Juy 10, 2011

The birds were chirping. The wood of the kiosk was bright white and painful to look at in the bright light of the sun.

Looking around nothing was familiar. Where did we go before this? How did we get here?

I noticed Jessica standing next to me. Wincing my eyes at the sun I attempted to get her attention, "I always dreamt of getting married in a kiosk, with a handsome gentleman in a soldier uniform" I smiled at my failed attempt to get the confused look off her face. She stared blankly. Maybe I'm not the only one with memory loss.

"Jess, Jess" I tried to shake her but she only looked at me with a glaze over her eyes with her face paler than I had ever seen it.

A few feet away a small boy leaned over a lake, depositing a model boat into the water. He stepped back taking a look at his success and pulled on a string attached to the boat, he ran towards the other side of the lake. His presence added a sense of serenity, when was the last time I had seen a boy playing with a boat? I would've thought he'd be playing with a virtual boat indoors somewhere.

Virtual! Turning away I remembered my phone, maybe I could GPS my location. I patted my pockets, nothing, what the?

"Jess I don't have my phone, do you have yours" I waited for a response, why isn't she answering? "Jess" I raised my voice and looked at her again.

Her wordless mouth opened as she turned to look at me, the glaze in her eye faintly disappearing.

"We did it" she said, "We did it". Her monotone voice had a horrific-underlying tone.

"Jess what is going on?" I demanded. Her blank stare was discomforting; she looked at me and past me all at once.

"What did we do jess?" I cried out. She only turned her face as she stuttered for words.

The shuffle of feet in the grass startled me. I turned towards the direction Jess faced and saw a man dressed in a white business shirt and black pants walking towards us, he lugged a rolling suitcase with him.

The formal looking man walked towards the kiosk. Curious I stood there, awaiting his arrival. Maybe I should've ran.

He looked at the both of us with a stern face. Unemotional as if unwilling to deal with anything that was not business. Opening the suitcase I caught a glimpse of an olive toned arm.

"what the hell is that?!" I accidentally squealed, attempting to shut myself up.

The mystery man went on, undisturbed. Out of his suitcase he pulled out manikins, exact replicas of us. They wore the clothing we wore yesterday, stained. Mud, grass on my jeans.

"What did we do Jessica, what is going on!?" My attempt at being quiet was no longer under my control.

I yelled at her, forgetting where we were. Forgetting? For goodness sakes I don't even know where we were standing. No one was saying anything.

Frustrated at not getting any answers I looked at the guy. What was he doing with the mannequins?

This guy had a strange sense of familiarity, who is he? I tried to think back but was distracted by what he began to do next.

He laid out the replicas as if a murder had occurred. Jessica's replica laid under the table, facing the ground in a puddle of blood, "you drowned in your blood" he said. His voice was firm. Maybe he was joking? The optimist in me thought. But there was no hint of even a smile on his lops.

He looked at me and thought for a second, he stared into my eyes, his eyes were dark, deep and strange. Who in the world is he? I wondered. Trying to look away, i felt my heart sink. I couldn't move my glance.

He spoke up. "You were hit on the neck with a gun, breaking your spine, you died instantly." He looked away.

"WOW be a little more gruesome!" I joked, neither turned around.

"Geez. tough crowd." I mumbled, the somberness in the air driving me nuts.

"I have to go. Stay out of sight." He ordered us. Handing over a white slip of paper with scribbles on it, hesitantly I took it from his hand. I looked at the writing of what seemed like an address.