Chapter 10

Door 1

It turned out pretending to not have any memories was very difficult. Mara, Willow, and Eddie struggled to act as though nothing had changed since they went out the door and received their marbles. Patricia and Eddie tried to pretend Eddie had no memory of their relationship. Mara wrote down what was on their arms into a notebook. As soon as she had everything written, they all washed their arms. Willow tried not to let her misery be shown on the outside, She missed her friends, and it was starting to bring her down emotionally.

But their memories were slowly leaving them again. At one point, Mara approached Patricia in a casual way and handed her a book. "You should try it, it's a great read."

With that she walked away, and Patricia stared after her. Later that day when Patricia opened the book, there was a note in it. We have to return the marbles. Soon they'll notice they're gone.

Patricia knew she was right, but she was attached to the marbles. In her bag were her memories. Even if they kept slipping away from her mind, at least they were in her possession. But she knew Mara had a point. Quickly, She scribbled on a note, noon tomorrow, put the marbles back, I will distract them.

The next time Patricia saw Eddie, she slipped him the note and noticed him put it in his pocket.

When noon came the next day, he was staring at her with a worried expression. But he didn't say anything to her that made her think he was about to stop her from doing what they both knew she was going to do. She kind of wished he would. She knew she had to, but whatever they did to her really messed her up.

She caught Eddie's eye. And then she did her fake freak out. Mara and Willow were startled by her sudden outburst, but Mara looked like she was catching on and looked at Eddie, who was slipping away. She saw the men come to drag her away, and when she was fighting them off she wasn't acting anymore. She broke out of their grasp and ran away to the door, but they got her again.

They dragged her downstairs to the cellar and to a secret compartment behind a bookshelf. She almost expected RFS's study again but instead it looked like some kind of doctor's office. They strapped her down and put some kind of mask on her face. She was forced to inhale something that smelt like spray paint. She fully expected to pass out, especially with the spots in her vision, but instead the spots began to go away and they took the mask off.

She blinked as the men with the masks stared at her. One of them stepped towards her. "You're not enjoying your time here Patricia?"

The voice was familiar and sent a chill down her spine.

"My, my. I thought you learned after last time." he said. He took his mask off, and her heart plummeted into her stomach.

"No... you're dead..." she whispered. "We saw you..."

Rufus Zeno smiled. "You know I always have a few tricks up my sleeve. My friends here brought me back."

"Why?"

"Because..." he said in that calm controlled voice that haunted her nightmares. "If you're not happy, they can make you very unhappy. And I know what you're thinking now. How could they even know about you? They've got your memories Patricia. They know what you fear. I'm flattered by the way." Patricia's heart hammered and despite herself, her eyes started burning with the warning of tears. It'd been a long time since she cried.

"We found your friends." Rufus said in a pleasant voice. "You can let her go, we're going to go on a walk."

The restraints on Patricia's arm let up and Rufus forcefully pulled her to her feet. He pulled her back up the stairs and into the living room. All of her friends were there. Joy, Nina, Alfie, Jerome, Mick, KT, Amber and Fabian were all there along with Mara and Willow. They all looked happy and waved to her as if nothing was wrong.

"H-How?"

Rufus ignored her. "I found your boyfriend sneaking up the stairs." The lump in her throat grew three sizes. "He had the marbles. He's getting his punishment. But now, we have to ensure that you and your friends never get your memories back."

He let go of her and pulled out an hourglass with red marbles. Everyone watched as he poured the marbles on the floor, and began to stomp on them. Each time, Rufus stomped and more tears spilled out of his eyes despite her desperate attempt to stop them. Each stomp made her heart ache so much it caused her physical pain. Each crunch nearly caused her legs to buckle. "As long as I'm here charge, you will never-" stomp. "ever-" stomp. "remember-" stomp. "a thing" stomp. "again!" stomp, stomp, stomp...

Door 3

It was the only time he had ever run away from Nina. He had no idea if she was chasing after him or not. Probably not, she was much faster than he was. He knew she'd be mad, perhaps unforgiving, but he had to get her and KT and Mick out of this world. If she was angry at him but back home, he felt that was better than being here.

But going now was probably not smart. He had no weapon and no real plan. He stopped running and took a moment to reflect on his stupidity. His desperation to get his friends to safety lead him to putting himself in danger. He looked forward, he couldn't even see anything. He'd have to wait and plan things out better later.

He began to walk back to where Nina was, hoping she would maybe allow him to sleep in the warehouse or if she'd be so mad she'd make him leave.

An arrow went right past his ear and he gasped and fell to the ground. He squinted into the darkness and saw the faint outline of a man. He saw the outline prepare to shoot him again and he ran. That one missed him again but the third one got him in the shoulder. He cried out and fell to the ground. He thanked his luck it was pitch dark. He doubted the man would miss if he could see. His eyes brimmed with tears when he pulled the arrow out and continued to ran. This was one of the worst pains he'd ever felt. Whoever the man was, he was right behind Fabian.

But then he heard the sound of another pair of feet running, and suddenly he thought he was doomed. Until he realized the running was coming from the other direction, and it was Nina. He watched as she ran past him, avoided an arrow, and began to fight with the outline. They both had knives out, and saw that the outline had cut Nina somewhere but he couldn't see where. She kept fighting as if nothing happened, and eventually the man let out a strained moan and fell down. She took something from him and ran past Fabian. Stunned for a second, he quickly followed her.

They didn't stop until they got outside the warehouse. "We should just stay out here a while." Nina said.

"Why?"

"Because they're all sleeping." Nina said. "And I have to tend to your wound."

Fabian had forgotten all about the arrow that went through his shoulder, and figured it was due to adrenaline. When that settled down, he'd be in a lot of pain again.

She took him to a small pond, where she began to wash out the wound."You saved me again." he said.

"I know." she said. "I heard you scream and I couldn't stop myself. Even though it seems you're trying not to survive."

Fabian winced both from her words and the pain that was now beginning to come back. "I could say the same for you."

Nina actually laughed. "I know, if I keep running after you, I won't survive long either." Nina sighed. "Maybe I should teach you to how to fight."

Fabian nodded. "Yes, please. I could actually be of help to you."

"I should have done that first." Nina sighed. "It's hard to be out here and not know how to defend yourself. That's asking to be hurt. Or worse."

They didn't say anything for a while as Nina tended to his wound. She soon began to wash off her arm, which had been cut in the fight. Finally, Fabian said, "That's not what I meant by the way. When I said you're not trying to survive."

"What did you mean then?" Nina asked.

"You're not trying to get out of here." he said. "You've given up."

Nina met his eyes. "It's futile."

Fabian shook his head. "I think if I could get out of the second door, our door to home, we should be able to get out of this one. I'm only trying to get us out of here."

Nina was quiet for a while, but eventually said. "If you stop doing stupid things, I'll work with you to try and get out of here."

Fabian smiled. "Deal."

Door 4

They all woke up around the same time in the back of the car. "What happened?" Joy asked groggily.

"I'd like to know that." Amber said. She'd taken the time to wipe their faces and eyes.

Jerome sat up straighter. "We'd never done anything like that. We probably overheated or short circuited ourselves or something."

"Don't speak like that." Amber spat. "Like you're robots or cyborgs or-"

"But aren't we?" Alfie asked.

"I said stop."

An uncomfortable silence filled the car, which reminded Joy to ask, "Where are we driving to."

"Well your little blood show freaked me out so much I thought you had broken your 'come back to life' thing and I was taking you back to The Commander to fix you. But now that you're fine I can pull over and get some answers from you."

"No don't!" all three shouted.

"We'll give you answers but don't pull over. Keep driving." Joy said. Amber sighed.

"Fine."

Alfie scratched his head and noticed both Jerome and Joy were looking at him. "Um, well, the thing is..."

He looked at the others.

"We've never gotten it really confirmed but we're pretty sure The Commander is some kind of drug dealer or mob boss or both or something." Alfie said. "We just know he's very rich and very powerful and..."

"And a lot of people owe him money." Joy finished.

A chill went through Amber. She'd guessed as much but it made her uncomfortable to hear it. Even though she wanted the truth, she found herself putting off hearing it. "Um, am I going the right way? I was mostly just using my memory from when we drove here."

"Yeah, just make a left at the next light." Jerome said. He looked over to Alfie and Joy, who still looked a little pale."Are you guys feeling okay?"

They nodded.

Amber took a deep breath and asked her next question. "Why are you helping him?"

"Because we don't have a choice." Joy said. "He's a scary man and... we know what happens if we don't do what he says."

Something told Amber not to ask. Something told her to just leave it there and believe them. But she couldn't help it. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she asked, "What happens?"

She didn't get an immediate answer. She looked up into the rearview mirror and saw her friends in a way she never expected to. They looked so vulnerable and weak and young. They were huddled close together and shaking.

"Never mind." she said. "Is there any way to... not?"

"Not really." Jerome said. "It's our sole purpose."

Amber looked back at them. "Why aren't you more freaked out? Why are you just okay with it?"

"We're not!" Joy assured her. Jerome and Alfie both looked at her. They knew they shouldn't lie to Amber. Especially right now. "We... weren't."

"What changed then?" Amber asked.

Jerome shrugged. "We did."

"We've wondered about it ourselves." Joy said. "I think we've just become the things we were created to be in this world."

Amber frowned. "I don't like it."

"That's a good thing." Jerome said. "You still have some human left in you."

"Stop, you're still human." Amber insisted. "You're just brainwashed."

"Maybe so." Alfie sighed. "Either way, it's hard to feel bad about all of the killing when death doesn't mean the same thing to you as it does to everyone else."