Remembered (4 page)

“A what?” Emily asked, wide-eyed.

“It’s commonly referred to as an EEG. Don’t look so nervous,
this won’t hurt, you won’t feel a thing. I simply want to monitor your brain
wave activity while you’re in a hypnotic state,” he answered.

“You’re the doctor, Doctor,” she replied with a nervous
chuckle.

Dr. Thompson placed the wires over various parts of her head
and hairline. She felt as though she’d walked into a science fiction movie.

“How do you feel, Emily?” Dr. Lewis questioned. It was
obvious that she had noticed Emily cringing once or twice.

“I’m fine. I’m leaving for a business trip in a few days. I
won’t be stumbling into anything after this, will I?”

“No.” Dr. Lewis laughed. “We’re just going to take you into
a relaxed state and ask you a few questions, that’s all, nothing complicated.
It’s extremely important that you are completely relaxed, however. Dr. Thompson
is going to look at your brainwaves on the monitor while you and I talk. It
will be fine.” Her voice sounded so soft, as if she was rocking a baby to sleep,
and it was starting to put Emily at ease. How bad could it be? It’s not like
they were performing illegal tests. “We’re going to try some age regression
suggestions when you are one hundred percent relaxed,” she explained. “How do
you feel?”

“Good,” Emily replied. Surprisingly, she was not lying.

“Do you see this light in my hand?” Dr. Lewis asked, holding
up a miniature flashlight the size of a pen.

Emily nodded.

“I’m going to ask you to focus on this light and nothing
else, okay?”

“No problem,” Emily mumbled.

“This is James Braid’s Eye-Fixation Hypnotic Induction
Method,” the doctor explained in a voice that sounded like flowing water.

“Wow, what a mouthful,” Emily whispered.

“Are you ready?” Dr. Thompson asked, turning off the lights.

“Ready,” Emily assured them.

“Okay, now, concentrate on nothing else but the light in my
hand,” Dr. Lewis said softly. “Just keep your eyes on the light. In a little
while, I will ask you to close your eyes, but until then, just keep staring at
the light. Can you do that for me?”

Emily nodded again.

It didn’t take long for her eyes to feel the effects of
staring at nothing but the little light, and she could feel her mind starting
to clear of thought.

“Okay, now I need you to relax your entire body,” Dr. Lewis
said. “Start by relaxing your arms and legs. Feel the tension drain from each
of your limbs, one at a time; from your shoulders to your fingers. Feel the
tension drain from the tops of your legs to your feet. Just feel it all drain
out. Do you feel more relaxed?”

“Um,” Emily answered.

“Feel yourself floating into the light…just floating.” Her
voice sounded softer and further away.

“Imagine that you are becoming one with the light. Can you
feel yourself  floating?”

Emily nodded slightly; she didn’t have the strength to nod
any more enthusiastically, she was floating into the light.

“Relax your mind. Let all thoughts drift away; just focus on
the light in my hand. Imagine merging with the light, becoming one with it,
becoming it,” Dr. Lewis purred.

Soon, Emily was no longer herself; she was the light, she
was nothingness.

After a moment or a year or ten years—time was suddenly
meaningless—she heard the soothing voice again. “Close your eyes, Emily.  Just
float away.”

Emily was gone. She had floated away. She was nowhere and
everywhere.

Dr. Lewis’s liquid voice surrounded her, asking her to go back
five years. Emily drifted back.

She looked around a bright room. She knew the room, knew the
blackboard with the foreign writing bordering the top. She knew the man sitting
in front of her: Mr. Spencer. She was sitting in the first row of her senior
year Spanish class.

Mr. Spencer looked down at her and spoke:
“¿Cuáles son
tus planes para el fin de semana, Emily?”

Patrick Walsh was staring into her face, trying to make her
laugh.

“Voy a estar haciendo mi tarea de
español
,”
she replied confidently.

“Muy bein,
señorita
,”
Mr. Spencer
replied, chuckling. He turned to Patrick.
“Patrick, dejar de babear sobre Emily.”

Emily blushed.

“What?”
Patrick looked bamboozled.

Mr. Spencer laughed.
“I told you to stop drooling over
her. Maybe she would date you if you played it cool, man.”

Dr. Lewis’s voice filled her head from far away “That’s
great, Emily. That’s really, really good,’ she said. “Can you go back even
further? Can you try to go back ten more years?”

Emily pushed with her mind, drifting backwards.

The scene before her changed. She sat crossed legged on a
bed. The door swung open, and Susan came skipping into the room, wearing faded
blue jeans and a t-shirt that was much too large for her tiny frame.

“Emily, guess what I have?”
she asked, holding one
hand behind her back.

“What do you have?”
Emily questioned.

They were in the bedroom they shared at the group home, and
for once, it was empty except for the two of them.

“It’s a surprise,”
Susan replied.
“You have to
guess.”

“Is it a good surprise?”
Emily queried, taking the
bait like a typical eight-year-old.

“It’s pretty good,”
Susan answered in a sing-song
voice.

“I can’t guess, just tell me,”
Emily pleaded.

“Just try,”
Susan insisted.

“Is it something to eat?”
Emily asked. Her answer was
obviously satisfactory for Susan. She pulled her hand around, revealing two very
large, chocolate chip cookies.

“Where did you get those?”
Emily asked excitedly.

“Lemar, the new cook, made them. One for you and one for
me,”
Susan answered, beaming.

“Wow, for what?”
Emily questioned, holding out her
hand for half the treasure.

“Dunno,”
Susan responded, stuffing her mouth.

Emily could taste the warm, freshly made cookie in her
mouth, the melted chocolate chips.

“Good, Emily,” Dr. Lewis’s voice called out. “But can you go
back further. Try to locate your very first memory. Can you do that?”

Emily forced her mind back further; as far back as she could,
through a haze of lava-like patterns behind her eyes, and flashes of familiar
faces and scenes, sinking down into unknown territory. She finally honed in on
one memory, as though it was at the bottom of a murky hole in her mind.

She came to settle in complete darkness and absolute
silence, yet she was very aware that she was lying on a cold floor.

Suddenly, she realized that it wasn’t dark necessarily but
that there was something covering her eyes. She felt a rush of fear immediately.
Her heart felt as though it would jump out of her chest.

“Wait…wait…there’s something wrong here. I’m terrified. Something
is very wrong,” she said aloud. “My eyes are covered with a cloth, some kind of
material.” She wanted to remove the cloth, but it wasn’t possible. She couldn’t
lift her hands to uncover her eyes; they were bound, tied behind her back.

“What is it, Emily?” she heard Dr. Lewis ask. “What’s
happening? What do you see?”

“I can’t see anything. My eyes are covered, and my hands are
bound. I think I’m being held prisoner,” Emily answered.

The silence was more unnerving than the darkness. She waited
for something, anything to happen.

“What’s happening, Emily?” Dr. Lewis asked again.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. All I can hear is my own heart
pounding in my ears.”

All of a sudden, in the distance, she heard a noise break
the silence—footsteps, two sets of footsteps. “There’s someone coming,” she
called out to Dr. Lewis. “I can hear people coming, and I’m so afraid.”

“What happened? How did you get there? Try to remember,” Dr.
Lewis urged.

“I don’t know,” Emily moaned.

“Try to remember,” Dr. Lewis said forcefully.

Emily pushed at her memory as hard as she could until
something came forth. “I…I think I was alone. He left for…something…” she
trailed off.

“Who left?” Dr. Lewis pushed.

“I don’t know,” Emily answered. “I can’t remember who, but I
think it had something to do with a cat…maybe…”

“What happened after that?” the doctor questioned.

“I think…I think I felt a hand covering my mouth. The hand
held a cloth that smelled bitter and made me dizzy, and then everything went
black.”

The footsteps grew louder. “Someone is coming,” she said
again, panicked. “Help, please help me!”

“Who’s coming?” Dr. Lewis asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Can you hear anything?” the doctor called out.

“Only footsteps…wait…I can hear a woman’s voice,” Emily
said.

“What is she saying?”

“Can’t hear…
‘Are you sure this will work?’
she asks.”

“
‘No, I’m not sure. I know nothing of this ancient magic,
but if it does not work, the effort will kill her.’
A male voice replies”

“They’re right next to me now,” Emily told Dr. Lewis. “I can
feel a hand on my arm.”

“
‘That is inevitable. If the effort does not kill her,
then we will have to. She knows too
much. She will thwart our plans,’
the female says.”

“What do you know, Emily?” Dr. Lewis questioned.

“I don’t know. I have no idea what they’re talking about,”
Emily explained.

“What’s happening now?”

“
‘What must I do?’
the woman asks.”

“
‘Nothing for the moment,’
the man answers.
‘Just
stand aside. According to what’s
written here, only one person is needed
to perform this magic.’
”

“
‘I have an ill feeling about this,’
the woman tells
the man. ‘
We should have killed her and made it look like an accident. We
could have made it appear as though she slipped and
banged her head’
.”

“
‘It would bring bad luck, I believe’
, the man
responds.”

“
‘But to rely on the word of an old fool is madness,
Lionel’
, the woman says.”

“Lionel?” Dr. Lewis questioned. “Who is Lionel?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met anyone by that name,” Emily
replied.

“Are you sure?” Dr. Lewis pushed.

“I don’t remember,” Emily answered.

“
‘Nephlus may have been an old fool, but he knew how to
do things that most people
could not even dream of,’
the man says.”

Suddenly, in Emily’s memory, she was being pushed onto her
back. She let out a sob.

“What’s happening now?” Dr. Lewis asked.

“I have been pushed backwards, and there’s something heavy
on my chest. The man is speaking in a strange tongue, chanting in a foreign
language. I can’t understand what he’s saying,” Emily cried. “It feels like I’m
wrapped in a metal jacket that is becoming tighter and tighter, restricting my
breathing.”

“What else, Emily,” the doctor demanded.

“He’s chanting louder now, and the hem of my dress is
growing past my ankles. I’m finding it so hard to breathe. It’s becoming
tighter still…” she trailed off, panting.

“Keep going, Emily,” Dr. Lewis coaxed.

“The chanting continues,” Emily moaned loudly. “My ribs are
going to burst…pain…chanting…pushing harder. I can’t…I can’t breathe…so much
pain—”

“EMILY!” Dr. Lewis yelled into the darkness, her voice shaken.
“Emily,” she called softer, “I’m going to count backwards from three. When you
hear me say ‘
one
’ you will awaken, okay? Here we go…three…two…one.”

Emily opened her eyes and blinked rapidly, trying to adjust
her eyesight to the darkness, trying to make out the shapes around the room.

Dr. Thompson walked across the room and hit the overhead
light. He and Dr. Lewis both stared silently at Emily, both holding their
breath, utter shock apparent on their faces. “Are you alright?” he stammered
after a moment of silence.

“I…I don’t know,” Emily replied. “Dr. Lewis, what was that?”

“I wish I knew,” the doctor answered. “You said something
about ancient magic, so my only guess is that you’ve confused a real memory
with a movie you’ve seen, or a story you’ve heard.”

“It felt so real,” Emily remarked.

“I’m sure it did, but it was just a movie that you’ve seen,
probably as a child. It must have frightened you so much that the memory buried
itself firmly in your subconscious.”

“I don’t think so,” Emily said with conviction. She threw
her shaky legs off the reclining chair and stood upright.

“I’d like you to come back in a couple—”

Emily cut Dr. Lewis off. “I’m going on a business trip. I’ll
call you when I get back,” she said pointedly, not trying to hide the rudeness
in her voice.

She left the room quickly without saying goodbye, and called
Cappy from her cell phone.

“What happened?” Cappy asked, rushing down the hall to meet
her. She threw her arms around her visibly shaken friend.

“It was horrible, the most frightening thing that’s ever
happened to me,” Emily sobbed.

“Was it your parents? Did someone hurt you?” Cappy
questioned, perceptibly worried.

“It was worse than anything like that. It was worse than
being trapped in a nightmare,” Emily informed her, trying to steady her voice.

“Fucking hell!” Catherine spat. “I knew something like this
would happen.”

“I should have listened to you,” Emily sniffled.

“Tell me what happened. What did you see?”

“I’ll tell you later. I don’t want to talk about it just
yet,” Emily answered. “I feel sick to my stomach. But I can tell you this: I am
officially done with hypnotherapy. In fact, I’m done with all therapy. Please
tell Dr. Lewis that I died or something.”