OOC: MEMORY CRYSTAL 1 [External Memory] HEARING:TOUCH
As soon as she touched the crystal, everything went black. Doll couldn’t see anything.
When she reached out, she felt the handle of a door. She was touching it, but at the same time, something told her in her brain that it wasn’t real. Curious, she pushed open the door and walked beyond the door into more darkness. Her hand picked up the feeling of incense burning, but she couldn’t smell it.
Then there were stairs. She was climbing, climbing. In the background, there was the repetitive sound of a clock. Somewhere.
At the top of the stairs she reached out and felt what seemed like a body of a small car with the windows rolled down. When she reached inside, she felt a cold body in the shape of a boy. She fumbled until she got to the other side. This side had what she might guess from the clothes to be a little girl. Around her neck was some kind of folded paper.
Cranes. She knew it from her dream.
“Aren’t they adorable? The children.” It was the voice of an old woman. Doll turned.
“Are you the owner?” Doll heard herself ask. She must be in a shop or something, she guessed.
“Something like that,” she heard the old woman answer. “What would you like me to take care of for you, young lady?”
“Take care of?”
“That’s right. I provide a service for my costumers…I take care of their external memories for them. I look after them.” What? Doll didn’t understand. “Everything here looks like it is only collecting dust…but each one of these things here holds a special memory for someone.”
Good, good. Doll wanted the voice to tell her something about herself.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m suffocating. This room is filled with the psychic imprints of the owner’s memories. I can feel them,” the woman continued. “They attracted you too. That’s why you were drawn here.” There was a noise over by the car. The woman had moved there.
“These are antiques from back during the early days of full-prosthetic bodies. The memories surrounding these children are always a source of sadness and pain for me…” There was a long pause. “But I had a feeling you would come.”
“Why is that?” Doll asked.
“These children are tired of waiting.”
The sensation changed…the same shaking from her dream. The woman’s voice continued on.
“The man who took care of these little bodies…he was in a plane crash when he was six years old. It was a terrible accident where most of the passengers died. Even those who were rescued from the wreckage died soon after. There were only two survivors…a little boy and a girl who happened to be in the seat next to him…” What. What? What? Doll’s mind was racing. The old woman’s story started to fragment. The girl, a coma. The boy, paralyzed.
“…all except his left hand.”
Go on, go on, Doll screamed in her head. But it was fading. She could barely hear the old woman anymore.
“Please let her wake up, the boy prayed again and again…”
Then she felt herself being shaken again, but it was different this time. Doll's eyes opened. There was Chosen standing above her, and the voice of the woman, and the strange feeling of the shop was gone. Something inside of her wouldn’t stop hurting…
It took a moment before she could shake the feeling off.