Memories Made of Lies | A Short Story [COMPLETE]

| Ben |

I was going to puke. Everything felt wrong. I shouldn't have been here, doing this.

I was watching Katie's memories display across a screen, like it was a movie, like it didn't mean something to me.

It shouldn't have meant something. I wasn't supposed to love the girl I was assigned to. I wasn't supposed to love the girl that had the information we needed somewhere deep in her memories.

But I did. I loved Katie Marshall.

And now, I was watching as two of our men dug through her thoughts and memories, trying to find the answer that I wasn't sure Katie knew.

There was a window in between the operation room and the hall where I stood. Katie laid on a long bed in a flimsy white jumpsuit that designated her as a test subject. Her thin form sank heavily into the black plastic mattress, and her dark chestnut hair was stuck to her chin and neck from sweat.

But at least her chest rose and fell peacefully, meaning she was still alive. That was most important.

Though the window was thick, I could hear one of the operators, the taller one named Malric, sigh. "Not this one." He pulled the probe from her left temple as the other operator detached the four sensors that littered her forehead. She flinched in her unconscious state and I wondered if she could feel them entering and exiting her brain like that. The bruises and the bead of blood on her temple told me that she probably could, and I started to pop my knuckles.

I watched as the monitor froze on the memory of Katie in my arms, the sunset setting our surroundings aglow, and then it turned black.

"Should we stop for the day, boss? She's getting pretty weak," the younger one named Teller asked. My eyes snapped from his scrawny form to Katie. I hadn't noticed, but her monitor keeping her heart rate and vitals had started to flash yellow, signaling that her body was overworking itself. I felt my chest turn to stone, my lungs refusing to breathe.

Malric pursed his lips, glaring at Katie's head in irritation. "Fine. But we start bright and early tomorrow."

Teller murmured a "yes, sir" before Malric exited, leaving Teller to clean up. I watched in silence as he moved around Katie, dissembling the brain probe and giving her a new IV. By the time he was done, her monitor had turned back to green, but I could still tell that her body wasn't responding well to all the extra attention the operators had been giving her the last three days.

I finally released the breath that had been trapped in my chest. It had been three days since I had turned her in. And she probably didn't even know what was going on. She didn't even know that I had betrayed her.

My knees felt weak but I couldn't sit down. I needed to see her. I needed to make sure she was okay.

I rested my forehead against the cold glass, staring at her, refusing to blink. Guilt ripped apart my insides as her chest shuttered up and down from her heightened heart rate. I had done this. Why had I done this?

What felt like hours passed, yet I didn't move. I just watched as Katie laid there. She didn't get up and smile that sweet, sunny smile of hers. She didn't bite her lip like she did when she was excited. She didn't reach up to pull away the hair that stuck to her face even though I knew that she hated it when it wouldn't stay in her ponytail. She just laid there, her eyes gently closed.

This was not the Katie I knew, and it was all my fault that she was this way.

"How is our patient, Benjamin?" a raspy yet soft voice said from behind me. The person's shuffled footsteps approached and I heard the hall door click shut behind them.

I swallowed and straightened, turning to look Mr. Orman in the eye. "Better, sir. Her heart rate has restabilized."

Amusement twinkled in his withered grey eyes as he sided up next to me at the window. "At ease, soldier. I don't bite."

But your soldiers do, I wanted to say. But I turned and refocused on Katie, holding back my tongue. I couldn't say that to the head of the UIRC, or Universal Information Recovery Corporation. My job and, more importantly, my neck would be on the line if I did.

We stood in silence for a long time and I tried not to shift uncomfortably as Mr. Orman inspected Katie as if she were a science experiment. I wanted to scream at him that she was a human being, not a guinea pig, but I forced myself to stay quiet.

Finally, Mr. Orman's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at her. "Your brother would be proud of you, Benjamin. You know that, right?"

Every muscle in my body seemed to tense at the mention of my brother. Trying to keep my breathing even, I responded simply, "Yes, sir."

Mr. Orman nodded, but wasn't finished. "Just how none of this could have been possible without Nolan's selfless courage, none of this would have been possible without you." He glanced at me, the wrinkles on his face deepening as he did so. "You're no longer the scrawny little boy you were when Nolan brought you here."

Something like pride danced in his expression, but all I felt was shame. Nolan had died to find Katie. He'd sacrificed everything so that the UIRC could get the missing information that they needed. But it all felt wrong now. Before I knew Katie, she was just a blank face, a container of the things that were mercilessly stolen from the government. But now, I saw her here, laying on the operation table, looking beautiful but so vulnerable. She was more than just a random person, more than a way to retrieve what UIRC wanted. She was Katie, sweet, bright, brilliant Katie, who I had accidentally given my heart to.

Nolan wouldn't be proud of me. He would think I was insane.

But my mouth and my brain weren't connected and I felt my lips form the words, "No, sir, I'm not."

Mr. Orman grinned slightly. "It's nearly eleven o'clock. Are you heading home soon?"

My drafty, too big, government issued apartment flashed through my mind and I held back a grimace. "I have a few questions for Malric before I go," I lied.

"Alright." He patted my shoulder. "Have a good night. And remember to give yourself credit for all you've done this past year. We're making progress because of you, Benjamin." He gave me an appreciative nod before turning and exiting the hall through the door he came in through.

Looking back at Katie through the glass, I felt like I was going to throw up again.

A/N Wait WHAT?? ... hmmmmm... What do you think is going to happen?? What's going on?? ----->