It is finished.
Everything I had worked for. An entire year spent laboring over it.
And it was finished.
I pulled the latch and the gates' bell rang as the metal slowly creaked open. Inside, the cheers of tortured souls rang out.
It hadn't been easy, taking down the government. And I hadn't exactly had a lot of help, thanks to those good for nothing bastards over at the Children's League. But I had managed. With the help of the sane ones of course. I guess you could say we were friends, the sane ones and I. I guess. But after what had happened with him, I don't think anything will be the same for a while to come.
That's why I needed to find him. I needed to fix him. I had broken him, while I had thought that I was fixing things. But Christ, was I wrong. I know that if he could remember anything, he'd hate me. He'd hate me and attack me, and try to kill me. And I'd let him. I'd let him because he wouldn't be wrong. He could tell me the nastiest things he could come up with and he wouldn't be wrong. He could cuss me out until his lips turned numb, and he wouldn't be wrong. Because I was wrong. I did this to him. I plucked myself out of each and every one of his memories, just because I knew I could. And I didn't want to make leaving him any harder. The first mistake of many.
I guess this is just what I get for being an Orange though. We go around and raise a little hell. But I don't want to raise hell anymore. I want to be the one to send it back where it came from. People won't exactly be welcoming us with open arms if all they see us do is turn their friends into marionette puppets.
Now with the concentration camps gone, the adults had no clue what to do with us. Lock us up? Protect us from each other? Or worse, pretend nothing had ever happened? These were questions I could worry about later. The only thing that mattered to me right now, was finding Liam. Finding Liam, and giving him his memory back.
That would be all soft and dandy if I could figure out how to do that though. For now, I was stuck roaming around trying to figure it out on my own. I was outside of Thurmond. My old home. My old prison. Watching as the children streamed out, jumping and dancing and smiling. It warmed my heart. I had only had the gates open for no more than a couple minutes, when a familiar face came walking through. A very angry face.
Sam came stomping up the path straight towards me. I braced myself for . . . For what? An angry tirade? A slap? I didn't know what I was bracing myself for. I only knew that what was coming couldn't possibly be pleasant.
"What the hell is wrong with you Ruby?!" she screamed in my face. I was speechless. I should have anticipated at least this. But through my moaning and groaning and pity-party, I hadn't. Sam was heaving in angry breaths. She kept on glaring at me with her fists balled at her sides. She raised a hand and I flinched away. She brought it down on my arm, hard.
"Ow!" I yelled. No sooner was the sound out of my mouth, that she wrapped me up in a hug. Physically, she was squeezing the life out of me. But mentally, she gave me some back. When she pulled away there were tears in her eyes.
"How, dare, you leave me like that. Don't you ever do that again Ruby or I swear I'll dropkick your ass to Japan." I was shocked. She had worried about me. The fact she had thought about me at all was amazing.
"Y-you were worried about me?" I asked.
"Like hell I was!" She let out a a breathy laugh. "You and me Ruby, it was always you and me." This wasn't just Sam. This was the old Sam. The Sam that I loved. The Sam that loved me.
"You, you remember who I am?" I asked incredulously. She looked at me as if I was insane and nodded. "B-but you can't. I erased your memories of me." She smiled sadly.
"Yes, you took yourself out of my memories, but you didn't erase the memories themselves. Where you had been, there was a growing emptiness. The more I thought about them, the bigger the hole became. I could tell something was missing Ruby.
"It's like that word on the tip of your tongue that you can't remember. I had to think and keep thinking. Eventually, some of the memories came back. Slowly. While you were gone, they brought in some oranges and yellows. I had suspected what an orange could do. And I thought, maybe they could help me remember you." Sam went on explaining her whole story to me as I listened in silent astonishment and joy. She remembered me. She remembered me!
Sam said that one day while she was at work and the PSF's weren't looking, she talked to an Orange girl who had developed her abilities. She told her that only the one who had taken away the memory could place it back. She was disappointed, but kept on trying none the less. I had to stop her there.
"Hold up. She said that if I can take a memory away, I can place it back?" She nodded.
"I don't remember exactly what she said, but I'm sure you could talk to her about it. She said once she got out of there she was headed to some place called East River." My heart sunk.
"How long ago did she leave?" I asked.
"She's still here actually. Gathering up those who want to come. I was going to go with them. Doubt my parents want their little freak back," she said with an icy tone. There was still hope left. I needed to find this Orange. If she could tell me how to give memories back, then I could make Liam remember me again.
"Could you take me to her?" I asked. Sam nodded happily and told me the rest of her story on the way to the Orange cabins. She told me that my strange disappearance had caused a stir among the camp. Word had spread that it was a break out. She had thought about me more and more, placing me by accident into her memories.
"I can't explain how I knew to do it. It just felt right." She explained. The more and more she replaced me with the empty spots in her mind, the more it made sense. Then one day, it all clicked. "I broke down sobbing remembering what I had said to you. You didn't speak for months. And it was all my fault."
"It wasn't your fault. I'm the one who took your memories, remember?" I said. She nodded.
"Oh yea, it is all your fault." She said teasing. It didn't make me feel any better about it, but I grinned anyway. We came to the porch of the cabin and Sam opened the door.
"Red, I got somebody I'd like you to meet." The cabin was occupied by girls and boys, all around my age. A girl with Black hair stepped away from the group. I can see where she gets the name from. Her left eye is a beautiful shade of brown, but her left, is red.
"You must be Ruby," Red says. I nod. "Well, this may be a really lame attempt to thank you for all you've done, but thanks." She smiles and grasps my hand. I can immediately feel her trying to get inside my head. I push her out with such force I can see her stumble a little as she lets go of my hand. She gives me a lazy grin. "I can see how you did it. Nobody's been able to block me out yet. You're somethin' special, aren't you?" I skip over her question and answer her with my own.
"Sam said that if you take away a memory, you can give it back." I said. She nodded.
"That's true." The way she looked at me. It reminded me of someone. Powerful. Hungry.
"Will you teach me?" I asked. A sly grin came over her deformed face.
"What's my consolation prize?" She asked. I almost growled in frustration.
"You're trying to get to East River, right?" I asked. Again, Red nodded. "You tell me how to do it, I'll tell you how to get there. I've been myself." Her eyes widened and stared into my eyes. She was debating whether or not I was lying. I didn't see why there was so much of a fuss. What she was going to teach me was a good thing. I couldn't use it to hurt her in any way. She apparently had come to the same realization, because she stuck her hand out and said, "deal." I grinned. Finally.
She pulled me over to her bunk where all the other kids were milling about doing God-knows-what. Sitting on the edge she began to explain.
"How do you take a memory away?" She asked me. I didn't know how she did it, but I knew how I did it. Clancy didn't know how to take memories away. What if she was just playing me for information?
"Well, you have to pluck it out of their mind, or erase it." I answered.
"Right," she nodded. "You pluck a memory, just like you'd pluck a plant. How do you get that plant back?" she asked. when i didnt andwer she continued. "If the roots are still intact, and in this case they are, then you have to nurture it back to health. let it grow again. How do you bring back something you've erased? You draw it again. Like Sam said, her memories of you weren't gone, just empty. Nurture the thought of you back into their heads and it will reappear on it's own. It was never completely gone. Just missing." I guess that's how everything in my life is. Not gone, but missing.
"Now tell me how to get to East River." She said hungrily grabbing my arm for the information. Her eye was such a distraction, I didn't think I'd be able to do it without staring at it.
At first i hesitated. She may have been lying to me. I slowly crept into her head. After diggin around a bit, I found that she was actually telling the truth. "Lake Prince." Is all I said. Red's eyes bounced with glee. I was almost sorry to snuff that light out. Almost. The girl gave me the creeps, to be honest. "But you won't find anyone." I said. There it goes. Darkness. "The slip kid was Clancy Grey." I said. "He was an evil little asshole and abandoned the camp. You won't find anything there." Still in shock, Red didn't move, didn't talk, didn't even blink. I stood and made my exit with Sam before Red could decide to get angry.
Overhearing our conversation, Sam decided that if she couldn't go home, or go to East River, she might as well come with me. I didn't exactly agree that it was the smartest decision, but it would be nice to travel with some company after all this time.
None of it really mattered though. I had Sam back, and I was going to give Liam back his memory.
I just hoped it would work.
