Page 130 of Damned and Broken Gods
Silence fell, and everyone exchanged glances, but it was Number One who spoke. “I…I had a feeling more would come, so I…I made the fire, and I waited.”
“Then we know each other,” Number Three said. “We must. You knew we would come, deep down. You waited for us because you knew, and we know each other.” He stood up and began to pace. “So maybe we can jog each other’s memories.”
Number Two let out a frustrated growl. “That river took our memories. They’re gone. There is no jogging anything. We need to get out of…into…deeper…” She clutched her head and let out a soft cry.
Number Four instantly reached for her. “Are you all right?”
I expected Number Two to brush her off, but instead she leaned into the touch. “I’m fine.”
“Did you see that?” Number Three said, pointing at Two and Four. “That’s body language saying those two are comfortable with each other.”
He was right. Our minds may have forgotten, but our bodies hadn’t.
“We should hug,” he said. “Just all take turns hugging and see if anything sparks. “I might be dating one of you.”
“You wish,” Number One says.
“Ouch, that was rude.”
Number One shook her head. “No…I mean…I like women, not men.” She grinned. “Maybe I’m dating one of you?”
“How is this helping?” Number Two demanded. “Look, I say we move. Go deeper and…see what happens.”
“What if we’re meant to be here?” Number Four said. “What if we’re meant to stay until we remember? What if it’s too dangerous to continue if we don’t know who we are?”
Our memories were what shaped us, but…there was more to us than just memories. We could still function without them. Still work together. I stood slowly. “I agree with Four and Two. I say we go.” I looked over my shoulder at the dark path that cut between the trees into the unknown. “We’ll watch each other’s backs and find our way…home?” I frowned as gentle heat flared at my solar plexus. Around me, the others stilled. Number One reached up to touch her chest.
“I think I came here looking for…someone…” she said.
The heat in my chest bloomed brighter. “Yes…I feel it too.”
“But not here…” Number Two said. “My person isn’t here.” She stood, and Number Four stood with her. “We go.”
I nodded. “Yes.” We gathered at the base of the path that led into the forest. “We stick together.”
“Yeah,” Number One said.
I took a steadying breath and walked away from firelight and into the gloom. Bracken crunched beneath my feet, and silence pressed in on me. The trees gathered closer, branches weaving together overhead to form a canopy to block out the starless sky, but there was still somehow enough light to see by. This place wasn’t natural. It wasn’t an outside place. It wasn’t reality.
The path widened, and One and Three flanked me, while Two and Four walked close behind. The crunch of bracken faded. The silence thickened and echoed even though we didn’t say a word. The path wound on—widening and opening out. The treesmoved away from us, and yet their branches stretched to hide the sky, like a cage of wooden limbs.
Impossible.
“This is weird,” Number Three said.
Weird.
Weird.
The forest echoed back.
“Fuck this.”
This…this.
A soft rustling broke the silence, and the terrain shifted. I grabbed hold of Number One to steady myself, and she reached for me at the same time. Number Three wrapped his arms around us.
The world trembled and blurred, and when it settled, we were left in a clearing, the trees standing around us like sentries, their branches forming a lattice above us, entwined and impenetrable.
