The Markings

by Catherine Downen

  “Mother messed with Zavy’s memories too?” I ask, still holding Alexander’s stare, both of us looking at the other trying to figure out who they really are.

  “Yes. All those days it was you, Zavy, and I in the city. Alexander was never there,” Cooper says gently.

  “So where was I?” Alexander asks Cooper, but still not dropping my gaze. “You can just replace me with Cooper in all your memories, but what are my true memories?” Alexander asks his voice weak and empty.

  “They’re in there somewhere,” Cooper says, obviously holding back information.

  “But how do I access them?” Alexander says more sternly, frustration building in his eyes.

  “We have something that can return all of your memories back to normal,” Cooper says flatly and Alexander and I both break our stare and turn to him.

  “You what?” Alexander asks.

  “When we left that night, the night we were all brought here, my father gave us supplies that we would need in the future,” Cooper says as he rises and starts looking through some of the bags in the tent.

  “We have a couple of swords, some knives, cooking equipment, maps of the island, and this rock. It’s enchanted and is supposed to hold the power to recover all lost memories. Don’t ask me how or where he got it from, I’m only the messenger. He told us we would need to use it to fix the memories our mother had altered in Adaline, but I bet it would work for you as well,” Cooper says pulling a large, perfectly round, grey rock from a beige bag. Then he comes and sits back down across from us. “We can fix your memories now,” he starts to say before I stop him.

  “Wait,” I interrupt. Alexander and Cooper look to me. Alexander sees the fear in my eyes and reaches for my hand. Already his touch is more empty and cold than before. “I don’t want to forget you,” I say quietly.

  Cooper clears his throat and says, “I don’t need to be present for this so when you both are ready you can do it on your own. You just need to each place a hand on the rock and recite this,” Cooper says, laying down a piece of fabric next to the rock as he leaves the tent.

  A moment of silence passes between us before Alexander speaks, “Adaline, you can’t forget me because you don’t even know me.” Alexander tries to say it gently, but his words pierce my heart like a sharp blade.

  “But I do know you, I do. I thought I did,” I say, my mind slowly wrapping around the situation we’re in.

  “But you don’t. You know Cooper,” he says. I look into his breathtaking green eyes and try to convince myself that I don’t truly know them, that the memories with him aren’t real.

  “We’re in this together now,” Alexander says. “Once we erase the lies we can start getting to actually know each other. We will have real memories together. All this time in the woods, me helping you escape, that is all true Adaline. So what if I didn’t know who you were when I saved you? I wouldn’t change any of this.”

  “You say that now, but what if, when you get your real memories back, you wish you could have your old life back? What if you wish you never had met me and never had saved me,” I say stumbling over my own words as the horrible thoughts cross my mind.

  “I won’t,” Alexander says sternly. “I promise,” he says as he places his hand on the rock while keeping my hand in his other. He gives my hand a tight squeeze of reassurance and I gently lay my other hand on the rock. We both look down to the piece of fabric and start to recite the words in unison:

  Help me see the truth in me

  Erase the false and bring forth the real

  Take me back so I can see

  All the past and set me free

  I clench my eyes shut as the room begins to spin. My head starts to pound as I see old memories fade and new ones form. There’s a loud pounding noise in my ears accompanied by a high pitch squeal. I squeeze Alexander’s hand tighter and tighter until finally everything comes to a halt and the room falls silent.

  I slowly let my eyes fall open and look down at my hand in Alexander’s. In unison, we both pull away. I hardly know anything about him why am I holding his hand? I look into his green eyes, how peculiar they look to me. I search my brain for everything I know about him and all I can grasp is that he saved my life and helped me leave the castle. My mother had messed with my memories and I used to believe he was my childhood best friend, but in my head he isn’t the boy I grew up with. I don’t remember any feelings I’ve had for him in the past, but somewhere in the pit of my heart there’s a tiny piece that cares for him. I remember that he was given completely false memories of me and he truly had no idea who he was before he was put in this mess. He must be so lost.

  “Alexander,” I say and his name feels foreign on my tongue. “Are you okay?”

  He looks at his hands for a while, the memories obviously flowing through his head.

  “Alexander?” I ask again.

  “I’m fine,” he says shortly, rising from the fabric on the ground. “Let’s go find Cooper.” I stand and follow him out of the tent, scanning his face to see how he really feels, but his face is expressionless, stern, and cold. That’s it, I think. He truly hates me and regrets ever coming on this trip. He can’t even look me in the eye anymore, but what do I care if he hates me? I didn’t mess with his memories, and I didn’t make him flee the castle. While I do have a part of me that’s, I suppose, sympathetic toward him, I can’t be consumed with how this stranger feels about me. Cooper is standing right outside of the tent and his eyes pass from Alexander to me. “We’re good,” Alexander says flatly. “Everything’s how it’s supposed to be.”

  “All right then,” Cooper says gently. “Come on, I want to introduce you to everyone. You are kind of famous around here,” Cooper says still not sure how to treat Alexander and me, and honestly, I don’t know how to act either.

  Chapter 12

  Alexander and I follow Cooper into the center of the clearing, both of us standing on either side of him like somehow adding distance from each other could make the heavy space between us more bearable.

  “So this is where you’ve been living for seven years?” Alexander asks, his face relaxing and his mind drifting from whatever he experienced with the return of his memories.

  “Yes, I’d give you the grand tour, but we won’t be staying here much longer. I’ll just introduce you to everyone,” Cooper says as he starts walking toward one of the tents in the clearing. “Over here we have the health center. It’s not much, but we have some basic medicines. This is also where we turn in our dirty garments in exchange for clean ones.” Cooper stops and waves us to follow him behind the tent.

  On the other side of the tent, a group of three girls are busy scrubbing dirty fabric and hanging them on a line to dry. When they look up and see us they instantly stop their work.

  “Oh, come on now. Don’t treat them like you’ve just seen a ghost. They’re just like the rest of us,” Cooper says.

  “My apologies,” one of the girls says. She has a short blonde bob hair cut and shining blue eyes. She places the shirt she was cleaning on the edge of the old wooden bucket and wipes her hands on her own old dress. The ends are tethered and covered with loose strings. Dirt patches, I’m sure they’ve tried scrubbing clean, rim the dress.

  I realize they were kids when they were brought here, but in the seven years, they’ve grown. They had to gather old thrown out garments from Garth and sneak them back here for them.

  She extends her hand out to me and says, “I’m Essie. It’s an honor to meet you both.” I accept her hand and she gives it a tight squeeze. She does a similar gesture for Alexander and I am almost certain I can see tears brimming her eyes. I realize how crazy it must be to finally see the faces of the people you’ve been waiting seven years for. We are their key to freedom, to finally leave these woods. Essie lets a smile fall across her lips and I can see the happiness in her eyes.

  She gestures to the two girls behind her who have also dropped the shirts and pants they were cleaning and stand to greet
us. “These are my sisters. Cassandra,” she gestures to one of the girls who has very long and thick blonde hair and brown eyes. “And this is Sarah,” Essie says, gesturing to her other sister who has thin red hair.

  “It’s nice to meet you all,” I say and smile as I shake Cassandra and Sarah’s hands.

  “That’s an excellent stitching job,” Sarah says, looking down at Alexander’s leg. “Who did that?”

  “Oh, Adaline did,” Alexander says and my name sounds odd coming from him.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” Sarah asks, impressed.

  “We’ll I watched my mother do it on me once before. I really wasn’t taught,” I admit.

  “It’s a very nice job. You probably saved his leg,” Essie says to me. “What medicine have you taken for it?” she turns and asks Alexander.

  “I took medicine for the pain right after we stitched it up. That’s it,” Alexander says to Essie, thinking back to now two days ago.

  “You should take some more pain medicine and some others too, in case of infection. Giving stitches in these conditions is dangerous,” Essie says. She walks around us into the tent and then emerges with two pills. Alexander swallows each of them and thanks Essie. “If you need more for the pain let me know. You should take the one for infection every 24 hours.”

  “I’m fine really. I don’t want to use up what little medicine you have,” Alexander says sheepishly.

  “But you’re our key to freedom,” Cassandra says shocked by how humble Alexander is trying to be. “We would give up anything for you.” I look around at the makeshift home they have here in the woods and recognize that they already have.

  Her comment leaves an awkward feeling between the group and Cooper steps in, “We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning so make sure to distribute the rest of the garments out and pack up whatever you have to take with us.”

  We make our way to the second tent in the clearing and encounter a very similar greeting. This tent serves as the kitchen and food storage area. There are four guys working here. Two of them, Albert and Andy, are brothers and the other two, James and Bren, were neighbors before coming here. They ask what we’ve been eating and we explain to them it has been a mix of ray berries and turkey meat. We show them the rations we found at the bunker and they are as confused as we were.

  “You found a bunker?” Cooper asks curiously.

  “Yes, not far from here. Just over a days hike probably,” I say. “We took most of the useful items. We could have brought more clothes if we had known,” I say, trailing off. I don’t want to insult the conditions they are living in. It’s far better than the prison cell I was in, but the quality of clothes Alexander and I have are leaps and bounds from theirs. “We could go back,” I start to consider. It’s honestly the last thing I want to do. I want to find Zavy and keep moving forward. Cooper said their plan is to get me to Libertas which is where I was headed anyway, but I feel responsible knowing there are better resources not too far from here.

  “Not necessary,” Cooper says, interrupting my thoughts. “We’ll leave tomorrow for Sard and replenish our supplies then.”

  “But the rations have been safe to eat?” Albert asks, cautiously sniffing the bag.

  “We’ve been eating them all morning,” Alexander offers.

  “It’s just dried food, it doesn’t actually taste like anything,” I say and watch the four boys test the rations for themselves. They shrug their shoulders not, nearly as interested as they were before.

  “They’ll still be good to have, in case of an emergency,” Albert nods.

  We follow Cooper out of the kitchen tent and over to the two people I had noticed before leaning over a table looking at a map. We walk around the edge of the clearing and I glance at the trees. I stop at one and scan the thin lines carved in its trunk. My eyes sweep to the neighboring trees and I see they are covered with gashed lines. My finger lifts and rubs over the groove.

  “Just something to keep time moving,” Cooper says softly. My eyes feel wet as I remember the cell I left behind, marked with thousands of lines.

  “I used to make a tally on the walls of my cell,” I say and my voice cracks. There’s a comfort that falls over me at the thought of knowing each day I scratched that stone wall my brother was out here making his own tally. We’ve each been counting our days, together.

  When we reach the table the man and woman standing over the map turn and look at us, smiles spreading across their faces.

  “And this is Mio and Cinder,” Cooper says, introducing us to the two in charge. We exchange greetings and end up circled around the table with the map. I look down and study the aged fabric. I’m amazed by how detailed this map really is. I see a tiny black “x” in the center of a tan circle. “Home” is written under the “x”, and I realize that’s where we are now. It’s pretty centered between the center of the island and the southern shore. I let my gaze move up the map and see “Garth” written out in large red letters. I start to take in how much space there is between the two points.

  On fabric the space seems so basic; just green forest. But what I have actually gone through from one point to the other is much more than a couple of green painted trees. My life has changed from the starting point to here. I lost my mother and my younger brother. My family was ripped away from me. I was forced to save myself and use my gift for the first time. I was reunited with my best friends, and for the first time I felt like I actually belonged. And then it was all ripped away from me just as fast. I learned my father didn’t actually abandon me, and I learned I have an older brother who has given his entire childhood to saving my life. But when you look at it on the map it’s just a couple of painted trees, that’s all it will ever look like to anyone else.

  I realize there are many other points on the map all around the point labeled home. One has a drawing of a cave and another a creek.

  “We’ve had a lot of time to map out our surrounding areas,” I hear Cinder say in her soft high-pitched voice, her dark blue eyes meeting mine.

  I drop my eyes from hers and nod my head before asking, “So we’re leaving tomorrow to save Zavy and Toby, right?” The silence that follows my question leaves me uneasy. “Right?” I ask again.

  “Adaline, we were never given any instruction to help a ‘Zavy’. Your father only told us about you and Alexander,” Cinder says.

  “Well, I’m not going to leave her out here,” I say, gesturing to the humming jungle around us. I can’t believe what they’re telling me. “They need to get to Libertas.” I’m hesitant to say my next words, but I think it may be the only way I can convince them. “Toby and Zavy are both gifted. They need help fleeing to Libertas.”

  I see Mio consider this just for a second before he says, “Adaline we can’t risk going off from the original plan. If we do anything that your father didn’t tell us to do it could throw everything off.”

  “But,” I start before Mio cuts me off.

  “The answer’s no Adaline. Look around you. All these people have given their lives to make sure this plan is followed out perfectly. Don’t make all they gave up for nothing. I’m sorry about your friend, but we can’t afford to take any chances.” He looks at me sternly and adds, “I was given a job seven years ago and I plan to see it through exactly how I was instructed to. You follow me now.” His command makes me stiffen. I’m not in chains or locked behind bars, but his statement leaves me feeling like a prisoner.

  I drop my gaze from Mio’s and feel my hands clench into fists. I feel Cooper place his hand on my arm and I slowly relax my fingers and let out a long breath. “Fine,” I breathe.

  “Maybe she’ll get out on her own and meet us at Sard. She knows that was where we were heading,” Alexander says and I let my eyes meet his and he immediately drops his gaze from mine, but I can tell he doesn’t even believe what he’s saying.

  “Maybe,” I mumble. “So then what’s our next move?” I ask as I gesture to the map.

  “I think
the best course for us to take will be to follow this river all the way south into Sard,” Mio says. “That way we will always have a supply of food and water.” Mio drags his finger along the painted blue squiggling line that he refers to as the river.

  “I mean that makes sense to me,” I agree. Then I hear a low-tone bell ring. I look around in confusion.

  Cooper explains, “That’s our sign that dinner’s ready.”

  “We’ll pack up the documents,” Mio says as he rolls up the map.

  “Go ahead and take them to the dining tent,” Cinder says in her soft sweet voice. I can’t help thinking of how different Mio and Cinder are. Cooper starts heading back toward the tent that I had previously referred to as the kitchen. My mouth instantly begins to water at the aroma in the room, and I realize I haven’t had a decent meal in almost two days.

  I move and stand in line with the others. The food has been laid out in front of us and I don’t hesitate to take my fair share of the freshly cooked meat. There are also a large variety of greens and berries, including the familiar ray berries we’ve been living off of.

  I take all my hands can hold and follow Alexander outside. I notice that everyone has broken off into groups to eat their dinner. Alexander and I head toward the edge of the clearing together without even thinking, and sit and eat our dinner in silence. It’s the first time we’ve been alone since we’ve put our memories back in place and I don’t know what to say to him. The only thing I can even think of right now is Zavy.

  After a while of eating in silence, I ask him, “We aren’t actually going to leave Zavy and Toby are we?”

  Alexander looks at me confused, “Well, how do you plan to change Mio and Cinder’s minds? They seem set on not going to save them. I mean, if we had your mother’s journal then maybe we could convince them, but we don’t have anything to show them that Zavy and Toby are supposed to be going with us.”