Images flash by and I try to hold on to them, the faces disappearing before I can stop them. “No, please stop.”

I don’t know their names but I feel like I should. Why don’t I remember?

 

I wake in a dank cell complete with rusted bars, a bucket, and small bowl of water. I look around and gasp when I see a man trapped inside with me. Jumping to my feet, I go over to make sure he’s okay. His eyes open the moment I touch him, and a soft smile crosses his face. “Valerie. Thank god you’re okay. I thought they would hurt you.”

I frown down at him as he sits up, not sure where I know him from but feeling a lingering familiarity. “Do I know you?”

He smiles, “Yes, darling. I’m your fiancé, Justin. Don’t you remember?”

This time it’s my turn to frown. I’m engaged? Why don’t I remember it? And why on earth am I stuck in a cell?

Heels click on the stone floor outside our cell and I look up to see my mother smiling at me. Why do I know her but not my fiancé? “Oh, Valerie, thank heavens you’re okay! I’ve been trying to find you for weeks. Your father kidnapped you. Can you believe it? I had to hire private investigators to find you. Are you okay?”

I look down at myself, assessing for any injuries but I feel fine. “I think so, but my fiancé seems to be injured.”

Justin offers me a small smile. “I’m fine, my love, just tired. Your dad wasn’t happy to hear I wouldn’t help him.”

“What did he want? Why would he kidnap us?”

A pounding headache is building behind my eyes and I groan, clutching at my temples when an image flashes in my mind. A man with amber eyes trying to tell me something.

“Valerie, are you alright?” Justin has wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I fight off a shiver of revulsion.

That can’t be right? Why would my fiancé disgust me?

“Yeah, sorry. I think I’m just getting a migraine. Mom, do you have the keys to get us out of here?”

My mother shakes her head sadly. “Sorry, dear. We’ve been searching for hours with no luck. Do you need me to get you something? Some water?”

I smile gratefully. “Yes, some water please.”

She nods and walks away, her heels echoing on the floor. Justin leads me over to the little bench-like seat he woke up on, sitting down and making me sit beside him.

“So how are you doing, babe?” I frown at his use of the word babe, the word feeling foreign coming from him. “Do you think everything’s going to be okay for conception or should we hold off when we get out?”

Conception? He’s sitting here talking about getting pregnant when we’re stuck in a jail cell of some kind. Does he not find this whole thing terrifying?

Something nags in the back of my mind and I’m reminded why his question sounded weird. “Justin … you know I can’t have children, right? I was in a car accident with my mom when I was sixteen and it screwed up the way my tubes and ovaries work. They gave me a less than one percent chance of ever having a child of my own.”

As I explain I start to wonder. How does my fiancé not know about something that is that big of a deal? I feel like I would have told him when he proposed to make sure it was something he was okay with.

There’s something off and I can’t tell what. “Sweetheart,” I start, a wave of nausea coming over me as I force the word out, “I think we’re suffering some kind of memory loss.”

He chuckles and pulls me closer. “I think you may be right,” he says, smelling of Old Spice aftershave.

I resist the urge to gag at the strength of it when another thought pops into my mind. Why does he still smell like aftershave? I smell of sweat and dirt but he smells pretty clean. If anything, it looks like his face was smeared with dirt, not like he’s been living in it.

When I try to remember how I got here, pain starts to pound behind my eyes and I give up.

Before I can question Justin, my mother reappears and hands Justin and I a bottle of water. She then slips a tray of cut up fruits and cheeses through the slit under the cell door. Why is she out there cutting up food when she should be trying to get us out of here?

We snack and my mother just watches us. “So, how long have we been down here?” I ask, expecting a day, maybe two, but my mother’s response stuns me.

“You’ve been here weeks. That’s why we’re trying our hardest to get you out of here. You seem to be having some kind of memory issues. I can’t tell if it’s just your blackouts or if he’s drugged you. Do you even remember what happened when your father took you?”

I think about it and nothing comes forth. “Nope. To be honest, I don’t remember anything. It’s like I’ve lost years of my life. The last clear thing I remember is when we got home from hospital after the car accident,” I admit with a frown. I couldn’t even tell you how old I am right now, something I don’t say out loud for fear my fiancé will freak out.

My mother purses her lips. “Okay, well, you clearly need to see a doctor, so I’m going to see if one can come to the house and see to you while we work on how to get you out of there.”

Okay. Things are just getting weirder. Why not just get someone to come cut us out? Why is she bringing people to us rather than putting all her effort into freeing us?

She walks away before I can disagree that I’m fine, not returning for another hour at least. Justin seems to be stuck in his own mind but I guess he remembers our abduction a lot more clearly than I do.

My mother walks in, a huge smile on her face. “This is my daughter, Valerie, and her fiancé, Justin. As you can see, they’re stuck in there, and we’ve been unable to find the keys. The police have said we’re allowed to destroy the bars tomorrow, but we have to have professionals do it, so unfortunately you will have to assess her through the bars.”

The doctor walks into the room and my jaw drops open in shock. That man is no doctor. He must be a model posing as a doctor. Jeez, if my doctor was that hot, I’d be sick all the damn time.

“Hello, Valerie. I’m Dr. Light,” he greets me, holding his hand through the bars for me to shake, his green eyes showing a kindness that I wasn’t expecting. He seems like the type of guy who’d watch the world burn around him without a care.

His hand grasps mine and time stills as he meets my eyes. “Valerie, we don’t have much time. The whole house is guarded against demigods and gods unless they’re invited. I had to drain myself just to get to you. Now, you need to snap out of this spell and go back to your guardians. You are stronger than this. Remember, you are the daughter of War! None can cross you.”

As quickly as the words came, the moment his hand drops from mine it’s as if nothing happened. I stare at him as he turns my hand over and checks my pulse and blood pressure like a professional.

Did he speak into my mind or was it a hallucination brought on by the fear of not knowing what’s happening to me?

“Okay, Mrs. Jones, what was your main concern that made you seek medical attention?” The doctor asks, looking directly at my mother.

She moves beside the bars and looks down at me sadly. “She is suffering memory loss. The last thing she remembers is coming home from hospital when she was sixteen.”

Justin joins my side and wraps an arm around me comfortingly. “Valerie doesn’t even remember me proposing to her,” he states, his voice filled with despair.

I roll my eyes, slightly annoyed. Like, come on man, grow a pair. So I didn’t remember our engagement. I have a whole world of other problems, like the fact I can’t remember years of my life.

“Hmmm.” The doctor looks at me calculatingly before packing away his case. “I’d say Valerie is just suffering a type of post-traumatic stress. Her memory may come back, but it may not. It depends on the level of trauma.”

He stands up and whispers to my mother on the way out and I feel the voice inside my head again. “Your guardians need you, love. Don’t abandon them.”