I was walking through the woods, it was just starting to snow. I knew that it was the first snow because it was fairly warm out for snow. I don’t really remember much except for headlights, then black. I woke up outside of a building. The building was a plain grey concrete building with little plants growing on and around it. I don’t remember ever being there, but it felt familiar to me somehow. 

¨Hey,¨ a little girl shouted, ¨ Are you okay Miss?¨ she started to walk slowly towards me, as if she were trying to not scare me. She looked at me with eyes that were filling to the brim with curiosity.

I spoke softly, ¨ I think so. Do you happen to know who that building belongs to?¨ At that moment she had reached me. She looked about 13-14. She had mid-length strawberry blonde hair pulled back with two clips. She had a pretty face although it was covered with a layer of dirt.

¨Hmmm.¨ She grabs my hand and pulls me away from the building. It didn’t feel weird, but I knew that if it were any other person it would have felt strange, somehow I felt like we were connected. I have never met her, but she seemed so familiar. “Miss, that house has been there a while now, I don’t have any idea who it belonged to.”

“Oh,” before thinking I blurted the first thing that came to mind, “ do I know you, because I feel like I do.”  She laughs very briskly, like she was exhaling instead of laughing.

“Well you seem to know me, maybe not in your thoughts but consciously.” When she talks it’s like bells, more musical than I would expect. She sounds a lot more mature than she looks. I don’t remember this girl but what she says makes sense. My body feels accustomed to her, like I could have known her for years. Maybe she feels the same and that’s why she looked so curious, or maybe she knows something about me.

“That makes sense in a way,” I muttered “What is your name?” Wait, what is my name, why am I here? I was too wrapped up in how familiar she is, I didn’t even notice I don’t know who I am.

“My name is Luna, and I bet you have a lot of questions Aya.” The way she said it made me feel an eerines crawl down my spine making me shiver. So, she did know me. 

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“The place you died, it is not far now. Maybe 20-30 minutes away.” she said casually. 

“I…I died? But then how.. how am I here?” I stuttered. I started to recognize some of the places we were passing, but I don’t know from where. From my past life?

“All in good time Aya, please be patient with me.” Why does she sound so old? She definitely doesn’t feel that old to me. Then something I didn’t notice before happened. I could smell her, she smelled like vanilla, honey, and lilacs. Such a weird thing, to catch a scent of a person. Or maybe she wasn’t a person. Maybe an angel?

“Ah, here we are now,” she yawned, “don’t be shy go on in.” I walked in the building, it was almost hidden behind the wall like trees and flowers. It was painted a soft creme on the walls. All around me it smelled wonderful, like rain and flowers. The smell was almost tangible, but to Luna it looked as if she couldn’t smell the wonderfulness of the house. She walked down a hallway and beckoned for me to follow. The room had a white sofa with a glass table in front of it and a soft blue blanket thrown over the back of the couch. She grabs a vase of flowers and puts them on the table.

“What is this place?” I asked her. She starts rearranging the flowers in the vase.

“It’s my house…well our house I guess.”

“What do you mean our house?” She stops rearranging the flowers and sits on the couch, curling up in the blanket.

“I don’t mean to sound vague but we are related in a sense. I will show you, all in good time,” she said, not really paying attention, “for now there are some things you need to understand.”

“Like what?” I asked. She stiffens for a second, then relaxes.

“Like, that I resurrected you, because I need you to help with an issue and naturally I have some questions myself of course.” she said quickly. “I honestly don’t quite understand it myself, but once you finally remember I’m hoping you will. Understand it I mean.” Well that’s confusing, but like she said it’s confusing to her too. It doesn’t sound like me though. I don’t feel like I am capable of doing anything great or important. But for now I will trust her.

“How am I supposed to remember?”

“In the prophecy I saw an image of a spring. It has white wild flowers and purple Dahlias along the edge of the water. And huge ancient oak trees with wide branches. I’m thinking that maybe if I take you there you will remember.” she explained. But if she resurrected me thinking I can help her then why does she feel so familiar?

“Ok…well, lets go!” I almost shouted. I will get to maybe find some answers. But what if they aren’t ones I like. I look over at her, she’s twiddling her thumbs and is looking away from me. I get a waft of sea and peppers. Her face contorts into a half smile half grimace.

“That’s one of the problems…I don’t know where it is, I was hoping maybe you did.” she squeaked. Oh, that’s really disappointing, but I don’t want her to know that I feel that. I wonder if I should ask her about the smells. It seems weird to ask, but it could help if it means anything.

“I don’t know if this is helpful or not but, when we were walking here i smelled honey, vanilla, and lilacs coming from you.” I admitted almost sheepishly. “ Then when I walked into the house I smelled rain and flowers. Then again when you didn’t know where the place was I smelled peppers and sea like a kind of salty smell.” She didn’t look shocked, but I saw that same kind of curiosity in her eyes when she first met me. She is strange, like when she called out to me she acted like she didn’t know who I was. Maybe she didn’t know it was me? That sounds unlikely. Maybe she didn’t want to startle me at first. 

“Well I didn’t smell anything. Do you think that maybe you could try and use your smell to try and find the place?” she asks. How could I smell a place like that. There is no way. 

“The smells are more connected to when there is a mood or maybe a past? But, I don’t think so.” I said. I started walking around the room. I touched the silk curtains and smelled the flowers. That helped calm me and helped me think clearly. “Do you have anything of mine?”

“Yeah, actually let me go get it.” She walks out of the room. I sit down on the couch. It’s too soft for my liking, so I stand up and look out the window. There is a stream out behind the house, it runs clear, so you can see the rocks and the small fish. The light catches on something gold near a big rock in the water. I walk out the door, and go look for it. I stepped into the water and it was warm and I headed toward the big rock in the middle of the stream. The gold object was a long sword pushed under the rock to where only the tip is visible. I grabbed the sword and pulled it out of the water. And then I’m falling into darkness. I hit the ground, but it doesn’t hurt. Images start rushing past me and filling my head. Pictures of people I don’t recognize, strange buildings, and then me. I realized they’re pictures of my past. The sun comes back into view and I’m sitting in the water with the gold sword laying in my lap. I get up and put my hand into an invisible inventory, and pull out the spell book and leave. 

I found the necklace she asked me to find, it was in the jewelry box under my bed. I walk out and go back to the living room, but she is gone. I start looking everywhere around the house. She’s not in the house. So I look outside and she is sitting in the stream with a sword in her lap. I started heading towards her, but she got up and put her hand in the air. A book appeared in her hand. She remembers now. I look away. When I look back she’s gone and I fall to the ground. I am so foolish to leave her alone, she will never come back and help me. She will never give me answers. I thought that if I could act like I knew things about her that she would trust me and then help. I guess not. I get up and head after her. I copy her and shove my hand in the air, it feels like the air ripped open and my hand touched something smooth and cold. I pulled the object out and it was a scythe. What that thing was for I didn’t know but I kept moving my hand around until I felt a leather back book. I opened the book and there are hundreds of these swatch circles on each page and only one of them is filled. It’s filled with a dark red liquid, I touch it but nothing happens. I flip through the pages and that’s all it’s filled with, nothing else. I put my hand back into the air and think really hard about that book she had and then it’s in my hand. I pull it out and it’s filled with strange words and spells. I flip through the pages and I touch one of the spells labeled travel. I lurch forward and then I see Aya in front of me. We are in a torch lit hallway with concrete walls. I drop to the ground and Aya looks at me in a pleased way, like she won something.

“I’m surprised you knew how to do that considering the fact you lied to me about everything else.” she praised.

“I did just copy you. Not that difficult, no reason to be impressed.” I try sounding as mature as I can so she doesn’t see me as a weak little child. I need to be on the same level as her.

“I know that you have questions and I will answer them, only because you didn’t lie about that,” she mused, “And that was actually very interesting, because I see you have the scythe. The weapon of the Reaper.” Huh. The reaper. Maybe that’s how we are connected.

“What’s the Reaper?” I asked.

“So young, so clueless,” she sighs, “Come on let’s go Luna.” She grabbed my hand and we headed off to who knows where.