Amyra read and then reread the small message. It wasn't that difficult to comprehend what was written, but apart from that nothing else was comprehendible to her. And what was more, everything about her reaction to it was strange. She had expected herself to start hyperventilating, panic and then probably start either crying or shaking in fear, but none of it happened. She felt alert instead. And confused. All of this because she couldn't recall anything more. She remembered many things of the past, yet many things she had forgotten. Don't we all do that? Teach ourselves to forget the useless small details? But Amyra knew it wasn't the useless, but the unwanted that she has willingly left behind. 

Memory keepers, one of the stories of mom. And there were some other things too, although she couldn't recall them anymore. "Memory keepers, who are you?" She mumbled although she knew that the answers were right there.

She knew that all that she needed to do was take a dip in the memory pool to gain it all back. But was she brave enough to do that? And moreover, did she even know anymore how to do that? It was all a foreign concept to her grown-up mind of an adult. Even as a teenager, she had been able to hold the hope of some things far away from this world, but she has left all those stories behind herself.

Surprisingly, instead of fear which she had unknowingly expected, what came on her face was a smile. Her mother was the greatest storyteller ever. And in a second that smile was replaced by a frown. These were just stories and she didn't even remember many of these anymore. And just like she had heard her mother earlier, this time she heard Vansh.

"How do you know, if it's a story or a recollection?"

Amyra licked her lips as finally what she would deem a fitting response in a normal condition to a situation like this came to her. Panic.

She didn't want to have these panic attacks again, but she couldn't help them. As the sweat beaded her forehead and her heart galloped like a racehorse, she did the only thing she knew that calmed her. It was instinctive, a childhood habit, something that Amu used to do when she was nothing more than a child trying to protect herself from the monsters under her bed.

She lied down on the floor right there curling up into a ball, pulled her legs up together against her chest and wrapped her hands around them. Pressing her forehead against her knees, she repeated the rhyme again and again:

As you hug yourself in the dark of night,

You'll see a flicker of the hopeful light.

It won't be the fairy, that'll save the day,

It won't be the angel, pray you may.

But take a dip dear, take a chance,

It's you who's there, just take a glance

With heart of flower, force of quake,

Snatcher and keeper, both you make.

In land of  memoir, with wraith of past

Keep your dare, and you shall last.

The poem would have lulled her to sleep in the days long gone, but at the moment it did a good job of keeping her sane and calm. But there was something else that she was now feeling instead of panic- it was a feeling of something coming to her with the force of sea waves. It was just a feeling, but so strong that she felt the force of it in every particle of her being. She could imagine a door, an invisible and weak door, which was keeping the flood of those waves outside for the time being. She could feel her body draining of energy as the door kept the flood away from her consciousness. Her hands closed in tight fists over her legs, she hugged herself harder against the cold floor, willing the door to stay closed.

And as if someone snapped a finger and lights came on, everything went back to normal within the blink of an eye as Amyra felt her phone vibrate. She let go of death grip with which she held herself and her eyes flew open as a single tear spilt out of her eye and disappeared in her hairline like a lost wanderer.

Dhruv was here. She pushed herself up into the sitting position on the floor and took the call. 

"Hey, I'm here. Open the door," He said. For some reason, Amyra imagined him looking here and there while asking her to open the door.

"Yes, just give me a minute." Her voice was surprisingly calm as she said that. She was already standing in front of the door, but she couldn't open the door right away. She needed to put the envelope away first. Amyra ran back inside her room and hurriedly kept the envelope and the piece of paper away in her drawer. Then running inside the washroom, she splashed her face with water and quickly dried herself with the towel. Being sure of herself, she again ran back to open the door for Dhruv.

"You take ages to open the door. Always." He said as soon as they came face to face. She noticed he was holding a box of pizza and two bottles of Pepsi. 

"Well, you're welcome. Come on in." Amyra moved aside while still holding the door, letting him in the house. She was still feeling tired but was much relieved now that he was there. At least she didn't have to be alone in the house now. She turned around and joined him as he sat on the sofa and kept food on the table.

"So what were you doing before you finally called me to come and save you from the monsters?" Dhruv asked as he opened the bottle of Pepsi and gulped some down.

"Nothing much, just buried some of them in my backyard. I called you to say a few last words over their graves. Manners, you know?" She said faking a sad and apologetic expression.

"Hmm..." he nodded thoughtfully. "But I honestly think manners are overrated," he said as he took a slice of pizza and started eating without asking Amyra at all.

"Oh, I can just too clearly see that you think that." She picked her own slice without waiting for him to offer her one and for a while, they just ate and bickered and laughed.

After they had eaten, both of them fell quiet. For the time being, Amyra had forgotten about everything else as she stared at the ceiling while twisting a lock of her hair in her fingers. She was thinking about absolutely nothing as she stared into the nothingness, feeling at ease with herself. 

Dhruv looked at her and saw that she was genuinely relaxed for probably the first time in the day. Although he jibed and laughed, his insides were twisting with nervousness. Unknowingly, he started tapping his fingers on his thighs as he thought through everything. He wanted to ask so many questions from Amyra, but he didn't know where to start from. And he felt guilty to think of disturbing her peace of mind now that she finally seemed to have it. She had been on her toes all day. Perhaps she didn't even know that she had been looking around nervously most of the time.

But it wasn't only the nervousness and fear that he sensed in her. There was something else too. Was it guilt? But the guilt of what? And she seemed to be unaware of the feeling herself. It seemed to be bubbling just beneath the surface of her consciousness, but out of her reach. And there were so many questions that were driving him mad.

 He finally dared to ask her what seemed to be the most important question of all.

"Amyra, are you alright?" He was still tapping his fingers on his thighs.

"Hmm?" She looked at him as if waking up from sleep, half confused, half-unconscious, and then finally taking in her surrounding as awareness settles in. "I mean yes. I'm fine. You?"

"I'm good, obviously. No stalker gracing my shadows." He was nervous about the next question, and the way she looked at him said that she knew he was gonna ask something. She was waiting, now slightly nervous herself. She unconsciously sat in a straighter position, as if sitting in for a viva exam.

"So what's up with that doll? Do you have any idea at all?"

Amyra was quiet for a moment too long before she spoke, "Not really."

Dhruv could feel the uncomfortable shift in the air. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then closed it. The conversation was over now. "Okay. So what are your plans for tomorrow?"

Amyra slightly opened her mouth, nodded her head side to side once as if counting her options by each move of her head and then spoke. "Talk to Riya's parents once they are here. Then go to the police station again to see if there is an update. Then... I'll probably sit in and watch some movie. Or read some book. Maybe a fairy tale. Or the tales of the memory land." 

"Memory land?" He chuckled, "What new Disney is that?"

"Actually, just some stories my mom told me." She seemed surprised, but by what he couldn't guess. He was definitely intrigued though. It was for the first time that she had spoken of her mother, and that made him curious.

"So what's the memory land?" He asked.

"Just the land of... memories?" She seemed slightly embarrassed and he knew why. Lips pursed, he couldn't help himself.

"How come I didn't figure that out? Memory land is the land of memories. Of course! How difficult was that to understand, huh?" He gave her a surprised smile.

She pressed her lips together, narrowed her eyes at him and threw her hands in the air. "Alright! I don't remember those stories and I don't even remember if it was really called memory land or not. I just don't remember. It's like I've forgotten everything related to my mom." She said the last line with a tinge of regret and guilt.

Dhruv's smile faltered. "It's okay. In fact, even I don't remember much about when my parents took me to see the Taj Mahal. But since they have pictures of us when I used to wear diapers, I could never complain."

Amyra gave him a small smile and then said, "I'm going to my room now. You can make yourself comfortable in..." she stopped with an expression of guilt as she realised there were only two rooms here, hers and Riya's.

"I'll be fine here, on the sofa," Dhruv said. It was only about tonight anyway. He was anyhow going to convince her to move to his house with his mom and sister for a few days.

"No, actually Riya have an extra mattress in her room. I'll get it." She frowned as if wondering why Riya kept an extra mattress in her room, just as he was.

"Why does she even has an extra mattress?"

She shrugged, eyes widening a bit and lips pouting as if to say, "Why are you asking me? Ask her!"

Within the next fifteen minutes, a temporary bed was made in the living room as the only two people present there went on discussing why there was an extra mattress in the house. The funny discussion was a desperate attempt to forget about the dark foreboding that was unfolding in the pit of their stomachs, and they both felt how useless it was. Absence of Riya was hung in the air which was saturated with unasked questions and thickening doubts about the future. Yet, both of them were comfortable in the discussion of the unexplained extra mattress in the house.

As Amyra turned around to leave for her room, Dhruv suddenly felt fear gripping him like a dead albatross around his neck- it was invisible but heavy. He couldn't tell what the curse was, but he could understand at that moment how a lost ship in the middle of nowhere must feel like. And then he recalled what he had almost forgotten. Before Amyra disappeared inside her room, he called her name. As she came back, he himself took a few steps ahead and then pulled out the chain from his pocket and held it in front of her.

Amyra stared at the pendant for a moment with a confused and slightly flustered expression that said, "Are we giving jewellery to each other now?"

Dhruv explained, "It's not just a pendant and a chain, even if it seems so." 

To explain what he meant, he pressed the sides of the rectangular locket with his thumb and forefinger. Amyra gave out a little gasp as a needle, almost an inch long came out of it with a flash. As he released the button, the needle went back in. Dhruv chuckled looking at her expression and then handed it over to her.

"It's not too much of a weapon, I know, but unsuspecting weapons are always the most lethal ones. It won't kill anyone, hopefully, but can cause enough tear and damage." It was by complete chance that he stumbled upon that necklace. He went in the never-before-visited shop to get a nail cutter for himself when he noticed it.

Amyra smiled gratefully at him and the expressions in her eyes softened. He could see an urge in her- mixed with the slightest of that unknown guilt- to say something, to confide in. But she stopped herself and all she said was a "thank you". Then with a myriad of emotions in her eyes, she turned around and went inside her room.

Dhruv stood there, feeling a dread he has never felt before rising in him. It was otherworldly and very instinctive on some level. But he tried to calm himself down. He couldn't understand what was making him feel this way. He was right here, wasn't he? How could anything go wrong then? And yet, he felt as if something will go wrong. And when it does, he won't be of any use. But also there was a part of him which felt the slightest of relief on knowing that she now had something that could help her and strangely, his heart said that it will be enough. 

And nothing can go wrong in one night, can it? I'm right here after all.

Dhruv couldn't have imagined that many things could go wrong in one night. It was almost midnight, and although he had earlier figured that he wouldn't be able to, he soon did fall asleep. He was going to wake up the next day to breathe in the empty house and face the fact that Amyra was no longer here.