Chapter 4: Memories
“I can’t believe it,” Joel sobbed. “Why did he leave…without even saying goodbye?”
His brother, Sora, who was two years older than him – ten or eleven, at the time – with curly dark brown hair and blue eyes, cradled their baby sister in his arms. “Dad was never around much in the first place,” he said. “Only Mom was always here for us.”
“Why?!” Joel cried.
“I wish I knew,” Sora replied. He turned toward Joel and gave him his kind smile. “But no matter what happens, I want you to know that I’ll always be here for you and Michiru. ‘Cause that’s what big brothers are for. Right, Joel?”
- - - -
“What do you mean... ‘Sora’s gone’?” Joel wept.
“They chased him away...They took my baby...” his mother cried into her hands. “Hayao and Sora...are both gone!” she sobbed.
- - - -
“Remember how I told you... ‘Don’t get involved with the Gifted,’ like I did?” Joel’s mother mumbled, only half-conscious. “I’m sorry, but now... I’m asking you the opposite...” Joel and Michi stood next to their mother’s bedside, straining to hear her. “Joel...Michiru...” she said weakly, “please... find Sky, one of the Gifted...”
Michi’s eyes filled with tears. “Mommy...” she cried.
“Don’t worry,” Joel said toughly, “we’ll do it.”
Their mother smiled weakly, then her eyes eased shut again.
- - - -
Joel’s eyes sprang open. As the dream faded, he slowly sat up and found himself in bed at the inn. Why...? he thought, Why are these memories popping into my head now? He looked down and saw Michi curled up next to him, peacefully sleeping. Because Hikari... Joel glanced in the other direction, at Hikari, who slept fitfully in the other bed a few feet away. Hikari called her “Michiru” two times. But no one knows her by that name but me and my family.
“No...” Joel heard Hikari mutter in his sleep. “Don’t touch me...I don’t want to...I wanna go home...!”
“Hikari?” Joel called softly as he got to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“Mom’s gonna die...if I don’t...!” Hikari’s eyes suddenly snapped wide open; the color faded from a greenish-blue to hazel before he calmed down and sat up. “What is it?” Hikari asked. He read the concern in Joel’s eyes and grinned. “Are you actually worried? About me? That’s a first.”
Joel stood staring at him for a moment, then asked, “If you have a mom to go back to, then why don’t you want to go back home to the Haven?”
“What are you talking about?” Hikari asked, grinning as if he’d never had the horrible
nightmare. “I don’t have a family. And I sure don’t live in the Haven.”
“But you...” Joel gave up trying to ask Hikari about his family. What am I doing? he thought to himself. This is Hikari I’m talking to. He’s always weirding out like this...It’s like trying to talk to twins who don’t live together, and never knowing which one you’re talking to. “So do you feel better?” he asked.
“Better...?” Hikari asked. “I feel fine.”
“Good,” Joel said. “Then we can get moving again.”
Joel started to wake up Michi when Hikari said, “Don’t. I can carry her.” When his eyes met with Joel’s, he forced himself to look down. “That is...if you don’t mind.” The cut on Joel’s hand caught his eye. “Sorry about the cut,” he murmured.
“So now you remember our little fight back at José’s?” Joel asked. He noticed that Hikari’s eyes were mostly green again – and green was the same color they had been when he and Hikari fought, and the same color they always were when Hikari had his frantic episodes and angry outbursts. His eyes...when his personality changes, his eyes change color, too, Joel observed, and whenever his eyes change color, he remembers different things.
“I never forgot,” Hikari murmured. “That’s why you hate me, isn’t it? Because of my powers...Because I’m one of the Gifted...” His eyes became vacant, then the color changed back to hazel. “I feel fine,” he backtracked. “Are we going to leave, then? After Michi wakes up?” He grinned at Joel and began slipping his cloak back on. “We can get her some water while we’re heading out, since we forgot earlier.”
“Huh? What do you mean, ‘since we forgot’?” Joel asked “You remembered.”
“You got mad when I said only you forgot, didn’t you?” Hikari asked. “Or did I only imagine it? I don’t really know...” He suddenly gasped, and his eyes sprang open.
“What?” Joel asked, alarmed. “What is it?”
Joel watched the color of his eyes change to green again; the mark on his neck was glowing. “We’ve got company,” Hikari said. He got to his feet and turned toward the door, his thin body rigid with apprehension. “They’re coming.”
“Who’s coming?” Joel asked. “How do you know?”
“I can sense them,” Hikari said, looking a little self-conscious. “Their energy – I can feel it. Whoever they are...they’re angry.”
“Are we safe here?” Joel asked.
Hikari flipped up his hood. “They’re only here for me,” he said. “You two should be fine.”
“Hey, wait,” Joel called, “what are you gonna do?”
“I’ll draw them away from you,” Hikari replied. “It’s all right, isn’t it? You don’t like me.” Hikari started to turn and walk away. “Leave here and continue down the road we were on,” he told Joel, “then find a man named Silver Moon in the lakeside village. He’ll take you to the Haven.”
A loud knock on the door startled the children and awakened Michi. “Open up in there!” a man’s voice yelled from outside the door. “We know you’re hiding one of those ‘Gifted’ monsters! Bring him out!”
“Hikari!” Michi whimpered.
Joel quickly whisked his sister up from the bed and held her close.
“We’re only on the first floor,” Hikari said. “You can use the window to escape. Go on without me. It’s okay.” He stepped toward the door and reached out for the handle.
Before he could open it, Michi bolted toward him and latched onto his arm. “No, it’s not okay!” she wailed. “They’ll hurt you!” With a start, Hikari tried to pull away from her. “Hikari, don’t go!” Michi pleaded.
“Open up!!!” shouted the man on the other side of the door. He banged on it again. “We’ll break the door down if you don’t!”
“Michi!” Joel cried as he struggled to open the window. “Get over here!”
“Hikari!” Michi wailed as she tugged desperately at his arm. The man outside the door banged harder and harder until, suddenly, the wooden door gave way and began to fall on top of them.
“Michiru, move!!!” Hikari screamed as he grabbed her and dove out of the way.
“There he is!” the man yelled, pointing. “The one with the cloak – he’s one of the Gifted!”
“Michi! Hikari!” Joel cried. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”
Hikari scooped up Michi and bolted across the room. He handed Michi over to Joel and struggled with the decrepit window. As his markings brightened, he gathered up his strength and shoved it open. “JUMP!” he yelled. Just in the nick of time, Joel and Michi jumped out of the window and hit the ground running. Hikari fought off the men grabbing at his cloak and hurried after them.
“Where’s the road out of here?” Joel asked as he ran with Michi in his arms.
“This way, follow me!” Hikari replied, changing direction.
“GET THAT MONSTER IN THE CLOAK AND TEACH ‘IM A LESSON!” someone yelled from behind them. More people outside the inn began running after the kids.
“Aw, man!” Joel panted, “They’ve got the whole town after us!”
A fence stood in their path. Joel jumped over it and kept running when he realized that Hikari wasn’t following. He turned to look for him and saw that his cloak had caught on the wooden fence post. “Take it off!” he called. “Hurry!”
Hikari continued trying to tear the cloak free from the fence. “I can’t!” he called back frantically.
“Forget the cloak, Hikari!” Joel yelled. “They’re coming!!!”
Michi leaped from her brother’s arms and hurried toward Hikari. She quickly pulled the cloak off and grabbed his arm. “C’mon!” she cried, yanking Hikari after her as she ran ahead. People gaped at Hikari and cried out as he and the siblings bolted through town.
Hikari suddenly froze and stood, watching, as a mother held her crying child close and stared up at him in fear. “No...Don’t look at me like that,” he pleaded shakily. He curled up and covered the markings on his arms. “Don’t look at me like that! Mom, please!”
“Hikari, what are you doing?!” Joel screamed. “Come on!!!”
“Hikari!” Michi cried.
The vacant look suddenly came into Hikari’s eyes as he toppled over and passed out. Joel and Michi could hear the men’s yelling coming closer. “Aw, man!” Joel cried. He hurried to Hikari and started to pick him up. “You pick the worst times to blank out!” Joel dragged Hikari along as he tried to hurry ahead. But their pursuers were quickly catching up, and as the kids passed, people began booing at them and tossing food and rocks at them, which only slowed them down.
Hikari awakened again and murmured, “Run...! Don’t worry about me, just run!” He pulled away from Joel and shoved him ahead. “Don’t look back!”
“Hikari!” Michi cried as her brother forced himself to obey and hurried ahead.
The angry mob of men caught up and pinned Hikari to the ground under their feet. “That’s right, stay bowed down to the dirt, Gifted!” one man yelled. “You know what the penalty is for freaks like you stepping foot in a human town?” He picked up a stick and said, “I’ve got three words for you: a good beating!” He lashed Hikari with the stick and others began to follow his lead.
“Hikari!” Michi screamed.
Joel held her back. “No, Michi, you can’t go out there!” He looked on helplessly and watched the men beat Hikari with their sticks and pelt him with pebbles and stones. If we step in here, he thought, we’re gonna get hurt. While Joel’s mind raced to figure out what to do, Michi slipped away from him and bolted toward Hikari. “MICHI!” Joel screamed. “NO!”
“Hikari!!!” Michi cried.
One of the men grabbed her before she could help Hikari. “What’s this?” he asked. “Are you one of these ‘Gifted’ freaks, too?”
“She don’t got any markings,” one of the other men said. “I think she’s a human.”
The man holding Michi smirked. “That’s even more sickening,” he said, raising his other hand to hit her.
“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Hikari roared. His markings glowed again, and he threw his persecutors off. Hikari leaped up and grabbed Michi away from the man; his blue-green eyes glared at him threateningly as he held Michi close.
The man smirked and stepped toward them. Hikari’s markings glowed even more brightly; the man screamed and drew back as cuts appeared on his arms. “YOU FREAK!” the man yelled.
Hikari released Michi to Joel, who now stood nearby. The blue tint faded from Hikari’s eyes as they became vacant, then shifted to solid green. The mob began closing in on Hikari again when Joel stepped in and yelled, “STOP!” He left Michi standing – safely, Joel hoped – behind Hikari and stepped out between Hikari and the mob. “He’s our – !” he paused and thought for a moment. I saw somewhere – in one of the towns where we asked around – that some people keep the Gifted as laborers in their homes. “He’s our family slave!” Joel finished. “Our parents will be after you if he’s any further damaged!”
The mob of men murmured in disbelief, but backed off. “Don’t you bring him in this town again,” one of them said. Then, they finally dispersed and left.
Joel heaved a relieved sigh, and said, “Let’s go.” He took his sister’s hand, and the three of them continued until they finally got back on the dirt road to the Haven.
“That was a close one,” Joel commented. “I’m glad we made it.”
Michi stared at the newly-inflicted cuts and bruises on Hikari’s skin and drifted over to him. She reached out for his arm and asked, “Are you okay?”
Hikari suddenly shoved her backward and angrily yelled, “Don’t touch me!”
Joel ran to Michi’s side and helped her up. “What’d you do that for?!” he yelled back.
“I HATE HUMANS!” Hikari blurted out, scowling at Joel and Michi.
“What?” Joel stepped back, startled. “But you – !”
“They all turned their backs on me!” Hikari continued. “Even Father – even my own mother feared me after I got my powers and turned her back on me!” He glared at the siblings and growled, “And you – you, who I was stupid enough to give a chance – called me your slave! I hate you!!!”
“But you saved us!” Joel pointed out. “You saved Michi!”
“That was the last time,” Hikari said harshly. “I’m leaving.” He turned aside from the road and started into the forest.
Michi’s eyes watered as she sniffled; she started after Hikari, calling, “Hikari, wait! Don’t go!” Michi hurried to him and clung onto his arm. “Hikari, don’t leave!” she wailed. Hikari tried unsuccessfully to shake Michi off. She broke into sobs. “You’re our friend!” Michi wailed. “I don’t want you to go!”
Hikari froze up in surprise. “Friend...?” he murmured. “The last person who called me a friend...” His eye color started to shift from green to blue. “Michi...?” he asked as she continued to sob, clutching his arm. Hikari knelt down and wiped the tears from the little girl’s eyes. “Michiru, don’t cry,” he said soothingly.
Michi’s tears subsided. “You’re not gonna leave?” she asked pleadingly.
“Of course not,” Hikari assured her. “I’ll always be here for you.” He smiled warmly at her and scooped her up into his arms, cradling her comfortingly.
Joel’s eyes widened with shock; he recognized that smile. That smile... he thought, It’s just like... The thought brought tears to his eyes. “...Sora...”
Hikari turned to look at him and asked, “Are you crying too, Joel?” The color in his eyes slipped back to hazel, and he asked, “Hey...where are we? Weren’t we about to leave the inn?” He caught sight of Joel’s tears and asked, “Why are you...?”
Joel stepped up to him and asked, “Hikari...are you... Are you sure you don’t know my brother, Sora? Did you? Before you started losing your memory?”
“I’m sorry,” Hikari replied, “but I don’t know anything about your brother.”
Joel reluctantly accepted his answer with a nod and wiped his eyes. “Okay. Let’s go,” he said. He glanced back at Hikari. “By the way...You probably don’t remember, but you saved our lives back there. Thank you for that.”
Hikari paused before replying, “You’re welcome.”
“And another thing: quit being so reckless, okay? ‘Cause you’re...a friend.” Joel added. He and the others started down the road to the Haven once more as the sun began to set in the early-evening sky.
