Deja Vu [ Lilian Ashley ]
12. One More Thing Becomes Reality

"LO's in camp for two more days, right?"

I blinked my eyes and realized that I had been in college ever since my brain started thinking about that creepy guy last night. From last night I always thought about it and started to get paranoid about it. Is that psychopathic faceless guy going to terrorize my life this time? He who initially always put on a face of compassion, then why now become vile and super creepy?

"Ashley's."

"Eh, yes!" I flinched, then shouted as a whisper called my name.

I only realized that from then on River was calling out to me in an annoyed tone for not getting a response. Instantly the entire class was silent and the lecturer stopped in his explanation.

"What's the matter, Ashley?" reprimanded the lecturer who lowered his glasses while squinting at me.

"It's okay, sir. Sorry, please continue again," I replied unkindly.

It felt like the time was so short and just knew that the lecture hours had ended. At a time like this it is not the right time to join the art club activities. It's better to just go to work instead of not focusing on campus activities.

"Hey!"

My heart almost slipped as my hand was pulled hard and I realized that my foot was almost stepping on a crowded highway. I could have been in an accident like that. I held my forehead and tried to think clearly. I turned to my savior and gave him a faint smile.

"Thank you, for having nolongin ..." My words came to a halt when I saw that my savior was a vile-faced bloke yesterday.

The man's face was so grim with a thin smile that seemed pitiful as he looked straight at me. Finally, he walked away with earphones on his ears and put his hands in his hoodie pocket without leaving a word for me.

Bizarrely. Last night he looked so vile, and today he became somber. I have an assumption that he may have a new syndrome that by day becomes normal, while night becomes a vile criminal without him knowing. If he's in night mode going after me, then I can't be alone anywhere and anytime at night. It turns out that I'm getting smarter now, Hohoho.

"Lo, if you go home, don't leave me."

I turned my head and found River's face flat as if unhappy when I saw him standing in front of the campus gate. "Damn."

"Hey!" My eyes glared at him for daring to curse. "Just talk about it."

"No matter. Come to the cafe" said River, pulling my hand away to work.

Now I can think clearly after finding a solution to save myself from the night terror. But, come to think of that guy's face like I've seen in the past when I first saw him. Maybe my memory at that time was so weak and began to improve when I felt like remembering the memory of the man. He must have been a criminal after me and a hobby to show off his bells to the point when I was amnesiac. The trauma was still burning and feeling familiar to him. That's what I always think about during this daily life until the camping day.

I thought we would all camp on the plateau as before but I knew it was only two kilometers from the cafe which is precisely located in a small forest area on the edge of the city devoted to shallow camping. Yeah, actually I didn't expect us all to camp in dense forests like the Amazon or the Daintree. Come to think of it, there are people our age who still hold funny events like this.

"You didn't really? It's actually the manager's birthday, actually" Megan whispered to me as she chewed on her hot dog. "But we have to be quiet."

I nodded in response while burning marshmellow on the bonfire. "It's okay, it's cool too."

Everyone turned their heads when they heard the noise and as I guessed the owner of the voice was River and Kai. The two horrendous brothers.

"Lo lose, pay!" bentak River's.

"Ogah, yesterday I won also not you pay," replied Kai no less snapping. Gosh, they just came and instantly made a fuss.

"Wah Kai, you're coming too" greeted the Manager sir with a bright face. "Good fun with the camping."

"Yoi bro," said Kai as he escaped from River who immediately clucked in annoyance.

I thought Kai was going to grab Vin's hamburger, but he ran to me and grabbed my marshmellow. "Thanks." -."

Well, that's it, just a marshmellow that doesn't need to be fussed at all. I took a new marshmellow and stuck it on the branch next to Megan. I looked around the area and found River talking to Kurt, Manager and Vin, grilling meat, and Megan was busy in her bag.

"Eh cuy, I called a friend too!" kai yelled at the manager and a mob approached us.

I think Kai and our Manager really have an unexpected friendship.

"Just having fun, if you want to go home, you will also be allowed. I'm the same friends mah will go home," said Kai while chewing marshmellow baknya—or actually marshmellowku—live directly from the prick twig.

"Oh that's it."

"Asik ya, if every day kayak like this," continued Kai while looking at his friends who are so noisy will enjoy the food and drinks available. "Kok you're starting to rarely play with us-we?"

Instantly both my eyebrows were raised. "Do I know those people?"

"What the hell, Ley? Look at them." Kai turned his head and I extended my neck to look at those people.

Oh, there's Megan. However, the rest I can't recognize at all. Fucking amnesia shit.

"Yes, that's our friend. I didn't notice earlier," I lie with an awkward feeling.

Kai laughed a little. "Usually that's like the most fussy, cheerful and super cool elo."

Turns out I was like that. "Maybe because of badmood factors so I'm like this, sorry."

"Bad mood because of River, huh?" ask Kai. Turns out it wasn't that. I was just trying to connect her words and I couldn't possibly admit that my brain lost all memory of them.

"Ley?"

"No," I replied, then stuffed my mouth with marshmellow so Kai wouldn't force me to answer his words again.

"The river is rough because of the trauma, anyway," Kai continued, inserting his marshmellow on a wooden branch. "Lo remember when we were SD? I, River and Elo are children who are often given violence by parents. So I'm sure you'll understand him."

I was stunned for a moment and thought of an answer to what would be suitable for further fishing stories from Kai. It seems like we are children who both have severe trauma.

"Elo was beaten and abandoned. River and I who like to be used as a bogem target by Bokap. Yeah, that's how we are, right?

I was silent for a moment. "I think I missed that."

"Oh, huh?" Kai looked at me with a look of disbelief. "If it's sorry, I shouldn't bring this up."

"Eh, I just want to hear more," I said groggily. "BTW, Nyokap lo fine-fine only. Doesn't look like ..."

"And I'm our hero, Ley. Look at me, yeah, do you, too, right?" sahut Kai who cut my words and suddenly he just laughed a little. "When you're the youngest of the three of us."

It feels like my heart is in pain to hear that reality. I thought we were just little friends, it was more than that. We are one of the victims of child violence. I can't imagine my miserable childhood and now being a poor man with amnesia. I don't know why my tears suddenly flowed and fell to the ground.

"Then River was the son who was most often made into a boxing sandsack by my Bokap when he was drunk or emotional, poor bastard," said Kai while doodling the ground using his marshmellow wood twigs. "When I'm really sick of it, I squeal my bokap until he's gone. Good thing it's just the secret of the three of us." Kai looked at me who was flabbergasted and shed tears.

Now I just realized that this is a memory that once appeared at a glance in my brain before to think it was all a mere hallucination, and unexpectedly has become a reality in the future.

Instead of thinking he was a murderer, he was the savior of his brother. It turned out that my hearing on a fleeting memory was so bad that I thought Kai was strangling my bokap. I quickly opened my tears with the back of my hand so that Kai would not ask me strange things.

"Sorry, I want it to be like this." Not remembering, but just knowing. "But ..."

"But I was wrong, right?" kai asked as if the question had haunted him so often. "Elo and River used to be witnesses. Now I believe you both understand my mental healt. Freedom is hard."

"Why elo tell me by saying the word 'former'?" manya suspect.

"Because I know that elo amnesia."

Instantly my body was sculpting and a chill began to envelop.

- ♧ -