Journey: The Memory-Taker

As I wandered down the gravelly road, I spied a strange obelisk jutting into the sky from the otherwise featureless, flat, grassy plains I walked through. Its dark silhouette made it look almost as if someone had jabbed a giant stake into the soft ground by the side of the road. As I approached it, I could see that it was not simply a stake, it was a kind of raised chair, raised high on a solid wooden block right next to the road. The arms and back were of a piece with the base, and now I could see why it had appeared as a solid mass to me at first. A mass was resting in the chair, made of various shades of brown melding into one another so it was difficult to make out edges, and it was covered entirely in what seemed to be a webbed net of some kind, with no apparent beginning or end. I kept walking towards the chair, as it seemed to grow taller as I got closer. Finally, stopping in front of it and looking up, it stood at least ten feet tall, with the indistinct netted object only partly visible from my lower viewpoint.

The object moved. I jumped back, but it did not pounce or attack me. It simply stretched slowly, and as a face turned up and gazed down at me through the netting I realized the bundle had been a person, hunched over and curled up, in indeterminate brown coverings. His, or maybe her, hands came up to grasp the net on either side of its face as it just looked at me, blinking perhaps once or twice. I tried to steady myself as I addressed it.

"Hello...? I'm sorry, I didn't see you there, um..." The figure just sat there, still and quiet. I waited, unsure what to do next. Finally, it lowered its head so its face was again hidden and extended its fingers feebly through the netting towards me. Uncertain of what to do, I approached the chair, reaching up on my toes until my fingers barely brushed those of the figure in the chair.

I cannot explain to you what I saw next, save to try to describe it as perhaps a library of colors that seemed to come out of nowhere in front of me. Each color was a feeling, or perhaps the feeling was the color, and they all were pictures, moving with sound and context. Needless to say I was both staggered and confused. Then, in an instant, I saw a moment, a quick flash of time, as if I was there. Someone I didn't recognize, yet who was very familiar, was holding me, his (or was it her?) hands rubbing my hair fondly. And I was so happy, so very happy...

The vision faded and I was standing where I had been, fingers not quite touching the bone-thin fingers still poking through the web. Nothing around me had changed, yet that feeling of happiness still stayed with me, strong as it had been, and I couldn't help but smile though I couldn't think of a reason for this sudden feeling of joy. I turned my attention back to the figure, whose face was hidden again from me.

"Wha- What just happened? Did you see that? Did you see anything? What's going on?" I couldn't stop the questions, though I scarcely cared for the answer. I was quite pleased with the situation overall, quite pleased with everything come to think of it. I raised my hands to my head and held it, laughing quietly. The feeling of euphoria was fading a bit now, down into mere happiness, but I still felt like everything around me was just that much brighter and cleaner than it had been before...

"You really don't know? You don't recognize what I am?" A quiet, tired voice spoke to me from the figure still curled in on itself high above me. It took me a moment to realize it had spoken at all. I moved a step back.

"Should I?" I queried. The voice laughed, though it could barely be called a laugh, it was so sad and cynical. What must have been its head raised slightly, just enough for me to see slits of eyes looking at me through the thick net that covered it.

"I'm a Memory-Taker. If you didn't come out here to use me... I see. It's done anyway." The head hid and the figure seemed to withdraw into itself again.

"No, please!" I pleaded, still happy but now dreadfully curious. "Tell me who you are. What you do... I don't understand. Why are you all the way out here? What happened to me?" It took the figure several minutes to respond at all, and when it did, there was more tiredness than cynicism in its voice.

"I'm a Memory-Taker. I take memories and... you take one of mine in return." It unfolded slightly, placing the palms of his (or her) hands on the base of the crude wooden chair and lifting his (or her) head again to look at me, eyes glittering within the shade of nondescript unkempt hair.

"I am out here because I am shameful. I take your worst memories, those you would give anything to forget, and in exchange you take one of my memories to replace it. No one would want to admit to coming to me, but they all do, eventually..." The voice became terribly terribly sad.

"Twenty years. I spent twenty years with everything I could ask for. Everyone loved me. I had everything. And I was happy, almost always happy, and fulfilled, there was nothing I wanted, no-one I hated. At least that's what they tell me.

Then they brought me here. All my life, it had been for this, it seems. I must serve now to repay the years of happiness I had. So I serve. I stay here, and let the rest of you forget. You come and you take and you take." The voice hushed to where I could barely make out what it said next.

"I have so little left..."

I was struck. I did not or could not bear to understand what I was hearing. That happiness that I had had still glowed in my heart like a warm ember, staving off the despair I could sense now from the figure, but it could not dispel it completely.

"How long have you been here?" I whispered. The figure slowly shook her head.

"I don't know. I don't remember." I took several steps back.

"I- I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't-" I tripped over my words as I tried to find the right things to say. The figure raised it's head fully, strands of hair falling away from the face as it faced me fully. Now I could see the gaunt cheekbones, the lined eyes and mouth, the dark black rings around the eyes that were hidden before. Those piercing eyes, I could not tell their age anymore, stared at me hollowly.

"I took your memory, remember? She was your best friend wasn't she? Can you remember what happened to her now?" With a start, I realized who the figure (I still could not make out gender) was talking about. And, with another shock of surprise, I realized I could not, in fact, remember the details of her death. I knew she was dead, my friend from long ago, but I could not remember how, nor how it had made me feel. There was just... a warmth when I thought about it. I hugged my arms around myself. The figure spoke in a whisper once more.

"If you had known... would you have chosen differently?" I couldn't bring myself to look it in the face. I wanted to say yes, that I would never wish the worst of my memories on another person, but... I honestly didn't know if that was true. Before I realized what I was doing I had taken several steps away from the raised chair, and was beginning to walk hastily down the road again. I stared forward, not daring to look back till I had gone a good distance. Finally glancing behind me, I could make out the obelisk shape against the setting sun. I couldn't see any accusing eyes watching me now. A pang of regret, of shame, flickered through me, but I let the flame of the happiness I had stolen from the Memory-Taker push it away. Pushing the incident to the back of my mind, I strode on with only the setting sun, the featureless road, and the gently waving grass around me for company.