The Project

Forced Memories

-Cade's POV-

They figured me out I guess. I know I shouldn't have pulled the stunt with the alchohol but at that moment, I needed it. Arista is bringing back too many memories. She smells like her, her eyes are the same, and the way Issac's gaze lingers on Arista is so similar to the way they did with her...

I needed to forget for a minute. For me, getting drunk is like a reset button. I get drunk, and the emotions go away. Get drunk kids, it will help you more than any amount of work with a shrink. I can barely make out Nick and Arista in the corner of the room, but they look worried.

And if I'm completely honest (a thing I try to avoid) I am too. I don't know what this machine will do, what it will expose. Memories are a private thing, they should be kept or shared by choice. But not much is an individuals choice here, there isn't much use for human individuality.

A human is pre-designed to disagree, to clash, to make noise and mistakes. But here, that is seen as undesirable. They do not believe in equality, but rather, likeness. Some may consider those two words synonyms but digging deeper anyone would discover that they are almost polar opposistes.

In likeness, there is no differention that may disrupt the carefully constructed system at work here. In making all of us into a pattern, something someone can predict, we are easier to control. Timed schedules, food portioned to design an entire race of identical super soldiers, all the same weight and muscle mass. No matter what our powers are, no matter what our personal beliefs may be, we are to be shoved into the same mold and formed in it.

Odd that an organization that is dependent on individual power sets is so determined to make them all the same from an exterior perspective...

-Arista's POV-

Cade seems to have gone into the recesses of his mind, making him practically dead to us. Leona has selected a needle, as long as my hand and as thick as my pointer finger and is making his unhurried way towards Cade.

Why would he need to hurry, Cade isn't going anywhere.

With several thick metal bands holding him down he is firmly trapped. Gaurds stand inches behind me and Nick, ready to detain us if needed.

"Now my dear boy, if you just hold still this won't hurt more than a bit. You will feel some slight pressure however."

Cade doesn't respond and Isaac takes this oppurtunity to plunge the needle deeply into Cade's neck right below his jawline, illiciting a scream of pain from the boy strapped to the table. Content that he placed it deep enough, Leona walks towards the machine connected to the needle and starts rapidly typing, selecting Cade's torture.

-Cade's POV-

I can feel the blood trickling down my neck, warming my skin. Then, without warning, the memories start.

A slow trickle at first, but I can tell it will build into a flood, a climax that will no doubt leave another part of me dead inside.

I hear her laugh, and the scent of her skin drifts back across me. I can just barely make out her profile, looking like mist.

Untangible.

I see the flash of her eyes, pure blue in their happiness.

The mist starts to swirl, and I can feel myself sweating. I moan, hoping this glimmering illusion would just leave me alone.

The world gets darker, she screams at me. Demanding I leave her alone. She strikes at me but her small frame does little damage. Her tears are flooding her face, and leaving rivulets down her used-to-be olive skin. She is a shadow of herself now. I feel an ache in my core. Her eyes are apple green in their flashes of anger.

-Arista's POV-

He's crying. Pleading. I can only catch a word here and there.

"Don't....please...I love....I can help!.....he'll kill you...."

He's thrashing as far as his bonds will allow. I hurt for him.

-Cade's POV-

She's receding into the mist again, taking me with her. I see her pain, and I feel it intensely.

I see him strike her and witness the terror in her face, and I feel the anger once more.

I see him.

I see her.

And I see what he did to her. What he took from her.

I never saw what he did to her the first time. But here is the time I saw, clear as day, invading my mind. Forcing me to relive it.

I walked into his office, demanded he leave her alone. She stood at his side never looking up from her shoes, her tiny frame shaking. He convinced me he would let her go, and then he said something. Even the machine can't bring it back, I don't know what triggered. But his gaurds grabbed me.

And he grabbed her.

And before my eyes, he raped her.

Her screams echo through my mind, mine dancing with them. The moment after he used her, he shoved her to the ground.

"Move!" I had screamed at her. "Run!"

He looked at me.

"You have no control. You never will. Take this as your first lesson."

And with those words, he shot her through the head.

-Arista's POV-

He has been screaming for the past five minutes straight, only stopping to gasp for breath.

His body arches up against the bands and his final sceam is a name. The name of a girl.

"Naomi!"