14 Nightmares

"It should always be precisely 375 degrees, nothing more nothing less"

"Are you okay honey?"

"James, hey look at me. Look we love you so much"

"NO JAMES STAY PUT STAY PUT!!"

James began to have a terrible nightmare an hour after he slept. He saw what seems to be his parent being burned to crisps. Then their skeletons rose from the ashes inside a kitchen fire.

The skeletons then came over to James with their creepy smiles and held James on his neck. James began to choke uncontrollably. "You think you can continue living without us? We made you, we gave you your whinny life, so give up your useless, boring life to us."

James screamed and woke up, with sweats all over his body. "What was that?" he apprehensively asked. Then he started crying. This was too much for him. James had just had a close encounter with death on that plane, and now, he couldn't even have a proper night rest.

Martha unlocked the room James resided in and rushed to James bed. "Honey are you okay? What happened?" Martha asked soothingly. James, who was still apprehensive, tried to calm himself down "No, it's nothing aunt. It was just a bad dream. I had a bad dream aunt" James said, with a futile attempt to wipe his tears with his nightgown.

"Aww it's okay honey, It's all right. Martha snuggled closer to James as he lovingly soothes James, and James was able to calm down and stop crying. James could sense that whatever he dreamt about must be connected to the death of his parents and his amnesia.

"Aunt Martha, did my parent die in a fire?" James queried. Martha body stiffened. She hesitated to say anything and tried to change the subject "I don't know, but what you should know is to take a good night rest, today is a big day." Martha replied as she tried to cheer James up.

"I saw my parents died in some fire. I heard their voice echoing inside my head. The doctor said you should not try to invoke my memory, but I already know this one, so please give me an answer aunt." James pleaded.

Martha stared at James for a few seconds and sighed. "Sigh, okay. A few weeks ago, the police told us that your parents died in a fire accident, but I didn't buy that. No kitchen accident would host that kind of fire, albeit an explosive one. Given that your father works in an Intelligence Agency, maybe some bad guys had wanted to hurt your family.

"They were targeting you and your father because they received information that your father held what is called a "cutting-edge technology", some kind of a supercomputer. But I guessed they were wrong. The police did a thorough search and could not find any of that."

James was astounded. His father worked at an Intelligence Agency, bad guys ended his and his mother's life and knocked his memory off. This seemed like something straight out of a movie. He could not believe what he was hearing.

"So, my dad and my mum died in a fire because of a computer chip he kept with him?" James confirmed, which Martha nodded. James then sighed and weakly smiled "Thank you, Aunt Martha, I appreciate," he said.

"No problem honey, please go to sleep okay" Martha soothed. Martha then climbed out of his bed and walked out of the room. She took a glance at James before switching off the light and leaving for her room.

James didn't want to sleep again, so he began to think. "AI, please I need you. Can you shoo away those nightmares away from my sleep" James asked AI.

[Sure James. I'll create a passthrough, so whatever you are thinking would first be analyzed by me, so I'll successfully remove those bad memories].

"Thank you AI" James appreciated, and after that, he was able to sleep without any issue.

At around 8:20 am, the whole family were refreshed enough to prepare to start their vacation. They came together in Martha's room with their best casual clothes. "Alright crews, we are going to start our excursion in Maui Ocean Water! We should get our cameras and get ready to capture the most memorable day of our lives! Woo yeah!" Martha excitedly made a speech, infecting the joy to the family.

They took a tour bus a few minutes later. The tour guy kept describing the marked places outside the window and explained their history. The Harts kept "oohing" and "ahhing" as the bus hummed silently.

James looked outside the window to admire the view. It was a beautiful day, he thought. He wanted to use this opportunity to clear off that nightmare he had earlier, a nightmare about his forgotten life. "AI?" James thought.

[Hello James. How are you doing?] the Ai voiced out in his mind.

"I'm doing great. Can you assist me in analyzing the dream I had? I cannot shake it off, so you could help me with that?" James requested. Martha had roughly explained to him what happened to his parents weeks ago, but he was not satisfied with that answer, so he hoped the AI could help him.

[Well, a nightmare is a nightmare. It could not be explained. However, if you want an explanation about who killed your parent, well I'm sorry, I cannot do that. Except you went to the scene of the crime, I would then be able to scan for DNA fragments of every single person that was in the kitchen." The AI said.

"All right, but the thing is that Martha would not take me there, I'm sure of that. But I can sneak out in the night to take you there, hopefully, it would trigger my memories." James said.

[First, do not sneak out of your aunt's place, because it's too far to go to your original home, and second, I should not tell you more than once you should not trigger your memories at all, because I'm close to fully recovering your memories] the AI sternly said.

"Okay, how much memory have you recovered?"

[37%].

"urrrrgh, this would take forever! Can you not just apply that memory to my brain please?" James complained, frustrated. Esther, who was enjoying the view, turned and gazed at James. However, he could see that he was frustrated for some reason. He kept making funny faces like he was talking to someone.

This was not the first time he saw him behave like that. When they met, he saw his emotions fluctuating from time to time. She could not explain why.

She moved closer to James seat and sat next to him. "James, are you okay?" she whispered. James became startled, looking at Esther, but calmed down. "No I'm fine, it's just—I hate the fact that I cannot remember who I am." James tried to make up a lie, which Esther quickly bought.

"There's no need to stress yourself, James. Your memories would come back when the time is right, you just be patient. You know what, we're going to see a fish tank, and there are selling one of the best fish meals there, you'll see." Esther said and smiled, flashing her brilliant white teeth at James, who was infected and smiled too.