I breathe in and out, and as I try to calm down my racing heart, the world around me slips away.

A memory. But it isn't about Reese.

It's a memory I've forgotten. A memory that I hardly recall.

A bright room made of concrete. It's a cell. Aril is in here with me, but she's younger. She is smiling at me sweetly.

"Let me go." I say and my voice is small and high pitched. "Let me see my friends. Where's Elle and Sorrel?"

Aril continues smiling at me. "Jemima, they're dead."

I shake my head. "No they aren't." I say, angry.

Aril gives me a look of sincerity, but it's all fake. "Oh you poor girl. Don't you remember?"

I feel confused. "No. I don't remember any of it. I can't..." I trail off, my brow furrowed. I'm really confused.

"Gemma, they died because of you. It's all your fault." Aril tells me. I start to cry. Something makes me believe her. I was the reason they're dead.

"Why am I here?" I sob. I want to leave.

Aril looks like she is hiding a smile. "We're deciding what to do with a criminal like you. You might have to die. We don't want you being the cause of any more deaths."

I sob harder. There's a creaking sound, and I turn to see a man walk in. "Hello Mae."

"What are you doing here?" Aril asks him and I can almost feel the ice in her voice spreading across the room.

The mans name is on the tip of my tongue but I can't figure it out. He looks so familiar. He sighs. "I'm here to talk to you about where you want me to go."

I look back at Aril and I'm surprised to see pain fill her eyes. "I..." She begins but he cuts her off.

"Your dad isn't here anymore, Aril. You don't have to be scared of me." He says. Her dad? I try to recall what I knew about Aril's father. He died a few years ago, didn't he? In an accident at a factory inspection.

Aril frowns. "I'm not scared of you because of my father. I mean, I'm not scared of you at all. I just don't..." She trails off.

"You don't what?" He urges her on.

She sighs. "I don't want you to hurt me again. And I don't want you to hurt Hayley."

Hayley... The name is familiar, but once again I can't recall how I know it.

"Aril, I won't hurt you and I won't hurt her." He says wearily.

"Yeah?" Aril is angry all of a sudden. "How do you know that?! How do I know that?! Last time you told me that I ended up with twins!"

Twins? I remember that Aril had a daughter but who was her other child?

The man looks really sad. "I know." He sounds defeated. "But it's not like that this time. Your father isn't around. Can't you give me a second chance?"

Aril opens her mouth to answer but no sound comes out. Then I see tears in her eyes.

"Aril.. I deserve to meet my own daughter."

Arils face goes hard. Any trace of the tears I saw moments earlier is gone. "No, Curtis. You don't." She says, with a voice as cold as ice. "Please leave." She says, but it sounds more like command.

Curtis doesn't argue, just turns around and moves to the door. Then he pauses and looks at me. "What's going to happen to her?" He asks to Aril.

"We'll probably have to hang her." She replies indifferently.

Fear fills my chest and suddenly I am fighting off tears myself.

"Hang her?! But she's 10!" He says, sounding shocked.

Aril rolls her eyes. "Her age doesn't excuse her crimes. She knows perfectly well what she's done is unacceptable. Don't you, Jemima?" The look she gives me makes me feel terrible.

I look at the floor and nod.

"And she also knows what the punishment for what she did is. Do you deserve to die, Jemima?"

I nod an swallow the lump in my throat. Aril is right. I killed Sorrel and Electra.

Now it's Curtis that is angry. "Aril, what the hell did you do to her?!"

Aril shakes her head. "Nothing that I shouldn't have."

"That's bull. The girl thinks she should die!" Curtis says, his voice growing louder. "What did you do to her?"

Aril looks at me and smiles. "Nothing. I just gave her a less crowded head."

Curtis looks back to me. "Maedana, what did Aril do?"

I shake my head. "I- I don't remember." I stutter, scared out of my wits. Why didn't I know?

Curtis turns back to aril, fuming. "Tell me what you did you her." He says in a dark, threatening voice I didn't know he possessed.

Aril pulls something out of her pocket. My fear grows stronger when I see that it is a syringe. She hands it to Curtis. "It's called the Mckenzie method, created by a Canadian scientist, Sierra Mckenzie, during the Third World War. It manipulates the mind so that memories are vulnerable. Using hypnosis, you can then bury the memories so that they're impossible to access."

Curtis's face remains as hard as steel. "What did you make her forget?" He asks, and his tone is darker still. I can almost detect a sense of fear about him.

Aril grins, the kind of grin that could kill. "Everything about the escape. From the moment the CD told her that she was a part of it all the way up to yesterday. She can't remember anything about outside."

Curtis is silent for a moment. "Does she remember me?" He asks in a weak voice.

Aril shakes her head. "No. Why do you care so much, anyway?"

"I just..." Curtis hesitates and looks at the syringe he is still holding. "I care about her."

Aril takes the syringe out of his hands. "Too bad, because she's as good as dead."

Curtis's face visually crumples. The tough manner he has had since he walked in evaporates. "Please, Aril. Don't kill her."

Aril seems taken aback at his sudden outburst, but she regains composure quickly. For a moment, they're both silent. Then Aril turns to me. "Alright, Jemima, you're not being killed."
Relief flows through me for the briefest second. But Aril cuts it off. "However, soon enough, you're going to wish that you are." She grins, as if she has just come up wit a great plan. "In fact, Curtis is going to make sure of that."

"What do you mean?" I ask in a shaky voice and look at Curtis. Aril does the same, still grinning.

"How much do you know about torture?"

~~~

I'm in my room.

There is only one person other than me. Reese. She is staring at me, expressionless. I don't say anything, I just stare back. Uneasiness fills my stomach. I look at my hands.

Finally, she says something. "You could have saved me."

Tears fill my eyes and I look back up. But she is different. Now her hand is holding a gun. I can't look away as she shoots. The bang makes everything swing. I scream and try to get her back but I can't. I fall to the floor and cry, only to find that it isn't my room anymore. I've fallen off a cliff. Rocks fall around me.

I hit the bottom and the pain is so bad, I scream, but it's all muted as I'm underwater. I can't breathe. I see a boy reaching in to pull me out. I smile and reach up to him, knowing it's Calix. To my horror, the moment I grab his hand, I pull him in and he sinks down below me. I try to pull him back up but he's gone. I can't breathe. I'm growing weaker as I fall deeper and deeper. I look for Calix but he isn't there. Neither is Reese. Or anyone. I'm just sinking.

With everything dark and terrifying, I close my eyes and wait for peace. It doesn't come. Instead, a beeping sound fills my head.

I slowly open my eyes.

I'm in a hospital room. Everything is bright. I sit up quickly to find wires and tubes in my arms, as well as on my head and neck. I feel panicked. Why am I here?

"Maedana, calm down." A woman says to me and I look over to see a nurse in white, looking concerned. "If you don't lower your heart rate, you might trigger the Lockart. Slow down. Don't hurt yourself."

I slowly calm my breathing and feel the fear slip away. I open my mouth to say something but all I can do is croak.

"Don't try speak, sweetheart. Let me do the talking." The nurse says and smiles. "You're here because you've had another Lockart attack. The medication stopped working. You're going to have to stay here for a few days while we test you. Do you understand?"

I nod. The nurse looks over her shoulder at the door nervously, then smiles back at me, as if nothing is wrong. But I can tell something's up.

The nurse starts checking some things on the computer beside my bed, then tells me that she will be back in an hour or so. She leaves in a hurry, and only moments after the door has been shut, it swings open again.

Aril storms into the room, a hurricane of perfume and anger.

"Maedana, where did you put Reese's file?" She demands.

Confused I shake my head. She rolls her eyes. "Don't act dumb. We found Reese's letter. We know she told you where the file was and it's not there now. The logic is you hid it, so tell me, Maedana, where is that file?" Her voice rises as she speaks, and I can almost feel her frustration in the room around me.

"I don't know." I croak out, because I honestly don't even remember what Reese said about a file in her letter.

Aril stares at me coldly. "Maedana, I'm giving you another chance to avoid pain. Where is the file?"

I frown, trying to think of where it could be but I don't even know what it is. When I don't answer, Aril turns to the computer and enters a command.

One of the tubes in my arm suddenly stops, no longer feeding liquid into my bloodstream.

Aril turns back to me with a cold look. "I'll be back later, Maedana, when the effects are in full swing. I expect you'll be more willing to tell me what I want by then." She does not give anything away in her face just turns and leaves.

In my head I try to decipher what she could mean, or the file she was talking about, but I just come up short.

It's late into the night when I finally realise what she did to me.

I'm groaning and writhing, shaking and crying, and no nurse comes to help.

All of a sudden I realise why it hurt so much.

Aril took away my painkiller.