With my memory almost back to what it should be, I walked down the street and decided to call into the coffee shop and grab a caffeine fix on the way to the library. There was some serious heavy metal parked directly outside, and a buzz of familiarity trilled through my veins as I examined it more closely.

I stepped through the door and immediately made eye contact with a bearded and tattooed guy in a leather vest, around my age, peering at me over his shoulder like he’d seen a ghost. Keeping his stare locked on me, he swivelled around in his stool and shook his head.

“What the fuck?” I walked to stand in front of him, and he stepped down from his perch and pulled me into a strong-armed embrace, slapping me on the back. “I knew you’d fucking come back, dude. I just knew it.”

The word six jumped into my mind for some bizarre reason. “Hey, hi. I guess I know you?” Why wouldn’t his name come to me? He clearly knew who I was.

He pulled away and held me at arm’s length. “Know you? You’re like a fucking brother to me, man. What the fuck happened to you? You don’t know me?”

I narrowed my eyes and chewed on my lip, trying to fit a name to the oh-so-familiar features. The word six rattled around my head again. “I’m sorry, man, but the only word that comes to me is the number six.”

He laughed heartily and threw his head back. “Fuck, man, don’t do that to me. You totally freaked the shit out of me. Thank fuck! I thought someone had been messing with your head.” He pulled me into another hug and continued laughing.

Realisation hit me. “You’re Six! That’s your name!” The memory came flooding back and images flashed through my mind of us riding motorcycles side by side on an open road, laughing and pranking on each other.

He pulled away again. A worried frown appeared to cloud his features. “Fuck, dude. You really didn’t know me?”

“I… um… I’ve been suffering from some kind of post-traumatic amnesia. Things are coming back to me gradually, and I’m almost back to normal… whatever that is… But I have lots of questions. I need answers, man. I need them now.”

Clenching his jaw he paused and nodded. “Can I get you a coffee? We can talk.”

I nodded. “Flat white.”

He turned his attention back to the young guy behind the counter and ordered my drink. Once the order was placed in front of him, he grabbed the steaming mug and nodded toward a booth at the rear of the shop. “Let’s go back there. It’s quieter.”

I followed him and he placed my coffee down and slid into the seat and so I took the bench opposite.

“So… where the fuck have you been, man?”

How did he not know the answer to that? “I ended up in Scotland. Fuck knows how I got there. But I was found unconscious with a fucking suicide note.”

For some reason Six didn’t seem shocked by my story, which made me very suspicious.

“It’s good to see you, buddy. People have missed the crap out of you.”

“They have? That’s nice.” I had so many questions that I didn’t know where to start. Had I trusted Six before? I was pretty sure I didn’t right now. “Six… I need to know what the hell happened to me. And to Rosa. My memory is sketchy at best and…”

“Your memory’s sketchy?”

Did he look relieved?

“Yeah… yeah, like I said, I suffered some kind of post-traumatic amnesia. Things are coming back gradually but… well, there are still blanks.”

Worry glazed his eyes. “Sure there are.” He glanced down at his phone and back to me. “So where were you heading off to?”

“Library. I figured I’d look at some old newspapers.” I waited while he typed something onto his phone’s screen and nodded. Not sure whether or not he was actually listening, I continued. “Maybe find out what the hell happened to get me to Scotland.”

His phone buzzed and he was clearly distracted by it. “Yeah. Good idea. Look… I gotta run. But… how about I meet you tomorrow? Maybe I can help fill in some of the gaps.”

He glanced nervously around the coffee shop and then back to his phone.

I rubbed my chin. “Is everything okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah, fine. Look… I know this may sound a little… I don’t know… cloak and dagger, but… just stay out of public places until after we talk tomorrow okay?”

“Huh? Why the fuck would I want to do that?” What the hell was he playing at?

“Look, trust me, okay? Just stay in your motel after you’ve been to the library.”

“But the library is a fucking public place, Six.”

“Yeah, but… I can’t explain right now, okay? Except to say the thing that concerns me won’t be affected by you visiting the library.”

Talk about fucking cryptic.

“Anyway, Cain, I really gotta be going. I have a… um… um… a meeting I have to get to. Should I meet you here tomorrow? Say around three?”

I got the distinct impression something was going on but I figured I hadn’t got anything to lose by agreeing, considering I was still pretty much in the dark about lots of things. I shrugged. “Yeah. Okay. See you tomorrow at three.”

He patted my shoulder affectionately and left me to drink my coffee. Once he had gone I decided I could no longer stomach my drink and I left too. I made my way the couple of blocks to the library. It was right where I had expected it to be, which was a relief as it meant things were becoming clearer. I walked through the red double doors and over to the desk where a young, prim, brown-haired woman was rifling through a card file. She had a long, slender neck, and there was something quite graceful about her delicate fingers as they flicked through each piece in turn.

I cleared my throat and she glanced up at me. A blush flooded her cheeks and she tucked her hair behind her ears. She almost floated as she made her way to the desk. All ballerina like. Poised and elegant. Her brow scrunched and she opened and closed her mouth a few times before eventually saying, “Oh, hi, sir. Can I help you?”

“Hi, okay, so I need to look at some old newspapers. Do you have those?”

She nodded nervously. “Um… sure. We have microfiche if that’s any good? We haven’t moved with the times, really. It’s the best I can do.” She cringed.

I was scaring her. I felt like a monster. “Okay. Can you show me how to look through it? I haven’t used it before.”

“Absolutely. Follow me.”

The young woman took a deep breath and then led me through to a small room off to the left. The bizarre-looking contraption was perched on an old oak desk. After she had showed me the basics, the girl skittered away, leaving me to file through newspaper articles from the past several years.

After flicking through insignificant piece after even more insignificant piece, something caught my eye and almost stopped my heart dead.

Melody Simone Johnson, resident of Rose Acres since birth, died July 1^st, aged 24 years, after falling down a wooden stair case at a home she had just leased with her partner Cain Somers. Sadly, it was discovered that Miss Johnson was ten weeks pregnant at the time of her death. It is said that Mr. Somers and his sister were inconsolable at the funeral which was attended by over three hundred motorcyclists, mainly Company of Sinners MC, where Miss Johnson and her partner were members. Whilst CoSMC (aka Cosmic), are not renowned for their peaceable relationships in the area it is said that they handled themselves with aplomb as they bid farewell to their sister.

The beautiful green eyes of an all-too-familiar beautiful face smiled out at me. My lip began to tremble as I read the words over and over. Flashbacks of standing in a cemetery with my arm around Rosa flicked through my mind along with the guttural roar of Harley engines.

I clutched my chest as physical pain overcame me. The article was the only one I could find relating to Melody, and it cut me to the core. It didn’t explain who was responsible—in fact, it made out that the whole thing had been a tragic accident. Something inside of me told me there was more to it.

There were minor articles relating to my being arrested for disturbing the peace, assault, and other fairly minor misdemeanours; but they were all from a few years back and by the sound of it I had served my time, paid my fines, and carried out community service. More delightful shit to be proud of. Way to go, me.

I sat there until I felt a tapping on my shoulder.

The young woman startled me and I swivelled around, making her step back in alarm. “Ex-excuse me, sir? I’m so sorry, but we need to close. You can always come back tomorrow.”

“Oh, shit… um… excuse my language. I apologise. I had no idea it had gotten so late.”

“You seem to have been engrossed. You must be starving by now. It’s five thirty and you haven’t moved all afternoon.” Her smile was warm. She seemed like a sweet girl.

My stomach growled at the thought of food and we both laughed. “Yeah, it sounds like you’re right about that.”

She stared at me for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”

I shrugged and responded with a light, “Sure.”

“You look awfully familiar. Are you from around here?”

Fuck, what do I say? After what Six had said, I was unsure how my response should go. “A long time ago, but I… I moved away.”

She nodded. “Ah. You must just look like someone from around here. It sounds crazy, but I knew a girl in school… Rosa… She was a couple years younger than me… maybe three actually…. You look just like her brother who used to pick her up on his huge motorcycle. His hair was shorter and he didn’t have a beard, though. But your eyes are very similar.”

Rosa? Fuck. “Really. Oh. Small world, huh?”

She looked thoughtful for a few moments. “Yeah. It was so sad what happened to her. She was quiet in school. Like me. I had a rough time and left as soon as I could. Rosa… um… disappeared. It was terrifying. She was involved in one of those motorcycle gangs. I wish I’d made an effort to get to know her instead of being a coward. I maybe could have helped.”

Hearing her talk about my kid sister made my insides knot and my heartbeat pick up pace. I had to get out of there. “That sucks. I hope they find her.”

She shook her head and dropped her gaze to the floor. “I doubt it. It’s been so long that I really can’t see her being alive now.”

A cold shiver travelled my spine and nausea came over me in a wave.

The girl glanced back up at me. “Hey, you’ve gone really pale. You should go eat. Sorry for rambling on. I just have to stay quiet for so long during the day that once I start talking, I can’t seem to stop.”

I swallowed, trying to combat the urge to vomit. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ll be going now.”

“Will I see you tomorrow… um… mister…”

“The name’s Cameron,” I lied. “And yeah, maybe I’ll be back for more research.”

Her responding smile was wide. “Great. Bye for now.”

I grabbed my jacket and made my way out to the fresh air as quickly as I could. Once outside I breathed in deep lungfuls of the early evening air and rubbed my hands over my face as I began to walk back to the motel.

The urge to speak to Kelly—just to hear her voice—was so overwhelming, it made my knees buckle. I stumbled and had to steady myself against a wall like a fucking wino while passers-by jeered at me. It was a good thing I had no cell number for her or I would have been saying to fucking hell with us being over and I would have been on a flight back to Scotland. But that would do Rosa no good. And it wouldn’t give me answers, nor would it help me to piece together the puzzle that my life had become.

I called into a burger bar and ordered a take-out that I ate as I walked. Although my stomach was protesting it’s emptiness I really had to force the food down. Hearing the woman at the library talking about Rosa being missing and her theories on whether she was alive or dead scared the shit out of me. I was hoping that I could sleep and then get some answers from Six.

Once I was back in the cocoon of my motel room, I stripped and showered in the hope that the hot water cascading down my tired muscles would ease some of my tension. But of course every time I closed my eyes I was plagued by visions from my nightmares of Rosa screaming no, with tears streaming down my face.

After watching crappy TV for a while I decided to at least try and sleep, although my nerves were jangling at the prospect of hearing the much-needed answers to my questions when I met with Six. Crawling under the covers, I laid flat on my back with one hand behind my head and closed my eyes.