Our Darkest Memories

~ Lost Memory

2 weeks before forgetting

“And that’s why you can’t trust Oranges,” Raiden concluded his story.

“Okay, well, I’m sure that not every Orange will mess with your brain to make you do stuff.” The story of how an Orange almost made Raiden beat another kid did not impress me. Or actually, it did, but I just didn’t want to judge all Oranges based on that. I was sure that there were Oranges that weren’t that cruel.

Raiden’s absent-minded face was reflected in the windshield. “Maybe not. But the ones that like to be in control are.”

Blaze, who was seated on the back seat, managed to switch the topic. “What happened to her?”

It made Raiden look up again and he shortly gave her a look through the rearview mirror. “She got shot by a PSF and that’s how the other kid and I got caught and put in a camp.”

I glanced to the side. That was new information. Though Raiden and I had gotten very close the last few weeks – it was unspoken, but we all knew that there was something between us – Raiden never spoke about his time in the camp and he also didn’t mention how he got there. “The Orange, did she die?”

“She did. Oranges are shot on sight.”

“Why?” Blaze asked from behind us.

“Because mind control is considered very dangerous. People don’t like it when they are being controlled.”

As they should. I could only imagine what that would feel like. You’d become a spectator of your own life. You do actions you don’t want to do and all you can do is watch.

“So there were no other Oranges in the camp?”

Raiden bit his lower lip while he kept his gaze on the road. “There was one. He was even creepier. somehow, he could see people’s memories. Every time someone from the camp found out he was Orange, he would erase that memory before they could warn another guard. That way no one knew he was Orange.”

Raiden continued to tell about how that Orange always got whatever he wanted and how he walked around the camp as if he owned it. Apparently, all of the other kinds of the camp knew him. And everyone was terrified. “He played tricks on your mind. He would tell you things about your past. Embarrassing things. Your most treasured memories.” He swallowed. “Your worst memories.”

“Sounds horrible.”

“It was. He made you relive them and would tease you with them. And whenever someone wanted to tell it to the guards, he’d threaten to erase their memories.”

I didn’t know much about the camp, neither did I know Raiden’s experience of it. But by the way he was talking about it, it became clear to me how much he hated it there. How terrified he must have been, being locked up like an animal. He never deserved it.

No one did.

Yet every child in this country could relate to that fear. You were either faced with the fate of dying because of IAAN or subjected to the cruelty of anyone willing to hunt down a child. If this was our country now, then what would the future bring? Surely they realized that they couldn’t keep us in camps forever, right? There had to be a moment where they let us go. We are the future, yet they are denying their future the right of freedom. Even worse, they were denying us the right to live.