"This is the boy?" Soren asked, Popsicle hanging from his mouth while he looked over the profile that Issac showed him. "He looks like he has an entire mansion to himself or something."
"His father is Jaria Tuffin," Issac said, holding a bucket of ice cream as he ate with a spoon as big as his head. "So I am guessing that he does have a mansion."
"Who is Jaria Tuffin?" Soren asked, looking at him blankly.
"Tuffin's entertainment?" Issac asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend while biting at the ice cream on the spoon. "The largest film industry in the world?"
"I am just going to nod and pretend like I understand so that I do not look like an idiot," Soren said, nodding his head and smiling.
"Do you know that superhero movie that everyone has been talking about?" he asked, pointing the spoon at him. "That thing about the moth guy?"
"Oh, I know that one!" He grinned at Issac. "I am a big fan. I have all his posters, comics and action figures. Well not all, I need to find one collector's edition from 1916."
"If you know so much about him, why couldn't you tell what the company that made that movie is called?"
"I never paid attention to that." Soren tried to defend himself but Issac only continued to look at him judgmentally. "Never mind, what about them?"
"Well, the problem is that they are all the way in Burfea," Issac said, smiling though it never reached his eye. "So, to talk to him, I have to go to Burfea and then find a way to bring him back here."
"You are not planning on kidnapping the kid are you?" Soren asked, giving Issac a wary look when he turned away from him and did not say a word. "Issac?"
"No kidnapping," Issac said, still not looking at him. "Unless he wants to be kidnapped."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know how it is like in books and movies, the heir of a company is abused by his family and pressured to be perfect. Maybe I will be able to convince him of running away with me to a 'different' life."
"Just because you live a life different from the average human does not mean everyone lives like that." Soren shook his head, chuckling.
"There is still a possibility of that happening." Issac insisted, a little too passionately.
"Why are you so adamant about this?" he asked, staring at him eat another spoon full of ice cream. "I didn't think there was anything you were passionate about."
"I don't know." Issac shrugged. "I am just trying not to dispel the possibility that he may be a typical character in a novel."
"That will only happen if this is a novel, Issac." Soren bit into the last bit of the Popsicle as he stood up to his feet. "Get some rest. It is late. We will decide our course of action tomorrow."
Issac watched him walk away as he paused, "By the way, does your sister know about this?"
"She does." He nodded. "I think you are the only one that doesn't know about this."
"I feel so left out." Soren chuckled, "But I am glad that you told me about this, even if it is late."
"But you don't believe me entirely."
"Does it matter?"
"… I guess not."
He turned to him and smiled, "Goodnight, Issac."
"Goodnight." He said, remaining in the kitchen long after Soren left to sleep in the guest room.
More thoughts running through his mind as he tried to make sense of them all.
Staring at his hands, Issac frowned. I touched Soren several times but I did not see another memory. Is this ability gone?
How did it even come in the first place?
Closing his eyes, he tried to keep them close when the voices and all the memories he saw that day itself began to meld with his own memories.
He was so certain that it was Araya that entered the room in the little house in that painting but all he could see was himself. Not Araya.
Not only that, most of the memories are mixing with each other so much that he could hardly tell one from the other.
When he sees a person's life flash before his eyes, he has to pick a specific memory to remember and all the others disappear.
He did not choose any specific memory for Chester so that is why he forgot everything that happened to him after an hour or two.
That is what he thought anyway.
But that memory from the keypad … that memory is still very vivid, like he saw it only minutes ago.
He pulled out his phone from his pocket and looked over the notes app where he wrote down his observations after experimenting it on his clients.
*1. Can only access memory that the host has access to. So memory loss from PTSD or anything is inaccessible.
2. Can only see the negative memories. The memories that hurt.
3. Can only pick one memory to remember, the others fade away in no time. This applies also to not choosing a memory to remember.
4. No control over what you see in a person's mind.*
Number four is the last point that he wrote that day. Now he added two more, still not very sure with them though.
*5. Can see memories from inanimate objects?? How?? Why??
6. Sometimes can't see the memories even if you touch them. So this happens at random. Again, why?*
He sighed, running his hands through his hair and then poking his empty eye socket to take out the orb inside it. He frowned when he saw something inside the orb that looks a little bit like a seed.
What the hell is this now??
_______________
"Someone wake him up," Araya said, looking over the sleeping body of her brother on the kitchen table, the profile of the boy under him.
"Why don't you do it?" Soren asked, holding a cup of black coffee.
"I am not risking my life just to wake him up." She retorted, going to make herself a cup of coffee. "Zadie, why don't you do it?"
"Sure." She said, walking to him as the two backed away as far as they could. Zadie noticed and raised her eyebrow at them. "What is wrong with you two?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all." The two said quickly but still stood a safe distance from her.
Cautiously, Zadie walked to him and poked at his sides, "Issac. Get up. Issac."
Suddenly, his hands shot out and grabbed hers, twisting it behind her as he attempted to break them.
"Issac! That's Zadie!" Araya shouted, pulling him out of his stupor.
Still a little dazed, Issac stared at Zadie blankly before releasing her, "Sorry about that. Force of habit."
She rubbed her wrist and glared at the two, "So this is why you did not want to wake him up? You could have warned me."
"Sorry," Araya said sheepishly. "He broke my arm once."
"Oh, that sounds hor-"
"So I broke one of his ribs," Araya said, grinning. "You can do that if you ever want to take revenge. He won't mind."
Soren and Zadie looked from Araya to Issac who shrugged, "You can break my rib right now if you want to."
He held his hands out in the gesture of a hug but that was not his intention.
"I would recommend against it." Soren piped in, looking at the wound at his side. "Maybe a punch on his arm would suffice."
"I am not going to hurt an injured man," Zadie said, rubbing her arm as she turned to Araya, annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me that you were injured because of Issac before?"
"You know my healing abilities." She gave her a cat-like grin. "I was better in a day. But I did feel bad for Issac. He had a broken rib for a week or so."
"Only?" Soren asked, walking to the table as Issac began to make his own coffee. "I remember why I took up biology in college now. If I knew that it was just because of an experiment, I would have taken another field."
Zadie and Araya whipped their head to Issac who was busy pouring whipped cream into his cup. Once the whipped cream was almost as tall as him, he finally placed the can down and turned to the two.
"What?"
"Did you tell him?" Araya asked, hands on her hips.
"Just little bits and pieces." He said, shrugging. "I told him more about the wave than I did us. He did not believe me about that."
Araya turned to Soren, disbelief written all over her face. "You believe that our soul is implanted into a ball in our eye more than a wave that takes you to another dimension riddled with creatures?"
"Yeeeesss~?" He said, looking to his left then his right frantically.
Araya's face broke into a smile as soon as he said this and she extended her hand out to him, "High five. Me too."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but not now. I believe him after years of seeing him come back with injures that did not make sense." She paused, thinking. "Like that one time he came back with a claw mark on his back.
"It covered the majority of his back and I could not find any animal that would cause such a large scratch. Also … our father seemed to be interested in this 'other dimension' which got me interested as well."
"I see." Soren nodded. "Even though I don't believe him it does not mean I will not help him."
"Help him with what?" Zadie finally spoke up, drowning the last drops of the coffee. "What is an injured man going to do?"
"That old man sent me on a chase, remember?" Issac said, forgetting about his coffee and just took to eating the whipped cream instead.
"You mean the list he gave you?" Araya asked, "I have never seen what as written there before."
"What about it?" Zadie asked, slamming her hands on the table, excitement dancing in her eyes. "Found the person?"
Issac looked at her dead in the eyes and then said, "Yes. So you can kill me now."