sifi religon

Ch 25

*Chris POV*

A little girl with chocolate brown hair stood in the entrance at school, looking lost. She was in a little pink dress and her hair had a ribbon in it. She must be new. I walked over to her.

"Hey, I'm Chris, are you new?" I asked, reaching out to shake her hand, like I have seen my father do so many times to new people. She looked at me. Her eyes were the color of ashes.

"Um, yea, my name is Ashley." She just looked at my hand as if no one ever offered her their hand.

"Whose your teacher?" I asked trying to start a conversation.

"Chris, wake up please!" She suddenly yelled, only this time she was taller, older, cuter. A pain surged in my brain causing me to fall, but instead of meeting concrete, I fell into darkness.

"What's going?" I shouted into the abyss, that drowned me, filling my lungs until it felt like I would die, but than it would stop, almost like it never happened, other than the burning it left in my chest.

"W-where am I?" I asked to no one. I don't remember how I got here, or how long I've been here. I stared towards where I came from, or at least where I thought I came from. This happens sometimes, I get thrown into a random memory I guess, I don't know, I can't seem to remember anything other than my name. Chris, what a plain name, I guess for a small town boy, Chris is a good name, but that is not helping me out in finding out what happened and how I ended up floating here like a dead fish in the sea. I guess you could compare this to a sea, a sea of darkness, waiting to shallow me up and never spit me out, never to see light again. How long have I been there to have chains of depressing thoughts? Maybe this is how the world really is, just a big open abyss of nothing, void of all life but your own... What a sad way to live. I closed my eyes, but it did little to ease my mind, so filled with never ending chains of questions and meaning less thoughts. Should I just sit here and wait for another memory? Or should I try to 'swim' again and see where that gets me? Maybe siting would be better, I use up less energy that way. I open my eyes, but instead of darkness, I wake up to a brightly lit room. The walls are painted a light green with posters filling up almost every square inch of them. The floor is a mess of dirty clothes and long forgotten homework. My bedroom. I push the blanket back and walk towards the window, maybe this memory will give me some answers. I see a young girl walking up my driveway. Her long chocolate brown hair flowing freely in the breeze. She looked like a Goddess from Greek mythology. So beautiful. A small smile formed on my lips. Ashes. That name tasted sweet on my tongue like a child's favorite candy. I turned around as she opened the door and walked in.

"So this is the memory you pick to relive" She stated. Marching over to my bed and sitting on it like she has done so many times before.

"Memory? What are you talking about Ashes?" I sat next to her.

"Chris, my love, your in a coma. I am working on getting you out but you are going through so many memories that is hard to keep up with you. Right now I have you locked but it won't last long, sadly." She looked down, tears spilling down her face.

"What happened?"

"You got into a fight with my father, and somehow your mind snapped. The others think it is because you tried to unleash more power than what you really have. That is why I am trying to figure out what happened by forcing you to keep with memories of me. And before you ask, yes I made sure you are not brain dead. Just something made you go into a coma." Ashes finished, looking away from me, tears still spilling down her face. I cupped her face, wiping away her tears with my thump. Her hand went over mine as she sighed in comfort.

"Ashes, how do we fix this?"

"You keep going through your memories, find parts that are different, parts that did not happen, or parts that seem a little off. I will keep this memory open for as long as I can just so you can always return here when you need a break. I will also pull you here when you show signs of distress. I will work from the other end, following you as you relive memories trying to figure out what happened, I'm hoping that the closer we get to the present, we'll be able to figure out how you went into the coma." She stood up, pacing the dirty floor as she had done so many times when her father would yell. As soon as I thought of her father my head exploded in pain, a scream stopped dead in my throat as I was flung from my bed trough the door and into the Sea of darkness, Ashes following me the whole way.

"Chris, wake up! It's time to go home! Get your ass up, you lazy ass!' a girl screamed in my ear, almost making me deaf, I jumped up and hit my forehead off hers.

"Okay, okay, I'm up and ouch, did you have to be that close Ashes?" I rubbed my forehead, though my pride hurt worse than my forehead. Ashes sat next to me, a small 'yes' escaped her mouth as she two rubbed her forehead. We we're waiting at the park for her brother to come pick us up, but I guess during the wait I fell asleep. It was sunset. Ashes pulled out her phone.

"David, is almost here, so we better go stand by the road, come on lazy" she stood up, wiping the dirt from her black jean shorts that may have been a half a size too large for her. She started towards the road, her hands behind her back, as if she was waiting for something to happen, and not someone to pick her up. I followed her but something was strange, it was like I could not stand, like my legs failed to work. I tried calling out for Ashes, but there was no sound, what was going on?

"Follow the parts that seem off, those should lead you to where you need to be"

I looked around for the person who owned the voice but still only saw Ashes. Follow the parts that seem off? Well, my legs and voice not working seem off but how do I follow that? I looked around again, only this time I tried to move again by pushing myself off the ground. Slowly the ground below me started to crumple away, heading towards Ashes, who didn't notice anything was wrong, I screamed out for her, or at least tried, to scream so she would not be eaten by the ground. A voice rang out: "Chris, follow that broken ground, it represents your current brain function. Find the source of this problem." The voice sounded scared, almost like Ashes when we would watch a scary movie. I tried to move again, I tried to scream again, but nothing it was like my body had stopped almost like I was tied down to something, or like something was holding me back. Was there a problem with this memory? A reason why I did not want to remember it or continue with it?

"What happened with this memory? Why is my brain holding me back? Let me finish this memory!" I shouted as I flung myself from the ground, which somehow returned to normal. I ran after Ashes, maybe she can explain somethings to me, she is  really smart after all, the only kid in our schools history to ace each of the state tests and only be in testing for 30 minutes. Finally I caught up to her, just to see her father grab her by her hair, roughly, a women was with him. Tall, with long black hair, she scared me to no end. I hide behind the bushes.

"So, this is the child you are giving me? Your own child?" Her voice was low, rotten, like the evil people in the movies.

"Yes, Nadia, she is the only person that might be able to with stand what you wish to do. Now what is the payment I get for bring her to you?" A smile crept it's way across his face.

"So this how I was taken." Ashes spoke softly from behind me. "Continue to watch maybe we can figure something out." I silently nodded my head yes, turning back to the scene before me.

"Your payment is the power you always wanted. As of right now, my men are implanting your lovely wife with a device that lets you control her every thought and movement, even to the point of death, if you so wish." Nadia grabbed Ashes lifeless body from the grip of her father's hands. Ashes stood there, as if she was in a trance, looking far away but not seeing what was in front of her at all.

"Her memories of this event will be forever locked away, she will never know that her own father sold her just so he could have control over his wife. She will make a great soldier for anyone willing to pay the price, or she will fail and die, knowing she meant nothing to anyone." Nadia laughed, my skin crawled.

"You let go of her!" a younger version of me cried out. Nadia looked pissed as Ashes father gaped at me.

"Chris what are you doing here?" Ashes father spoke almost like he was at church and the pastor was talking.

"So this is the friend you told me about, the one who is always with Ashley. He could be useful, later on. For now though," Nadia walked closer to me, her eyes changing color, "you will forget this ever happened, you left early because your mother wanted you home early, now go home and forget everything that happened today." Slowly younger Chris fell to the ground, as I fell into the darkness once again lost like a dead fish at sea.