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Chapter Quote:

"I also hold very strong personal convictions about censorship. I don't believe in forbidden knowledge."

~Nightshade, Andrea Cremer

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Chapter 6

Ember

I rushed after Elsa, knowing all too well that walk she had.  It was one I had learned after Anna had 'died'.  It was one I encountered again after Caleb had run away.  It was one of sadness and an attempt to keep everything together until she could reach a space no one would bother her.  I might not have been her twin, and I may not have been all that close to her after Caleb left like she and Josie had been, but I'd paid attention to my sister, enough to know her habits and the signs of distress.

I knocked on her bedroom door.  There was some shuffling, possibly some sniffling, on the other side, but it opened relatively quickly.  Elsa's eyes were puffy, the top of her nose slightly red.  I didn't say anything as I came in.  When she shut the door, I pulled my baby sister into a hug.  She wrapped her arms around me in a bone crushing grip but I mentioned nothing about it.  If she needed this tight of a hug, then so be it.

I only said something when her shoulders started shaking from her crying, and even then it was just telling her to let me in, to let me know what was bothering her.  At that Elsa pulled away and sat down on her bed, covering up her legs with the duvet cover.  She fiddled with the edge of the blanket as I sat cross-legged in front of her.

"I know you don't have any memories of me, and I'm not your twin, so you have no reason to trust me.  But I'm here if you need to vent," I offered gently.

"You're already upset enough.  I don't want to add any more problems to it," she said quietly.

"No matter what problems I have going on, I'm always here to listen.  I'm your sister.  And I'm upset because I don't know how to help you."

"Not because I don't remember you?"  I faltered ever so slightly but Elsa caught it, just like Lily had warned us about. "I could see it in your face when I met you the first time in front of the fountain.  You were about to cry."

"I won't lie to you.  You were right about it being hard having all these memories with you and knowing you don't remember them.  But I also know that we'll figure out a way for you to get them back.  And if I can help alleviate any of the problems you're encountering, then please let me.  I want to."

Elsa didn't respond for a bit, but when she did, she said, "I don't have memories of any of you, but I have feelings.  It's hard to explain but I remember the feelings I have towards people.  Like you.  When mom and dad showed me the group picture of the pack, they didn't explain who everyone was at first, and while I didn't know we were sisters, the feelings I had when I saw you said we were really close.  If we weren't sisters, we were certainly as close as sisters.  The same goes with Lily.  I see her like a sister, and she's my sister-in-law, but I have no memories of her.  It's weird.  I don't know what to make of it.  But we're missing people, aren't we?  Like we lost members of the family, didn't we?"

"We had a war a couple years ago and lost some members of our pack.  There was Barry, who was Thea and Diana's youngest brother.  There was Nancy and Derek Hill, and Sabine and Ethan Lane.  Sabine used to be a Guardian from dad's original pack, but she transferred her ability to someone from an allied pack and became human.  Ethan was always human.  They were Kit's parents."

"That's very confusing.  How many wars have we been involved in?"

"Mom and dad have been involved in three.  We've just been involved in one."

"How did they meet?"

"Mom saved dad from being killed.  When he left his old pack, he ran into her and the rest is history.  Hunter came along shortly after they were married."

"When's my birthday?"

"February 2.  Mine is March 13.  Hunter's is July 12,  and Caleb's is October 10.  Josilyn's is January 13."

"And I'm how old again?"

"Twenty.  You turn twenty one in just under three months."

"And you're currently 21?"

"Yeah.  Mom and dad got pregnant pretty fast after they had me," I chuckled. "You and Anna were born prematurely though.  You were supposed to be April or May babies I think."

"How long ago did Caleb and Hunter get married?"

"Caleb got married just over three years ago.  Hunter and Josie just got married a few weeks ago."

"They seemed like newlyweds," Elsa remarked. "What about you and Noah?  You're engaged aren't you?"

"Yeah.  Our wedding is in March.  We're actually both March babies, but he's a couple years older than me."

"Anna and Dom?"

"They're not engaged, but we expect them to be soon.  Might as well be."

"Spencer?"

"He's always been very private about his love life.  He's had some bad experiences in the last few years with losing people he loves, and it's taken its toll on him.  I'm sorry about how he was acting earlier.  You two were really close and-"

"And it hurts him to see me like this..." Elsa finished. "Are you sure it's a good idea for me to be here?  It seems like all I'm doing is causing you all pain.  Wouldn't it be better for me to stay at the Academy until they can find a cure?"

"I can't say much but there are people in the Academy who aren't the biggest fans of us after this past war.  Babatunde has warned us to avoid coming to the Academy as much as possible for now."

"I-I know I said that I was fine on my own but I'm not.  I don't know why but I become terrified every time I try and think of the accident.  And I think about it every time I close my eyes."

"Why do you try and think of the accident?" I queried.

"Mom and dad asked if I could remember anything so they can figure out what happened.  They said if I could remember what happened, then they could possibly figure out a way to help my memory loss sooner rather than later."

It was a great way of telling the truth to Elsa without giving away everything and causing her to panic.  That was the last thing she needed.  She was already panicking enough.  I just worried about what would happen if Elsa found out the truth behind the question because as different as she was now, she was still so much the same, and she had never taken kindly to having things hidden from her.  I had a strong suspicion she wouldn't take kindly to it now either.

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight until you fall asleep?" I offered.

"No.  It'll take me ages to fall asleep.  I don't want to keep you up."

"I haven't slept much recently because of how worried I was about you.  I'd probably get more sleep staying here with you."

"What about Noah?"

"He can deal without me for a night," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.

"Then yes, I'd really like if you stayed the night with me."

I gave my sister a smile as I took my place next to her.  She rested her head on my shoulder as I turned on the TV.  Expedition Unknown was on.  It used to be Elsa's favorite show.  I was about to ask her if this show was okay, but found her with her eyes closed.  Elsa had never been one to fall asleep in the blink of an eye, so she must've been beyond exhausted to have fallen asleep this quickly.  Funny thing was, I must've been too because the next thing I knew, I woke up to Noah gently shaking me awake, being careful not to wake Elsa.

"What's going on? I murmured. "Who do I need to kill?"

Despite his serious expression, a small smirk appeared on his face at my words, but disappeared as he said, "I need you to come with me."

Gently removing Elsa's head from my shoulder, I followed my fiancé into the living room where I found Spencer, Dom, and Anna standing in the living room.  The disturbing part was that the first two had blood on their shirts.

"What happened?" I demanded quietly so as not to wake Elsa.  She may have been upstairs but she had bionic hearing.  I didn't want to alert her that anything was wrong.

"Riley, Dom, and I found a weird contraption while on patrol.  Riley stood guard while Dom went to get Hunter and I went to get Caleb.  We were only gone about ten minutes but when we got back to the area, Riley was bleeding and unconscious and the contraption was gone.  He's awake now, but says he was attacked from behind so doesn't know anything about who it was that attacked him," Spencer informed.

"People are going after us again," I stated. "First Elsa, now Riley.  This is war."

"It's not war yet.  For all we know, Elsa's could still be an accident," Noah said cautiously, knowing my nerves were frayed over the whole situation.

"But the attack on Riley wasn't!" I hissed.

"Caleb and Hunter are reporting it to Babatunde as we speak.  Josilyn is currently reading some books Baba sent over to see if she could help the Healers find a cure for Elsa's amnesia," Anna interjected. "But from now on, no one leaves the compound unaccompanied.  Especially Elsa."

"What are the adults doing?"

"They're staying at the Academy to try and work on relations with the Searchers.  Mom is holding her temper, but dad is pissed.  He's wanting to rip someone's throat out.  If he finds out who did this, I shudder to think of the consequences he has in store for that person.  Or people."

"We might have to bail him out of jail," Ember mused.

"I mean that wouldn't be the first time he's been in jail."

"Wait, what?" Dom appeared slightly perturbed by this new information.

"Yeah.  Happened in Mexico.  It was just a minor misunderstanding over some coconuts."

"What-how-"

"Don't know.  Dad never really went into detail.  Shiloh was in jail with him too.  Mom and Carrie had to bail them out."

"It's probably a good thing we don't know about the coconut truth," Noah remarked. "All right, we should get to bed.  It's late."

"What time is it?" I inquired, not having thought about it earlier.

"Close to four in the morning."

"Bloody hell.  All of you, get to bed."

"Be on the lookout for anything suspicious.  I'm going to go shower and get cleaned up then go back out there.  Caleb wanted to investigate the area," Spencer said. "Dom, you stay here and get some rest."

"You sure you're up to it?  You've been going nonstop this week," I inquired.

"I'm fine," he said, though not unkindly. "It's best I keep busy.  I'll see you all later."

"I'm worried about him," I said when he'd shut the door.

"I am too, but he'll tell us what's wrong when he's ready.  We can't push him.  Dom will get it out if him," Anna replied.

"I don't know how but I will," Dom agreed.  With that said, we all went to our respective rooms.  Anna and I both went to Elsa's to find her still fast asleep.  So she could still sleep through everything,  I guess some things never did change.

Anna and I crawled into the bed next to her, the perk of the bed being a king, and fell asleep.  My last thoughts were how we were ever going to get Elsa's memories back, for her sanity and our own.  I didn't know how I could live the rest of my life looking at my sister knowing she couldn't share in the laughter and the sadness and the experiences we shared together.  But then again, I may have to get used to it.  For all I knew, she may never get her memories back.  I didn't want to think about it but I had to at least prepare for it...

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