Vicious Memories

Chapter 59 - Eva

72 Months Ago.

Doctor Eva Margal hated the chaos and disorder of the world.

So she vowed to change it.

She had to.

Obsessive thoughts hung stubbornly in her mind and she walked down the dark hallways with calm, calculated steps. One foot in front of the other, controlled, perfect, her sharp eyes daring anyone in her path to remain there. They all stepped aside quickly, torn between wanting to stare at the beautiful woman stalking the hardwood floor and wanting to flee before her and hide wherever they could.

Her confidence covered her anxiety well - it always did. Lately it had been doing such a good job that she'd almost forgotten she was anxious at all. In this situation she was in control. That was what mattered.

She stopped in front of a thick wood door and took a moment to examine the way it managed to exude importance from every grain in the paneling. The shine of the mahogany, the gleam of the chrome handle, the polish of the nameplate in the center. She took it all in with a mixture of awe and disdain - awe at the way it imposed a sense of order on visitors before they even opened it; disdain at the useless expense.

Her calm knock elicited a sharp, "Come in."

She entered the cold, oppressively cluttered room.

"Ah," said the man behind the desk at the far end. "Dr. Margal. Wonderful to see you. Please come and have a seat."

The room swallowed Eva with an alien indifference she recognized, because it was exactly the way she tended to greet people whom she thought of as beneath her. Except this time she was the one meant to feel small. Bookshelves stocked to bursting with important tomes towered over her, a thick carpet absorbed her footfalls as if she wasn't even there.

An assistant swooped in from an adjoining door, and as she exchanged pleasantries with Eva, (Coffee? No, thank you. Tea? I'm alright. Very well, how is the chair, comfortable, you'll let me know if you need anything else, won't you?), and the man behind the desk finished his phone call, turmoil reared its head inside Eva's stomach now that she was finally here. Her control slipped. The past several years of constant success faded. All she was left with was the memory of failure - the one, giant, unchangeable thing that drove nearly all of the decisions she made.

"Great. Well. Sorry about that." The man hung up the phone and lifted a large folder off of his desk. "The director himself was supposed to be here. That was him on the phone. Sends his apologies. Project as important as this, wanted me to let you know he wishes he could be in the room."

Government machine falling apart again, Eva thought wryly. No matter. She was here.

"Now, doctor," the man said grandly. "You're one of the foremost psychologists in your field and—"

"Psychiatrist."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm a psychiatrist. You said psychologist."

"Yes, yes. Of course. Psychologist. Psychiatrist. Like I was saying. We've reviewed all of your work over the past two years and to say it is impressive would be an insult. Now, your proposal here. This. This is something extraordinary. I'm sorry it took us so long to come to a final decision on setting up the project. Needless to say something like this had to be dealt with using the utmost discretion. Given the state of things we were able to secure funding fairly easily, as well as the approvals from all three branches, but something this important can't be..."

His words faded into a clipped mumble. Sharp consonants. Elongated vowels. Syllables without meaning.

Only the larger message mattered. The project had finally received the green light.

"And your partner is absolutely brilliant," the man said. "You'll love him. Groundbreaking researcher. A neuroscientist. You'll meet him this afternoon."

Despite her best efforts to clamp down on it, a thrill flashed through her body, momentarily pushing her control to the fringes. Her fingers tingled with excitement. She felt giddy. She wanted to laugh, to shout with joy. She wanted to hug someone.

"I can't wait to meet him." Eva pushed up from her chair in the middle of the man's speech. "He and I are going to do amazing things."