Sweet Revenge [sample - now a published book available on Amazon!]

twenty

I storm out of the school and into the car park. Screw attendance, I'm going home. I open my car door and climb into the passenger seat. It's then when I spot him. The man with the scarred face – he's sat in the car next to me. My heart rate accelerates, and the cogs in my brain begin to turn as a memory erupts from darkness.

His hand is cool in mine. "Did you enjoy the theatre, button?" He asks me. I swing our arms and nod my head quickly. We pass an alley way and voices begin to emerge.

"Look who it is." A man with a scar down his face jeers. "Where's my money, Jared?"

"Dan, please, I swear I will get it back to you!" Uncle Jared says, panic in his voice. The scarred man laughs, raising a black object in his hand.

"Wrong answer." And the gun shoots.

I come out from the flashback in a sweat. What was that? Heart rate high, I step on the accelerator and zoom out of the car park. I was right, there was a reason that I recognized the man with the scarred face, Dan. But who is Uncle Jared, and why can't I remember him?

As I pull into my driveway I question whether the flashback was real. It could have just been a figment of my imagination. But it felt so real. I rush into the house to find it as empty as I left it. Thank God. I really don't think I could deal with Kaidan's mood today.

Confusion eats away at me as I consider the flashback. Was it even a flashback? My mind could not have made that up. Unless I'm going crazy. But I'm not going crazy, because Dan is real. Does that mean Uncle Jared is real? My mind reels continuously, and my only resolution is to turn to Google. Not the most reliable of sources, but it might help me all the same.

'Are flashbacks real?'I type into the browser.

A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. Wikipedia reads. A past experience. That means it could have happened, but then why can't I remember it?

My mind immediately flashes to my grandfather, who was diagnosed with dementia when I was six. I barely remember him, and my parents never let me visit him in his care home. They always told me that he was aggressive, and he had no idea who I was.

But I can't have dementia. You're brought up to believe that dementia is something that manifests itself when you're older – hardly something you have to trouble yourself with when you're only seventeen. So, I decide to google 'Forms of memory loss'. My heart leaps in my chest as the first link pops up. I click on it and begin to read the article. It lists several forms of amnesia, such as retrograde, anterograde, transient global and a couple of others that don't apply to me. And then my stomach drops as I reach the last one.

Dissociative amnesia:

Severe trauma or stress can also cause dissociative amnesia. With this condition, your mind rejects thoughts, feelings, or information that you're too overwhelmed to handle.

Trauma. Trauma like seeing someone being shot, like the flashback. It seems far-fetched, but a feeling of dread is pooling in my stomach, telling me that I could be right. I feel my eyes beginning to fill with tears, and suddenly they're cascading down my face, and sobs are racking through my body. How could this have happened? And if it did happen, then have my parents been keeping it from me? Have I been lied to my entire life?

The sound of the door shutting brings me back to the present. I need to talk to my parents, because if they have been lying to me, then they have some serious explaining to do.