What Memory Remains

Chapter 14

Alice slept, and as she did her consciousness projected outwards and wandered about. It searched in vain hopes of finding Zenapharr. She didn’t know for sure he was dead, and until she had absolute proof her mind would not stop even as she dreamed. Sade curiously watched as she tossed and turned, wondering if he looked as troubled as she did in his own sleep. He didn’t much about Alice, yet he felt some force very strong within her being. It was a feeling, a strange intuition he could not describe, he just knew.

As he watched over her, he attempted to get in contact with his comrades working under the radar. They were going to check out the remaining rubble of the NOSRAD facility and see if they could confirm his dear friend’s death.

    “Sir, are you certain you want us to check this out? We’re not even close and we can see the smoke from here?”

    “Yes, Dolan. It’s worth a try.”

    “Is there some reason you think he’s alive?”

    “To be honest, I don’t. My initial reaction is that he’s dead, but I’m hoping….really hoping that I’m wrong. We need him now more than ever….”

    After the radio went back to silence, Sade pondered over the events that had transpired since Zenapharr’s capture. Intelligence had confirmed many suspicions of NOSRAD, but it was very dangerous. Minerva had Sade working the case as a black-ops mission, because of their close connection to NOSRAD. It was during this investigation they learned of the new experiment that the Director was performing, and it wasn’t anything to be taken lightly.
    
Multiple subjects with magical abilities were convinced to partake of a program called The Purge. It was a process to take away magical abilities, which seemed illogical to want to lose such a gift to be born with. Surprisingly, they found many people living in Nostromus volunteered for the procedure hoping to feel “more Northern” and to escape the societal prejudice against magic users. Yet, this was nothing but a farce.
    
What subjects were not told was that their magical abilities were not just being taken away, but they were also being transferred to someone else. Also, the process of Purging killed the person having their magical power being taken away. Why they were doing this exactly has still not bene confirmed, but it’s suggested that Director Krane could be building some sort of elite army of magic users. There was still much to be learned.
    
Luckily, having these informants were the only reason he was able to save Alice. He’d gotten a message from a guard working there to meet Zenapharr at the hospital where Dr. Pennington was held , but he acted right away as he got reports of Zenapharr massacring staff and trying to save a young girl. It was sheer luck though that he’d found Alice the way he did. It wasn’t much longer after that the bomb went off, so fate had decided that he would win out that day.
    
Alice mumbled something her sleep, and he leaned in closer to see if her could hear what she was saying.
    
“What are you dreaming of, little nina?” he whispered.

Alice was a year younger, and having tea with her parents and her older sister. It was a simple, happy moment that was one in a few. Her powers had began manifesting, and her parents knew right away she was the one doing everything. Many fights were had about how she needed to control herself more, but Alice only explained that she didn’t know how and this frustration only made things worse. There were few days she was allowed out of her room or the house.

    This particular day, everything was going quite splendid. Laughing at her father’s silly antics, they passed tea and biscuits around as they normally did on a Saturday afternoon. Yet, the peace didn’t last long. Alice was trying not to be nosy, but with having the power to read someone’s mind and hear their thoughts, the temptation was too great to resist. She first read her sister’s mind, and chuckled at her sarcastic thoughts of her father’s behavior.
    
Next, she read her father’s mind and was happy to hear him think to himself how lucky he was to have such a family. Then, she read her mother’s mind and was perplexed by her thoughts. She didn’t completely understand the things she said in her mind, but she knew it seemed like adult stuff. It seemed odd that she was thinking about it now, and the name she kept bringing up finally drove her crazy enough to ask about it.
    
“Mommy?” She said, interrupting the banter of the other three.
    
“Yes, sweetie?” Her mother casually replied.
    
“Why do you think about Arthur so much?”