The Reaper's Touch

33. 779 Uptown Lane .

"You had a family?"

"Oh, I did. I knew nothing of my own family, but I'd made one that I.." His eyes narrowed as if he were focusing on something that wasn't physically there, "That I was proud of. One I loved and would do anything for."

"I.. I never knew.."

"It's been so, so long."

"Did you.. Were you.." How do I ask something like this.

"Married?" We both said.

I nodded my head sheepishly.

He drew in a breath, seeming to struggle internally for a moment, but released that breath in one word.

One name.

"Emerianaa." The hand that had been stroking my hair now lay across his stomach, his hand flat against his chest as if to his heart.

I didn't know what to say.

His voice was now only a whisper. "It's been so long since I've spoken their names."

Oh, Ezra.

Wait..

"Their?"

Ezra's eyes drifted until they landed on mine. He stared at me as if to analyze-no, as if to speak to me without knowing exactly which words to actually say.

To get me to understand something words wouldn't be able to explain.

"Ezryk. My son."

The bed trembled and I was almost one hundred percent sure that it was me, until I noticed his body quivering.

"If it's too.. painful-"

He scoffed. "I feel no pain, Emberly."

"Of course you do, you-you had a family. A wife. A kid. You love them and it's okay to be in pain, even after all these years."

"How would you know? Hm?"

"I wouldn't. Not yet. But when I get my memories back, you think I won't mourn for the people I didn't even realize I loved at one point?
I cared for at some time in my life? A life I'll forever put them through grief for, because it's gone."

"You honestly can't remember a thing?" It sounded rhetorical, almost like a realization brick had finally smacked him in the face.

"Just.. Eugene. And faces that I don't know, faces I want to. Things I don't understand."

"Eugene."

"Yes, Eugene. I think we were close. A best friend, a cousin, a brother. I loved him, I feel it every time his face comes to mind, but nothing else does. No memories, nothing to tell me why I feel the way I do."

"Eugene." Ezra said again.

I made a face. "Yes, Eugene."

"Emberly, Eugene. Emiall, Em. Jane." His head slightly tilted to the side. "Emerianaa."

"Ezra?"

He turned to face me, eyes widening. "Ezra."

He vanished.