by Aran Dervin
Hastily he jumped to his feet and almost fell down. His brain was coming apart at the seams.
The wet chewing sound behind his ears grew louder. He stumbled over to the notebooks and clumsily picked them up. Staggering over to the safe, he tried to keep his wits about him. His vision started to fade in and out.
A loud knock came from the door.
“Mr. Burke, are you in there?! We need to talk!”
No! There was no more time!
He stuffed the notebook into the safe, next to the thumping bundle. Then he took the watch from his wrist and dropped it in there as well. If it was lost, he wouldn’t be able to tell the time when he needed it for the artifact.
With effort, he closed the safe door and then put the carpet and the chair back on top of it.
Damn it! The books! Grabbing armfuls of books on the topic of amnesia, Ethan walked over to the shelf and stuffed them back in. No one was allowed to see the hidden safe code.
After that he sat down at his desk and grabbed the nearest pen and paper.
Red ink, weird. He began jotting down helpful information for when he woke up without his memories.
“Remember that you are Ethan Burke. Go home! You live at 29 Henry Street. Find the code for the safe. What ever you do, don’t open the bundle of rags. Just read the notebooks!”
Hastily he stuffed the note in his pants pocket. His time was running out. He could feel his mind turning to mush.
Somehow he managed to reach the window and rip it open. With his last clear thoughts he got onto the fire escape ladder and made his way to the pavement bellow.
The chewing sound was unbearably loud. He started seeing strange colors. Everything around him turned to weird shades of purple. Shades he had never seen before in his life.
His face felt wet something was dripping from the sky. Rain.
He stumbled forward. As far away from the flat as possible.
Before long he had found a nice park. Exhausted he sat down on the bank.
Pulling out the note one last time, to see if he had written all the details down, he realized that the rain had turned the paper into a soggy mess. Frustrated he shoved it back into his pocket.
Suddenly he remembered and his eyes widened.
Then he forgot.
© Aran Dervin 2023-08-09