"The memories that disappeared"

[December 19th, 2021]

It's no use trying to remember what's gone. She understood that. She had multiple calls from her parents, her friends… Everyone. She read each and every one of them as she walked back home by dawn.

She spent the night at the rehab center. She was returning back home after understanding the meaning of her life. Why was it so small? Why only 10 days? Why her?

She understood all of that.

It felt as if her cocoon had opened and she was a newborn butterfly, ready to take its first flight to the skies and never look back.

But while this butterfly was still on the earth, it had all the reasons to socialize and live in the moment.

It's not like the butterfly community decided to shut down their reproduction mechanisms because they only got 6 weeks of life. They decided to live in the moment and make as much as possible out of their lives.

She understood that.

Just because she was given a numbered time to live didn't mean she didn't get to enjoy it. Just because she started forgetting things didn't mean she had forgotten about the reason for life.

This was the new leg of her journey that she remembered her art teacher mentioning.

5am and she rang the doorbell, missing her house-keys.

Her mother anxiously opened the door in an instant, with red eyes. She probably hadn't slept. She didn't ask her daughter an explanation.

Just seeing her face drove a drift of adrenaline in her body. She leaned forward and hugged her daughter tightly.

"Welcome home, sweetie." She muttered confidently, trying not to seem worried.

It was too cruel of her, Aurora thought. It was too cruel of her to leave her mother unattended.

Aurora gave her a big smile in return. Her mother deserved that.

She gently called her daughter inside for breakfast, wondering how long had she been out, starving on her own.

"I'm sorry." Aurora muttered with a light smile.

Her mother patted her head lightly, understanding everything without an explanation.

There was no need for an explanation. Not for now.

She went to rest after breakfast at dawn and slept for the day.

She woke up at 3 in the afternoon, when Giselle had arrived with a snack she cooked.

"Wakey, wakey." Giselle poked Aurora lightly. "I took into account the skills of Master Emilia to come up with a great snack to satisfy your spicy tooth!" She explained.

She floated the plate around her face so she may wake up. Aurora yawned as she woke up to see her friend ready to feed her down.

"What's this?" She asked, looking at the strange mess on the plate.

It was nachos… But they were covered with some orange liquid that was splashed all over the plate trying to look artistic. There were strangely cut cucumbers here and there for no reason.

"I call it, The Volcano OF Doom!" Giselle mimicked a deeper voice.

Aurora twitched her eyes in confusion. Excuse me, what?

"...Okay?" She muttered as she finally sobered up.

"Try it!" Giselle shoved a spoonful in front of her face.

Aurora instinctively backed off. Giselle pouted in pure sadness, or she made it look that way.

Aurora sighed, opening her mouth slowly till wide open. Giselle didn't wait a second and shoved it in, the spoonful of hell.

"Mm…" Aurora slowly chewed before opening her eyes widely in surprise. "It's spicy. What did you add to it?"

"Secret. Do you like it though?" Giselle asked with a big smile.

"Yeah. It's yummy. Except it's face is kinda… Ahm."

Giselle chuckled.

"It's The Volcano OF Doom Aurora, what do you expect?!"

She nodded while chuckling before her attention diverted towards a scar on Giselle's forearm.

"Hey… What's that?" Aurora asked, grabbing her arm and pointing at the scar.

"You… Don't remember?" Giselle asked, raising an eyebrow.

Aurora slowly shook her head.

"For the better then. You don't have to remember crappy stuff anyway."

"But… I want to know."

Giselle sighed before crossing her legs.

[December 19th, 2018]

"Dad! I think something's wrong!" Aurora exclaimed in fear.

"What do you mean? Is she not replying?" Her father asked in concern.

She shook her head before grabbing her coat and running outside.

"Wait!" She heard her father call him but she had to run.

Not a second could be wasted.

She ran amidst the cold breeze piercing her lungs like needles. She ran all the way to Giselle's house which was reasonably far from her own house.

She banged her hand on the door, waiting for someone to open it, at 1am in the night. The moon was right above her as her fearful hands struck the door to get her friend out of there.

She continuously banged the door until Giselle's mother angrily opened the door.

"WHAT?!" She shouted at her. "What do YOU want now?!"

"G-...Giselle..?" Aurora hesitantly asked.

"Like hell I would know!"

She slammed the door shut and left Aurora on the other side.

Aurora quickly grabbed her phone again and messaged Giselle. She still didn't reply or pick up her calls.

Aurora quickly ran her thoughts against places her friend might've retreated to.

She could quickly think of a place where Giselle would occasionally go to; The school rooftop.

She quickly ran all the way to her school. It was dark and the doors were locked. But she could sense her presence. She had to go inside.

She jumped above the main gate and stomped inside before running all the way to the outdoor stairs and climbing them up anxiously. She didn't even look at the steps beneath her feet and kept on walking.

She reached the already opened door of the rooftop and quickly ran to the other side.

She could hear a crying sound. She quickly reached out to see Giselle sitting in a corner with blood all over.

"Giselle!" She quickly ran towards her friend to see a huge scar on her forearm.

Lifeless Giselle didn't say a word as her tears rolled down. Aurora quickly grabbed a handkerchief out of her pocket and tried to cover the wound.

Her eyes slowly teared up as her friend didn't move an inch to the pain on that blood throbbing scar.

"Sorry." Giselle muttered after witnessing Aurora's tears fall on her wound acting as a saline, healing her from her pressure.

Aurora tied one final knot and hugged her.

"Let's go to the hospital." She sniffed, holding her tightly.

Giselle nodded and they stood up leading her to the hospital. The doctors asked and she admitted to have attempted to commit suicide.

But she also mentioned that she had been calmer after Aurora came all the way from her house to see her.

Aurora's father also arrived and decided to have Giselle stay at their house until things cooled down.

"Just my brother's birthday and everyone making a fuss about it. Nothing new." Giselle explained when Aurora asked.

"I went to your house… Your mom was angry."

"Let her be. That's the only thing she's good at."

She closed her eyes shut as she laid down on the bed beside Aurora.

"Don't worry about me. I promise I won't do this again."

"You promised!"

Aurora let her go back to sleep and tried to fall asleep as well. Though Giselle had promised never to do that again, she was still scared.

She hoped she would see Giselle right beside her when she woke up in the morning.