At first, the only things he was able to remember were the things that were with him when he first woke up in the hospital, of being shot and dumped in the river. He tried desperately to remember anything at all but nothing ever came to him. He needed something that would help him understand and cope with the situation he had been dumped head first into. Anything at all. Please! But he couldn't make himself remember.
A month and a half after the hospital, a guy got close to him with a gun. He stood only a few feet away pointing it at his chest, a smug, gloating expression on the bastard's face. Fear flashed through him as he knew he wouldn't be able to dodge this shot. But as he stood there frozen, the gunman taking his time to savour the moment, something flashed in his brain and before he knew what he was doing, he had struck out cobra quick with his hands and somehow the gun had ended up in his own grasp pointed back at his assailant.
Both of them blinked in shock at each other for a moment. Quickly he realized he know had the advantage here. He was about to say something to the other man about leaving him alone now, when the guy leapt at him to recover his gun. Without thought, he pulled the trigger and shot his attacker twice in the heart.
Shocked at what his body had done, he instinctively ran, his mind shutting down trying to deal with what had just happened.
When he came back to himself he looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He eventually got his sluggish brain working and recognised the land marks. He was halfway across the city from where he started from and he had obviously lost several hours as it was starting to get dark. He looked down and saw he still had the gun. Shit. Gazing around, wondering what to do with the weapon, he suddenly realised something was different. He considered this for a moment before discerning what was new.
He'd found a memory!
He watched as it unfolded in front of his eyes....
* * * * * * *
He was standing beside another man about his own age, a little girl between them. In front of the trio was a man aiming a gun at them. He was agitated and looked like he needed a fix.
He uttered something about them to hand over all their money and valuables. The man was getting more and more nervous the longer it took them to remove all their things. He suddenly realized the man was about to shoot so he tried to go after the gun with a snatch manoeuvre. But it was too late. Two shots rang out before he reached the gun and seize it.
One had hit his arm and the other.....
He turned around and saw the little girl covered in blood, lying in the other man's arms and knew she was dead. He fell to his knees hearing this awful heart rendering scream and realized it came from himself, calling out her name.
* * * * * * *
He came out of the memory and found he had fallen on his ass and was violently trembling at the strength of what he'd seen. HOLY FUCK. He could tell, just by the emotions that had been evoked in him by this memory that he'd been close to this girl. He could still hear the name Ellie shrieking painfully around his skull.
It took him half an hour before he was able to think clearly.
Apart from the strong feelings towards the girl, he didn't recognise anyone in the memory. He automatically dismissed the junky and looked at the other man. He was tall, thin with black hair. He supposed that he knew him, but he had no idea whether he has friend, family or something else.
He looked at the girl, again felt a wrench at his heart. She was small, freckles sprinkled generously across her cheeks and pert little nose, flaming red hair in pigtails and a green and blue sundress. She could be his, she could be the other guys', they could have been babysitting her for someone else entirely. It was frustrating.
He watched the whole scene again, deliberately distancing himself. As he watched, he thought he could identify what had triggered this memory. I was either the gun, the disarming manoeuvre, when the gun discharged or a combination of all three. Although the situation this afternoon was the same, it was similar enough to bring forth this nugget of himself and it gave him hope that he could eventually recover all of him.
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