"We have something to sleep on, right?" asked Aeren.
"I packed blankets only. We can't carry any other heavy stuff."
"Why is that? Is there a place that would be hard to walk on with heavy things?"
"Of course. Did you forget about the river?"
Aeren stopped and stared at her at the moment when he remembered that he'd have to cross the river. The river. The old big river that flooded before his eyes since he was born. How? Just how he crossed that river at the day his mother was killed? He didn't now. He didn't how his legs crossed that wide river.
"The river. Oh yeah, river. We should... cross the river." He looked at the ground. His hands were shaking, and he felt suffocated. Just being shown as scared in front of her was shaking him that much. Or was it something else? Maybe something else was scaring him? Something... old. Something he didn't want to remember.
At that moment, he felt something coming from his nose. He touched his nose and saw blood. Suddenly, his ears started to hurt and heard something unclear. He fell on the ground while covering his eyes because of the pain and sounds. Sounds were becoming more and more clear. It was a bold and thick voice, and scary. It was so scary voice for Aeren. It was saying "Where were you? Where were you? Where were you?" Only three words were repeating and repeating again. In every repetition of words, he would get smacks to his nose, and the blood coming out of his nose were not stopping. After hearing it for a while, all the pain in his ears and the blood from his nose were gone. He opened his eyes after the pain was gone and see and old wood door. The familiar one. Yeah, he knew what door it was. It was door of the shed in the back of his house. The scary and dark shed. He was trapped in that small shed. He panicked and cried. Then stared to hit the door with his foot hardly, screaming "Let me out! Let me out! Please! Please let me out! Please! He couldn't break down the door. It didn't move an inch. Like he couldn't move an inch of that door when he was a kid. So, he sat down at the corner of the shed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I won't cross that river again. So please let me out. Please." The tears were not stopping from his eyes while he was saying that. Then suddenly, the door opened, and he saw a silhouette of familiar female. The silhouette was so much alike to his mother. She was coming to Aeren. To hold him. To hug him. To save him. To everything except hurt. When that silhouette came so close to him, his mind came back to reality. He was just standing, and the girl was shaking him by his shoulder.
"Hey. Hey, are you alright?" said she.
There wasn't any trace of pain in his ears, and there was no blood coming out of his nose. There were only tears in his eyes.
"You remembered something didn't you? Something really bad." said that while wiping his tears.
"Yeah." There was no emotion of sadness in his face, but tears were still flooding. "I remembered how my dad smacked and hit my face, when he found out that I crossed the river without asking him. I remembered how my sister and grandma locked up to our old shed, when they found out that I crossed the river without telling asking them. It was so dark and...". His face finally let out all the emotions inside him and he fell to his knees. The girl fell to her knees together and hugged him. No matter how hard he tried, the tears wouldn't stop. He would cry like he was born for it. Like all his living and purpose on life is crying.
The girl looked at him and wiped his tears. "We will cross that river together. I will be with you. Don't worry."
"I don't know if I can do that. I know if I cross that river, no one is going to scold me or hit me, but it's still the same. Everything changed, but not me. That river is still terrifying for me." Even if the girl was looking at him, his head was still tilted down to the ground. So, the girl raised his head by holding his chin.
"You changed too. You have me, and...". She came closer to his face and whispered to his ear "You would do anything to see my real smile, right?"
The tears stopped. Aeren's eyes were wide open. "Oh yeah, her smile. How did I forget that. I cannot stop right now, only because of mere memories. I must see her real smile" thought he and stood up. "Let's cross that river. No matter what."