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Arne reluctantly followed the others as they hopped to the nearest chamber. Before reaching the door, the light from within it brightened, causing the door to shimmer until it was a gateway into a memory of Arne's. They found that they couldn't enter the gateway, but its contents were discernible.
"Oh! It's you as a baby, Arne," Naomi exclaimed as they watched the memory play.
It was April 5th, 2861. Arne had just been reincarnated as an infant in South Africa. Strangely enough, a pride of lions had found them and took them in. The lions were initially afraid of Arne, likely sensing her true nature, but they would still hang around to keep other predators at bay. Days later, Arne found themselves being carried by one of the lionesses, where Arne then spent the following two years being cared for by them.
"You were so cute as a baby," Wren commented as they hopped to another chamber further into the dungeon. "What happened?"
Arne grunted, ignoring her antics. When Arne looked at Damien, she saw his and Trevor's ears aimed behind them, alert. Something was going on with the wolves, but they'd already reached the next door with another memory playing.
This time, it was when Arne was 2 years old. They'd been discovered by travelers who took them to America, where Arne began their life being raised by a successful family in Florida.
When the memory ended, they moved on to the next one, and Trevor spoke.
"Okay, I'm definitely not hallucinating. Guys, we've got a problem," he said, a little panicky.
"Move faster," Damien said as they began to hop more quickly. "The wolves behind us seem to become more active the further in we move. They're trotting now compared to them stalking us earlier."
"They must be reacting to us getting closer to my innermost memories," Arne figured.
They approached the next chamber, where they saw the next memory. Unexpectedly, it was when Arne was 79 years old. Years 2940 through 2942 were the years they were found by the Russo's Watcher and brought to their HQ when Arne first met Naomi, Damien, Za'Fia, and Michael.
Then, after shifting to more of a jog, they reached the next chamber where they saw Arne's memory from 3033, when Arne had found an armor set in Greece and gifted it to Naomi.
"I still have that!" Naomi said gleefully, recalling the day.
"Why did your memories skip a huge chunk of your past?" Wren inquired as the memory ended.
Damien watched Arne closely, but Arne remained silent. Before he could comment, everyone's ears perked up. They could now clearly hear the snarls of the wolves and their pattering steps echoing as the wolves raced toward them.
"Run!" Damien yelled as they all took off toward the next memory.
This time, the memory was of Arne at the age of 15. By then, Arne still considered themselves a girl, but she found it challenging to fit in with other girls her age due to her being a little more athletic for a girl. Still, she loved wearing dresses and crushing on boys.
"Oh my God, Arne! Look at you!" Naomi said excitedly, as they witnessed Arne behave like a normal teenage girl.
Arne quietly gulped as the memory continued. Soon after, Arne's abilities began to manifest, but she didn't know how to summon them at will yet. It wasn't difficult to learn the basics, though, since spirit manipulation was common knowledge within society by then.
When the memory ended, they began to run as fast as they could. Arne noticed there was only one more chamber further inward. It was the last one. The one with that memory...
But the wolves were feral now, within view as they frothed at the mouth.
"Guys...," Trevor panted as his rabbit legs carried him as fast as they could. "I don't think we're going to make it before they catch us."
"We can outmaneuver them," Arne stated, trying to think of another way out, but even through their pride, they could see that everyone was only seconds away from being gruesomely torn apart and eaten, as the pack of hungry wolves was right on their heels.
"You don't really believe that," Damien called out, panting in his full sprint. "And by now, you must've figured out why they're actually chasing us. This is your mindscape. The wolves didn't become more aggressive the closer we got to your most guarded memory. They grew more aggressive the stronger your denial grew."
"Which must've grown with each memory," Wren commented, irritated, in between breaths. "That's why you've been quiet all this time. What? Is your pride so strong you'd run along quietly until we're all dead when you have the power to stop it?"
"Did you see Arne pushing you when you nearly drowned us all?" Naomi's icier personality retorted to Wren as she ran next to her to glare at her. "You understand the difficulty of accepting whatever trauma plagues us, so show some patience."
"Hey..." Damien began softly to Arne as they ran, the wolves would be on top of them in less than 10 seconds.
"Guys..." Trevor said.
"Whatever it is, we'll be there with you, you won't go through it alone," Damien told Arne. "It's okay to accept your trauma. That doesn't make you weak by any means."
Remembering the trauma Damien had to learn to accept, Arne decided they wouldn't be the reason their friends were eaten. Arne tried to set aside their pride. They closed their eyes and welcomed the memory to the forefront of their mind. Arne could feel everyone change back into their normal bodies as the wolves' feral presence faded away, and the entire mindscape shifted to Arne at the age of 17.
By then, she had already spent a year dating a guy who had been a little older than her. He'd shown tremendous patience as he waited for her. She'd been looking forward to marrying him; however, on her 18th birthday, he betrayed her, and her life took a turn for the worse. One minute she was drinking tea with him, and then suddenly she found herself waking up in a cage. She'd been kidnapped and taken to a warehouse of some sort where a lot of other women were being held in captivity.
Throughout the first day, she saw women being taken away and would hear their cries and screams as she tried to cover her ears. In this predicament, Arne felt utterly weak and didn't know what to do. Anyone who tried to oppose their captors was met with brutal retaliation, so, like many of the others, she tried her best to be invisible.
Sometimes, a woman she'd see get taken away wouldn't be brought back, which only fueled the fear of everyone held captive. But those who did return were never the same. Some were speechless and would tremble in a corner of their cage. Others would sit torpid and unresponsive.
Then one day her worst fear finally arrived –the day she was chosen. As she walked in front of the man pressing a gun to her back, they walked past a room. In the room, she saw another man spraying a bloody wall and floor, and knew that whatever happened in that room was where those terrible screams originated from.
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