Chapter 44
Pierce
It took me a few minutes, but I finally managed to locate a drive to plug in the SD card. I shove it into the computer, harder than necessary. I’m wasting time when all that I want is to chase after Thea.
A single file pops up, and I click on it, reading the title.
Amnexia
The Forgetting Pill
Revised
What follows is a lengthy description of a pill designed to target specific memories and delete them. Grief, breakups… it can all be forgotten in an instant. Taken as a pill, one can simply forget the last couple of hours, but with targeted therapy, Amnexia can erase any painful memory.
This could change the world… for both good and terrible. As much as I’d like to forget the pain my mom inflicted on me, I wouldn’t be the man I became without it.
“What ya looking at?”
I jump at the voice over my shoulder. Darren.
“Oh, uh, nothing.” I scroll to the bottom to find the closing statement.
In conclusion, Amnexia can be used not only for—
“Where did you get that?” Darren yells. He reaches for the laptop, but I pick it up before it becomes an unfortunate victim.
“Thea,” I offer simply.
“No!” Darren brings his hands to the back of his neck. “No! No no! What has she done?”
“Darren?” Megan runs into the room and grabs his hand to calm him down, but he throws her off with a strength he doesn’t realize. She falls backward into a lab table, and I jump to steady her.
“Hey…” I place myself between them. “It’s alright. Take a breath with me.”
“No no.” Darren repeats. “They found it. They found it.”
“What’s going on, Darren?” Megan cries.
He blinks, and his vision seems to clear as he looks at me.
“I was working on a new medicine, f-for dementia. B-but Gavin had a different plan.” Darren sniffs.
“He wanted to make people forget. He posed the theory that if we worked backward, figured out how to cause memory loss, then we could figure out how to restore it. B-but he tricked me. He wanted to sell Amnexia to all kinds of bad men. So, I-I distorted the final findings and was preparing to turn him in to the authorities when the accident happened.” He braces himself on the lab table, exhausted by the memory.
“Are these the distorted findings?” I ask, hoping I don’t push him too hard.
He narrows his brows and stomps forward. He scans the screen. “No. This is real. I left off key components on the one I left him.”
“What would the drug do without those?”
He rubs his cheek. “Without those, it’s just a basic memory-erasing drug. Days, even weeks, would be gone to the person who used it. With the correct components, one could choose what they would want to erase, and that would be it. They would go on as if nothing happened.”
A drug like that could have its uses in psychiatric treatment, but I can picture it falling into the wrong hands and being used to cover up all kinds of misdeeds.
“What does Gavin want to do with it?”
His expression is grave as he looks up at me. “Sell it to the highest bidder.”
That’s what I thought.
“They were supposed to destroy it. I was supposed to destroy it.” Tears slip down Darren’s cheeks, and Megan reaches out to comfort him. The contact seems to do the opposite for him.
“Where’s Thea? She’s supposed to get cinnamon rolls for breakfast.”
I look at Megan, knowing we’ve lost him.
“Let’s go find her,” Megan says, gently leading him out of the room.
They used the distorted drug on Thea, and that’s why she lost so much time. I drag a hand over my face. What if they use it again?
I sprint out the back, across the lawn and beyond the park to my car, praying I’m not too late.