Edge of Breaking [ReD]

Trahnael

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The topic was too... invasive. Even Lochlann didn't know about that night; even Leon didn't; and that would say a lot because the two men were the only ones in the island that knew Adelene so much. Counting people outside of Manta Carlos, they were two of the only three people that knew her to such extents. And yet they didn't know about that.

Aiden was scaring her. He even moved like Lochlann for a moment, and Adelene didn't know if they were just similar or the doctor knew how to approach her while she was curling away. The only details she can recall kept flashing back to her as Dr. Hart pushed the topic further, to the point that she really did have to say them out loud to get them to stop.

"It was dark..." Adelene cringed again, she couldn't look Dr. Hart in the eye, and her arms were protectively wrapped around her torso, as a defense mechanism. Because she felt so vulnerable. "...I couldn't remember why the cars crashed... But I was on the ground looking up at... a sharp slope... and the cars were already burning. I... I don't know how badly injured I was but... I was hurting all over... and I lost my memories somehow. I still can't remember anything before that moment."

She forced herself to glance into Aiden's eyes that moment. But he was looking away, and she didn't know what he was thinking. He'd said he wanted to help her, but she really didn't know what he meant by that. She hoped he'd tell her.
@"ReD"
 

ReD

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He let her stew in silence, giving the memories ample time to simmer.

He still didn't turn to look at her, instead rocking back in his seat and continuing to glance out the window. There was a bird fluttering by outside and it captured his attention.

"What if there was a way to get your memories back," Aiden asked. "Would you want that? Would you want to know what happened?"

He turned to look at her now, crossing his fingers and steeping them on the desk.

"What if I told you I could help you get your memories back?"
 

Trahnael

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The questions loaded in her head slowly, like a slow internet connection that made videos buff or lag when one tries to play it. Adelene couldn't absorb them immediately, but when she did, her curled up body immediately leaned on the table, her hands on its surface and no longer caging herself in, as she continued to search the doctor's eyes with her wide, awestruck ones.

"You can?" she almost sounded happy. Excited. She's always wanted to know what her past was, and no matter what happened to her before, they never came back. She was already long convinced that they've been wiped away permanently. Yet here she was, in front of a possible solution to that.

Dr. Hart has distracted her from Lochlann's condition completely.

"Doctor Hart, how?"
@"ReD"
 

ReD

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Aiden opened a drawer on his desk and removed a file folder. He set it on the table before them.

"We're on an island where anything is possible," Aiden said. "And, at the same time, nothing is. Last week I watched someone use magic to heal a patient, and then the same doctor used magic only to have someone die on the spot."

The point, Aiden was getting at, was that there was no guarantee that this would work.

"What if I told you that there was a pill that would help you get your memories back, but you wouldn't get them all at once," Aiden said. "Something would need to trigger them. Would you still be interested?"
 

Trahnael

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Adelene bit her inner right cheek. This conversation sounded so scary, yet she forced herself that it was some kind of solution flashing itself right before her. But she was nervous about it. She barely new the doctor, barely knew what he really does, or what was his reason for bringing this up. After all, it had been really sudden.

But she was blinded by the hope and anxiety of having her old memories back. They were a key to who she really was, and how to manage her powers more.

"If it doesn't work, will it be dangerous?" That was really the only thing that kept her hesitating. If it wasn't dangerous, then there would be no harm in trying. Even if it ends up not working. "If it isn't... I want to try. What should trigger them?" She furrowed her eyebrows. Her eyes trailed away, to the cats in one side of the office. She hadn't noticed them until then.

"...Why did you want to help me get my memories back again..?"
@"ReD"
 

ReD

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"It can be," Aiden said. His voice was calm, like he was telling her the side effect of any kind of drug, not something like this.

"It's not known what will trigger the flashbacks. Something related to the even,t ideally, but it's happened to some under extreme stress, or they've had them come in dreams. One client, in a control study, experienced the memory resurgence during the middle of the exam. The stress caused his powers to go haywire and he accidentally set a student infront of him on fire."

Aiden shuffled the papers and then slid the file closer towards her. It had her full name on it, and inside were pictures from the accident.

He was quiet for a long moment and then Aiden sighed. He sounded older then, or like he was carrying something heavy.

"Because I want to help people, Miss Cross," Aiden said. "You have powers, and from what I've gathered being Lochlann's doctor, you're a bright young woman. The world should be yours, it's not fair that part of your life is locked out to you. "

He wanted to know how she cheated death, too.
 

Trahnael

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"A typical... doctor response I see."

Adelene's eyes had narrowed in a suspicious manner. Her guts told her there was something else beneath all of this, but Dr. Hart seemed like he was not going to tell her what it was anytime soon, and she wasn't going to force it out of him.

The risks were making her think twice, the stories the doctor had said made her fear for what could happen if she went under the same kind of stress, because anyone who knew her powers would know anything was not worth the risk if it meant there was a chance she'd lose control. One more thing that worried her about all this was that he mentioned her powers, because that always made her paranoid about people's intentions.

But she took the files and looked inside, through the papers, through the pictures, and suddenly her need to know her past grew.

The night was dark, but the flames were big enough to light up the scene. She never knew the accident looked like what the photos showed, never expected she was ever in this kind of... convoy. There were at least 5 or 6 vehicles, three of them completely wrecked and burned, and there seemed like pools of blood everywhere. Taking her knowledge from past experiences, Adelene knew that those were where bleeding bodies laid. If they were all dead, or if they lived, she wouldn't know.

Somewhere in these pictures, there was her own pool of blood. But she was no longer there when whoever took these pictures arrived.

Adelene shook her head and put all the files together and put them down the desk. A long, heavy breath. And then her eyes settled back on Dr. Hart's. "I could try, Doc," was her answer, despite all the risks laid out in front of her. "If things don't go well, I'll just stop."
@"ReD"
 

ReD

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Aiden knew he should tell her that she might not have the option to stop, but he hesitated.

How did he know that she didn't have the power to stop the flashbacks if she wanted? He didn't. He didn't know anything about these pills. They were unpredictable, they relied on magic rather than science.

He didn't want to tell her how he'd gotten the pictures. Again, magic rather than science, although they did come from the school's computer so...

He wasn't going to dwell on this.

Aiden stood up and headed across his office to the locked cabinet, punching in a code, scanning his finger prints, and then flashing his badge at it. He was not worried about having her see him open the door--it'd only work if he was alive, so even if she got any ideas about trying to get in here with his dead body, it wouldn't work.

Normally, he'd write her a prescription and the pharmacy would handle it, but Aiden didn't let anyone else have these. He counted out the dosage and placed it in the bottle, then slid back onto his desk hair and set the bottle on the table.

"There's a weeks worth in here," he said. His voice softened. "I recommend taking them before you go to bed, with a full glass of water. You might want to set an alarm, too. They don't cause drowsiness but if they trigger a memory, an alarm might help bring you back to the present."

He looked like someone who had gone through it himself, but then, the mask was back up and Aiden was back to clinical.

"Do you have any questions?"
 

Trahnael

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That was weird. Really weird. While it didn't even cross Adelene's mind to try opening that lock herself in the future, she wondered why he had to have such a thing, and why he kept the pills there. Were they... prohibited? Kept secret? Special? They were definitely special. But 'special-ness' can be gauged.

She eyed the bottle as it touched the desk's surface, and she looked at it as if she was in front of the forbidden fruit the demon snake enticed Eve and Adam with. There was suspicion and hostility, yet there was also the look that says she wanted to take it. And she did. Slowly she reached for it, slowly her fingers wrapped themselves around it, before she turned her eyes to the doctor once more.

"I do," she said. "Where are these pills from, why are they locked, and what happens after one week?"
@"ReD"
 

ReD

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"They're from a source on the island," Aiden explained, answering her questions in order. He had his hand held out before him and he ticked off each question by lowering a finger until his hand was closed around the bottle once more. "They're locked because they're expensive, and I don't want people stealing them."

He sat down into his chair now and ticked off the final mark. "And, after a week, you meet with me again. You get to decide if you want to continue or not. Nothing might happen. We might have to increase the dosage."

Aiden set the bottle on the desk and rose from his chair, walking to look out the slatted window screen. The kittens by his feet purred in their sleep as though sensing his presence.

"Sound fair to you?"