Page 154 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

The first time she saw them shift, Amelia woke up screaming. Eventually, she got used to their changes. And with time, she grew so attached to him that she couldn’t wait to fall asleep and see him again, longing to touch him and ask him about the reason for his sorrow. But he could never hear her. That was when she made a promise to herself. When she was old enough, she would travel the world until she found the Lonely Prince’s castle and saved him.

A soft, low chuckle escaped her throat. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten him, after all the times she’d dreamt of him as a child.

She wondered if it was another memory of hers that she had suppressed in order to dump the pain. Because she had ached for him. And the more she hadn’t been able to reach him, the more torture it had caused to her soul. Yet, subconsciously she had always been searching for him.

Finally, Amelia understood why the Oracle had given her all the dreams of Mikhail – to answer her questions about him. Sadly, the understanding came too late. She couldn’t save him, because he didn’t want to be saved.

Suddenly, her vision blurred into whiteness. Amelia stretched an arm out to touch it with the other one. Her skin was ice-cold, even though she was on fire.

She struggled to find her footing in the white fog. Where am I?

“At the crossroads,” a thick male voice replied, causing her entire being to fill with warmth.

This was not a familiar voice, yet the billions of particles inside her crashed into each other with joy. She lost sensation, with no idea if she was sitting or lying, flying or falling.

“Who are you?” Amelia asked and she was that child once again, impatient for the next fairy tale her grandmother would share with her, the next dream about the Lonely Prince.

The voice spoke again, seeping through to every fibre in her body. “The Creator.”

“Creator of what?”

“Everything.”

A smile spread across Amelia’s face. She wanted to laugh from the happiness she felt. “Why am I so joyful?” she asked, suspicious of the positive emotions that had swooped over her like unexpected summer rain.

“I lifted the curtain that was burdening you,” the voice explained, “but now I shall return it.”

A flood of memories crashed into her. Relatives she barely knew, tapping her on the shoulder at her family’s funeral. The realisation that she would never see her grandmother again whenever she felt heartbroken struck her. Mikhail’s face, filled with loathing.

“Please, take them back. I don’t want them,” she cried.

“I cannot do that, Amelia,” the voice said in a fatherly tone, its deep rumblings similar to her own father’s calming voice.

“Why? All they bring is suffering.”

“Because without them, you are nothing.”

“Let me be nothing, then.” She wanted to stay here forever, wherever here was, with that inexplicable feeling of happiness, without a trace of her past.

“You cannot accomplish everything I have destined you to do without those memories. They have made you who you are,” the voice said sternly. She wondered how she could convince him to let her be nothing. “Despite that, I will offer you a choice. I always do.”

Hope churned inside her.

“Amelia, do you want to live or not?”

What kind of question was that? “Well…”

“If you decide that your work is done, as soon as our conversation ends, the aneurysm in your head will burst and, a few hours later, somebody will discover your dead body. Following this, all of your memories will be erased and you will remain in a state of constant happiness. I have to warn you, however, that constant happiness offers no room for improvement and it is very likely for you to get bored.”

“I have a brain aneurysm?” She shivered. “And who will find me?” She imagined that it would be Mikhail.

The Creator laughed. “What difference does it make?”

“None, actually…”

Faced with that choice, death suddenly didn’t seem as beautiful and freeing, as she had envisioned it to be for her dying patients.

“If you decide that you wish to live, you will accept life as it was designed for you. With the memory of everything that happened in your past and alacrity for all that is to come. And yes, your aneurysm will disappear.”

---