The Neverlasting Memory

The Neverlasting Memory

The infamous Bell Tree Fair had returned. It had be outlawed for many years, and although it was claimed by the officials that there was no particular reason apart from laziness that it hadn’t happened for so long, everyone knew the actual reasons. About 8 years ago, it had happened, but not many could remember it. A specific few hid it away in themselves, constantly trying to convince themselves that it had never happened, chained up in their hearts, and while this fake shroud often worked, they all truly knew, whenever they thought about it for more than a few seconds, that it had really happened.

A scream. A piercing, powerful shriek that seemed to shake the entire fair resonated out, but the people nearby ignored it. Kayla began to worry needlessly, trying to find out who it came from. She was astounded that nobody else seemed to care, and she couldn’t believe it. Could nobody else hear it? Why wasn’t anyone panicking? The anxiety trapped her heart, she couldn’t take it anymore. She screamed out: “Why is nobody doing anything?!” The passers-by stared at her, some inquisitively, some judgingly. Both sides both knew that they didn’t want anything to do with it though, so the people walked on. One sole person, a lonely soul came through for her, and quietly mumbled to her “It was probably just someone in the haunted house…”, but Kayla didn’t even think there was a haunted house at the Fair. It was Christmas wasn’t it, not Halloween? She looked at this stranger who had come through for her, and felt a strong sense of connection emanating from him. There wasn’t anything particularly striking about him, about average height, chestnut brown eyes and hair, pale skin, totally normal. But she couldn’t help this strong link to him.

The guy turned out to be Justin. He was apparently one of the leaders around the place, but Kayla refused to believe it. He seemed too shy to be able to run a whole fair, but she went along with it. He was telling her about the various attractions at the fair, the generic Ferris wheel, some booths, a few rides. Nothing out of the ordinary, it was the unique things that made this fair special. There were a few events, mostly based on cooking, photography and decorating. Kayla thrived here, as she had been in a creative mood lately and she knew that she was the cream of the crop when it came to artistic talent. She had already prepared some exquisite pasta for the cooking, so that was covered. She had already taken some photos of her dazzling Christmas tree to show off to her friends back home. Everything was going swimmingly, and she had the events covered. But she was fiercely competitive, and when Justin told her about the competitions, something snapped inside her. It was as if she was angry, but a passionate fire burned in her heart to crush everyone in those competitions. She had been writing a book recently, and it was fantastic, if she did say so herself. Justin wasn’t too keen, but she didn’t care, she had to win it. The other competitions however, were not exactly her forte. While she could take the art contest, her signature making skills weren’t as up to scratch as she would’ve liked them to be. Luckily, she had also taken some pictures of her home village, which she dearly loved, and inside her house, because she was a massive show-off. But she couldn’t get rid of the ringing in her head, that scream repeating over and over again in her head. Justin had to leave to take of some fair business, so she enquired into things herself. She found the person earlier, Aiden, who had told her that there was a haunted house. He pointed her in its general direction, but when she went off that same way, she found no house. Only some eerie woods. An ominous wind swept about her, giving her goosebumps as she stared into the abyss of trees in front of her. Without hesitation, however, she continued on. Some nearby fair-goers admired her brevity to enter, but they knew, deep down, what her oncoming fate was. They simply moved on.
As the hours passed, the mystery of the woods seemed to continually invite her in to search more, for anything that might indicate what that scream was. It did inspire her to make a quick ending to her book, and choose what snippets to take out and piece together a short story for the fair. A snap. She definitely heard a snap of something, perhaps a twig, but she wasn’t sure where from. The trees around her were too close; the sound had been distorted from where it came from. A little distance in front of her, she saw a glowing shadow slowly walking away, and she sprinted after it. Over fallen logs and spiky branches, bushes of holly and olives, the scent of lavender and honeysuckle fading away from her, but she caught up to the shadow. It fell to the floor with a thud, but as she jumped over to the figure on the floor, it let out an agonizing sound. It was earth shattering, and the ground around her started to tremble and shake, dying down a short while after. Kayla turned over the body, but the face had been distorted by the scream, unable to make out who, or what it was. She tried to wake the person up, but it was no use, they had been taken. “That was Brandon,” a voice behind her said as she leapt up with a shock. It was Justin again, but Kayla was unconvinced. He didn’t seem like the type to come into the woods. As soon as she saw him, Kayla instantly forgot about the events that had just happened and walked back safely with him. Why had she come into the woods anyway? She couldn’t remember.
As the fair went on, every so often that same unbearable sound had shot out but only she seemed to be able to remember them. Regardless, she had a lot of fun at the fair. She won a few of the staff favourites as well, and she felt ever so accomplished. In the contests, she had crushed a few of her new rivals, even though she didn’t even know their names. She just knew that she had beat them and felt content with herself. It soon came time to leave the fair for the day, and picking up some fluffy candy floss to eat on the way home, she left with a goodbye to her new friend. But then she remembered the screams, the woods, and the people, everything else that she had forgotten.  Why had she let those memories escape her mind? She knew she could be a bit dim sometimes, but this wasn’t like her to forget things this easily. She immediately turned and ran back, through to the woods. Brushing past all the foliage, knocking into a few of the trees and bushes, but she was determined to get back to that person she had seen earlier. But when she was at the spot she was sure of, there was nobody there. Another snap. She would’ve turned around, but she remembered what had happened about her forgetting everything. She paced onwards, going deeper and deeper into the forest of lies. Eventually, she arrived at a prairie with a lake. It was glistening in the moonlight and starting to freeze over, becoming a reflection of the moon itself on earth. It occurred to her that apart from the lake, there was a distinct lack of colour. Where were the flowers, and the lush grass? The lake illuminated the area around her, and she carefully tip-toed around as to not make any noise. In a flash, a beacon of light shot up further on, and she slowly went towards it. She wasn’t sure if anyone was following her, but she didn’t dare to look back. When she arrived at the beacon, nothing happened. She was captivated by its brightness, as if a snowflake had lit itself up and shone on for the winter. Unknowingly, a few red dots appeared in the darkness behind her. She carefully went towards the light, but she backed away when the dots entered her line of vision. This was a trap and she knew it, she had fallen into something again and there was no knowing if there was a way out. The memories of the fair started to leave her mind, and she tried to grab onto them but it was no use. Kayla could only remember one thing, one person, one soul which had left its mark for eternity on her. But what was his name? He had told her his nickname… but it has escaped her.

Staring at the illumination for as long as she had had put Kayla into a trance.  The crackle of snow, as if someone was walking nearby, could be heard by Kayla. It snapped her out of it, and she looked down at it, as it spelled out something and drew a figure. It was illogical that the snow could do that by itself, but she was done trying to figure anything else out. It said “Ask,” and she looked at the figure in the snow. An easily recognisable character, as she had seen it in comics when she was a little girl, but again the name had escaped her. A few other names popped into her head, Harry, Lauren, Dave, Jason, but none of them was the right one. It was on the tip of her tongue, and an almost mystical force made her blurt out “Phineas.” It was indeed Phineas, so the message was Ask Phineas. But ask Phineas what, exactly? Whispers in her ear shocked her, but she intently listened. “Ask about Jubs.” Kayla exclaimed in joy, “Jubs! That’s it, that’s his nickname!” The whispers replied back “Who’s nickname?” She thought to herself for a moment. Whose nickname was it? The thought of her forgetting again made her kick herself. Then, something behind her said “I know who he is.” The voice was coarse and crispy. She turned around without thinking, and asked, “Who is Jubs?”
The end.