[Memories] Roderich's Flashbacks

[Roderich Edelstein]

[Just a heads's up, I'm kind of doing a twist on how the memories come back. I'm just not a journal writing gal. I never could figure the point of doing it, even in RP terms. I also don't go for dream therapy, sooo it's hard for me to write up anything along those lines. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the crazy creative ride that will be Roderich's flashbacks.]

He had come into the computer lab to send an e-mail out to a professor. He sat down and opened up his profile. As the blank white digital page came up and he stared at the blinking cursor debating how to start, he felt his mind start to drift. It seemed to become harder to focus.

He came to after a moment and flinched as he felt someone walk near.

His senses felt overly charged as he came to, as if he could sense every living thing around him. The taste of salt was in his mouth and the scent of water and pines was in his nose. Though all of it started to fade away as his consciousness took hold again. He thought he could still sense the fading buzz of voices like the sound you hear when walking out of room crowded with people. Though now all he could hear was the hum of the computers and the footsteps of the other young man in the room. His presence was what Roderich had sensed breaking the trance.

"Whoa there, i's jus' me. Y're jumpier than one o' my da's prize birds. Wha's with ya t'day Rod?"

Roderich shook his head, trying to clear it. No time to be spacing off. He glanced down at the time and paled. 20 minutes had passed. He paled in shock wondering if he had dozed off.

The young man came up in front of him, peering over the computer screen at him. The sheaf of papers he had just picked up from printer on the table to the left of Roderich were tucked up between his chest and the monitor as leaned in squinting. "G’ud on ya man, you're white as a sheet! Ya look like ya saw a ghost or s‘umthin‘‘?"

Roderich gave him a wan smile and said, "Maybe I looked in a mirror then."

That earned him a big smile and clap on the back. "'Tchaw, you're a funny one. Still, a bit 'o fresh air might do you good ya know?"

Roderich nodded, “Yeah, maybe you're right. Just, um, let me save this. . . “

The other man smiled, “Bes’ jus’ do that. Don’t want to lose all you was a working on. Typing like a demon ya was since you sat down.”

Roderich cocked an eyebrow puzzled at that statement. But he just shrugged his shoulder and looked back down at the screen. But the e-mail he was working on was gone. He noticed that his inbox was flagged for an incoming e-mail. It had no subject and oddly enough the return address was his own e-mail. He opened it up.

Noriig,

Die Heimat lag immer in unserem Herzen und unser Geister in der Stammlandesherz ewig leben.


Du dürfst uns nie vergessen.


Noricorum,

Bitte, erinnere mich und mich

und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich und mich…

He glanced back wondering if that was what he had been typing ‘like a demon’ as the young man had said. He noticed the last two words were repeated on and on continuously though he noticed the spacing was varied and uneven. They switched in color from blue to green. The rest of the earlier text had been black. It seemed to form a pattern or an image maybe. The pattern looked floral almost. He wasn’t sure what flower but it seemed a strangely familiar shape. He didn’t recognize all the words, but he thought he knew a few.

The first part said something about ‘our hearts and ghosts’ or maybe that word meant ‘sprits’. He didn’t recognize anything else in the line. The bolded line he thought said something like, ‘you, us, never forget.’ And the last line had the word ‘memory’ or was that ‘remember’ and the two words repeated were ‘and me’. So it was a note about remembering something? But what? And did he really type this like a sleepwalker? He shivered, unnerved a little at the thought.

He didn’t have any more time to puzzle on it before he heard the bell for the hour started to toll. The other student glanced up at the clock and lightly cursed. “Aw ‘ell we’ll hafta run, Rod! Ya know how ol’ man Riker in history throws a good one if your’en a minute late.”

As he closed out the program it asked him ^{“Do you wish to save this message? Yes, No”} His cursor hovered a moment over the question as the bell tolled counting down his time. As the other man hollered at him again to hurry, he grabbed up his bag before he selected “No” and logged out. He turned and ran out the door hoping he left the mystery behind too.





<sub>[First Memory Notes!
(The homeland lies always in our hearts and our spirit lives forever in the heart of the homeland.)

(Don't forget us)
(Remember me, & me, & me . . . )
‘Noriig’ is old old Gaelic/German, ‘Noricorum’ is old Roman/Latin in origin. Both are ancient names for the land around Salzburg that later became modern Austria The taste of salt is for what originally made the area wealthy and they still mine today. A huge salt reserve. The region is also know for it’s lakes and forested areas.

(Floral pattern the words formed would have been a forget-me-not flower but forum reformats spacing on everything when you post so I didn’t attempt to try to do that.) ]</sub>

[Roderich Edelstein]

[Okay memory number two: War of Succession ]

_{[Translation of German is "Schlesian, where is she? Give her back to me!" Doctors mispronounce the English translation of the name Silesia. It's the region that Austria lost to Prussia at the end of the war. It's also the war we saw the formation of the Bad Friends Trio of France, Spain & Prussia. ]}


Last thing he remembered he was in the pit orchestra.
Now he was in a bed attached to an IV.
Family, friends, associates, and doctors come in various rotations to see him.

He pieces things together bit by bit from what they tell him.
Sewing their stories and his fractured memories together with neat stitches,
hoping to make a complete quilt of the memories.

It was the Conservatory’s spring opera performance.
He remembers that.
The setting was old Europe nigh on a millennia ago.
They say it happened at the dress rehearsal.
He always liked dress rehearsals;
it was enjoyable to see the myriad pieces come together.

They said it was late in the evening.
He remembers that it had been a long day.
They said it occurred when they were nearing the end where the big battle scene came up.
He remembers diving into the battle music when the disorientation started.

He tried to shake it off but then the veil of the world around him fell.
Ghostly figures of the actors and crew moved around him.
Then the figures shifted growing denser and more real as the real world turned ghostly and pale.

He watched as ghostly soldiers continued to fight and die through scenery and actors alike.

Suddenly one ghostly figure's arm shot forward to skewer another on his sword

Right through Roderich’s chest and heart.

He jerked away in shock at the cold touch of the spirit's blade.
He falls backward off his piano bench to the floor.
He watched as the soldier turns his steed to ride away in the growing darkness.

And with that,
Roderich's world went black,
as he was left there laying on the floor
to join the other ghostly images of the defeated and dead all around him.

[/i]

They said they heard a pained scream.
He thinks he remembers that. He thinks it was him.
They said later he had passed out in the middle of playing.
He remembers the opera dress rehearsal. He remembers the military march.
They said it was during the battle scene.

They said he fell of the piano bench and smacked his head against the keys.
He’s glad he didn’t chip a tooth.
They said he might have a broken nose, they won’t know until the swelling goes down.
He really hopes not.
He changes his mind and wonders if it’ll give him that rough and tumble, bad-boy sex appeal.
Ludwig's sitting by his feet while he ponders this.
Next time he'll remember to wait for Gilbert.
Ludwig promptly assures him nothing will give him that.
He promptly decides to kick him off the hospital bed.

Nothing was broken.
Neither was his nose.

They say he probably had a concussion too.
He wonders if he left any blood on the keys. He thinks he remembers the coppery taste and smell of blood. They said he definitely had a seizure.
He doesn’t believe them. He’s never had them before.

They said he stopped breathing for almost a minute.
He remembers the feeling of fear, but he doesn’t remember any of this.
They said they weren’t sure but they think his heart might have stopped too.
He remembers the pain in his chest. He remembers the darkness.
At least they couldn’t find a pulse on him for a minute.
He wonders if that means he died? .

They say CPR saved him.
Come to think of it he thinks he remembers ghosts of soldiers and a light.
They say that’s why he woke up in the hospital.
Now he knows why his father looked to be more ghost than man.

They say the doctors aren’t sure what happened.
He’s not sure what happened.

They say all his test results came back normal.
He doesn’t feel normal.


They say he suffered another seizure when his friend came to visit him.
He thinks he remembers someone going into a sudden murderous rage and leaping at the other young man.
They say it was him.
He doesn’t remember that.

They say he screamed out in some strange tongue.
“Schlesien! Wo is sie? Gibt ihr rück zu mir!”
It was right before the convulsions started and he fell to the floor.
He thinks he remembers trying to stop it, trying to scream out
“No, stop!”
His father says his friend hasn’t come back since, but calls everyday.
It was a close friend. A best friend.
He wonders how you apologize for something like that.


He questions his sanity.
He thinks the doctors must wonder too.


They ask him lots of questions.
He answers that he got dizzy.
They ask him what he remembers after that.
He says, no, he doesn’t remember anything after falling from the bench.

Nor from the hospital bed.

They ask about Schill -Lee-Sha. [Silesia] They ask who she is.
He says he’s never heard that name. He asks them why, do they know what it means?
They say no

A week later and everything still normal, they say he can go home.

His father notes he’s having night terrors again
like he did right after the accident he was in that took his mom‘s life when he was little.
They just give him pills to aid his sleep.
They still don’t know why, but they say he should be okay. An after-effect of the head injury.

He says okay,

He takes the pills,
but he doesn’t truly believe that.

He doesn’t remember what he saw,
but he can’t forget the insurmountable loss in his heart,
the pain of it was more than anything he had felt before, except
When his mother died.

He wondered if saw hell.
He hopes he didn’t.

He thinks he remembers that some being spoke to him when he was unconscious.
He hoped it was an angel or a friendly spirit.


But...

Angels don’t usually have fiery red eyes,

do they?