Artifact Report

Chapter 38: Chase's Second Memory

"Chai Si, Cai Si, wake up, it's time to go home."

A hand gently pushed his shoulder, and his dream was pushed out of the cracks, the fragments slid and drifted away, and Chai Si opened his eyes.

The sunset glow on the horizon was already lavender, and the long clouds were dyed deep red, as if someone had wiped the sky with their fingers, leaving a few streaks of rouge.

The shadows of the palm trees stood high in the sky, and dim lights lit up in the parking lot in the evening.

"You slept so soundly, what sweet dreams did you have?"

His mother was standing outside the car window. Seeing him wake up, she pulled her hand out of the half-open window and stood up straight. Although Chase didn't see her expression clearly, he could hear a hint of guilt in her tone. His mother's voice was very soft because guilt is a softener.

Chase couldn't remember. The lights in his dream were bright, much brighter than the western evening in the parking lot; he was tall, much taller than he is now.

But he forgot exactly what he dreamed about.

"Aren't you working overtime today?" he asked as he watched his mother open the car door and sit in the driver's seat on the other side.

"I begged my manager to let me go early today." Mom glanced at him, a smile forming on her face, but it couldn't break through the heavy lid and faded away. "I didn't even dare tell him you were waiting for me in the car all day..."

"Why don't you dare?"

My mother put a plastic bag in the back seat. The smell of food inside was familiar. She always took some leftovers from restaurants home and made dinner for the two of them. She started the car and said, "That's not a good thing! If anyone knew, Child Protective Services might take you away."

Chai Si didn't understand what was wrong with him sitting in the car waiting for his mother to get off work - the car window was half open, the wind blew in softly, there were potato chip crumbs on his fingers, and the storybook on his lap slipped to the ground when he fell asleep.

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again. When you grow up, don't complain about me to your therapist. Fasten your seatbelt."

There will actually be more in the future, because the only person who is willing to look after Chai Si for a small fee is a neighbor sister nearby; she doesn't have time every day.

Later, Chai Si thought that what he really wanted to say at that time was obviously "I like waiting for you", but somehow, what he actually said was a complaint: "I want to go home and watch TV."

"Okay," Mom said, leaving the parking lot. "You can watch it after dinner."

By the time they got on the highway, it was completely dark. Bright headlights pierced the night, passing by their old car. The highway was high, with a cliff on the left; looking out from the road, one could see all the way to the distant horizon.

The huge and scattered city of Los Angeles is lit up with countless star-like lights under the night sky.

They had walked this road countless times, and it was as familiar as their own kitchen. Chai Si had been looking out the window at the night view of Los Angeles, while his mother listened to the radio, and the two of them chatted casually.

Everything happened so unexpectedly: my mother was even laughing when a heavy freight truck on the road ahead suddenly turned its head and broke through the right guardrail at an angle.

Her sharp inhalation made Chai Si turn his head sharply, just in time to see the long truck blocking the highway ahead.

The sharp sound of sudden brakes penetrated the entire car, but the car still couldn't stop its inertia and momentum, and crashed straight into the truck. Chai Si was pressed into the seat by the seat belt, watching the truck getting bigger and bigger, like a catastrophe looming over him. At that moment, he forgot whether he screamed out loud.

He only remembered turning his head and seeing the driver's seat was empty.

The seatbelt was still fastened in its buckle, lying flat across the driver's seat, as if it were protecting an empty one; the steering wheel, having lost its grip, turned slightly.

……what?

The confusion lasted only a moment; when Chai Si reacted and hurriedly reached out to grab the steering wheel, he crashed into the truck - in that instant, the front of the car was squeezed and twisted and rose, occupying most of the windows and vision. The next moment, Chai Si sank into darkness and knew nothing.

Oh, yes, Chase Monroe died in a car accident when he was five years old.

...Is he dead?
I always feel like something is wrong.

If Chase Munroe died at the age of five... then who is now recalling his life from his perspective and thinking he is dead?

Another voice protested quietly.

Does it matter who is remembering? It doesn't matter whether they are dead or not.

The truly important question was, if he could stop his useless contemplation and simply sink into the warm, amniotic darkness, close his eyes and fall asleep, all his struggles and confusions would be comforted and answered… he wouldn't have to worry anymore…

No more worrying...

Absolutely not. Chai Si suddenly opened his eyes.

He was lying on the ground; the bright, almost blinding light in the subway car made it impossible for him to see anything for a moment.

Some intuition suddenly awakened from deep within his bones, and he immediately suppressed his instinct to turn over and jump up. He forced himself to stay still, listening to the rustling sound on the floor, which passed by his ears and slowly faded away.

His vision soon cleared up again, and he found himself lying in front of a car window that had lost its glass.

He still remembered the car window glass just now, which had swelled up like a rubber balloon, and a few gray-white fingers were dismantling the gap between the glass and the window frame; now the car window was empty, with only broken glass scattered on the ground and seats.

The residents have already crawled in from behind the car windows and entered this world...

But no matter how hard Chai Si thought, he couldn't remember why he fell to the ground.

When I fell, the back of my head must have hit the seat first and then fell to the ground. At this time, my neck was twisted and aching slightly.

He heard the rustling sound stop a few steps away, and a low, trembling groan came from the driver's throat - the groan had just begun, but suddenly died down, as if it had been strangled.

died?

Chai Si's heart sank. That false image—

"...So, there's a purpose," a sticky voice said in an extremely unnatural way, "That's good that you know me."

Is a resident.

"So he's conscious, that's good," it said to the driver, so the driver should not be dead yet...

Chai Si held his breath and slowly turned his eyes, and saw a gray-white shadow standing vaguely on the floor not far away; although it was difficult to distinguish, it felt like the shadow seemed to be facing away from him.

He tightened his abdominal muscles inch by inch, and silently lifted himself up from the ground. He saw the T-bar lying beside his feet. He didn't pick it up.

Judging from the traces at the scene, it seemed that he had collapsed before he could do anything...

The figure, with its hunched back and hunched body, was very short, only reaching Chai Si's waist. It was wrapped in a grayish-white cloth robe, which was tattered and torn into strips in many places.

From under the gray robe, a gray hand, larger than a mop, rested softly on the ground, palm facing up; the other hand was raised in the air, with three long fingers extended, one of which was bending towards the driver.

"But, you can die, and your memory will be in three places."

Once the punctuation is messed up, even the meaning is hard to understand at first glance; Chai Si was slightly stunned before realizing that it was talking about "three memories that can die."

This also means——

Chai Si understood everything at once.

He was startled and no longer cared about hiding himself. He kicked the driver's ankle and shouted angrily: "Wake up, don't believe it, you are not dead!"

He was essentially exposed—before the next thought could even come to his mind, a face suddenly turned around from the hunched back.

When his eyes fell on that face, the subway car quickly blurred again, disappeared, and slid into the darkness; Chai Si involuntarily fell back on the seat behind him, and the residents' sticky laughter rang in his ears.

"But, the dead, the memory, thirty, nine."

it is as expected……

The mixed feeling of reluctance, fear, and anxiety quickly dissipated from the edge of his consciousness like gray smoke as he fell into his memories.

If the car accident at the age of five was the first memory the residents found that allowed them to die while revisiting it, then Chai Si knew what the second memory was.

The second time he was in danger of his life was six days after the car accident.

It is also the day when mom returns from the nest.

(End of this chapter)