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it is useless to contend with the irresistible power of time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction
E.T.A Hoffman \ creating, goes on, useless
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The problem with a memory wipe is that it will always, always fail. Of course, you can never truly get rid of all your memories. But you can hide them in the crevices of your mind, shut them away with a brick wall cemented deep into your mind. But foundations crack. Walls break. Things fall apart.
They were only kids. They were meant to play outside until the sun sets, rebel a little, spend summers at the beach, but when Thalia was seven they'd forced her into a lab with engineers. The warm sun turned into white tube lights, fresh salty water into battery acids and chemical reactions.
Thalia: When can I stop? Ava Paige: Whenever you want to. Thalia: I want to stop now. Ava Paige: Do you, really?
They would lock her inside at mid morning and release her at dusk. She cried her way through the first week and then it was all technicalities and mechanics after—what parts go where, which mechanism performs which function. She rotted in that lab. Brittle bones curled tightly around metallic parts, skin burned by spilt acid.
But when Ava Paige saw the spider standing in the middle of the room, that is when Thalia knew she could truly stop.
Pity, she doesn't remember . . . yet.
✶
RECORDING 534 ─────────────────
Ava Paige ( Doctor ): This is Doctor Ava Paige on channel 2. Recording number 534. Here, I have Subject A51, Thalia Jordanna Lee; age twelve. Please state your designation.
