Chapter 84

[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]

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Thursday 13th July 2000

 

 

Still adjusting to normalcy. Still expecting Harmony to pop up at any moment and send a thousand weird monsters our way with a cheery “psych!”

 

But I think this is real. It’s over. I’ve grown so used to us being the Painters, having to fight monsters and try and hold back Melody’s uprising, that it feels bizarre for it to stop so suddenly. At least with school, I knew there was going to be an end, even if it took a very long while to arrive and it never felt tangible – felt real – until the last few weeks. This was so sudden that I had…

 

Life whiplash?

 

I know that’s not a thing, but I can’t think of a good-enough way to put it…

 

It’s not like I’d really expected this to go on forever or anything. Nothing ever does, and I couldn’t see us heading out to fight more monsters at the age of 80.

 

And as Kendal pointed out when we all discussed it… we know there’s more bizarre stuff out there than Lokonessence that we could wind up having to face, plus the possibility of new opponents to keep people safe from. It didn’t have to be the last time we ever fought together. But right now, it was as good as the last.

 

A whole lot of change. Even the normal life I’d managed to find the resolve to return to wasn’t going to stay the same for very long. Just a couple of months left before Bao and Kendal head off to university… the idea of them not being around was almost unnatural. We’d spent practically every day together for the past two years (yeah, I know, don’t give me that look).

 

Speaking of unnatural… the day after the dragon battle, we went to the police to report Melody’s new circumstances. Understandably, they weren’t prepared to take it at face value, even in spite of all the other extraordinary things that have happened. Melody’s parents took her to the hospital, tests were performed, and, as conclusively as possible, it was confirmed that Melody’s memory has been effectively erased.

 

Actually, “memory” might be too broad, or too vague… she’s lost her identity. She seems to still have all the facts and knowledge she’s acquired over 18 years of life, but everything that made her who she was had been torn out of her mind. Who she is, who her family are, who we are; all of it was lost. She really is, for all intents and purposes, an entirely different person.

 

I’m still not 100% certain what kind of physical changes there were to her brain that signified this… it definitely sounds like a unique case, which hardly surprised any of us. With Melody certifiably a new person, it was up to the police to decide what to do… it’s a complicated issue, and they’re taking their time with it. Zahid accused them of dragging their heels.

 

What was strange for me was to feel so much sympathy for Melody. Granted, this was technically a different girl to the one who’d made my life – eventually all of our lives – a misery… but I couldn’t help but feel peculiar just wanting to hug her and take the weight of the world off of her shoulders. Because man… imagine suddenly having no memory of yourself, and learning that the past you had spent months terrorising the nation, if not the whole world. Imagine total strangers double-taking at the sight of you, because if not for that long hair and the fact you were innocently walking the streets, you seemed to be that “monster” girl who’d been on the news dozens of times over the better part of a year. This new Melody had found herself in the shadow of the old one’s reputation, and that didn’t really seem fair.

 

It's what made her question to me so heart-breaking.

“Were we friends, before?”

 

It’s not like she wasn’t fully aware of our relationship with her previous self. Perhaps this new Melody was an idealist, or perhaps she was clinging to a hope that there was something decent about her past.

 

“Uhm… honestly? Not really…” I confessed to her.

 

“Ah…”

She ran a hand through her hair, eyes downcast.

 

It was Wednesday afternoon, and the five of us were walking with Melody through little country lanes, shrouded in lush greenery that was practically glowing in abundant sunlight. Up ahead, Dakota, Bao and Kendal were deep in conversation, while Zahid trailed behind.

 

“You could be pretty cruel… but you told me it was because you wanted me to see the real you. You were kind to most people and I guess that was an act?”

And then, because I felt like it needed saying:

“Us talking like this means you’re not the same now. You’re different to her.”

 

“I know,” she mused. “It’s just… the old me is gone and I barely know a thing about her. I want to understand her a little…”

 

“Good luck with that, nobody else ever managed it,” Zahid spoke up from behind us.

 

“He’s really blunt but he’s kind of right…” I let Melody know; she smiled softly, though her brow was furrowed.

 

“I have to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes.”

Beneath that brow, her eyes were full of determination. I couldn’t help but smile in kind.

 

“Hey, that already sounds like something the old Melody would never do,” I told her.

 

Zahid huffed in (what I took to be) earnest amusement.

“You’ve probably gathered by now that the old Melody was a bitch.”

 

“And you’re not one,” I added hastily, “so that’s another way in which you’re different!”

I flashed Zahid a look of “the hell are you being so crass for?”, to which he rolled his eyes like “for god’s sake, Alex”.

 

“Thank you,” Melody replied, before turning to look at Zahid. “And yeah, my parents are the only people who have anything nice to say about the old me. So I want things to be different.”

 

“Don’t stage a revolution and try to take the House of Commons hostage, that’ll be a start,” he advised with a sardonic thumbs-up.

 

“I’ll bear that in mind,” she nodded sincerely. I’m not sure if she wasn’t entirely aware of his sarcasm, or if she simply hadn’t found a more characteristic way to reply. Probably the latter, considering she’d presumably retained knowledge of social cues and conventions…

 

“We’re here!” Dakota called out ahead of us, drawing our attention.

 

Our destination was a small graveyard, tucked away amidst tall hedges, tranquil and quiet. Nobody else was there, like it had been forgotten by the world.

 

“Ooooh…” I heard Kendal murmur as the six of us gathered together. Melody swung her rucksack round from her back, and began rummaging in it.

 

“Thank you all, for coming with me…” she addressed us all the while.

 

“Hey, we all think we should be here too,” Dakota spoke gently. “For your sake and for hers.”

 

From the rucksack, Melody pulled out a reinforced, laminated paper cross, with “Harmony Hill” and “1982-1988” written on it.

“I feel weird, not remembering her. It’s not right. And Mum and Dad are still trying to process that she’s gone, so it’s almost like they’re grieving and… I have to do this. I have to commemorate the original version of her.”

 

“I still think it’s kinda trippy how there were sort of two Harmonys and now there’s sort of two Melodys…” Bao informed us while looking all around.

 

“And I don’t remember either Harmony…” Melody noted; that seemed to snatch Bao’s attention, and he raised his hands up in surprise.

 

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to upset you or anything, I was thinking out loud- I do that! Don’t I?” he asked the rest of us.

 

“Yeah, he doesn’t mean any harm by it!” Kendal laughed.

 

Melody smiled lightly at him, and made her way off into the graveyard, searching around for a good spot to place the cross for the sister she’d lost all memory of.

 

Kendal turned to the rest of us, a concerned pout on her face now.

“D’you think she’ll be okay? She’s got so much to cope with…”

 

“We’ll keep an eye on her,” Dakota insisted, watching our former enemy explore the graveyard. “Help her along if she needs it. I’d like to think she’s strong enough to pull through.”

 

“Let’s hope she’s as determined as the old her…” I mentioned, as a fleeting concern came to me not for the first time… what if she did turn out the same way? What if her issues were hard-wired in her brain? It’s not like we could do anything to stop it…

 

“Well if you ever need me and Kendal to help you, we can literally teleport here,” Bao reminded us brightly.

 

“Or we’ll get Dirk’s number, turns out he does a better job than any of us…” Zahid quipped.

 

“Nah, I mean if you’re gonna play video games with her or something! I’m still the best gamer here!”

 

“Watch it, you…” Dakota warned him playfully, though I could tell there was a glimmer of genuine competitive passion beneath it.

 

“Alright, prove me wrong!” he foolishly egged her on.

 

“Alex, it’s up to you to keep her from killing us all,” Kendal instructed me, backing away ever-so-slightly.

 

I took to my duties by rubbing Dakota’s shoulders. She laughed, though more deviously than I would have hoped.

 

“I’ve found a place,” Melody spoke up, and the five of us turned to her like she’d manifested from thin air.

 

With that, she led us to a little corner of the graveyard, away from any other graves, where Harmony’s cross now stood proudly. Accompanied by nothing but birdsong, we stood and paid our respects to a lost little girl whose legacy had shaped all of our lives.

 

Once we were done, we walked back along the same path, chatting away until we reached the bus stop and then making our way back home. Melody went off to her place, thanking us again for joining her, and the rest of us found Kitty waiting for us outside Dakota’s (fortunately, she’d only been there for about ten minutes). Dakota and Bao spent two hours trying to score the most wins on Demolition Racer, and before long, the evening came and Bao, Kendal and Zahid headed off home…

 

Thursday arrived. The day our American road trip officially began.

 

Honestly, the early part of the day wasn’t too eventful, either. Kitty had headed off to school by the time Dakota and I woke up, and we mainly made sure to pack up what was left of our stuff (along with eating breakfast and lunch). We wound up falling asleep on the sofa, like we’d exhausted ourselves just from packing…

 

I woke up with my head on Dakota’s chest, and Bao grinning over us. Obviously he’d teleported his way in when we hadn’t answered the door, but “obvious” wasn’t the first thing to come to my mind, so I was just thrown by him being there at all.

 

“Hey, don’t mind me, man,” he assured me. “Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow.”

 

I groaned at the reference and weakly tried to swat him away. He took the hint enough to wander off to the kitchen.

 

“Kendal and Zahid are outside, by the way,” he called out, “trying to figure out how to fit the luggage in the back of her car. How much stuff do you need to get from yours?”

 

“Not much… a few bits of clothing and stuff…” I told him groggily, giving Dakota’s chest a nuzzle before rising up and stretching.

 

Bao returned with an orange, already half-peeled, and plonked himself down in one of the armchairs.

“Alright, so long as you have room to squeeze it in your suitcase, that’ll probably work out fine. And I was thinking last night, you guys’ll have to buy yourselves a game console if you want to keep playing stuff once at I'm uni.”

 

“You’re taking them all with you…?” I asked, honestly a little surprised. Somehow, he was equally as thrown.

 

“Good point… okay, I’ll just take the 64 and the PlayStation, and the Color.”

 

“Alright…”

Even that seemed like a lot, but what did I know?

 

“You guys can look after the rest, then!” he announced, picking out a slice of orange. “But if you want new games-”

 

“Got it, I’ll save up for a PlayStation or something,” I chuckled. Turning to Dakota, I gave her a couple of nudges to stir her from her slumber. Her eyelids sluggishly fluttered open.

 

“What time is it…?” she asked while righting herself.

 

“Just past three,” Bao recited from a glance at his watch, just about finishing his mouthful. “The Paintermobile’s getting packed.”

 

“Correction: it’s packed!”

Kendal strode in victoriously, pinching an orange slice and perching herself on the arm of the sofa.

“Mission was a success!”

 

Zahid followed her a moment later, looking characteristically annoyed.

“Yeah, except we still have to go to Bao’s to get all his stuff…” he countered her, slumping into the remaining armchair.

 

“It’s not like I’ve packed that much stuff,” Bao claimed. “It’ll be a piece of cake.”

 

“You got that, Kendal?” Zahid asked her. “I want that on record for when we miss our flight.”

 

She laughed and saluted.

“So we’re just waiting for Kitty to show up, right?”

 

“Yep!” Bao nodded. “I hope she’s gonna be okay without us…”

 

“I hope she’ll be okay living with Lucy…” I considered. My sister could be pretty full-on, and while it wasn’t like Kitty didn’t know her, she hadn’t had to live with her for weeks on end…

 

“I’ve already given her permission to go Nightmare-mode on Lucy if she has to,” Dakota commented right before letting out a yawn.

 

“Welp, that’s my house gone, thanks Dakota,” I joked.

 

“You two are gonna have no problem sleeping through the flight, huh?” Kendal remarked. “Did you get worn out from packing?”

 

“Apparently…” Dakota shrugged. “We didn’t even get up until after 9am…”

 

“But that’s, like, 4am in New York time,” Bao spoke up past a mouthful of orange (and his hand ahead of his mouth).

 

“We’re not on American time yet, Bao,” Zahid sighed.

 

“Maybe it’s a psychological thing!” he proposed earnestly. “They’re getting used to it in advance!”

 

Zahid looked to Dakota and me with an unimpressed stare.

 

“It could be!” Bao continued. “That’s all I’m saying! It’s not impossible!”

 

“Harmony must have done it!” I concluded for him, tongue-in-cheek with the bottom of my fist planted into my palm for emphasis.

 

“Hey, I’m just saying, it’s that or you two were up all night screwing,” he bounced back with a smirk.

 

“Ooooooh!” Kendal cooed like she was watching Jerry Springer.

 

“Bao,” Dakota started, “I’m too organised to be that passionate the night before our flight.”

She said it playfully, but it still stung somehow…

 

“Would’ve thought you wanted to get it out of your systems,” Zahid looked to us again. “Since you’re probably not gonna get much time alone for the next month or so…”

 

She and I shared a concerned look. Somehow, neither of us had even considered that…

“Good thing we’re pretty good at quiet sex at this point…” I said to break the ice, and her face crumpled as she tried not to laugh at me. A blush faintly lit up her cheeks. I’m sure I was at least three times as red.

 

A knock on the front door sounded out, followed by it being opened.

“Hey,” Kitty’s voiced emerged a second later, and then the door was closed again.

 

“Kittyyyyy!” Kendal hollered, and she dashed out to the hallway.

 

“Aaah-! Let me get my shoes off…!”

 

“No, hugs first!”

 

It took a few moments for the two to emerge, Kitty’s hair a little ruffled.

“Hey everybody,” the younger girl greeted us.

 

“Hey, Kitty!” Bao responded, bouncing to his feet and grabbing her into a hug too. Her face almost immediately turned even redder than I imagined mine was, and her arms managed to wrangle themselves around him.

“I’m gonna miss you…!”

 

“I’ll miss you too…” she squeaked. “But at least we’ll see each other soon enough…”

 

“And I promise we’ll all spend every day hanging out from LA to when Kendal and I go to uni,” he told her, rubbing her back affectionately. He’d clearly figured out exactly what she meant… I think he’d probably considered the limited number of days left for the six of us to spend together himself.

 

Once the two of them finally stopped hugging, Kitty turned to Zahid. He raised a fist up for her, and she fist-bumped him.

 

“Look after yourself,” he smiled coolly at her.

 

“You too,” she smiled back.

 

“We better get going if we wanna get Bao’s stuff packed!” Kendal sang out, marching back to the hallway.

 

“I said, it’s not that much…!” Bao whined as he followed her, half-eaten orange still in-hand.

 

Zahid shook his head as he stood up, and Kitty stepped aside to let him past.

“If we’re not at your place by 4pm,” he looked to me while striding across the room, “we’re teleporting to the airport. And I’m punching Bao in the face.”

 

“No Painter-on-Painter violence!” I scolded him pre-emptively, and then he headed off to the hallway. Kitty scampered after him, and as Dakota and I got up from the sofa and stretched away the last of our fatigue, we could hear Kitty wishing the others goodbye while they headed out to Kendal’s car.

 

With just the three of us, Kitty headed upstairs, got her own packed clothing and possessions, and we were ready to go…

 

We locked up the front door, and Dakota handed Kitty the key in case she needed it, though Neil and his family were meant to be visiting at some point. And then, happily, the three of us walked the short journey from Dakota’s place to mine, beneath a blue sky strewn with gentle white clouds, chatting idly about nothing in particular.

 

“You took your time!” Lucy grumbled from the front doorstep as we walked up to the house.

 

“No we didn’t…” I glared lightly at her. She remained sat there once we reached her.

“Can you move, please…?”

 

“I can, but the question is if I will-?”

 

“You’ll move of your own free will or I’ll do things I couldn’t mention in front of your brother and a minor,” Dakota smiled threateningly at her.

 

Lucy blinked, genuinely taken aback.

“Sounds kinky, but I’m taken, so…” she trailed off, standing up and moving out of our way.

 

“Hey there!” Mum greeted me warmly indoors, taking me into a hug. “Have you got everything ready?”

 

“Yep-”

 

“You haven’t forgotten anything, have you?”

 

“Not to the best of my knowledge, Mum, no…”

 

“Has he?” she double-checked with Dakota.

 

“Nope, everything’s in order,” my girlfriend confirmed. “Just has to pick up his last bits and bobs and we’re good to go!”

 

“We’re going to miss you so much…”

Mum squeezed me as if it’d make the hug richer.

 

“Not like he’s around much anyway,” Lucy snarked behind us.

 

“Says the girl who went to ‘summer drama camp’ for five months,” I growled back. As soon as Mum let me go, Lucy hugged me instead.

 

“Yeah, yeah, water under the bridge,” she purred. “See you in Los Angeles, so good they named it after an angel.”

 

“See you there,” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

 

“Hello, Rebecca,” Kitty waved a little at Mum.

 

“Hey, Kitty!”

 

“Right, I’ll go get my stuff…” I declared, and I headed upstairs with Kitty following after me.

 

I opened the door, and there, to my surprise, was Dad, sat on my bed with a smile on his face.

“Hey son.”

 

“Dad?” I asked because apparently, that was how shocked I was.

 

“I got off work early today,” he explained, standing and walking over to me. “I couldn’t not see my boy off!”

He took me into a hug. So much hugging going on…

“Hello there, Kitty.”

 

“Hello, Bernard,” she replied.

 

“Now, you be sensible out there,” my father continued, “and you all look after each other. Even with your Lokonessence stuff, you’re still human. And you’ll be an entire ocean away, you’ll only be able to rely on each other.”

 

“I know, I know… I need to get my stuff, the others should be here… soon-ish.”

 

He patted my pack twice before letting me go.

“I’ll leave you to it,” he spoke, heading past Kitty and me.

 

I spent a couple of minutes grabbing the few items of clothing I wanted to take that were here rather than at Dakota’s, and took a final look at my now-complete Beast Wars collection.

 

“Okay, so…” I began, turning to Kitty as she sat on the bed. “You can empty out the cabinet drawers and put your stuff in there if you want, there are spare pillows in the wardrobe- oh, don’t go looking in my private box, you can play with the figures if you want and the instructions are in the green folder if you need them, if any of them fall from the shelf then put them on the desk and I’ll check them out when I get back-”

 

“Alright, I think I’ve got it…” she said uneasily, hands raised to gesture for me to calm down. “You’ll call anyway, won’t you? So I can ask you anything I’m not sure of.”

 

“Yeah, good point…”

 

“And I’d like a souvenir from each state you visit… if that’s okay…”

 

“Of course,” I smiled despite myself at her sheepishness.

 

“And… I wanna say… I’m proud of you.”

She gave me a genuine look of… congratulation? Like I was something special.

“You were hurting so much when we met, and now you’re really happy… and you earned it. You fought for it. Literally.”

 

“I couldn’t have done it without you… all of you…” I half-batted away her praise. She stepped forward and hugged me, and I returned the favour.

 

“Have fun. But not too much fun. Save that for when I’m there with you all.”

 

“Got it.”

 

As we broke from the hug, Dakota entered the room, all smiles and excitement.

“They’re here! Already! Either Bao was right or Kendal’s really good at packing things!”

She scooped Kitty up into a hug.

“Take care of yourself, Kitty!”

 

“You too…” Kitty echoed warmly.

 

Once they were done, Dakota turned to me, and kissed me.

“Ready?” she asked.

 

“Ready,” I confirmed, taking hold of my remaining items.

 

“Awh, I wanted to hold your hand,” she admitted teasingly; I played along, adjusting my hold, and taking her warm, soft hand.

 

She and I made our way out of my room and down the stairs, Kitty following after, Lucy joining her, past the mirror where I glanced myself smiling away, and outside, out of the house with a chorus of farewells, towards the car and my friends and the start of one final great big adventure with all of us together.

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