“Do exactly what Lottie told you in the diary, you’ll know when, and this is a gift from me to you... like Christmas.”
He then passed me the link and as he spoke, his voice seemed softer.
“So, let’s put some things right in your world.”
“Are you really sure you want to do this,” pleaded Ruby, “I can go if you want.”
“You have no unresolved memories powerful enough to stop her,” replied the Rattler. “And any way what would Carter think?”
“How do you know Carter,” replied Ruby?
“Oh... he’s had a crush on you since you were very small.”
I thought now might be a good time to inquire as to how I would get into Gregor’s head, and as I spoke a darkness came over my bedroom... then I realized... I was already in there.
Gregor’s head was strangely empty, like a dark night on the street corner of an empty town - then it hit me – the familiarity. This was the town in “Road warrior 3”, and the last game Gregor and I had played that night and the one I hated most as Gregs new all the cheats, and as I wandered down the empty street and towards Nukem Road I heard a voice, and in the darkness I could see it was Danny.
“Barnaby is that you,” whispered Danny?
“What are you doing,” I replied. “You shouldn’t be here?”
“Be quiet or she’ll here us,” whispered Danny. “Come here quickly, let me whisper so no one else knows, I need to tell you something.”
As Danny came closer the whispers in my mind grew louder and I realised this wasn’t Danny, it was Her, “The Memory Hunter.” Almost immediately I felt my resistance begin to crumble and that she was winning. I tried to move back but something in my mind told me not to as I froze - motionless in time - it was then She spoke.
“He’s weakening you know. He doesn’t think we can still survive on your pathetic childhood memories and those memory imprints you leave on those silly toys you hold so precious. He’s already fading from existence as we speak... you know I'm telling the truth Barnaby, you've seen it with your own eyes.”
And indeed I had moments before arriving here. I didn’t know exactly how the link had caused him to fade or what it meant, all I knew for sure was that She was enjoying every moment of it.
“You see, without your memories those chains he wears will become heavier and heavier, eventually pulling him away from our reality and into nothingness; I believe you call it death. He's sent you in here to stop me, hoping those unresolved memories you have will confuse me.”
“Would you like me to stop that pain you feel Barnaby, all that guilt and emptiness from the death of Katie?”
“I'm not your enemy Barnaby, He is.”
“What did He tell you, that I'm here to take all Gregor’s memories? Not true, I need to remove just one memory fragment, it won’t hurt Gregor.”
“You see, Gregor possess something He needs, something Gregor has been researching in his school project. The location of an artifact containing the lost memories and experiences of thousands, THE DOLL, and I simply can’t allow that to happen.”
“So... you take SOME of our memories as children.”
“Yes, but you already know that young man. You wouldn't be you trying to stall me by any chance, would you?” And, in answer your question, of course. We feed on the pure energy and experiences of childhood memories and within those memories, I can feel your pain, Barnaby. I cannot take that pain from you but I can soften it for you... a little... would you like me to, we could call it a gift - a Christmas gift...so to speak.”
As She moved closer I turned just enough to see the corner of a brightly lit road junction, and I heard Ruby calling, it felt like we were connected somehow.
“It wasn’t your fault Barnaby.... it was just an accident... use the link.”
I held the link tightly and tried to remember what it was I was supposed to think, and then it happened. It was so powerful it nearly blew me off my feet, and the whispers in my mind that were so appealing earlier were suddenly gone. When I opened my eyes I saw Ruby there, waiting.
“Welcome back; He said you'd sleep for a while; how did you get out?”
“It was my unresolved memory... I had a fragment of a memory about Katie... the time she’d fallen down stairs, but I wasn’t quite sure it was real... I thought it was the shoes...my shoes... left on stairs that caused Katie to fall... I thought it was all my fault she’d died... I was never quite sure to ask.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” replied Ruby. “You were less than two years old. She died of meningitis Barnaby, it was just one of those terrible things, and no one was to blame.”
“I know now, but I thought it was the fall that had caused it.”
“No unresolved memories anymore then,” inquired a tearful Ruby, as she threw her arms around me?
“No,” I replied. Then we sat and cried, hugging each other until the sun became visible once more, and as it peeked over the horizon heralding the beginning of a new day, Ruby fell asleep.
I know knew what an unresolved memory was, it’s a long forgotten memory fragment of a painful event, but you’re not really sure which parts are true, so most of it stays hidden.
Had The Rattlers given me a chance to let those memories go, rather than hang onto it, I may never know as I never had the chance to thank them. It was the one thing the Memory Hunter couldn’t take from me, only I could do that.”
“She told me He was dying,” said Ruby, as she stirred to awaken.
“Yes, She told me too,” I replied. “So what happens next?”
As I turned around, I could see our strange visitor had gone and my bedroom was empty, just Ruby, and Greg's snoring away in the top bunk.
“We won’t remember anything of tonight,” said Ruby. As the sun finally clears the horizon our memory of tonight it will all be gone.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Nothing at all, it’s how it works,” replied my sister.
“I remember Katie now; I think She planted some of her memories inside my head, what happens if I forget her again?”
“Not a chance,” replied my sister,” I won’t let you, and She did say it was a Christmas gift.”
“Yes, and so did He, so who’s telling the truth?”
“And what about Her?” I asked.
“She's still out there somewhere Barnaby but without the link and your unresolved memory still spinning around in her head I don’t think she'll be back for a while, just keep that iPad of yours scanning those night time noises.”
In all honesty I wasn't sure what had truly happened to-night or which one of our night time visitors was telling the truth, but I had a feeling this would not be the last time we would ever see our strange nocturnal visitors, and as to whether or not the memory fragment she needed from Gregs was taken, I may never know, but I knew one thing for sure, and that was that Gregs could possibly hold the key to this whole experience.
New Day
I could almost feel the sunlight filtering through my bedroom window, as I awoke
Thank god, Gregs didn't eat that last kilo of beans Mom had prepared for him for supper or the bedroom air would have been green this morning. I had a good feeling about today, Friday... last day of school, and as we sat eating breakfast, Ruby asked if I had told Greg’s about the chain.
“What chain,” enquired Gregs, looking up from his cereal?
“Oh... just something we found and thought it might be worth further investigation.”
Ruby had gone upstairs to fetch her phone when suddenly she began shouting for me. I rushed up-stairs stopping momentarily as I passed my own bedroom, and just for a split second I could have sworn I saw a faint shadow move across my bedroom wall.
“What’s the problem,” I enquired?
“In here,” came a voice from Ruby’s bedroom. “Look.”
Ruby pointed to her bed.
There on the bed was a torn and ragged old doll dressed in what looked like Victorian clothin
g. “It’s just an old doll of yours.”
“That’s the problem,” whispered Ruby,” it’s not one of my dolls.”
“Then whose,” I replied?
“Look at the label on her neck,” insisted Ruby, so I picked up the Doll from off the bed and read the Label.
“LULU”
“It’s Aimée’s doll!”
“Yes, but how did it get here,” blurted Ruby, now in an apparent state of panic? Unfortunately I didn’t have time to answer Ruby’s question, because as I turned and rushed to my own room, I already had a feeling the link was gone... and I was right.
I somehow knew the events of last night held the answer to Ruby’s question and felt something special had happened. I always dream at night... but this time it felt like I had forgotten a whole nights worth of them... if only I could just remember.
As we left the house, Mom shouted, “Just a minute Barnaby.”
What now, I thought?
“Danny rang last night,” informed Mom. “She said she really enjoyed that game of Road Warrior you both had, and can’t wait to see you again.”
The strangest thing was...I never gave Danny my phone number - AND SHE NEVER PLAYS ROAD WARRIOR -...............
The Chateau
I’ve been here...in The Chateau, for so long I forget what brought me here in the first place...all those years ago...and then I would remember. Lottie, my sister, she brought me here. She said it was for the best and that the nightmares and whispers inside my head would end... but she lied; I still have them, although the medication I take now makes them more bearable. Lottie writes to me every month, but the last letter she sent is still on my dressing table, unopened.
I was very young when my nightmares began. It was about the time Lottie and I moved to our uncle’s barn - there was an explosion - it destroyed half of uncle’s barn - somehow we survived. I can vaguely remember - after the explosion - hanging there in mid- air... then my head filled with memories - memories of other people’s lives, and I’ve been here ever since - in this hospital - and that was 70 years ago.
I enjoy living here, the people are nice and my new nurse, Holly, listens to my stories even though she doesn’t believe many are true. They say everyone has a past life...and that some people live it every day...but I can feel a hundred past lives all flowing through my head at the same time, and as I look through my window... I know there’s something out there... in the gardens... beyond the wood line... a specter...a shadow from my past that knows the answer as to why I’m here, because I can feel it ... hiding... in the darkness... waiting to come in.
Holly
Looking out from the Chateau's blue stained glass windows, Holly could almost feel the torrents of rain beating down on the old garden pagoda. Creating gullies of water, they would then overspill before rushing down towards the boundary wall, eventually forming tiny lakes against the fence posts before disappearing behind the bushes in a torrent of mud and foliage.
Staring harder, through an ever-thickening curtain of rain, she catches a glimpse of an enormous fox sheltering in the undergrowth.
“Still there is she... ‘The Fox’?”
“Amongst her own reflection, in the glass Holly see’s the old lady smile.”
“I thought France was much warmer this time of year,” Miss Durante... and how do you know the fox is a she.”
“I just know dear... I just know.”
“The doctor will be here soon,” then assures Holly. “He might be able to give you something for those nightmares you’ve been having.”
“Oh, they’ll pass,” remarks the old Lady, “and thank you for listening to my stories; you must be getting quite bored of them by now, young woman.”
“No, not at all, I find them really interesting.”
As Holly leaves the room, she bumps into Gérard waiting outside. “She’s quite mad you know, she watches antique shows all day,” remarks Gérard, “and she still thinks the wars on.”
“I think she’s quite nice,” replies Holly. “Her Sister died a couple of weeks ago - I think it’s upset her more than she’s letting on.”
“I know, replies Gérard, “and she’s not opened the letter yet.”
The old lady rose from her chair and headed toward the window, glancing out across the garden towards the wood where the fox had been sheltering.
“You can’t have her; she’s safe,” she mutters, “and you won’t find her either; she’s far too well hidden.”
Walking back towards her dressing table, she notices the letter once more, and as an inquisitive finger brushes over the envelopes surface, she decides that maybe now is right time to open it.
Reaching out, her hand momentarily hesitates revealing a somewhat faded tattoo. Once hidden by ruffled sleeves, it’s clear that the tattoo is a five sided star, and it’s an exact copy of the one her sister had.
Tearing at the envelope, she fails to notice a small piece of jewelry falling from the envelopes leading edge before spiraling into an old knitting bag laying on the floor.
The letter reads.
Dear Aimee
I think I might have found what we have both been looking for since that night in uncle’s barn. A young boy came into the shop recently, Barnaby, and I am sure he and his sister, Ruby, have heard them, so I made the decision to tell them of the night in Uncles Barn, they also have the link, and with luck I believe they might find Lulu and somehow return her to you.
Love Lottie
Urban Legend
“Ruby, time for school; Barneys already up.”
As Ruby turned over, she could see Lulu on the bedside cabinet. “I bet you’ve could tell some stories, little doll, couldn’t you.”
It’s been quiet in the house recently, no night time noises, not even the odd creak or groan, and Ruby’s really become attached to Lulu. For a girl that used to hate dolls, she’s really taken to her, especially at night when Ruby’s nightmares wake me, and her reoccurring dreams of a woman in black, she refers to as Her, haunt her thoughts.
“Hurry up you two, you’re late for school,” shouted Mum, and Barnaby, brush your teeth please, you don’t want to end up like Danny.”
Danny had been poking a piece of green spinach from her tooth with a toothpick and somehow managed to break a piece of her brace, which then catapulted itself across the room. Landing on Mrs. Cleaver's, the Science teachers plate it had then somehow managed to bury itself in her mashed potatoes.
Everyone had seen this except for Mrs. Cleaver, who then spent the afternoon in the emergency dentist with a broken filling, having bitten down on the twisted piece of metal from Danny’s broken brace. Danny was really upset, but after explaining to her that in years to come the younger kids coming into the school will believe this was an Urban Legend, and that she might become famous, seemed to cheer her up.
Friday, last school day before the weekend and mum was getting ready for Saturday's antique fair in town. Mum says the whole show is being televised and that we might be on TV, and if we all go we should have a better chance of finding some rare antique, worth thousands of pounds, then mum wouldn’t have to go to work again.
Ever since that dreamless night, before finding Lulu, Gregs had been acting really strange, and seems to have had a minor growth spurt, leaving him in third place on the growth spurt leadership board. He no longer seemed as interested in the world of gaming and had become engrossed in what he called his “Academic Studies”, refusing point blank to play Road Warrior, which had somehow become number one in the games magazine, ‘ONLINE WARRIORS’.
We arrived at school on time, and I was just checking out Gregor’s height in case he he'd had another growth spurt, when Danny came over.
“Are you going to the Antiques fair, Barney?”
“Yes, my mum loves them,” I replied.
“I’m going to take my old doll; dad says she’s an antique and might be worth thousands of pounds.” It then struck me; maybe Ruby could take Lulu, not to sell of course,
just for an expert to take a look at her.
At break, I cornered Ruby in the schoolyard and asked her if she had thought about taking Lulu to the Antique Show. “Yes, I have,” she replied, as though I had stated the obvious..
As usual, my sister had got there first, and my great idea had all been for nothing, yet somehow, I felt quite excited.
Lulu
“Look mum its Julian Claridge from the Antiques programme ‘What’s in your Loft.’ ‘What’s in your Loft’ really bored the pants of me, and so did, ‘What’s in your Garage’ and ‘What’s in your Shed,’ the list just goes on.”
“Now’s your chance Sis, show him Lulu.”
As Ruby made her way through the bustling crowds, towards the front, a rather large woman stepped forward, blocking her path. “You’ll have to wait your turn dear, there is a rather large queue,” informs the woman.
“Sorry,” replied Ruby, “I didn’t realize.”
Julian Claridge was busy talking to people at the front, and making the occasional fine adjustment to a rather ill fitting wig that somehow seemed to have developed a life of its own, as it freely moved around his head in the wind.
Julian was a thickset gentleman. Lacking height, he was also very pale and had a white, quite flamboyant moustache that kept his fingers busy as they constantly fiddled with its failing geometry.
As I looked him up and down, it was difficult not to notice his chequered trousers as they flapped in the wind, and like some shy young girl, they occasionally nestled up to his incredibly carved and rather ornate, silver tipped walking stick.
Rupert James, a boy from our school was next in the queue. Rupert was quiet in class and at first we thought he might not speak at all, preferring to communicate in sign language. His mum insisted, he was so clever that most things of a trivial nature bored him.
Rupert had brought an old ‘Star Wars’ toy his dad had given to him that was supposed to be valuable. Handing it to Julian, he didn’t seem too impressed and after telling him it was probably worth only a few pence, Rupert ran away crying.
Doll Page 5
