Tinted Windows

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"You don't know what you're talking about. Zeldris is your one true-" The Demon King was quickly cut off by another voice in Selene's head.

"Shut up!" The voice yelled to the Demon King. "Selene, I know this is hard but I need you to take a leap of faith." The voice talked in a soft soothing voice. "I need you to let me in, just for a moment."

"How do I know you are trying to help me?" Selene asked out loud leaving Ban perplexed. The voice in her head sighed and gently laughed.

"Do you remember that lake you stopped at?" Selene gasped slightly. "That was where you fell for Ban. Even though I didn't want to admit it at first, that was when I realized just how much I liked him."

"I don't believe you. I would have remembered that."

"I don't blame you. Let me show you." Selene closed her eyes and images flashed through her head. But this memory was different. Different from all of the memories she already had. Even though the new memory short snippets, it felt more real than anything she has ever felt.

Drawing while sneaking glances at the restless Ban beside her. It felt like they were the only ones in the world as they stared up at the stars.

"These are real...These memories are real." Ban still stared at her, trying to make sense of what was going on and Selene ignored him.

"Yes. These are real." The voice answered.

"But about all of my other memories?" Selene waited in silence but didn't get a response. "No, please! I need your help!" Selene snapped out of her trance when she felt someone wrap their arms around her. "I-I don't know..."

"Shhh. It's okay. It's all going to be okay." Ban cut her off. Selene gently shook her head as a few tears streamed down her face. Ban pulled away and wiped her tears that streamed from her green eyes. "Don't cry. We're going to make this right."

"No, we aren't. W-we can't do anything. I don't know who you are and I only have a couple of memories. I have no idea who I am."

"Here. This might help." Ban pulled out her sketchbook from his chest pocket. "This is yours." Selene stared at the cover and gently traced her fingers over the cover. This was the notebook from the memory, just further cementing that it was the truth.

"I...I have to go." Selene quickly walked past Ban. She walked absent-mindedly as she thought about everything that had happened since she woke up. Everything she thought she knew was becoming more and more wrong. Fact was fiction and fiction was fact. But it wasn't that simple. Life isn't just black and white. It would be so simple if it was. If there was just true and false, fact and fiction. But there was the grey in between. The truth in every lie.

Selene snapped out of her trance in a doorway. A doorway she had no memory of but something told her she's been here before. The door was slightly ajar, letting soft light creep into the hall. She gently pushed the door open revealing an apartment. Well, a destroyed apartment. As she took a careful step forward, glass cracked under her feet. Dried puddles of red stained the wooden floor around a large cluster of glass. Papers littered the floor, thrown sloppily around the room. Selene cautiously made her way over to the desk and sat down in the chair.

Surprisingly based on the appearance of the rest of the apartment, the desk was completely empty. The only thing that remained was dried drops of blood.

Selene gently placed the sketchbook on the desk. She flicked through all of the hand-drawn pictures. A soft gasp escaped her lips when she saw the finished drawing from her memory. A beautiful lake with a small waterfall, the soon setting sun, and a blue-haired male. The man stood in front of the lake, throwing a rock into the water. The smooth water had three ripples from where the rock touched.

Selene quickly flipped to an empty page and ripped it out. The only light in the room was the light of the moon so she grabbed a match and lit a candle. The flame illuminated the papers in front of her giving her a small orb of light. She then grabbed the pen from the spine of the book and quickly scribbled a note.

'The new memory is true. Does this mean the girl in my head is really me? If yes, how do I get those memories back.' On a separate note she wrote, 'What about Zeldris? I only have a few memories of him and they don't feel real like this one.' Just thinking about her situation made her heartbreak. She didn't know which was worse. Having the wrong memories or believing the right memories were wrong. She looked through the drawers of her desk and spotted a bottle. A sad smile crept to her face as she pulled out the bottle.

~~~

After a couple of hours, Selene was very intoxicated but had a strange sense of clarity. She was writing as fast as she could on the paper in front of her. She didn't want the information that came back to leave her again. Elizabeth was her best friend. Gilthunder was her brother. It hurt her that she could have forgotten them. She knew the only reason she was remembering was because of the alcohol in her bloodstream. She was writing so intensely, she didn't notice someone at her door.

"Selene, what are you doing?" Ban asked as he stood in the doorway, watching Selene writing in the destroyed room.

"Ban, come here." He slowly walked over to her, shocked she remembered his name. As he got closer he noticed the empty bottle and smelled the alcohol on her breath.

"Are you drunk?"

"Yes but don't scold me just yet. Like last time. You used to scold me for getting drunk!" Selene said, suddenly remembering. She quickly wrote it down on the paper. Ban stared at her incredulously. "Meliodas, Elizabeth, and Diane were making me embarrassed so I got drunk and then you came outside. Do you remember that?"

"Of course I do. But more importantly, you do? How is this possible." Selene shook her head.