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The Fate of Alchemy - The Donnavi Prophecy - Chapter Four: Five Years
Welcome to the fourth chapter of The Fate of Alchemy! If you haven't read the first three, you'll want to do that, before going on this one. Can you believe I got this chapter out nine days after the last? That's a first! Well, I had to make up for two months of abscence, after my computer problems.
Note: For your viewing pleasure, I have left some of the pictures at the beginning, relativly detailed. Just bear in mind that what appears on the screen isn't actually what Bella sees.
Previously: Bella starts building a new life in Strangetown. She buys a house and starts a youth association, in the hope to give her children a better future. The day of her move in, she goes into labor, surrounded by all her friends.
And now, chapter 4, enjoy!
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Bella stood in her bedroom adjusting her make-up and arranging her hair. The person staring at her from the other side of the mirror had surely changed since she’d first arrived in Strangetown. Long dark hair, which was now voluminous and graceful instead of being short and uneven, now rested on her shoulders. Her face no longer bore the signs of her alien abduction, and was now pink and full and perfected. Of course, she was no longer pregnant, and her body had surprisingly well recovered from it, so that you could hardly tell Bella had ever carried children. Indeed, Bella was no longer the same as she had first been upon arrival, for today was her fifth anniversary of living in Strangetown.
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After moving into her own home, just eight months after having arrived, Bella gave birth to two daughters, Iris and Hermione. They had inherited her dark hair and hazel eyes, but their skin was fairer than hers and Bella liked to think they held that feature from Mortimer. Raising twins had not been an easy task, especially by herself. Had her friends not been there to help her in the hard times, Bella didn’t know if she would have made it alone. But thankfully, the Smiths, Nervous and Jack had acted as a very large parental team for the girls, who had a couple of aunts and many uncles of heart.
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Through the years, Jack had continued to be a great friend. Bella and he had spent a lot of time together, and developed a bond over their alien abductions. Jack still knew very little of his past, for he had not had the privilege of coming with a journal. All he’d had was his wallet, which he now kept safe in his home like a relic of some sorts. He knew his name thanks to a few cards and a driver’s license, and also had a picture of a woman, who he still couldn’t remember.
Jack had been very helpful in getting Bella on her feet and guiding her towards a stable life. It was with his help that she’d been able to create her youth association in the first place, which had ended up being a total success.
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Indeed, if reception had been good from the start, but as time passed, the Strangers only seemed to like the idea more and more. Sending your kids to YOUNG for the afternoon was now generalized normalcy in Strangetown and Bella couldn’t be more pleased to look after all the young children everyday. With the success of the association she’d been able to buy more material, to offer interesting and varied activities to the kids over the years. The walls of her house, which had once been beige and clean, were now covered with chalk and paint drawings the kids had made. Bella loved her house, which really reflected her whole life here, and always focused on giving the most she could to the kids.
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A very practical aspect of the association was that it allowed her to raise kids and work at the same time. Since the association was centered on youth, it hadn’t been a trouble having the girls around her, as she took care of all the other children. Iris and Hermione participated in the activities just like all the others, though Bella made sure to show them some extra affection when they were alone at home. She didn’t want them to think they meant just as much as any other children to her eyes.
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The twins had become friends with Astra over the years, due to their parents’ closeness. Another, more recent addition to their little group of friends was Indra, Vicund’s son. Indeed, almost two years after Bella’s arrival in Strangetown, Vicund had, in turn, been abducted by aliens and had returned pregnant. With two alien children under their roof, and already such little space, the Curious brothers had needed to build an extra floor to their small lab-house to be able to raise their kids properly. They had asked Bella for help, when they chose to rearrange their house, so that Astra and Indra could grow up in a proper and safe environment.
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Lazlo, for his part, had yet to be abducted by aliens, though it didn’t seem to be on his priority list at the moment. He had been dating a young girl by the name of Crystal for several years and had eventually proposed to her. They had recently been wed and were now enjoying their new life as husband and wife. They continued to live with Vicund and Pascal, because the Curious brothers worked so close together, that being separated was not an option they could consider. Bella felt Crystal sometimes wished Lazlo and she could have a house of their own, though it didn’t seem to be a motive for big fights.
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But Lazlo and Crystal weren’t the only ones getting married. After graduating from college the previous year, Johnny had proposed to Ophelia, who he’d been dating since they were teenagers. They had yet to decide on a date and didn’t have any direct plans so far, but for now, they were already glad to commit to each other’s love through this engagement. They had moved to a small home of their own and Johnny had started working in a chemistry lab at La Fiesta Tech, while Ophelia had found a job in the psychology department.
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Nervous had also graduated from college with a mathematics degree and had started working in computing. He also came to help out at the youth association at least once a week, to entertain the kids. Bella and he had kept close bonds over the years and had mutually helped each other rebuild their lives. Circe had been right in saying Nervous would make more predictions, being exposed to more people. He regularly would have a memory gap during which he would say something that would turn out being true. No one had come to explain how or why he could do this and eventually, people came to accept his odd power, just like all the other strange things that happened in this town.
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Even Bella, who had been so intrigued to know about Nervous’ prediction, had now come to regard it as something normal that just happened. His predictions were odd, because in them, he said things he wouldn’t normally have known. However, they never announced catastrophes or great danger – except for the one he’d made to Bella – so they weren’t much to worry about.
Even though she hadn’t given up on finding her past, Bella had put her search for it on hold, at least temporarily, because managing a life in Strangetown, while raising children, left her very little free time, and didn’t allow her to go investigating for potential answer like she had done at first.
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Iris and Hermione had been the last sign from Bella’s past, reminding her there was a family out there, waiting for them. Though they had brought her hope, they had not provided her with any more answers. Therapy had not been very productive in memories in the past five years, either. Bella had hardly remembered anything real, just some feelings or flashes of scenes that made no sense standing alone. At first, she had been disappointed hypnotherapy only came once a month, wanting more answers right away. But as time passed, even one session a month was more of a burden, than a release for Bella.
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Hypnotherapy was difficult, uncomfortable and rarely brought her anything. How many times had she seen the white room with the wrought iron stairs? She still hadn’t managed to get at the top of the high one, though she had noticed that with time, she’d been able to get higher. Thankfully, the doctors tried other exercises in hypnotherapy, that didn’t bring her in the white room, such as reading one of her journal entries while she was under the effect of the drugs, though these weren’t any more productive. Bella wasn’t the only one having problems in hypnotherapy: everyone in the group of abduction victims seemed to be struggling to get answers out of it, though they had all been able to see it had potential at some point.
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Reading journal entries had been easier, probably because they actually told her what had happened. The downside was that even though Bella knew what it was saying was the truth, it didn’t help her actually remember anything. She was sometimes confused as to whether she knew things to be true or whether she was just imagining them, based on what she had read in the journal. Indeed, in five years she had read many entries and, in fact, she had already finished reading the journal 2 years before. So, she had learned quite a lot about her past, though she didn’t actually remember it. The doctors had allowed her to take the journal home once she’d finished it, so that she could read it again, as much as she pleased.
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She knew much more now about her past life than she first had. It seemed she had written quite a lot about Mortimer’s work. Indeed, it turned out that Bella wasn’t married to just any scientist, but to a very successful and recognized one. Apparently, Mortimer had led some very large projects and had brought fruitful results, helping the scientist community progress. One of the most intriguing and bizarre projects he’d been working on, shortly before Bella was abducted was the creation of an Elixir of Life, to make man younger. It sounded quite crazy, but it seemed like it was the object of serious research in Mortimer’s lab. As if such an idea wasn’t already bizarre – and arrogant – enough, Bella had reported, near the end of the journal, that he had completed a temporary version, and that he was trying to get a permanent one. The temporary version was described as a rejuvenating elixir, which “only” slowed down the ageing process.
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Several times, she noticed she seemed to worry that Mortimer was spending too much time working on his projects.
She had also learned more about her children. Alexander had turned nine years old, just before Bella was abducted, so he was now fourteen. She hated to think there was a little boy who had now turned into a teenager, and she didn’t really know who he was, or how to get back to him, even though she was his mother. In her journal, she had written that Alexander was a bright boy, who brought home good grades. She expressed her fears as to how she felt he didn’t have any stable friendships, and that he had a tendency to spend more time with adults than with his peers.
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Indeed, Alexander’s sister, Cassandra, was seventeen years older than him (making her now thirty-one years old), so Bella reasoned the young boy was so mature, because he was constantly surrounded by adults. Bella had been surprised to see the wide age gap between her two children. She had had Cassandra when she was only twenty years old, while Alexander was born, when Bella was thirty-seven. Thankfully, Cassandra had not followed her mother’s steps, so Bella was not yet a grandmother.
Apparently, Mortimer and she were childhood friends and had been together since their teenage years. This information had surprised her, when she had been so sure Michael was her high school sweetheart, at first.
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Actually, Michael was Bella’s brother and he was twelve years older than her… or at least he had been. Indeed, about a year after she read her first journal entry, Bella came across another one, which had deeply pained her. It had read that Dina had called to announce Michael’s death, because of a heart attack brought on by the stress of a burglary. It had left Bella with no more siblings or parents. Even though he had already been dead for almost two years by the time she read it, Bella felt loss of a brother she couldn’t remember. She had imagined this ideal and large family waiting for her at home, and was now discovering a part of it was dead. She had started having fears that she might later find out other people she’d grown attached to through the pages were dead. Thankfully, she reached the end of the journal without another death, though she still did fear, every now and then, that another death could have occurred, in the five years she’d been away.
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However, the journal didn’t bring her only bad news. One interesting development to follow in her journal had been the start of her relationship with Don, after the New Year’s party. Bella had, in fact, kept to her resolution to befriend him and Don continually reappeared throughout the entries. Bella realized her initial feeling that she was attracted to him may have been wrong after all. Don was quite young, and when she read about her love for Mortimer, it seemed too genuine, for her to be attracted by another man. Eventually, Bella was surprised to see a romantic relationship develop between Don and her daughter, Cassandra.
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It seemed Cassandra and Don had started dating a few months before Bella was abducted. In the journal, Bella had written how she was afraid Don would break Cassandra’s heart. As good a friend as he was, Don seemed to have gained a Casanova reputation in the neighborhood. Mortimer formally disapproved of the relationship, and hadn’t hid his distaste for Don. It was a normal paternal instinct to feel he would use Cassandra like an object, steal her from her innocence and then throw her away like an old tissue. Bella had also feared this could happen, but she hadn’t expressed her concerns to Cassandra. She felt her daughter was old enough to make her own decisions when it came to love, even if they were the wrong ones. Also, Bella had met Don before he started dating Cassandra, and knew he had a very friendly and caring side in him, despite the tough urban player image he sometimes tried to give himself.
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Bella had no idea how their relationship had evolved since she’d left; whether Don had indeed broken Cassandra’s heart or whether they were still together, even today. Bella wasn’t sure what her opinion was about the situation. From what she’d read, Don did seem to be somewhat arrogant and flirtatious, though he also seemed to have a very positive and good side. She hoped that whatever had happened, Cassandra had listened to her heart. When she had disappeared, her daughter was still a young adult, still living with her parents and starting her life. Now, she was a full adult, and many things had surely changed in the past five years. It tore Bella apart to think her children were experiencing so much in their lives, and she wasn’t even there; she couldn’t even remember them. Even though she had no memory of them, she still loved them, knowing they were her own flesh and blood. Maybe she had, at least, been able to remember her love for them.
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Her journal also gave her a lot of information about the place she had once lived in and the people she had known. Her hometown was called Pleasantview, though she hadn’t been able to find any sign of it anywhere in Strangetown documentation; apparently, it was quite a small town. From what she’d gathered, Bella had lived in Pleasantview all her life and had met Mortimer at a very young age. It seemed their parents had known each other from before they were born.
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She had found more information about Cassandra’s friend, Mary-Sue. She had been adopted by two of Bella’s friends, Coral and Herb Oldie, and originally came from Asia. Cassandra and she had met through their parents and had developed a close relationship since childhood, having only two years of difference in age. At the age of nineteen, Mary-Sue started dating and fell in love with Daniel Pleasant, a famous sports player, who was over ten years older than she was. Apparently it had been seen as a modern fairy tale and they had been married quickly. Cassandra had been Mary-Sue’s maid of honor in a very glamorous wedding.
It seemed however that the marriage had been rushed, and that Mary-Sue and Daniel weren’t really in a committed love. Perhaps in an attempt to save it, they had decided to have a child. Their pregnancy resulted in two twins, Angela and Lilith.
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Despite having children, it was now one of the unsaid things on the street that the Pleasant couple was no longer in real love and that they just stayed together for the sake of keeping a family and a good image. Their daughters had grown to be complete opposites, though for the same reason: they wanted their parents to notice them. Angela had turned into a very socialite girl, with good grades and a perfect attitude. Lilith on the other hand had grown distant and sad, trying to attract her parents’ attention by rebelling against them.
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Bella’s journal had also provided her with more information about Dina, Michael’s widow. After her husband’s death, Dina had moved out of Pleasantview, not able to afford living there on her own anymore. She had returned to “the city” – wherever that was – to live with her sister Nina. She hadn’t heard of her anymore throughout a large part of the journal (apparently she’d been quick to get her off her mind) though Dina had reappeared, strangely enough, in the last entry of the journal. In fact the last entry had been intriguing in more than one way for Bella. It had read:
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“Saturday July 21st 2001
What a day it has been! I honestly don’t think it could get any worse. Of all things, Dina moved back to town today! That’s right, none other than Dina Caliente, the old witch. Of course, the first thing the ice queen decided to do was to come by with her clone sister, Nina, and offer us some cake. I don’t know what she thought she was playing at. The moment she entered, she started acting all girly around Morti, giggling at everything he said, as if she were a teenager. I don’t know what in her immaturity made her decide to annoy me so, today. Obviously, like any man worth his salt, Mortimer felt flattered by the Barbie doll smiling at him. Whatever her motives, I’m just hoping she has the good sense to keep away now. I can fake smiles and pretend to catch up with ‘family’ once, but I won’t keep this up very long if she does, and I’ll be quick to give her my opinion.
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Nina looked like some kind of redhead vegetable, completely inappropriate and out of context. Though I can maybe try to understand the foolish and immature reason Dina may have wanted to bug us, I can’t even guess what Nina was doing in my house today other than acting as her sister’s gal pal. They both disgust me. Thankfully, Don invited me for some stargazing tonight. That’ll surely take my mind off things. I’m just going to have something to eat and then I’ll go and join him. Thank the heavens for clear skies; at least the day won’t have been a complete waste.
Bella”
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Bella wondered what had happened at Don’s house and, whether she had ever come home. And she couldn’t help but notice the coincidence of Dina’s return to Pleasantview, with her abduction in the same day. Dina didn’t seem like a good person, and she sure hoped she hadn’t bothered her family anymore, while she’d been away.
In general, one of the things that had struck Bella most about her journal was that, while it seemed rich in stories and gossip about the whole neighborhood, it talked very little about her. Did she have such a shallow life that she only ever lived vicariously, or was her journal just not the kind of place she talked about what happened to her? Bella sometimes couldn’t help feeling there was something missing from her journal, but in truth, would it ever have been enough?
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For five years, Bella had learned all about her past, especially what had happened to her in the year and a half before she’d been taken. She had studied her journal numerous times and had tried to pull a maximum of conclusions from it. Even though she now had a pretty good idea of what her life had been like before the abduction, she was still missing large parts of it, and had yet to find out a lot. A part of her really desired to go back to Pleasantview, wherever it was, and to find her family again. Yet another part had worked hard at creating a whole new life here, in Strangetown. Her daughters, her friends, her association, in little time, she had already established a whole life and it wasn’t easy to try to find a place she couldn’t remember, when she already had all she needed here.
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Bella sighed and decided this moment of nostalgia had lasted long enough, effectively making her late. Of course, a trip downstairs was all she needed to get to work. She gave herself one last stare in the mirror and walked out of her room. She headed down a small hall and into a close-by room. It was the twins’ room, decorated in shades of pink and furnished with many toys, little beds and a changing table they didn’t really need anymore, but where Bella kept their clothes anyway.
“You girls ready to go?” Bella asked them walking in.
Iris was sitting next to a set of colored blocks, playing with them, while Hermione was mumbling things to herself, while walking around the room. As Bella walked in, however, they knew it was time to go and both stopped what they were doing to follow Bella downstairs.
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Bella helped her daughters down the stairs into the kitchen and out the front door. Though the youth association was built into the house, there was no way to get from one to the other from the inside. It was, for Bella, a symbolic way of separating her work from her personal life. They crossed the dusty yard floor, on which the kids had drawn a few floor games like hopscotch squares. The door for the youth association was surrounded by a few flowery bushes Bella liked to keep and next to it was written in large: YOUNG. Bella, who had been holding the key in her hand, unlocked the door, like every morning and stepped inside.
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The entrance opened onto a small hall, bordered by a wall on the left, and a half wall to the right, allowing to see the room beyond. As usual, Bella stepped into the first door to the left, into her small office. She didn’t spend that much time in her “office” but it was a place she could take care of all the administration of the association, and keep things out of reach from the children. She put the keys down on her desk and returned to the main room.
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Beyond the little hallway, to the right, was the children’s area. The front of the room was occupied by a few tables, where the kids could sit down for some crafty activities or to eat at lunch time. Along the walls were several bookcases and shelves lined with games. At the back of the room was a piece of carpeted floor, with comfy poufs and pillows and more bookshelves. The walls had been decorated with various drawings and posters over the years, which brightened up the room.
Bella went to turn the lights on; even though it was the middle of summer and it was already sunny enough to leave them off, it was a way of waking up the building every morning. She watched the twins already trotting off to the carpet at the back and chose a picture book to look at.
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Within minutes parents started arriving to drop of their children for the day. Summertime was quite busy for the association, because children didn’t have school, and parents signed them up for the whole day. In general, the first half hour was always a little hectic. In between the rapid arrival of all the kids and a few tantrums, there was no time to take a break. Thankfully, Bella had some part-time aids that helped her on assigned days, so that everything was managed. Usually, they were young adults from La Fiesta Tech, looking to make a little extra money on days they didn’t have class. Bella currently had three helpers who alternated, depending on the day. That day was a Friday, and so Bella was being aided by Virginia, a young girl studying biology in College.
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Bella stood in the entrance and greeted the parents with their children, while Virginia was in the children’s area, to look after the kids, and guide them towards the first activities. Pascal came by to drop off Astra and Indra.
“Hi!” Bella greeted the kids with a baby voice, who answered her similarly – though their voices were naturally high-pitched.
“I think I saw Iris and Hermione go to the carpet area.” Bella told them, checking over the half wall to make sure. She knew that her daughters, Astra and Indra had formed what could be considered a group of friends – even though friendship was so vague at their age – and usually liked to participate in the same activities. Astra, being the oldest of them all, seemed to have acquired a leader status in their games and was the one who organized what they did. Bella loved watching this miniature version of hierarchy taking place between them.
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Within a few minutes, Bella found herself having to comfort a toddler, who had not wanted to leave his mother that morning. She held him in her arms, and tried to reassure him, though he didn’t seem to be feeling a whole lot better. Being a mother of two, Bella had learned the art of patience and was able to keep her calm, despite the child’s incessant cries. She was glad to see Jack push the association door, hoping at least talking to him would lessen the bad moment. She hugged him with one hand, her other arm still being around the little boy, and raised her eyebrows while looking at him, to silently express her irritation; Jack smiled.
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“So, how’s it going?” he chuckled.
“Oh, well you know the usual…” Bella sighed readjusting the kid in her arm and gesturing towards the room, where Virginia was trying to convince one of the small girls not to eat a crayon.
“I see.” Jack laughed.
“So what are you doing here?” she asked, surprised at an early visit.
“I was on my way to work and I wanted to say hi.”
“Hi” Bella smiled, but she continued to look at him expectantly, knowing he probably had not come there just to greet her.
“You know what day it is today, right?”
“As if I could forget; I’ve already forgotten so much.”
“Five years is quite a limestone.”
“I suppose, though in my mind I would have already left this place a long time ago by now.”
“I know; I felt like that at first, too.”
The little boy had now calmed and Bella put him down, to allow him to go and join the others.
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“Anyway,” Jack continued, “I wanted to invite you to dinner tonight, to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what, the fact that I lost everything five years ago?”
“Well, of course, when you look at it that way, it does put a damper on the evening. I thought we should celebrate your new life. Instead of looking at what you lost, look at what you gained; see the glass half full.”
“Well, you see, I was planning on staying home and moping, so you really are getting in the middle of that now.” Bella joked.
“Come on! I think we should have dinner together; it’ll be good for you. Take the evening off from parenting; we can mope together. I’ve got a few depressing memories to share.”
Bella laughed.
“Well, alright, if I can find someone to watch the girls, I’ll come.”
“Great, if I don’t hear from you today, I’ll consider we’re still on. I’ll come and pick you up at seven-thirty, okay?”
“You’ve got it.” Bella winked. “Have a good day at work.”
“Same to you!” he called, as he walked out the door.
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Bella returned to the main room to help Virginia out, now that most the children had arrived. Usually, Bella organized a recreation for a group of kids, and her intern would take care of another. They tried to offer a calm activity and a more active one, so that each child could find an occupation corresponding to his mood. That morning, Bella had decided to organize a drawing workshop, while Virginia took the rest of the kids out, to teach them to juggle. It took a couple dozen minutes to get everyone settled down and decided on something to draw. Bella went from child to child, making suggestions and offering help. Eventually, to keep herself busy, she took a piece of paper for herself, and started drawing.
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Because it was now the fifth anniversary of her arrival in Strangetown, Bella was once again at crossroad between present and past. She started drawing her family, the way she imagined them, even though she didn’t really have any recollection of them. Drawing was both relaxing and therapeutic for her, like putting an idea onto paper. She started by drawing Mortimer, a tall, wise and proud patriarch, holding Alexander by the shoulder. She drew herself next to her husband, looking his way, and Cassandra, halfway in between them. In front of them, she drew Iris and Hermione, one standing the other sitting on the imaginary floor. The result was very pleasant, as if it were bringing them a step closer, to see them all together for the first time, even if it only was a drawing.
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After a she was done, she put her drawing away, not wishing to share it with anyone else for now, and went around the room again, to see how everyone was doing. One of the little girls had drawn a charming prince on a large white horse. The little girl explained to Bella, that he would come and take her to a far away kingdom. Even in Strangetown, fairy tales and ideals were implanted in the minds of children. If only they knew their dreams were meant to stay within the town.
As she looked at her drawing, Bella realized they had both drawn the same thing: the hope of love, romance and family. She felt oddly sad as she considered how dreams could only exist on paper around here. How could she have known just a drawing activity would be so emotional today?
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By midday, both activities had come to an end, and most the children had gone out into the yard to play and eat their lunches. Bella sat on a bench with Virginia, eating a sandwich, as she watched them running by, playing their games and laughing. This was what she had wanted from the start; she had given all these children a childhood. Virginia and she chatted about various dull subjects, such as the weather, or what was in the local news lately. Every now and then, a group of kids would come towards them to tell them a joke or to ask a question. This was how most of their lunch breaks took place.
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The association didn’t only take care of little children, but also of preteens and teenagers. The latter didn’t come before the afternoon, usually, since they didn’t really require actual looking after, but were just in need of some entertainment for the day. Since they were already a little mature, Bella asked the oldest ones to help her organize the afternoon activities, by asking them to lead a group of smaller children, or to guide them, when they played large games. She felt this helped create bonds between the different children, of different ages. Of course, she knew in a way, she was trying to express her wish of an ideal youth through her association, and that she was filling the void left by her past, but she did hope that at least, she was giving these kids some good memories.
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They carried out more activities during the afternoon, and while everyone was busy, Bella ran a few phone calls to her friends to find someone to keep the girls for the night. Vicund and Pascal agreed to take them; after all, Bella did watch their kids, everyday. By six o’clock that evening, all the children had been picked up by their parents and Vicund had come to pick up all four toddlers. Bella and Virginia cleaned up for a half hour and then closed the youth association for the day.
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Bella returned inside her house and prepared for her evening with Jack. She changed her clothes, which were always a bit dirty after taking care of children all day long. She dressed casually, for the only restaurant in town was a diner, but still made sure to look nice. If they were going to celebrate, they might as well do it elegantly, Bella thought – or at least, as elegant as you could manage in Strangetown. It was exciting to have a little evening out for once; Bella had hardly had any outings in the past years, constantly busy in between the twins, the youth association and therapy.
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At seven-thirty precisely, Jack stopped his car in front of Bella’s house, walked up the yard and rang at the door. Bella came downstairs to find him looking quite nice himself.
“Ready to go?” he asked, as she walked out.
“Sure, let’s” Bella said, walking towards the car. Jack opened the door for her and she got in and moments later, he was at the wheel and they were driving into town, towards the diner.
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The diner was a rather small oval building in the town center. It was retro themed, even more so than most diners, because Strangetown had completely closed up in the mid 50s. It was mainly decorated in colors of bright red and white. A long metallic bar occupied the center of the restaurant, while the rest of the space was filled with booths and tables. As they entered a waitress led them to a table and handed them some menus. They both took a few minutes to read the different choices and comment on what looked appetizing.
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They both ended up ordering a burger with fries, as was the custom in the diner. By the time their drinks arrived, Jack was already in a little speech about Bella’s life in Strangetown:
“You’ve done the first five years, and of course that’s the hard part, because it’s the time in which you need to create everything in your life. From here on, things are going to be pretty normal; I think you can already feel that. I’d say you’ve already done well, compared to some. You’ve got your association, your friends and your girls. The next abduction victim will never know you’re one yourself, until you tell them. So here’s to you!” he said, raising a glass of Cola, “Without meaning to sound patronizing or superior, or whatever, I’m proud of you.”
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Bella smiled and sipped her own drink, after having raised it to Jack’s toast.
“Well, it is in part thanks to you, and everyone else, that I have been able to move on this way. I’m thinking it must have been harder for you, because you didn’t have someone as helpful as you’ve been for me to guide you, right?”
“Well, group therapy has been around for a while, but it’s true I never made true friends there. Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone is nice, but I rarely saw anyone outside the hospital before you came along. It’s not like I was friendless for fifteen years before meeting you, thank goodness, but you’re right in saying that I never had someone close who actually went through the same thing as I had… before now.”
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“Do you think we’ll go home one day?” Bella asked.
“I don’t know.” Jack shrugged. “I’ve been here for fifteen years already. Strangetown feels a lot more like my home than wherever I lived before, even if I have no roots here.”
“I hope I never have to feel that way.” Bella sighed. “I don’t want to give up on my family; I don’t think they’d give up on me that way.”
“I haven’t given up, really. I just haven’t remembered much in a long time and my life here is simple and I know it; I don’t need to try hard to know what happened to me here. Maybe if I remember something significant, I’ll feel differently, but some people have remembered almost enough to go back home but they just prefer to stay here now.”
“Really? Who?” Bella asked, shocked.
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“Margaretha, for example, knows a lot, about her past life.”
“Yeah, I know, but I never thought she actually had enough to go home.”
“Well, that might be an exaggeration, but she does have a lot of memories. But she has said that if she ever does get enough to actually go back, she may not even want to.”
“Why wouldn’t she? Wouldn’t she want to know for sure?”
“Margaretha has lived in Strangetown for forty years, that’s two thirds of her life. She’s much closer to this place than anywhere else. She’s grown accustomed to the ways of Strangetown, meaning that she’s not ready to leave town anytime this lifetime. Her whole life is here, and anything she left behind is now probably gone. I mean, she really has nothing to go back to and she hasn’t left the town for almost half a century.”
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“But then, why does she continue to search for the past then, if she doesn’t want to go back to it?”
“I think she needs to know, even if it’s in the past for her. I mean, there are twenty years of her life that disappeared. She’s recovered a relatively large part of it compared to the rest of us, but she still needs to have the full story.”
“I don’t know, maybe I can’t understand because I’ve only been here five years and for me, going back to my family is everything. Sure, I have a stable life here, and I’m not constantly thinking of going back, but that is my ultimate goal, something I want achieved before I die, at the very least. I know that if I were to remember anything that allowed me to actually locate where I used to live, I would go immediately, without looking back.”
Jack absent-mindedly dipped a fry in ketchup and stared into space, obviously thinking over what Bella had said.
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Seeing his silence, she continued:
“Isn’t that what you would do?”
“I don’t know what I would do. I know someone out there knew me and is maybe even waiting for my return. She could be my wife, my girlfriend, my sister, my mother, my daughter, maybe even just a friend, I have no idea. All I have is her face in my wallet, and I can only guess what our relationship was. Maybe if I remembered who she was, where we came from, then yes I would go back. I would need real reason to go back I think. I mean, if you just gave me the place right now, with no explanation, I might not... or maybe I would… don’t know, it’s so confusing.”
“I know! It’s like we love something so much, yet we hardly know anything about it.”
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“So much for not putting a damper on the evening.” Jack chuckled. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad our evening is going this way; it’s exactly what I needed to ‘celebrate’ the anniversary. With everyday life, I tend to forget about the past, and all I still have to remember. Yet, it’s so important to me and I do need to keep remembering, and keep talking about it.”
Jack looked around the diner; it was so public, exposed, and noisy. He didn’t want to be here.
“Do you want to get out of here? Go somewhere nicer?”
“Where do you want to go?” Bella questioned.
“Anywhere we can talk alone, without being disturbed.”
“Your place?” she suggested.
“No, nowhere that’ll remind us we live here because we were put here. Let’s get out of Strangetown.”
The idea was quite thrilling; neither of them had left Strangetown since they had first arrived.
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“We don’t even know any place to go.” Bella pointed out.
“We don’t need to go far. Just out in the desert to watch the stars”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
A smile spread across Jack’s face. They got up and left their table, even though they had only partially finished their meals and paid on the way out. They climbed back into Jack’s car and drove off the road and into the rocky desert.
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Once they were far enough from the town to not be affected by its presence, Jack stopped the car and they got out. He took a blanket he kept in the trunk and laid in onto the softest part of floor he could find.
“This won’t exactly be mattress comfortable.” He warned.
“What’s life without a bit of adventure?” Bella joked lying down.
Jack joined her and they gazed into the heavens. Thousands, maybe even millions of bright white dots illuminated the sky and formed a magical sight. The moon was partially visible, slightly above the horizon, and emitted a soft glow around itself. Jack sighed in awe as he looked at the scene.
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“When you think about it, this is where we come from. All we know is that we dropped from the skies someday just because someone up there needed a lab rat.”
“Maybe they’re the path to home too.” Bella said dreamily.
“What do you mean?”
“I used to practice astrology, according to my diary. I used to know how to read the future in the stars, or at least I believed it was possible.”
“Do you still believe it now?”
“I don’t know. In the absolute, why not? It’s just that I don’t remember any of it, or what it meant to me, really. These days you don’t really know what to believe.”
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“So they could hold some answers for us?”
“Who knows, really? I just think there’s something comforting in believing in something higher, because if you don’t, you’re just on your own, and that’s quite a lonely vision of life. If the future is predictable, then at least, you know that someone’s out there to decide on it, and so you know they’re looking out for you.”
“Looking out for you?” Jack repeated, “How can you think anyone’s looking out for us, out here? How can anyone with a good intention rip us away from everything and leave us stranded with nothing in an unknown place?”
“Maybe it’s all part of a bigger picture and that there’s a reason all of this takes place.”
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“You mean, you think our presence here could have a higher goal in fate?”
“Maybe, at least I like to think that I’m not just here because a few aliens flew over my house. That just seems too easy.”
“What part of this is easy?”
“Well, none of it really, but I think it would be sad to have our whole lives ruined so stupidly. Maybe there isn’t anything to be believed in, but it still helps to, because at least I can imagine there’s a reason I’m not with my family anymore.”
“And so at the end of the big picture, do we go home?”
“I don’t know, do I? But at least I can hope for it.”
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Bella and Jack continued to stare at the stars in silence. It was difficult to know whether they stayed there shortly, or for a long time. However, they had reached the point where words weren’t necessary anymore to express what they were feeling. Even though they weren’t talking, they were still communicating on an emotional level.
Eventually they decided it was time to go. They got up but embraced each other before returning to the car. The evening had been therapeutic for both of them, and Bella felt strangely awake on the ride back to town. Jack drove to the Curious brothers’ house to pick up Iris and Hermione, and then back to Bella’s house.
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Bella exited the car, with her daughters partially asleep in her arms. She silently whispered good night to Jack and kissed his cheek before heading inside. She went upstairs and put her daughters to bed before getting ready for bed herself. What a long and curious day it had been. In a week, she would probably have sunk back into her daily routine.
She changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth, before turning all the lights out and climbing into bed.
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She lay on her back and rested her body, trying to let go of everything. She had gotten so used to the relaxing exercise she was supposed to carry out when she went to sleep that she now did it without thinking. Usually she was quite drowsy and would fall asleep in minutes, but tonight she felt awake. Physically, she was tired, but mentally, she felt even more aware than she sometimes was during the day. Five years. She missed her family, and wanted to see them again, to remember them again.
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Instead of getting lost in her thoughts and unconsciously falling asleep like she usually did, this time, she started feeling the tingling sensation she had only felt at the beginning of hypnotherapy up to now. The drugs acted in ten seconds in hypnotherapy, but there in her bed, Bella felt it last minutes onwards. She didn’t dare move, afraid it would go away. She didn’t know what could come from it, but something in her was pushing her not to stop, and to keep her concentration. After a while, she started feeling somewhat disconnected from her body, as if she was made of air, and that she was floating.
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It was as if she were swimming through dark heavy clouds, compressing her lungs. She could breathe, but she felt as if there was pressure against her chest, and still she felt she had to continue and to go further. She continued to make her way through the dark clouds of her mind and tried to focus on her family. She had no clear memory of them, but she tried to feel her love for them and maybe even their love for her. Thinking of her family helped her forget the uncomfortable feelings of compression and swaying. After several minutes they all started to fade away and Bella felt as though she were floating away from her body. The sound of the ocean entered her ears and she could feel the wind against her skin. Was she outside?
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She opened her eyes, and she could see hills of green, with a small town in between them, by the side of the sea. She didn’t know where this place was, and couldn’t recall ever seeing it, but it felt strangely similar. She looked down and saw she was wearing that fancy red dress again, the same one she was wearing whenever she was in hypnotherapy. Had she been able to reproduce the hypnotherapy method without the drugs? If so, why had she never seen this place before?
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Before she could think it over anymore, someone suddenly appeared in front of her. It was a young woman with dark shoulder length hair and eyes just like Bella’s. She was wearing a very beautiful and large dress of gold and burgundy, which didn’t seem to belong to any specific time. Her face was perplexed and confused; she looked sad and scared. It seemed she wanted to speak, but didn’t know what to say. Bella didn’t know what to say either and just stared at her, while the sea wind blew in their faces. She looked so familiar but Bella was sure she had never seen her in Strangetown before. Who could she be?
The woman opened her mouth but took another few seconds before eventually speaking.
“Mom?” she asked her voice trembling and her eyes filling with tears.
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Bella gasped and the emotion seemed to make her fall. She felt as though she was falling at the speed of light and she landed back into her body with a shiver. Adrenaline shot through her veins and she sat up in shock.
“Cassandra!” she whispered.
She had remembered her daughter, she was sure of it. She couldn’t recall doing anything with Cassandra, but she remembered her for who she was and how much she loved her. Wherever Cassandra was now, Bella knew she was suddenly so much closer than she had been before. Now that she actually remembered her, Bella knew she wouldn’t rest again until she had found her daughter.
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Bella couldn’t sleep properly that night, trying to remember with as much precision what she had seen and to generate memories related to Cassandra. The next morning was a Saturday thankfully, which meant she didn’t have to work. She rushed over to Jenny’s to tell her what she had remembered. Jenny quickly called the hospital and obtained an emergency hypnotherapy session for Bella.
“We can’t let this hang.” She explained, “We need to help you remember as much as possible right now, before you start forgetting the little details.”
A few hours later she was sitting in the hypnotherapy room with Pascal and Dr. Auster behind the glass to accompany her. She listened to the usual countdown, ignoring the sensations and concentrating on Cassandra, instead.
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She felt herself flying at the speed of light again, and for a moment she let herself be carried away. Quickly she was aware of what she was supposed to be doing and tried to remember with as much precision Cassandra’s face. For a moment, it appeared in front of her eyes and she could see it the way she had that previous night, but Pascal’s voice interrupted:
“Okay Bella, you’re going to need to materialize your environment now. Start with your feet and then move forward.”
Bella, slightly annoyed to have lost her concentration on the image she had been materializing did as she was told. It was now something she was used to doing at the start of her sessions and the process was familiarly easy.
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Within a minute she was standing in the white room again.
“I’m ready.” She told Pascal in a determined voice.
“Bella, I’m going to ask you to go up the stairs, focusing on Cassandra’s face, and whatever feelings you had when you saw it, as much as possible.”
Bella didn’t hesitate for even a second and marched off towards the high wrought iron stairs, without even thinking about how it was usually difficult. She just kept her mind locked on the image, that moment, where she had remembered Cassandra. She could feel the stairs’ usual force trying to push her away, tempting her to give up, but she didn’t look back and just continued her way up, thinking how each step had to be made for Cassandra, for Alexander, for Mortimer, for Iris and for Hermione.
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With her ascension, the light was getting brighter and stronger. It encircled her, making her feel warm and safe. Eventually she reached a point where the stairs started resisting less. She quickened her pace and the light blinded her, penetrated her body, filling every free space and she became one with it. She felt like a door had opened and a rush of inexplicably strong emotion came over her. Though in the dream state, she didn’t even have a body anymore, she could feel her physical body shiver and cry, though she had no apparent reason to.
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And then, the light faded and she could feel her body reforming. She opened her eyes to find herself in the middle of a small old-fashioned living room, holding a small girl with dark hair in her arms. Even though she felt like she was free to do everything on her own accord, it all felt very familiar, as if she had already done it before. She lifted the three or four year old Cassandra in the air playfully.
“Mommy!” Cassandra squealed, lifting her arms above her head.
Bella laughed and snuggled the young girl against her chest, kissing her head. She turned around to see a man with jet black hair and a neat moustache, smiling pleasantly at her. Though he had a serious appearance, Mortimer looked very young, thirty years old at most.
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Bella smiled at him and rocked Cassandra in her arms. She took a few steps forward until she was just next to Mortimer.
“You’re beautiful.” He said in a dreamy voice.
Bella thanked him with a soft kiss, gently brushing her lips onto his. She felt so happy so complete and closed her eyes in satisfaction. For a moment she remembered her reality, and wondered if what she was experiencing was real, or just dream; it felt so real, she wanted to believe in it.
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When she pulled away from their kiss, her surroundings had completely changed and she was now outside standing in front of a three story high mansion made of dark wood. Mortimer had gained several years, with a few more wrinkles and gray streaks in his hair. Behind him, Bella could see a teenage Cassandra helping a small toddler walk around the garden. Alexander was probably just a little over a year old and was happily giggling with his sister, trying to stand on his own two feet properly.
“Thank you.” She told Mortimer “It’s perfect.”
She looked at the house again and she suddenly remembered it as her home, the one she had lived in until she had been abducted. It was a family house, passed down in Mortimer’s family through the generations. Bella could remember that after Alexander’s birth, their old house had become too small for them all to live in and they had started looking for another home.
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She remembered how Mortimer’s mother had offered to give them the family house, which she had been living in alone after the death of his father. She stated she didn’t want to have to take care of it on her own, now that she was old. The deeds had been transferred to Mortimer’s name but his mother – her name was Cornelia, Bella could remember it now – had continued to live with them, needing care and company. Yes, that was how things had happened, Bella was sure. And so this was the day they had moved in. This house meant so much to her, she loved it and now that she remembered it, she missed it. She took Mortimer by the hand and led him up the front steps. She let go of his hand to open the front door and stepped inside.
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She was standing in the entrance, which was floored and walled with warm wood. A few arched doorways led into other rooms, and a staircase at the back led to the upper floors. An old wooden piano stood against the left wall, and Bella could almost hear the sound the keys made when it was played. The room extended at the back to the left into an L-shape, forming a small hallway, of which two doors led off, illuminated by a small window in front of which was a large fancy silver vase with long handles, resting a decorated pedestal.
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An adult Cassandra walked out of a room from the right wall, Bella instinctively remembered as the kitchen. She looked much like Bella had remembered her in her dream the previous night.
“Mom, you’re home.” She said, sounding pleasant but also a bit surprised. “I hope you don’t mind but I invited Don over.” She continued in a half whisper.
Before Bella had time to answer, a handsome man with dark hair and a round chin beard and joined moustache, walked out into the foyer behind Cassandra.
“Hello Bella.” He said walking towards them. Bella noticed his very deep green eyes.
“Don, how are you?” she asked him, rather glad to see him.
“I’m well, especially because I’m with your wonderful daughter.” He charmed, taking Cassandra’s hand and kissing her cheek.
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Cassandra smiled and blushed. Bella remembered how she was a shy girl, and how she was always a little embarrassed at demonstrating affection for a man in front of her parents.
“Cute,” Bella commented, heading into the kitchen. It was rather small, floored with tiles of green and white and with dark counters. Another arched door led into what Bella could tell was the dining room. She poured herself a glass of water and drank. The phone on the counter behind her rang and Bella put her glass down to go answer it.
“Hello?” she asked, picking up.
“Bella? Hi, it’s Don.” Said a man’s voice on the other end
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In the physical world, Bella would have realized that this situation didn’t make sense, having just spoken to Don, moments ago. However, in the dream state, things always happened fluidly this way, without her really being aware of the incoherence.
“Don, it’s good to hear you. How are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m calling because I noticed how clear the weather forecast for tonight is and I thought you might want to come and gaze at the stars again; it has been a while since the last time.”
Don’s face appeared in front of her and she realized she was now outside again, in front of a modern white condo – this was Don’s house.
“Glad you could make it.” Don smiled, hugging her and leading her inside.
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He took her upstairs, through his bedroom and out onto a double-deck terrace, furnished with a Jacuzzi and a bar on the lower level. He went to the bar and made some drinks.
“I’m afraid it’s not quite dark just yet.” He said. “I suppose we can just chat until it’s nighttime.”
He handed her a glass and she drank a tasty fruity drink.
“Do you know Dina moved back to town today?” She said, taking a few steps on the deck.
“Yeah, I’ve known for a little while, she moved in right next door.”
Bella instinctively glanced at the neighbor house and she could indeed see a few boxes through the undraped windows.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t really think you’d want to know; you and Caliente sisters have never really gotten along.”
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“Well, they came to visit me today, first thing on their schedule. I just can’t believe it. I thought I could maybe talk to Dina a bit about Michael, since he was the only thing we ever had in common. I imagined the death of a husband would have matured her a bit. Instead, she seemed to have regressed to a teenager. She kept on joking with Mortimer, like she was tying to charm him or something.”
“I don’t really think Dina is trying to attract Mortimer.”
“Well it surely looked like it. It was insulting how forward she was being with him.”
Bella stood silent for a moment and she suddenly remembered Dina standing in the manor foyer, standing close to Mortimer and laughing; she disliked her smile, the way she pushed her blond hair back like a school girl. This was the female smile she had seen in the telescope in her first hypnotherapy session, she was sure of it.
She snapped out of her contemplation of Dina and focused on the memory on Don’s deck, which seemed to have momentarily frozen.
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She turned back to face Don and smiled.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to be in a bad mood. Let’s talk about something else. How are things between Cassandra and you?”
Don chuckled, slightly embarrassed to talk about his relationship with Bella’s daughter in front of her, though Bella and he had been friends for a while before he had started going out with Cassandra.
“We’re doing great actually, I know you and Mortimer are entitled to have a few doubts as to whether I’m really the right person for your daughter and I understand. I know my actions in love haven’t always been exemplary in the past, but I want you to know I’m willing to change for Cassandra.”
“It seems you’re in love, Don.”
Don chuckled again and looked distractedly at the road below.
“You are!” Bella laughed. “Don, that’s wonderful! Have you told her?”
“Well, not just yet. I want to, but I want it to be right. I’m thinking offering to take a little vacation together.”
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Bella smiled again; she was very pleased to see Don taking his relationship with Cassandra so seriously. Maybe Mortimer and she had been wrong about Don’s ability to be in a real relationship.
They continued to talk for about half an hour, about life and love, taking a couple more drinks on the way, until it was eventually dark enough for them to contemplate the stars. Don led her to the superior deck, which was smaller, and on which was a single telescope and a little table beside it. Don lit a few candles on the table and stood next to the telescope.
“Look inside” he told her, gesturing towards the telescope elegantly.
“Should I?” she asked, amused, taking a step forward.
“Yeah, go on.” He insisted.
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Bella bent onto the telescope and looked inside. There were so many stars out there; it was incredibly beautiful. She contemplated the skies for a minute, admiring the magnificence of the skies.
“Wow, the sky is perfect tonight!”
“I know.” Don said, satisfied that his invitation had been a good idea.
Yet in her feeling of fulfillment, Bella started feeling dread. She couldn’t explain why she was feeling it, but the more she looked, the more she felt as if impending doom was ahead. She decided she better stop looking and got up, sighing.
“Are you all right?” Don asked.
“Yes, I’m probably just a little dazed by the whole scene of it.” She chuckled weakly.
She lost her balance and tripped on one of the telescope’s feet.
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Don caught her in his arms, quickly, before she completely fell, but he didn’t let go of her or put her back up straight.
“Don?” Bella questioned.
He looked a little confused and his eyes weren’t really focused.
“You’re so beautiful, Cassandra.” He said dreamily.
“Cassandra?” Bella asked, startled. What was going on? Was this a joke, or had Don had too much to drink?
She decided it was probably the latter as Don bent down to kiss her. Before his lips could touch her, Bella instinctively flung her hand up and smacked Don on the cheek to bring him to his senses.
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In surprise he dropped Bella and put his own hand to his cheek.
“God, Don!” Bella exclaimed, in anger.
“Sorry, what?” Don asked embarrassed by what had just happened.
Bella helped herself up and crossed her arms, not pleased.
“I’m going to get the… err… yeah.” Don said in confusion, walking down the stairs off the deck.
Bella rolled her eyes. She knew Don hadn’t really meant to kiss her but she was disappointed in what she had seen. How pathetic, to get so easily drunk and mistake two people!
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She could hear Don walking on the deck below and decided to look back in the telescope while waiting for him to come to his senses and come back up. Again, she felt dread as she looked at the stars and it was stronger than before. She tried to understand why, but before she could, she heard a loud noise and she was suddenly blinded by intense light.
“Don, what are you doing?” she screamed, pulling away from the telescope, still surrounded by intense white light, coming from somewhere above. From below, she heard a crash and Don screaming himself. She was panicked and didn’t know what to do, but she couldn’t move; her legs weren’t responding.
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She couldn’t understand what was happening, and her confusion only got worse as she felt herself being slowly pulled upwards. Nothing had grabbed her, but it was as though gravity was being slowly reversed and she was going upwards. She screamed even louder, called for Don to come help her, but she got no response. In a desperate attempt to stop whatever was pulling her up, she tried to hang on to the telescope, but it wasn’t heavy to keep her grounded. Instead it toppled over and fell out of reach. Slowly, Bella gained altitude and she had nothing to hold on to. As she got over Don’s house, she saw him lying on the ground of the lower deck, clearly unconscious. She hoped he was all right; she had no way of helping him.
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She could hear some mechanical noise over her, and the light was getting brighter as she moved upwards. She glanced at the town of Pleasantview, stretched under her one last time before realizing she was being pulled into a very bright room, which was closing on all four sides around her. She was locked in.
The reversed gravity effect stopped and she hit the ground of the room painfully. It was hard to really see anything because it was so bright. All the sudden, she was lurched backwards, as though the room she was in had gained sudden speed and had started moving forward. Where could she possibly be? None of this made any sense. Maybe she was dead.
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She had no idea how much time she stayed in that room, trying to stay still and not stumble every time there was a change in speed. Eventually, she could hear new noise in the room and she tried to understand what it was. It was like voices, but they were so bizarre and strange. They definitely weren’t speaking English. As she blindly made her way through the room, she felt hands enclose around her arms and shoulders. She screamed and tried to escape but they were too strong and they dragged her by force. She was powerless and still had no idea what was happening to her; she was so frightened she thought she might just die.
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She seemed to be being dragged through hallways and rooms, which were still very bright, though perhaps a little less than the first room. She turned her head to see who was carrying her. On her shoulder she saw the most bizarre and scary vision: a pale green hand was holding her tightly. She screamed again and the hands closed even more tightly around her. Eventually, they put her down in another bright room with cold white tiles. They threw her to the ground and she curled up into a fetal position.
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She looked up at the two people who had been carrying her, except they didn’t look like people. They had frightening pale green skin and enormous black eyes, with no cornea. Bella screamed again in fear.
“Silence her!” said a cold female voice from behind her. Bella tried to turn around to see who else was there, but before she had time to she felt a sharp, blinding pain in her chest: one of the green people had stabbed her with a long pointy instrument. She screamed again, as blood gushed out of her body onto the cold white tiles.
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The second one lunged for her head and grabbed it tightly between his arms. For a moment, Bella thought he might behead her, and even considered it would at least be release. Instead he started cutting her hair off, carelessly and painfully. The other one continued to stab her, burn part of her clothes with a flame and hurt her in other ways she couldn’t even understand. She screamed and tried to struggle out of their touch but they were so strong, too strong. If only she could die, then she would rest. She didn’t even know why or how this sudden and brutal was taking place. It seemed like Don had tried to kiss her a few lifetimes ago. Now she felt as though her body was exploding with all the pain inside of it.
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The two aggressors eventually stopped and Bella was in such pain she could have passed out. It was taking all of her efforts to stay awake. She knew there was nothing she could really do by staying awake, but she felt even more scared at the idea of abandoning her body to these blood thirsty killers. She had already lost a lot of blood; she surely wouldn’t be alive much longer. She tried to think of her family, for however long they would allow her to rest. However, the shrill voice started again and made her jump.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” it asked, “Continue!”
Bella saw the two green men take their instruments again and cowered; she knew they were going to hurt her again, she screamed. In a great effort she turned around, hoping to plead her life to whoever was commanding.
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In the haze of the white light, she could see a person standing in a room behind her, watching the scene through a window. It was a woman with a haughty position and clear blond hair, looking at her, directly into her eyes, with indifference.
Bella gasped and screamed again. She lost consciousness and felt as though she were falling from a very high altitude.
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She woke up in the physical world, in the hypnotherapy room. Like the previous night, the sudden shock of what she had seen caused her to sit up as she woke up.
“Dina!” she whispered, in terror. “Dina was behind it all.”
She turned to the window on the left to see Pascal and Dr. Auster looking at her with great concern.
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TO BE CONTINUED…
*evil laugh* I'm going to get mail about this, I can feel it... So that's chapter 4! Originally, it was going to end when Bella had the dream of Cassandra, so you should consider yourselves lucky to already know so much!
Chapter 5 is already written and I have the pictures left to take. However, I'm going back to school in a couple of days, so don't expect another release record... that's just not going to happen.
Thanks for reading, and you know how much feedback is important to me, so don't hesitate to drop by the guestbook/ email.
Uberthanks for Ricardo and Jüri! What would I do without you? :p
Alexis
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