The City in the Forest

WARNING> Read the Author's NOTE first.

"๐š‚๐š‘๐šŽ ๐š•๐šŽ๐š๐š ๐™ณ๐šŠ๐š•๐š•๐šŠ๐šœ. ๐™ถ๐š˜๐š’๐š—๐š ๐š’๐š— ๐šข๐š˜๐šž๐š› ๐š๐š’๐š›๐šŽ๐šŒ๐š๐š’๐š˜๐š—; ๐šŒ๐š˜๐š—๐š๐šž๐šœ๐šŽ๐š. ๐™ผ๐š’๐š๐š‘๐š ๐š‘๐šŠ๐šŸ๐šŽ ๐š™๐š›๐š˜๐š‹๐š•๐šŽ๐š–๐šœ ๐š ๐š’๐š๐š‘ ๐š‘๐šŽ๐š› ๐š–๐šŽ๐š–๐š˜๐š›๐šข." ๐™ผ๐šŠ๐š›๐š”๐šž๐šœ

"๐šƒ๐š‘๐šŠ๐š—๐š”๐šœ, ๐š–๐šŠ๐š—," ๐™ฐ๐š’๐š๐šŽ๐š—

๐ŸŒ  ๐ŸŽ€ ~๐ฟ๐‘’๐“‰๐“‰๐“Ž~ ๐ŸŽ€ ๐ŸŒ 

What do you truly remember about your past: childhood, teen years, or school life? Do you remember what school you attended and how many friends did you have? Did you ever try to recall your early childhood years in your memory? Have you ever caught yourself thinking that your mind is a tabula rasa?

I never heard any stories about my early childhood or school years from my mom. I never found any photos, as if I had never existed before. It scares me. How can it be that I didn't exist before? How can it happen that a mother does not have any photos of her daughter's younger years? She even can't remember anything from my past or tell me where I was born.

I haven't noticed this true reality before.

I feel empty inside, like a huge part of my memory was erased and no one could help me, even the most qualified doctors. Likewise, I did my best to call my memories back, but I can't, or maybeโ€ฆ I just don't understand them.

๐ผ๐“‰ ๐“Œ๐’ถ๐“ˆ ๐“‰๐’ฝ๐‘’ ๐“๐’ถ๐“ˆ๐“‰ ๐’น๐’ถ๐“Ž ๐’พ๐“ƒ ๐’Ÿ๐’ถ๐“๐“๐’ถ๐“ˆ. ๐’ฏ๐’ฝ๐’พ๐“‡๐’น ๐’ฎ๐“…๐“‡๐’พ๐“ƒ๐‘” ๐ผ ๐“‡๐‘’๐“‚๐‘’๐“‚๐’ท๐‘’๐“‡.

โ™ฅ ~Author~ โ™ฅ

It was getting darker in her warm and cozy black car. She couldn't see the sunset out of her car window, as it was getting late and the sun hid behind the horizon. Soon, the car was breaking the dark and the mist, leaving red speed lines from the brake lights behind the car. The weather was getting colder, and considering the Spring, it wasn't very typical, especially for Dallas where she used to live all those three years she remembers.

However, Dallas was far away from this place, and it was hard to predict where she was, even the GPS navigator was confused about where this redhead cutie was driving. It tried to stop her a few times telling her there was nothing at the end of this road, only the forest, but she was confident in her memory: she saw that road in her dreams and the city that no one knew about. How can it be that in the time of modern technologies, no one can know about a whole city? How do those citizens hide their location, and how do they live cut off from the entire country? Or they just don't exist?

Maybe her mind is sick and playing tricks with her. What if her GPS is right and this road leads to nowhere? Could her mind be able to play such tricks with her, that she knows every street in the city she has never been to before?

๐ŸŒ  ๐ŸŽ€ ~๐ฟ๐‘’๐“‰๐“‰๐“Ž~ ๐ŸŽ€ ๐ŸŒ 

"My life was never looking like a life of an ordinary twenty-one-year girl. My head is empty, and I can't remember a single thing from my past. I don't think that it's been like that all the time, because I can clearly remember all those three years after my father's death, but nothing before it. As doctors say, my father's death could be a trigger for my memory to block everything because of my deep love for him. They say the big sorrow might bring such a memory trick, and it should be better with time, but it wasn'tโ€ฆ"

๐’Ÿ๐’ถ๐“๐“๐’ถ๐“ˆ. ๐’ฏ๐’ฝ๐’พ๐“‡๐’น ๐’ฎ๐“…๐“‡๐’พ๐“ƒ๐‘” ๐ผ ๐“‡๐‘’๐“‚๐‘’๐“‚๐’ท๐‘’๐“‡.

โ™ฅ ~Author~ โ™ฅ

Suddenly, she saw the mist vanishing and bright light coming from some small house on the left side of the road. Letty stopped her car right before the block post and looked at a man who was coming to her car, put the car window down, and looked at the man from head to toe.

"Good evening, missโ€ฆ" the man said, typing something on his phone.

"Black."

"โ€ฆ Miss Black," a man leaned down and tried to smile friendly, looking into her eyes, still holding a phone in his hand, as if waiting for some urgent news.

"Good evening, mister. Does this road go to a cityโ€ฆ? Eh, I can't remember its name."

A man's eyes suddenly lit up and became bright amber she saw in her dreams a dozen times. The girl could bet she felt something strange inside her, like some little pain in her eyes, which made her close and stroke them slightly. She was thinking something fell in there, probably even an eyelash, but after she opened them, the pain remained. Her sharp eyesight caught a small badge on the man's chest, that reminded her of a moon. Sharp and almost inhuman eyesight made her blink several times because of seeing the moon so close and so bright. It made her turn her eyes away from the man and froze at the creature coming closer to her.

It was a big gray wolf coming alongside the white line on the road in their direction. Furthermore, it had thick fur and was pretty muscled, so it probably was a male wolf. Letty blinked a few times, thinking it was some kind of hallucination after the moon badge, but when she looked back at the man, noticed her eyesight coming back to a normal, human one.

"Yes, welcome to Zolf, Miss Black. If you need a guide, there's a map," he gave her a map as if nothing had happened, however, he saw that wolf too. He was looking in its direction!

"Is it normal?" She asked, pointing to the road where the wolf was. The man grimaced, so Letty turned her head back there, seeing that gray wolf jumping from the road into the bushes. She thought the hallucination would go away, but seems notโ€ฆ

"Yeah," the man said calmly, then turned around and went back to his little house to put up the barrier. Letty looked at his vanishing back, then at the bushes where the wolf jumped, blinked several times again, slowly put up the window, and drove straight to the city thinking about what was going on there.

๐ŸŒ  ๐ŸŽ€ ~๐ฟ๐‘’๐“‰๐“‰๐“Ž~ ๐ŸŽ€ ๐ŸŒ 

{I clearly remember all those dreams I had about this city. They were so bright and clear, that I could smell the forest, surrounding the city, while other dreams were not so real. I could easily tell the names of the streets, and it felt so real that I was like on some kind of virtual trip over the city. The biggest problem of believing the city exists was on the surface: there was no such city on the maps. I couldn't remember its name, but I clearly remembered the road to it in the deepest details, and it wasn't difficult to find that road on the maps. However, it leads nowhere.}

โ™ฅ ~Author~ โ™ฅ

There was a forest here and there, the mist wasn't so strong, and the sky was brighter than usual. The stars were visible unlike the moon, so it means it was a new moon, and soon it'll show all its glory. The new moon isn't as strong as the full one, but it still has its effect on werewolves. Aiden turned his head from the sky to his room, where he saw his Beta. He just entered and considering the late time of his visit, it was something urgent. Aiden threw away his cigarette and came inside the room. William looked at him carefully and put his own phone on Aiden's nightstand.

"It's urgent. Sorry for the late visit."

"It's okay. What's up?" Aiden looked at his Beta's phone and froze. His heart stopped beating and the ground vanished under his toes, so he sat down on the edge of his bed. He looked at William, "Where?"

"She was seen by a guard on the East block post. He wrote me a message as soon as he saw her in a car saying her eyes changed to amber, but as he said, she was looking confused as if she didn't know about werewolves." William said and looked at Aiden sitting on his bed. He was looking at a girl in the photo being one million percent sure it was Letty Black, his mate, that was almost kidnapped three years ago after her father's funeral by her own stepmother.

Letty seems to be confused considering this photo, so it could be true that she has problems with her memory, as Markus wrote. She loved her father so much that it could affect her mind because of the pain and sorrow she suddenly felt. However, if she's here it means she can remember something or at least remember that city, which is a hint her mind is trying to wake her up. Does she know about her identity, or is this part of her mind still hidden?

Does she remember him?

William was standing near Aiden, and he could not help but notice his strange behavior. Is it the same redhead girl he saw a few times in the Pack before? Aiden never told anyone about that girl or explained why he was looking for her all those three years. Moreover, he wasn't dating any girl all this time and was refusing every proposal for a night with a hot girl that was always hanging around him. His recent behavior and mark on his neck can be only explained that he was claimed by his mate. And this mate could be this redheaded girl. It explains everything.ย 

Aiden took his Beta's phone in his hands, then gave it back to its owner and stood up.

"You can be free for now. Thanks."

William immediately left the house of his Alpha, even if he had a lot of questions in his head.

  1. There it has the meaning that the memory of the protagonist is empty, and she remembers nothing from her past.