The Memory
It was the same old same old for Olivia. Walking down the street having just came out from college, she was heading home. It had been a long day, filled with boring classes, listening to boring stories from her friends, and being given boring homework to do. How she wished she could just skip this part of life.
That wish though was soon to be granted, but she just didn’t realise it yet.
She passed several shops down the street, from the usual supermarket and off-licenses to some takeaway shops. There was also the café that she sometimes frequented, but that was only when her friends asked her to go.
As she was walking, she passed a fenced-off forest, of which some of it had been cleared and was now used as a park. It had plenty of space for dog walking and enjoying a picnic. It also included jungle gym equipment for the kids. On the far side, a small tennis court was located, along with a basketball court, none of which Olivia had ever used before. Trees bordered the park area, creating a natural fence. This area of trees could be entered, and it was frequented by hikers and the like. Several hundred metres in, wrought iron fences were present, keeping people out of the rest of the forest. This was all mainly for safety reasons, to keep people from getting lost while allowing others to hike in this accessible forest area.
Walking by the entrance and looking into the park area, it was completely empty. The weather was quite dreary and not nearly sunny enough for families to be spending time in the park. They were probably all in family-friendly restaurants or resting at home.
Looking around at the sad state of the park, she saw a bright burst of light in the tree line. Curious as to what it was, Olivia diverted from her current route home and entered the park.
She travelled to the other end of it and reached the accessible forest, looking for any other flashes of light. As she peered through the trees, more lights flashed further in. This was then followed by the sounds of groans as if someone was hurt.
Olivia being who she was, had the usual need to go and help whoever was hurt.
.....
And so, she did.
While she couldn’t just stand by while someone was being hurt, it didn’t mean she would just headlong into danger. She was smarter than that.
Taking her phone out, she saw that it was half full of charge, and there was still a signal in case she needed to make a call. She would have called the police, but since all she had seen was light and heard a groan, it wasn’t really much to go on. It may not even be the case that someone was in trouble. It could have easily been something else happening in the forest.
It was possibly the sound of a couple getting busy in a risky place.
With the phone light on, she entered the tree line and followed the bright lights. It didn’t take too long, and she reached the fenced area of the forest. At least she thought she did.
Where she was expecting to see a fence, was just empty space. It was as if all of the iron fencings had disappeared. The only reason why she thought this was where the fencing used to be, was because of the holes in the ground, where the iron poles would have been.
“Did they remove this to expand the accessible fenced area? I didn’t hear anything about that though. Shouldn’t they have put up temporary fencing or a sign at least?”
Thinking that was probably the reason and she had just missed a sign at the entrance, she continued on her way, getting nearer and nearer to the flashing lights.
As she did, she started to hear voices. What they were saying though made no sense.
“It’s all your fault we are in this mess. If you had made them look nicer and more muscular, then no one would want to kill those little monsters.”
“My fault. How is it my fault? You made a bunch of massive brutes that attack anything that moves. That’s why they’re being killed.”
In the distance, Olivia was eventually able to see the people to whom these voices belonged. Both were girls, looking somewhere in their twenties. One was quite short with long blond hair and the other was very tall with short brown hair. Their clothing consisted of casual wear for the girl with blond hair, and smart office wear for the other.
This though was not nearly as interesting as what the two girls were doing. As they shouted at each other, they held out their hands and bright light grew. Then all of a sudden, the girl disappeared into thin air, only to reappear a short distance away. The light on her hand then flew rapidly away from her towards the other girl, who dodged it. This back and forth flinging of light kept occurring, where they teleported about constantly during the fight, also hurling insults and comments at each other. At least teleportation was the only way Olivia could think to describe it. What the light was she had no idea, the closest thing she could relate it to was magic from films.
Speaking of Olivia, she was standing there frozen as she was seeing this happen. She was not a believer in the occult or aliens but seeing this out of this world display was slowly changing her mind.
“You are an idiot. We would never be in this mess if you hadn’t tricked me into helping you.” The tall girl shouted to her combatant
“Trick you. What a stupid thing to say. I very clearly told you my plan and you went along with it. It’s not my fault you were dumb enough to get caught.” The short girl retorted.
As she watched them shout at each other, Olivia tried to figure out what they were doing. As far as she could tell, before they attached each other, they readied whatever it was, then teleported so the other couldn’t see where the attack would come from.
“I only got caught because you were too busy trying to sleep with everyone that you didn’t end up distracting the right person.”
“I did distract them. Very well actually. You’re the one that was too busy trying to grow yourself a penis for your new ‘lover’, that you didn’t notice you were being watched.”
“You are so annoying. You are just like them, short, dumb and ugly. Always trying to breed with something, like a dog in heat. You should just go back to our world and live like the goblins you’re so fond of.” The tall girl with brown hair shouted. As she did so the light grew on her palm like before, only this time, it was a deep green colour, unlike all the other lights which had alternated between white and yellow.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be. Well, you are just the same, being tall, dumb and thick-skulled. Why you thought they would work, I will never know You are just like them, always wanting to stick it in something. You should just become an orc as well, given how much you like them.” The short girl with the blond hair said, where she too held out her palm and light started to grow, this time a deep brown colour.
Like before the girls disappeared. Looking around to see where they would reappear, Olivia found them on either side of her. Whether they knew she was there or not, she did not have time to figure out, as the next thing that happened was that the balls of light left their palms and shot towards her.
It was too quick for her to do anything. Before she even had a chance to move, the light hit from both sides.
There was no pain, but it felt like the light was seeping into her body, spreading throughout her.
It would seem that the two girls had not realised she was there, as upon seeing that their attack missed the other, but ended up hitting someone else, they quickly teleported and came right up to Olivia.
Worry was evident on their faces. They looked at each other and then back to Olivia, unsure of what to do. Olivia could see their mouths move as if they were talking, but she could not hear anything. As it turned out, all she could hear was silence now.
Looking down to where the light hit her, she found empty space, which she panicked even more at, as it looked like her body was disappearing. The shock of it all finally won out, causing Olivia to pass out.
The next thing she knew, she was on the floor of the forest, with blood on her head.