Yesterday's Gone: Season One

asked.
    “What do you think?”
    Paola didn’t know how to answer the question.  
    “It’s time for me to go,” he said. “Time for both of us to go.”
    Paola went to hug her father, but he disappeared just as she drew close. So did everything else, except the black castle, barely visible in the darkness. Paola couldn’t even see the ground, her feet vanishing in the clouds which flowed like thick, fast-moving fog blanketing the world.
    Every step Paola took toward the castle caused it to move two steps farther away. She was walking a few minutes before deciding to try a step back. She was rewarded with the castle moving two steps closer toward her. Cold, wet wind whipped her and lashed at her hair, as she wrapped her arms around herself for warmth.
    Paola continued to walk slowly backward, a foot at a time, careful not to fall over the edge of a narrow road, which was now high in the air with nothing but endless empty on either side.  
    Each step sent her back into another awful memory.  
    Small memories seemed massive, each one an attacker in the dark at her most unarmed. She longed to turn, run toward the barren land behind her, then keep running until her dying breath. It would be better than this.  
    But she couldn't.  
    The blackness swam over her face, threatening to swallow her.
    She was going to die.  
    The dark memories were in her mind, her lungs, her body.  
    Every step back was another cool blade warmed by her blood, but she kept pushing forward, knowing that the icy black of a starless universe was better than the hollow void of a doused existence.

    I’m supposed to be in bed, but Mom and Dad are asleep. And the movie I’m not supposed to be watching has horrible monsters and terrible screaming. And fires. Lots and lots of fires. When a mouse scurries across the floor, my screams bring my parents running into the room.  

    I’m eight, saying Bloody Mary into the bathroom mirror. I know it’s just my mind playing tricks, and not something staring back at me with red eyes through the glass, but my heart feels like it’s going to explode and no one can hear me scream.  

    I’m in Grandma’s room, just after she died. I’ve fallen asleep on the bed facing the mirror. I wake up slowly and can hear Grandma’s whisper behind me. Her image shimmers in the glass and I’m sure there is more than one reality.  

    No more.  

    Paola peeled the black from her body, yanked it from her throat, then stepped outside her memories, letting terror drop to the road like an empty wetsuit. Paola found herself standing in front of the open castle door. A dim red light bathed the walls inside the castle, making it seem almost warm. While she was so cold.
    A booming voice thundered through the black.  
    “Very good,” it said. “You’re almost here. Just a few more steps.”
    Paola crossed the bridge then stepped into a huge room with massive ceilings which she couldn’t see through the clouds. The floor was carpeted in plush black, with threads so deep and thick they looked like colonies of crawling worms.  
    Across the room was another open door. Paola stepped inside. It was a small room with nothing in it. She expected a throne room with evil claiming his castle seat, but fear and evil often thrived in whisper.  
    “What do you want from me?” she asked the empty room.  
    Except the room wasn’t empty. The voice was everywhere. And when it spoke, its waves rolled through Paola.  
    “Nothing,” it said. “I’ve taken everything I need already. The only thing I want now is to give something back to you.”
    “You don’t want to give me anything.”  
    “Oh, that’s not true,” the voice soothed, flowing through her and making her feel almost... good. “I’ve taken so much, now I long to ease your pain.”
    “By taking my memories until there’s nothing left of me?” Paola shook her head. “No thanks. Tell me how to get my memories back and how to leave. You’re inside me, that means I know what you do, and you have to tell me.”
    Something screeched inside the walls.  
    “You can leave whenever you want,” it hissed. “I’m not holding you here.”  
    “Yes you are.”  
    The door where she entered disappeared and a new one opened on the other side of the room, slowly widening to Oz-colored meadows. “See,” the voice said. “What are you waiting for?”  
    Paola looked out the window then shook her head.  
    The voice started to rumble as the walls began