A quick summary of what has happened so far:
Johnston received a letter in the mail addressed to Richard, his real name, and a name that noone in the town knows, from a man named Kashiq, The letter reports that something has gone wrong and a valuable possession of Richard's cannot be kept safe anymore. It concludes in reporting that Kashiq will come find him, but not under the name Kashiq. Kashiq signs the letter by saying 'From your son'. The four friends are Lelani, the town diva, Brandon, the town airheaded jock, Susie, a sweet girl who can't remember her past, and Johnni, a guy who grew up in the big city and is known as the town's 'bad a**', so to speak. Andy is a mysterious man that showed up in the town one morning and befriended Johnston, a man that never trusts any strangers, immediately. They just spent the day hanging out with Johnston and Andy. Johnston was his usual, vibrant self, but Andy harldy spoke two words the entire time.
* * * * * * *
As the four friends said their goodbyes to Andy and Johnston and went their separate ways, all of their minds were on Andy.
The first stop was Lelani’s house, and as she crawled underneath her warm and comfortable covers. She wondered at the relationship she had seen between Johnston and Andy. She had known Johnston all of her life, and for all she knew, or cared to know, for that matter, he had lived there his entire life also. She was shocked at how open he was toward Andy. She wasn’t satisfied with anything she could come up with, until she realized what must have happened. Andy was shadier than she had allowed herself to believe. He had found a way to trick Johnston into submitting to him. She explored the thought of Andy being a master of hypnosis, and never waking his subjects up. She shivered at the thought of poor Johnston being deceived and abused by this cruel man who called himself Andy. She had to find a way to snap Johnston out of it, but how? Lelani’s over-zealous and imaginative mind went on and on about different [impossible] possibilities, until she felt sleep approach her. Satisfied with the thought of solving the mystery and becoming a hero in the morning, she turned out the lights and lay back down on her pillow. She was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.
Brandon’s house was the second one they came to. He got home a few minutes before his favorite television show was scheduled to come on. He went into the kitchen and prepared himself a snack to eat while watching it. As he prepared the food, his mind traveled to Andy. Finding rational thought quite boring for the moment, he turned instead to his imagination. And was an inmate at a high-security prison, and had somehow, by his psychopathic mastermind skills, broken out. Now the FBI and CIA, and all of the rest of the feds were after him. He needed to lie low for a while, and wait for the heat to pass off or plan out how to outfox them, so he ducked into the first small, quiet town he could find, ending up mingling with poor, unexpecting Johnston, trying to avoid becoming known. Satisfied with this explanation of Andy, Brandon took his snack into his living room and turned out the television.
Susie was dropped off next, and as she started a fire in the living room fireplace, she curled up on the couch and thought about Andy. She didn’t care about Andy’s apparent murder streak or his fishy relationship with the poor old Mr. Johnston. All she cared about was who this Andy was and where she had remembered him from. She wracked every part of her brain for any memories or clues, and finally found what she was looking for. Dreams! Occasionally, she had recurring dreams of people that she didn’t know. The dreams had no action or apparent meaning to them, only pictures. It was like her mind was flipping through an unknown photo album. She had only seen a certain few people, and could rarely remember them when she woke up, but now, as she thought hard about it, she drew up a mental image. A man stood tall in what seemed to be a forest. Trees loomed over his head and continued behind him. He was wearing a white suit with dark green lining and accessories. In his left hand, he held a small hunter’s knife, and in his right, a long, sleek sword. A decorated shield rest against his legs, covering his feet. His long, black hair gently rested atop his broad shoulders. His youthful, clean-shaven face, Andy’s face, was set in determination, and his deep blue eyes stared ahead. Susie gasped as she remembered this, and tried with all of her might to remember some other detail, another person, a reasoning behind the picture, to figure out what was going on, where the picture came from, anything, but to no avail. Eventually, after exhausting every memory she had, she gave up and pulled out a book to read.
Johnni was the last of the four dropped off. He sat still as stone at the head of the dining room table, pondering everything he had seen earlier. There was obviously a connection between Susie and Andy. Johnni didn’t believe in concidences, even if he had suggested it to the rest of the group. Coincidence couldn’t explain away the facts. Susie had recognized him from somewhere, and Andy had obviously recognized her. As Johnni sat there, he was taken back in memory to not long after he had met Susie. It had taken some prodding, but after a while, they had told him her history. How did a traumatized mind function? What were the conditions of trauma like hers? This would lead him nowhere and he knew it. No one even knew what trauma she had suffered from. He still wondered at the possibilities. Was all of her memory lost for good, or did she still have her memory, but no access to it? If this was so, could it still be stirred by something from the past? Or someone? Could Andy and Susie have known each other before Susie’s trauma?
What about Andy and Johnston? Johnni had talked to Johnston before about the things he used to do when he was younger, and Johnni had found out that Johnston didn’t liver there forever, but had indeed moved in after he retired, but from what profession he never said. Johnston had to know Andy from before. There was no other was to explain Johnston’s behavior. Andy had never been in the town before, so their relationship went further back. This aged Andy far beyond his looks, however, as Andy looked to be not out of his twenties yet, and Johnston had lived in the town for almost thirty years. Andy could not be very old, which meant that he had to have been young when he knew Johnston. But how young could he have been when Johnston left to have not been completely estranged from him? This was trivial, however. The relationship between Andy and Johnston put a connection between Johnston and Susie. If Johnston and Andy were as good of friends as they had demonstrated, and Andy and Susie knew each other well enough for Susie’s memory to be stirred, then there had to be a connection between Johnston and Susie much deeper than he had ever implied. He had to be flat out lying if this was true, which was very probable, as this was the only explanation to what Johnni had seen that made sense. What did these three have in common? What was in their past that brought them together? What else did Johnston refuse to mention? What did he have to hide about this? What could be important enough right now to make Andy come back to them? Was this going to affect Johnni? Or Susie?
Suddenly, as if he wanted nothing more to do with these thoughts, he stood up, and the chair fell back behind him. He walked out to the entry way, grabbed his cat, and stepped into the fresh night air, taking and evening stroll to clear his mind.
Far, far away, a lady sat at a dresser in a beautiful, elegant bedroom set in the tallest tower of a castle, brushing her long, dark red hair. On the dresser she was sitting at, a picture of a man dressed in white and green, bearing a sword and shield, rested in a silver picture frame. On the other side of the dresser, in another silver frame, was a picture of a young girl, with strawberry blonde hair, running through a meadow with a look of laughter and joy spread across her face. The lady finished brushing her hair and, before heading off to bed herself, reached over and picked up the picture of the young girl. She gave a sad smile, kissed her fingers, touched the young girl in the picture and set it back down again.
The first stop was Lelani’s house, and as she crawled underneath her warm and comfortable covers. She wondered at the relationship she had seen between Johnston and Andy. She had known Johnston all of her life, and for all she knew, or cared to know, for that matter, he had lived there his entire life also. She was shocked at how open he was toward Andy. She wasn’t satisfied with anything she could come up with, until she realized what must have happened. Andy was shadier than she had allowed herself to believe. He had found a way to trick Johnston into submitting to him. She explored the thought of Andy being a master of hypnosis, and never waking his subjects up. She shivered at the thought of poor Johnston being deceived and abused by this cruel man who called himself Andy. She had to find a way to snap Johnston out of it, but how? Lelani’s over-zealous and imaginative mind went on and on about different [impossible] possibilities, until she felt sleep approach her. Satisfied with the thought of solving the mystery and becoming a hero in the morning, she turned out the lights and lay back down on her pillow. She was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.
Brandon’s house was the second one they came to. He got home a few minutes before his favorite television show was scheduled to come on. He went into the kitchen and prepared himself a snack to eat while watching it. As he prepared the food, his mind traveled to Andy. Finding rational thought quite boring for the moment, he turned instead to his imagination. And was an inmate at a high-security prison, and had somehow, by his psychopathic mastermind skills, broken out. Now the FBI and CIA, and all of the rest of the feds were after him. He needed to lie low for a while, and wait for the heat to pass off or plan out how to outfox them, so he ducked into the first small, quiet town he could find, ending up mingling with poor, unexpecting Johnston, trying to avoid becoming known. Satisfied with this explanation of Andy, Brandon took his snack into his living room and turned out the television.
Susie was dropped off next, and as she started a fire in the living room fireplace, she curled up on the couch and thought about Andy. She didn’t care about Andy’s apparent murder streak or his fishy relationship with the poor old Mr. Johnston. All she cared about was who this Andy was and where she had remembered him from. She wracked every part of her brain for any memories or clues, and finally found what she was looking for. Dreams! Occasionally, she had recurring dreams of people that she didn’t know. The dreams had no action or apparent meaning to them, only pictures. It was like her mind was flipping through an unknown photo album. She had only seen a certain few people, and could rarely remember them when she woke up, but now, as she thought hard about it, she drew up a mental image. A man stood tall in what seemed to be a forest. Trees loomed over his head and continued behind him. He was wearing a white suit with dark green lining and accessories. In his left hand, he held a small hunter’s knife, and in his right, a long, sleek sword. A decorated shield rest against his legs, covering his feet. His long, black hair gently rested atop his broad shoulders. His youthful, clean-shaven face, Andy’s face, was set in determination, and his deep blue eyes stared ahead. Susie gasped as she remembered this, and tried with all of her might to remember some other detail, another person, a reasoning behind the picture, to figure out what was going on, where the picture came from, anything, but to no avail. Eventually, after exhausting every memory she had, she gave up and pulled out a book to read.
Johnni was the last of the four dropped off. He sat still as stone at the head of the dining room table, pondering everything he had seen earlier. There was obviously a connection between Susie and Andy. Johnni didn’t believe in concidences, even if he had suggested it to the rest of the group. Coincidence couldn’t explain away the facts. Susie had recognized him from somewhere, and Andy had obviously recognized her. As Johnni sat there, he was taken back in memory to not long after he had met Susie. It had taken some prodding, but after a while, they had told him her history. How did a traumatized mind function? What were the conditions of trauma like hers? This would lead him nowhere and he knew it. No one even knew what trauma she had suffered from. He still wondered at the possibilities. Was all of her memory lost for good, or did she still have her memory, but no access to it? If this was so, could it still be stirred by something from the past? Or someone? Could Andy and Susie have known each other before Susie’s trauma?
What about Andy and Johnston? Johnni had talked to Johnston before about the things he used to do when he was younger, and Johnni had found out that Johnston didn’t liver there forever, but had indeed moved in after he retired, but from what profession he never said. Johnston had to know Andy from before. There was no other was to explain Johnston’s behavior. Andy had never been in the town before, so their relationship went further back. This aged Andy far beyond his looks, however, as Andy looked to be not out of his twenties yet, and Johnston had lived in the town for almost thirty years. Andy could not be very old, which meant that he had to have been young when he knew Johnston. But how young could he have been when Johnston left to have not been completely estranged from him? This was trivial, however. The relationship between Andy and Johnston put a connection between Johnston and Susie. If Johnston and Andy were as good of friends as they had demonstrated, and Andy and Susie knew each other well enough for Susie’s memory to be stirred, then there had to be a connection between Johnston and Susie much deeper than he had ever implied. He had to be flat out lying if this was true, which was very probable, as this was the only explanation to what Johnni had seen that made sense. What did these three have in common? What was in their past that brought them together? What else did Johnston refuse to mention? What did he have to hide about this? What could be important enough right now to make Andy come back to them? Was this going to affect Johnni? Or Susie?
Suddenly, as if he wanted nothing more to do with these thoughts, he stood up, and the chair fell back behind him. He walked out to the entry way, grabbed his cat, and stepped into the fresh night air, taking and evening stroll to clear his mind.
Far, far away, a lady sat at a dresser in a beautiful, elegant bedroom set in the tallest tower of a castle, brushing her long, dark red hair. On the dresser she was sitting at, a picture of a man dressed in white and green, bearing a sword and shield, rested in a silver picture frame. On the other side of the dresser, in another silver frame, was a picture of a young girl, with strawberry blonde hair, running through a meadow with a look of laughter and joy spread across her face. The lady finished brushing her hair and, before heading off to bed herself, reached over and picked up the picture of the young girl. She gave a sad smile, kissed her fingers, touched the young girl in the picture and set it back down again.
