Walls

22

Blurry images - incidents, were slowly taking color in her brain.

Sounds - voices were growing louder and more pronounced. Conversations were starting to form. A whole block of her memory that she thought was gone was now returning at once.

She was the CTO of Acute Inc. They had just finished planning the launch event of the new Acute-X06 into the market. All tests had come back positive and the chip had finally been approved by the officials.

Her eyes snapped back to Elias. The man she had fallen in love with. The man she had faith in - enough faith to let someone else plant an Acute-X06 into her brain.

His eyes met hers. There was not the burning desire she had seen in them on the night of her engagement. They had finally gotten engaged and it was the best day of her life. But he still couldn't remember - Jonah had somehow only given back her memory. Not his.

Jonah. Her eyes snapped to the man she had once been crazy about. She had let him move in with her - to the apartment that she first bought in Angelora. Abbie's heart skipped a beat at the memory of the million and one fights they had had over at that apartment.

Jonah had been pissed that Abbie kept her emotions bottled up and never let herself relax around him. She had been guarded. But Jonah had been invading her privacy. Setting up trackers in her phone, in her bag, in her clothes- he had been obsessed with trying to read her mind.

"What is on your mind, Abbie?" he would always ask.

"Nothing," Abbie would always say.

That was until the worst day of her life had rolled around. She could remember that it was a cloudy day -raining outside. She had almost rented one of the many suites at Acute that is available for employees working overnight. In fact, she had already moved her stuff into the suite. But she had decided to go home at the last minute instead.

Only when she had made her way to the train had she realized that she left her phone in the suite. It was not necessary to go back, she had a spare one. But she did not want to explain to Jonah how she forgot her phone in one of Acute's suites. He would rage hell with her.

So she had gone back - into the suite to collect her phone, only to find Jonah there - in bed with another woman. It was not pleasant meeting his eyes that day. It had been a mess afterward. But Jonah had left Abbie heartbroken and moved in with the girl - Ivy.

Ivy Lennon. Abbie could remember her. Of course, Ivy was Nathan's sister. The gunman - Nathan Lennon, was a former employee at Acute, together with Ivy and Jonah. But that was before she had taken her life in the very suite that Abbie had caught Jonah cheating with her.

Abbie hadn't hated Ivy. Jonah - yes, but never Ivy. She was a nice girl - always helpful, wanted to be liked by everyone. She was the type to go as far as to bring homemade brownies to work and surprise her colleagues with birthday cakes. Abbie liked her.

But after Jonah had left Abbie, Ivy had gone to greater lengths to prove herself. For some weird reason, Ivy had been desperate to be friends with Abbie.

Ivy had taken part in almost every project that Abbie had worked on. Volunteering to take part in trial runs. She had been one of the first people to have the Acute-X01, the very first approved brain chip planted in her brain.

It had been a test run. Everything had gone perfectly. But once the trial had ended and the chips were removed, Ivy was diagnosed with depression. She took her life.

The doctors had blamed Acute-X01. But Abbie knew now that it was not the case. Later reports had shown that Ivy was already depressed when she signed up for the trial. The medical documents she had presented before the trial had been forged.

But once Ivy's funeral was over, Jonah and Nathan had left Acute Inc, swearing to take revenge someday.

Abbie's heart tightened, this was it. Jonah had finally done what he said he would do.

Abbie looked into his eyes. They had a satisfied look burning in them.

"Do you remember now, Abbie?" he ground his teeth.

"You want revenge?"

"You remember, don't you?" Jonah seethed in her face, poking a finger to her forehead, "how you took her away from me. It was your fault! All she wanted was for you to forgive her - she practically worshipped you. But you went ahead and got her killed!"

No, it was not my fault! Abbie ground her teeth. Jonah had said so many times over the years. But deep down, Abbie knew it was not her fault. She did not want it to be hers.

"Ivy killed herself, Jonah!"

There was a sharp slap across her cheek, snapping her head to the side.

"Don't you dare tell me that! And don't you dare speak her name!"

Abbie looked back at Jonah. His eyes were livid, focused on her.

Abbie tasted blood on her lips. It tasted metallic and raw. She shuddered.

"And you Abbie, are going to watch the love of your life taken away from you. Just like how you did to me." Jonah pointed at Elias, "He is going to die. He is the one responsible for her death anyway."

Abbie watched Jonah pace in front of the terminal. Her eyes caught the tiny numbers at the bottom of the screen marking the time. If she remembered correctly the time they entered the building, the timer was probably now counting down its last two minutes.

Abbie felt nauseous for a second. They were probably going to die anyway. Jonah was going to make sure of it.

She sucked on her bottom lip instinctively to get rid of the throbbing pain. The terrible metallic taste of blood gushed through her tongue again. It was far worse than the first time. She had to be bleeding heavily to taste so much blood.

But then it hit her - she had an activated Acute-X06 in her brain. Her senses were heightened.

And so were her other strengths and skills.