Chapter 27: Memory Of Our Past

Because I promised I would never let anything happen to you each word in that sentence kept running through my brain without a stop or a pause button to keep it from spinning. "Willow please tell me what happened?" Hayden kept budging me to tell him what happened when I fell asleep; I couldn't tell him but not because I didn't want to but because it was hard to explain and every time he's asked me I've kept giving him the same answer "It was just another dream, I'm fine honestly," though it would never take with him and I was surprised my answer wasn't getting annoying for him however I guess he was just being concerned. I couldn't get the idea out of my head though and it was stressing me out; too many coincidences happening at once and now this one as well, as much as I liked it and many of the puzzle pieces were starting to come together there was still something inside me that didn't want the puzzle to be completed because once the full image was completed everything would become real and then I'd have no choice but to fix a problem I started. That's what I hated about my story so far, in the beginning I was so full of rage at my father from keeping all this from me and I was eager to complete all this and start this adventure but now that I'm actually in it...I want out I want to prevent myself from going any further because I hate it, I actually despise it so I'm here wishing that I can go back home marry another one of the suitors which my dad brings me and settle down with a normal life because right now that is what I really want to happen. But then regret creeps in followed by despair because if I did all that or if that happened from the beginning then I would never have met Hayden again and then this power would have spiralled through its awakening anyway so maybe that was no prevention to this path of mine and I just have to follow wherever it leads.

"Willow, are you sure your fine?" the voice of Hayden again bringing me out of my daydream though I wasn't pleased because he's asking one of the same questions again and it was starting to get on my nerves. Making this evident I snapped at him "For the last and final time Hayden, I am fine!" my head even snapped in his direction and I could feel my eyes glare towards him but as I did so I could see a startled look to his eyes which he's never done before, there was no way I looked incredibly threatening was there? But it didn't matter "Right so that explains your fine," I watched as he directed his eyes down to my hands so I followed with him and I found the red glow wrapped back around my hands, the fire glowing more than ever. I groaned deeply shaking my hands the best that I could to make the power disappear but it wouldn't go anywhere instead just kept sparking at me making the anger inside me boil again and it became clear I was getting frustrated. My body started to get flustered as I fidgeted in my sit continuously and a small growl started to rise through my throat "Willow, maybe it would help if you started to calm down," but just hearing those words 'calm down' sent the rage flooding through me deeper so it would just increase instead of lowering itself. As my antagonism heightened itself the glow around my hands would start to get thicker and littler flames and sparks were igniting around my hands until it almost covered them completely. "Please stop that...Willow please tone it down a bit," the thing was I couldn't; I found I was no longer angry at him but I was scared my worst fear actually coming true at this very moment. There was no way I could control what was inside of me I feared it, I was scared of it and I was letting it take over "I can't stop it, it won't stop Hayden," the fear in the tone of my voice was clearly evident and now you could see the glow take over the whole of both my hands. "Yes you can I know you can," but I shook my head at him too many disastrous thoughts were entering my brain, telling me that I can't do this and they were right I couldn't do this "Willow your scared I get that but it's living off your fear at the moment and you have to beat that because your stronger than that," I still shook my head in his direction because as much as he believed all that I couldn't believe it for myself.

He moved in his position inside his cell so that he was fully facing me being sat on both his knees; he leaned through the cell taking hold of both my hands without hesitation or a hint of being afraid, he just grabbed them and squeezed them with his tightly "Look at me okay," I did as I was told and looked at him shifting my position in the process so I could look at him without difficulty "I just want you to focus on me okay, don't look away," I nodded at him as he closed his eyes and pressed the palm of our hands tighter together. Without breaking the eye contact I had with him below I could see small sparks of green coming from below and wind its way through the red glow I was creating but suddenly image around me started to disappear into a complete blur and I found myself being pulled away out of the scene into a new one. Reflexes took over where I immediately shut my eyes afraid as to what might happen and when I opened them back up the pair of us were no longer trapped on the ship but out in the woods; as I looked around I noticed that we were placed outside the gates of Ivna, the snow was deep as usual, the trees glistened with the ice attached and when you looked through the gates you would find the villagers doing what they do best I just couldn't understand how we got here yet at the same time it didn't matter to me because being back here during this moment in time I loved it. Looking upon the smiles on everyone's faces let my heart light up because they all looked happy and at ease as if the past events had never taken affect. "It's nice isn't it," I gazed to Hayden as he let his hands slip out of mine and stand next to me "How did we even get here? If you were able to remove us from that ship why didn't you do it earlier than now?" All he did was laugh at my remark and I couldn't understand why, well at least not until he answered me "I didn't get us off that ship Willow, now turn around and look," he didn't give me much of a choice as he pulled my body round to face the other side of Ivna's gates.

There in front of me I noticed six small figures running around in the snow all wearing winter gear and smiles plastered tightly on their faces, not far from them stood taller people and I recognised three of them instantly for them to be my father, mother and Yvette which made me guess the remaining adults where the other children's parents'. That's when everything else hit me, the children I was looking upon weren't just any children they were us. Hayden, me, Jayden, Ziva, Corinne and Nathan, we were all there playing and messing around with one another. I watched as each one us would toss snowballs at one another, push each other playfully into the snow or create snow angels the image in front of me was absolutely beautiful and I don't remember any of it. "Is this a-," before I could even finish what I was about to say Hayden finished it for me "A memory? Yea, we were about six or seven when we played here. Our parent's always made sure whenever they had something important to discuss they'd let us spend time with each other but this was the first winter we ever spent with each other. They're meetings were always held in the spring or summer but this was a meeting which seemed important I guess but it was the best day we ever had with each other," I could tell that he was right just by looking at the frame in front of me, all our parent's were in deep conversation while we were all playing I only wished I could remember every detail of it so it made me sad that I couldn't. "Hey, look down," At first my eye contact was with Hayden from his words then I followed his words and looked down at my hands to see the red glow evaporate slowly until there was nothing left. My head diverted back upwards as I beamed brightly towards Hayden "Thank you," he smiled at me back with the same enthusiasm while we wrapped our arms round each other to finally have a proper hug without the damage of bars in our way. Though in doing so, while we slowly separated from each other the image around us began to dissolve and we found ourselves back in the separated cells but still with beaming smiles on our faces.

The rattle sound made my body turn round abruptly suddenly, as I did so the person who I didn't want to lay eyes on walked through the door. "Great, what do you want Jayden?" he tutted at me sarcastically as if wanted to play a joke with me but I was being serious especially as I really didn't want to see him right now "Come on," he tilted his head out of the door indicating me to follow him; obviously getting the same reaction as me Hayden grabbed hold of my hand immediately after the nod pulling me closer to the bars separating us but to make it not too obvious I let my hand slip neatly back through his and push my way back towards the bars "Come where?" I wanted to play this out longer so I could prevent myself from going anywhere but what was the use in that, I was the prisoner here but it was still worth a shot "I need to talk with you," I wanted to laugh at him but I kept my cool and stayed as serious as I possibly could "Alright, so talk," I seemed to have made him laugh though I believe it was a sarcastic one I couldn't be entirely sure "That's funny Willow, but seriously I have to talk with you and besides if your werewolf friend there is cautious he can always use his special hearing to eavesdrop on our conversation," I let my head twist towards Hayden but he was shaking his head at me cautiously telling me not to go but now something inside told me I had to, not because I had no choice in the matter which was true, I wanted to know what he wanted to speak to me about. I let my hand slip away from Hayden slowly while he slammed his eyes at me and mouthed 'be careful' which I nodded as my reply. I looked back towards Jayden he seemed to be wearing now genuine smile towards me. I walked casually in his way while he opened the door ajar and let me pass. I stopped and waited for him to proceed to the next room where I was a loud to take a seat in front of his desk. "So what do you wanna know?"

"What happened with you and Hayden earlier? The explosion you caused," I made sure I didn't flinch in my seat because I wanted to act as if I had no idea what he was talking about "Willow don't play dumb with me okay, you made the whole ship rock frantically and I know it was you because Hayden can't create something like that it's not part of the earth element. So please talk to me, what happened?" something was strange here, increasingly strange because the tone to his voice wasn't threatening at all but almost soothing and concerning as if he were worried about me. "Why would I talk to you about anything?" detached tone to my voice made the matter unpleasing to him because I wouldn't give him a direct answer though from the look inside his eyes he didn't seem bothered just upset "Willow please, you used to tell me everything. You still can." I shook my head at him laughing because I couldn't contain it anymore. I wasn't sure on what I was hearing so I couldn't believe it to be true and I will never believe it to be true "Are you actually serious right now? After everything you've done you think I'm gonna talk to you like we're best pals," he let his eyes fall down to the ground in despair I could see while I carried on speaking "You changed Jayden, you used to be one of our best friends someone who said they would protect us like we would protect you." He lifted his head suddenly towards me, inside his eyes it wasn't anger but instead offence "And let me guess your gonna believe that. Your gonna believe that because that's what Yvette told you, it's what Xira told you or wait, because that's what Hayden told you. Willow you can't remember a thing so you don't know the real story," rage did boil inside me now because in my mind he was basically saying that he never did care for us, that everything he did for us was a complete lie, that he never was with us.

So I confronted him on it "Let me get this straight, you mean to say that you never cared for us everything you did with us was a lie. When Ziva, Hayden and everyone else tried to stop what happened to me happen you were actually in on it the whole time you didn't care what would happen to me whether I died or not. You were on your father's side the whole time, you never cared for us," he growled angrily at me now slamming his hands down on the table between us leaning upwards from his seat "I did care Willow! I did care for each of you everything each of us did was real it wasn't a lie! But everything I did for my father was to protect you, the whole time I was thinking about you!" I couldn't help but keep shaking my head at him but this time I had to look away, I couldn't look this creature in the eye it was too disturbing to do so. "And look what it did; it took you down a dark path. Down the wrong path and look where it got you," I was incredibly smug within my statement I didn't really care at least I just got the words out of my mouth "Oh yea, what about the path you took back then you're not so much innocent either Willow," It dug deep into from the words he just said which meant I couldn't hold this boil of anger back any longer; I slammed the chair away from me which made it tip back onto the ground as I leaned in close to him as well "I never got to choose my path! It was handed down to me without a second glance! I never had a choice; I never had the chance to back away from all this! But you did! You didn't have to go along with this; with any of this you could have done the right thing!" I couldn't hold anything back anymore and the terror in his eyes was his surprised reaction from my outburst. I didn't much care, I felt proud of myself; we pulled away our eye contact away from each other and then stood there in silent. The silence between felt like forever until I broke it with a silent question "Why'd you kill her?" my head tilted up again slightly so that my eye was the top of lid slightly so I wouldn't have to make direct contact with him "Kill who?" he was slow in his words as if he were trying to analyse my question because he seemed oblivious or just worn out from our argument "Why did you kill Hayden's sister?" I was extremely careful against my words especially as I pronounced each of them profoundly to state my point.

I watched as Jayden lifted his head fully at me sighing heavily "I didn't to get Hayden on my side," he wasn't even afraid his words just so confident with them which made this whole situation that much unsettling "And killing his sister was the way of doing it?" I dropped my head completely now pushing myself away from the table while he aggressively spoke to me "I was trying to make him stronger and besides I needed that element so while he held her in his arms it was an easier way to slice his hand get the blood I needed and waltz away. I knew from that moment he wouldn't come with me but I knew I could at least walk away with half the prize," I scoffed at him and rolled my eyes at him "'Walk away with half the prize' are you actually saying that to me? You killed his sister because you wanted to make him stronger you know what maybe it did work maybe he is stronger now but not for you but for himself and worse than that you saw it as a chance to take the element out from him and walk away. You're sick, you hear me you're sick," I began to walk away from him just as he called me back "Where are you going?" the sound of defeat was present in his voice but I looked back at him and said "This conversation is over, I'm going back to my cell," with a smile pressed on myself I walked out of the door following a guard all the way back to my cell with a broad smile plastered on my face. I walked back through the cell door and sat at the bar separating Hayden and I. He slowly made his way down the side and sat next to me "I don't like that smile, what did you do?" I looked at him and smiled "I think arguing with him is the best thing I've done on this ship because he's oblivious to everything," Hayden raised an eyebrow at me still keeping his concerned and worried look because he didn't like the mischievous smile on my face, "I found our way out," out from my skirt pocket I chucked the cell key into the air and caught it smiling at Hayden while his eyes widened in shock being sharing a smile with me "Wanna get outta here?"