It is there beyond the light
Where darkness grows bright
A whisper in the night
The fated dark sight
How long will this hold?
In a story untold
With linens so old
And moss at the fold
No place is free
For someone like me
With no memory
I have just one plea
With moonlit glow
Through lakes I row
With heart in tow
I’d like to know
Who am I?
~*AK*~
“Are you ready, Miss Kathrine?”
I sit in a chair in a dark dress with
black feathers round the top. The most attractive point is the golden
necklace, which supposedly reflects the color of my eyes. In my hair,
I wear black, blue, green and gold feathers. No shoes have been
provided for my feet.
“Am I to go barefoot?” I ask.
“It’ll be much easier for us to
go quietly,” the grim reaper responds. He wears a black suit and
tie with a red dress shirt. His face is covered in a black mask, set
by red and gold jewels. He wears shoes, but he explains that he can
walk quietly no matter what. “Come,” he commands. Obediently, I
stand and walk forward, placing my hand on his arm. In this way, we
walk to where the Autumn Festival is being held, at the graveyard.
When we arrive, I find no one is
there, not even the faint whisper of a living soul. I open my mouth
to ask about this, but Death places his finger to his lips and shakes
his head. I have no idea what is about to happen, so I decide to
trust him and do just as he says. The breeze blows through my hair,
and seems to whisper in my ear. Without warning, the wind picks up
and I close my eyes to shield them from the sudden gust. Opening my
eyes again, I find that Death has vanished and I am simply alone. No.
Not alone. I turn. There, before me, is the cat with blue eyes.
“You,” I say. “I saw you. I saw
you in that photo of all the actors. Just who are you?”
The cat only remains silent and turns
around and begins to walk away.
“Wait!” I call. I am afraid, yet
I know that if I want to find my friends, this cat is my best bet. It
continues to walk forward, up the hill until it clears the top and
begins going down the other side. I follow it, though I make sure
never to go nearer to or farther from the black cat before me. On the
other side of the hill, the little cat sits upon a rock, and there in
the ground opens up a dark hole. The cat stares at me, unblinking for
a moment or two and then leaps into the hole. “I feel like Alice
from Alice in Wonderland. There better not be a red queen down
there,” I say to myself before jumping in after it.
I land fairly easily, and I find
myself standing in a small tunnel, the cat a few yards ahead. I
continue following it. Strangely, the tunnel is not damp, nor is it
dirty. It is only dark, but not in the least dreary or eery. In fact,
it is almost warm. We walk forward, the cat and I, until the tunnel
opens up into a giant glistening room with candles and draperies
everywhere. In the corner sits a stage with a lone piano. The cat is
nowhere in sight. “What is this place?” I ask myself out loud.
Suddenly, out from behind the curtains and all around me a mass of
people appear and yell, “Surprise!” and I stand there, blinking,
as I see my friends, the grim reaper, the cat, and several other
people that I don’t know, surround me. “You....” I turn to the
cat. “Just who are you?”
The cat blinks and licks it’s lips
before transforming into a handsome young man with jet-black hair and
electric blue eyes. “It’s just like you, Kat,” he says in a
dull, almost bored, voice, “to be able to pick out the true culprit
even when you’re shocked. Today’s your birthday. As we haven’t
seen each other in so long, I thought it would be fun to throw you a
surprise party. Of course, I had to get you here, though. So I had my
friend, the shape-shifter, come to you with a job request that would
eventually lead you here.”
The more I hear the feline speak, the
less frightened I become and, somehow, a feeling of pure annoyance
comes over me. “So the whole thing was just a trick? Even the
story?”
“The story about the girl and boy
dying was true. As was the story of the shape-shifter’s son,”
explains the grim reaper.
“Oh, yeah. And I had to kidnap your
little friend early on, or she would have quickly found the tunnel
with her scanner. After you ran off, I explained everything to your
other friends and they played along as well. Then they told me you
had lost all your memories. I guess there was no point in me worrying
that you would recognize me in the old photo of the actors. The fact
that you can’t remember me was very helpful. Still, the fact you
can’t remember all of our fun and tricks is kind of drab and makes
this party somewhat meaningless to you. Ah, well. You can just leave
if you want.” The werecat folds his arms and begins to walk away.
I feel in my heart a sense of sand
slipping through my fingers and I find myself running forward and
grabbing the cloak on his back. “No,” I say. “Even though I
can’t remember, I can tell that you and I must have been very good
friends in the past. If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear the
stories of what happened between the two of us.”
The cat-man looks back at me with a
surprised look at first and then yawns. “Why would I care about
what happened back then? The past is the past. If you don’t
remember it, we’ll just make new memories together, okay, Kat?”
Suddenly, he puts his arms around my neck and pulls me over to the
food table. “Come on, lets eat. I’m starved. All this surprising
has made me hungry.” I try to get out of his grip, but find it
impossible. The cat just laughed. “Still can’t get free? You
never could, could you? Though I thought you’d be stronger than me
by now. But I guess that’s just the difference between silly little
humans and a werecat.”
“Who cares about cats? I could beat
you, any day, Cato.”
“Did you just call me Cato?”
“Isn’t that your name?”
“Well, yeah, but I never told you
my name.” I stare in surprise. Are my memories coming back? “Silly,
Kat! You haven’t changed a bit! I’m surprised though. You always
hated cats because of me. Now here you are, going around and calling
yourself, “Ally Kat” and acting like a cat.” He yawned and
stretched. “Anyway, enough of this chit-chat. You want some fish
now that you’re a cat like me?”
“Ooh, is there tuna? Gimme!”
“Wow, really? You like fish now
too? You used to hate fish because that’s what I liked.”
“Actually, I really liked all those
things. I just didn’t want to give you the satisfaction.”
“How would you know?”
“I can remember certain feelings
mostly. The more I talk to you now, the more I remember those
feelings I had. I definitely didn’t want you to have any
satisfaction.”
“You’re strange. But that’s
what I always liked about you.”
The two of us continue to eat fish
and chat away about what I can and can’t remember. Meanwhile,
Konrad, Ven and Carumati are having this kind of conversation....
“She looks really happy with him.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her smile like that,” Ven
comments.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen
her smile like that,” Konrad replies.
“Well, she remembered his name on
her own. He was probably someone really important to her in the
past.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if
she decides to leave GWANAN and stay here. He’s obviously the
perfect one to help her find her memories.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Ven
agrees.
“I think you’ve got Ally all
wrong,” Carumati interrupts, leaping onto the statue beside them.
“Huh?” Ven asks.
“Don’t stand on the statue!”
Konrad exclaims.
“I don’t think she would abandon
you guys for someone she knew a long time ago that she can barely
remember. She may be attached to the past, but deep down, she knows
what’s truly important. Watch. My analysis is never wrong. Tomorrow
morning when we leave this place, she’ll come walking on that ship
and she’ll be the one to suggest the next town to go to.”
“Yeah? And what makes you an expert
on Ally Kat all of a sudden?” Konrad asks.
“Women’s intuition!” the little
genius announces.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,”
Kon grumbles.
“Aren’t you a bit young to be
saying those types of things?” Ven asks.
“Never underestimate a genius,”
Carumati replies, throwing her hands in the air and cartwheeling over
to the food table.
“She got us,” Konrad states.
“Indeed. Indeed,” Ven sighs.
The party is full of laughter and
cheer. We mostly dance (as it is a masquerade ball) and Cato and I
try to pull a prank on everyone by telling them we saw a ghost in the
indoor swimming pool. Turns out, Cato only did it to push me into the
pool. The rest of the night consists of much scheming from myself to
get him back. I use a recorder with a dog’s bark make him think a
dog is chasing him at which he runs away in sheer fright (of which
many people snap photos) and I chase him back into the pool room
where he falls into the pool.
We all slept over in the mansion (for
the giant mansion that no one knew who lived in was actually Cato’s
all along) and the next morning, Kon, Ven and Carumati sit in the
airship, waiting for me to come.
“Ally’s late,” Konrad states.
“You’re right,” Ven agrees.
“She probably decided to stay there
with him.”
“Yeah. She could at least tell us,
though.”
“Yeah.”
“You people have no idea, do you. I
guarantee, Ally will walk through that door within the next ten
minutes,” Carumati claims. Nine minutes later, I walk through the
door. “See? Right on time.”
I walk past them all with my head low
so that my hair covers my face. I can’t stop thinking of what
happened last night after most of the guests had left. Thinking about
it makes my ears turn red. I suddenly realize that in the background,
Kon and Ven are both talking to me and asking if I’m okay.
Remembering how I responded, I turn around with a huge smile and say,
“I couldn’t possibly leave you guys! I have too many criminals I
still need to catch and too many lost smiles to make up for. Besides,
if I left, GWANAN would go broke.”
Ven, Kon and Carumati all smile at
each other.
“Aye, aye, captain! Where to next?”
Ven exclaims as he sits down at the wheel.
“Next stop, Pruina!”
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