I remember when I was nine years old, a silver door in the middle of the forest near our village. It was me, Noir, and Sunny breaking the rules my grandmother had told us. My parents were out of town, after all, their parents never cared where we went. Our village had always been surrounded by tens of kilometers of dense forest, with mountains to add to the scenery, but that made it a rarely visited village.
I thought so, probably right. After all, the road from the village to the sub-district is one or two kilometers away, and it takes a long time to get to the nearest village and even then it's of poor quality. But, the area here feels a little strange.
For example, the way the forest and mountains cover our village, like a wall that prevents both sides from interacting with each other. Layered rice fields then mountains then rice fields then mountains. It wasn't all rain and lightning, this forest area was like our playground, each mountain and each rice field we passed was like a level from a mario game we were exploring.
Until today, we crossed the line, not that we went too far but something close to our village for a very long time. I've never known it before. At the foot of a mountain, a place where there weren't many people, there was asphalt eaten away by the ground leading deeper.
"Noir, don't run too fast! Wait for us." Sunny shouted, though I doubted she would listen.
Going deeper into that area, I felt a feeling that even I didn't know. Hundreds of words and thousands of letters can't explain it, it feels like I've been here, not Déjà Vu, more than that. I even knew what was going to happen, it felt like a dream.
"Soon Noir will come back screaming because there's a snake down there." I said.
"Wait a minute, Aadflyn. Have you been here before? When?" Sunny asked.
I don't know when, but who knows. It felt like the memory had been erased from my mind as well, but a little bit remained to give it a strange impact in the form of that feeling. It was like a dream, this atmosphere, this conversation. It was the most surreal thing I had ever felt in my life.
"AAH! There's a snake! Help me Sunny!" Noir shouted running around, with a little water running down her cheeks.
Our team, the trio of Me, Noir and Sunny were the best in the village at exploring forests and mountain slopes. With the combo of Noir as the direction guide and Sunny as the danger exterminator, he could do a lot of other things as well.
As for me, I don't know what I did, I just followed them. After Sunny eliminated the group of snakes in the front area, we approached the large door on the mountain wall. It looked like an underground room.
"This is it! The final boss room. Be careful, there might be a lot of traps here." Noir opened the door.
It was very dark inside, but with a little sunlight coming in, it reflected off the white surface of the room. The room lit up slightly, the door at the back began to close and the lights illuminated the place. A branching room that had a very strange structure, similar to an anthill.
The black screen in the center of the room lit up, there appeared a man. I don't remember his face, the feeling came and went. Words didn't reach me, nothing else probably did either. Until now all that was burned into my memory was the faceless figure that kept following me.
"For you, a good future awaits you. For you, a quiet and peaceful life awaits you. For you, there is only a nagging sense of regret in your mind. For you, a happy and colorful life till the end. For you, a sense of comfort in every second until the end of life. For you, endless torture, even if the universe is reborn. It's all... your doing."
That's all...
---
Sh**! I overslept again in class. It's already one o'clock in the afternoon, the teacher still hasn't come? Will it continue like this until the dismissal bell sings with its melodious voice. Good thing the previous two lessons the teacher didn't come in either, I'm still sleep deprived from last night.
"Good afternoon! Is sleeping your hobby now huh? Just like grandpa." Noir laughed.
I sighed
"Hey, do you still remember? Seven years ago, that underground room?" I asked.
Noir nodded.
"I see, what exactly does that faceless person on the screen mean?"
"What do you mean the faceless person on the screen Aadflyn? We weren't even allowed inside that place, a scientist-looking person kicked us out."
I faced Noir in disbelief, what do you mean, a scientist? Stop that nonsense.
"What are you guys doing?" Sunny joined the conversation.
"Do you remember seven years ago? When we walked into the deeper forest, where we broke Aadflyn's grandmother's ban and we returned to the village late in the afternoon." Noir asked.
"Oh yes, that time she received fifty strokes of the rattan. I wouldn't have been able to stand it." Sunny added. "So, what was that about? It's been seven years I guess you forgot about that embarrassing moment."
I shook my head.
"It's okay, just a bad dream. Are you free after this?"
"Heh, you think I'm the type of person who's busy? Myself, Noir is the most unplugged person these days and I, for one, have been waiting for this invitation." Noir said.
"Then why don't you invite me?" I asked.
She ran away from there, going to the toilet used as a shield excuse. Besides, the inevitable eventually happened. Like death and fate, the math teacher always comes at the last minute. Through storms and seas, to give us a mountain of work.
Maybe I should have canceled the activity that hadn't even been planned yet. Seeing as my weekend was going to be spent doing homework, maybe this would have been better. Or that should have been what Sunny usually did, for some reason today she agreed to come along.
It's nine o'clock on Saturday morning, I should be late but why don't I see them. I opened my smartphone, texting them. Moments later, Sunny replied, I was too early. I sat on a chair near the city park, leaning back.
He said he wanted to go somewhere, Noir said he had a destination. I hoped he wouldn't get us lost, unlike seven years ago.
I sighed.
I'll be sixteen soon, for some reason I feel like there's a weight hooked on my leg. It feels like I wasted the last seven years, I don't even know where to continue. After all, I've never thought about leaving the village.
Seven years ago, the memory of that day seemed to disappear without a trace from my memory. I don't know what the reason was.
"Yo! Good morning, long wait?" Noir came over, throwing me a canned coffee.
"You two always come together, Noir, Sunny. So, where are we headed?" I asked.
Noir smiled broadly, her face saying, follow me. I got up, straightened my clothes and was ready to go. Wherever you go, I'll follow you. We walked to the nearby metro station. To a city quite far from the capital, a place in the remote part of the island.
We bought tickets, the trip was estimated to take eight hours. We might arrive at night if something went wrong, I leaned back in the seat close to Sunny, while Noir sat in the seat across from us. And off the train went.
This route, through the memory lane. He would take us to that village, seven years ago I left that place with an oath. I don't know what made him think going back there was a good idea. Looking to the right and left, the scenery that this train passes through is quite good.
Before we knew it, the first station had been passed. Some passengers got on and off but we didn't notice, we were too focused on chatting with each other. Until a tall and large man offered to sit next to noir. The man looked strange, he was wearing a fedora hat and a suit in this summer. On top of that, he was wet as if he had been hit by rain.
"May I sit next to you?" Asked the tall man.
Noir nodded, this was the first time I saw Noir with that look on his face. She looks very tense.
"Introducing, I am commonly called Mr. Umbrella. I am from the future, pleasant to meet you, Noir, Sunny, and also... Aadflyn." The man smiled.
I looked at him sharply, this man felt like he had already met me, and I was the same. A heavy feeling of déjà vu hit me again, I've met him before? 562, since seven years ago I've been experiencing it more and more often, I even have trouble sleeping. My doctor said that I have severe insomnia, and it might be incurable. Everything since those seven years has changed.
"Talk about you, freak. It's called Mr. Umbrella but you're raining in the middle of summer. Are you crazy?" Asked Sunny smiling.
"Wah wah wah, wait a minute Sunny-kun. I just want to talk, for now that is." Mr. Umbrella snapped his fingers.
The atmosphere of the train instantly changed, all the passengers on the train seemed to disappear. The room in the train became full of white. Mr. Umbrella, who is he? Is he trying to kill us? Fifteen-year-old kids who did nothing wrong.
"You know, this train is called Lagtrain for a reason." Mr. Umbrella corrected his sitting position. "Well then, let's go down the memory lane."
Next : Memory Rain