Retrospect

Forty-five

   "What?" I was barely able to speak. "What do you mean? I'm Cory," I replied with a hard, nervous swallow, looking to Murl, "and this is your cousin. Do you remember?"

Miles' eyes darted between me and his cousin, then he shook his head slowly, unsure of what to believe.

"Ahh...so you see now?" Rich appeared from behind me, his arms spread wide. Reeves and Ana and Malachi were being held by all three officers, the only ones left remaining out of the original ten. Ana suffered from an open wound on her thigh and Reeves and Malachi were both breathing heavily, putting all of their weight on one leg.

"Miss Cavey couldn't save her friend," Rich snarled, then gave a wide grin that made me want to recoil and look away. He made eye contact with Miles and pointed at me. "You may not remember anything, but I'm telling you the truth right now. That girl is responsible for taking your memories. She just removed the blades and she has your whole life in her hand."

"What?" I said in disbelief. "No! He's lying!" I bit back, stumbling over my words when I saw Miles getting to his feet, his gaze trained on me like he was intending to kill. He took a few steps towards me and Murl pulled at his cousin's arm, but was shaken off immediately. "Miles, you have to remember me!" It was pointless to even try to convince him we were on his side since his brain was wiped, but I was willing to make an attempt anyway.

Miles was glowering at me while Rich watched everything unfold, clearly amused by what he'd created.

"Give them back!" Miles demanded, suddenly rushing at me, making me step back and crash into the cart of medical supplies. He grabbed a needle and stabbed the air, right where my arm had been a second ago. I had dodged the weapon just in time.

Reeves once again, broke free from an officer's grasp which riled up Malachi and Ana and made Murl throw himself at Rich. The entire room was chaos once again, silence no longer wrapping itself around the room.

Miles stabbed at me again but I was able to spin away, coming face to face with a wall. I turned around, watching him take his steps closer to me, his eyes dark and threatening. "Miles, I don't want to do this," I warned, gripping the blade in my hand at my side. He wasn't stopping.

   A stone cold expression took over and he stared at me with an evil look in his gaze, turning the syringe around in his fingers slowly.

"Miles, please," I pleaded, my back against the wall now and the blade still sweaty in my tight grip. I knew I wouldn't kill him. I couldn't. All I could think about now was everything he told me, about his dad. And then I remembered his smile when he'd stolen that lady's drink, and the quiet morning up on the rooftop with him. Just thinking that he didn't remember any of that, that he'd never know me the same again left me feeling hollow. And this would be my parents too if I didn't find them soon.

He brought the syringe up, holding the needle to my neck while I struggled to breathe correctly. In this moment, I prepared the blade in my hand, unnoticed by Miles as I held it to his side, dreading the feeling of letting the weapon jab into him.

"This is what you deserve," he spoke nastily.

I was waiting for the right time to stab him, but the needle still hovered there, never pressing into my skin. Instead, Miles' eyes suddenly lost their fierce glint almost at once and he winked. He looked over his shoulder at Murl who threw a punch at Rich. "He's gonna need some help," he said, facing me again.

"Wait," I said. What happened to him? Had the chemicals worked? Clearly they hadn't. "Miles, do you—do you remember me?" My heart wouldn't slow down.

"Yeah," he told me, "I'm lucky you guys got to me when you did. Any longer and they would've realized the chemicals weren't really sinking in fast enough."