Amnesia (Book 1 in The Forgotten Series)

Chapter 4

She ran to shelf to shelf with Nadia by her side. "Look at this one." She had picked up a cat ornament. Dawn stared at it. "Maybe not?" She set the cat ornament back and started looked through the top shelf. Dawn picked up a snow globe, holding it up for her to see. "It's nice, but I thought we were looking for Christmas ornaments." She set the globe back on the shelf and moved closer, crouching.

"So you don't remember us?" She asked suddenly. Dawn paused for a moment and looked up. She nodded.

"No, I don't." She went back to searching through the bottom shelf.

"Oh." Her tone changed. "Everything will be okay though." They searched the shelf silently for a few moments. "You know, we were all close before your accident," the cheerful attitude returned. She looked up, catching a simper on her face."You know, we're sisters."

Dean shouted across the store, "Not blood!" Which got him a nasty glare from Nadia. Curious, Dawn pulled at the fabric of her clothes at an attempt to get her attention though she was already distracted by other things.

"Look at this one!" She snatched an ornament before holding it out. The ornament was two cupcakes held together by a ribbon, their names written in pink frosting on top.

Returning her grin, she replied. "Perfect."

Just as she was about to leave an ornament caught her eye. Seizing the ornament, she rotated it in her hands. It wasn't distinctive or dazzling, but something about the design had magnetism to the point she couldn't put it down. It was just a young child sitting in a dress and bonnet hat, her wings poking out for all to see. The child couldn't have been a few years old, if that.

She showed off the ornament, looking up as she did. "We can get both." Smiling, she stood, and they met Dean at the check out. He eyed what they picked out, and she did the same.

"Why did you get an infant ornament?" He continued to stare at her ornament. Pulling her ornament closer to her body, she observed the tree topped he had chosen.

"I just got attached to it." She tilted her head, motioning to his item. "Why did you chose that?" The tree topper was a glass dome with a wooden base. How does the minature city inside light up? She watched the small structures twinkle inside the dome.

He chuckled. "Touché." The cashier rang up the items and they left the store, where he passed the plastic bag to Dawn. "Where to next?" Slowing down, she tried protecting the items from the busy crowds. A man with a stroller brushed by her. She looked into the stroller and saw a baby girl with black hair and light blue eyes. Raising her gaze, she noticed a scar that cut across the man's cheek.

Freezing, she glanced back, but they had already disappeared in the sea of crowds. A child? She shook her head slightly. No, it's not his child. She stumbled as her vision blurred until reality was disoriented into two distinct perspectives.

An infant wailed bloody murder in the distance. Somethings burning; she looked around, unable to locate the source of the heavy smoke. A heavy metallic aroma had invaded her olfaction with the nauseating odors, making it implacable of her current location. Am I still at the shopping center? Her head was starting to pound as her eyesight started cleared up. She blinked, and once again stood in the middle of a hustling crowd of strangers. What was that? Wiping the back of her palms on her jeans, she looked around, letting out a relieved sigh. What a nightmare.

He wasn't the one who noticed that she was no longer behind them. Nor was he the one shouting out her name. He wasn't even the one pushing and running through the crowds to find her. Though he was the one who found her in the hectic crowd, standing in the middle of the path with this expression on her face he couldn't forget. The expression was past consternation, her face was the look of someone who ran into Death.

Nadia ran up right behind him but he hardly noticed. He snapped his fingers in front of her face but her eyes remained wide and unblinking. "Sorry about this." He heard her over his racing heart. She stepped closer and raised her arm back, and before he could register what was happening, watched her hand connect.

Dawn blinked and started looking around in a daze, as if not quite sure where she was. No mark had shown on her cheek yet, and he doubted with Nadia that she would have left one on her. If it had been anyone else, maybe it would be a different story. Dawn looked around after wiping the back of her palms on her jeans and let out a soft sigh loud enough for the two to hear. "What happened?"

Dawn made eye contact with Nadia and replied with her own question. "What happened to me?"

"What do you mean?" She tried moving closer towards her, which resulted in her flinching and stepping back.

"What," Dawn paused, the look back in her eyes. "What happened that I can't remember?" Oh, Dawn. That's such a long story. Since that day he had been suppressing the accident in the back of his head. Now he was forced to face what was was in front of him. He eyed the fresh, multiple scars that started becoming obvious, doubting the pain had returned since leaving the hospital on that day.

"You were in an accident." Nadia summarized what he had been thinking. "A car wreck." Dawn was looking back at her, her eyes slowly widening. Nadia glanced over to him from the corner of her eye. "You were injured badly and lost your memory." Dean nodded slightly. That about wraps things up in a nutshell.

Dawn had grown ashen in a matter of seconds. She reached up and put a hand over the ridiculously minature bow and gulped. "You okay?" Nadia placed a hand on her shoulder without getting a reaction. Dawn smiled weakly, nodding, before leaning in and whispering in her ear. She broke out into a grin before replying, "That would be nice."