(sighs) College tours, applications, job hunting, summer homework... all the things I should be doing right now.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything yada yada
No fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole.
Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, once of me,
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.
Garfield hopped up to answer the door when it rang. "Hey." Raven greeted him. She very visibly scowled when she saw Roy. "Oh, hey Roy."
Raven examined Dick's unconscious body laying on the bed. She shook her head disapprovingly before turning back to Garfield and Roy. She smiled at Garfield and sighed. "Isn't Dr. Slade amazing." she said quizzically. "I mean...when people are babies they're new and innocent and then everyone grows up to be miserable and sad and depressed, but he takes it all away. It's like being born again. Being given a second chance."
Roy snickered which he managed to transform into a cough when Raven cut him a dirty look. Garfield smiled apologetically. "I know what your saying."
She pulled up a chair and watched the machine as it ravaged through Dick's subconscious. "I couldn't image what it must feel like to love someone so much that having them never exist would be better than living with the pain."
Both Garfield and Roy exchanged inconspicuous looks around Raven. There was a moment of silence. Roy was grateful for the ringing of his cellphone to break the awkward tension. "Hey babe what's up?...No, I...okay but I'm kind of in the middle of something right-...yes, but...yes, but I'm like working right now...I'd love to but, what you just want me to leave work?...No, that's not what I'm saying...look I didn't mean it like...alright...yeah, I'm on my way."
Roy hung up with a sigh. Garfield shot him a somewhat concerned glance. "What's up?"
Roy shrugged. "It's my girlfriend, she's really upset. Would you mind if I cut out of here early, I mean you can handle it."
"Sure." Garfield agreed. Raven scoffed before turning her attention back to the machine. Roy promptly flipped her off as he left through the front door.
Roy tugged up the collar of his jacket to protect his ears against the windchill. He jogged over to his car, and prepared for the drive back to Kory's house. He couldn't help but think of what Raven said about love. Yeah, he could agree that heartbreak was an interesting thing.
After all: she would know.
Dick weaved around the endless white walls and tables of the Paramount art gallery. They were bizarre tangles of disembodied heads and portraits of Japanese anime characters. There was an alleged theme, but he couldn't tell what it was. It didn't matter to him. His eyes kept going back to Kory. She put on a fake smile and pretended to carefully and thoughtfully analyze each piece when the artist or a critic was around, then turn around and snicker under her breath as soon as they left.
It was past eleven, and all the other patrons had left well over an hour ago. The artists were hanging out in the lounge smoking and drinking champagne out of odd glasses shaped like a pair of hands. Kory and Dick were alone in the gallery. They had both had a little bit too much to drink, and found the painting they were currently staring at hysterical.
"Is it a pelican or a school bus?" Dick gasped.
She lost her step and fell backwards slightly. She grabbed the front of Dick's shirt to stabilize herself. Her back fell against the wall and Dick fell against her. There they were, eyes locked together. They could hear the sound of each others breath in their ear and fell it on their lips. It was completely silent sans the indie rock playing softly from the ceiling Bose system. Dick leaned in and pressed his lips somewhat forcefully onto Kory's.
Her arms snaked around his neck, and he pulled her up by the torso. They had known each other for four weeks, and there they were completely embraced with one another. Slowly reluctantly Kory pulled away. "Dick." she whispered.
Suddenly the room disappeared, and completely darkness surrounded them. A spotlight was on them. Dick's heart lept in his chest. "Oh no."
He grabbed Kory's hand and began to run blindly. "We have to get away from here." he told Kory, trying to expel the panic from his voice.
"What's going on?" he heard her ask from behind him.
They were coming! They were going to take her away from him! Dick squeezed Kory's hand for reassurance. The sounds of their pounding footsteps and heavy breathing filled the darkness. He felt like Orpheus running out of hell. He stopped realizing the futality of what he was doing. Suddenly Kory's hand was pulled from him and she disappeared into the darkness.
"No!" Dick yelled running toward the spot where she had disappeared.
She was gone, there was nothing there except for a door. Dick's trembling fingers wrapped around the brass doorknob. It still tingled from where Kory's hand had been not a moment ago. He slowly opened the door to find a nature scene, which seemed oddly familiar. He was in another memory he knew. This was their hike in the Poconos last October. Dick stepped fully into the scene.
"Kory?" he called cautiously.
There was nothing except for barren trees and high hills. Dick turned around to find that the door he had come out of was gone. "Kory?" he called again. "They're going to erase you. Where are you?"
A sudden pile of crunchy leaves fall on top of his head. "I'm right here." Kory said jumping out from behind him.
Usually Dick found this type of behavior in Kory adorable, but right now he was panicking. "Kory, focus. I hired them. It was stupid and I'm sorry, but they are coming to erase you."
Kory continued down the dirt path up the hill. "Just calm down. Enjoy the scenery."
Dick ran to catch up to her, and grabbed her hand. He just wanted to keep her there. He looked into her eyes pleadingly. "Kory, please. We have to find a way to stop this before I wake up and I don't know you anymore. I want to known you."
Kory sighed sympathetically and leaned against a tree. She was as perplexed as he was. "Well," she started. "Why don't you wake yourself up?"
He shot her an annoyed glance. "Kory, how can I wake up? I'm sleeping."
Kory rolled her eyes before tackling Dick to the ground. Dick squirmed momentarily. "K-Kory, c'mon we don't have time for this."
Kory sat straddled on top of him. "Dick, those eraser people are coming. They will be here any second and you don't have a lot of options. So can you stop being so fucking stubborn and just try it."
Dick stared at her reluctantly. Kory scoffed before reaching above Dick's head and pulling his eyelids open. At first Dick had highly irritated, but then his eyes rolled back. The scene changed. Although his vision was blurry he could see Raven somewhere in the distance. She was with that eraser guy- Glenn, was it? He tried to call out to her, but his voice was stuck in his head. His nerves were virtually paralyzed. He had to get her attention somehow, this wouldn't last long. Soon his eyes, which were only able to squint open, fell back down and brought him back into unconsciousness. He was back with Kory in the woods.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I-I can't believe it." he started wildly. "I was awake!"
"You were!"
"Well, momentarily. Raven was there and I tried to get her attention but I couldn't talk or move." he sighed as frustration numbed his senses. "There has to be another way. There has to be an escape or a distraction or something. Just until morning or until the sleeping pills wear off enough for me to wake up."
"Maybe there is." Kory suggested optimistically. She was always optimistic. "There's a loophole to everything. If we can find it we can outsmart them."
Dick stared at her incredulously. "And how do you suppose we do that."
Kory threw her arms up dramatically. "Well, I don't know. I'm not the one who walked into a clinic to zap my brain."
Dick was about to beg to differ but decided against it. How was the process done? He couldn't remember. Had they already erased that memory? Think! Think! Think! He took deep breaths to avoid sending his mind to panic. He just had to relax and allow it to come to him. That morning he had gone into...Luneca! Yes, it was a vague memory but he could force it into full recollection. Nurture a spark into a flame. Was Raven there? He tried to recall, pushing his mind back to that morning. He could see Raven at the reception desk, she was busy taking a call. She looked up at him and said-
"Hey, how are you?"
Suddenly it all came crashing back to him like the tide against the sand. He jumped up. His heart was racing in his chest and his stomach lurched with excitement. "I remember. I-I got all my things that reminded me of you." he spoke quickly. There was no telling how much time they had left here. "They made a map locating all the memories of you, and they are following it to erase you one memory at a time."
Kory jumped up too. "That's it! You can take me to a memory where I don't originally come from. That way we jump off the map and they can't find us. We can hide there until the morning."
Dick's jaw dropped. It was too perfect for words. His mind was reeling with anxiety. It was hard to think with so much happening around him. "I can't remember a time without you."
"That's very sweet, but you have to try."
They would be here soon. Any second, he could feel it. Let's see he met Kory three years ago, which meant- "My childhood! I didn't know you then."
He focused on the memory. His most vivid childhood memory, before he was adopted. He was at the circus park. He could never forget this. The crisp November air redenned his cheeks, and the crunchy leaves piled around the big tent. His queer circus family of clowns and tight rope walker smiled down on him. The bearded lady slipped him a candied apple, even though it was before supper. Dick caught an image of himself in the elephant's water tough. He was six years old, in his first spandex outfit. Dick was momentarly stunned. A little girl with missing front teeth and unruly red hair materialized at his side.
"Wow." Dick said finally. He ran his hand down her braided pigtail. "It worked."
A thundercloud clapped overhead, and before anyone could say torrential downpour, rain poured over them like angels over heaven. People began to frantically take shelter in their trailers and under tents. Dick glazed upward at the dark gray clouds and his clothes stuck to him like a second skin. It was so freeing. He held his arms out and laughed. He allowed his childhood innocence to engulf him completely.
Kory was right beside him. She stuck her tongue out and blinked back the water in her eyes. She squealed when Dick frog hopped into a puddle and mud drenched the front of her tutu. In retaliation she tackled him to the ground. They were both completely covered in mud and sopping wet. Dick's mother pulled back the windows of her trailer and gazed with a concern look. Dick and Kory looked up from where they were rolling around on ground to wave at her reassuringly. They were alright.
They were both wet. They were both shivering. They were both innocent.
They were both completely happy.
Roy pulled up to Kory's house to find all the lights off. He briefly wondered if she had gone to bed before he had a chance to get over there. Glancing at the time flashing on his dashboard he came to the conclusion that Kory would never be in bed this early. It wasn't even midnight yet. When Kory called she sounded so upset. Instead of being immensely concerned he was rather annoyed. Kory was fun and different and beautiful beyond compare, but she was also moody, emotional, spontaneous, and often sophomoric.
He climbed up the stairs and knocked on Kory's door. She answered it immediately. Her eyes were red from crying and her nose was running. She disappeared into her darkened apartment. Roy timidly stepped in and shut the door behind him.
"Kory, what's wrong?" he asked following her into the living room.
Kory fell onto the couch, wiping her nose on a Kleenex. "I don't know. I don't know. I'm confused, I'm falling apart, I'm getting old, I feel like I'm disappearing." Her voice became muffled as she fell against a pillow.
Roy took a reluctant seat next to her and stifled a sigh of annoyance. "C'mon Kor. You're not getting old."
"Nothing makes any sense to me. Nothing makes any sense to me." She repeated as Roy pulled her against him in attempts to console her. "Hey you want to go out to a movie." she said after awhile. "You want to go out to Blüdhaven with me?"
"Yeah okay." he replied quizzically, as if she weren't being serious. "We can go this weekend."
She pulled away from him. "No, no. We have to go now. I have to get out of here."
Before Roy even had a chance to argue Kory was in the other room looking for her coat. Roy sighed dejectedly. Keeping up with her was a challenge and a half, and he often wondered if he was in over his head with her. Still there was something about her that got him on the red eye train out to Blüdhaven. Kory was sitting next to him, watching the city lights flash by. When the train departed Kory pulled Roy through the frozen, silent city without so much as a word as to where they were going. Roy was beginning to think she was crazy. Finally she found what she was looking for: the Paramount. She had read about it in the newspaper a couple days ago.
It was like utopia, she was with reason suppose to be there. The college age kid at the entrance stamped a crooked "P" on both of their hands before allowing them to enter. Roy attempted to hold Kory's hand but she immediately dropped it. It was a touch that burned and left a scorching in her chest. Kory quickly weaved up the isles and around the walls without really paying attention to what was painted on the canvases. They were like everything in her life: plain, boring, ordinary, beige.
One painting did manage to stop her in her tracks. It wasn't good or beautiful, hell it could barely be called art. But there it was hanging by a rusty nail on a plain white wall. It was cold, calculating. It filled her with an eerie sense of déjà vu. It was taunting her. Her throat closed and her stomach tightened. She felt dizzy. She needed to sit down.
Suddenly Roy appeared at her side. He took one look at the painting, and starting laughing. She felt like everyone in the room was laughing at her. "Is it a pelican or a school bus."
"Is it a pelican or a school bus."
The voice echoed through her head. Bile was threatening to rise in her throat. Roy face suddenly tightened with concern. "Kory are you alright." He put his hand on her shoulder.
She pulled away instantly. Oh it burned. "I-I'm fine." she lied. "I-I have to use the bathroom, I'll be right back."
She stumbled away. It was too crowded in there. She couldn't breathe. All the people there...she blended in. I'm disappearing. I'm disappearing. It was so frustrating and unexplainable. She felt like a part of her was missing. Like she woke up one day and her soul was split in half. Her mind was constantly filled with the agony of not knowing. She needed to forget. She needed to get out of there. She needed some fucking air.
She fell into the outside courtyard. The kid that was working admission was off smoking in the corner. He barely glanced at her. The chilly February air filled her lungs, her swimming mind was beginning to clear. She turned and looked back at the Paramount. There was no way she could go back in there. Her mind was so thoroughly incomplete. She began to take rapid steps further and further away from the Paramount, further and further away from Roy and the utter confusion.
She wanted so desperately to remember, but right now she needed to forget.
Raven sat in a chair on the far side of the room, with half a drunken glass of beer in her hand. She watched Garfield talk on his cell phone from across the room. She could barely make out what he was saying. She admired him. The way his shoulders hunched over and shook when he talked. Raven had harbored secret feelings for him, since the first day she started working there. She knew in her heart he didn't know she existed let alone that she was hopelessly in love with him. She accepted the fact that her feelings would be kept inconspicuous, and she tried to ignore the hole it burned in her heart. The hole only seemed to getter wider over time. She greatly enjoyed these moments that were spent alone when she could pretend it were a love affair.
"...yeah I should be done in about an hour. Can you pick me up. Thanks, bye." he said snapping his phone shut.
He leaned back in his chair and yawned. His eye stung and he tried to rub the exhaustion out of his eyes. A few minutes of sleep was all he needed. He had done this procedure well over one hundred and was yet to mess up. Besides if anything went wrong Raven was there. Sure she'd royally kick his ass if he decided to screw up for the first time on one of her closest friends but what were the odds of that happening. Just as he was getting comfortable the machine beeped.
His eyes snapped open. "What the hell." he said louder than he intended.
"What?" Raven said suddenly interested.
She took a seat next to him. There was a map of Dick's brain on the screen. Garfield typed in a code. "The machine shut off."
Raven sat silently as Gar ignored her for the next few minutes. She was just a receptionist and not familiar with the technical stuff. Was this something that happened often? If so then why did Garfield seem so anxious? Gar glanced at Raven and saw her look of perplexity. He pointed to Dick's brain on the computer.
"This is a map of his brain. All the memories that are being targeted are highlighted and then disappear when they are erased." he leaned in closer. "Somehow the memories have disappeared off the map."
"Has that ever happened before?" she asked.
"No, never." he mumbled under his breath.
He typed in a few codes and cursed. Then a red dot lighted up on the screen. "There you are. I don't understand why he was off the map like that." Garfield said relief etching his voice.
His clicked the dot and dragged it back to the map. All the targeted memories lit up again.
"Got it."
Dick cursed very very loudly and slammed his hands onto the steering wheel. They had found them. "God damn it!"
"Shh." Kory leaned in closer to him. "The movie is not that bad."
They were at the drive in from last summer. The air was humid and the car was stuffy, because the air conditioning broke two weeks prior and didn't have enough money to fix it. Kory suggested they merely roll down the windows. Even though the teenagers in the car next to them were having sex rather loudly, they were both eaten alive by mosquitoes, and the radio was heavy with static all Dick could remember was the scent of Kory smelling like sweet summer rain and her warm head on his shoulder. Oh he could smell the cucumber and melon in her hair.
He wished he could relax for a moment and let himself get lost in this moment but he knew they would be coming soon. He looked down at Kory whose bright eyes were glued to the screen as she watched Clark Gable wrap his masculine hands around Vivien Leigh's dainty arms ignoring the sounds of the war in the background and standing completely destitute on a barren field. Kory watched on as though nothing was happening, and from her side of the car nothing had. How he envied that.
Dick's mind was racing. He had been able to take Kory into a different memory, which had taken them off the map. He was unsure of how much time had passed but if he could stall just until the morning he could stop this from happening. He was feeling more foolish and desperate. This was the biggest mistake he'd ever made in his life. But he really didn't have time to dread on that right now.
He focused his mind, the way he had before on a different memory. The darkness disappeared and sunshine whipped across the sky. He looked down at his feet and saw red mulch. He was on the playground where he went when he was five. A red cape was wrapped around his neck. Kory was standing next to him wearing a plastic crown. A vicious group of boys was taunting him.
"Ha ha! Dick's got a girlfriend! Dick's got a girlfriend!"
Dick felt anger bubble inside of him and tears well up in his eyes. "Shut up!" he shouted, shoving one of the other boys.
Kory grabbed Dick's hand and began to lead him away. The boys continued to laugh and harass him. "C'mon, Dick." Kory encouraged leading him away.
Dick wiped the tears from his eyes. They ducked under a giant hole rusted in the side of a wire fence. They walked silently, hand in hand down the street. In was God's likeness of innocence. Dick and Kory's child minds began to dissolve into adult maturity.
"I wish I knew you when we were kids." he told her. He stopped her in front of an old ranch style house. "This is my house. Was my house." he told her.
This was the only house he'd ever known as a child. Six moths later he'd be on the road with his parents living a life as gypsies and carnies. Bruce's place was more like a museum than a home, not that he didn't build important memories there. He knew it was only temporary but he wished could stay here with Kory in the innocence of childhood. He didn't want to go back to being an adult. He didn't want to wake up not knowing Kory, but he also didn't want to wake up knowing he'd lost her. No matter what he'd be alone.
He held Kory's hand tighter in his. He tried to stay positive, and told himself the eraser guys wouldn't find them there. No, he told himself that they would stay there forever in youth and innocence and love. God help him he believed it. His head told him the lies. He felt the drops of rain begin to fall on top of their small heads. His hand squeezed Kory's hand tighter, and his arms wrapped around her.
Because his heart knew it wouldn't last.
Gar's mind was reeling. It was so perplexing. Dick had somehow gone off the map. It was the first time anyone had done it. Sure Garfield had corrected the problem rather quickly, but it happened again less than twenty minutes later. He spent the next hour and a half trying to locate him.
"Finally." Garfield said dragging him back to the map.
He was glad to see there were only two more memories left, as they lit up on the screen. The chances of him jumping off the map again were infinitesimal. He leaned back in his chair, rubbed his eyes, and yawned. Raven watched his curiously from across the room, only vaguely concerned with the curious case of her friend. She remained so tacit, while he went on a profanity laced harangue for the past hour, that he nearly forgot that she was there. She slivered over to him, and slid into the seat next to him. Her piercing violet eyes were on him and not the computer screen. Garfield was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"It's weird." Her satin voice started casually, though echoing with allure. "This situation with my friend reminds me of a poem I read my freshman year of college." she laughed. "Four years of undergraduate school to get me a job as a receptionist. Anyways the poem- It was called Eloise to Abelard. Have you ever heard of it?"
Garfield's mind was sending warning signals. He had no way of knowing where she was taking this. How far she was taking it. "Hm? Uh, no."
He shifted uncomfortably, slightly away from her.
The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. "It's weird that you don't know it. I mean working here and seeing this kind of thing everyday. Anyways I took a European literature course in college hoping to satisfy my morbid fascination with unrequited love and erotomania. I fell in love with this poem by Alexander Pope. It's about a young woman and the illicit affair and marriage she has with her professor. Her family extracts revenge on him by castrating him so he joins a monastery and bids that she do the same. Tortured by separation she begs not for forgiveness but for forgetfulness."
Raven finished her story and waited for Gar to respond. He felt much more awake now. The irony. He was at a loss for words. They formed in his head, but refused to leave. "That's co-"
He was cut off by the sensation of Raven suddenly pressing her lips against his. His body froze. Raven pulled away as though embarrassed. "I'm sorry." she quickly apologized. "I shouldn't have done that."
Garfield sighed heavily. "Raven you're great and I know it sounds clique but it's not you it's me. It really is. I have a fiancé. You know I have a fiancé."
Her cheeks flushed and hot tears of humiliation burned her eyes. She took a deep breath to stop them. Guilt weld up inside of him. He had long be aware of Raven's affection for him. How could he not. He always seemed to make a mess of things. He tried to close the old wounds. He tried to keep things professional between them, but he only managed to hurt her. It was overwhelming to see her so vulnerable and heart broken. It was even worse to know he was the cause.
"Oh Rae." he whispered leaning closer to her.
His voice was not dripping in love or admiration for her, but with sorrow and sympathy. Their forehead pressed together, followed by their lips. He wanted to take away the pain only for a moment even if it wasn't real. Her moment of bliss was interrupted by the sound of a door hitting the wall. They jumped apart. Standing in the doorway was a very weary looking Tara, Gar's fiancé. Garfield cursed himself. He forgot he had called Tara to come pick him up. She looked between the two, her face almost not registering them together, before turning around and walking away.
Garfield immediately jumped up and ran into the hallway. Raven was following closely behind him.
"Tara, please listen to me." Garfield begged as she whipped open the lobby doors and stepped into the nearly freezing air. "It- it wasn't-"
Tara stopped and turned around to face him. Her eyes did not portray anger or even sadness. They were tired like she had seen this before. Garfield gently placed his hand on her shoulder and quickly tried to explain himself.
"It didn't start out like this. I came here to work. Please, I'm sorry."
Tara wordlessly turned around. When Raven tried to salvage the situation. She couldn't allow Garfield's life to be ruined because of her. "No, it wasn't him it was me. I'm just some stupid girl with some stupid crush and it was my fault. It was a one time mistake."
Tara turned back around and looked at Garfield incredulously. "Well, don't be a monster Gar. Tell her."
Garfield froze and a puff of breath left him now speechless mouth. Raven was completely confused. She looked from Tara to Garfield back to Tara back to Garfield who had still yet to move. "Tell me what?"
Yes, Gar only wanted to end to pain for a moment. But the thing about pain was it always had a way of coming back.
"Hey." Dick shouted over the pouring rain.
He had been secretly and silently watching this girl around the office for the past week. She brought some light into the usually dreary and repetitive office. Her red hair shone in a sea of flaxen blond and dull browns. It was impossible not to like her. She was effectually sweet and undeniably charismatic. Dick remembered when he met her in the copy room the other day. He hadn't worked up enough courage to talk to her.
Today, however, was different. It was pouring rain outside. She was drenched completely head to toe. It was the perfect opportunity. He would be completely casual. Just ask her if she needs a ride.
She slowly turned her head to him. Her face was paled by the chilly water riveting off her face, yet her hair managed to maintain its glass through thick strands of stringy pieces. "Do you need a ride?"
Kory stared straight ahead before shrugging. She pulled the passenger side door open. "Thanks." she said as her ankle caught up with the rest of her body.
Dick began to drive off in the storm, his windshield wipers whipping hopelessly. The first few minutes of the ride were surprisingly quiet. Dick's eyes darted occasionally between the road and Kory. Kory attended to her cell phone. Every few minutes she would hang up and then dial again. After about ten seemingly wasted minutes she cursed out loud.
Dick glanced at her. "Everything alright?" he asked cautiously.
"Huh? Oh." She laughed. Her laugh was melodic. "Yeah, I'm just trying to buy concert tickets."
"Yeah?" he tried to remain casual. "What band?"
"Chairlift." she answered. "Their playing at the-"
"The Jukebox this Saturday." He finished. "I'm going."
She seemed interested and impressed. "Really? They've been sold out for like ever."
"I got my tickets from Finny. Do you know him?"
Kory shook her head. Cool drops of water splashed his face. Something about Kory was so exuberant. She breathed life wherever she went. A fresh a breath air. Dick found her interesting- fascinating if not a little dangerous. He found his nervousness around her to be extremely prepubescent.
Dick cleared his throat, as the car came to a slow stop in front of Kory's apartment. She looked up at her building and then at her lap. Dick seized the moment before he could nerve out. "Look, I'm sure Finny has another ticket maybe we could both go." he suggested.
Her eyes snapped up. "Like a date?" Moment of silence. "Look I don't know what you're looking for in a girl, but I'm not going to be a break from your wife or girlfriend or something."
"I'm not married." he replied.
It was coming back to him. Sadness overwhelmed him as the forgetfulness began to sink in. "Kory," his voice sighed. "I know we can make this work if we just try again. I can different this time. I- you just have to forgive me."
She smiled at him sadly. She placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned into his ear. "Remember me." she whispered.
And then she was gone. Dick stared blankly at the spot where she had just been.
"I'm sorry." he said into the empty space. "I can't."
Raven turn the office inside out looking for it. Her mind was spinning and her heart was racing. It could not be true. Files lay tossed carelessly on the ground. She ran her fingers along the files marked under "R". Still nothing. Anger seized her as her mind turned to autopilot and she just ripped files off of their carefully organized place on the shelf. She had been through these files hundreds of times everyday, it would have been impossible to miss.
What Gar told her had shocked her. It wasn't true and she would prove it. She went straight to Luneca. She realized that this type of disturbing scandal could rock the office. Luneca had based everything off of privacy and secrecy. They would never just leave something like that laying around for her to stumble upon. She left Dr. Slade's office where the files were typically kept and went into the back room to Gar's office. She pulled open the front drawer of his desk and found a manilla file with "Raven A. Roth" written in pen on the cover under a few useless knick knacks.
Inside the folder was a tiny tape recording. The kind they used when interviewing clients. "Raven A. Roth-11/17/07". There was also two pictures of her brain. The first one was marked up with targeted memories. The Before. The second looked like a regular brain. The After. Raven stuffed the tape inside a tape player sitting on top of his desk.
"Okay Just tell me what you remember and we'll take it from there." Came Dr. Slade's Voice.
Raven took a deep breath. "I liked him immediately. But he didn't notice me at all- well, as a co worker, not as a- um...Anyways I uh I always couldn't wait to come to work." Her voice broke. "I knew it was- I mean he had-has a girlfriend." Her voice gave way to sobs. Raven fell into the chair behind her. She felt so numb.
"Do want a minute?" Dr. Slade asked.
"No." she answered quickly. "I want you to erase him, and how I felt. I just-can't deal with seeing him here everyday after the whole...affair. I just want the pain to end."
Raven pressed the stop button. She couldn't bare to listen to any more. He had known about how she felt for all those years. They had been together for God's sake, and he let her erase it all. He let her come to that office every single day knowing that it was all a lie.
A lie.
At that moment Raven lost all respect for everything that she had stood for. Everything that Luneca stood for. It was a company on the basis of lies. Forgetting someone didn't end the pain. It only acted as a temporary ibuprofen. Because when you love someone enough to want to forget them the pain would always be there. They had erased her past with Garfield hoping to end to the pain. They just wanted her to feel better.
How did they think she felt now?
This was it: the last memory.
Dick heavily accepted the fact that when he woke up in the morning Kory would be gone forever. I tried everything he could to stop this. The pain of losing her all over again was agonizing almost unbearable. He would cease this opportunity to remember everything he loved about Kory, for those were the only things that really mattered to him. Now and forever. Dick had never really known love until her. Until the morning.
Kory was standing at the copier in the print room, the copier was not being kind. Kory jumped when she saw Dick. She smiled. Dick's stomach dropped, she had such a beautiful smile. "Hello," she said. "can you maybe give me a hand here."
Dick stood in the doorway for a moment. She had always had a warm and inviting demeanor. She was so out of place here at the office wearing a dress suit. He knew she'd give anything to be wearing jeans and a plain t shirt right now. Dick felt a hole burning in his chest.
"Sure." his voice came out in a whisper.
He moved into the room and pressed the correct buttons for the printer. Kory smiled again. The hole grew with every appreciative giggle and bright smile. He wanted to hear her voice again. Say anything.
"My name is Richard." he offered. "But everyone calls me Dick."
"Hello, Dick. I'm Kory."
He wanted her to say his name again. He wanted her to say it again and again and again. Water began to flood the office, though it went unnoticed by Kory. Rain began to fall profusely but Kory continued to do her office work. Completely oblivious to what was happening. Dick wondered if Kory felt the exact same when the procedure was happening to her. Did she try to stop it? Did she want to? It didn't matter at this point.
He remembered what happened next. He left the room without a word. He went back to his office to finish up some paperwork, leaving Kory alone in the copy room. Dick remained where he was for the moment. This was the last memory he had of Kory and in the morning it would be gone. So what did it matter if it were right or not?
Dick looked down at the water crashing at his feet. "I remember what happens next." he confessed. "You went to go drop off the papers and I left." He sighed. "I wish I'd stayed. I wish I's done a lot of things." He looked up at Kory. "I wish I'd stayed."
"I came back to the room, but you were gone." Kory said sweetly moving closer to him. "Was it something I said?"
He remained motionless, before shaking his head. "No."
He sighed heavily before moving towards the door. The water was at his knees by now and the walls of the office began to melt away. The rain came down harder.
"Dick." Kory's voice called to him. He turned and saw her standing in the doorway. "What if you stayed this time?"
He slowly, slowly, slowly waded through the water towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her while the rain poured over them and walls around the slowly began to dissolve away and fall apart. It was too late to wish for it to end, he knew. But he still wished for this moment to last as long as it could. This was the last time he'd ever see his beloved. This was the last time he'd ever love her. He shifted his shoulder so that Kory was looking up at him. He leaned in and kissed her one last time.
"Goodbye Kory." he whispered.
"Goodbye Dick." she whispered back.
Then she was gone. Dick was left standing in the dilapidating space that was continuing to fall apart. His lips still tingled where Kory had kissed him. The future they could of had flashed across his mind. The house, the kids, the dog, everything they could of had. He smiled weakly at the life that never existed between them. He felt an emptiness instantly take over him. A part of him that was missing. His mind felt busy and incomplete. She's gone. He realized. He would embrace the last few hour he had of sleep, where Kory remained for now. Dick didn't really want to know a world where Kory never existed. He didn't really want to known what that would be like.
In the morning he was going to find out.
I had writer's block. I do appreciate the only 2 reviews I did get. Yes, I do read the stats.