CHAPTER ELEVEN : THE FIRST MEMORY
1781 Words
Elena didn't sleep.
She remained in front of the mirror until the sky outside began to brighten.
She kept waiting for her reflection to change again.
It didn't.
Her eyes remained brown.
Her face remained hers.
Nothing supernatural happened.
And somehow, that made everything worse.
Because now Elena knew that whatever had happened hadn't been a dream.
She had seen herself change.
She had heard the voice.
And she had heard those two words.
Not yet.
She touched the mirror.
Cold glass met her fingertips.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
Her reflection stared back.
Elena lowered her hand.
"Who am I?"
Nothing.
She turned away.
On her desk, the photographs from the previous night were still scattered everywhere.
She began putting them away.
One by one.
Until she reached the photograph from when she was seventeen.
The one where her eyes had appeared golden.
She held it closer.
Something was different.
The reflection in the photograph wasn't looking at the camera.
It was looking directly at her.
Elena's stomach tightened.
She turned the photograph over.
There was writing on the back.
She hadn't noticed it before.
The first memory will come when she sees what she once knew.
Elena read it twice.
Then a third time.
"What does that mean?"
A soft knock came from her door.
She quickly turned the photograph over.
"Elena?"
Her mother's voice.
"Come in."
Miriam entered.
She looked tired.
"You didn't sleep."
"Neither did you."
Miriam smiled faintly.
"Mother's intuition."
Elena looked at her.
"Mom."
"Yes?"
"Did I ever have an imaginary friend?"
Miriam's smile disappeared.
"Why?"
"Just answer me."
Miriam sat on the edge of the bed.
"When you were little, you used to talk to someone."
Elena's heart began beating faster.
"Someone?"
"A girl."
"What was her name?"
"You never told us."
"What did she look like?"
Miriam hesitated.
"She had white hair."
Elena went still.
"And golden eyes."
Miriam looked at her.
"Yes."
Elena slowly sat down.
"How old was I?"
"About five."
"What did she say?"
"She told you stories."
"What stories?"
Miriam looked toward the window.
"About a place with golden towers."
Elena's breathing became shallow.
"Heaven?"
"I don't know."
"What did I call her?"
Miriam frowned.
"You never called her by a name."
"Then how did I know her?"
"I don't know."
Elena looked down at the photograph.
"Did I ever draw her?"
Miriam's eyes widened.
"You did."
"Where?"
"I kept some of them."
"Where?"
Miriam stood.
"Come with me."
---
They went into the attic.
The room smelled of dust and old wood.
Miriam opened several boxes.
Elena watched her carefully.
Finally, she found a small wooden container.
She placed it on the floor.
Inside were drawings.
Dozens.
Elena crouched beside them.
The first showed a little girl standing beneath a golden sky.
The second showed a city surrounded by enormous walls.
The third showed a woman with six wings.
The fourth showed a bright figure standing above the woman.
Elena looked at the drawing.
"Who's this?"
Miriam shook her head.
"You never explained."
Elena picked up another.
It showed the same figure.
But this time, the figure was surrounded by stars.
Beneath it, Elena had written something in childish handwriting.
The Father of Light.
Elena stared.
"Did I write this?"
"Yes."
"What did I mean?"
"I don't know."
She picked up another drawing.
This one showed herself.
Except she wasn't entirely human.
Six golden wings extended behind her.
She wore a long white dress.
Above her was the same immense light.
Elena's fingers trembled.
At the bottom of the page was a sentence.
I have to go home one day.
Elena looked at her mother.
"I wrote this when I was five?"
"Yes."
"I don't remember any of this."
"I know."
Elena turned the drawing over.
A date was written on the back.
June 17.
Twenty years ago.
The same date as her birth.
Elena stared.
"Mom."
"Yes?"
"Why did I stop drawing them?"
Miriam's eyes filled with tears.
"Because after your fifth birthday, you forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"The girl."
Elena's chest tightened.
"How?"
"We don't know."
Miriam sat beside her.
"You woke up one morning and said you'd never seen her."
"But I had."
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Miriam shook her head.
"That was the first time we realized something was protecting your memories."
Elena looked at her.
"Protecting them?"
"Or hiding them."
---
Later that afternoon, Elena sat alone in the attic.
The drawings surrounded her.
She couldn't stop looking at them.
She had been drawing the same things since she was a child.
Golden cities.
Winged beings.
A woman with six wings.
A vast light.
A place she had never consciously visited.
Yet somehow, her five-year-old self had remembered it.
Elena closed her eyes.
She tried to force herself to remember.
Nothing.
Then—
A sound.
Children laughing.
Elena opened her eyes.
The attic was empty.
She closed them again.
The sound returned.
Laughter.
A soft breeze.
Birds.
Then a child's voice.
"You're back."
Elena's heart stopped.
She opened her eyes.
She was no longer in the attic.
She was standing in a meadow.
Golden flowers covered the ground.
A river of light flowed through the distance.
She looked down.
She was five years old.
A little girl stood in front of her.
White hair.
Golden eyes.
Six wings.
Elena's breath caught.
The girl smiled.
"You remembered."
Elena stared at her.
"Who are you?"
The girl laughed.
"You always ask that."
"Do I know you?"
"Of course."
"What's your name?"
The girl pointed toward the sky.
"Look."
Elena looked up.
A brilliant light filled the heavens.
She felt warmth.
Peace.
Love.
Something beyond anything she had ever experienced.
Then the girl whispered:
"He made you."
"Who?"
"The Most High."
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"Why?"
"Because you were needed."
"Where?"
"Here."
The little girl touched Elena's chest.
"On Earth."
Elena looked around.
"Why?"
"Because there are people who need healing."
"Can I go home?"
The girl's expression softened.
"One day."
"When?"
"When you remember."
Elena frowned.
"Remember what?"
The girl smiled.
"Your name."
The vision shattered.
---
Elena woke on the attic floor.
Her mother was beside her.
"Elena!"
She sat up.
"What happened?"
"You collapsed."
Elena touched her face.
She was crying.
"Mom."
"Yes?"
"I remember."
Miriam froze.
"What?"
"The girl."
Miriam's face changed.
"What did she say?"
Elena looked at her.
"She said the Most High created me."
Miriam's eyes filled with tears.
"Elena..."
"She said I was needed on Earth."
Miriam covered her mouth.
"And she said I'd go home one day."
Miriam sat beside her.
"Maybe you were remembering something from before."
"Before what?"
"Before you were born."
Elena stared at her.
"Is that possible?"
"I don't know."
"But the angels do."
Miriam nodded slowly.
"Perhaps."
Elena looked at the drawings.
"The girl was real."
"How do you know?"
"Because I remember how she felt."
Miriam didn't answer.
Elena picked up the drawing of the six-winged woman.
"This isn't the woman I've been seeing."
Miriam looked at her.
"What?"
"The real one."
She traced the child's drawing.
"She was kind."
"How do you know?"
"Because I remember her."
Elena's voice softened.
"She loved me."
---
That evening, Elena went for a walk.
She needed air.
The city was beginning to darken.
People moved around her.
Cars passed.
Children played.
Couples walked hand in hand.
Everything looked ordinary.
But Elena no longer felt ordinary.
She knew there was something inside her.
Something ancient.
Something beautiful.
Something she didn't yet understand.
She stopped at a small park.
A little girl was sitting alone beneath a tree.
She looked about five years old.
Elena smiled.
"Are you okay?"
The girl looked up.
Her eyes were golden.
Elena froze.
The girl smiled.
"You remembered."
Elena's heart stopped.
"What?"
The girl's eyes returned to brown.
She laughed.
"My mother says I have funny eyes."
A woman called from across the park.
"Amara!"
The little girl stood.
"I'm coming!"
She ran away.
Elena remained beneath the tree.
Her heart was pounding.
Had she imagined it?
Perhaps.
Then she looked down.
A small golden flower was lying at her feet.
The same kind she had seen in the vision.
Elena picked it up.
It glowed faintly.
She whispered:
"Aurelia."
The flower opened.
Inside was a tiny golden light.
It rose into the air.
Then disappeared.
---
That night, Seraphiel stood before the gates of Heaven.
Another angel approached.
"She remembers the first memory."
Seraphiel nodded.
"Only a fragment."
"But it's enough."
"Yes."
"Should we tell the Most High?"
Seraphiel looked toward the immense light beyond the gates.
"He already knows."
The angel lowered his head.
"Of course."
Seraphiel looked toward Earth.
"The first memory has returned."
"And the next?"
"Will be harder."
"Why?"
Seraphiel's expression became serious.
"Because the next memory is the one someone has been trying to erase."
---
Far beneath the earth, in a place where no sunlight had ever reached, the false six-winged woman opened her eyes.
She felt it.
The memory.
The connection.
The first crack in the barrier.
She clenched her fists.
"No."
A dark figure stood behind her.
"You failed."
She turned.
"I didn't fail."
"She remembered."
"Only a fragment."
"That was not supposed to happen."
The woman's borrowed face began to distort.
"Then we'll give her something else to remember."
The figure stepped closer.
"What?"
The woman smiled.
"Her greatest fear."
---
Elena slept peacefully for the first time in weeks.
But sometime after midnight, she began dreaming.
She was standing in the same golden meadow.
The real six-winged woman stood before her.
This time, she wasn't alone.
Behind her stood hundreds of celestial beings.
And above them all was an overwhelming light.
Elena felt herself crying.
The woman reached for her hand.
"You have been away for a long time."
Elena whispered:
"Who am I?"
The woman smiled.
Then she spoke a name.
Not Elena.
Not Aurelia.
A name Elena had never heard.
A name that made the entire realm tremble.
Elena woke before she could hear it clearly.
She sat upright.
Her room was dark.
Her heart raced.
She looked at her palm.
Nothing.
Then she heard a whisper beside her.
The false woman's voice.
"You should have stayed forgotten."
Elena turned.
The room was empty.
But on the wall, written in golden light, were five words:
YOUR NEXT MEMORY WILL HURT.
Elena stared at them.
And for the first time since the strange events began, she understood something.
The creature wasn't simply trying to deceive her anymore.
It was afraid.
Afraid of what Elena might remember.
And somewhere beyond the veil, Heaven was waiting quietly for the moment she finally remembered why she had been sent to Earth.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD