Just when I thought I couldn’t stand it any longer, it started to slowly ebb away, and I risked opening my eyes: I was now sprawled over the cold cement floor of a dark warehouse. It was silent, but I knew there was a vile monster made of shadows in there with me, hidden out of sight. It was waiting, lurking and biding its time. “I will tear you to pieces and rip you apart,” the shadows promised in an ominous whisper, and slithered across the floor in my direction. I cried out, startled, and in my hurry to get away from it, I tripped and fell back on the floor.
Then a river of blood crashed through the warehouse’s entrance, flooding inside, painting everything with its dark ruby wetness, slippery slick and unstoppable. I was engulfed by blood, and then the dream changed once again.
I was gasping for air as I found myself standing by the steps leading up to the main house. Something very dangerous was close by. My heart pounded in my chest. I needed to flee, to run up those steps, straight to the top, where I knew I’d be safe, but my feet were rooted to the ground and I couldn’t escape. A blurry dark silhouette loomed over me, ready to strike, and I raised my hands above my head, trying to protect myself. I screamed.
I woke up, struggling out of the sheets in alarm, my hands ablaze. Pieces of my dream merged with reality, and I couldn’t discern what was real and what was not in the shadows of the dark room. I stumbled around, disoriented and in a panic, while the fire continued to burn out of my hands. I tried hard not to touch anything and burn the whole place down.
“Calm down, I’ve got you! You’re safe! I’m here.” Tristan’s strong arms enveloped me, shielding me from the horrors of my nightmare.
“No, I’ll burn you!” I shouted, and struggled against his hold, my hands pressed hard against his chest within his tight embrace.
“Your fire can’t hurt me! It can’t burn me, Joey, calm down!”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry . . .” I sobbed between labored breaths, slumping tiredly against him.
“It’s okay, you’re going to be all right. Everything is going to be fine,” he soothed, cradling me in his arms.
“I-I had a nightmare . . . someone was attacking me, and I woke up like this,” I told him, watching the flames dance on my trembling hands. “This is so crazy . . . Why is it not burning you?”
“I don’t know why, but it can’t hurt me. You need to calm down for it to stop. Can you do that for me? Relax, now, breathe and stay calm.”
We both watched as the flames slowly faded away. I sighed in relief.
“I-I can’t believe I can do this . . . I’m such a freak. I don’t know how you put up with these things when you’re with me.” I gave him an embarrassed look, my hands still trembling a little.
“I have some ‘ghost issues’ that you have to deal with, too, so, you know, it all balances out in the end. I thought I was a freak once because of that, but you told me we’re not freaks, we’re just different.” He held me and rocked me gently, as if we were slow dancing. It felt comforting and oddly calming.
“You’re not a freak, that’s absurd,” I told him, and watched as a soft smile reached his eyes, making small wrinkles appear at the corners. “What’s a guy like you even doing with me? You’re . . . perfect. You could have anyone you want.”
“I told you already, I’m not perfect,” he said gently. “I have my flaws, like anyone else. But I do love you very much. That might be the reason I’m with you.” He leaned closer until our noses were touching, the tips rubbing together in an Eskimo kiss. “As for having anyone I want, I already accomplished that when I put that ring on your finger, my love.”
I smiled, feeling elated, wondering to myself how this amazing man could really be mine. I was enchanted by his gentleness and grace. Without realizing what I was doing, I closed the small distance between our lips. A distant memory of a kiss came back to me at the touch of his lips on mine.
We were wrapped in darkness, while fireworks hung frozen in the sky, and he placed a light feathery kiss on my lips; we were sitting on a stone wall in our school and he was kissing me, as gently and slowly as he was doing now. And then the memories of all our kisses rushed back, one after another, after another, until a last one where we were kissing each other before an ocean view. I was wearing a beautiful white dress and he wore a starling-gray suit. We were both crying as he put a white gold ring on my finger.
“Joey? Are you all right?” I heard him ask, and I leaned back, startled, blinking at his worried face. His thumb brushed softly over my cheeks, wiping away my tears.
“I remember our first kiss . . . all our kisses,” I murmured, watching him in a daze. “I remember our wedding. I remember you.” I cupped his face, my hands no longer trembling. I remembered his flaws, all his secrets, the good and bad in him. I remembered all we’d been through, our life together and also how much I loved him, with all my heart.
“I remember you. All of you.”
“I knew you would,” he whispered in relief. “Welcome back, my love.”
I smiled when he kissed me again. “Hello, Coco Puffs,” I said, the cute nickname I’d once given him finally popping into my head.
“Oi!” he complained, but looked pleased all the same.
I closed my tired eyes as he hugged me tight. My head throbbed, protesting at the overload of information that had returned all in one go. The room seemed to spin, shifting under my feet.
I felt Tristan’s arms pulling me closer, and then a moment later he was carrying me in his arms and I was back in bed, resting.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. But my head hurts a lot.”
“I can almost see your memories spinning inside your head,” he muttered, lying close to me. “Try to get some rest now. You’ve had a long day.”
“I’m so happy that I have you back.”
“Me too, Buttons,” he said, and kissed me. “You have never lost me, though. I’ll always be here for you. I’m also very glad I can kiss you whenever I want again.” And he kissed me one more time to prove it.
“Tris? What if I’d never remembered you? Weren’t you worried, not even a little bit?”
“Honestly? No, I wasn’t. I don’t know why, Joey, but something in my gut tells me we will never forget each other. I suspect that is the reason I lingered in that cemetery for so long . . . I was waiting for you. I know that no matter what storms we have to face, we’ll go through them together. And I know that with you, I can face anything. So, no, I wasn’t worried. I’m a patient guy. I waited for you for years in that cemetery; I could wait again now. I knew it was only a matter of time until you remembered me.”
“I’m so relieved, you have no idea.”
“Do you remember what happened to you, before you lost your memory?”
I frowned in concentration. A lot of memories were coming back, but they were all out of order. I had a bunch of new pieces of the puzzle in my hands, but I still couldn’t see the entire picture.
“I still can’t remember everything . . . the parts of my life with you are all here. But the rest is still a blur.”
“It’s okay. Don’t strain yourself. It will all come back to you sooner or later.” He brushed my hair away from my face. “Hey, does this mean I can break my promise that nothing will happen between us tonight?” he asked, his voice ringing with amusement.
I buried my face in his chest to hide my embarrassment. “Shut up! My memory was temporarily impaired! It’s not funny!”
He pulled me closer, his light chuckle rumbling through his chest. “I’m happy to have my wife back. I was kinda missing her.” He hummed playfully, planting soft light kisses all over my neck. “That forgetful Joey wouldn’t let me get close. I was so gutted!”
I laughed and let him shower me with loving kisses. “Well, good riddance to that Joey. You can kiss me whenever you want and how much you want, starting now.” I kissed him hard to make up for lost time, but then I paused, pushing him away with an upset frown.
“What? What
is it?” he asked.
“I can’t believe you left me behind like a helpless wuss while you went with Celeste to investigate that poltergeist all by yourselves!”
His expression softened and he shook his head, chuckling. “I know. I can’t believe you stayed behind, either! You’ve never done as you’re told before. I was more surprised than you when you obeyed me, believe you me!”
“Well, you better savor that memory, pal. Cos that ain’t gonna happen ever again.”
“I figured as much.”
“Your wife is back, baby. And she’s ready to kick some poltergeist’s butt!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Better Safe than Sorry
“SO YOU REMEMBER everything? Just like that? All he had to do was kiss you and you got all your memories back?” Seth asked, looking slightly bemused, the next morning.
“Well, not everything. I remembered about Tristan, but apart from that, it’s all a big blur. And I still can’t figure out what caused the amnesia . . . but at least the parts of my life with Tristan are all back,” I said happily.
“Just one kiss from the guy and you remembered him. Unbelievable,” Josh mused, shaking his head. “Sometimes, you guys are sickeningly sweet, I swear.”
“You know what they say: true love’s kiss can cure it all,” Tristan stated smugly, wrapping one arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer for a kiss, just to annoy Josh.
“Okay, you can stop now. I’ll get diabetes here at this rate,” he complained, making a face at us, while everybody laughed. Even Rocko yelped from underneath the table, where he was usually found, waiting for scraps and crumbs of breakfast to fall to the ground.
“And your kiss is not curing ‘it all’, pal. She still doesn’t remember us,” Sam grumbled. “How are we going to make her remember us, guys?”
“I think our top priority should be getting these mysterious attacks solved, Sammy,” Tristan said. “Whatever it is that caused her amnesia, it’s still roaming freely out there.”
“Fine. We can make her remember us later, then. Mystery attacks come first.”
“So what are we going to do now to solve these supernatural mysteries? The clock is ticking, dudes,” Harry said.
“I thought you were scared of these things, Harry?” I said.
“Oh, I was. Scared shitless. But now I know supernatural adventures are so freaking cool! It’s like we are in our own scary movie, here,” he said excitedly.
“You realize the idiots are always the first to go in scary movies, right? I’m sure you know that you are our blooming idiot, Harry,” Seth joked.
“What? Pfft, no! Sam’s our idiot, everybody knows that!” Harry laughed. “I’m the eccentric dude, not quite as buff and heroic as the main lead guy, but equally awesome and very likely to be amongst the last ones standing.”
“No way. The crazy eccentric dudes always die early on,” Sam protested. “If I’m dying, you’re going right after me, pal!”
“Okay, guys, no one is dying, here!” I said. Harry poked his tongue out at Sam, who blew a raspberry from the other side of the table. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick of this amnesia! I want to know who did this to me. We need to go to the main house right now and ask Celeste if she’s found out anything new about Craig. Maybe she has some clues that can help us solve this thing.”
“And we can also try to squeeze some things from that fishy kid Simon,” Josh remembered. “He knows about things he’s not telling. I’m still not convinced about the way he ditched those wasps yesterday.”
“All right. But hang on, before we leave, I need to go fetch something. If you’ll all excuse me,” Seth muttered, clearly not pleased to be heading outside into a forest filled with scary supernatural creatures on the loose, wandering free and wreaking havoc all over the place. He returned holding an iron poker that he had retrieved from the fireplace in the living room.
“Okay, we can head out. Now I have some protection,” he said, twirling the metal bar to test his grip on it. “There could be friggin’ wolves out there! I’m not taking any chances. You wanna know who’s likely to survive in horror movies? The guy armed with an iron poker, that’s who.”
Josh gave a shrug and nodded. “Better safe than sorry: that’s what they say, eh?”
“All right, then. Let’s get a move on, guys,” Tristan said, motioning us quickly to the front door. “Are you bringing Rocko, Sam?”
Sam looked hesitantly at the excited dog, who waggled his tail, but after Seth fake-coughed the words “wolf snack”, he decided to let him stay in the cabin. “He’s too young to be a wolf snack,” he said to Harry, who grumbled in reply, “I’m too young to be a wolf snack, too.”
We walked down the graveled road with hurried steps. Seth was in the lead and was still very skittish about being outdoors, wanting to get to the main house as quickly as possible. His grip on the iron poker was firm as he took a strategic position, walking between Tristan and Josh, the strongest blokes of the bunch.
When we stepped inside the main house, we found Celeste in the lobby, arguing over something with a member of the camp staff. There were a lot of people ambling around the entrance hall, since everybody was still on lockdown because of the weird attacks in the camp.
“So you’re telling me we have to cancel the whole Gathering, just because there’s no caretaker at the camp any more?” Celeste was saying when we approached them.
“Unfortunately, yes, Miss Harker. For safety reasons, we can’t continue receiving guests here until we find a replacement. Usually, here at Misty Lake Camp, the caretaker is the one responsible for handling emergencies. If something happens now, we won’t know what to do, whom to call, etc. And it seems a lot of strange things have been happening already. The camp manager isn’t taking any chances. You’ll have to call your reunion off. I’m very sorry,” the man said, and quickly came up with an excuse to skitter away.
“Can you believe this?” Celeste turned to greet us. “We’re going to have to cancel the Gathering! Just because the caretaker is leaving.” She harrumphed.
“Craig is leaving?” I asked in alarm. “He can’t leave!”
“Yeah. I went to his cabin and talked to him yesterday. He said he’d be resigning and leaving today.”
“But did you find anything suspicious in his cabin?” Tristan joined in. “Or is he still saying he doesn’t remember anything?”
“I didn’t find anything, Tristan, sorry. He’s claiming he doesn’t recall what happened before he blacked out, and that he’s leaving to have his head checked over. He’s been having awful migraines since he woke up. I guess his blackout was a bit more serious than Joey’s. How are you feeling, by the way?” she asked me.
“Well, the good news is that I got some of my memories back!” I said triumphantly. “The bad news is I still don’t remember what happened to me on the front steps. We were hoping that maybe you would have discovered a new clue from Craig that could help explain everything . . .”
“No, I got nothing from Craig, sorry. I tried to see if I’d catch anything suspicious in his cabin, but there was nothing out of ordinary in the place. I also couldn’t find any traces of magic there. He kept repeating he didn’t remember a thing. If you’d been there, maybe you would have been able at least to see if he was telling me the truth or not . . .” She sighed in disappointment.
“I can go talk to him one last time before he leaves, and see if I can catch him in a lie,” I proposed in a thoughtful mood. “Do you know when he’s leaving?”
“Oh, well, he said he’d probably be leaving by the end of the day.”
“Okay. We’ve got a little time, then. I’m really sorry about the Gathering cancelation, Celeste.”
“Well, maybe this is for the best. Parents and mentors have been calling non-stop, asking for explanations. Maybe it’s best just to cancel the Gathering this year. Plus, there have been panic outbreaks around the camp the whole time, people running scared, claiming they’ve had w
olf sightings round every damned corner,” she grumbled, looking irritated. “I can’t take another false alarm. I’m serious. The next person that comes running to me with a wolf story is going to have a slap on the back of the neck! Yes! I’m looking at you, Miss Collins!” she berated the blonde girl who was hovering nearby with a group of friends.
“It’s not my fault, Miss Harker! How was I supposed to know that it was a badger? It was tricky to see inside that shrub!”
“It wasn’t a badger, Felicia, I’ve told you already! It was a raccoon! How can you not recognize a raccoon? God!” her older sister grumbled, with an eye roll.
“Well, you all went running off and yelling that it was a damned wolf. I didn’t stick around to check what it really was!” she snapped back. “It was an honest mistake.”
“You see what I have to deal with here?” Celeste complained, rubbing her temples. “They have taken the ‘cry wolf’ tale to a whole new level, I swear. When it is really a wolf, no one will be giving a damn . . .”
“Well, raccoons are kinda dangerous too, right? They can be very aggressive, and I hear some might have rabies,” Seth pointed out, always nervous about any wildlife, no matter how small it turned out to be.
“A tiny, hungry raccoon is not the same as a pack of vicious, snarling wolves, boy,” she argued.
“You have a point, there,” Seth conceded.
“You really don’t remember a wolf attacking you, Joey? It would be very helpful if you could describe it to us. We don’t know if it’s the same wolf showing up in all these places, or if it’s different wolves . . . or no wolf at all,” Celeste said.
“I’m sorry, I really don’t remember, Celeste.”
“Oh, all right. No point complaining about spilled milk, I suppose. We’ll keep everyone inside the main house until this rumpus is resolved. Soon they’ll all be leaving, anyway, so we won’t need to worry about that for much longer.”
“So this means camp’s over? We are leaving, then?” Harry asked.