Square root of Trouble

Oblivion is undoubtedly essential

Chapter 6

Ruby's POV

In general, we associate a negative value to the term oblivion, being often considered a failure or a collapse of memory.

However, the forgetfulness is fundamental, it's the own memory's condition: it's why we forget, we continue retaining acquired and experienced information.

Furthermore, it would be impossible for a normal human brain to preserve every tiny little detail it perceives, having oblivion the function of only selecting the most important, so we can be able to gather new contents.

But that's not how my mind works...

I have what people call Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or H-SAM, the ability to recall the slightest details of nearly every object I observe.

There are 13 known cases worldwide.

I am one of the unknown.

And some people like me to linger that way for everyone and everything.

"They found you, Di Geniva, and they're not happy." Luca hurriedly whispers on the phone. "You have to return before they go there and capture you."

I close my eyes as tightly as I can, trying to repress the terrible memories that threaten to surface.

"Are you hearing?!" He admonishes, with his thick Italian accent. "Scarlett, you have to come back and occupy the position that is rightfully yours since birth! The man are starting to rebel."

I shake my head, unable to articulate words, much less a coherent sentence.

"Scarlett, for fuck's sake! Are you listening to me?"

I clear my dehydrated throat.

"Yes." I can only imagine Luca frustratingly pacing right now, his long brown hair joined in a tiny ponytail bouncing along with his steps, and his amber eyes turning sharp.

"I can't stand going through seeing you being beaten and tortured again, Scatlett! I refuse to see that happen one more time!" He confesses. "And that is what they're going to do, if you don't return to Russia!"

Keeping my tears at bay, I force myself to speak.

"Can't you restrain them for a few more months? At least 'till I turn 18."

"Dunno, Di Geniva, I'll try..." Luca proffers. "But we need a leader. We need you as our leader. Caio is attempting to replace me and Dimitri's getting violently impatient."

Caio was and always will be a materialistic, hypocrite, cynic, front head wannabe, whose only good characteristic is being a pimp.

As for Dimitri, he's a diverse subject altogether.

"What has he been doing?" I ask, remembering how much I suffered at his hands, the way he liked to play games with me... a true leader of a Russian mafia.

Suddenly, I recall the pain, the desperation I felt, the broken bones and opened lips, the bruises that I still carry, as it wasn't that long ago I had been in that painful place...

And I remember everything like it was happening right at this minute.

I drop the phone, repulsed and sick with the flashbacks, and run for the toilet to throw up, but nothing comes out, as I don't have a single meal in my stomach.

"Ruby?" I hear from the bedroom.

A few seconds later, Duke's head appears at the doorway.

He enters the bathroom with my phone in hand and a worried look in his sapphire eyes, not at all like the first time he came through that door... like a soundless thief.