My Own Wings

WOAH, I haven’t updated for almost 9 months! It’s been a while… I finally found some time (or not) to add the next chapter. This chapter is soooo long! I wonder how many people would still read this… Oh well, I’ll post this anyway:] Sorry if the writing style died a bit… it has truly been a long time… Thanks to Hyperactive Tirlis, a very loyal and supportive reader of this series, for naming this chapter, and huggles to my lovely Sister B and adopted Grandma for helping to motivate me. Apologies in advance for the mushiness! – Love you all, Satokibi

Chapter 11 – Goodbye Memories

“But the end of next week is the day before my birthday!” I cried.

Wise shut his eyes and nodded his head as if he understood my pain. “That’s all fine and good, then. Having your memory erased can be your birthday present. It will set you free from any troubles you might have in the future if you don’t.”

Charlie was fuming. I could almost imagine how much smoke would have been coming out of his ears if he was a cartoon character. But for some reason, I was pretty calm about the whole thing. I figured that since I was going to have my memories erased, it meant that I would never get exposed in papers by scary newspaper journalists like Toni Nay then kidnapped by baddies ever again. Also, if my memories were to be erased, I would never remember or talk to Charlie again, and so it wouldn’t be too sad. Right?

“Lexie, get up, I’m taking you home.” Although he said that, he had slammed the door before I could even get the chance to follow him out of it. After reopening the door, I barely managed to catch up with him in the hallway and for every step he took, I had to take three. He looked extremely upset, and I wasn’t sure what to do to cheer him up, so I decided I would tell him about what I was thinking before.

“Don’t worry, Charlie, it’s going to be okay.” I soothed as we were going down the lift. “Everything’s going to be okay. You could still be my friend after my memories are erased, right? It’ll be fine, as long as you don’t tell me your other identity again. And you won’t have to come running whenever I get myself into trouble. This memory-erasing thing is very beneficial, isn’t it?”

BOOM. My eyes instantly shifted right, to where Charlie had punched the wall in a space right next to my head. He had punched so hard that a large vibration shook the lift and the lights flickered. He was panting hard and he had his other hand wrapped around the front of his neck, as if he was suffocating. “…me…” he muttered. “What… what about me..?” He looked into my eyes, searching for an answer. “When it’s all over and you’ve forgotten everything… what do you think will happen to me? I will still have my memory, you know. And I will still remember you, you know. I’ll be regretting my making you forget me every minute of the day. I’ll think about you, and know that you’re not thinking about me. I’ll be feeling things for you, but you won’t feel a thing for me. And you… you will be completely oblivious to all of this!”

“That’s true… but what about how you can still make friends with me anyway?”

“Wouldn’t that be more painful? I’d be spending time with someone I care about, who has forgotten that I care about them!”

“But what can I possibly do?” I choked back tears, and reached up to take his throbbing fingers in mine. Grasping it tightly towards my chin, I felt really guilty and selfish for not considering how Charlie would cope when I was gone, but I guess my mind had been pushing it into dark corners, so as not to make me feel hopeless and helpless. “There’s no other way for us, is there? I am against it as much as you are.”

We held hands walking out of the lift. Even though we still had a whole week, I felt like I wanted to spend every second with Charlie. I knew it was for my own good, but I didn’t want to forget!

“Lexie,” Charlie said. “Before we go home, is it okay if I take you somewhere first?”

“Sure,” I replied. If it meant I was able to spend a few extra moments with him, anywhere would be fine. He put on his mask and flew with me halfway across town, and we landed on the sidewalk in front of a two-storey brick house, where he removed it again and placed it back in his pocket.

We stood in front of the door, and Charlie hesitated for a moment, before pushing the doorbell. A young girl answered and peered at us from a small opening.

“Dhyana!” Charlie exclaimed, unable to control his excitement. “You’ve grown taller, haven’t you?” He tried to put his hand on her shoulder but she flinched.

Dhyana was a mixture of her two brothers, but the mixture contained more of Charlie. She looked only about twelve years old, but who knew how much she could hurt with what she didn’t know? A confused and slightly scared expression came over her face. “Who are you?” she asked with sincere cluelessness.

“This is my little sister,” he explained to me in a whisper. “I got carried away due to the fact that I haven’t talked to her for almost a year, but I almost forgot something important – she doesn’t actually know me anymore. In fact, nobody in this house does.”

Suddenly I understood Charlie’s reaction to Wise’s demand a whole lot more; he had been through that kind of loss before, with his family, and if he had to lose me it would just be like having nightmare happen all over again. “Then why did we come here? Isn’t this really sad for you and a bit strange for them?” I whispered back.

“But I wanted to show you my family just once, before I have to let you go…”

“Who’s at the door, Dhyana?” a woman called from within the house.

“There’s a boy and a girl, and I don’t really know who they are, but they seem to know us but I don’t know why.”

A middle-aged blonde lady came to the door and stood behind her daughter.

“Mum…” Charlie murmured.

“Excuse me, but did you just call me Mum? You’re not trying to be stupid are you? If not, I’m sorry but you’ve got the wrong people. Now if you’ll leave us to our own privacy…” She slammed the door in our face.

Charlie stood still for a long moment, as if trying to take one last glance at them through the small stained glass window on the door. Then he looked down, and from each eye, a single tear fell and splattered onto the “WELCOME!” mat… so much for welcome.

I could not begin to imagine just how painful it would be if your family forgot about you, and if your own mother slammed the door on you, locking you outside, as if you were a complete stranger who was even somewhat a risk to the family’s security.

“I- I’m so sorry…” I tried to comfort him as we made our way to my house.

Charlie sighed and rubbed his eyes with his a finger of his spare hand. The other was firmly gripping mine. “It’s not your fault. I guess I’ll have to explain a bit more about what happened. When Matt found out about himself being a Vowel, he was so happy that he told our whole family about it. We were all really happy for him, but with this happiness also came pride. Mum and Dad started walking around with their heads a little higher than they should have, and although they weren’t supposed to, they spread the news to our other family and friends. Almost two years later, when I found out that I was a Vowel too, Matt and I realised that there was no place for us in a family that would let the cats out of the bag so often. It was already too late to stop them, so we had to resort to… other ways to protect them.”

“So you guys decided to detach yourselves from your family!? Just like that?”

“Yes, we had to. It took a heck of a long time, but Matt and I came to the decision to leave forever. We had to track down everyone who knew us as both ourselves and as superheroes, and erase their memories of us. Then we packed all our belongings, our birth certificates, our ID, and any photographs with us in them, and we moved them out while our parents were taking my sister to a ballet performance. When they came back, Matt and I held our breaths and erased their memories of us too.”

“Lexie! What’s wrong? You’ve been looking awful these past few days.” Clareese said, on the following Friday in geography class.

Of course I’d feel awful. Today is the day I part ways with my boyfriend forever! “It’s nothing, it’s nothing,” was all I said.

“What do you mean nothing? You’ve barely talked all week, while you’re usually high and happy when you are your normal self. Also, every lunch time you’re stuck to Charlie like glue. We don’t really mind that much, but I thought you were dating that Achaelius guy? You haven’t mentioned him for ages, so could that mean that you…”

“Charlie and I are just really good friends, okay? There’s nothing going on between us. I don’t get to see Achaelius very often anyway, so there’s not much to talk about.”

“Well, if you say so, but if there’s anything you want to vent or discuss, feel free to do so! We’re your friends, remember us? We are the people you trust and turn to when you’re not feeling too well.”

But there was no way I could tell Reese about the fact that Charlie and Achaelius were the same person, or that I was about to forget both of them…tonight!?” I sat frozen in my seat as the tears came pouring out of my eyes, and ignored them, even when they melted the ink of the notes I had carelessly scribbled into my exercise book. I don’t remember all the questions people asked around me- something about whether I was okay. All I could remember was thinking about the pain and sorrow I was going to through.

“Well, I guess it’s time for goodbye now,” he said almost incoherently, as we watched the town clock strike 11:59 from my bedroom window. It was a large tower-like building that could be seen even from the neighbouring countries. That sounds exciting, but our country wasn’t actually that big so it was actually no surprise. “I- I guess I’d better do it now, before Wise gets here and ruins it for us.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” I gave a dry laugh.” Although I sounded ready, inside my head there was a hurricane of thoughts flying all over the place. This could be the last time I’ll know Charlie for who he really is. This could be the last time he talks to me with complete honesty, and without hiding a thing. This could be the last time… that we share our feelings with each other this way.

We shared our last kiss before Charlie raised a palm to perform the deed. The green flame flickered around near our eyes, and I could see them dancing in the reflection off Charlie’s. He moved his hand ever-so-slowly towards my forehead. Suddenly, the flames went out, and he threw his arms around my shoulders. He was really breathing hard, and I could feel his heart against my chest, and it made my heartbeat try to catch up with his too.

“It’s so hard!” he cried. “I don’t want to do this! And we still have one minute so let me hold you…”

“It’s okay, Charlie… Achaelius.” I placed my hands on his cheeks. “You can do this. Just remember… that no matter what I seem to be thinking from now on, you’ll always be the number one hero in my heart.”

Charlie nodded, his eyes slowly filling up with tears of anxiety and grief, but he still had a soft affectionate look whenever we exchanged nervous glances. “Lexie… I…”

“What’s up?”

“I… I really… I love you, okay?” He sniffled. “And I always will.”

“M-me too.”

“A-and I-I … I hope you have the best sixteenth birthday in the world, even if I won’t be able to celebrate it with you.”

“Th-thank you… Thank you.”

Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong. The clock struck twelve midnight, and with the bells ringing in my ears, Charlie just barely managed to shoot the green flames through me. I shut my eyes and braced myself. The flames felt cold, not hot, as they rushed through my skull and swirled about gently in my head. So this is goodbye, I guess. Goodbye, Charlie. Goodbye, my dear memories that I’ve shared with you. Even though we had only known each other for a few months, they’ve been the happiest months of my life. At least you’ll remember them for me, right, Charlie? Maybe you can write it down for me some day, and maybe remind me a little, even if I won’t remember them. At least I know I’d smile and tell you that those memories are sweet. I’m starting to feel dizzy, but I know I’m still conscious… What’s going on? Charlie, are you still there? Why can I still remember your name? How long do these flames take to work? If they don’t hurry up, I’m going to have to open my eyes again.

And so I did, only to see that Charlie looked just as confused as me. “Why didn’t it work?” I asked.

“Don’t ask me,” Charlie said. “And there was no way I could have missed from such a close range.” The town clock stopped chiming, signalling that a new day had begun.

“Ow! My neck hurts!” I cried suddenly, bending over in agony. Was this a side effect of the green flames? Maybe they got delayed for some reason. But it burns! The flame was originally cold, wasn’t it?”

“Where does it hurt!?” He noticed the part of my neck that I was clutching, and said, “Lexie, let go and let me look at it.”

I obediently removed my hands, and winced as he pushed my hair out of the way, brushing against the sore spot.

“Since when did you know so much about boo-boos?” I asked huffily.

“It’s not a ‘boo-boo’ or whatever you call it.” Charlie said. “There’s actually… nothing there. Wait a minute! Don’t tell me. . .”

“What?”

“You’re Iaethia?”

“I am? No way…”

“Well this is the type of feeling you get when your powers become fully useable. And it is your sixteenth birthday. And…” As the pain in my neck died away, I saw a bright white light glowing from the corner of my eye which prompted Charlie to continue talking. “… and there is a glowing white light where the sore place was, and it’s in the shape of the letter ‘I’! There’s no mistaking it – you are the final Vowel that we’ve been searching for! Woah, Lex, I’m so… stoked!” he pulled me towards him in a big warm hug. He babbled on, half to himself for a while, but then, without warning, he fell silent and dropped to the ground on his knees. Charlie groaned and buried his head into my stomach, refusing to straighten up. “Charlie, why aren’t you standing?” I asked. “We’re not going to lose each other –isn’t that great?”

“Yes… I’m overjoyed… but…” Charlie trailed off.

“What is it?”

“It’s just that now you’ll probably remember all those stupid corny things that I said to you in the last few minutes for the rest of your life.” He finally let go of me and then I looked at his face, I saw that he was blushing like crazy. “But I’m still really glad of course.”

“Those silly kids. I knew it would turn out something like this.” There was a very amused voice coming from my front lawn.

“WISE, I HATE YOU!” Without caring about the fact that he didn’t have his mask on, Charlie shot a large fireball at the place where the voice came from, setting a poor maple tree in my yard ablaze in the process. Thank goodness most of the neighbourhood are fast asleep, and my parents are at work. “I bet you knew about this all along!” Cue large number of insults about him being dropped on his head as a baby and the fact that his facial hair could easily house half the native bird species in the country and provide them with insects to eat as well. “I know that you know that you can detect upcoming Vowel incarnates, and I would’ve asked you but you didn’t seem to think she was one. So why didn’t you tell me if she was!?”

“But you are dating her! You should have noticed the signs, since you spend almost every day with her! You know what I mean – things like accidental usages of powers, some weight loss, and also personality traits. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice any of these features in her?”

“Well, there were some… If I think back…” Charlie trailed off into his thoughts.

“Ohohohohoho!” Wise hooted up at us. “Congratulations, Lexie! Your new journey as Iaethia the Vowel hero of element air is just about to begin! By the way, mister, this is revenge for that time during the Vowel dinner party at Eryekler’s house, when you pretended to drop your fork on the ground so that you could crawl under the table and set me on fire without me looking.”

“But the time before that, you mistook my calculator for a TV remote control and when it wouldn’t work, you purposely threw it on the ground and smashed it into bits. Then the next day was a maths pop quiz and I failed it because everyone was using their calculator except me, and so I ended up having to work everything out the long way, and I failed it because I didn’t get to finish most of it!”

“Oh I did not do that on purpose young man! An old person is bound to feel overwhelmed by new technology, you know.”

“Sure, sure, although being old means you’ve had plenty of time to learn about things, right? Oh and I almost forgot, but the calculator was invented how many decades ago? Anyway, that aside, you were toying with our emotions, you idiot! Do you have any idea what the word limits means!?”

“Not when it comes to the slowness of your brain or lack thereof, no.”

Even though I too, sort of wanted to strangle Wise, I couldn’t help smiling as I watched them fighting, because I knew that I’d remember these times, as well as the ones to come, for as long as I lived. And even if the future will be hard, I was going to do my best, because I have learned that love is what makes life truly worth living.

End note: Yes, I know you all saw it coming. But damn! I was trying to be as inconspicuous about it as I could! *coughIepicallyfailedcough*... Anyway it makes you guys happy to know that they're not going to part, right? xD I sure hope so. Oh and please point out any mistakes I made, because this hasn't been Beta-read. Sorry about that! T_T