He picked up the bottle and examined the label.
“Authentic, right down to the bottling date,” he added.“2028.”
“That was an amazing vintage. It was the last good yearbefore the Black Winter,” replied Vanessa. “The French reds have never been asgood since. And it didn’t come out of the replicator – this is the genuinearticle. You and I used to keep a well-stocked cellar and I brought as much asI could with us. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
Charlie would like this, he thought. But he didn’t knowanyone called Charlie. He didn’t know anyone called anything so why had hethought that? Was his memory starting to return?
It was a good job he hadn’t said it out loud. He would haveto choose his words carefully from now on if these random memories were goingto start popping up.
“You know, I could get seriously used to this,” he said, ashe reclined on the yellow seats of the swing chair he was rocking gently backand forwards in.
“Does that mean you’re happy now about the idea of livinghere, with me?” she asked, gazing adoringly at him with her puppy dog eyes.
“You know, I rather think it might.”
“Because I think it’s high time we started living togetherproperly again, don’t you think? Like a proper man and wife?”
“I would like that,” said Josh. “But I think we need to makethe moment special. How about we have a proper date night, say, this Saturday?We could go to that clearing in the centre of the island. I imagine it’s lovelyup there in the moonlight. We could light a campfire, take some of thisgorgeous wine with us, and perhaps even camp out under the stars?”
“Oh Josh, that would be heavenly,” she gushed. “I can’tbegin to tell you how much I’ve dreamt of such a moment.”
It was hard to believe this was allegedly one of the mostevil, callous killers in the history of the world. Rightnow, she was acting like someone who would rather be at home reading Mills& Boon novels than committing genocide with entire universes, but perhapsthat was all part of the madness.
She leaned forward to kiss him, but he pulled back.
“Ah, ah, not until Saturday,” he said. “We don’t want to ruinour date night, do we?”
“You’re right,” she said. “I want it to be special, like yousaid.”
“That’s the idea,” he said, lifting his glass and drainingthe last of his wine, keen to get back to the sanctuary of his room. “And now,if you don’t mind, I think I need to get some beauty sleep. I want to be at mybest for the weekend.”
“Goodnight, my love,” she replied as he got up from theswing chair and made his way back inside, leaving her daydreaming like ateenage schoolgirl on the decking.
He felt a little cruel deceiving her like this, but if shereally was as bad as Henry claimed then he really ought not to. Now he had tohope that he returned on Saturday morning as he had promised because there wasno plausible way that he could back out of the plans he had just made withVanessa.
The following morning, Josh felt different when he awoke. Hehadn’t dreamt at night since he had found himself on the island, but this nightwas different, and several times he awoke after vivid dreams of people in otherplaces and other times. The trouble was, as soon as he awoke, they faded, notallowing him to remember anything tangible.
Now, as the morning sun flooded through the windows into hisroom, little bits and pieces kept popping into his mind.
The fragments were disjointed, as if someone had picked upall his memories, thrown them into a kaleidoscope and got him to look inside.There were tantalising images of a woman he couldn’t name but who heinstinctively knew was important to him.
Other things he remembered were more fantastical and it washard to believe they could be real. One memory was of a dinosaur rampagingthrough a familiar park that he couldn’t place. Another was of working on arailway line in what seemed like Victorian times. None of it made any sense. Hecould only hope that in time it would.
Vanessa was still acting like a teenage girl with a crushover breakfast, making it easy for him to distract her and avoid taking thepill again doing his bit to give the local fish a bout of amnesia on hismorning walk around the island.
Before he returned to the villa, he headed up to the centreof the island, to where Vanessa was expecting her dreams to come true onSaturday evening on a date that Josh was hoping would never come to pass.
He never stopped marvelling at how beautiful the island was,and part of him wished that he could stay here forever, but not with Vanessa.If only Alice were here.
Alice! Of course! How could he have ever forgotten her? Shewas the woman he had been seeing in his flashes of memory. Now a clear image ofher walking down the aisle towards him in her wedding dress filled his mind.
That memory was the equivalent of a dam burst as now atorrent of memories of Alice came flooding into his mind faster than he couldprocess them. The memories were chaotic and disorganised, but at least he wasmaking progress.
He felt like he was sitting down doing a large jigsawpuzzle. He had built the outer frame but now he needed to fill in all themiddle bits.
The memories of Alice had filled him with joy, but then,like being hit by a Taser, he remembered what had happened to her. Of course,she would never be able to share this beautiful place with him, because justlike everyone else on Earth, she was dead.
And not just dead, murdered – by the very woman who had beentrying to steal her place in his affections. Everything Henry had said wastrue. Vanessa was evil.
The more Josh remembered, the more his heart and soul filledwith rage. Every instinct in his body was urging him to march back to the villaand have it out with her right now. He was so angry that he could quite easilykill
