A Broken Truth

14: Memory

When I opened my eyes, I expected to be in the grey room, but I wasn't. Instead, I was in a familiar building. I stood up and looked around. I saw Isaac standing there with a confused look on his face.

"Where are we?" He asked as he looked around.

As I looked around more, I realized why that place was familiar.

I looked at Isaac with a nervous expression, "I-I think...this is my elementary school. But, there's no one here and all the lights are off."

I walked up to the front doors of the school and pulled on the door handles. The doors, however, didn't open.

Locked? Why are they locked?

Isaac glared at me, "Finley, you better start explaining. What is an elementary school? What's its purpose?"

My eyes widened, "You don't have schools? W-well, an elementary school is a place for kids to learn new things."

He tilted his head, "Oh, that seems useful. We have a place similar to that, except we call it training. Anyway, if those doors are locked, how do we get out of here?"

I walked around and found a map in the east hallway. Isaac followed me and looked at the map as well.

I pointed at a classroom, "This classroom has the biggest windows. Since this is a dream, we can break the windows and get out."

Suddenly, we heard a noise. Isaac went from calm to alert and we looked at where the sound came from. All we saw was a dark hallway. The noise gradually became louder.

Footsteps. Who else could be here?

Isaac grabbed my arm and pulled me, "Let's go!"

We ran as fast as we could toward the classroom. Meanwhile, the footsteps grew louder and faster. Whoever was there knew we were there and they were after us. We made it to the classroom and I tried to open it.

Of course it's locked! I'll have to break it down!

Isaac must've had the same idea, or he heard my thought. We both knocked the door down with all our strength. We ran into the classroom. Isaac shattered one of the windows. I expected the classroom to be empty, but there was a little girl. She sat down and colored pictures in a coloring book. I noticed a piece of paper fell out of the coloring book. I picked it up and saw that it was a drawing of mom and dad.

Isaac shouted at me, "Finley, hurry up!"

I looked at Isaac and that's when I noticed.

"I can't hear the footsteps anymore." I said with a shaky voice.

Once he realized the footsteps were gone, he sighed, "You're right. That's a relief."

Good, that means I have time to talk.

I sat across from the little girl and handed her the drawing, "You should keep this close to you. It's important to you, right?"

She put the drawing back in the coloring book and smiled, "Yeah, thank you! If a bully saw it, they would've thrown it away, or ripped it. I'm glad you're not like them."

I smiled, "It's dangerous being different. But, it doesn't have to be that way. We can help people see that it's ok to be different. Bullies are afraid of anything that's different and they're scared of losing power and control. Next time, if someone is mean to you, show them that being different doesn't make you a bully. Your parents are different, just like you. Listen to what they say because they're right. Show them how much you care, ok?"

The little girl looked up at me with wide eyes, "Of course! I love my parents a lot!" She blinked and handed me a tissue, "You're crying. Do you want a tissue?"

I realized that tears were running down my face and I quickly wiped them away in embarrassment, "No, I-I'm fine. Just follow my advice, alright?"

She nodded and smiled, "Of course!"

"Good." I said with a smile.

The little girl vanished, along with the coloring book. I stood up and walked toward the broken window. More tears ran down my face. Isaac blocked the window without saying a word.

I looked up at him in confusion, "Isaac?"

Suddenly, he hugged me. For some reason, that made me cry more and I hugged him back.

Isaac talked to me with a soft voice, "You didn't want to make her sad. You wanted to give her something to hold onto, right? That little girl was you, wasn't she?"

Yes...I wish her future was different.

Isaac smiled, "Well, you're not that little girl anymore and her future is now your past. You have friends now. You have Serena and you have me. Remember that, ok?"

He climbed out of the window. I smiled and stopped crying. I climbed out of the window and once I did, everything went black.

I opened my eyes. I was in reality once again. I had a smile on my face.

Yeah...we're friends. I'll never forget that.