ELECTUS (Chosen) - Chapter 3 (Part 1, 2 & 3)

CHAPTER THREE
Memories that are left behind are typically the ones that are extremely vital.



Memoirs of the Notebook



NOT AGAIN.

It was all Jaden could think about. After having this happen every time got old. Real old. And fast. It seemed that she had an uncanny ability to look into an object’s ‘memory’ if it ever had one. The memories would be anything connected to the original owner. Meaning she could see certain things that have occurred beforehand to whatever happened to its previous owner or owners.

Cool enough as it was, it wasn’t any big surprise to her. More like being able to take someone along with her was definitely far more shocking than she realized. It was something that she didn’t want people to find out, especially in this world or any world of any sort.

One would think to be afraid. Instead, he looked utterly fascinated with my ability. It seemed to Alaire, being able to see into an object’s past or the contents of the past through an object was quite fascinating to him.

How did Jaden know?

He wouldn’t stop talking to her about it, asking questions and whatnot. In all of his years, he said, he never seen an ability or a Psyche like hers before. Did that mean there were more of her? People that could do things like her and Matt? It wasn’t just her and Matt out there with these kinds of powers?

The possibilities were limitless.

Besides that, the memory started abrupt. Flicking in and out like a TV screen or a laptop trying to reboot itself. Soon the flickering memory started to stabilize after a few seconds. It wasn’t too long until it began to play. She could control certain memories to display, but this time it was different.

It seemed to be in a hurry to show us something, apparently, the memory it was trying to show was very vital to us to know. Very vital indeed. The memory had a mind of its own. The notebook seemed to know what Jaden was trying to do before she did. The notebook had taken on a hazy reddish glow and soon we were seeing the last moments of whoever touched or held or used the notebook last. Possibly, the very last moments of its owner’s life.

Replaying the last memory took them back to the library-like office or archive.

It was the same. Yet, not so messy or abandoned-like like the one they had been in earlier. There was a young man with dark brown hair, cropped short with apart of his bangs dark blonde. Shaking all over as he searched for something.

They appeared near him. So close, that we could see his hazel-green eyes darting back-and-forth, side-to-side like he was expecting someone that he wished he wasn’t. It appeared that the young man was in a race against time as he rushing to find something from his hurried actions. He was sitting at a huge desk, a washed with hundreds of books. Ranging from textbooks, to novels, to all sorts, even notebooks, she observed.

Noticing the notebook beside his elbow, sprawled open with a pen resting in its crease, she sighed with relief. As long as it was opened or had any contact with anyone in the memory, it wouldn’t end. Jaden never wanted to find out what would happen if something like that happened.

It was always on her mind whenever this occurred. Always.

The young man was ruffling through them all as if he was digging for gold or buried treasure and muttering to himself. “Where is it? I know... I’d...put it around here...Where did it...disappear to, I wonder?” he kept mumbling so it was hard to make out properly. “I…must hurry... Not much time...left. Must hurry... While I still can...make it…”

Suddenly there was a sudden loud knock on the door and he jumped to life. As if he was hit by lightning and didn’t know it. Or rather he didn’t want to acknowledge it had happened. Terror was clearly written on his handsome face. His hazel-green eyes clouded with thoughts. Quick thoughts of what to do now. Closing and opening his eyes, he sighed forlornly. It was like he was wishing he had more time and possibly the fact he wished it didn’t come to this.
Then Jaden’s eye caught his hair and she nearly gasped out loud. Jaden held it in, she couldn’t interrupt the memory now. She knew that. Facing the inevitable, he let out a breath and called out.

“You may come in.”

As soon as he said those four brave words, hell broke loose. A squadron of armed uniformed men stormed into the room. The young man shook with terror, going white as a sheet. Still, he put on a brave front in front of the armed men. They surrounded him. Cornering him as his bravery falter and he slowly crouched down in terror. Wrapping his arms around his head in a defensive position, he tired to make himself as small as possible.

Jaden looked at Alaire. Vastly hoping, he wouldn't find it funny with his weird twisted sense of humour or fascinating to him. As soon as she did, she froze. He was looking at the young man, emotionlessly. He had no words for this scene. But he saw what she saw. The dark blonde part of his bangs had changed completely brown like the rest of his hair.

How was that even possible?

Alaire continued to stare at the young man lifelessly, sombre even. Like he knew what was going on. All the life sucked out of him. Barely standing, he gave off a near death-like experience as if he was staring at the grim reaper himself. This was the same like last time, he knew it. It was like they were here for him. He gulped. Fear overtaking him slowly. Alaire didn't notice. The memories were slowly overtaking him.

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Flash:

He remembered voices talking about him. About his future. He remembered he was only nine when they took him away from big sis. She was screaming. He was crying. Everything was a blur. Nothing was right. Nothing would be the same again. Why did it have to happen? Why him? Those questions still echoed in his mind to this day.

The memory dissolved into another.

A flash and he was running, panting heavily. They were coming. Chased and running for his life, he was twelve then. The corridor stretched far. Why, did it stretch so far? Must escape, the thoughts hurried him. He heard shouts before the memory blurred.

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ALAIRE COULDN’T MOVE. Frozen in place and falling, falling into a black abyss of his past. No one was going to look for him. He knew that. It was either run or be caught. And that was all there was left for him. His eyes fell lifeless and de-tached. The fear of loneliness weighting heavily on his heart, blocking everything out, he struggled to no avail.

The air stilled with the deadly silence. Nearly suffocating Jaden, fear dug into her heart, slowly choking the vibrant life out. Jaden gasped for air. The death-like hold refused her desire to breathe and kept at it. Still, she fought against it. This wasn’t good. Her vision was blurring.

If she passed out, they were in big trouble. She was talking major trouble. Staggering over to Alaire, she tried to get his attention. Yet, when Jaden touched him, she flinched away from him. He was cold. Ice cold. Like death. Death was knocking on the door in the fleeting moment.

If she didn’t act fast, it would be all over for the both of them. Staggering forth again, she lunged at him. Her last and only attempt in trying to break off the connec-tion or rather the memory that he was reliving, it worked, naturally of course. Only, instead, she kind of ended up tackling him to the ground.

He snapped out of it, to only find Jaden on top of him on the ground. It was a rather awkward situation. She couldn’t remember much, since everything was blurry to her. When she came to, she flushed deep red like him. Scrambling to their feet and brushing themselves off, they looked away sheepishly from each other.

Then the object’s memory came back into focus with the guy on the ground, covering his head. The armed men surrounded him holding rifles and guns. There were also other types that Jaden had never seen before in her life. One spoke, addressing the cowering young man. “Professor Merrick Howe?” he spoke calmly and highly authoritive. The young man flinched. Clearly, that was his name.

“Y-y-yes?”stuttered the young man, his voice shaky, almost chocking with fear as he spoke.
“You're under arrest.” announced the man, “I’m sorry but you need to come with us. Our superiors would like a few words with you, Professor. Now…if you would please...” That didn't sound reassuring or good in his favour. Nothing good ever came from ‘our superiors would like a word with you’. Never did. Never will.

Alaire and Jaden both watched the scene unfold before their eyes.

The soldiers grabbed the professor and at that moment, she swore, it was as if Professor Merrick Howe could see the both of them. His eyes widen with a mix of shock and awe. Then a nervous, yet very brief hopeful smile appeared on his thin pale face. He had seen the notebook in Jaden's hands, open. To the professor, hope wasn't all lost. Chained and shackled by the uniformed men, Professor Merrick Howe was led out of the room without another distraction or word.

The notebook was open and still glowing dimly. Within a few seconds the scene blurred and vanished. Alaire turned to Jaden. “Just what happened?” Alaire’s eyebrows arched downwards as he thought hard about what the pair had just seen. Jaden hoped he wasn’t asking about the whole tackling him part of the experience. It turned out that was part of what he was asking about.

Jaden gulped. She wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. “Well, I...umm...” She found herself unable to tell him why. It was just too embarrassing for her. Then she found the words and they just tumbled out of her mouth. “I’m not really sure about the whole thing to tell you the truth. But, I’ll try my best.”

He nodded.

She swallowed her nervousness and continued. “It seems that when those armed men entered—no, rather swarmed the room, you had a memory recall. A mem-ory so emotionally attached, umm, actually more “connected” to the uniformed men, that was so powerful. It overwhelmed me. As well as the notebook’s current display-ing memory, umm—memoir, I mean, the memoir of Professor Merrick Howe, its original owner. Meaning you threw off the balance.” Jaden sucked in a deep breath of air before continuing.

The words wouldn’t stop flowing out of her mind and gushing right out of her mouth. Jaden wasn’t really known for being a chatterbox or one to talk a lot. More for bring the questioner and the listener. What could she do? Her curiosity spun wild every once in a while on her, without any control over her thoughts and inquisitive-ness. “Since my ‘power’ or whatever it is—“

“Psyche.” he interrupted her. Jaden looked at him dumbfounded. “Your ‘power’ is called a Psyche. Psyche is the name of the whole power stuff.” he explained, trying to keep it as short as possible. He seemed really interested to know what Jaden was trying to explain to him. “ESP or rather Extrasensory Powers and psyche abilities. They call that Psyche. Well, ESP is different but I know they call that Psyche. And the users are either called Psyche-users or Power-users or rather just ‘Comrades’.”

“Comrades?” repeated Jaden, trying out the word.

“Yeah,” nodded Alaire, “that’s what they’re called. The users.”

“Oh, uhh...thanks for clarifying that for me.”

He smiled, encouraging Jaden to continue her long complex theory of her pos-sible ‘Psyche’ power or powers. Since he said ESP, she wasn’t too sure if it would be classified as a Psyche now. It was all very puzzling.

“Since my Psyche is affected by memory. Highly affected.” she said, while em-phasizing the point, then went on. “What I know so far is...that my Psyche is affiliated with memories in someway. Whether it be an object or a living human or animal. Pretty much anything goes kind of thing, really.”

“Interesting.” Alaire commented, “Please, go on.”

“So when your memory or whatever it was, interrupted, it greatly affected me.” Jaden said quietly.

“By how much?” he asked as his eyebrows raising.

Jaden hesitated. She said too much. “It was to the point, I nearly passed out.” Jaden couldn't bear to tell him the whole truth.

That it nearly killed the both of them. That it was enough to nearly kill them both without a second thought. Emotional, traumatic memories had that affect on her. Even the depressing and regretful ones. At a point, she could see the memories flood her mind. Enabling her to learn a lot about the individual or object’s past. Not always though. Largely depended on what she wished to see, actually. Sometimes, Jaden found out that she couldn’t control it all that well yet, like the notebook’s control over this memoir. She knew this though, if she touched or came in contact with another human being, she could activate her power. Immediately if she wanted to, even. Sometimes it came with no warning whatsoever.

It was funny that way. Made things more unpredictable yet more interesting in that mysterious way, she smiled at the thought. She didn’t mind it much.

She could see into other people’s memories either lost or found, but she couldn’t see or ‘find’ her memories. The memories of others would flood her mind and she could feel every one of them, crawling somewhere in the back of her head. It was like she was a giant encyclopaedia, a storager for memories or at least the copies of the originals—no, they weren’t even that. More like twins of the originals that she came in contact with.

Hers, however, they were ‘lost’. Gone forever. Vanished deep into the dark abyss of her mind. Buried and perhaps never to be found. She often wondered if they were lost somewhere in her mind. In a place where she couldn’t find or access or even reach yet. Barred from her, barred from her acknowledgements and memories, it was a sad feeling to know.

- PART TWO -

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“Oh, sorry.” apologized Alaire, sounding solemn. “I…didn’t know. But it does make sense for tackling me out of the trance or whatever it was.” he grinned, sheepishly. “Thank-you, Jaden.” He bowed in a gentlemanly way, which caused her to flush with embarrassment again. Alaire didn’t seem to take any notice of it. He looked around. “But...who was that guy anyway? His name was Professor Merrick Howe, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Jaden nodded, acknowledging the arrested professor’s name. “And it seems like we are in a university archive room of some sort or even a research facility. Strange, he was the only one here. So, he must have been a university professor, studying or rather ‘looking’ for something. Probably something important. Very important.”

“Yeah.” agreed Alaire, nodding. “He must have not have found it if they came so quickly.” he glanced around the room again in wonder. “I wonder what it was...” he murmured softly but returned to Jaden’s gaze, “Anyway, I believe we’re in the UK. Which is the United Kingdom; I believe, quite possibly, in England or Wales.”

Annoyed, Jaden looked at him funny.

“What?” he quipped in defence. Clearly, he was taken back by her look. Alaire wasn’t dumb. He knew why she was giving him that funny look. It was a look of pure annoyance. Unfortunately, for her, he seemed to be enjoying every second of this. A shy mischievous smile grew on his face.

“We're in the UK?” she inquired, her anger boiling again with his playful conversations, “quite possibly in either England or Wales?”

“Yes.” he beamed happily at her, causing her sigh deeply in annoyance at his strange and befuddling behaviour. He was certainly a strange one.

As soon as Jaden processed this new information, resigning in her brain, she frowned. They were in England or Wales. Or at least somewhere in those two places. If they were in a capital of either regions, then that would be problematic. A city capital of a region didn’t have its inhabitants vanish this fast or quickly. No capital would be empty. Something was wrong. Unless, she and Alaire had guessed wrong.



SUDDENLY, THERE WAS A CRASH and the pair was thrown back against the wall. Reality had returned. The last of the memory vanished into thin air as the notebook fell out of Jaden’s hands, dropping as they fell back. Jaden was drifting in and out. Alaire managed to stand, struggling with his bad arm. He had hit the wall in a bad way, and his arm hurt, but it wasn’t broken. Luckily for him, in his opinion, at least, he could still be of use.

Seeing the notebook, he grabbed it without thinking, closing it. The memory vanished completely and the soft red glow expired. Alaire hurried back over to Jaden. Then a noise like a blood-thirsty growl came from behind him. Gulping, he turned around carefully. Trying to see what they were up against, he found that he couldn’t. There was nothing but smoke and debris in his way.

Glancing down at Jaden, he saw that she was in bad shape. She was groaning softly. Figuring that she must have hit her head, he watched as she struggled to get up, only to collapse back against the wall. He rushed to help her up. Whatever it was, it was going to attack again. It wasn’t going to wait for her to be alright, that’s for sure. He gritted his teeth in frustration.

If this was a dream, she was wishing she’d wake up any time now. Except the thought of her leaving Alaire behind haunted her, she couldn’t leave Alaire behind. He was new to this whole situation. If she woke up and left him, he’ll be all alone. Daring not to awake before him, she tried to cry out to him. Warning to keep her awake, but her voice didn’t come out or she couldn’t hear her voice. Hoping that he’ll hear her before it was too late.

Jaden already knew what the thing was. It was a Mara, which was a dreadful nightmare creature that would prey on any unsuspecting wandering individuals such as herself and Alaire in this realm. Its seen her but never met face-to-face. She would always wake up at this point. This time, however, may prove difficult since Alaire was here. She couldn’t wake yet. Not yet. Not before he woke up. Alaire couldn’t face the Mara by himself. No one could. She had learnt that the hard way.

Struggling to get up, she cried out. It came out more like a painful whimper. Her throat felt dry. No voice would come out the second try. Panic hit her as she tried to scream to Alaire, warning him to get away. Then the blinding darkness vanished like light shone on from above. She blinked miserably in the dimness. A hand covered her mouth. Glancing upwards, she saw the familiar gaze of two dark blue eyes.

It was Alaire. His raven black hair wind swept and messier than before but it looked good on him. Panting heavily, he sighed with relief. “Oh good,” he whispered thankfully, “you're alive. And awake. I thought…I lost you there.”

A blush crept on her face. To her surprise, he had dragged her out of there for safety without the Mara seeing them. The notebook was with them. Secure tightly in Jaden’s trembling hands. Alaire had let her hold onto it for safe keeping. The blacking out thing was getting worse for Jaden. She struggled to keep herself awake. Yet, she was quite aware of her surroundings.

They weren’t in Wales, they were in England for sure. Jaden had the feeling and was right. England landscape and decor was everywhere. Alaire had figured this out by now. They had been blasted into the streets. Somehow, they ended up on the ground floor after the notebook’s memoir ended. They were behind some of the larger debris that had settled nearby. Crouching down, Alaire peeked to see the Mara, but flinched away, out of its sight.

The Mara was a sinister creature. One you would hate to know personally or to see. Just seeing it would repulse you. It was that disgusting. It was a ghastly sight to behold. Two beady little eyes, ashen-white and a Smokey grey body like a ghost or a ghoul of some sort—no, more like a crossbred of the two. At first, Jaden had believed they were bogeymen or Boggarts. But, she was wrong. So wrong. They were even worse than bogeymen and boggarts put together. That had terrified her completely. And at this rate, Alaire would too. It was too horrible to see and live to the tale.

That was...if you lived.

- PART THREE -

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Jaden’s gaze flickered to Alaire. “You have to wake up.” she told Alaire, quickly. Time was running out for them. Alaire looked at her like she was crazy.

“This ain’t a dream, Jaden.” he replied, grim.

All of a sudden, Jaden felt really small. Was it because he had finally said her name? She shook her head and stared at him seriously. “Yes, it is. I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember. You, however, got here by mistake, somehow. A huge mistake. You have to believe me.” she pleaded with tears welling up in her bottle green eyes. Alaire looked surprised at her words. It seemed to be sinking in somehow. “So, you need to wake up, otherwise I might…wake up before you. And I can’t let that happen.”

“What?” he hissed back, trying to make sense of everything that Jaden was telling him. Alaire didn’t believe her but he wanted to, but, the whole dream thing sounded a bit crazy, even in his fanatical opinions. Still, after seeing the tears in her eyes, his heart throbbed unsuspectingly. He froze and looked down at his chest. Touching his chest, he felt warmth. It was a nice relaxing relief for him somehow.

He swallowed his doubts and looked at her pale emerald green eyes that were almost crying for him to understand her. “Wake up, now.” she told him, grimly. Jaden stared right at him, dead serious. “If you do, everything will be alright. I know it will. Just trust me. Please, Alaire.” she whispered, panting heavily and shaking with fear. “Before the Mara finds us.” she notified him firmly.

The unsuspectingly throbbing returned, he gasped softly. He stared back at her, unwavering. “But you…”

Jaden didn’t let him finish his thought. It was the only thing she could think of, despite her state of being and mind. Without thinking, without hesitating, she kissed him...on the cheek. Surely, the shock of it would startle him into waking up. And sure enough, it did. Alaire gasped in shock as he fell backwards, vanishing into thin air by a whirlwind of multi-coloured leaves. A feint smile slowly appeared on Jaden’s face, but it was soon interrupted by a ghastly snarl of rage.

The Mara, Jaden had completely forgotten about its presence.

Bounding towards her like a frenzied horse scared out of its wits, Jaden froze in deep terror. Its invisible mouth opened to reveal a row of gleaming razor-sharp teeth. Death was staring right in her alarmed face. Its mouth twisted into a warped devilish grin as it charged on, coming closer and closer.

Fear dug into her. Moving useless or at least trying to move was useless at this point. Escape completely prevented. Then she remembered something. Professor Merrick Howe’s notebook, resting safely in her trembling hands, she gripped it tighter. Giving the gruesome Mara one last fleeting glimpse before ducking her head down towards the notebook and shutting her eyes, she screamed.

“WAKE UP!!”


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BAM!
Well, that's it for this chapter.
I hope it wasn't too scary...or mushy or anything...

Next chapter is coming up soon...
Just need some time to type it up.

Thanks for your time!

Any Questions please ask!