I was hoping I wouldn't have any dreams that night considering I was exhausted beyond measure and my magic was down. Yeah, one would hope I would have a normal human retreat into the black abyss and slept normally like everyone else, but life had different stories foe me tonight. Tonight was no different from all the others, dreams plagued my mind like they did every day. All that was different today was that all my memories surged through my mind faster than I could follow them. I could tell they were almost complete, but I also couldn't tell what was going on in any of them. It was as if I just had to choose one and relive it. Being in no mood to go through my memories as I was tired from the day that I had just had, I just let the memories flash through until a random I settled on a random one. It didn't seem as though I could get out of this state even if I tried to as I had already tried numerous times.
A memory eventually began to resonate indicating I would soon be out the confusion of flashing images that I was currently in. I watched as the scene began to solidify. I turned my attention to my surroundings as everything finally solidified. I looked around me and noticed I was once again in the woods that my cousin and I built that accursed swing. This was a part of the woods I didn't quite know the significance of. Sometimes I came into these memories and felt the familiarity of my surroundings, but this was different. A few minutes later, I heard the all too familiar dialogue that was held by two children on almost every day of their lives. "Charles, you know we are not supposed to wander this far away from the mansion," I heard a young version of me complaining. I snuck around through the trees until I got a peek at the two kids.
Charles was holding my hand dragging me behind him running at full speed through the unfamiliar part of the forest. "Relax, cousin. I overheard the adults speaking about something and just had to try it out," he said excitedly.
"When was that? We are not supposed to be sneaking around like that," the younger version of me complained.
"Oh don't be such a parent, I wasn't sneaking around. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," he said before stopping to turn and face his cousin with a suddenly serious face.
"So are you in or out?" he said seriously much as we were well away from the mansion.
"You know that I am in whether I like it or not," the younger me replied earning a smile from his unruly cousin. They were always going off without the adults' knowledge on the whims of Charles to do something new each time. Charles always came up with crazier ideas every now and then.
"What are you kids doing in this part of the forest?" a harsh voice suddenly came in startling the two kids and I included (don't judge me).
Charles instinctively pushed the younger me behind him to protect him. He didn't have the expression I expected him to have though. He was smirking like this was all a part of his plan. A man looking to be in his mid-thirties emerged from the cover of the trees to confront the two kids. "Don't you know who we are?" Charles began filling his voice with as much authority as his little frame could muster. The adult looked taken aback and stopped in his tracks before squinting at the two kids before him. It was almost like he was being cautious about how to proceed with these kids.
"Charles, what are you doing?" the younger whispered. At the mention of my cousin's name, the adult's expression morphed into one of shock.
"So you're Charles and Kevin, am I right?" he asked.
"Took you long enough," Charles retorted like he was speaking to some lowly commoner.
"Hurry up and leave this place you two. You are not allowed here for many reasons. You're lucky you met me first. Not everyone in these parts would be happy to see the two most troublesome kids in the five houses lounging on their turf," the man said.
"Isn't it all our land?" Charles asked him and surely enough I had no idea what the two were now talking about.
"Yes, it is, but things among adults are more complicated than you could possibly know. You are acting bossy now because I am sure you have heard something you shouldn't have. Let's say you were to have some unfortunate accident, what would happen to this land you so preciously call yours then?" the man asked squatting down so we could speak face to face. His question put an expression on Charles' face that was also new to me.
Charles grabbed my hand and began dragging me in the direction we came. He was in even more of a hurry than he was in when we came waltzing into the unknown part of the woods. "Charles, what is going on?" I asked him.
"Just keep running. Don't fall behind," he yelled at me as we ran back the same path. I could tell where we were going was the mansion. Charles was trembling as he ran, pulling me to go faster and faster, picking me up each time and tripped and telling me to keep running without much of an explanation or an apology. We finally got to the gate that got into the backyard of the Johnson mansion and Charles hastily ushered me in despite how tired we were.
"Charles, what is it?" my younger self said finally said having had enough.
"Kevin, I'm sorry I took you there. I don't know what I was thinking," this was indeed the first time I had ever seen something freak out my cousin. He was usually calm about everything as if there wasn't a thing in the world that could hurt him. As a result he was always doing what he wanted and was also always taking me along with him. The memory began to fizzle away. I got the recollection that my cousin dodged my question by profusely apologising for putting me in such trouble. I also remembered him telling me to keep quiet about everything.
In a way the memories of my cousin show that I used to follow him everywhere he wanted to go which was the last thing I could think was the relationship I had with my cousin. I needed to find a memory in which I went against him. As soon as the thought was done, the scene before me began to quickly morph into a courtyard. I looked around and it seemed to be the front of the mansion I had heard of countless times in these memories. I stood in the centre of the large paved compound looking onto the beautiful gardens that flanked the main gate on both sides. The biggest part of the land that was owned by the five houses that I had seen so far was made up of woods. Maybe they were simply eco-friendly but either way it was a bit questionable why they would choose to keep their existence shrouded in the cover of nature.
From the gate one would have to walk up to the entrance of the huge mansion which was after a large staircase. This was overkill in my opinion. The space taken up by the staircase leading to the entrance alone was big enough to house a room of its own. At the bottom of the staircase were three children. A boy and two girls, the trio looked strikingly familiar, but I was yet to find out who they were. The girls seemed to be playing a game of hopscotch while the boy merely sat at the stairs watching them and ultimately looking bored.
Just then the main entrance door of the mansion of the mansion swung open with threatening force filling the air with rattles as it withstood the force it had been opened with and startling the three kids who were playing. From the door emerged a very angry looking Charles and a worried small Kevin running about him trying to get his attention. The words began coming back to me as I watched the events unfold before my eyes.
"Charles, calm down, it was only a joke. You don't have to get this worked up about it," younger Kevin pleaded, but it was all in vain. Charles was out for blood or that's at least what my memory told me. I couldn't possibly imagine what this young boy could do to someone who was two years older than him.
The boy at the bottom of the stairs quickly stood up and folded his arms across his chest putting on the best smirk he could muster (or rather he couldn't help but smirk at the kid throwing a tantrum). He looked a couple of years older than Charles at the time. I should have connected the dots sooner, but I was caught up in the story that I had no time for recognition, "How did it go?" the older boy said.
"Ryan, you tricked me," Charles yelled. The shock of his words had me stopping the memory to take another look at the younger alleged Ryan. The resemblance was so uncanny I was almost slapping myself for not noticing. As expected, the two girls were Mindy and Heather. I guess they weren't kidding when they said they had known Ryan their whole lives.
"How was I to know that you loved dragons so much that you would chase after a rumour as preposterous as that?" Ryan said feigning innocence with a smile ever so wide.
Charles was angry beyond all doubt and looked like he was about to lash out at him. A feeling of nostalgia filled me while my blood began to pump faster. Charles jumped the remaining five steps to deliver a punch to Ryan's perfect face. Rage filled his expression. At the last moment, before the fist came into contact with Ryan's face, he was jerked away from the path of the punch. Charles continued in his inevitable path and landed on the paved compound graving his knees while he tried to brace his fall. I looked back to Ryan and saw a small child had pushed him out of the way with a perfectly delivered spear to the stomach.
"What is wrong with you, Kevin?" Charles screamed at the younger child who had pushed Ryan out of the way. The kid got up and I saw that it was the younger version of me.
"Charles, what is this all about?" younger me asked him. Tears were streaming down Charles' face as younger me asked him the question.
"You'll never understand," Charles yelled before running away, red starting to paint the ground of the yard indicating he was hurt.
"Charles, wait, you're hurt," younger me called back while running after him.
"Just leave me alone," he sniffled and with that the memory dissolved. It was a continuation of what happened after we had been caught spying on the grown-ups. Ryan had lied about having heard that there was a dragon being kept in the room we were forbidden from entering. This had somehow got Charles overjoyed until he found out it was not true at all and that he had been tricked. The five of us were supposed to be playing together at the moment and Ryan along with the girls had been tasked with keeping an eye on the two of us since we were the most troublesome. Ryan had then taken this opportunity to sneak his little lie into his ears.
The memories had finally stopped swirling around in my head and once again I found that I couldn't casually access information like I could when I was in that state. My memories were blocked from me again except for the ones I experienced while I was in that state. I was thankful it had all stopped though. I could now have a peaceful sleep which I craved so dearly now that I felt what it was like to be tired without magic to back you up. In a matter of seconds I feel fast into the black abyss that was unconsciousness without a slither of thought or dreams.
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