The Liberal Lens: Finding Life in the Moment

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

He laid the familiar weight of his baseball bat against his shoulder as he walked down the tormented hall. It bared the memories of a previous fight. His eyes traces gashes in walls as he thought back.

—

Jason. His best friend. Dude had taken a bullet for him. He survived it, thankfully, after a lengthy visit to the hospital. Frank recalled the time he had spent in that hospital room waiting for him to wake up. The guilt of his negligence weighed on his shoulders heavily between the shot and Jason’s waking up.

The first thing Jason did after waking up and getting his bearings was to laugh. Then, after seeing his confusion, patted his knee and said, “Always told you I’d jump in front of a bullet for you!”

It took Frank a minute, but he joined in on the laughing too. Even with the threat of Mnemosyne hanging over their heads, it was a welcome relief from the nights climbing the dreamscape’s mountain.

That was, until, Jason couldn’t escape her foggy curtain. He had been one of the first to forget.

—

He grimaced, a particular bloodstain on the staircase stirring a whirlwind of emotion before he shoved it back down. Now was not the time. Not when Jason couldn’t remember him. When Jason couldn’t remember what he had fought for.

He entered the next floor and continued his lonely walk.

—

His classmates often liked to call him names and bully him when he had first started school there. He had been a transfer student, his father shipping him off to help his mother in a town he had no memories of. Not because of the goddess, but rather because he had only been in the town for a year or two as a baby before his parents took him away.

After a month or two, the bullying died down, thankfully. He made a few friends, he joined a few clubs, he helped around the town. Eventually he even started to get a little popular.

Random hello’s and hi’s would fill his day in the school’s halls. It made him smile, even toward the end of the school year. Knowing that even if he had the threat of her over him, he was able to escape that fate for another day.

Until, one day, he had walked into the school and was stared at by his classmates. Even they couldn’t escape her foggy curtain. They had forgotten the day after Jason had forgotten.

—

It’s heartbreaking, knowing that he had been forgotten by his best friend and his classmates. Still, he couldn’t let that shake his will. His indomitable will, as his attendant had called it. He felt his persona’s aura pulse, sending a calming wave through his being. He sighed, losing knots in his shoulder he hadn’t realized he was carrying.

He climbed yet another set of staircases, and continued to meet her. His baseball bat traced his path behind him, scraping gently in that quiet night.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three