Chapter Thirteen - Memoria

 "You'll have to excuse him, he's a little fussy tonight. You'll be a big boy and be nice for uncle Elliot, okay Tommy? Don't give my brother too much trouble."

 "We'll be back in a few weeks, Elliot, take care of our son for us, okay? And Tommy, please, be safe. We love you."

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"So yeah, that's pretty much all that's happened to me since I turned eleven. I know it's an odd life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else, or anyone else even though a certain jacket-wearing teenager will not stop pointing out the fact that I'm an alien. Even he has his moments, though.

 "So," Keera asked, looking past her mother, "Can you tell me who that person is?" She asked, pointing over to the side. 

 "Who who is?" Annabelle replied, then she turned her head around...

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 Pleasant Rest Graveyard had been in the Goth family for generations, it was Sunset Valley's only major graveyard until the meteor shower, which prompted the town to build a new one to make room for the people killed in the event, as the Pleasant Rest Graveyard was as crowded as could be. However, in this graveyard were two graves of interest to Tom and Kelly.

 "Here lies Thomas Jameson and Tina Jameson. Loving Parents. Together Forever." Kelly read off the two grave markers that sat next to each other in Pleasant Rest Graveyard.

 
Tom thought back to the only picture he ever had of his parents, and always knew that no matter how much he tried, he couldn't remember their voices, he couldn't remember a lullaby his mother sang to him when he was just a toddler, nothing. He knew his father's voice because it spoke to him back in Bridgeport, but that was the end of it.
 
"How did they die?" Kelly asked.

Lost in his thoughts, Tom heard the question but didn't perceive it as such. "What?"

"Your parents, how did they die? Was it an accident?"

"..." Tom remembered everything he read, and was surprised Kelly didn't because she was a keen, perceptive investigator, then again perhaps Kelly never read about them. "They were adventurers, they entered Tomb of the Sphinx to explore, and from what I heard, they died a few weeks later. Rumors persist that a mummy emerged from a sarcophagus and cursed them when they went for the relic, or maybe they died from some other disease... I do not really know."

"You mind if I say something?"

"What? A eulogy? They've been dead for years, and you barely even knew them! I barely even knew them!"

"No... I'm going to talk to them."

...Tom lifted his hand to say something, but decided against it.

"What?" Kelly asked.

"I'm just saying, yeah, they're dead, and you can't talk to dead people."

"You did. You literally just said that you heard your father's voice in Bridgeport."

Tom begrudgingly sighed and said "Go ahead, do what you will."

 

 "Hello, Uncle Thomas and Aunt Tina, it's your niece Kelly. I know we never really met, but uh, I know Tom misses you all the time. If you would kindly speak to him, maybe come out of your graves as ghosts, I would be extremely grateful. Please?"

"Kelly, I don't think it's going to work." Tom said, "I doubt they would do such a thing." 

"Maybe they just don't have a reason to really come out of their graves, if you wanted to I could sing, and they would have to come out to stop me-"

"NOOOO! I mean, I don't think that's necessary." Tom quickly said. "Besides, I'm sure if I truly need them, I'll see them. It's only a matter of time. It happened before in Bridgeport, after all."

Tom and Kelly continued their conversation, not realizing that they were being watched by a familiar face, someone who had the misfortune of antagonizing Tom in the past. He walked around the pond in the middle of the graveyard and over to them, not expecting a warm welcome.

 

 "YOU!" Tom said, "What are YOU doing HERE?!" 

"I need to talk to you, Thomas." Deacon said. He had a disheveled look to him and a desperate tone to his voice, and with every word it looked like he was going to pass out. Tom realized that he was still injured from the fight, and that he was just recently out of some hospital where he apparently hadn't even had a haircut for three months. 

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 "Who are you? Some sort of futuristic me? Does that mean that I haven't aged at all since right now because I'm really worried that I won't age because I see you and I think you're from the future and you're as young as me or maybe you're some kind of clone or something because I really don't want to be seventeen forever can please please please tell me I'm not going to be seventeen forever!!!!" 

Annabelle stopped to catch a breath, realizing that she spoke the equivalence of an entire written paragraph within one sentence. Finally she calmed herself, and asked "Who are you?"

 "My name is irrelevant, but I am a Torran like you. In fact, one may call us 'sisters.' Annabelle, I am your twin sister."

 "................"

"I understand that this is big news for you, Annabelle, but I need you to accompany me to the graveyard... " The mysterious girl grabbed Annabelle's arm and they vanished into a white light.

Keera, halfway stunned by what she had just seen, said "What the-?!", and then she heard two people walking through the archway behind her. "Hello."

A few seconds later, Annabelle and the strange alien in white teleported themselves into the graveyard, just in time to catch Tom confronting Deacon. 

"Speak to me?!" Annabelle heard Tom say, "SPEAK?! YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!" 

"Him?!" Annabelle said, "What is that snobby piece of sh-... Wait a second, what happened to him?!"

"I don't understand." The alien said, "I don't get this, he's supposed to be red."

"What?" Annabelle asked.

"Um, nothing, just watch the fight."

"What makes you think there will be a fight?"



"...there should be. I've researched your life: Deacon Jones tried to kill Tom, he was the one who detonated a bomb in the library that nearly killed you two as well. Thomas Jameson should have the willpower to take him down instantly."

"You don't know Tom the way I do."

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"Look, I was mixed up, I lost my parents too, Thomas. They came here as tourists and were killed in the meteor shower, and when I was adopted by Jack Tooms he drilled me into a sick sense of perfection. That's why I'm here: I wanted to apologize for everything I've done to you, to Annabelle, to everyone. Jack Tooms manipulated me as much as he did everyone else, and I had to have my back crushed by a fourty-foot fall to realize it."

"How are we sure you're telling the truth." Kelly asked. "How are we sure you're not lying?"

"Please, Kelly and Thomas, I beg you, I do not want anything from you, just for you to accept my apology. I even donated my money, all of it, to charities, and sold my homes, and gave my butlers and housemaids enough money to live three lifetimes, all for a quest I'm on for redemption, just accept my apology, and I will be on my way! PLEASE!"

Tom realized he needed to say what Deacon needed to hear. Tom had a way of looking into people's hearts and seeing if they're sincere or not, and Deacon seemed that way. In any case, he decided to accept his apology, not even knowing if he was sincere about it or not.

"Thank you so much Thomas, it makes me feel wonderful to have gotten this off my chest, and now I am going to leave. I have researched a medical wonder in Hidden Springs, one that may heal my wounds, so this will probably be the last time you see me, Thomas Jameson. Fare thee well, brave adventurer."

"What did I tell you? He didn't even put a hand on him. Tom's a good person, even to those who wronged him in the past."

"This doesn't. Make. Sense! Why isn't he red? He was red a few months ago, and now he's not!" The girl said, "Maybe I've been wrong in the past?!"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Good," Annabelle said, "Let's go back to my house."

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Tom and Kelly returned home as the sun was setting and instantly the former ran inside. He was yelling to Annabelle about "Deacon being good." and "He apologized for everything". However, his reaction when he saw who Annabelle was talking with drowned out everything he was thinking.

"Who is that?!" Tom screamed.

 

"She's my sister, she crash landed here five and a half years ago during the meteor shower." Annabelle said. "What's the problem?" 

"Uh..... nothing. Does your sister or something have a name to call her by? Because I want to add to my apparent insanity a NAME to call it.

"Her name's..." Annabell turned to the girl and said. "What do you think of 'Isobelle', my sister?"

"You know, I like that. I like that a lot." Isobelle replied, smiling for one of the first times in her life.

Tom, however, smirked and said, "So do you have any more members of your extended family come over, maybe you have a second cousin twice removed who happens to be silver or something? Who else is here, Annabelle?"

"Hello."

"GAH!" Tom turned around quickly and screamed, forcing himself to refrain from fainting.

"Well, there is Keera, she got here today as well. It's like an unknowing family reunion!" Annabelle said. "Meet my daughter."

Keera looked up at him and smiled. 

"I get that reaction a lot around here."

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 Later that evening, a man named Dominic Roberts, one of Sunset Valley's well-known inventors, was looking for parts for his newest invention, which was planned to be an autonomous humanoid device. 

Suddenly, Dominic heard a noise behind him, and the corner of his eye caught a faint green glow, which he simply shrugged off as a passing car. After this, he went back to looking for parts and scrap for his invention.

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