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I opened my eyes to find myself again on Ashley’s bed looking at Steve. “How long was I out?”

“Not long. We just laid you down on the bed.” Steve said.

“I had a strange dream. I dreamed I woke up as a girl and a strange girl said she was a goddess and was my mother.” I told him.

“Huh… Danni?” Steve said

“Yeah?”

“It wasn’t a dream.”

“W…what?”

“Look.” He said pointing at something.

“I turned my head to where he was pointing to and I see mom, Ashley and that girl.”

“W….what is going on?” I asked them.

“Don’t ask me. I have no idea.” Ashley said.

“Mom?”

“Oh sweetie. What do you remember?”

“Not much, only that I woke up as a girl and that girl said she was my mother. That can’t be true, right?”

I looked at mom and the look at her eyes said it all.

“Mom? Is it true?”

“Yes, sweetie, it is.” She said in tears.

“Bu…but, If she is my mother does it mean you are not my real mom?”

“No my daughter, she is your mother as much as I am.” Artemis said.

“What about dad? Is he my father?”

“Not biologically.” She said.

“Are you really a goddess?”

“Yes, I am the goddess Artemis, but you can call me Diana, that’s the name I am using right now.”

“Why did I wake up as a girl? “

“You were always a girl. You only had a pseudo-male body.”

“B..but why?”

“For your protection. I had to disguise you.”

“My protection? Protection from what?”

“I couldn’t let the others know you existed. I didn’t want you to be raised among the gods. The disguise was to mask your true nature.”

“My nature?”

“Yes my daughter. You are also a goddess and from what I noticed you are attuned to the winds.”

‘Me? A goddess? Have the world gone nuts?’ I thought to myself

At that moment I started to feel angry. I just noticed that my entire life was a lie.

“Why didn’t I remember about me being Danielle?”

“I had to repress those memories. You were awakening too early and was too young to safely control your abilities in the human world.”

“WHAT? You did it on purpose?”

“I had to. There was no other way.” She said sadly.

“No other way? You made me forget my most precious memories. You made me suffer for so long, feeling that something was missing inside of me. “

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to risk losing you. Your abilities had just emerged and you cause a lot of destruction.”

“I remember. I was being ATACKED by a man that wanted to rape me and then kill me. I felt something building inside of me and I just released it. The next thing I remember was being in the center of what looked like debris caused by a tornado.”

“You were attacked?” Steve asked.

At that moment I started to cry. It just dawned to me that I had probably killed the guy and maybe others too.

Steve sat beside me and held me tight. I kept crying on his chest and said between sobs. “I… think… I… killed… him.”

“I never knew that. We never find out what happened.” Mom said coming closer to me and hugging me.

When she hugged me I pushed her away. “Don’t touch me.” I yelled.

“You knew everything, didn’t you? You knew I was a girl all along, didn’t you?”

“Yes… I did.” Mom said with her head lowered incapable of looking at me.

“You two have no idea what you did, do you? Before that I was happy but because you thought I wasn’t ready you made me forget everything that was dear to me? The guy tried to rape me and I protected myself, but you two succeeded in raping my mind. I spent 3 years feeling empty inside. You have any idea how many times I thought of ending it all? I woke up every day trying to find a reason to keep going.”

“You said you didn’t want to lose me? What you did almost made me take my own life. The only thing that kept me going was Steve and Ashley. They were always there for me. No wonder I felt empty. You made me forget how I felt about STEVE. I might have been young and I was falling in love with him and you TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ME! And what for? Because you love me? Because you didn’t want to lose me? I don’t even KNOW you!”

“What do you want from me? To be my mother? Too late. You two made sure that almost everything in my life was a lie and expect me to forgive you? Think again.”

Before anyone could say anything I stormed out of the room and started to run and cry.

  

  

(Ashley)

I saw Danni storm out and Steve running after her not long after.

I turned to Danni’s mother and the ‘goddess’ and said. “You two really messed things up.”

Danni’s mother (sorry I can’t call her aunt Megan right now) just sat on the floor and kept crying.

“My baby hates me now. I lost her. I lost her” She kept saying over and over again.

“Danielle will come back. She just need some time.” The ‘goddess’ said. I know I should respect a goddess more but I can’t, not after what she did to Danni.

“Do you think she will ever forget you? Do you have any idea how happy she was just before you made her forget about being Danielle?”

“No I haven’t. I remember feeling something was wrong with her and when I found her I found her in the center of a tornado she created. Not long after that the tornado was gone and I saw her collapse. She wasn’t ready for that kind of power and the only way to contain it until she could handle it was doing what I did.”

“You could have trained her.” I said.

“That would take months, maybe even a year where she would have to be apart from her family and friends.”

“It is better than forgetting the feelings you have about the person you love and forgetting who you are. She was so happy. After you did whatever you did I never saw her smile a single time. It was like a spark left her. Her eyes were empty. She was just existing. She wasn’t living at all. What did you expect to happen when she regained her memories?”

“I don’t know. I was too worried about her at the time and I did the only thing I thought could be done at the time. Now I probably lost my daughter, the daughter I longed for thousands of years because I was afraid of losing her.” She said crying openly now.

I looked at Danni’s mom and she was still there on the floor crying and saying the same thing over and over.

“I don’t know if she will ever forgive you but right now we need to help her ‘mother’. I think she is in shock.”

  

  
(Steve)

I kept running after Danni, calling her name but she was ignoring me. She was running faster than ever and I was having trouble keeping up to her.

After about 15 minutes we arrived at the park and I saw her collapsing on the ground next to a tree and cry. I called her name and started to walk towards her when I felt a strong gush of wind trying to push me back.

“ LEAVE ME ALONE” She yelled at me.

“I can’t. You are in pain and I can’t leave you alone like that.”

“Please leave me alone.” She said and another gush of wind almost knocked me of my feet.

“I can’t leave you alone dammit! I love you, don’t you see that?”

“Y…you love me?” She said still crying.

“I never stopped loving you, Danni.” I said while moving closer to her.

“B…but I thought….”

I sat down next to her and held her tight. “You thought that I stopped loving you because you forgot about us?”

“Y…yes.” She said crying to my chest.

“I could never stop loving you Danni. Why do you think we worked so hard in trying to make you remember?”

“Is that why you and Ashley dressed me up?”

“It was our last hope. We saw how miserable you were and we were afraid you would end up killing yourself if we didn’t do anything. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing you. Why do you think we came up with the Christmas elf idea? Christmas always were your favorite holiday.”

“I did think it was a bit strange. After all Christmas is still two months away. And next week is still Halloween.”

“I know. That’s why we came up with the pretense that you needed that time to practice. I know it was a low blow involving sick children but we didn’t know what to do.”

“Do you mean the Christmas elf thing is a lie?”

“No. It isn’t a lie, but we won’t force you to do it. You know we could never lie to you. You could always see in our faces when we did.”

“I know. I was sure you were lying when you said you didn’t know anything about the dreams I told you about.”

“I know and it pained me very much. We couldn’t tell you because you would never believe us.”

“I want to do it.” She said into my chest.

“Do what?”

“The elf thing. You know how much I love kids and it gave me warm feelings when you suggested it. I was at my hope’s end and it gave me a reason to keep going.”

We just stood there a long time holding each other in silence after that. I just noticed how close we were of losing her and hold her even tighter.

  

  

(Danni)

I stood there a long time in his embrace, his big strong arms around me, holding me tight. It made me feel safe and protected, a feeling I don’t remember ever having before. My father always seemed a little distant and now I know why. I know he loves me but I always felt like there was something between us. He never made me go into sports or forced me to do boy stuff. I guess he knew the truth and don’t know how to relate to me. Sometimes he would act indifferent and sometimes he seemed a little overprotective. I could always relate to mom better and we talked about almost everything. It hurts so bad to think I lived a lie all these years.

I raised my head and looked at Steve. “Steve, why do you think my parents lied to me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they thought they were doing the right thing at the time.” He said.

“And what about Diana?”

“From what she told you I guess she was afraid. I know you were defending yourself but can you imagine what would happen if you lost control? What if you lost control while I was with you? You created a tornado. This is so strange.”

“God I could end up killing you if I lost control with you around.” I said and started to cry again. “I wouldn’t be able to handle killing you.”

“You would never hurt me, Danni. I know that. I was just giving an example of what could happen if Diana is right.”

“But she made me forget about myself, about us.”

“She did, but I think she did it out of love. She said you awakened prematurely that means you were meant to remember sooner or later. I guess you didn’t forget about us completely or you wouldn’t have worked so hard in remembering.”

“I thought it was because the dreams were making me crazy. I was afraid of what was on the other side, but every time I got close to that door I felt that there was something very dear to me there. I thought it was about Danielle but when I opened the door one of the first things that came to my mind after I recovered those lost memories was you, they way I felt about you. It was the day we kissed. I was my fondest and happiest memory.” I said and hugged him tighter.

“I am glad you came back. It was killing me to see you suffer like that.”

We kept holding each other for a long long time. I was basking in his warmth and loving embrace when I looked into his eyes and said.

“Steve?”

“Yeah?”

“You know I love you, don’t you?”

“I love you too, Danni.”

“So what are you waiting for? Kiss me already you big dope.”

And so he did. The poor boy can be so clueless.

Just like old times.

  

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To be continued….