Evaline nodded, taking a deep breath in and out before getting up on her feet to sit down next to him. "Okay," she said, settling in. "Close your eyes and try to think back on that memory."
She paused, almost asking if he trusted her. This wouldn't work without it, but he did say he already did trust her. Well, this could be another test to see if he was telling the truth about that.
"Ready?"
She placed two fingers on his forehead before her head was flooded with visions.
James stood in the dim light of the barn, and the smell of hay and manure was strong as he patted Jayda's side. She was a good horse. She'd gotten them through a lot.
He leaned against her front leg for a moment and breathed in, stroking her deep brown coat and trying to keep his hands from shaking. He knew he couldn't be wasting time like this, or else his family would hear, but his heart was racing, and he needed to calm down enough so he could do this.
The barn was small and only had four stalls. One was empty, and two held Richard's horses, and the one on the end, where James was, had Jayda, the only horse that was truly his, and the only thing they had left from the farm.
It hurt, to think he was taking it away from his mommy, and Larrel, but he had to. He had to get away.
James closed his eyes tightly, trying to remember what Carter had told him. Meet him outside the capital. Hurry. They'd be at Pennington Inn. Hurry. His parents would be okay with it. Hurry. They would be soldiers, and they would change the world. It was going to be okay. He could forget everything. He could escape. Hurry.
He took in a deep breath and pulled up a stair-step up by the saddle so he could get atop the horse with ease. He knew it would be the last time he could use it, but as Carter said, he needed to hurry. Carter's family had already left and he had to catch up.
He kicked the wooden stepping stool away as he settled in the saddle, and led Jayda out of the stall. The door was open. He could go right now, but he stared at the starry night outside, and the green fields, and the unfamiliar forest in the distance.
Then, he heard the door, on the opposite side of the barn creak open.
James turned in his saddle and froze.
Larrel.
She stumbled in, rubbing her eyes, still drowsy.
"Jame?" she mumbled, half-awake.
"Larrel. You should be in bed," James said in a hushed whisper.
"Where are you going?" Larrel asked, drawing closer, into the moonlight.
He looked down at her big, dark blue eyes, like little planets, looking up at him. Her expression was so sleepy, and she had no idea what was going on. Her short brown hair was sticking up on the side, from sleeping and twisting around in bed. She gripped the hem of her nightgown tightly.
"I'm just going out for a ride," James said. "Mommy said I could 'cause I can't sleep."
She didn't seem to notice the waver in his voice as he said it. She nodded, closing her eyes, swaying on her feet.
"You should go back to bed. You don't want to get in trouble when mommy finds you out here in the barn, barefoot."
Larrel nodded again, slowly, with her eyes half open as she turned around to leave.
James felt his heart stop in his chest.
"Wait."
Larrel spun around and looked at him, still with half-lidded eyes. James tried to think of something to say that wouldn't alarm her. So she wouldn't go tell mommy. So she'd just go back to sleep. Larrel was smart. She'd know something was off if he said something off.
He gripped the reins tightly.
"You... have a piece of hay in your hair."
Larrel scratched her head. "Got it?"
"Yeah."
Larrel hummed. "Okay."
"I'll be back soon," James said. "Don't wait up for me, though. You look half asleep already anyway."
Larrel started towards the door again, and stopped for a second, with her hair half-covering her face.
"Nite nite," she said.
James swallowed a lump in his throat.
"Night."
Then the door closed.
James took in a deep breath and hardened the swirl of emotions stirring in his chest.
Forget, forget, forget.
He turned Jayda out the door and rode off into the night.
The memory ended. This was all that James wanted to remember.
Evaline gently pulled back her hand to signal that she was finished, but she couldn't stop staring at his eyes coming back to reality.
The feelings were starting to fade, but she could still feel the effects of them. She was used to the feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear—but there was also a deep, deep sadness she hadn't felt before.
Her eyes had teared up and a tear had crawled her way down her cheek, but she didn't understand why. She didn't even really feel this way. These were young James's emotions.
Evaline wiped away the tears in frustration, again reminded why she sparingly used this ability, among many other reasons.
"What was that?" she asked quietly, voice coming out as a rough whisper. "Who was... why..." She shook her head before shifting her full attention back to James. "Never mind. What did you need help remembering?"
Spoiler! :
it's too bad James's didn't ask what she exactly meant when she said she'll help him remember, because she's done this enough times that she forgot to explain that she's the one reliving it, not him ;)
James stared at Evaline with an unfocused gaze, tears streaming down his eyes. He couldn’t fight it. He didn’t know Evaline was going to see it too. He didn’t even think to ask.
“I just -“ he stuttered, his throat already knotting. His voice was trembling. “I just wanted to see her face again. I couldn’t remember.”
Evaline suddenly felt guilty. She wanted to use this to prove to James that powers exist, but she didn't realize this would cause such an emotional reaction out of him. But... how did she not expect this? The only purpose of this seemingly useless power mutation of hers was to elicit an emotional response out of people and obtain some kind of closure.
And she neglected to say that she was the medium. She put him through the whirlwind of emotions, but he wasn't able to see the memory as clear as she did. He wasn't able to live through it like she just did. Why didn't she ask him to think of a happy memory he couldn't quite remember?
She watched as tears flowed down his face, and although the shared feelings from the memory had already faded for her, she felt her eyes glisten.
James was trying to swallow back tears. He rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and suppressed the desire to cry. He hadn't remembered her face, but all of the emotions came back like a freshly opened wound, which he hadn't been prepared for in the slightest.
At Evaline's question, he was grateful for the distraction. He nodded, swallowing again and avoiding eye contact as he got up and reached into his saddlebag.
He pulled out his journal, and the pencil tucked into its pages, and flipped to an empty page near the back, then handed it to Evaline.
Evaline took the journal from James, holding it tightly and gripping the pencil on her hand. "Give me a couple minutes," she said.
She sighed and closed her eyes, taking a few more deep breaths. She had done this countless of times for stakes higher than this. Why was she nervous? Did she have to ask James to repeat the memory one more time so she could see the face again?
No. She remembered.
With utmost concentration, Evaline began drawing, loudly scratching the pencil against the paper. She could feel James eyeing her, but the paper on the journal was obscured from his view. He likely needed some time to calm down, and she needed some time to finish this.
The rain continued to hum in the background. She didn't hear any more thunder. Perhaps the storm was almost finished passing over.
Some minutes passed.
And then, she was done.
Evaline set the pencil down and angled the journal towards him. "James," she called. "Does this help you remember?"
She revealed the page to show a drawing of Larrel's face, exactly as how it was pictured when she sneaked up on him at the barn.
James took a few minutes to pace around the cave while Evaline started drawing in his journal. He didn't really pay attention to what she was drawing as he took deep breaths and calmed himself down. He was surprised that it took as long as it did. He was also surprised to feel everything so vividly.
When Evaline called him over, though, he found the emotions resurfacing when he saw Larrel's face.
Eve had captured her likeness perfectly.
He sat down in front of Eve and took the journal gently, staring at her face, unable to look away.
He tried to imagine what she'd look like now, ten years older. Nineteen.
"Good," Evaline said as she saw the recognition build in his eyes. "I'm glad I can help."
She was going to slyly say that this was just a simple demonstration of having powers and that civilization on Earth was built on powers like these, although they were much more physical. But somehow, the sheer look of shock and remembrance on his face told her that be needed a moment to take this in.
Evaline slowly nodded. She didn't want to overwhelm him right now.
"I did," she said, although for some reason her tone sounded unsure. "It was like I lived through it. Like I relived a time of your life, even if it was just for a brief moment."
What else was she supposed to say? She wanted to know the significance of this memory and why it brought such a strong emotional response, but she didn't want to outright ask since it obviously was a sensitive subject for him.
"I don't do this often because it doesn't have much of a practical use," she settled on instead. "After all, people don't tend to forget things that are important to them. Plus, I can only see a memory if they trust me to see it." She paused. "But when I do use this ability, it's so I can help trusted people like you to remember something they have lost."
James nodded slowly, trying to understand what just happened. She had an ability - a power, magic, he didn't know what to call it - to live through other people's memories if they let her. And it had allowed her to experience James's memory as if she was there experiencing it herself.
He was starting to wish he'd asked questions beforehand, but it was too late for that. She already saw it. It wasn't like she would understand the context though, from just that moment in time.
James gripped his journal tightly and set it in his lap, still unable to let go.
"Thank you. For this," he said, finally looking up to meet her eyes. His vision was misty again, but not overflowing like it was before.
"I haven't seen her since then. Since that memory."
He looked back down at the page.
"Her name is Larrel. She's my sister. She'd be nineteen now. She was nine, then."
Evaline gave out a small nod, softly smiling. For the first time since appearing here, she actually felt like she contributed something to James. It felt pretty nice to be appreciated, even though it all happened sort of by accident.
"But she's safe now," she replied back, although it came out more of a question than a statement. "She's with your mom, right? Back at the farm?
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