"Kevin, stop being such a baby," someone whispered to me.
"But we are only five and we have been told never to go there. Besides to some people, babies are exactly what we are," I whispered back in argument. It was dark and cold. The mansion had a room we were not supposed to go to, but as usual my cousin had found a way to go there through the vents. Obviously he dragged me along with him and here we were crawling through the ventilation shaft so that we could get a sneak peek into the forbidden room. We had just witnessed the adults enter it and that is when Charles chose his moments to practice espionage.
The two of us did everything together. Unfortunately for me, that also meant that I had to be around when my cousin was feeling like a daredevil. "Nothing bad is going to happen. Come on," he said and continued shuffling to our destination. We began hearing voices as we got to the grating that delivered air into the room. We finally got there and we could even see into the room. The adults stood around a table immersed in deep conversation. As for the room, it was filled with lots of shelves filed with books of all colours and sizes. None of us had ever imagined such a room existed in the entire mansion. The current occupants of the room was Mrs Sarah, the Homage, Mr Dan one of the six artras and Mr Hank, the husband to Mrs Sarah who was human.
"You mean he just brought them and left," Hank said furiously.
"Yes, he did. Five years ago. He asked the elder artras to help protect them," Mr Dan replied.
"Calm down, honey. What matters most is their protection? The barrier we set between the… wait I sense something," Mrs Sarah said.
"Oh oh," I heard Charles say beside me and watched in horror as Mrs Sarah walked up to the grating and looked up straight at us like the grating was not even there. She raised her hand up towards the grating which gave way under us. I shrieked as we began our fall. Being the one of the two of us who was afraid of heights, I was terrified. I stopped shrieking when the floor never came and opened my eyes to a giggling Charles. We were floating slowly towards the ground. I looked back to Mrs Sarah and saw that her outstretched hand was slowly guiding our smooth descent. She was using magic which had me in awe. Unfortunately for us, we were in a whole lot of trouble.
"What have we told you boys about this room?" Mr Dan scowled immediately banishing the thoughts of magic that had begun swirling through my mind and snapping our attention to him instead of the lady who was using magic to fix the ceiling. We were in trouble once again and it was Charles who had dragged me along with him, but I knew I would still come with him even if I had known we'd get caught.
"This has nothing to do with Kevin. I'm the one who dragged him into this," Charles began immediately jumping to my rescue.
"I'm the one who agreed to come instead of stopping him," I said after him. There's was nothing fair about me agreeing to perform a crime with him and not facing the same consequences. At least that is how I saw it then.
"You know what. Never mind, but weren't Mindy and Heather supposed to be watching you?" he asked.
"Those two were easy to get away from," Charles replied smirking with his arms crossed. This idiot was making everything much worse for us.
"I am sorry, Uncle Dan. We won't come back here I promise," I quickly said trying to get them to overlook my cousin's behaviour. This earned me a hit to the gut with the elbow from my cousin. He didn't protest any further after that.
"Thank you, Kevin," he said as he escorted us out the door, "next time we won't go so easy on you."
When we were out and alone, I looked to my partner in crime and noticed a rare expression on his face, "Damn that Ryan. He tricked me. I'll get him back for this," he said furiously. This wasn't simple petty anger. Charles was enraged so much so that he was on the brink of tears.
"What did he say? What did he tell you?" I asked frantically getting more curious the longer I spent ignorant.
"He said there was a," he paused taking in a deep breath, "a dragon."
......
I woke up again that morning once again covered in a thin film of sweat and shivering. 'Damn it, more memories to deal with.' I tried to recount how many memories I had of my cousin but could only come up with the two new ones and the one of the day he died. The rest were all just flashes of muments I had also forgotten. In all the memories I have of my cousin, he never once had an angry expression on his face except for in this new memory of him. While I was dreaming it I knew everything that was going on as if my memory was intact. If only I had the power to ask questions while I was there. One peculiar thing I had gotten out of that memory though was that Charles and I knew Ryan even then. Mr Dan had even mentioned Mindy and Heather in the memory.
I started turning to check my clock when my mind presented me with a vivid representation of the time at the current mument. It was 4:06:21am. I got out of bed since I was no longer feeling sleepy. I went on downstairs when I was done with having a bath and basically preparing for school. I got to work in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I wouldn't say I was a master in the kitchen, but come on, breakfast is something at least everyone in the house hold had to know how to prepare. When I was done, I turned on the television to pass the time.
"Someone wakes up early these days," I heard my mum's voice in the dining room. I walked out to see her and decided maybe it would do me some good to discuss some of my issues with her.
"Mum," I called out once I was also in the kitchen, "good morning."
"Good morning, honey," she replied in a motherly tone, "did you get enough sleep last night?"
"I'm not sure," I replied. I honestly had no sleep left in me, but that still didn't change the fact that I had slept for a measly four hours.
"How are things with Ciara going?" she asked and I had to catch the brief smirk that crossed her face.
"Where is that coming from?" I raised my voice in disbelief. "You guys are unbelievable."
"Don't mind me, Kevin," she said amidst her laughter before she composed herself and became serious all of a sudden, "You look like you have something on your mind. You know you can always talk to me."
Mum was the only one who I would talk to freely during the times when I was in rehab. She had taken her time with me and made sure that I was comfortable around her. This had helped us build trust while my memory was gone. At times she had sneaked me out of the hospital to go to the park and enjoy the outdoors. "Yeah, I know," I replied sighing, "how do I put this?" I said while my mum poured herself a cup of tea. "I think my memories are returning."
With that I noticed my mum had paused in all her movements. She carefully set the kettle back on the stove and put her hands to rest on the work table. They were shaking vigorously. I moved closer to my mum to see if I could find out what was wrong. "Mum, you okay?" I asked her.
"Are you sure your memories are returning?" she asked keeping her eyes glued to one spot.
"I think so. It's just that when I'm going through an event I can tell that there are so many things that don't make sense. For example in my most recent memory, we were in a mansion that I have never seen before," I paused there expecting a reply, but mum only remained silent after my revelation.
"Good morning," a high pitched voice came from the stairs startling us. I guess that was the end of that conversation. Gary was finally back to his cheery normal self. We greeted each other and together got to set the breakfast table. Soon enough, dad joined us even though everything was done by then
"Mum, could you let Kevin take me to school on his bike?" Gary spoke up as we neared the end of our breakfast.
"That's out of the question for now. Until your father and I both agree that it's safe for you to ride on that death trap, you will be using the car. Besides, we enjoy taking our kids to school," mum replied smiling at the end to emphasize just how long Gary was going to wait before he ever got a chance to ride on my motorcycle. I had been so happy when dad had bought me the bike, but I had also learnt how to use my super-speed a day after. So the concept of distance lost meaning to me since I could go anywhere I wanted by simply running there. In the end I didn't even need to have a bike in the first place. Fate is a cruel thing.
"Mums," my brother and I mumbled at mum's behaviour towards his idea of taking the bike to school. It would have been fun to simply ride around on the bike, but with each passing day, I became busier. We finally finished breakfast and got in the car and drove to school.
I got out of the car in the parking lot and bid everyone farewell before turning to go to the school's main building. "Did you solve the issue with the Purgers?" dad asked before I got out of range. I turned to face him while he turned on the engine. It was almost like he meant for the conversation to be between the two of us but without anyone knowing we had it. I knew I had little time to answer his question since the window of his actions that were muffling our voices was closing.
"No, I haven't," I said and with that he reversed the car out of the parking lot and drove away. 'What was that about?' I thought to myself. But then again when I considered the memory I had dreamt the night before, it was understandable that he would also know something about the Purgers. I turned my attention back to the school and walked towards the main door. My days were starting to feel remarkably longer although the internal clock that had manifested in my mind kept ticking constantly never allowing me the pleasure of feeling time passing by any other way than it should.