Riven
Rain pelted my jacket as I looked down at a silver ring on my left hand. My legs gave way, and I sank to the ground.
It felt like a fog in my brain that I hadn't even noticed had suddenly lifted. My vision blurred. Not from the rain, but from the tears. I wasn't sure if it was from relief, guilt, or the sheer weight of… everything.
I stared at the ring for a few seconds before sliding my eyes up to her hands, her shoulders, and finally her face
We had so much history. So much history. We had been closer than I had ever remembered being with anybody else… Yet she had vanished from my memory.
Luneth… was right in front of me. Eighteen now, so I had missed her birthday by just over a month. Her face was older, more mature, and her hair now fell to the middle of her back.
The same lilac eyes that used to light up the world now stared back at me, wide and uncertain.
My lips parted, but no words came out.
How could I possibly explain that I… had simply forgotten her?
It was like a dream. I felt off, like nothing happening was real. It didn't make sense, but nothing recently had made any sense.
"L-Luneth..?"
She took a step forward and cautiously kneeled in front of me, her hands trembling just slightly. "What… can you remember?"
I said her name slowly… like I was afraid of losing it once more. "Luneth… You. You."
"What else do you remember, Riven?"
"Can I please just have one second to gather my thoughts?" An expression of anger—annoyance, maybe—passed over her face. A murderous glare pierced through me. "I remember… getting ice cream at Lilly's-."
"That's not what I'm asking." She took a sharp breath, forcibly calming her expression. "That same night. What happened to you? Who did you see? What did they look like?"
Her tone of voice momentarily stunned me. She had really changed in these last four years.
Still dazed, I racked my brain, trying to recall exactly what had occurred before I had forgotten her. The memory fragments slowly pieced themselves together.
"There were the dark figures. One attacked me after I told you to run off. I managed to kill it, so I continued after you into the forest." I paused, choosing my next words carefully. "Once I was in the forest, something odd happened… like my mind cut forward a few minutes. Maybe my memory was damaged?
"My vision came back, and I was pinned to the ground, my arms held behind my back. The figure on top of me called for a man named Echo." Luneth's expression turned unreadable as she looked away.
I continued, "I'm having a hard time remembering what he looked like though. I do remember that he had black hair and was fairly built. He also had light blue eyes. Wait, maybe green? No, definitely blue. He put his hands on my temples and…"
I frowned. "I don't remember anything past that."
Sighing, I glanced over at her. "Happy?"
She didn't answer immediately, simply nodding slowly. The rain thinned out, and then stopped.
After a few seconds, she got up from her knees and reached out her hand. "You know, it's nice to be able to talk to you again. I hope you don't hate me for keeping my distance."
I grabbed her hand and pulled myself up.
It was strange. Her words were said with no kindness, no affection. It hurt, it hurt so much.
I could understand how she felt. It was years since we had last talked, or at least that's how it seemed to her.
To me, it was like we had gone out just yesterday.
What I couldn't imagine was how it must've felt to see me completely oblivious of her existence. I may have even walked past her at some point without sparing her a second look.
She let go of my hand. There was an awkward silence.
I glanced down at my empty hand and coughed. "So, what do we do now?" I paused for a moment. "Wait, no. What have you been doing all this time?"
Luneth looked at me for a second, and then waved her hand dismissively. "That's not important. Not at all, really."
I stared at her. And stared at her. How was that not important?
I coughed again. "How do you think the figures will-."
She raised her hand to stop me. "Stop calling them figures. They're something more like… operatives."
"Alright-. How do you think the operatives will react to me-. Do you know what I did?"
She nodded slowly. Of course she knew.
Wait.
If she knew, that meant she was in the audience when I had abruptly left Rynin alive.
My heart skipped a beat.
That presence I had felt in the crowd… must've been her.
Had she been… watching me all this time?
Luneth sighed and glanced at the sky before looking back at me. "They probably won't do anything too drastic. The operatives like to do their clean-up work at night to avoid trouble within the population."
She laced her fingers together and stretched her arms. "If anything, tonight is the most dangerous for you. Running off into the forest like last time wouldn't do you any good. While clearing out the forest, they placed surveillance devices to prevent any… repeats."
Surveillance devices? I wasn't quite sure what that meant… but I definitely understood the word 'surveillance.'
My expression turned pale.
She seemed to notice and smiled subtly. "There's no need to worry. They don't place any surveillance in the town. I mean, what would happen if someone were to find something like that?"
A lot of clean-up work.
She turned around, facing toward the town, and gestured for me to follow. "You can stay with June and me. June is… my mother, you could say. I've stayed with her since my parents…" Her expression turned distant, her voice trailing off.
"I understand."
I walked beside her, occasionally glancing at her. It was kind of like… I was verifying it really was Luneth. She was so different now, a lot more serious. Of course, she had lost whatever affection she had toward me over the past two years. I wasn't in the position to blame her, since I was the one who had forgotten her, after all.
But it still hurt. I remembered her, but at what cost?
At one point in the walk, I was wrenched out of my thoughts by Luneth's voice. "You know I notice you looking at me, right?" It wasn't really a question.
My face turned really hot.
***
Eventually, we made it to a small stone house. Its stairs were weathered and it had a small porch with a single wooden chair on it.
I followed Luneth up the stairs and she gently pushed the door open. It creaked, and I heard heavy footsteps head towards us from inside.
An angry, female voice came from inside. "Luneth, I swear, if you sneak out one more damn time… I don't know what I'll have to do!"
The door swung open, and a woman—possibly in her thirties—with long, brown hair appeared. June's expression was, in fact, quite angry, but her eyes showed that she wasn't really. It seemed she was just faking it to seem more stern.
She looked Luneth up and down, probably checking for injuries, before noticing me. She glanced at me, and then at Luneth. Then at me, and then at Luneth.
June's expression shifted into something playful—mischievous, maybe—and a smile played on her lips. It was a stark contrast to how she looked a couple seconds ago. "I see…" Her smile widened. "This is the third boy this week, Luneth. You ought to raise your standards at this point."
Luneth's jaw dropped, her eyes widening.
I stared at June, and then at Luneth. Is that what she's been doing this whole time..?
Luneth's hands trembled, and then shot forward to June's neck.