Prologue
The four masked figures walked on through the woods until they reached a clearing. They stopped and placed the stretcher they carried between them carefully on the soft grassy earth in the centre.
The clearing around them was beautiful in the morning sunlight, bathed in a golden glow; all around leaves slowly fell from their trees, landing softly on the forest floor.
The four figures all wearing plague-masks waited, standing at four points around the body and looming silently over it.
They waited.
The body was still. Not breathing.
Then all of a sudden, his eyes opened, and he took his first steady breath.
He sat up, resting with an elbow upon a knee. He looked at his hands, grinning widely. He spoke.
‘It worked? Are those my hands?’
He touched his face then, feeling only smooth skin, and no scarring.
‘I can see clearly now’ he said beginning to laugh. ‘I can see. I can feel.’
‘Did you ever doubt us for even a moment?’ one of the masked figures asked him leaning forward.
The masked figure spoke the man’s name.
The man glanced up at the figure, seeing the gloved hand of his offering him a mirror. He took it, staring back at his own reflection. He began to laugh out loud, touching his skin, his hair, his nose, his lips.
‘Handsome’ he beamed, showing himself perfect white teeth in his reflection. ‘I’m perfect.’
He handed the mirror back to the figure, rising to his feet.
‘I remember you’ he told the figures as he looked around at the four of them. ‘All of you’ he said turning on the spot. ‘But I don’t know who each of you are behind your masks.’
‘You don’t need to know’ another of the figures spoke, this voice was female.
‘What happened to me?’ the man furrowed his brow. ’I…I remember my own name, and I rememberher…’ he thought further. ‘I remember my body was scarred, I remember pain, but not where it came from. I remember my legs were burned, but I don’t remember why. I remember….I remember…’
‘Only what’s recent’ one of the masked figures finished.
‘I don’t remember anything of my childhood’ the man realised.
‘You suffered’ the masked figure said. ‘Horribly. Both mental and physical pain and for very a long time, most of your life in fact. We gave you a new body. Your memory reaches only as far as a few days ago when you first saw your new body; and nothing after or before that. Except for your memories of Lucy. They stretch as far back to the time you first laid eyes on her. You chose to have everything else erased.’
The man listened to these words closely.
‘I remember when I first saw her….from the tower’ the man realised. ‘Yes. I remember. But…’ he lifted his head to the others, ‘why would I choose to erase my own memory?’
‘You made the choice yourself’ another masked figure reminded. ‘You want it to be this way. So it’s best we don’t tell you.’
‘Lucy’ the man said. ‘All I can think of is Lucy.’
‘The love you have for her still burns strong’ the other said to him.
‘Yes’ the man nodded. ‘Yes I know.’ He drew a steady breath. ‘I know where she lives. I know she is waiting for me.’
‘Before you go’ one of the figures spoke up, stopping him in his tracks, ‘there is one last thing we want you to do. For your own benefit…well…for someone else’s….it’s just best that you do it.’
‘What?’ the man asked.
‘Three days from now, at midday…’ the masked figure said, ‘I think it’s a good idea if you stand by the clock tower in the town where she lives in. Bring her with you and wait. Wear that coat’ the figure indicated, and the man glanced down at the long coat he wore, bright blue it was and beautifully decorated. He would surely stand out anywhere wearing this. ‘A man will come to see you’ the masked figure continued, ‘but he won’t speak to you.’
‘Do I know him?’ the man asked.
‘He is someone from your past’ the masked figure replied vaguely. ‘You knew him before your memory was erased, and he still knows you. He just wants to see that you are well, then you will never see him again.’
‘Who is he?’
‘It’s best you didn’t know.’
‘But…he knows my memory was erased?’ the man asked.
The masked figure dipped her head slightly. ‘Yes.’
‘Then why can’t I know him?’ the man asked, feeling suddenly a bit sad. ‘He must have been someone important to me.’
The masked figures glanced at each other, one of them sighed.
‘We shouldn’t tell you’ this one said. ‘But the reason he wants to keep a distance from you is because he wants you to live a normal life. You didn’t have a normal life before. You lived happily with Lucy for a short time, until things changed.’
‘All he wants’ another figure spoke, ‘is to see that you are alive and safe and happy. That is why he chose for things to be this way. For you.’
‘So’ said another masked figure. ‘Can you do that? Can you wait by the clock tower three days from now, wearing that coat, with Lucy by your side?’
The man stared at the blank faces of the masked figures silently as they waited for his response.
‘Yes’ he said at last. ‘I will do that.’
