R.E.birth Read online

  “Hmm. Well, try to not move any more right now. You might lose more blood.” She runs into the bathroom, returning moments later with a few dark towels. Laying them down across the comforter she then eases me onto my back. “You can lay here on my bed and I’ll go tell Mother.”

  I sink into the soft mattress trying not to yelp in pain as she rushes out. Lying there I find it is only a few moments before Ami returns with Agatha.

  “Oh dear. What happened?” Agatha asks, her sweet tone ringing in my ears as she enters the room.

  “He had a fever so I brought him to the bathroom. The next thing I know he’s collapsed in there in pain,” Ami replies.

  “I think my body reacted negatively to seeing a fragment of what happened,” I whisper.

  “We will just leave you here until you feel well enough to move back to the living room,” Agatha tells me.

  “I will watch over him Mother,” Ami offers.

  When I nod weakly Agatha turns and leaves the room. Ami sits down on the bed with her back against the headboard, her legs running parallel to my upper body.

  “I hope you don’t mind if I sit next to you,” she says quietly trying to break the tension.

  “It is your bed after all.” I try not to sound awkward.

  We become silent and soon after that I feel sleep calling me.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Hey! Wake up! Wake up!” I hear her close to my face.

  Upon opening my eyes I find Ami sitting on her knees next to me, gently shaking my shoulder and I have been taken from what seemed to be peaceful sleep. As I open my eyes, I notice the lights are out, and it is dark outside. I feel the warmth of Ami’s hand on my shoulder as she continues to gently shake me.

  “Are you awake?”

  “I am awake. What is wrong?” My voice is a bit raspy and rumbles a little out of its normal range.

  “Who is Drake? Do you know?” She inquires. “You called out his name a few times in your sleep.”

  “Drake?”

  Though I have no residual memory of dreaming I become bewildered as an image comes to mind. I picture a man, six feet tall or greater, with spiky dark red hair. His face is contorted and I cannot tell if he is angry or something else. Dressed in a knight’s armor he wears a black breastplate, along with spiked silver gauntlets, and black grieves. His hazel eyes burn my soul as he stares intensely at me. With two scabbards on his leather belt, one longer and one shorter I wonder if one of the blades within stabbed me.

  “Hey! Are you listening to me?” Ami whispers.

  “What? Sorry, I think I had another reoccurrence. I remember this man, Drake. I think he is the one that stabbed me.” I try to figure out what is going on.

  “Why do you think he might be the one who stabbed you?” Ami inquires.

  “He was eerie, even in my own thoughts. It felt like he was malicious. If he is the one that did this to me he may come back if he finds out I am still among the living.”

  “You don’t have to worry. You’re in our care now and Mother and I will hide you until you are well,” she comforts me.

  “I feel that once I am better I may have to face him again. If he comes looking for me here then I will not hide.”

  “Oh,” her voice has saddened a bit.

  Though it is dark, my eyes have adjusted enough to see that she has bent her head downward more to my face. She seems to be examining me to see if I am all right but she jerks back to a sitting upright position after realizing she was getting kind of close. Returning to her previous position where her legs parallel my body she stays quiet and the only thing left to hear is her breathing. Not knowing if she’s still awake or not I speak a little above a whisper.

  “I hope that my memory returns before he decides to show up so that I will know what I am up against.”

  Closing my eyes again the sleep world calls me.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Having been awoken by daylight pouring in through a window to my left, my eyes flutter open. I attempt to get up and find my body is stiff, but after a little struggling and several small steps I manage to make it to the bathroom without collapsing. Looking in the mirror, staring into my own eyes, I cannot seem to tear my gaze away. I am entranced, searching for any idea of who I am. It is several minutes before I finally break the stare with myself, coming up empty for that one question that I desperately want to know the answer to. When I exit the bathroom back into Ami’s room I find Agatha waiting for me but her demeanor is harsh.

  “What’re you doing out of bed? You want to get better or worse?” She becomes very irate with me even before I can give an answer. “Lie down now!”

  Ami enters and is immediately attacked by the angry Agatha.

  “You slept in the same bed as him last night didn’t you? Just because we’re helping him doesn’t mean you can get friendly with him.” And with that, Ami is slapped again.

  This time I find I have enough strength to stand up to her. Swiftly walking over to Agatha while she readies to strike Ami again I grab her hand from behind and spin her around.

  “What is wrong with you?” I yell out as she attempts to strike me with her other hand. Having learned my lesson from the last time I catch it mid swing. Both of her hands are now locked in my fists I am free to continue. “You have been very kind to care for me, so I apologize for intervening, but I sense there is something seriously wrong here. It is like there are two of you; a gentle and harsh version of you.”

  Agatha’s face literally changes right before my eyes. There are subtle shifts in her face that indicates there is a definite difference in personality, but also in person. It is as if two souls inhabit one body. A surprised Ami lifts her head from the shameful bow she had her head in.

  “Oh dear. This is no good,” Agatha begins.

  Feeling no more hostility from her I let go and she collapses to the ground with her palms to her face and begins weeping heavily.

  “Ami, what is wrong with your mother?” I ask, shaken.

  “This...she...,” Ami starts but becomes too choked up and darts out of the room, shutting the door hard behind her. I want to go after her, but decide I should get some answers from Agatha first.

  “I am sorry for attacking you Agatha. You have been very kind to me, but I find it a little disturbing that you seem to have two very separate personalities with one that gets angry and violent easy,” I kneel down to her level. She continues to weep, but manages to begin talking.

  “It’s a very long story that we wanted to keep quiet so that you wouldn’t become involved. Our situation is confusing and we had though it would be best that you heal and be on your way.”

  “Well I am clearly involved now, so please tell me,” I urge her.

  “My sister had a special ability and when she died in this house it bound us all here. She inhabits this house as a spirit who can take possession of my body. We are at the center of a break in time,” she slows her tears a bit.

  “I do not understand.”

  “We are not from your time.”

  “Not of my time?” I inquire, puzzled.

  “We are considered from your future. You probably hadn’t noticed because of your memory loss and sleeping schedule but we have things modern to our time, which is about two thousand years after the time you come from,” her tears slow. “My sister’s ability was traveling through time and when she died in despair it shook the entire house, sending us spiraling uncontrollably throughout time. Every time we are transported it is a different day, different month, different year, but the same house in the same place.”

  “This is insane. How can such a power exist?” I am completely baffled.

  “We were just as shocked as you at first. My sister had just died and we were in the same place, but everything around us had changed. We weren’t even sure what had happened so we stayed put in the house.”

  Having noticed things seemed a little odd even with my memory loss
I had found things that I just did not recognize or understand, her explanation sheds a little light on my confusion.

  The exterior of the house was first, then the luxurious bathrooms, the fancy kitchen, Ami’s contraption and the instantaneous lighting. All things that I failed to even have a remote hint of knowing. I suppose it makes sense or perhaps no sense at all.

  My mind is spinning trying to take things in that I cannot seem to comprehend.

  “How do you survive if you cannot stay put?” I ask.

  “We were self-sufficient from society in our time. We collect energy from the sun to power the house and we have a plumbing system connected to a large metal container in the ground. We grow most of our own food and what we can’t, we barter for with the locals of whatever time we’re in.”

  “How does one gather energy from the sun?”

  “It’s a very complicated system, but it provides us electricity to power the house.”

  “What is uh-leck-tri-city?” I find my curiosity getting the upper hand of the conversation.

  “That is also a complicated thing to explain. It’s very similar to lightning, but people learned to harness such a power from many different places and put it to use. That lamp has a glass bulb that illuminates when electricity touches it.”

  She reaches over to a night stand and pulls a string attached to an item that I can only describe as a vase-like piece of artwork with some metal brackets and a cloth pyramid that has its top chopped off. Light instantly appears from it and I sit in amazement.

  Overwhelmed, I wonder how I had even come across the house. Then it hits me ever so subtly. I was at the edge of the grassy field when I felt the searing pain shoot through my body. The house was not there, but there was some wind and my vision went blurry. Then when my eyes came back into focus I saw the house. When I tried to walk forward, I collapsed and that is when I heard Ami scream.

  “I am remembering a little. I think I saw your house appear and I bet it scared off my attacker,” I tell her.

  “For you to have been wounded as we were appearing seems like fate. Perhaps this is some sort of destiny for us, so we could save you,” she says looking up.

  I sit quietly trying to take everything in, but as much as I try I just cannot absorb it all. It all seems so unreal that I wonder if this is not some bizarre dream. I drift into my own thoughts, but before long Agatha has called me back.

  “The times that I seem angry aren’t me,” she directs us back to the original conversation. “They’re my sister, Evalyn and I’m sorry for the way she is. She is a very angry individual.”

  “Is there no way for you leave the house, leave her here and let it go on its own?”

  “No, as a consequence of her power Ami and I are bound here with her. We tried a few times to get away but if we are not inside the vortex when the house begins to leave we will be drug back in by an unseen force. Like hands grabbing us, refusing to let us go.”

  “So how long does your house stay in each time?”

  “About a month, give or take a day. We’re nearing the time that it’ll leave your era,” she tells me, her voice very meek.

  I wonder if there is a way to break this curse. Perhaps burn the house? I suppose that is the first thing I would have done, but could I even propose such an idea? To coax these women to burn their house down in an attempt to break this curse would be unthinkable. With no guarantees there are two rational outcomes. It either does not work and they are stuck traveling through time with no house or it frees them and then they would have nowhere to go and I would have nowhere to take them.

  “There is no way out? What about me? Since I am here now, does that mean I am stuck as well?”

  “I don’t think so. In ten years, we’ve had people visit, but we always made sure they were gone before the time came to leave,” she tells me confidently and then pauses for a moment. “I would like to ask a favor.”

  “I am listening,” I reply.

  “Will you help me find a way to stop this curse? Or at least break away from it?”

  “Are you asking me to stay with the house and be bound by the curse?”

  “I believe that’s what fate has brought us together for,” she says with conviction.

  “Considering that I cannot even remember who I am and I am wounded, I do not know if I would be of help or just a burden upon you, but I will contemplate your request,” I tell her. “For now, how about we start one step at a time and go tell Ami that you are you again.”

  “That would be fine. I will search for Ami upstairs and you can search the rooms downstairs.”

  “I would not want to intrude, so I will ask permission now. Are there any restricted doors I should not be opening? Places I should not go?”

  “Please feel free to check all of the rooms.”

  Agatha stands up and then helps me up slowly, trying not to jar my wound open again. We exit Ami’s room to the hallway and Agatha heads for the beginning of the hallway, disappearing around the wall to her left where the stairs are. I walk slowly down the hallway, listening intently for any noise that might give away Ami’s location. The floorboards above me creak as I hear Agatha walk across them. She opens a door, there is silence, and then she closes it and moves on. I follow suit and begin opening doors, starting with the one across from Ami’s room, revealing just a closet with a racks of folded sheets and towels as well as hanging coats.

  Closing that door I move on. Walking further into the dark hallway, only lit by a small rectangular window at the end of it, I begin to hear quiet crying nearby. Listening closely for Ami’s location, I venture forth finding the noise strengthening and I begin opening more doors. I open one door to my left to find a poorly lit room with many sheets over furniture, but the sound is not coming from there. Walking several steps farther down into the hall I open a door to my right and find another bathroom but it too is lacking Ami. Finally I pinpoint that the crying is coming from a room on the right just the next door down. I move to it and knock softly before opening it. It creaks loudly, more than likely alerting Ami to a presence coming in. The sound of sniffling gets louder.

  “Ami?”

  I walk into the room to find a bed fit for a king, large with canopy and white drapes covering it. The room itself is pretty devoid of any color, but the bed’s polished mahogany radiates and makes the walls seem to shine along with it. She is sitting there on the bed with her back against the headboard, knees curled up to her chest and head planted firmly into them. I move into the room and stand at the edge of the bed.

  “Please, let me be,” her voice comes out a little muffled.

  “It is okay now. Your mother is back to normal,” I attempt to comfort her.

  “It’s not okay! I’m stuck here against my will with my stupid Aunt Evalyn who can’t control herself, even as a spirit!” She slows her crying a bit.

  “Your mother told me what is going on and thinks that I was brought here by fate to try to find a way out of here for you both. All of this is very strange to me, but I told her I would at least think on it.”

  “There isn’t enough time for you to find a way to break the curse. We have no power over it and we have no idea what would work, save for maybe burning the house.”

  “Funny you should mention that. I actually had that idea,” I smile jokingly.

  “That’s not funny at all!” She raises her head quickly and gives me a stern look. I hold up my hands to indicate that I was kidding. “We’re going to be leaving your era soon and Mother has never let anyone come with us. Between her and Aunt Evalyn, I have been denied a life of my own.”

  “Who is to say I am not bound here already?”

  “We’ve had guests in the past but none of them were pulled with us.”

  Ami’s looks up and I see that her tears have halted, leaving the stains of streams down her red cheeks. Rubbing the palm of her hand across the bottom of her eyes she attempts to dry her face.

  “Why did you say you’d think about it?
” Ami inquires.

  “I am indebted to you and your mother for saving my life and caring for me. If there is a chance I can repay you I must explore that,” my mouth runs away from me a bit, and I feel I have just committed to their cause.

  I hold my hand out for her to take and she hesitates, but after a few moments she crawls to the edge of the bed and stares up at me with her beautiful blue eyes and they glimmer with a hint of hope in them. Taking my hand Ami pulls herself up, but after finding the footing to stand on her own she realizes our hands are still coupled and quickly releases it. I notice her face flush a little more and she seems to play it off by wiping her face again. Seeing this causes mine to flush also and I turn my face away. Extending my arm toward the door, I let her take the lead out of the room and I close the door behind me. Walking down the hallway to the living room quietly we reach the stairs at the same time Agatha emerges from them.

  “Ami dear, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay Mother. I know it’s not your doing.”

  “Maybe we can figure this out together,” I suggest as I move to the couch.

  Very carefully and slowly I maneuver my body to sit down and think. Agatha smiles weakly at me, acknowledging that I have agreed to her request. When they both disappear through the swinging door into the kitchen noises can be heard, including another door opening and closing. While I rest my back against the couch I process all the confusing information and the request for help.

  I am here, I have no memory, and I do not know if I have anything to go back to. Why should I not help them? Someone tried to kill me and if I leave they could try again, so perhaps I would be safer going wherever they go and leaving the assailant behind.

  Trying to process the information of the mysterious technologies they have brings me to a blank mind for a few minutes. Moving on, it finds something else to think about and I notice that my time being conscious is increasing in duration, and I no longer have a fever. A good sign.