After leaving the hospital on foot, Irene followed her instincts and found herself at the Blackwood cemetery. 'What brought me here?'
As she stood over the graves of her parents, she couldn't hold it back anymore. She burst into tears and fell to her knees. "I don't want to be alone," she choked out between sobs.
"You're not alone." Irene jumped as a familiar voice called from behind her.
She turned around and was surprised to find Amelia standing behind her.
"Amelia? How did you get here? How did you know I would be here?"
"Back before the accident, you always came here every Thursday after school. A lot of times, Tristan and I would come with you," Amelia explained.
"To visit my parents?"
"Yeah. They were like second parents to us. When you lose them, we lose them too."
"Tell me about them. Anything that might bring them back to me."
"Your dad always helped us with book reports. He worked at the university library and read so much. He was always so proud of the papers you wrote for class. And your mom? She was the coolest! She's the one who taught me how to stand up for myself against bullies like Steve and Ava."
"How can I miss them when it feels like I never even knew them?"
"But you did know them, Irene. You may not have those memories now, but your sorrow shows that those memories are still inside you somewhere," said Amelia.
"That should give me hope, right?" Irene said, while Amelia nodded her head. She walked forward and enveloped Irene in a hug.
"It's not fair! I want to remember everything—my family, my friends… even the bad stuff. There's nothing I wouldn't do to get that part of me back," Irene said, rubbing her face against Amelia's chest with a sniffle.
"I know. I'm sorry, Irene," Amelia comforted her.
When Irene pulled away from the hug, a chilling breeze made her shiver. Suddenly, the once bright and clear expanse was consumed by an unnatural darkness.
"Whoa, when did it get so dark?" Irene asked as she looked up at Amelia, but Amelia's eyes were wide with terror, fixed on something over Irene's shoulder.
"No! No! No!" Amelia trembled.
"What is it?" Irene asked, confused.
"She's here," Amelia said in a shaky voice.
"Who? Who's here?" Irene asked, her voice crackling with urgency.
"I have done everything you wanted. Leave her alone!" Amelia barked, while Irene turned to see who she was talking to.
Standing among the headstones was a silhouette of a spirit. The spirit had no face; its features were obscured by an impenetrable void. Cloaked in black attire from head to toe, it moved with an eerie grace, as if gliding in the air.
It hovered before Irene, fixing her with its lifeless gaze.
Irene's blood froze. She was so scared, her voice felt like it had completely vanished. "Is that the Black Queen?"
The strange spirit reached out a hand and cut through the air.
Amelia jerked away from Irene as if she was being pushed.
"Amelia!" Irene yelled, while Amelia lay motionless on the ground, unconscious, Irene hoped.
Irene tried to reach for her, but the spirit raised its hand again. Irene gasped, and suddenly, she couldn't breathe. Her hands scrambled at her throat, at nothing. The spirit held her there by magic.
"No one will help you this time," it hissed, the sound echoing in the darkness of the cemetery, wrapping around Irene like a suffocating shroud.
"Are you sure about that?" Distantly, Irene heard an unfamiliar deep voice. Everything was starting to get dark, but in the corner of her eye, Irene could see the stranger raising his hands as he chanted a spell,
"Nulla facilisi cras fermentum." There was a strange flash of light.
Irene was thrown hard to the ground as the spirit shrieked as if in pain. Irene gasped in a breath at last, the darkness fading from her vision as she coughed.
But she had little time to recover as her savior was suddenly on her, pulling her roughly to her feet. "Let's go! We don't have time."
"What about Amelia?" Irene asked, glancing worriedly at her friend.
He threw a scowl in Amelia's direction as he dragged Irene with him, leaving Amelia motionless among the headstones. "She knew what she was getting into. I'll come back for her later; I need to get you out of here first,"
Irene was too weak to try and fight him. He led her to the main road, forced her onto the back of his motorcycle, and that's when Irene remembered him. "You're that guy. You were standing in the doorway of my chemistry class."
"That was me… Huh, so you really don't remember after all."
"Remember you? Who are you?"
"Don't worry. You'll remember everything soon enough."
"Can you at least tell me your name?"
He started the motorcycle. Irene could barely hear him over the thrumming of the engine. "I'm Rick."
*****
The next day, when Irene woke up, she found herself in her room.
'What? How does this keep happening to me? I can't keep forgetting things. Not after all I've lost so far,' Irene mused, struggling to grasp the last thing she remembered. 'The cemetery! Amelia was there… and we were attacked. And I was saved by Rick. At least I think that's what happened. It couldn't have been a dream, could it?'
Irene jumped at the voice coming from the foot of her bed. "Irene, do you remember what happened? How did you get here?" Dax asked.
Irene scoffed as she massaged her temples, "Oh, good. You can still talk. Great! Yet another piece of evidence in favor of my sanity."
"You didn't answer my questions," Dax said testily.
"Yeah, because I don't remember!"
"Oh, this is not good."
"What?"
"You're losing your later memories."
"Okay. What does that mean? How do we stop it?"
"You have to find out more information about that party… You don't have much time left."
"Time left for what? Where did you even come from? How did you get here?" Irene asked, her brows furrowing.
"Ah, you used to know! I'm a descendant of Duke Arthur Hamilton. Bewitched forever to live in a cat's skin. Once, long ago, a proud member of the nobility, and now… Aunt Ashley's pretty kitty," Dax said, his tone full of distaste.