THEM

Chapter 16

Though all Aithne wanted to do was jump in the car and speed back off to their hidden paradise in the woods, she followed Mrs. Bauer into the facility, feeling three pairs of eyes burning holes into her back.

"Do I have time to change?" AIthne asked, shivering and still dripping lake water onto the floor as she walked.

"No, sorry. They've already been waiting most of the afternoon." Mrs. Bauer replied as she pursed her lips. "And they're not very patient." She added in an afterthought, as if she were talking to herself.

Mrs. Bauer brought Aithne through the courtyard and to the door that required a keycard to access it. She broughtone out, similar to the one she had seen the man in white use the other day and also to the one she had found on the floor on the way back, and swiped them in.

"I'm supposed to band your eyes so you don't see where we're going, but I don't want to frighten you even more than I have, so I'm just going to rely on your short-term memory."

Aithne thought she was joking, but her lips didn't even twitch upwards. She hadn't been frightened, but now that Mrs Bauer suggested she should be, she was. They walked down a few hallways and took a couple of turns while Aithne tried to remember the path they were taking; she didn't know what for, but if they didn't want her to have this information, she was going to do her best to have it.

Mrs Bauer stopped in front of a steel door, Aithne had recognised the door she had eavesdropped at a few doors down. It had only been two weeks ago, but now it felt like months. Mrs Bauer knocked three times and entered the room immediately after, as if not waiting for an invitation, but merely signaling her presence.

We walk into a bland room with dim lights and a metallic conference table in the middle. Even the chairs around the table are metallic; clearly not made for comfort. There are three people seated at the conference table already, all dressed in those horrible white suits: a burly man with stubble and beady eyes, a skinny woman with platinum hair in a tight ponytail and the man Aithne had locked eyes in the courtyard two weeks ago before he had entered the building. Aithne was struck once again by his beauty, which made him appear almost surreal in the dim lights. He was much younger than the other two; maybe only a few years older than Aithne: in his early twenties. His blond hair fell like liquid gold around his nape and his eyes were as blue as the sky on a cloudless day. His skin was pristine, untouched; it looked like he'd never even been scratched a day in his life.

The man with beady eyes spoke up. "We've been waiting."

Aithne's bones chilled as the voice she remembered so clearly stirred something inside of her. It was the horrible, cold voice she had heard when she had been eavesdropping. She racked her brain for the name, but before she could put her finger on it, Mrs. Bauer replied.

"Since this was an unexpected visit, I had given the kids the day off for the holiday. My mistake, Rhett."

"It's okay, Elizabeth. You couldn't have known." Aithne thought the lady with the platinum ponytail's surly sweet voice was somehow even worse than Rhett's. At least Rhett's revealed upfront what was underneath.

"Thank you, Juliana." Mrs. Bauer said, noticeably releasing a breath. "Anyway, here she is. I've told you about her recent memory."

"So you might actually be the first useful thing to come out of this institution, girl." Rhett smiled at her in a way that sent the bile in her stomach coming up her throat. She swallowed. "We need to know more, though. The memory probably hasn't finished surfacing. It should do so in the next few weeks."

"Perfect, then." Mrs. Bauer said. "I can have Aithne keep a notebook and make sure to write down any new details of the memory that emerge over the next few days."