Trip Down Memory Lane

The floor, ceiling, and the walls around her are entirely made of wooden planks and there are numerous holes on certain areas, illuminating the room with its rays of light. She also saw a window sticking on one wall.

It was closed by a piece of wood, and it seems that it isn"t bolted to the wall.

She stood up and approached the blocked window, removing the wood to look outside. Once she got rid of the wood, she was blinded by the light from the outside.

After she finally adapted the light, the place in front of her looked very much out of the ordinary.

As she hears the waves of the ocean and feeling the heat of summer, she realized that she has arrived at the beach.

Seeing that she has gone from the coldest of winter into the scorching summer, Valera felt bewildered from the impulsive switch of climates.

She goes outside to let herself out of the cabin.

"Valera!" She looked at the opposite side of the beach and saw Spirit moving toward her.

He approaches at her to question about her condition.

"Did you sleep well?" Spirit asked.

"...Yeah. How about you, Spirit? Where have you been?"

"Because of the unexplained occurrences happening, I was roaming around to get myself a bigger understanding of where we are.

I just finished wandering around and it looks like we"re in a remoted island."

"I guess the cabin is actually the portal all along." Valera concluded.

She looks at the cabin with a stare due to its mystique capabilities.

Even though it is bizarre in a way, with full of unexpected oddities in their past journeys, they wouldn"t mind it either way.

After their small exchange, they started walking around at the beach.

Whilst they"re moving around, the sound of the waves. .h.i.tting on the coast of the beach and the sense of tranquility around them makes this walk a soothing one. The wind from the outskirts of the ocean hits her body to feel the warmth of hot summer.

Eventually, Valera breaks the silence around them with a bothered feeling.

"Spirit? Did you found the next portal while you were wondering around in the forest?"

Spirit takes this into consideration, for he might have missed a portal on his way, however...

"I don"t think I ever saw one around this island, not even an indicator of it. I concluded that the reason might be because this is the end of our journey."

Valera carefully thinks this through. She contemplates that maybe this isn"t the end. She asks him again to ensure herself.

"...But did you found any portal outside the island?"

"Not sure if there actually is one. I didn"t consider myself to look from the ocean. But if it"s true, it may possibly be on underwater."

"Can you check it for me?" She bids Spirit.

He"s starting to get tired because of his wonderings and also because of what he did in the winter. But to a.s.sist Valera on concluding her journey, he can"t help but to accept her request.

He replied with a sigh.

"... Fine, I"ll go. The ocean is very wide, so it would take a while to find a possible portal. Just stay here and I"ll be back, Alright?"

"Thanks, Spirit." She smiles at him with comfort.

"..." Spirit didn"t say anything after that and goes on to find the next portal.

As she looks at him flying away and across the ocean, she looks forward and continues to walk.

Although it is hot, Valera can"t help but to feel contented as she walks in a beach with a feeling of a bit of sinking in her feet due to her lightweight figure.

While she walks forward, she hears something moving quickly towards her.

"Valera!"

She looks on her back and saw Phillip happily waving at her.

He looks older that the last time she saw him in her memories. And more mature.

As he moves closer and closer, she can see him in detail.

When she unconsciously looks at Phillip"s chiseled body, she looked away, shameful of her actions...

...At look at him a bit more for good measure.

"It"s been a while since we"ve last met! How have you"ve been?!" He asks her with a friendly tone.

Valera feels a bit fl.u.s.tered, but tries to hide it and goes in a normal conversation.

"I-I"ve been doing fine. Our graduation is almost around the corner, so I just wandering here at the beach to refresh myself from those past years."

"Oh yeah, it"s your last year of college. Well, congrats for getting that far!" He pats her on her shoulder.

She chuckled at his acknowledgement for her. "Thanks."

Phillip then looked at the sky with a thought in his mind.

"...Y"know, if only we had the same profession, we would"ve gone to the same academy. Because I was going to become an archaeologist, I had to go to a different college.

But at least we can get to see each other again once in a while." He smiled at her once again.

From that, Valera felt some rea.s.surance at him. She is finally experience this feeling once again and she is delighted of that outcome. However, she also feels something missing in her very soul.

"Hey!! Phillip!!" As she hears the woman calling his name, she feels agitated in her heart. When she gets closer to him, Valera finally gets the bigger picture.

"Where have you been?!! I"ve been looking for you all over the place!"

"Hahaha. Sorry "bout that, Chara" While they"re talking, She held his arms as if they were a couple.

"Oh, by the way, Valera, I forgot to introduce you to her. You probably known her since 7th grade. She"s Chara and we were dating in the past 2 years."

Valera already knew about their relationship since, or even, she even knew it when they were 8th grade because Chara tried to confess him in secrecy.

"Hey, Valera! It"s been a while!" Chara said.

She tries to accept what has become of those two, since she only wanted Phillip to be happy, regardless of who he"s with. Even if she forces herself, she can"t help but to feel resentful. But it doesn"t matter either way. She doesn"t want to get in the way or to change their connection to each other because of her.

All she can do is to pray for those two to be together happily.

With that in her thought, she politely answered her.

"Yeah. How"ve you been?"

"Never been better!

Hey Phillip, we should go to that place. I heard that they have some delicious foods inside." Chara said as she pulls him towards the restaurant she"s pointing.

"Alright, Alright. You should go first, I"ll catch up, okay?"

"Ok! I"ll be waiting!" She blissfully goes to the restaurant.

As she goes, she puts a malicious glare at Valera.

She notices her gaze, but tries to ignore it, for she thinks it is for someone else.

"You wanna join us, Valera? Don"t worry, it"ll be my treat." He points to himself with a proud smile.

Inside of her, she really wants to go, but she thinks that she also might damage their relationship.

Due to her thoughts, she replied with a hurtful no.

"Well, that"s unfortunate...

Welp, I should be going. I"ll text you soon, a"ight?" Phillip waves at Valera.

She also waves at him with a smile. But residing that smile...

...Is the unending sorrow towards her wanted lover.

...

After her recollection, she resides bellow the coconut tree, letting her to shade from the blazing sun. She hugs her own legs and rests her head on her knees, thinking mostly of her lover. She does this to forget the feeling she has now, but for some reason...

Thinking about him does the opposite. She can feel the thorns pressing in her heart, hurting even more as the time pa.s.ses.

And eventually, Spirit has arrived from his voyage.

He moves towards her and tells her about the portal.

"Just as you said, the portal was actually outside the island. It came from the further left but unfortunately, it"s in underwater. So we should go there and-"

After he finishes his sentence, Spirit can see Valera"s anguished face.

"...Valera?"

He moves closer to her. And after a while, she spoke.

"Let"s stop from here... Spirit..." Spirit felt worried, as he doesn"t know what caused her to feel such an emotion. He tries to understand her decision by talking to her.

"Why should we stop? I already saw the next portal, and it might be the last. Didn"t you want to recover your memories?

Didn"t you want to know who Phillip is?"

When she heard his name again, she went silent for a moment.

"...it doesn"t matter anymore." He"s stunned at her response.

"I already knew him now, so it doesn"t matter..."

Spirit doubts her. He thinks that she only saw a fraction of her memory and, for any reason;

Something has made her ambition turned into apathy.

With this in mind, he speaks to her one more time.

"You know what I realized on our journey together?"

Valera"s overthinking stopped and listens to him. He then continues.

"Every time you got out and learned about your sad memories, you come out joyfully. As if you already forgot what happened inside that place."

She raises her head. She has realizes something, but can"t seem to describe it.

"I don"t know what was on your mind after you got out in that place, but here"s what I know for sure;

Phillip saved you from those nightmares."

Her eyes now brightened, realizing what she"s realized before.

"Back then, I can"t fully understand what you mean back then. But now I know for sure.

He"s there when you"re at loss.

He"s there when you"re desperate.

He"s there when you"re in pain.

He"s always there when you needed him the most.

And because of that reason, you traveled through worlds; dealt the memories of your past; all because of him."

Valera looks at Spirit. As she looks closely, he resembles someone, someone she already knew but she unknowingly forgotten who it was.

"You still don"t understand about your memories, Valera. You"re just lost. I can tell.

So let"s go. Let"s recover your memories and meet him once again."

She can"t shake this feeling inside of her. Somehow, as Spirit has said to her to not give up, he has a same resemblance on Phillip due to the fact that Spirit is always helping her in her despair.

Nevertheless, Valera"s soul has been cleansed. She stood up with determination and looks at him fiercely.

"Looks like you"ve been calmed down.

Come on, let"s go to the portal."

Spirit goes to the portal"s destination while Valera follows him. She finally feels better and now goes forward to continue her journey.

...

Valera and Spirit arrived at the sh.o.r.eline. Although it is far, she can see the portal just from here. It looked like a flickering round bulb below the deep ocean. She felt terrified at first, but she needs to be brave to finally be able to grasp the memory she seeks.

"Did you see it?" He asks Valera.

"Yeah...

It"s a bit deep. No, it is very deep.

How can we able to go through there?" As she finishes her sentence, spirit casts a spell on her.

After his incantation, he explains Valera about the magic he casted unto her.

"With this magic, you can survive deep into the ocean. Try it yourself."

Before she can even try his magic, he added something and instructs her the most misconceiving way possible.

"Now, dip your face into the water and drown yourself."

"..." She stopped moving, looking at him with most of her doubt on her face.

"..." Spirit also went silent. His mind is full of confusion and finally understands the words he said before.

"... Are you kidding me?" He wanted himself to facepalm, but with his body of flame, he couldn"t.

After that, he chooses his words carefully while Valera readies herself to swim into the bodily depths of the ocean.

She stretches her joints to avoid herself getting an injury. She then slams her face with both of her hands and talks to herself to self-motivate.

"I can do this." She muttered.

With her body and mind all worked up and ready, she goes into the ocean.

The water level isn"t as higher as she thought it would be. It didn"t even reach her stomach.

And after a while, with one foot ahead of her, she fell down.

Spirit notices her decent and follows her into the water.

She unconsciously closes her eyes, thinking that the water might go into her eyelids. But when she started to breath, it felt like normal to her. It"s like what she"s inhaling wasn"t water at all.

She then slowly opens her eyes to let her see the bottom of the ocean.

Valera is petrified. Not because of fear, however. But the opposite. She can only do nothing but to see the elegance of the ocean.

The light of the sun hits the ocean floor, giving itself the rays of light that can only be seen from the bottom. The gleams of light are making a wave-like movement due to the currents bellow the water surface, making it much livelier. As she looks around, she sees a school of fishes swimming through the ocean. Their movement is so swift that it makes her feel dizzy. But, because of the light emitted from the rays in the surface, their scales brighten and shimmering across their bodies, giving them the impression of a living dis...o...b..ll.

Valera stopped moving for almost a minute and then focuses on the task at hand.

She swims around in the deep ocean while looking at the scenery beholden to her. She uses her feet and arms to quickly navigate through the water.

Valera moves through the ocean as swift as a fish. She didn"t realize that she already covered almost half a kilometer in only half a minute. Having this pace continue, she can get to the portal in no time.

And eventually, her sad memories slowly progresses around the place.

The ocean is getting darker and darker, until the only source of light left was Spirit"s body.

Spirit, having to experience this encounter for the first time, started to feel in dismay due to the atmosphere around him.

As they go deeper and deeper, his spell is slowly vanishing. Valera felt a sudden change of her breathing. She"s aware that if she goes even deeper, she will suffer major damages.

But that doesn"t stop her.

To understand what that memory she saw earlier was about; to understand more about Phillip; to finally know the truth,

She must progress.

Even if the obstacle before her is death itself.

Eventually, after Valera"s realization of the deterioration of his magic, Spirit also notified about the condition of his spell.

It should"ve notified Valera as well, but he sees her moving onward even faster.

"VALERA!!!" It"s no use. Everywhere they look is water, and no spare of air to help him pa.s.s his message to her.

She moves even faster towards the bulb of light.

"Come on. Almost... There..." She reaches her arms into the light, hoping to finally gain contact into it.

"Ack!!! Wh!" She started to feel like she"s crushed from above her. The heaviness is so much that it feels like she"s lifting an entire building.

However, that still didn"t stop her.

She swims through the water violently. The aggressive movement of her body didn"t help her much, though.

She still has her same ambition, but different feeling.

What she feels right now isn"t determination or resolve...

It was frustration.

The weight above her gets heavier as she gets deeper, her body are as cold as ice, and she can"t breathe properly because of either fatigue, her emotions, or both.

"why... why, Phillip...

why did you chose her?"

Whilst she utters this very sentence to herself with grief, Valera" body turned lifeless...