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Eliza's Memory

           “You need to lay down and relax.” Ally told me. “The doctor said you should get some rest.”

           “The doctor also said I am perfectly fine.” I reminded her. “I am just going to watch some TV in bed and go to sleep. Go on get ready. I appreciate you picking me up from the hospital and wanting to take care of me, but I am good, I promise. And I know you have that party tonight with Tom. You will be late if you don’t go soon.”

           “Oh, it’s not a big deal. It’s just a get-together for his work. I can miss it.”

           “Your fiancé just got a huge promotion, it’s not just a small get-together. They are throwing him a big going away party. Go support your man.” I hopped in my bed and got under the blankets. “See, I am in bed getting some rest, just as the doctor ordered. Now, go to your room and get ready for Tom’s party.”

           “Fine, but I’m going to make you some soup first. Stay in bed, I’ll go heat you some up.”

           “Okay.” I rolled my eyes as she left my room on a mission.

           I wasn’t hungry, but if accepting the soup got her out of the apartment, I’d eat three bowls. Ally was my best friend and my roommate. I loved her, but I’d had a long day and was physically and mentally drained. It was time for her to go and for me to relax, by myself. Soon, Ally would be moving three states away with Tom, which made me sad, but I was used to being alone. Growing up, I’d spent most of my childhood by myself. My parents had died when I was young, and I’d bounced around from aunts’ and uncles’ houses, no one really wanting me around. I had always felt alone, so I was used to it.

           The thought of the wreck earlier flashed in my head. That man. Ash. His dark seductive eyes. The image of him scared me and fascinated me all at once.

           “I must have made quite the impression on you,” Ash said from a few feet away.

           I screamed and fell out of bed.

           “How? Why? You are in my bedroom.” I couldn’t speak correctly as I stared up at him.

           “You are an odd woman.” He smirked. “It’s kind of sexy.”

           “Eliza!” Ally called as she came towards my bedroom.

           “Shit, she will see you. Go hide.” I jumped up and began trying to push him towards the closet.

           Ally came rushing into my bedroom and stared at me strangely.

           “He is a friend of mine,” I told her.

           “What?” She asked.

           “He came through the front door and is leaving the same way.” I nervously explained.

           “What the hell are you talking about?” Ally sighed. “Are you okay?”

           “You can’t see….oh.” I looked up at Ash who was smiling. “Nothing. I was on the phone and thought you heard me. Never mind.”

           “Smooth.” Ash joked.

           Shit. I forgot that Ash had told me that other humans couldn’t see him.

           “Were you talking to Seth?” Ally asked. “He’s been texting me all day worried about you.”

           “Who’s Seth?” Ash asked me as he walked between Ally and me. She of course didn’t see or hear him.

           “No one, hush.” I scolded him.

           “Huh?” Ally asked.

           “It was no one important.”

           “I’m no one important? Fuck. That hurts.” Ash flopped down on my bed as though he had just been stabbed in the heart.

           “Are you sure you are okay?” Ally asked me again.

           “Yes, go. I’m trying to relax. Go get ready.” I shooed her out of my room and closed the door behind her.

           “Is Seth important?” Ash questioned me.

           “Why are you here? You just made me look crazy in front of my friend. She’s probably calling my doctor right now.”

           “You aren’t answering my question.”

           “What’s the question?”

           “Seth?”

           “Seriously? Don’t you have some murderer to go pick up and drag to hell?” I looked down at his damn black leather shoes on my bed, dirtying my nice clean comforter. “Do you mind?”

           I pushed his feet off the bed.

           “Are all human females as feisty as you?”

           “I don’t know, are all devil…workers…as rude as you?” I shook my head.

           “Usually.” He stood up and looked me over. “You look human. Nice tits and a great ass, but there is something different about you. You are extraordinary.”

           My body tingled as I watched his lips speak of me. Damn, he was turning me on. Why did I want to have sex with this jerk?

           “So, you do want to have sex with me? Maybe I am important after all.” He said.

           “Are you reading my mind?”

           “Absolutely.”

           “Stop.”

           “But I liked the image you had of our bodies naked on this bed. Perhaps you would like to make it come true?”

           “Stay out of my head.” I reached out and slapped his arm.

           “Eliza!” Ally knocked on my door. “Who are you talking to?”

           “Oh, not this chick again.” Ash threw his hands up. “I’m tempted to kill her just to get some damn privacy around here.”

           “Don’t you dare!” I pushed him.

           She opened my door and came in.

           “Here’s your soup.” She set it down by my bed. “Are you fighting on the phone with Seth?”

           “Who the hell is this Seth?” Ash yelled out to me.

           “Thanks for the soup,” I told Ally as I ignored Ash. “I’m really tired. I’m just going to eat and go to sleep. Have fun at the party with Tom.”

           “Maybe I should hang here for a bit longer.” Ally suggested.

           “Damn it,” Ash complained. “Should I just kill her and get this over with?”

           “Stop!” I yelled at him, but Ally, having no clue he was even there thought I was talking to her.

           “Alright, alright. I’m leaving. Call me if you need me.” She said as she left the room.

Ash kicked the door shut loudly behind her.

           “You didn’t have to do that,” I whispered.

           “She doesn’t need to be in here.”

           “Neither do you,” I told him.

           “You know what, you are right. Your room is horrible. Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed my arm and suddenly everything around me seemed to spin and get blurry.

           As I closed my eyes, I squeezed his arm tight and leaned in close to him. He put his arms around me and held me in an embrace. We stayed like that for a long moment. It wasn’t until I opened my eyes that I realized everything around us was normal again and we were still, even if my heart was unsteady.

           “What just happened?” I asked.

           “I took you to one of your favorite places.” Ash let go of me and pointed ahead.

           “The beach?” I stepped forward and stared in disbelief.

           “Not just any beach, look around.”

           I took a moment to see my surroundings. It wasn’t until I saw the old cottage nearby that I realized where I was.

           “But that can’t be.” I looked back at him. “I thought this place was just in my imagination. I didn’t think it really existed.”

           “It’s a memory in your head. I saw it there, deep within where you hide the most precious images inside.” He ran his finger across my cheek. “I wonder if you will hold a memory of me there one day.”

           “I told you to stay out of my head.”

           “And yet, I am always on your mind.”

           I sighed and tried not to imagine him naked in my head for him to see.

           “This was the cottage my parents used to take me to each summer for vacation. I was so young, I almost didn’t know if it was real, but it’s just as I remember. My mom used to collect shells with me and my dad would let me bury him in the sand.”

           “You are happy, here?” He asked.

           “Yes, thank you.”

           “Good, now let’s go skinny dipping,” Ash suggested.

           “See, you do a sweet thing then say something gross like that.” I pushed his arm.

           “Fine, at least sit in the sand for a little while with me.” He took my hand in his and lead me towards the waves.

           I looked out into the water as the sun behind it began to go down. It was perfect. We sat down in the sand and stared out into the water silently for a while, only the sound of the ocean beautifully meeting the sand as neither of us spoke. Being next to him oddly calming and peaceful.

           “Why do you think I can see you?” I asked him.

           “I don’t know, but it’s too dangerous for you. Knowing of me, knowing me, it’s not safe. That’s why I need to leave you.”

When he reached for me, I pulled back, not because I didn’t want him to touch me, but because I realized what this was.

           “You’re telling me goodbye,” I said. “This is the last time I will see you.”

           “You won’t miss me.” He smiled an evil grin that still made me shiver.

           “What if I don’t want to say goodbye?” I asked. “Maybe I want to see you again.”

           “So brave.” He took my hand in his and kissed my knuckles. “I promise, you will not miss me.”

           “What are you going to do?”

           “I have to erase the memory of me from your mind.” Ash kissed my knuckles again and I tried to ignore how good his lips felt on my skin. “You won’t remember me, but I am hoping that somewhere deep within that pretty little head of yours, you will hide a memory of me, even if it is hidden so well that you can’t even see it.”

           I didn’t want to forget him; not his silver eyes or beautiful face, not the way his voice made my heart feel awakened, not the touch of his warm skin that made sizzles throughout my body. No, I wanted to know those parts of him forever.

           “Forever is not long enough.” He whispered.

           His lips met mine and I suddenly knew what it was like to kiss hell. It was a beautiful sin; one I wouldn’t mind repenting for. As he continued to kiss me, he placed both of his hands on my head, and I knew this was it; he was erasing himself from my memory. I kept my eyes closed tight and tried to hold the moment of his lips on mine in the back of my mind. I wanted this moment forever, even if it was just a whisper I could never fully understand. When his hands let go and his lips left mine, he knew he had just taken himself from my memory.

           “Goodbye, my brave girl.” He said.

           I opened my eyes and I was standing in the middle of my bedroom.

           “Wait!” I yelled. “I still remember you! I can still remember everything about you!”

           “Impossible,” Ash said from behind me. “That is not possible. I erased the memories.”

           Quickly turning and grabbing his arms, I squeezed him tight and told him again.

           “Ash!”

           “There is no way you can remember me.”

           “No, I remember it all, the crash, those damn leather shoes, your smug smile, and arrogant attitude. That hot kiss! Ash, I can remember it all.” I said. “You didn’t erase my memories.”

           Confused, he sighed and shook his head.

           “Let me try again.” His hands went to my head and he attempted once more. This time I kept my eyes open, watching his confused face as he apparently went through the motions of erasing someone’s memory.

           “Nope,” I told him when nothing happened.

           “This doesn’t make any sense. You shouldn’t remember me. Your memories should have been wiped away.”

           “Just like I shouldn’t have been able to see you that day of the wreck.”

           His brow went up and his head turned sideways like some wild animal that had just heard a strange footstep in the wilderness.

           “What are you?” Ash asked.

           “I’m just a girl.”

           “No, you are so much more.”

           Ash came in close to me. I looked up at him, his tall stature making it hard to see his face completely.

           “I’m sorry I can’t forget you,” I whispered as I stared into his eyes.

           He suddenly picked me up and rushed me to my bed. Within seconds, I was laid gently on my back with him hovering above me.

           “I have never met anyone like you before.” His body pressed seductively onto mine. “But I have to go.”

           “Will you come back again?”

           “I can’t.” He leaned down and kissed my neck. “I want you so bad, but I just can’t.”

           “Please.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “Please, I don’t want you to go.”

           “Eliza.” His erection hardened against my thigh.

           “Ash, maybe there is a reason I can see you. Maybe there is a reason why I can’t forget you.”

           He leaned up and looked down at me for a moment. His head cocked sideways with an animalistic appearance again.

           “Goodbye, my brave girl.” He kissed my lips softly and then quickly disappeared from my room.

           I instantly felt incomplete. How could I miss someone I just met? Why was I not frightened by this man from hell, and why was my heart aching with the longing of his touch? A tear fell down my cheek as I pulled the covers over my body and closed my tired eyes. Ash was gone, but the memory of him haunted me heavily.

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