Under The Mistletoe

Down Memory Lane

I wake on Christmas Eve feeling different, with memories that aren't mine. The previous night, I watched a witch I didn't know from anywhere, but whom I've lived with for years, die along with answers to my existence. Afterwards, a glowing white ball escaped her fist and exploded in my face, blinding me. When I woke from it, I felt different, with memories that weren't mine.

Through the witch's eyes, I see a younger me in a dark cloak, asking the witch to make me invisible so that I can return home and rescue my love. She promises to make my cloak invisible if I give her one thing in return. She doesn't say what, but I agree with desperation. Later, she's meeting the king and selling him my memory along with a dark spell in exchange for me and a pardon from execution for using dark magic and creating the ability to steal and sell memories. He accepts.

I wake from the witch's memory and feel that I've imagined it until an unfamiliar voice greets me. I look up and see the same cloak in the memory unhook itself from the wall and approach me. I pass out without question. When I regain consciousness, the cloak is sitting beside me.

It greets me again, and this time, I remain conscious, though I'm scared to my bones. All my years with the witch, I never witnessed the cloak move or be moved from the wall. I'm enraged by the short trip down memory lane, but the witch is already gone to feel my wrath. I wear the cloak and pack a small bag, then head out with one mission in mind: get my memory back.

I arrive at the palace by nightfall and locate the king in his chambers, sleeping next to his queen. I put a knife to his throat, and he awakes suddenly, frightened. He dares me to show myself before I kill him, and he's shocked when I do. The queen wakes at that point and screams, also shocked.

Before I can state my purpose, armed knights storm in. I drop the knife and replace my cloak, then immediately stretch my hand to the king just as the witch had done to me. No one notices at first what's happening, and within seconds, it's over. They see a glowing white ball leave the king and disappear when it reaches me.

The knights rush in my direction, but it's too late. I flee just as the king wakes clueless. I search his memory for mine. It's hidden in a dungeon and guarded by a beast, and I head there nonetheless. I'm disappointed when I cannot enter with my cloak, so I take it off.

The dungeon is dark, scary, and covered in slime. I jump at every sound, sight, or touch, and I'm tempted to go back after each step. I continue cautiously, however, until my legs weaken and my tummy growls. I stop to rest, and a little girl comes out of nowhere and offers bread and water. I grab them from her, but just as I'm about to take a bite of the bread, I stop and wonder how she got there.

When I turn to her, she has transformed into a vicious creature with the head of a dragon and the body of a snake. I scream, and when it comes at me, I splash the water on its face. The creature recoils and drops, then vanishes, leaving a key behind. As soon as I take the next step, I see a locked gate. The key is a perfect match, so I use it. The gate opens, and a white ball glows in the distance.

Relieved, I rush to it but hear loud breathing. The room lights up, and I see a ferocious monster with slime dripping from its fangs. It roars spittle at me, and my heart skips. I'm sure that this is where my life ends. The monster comes at me, but I dodge and run. I trip over the bread and fall, and just when the monster is about to devour me, I reach for the bread and throw it. The bread enters the monster's mouth, and it swallows. It then staggers backwards and crashes to the ground. I take a few seconds to calm down, then run to my memory, and it enters me.

Through my eyes, I'm being addressed by the king. The queen sits beside him and nods to everything he says. He forbids me from seeing a young knight. As a princess and the only child, I'm to marry a prince or at least a nobleman; anyone but a mere knight. I adamantly refuse, and the king asks for the knight to be brought to him. He's the most handsome man ever; young and promising, and adept with the sword. The king strips him of his title and rank and sends him to the dungeon to be imprisoned forever. He then imposes a husband on me, but in response, I throw on my cloak and flee.

I'm shocked when I realise that I'm a princess and at how far my family is willing to keep me away from love. But now that I know that the love of my life is in the dungeon, I must find him. I only hope he would remember me after this long. I turn around and see a man on the floor where the monster had fallen. I turn him over, and it's my knight. Tears betray me, and when they drop on his face, he wakes up.

He smiles and embraces me as if it's been only minutes since we last saw in the palace. He remembers being taken away and my father visiting him, then nothing else. He asks what happened and how long it has been, but it's something I'll explain later. We head out of the dungeon into Christmas but not before I leave my father's memory behind.