Remember

Chapter Ten (edited)

 "A rip? In the world?" Just as she thought things could not get anymore complicated, it did just that.

"Something abnormal. Something in this world that seems out of place like it shouldn't be there at all. This world is supposed to be perfect right? You have to find the imperfection, unravel it." Nothing could be perfect, because that was impossible. There was a flaw to everything, if only one knew where to look.

Colette sat down on the glassy stool next to her, almost afraid it would shatter under her weight. Her head dropped into her hand as she let out a groan of frustration. Kaden leaned against the wall to the right of his chair, saying nothing as he waited for her brain to realize the obvious answers in front of her.

Colette's body quickly swiveled around in her chair towards his. Kaden's eyebrow rose slowly and her eyes narrowed at him. "How did you become aware?"

Silence.

"Well?" She pressed, staring at him. It seemed that there was something he was hiding, but that was not exactly a surprise to her. Kaden was not exactly an open book, instead he was one with thousands of locks with keys that were lost long ago. Just another mystery that she was left to uncover. Fantastic.

"Well let's just say, I did things that weren't exactly up to par with Paradisium's code of conduct or whatever you want to call it." Oh, great. So not only was she listening to a boy she has never seen or heard of, he is a potential convict of some unknown crime. "That is not important and in no way helpful to you." Kaden grabbed the book from the counter and slammed it shut, returning it to its rightful place on his bookshelf.

Good job Colette, you angered your only help. Real smooth. She mentally facepalmed herself before running through a list of things in her head that could potentially be labeled as odd. It seemed nearly impossible considering that she now thought the entire world she lived in was odd.

But, then, it suddenly dawned on her,

The hospital. The one thing that seemed so normal to have but was actually the most abnormal thing to exist. At least in this world. There was not supposed to be any sort of sickness in Paradisium, no plagues, no sort of cancer, or diseases. There was no reason to have a full scale hospital. There was no reason for people to be in comas when there was no possible way for there to be something wrong with them.

The problem wasn't that the people were in comas, it was the fact that nobody seemed to think anything of it. People were blind to the most obvious things around them. That seemed to be exactly what the Paradisium Federation wanted. There was something about being aware that scared the Paradisium Federation. Colette was going to figure out just exactly what that was.

the Paradisium Federation was wrong to keep people in the dark. They ran from their fears instead of facing them and that was more dangerous than anything. When problems were neglected, people got hurt. the Paradisium Federation was going to get people killed and Colette had the slightest suspicion that they did not care.

***

The smell of disinfectant immediately hit her nose as she stepped through the front door of the hospital. As if the hospital really needed so much disinfecting for something that was only home to a few old people and rare comatosed. Colette understood maybe a small hospital that dealt with daily injuries like bone breaks or deeper than usual cuts that needed a bit of stitching but not a full blown treatment center.

Colette looked over at Kaden who held a smug look on his face. She stopped walking and turned to him. "If you have something to say just say it." She pressed her lips into a thin line and waited. For someone who acted as if they knew everything in the world, he sure as hell tried his hardest to keep it to himself.

He chuckled, shaking his head lightly without so much as looking at her. "It's nothing, it's just, I don't know why you chose the hospital out of all places. I'm not quite sure what you think you are going to find here but, by all means, don't let me stop you." He swept his arm in front of him, gesturing for her to continue her search.

"You know what? You're an asshole and for someone who is supposed to be helping me, you're not very helpful at all." She pointed her finger at him and jabbed into his chest multiple times. "In fact, the hospital is the dumbest place that could have even been invented in this stupid and apparently fake world!" At this point she was screaming at him, causing the passing nurses to shoot her nasty looks.

Kaden only looked satisfied with himself as he grabbed her by the arm and guided her further into the hospital. "Two things; you're embarrassing yourself and you should really keep your voice down. You never know who could be listening."

She shoved him off her, nearly knocking him into the white hospital wall behind him. "Don't touch me again." She walked off, leaving him staring after her, but it was not long before he followed after her. "What do you mean by 'who could be listening'?"

Kaden's eyes darted around their surroundings before he took a step closer to her and spoke in a hushed tone. "You may not ever see the Paradisium Federation leaders but they have eyes and ears everywhere. You need to be careful." Colette felt the color drain from her face as, she too, began searching her surroundings. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin. Perhaps that was the feeling of someone watching her that she constantly had. The thought sent a shiver through her body.

"Do you even know where you are going? Or what you're looking for." Kaden asked.

There was a heart beat length stutter before she muttered a yes. Colette was not about to admit that coming here was her only plan and that she was just hoping for the best.

Kaden sighed beside her. "Think of this world as a body of water, completely still. So perfectly still it's like you're staring at glass that reflects the entire rest of the world around it. Just like the water, the world can only retain perfection for so long. Something is bound to come along and wreck the peace the water has fought for so long to keep." He paused, smiling at how Colette was so deep into her thoughts as she pictured what he was saying. "That is where the rips come into play; a pebble kicked into the water, sending ripples spiraling out from around it. It causes the once glass like substance to break into havoc and disturb the rest of the world. Find the pebble Colette, look for the ripples that will lead you to it." Then Kaden was gone, but she was too lost in her thoughts to think twice about it.

There was always something so strange about this hospital and Colette had felt that strangeness ever since she had started working there. Maybe that was her intuition whispering to her and now was the time to tap into that intuition and let it scream.

Nurse Garner's officer seemed like a good place to start. Colette had always felt like every time she stepped into the office Nurse Garner was keeping an even closer watch on her than normal. Since Colette knew the nurse was never going to give her answers she was going to have to find them herself.

Her hand shook as she reached for the knob to Nurse Garner's office. She took a deep breath before stepping in and closing the door softly behind her. In one swift movement she locked the door and closed the blinds, if she was caught she might as well say goodbye to her entire life as well as breaking the barrier. Her curiosity was going to be her downfall, that was what her mother always told her. The man in the alley realized it too.

Colette had never really paid much attention to the things that littered the office, let alone the hospital itself, having been too busy focusing on getting out of the hospital and back home. There were piles upon piles of paper, none that, at first glance, would be seen as harmful but Colette was drawn to them.

As she walked closer to the papers she saw that they were not what she was expecting. There were dozens of pages about crimes and diseases she had never heard of, the dates on them ranging from before Paradisium was even said to have been established. Her mind was spinning as she processed all the information.

Voices, she could hear voices coming from all around her but when she peeked from behind the blinds and into the hallway, there was no one to be seen. The voices began to grow louder until they were all she could hear.