piece by piece (1/2)

[Deleted]

She slightly shrugged as she looked at her hand and let out a disapproving sigh. "I got no idea because this isn't the story I seen. I need to see if Giselle is ready or not because this book is eating the story I seen and I can not keep ahead of the new story without her help. I guess we are just going to keep having to watch that television." She needed more tea and fresher leaves. "I need you to go check on Ribbon, Parker. Something is going on with her too." She pointed to the pink journal that had enveloped itself inside of a tight clamp of copper and metal wiring.

"My children are out of control and they are a little too old for me to put over my knee and correct so.." She slightly shrugged. "I mean if they were younger I could just play around with their spirit essence but these are adults. Parker they have only been back from Alaska for a few months but not long enough for me to figure them out and plus I can not do my thing without their permission and as you can see, we're not the best of family so..yeah they are pretty wild. I totally got this though. I just need about a month and then I can wrangle them in. How much trouble can my offspring cause in a month? I mean I was pretty good." She fluttered her eyelashes as she took a seat and positioned herself out on the sofa. "Let me get comfortable real quick because I get the feeling Micah's hero quest isn't going to go as smooth as he hopes. You should join me."

He blinked slowly as he heard her. "Sounds plausible at least somewhat." He tasted blood when he talked and he did not like that. Still he talked on. "Trove I don't really have a plan. I mean this entire process has been spit balling but we can not spitball the entire time here and plus there are other factors..maybe matters..things that we need to discuss."

The sound of the feet on the floor as they were talking was not something that he was expecting either. "Guys I hate to interrupt but I just got a call. I need the two of you to come with me." He looked up to see Decipher again. "Decipher where have you been?" She shrugged. "Just out. Come on, we need to fuel up on food and make sure everything is good." Her job was blocking things that were not meant to be and she was pretty good at it. "Micah come on, I guess she can come too."

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

She trusted Micah. Well she thought that she trusted Micah at least because she felt like she could trust him but something was off. Her memories seemed almost as if they had never happened at all and she did not like that feeling at all especially the creepy feeling that she got when Cici seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. "Talk about a cold shoulder" she said as she looked at him.

"Where are we going?" If he was tired of spitting that was fine because she felt that they were both too old to spit anyway but she did not want to be left in the dark. Plus there was just a creep factor to Cici but she also knew that maybe it was her just doing too much and allowing too much to take her off her guard. "If we go with her where are we going because she sounds like she has a plan and I would like to know what most of said plan is before I just walk off with a stranger."

Yes she had gotten here because of Cici but she was still a stranger for the most part. "Decipher please answer me. We're not children anymore so I would like an adult conversation with you."

The blonde looked over at the television and then at the journal and then at Faye and she spoke. "Ribbon? Oh no I do not think that is such a good idea in all truth as a matter of fact maybe we should just toss that journal right away."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

She pushed her hair back and looked at Trove. "I got nothing to say. I mean..I am sorry because that was very rude but I got nothing to say to you. Hold on..that was still rude. I mean I am just not a person who likes to have unfinished business and at the end of the day we still have unfinished business. Coming here did not change it. I was nice enough to give you guys your moment but you are on my time now so are you coming or not?"

Not being out on the road she was starting to get annoyed. "Look he might not have a plan but I do and I am ready to start it. Do not worry I am not about killing people but the last thing I need is either one of you losing focus and throwing me off. Besides it has been a minute since I have actually felt like doing something. Of all things that would block me I never thought that you would be one."

She gently grabbed Trove's arm and pulled her to the side while she smiled at Micah but then she completely focused on Trove as she spoke. "I like Micah enough but he has always been a bit of a sheep type so come on you can trust me. I am the one that actually picked you up and besides who else are you going to turn to at least right now?"

"I can hear you," he butted in. He ran a few fingers through his hair and then sighed as he watched it fall. It seemed gritty along the edges but he was letting that go for now. "I will admit sometimes I am easily distracted but I got this. I feel like I have been working towards this my whole life so I am going to do my best to mess it up the least. Besides Trove trusts me completely. I mean look at her face."

He turned and actually looked at her face. "Trove you do trust me right?" He grabbed her hands out of fright and began to circle his fingers in between her knuckles. As he did he stared as he often did going off into his own world. He carefully pressed against her knuckles and his eyes narrowed because for once his attention was held by what he thought he seen. He shook his head out of the second and cleared his throat. "Caedara?" He never called her that and the fact that his tone had her name come out like a question alarmed him down in his gut a little bit but he shook it off still. "You're coming right?"

His fingers were sweaty as he kept circling in between her knuckles. He knew that he should stop but..he had never been the type to do what he should. He gently pressed putting his full attention on her skin but not the outer layer. There seemed to be something underneath but just barely visible. He pressed again and looked at her as his mouth went agape. He leaned forward and whispered. "Something is in your knuckles, I can see it. Do you see it too?"

He slowly blinked because he was all curious and a curious child is often a dangerous child because well curiosity always kills the cat. "Look closely," he whispered as he turned and looked at Decipher. "We need like two minutes but we will meet you outside." His cousin rolled her eyes but left and he turned to Trove. "What kind of freak are you Trove?" Well that was quite rude.

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

Parker had been watching intently. "This is a fucking soap opera I swear." She said as she looked at Faye and then back at the television. "You know when I had Decipher I always wondered if she would take after me or Flynn more. I mean her whole child hood was touch and go and as she got older she seemed like me. At least until Flynn died after that all she wanted to do was play the same song on the piano over and over again." She shrugged. "If I close my eyes Faye I can still hear it."

She got down in front of the television and began to hum. "I miss him. Don't you?" She knew that Faye had never been the type to express her feelings at least then. "Do you think she does? I mean I always knew I was a fail parent. I really tried with my six to seven kids but I just never had it in me. Oh wait this just got strange."

Trust was earned and once it was broken it was hard to get back though she raised an eyebrow when he called her Caedara because that crap hit her right in her feels at least until he started sounding like a mad man because whispering was always creepy. She never understood why they tried to depict it as sexy in movies and tv shows when it was clear that it was creepy as hell. "My face itches."

It was the best that she could come up with on such short notice because she was in an awkward situation at the moment and it honestly seemed like he wanted an answer in the immediate future. "My knuckles are fine." How much sweat did this man-boy have in him. She looked down and yeah they were all there. "Is this supposed to be Morse code?"

She tried her best to whisper it but she was sure she had not as she heard him ask Cici to leave. Two minutes for what? She looked down at her knuckles again as she watched her leave and heard his question. "That depends" she said as she made sure that Cici was gone. "Can I still manipulate you but you would rather I did not?" She finally knew why she was here as she looked at him. "Ace." A name for a name. "You need my memories don't you?"

Her humming suddenly stopped as the television began to crack and buzz. "Faye something is going on!"

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

He normally would have hesitated a little bit but he wanted to be honest with her. "Yeah. The way I see it if we find her then she can help us but I am going to need a favor from you as well. Let us dive into your memories and see what we find." He did not say it out loud but she was the second key. "I mean I am pretty sure that I blocked it out but there is an urgency inside of me when it comes to talking about the hero side of things and I think that starts with seeing what you remember."

The leg shake was always something that he wished he could avoid but it was not going away. It was true over the years he had just knocked it off as a bad tick of nerves and he was still sure that was mostly true but what if it was slightly more. "If you say no I completely understand since what I am actually asking would be you putting yourself in more pain than anything else."

It was the last thing that he wanted if he was being honest. "Pain is terrible but I always thought if there was a key to something, if anyone could take the pressure it might be you?" He slightly shrugged because even though it came out like a statement he was meaning it more of a question. "Nothing that needs an immediate answer but take a couple of weeks and let me know what you come too. I have learned patience over the past few years so at least there is that."

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

She liked him and she wanted it for him and she knew that it did not require an answer right then but it did not matter if it was a few minutes or a few days her answer was always going to be the same. "Find me a person who can help me extract my memories without too much pain and you got it." She did not want to pull him around about this because she knew that time was not on her side. "Find me someone that I can trust and I will do it because it means the world to you to remember and you were there for me and it would make me a shitty friend if I did not return the favor."

She had no idea if she believed in things that tied people together but she knew one thing there was no her without him and not in a romantic way but in a way of existing. "You and I have a destiny to find and if that keeps us on the same side I can not say but I know that one of the most important things about a person's destiny is the road there. It is going to curve and it is going to surprise both of us and there will be times that we do not like each other but for as long as you are discovering your destiny Micah I am going to back you. So let's start this story because all the pieces are here and I don't have much time."

That was the thing about memories because eventually they faded and once the memories were out they would began to fade from her thus she would began to fade from this existence. "You're going to connect with me Micah because I actually know how this plays out and then I am going to die because that's what I know that you don't."

Memory Triggered.

"How long?" Parker shook her head and then she spoke. "I don't know Cae. I can only tell you that once he finds his destiny it will set yours in motion. They saved you once but the truth is that it only prolonged the inevitable.

She paused a minute and then went on. "Then I'm going to die because I know that somewhere along the line what was supposed to be a cure just turned into a stall so stop wasting my time and let's go do what we came to do."

Micah Nottingham

[Deleted]

His mind trailed off.

"Mom I feel strange when I think about the day after." His mother had assured a younger him that it was just a part of life and that it was natural. "Yeah but with everything that we know surely we can do something?" His mother said that time was short and that even in the end years would be minutes when it came time.

"Okay," he said simply because to say anything else was unfair he felt. His leg was shaking so much. "I did not think about that, that unlocking the memories would be taking time off of your life." He was experiencing something that he did not understand. Later when he looked back he would discover that this was sadness but for now it was different and he did not like it. "It makes sense though. Pushing through your power so much that you will eventually burn out."

He needed to be stronger because right now he felt so weak and so pathetic because in a moment where he wished that she was wrong deep down inside he knew that she was right and there was nothing that could change the bigger picture. Yeah you had your adjustments, your pieces but pieces only shape the bigger picture and the overall end is the same. He needed just the smallest piece of hope but there was no hope to be had here only so much to shuffle through and not enough time. "How many memories have been triggered just today while you have been talking to me? Be honest."

Was that why he could see stuff in her hands? "I can't..." A promise was a promise though. "..and yet I am going to.." It was the first time that he felt something pull at him. It was a force of regret and he just wanted to go back and redo everything but that was the thing about pieces. You do not get to go back because you simply had to work with what was allowed.

Faye calmed Parker down and spoke. "Calm down, Parker. He just realized that for once she really did nail it." Faye turned to the hanging jade vine as it slowly began to lose it's color. It pained Faye to watch something that was once so vibrant began to dull out. "I told you..the road to hero is broken and hard and he always thought it would be smooth but heroes are only heroes once they find something that pushes them into a world of finding something worth fighting for." For a brief second she almost sounded as if she had hope in her voice and it faded. "The trove will only hold the treasures for a short time but I do hope he takes her memory and use it for good. Tick Tock Parker."

Cae Mire

[Deleted]

"Numbers do not matter Micah. All that matters is that it is happening and I just need you to get stronger and be wiser because what you are doing now is not going to work when it comes time to swallow the hard truth." She knew that he was not ready no matter how much he liked to pretend. "I am going to get you ready and then I am going to die with nothing but my memories to take me to my peace so make them good." She started to say exceptional but she did not want to put too much pressure on him. "Make them good so that when I am remembering them I can smile and then at the end you can be at peace."

Memory Triggered.
"What does that mean?" she asked and he simply replied. "It means that you have the power to manipulate me but I really wish you would not."

"Just one though" she said as she smiled weakly. She could only hope that he would forgive the lies once he was where he needed to be not just mentally but physically and emotionally and knowing him spiritually too. "Alright let's get started because it's starting to warm up and spring is beautiful and life is anew and all of that." New beginnings that's for sure.

Micah Nottingham
[End]