Achan felt like he was falling, he opened his eyes to see darkness. He turned his head and saw her, Abalia. Her eyes were closed; her body fell through space beside him. He blinked and found himself in what looked to be a prison cell, she was gone. He heard a beep and saw the doors slide open. As he walked through, suspiciously, he attempted to find her. He looked around and felt a touch on his right shoulder. Stopping dead in his tracks he decided to weigh his options. The quicker the better his instincts told him, turning around suddenly he saw her. Abalia looked to be only ten, maybe even younger; her mind had gone backwards half a decade. Achan found himself there; his much littler sister stared at him as a bit of a smirk played on her lips. "How the...?" He asked, this isn't possible, he yelled in his mind accusingly "How can you-?" Abalia held out her hand, he decided to just shut up and take it. Abalia gave him a satisfied smile before leading him towards the open door labeled ENTER. Just before they reached the door he heard a voice.
"I could easily call to mind the memories of friendship family and having a future. I also remembered the painful memories, the ones of losing everything, and the feeling of failure. At first the memories came rushing in as sketchy fragments. I tried to understand them but it all just seemed like a scratched up movie tape in a cinema." The voice echoed as it did earlier. He looked at the Abalia beside him to see if her lips moved along with them, but they just stood there in an innocent smile. The voice continued, "I need you to understand, Achan."
"How did you know I was here?! Wait, understand what? Why?" he asked, his mind caught in the twists of in inevitable. How could she know? How can she be here and- he thought about it carefully. 'Nope, this definitely isn't possible.'
"My memories, because I can't when I leave." The tone in her voice made him regret asking the question in the first place. "You don't remember, and soon, neither will I." (After they get shot by centaurs they forget everything, they are killed, but if they pass an obstacle in the underworld, Hades lets them go) Her voice sounded solemn, he sensed that she didn't want to say it, she was holding back.
"What? What is it?" he urged.
"Watch my memories, and never let me forget them." She told him sternly. She had given up.
He wanted to ask, to dive in further, but knew time was running out. He wanted those memories, "Alright."
Her voice didn't respond this time. Achan looked down beside him, as he predicted, she was gone. He looked up and saw the door slowly closing; he sprinted towards the light through the open door and made a desperate jump into the center of her mind. The door slammed shut behind him. He blinked and again the image was changed.
"I'm Abalia." He heard her say, but to whom? The image was foggy, yet he managed to find a face; specks of pale skin came into the image, followed by shaggy jet black hair. The boy's light hazel eyes had a unique slant that bore into Achan's memories attempting to summon them. Achan's confusion deepened as he finally saw the face clearly; there was something weirdly comforting in the boy's smile. The more Achan looked at the boy the more he wanted to say he knew him, the boy was getting more famil- Abalia snatched his focus from the boy onto the memories in front of him.
Achan gave into curiosity and decided to inquire of the host. "How old is he?" there was no answer, indefinite silence. 'What's his name?' Achan found that he couldn't speak! His mouth felt sealed by something. What? What is it, Balia?! "A secret" she whispers softly, "My secret."
'Why?!' He tried to scream, but couldn't! Whatever the madness was, he knew he was no longer in control. As his thoughts slowly disintegrated within Abalia's mind, he knew he was out of time. His instincts told him to focus on accepting the memories that were being hurled at him, but he kept part of his mind on the boy, her secret.
As Abalia took full control Achan's puzzlement and curiosity is replaced by an image, an image of Abalia in the past. The boy from earlier, her secret, stood beside her. As the two walked home Achan studied them, they looked to be so young, about the age of the Abalia that he met in the beginning of her mind game. Achan saw her happiness; her freedom overwhelmed her form, and left no room for them to enter.
Achan could see her, his and Abalia's mother, as she closed the car trunk about to carry the groceries into the house. Achan saw how much Abalia resembled their mother. Her hair was a straight dark brown, so dark some mistook it for black. Balia also had her chocolate brown eyes and light brown skin. Their mother spotted Abalia and the boy, and sent a final wave their way. His mother's smile reminded Achan of the feeling he used to feel when the three were together; he banished it as suddenly as it had appeared.
Achan's thoughts were again disturbed, this time due to a deafening sound, followed by a horrid laughter; one Achan was unfortunately familiar with. Achan's mind was clouded by the smoke that surrounded this world, the smoke that surrounded Abalia's mind.
It was as if I was waking from a bad dream and just realized that it was reality. I couldn't keep my mind straight, it all became foggy. I choked on the smoke and couldn't stop the memories. I fought their grasp as they tried to steal me away. The smoke became too much for me, they (the gods) captured me and placed me in the moment. Forcing me to relive this; the pain of my past that began in this moment. My mind was no longer myself; I felt it rewind as I turned back into a child. In these different eyes, these old eyes, I looked up at my house. It was engulfed in flames and my mother was nowhere to be seen.
