Eve of Destruction ©
Chapter Ten
By Fiction Writer #13
(nosex, sci-fi, paranormal)

"It's my birthday!" Sarah-Eve's hands clapped together in excitement.

A snapshot in time, a moment frozen.  It was like walking into a photograph.  A child's memory recreated in eerie detail, right down to the pink candles that showered the clown decorated cake with sparkles.

The room was decorated with balloons and streamers of a dozen different colors.  The cake read 'Happy 5th Birthday Eve!', but the little girl leaning over to blow out the flames and make her wish was double that age.

Around the room stood other figures, watching as the young girl remained locked in a permanent struggle to exhale in a big enough blast to blow out the candles.  Most of their faces were in shadow.  A few had their visages blurred to the point of being unidentifiable.

Some Paul did recognize, though.  Standing directly behind the hunched over party girl was Malcolm, a conical party hat tilted comically on his head.  Next to him stood Jonathan Reynolds, a teddy bear with a big red bow hidden behind his back.

"Isn't it great?"

Sarah-Eve moved among the assembled guests until she found an open space near the cake and her timeless self. "This was the bestest party ever!"

Paul reached out to touch the image of Malcolm standing before him, but his hand passed through it. "This isn't real."

"Yes it is.  Look, everyone is here and they are giving me tons and tons of gifts!  I had soooo much fun.  After we had cake, we all had ice cream.  I had strawberry, and, and, Grampa had chocolate, and Uncle Jonathan had vanilla but he dropped his spoon and it got all over his pants, and we all laughed.  And then we all watched 'The Little Mermaid' cause it is my most favorite movie."

"Eve, I..." Paul moved around to her side of the table. "I don't think any of this is real.  I think it's all made up."

Sarah-Eve scrunched up her face. "Can't you see it?"

"Yeah, but, I don't know.  It doesn't look right to me." Paul pointed to the birthday girl. "If that's you when you were five, shouldn't you be younger looking?  And, well, do you know where this place is?"

"Of course I do.  It's, it's..." Confusion washed over her as she tried to remember where her fifth birthday had taken place, but no answer came to her.  Instead she leaned over the cake, face to face with herself.

"But if this isn't real, then who is she?"

"I don't know, little one.  Let's keep looking and maybe we'll find out."

"Hafta make my wish first."

Sarah-Eve moved away but then surged back, her breath blowing hard through pursed lips.  The birthday candles didn't go out or even flicker, instead they faded away in a wisp of smoke, blown out of existence by her breath.

A chain reaction began.  First the candles, then the cake, the paper plates, and the table, blew away like grains of sand.  The erasure continued, taking away the party guests and the decorations.  Finally even the room could no longer hold together.  The walls shifted, the floor heaved.  The air around them filled with the sound of static as the last vestiges of the false memory dissolved.

A new image appeared behind the shifting sands.  Another birthday party, only this one was for a much younger looking girl.  She too was hunched over a cake, but this one read 'Happy 5th Birthday Sarah!' and was decorated with flowers, not clowns.  All around her were other children.  They seemed to be laughing and having fun.  Sunlight streamed in through windows adorned with white curtains.

Behind the young girl stood a tall woman with blonde hair like her own.  Sarah-Eve's eyes grew big and filled with tears.

"Mommy?"

Next to her stood another figure, this one a man with dark hair and a warm smile.

"Daddy?  Is, is that you?"

A subtle change shimmered through the new memory.  Where the other had remained as a single moment, this one began to move.  Slowly at first, so slow that it was barely noticeable, but in time it began to move nearly at a normal pace.  The pair of intruders on this scene from the past could only watch as the party came to life all around them.

Voices and sounds grew out of the silence; giggling, paper horns blowing, laughter, conversations so thick that they couldn't be followed clearly, children's music playing, the squeal and squeak of fingers touching balloons.

Sarah's mother raised her voice above the din. "Stephanie!  Robbie!  Come on, your sister is about to blow out the candles!"

An instant later two more kids appeared in the doorway.  One, a girl with long black hair, looked like a young teen.  The other was a boy, no older than Sarah-Eve herself, who had sandy blond hair and a deep golden tan.  Neither of them looked too happy to be there when they rounded the corner, but as they got closer to the table they smiled broadly at their little sister.

"That, that's him!  That's the boy in my dreams!  Only he looks younger."

Paul dodged out of the way as the two kids ran to the table in time to finish singing, "Happy birthday dear Sarah, happy birthday to you."

The birthday girl's parents leaned in on either side and gave a kiss to each of her cheeks. "Make a wish and blow out the candles!"

With a beaming smile and a twinkle in her blue eyes, the little five year old took a deep breath and blew as hard as she could.  The tiny flames danced for a moment before extinguishing, and with their light gone, the entire scene faded to black.

"Noooo!" Sarah-Eve cried out to the darkness. "No, come back!  Come back!"

Paul pulled her into his arms and hugged the sobbing girl.  The more time they spent in this place, the more he could remember what his life was outside of it.  The two of them had come here for a purpose.  They came here to do exactly what they had just done, to find the truth.

"Its okay, Eve.  Don't cry.  I'm here for you.  Everything will be alright."

"No, it won't.  I can remember them now.  I know that they are real and everything else isn't, but I can't tell which is which.  How can everything be okay now?"

"Would have it been better never knowing?  To continue living a lie rather than knowing the truth?"

Sarah-Eve continued to sob softly against his chest.

"No."

"That's my girl.  Now let’s see what's behind all those other doors, okay?"

Sarah-Eve bobbed her head in agreement before releasing Paul.  The doorway leading to the corridor materialized, and they stepped from the darkness into the dim flickering light of the concrete and steel passageway.

Tears no longer flowed down the cheeks of the little girl as the two moved back into the corridor and opened more doors, behind each waited a false memory obscuring the real.  She took on a steely resolve that grew as each moment of her past returned.

"It's coming back now.  My family, my home, my friends, but it's still all mixed up in my head."

Paul put a hand on her shoulder as they moved to the next door in line. "It'll take time, but you'll figure it out Eve."

"Don't call me that anymore."

"What?"

"That other name.  My name is Sarah.  Eve is a lie."

"Maybe, little one, but she's still a part of you.  You lived as 'Eve' for a year, and you have her lifetime of memories.  You might not want to just dismiss her outright."

"Why not?  She's not real.  She never was.  I don't owe her anything.  Because of her, I lost everything that I care about." Sarah pushed open another door, but didn't bother to peer inside.  Instead she waved her hand into the space beyond as if disgusted with the whole business.

Paul's perspective only offered him a glance into the room before it evaporated away.  Eve sitting on the floor surrounded by puppies dissolved into a day at an amusement park with Sarah and her family.  He barely caught the faint sounds of carnival music before Sarah-Eve moved on to the next door.

"Think about it, Sarah.  If you hadn't become Eve, then you wouldn't have learned about magic." Paul tried to slow her down as she threw open the door and repeated her dismissive hand gesture, but she ignored him.

"So what?  So I can do magic stuff now.  Big whoop!" She pushed past him to open another door. "I never wanted to do it.  He made me.  He took me away from my life and forced me to do it.  He didn't ask me if I wanted to.  He's a liar."

She pointed into the new room at a memory of her Grandfather having breakfast with Dr. Reed and Jonathan. "They're all liars."

She ran into the memory throwing punches wildly at those seated.  Her fists never made contact, but the effects of her anger smeared the images as if they were created from wet paint.

Suddenly she stopped in mid-swing, turning on her heels in one fluid motion to point an accusing finger at the little girl standing on a stool in front of the stove flipping pancakes.

"She's the worst of 'em." Like a cat hunting a mouse, Sarah lunged across the imaginary room to pounce on her victim.

Paul attempted to intervene but found himself rooted to the floor, sunk up to his ankles in a goopy mess of liquid colors.

"Sarah, stop!"

His plea fell on deaf ears as Sarah dove into the frozen Eve with a wet splosh.  The reality of the room completely liquefied and splashed to the ground in a single crashing wave.  Paul collapsed under the liquid's weight.  It stung his eyes and burned his nostrils.  His lungs filled as he struggled to stay right upright, to get his feet to touch bottom.  Just when he believed all was lost, he broke the surface.

Gasping for air and choking, Paul found himself standing in the middle of a swimming pool in someone's backyard.  Desperately he searched for Sarah in the blinding sunlight.

"I'm over here."

Paul whipped his head around to find the source of her voice, his wet hair sending a spray of water flying.  He found her kneeling on the ground beside another memory of herself.  The Sarah in her memory was lying on a towel in a blue bikini, her body glistening in the summer sun.  Behind them stood a dark blue house.

"This is where I used to live." Sarah, the real Sarah, turned to face her dripping teacher. "This is where I belong.  Not in that... that other place."

Paul's eyes caught some movement inside the house.  Helen, Sarah's mother, was keeping an eye on her daughter from the first floor.  Peeking through blinds on the second floor, Paul caught a glimpse of another family member.  Robbie had been eyeing up her tiny exposed form as well on this day.

Paul hoisted himself out of the in-ground pool and onto the concrete patio to join his student.

"Did you know that they were watching you?"

She nodded her head yes. "I wore that suit hoping that Robbie would notice that I was growing up," she grinned. "I was so scared and excited at the same time.  If my mom hadn't been watching, I planned on taking my top off to give him more to see, but she stayed there in the kitchen the whole time I was out here."

The sunlight began to fade, and with it went the memory.  Paul and Sarah found themselves once again in a dark, empty room, the only source of light the doorway leading back to the corridor.

"This isn't what you were expecting, is it?" Sarah took Paul's hand as they walked towards the light.

"No, little one." Paul couldn't contain the tinge of disappointment coming through in his voice. "Not at all."

Sarah gripped his hand a bit tighter. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"I'm holding you back.  You can't move on until I'm done opening all these dumb doors."

"Sweetie," Paul knelt down next to her. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here at all.  You're the one holding the moment, not me."

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, but, you thought that you would be meeting God or something like that.  Not walking around this ugly place opening doors."

"This is important, little one.  We have to unlock your memories." Paul offered her a smile. "God can wait."

Sarah shrugged, sighing as her eyes traveled down the seemingly endless corridor lined with, as yet, un-opened doors. "There's so many of them, though.  This is gonna take for-ev-er."

"Be patient.  Time has no meaning here.  We could spend years here if we wanted to, but as soon as you let the moment go we would be back in my room as if nothing had happened."

Sarah stopped walking, a look of intense contemplation etching her youthful face. "Soooo... you're saying that no matter how long we take opening these doors, it's not going to matter once we're back?"

"That's right."

"Well... if it doesn't matter how long we take, then it won't matter if we open them one at a time or all at once, then, will it?"

"Well, I don't know about that.  I think it would be wise to allow yourself time to digest each new memory as it is unlocked."

"But you just said that time is meaningless here, so it won't matter if we do it quick or slow."

Paul began to feel uneasy with the direction the conversation was heading.

"Sweetie, I really think we need to take our time with this.  I can't say for sure what could happen if all your memories are returned to you all at once.  It might..."

Sarah interrupted excitedly. "It's like a band-aid!"

Paul's confusion shown on his face.

Sarah tried to explain. "If you take off a band-aid really slow and careful, all it does is make it hurt for longer.  But if you pull it off real quick, it doesn't hurt as much!"

"I... I understand what you're thinking, but..."

"Nope, no more buts!" Sarah spun away from him and gazed down the empty hall.

"Wait, don't do what I think you're going to do.  Not like this!  Eve!"

She ignored him.  Her arms lifted from her sides, stretched out, fingers pointing to the walls to her right and left.  Her eyes closed tight in concentration, her lower lip trembling.

"I asked you not to call me that anymore."

Quick as a spring loaded trap, her hands came together with a loud clap that resounded like a peal of thunder in the enclosed space.  The rumble echoed away from them, deeper and deeper down the hall, until they were both left in stunned silence.

Paul gazed unblinking into the direction that the sound traveled. "Sarah, what did you just do?"

Sarah stood, frozen with fear. "I... I don't know."

A low rumble, a deep sound, one that you feel rather than actually hear, ran through the hard concrete floor.  Fine particles of dust shook loose from the pipes that ran along the ceiling, slowly drifting down in a light snowfall.

Sarah's eyes followed the tiny motes as they gently settled to the floor. "I don't know why I did what I did.  It just, I just..."

The falling dust changed direction.  Instead of moving towards the floor in a relatively straight line, it began to drift on an angle away from the grumbling depths, towards Paul and Sarah.

"What's happening?" Paul turned to face Sarah.  Her hair, which had hung limp during their travels, lifted and fell in tiny wisps.  Loose strands of gold fluttered in a breeze too faint to yet feel on his bare skin.

"Sarah, what's happening?"

"I don't..." Sarah took a step backwards. "Something's coming."

Paul peered back down the passageway, squinting into the dim glow thrown off by the industrial lighting, but couldn't see anything.  The dust was gone now, blown away by a breeze that Paul could only now feel.

"What's going on, Sarah?"

"The darkness.  It's... it's getting closer." Sarah took another hesitant step in retreat.

Paul searched the distance for some sign of what was approaching.  The vibrations in the floor expanded to include the air around them, a rumbling punctuated by a deep throbbing.  The breeze grew in intensity as well, now lifting the corners of Paul's robe into the air.  He was about to give up and look to Sarah for an answer when a subtle movement caught his eye.  The lights at the extreme far end were being extinguished, blotted out by something coming their way.  The darkness truly was coming as Sarah had stated.

"Sarah, I think we need to go." The calmness of his voice belied the growing panic within him.

The throbbing air grew into a series of thundering booms, a steady rhythm, like ocean waves smashing into a sea-side cliff.  Each boom pushed a wave of air down the tunnel, washing Paul and Sarah in cooler temperatures, and eliciting goose-bumps to rise on exposed skin.

"We have to run, Sarah, we have to get away!" Paul's fear could no longer be kept to himself.

Sarah stood silent, rooted in place, her entire body trembling as the winds grew to a hair whipping frenzy.

"Sarah!" Paul had to shout over the thunder. "Are you listening to me?  We have to go!"

Snapped out of her trance by his words, Sarah faced Paul to acknowledge him before dropping to her knees on the floor.  Before her was a steel hatch which she lifted, revealing a metal ladder leading down a dark shaft. "You go first, I'll follow you."

Not needing to be told twice, Paul dropped down and squeezed into the opening.  Below him he could see that the ladder seemed to go on forever, but there was some kind of light near the bottom.  As he clambered down he looked up to make sure Sarah was coming.  Instead he found her still squatting above the entry, offering him a weak smile.

"I'm sorry Dr. Paul, but I have to stay and see it."

"Sarah!  What are you doing?  Sarah!"

"I'm sorry." Sarah closed the hatch to cut off his protests. "It's my nightmare, and I have to see it through."

The heavy hatch slammed shut with a clang, sealing Dr. Paul on the other side.  Sarah stood up, taking a moment to brush off her bare knees before once again turning to face the approaching darkness. "Come on.  I'm waiting for you this time.  Here I am.  Come and get me."

The wind increased to a gale that nearly knocked her off her feet.  Closer and closer it rushed at her.  The thunderous booms and the roaring became deafening in the corridor.

Sarah squinted against the driving wind; tears stripped from her eyes ran horizontally across her face to hide in her wildly blowing hair.  The source of the darkness and accompanying roar slowly came into focus.

Two at a time, one on the right and one on the left, the steel doors on either side of the corridor were exploding open.  Through each gaping hole a torrent of water issued forth, crashing into each other in the center of the corridor with a massive boom.  The frothy waters merged with the approaching darkness, the source of the roar now revealed as the outer-most edge of an oncoming tsunami.

"Oh God!" Sarah gasped.  She no longer wanted to wait for her nightmare to find her.  Terror took hold of her heart, painfully squeezing it within her heaving chest.  She looked to the floor, searching desperately for the same exit that she had tricked Dr. Paul into using just moments before, but found only smooth concrete. "Oh no!"

By the time Sarah looked up from the floor, it was obvious to her that there was no escape, no where to run.  The wave of darkness rushed towards her at an incredible speed.  Horror caused her to hyperventilate as the gap separating her from the wave shortened with each stunted breath.  One-hundred yards, seventy-five, fifty, twenty-five, ten... Sarah took a deep breath, held it in, and closed her eyes tight.

The instant that she predicted the wave would take her, nothing happened.  In fact, even the sound of the approaching wall had ceased the very moment she closed her eyes.  She could hear her own breathing, still labored and shaky, but no other sounds surrounded her.

For a time, she was too afraid to open her eyes, afraid that if she did she would find herself still awaiting the crushing weight of the water to slam into her.  She measured the passage of time in breaths.  When she reached sixty, she was sure that the danger had passed, that somehow, her life had been spared.

Ever so slowly she relaxed the muscles that were squeezing her eye lids together.  At first she saw nothing, she was surrounded by near darkness on all sides, but as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light she found herself standing within a sphere.  All around her she could see the water rushing by, its currents so swift and strong that they carried with them large chunks of gouged out concrete.

Curious about her protective bubble, Sarah reached out with a cautious finger and touched the inner surface.  The tip of her finger passed through the membrane without meeting any resistance.  Once on the other side she could feel just how cold and fast the water was moving.  The force of the maelstrom tugged hard against the underside of her finger nail, so strong that Sarah feared it would be pulled off.  She withdrew her finger quickly and was surprised to find that it was completely dry.

"What in the world is going on?" The last remaining light bulb beyond the bubble began to flicker off and on before finally going out completely, plunging Sarah into true darkness.

A deep chill crept into her.  Visions of herself slowly suffocating in the dark caused her heart to pound against her ribs once more.  Her thoughts raced.  She was alone, so desperately alone.  Why did she send Dr. Paul away?  She would never see her friends again.  She would never see her family again.  Everyone she ever cared about was gone.  She was lost.  Lost in this nothingness.  Forgotten.  All alone and no one cared.  No one ever cared.  Why would they?  She was nothing special.  She was worthless.  A lost cause.  They didn't love her, they were using her.  Lying to her.  She couldn't do the things they said she would do.  She didn't even know what those things were.  How could she do them?

For a long time she just stood, sobbing and shivering in the eerie silence as painful memories flitted into and out of her mind.  Moments where she felt lost or unwanted hung about her neck like an anchor dragging her down into a deep sea.  Her bleary tear stung eyes searched the inky black for any signs of change.  Finding none, she again extended a finger and poked outward, seeking the surface of the bubble.

"Whaoh!  That's cool!" As her finger sunk past the thin barrier, ripples of iridescent light spread out across the bubble's surface.  Every movement of her finger produced more and more ripples.  Soon she was surrounded by a swirling rainbow of light which filled her with a giddy warmth.

The warmth traveled through her finger tips, up her arms and deep into her core.  She couldn't help but smile as the tingly sensations flowed through her body.  It was a familiar feeling, one she had experienced a few times during her life as Sarah, and numerous times as Eve, but absolutely unmistakable.  She was on the verge of having an orgasm, and not just any orgasm, but one of the best she had ever felt.

Memories began to surge into her mind one after another.  They flipped by so fast she barely had a chance to recognize them as her own before they fluttered away.  The pure joy she felt as they caressed and tickled her mind caused her knees to buckle and her toes to curl.  Higher and higher her bliss climbed, until she found herself laughing so hard that it made her sides hurt.

One particular memory jumped to the front of her mind.  This one so powerful, so full of happiness, it shot into her and bounced around like a pin-ball, leaving in it's wake a series of girlish giggles.

She was standing in a corridor, just like the one in her dreams, just like the one she had been in with Dr. Paul, only this time she was already wet, still dripping from having just left a room full of showers.  Her brother was there, Robbie was standing with her.  She had just risked everything, everything to confess her love for him, but she had to, she just couldn't hold it inside any longer.  He had fallen silent after her words, leaving her to feel the embarrassment and despair of unrequited love come crushing down.

Slowly he knelt down on the floor before her, trying to meet her gaze, but she kept turning away from him, not wanting to confirm what she already believed.  That he did not feel the same way as she did.  He reached up, forcefully taking hold of her head, forcing her to look into his beautiful blue eyes.

"I love you too, Sarah.  I love you more than I could ever tell you.  I've always been in love with you, but I've been too chicken shit to tell you.  So let me show you."

Her heart pounded and her thoughts swooned as he pulled her close, crushing her tiny body against his.  His lips, so soft, so tender, so warm, pressed against her own.

'He loves me!' she cried out joyously in her mind as she melted against him, into him, becoming one with him.  When the kiss finally broke, she felt broken herself.  She would never again feel complete, not without Robbie.

He held her so tight, and she loved being in his muscular arms.  It made her feel safe, secure.  It made her feel as if there were no obstacles that she could not overcome so long as he still loved her.

"I would never leave you behind Sarah.  Not now, not ever." He was crying softly as he spoke, so she held on tighter to him, letting him know that she would be there for him as well.

He kissed the top of her head as they trembled against one another. "I love you."