The Butterfly Effect (2020)

eighteen

TW: stress, overworked (breakdown)

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

"We don't have a Violet Thorn in Gladys West Hall. We never did." But that didn't make sense - of course Hannah knew that Violet existed! They'd hang out during early mornings in the kitchen together, brewing coffee and communicating in half-hearted grunts. They had meaningful conversations, from what I could tell.
My bed was comfortable but not enough to calm my anxieties and lull me to sleep. I glanced over at Violet's side of the room and frowned at her belongings - I'd already gone through them and tried to pick out pieces that would prove her existence, but nothing valuable came up. Just a pile of dark clothing and motorcycle magazines; but at least that was proof of her existence to me.
I wasn't going crazy, but it did seem as if Hannah's memories had been tampered with. The only person who could do that, though, was Neuro.

Or... Axon.

But why would he want to erase the memories of Violet Thorn from the hall monitor? What significance did she have? And Axon was still locked in Kryptarium Prison, as far as I knew, so how did he manage to erase Hannah's memories? Or was it an undisclosed case of amnesia?
Disturbed and perturbed by my abundance of questions and sore lack of answers, I stared at the ceiling until my eyes went puffy and the sun rose once again.
"You look awful," Chen commented upon meeting me outside my class that next day. Ambrose was otherwise occupied and Vali was doing a quick patrol of the campus.
"Thanks," I groaned as I held my sore neck. "This thing with Violet is driving me insane."
Chen's face turned to confusion.
"Who?"
My eyes opened and I halted my stretching, eyeing him fretfully.
"What do you mean 'who'?" I asked, voice empty. "Violet. My roommate. You've met her multiple times."
"Have you hit your head?" Chen asked, genuinely confused. "You've never had a roommate, remember? The girl who was supposed to be your roommate ended up not going to BIT."

My heart began to thunder noisily in distress and it echoed heavily in my ears. Doubt began to trickle into my veins - did I really have a roommate? Did Violet even exist?
"Excuse me," I said breathily, and turned to retreat to my dorm. There, I spent the rest of the day turning over through Violet's things, assuring myself that I wasn't losing my mind.
Another sleepless night.
I made a decision while staring at my ceiling again to head to the student library as soon as it opened at six - a large, sprawling institute of books, books and more books. It held the student records there, if I could slip past the receptionist. Ambrose would be my reluctant escort.
I trudged through the snow beside the elemental master, both used to and perturbed by the silence of the empty campus. No other student would dare be up at five-fifty on a winter's morning in the dead of study season for the upcoming midterms. Most would still be sleeping off their till-early morning study nights, like how I should've been. My lack of study for the exams had my nervousness rolling cartwheels in my gut.

The receptionist smiled upon our entrance to the otherwise dead library. I shook out the snowflakes from my hair as I smiled back and passed, bumping into him with my elbow.
"Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed with red cheeks as I helped him reorientate his balance. Ambrose stifled a yawn and meandered towards the comic book section. "I haven't woken up yet. Coffee hasn't kicked in."
"I know the feeling," the old man chuckled kindly. "Good luck with your studying."
"Thank you!" I called as he returned to his current occupation; placing misplaced books back into their homes. I turned and peered down at the ID card I snagged from the clip on his lanyard as I powerwalked to the other end of the library. Hopefully he won't notice it missing for a few minutes.
At the end of the library was another room set off from the rest, holding all kinds of records that the offices didn't want to hold - and had exactly what I was after. After pressing the ID card to the proximity reader and hearing the door unlock, I ushered myself in and closed it as quietly as I could.
I was met with rows upon rows of filing cabinets that held the hard copies of student records, just in case the online system had a melt down.