PART THREE: The Girl In the Theater

HIS NAME WAS JOHN and the girl sitting about twenty seats away from him was Isabella. He didn't know how he knew that, he just did. It was sort of like an instinct. The same way you know what to do when your life is in danger. But why couldn't he remember this girl?

The show on the stage wasn't horrible, in fact it was very good which made John wonder why only 6 other seats were filled.

"I didn't kill your father!" the man on the stage said.
"Liar!" the other screamed and pulled a sword from his side. They began sword fighting.

John yawned.

It wasn't late into the night. Why was he so tired? After all he had slept through the entire day without waking up. Maybe it was because he hadn't ate right. He had read somewhere that can affect your tiredness. He looked up through his tired eyes. The girl (Isabella) was waving at him. He pointed to himself as if asking "me?"

She said yes. He got up and slowly walked over to where she was sitting.

"Do I know you?" John asked.
"You don't remember me?" she asked.
"It's weird," he said. "It's like I do but I don't."

The whole thing was like a lucid dream to John. It seemed so surreal but yet he seemed to be controlling everything. But then again this was how night was for all night dwellers.

It was the surreal, dreamlike experience that most people cherished the most. It was something you remembered forever and never wanted to forget. John had once read that memories were like a mental time machine. That was the main purpose for memories at least and...

"How can you not remember me?" she asked, a wide grin across her face.

"HOW COULD YOU KILL HER?" the man from on stage shouted, giving his whole heart into the performance even though hardly any people were there.

The other man turned and looked at John, as if trying to make some kind of connection with him.

"I didn't remember!" he said. "I had amnesia!"
"AMNESIA? LIAR!"

Amnesia? Why was that man staring at him. John had learned long ago to trust signs like this. Was that what had happened? Had he had amnesia and forgotten about this girl, whoever she was.

"Something strange," he said, almost to himself.
"What's strange?" Isabella asked.
"Some music."
"What about music?"
"I think of amnesia, and it triggers a thought about music."
"That's strange," she said. "What could music have to do with amnesia?"
"I don't know."

She looked around as if she didn't notice the place was empty. It could have been a packed house in her mind.

"The guy on the stage," Isabella said to John. "Is my father."

FATHER. That triggered another weird thought, but this one was a brutal savage one.

"Look," John said. "I don't remember you Isabella and I'm sorry for that but I'll be right back."

He started walking off towards the exit of the theater but it seemed to stretch on forever.

"What are you sorry for?" she called to him and laughed. "It's ok if you forget to come back in here!"

That was a very strange for her to be saying such things as John knew from years of experience now there were many strange things that happened at night, not all of them great.

John stepped outside the theater and was hit by a blast of wind. Lights everywhere, John was feeling good. There were crowds of people talking but a gunshot broke their conversations. Everyone looked around, as if not understanding the sound. But john saw it. A man in a cloak shot an elderly man.

John stared at him.
"What are you looking at kid?" the man said from behind the cloak.

John thought about how he was a teen, not a kid.

The man ran towards him and hit him across the face with the pistol then ran off.

The pain was immense and John felt as if his head had tripled in size. Strangest thing was that the memories were returning. The girl. The factory. The music. Everything. He looked up and noticed something he had never before. And how could he miss them?

Strange towers that were high in the sky and gave off a pinkish glow.

John was hurting bad and he was pretty sure there was blood everywhere. To his suprise there was no blood at all, just pain. But the memories had returned. Now he wanted to go back into the theater. Quickly. Maybe there with Isabella he would be safe from the factory and it's music.

to be continued...