Chapter 7: Well That's Never Happened Before…

As I passed door by door it felt almost like my spirit was skipping unable to control itself until we reached the door for the Park. By the time I made it to Willow this time she was already asleep. Would this work if she wasn't conscious? I guess there was only one way to find out. Again, I eased myself into her mind and called out to her. There was no answer.

I tried again, "Willow? I know you're there can you hear me?" Today felt a little different. Why was she angry?

As if answering my question, she showed me what I assumed was earlier today. She was sitting at the window and nothing was happening. Was she upset that I didn't visit her today? Since she had been here, I had visited every day reminding her that she was not alone. The black wall came back up around me like last time she tried to keep me out.

"Willow! Look, I'm sorry I didn't make it today, but I can promise that I wanted to be here. I didn't abandon you. I'm here right now Ain’t I?" I chuckled.

Her walls declined slowly as she brought up the memory of when we were 13 and I came home from camp. We had missed each other so much that we ran to see each other. So excited that our words made absolutely no sense and came out a big, jumbled mess. It was the first time we had been away from each other that long.

My grin widened as I assured her, "Of course! I miss you now just as much as I missed you then!".

I could feel her attitude was returning to normal and I knew that I was forgiven. To make it up to her, I told her about my day. We talked about how my mom had left me at home. How I skipped school today and even how Larry the Bus Driver asked about her. This made her mood brighter and I could tell the part about my mom leaving me amused her the most, if she could laugh at me, she would have. It wasn't until I told her about all the bars, I visited that I felt her starting to get defensive. She knew exactly why I was going to them, but she wouldn't tell me what I needed without a fight.

In a calm tone I queried, "What's the name of that bar you showed me last time?"

The walls started slowly coming back up.

"Oh no, you don't!" I ordered.

Instinctively, I flew past the walls and noticed a bright white light as I went over them. I could hear the walls coming up faster and faster from right behind me. Maybe I was going where she didn't want me to? As I grew closer to the lights, I noticed that it wasn't just one light. I was just too far away to see that the one light was what looked like thousands of TV screens.

It took only a few minutes as I grew closer that I realized based on the pictures on the screen that this was her memory bank. That meant that whether she wanted to tell me or not was irrelevant. My astral form continued flying down the row looking for the memory I needed. I could feel her closing in on me because I wasn’t going as fast as I should have. If she wouldn’t tell me I would find out for myself. It had to be here somewhere. This memory would have been more impactful in her life. How could I tell one memory out of the many others?

I found myself flying up to the next level to see that this row was different. These videos had a red border and the videos were in black and white not in color like the other memories. That's probably it. Red is her bad memories or ones that have changed her life dramatically.

Forgetting that she was right behind me I found that I hesitated for too long. The next thing I knew I was met by her black wall as she tried to force me out. I could feel the black wall pushing be backward as the walls rolled toward me. My annoyance was hitting its peak as I began trying to push back against the walls to prevent her from shutting me out

"Damn it, Willow! Stop it! I'm going to find out sooner or later whether you like it or not!" I screamed.

The harder I pushed the angrier my tone got, "Willow Marie Barnes!"

A surge went through my body, and I felt that surge begin to propel against the walls. They began to disintegrate before my eyes. Well, that's never happened before… I assumed that maybe she had finally given up on pushing me away because I could no longer feel her presence. Either she was mad at me or she just gave up the fight. Knowing that either way, I had won I went back to looking for the memory.

There were so many memories that eventually they all just started to blur together. I knew that it was somewhere but where? As I let myself fly backward, I tried to force my eyes to focus on just the red screens. It was then that I started to notice that some of the screens were shining brighter red than the others. Is that even possible? Would that be what indicated how powerful one memory is from another? The brighter the light the bigger the impression? No... Could it be?

Curiosity got the best of me and I continued for what felt like an hour only looking at the brighter videos. It made me happy to know that I was in most of her memories and that I had influenced her life just as much as she had mine. I eased up to the next screen above me. Once it was right in front of my face, I knew it was the right memory because guess whose face was bright and center? Him? Yes, you would have guessed correctly.

To see more, I leaned in to touch the screen in the hope that I could make the image move. My hand went straight through it and disappeared behind the screen.

I pulled my hand back out and smirked. "So, I have to go inside the memory to see it?"

A quick shrug off my shoulders I decided I would just go in. Looking at the face on the screen he seemed to be smiling at me smugly. Almost as if he were challenging me.

I glared at the screen one more time just as I was going inside the memory and muttered, "Game on Mr. Bright Eyes from hell. You messed with the wrong girl."

Everything went black and then just like that I was inside her memory.