[ WP ] Things that have been forgotten

Whispered secrets sat bottled on the desk, captured after being found floating around aimlessly upon their owners' deaths with none to repeat them. They held down curling yellowed parchment covered with scraps of lists and facts unable to be recovered by living minds, birthdays and last names and favored alcohols and directions and instructions on how to perform live-saving procedures at the crucial moment. It would have taken an eternity to sort through all of them, though the figure who flipped through one stack knew well enough where each could be found. 
 
 The figure was a thoroughly average sort of humanoid entity, likely a human, the composite of every loved one's face after death or distance took them, those scents which faded first from clothing and pillows and then from the mind altogether until all that remained was a memory of having the memory. They perfectly hummed the tune and lyrics from every song stumbled on in performance as they pulled out the note they wanted. There was a momentary nostalgia at the way dust motes swirled in the light as they held up the receipt-sized paper; perhaps a singular childhood image of holding up a receipt of that exact size in that exact lighting, complete with the logo of a store long since closed down printed on the back. `` Here you go,'' they rasped when they passed the memory back to the one who had forgotten it. 
 
 *'The name and face of my attacker.'* 
 
 Twelve letters altogether, and a hasty sketch not even worth the canvas of their body. It was enough. 
 
 Normally they were reluctant to give up their secrets, especially ones earned from nightmares, but for her memories of her past happiness now ruined in exchange, they would accept a bargain just this once.
