cleanse

22

My eyes flutter open to the sight of my mother. She looks the exact same, wavy brown hair that cascades over her shoulders. Her gentle brown eyes were slightly sunken in, but that was due to the hard work of being a caring parent. Staying up to comfort Magdalena and I must've taken so many hours out of her. 

I don't know why my mother is here with me though. She was killed by the government. Those bastards killed my mother because she got one point less than the passing score. But I shove that thought to the back of my empty mind when her fingers run smooth through my hair. I feel her hands run through my hair, but she seems to be stopping short. Almost like my hair is shorter...

"You're awake..." my mother says, but it's not her. It's her face that's there and her mouth that's moving, but it's not her voice. It's the President's. I recognize it from the ceremony where my mother was killed. My body clenches up at the sound of her raspy voice and suddenly I reach up and strangle the woman behind the mask. I feel my eyes sting with water as I do it, but I know its not my mother. 

It's a game the President wants to play. She wants to make me feel guilty for strangling and killing my mother, but I can't get over the sound of the woman who killed my mother. I know the voice all too well and I won't let it poison my brain any further. 

My knuckles turn pink, then, red, and finally white. My mother begins to dissolve into the white walls of my mind and the President's face replaces it. In seconds, I'm on a cold metal table, surrounded by doctor's instruments and tools. Doctors write things down quickly on clipboards as the Examiner does what she does best ; she examines me. Her cold, dead eyes lock with mine, and I feel the utmost amount of hate and wrath explode through my body. However, I don't let it show because that would make me seem weak. I remain stoic and emotionless.

"Good morning, Violet." A middle aged woman in scrubs asks me. She must be a nurse. Her scrubs are bright pink and they have teddy bears holding lollipops on them. Another stupid mask to hide the evil things they really do. "Do you know where you are?" She asks me in the most sickeningly happy voice ever. I respond with a quick shaking of my head. No, I don't.

The nurse smiles and tells me I'm at the hospital near my house. When she told me it was the one near my neighborhood, a nerve inside of me electrified. Magdalena! My face goes from stone cold to a small smile, forming at the corner of my lips. I look out the window of my hospital room to see a girl who looks like my sister. I look harder and realize its her! I try to wave and get her attention, but to the doctors I look like a nutcase.

They hide behind clipboards while I'm calling her name and trying to break free from the metal bed, but chains are locked around my wrists. "Magdalena!" I scream. "Magdalena, please! Look at me!" But the windows and walls must be soundproof because she doesn't look up.

The door swings open and security guards run in. I don't know what help they would be considering I'm locked in metal chains. "Magdalena!" I call out while the door is open. She looks up at me, but I can see the look of uncertainty on her face. She looks like she doesn't recognize me. "It's your sister! It's Violet!" My voice grows tired and raspy from screaming. 

Magdalena doesn't register and shakes her head. She looks back down at her feet. "What the hell?!" I bark. "Why doesn't she recognize me?!" The doctors look around at each other, then at the Examiner who then looks at me. "We couldn't have anymore rebellious youth who were taking the Exam soon. Because of you and your friend Mahree's attempts at escaping and putting a rebel team together, we've Cleansed them in a new way."

My eyes fill with water that burns like vinegar. "You didn't..." I whisper, tears breaking my sentence. I know exactly what she meant. She wiped the memory of any kid who was related to the people in the resistance that would be taking the Exam soon. The President took my mother, ruined my father, and has now taken my sister away from me.