GoodWrites discussion

Hiya Loves <3

Welcome to our new writer Acidic Quagga. Can't wait to see what you can write! Here is the writing prompt for this week.
"Write a short story with the line 'Don't you remember me?'"

MIAcat <3

MIAcat wrote: "Hiya Loves <3

Welcome to our new writer Acidic Quagga. Can't wait to see what you can write! Here is the writing prompt for this week.
"Write a short story with the line 'Don't you remember me?'"..."

Thank you! I can't wait to see what kind of writers ya'll are! 💖

“Don’t You Remember Me?”
⚠️Trigger Warning: Unwanted Attention/Stalking⚠️

She thanked the cook as he handed her her order. Delicious pad see ew with beef and extra eggs, extra spicy. It turned out that the restaurant was running a promotion for today. Buy a combo and get a free pair of extra long, branded chopsticks. Sweet! She picked up her pace as she headed back to her workplace lunchroom. Ten steps away, she heard someone call out from the bustling mall behind her.

“Hey, miss! Wait!” she turned to find it was a young man jogging to catch up. She felt dread start to climb up her spine and regretted having turned around. He caught up with her, “Hey, don’t you remember me?”

“No.” she responded as she started to turn away.

“We met last year. At the bus stop.” He kept pace with her as she continued walking back to work, hurrying her steps now. “I told you how beautiful you are.”

“No, I don’t know you.” she had made it to the entrance of her workplace. “I have to go to work now.” And she left him at that, finding refuge in the employee lunchroom.

The truth was, she had remembered him. He had, indeed, approached her at the bus stop after work and told her she was beautiful. He also made sure to run into her several more times in various places around the city. He tried to give her flowers and even a drawing he’d made of her. He’d jump out of a car that pulled up near her, attempting to trap her in an unwanted conversation. He’d tracked down her online information, her email and social media without her permission.

“No,” she’d always said, “I’m not interested,” attempting to quickly put space between them.

At some point, he must have gotten the message, as she stopped receiving messages from him, stopped seeing him pop up wherever she went, stopped seeing him pull his car up beside her as she was walking. It was a relief, but there was also now an underlying edge of anxiety, that the messages would start up again. That he might show up again just as she started to get comfortable with the idea that it was over. That next time, the encounter wouldn’t be so congenial.

And here he is now, just as she’d started forgetting about the whole series of encounters. Mall security walk her as far as the edge of the mall premises after work, but from there, to the bus stop, on the ride home, as she walked to her townhouse door, she was alone. Or at least, she hoped she was.

-fin.

This one felt a bit stilted as I wrote it. Please let me know what you think! And also let me know if this is a topic that crosses a line.

It does get under your skin and has that uncomfortable feeling, yet it should, yeah? It’s terrible that these kinds of things happen so often.

Welcome to the group. It's a lot of fun writing different stories every week with a prompt!

Joey's deathly tomes of death wrote: "It does get under your skin and has that uncomfortable feeling, yet it should, yeah? It’s terrible that these kinds of things happen so often.

Welcome to the group. It's a lot of fun writing diffe..."

That's true, it's definitely an uncomfortable one, and you're right about it being something that happens all too often in life. I appreciate you recognizing that.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm excited to go back through the prompts and see what everyone else has written as well!

 A VEILED MOMENTO

   "What's the matter old friend, don't you remember me?" he said, as he descended the stairs at my side. 

 And, I was caught in his loving gaze as the flames of the dimly lit candles of the chandelier reflected from his eyes.

   "No, I'm afraid that I don't, in fact, I'm sorry, truly," I replied.

   "Oh, but you wound wound me with these words, Ahuiliztli, how could you not remember me, dearest," he paused and shifted his alluring eyes upon me, and inside I shivered just a little, "we shared so many special memories, you and I."

 As we settled from the final step into the foyer, I was struck by the man, I longed suddenly to be in his arms. And this feeling, it felt so natural. What could have happened that I would forget a creature such as him. 

   "You were and always and will always be the man who owns this heart of mine," he waxed, "my heart, dearest friend, it beats for you, and oh, how I have longed to see you. I had feared the worst ever since that day."

   "How long has it been, and what day do you speak of?" I asked.

   "We were out at a masquerade together with our closest friends, and I had confessed my undying love to you," he stated, and brushed his knuckles gently against my cheek, "you became flush, and I was afraid that I'd overstepped, that I had blown it with you."

   "Yes? And what happened next?"

   This man who yet still, I do not know his name, clasped my hands between his and looked earnestly upon me, pouring an eternity of pain within that regard. The gentle moonlight poured in through the foyer windows, and shadows from the candles flames flickered on the walls, dancing their mysterious waltz. I inhaled a deep breath, and I longed to kiss this splendid stranger. 

   "Please, tell me more, I'm eager to know."

   "I could see the passion burning in your eyes, and yet something precluded you. Some unspoken truth, which you had  as of yet devulged," he admitted. "You ran from me, from us, there, away from the party. I called your name and my heart it raced."

   As his words, having caused him great pain, his grasp slipped and he released my hands. And I could see the burning heartache swimming behind those eyes. I knew in my heart that these words were true, and yet why? Why could I not remember. Such a portion of my life was gone and without explaination.

We walked through the vestibule heading outside to the cold autumn night which awaited us. 

   "It cannot be a coincidence that you ended up here today in my home after all these years. My heart burns for you, dearest love," he proclaimed. "We took flight attempting to locate you, and it was as if you dropped from the face of the Earth," he anguished. "I spent many tireless hours looking for you, and never did I give up hope." He leaned over the railing on the porch staring out to the surrounding marshland. A bird sounded in the distance echoing a lonely song through the empty nights skies. Sadness overwhelemed me, I would find no answers here today, save for this name he calls me by, Ahuiliztli. 

  Though, I cannot remember these times I feel the temptation to stay here with this man, perhaps time could return to me these cherished memories. And, I've no doubt that he would accept me, that he would take me into his bosom and hold me, under this stunning moon. He would whisper his love to me and I would return it, inexplicably. 

   Suddenly a singular word arose from the depths of my mind, a name.

   "Are you called Bakari?" I asked. 

   Joy exuded from him and his skin was simply glowing, and I knew this to be true, just as I found my way here.

   "Yes, it is my name, I am Bakari and you my sweet Ahuiliztli, you are remembering  non?" A slight touch of French accented his words. 

   Bakari was an Egyptian name and I knew it to mean something like a vow. Under his gleaming umber skin I could feel the excitement. In my head I could feel a fog slowly lifting. Yes, I would stay here, and this world would be my reality. 

   I ran my fingers up the white silk shirt that he wore so beatifically, so radiantly. I was enamored, yes.

   "So, after months, my efforts yeilded me little fruit. I was want for any scrap of information I could find. I went to San Francisco on a lead and tracked down your parents. They, hurt me so, telling me of how you were to be married. They said our love was wrong and you had a fiance from Mexico that was to marry you upon your return to San Francisco. 

   "They did not want to admit to me that they too had not seen you, they wanted me to give up. But I wouldn't, I couldn't and now here you are."

   Bakari wrapped his arms around me so gingerly, as if he were afraid of breaking me. He leaned his head onto my chest and I felt gentle sobs wracking through his body. I smoothed my hands through his thick black lustrous hair. I felt the burning of tears now upon my cheeks and descended amongst them under the veil of this night.

 My wanderings, had finally ended in this place, and now I felt that I no longer needed these memories to truly awaken in my mind. I had the key to my own bliss in this place. This swamp land, this special gem in the violent shadows of the world.

 )))
 
 Now, many years later, after what felt like so very long with my Bakari, now that he was gone. It finally was the time to tell of how my lost past was surrendered from my heart. Now, that the answers were finally in my grasp.

 On the day that everything changed for me. So many years gone now. When my memories were taken it was by a skulking black conjuration that came from the nothing, from the void. From deep in the woods, in the swamp, all of my memories, they had been extracted from my very mind. 

 Something that I could not fully explain if I tried, only to say that it was some preternatural being. They, who placed their hands upon my temples and extracted the very essence of who I was. There in a locked box protected by a seal and buried amongst the gators were my memories. 

 Stolen from me on that day, in exchange, I kept my soul. I would have lost more than my honeyed recollections if I would have declined this offer. Afterwards, In a trance, I hovered in the fog, as my essence was placed into a steel box and locked away. For so long I wandered.

 Amber dreams and broken fragments. My steps led me itinerant and wandering, taking me far away. Only in my heart was a song calling me back and finally it took me here. 

 I spent so many a splendorous year at my Bakari’s side and in the twilight it spiraled away. As my sweetest lover slipped into the eternity of worlds beyond, I found myself alone again.

 Now, here in this place with this steel box and key, with my memories returned, I have gone full circle. Now I too can slip into the sweet embrace of the velvet night, the sleep I so long for. I can be with my Bakari as I close my eyes one last time.

Joey's deathly tomes of death wrote: "
A VEILED MOMENTO

   "What's the matter old friend, don't you remember me?" he said, as he descended the stairs at my side. 

And, I was caught in his loving gaze as the flames of the dimly lit ..."

Ooh, this is very bittersweet. I'm glad the two reunited after however long they'd been apart. I like the chosen names a lot, as well. I'm curious as to what the rest of their story up to this point would have been, and why Ahuiliztli's memories were locked away, and if he ultimately lost his soul upon retrieving them. I enjoyed this!

Thank you! Sorry it took so long to respond, I've had a very busy couple of weeks at work and have been very tired.
I'm glad you liked it. Maybe I'll turn it into a novela and flesh it out, solve some mysteries.
I pulled out my inner Anne Rice for this one, kind of a tribute.