February 17th, 2022
5 years old

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EVONY KNEW SOMETHING was wrong the moment guards entered the room. Her and Thomas had just spent the entire day taking tests, and completing complicated word problems. After several failed attempts, and some successes, her teacher had told them they could be done for the day. She then left the room and locked them inside, with nothing but themselves and a couple chairs around a table.

"That last one about the train was hard." She commented, breaking the silence between the two. "Good on you for figuring it out." Thomas smiled at her, it was the first smile she'd seen from him all day.

"You did really well too." He shyly complimented back, his cheeks slowly turning a rosy pink. "On the one about the farm-it was amazing how you were able to predict how many animals would be there." Evony nervously twirled a strand of her brown hair, the compliment making her feel giddy inside.

Just then the door swung open, revealing two adults dressed in sleek white lab coats.

"Thomas. Evony." One with short brown hair greeted. Gesturing between him and the other woman he introduced themselves. "I am Mr. Janson, and this is my fellow partner Dr.Paige. We have a couple of questions we need to ask you-"

"For what." Thomas abruptly said, cutting the man off. She could tell by his tone he was exhausted from the activities of the day, and could only guess that his patience was too short.

Janson nodded approvingly at the doctor. "I like him. And don't worry, these questions are just so we can determine where you guys are academically-compared to each other that is."

Neither of them were able to get anything out before two extremely large whiteboards were shoved in their hands, along with matching black markers.

"Now," The woman started. Her blonde hair was slicked against her forehead, which made it very easy to see the controlling look she was giving the two kids. "I'm going to ask a question, and both of you are going to answer it on your boards." Evony looked over to Thomas for his approval, he just shrugged, so she ended up nodding her head in understandment.

Janson seemed to think that they were taking too long, because he eagerly clapped his hands together, walking behind the two of them.''Okay easy enough. Let's start, I don't have all day." He motioned towards his acquaintance, signaling he was ready to begin.

Evony and Thomas shared a look. No words needed to be exchanged for both of them to know what the other one was thinking. More tests. Of course there were more tests. Challenge after challenge, that was all they did. Why had she ever thought it would be something different?

Then it began.

"If seven plus seven equals x, then what would x times the square root of 289 be?"

She worked through the problem in her head, before uncapping the marker, and writing down her answer. Next to her, she saw Thomas still staring blankly at his empty board, a concentrated look on his face. After a few more moments, he too, wrote down his answer.

Jansion peered over both of their shoulders, giving a single nod. "Correct. Both of you."

The two kids beamed brightly at each other, proud of themselves, and one another. However they didn't have any longer to celebrate their success, as Doctor Paige rushed to the next problem on her sheet.

"There are five houses on a block. Each house is a different color with a different owner inside. Each owner has a preferred drink. Each owner has a different pet. With these clues, determine which person goes to each category. Here are the clues-" She then went on to list all of the clues that were supposed to help them solve the problem. Evony went right away to scribbling theories and working out the kinks on the whiteboard, her mind racing with every new possibility. She wasn't sure how long it was supposed to take for the two of them to solve it, but she sure didn't think it would be over an hour before she even figured out all five items for one house owner.

After a total of three long hours, she came to an answer. Janson had moved several times from his spot, leaving to get coffee, or to go to the bathroom. But currently he was back in his original position, hovering closely over her shoulder, inspecting the messy words she had written on the whiteboard. He hummed out something unintelligible before letting his lips curl into a smile. "Very good Evony."

She smiled lazily, the tiredness from the day really starting to get to her.

"Only took you an hour more than Thomas."

She squinted her eyes at the boy next to her. He was looking wide eyed back at her, the cap of his pen firmly gripped between his teeth. He spit it out. "Um sir, i'm not finished." He corrected, "I still don't have the last person figured out."

Janson laughed. "Oh Thomas, don't lie. You know you've known the answer to that for at least an hour."

Evony tilted her head, Thomas glanced sheeply at her. "Why didn't you say you were done?" She queered, confused on why he wouldnt have told the adults he finished when he did. Thomas panicked trying to come up with something different than the real reason he had. In all truth, he had seen the girl still working on the third house owner and knew that if he announced he was done, that it would put more pressure on her. So, instead he'd kept quiet, pretending to be stuck on the last person.

"I-I didn't feel like it." He stuttered, attempting to shrug it off.

"Oh." She said, her voice thin. "ok."

Janson coughed, breaking the moment between the two. "Well, okay then. I shall see you guys out."

Thomas and Evony rose from their seats, unintentionally reaching out to grab each other's hands. She felt him grip her fingers, holding especially tightly onto her pinky. The two then walked to the door, exiting the room and into the long hallway. Thomas turned to the left to head to the common room, pulling Evony with him, when a hand gripped her shoulder.

She stopped in her tracks, evidently slowing Thomas down with her. The hand on her shoulder belonged to none other than Janson, the smirk on his face prone as ever. "Actually, I was going to take Thomas somewhere else for a night. Scratch that-quite a few nights."

The doctor nodded, shifting her clipboard in between her arms. Evonys once somewhat cheerful expression dropped into a prominent frown. "What why?"

"Yeah," Thomas agreed, intertwining their fingers. "I don't wanna go. I want to stay with her."

Where the woman sighed, Janson snickered. "Well that's too bad Thomas. Because guess what, you don't get a choice." He grabbed his arm, pulling him away from her. They'd tried to hold on by grabbing each other tighter, but two weak five year olds, against a fully grown man, would never make for a fair fight.

"No!" He screeched, flailing his arms towards her. At this point Dr.Paige had pinned her arm back, as Evony was too trying to get to her friend. The two had only known each other for a little over a month, yet she still felt like she needed to be with him. Every night since the name change, nightmares from the events would play as she slept. She would scream and scream, but nobody would hear her. Then, just when she felt like her lungs were starting to close in, Thomas would burst through the door. His pillow under one arm, and a blanket under the other. He'd then lay down next to her, and whisper little comments in her ear.

Falling asleep to his voice had quickly become what she looked forward to at the end of the day.

"Don't make this more difficult than it has to be!" Janson commanded.

"Let me go!" He shouted back.

Evony struggled in the woman's grip.

"Say goodbye Thomas!"

"I don't want to!"

"Come with me right now or we will kill her!"

He stopped cold, his pupil dilating in fear. "You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't be so sure."

Evony found herself stepping back from the man. Her eyes caught Thomas's, and she started to shake. He rushed forward, dodging the grab from Mr.Janson. Taking her in a hug, he held her close as light tears trickled down her cheek. His own tears followed in suit, them sticking wetly to his face. They took in each other's embrace, knowing that for now they were going to be seperated.

She wasn't quite sure why she was crying. Maybe it was because they were taking her only friend away from her. Well not only, she had Newt and Sonya, but they didn't nearly compare to the level of friendship her and the brunette had made in the short time they've known each other. Maybe it was from all the shouting. Her parents used to shout a lot at home, before her dad mysteriously vanished. It was like old memories resurfacing. Or maybe it was because she knew she wouldn't get a good night's sleep without him next to her, telling her everything would be alright.

"Jeez I didn't mean for this to turn into a sob fest. You'll see eachother soon enough." The adult snarked, checking his watch.

Evony pulled away from Thomas. The shaking was gone, but now replaced with faint sobs.

"Say goodbye kids." Doctor Paige called from behind her.

She gave the best smile she could manage. "Bye."

"Bye." He said returning the gesture. And with that he turned around solemnly towards Janson, where he let the man lead him down a hallway she had never been in before.

"Where's he going?" Evony asked Dr.Paige once they got back to her room. The woman avoided eye contact with the younger girl, afraid to tell her the truth. "He's going somewhere special, but don't you worry about it sweetie. In fact, I have a surprise for you."

"Really?" She perked up, wiping away a stained teardrop, her mood lightened for the moment.

"Yes! Just follow me over here." She led the younger girl into another room with a giant white machine inside. Pointing to it she explained, "I've heard about your rough past with your parents."

Evony nodded, not sure where this was going.

"If you would like me too, I could remove some of those memories. It would be like it never happened."

Was that possible? Could she really remove all of the bad memories of her father? All of the time where he would throw bottles of beer at her and her mother, and shout so loud that she swore she could feel the house shake. All of those..gone?

"Really?" She asked for the second time.

"Most definitely," The woman confirmed, "You just need to lay right in there." She pointed to the bed of the machine, where there was a hole just big enough for her body to slip through. Evony didn't need to think twice. Instantly she moved into the hole and onto the flat bed.

"I'm ready."

She was so ready. All of the bad times. Gone. What more could she ask for.

"Alright then. Just hold still."

At first nothing happened, but then...

She screamed out in pain. Her hands went to go to her head where the stinging was located, but found that she couldn't fit them past the walls of the machine that enclosed her.

"Hold still, I'm going to ask you a couple questions."

"No please, not again." Evony whimpered. She was supposed to be escaping the bad memories, not reliving them. Sharp pricks began to pick at her hair until it felt like they were breaking through the skin.

"What happened to your dad?" Dr Paige asked.

"He- he hurt me." She was forced out, the pain getting even more unbearable. The needles dug deeper into her skin.

"What happened to your dad?" The adult asked again. Evony went to answer but found her mind blanking out. "I-I don't remember." She stuttered out incoherently.

A few seconds passed. "What did you do earlier today?"

This she knew, "Me and Thomas did puzzles in a room together."

All at once she felt an affliction spike through her entire body.

"Again. What did you do earlier today?" Her voice was calm, collected. Nothing like how Randalls was when he did the same type of thing to her and...and who? Her mind must've been blanking out again.

"I- uh I did some tests on a whiteboard." She answered, still feeling like she was missing part of the story.

"Alone?"

"Y-yeah alone. I was alone."

"Good. Final question, please try to relax."

Evony tried, but failed. The pain was too much for her to handle. She continued to thrash around in the tube.

"Do you know a boy named Thomas?"

For some reason she wanted to say yes, but when she jogged her memory for the name she came up empty handed.

Thomas. Thomas. Thomas. Why did that name seem so familiar? The answer was on the tip of her tongue, she could taste it. It was so close she felt like she could reach out and grab it. But, in the end no answer just materializes out of thin air, so she answered with one simple word.

"No."

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