The Necromancer's Daughter

|| fifteen ||

"Mom!" Rebecca finally uttered as the woman turned at a corner towards the infirmary. "Wait!"

Rebecca ran after her while memories of her and her mother surged in Rebecca's mind. She was there at all her soccer practices; she made wonderful quiches; she taught her how to make flower crowns. There were these and more scenes playing in her mind all at the same time, making Rebecca's chest hurt with overwhelming emotion. But she kept running. She was determined to see more of her past and more of her mother. She suddenly missed her so much.

A bright light burst from behind her and before she could turn around to see what it was, Rebecca was whisked away into another place in time.

***

"Mommy!" Rebecca screamed. "Mom, where are you!?" Nobody could hear her screaming in the hallways of what appeared to be a hospital. She couldn't remember being taken to a hospital after that game but the Vision Quest took her here after she saw her mother.

Inside the emergency room, were just a handful of people. There was one who had a bandage on the head, but was conscious enough to be laughing at the nurse's jokes. Another boy had bandages on his arm and he seemed to be waiting for someone to come pick him up. Rebecca thought they'd take the young Rebecca to the emergency but she didn't find Susannah nor her 8-year-old self here.

Feeling a little exhausted with all the running around, Rebecca calmly walked out of the emergency room and pressed a thumb on her temple. The flood of information in her head was abrupt and the fast beating of her heart echoed in the veins in her head. She needed to sit down.

Walking aimlessly, Rebecca found herself a vacant seat near the hospital's nursery. It wasn't a busy night, and watching a few nurses, patients and other people passing by helped Rebecca relax and think about what to do next.

I saw my mother and remembered a whole lot about us and our relationship when I saw her. Maybe that's how I unlock the memories, by bumping into people I've known, people I have history with, she deduced. But how do I find them? I don't even remember this place and what happens here.

Rebecca sighed and leaned the back of her head against the wall. She mmoved her eyes left and right, looking at people, trying to test her theory about unlocking the memories. But nothing. The ones who were passing by must not have had anything to do with Rebecca at all.

She realized another problem, How do I get back?, and pondered on the words Grandma Vai told her. "You will come back as soon as you find what you're looking for, but not before."

What am I looking for here?

She wiped the trickle of sweat from her nose and stood up. She walked towards the nursery's viewing glass and allowed herself to be soothed by the babies resting inside it. Rebecca couldn't help but smile when one baby yawned with her tiny mouth and another waved its small hands at her, it seemed to be dreaming. She lifted her hand to rest her palm against the clear glass.

In the same moment her skin touched the smooth surface, a girl beside her also leaned her hand against it. "Which one is little Robin?" The girl asked.

Robin... Rebecca recalled the name. She turned her head and saw herself, or a past version of herself, this time a bit taller than the one she saw in the stretcher and without blood in her face. She was standing mere inches beside her.

"He's the one beside the nurse," a voice of a man answered. "The one who's missing a mitten."

Tate Quince was holding his face close to the glass. His breath fogged it and his eyes sparkled as he watched his newborn baby on the other side.