ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 25

Senka freaked out, as much as a ragdoll could. She'd fallen from Sarphi's shoulder and screamed, crawling over to the rock with a look of horror on her stitched face. I didn't know what made my stomach drop to the ground as I looked at the single rock. It could've been mistaken for any other rock, but somehow, I knew that it was the same one we'd passed before. It was a peculiar shape, a triangle with mini triangles darting out of it like small towers.

"Is it any kind of special rock?" I asked, ignoring the screaming doll as I stepped forward, inspecting it. It looked pretty normal to me.

"It might be." Aknon pulled out his book and put yet another ball of light behind a page. "Oh, I don't think there's anything special about it at all."

My shoulders slumped and I glared at the rock. "Then why am I looking at it?" I stood straight and moved my hands to the sides, putting my palms in the air.

"I don't know." Aknon's voice faltered, something which was very unusual for him. "Why are you looking at the rock?"

"Because he was seeing if it was magical," Senka pointed out, stomping over to me and climbing up my clothes. "Because we've seen it before."

"Well, yeah we've seen it before." Sarphi scoffed and shook her head. "If I turn away and then turn back then I'm seeing it twice."

Senka looked at Sarphi like she was crazy, but I was on board with Sarphi. What was so special about a rock? We see loads of them every day, this one isn't so special.

"But we were just talking about how this road feels long." Senka looked each one of us in the eyes, looking for backup. Onyx barked and wagged his tail, but I didn't speak dog.

Even Prin looked confused as she shook her head, taking Sarphi's hand and beginning to walk again.

"I don't know what you're talking about Sen," I said softly and stroked her back with my finger, following after the girls. "We've been walking for like five minutes, there's nothing strange about the rock."

"Other than it looks like a hedgehog or porcupine," Sarphi called back with a laugh. "Nature's weird."

I chuckled and nodded with agreement before turning back to Aknon. "What happened to your leg?" I asked with a confused frown, glancing down at his leg which seemed to have some kind of bandage on it.

He glanced down and furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't know, but it hurts." He bent down and checked his foot.

"Of course it hurts," Senka exclaimed, eyes widening. "You hurt your foot when you fell into the trap."

"A trap? Me?" Aknon scoffed like Sarphi had earlier. "I wouldn't fall for any kind of trap; you're just making stuff up."

"I am not," Senka yelled, far too close to my ear. "There's something wrong here. None of you are making any sense. We've been walking for ages and I'm tired and you all went over to that rock to see if it was the same one, we passed ages ago and now you can't remember why you were trapped earlier." Her voice was a fast ramble. It made no sense to me, and it sounded like a really funny joke.

"I'm pretty sure that I'd remember falling into a trap," Aknon said with a sigh as he leaned forward and patted Senka's head with a single finger. "Come on, let's go." He walked quicker than me, which was impressive with his limp. I wonder how he got that? I didn't believe that Aknon would fall into a trap, he was too smart for that.

"What do you mean? It was when Acer was told they were going to get kidnapped." Senka stomped her foot once again. It looked like she was about to cry, could dolls cry? I think that if any doll could, then it would be Senka. Had I seen her cry before?