Chapter 3
“AAAAGH!!!” Higher-frequency pulses bore straight into my brain. It felt like my eyeballs were being forced right out of their sockets, and I squeezed my eyes shut in utter despair.
Amid overwhelming agony, the memory extractor acted like a vicious intruder, ransacking every hidden neuron deep within my mind without mercy.
The holographic screen cut abruptly to a new scene; the cold, gray tones of the snowy cabin vanished, replaced by bright, blazing California sunshine.
This was the softest memory I’d buried deep down in my heart, locked away for years.
It was summer, ten years ago, on our town’s coastal beach.
Seventeen-year-old me, seventeen-year-old Lily, and seventeen-year-old Emma.
Lily’s face glowed with a bright smile back then, wrapped in a pale yellow sundress that made her look like an angel.
Emma was the standout rich girl of the three—stubborn and proud, but fiercely protective of anyone she cared about.
In the memory, I stood awkwardly beside them in a faded, worn old t-shirt.
Growing up in an orphanage and shunned by everyone my whole life, I’d never imagined I’d ever have friends this wonderful.
On screen, Emma grabbed my hand firmly and tied a hand-woven daisy bracelet around my wrist. Matching identical bracelets sat on Lily’s and Emma’s wrists too.
“Listen to me, Ivy,” young Emma tilted her chin up, her blue eyes shining with sincere, fiery warmth. “Starting today, you aren’t an orphan anymore. My house is your house, my dad is your dad. The three of us stick together forever—no one gets left behind, ever.”
Lily laughed and threw her arms around both of us. “Yeah! We’re best sisters! Pinky promise!”
Our three pinky fingers locked tight together.
“Pinky swear, cross my heart, stick together a hundred years, never break the vow…”
Sunlight spilled across our faces. That was the only pure, untainted light I’d ever known in my entire life.
But as this sweet memory played out, an eerie hush fell over the whole plaza.
Real-life Emma stared rigidly at the screen, her whole body locking up instantly. I watched her eyes flood red in an instant, her lips trembling violently. That recollection had stabbed straight into the softest part of her soul, like a rusted blade.
Yet in the next heartbeat, that sharp pain twisted into even more ferocious rage.
Emma stormed straight over to me and cracked a brutal slap hard across my cheek.
Smack!
My head whipped to the side, my eardrums ringing loudly. Blood dripped steadily down my jaw.
“Who do you think you’re fooling with this garbage, Ivy?” Her eyes blazed with unbridled fury, her fingernails digging deep into my shoulders. “How dare you drag up our childhood memories? Do you even deserve to think about them? You stood by and watched Lily die, you shielded the monster who destroyed her life—and now you pull out these happy flashbacks just to fish for sympathy?!”
The live chat blew up again, the crowd screaming in outrage:
“Disgusting! Using footage of the victim to clear her own name!”
“Total textbook sociopath—acts like your best friend then stabs you in the back behind closed doors!”
“Don’t fall for her tricks, Emma! Crank the power all the way up, fry her brain clean through!”
“I didn’t… lie to you…” I forced my eyes open, staring at the enraged Emma through a veil of blurring blood.
“Shut your mouth, lying snake!” Emma bit down hard on her own lip, her gaze burning with raving hatred. “If you’re so obsessed with reminiscing, let’s watch exactly what you were doing the night Lily died, you viper!”
Her face darkened completely, and she gestured sharply for the technicians to widen the memory extraction range.
She had no patience left for what she saw as my pathetic performance.
Technicians hurried forward to adjust the control console.
The red gauge needle on the machine shot sky-high, and the tiny metal probes inside the extraction helmet burrowed even deeper into my brain tissue.
“AAAAGH!”
A bloodcurdling scream tore out of my throat.
Waves of searing electric current slammed into my mind, bursts of blinding white light exploding across my vision over and over.
My body convulsed wildly, thrashing against the unyielding iron chains locking my wrists and ankles tight.
Thick blood trickled down from my hairline, dripping onto the cold metal chair beneath me.
Images flickered erratically across the hologram screen, jumping nonstop: classroom hallways, a quiet creek, wooded mountain trails.
Every clip was a happy memory of the three of us—me, Emma, and Lily—hanging out side by side.
Not a single frame showed the night of Lily’s assault.
The crowd grew restless and restless, shouting out their confusion:
“What’s going on? Where’s the footage from the night Lily was attacked?”
“I thought everyone said she saw the guy who did it!”
Emma’s brows knit tight with frustration. She spun toward the technicians and demanded sharply:
“What’s wrong with the machine? Why can’t we pull up the memory of the rapist?”
