He picked up a chair setting it up straight and continued to look around. The table and many other pieces of furniture were overturned or broken. Something or someone had come through the house like a tornado. The house was lonely and deserted, cobwebs hung in every corner of the house. Windows were shattered glasses pieces could be seen through the weeds that were growing in through the windows and the front door behind him. The house was quite simply an epitome of abandonment.
The house used to hold something for him but now he didn't feel anything. No memories of his past were coming back. His head still felt empty. They had told him that his memories would come back eventually and returning to this place would bring something back. Had they lied or was this just another thing where he was an exception. It seemed instead of answers he was just getting more questions.
He exited the house and made his way through the overgrown weeds to the large barn near the house. He lifted the wood block from the door and threw it on the ground. The door to the barn creaked open and he entered the dark space. He made his way through the scraps of metal from numerous farm machines (probably looted for parts many years ago) to a lantern. He spun the knob around but the light did not turn on. Things could be worse he thought. He returned the lantern to its place letting the thin metal handle clink against the side. His eyes caught an object and he made his way to it. He crouched down and picked up the object and turned it over in his hand. He recognized the object from his time at camp. They had told him the object was called a di'hén, in the language of the natives of the dimension on which the stone was found, in their language it was known simply as a light stone.
He threw the stone into the light and waited for the stone to activate. The stone, within a couple seconds of being in the light, began to radiate light through out the room. Taking a new look at the room he had to admit it was exactly the same as the house. It seemed the same thing or person who had been in the house had also chosen to repeat the act on the families barn.
“Nothing.” he said out loud. His hand moved up to his temple as he massaged the growing headache that was beginning to form. He turned to the place he had found the lantern and looked over the small wall. He guessed at one point there must have been some type of animal living there, but now there was nothing but old stale looking hay. He made a step back and looked around. There were three rooms for animals. He moved to the second one and looked over the low wall. Inside were the remnants of a small animal of some sort. He took a step back and moved to the final pen at the end of the barn. This wall was taller than the others. He massaged his temple once more and stepped on the gate to the pen. At the sight in the pen he fell off the gate and onto the floor. He stepped back onto the gate and took in the view once more. Inside the pen was a large skeleton, undeniably of a horse. On the neck of the skeleton was a large metal band chained to the wall of the barn.
He slipped off the gate to the pen and slumped to the floor. His head was racing from the image of the skeleton in the third pen. His face was beginning to feel like molten lava. His mind felt like it was splitting in half.
He saw a small boy running around in a new barn. Animals were rummaging around stacks of hay hoping to get some extra food before they were shooed away. The boy was happy, a smile of utter joy on his face as he was nuzzled by a brown horse. The horse would use its face to flip the boy’s arm so that it would land on its nose. The boy would laugh and laugh. The happy vision of the barn switched to men in black showing up at the front door to the house as rain drenched them. The mother seemed to be trying to make the men go away as the boy looked around the corner at his screaming mother. Finally the mother seemed to give up and retreated back to the boy. She knelt down and hugged the boy, tears streamed down onto his shoulders. She let go of holding the boy at a length and spoke in calming words as she retreated back. The men grabbed the boy’s hand and led him out the door.
He opened his eyes and stared at the wall in front of him as the headache and the visions faded. He used his forearm to wipe the beads of sweat from his brow. He thought about the visions he had seen, memories. Now that his headache was gone he was able to think more clearly. He had answers now and questions. Most importantly he had a way to figure out more answers. The light stone- where had it come from? Light stones were rare in this world and were only owned by people who could afford them. If not they had to be made and that took someone with a lot of skill of a very specific type. A person with that amount of skill would be easy to track. And he wanted answers.
