The Troube with Time, Part 11 - Caterpillar

She opens her eyes and blinks, looks around. There are two people sitting opposite to her, looking at her expectantly. She just stares at them blankly.

"How are you feeling?" one of them asks. They both look worried.

"I..." she begins. How does she feel? "I feel ok, I think."

"What do you remember?" the other one asks.

She starts to answer, then stops. Starts again.

"Uh," she manages.

"If I did everything right, you shouldn't remember anything that happened before this moment," the second one says.

A shiver of fear and confusion runs through her. These people took all her memories? She tries to find something in her head, any indication of who she is, who these people are. She can't find any. Nothing. She doesn't remember anything.

"What have you done to me?" her voice is nearly a hiss.

"Here," one of them hands her a note.

She looks at the note, but doesn't take it.

"It's an explanation of what's going on," he says.

She takes the note, weary. She has no idea what's going on. She doesn't trust these people. She shouldn't believe anything they say.

"She does recognise her own handwriting, doesn't she?" the one who handed her the note asks the other one. The other one nods.

"She should. Like the Garden, the magic I used only took her episodic memory."

They're right. She looks at the note and she can tell it's her own handwriting. She doesn't remember ever seeing the handwriting before, but she knows it by heart. Every loop, every angle.

You can trust these two, with your life if it comes to that. Their names are Kevin and Sam.

She looks up at the two people across the table. Now that she thinks about it, she knew Kevin's name. She doesn't remember him, but if someone had asked she would have said his name is Kevin.

They have taken your, my, memories, because you need to do something that would risk you losing them. Sam is holding them safe for you, until you can have done what needs to be done.

I know you have a hard time believing me right now, I am you, after all, but you need to believe me. You have to go to the Golden Garden, find a Golden Orange, and bring it back. Kevin will give you more specific instructions, and will help you get into the Garden. The Garden takes people's memories. That's why you can't go in there with them. You would permanently lose yourself. This way, after you come back, you will get your memories back. I promise. It's temporary. You do this, and you'll once again know who you are. I need you to do it. It's my only hope. It's our only hope.

She thinks about this for a moment. For whatever reason she needs to go find this Orange, it must be incredibly important. She wouldn't have had all her memories erased otherwise. She wouldn't have let them do it. But, she thinks then, maybe they forced her to write the note, and then erased her memory. Maybe they threatened to kill her, or someone close to her if she didn't write the note. Maybe she can't trust them.

She tries to think back. Remember. Anything. Whether she can trust these people. They seem worried about her, but that could just be an act. But she doesn't remember. She doesn't remember anything.

She's starting to panic, but instead she turns her attention back to the note in her hand. There's some more instructions, some more assuring her that this is all vitally important, that the version of her who knows who she is wouldn't have done it if there was any other way. Sam and Kevin patiently wait for her to read through the instructions she has left for herself.

She's suspicious of it all, until she reaches the very end. There, at the bottom corner of the page, is a small drawing of the caterpillar. She doesn't remember seeing it ever before, but she knows it's significant to her. She knows that it's the last plea for her to trust the version of her that remembers, and to trust the two strangers looking at her expectantly.

And it convinces her. She doesn't remember anything, but she trusts herself when she says it's all going to be ok, and all she has to do is to get the Orange, and then she'll get her memories back.

"Okay," she says, turning to Kevin and Sam. "I trust the me who wrote this note. Tell me what to do. I want my memories back as soon as possible."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry I had to do this. I didn't want to take your memories. You insisted. I promise you, I'll keep them safe and give them back to you as soon as you return," Sam assures her.

"So you're ready?" Kevin asks. She nods. "Okay, let's get going then, so we can get this over with."
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I don't even know.
Also, my computer finally decided that functioning is too much effort, so apparently I'll be writing the rest of these on the phone, and I hate it.
Just for the record, I don't know how we're this far in the story already. This to me seems like part 20, not like part 11. But at least we'll for once have the time to finish without rushing?

The topic for tomorrow is Brainstorm.

~matleena