Seared Into My Brain Novels & Stories

Willow No matter how hard I tried to forget it, the memory just wouldn't budge. It felt like it had been permanently etched into my mind and no matter how hard I tried to get rid of it, I was only wasting my time. It didn't help that I was a chronic over thinker. Even the littlest inconvenience could have me thinking about a million and one ways how I could have avoided it or how I could have acted differently to change the outcome. I hated this. I hated feeling like this.

Our blood locked quickly. I had been marked.

I tried my best to fix the damaged man's body that was in front of me by sewing and applying bandages. However, it wasn’t enough. With every strained breath he drew, I could feel his life fading away, his skin turning pale under my fingertips. Fear nearly overcame me while I looked for a way out, for something that would pull him out of the deep. I remembered it, a small spark in the dark. The power that was inside me, the power to heal. I didn’t know I had this power until I was sixteen years old. It was a day I would never forget, a day that changed my life forever.

It was an understatement. “Why wouldn't I be?” I remembered his words as he spoke in his deep, throaty voice about the past that I had no memory of. I shuddered while recalling it. Each word made my nerves go haywire. "You had an accident when you were little, causing the memories to be interlocked in a certain part of your brain, letting you form a wall over it.” I could still even remember what he said to me. It was as if a dam of cold water had been broken on me.

At the bottom of the page, written in jagged, hurried strokes of dark ink, was a single sentence that sent a paralyzing chill straight to my core: “If I ever forget the truth… don't let me trust my own memories.”

Marcus, standing on the sidewalk across from my building, didn’t leave my head for days. Even when he wasn’t there, I kept seeing him in every shadow, every car that slowed down too long, every man in a suit who looked at me a second too long. My body remembered him even when my brain was trying to forget. That’s what six years with him did. He got under your skin and stayed there like a splinter.

"You came and got what you needed. The siren song didn't work on you. You guarded your brain well and the crimson kelp helped keep you safe. Nothing else happened." I felt her body ease as she fell into my spell. I'll have to go deep into the brain to lock this memory away. "Get dressed." She did so quickly. Only my siren was stupid and tore her bra. "Your bra broke when it got caught and you pulled back on it. It snapped on you and it hurt." I could feel her start to believe my words more and more. I ventured deep into her mind. She froze as she pulled her shirt down. I sealed the memory away deep in her mind. She shouldn't remember anything now.

Her smirk burned into my memory as the words on the screen seared into my heart. I’d been a fool all this time!

We stepped through. Instantly, all of the memories of that fateful day came flooding back. With a force that rivaled a hurricane, horrible and graphic images assaulted my brain.

Meanwhile, I could only hope that I had done the right thing. The images of Madeline's face, contorted with pain, were burned into my mind. I could still hear her cries, the agony in her voice, the heartbreak in her eyes. It was like a terrible dream that I couldn't wake up from, no matter how hard I tried. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face, her pain, her suffering. It was as if it had been tattooed onto my brain, a permanent reminder of my mistake. I was unable to get it out of my head, no matter how hard I tried.