Page 5 of Amnesty

My eyes drifted shut for a moment, the sound of his voice an aphrodisiac. I smiled, loving the way it felt to be in his arms.

Eddie swept me off the ground, cradling me against him. Before carrying me back into the house, I craned my neck around to glance back one last time toward the water, to seek out the floating light.

It was gone.

As though it hadn’t even been there at all.

Time is its own type of currency, universal in value, and once it’s spent, it can never be earned back.

Twelve years ago, it seemed time was on my side. Some moments, hell, some days I wished away to get to the next, to the better.

Then Sadie disappeared, and the time I spent living and dreaming screeched to a sudden halt. Though time continued to pass, spent right from my account, I sat in limbo.

A man who sits waiting becomes a victim of time.

Waiting, wondering, blaming… things that make time feel more like a burden than a blessing.

Now that I was no longer a boy, I understood time was priceless, not guaranteed. Some people were richly blessed with it, but for others, time ran out too fast.

None of us knows our wealth. Only the universe knows, and the universe is the best secret keeper there will ever be.

Maybe that was why now, in the back of my mind, I heard a clock ticking away, counting down the seconds, reminding me I wasn’t waiting anymore and time was speeding up.

It didn’t matter how much the universe would give me; it would never be enough.

My life before Amnesia hadn’t been bad. On the contrary. My life was pretty charmed. Born into a family business, two parents who were almost old-fashioned in this day in age because they remained in love. Our small town, while suffocating and cumbersome at times, was also a safety net and relief when I needed it most.

Here in Lake Loch, I had friends. Family. A job I actually liked and that paid enough for me to live on the lake and gradually fix up my tiny house into a place I would never want to leave.

But…

Something had always been missing. Someone.

The night Sadie vanished, she took a part of me, too. When she was lost in that lake, in many ways, I had been, too.

I felt that missing piece, that chunk carved right out of me, endlessly. I hid it after a while, covered it with my dimples, curly hair, and charming smile. People didn’t want to see my emptiness, even though I had a feeling some knew it was there.

That missing piece was back, though. It walked around outside my body in the form of a woman. I didn’t feel empty anymore; I was consumed.

Consumed with love and lust and energy.

The second I fished Amnesia out of the lake’s greedy clutches, my world began to grow complete, and the ticking of the clock increased.

Maybe that was why I was tired of waiting. I’d already spent too much time waiting for my life to start.

Truth was my life started long ago. Even when it felt it was on pause, life still played.

I was just ready to participate again.

Not just ready…willing.

Whatever the widow told her that night in the hospital, whatever words the crazy woman hurled at her while still somehow in her catatonic state, were like the swell of a wave on a stormy night. Pushing and pulling Amnesia to and away from me. Making her cling in certain moments but drift away in others.

I hated it.

I was a patient man, but my patience was wearing thin.

Not necessarily with her, but with the situation. How much more would Amnesia have to go through? What if I lost her again, this time forever?

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