124 Recall

"Do I look like a debt collector to you? More so ever do you really think I'm going to let your debt stack up?" Regan rolled her eyes, her hands grabbing his and pushing them off. 

She sat down on the bed with a pout. 

"How cute," Antonin chuckled, ruffling her hair. 

"Yea, yea," Regan rolled her eyes. 

She shuffled backward on her bed, resting on her pillows and pressing her back against the wall. A ring goes off in her head and her eyes looked up at the clock. "Isn't it time for lunch?"

Antonin's gaze followed hers. It was 12:00pm.

"Hmm, seems like it," He nodded. 

Regan looked towards the doorway, slightly confused when she didn't notice the food cart. "Where's the food?" She looked at Antonin, her eyebrow raising, "did you not bring any?"

"What do you think?" Antonin asked. 

Regan let out a deep sigh and narrowed her eyes at Antonin. "So you mean to tell me you came here early to take advantage of me while I was sleeping and fell asleep in the act, AND forgot to bring food too?"

"Wow the way you talk about me makes me sound like I'm a harasser," Ryder pouted. 

"Did Mr. Innocent suddenly forget what he did to me minutes ago?" Regan cocked her head, a mocking smile on her face, "how many times was it? 3? How many offenses total? Hand, waist, body grabbing without consent and…" her fingers touched her lips slightly. They tingled. 

"3 kisses," She muttered looking down at the hand on her lips. She locked eyes with Ryder. "What a long track record you have Mr. Innocent."

Antonin grinned, shrugging. "Simply accusations your honor, I would never try that."

Regan's eyebrows raised again, "And a smooth talker too." 

Antonin chuckled, Regan joining in his laughter. 

She let out a long sigh and stretched her arms. She flinches. 

A pang of pain travels up her arm and stiffness accompanies them. 

Her eyes fall down to her arms immediately and she flinches again, a shiver running through her as another wave of pain rushes in. At first, she didn't notice it but her eyes focused quickly on it. Seconds later, her eyes dimmed. 

"Bandages?" she muttered. 

Antonin's gaze follows hers to her arms. A knowing puff of air escapes his lips. 

First came a wave of confusion, then realization, and then another of confusion. Regan began to try to think back, under the folds of time that had passed by just minutes ago, and others that were being compressed into a mesh of the fabric of time in her memories. It was somewhere beneath all that happened, somewhere beneath her nightmares, just around the forest of trees and past the steady flow of the river. 

It was funny how something that had happened hours ago was so hard to find in her memory. 

Seconds later, she remembered. It was sickening, the lines between real and fake were well blurred and Regan stood in the middle of it all, threatened by a being she didn't know. It was blurry, but she could see. 

She looked up to Antonin, using his face to help her remember more. 'I was having breakfast with him… was I not?'

"Regan?" Antonin cocked his head, catching her gaze. "What is it?"

'It was going fine…' Regan pondered, 'yea… everything was fine. We were talking well, no thoughts were in my mind and I was present in the moment.'

Antonin's mouth twists to say something in her memory. 

'Vixen? Was it because of Vixen that I reacted like that?' Regan thought to herself. She shook her head soon after. 'No… no, it wasn't him." 

A ring goes off in her head, this time like the throbbing of a heart, it's intensity rising and falling like a pestering headache.

A soft clink is heard from an object in Antonin's hand as he shakes it. 'Sprinkles?' Regan thought to herself, 'no… it wasn't that either.'

Her head throbbed again. 

A constant fizz and the light scent of sweet milk fills the air. 'Whipped cream,' Regan thought to herself. 'It wasn't that either.'

She could hear their conversation and there was nothing off about that either. 'Then what was it?! What caused all of this?!'

There's a tightening around her neck and she lets out a cough, her head throbbing and the rings going off like an alarm. 

'Ah… there it is,' Regan sighed, 'the pancake.' She paused for a moment, the taste of the pancake filling her mouth. 'No, it wasn't the pancake, it was what was said while I was eating it.'

Regan looked up at the ceiling in confusion. 'It sounded all too familiar to my ears. It was almost like I was repeating the lines I heard before…'

Regan stayed still for a moment as she stared at the ceiling. It came to her like a thunderbolt. One powerful strike that was over in a second but left enough damage to last longer.

"It was because of her wasn't it?" Regan muttered, Antonin's eyes drawing to her's, flinching when they peered at them. 

Her pupils were shaking with anger and a deep look of anger on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed deeply and her mouth open to reveal baring teeth that scrape against each other. She was set in fury and rage. It wasn't only because of the person, but also because of her reaction. She hated how she froze, hated how she trembled, hated how she feared. All because of a simple trigger that led her life to what it was now. 

It was frustrating. Especially when the memories of what came next came flooding back but it was a flurry, the lines of reality and mind tricks being blended into each other more times than before. She remembered a distant calling of her name, a hand grip her shoulder and shook her desperately. Her vision blurred the more she tried to make out the person's face. 

She feels her hand rise and pushes the figure away and finally, she catches a glimpse of their face. It was only when they stood farther away from her that she was able to see. It was Antonin. A trembling, frightened, petrified, Antonin. 

She remembers saying something, her lips moving to form a word she couldn't quite understand but she knew clearly what she said. He ran out of the room and her vision cleared further. His movements were frantic as he ran away from her. They showed no signs of stopping. It was when he was out of sight that her vision darkened, darkness engulfing her entirety. She felt weak, the feeling of something running up to her mouth and gushing out like waves. It felt like blood, it tasted sour. 

Seconds later, her head rings and she falls to the ground limply. It was dark all around her. There was no shadow, there were no trees, there were no bodies on the ground. It was just her, laying in silence while surrounded by the deep shades of black. The ringing filled her head. Never had she felt so close to death, line her twitching hands were reaching for something short off in the distance. Something tall, draped in black, and wielding the weapon to end her sorrow. 

Her mind goes silent and her eyes deaf to all around her. It was quiet. A silence she never knew she could feel. 

Something grabs her, pulls her to it, and held her tight. She didn't want to be held. She wanted to stay in the silence, in the depth of darkness, at the bottom of her pit. She didn't want to be saved. 

Warmth dances on her skin in certain areas. Her cold body was touched by the heat of a fire. It was warm. Then came the feeling of lightness, like she was suspended in the air. But there was no bottom for her, just darkness. It felt like if she was dropped, she would fall, and fall and fall. 

Her mouth was moving again. Asking questions with a naive mind. Words being spewed out from the depth of darkness and being met with answers she could know.

It was a funny feeling. Hearing answers without knowing the questions, hearing answers without knowing the voice. 

A cloth is felt on her face, its movements a bit harsh but still calm. 

Regan listened silently to the answers flowing into her mind. They had no voice but just came to her like common knowledge. Every answer would come after she moved her mouth, saying a question she couldn't hear, and then the answer would flow in, touching her mind softly. 

She flinches when her arm is lifted, the touches of warmth making her body shiver. Then something comes over her head, it feels soft, like a new piece of clothing. 

There were waves of warmth that came after. Something would be placed on her and she would feel warm, her mouth moving to say something. Then she feels cold when it's taken off. Her mouth moves again to say something. 

There was a brief moment of silence after she muttered one more thing. Then an answer comes in and warmth runs up her hand throughout her body. It was the perfect mix of warmth and coolness. 

There's another brief exchange and Regan's memories are cut off. There was nothing else there except for the consistent flow of warmth for the next 2 minutes before she felt nothing. 

Regan's head rings and she looks up to Antonin in confusion. 

It made no sense, nothing she remembered made any sense. 

"Antonin… What in the world happened in the morning?"