Chapter 4

"Blood pressure plummeting! Neural shock too severe!"

The doctor's startled cry was drowned out by my parents' even shriller screams.

"Forget all that! The scene! We need to see the alley scene! Continue! Keep going!"

Julian lunged forward, slamming his fist onto the edge of the control panel.

"I want the truth too, but can't you see she's dying?!"

"I don't care!" Mom cried.

"This is what she owes Audrey! This is the only reason she's still breathing!"

A crimson haze swam before my eyes, yet through the agony, my hearing grew unnaturally sharp.

Inside my skull, the silver needle churned violently once more.

A fresh wave of pain tore through me.

The screen flickered violently, then shone with blinding white light.

This time, the scene showed me after my parents had kicked me out.

I was cornered by a few thuggish youths in a dilapidated construction site.

There were broken bricks on the ground, and the air was thick with dust.

"Hey dummy, heard your folks don't want you back?"

The leader, a bleach-blond guy, took a drag of his cigarette and jabbed my shoulder with a stick.

"So, if we mess with you, ain't nobody gonna care, right?"

I pressed myself into the damp wall, trembling, my fingers curled tight around a sharp shard of broken stone.

"a real stare on you, huh?" Another guy stepped in and slapped me across the face.

The stinging pain was intense.

But clearer than the pain were my parents' whispers, echoing repeatedly in my ears-

"She needs to suffer a bit, then she'll be scared, then she'll try harder to remember..."

"Audrey can't die in vain... This is to force her..."

Those fragments flashed back constantly.

Mom's back, secretly slipping money to the hoodlums in the alley;

Dad, whispering into the phone, "Scare her good, make her suffer a bit."

So all those people who'd been stealing my food, beating me down, even trying to strip my clothes off... they were all arranged by Mom and Dad.

My heart shattered into a million pieces at that moment.

I suddenly let out a scream, clutching the broken stone, and threw myself at them, heedless of the consequences.

They seemed surprised by my resistance, quickly pinned me to the ground, grabbed stones, and started smashing them against my head.

The screen shook violently, mixed with crude curses and the sound of blows.

It wasn't until I was covered in blood, lying motionless on the ground, that the thugs cursed and walked away.

My vision slowly blurred.

A pair of leather shoes stopped in my line of sight.

It was Julian.

He looked at me, his expression complex and unreadable.

"Skylar, do you want revenge for your sister?"

I opened my mouth, and bloody foam welled up.

"I know a way to get the memory from your brain... what you saw that day."

He paused.

"But the process is very painful. And, you..."

Julian hadn't finished speaking when the screen abruptly changed.

Finally, it was the scene from that alley.

I was carrying my schoolbag, and Audrey stood across the street, waving at me with a smile.

She was wearing a new dress today; she looked beautiful.

My eyes lit up, and I wanted to run over.

Just as I stepped onto the sidewalk and was about to reach Audrey's side-

A tall figure, ghost-like, wearing a black mask and a baseball cap, shot out from the side alley.

He clamped a hand over Audrey's mouth and dragged her, violently, into the shadows of the nearby alley.

Audrey's scream was smothered. Her eyes stretched wide with terror, legs kicking wildly.

I froze, horrified. Then I lunged forward on instinct, reaching for Audrey's hand.

Without even looking back, the attacker swung his leg and kicked me hard in the stomach.

Thud.

I was thrown backward, my head cracking against the pavement.

A wave of searing pain and dizziness swallowed me whole. Warm liquid began to spread from the back of my skull.

My vision swayed, blurred. No sound rose from my throat.

But I forced my eyes wide, straining to see into the alley's shadows.

In the gloom, Audrey was pinned hard to the ground.

She thrashed wildly, her hands clawing at empty air.

Enraged by her struggle, the attacker raised his arm. In that split second, Audrey snatched upward.

The black mask tore away in her grasp.

The faint light from the alley's mouth fell directly onto the face now laid bare.