2 The Memory - Part 1

After who knows how long, Octavia starts to blink, waking up from where she fell.

Dazed from the fall, she rights herself and pushes herself up, as good as she can trying to balance with whatever this snake tail costume around her legs is. Looking down the remnants of the crystal ball can be seen, shattered on the floor, as a mixture of shards and fine dust.

"Well given how the start of the day has been, this seems about right." She ends up groaning out.

Still trying to come to terms with the situation, while looking at the depressing mess on the floor, a slight breeze rolls past her face. Thinking someone may have opened the door, she quickly turns to see the intruder, finding nothing and the door still firmly shut. A quick glance at the windows tells the same tale, given they are a single pane of thick glass with no discernible way to open them.

But with the lack of an opening to the outside world, the breeze still somehow manages to pick up, increasing in speed and force. Then, all of a sudden, a flash of light appears.

From the floor.

"What is going on?"

Looking down, the dust and shards of glass are swirling around, caught in the breeze and sparks of light flash from the centre at random intervals. Mouth agape, all she can do is stare as the sections of glass collide and spin together.

More and more dust and glass shards continue to combine, fusing together, pulling more and more pieces in, until finally the crystal ball is reformed. The cracks from where the sections had re-joined slowly vanished, being filled in with light, leaving behind a perfect sphere similar to when she had originally picked it up. Moments later, the same voice from before rings out again.

"Good thing I went with the self-repair function for this thing." A disappointed sigh then rings out. "You know, you really should learn some hand eye coordination. You're going to end up on someone's bad side if you make a habit of destroying expensive things."

Stunned into silence she continues looking at the crystal ball, unsure of what to say now that she has realised the voice is from neither a person nor phone as she thought.

"You know it's rude when you don't reply in a conversation. At least say sorry for breaking my very expensive trans dimensional communication orb."

"Sorry!" She quickly pipes out, not sure how to deal with the situation or this annoyed voice.

"Good, apology accepted. Now we need to talk. I've been waiting quite some time for you to wake up so I could explain everything that's happened. Now, why don't you pick up the orb and place it on the table so it's not on the dirty floor. l like I said, its expensive."

"Who are you?"

Doing as the orb says, she raises her question while reaching down, with less wobbling now, grabbing the orb and placing it on top of the chest of drawers. Looking at the ball like before, she notices the same swirling darkness can be seen in the centre.

"We'll get to that later. To start, what do you remember from before you woke up."

Frowning at the rudeness of this crystal orb and realising she probably won't get anything from it unless she does what it says, Octavia looks up in thought, and tries to recall all that she can remember from before falling asleep.

.

"Ugghh, I really need to start going to sleep earlier."

Waking up from her restless sleep, Octavia slowly makes her way out from under the covers, grogginess evident in her voice and facial expression. Starting with the usual morning exercises, Octavia's morning routine starts. From stretching to then eating breakfast, showering, changing and greeting her roommates, she finally leaves the shared house making her way to college.

Walking down the many roads, making her way through a few twists and turns, Octavia passes the usual sights. From the takeaway restaurants she usually frequents on the weekend, to the café she and her friends usually go to after a long hard day of studying. All these sights are overshadowed by a massive forest, which can be seen for almost a half of the journey to college. The side visible from the pathway is entirely fenced off with wrought iron fencing, all apart from a few ornately sculptured entrances, which lead to small clearings where many a dog walker and family spend their time relaxing. The edges of these clearings join to the dense forest where hikers and adventure seekers explore. This though encompasses only a small fenced off section of the vast forest. The rest of which is left as a nature reserve.

Finally passing the somewhat local landmark, Octavia finally makes her way to college, where a long day awaits her. Dealing with the usual horrible and tedious classes just makes the day grow longer, leading to a well worn-out Octavia exiting the college followed by her friends. The trip back is generally better than the trip to college, as she normally ends up in the café along the way, leading to an afternoon filled with discussions about the annoyances of the day and other topics with her friends.

But today was a little different to normal.

Due to various circumstances, Octavia ends up alone halfway through her walk back home. The café is left unvisited, due to a couple of her friends starting diets and others needing to travel someplace different. All of which leaves Octavia feeling somewhat down during the trip back, as she walks past the fenced off forest.

"I can't wait to get home. All I want to do is just sleep the day away after those boring classes."

While still light out, it's quite a chilly day, meaning the clearing by the forest she passes is quite sparse, where only the odd dog walker and a family can be seen in the distance. As she nears the gate, she suddenly hears something in the distance.

"…elp…"

Quickly freeing in place, Octavia looks around for the person who spoke. Looking down the street, she sees a couple of families shopping and some students entering a sweetshop. Turning to the forest clearing the dog walkers have met up at the park bench and are having a quick chat, while the family are pushing their kids on the swings. Looking around a few more times and not seeing anything unusual, she thinks that in the worn-down state, she must be hearing things.

"…help me.."

"Ok that time it was clear. Who is saying that and where are they? Is someone in trouble?" She asks herself, trying not to look crazy

Looking around again the same scene as before presents itself. It's at this point Octavia notices something.

"Why is no one else looking around for the voice. I'm not that far from the family by the shops, so they should be able to hear it too."

"Help me" the voice calls out again, sounding closer than before.

"Its's even getting louder. Who is it?"

But again, no one else seems to notice the voice. Panning her head and moving about along the street while listening out for the voice some more, she is able to determine it is coming from the forest. The family that was shopping noticed her and end up giving her some strange looks, who then decided to quickly leave the area in order to get away from the weird girl.

"Ok, what do I do. What should I do? Some one is calling out for help in the forest… so I should call the police. Right".

Taking out her phone she quickly dials the number. Explaining the situation to the operator, they ask her to remain where she is and that a unit is on their way. So, being the good law-abiding citizen that she is, Octavia stands by the gate waiting for the police to arrive.

"Help me."

All the while still listening to the voice calling out for help.

.

Almost 10 minutes go by, but no sirens can be heard, even though the nearest police station is only several minutes away. What was also strange was that a police car passed by her, which she noticed too late, ending up with it being too far to be flagged down. Pondering the possibilities, all she can think off is that they took her call as some sort of joke.

Looking at her options, she could either continue on her way home, and forget all about the person possibly in danger, or she could take the risk, venture into the forest blindly, following only the sound of the stranger's voice and hope she doesn't get lost.

Or killed.

…

"Help me. Please"

…

Really, there was never two options.

Striding into the clearing, Octavia checks the battery on her phone, and is thankful she charged it the night before. Eventually she hits the edge of the forest. Turning on the phone light, she takes her first step into the dense forest and forges forward in search of the voice.

Looking back over her shoulder one last time in hopes the police actually decided to turn up, out of the corner of her eye she sees a black van suddenly stop by the gate, almost right where she was standing. Given the coincidence of that happening and from all of the crime shows she has watched, she waits to see who leaves the van, hoping its either SWAT or some undercover police office. But, after a few minutes, she is disappointed to see just a couple of gruff men leave the van, looking something akin to builders or maintenance workers, given the high vis outfits they are wearing. Sighing and giving up on the hopeful thought of police turning up, she turns around and continues into the forest, following the desperate voice calling out for help, not even considering the strangeness in that only she seems to be able to hear it.