Chapter 2
I Am Eden Connor.
Just how long had I been crying for? I honestly couldn't tell. Somewhere between sinking into my knees and bawling my eyes- my eye out, I dragged myself back into bed and tried to sink back to sleep, hoping I'd wake up from this nightmare.
If I had to guess, it had to have been an hour or so since then, yet slumber eluded me at every turn. My head kept replaying my newly acquired memories over and over. I could remember it all so clearly, I could track the scent behind each memory. Mary, my mother, had a sweet honey scent that followed her wherever she went.
Lucy's floral scent was too pure for the world. Too innocent to be remembered by someone like me. Especially after everything I did to her. No, that wasn't me. That was Him. The Eden that came before me.
I just happened to have his body, his mind, his memories- everything but his right arm. Everything but his left eye. All of his pain…dumped on me. My real name isn't even Eden. It's just the name this world happened to give to me. At the worst possible time in the worst possible place to the worst possible person.
I was never a fan of fate. The whole idea of "God's Plan" made me sick to my stomach. It angered me. Him having a plan was fine as long as I was let in on it. If I was going to live my life based on his script, then I'd like to know what the script has in store for me. You can't expect me to act a role without giving me the script for it. That would be plain unreasonable... and cruel.
It made me feel like less of a person and more of an instrument of entertainment.
No! Pull yourself together! Forget about sulking and figure out what to do now!
True. I had to figure out my next move. Ideally, I'd have loved to go back home but my instincts told me that I wasn't going out the way I came in.
"I don't suppose I could just teleport back home huh? Yeah, dumb question."
It was even dumber to say it out loud, it wasn't like anyone would answer since no one was in the room with me.
Wait. The second bed.
Hard to believe I overlooked such a detail. To be fair, I was pretty shaken up, but now that I was calmer by comparison, I felt the need to investigate further. One such subject of investigation had to do with the bed itself. It was unusually tidy. The window next to the bed revealed some serious storm clouds. It wasn't raining at the moment, but in an hour or so, the downpour would bring hail with it.
I couldn't call it a scent exactly, but the humidity in the air carried the smell of fresh water. I was mildly confused as to how I could tell.
"It's cold," I muttered, resting my hand on the bed.
Two things. One, I was patched up by a good Samaritan, dragged to a nearby cottage, I assume cottage because I am yet to leave this room, and left to fend for myself like the adult I am.
Two, the good Samaritan left a while ago to get supplies before the rain started. I wanted to believe option two, but option one was the more realistic one. If I were in their shoes, I would abandon me too.
"Even so, they should've left a note or something if they went out. Nothing in Eden's memories show any signs of cellphones here, so I'm assuming they communicate with letters. Wait."
How did He make it sixteen years into life without sending a single letter to ANYONE!?
Though to be fair, the only place he could send a letter to was back home. Oh. Home. Right.
Right.
Five minutes since His memories settled in, and I was already claiming them as my own. Thinking about it was pointless; I had more important things to deal with. For now, I settled for the fact that the good Samaritan would be MIA till further notice. With that being the case, I continued to investigate the room.
The bed was well tidied up and rather cold, so they had to be out for a while. I did find some pretty long strands of hair, though, so whoever they were had to be here recently. There was a dagger settled on the single chair, too. A shiny silver one.
"I'll just pretend this was used to protect me and not in preparation to gut me alive."
What would I even do if that Samaritan actually wanted to eat me? I mean, it's a stretch, but it's still a possibility.
No! Stop thinking like that. I snapped. At myself.
"I'm losing it."
I was staring at the knife for a good minute before I finally decided to check outside the room. The door hinges screamed louder than my bones as I pushed the door. A rush of cold air flew into the room, sending my new white hair into a blinding flutter. Before I could even look beyond the door, I heard a loud thud splatter on the floor.
When I opened my eye, I caught ash. Soot too. I set my bare foot outside and felt a stabbing sensation at the base of my foot. The culprit was in fact a piece of wood- several pieces in fact. They were spread all over the place. Moreover, there was rubble of what I assumed were houses. Those that were still in tact had black smidges all over them, those that weren't so in tact still had smoke coming off from them.
Smoke and ash filled my nostrils, while the sensation of wet, sharp wood stabbed at my feet. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. I was in the ruins of what was once a village.
"It gets more and more interesting, huh?" I sighed.
Truth be told, I could already hear my own heart thudding against my own chest. My palms felt slightly sweaty, too. Even my feet were shaking. Yeah, every cell in my body was telling me to walk back into that room, shut myself and wait for whatever passed through here to keep going until it was only a memory.
Climatology agreed with me, by that I mean the rain started pouring down lightly, but I knew that over time it would get much worse.
Right, I'm not a coward, I just don't want to get wet. Perfect excuse- uh, I mean reason.
My body already made its way through the door when I heard a haunting sound crept deep into my eardrums. I saw and heard a lot of the sound, especially when I was watching a horror movie. The sound of a snapping twig. Was it my breath, or the breath of the beast behind me, that sounded so ragged? With my luck, it was most likely the latter.
"Don't move," I muttered to myself. I couldn't even if I wanted to.
Fear had paralyzed me in place, which was honestly stupidly ironic if you asked me. The outside of my body was frozen in place while everything inside worked overtime. From my heart, to my brain even my bladder. One wrong move and I'd be a freshly pissed meal, stinking of urine and excrement.
"You're awake." It…whispered?
That was a woman's voice if I ever heard one. It sounded exhausted too, like someone who hadn't slept in days. I turned my head, and she and I locked eyes. A slender figure, piercing purple eyes, stunning black hair, surprisingly supple breasts, but most importantly, the marking around her neck. The way it glowed ever so slightly made my hand feel itchy.
"Gagh!" I exhaled.
I was so scared I'd forgotten how to breathe. My lungs pounded violently to resupply me with air, and their labors made me fall to my knees.
"No!" she cried out. The soot beneath her feet slapped with each step she took. By the time she made it to me, I was already losing consciousness. With a single blink, I was unconscious