Page 122 of Amnesia

After that, a blackness so intense enveloped me. Not even the light of the moon could break through.

Awareness came back in the form of sharp pain blistering across my skull. Lying on a hard surface with cold air swirling above me, I groaned, lifting a hand to my ear, which was ringing in agony.

Instantly, my fingertips met with a thick, sticky liquid, and reality came rushing back to me so fast it made me nauseous. “Amnesia!” I roared, choking back the wave of sickness and leaping to my feet.

“Amnesia!” I roared again when no one answered.

Wildly, I looked around as I swayed on unsteady feet. Blinking furiously, I forced the world around me to right itself as I looked for my blond-haired girl.

She wasn’t anywhere in sight, but the door was flapping open against the side of the house. Screaming her name again, I rushed down the hallway, looking in every room, but the house was empty.

Back in the kitchen, I lunged through the door and onto the porch. It was empty, too. Rushing down the steps, I searched frantically in the yard, cupped my hands around my mouth, and screamed her name again.

Nothing.

No answer.

Just like eleven years ago.

What the fuck is happening right now?Bending at the waist, I sucked in deep breaths and tried to understand. That bitch Mrs. West hadn’t needed help. She was insane, and she clobbered me with something hard.

Now she had Amnesia.

The conversation I had with Am earlier by the water came back to me in a sudden flash. There was something about the widow she instinctively didn’t like. Something that scared her.

“Amnesia!” I roared, running toward the water because I wasn’t sure where else to look. “Answer me!” I screamed.

A wave of nausea made me stumble, and I bent frantically, puking up my guts. The entire time I was heaving and the world was spinning, I thought of Am. Of getting to her before it was too late.

The second I was done, I straightened, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. Just as I was about to yell for her again, a distant sound slapped the shore along with the waves.

A scream. Someone was screaming. A woman.

I thought fleetingly of the people who said they sometimes heard screams around the lake at night. Screams of the past from people who never got saved, people who were eternally sentenced to reliving whatever torture befell them.

Another scream drifted through the bitter wind.

I knew it was Amnesia. And I knew if I didn’t get to her soon, her screams of terror would turn into those that would haunt me forever.

The credit for the rude awakening I got went to the bitter, angry gale off the churning water. It sliced through me like a knife, leaving splinters of splitting pain throughout my limbs.

As terrible as it was, the pain was welcome. It meant I was alive. Pain this sharp would only keep me alert, because I had to get back to Eddie.

Eddie!

The single thought of him jack-knifed me up. The urgency of the movement caused everything around me to sway and rock. My stomach rolled, and I reached out to steady myself. My hand closed around rough, hard wood. Even after blinking, my surroundings continued to bob and sway.

Looking around, my wobbly gaze finally settled on the widow. “What are you doing?” I demanded, sitting up to take better stock of my surroundings.

Oh my God, we were in a boat in the middle of the lake. Frantically, I looked around for the shoreline, for Eddie’s little cabin. All I saw was darkness.

“Help!” I screamed. “Eddie!”

The oar slammed down on the top of my hand where I gripped the side of the boat. I cried out in pain and cradled my fist against my chest.

“Shut up!” the widow ordered in a harsh voice. She was sitting on the other side of the boat, which could be considered little more than a canoe. The oar she used to bust open Eddie’s head and smack me in the face was the same one she used to row us across the lake.

I didn’t have to ask where we were going. It was obvious. There was only one place we could go. Rumor Island. I shook my head, confused. That didn’t make sense. That was the first place people would look. The second Eddie woke up, he would come to the island because it was Widow West who bashed him in the head.

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