Memories Beyond
We saw a gigantic black wolf slowly walking out of the path. When it stepped on the sand on the beach, the shadows around it smoothly faded into the sunset, and I did not want to imagine who was behind the dark shadow.
“I could imagine Smoke using his stars to make me think that he would never leave me behind. A warm clear tear slowly left my eye as if Smoke was waving me goodbye before he flew up to the sky to play with his beautiful little stars.”
It’s finally lunchtime in Marine High School. My name is Lexie. Right now, I’m enjoying my spicy shrimp sandwich in the consular’s office, which has five large bookshelves full of fictional stories, and some comfortable bean bags.
“So, do you have any updates for me?” Ms. Darla asked, handing me a warm cup of green tea.
“Some boys beat me up at P.E for missing a shot during soccer,” I said, as if getting beaten up is part of my daily life.
Ms. Darla always has a surprised look on her face when I share my day at school. She pats me on my back and says the nicest things I will ever hear from a person. I always try to look like I don't care, but inside my heart is pounding. I feel extremely dizzy, my eyes get watery, and my hands shake fiercely.
“Hey!” A black cat yelled, flying over my head.
“OMG. Shut up, before I kill you,” I over exaggerate, swinging my arms.
This is my partner Smoke. He is a black cat soul, who can only be spotted by reapers, lost souls, or ghosts. He sometimes acts like my emotional support, which I appreciate a lot. According to him, he says that I think too much of everything, especially people’s weird comments about me. So I keep trying to ignore what they say but it just keeps popping in and out of my brain, even when I’m sleeping! I feel so messed up. I suddenly felt my face turn gloomy and dark.
“Is everything okay, my dear?” Ms. Darla asked, with her questioning face, looking worried at the same time.
“Yup! Everything is wonderful!” I said, sounding very sarcastic.
After a few more hours I was freed from school. I ran as fast as I could to the biking station. I quickly put on my black helmet and waited for Smoke to go in the basket.
When we returned to our house, I threw my backpack on my chair and hurried upstairs. I slammed the door open, and the room was full of books, ingredients, potions, wands, sealed stones for lost souls and ghosts, and a magic circle. My parents died when I was 10 years old due to a car accident with a drunk driver. He was explaining how he hated his life and wanted to kill himself. I lost my voice for almost three years, and whenever I saw an alcoholic drink, I would feel sick and fall into depression.
About a year after the accident I met Smoke on the road. He was badly injured. He had scratches and bruises everywhere. So I took him home and washed him, fed him, and went to the vet. I was glad that I finally had a friend to play with, since I couldn’t go to school to make friends. But months later Smoke could barely breath and his body was shivering, his lips were pale, and he was sweating. I knew something was wrong so I rushed to the vet. The vet said that Smoke developed a heart disease when he got abandoned, and he was about to pass away. I broke into tears sobbing and screaming, not accepting the present. I had to suffer through my parents death and now I have to deal with my one and only friend dying? Soon Smoke died, cold and peaceful in my arms, and wet because of my miserable tears. Years passed with no friends, no anything… my eyes looked empty as a black hole in space.
“Hmm… first I’ll need to add dried cranberry powder, sunflower seed, dried Yellowjacket wasp, snail shell, and rotten milk!” I expressed, excited to make a new potion.
“What are you making?” Smoke asked, grooming his soft black fur.
“This is the potion of memory! It can show anyone’s past when you pour it on their head,” I said smiling.
“Aren’t you supposed to start on your homework?” Smoke asked, making fun of voice.
“Did you really need to say that…?” I said, with a disappointed face.
“Well, the first semester is going to end soon, so if you don’t want to get a bad progress grade…” Smoke explained. It was his daily routine to force me to do homework which is the only thing I don’t appreciate from him. It’s so annoying.
I organized all the ingredients and bottles and gently closed the door. I went downstairs to get my backpack, but suddenly I saw thick black smoke rising to the sky through the window. I immediately called Smoke, and he flew on my shoulder. He spread a bunch of sparkling little white stars around him which acts like his sensor that can detect things even from far distances.
“I think someone is passing through the path of the ocean! We have to go check. Hurry!” Smoke exclaimed.
I quickly covered myself with my long black robe and summoned my black and purple magic carpet. When we arrived at the Soft Moon Beach, where there’s soft sands to lay on, and is a great place to examine stars during night. We saw a gigantic black wolf slowly walking out of the path. When it stepped on the sand on the beach, the shadows around it smoothly faded into the sunset, and I did not want to imagine who was behind the dark shadow. It was Kaya, my friend from first grade. He was my best friend, but after his little brother died unfortunately he hid himself into dark shadows.
“Kaya? Is it really you?” I asked, my hands were shaking lightly and warm tears were running down my check. I was so glad to meet him again after many years.
“Hmfh, hello you little creep,” he said, glaring at me.
“Kaya, what’s wrong with you? You never said a bad word to me before…” I said, my voice was soft and shaky.
“You don’t deserve to be treated nicely! You killed my little brother!”
He started attacking me with his sharp dark sword, his eyes were glowing with anger.
“Why are you doing this to me?!” I yelled, blocking his attacks with The Dark Eye.
“I already told you! You killed my brother!”
Suddenly Smoke splashed the potion of memory, but some of the droplets fell onto me!
”Bruh, what in the world did you-“ I said, but just as I was going to say the last word I collapsed onto the sand.
When I opened my eyes I saw young Kaya walking across the traffic. He was holding a bag full of snacks, his face was full of delight. At his house, he pushed the house key into the keyhole, turned it around, opened the door, and shouted, “Kyle! I’m home!”
As soon as he said that, a little boy wearing a dinosaur t-shirt ran across the hallway and jumped to Kaya and hugged him smiling. Kaya aggressively ripped open a bag of potato chips and poured them into a small bowl. Kaya scooped a handful of chips and handed it to Kyle, turning on the TV to watch cartoons. That night, when Kaya woke up to drink a cup of water, he smelled something suspicious in the kitchen. Nervously he slowly opened the door, and as he did, a gigantic fire rose up to the ceiling and rushed toward the bedroom where Kyle was sleeping! He quickly ran to the bathroom, got a bucket of water and splashed it on Kyle. When Kaya glanced over at him, his front body was horribly burnt. Kaya rushed to the phone and called the ambulance with his hands shaking and his voice cracking.
Moments later the ambulance arrived, and the paramedics hurried upstairs with a stretcher. They lifted Kyle and laid him down gently, and one of them held Kaya’s both hands and softly asked what had happened. He told the paramedic everything that had happened as his tears went down his cheek unable to stay calm. When the ambulance approached the hospital the paramedics sprinted to the Emergency Room and when Kyle’s stretcher entered the room, the operation light turned on, while Kaya down at the chair covered his eyes and cried miserably. After about five minutes the light turned off and the surgeon exited the room sighed, and took off his mask.
“So… is my brother okay, sir?” He said, looking up at the surgeon.
There was a long silence before the surgeon opened his mouth. Kaya’s eyes shook with worries.
“…We tried our best but unfortunately…” he said.
Suddenly his eyes were widened. He darted into the Emergency Room and saw Kyle lying on the patient’s bed, his eyes peacefully closed. Kaya grabbed his hand with his shivering hands and whispered to Kyle’s ears.
“I will take revenge on the person that set the fire,” he said, biting his lower lip. He bit it so hard that his pure red blood dropped to the white blanket.
As soon as Kaya exited the room, I suddenly woke up on the beach, and spit some sand that had gone into her mouth. When II turned my head toward Kaya he was staring at the sand with vacant eyes. He suddenly jumped onto his feet and darted toward me with his sharp blades. I accidentally dropped my sword onto the sand and Kaya threw his blade towards my chest. I closed my eyes, my heart beat with fear, my arms shaking, but I didn’t feel any pain. I instantly knew that something was wrong. I slowly opened my eyes worried, and I would never want to believe what happened next.
Smoke was in front of me and Kaya’s blade was cutting through his belly. Blood dropped to the sand making a small puddle. My eyes were widened, exploding with tears, I hugged Smoke as tightly as I could as I collapsed to the ground howling. Smoke was groaning in pain, his body shattering ferociously. He asked if I was okay. Of course I was not okay! His body was getting colder and colder, and that was the time I lost my emotional support and the one and only friend. I was deeply ashamed of Kaya, he was smiling, laughing like a psychopath! My eyes were hot and blurry, and my cheek was soaked with tears. I shouted at him with a cracking voice, my throat hurts as if someone was scraping it with a pickaxe. Kaya chuckled and said,
“Well, now do you understand the pain I had to go through because of YOU?”
I screamed no, because I wasn’t the person who started the fire at his house. I started explaining to him that when I was friends with him, it was true that my ability was fire, but by the time I turned first grade, students were cursing at the name that I would start a fire in the school and kill everyone even though I would NEVER do that. So I changed my ability to water from fire because I wanted to be the person who saves people from fire not hurts them. The fire that started in Kaya’s house was because his mother was boiling soup for the morning, but forgot to turn the fire off before going to sleep.
After he heard me explain, he dropped to the ground hitting his head with his fist. I rushed over to stop him, but he threw my arm away. His head turned bright red, and slowly got sullen. He was panicking, after all his effort to try to get revenge on me had disappeared like a racing car. Maybe if I told him that earlier we could have still been friends, and Smoke didn’t have to sacrifice his life for me. I sprinted to him and hugged me as tight as I could and whispered it is not your fault. He was panting A LOT as if he would die after a millisecond. He leaned against me like a dog that got yelled at by his owner and needed comfort. We sat there for hours and hours watching the bright sun lay down on its bed. Soon after the sunset, the dark blue sky filled up with thousands of shining little stars, and the moon was extremely bright as if it was smiling at us on a good night. I could imagine Smoke using his stars to make me think that he would never leave me behind. A warm clear tear slowly left my eye as if Smoke was waving me goodbye before he flew up to the sky to play with his beautiful little stars. Days passed without Smoke, but I didn’t feel lonely or empty at all.
“Lexie! Look! I caught a butterfly!” Kaya marveled, hopping towards me.
“Hey! Let that poor little butterfly go. You know that's animal harassment right?” I said as I bonked him on the head.
Kaya pouted and released the butterfly. Soon the bell rang for 6th period, Kaya and I rushed to our English classroom. We were almost late, but thankfully we weren’t. I plopped down onto my seat sweating from running. Our teacher, Mr. Blackwood explained we had to make a poster about a myth from Halloween. Since today is October 28, he wanted to decorate his classroom with his students’ great artwork and share it with other teachers. I decided to do the project with Kaya because I thought we were thinking about the same thing. I ran over to Kaya’s table, and jumped him on the back. He jumped like a frightened frog and his eyes were very big like the eyes of an ostrich.
“OMG, Lexie! You scared me half to death!” Kaya yelled, giving me a not scary side-eye.
“Hehe. Do you want to do the project together?” I asked brushing his messy and soft hair.
He didn’t answer, but he grabbed a poster on Mr.Blackwood’s desk. We agreed that we should write about Smoke, but change the story, so it can fit the concept of Halloween. The story began with a dead cat named Smoke, and he had friends that missed him. On Halloween when the friends created amazing treats like chocolate muffins, cookies, doughnuts, pizzas, and some cold drinks he decided to eat some of them. When the friends sat down around the table they noticed each of the treats was missing. They called out, asking if Smoke had eaten the treats, but he couldn’t answer because he was dead. So, he jumped into the Jack o'Lanterns and blinked the lights hoping the friends noticed.
“…Something like this,” I explained, roughly sketching the title.
“Woah, I think it’s a great idea! I will start writing if you don’t mind my handwriting,” he said, taking out a mechanical pencil and an eraser out of his pencil case.
Mr.Blackwood was peeking at everyone’s projects. When he glanced at our project, his eyes widened and gave us a thumbs up. I replied with a light nod and continued drawing the Jack o'Lanterns. In the background I drew some sweet treats like cupcakes, cookies, and cakes along with drinks. Then I grabbed a thin sharpie from Mr. Blackwood’s desk and traced the sketch lines extremely carefully.
