now.
She looked at her hand with slender fingers and wondered what they were capable of and what they had done. She knew despite their appearance she felt strength that was within her. She knew what it was to be a blank page now which was filled with possibilities. She read all the local guilds to the city to understand her new environment. She felt like this is so strange that she is not freaked out by any of this but felt like she had training for this. Well she hoped she remembered something soon. To be lost in your story is a terrible thing but maybe it was better to forget than to know. She wouldn’t let those thoughts get to her if she ever needed to figure it out or make it out alive. Alive is good and I did not need to remember herself to know that.
She got some coffee and waffles from the lobby. The blueberry syrup tastes delicious with the high sugar content. She wondered if she should send the postcard but then who would know she was out of the house. She flipped through solutions to tracking down who had trapped her. She decided to not send the postcard in and instead a brightly colored package so she could watch the post office and see who picked it up. She decided she needed to get more cash so she found a bookie and bet on some games. She threw in some losers to not draw too much attention. She had 10k at her disposal in a few days but it helps when you know who wins. It amazed her she could just recall all that information from her brain. She found a parcel store and got a brightly colored pink box and expressed it to the PO box in NJ. She waited a few days and got a camera and film and other supplies she would need. She looked at her clothes but there were no tags or anything. The material was different too. It was perfectly fitted to her body like it was custom made. She rubbed the material to try to remember buying pants and a shirt or anything. Her socks,panties or bra didn’t even give her a clue and the shoes provided nothing, not even a size. She might take it to a tailor to see they recognize the work.
She liked taking the metro because of the sound it made and all the people it made her excited to see so many people. It was like she didn’t get to be around that many people where she was from. She loved the noise because she remembered the silence from her life. It was like the noise was missing or had been taken. She felt almost like she was doing something wrong by being so near many other people. She didn’t understand it but it was something she remembered.
She took the Metro and a bus to the post office and did some walking. She planned to stake out the PO and waited all day at a cafe across the street and she tipped the waiter a $100 so he would not bother if she stayed there all day and ate some sandwiches and coffee. She wondered why she wanted to find the truth out. She could live a quiet wonderful life with plenty of cash from “betting”. She could create a life that was great and could even go hear the ocean. She let her mind wonder about the thought of the ocean but she could not pull a memory from the imaginations in her head. She wondered if she would have to wait all day and get no new information. She knew it would be delivered today but was anybody going to show up.
Her waiting paid off and a man appeared outside the post office with a large pink box and she went to confront him. She didn’t have enough resources to tail the man so she just would have to use brute force. She grasped the man by his shoulder and knew where all the pressure points to hit in order to take him down. All the moves flashed in head like a dance she could not ever forget.
She asked “who are you” the man in the parking lot with a bright pink box. The man said “what” like he was confused about the question. She took his hand positioned herself at the right angle to break his arm if necessary. She said who are you and what do you have to do with me. He said” you must be the woman who I am supposed to give a message to. There is no need to hurt me. I am just a messenger.” I am paid quite a lot to check the mail everyday and wait for a woman to show up who looks dangerous and give them a message. She grabbed his letter and said I can track you down if I need to. He said here is my card no need for all that fuss. She said ok but I can kick your ass if you’re lying. She had to calm herself because her body was ready to fight but this man would not cause her too much trouble. She let him leave and took the envelope and opened with her knife. It was a picture that took up the most pages with some writing on the bottom. She had to understand this but she was too amped up to concentrate like all the focus of her mind was on fighting but it was hard to clear her mind. This did not seem normal, that rage was so intense she did not understand what was happening to her. She caught the metro and let the rhythm of the train sooth her inner turmoil. She liked the vibrations of the train for some reason. The ride home finally calmed her down and she could think clearly. She did not feel this was normal for a human to feel that way. She wondered if something had been done to change her mind and body. She just seemed to know how to do things when she thought or needed them. This made her feel different like she had been changed. She was going to get to solving the mystery of the note after some pizza slices. Pizza would make her feel better.
She pulled the note out and read the message which said “The game is on and you can not stop me. I couldn’t kill you so I took your memories and hid you in the past. This is the only clue you’re getting once you find the answer you will suffer even more knowing the answer.” It chilled her to the bone. She felt like a shadow had just come over soul and swallowed her in darkness. She felt like something bad was going to happen in the future. She just could not remember. She knew she had to fight this shadow that left no trace in her mind but an emptiness. She looked at the picture which was a photo of a family with a symbol imprinted on top. It was a seal of some kind. It seemed familiar. She knew this was leading to the abyss but she could not stop herself because the shadow of who and what she knew remained on her mind despite losing her memories.
She dreamed that night with a flood of images that flowed like a waterfall. She woke up screaming. She remembered that family there were her sister’s. She was an aunt to their little boy Ryan. She couldn’t remember anybody else’s name. She had a sinking feeling that overcame her when she thought of them. The seal over the picture was important to her but it was still too fuzzy.
Amelio's Palace of Stories 