Remember

Chapter Twelve (edited)

Kaden sighed, pulling out a small and half empty vial of liquid from his pant pocket and handing it over to her. When he did not begin explaining it right away, she rose an eyebrow. "Take a sip, you'll see." She took the vial from his hand, swirling it so the greenish grey liquid spun in circles.

"You want me to drink this?" She eyed the suspicious liquid and looked back at Kaden's calm expression. "There's no way in hell I'm going to drink some random, green substance without knowing what it is."

He rolled his eyes at her. "It's simulation serum. It's what our good ole fellow Paradisium Federation workers pumped into our system right after they drugged us and shoved us into those capsules for the rest of our lives. You'll understand once you take a sip." When Colette still did not open the vial and drink from it, Kaden sighed and added. "Your body will stay here, perfectly safe and sound with me but your mind will go back to Paradisium."

"How come it still works even though I already broke through the simulation?" Part of the question was to stall from Kaden trying to make her take the serum and the other part was sheer curiosity. It was the first time Kaden had actually answered her question with something that actually made some sort of sense.

"The stronger and more aware your mind is the less the serum can take a hold on you. In the beginning, the initial dose was enough to keep most people's minds perfectly unaware in the simulation for months, but, after a while, the mind is bound to notice something is off and the scientists or whoever formulated the serum had to tell the doctors to redose people to keep them in there. Then, there was people like you and I who finally broke it. It took too much serum to keep us under and they realized that, even though they could continue keeping us in the simulation, it didn't stop us from realizing we weren't in the real world. So, they let us out but trapped us in here." He paused for a moment and shrugged. His usual bright features fell along with his bright blue eyes that now stared at the floor.

"My guess is you won't last more than few minutes under the simulation. Put a drop on your tongue and test it if you don't believe me." He finished.

Colette stared at the vial and brought it to her face for closer examination. When she popped the lid off the vial she almost expected a foul odor to rush up her nose, but the liquid had no smell at all. When the drop of liquid hit her tongue, she realized it tasted just as it smelled. She looked up at Kaden, her eyebrows furrowing as she stayed in the same room and felt nothing but exhaustion and hunger.

"Maybe it doesn't work on you anymore." He shrugged and took the rest of the bottle from her.

There was a faint tingle in the back of her mind and suddenly she could hear children laughing and the smell of roses reached her nose. She recognized the distinct smell and sounds as they belonged to the park across the street from her house in Paradisium. She could remember taking Lawrence everyday after his classes before she had started working in the hospital and the way his eyes lit up as he played with the other kids. Colette also remembered the countless nights she had spent searching for Lawrence after he had been made fun of at school for being so much smarter than all the other kids. She would always find him hiding in the round, yellow slide crying so much that his glasses fogged up.

There was an intense feeling of guilt that twisted in her stomach from the memories. She had left him behind, alone and afraid. What did her family think of her for just leaving? Did they even know she was gone? Madie's mother had not known the truth about her daughter. Perhaps, the Federation had already twisted the truth around to her family about what had happened to her. They probably thought she got accepted into some secret program like Madie had said to have been.

Suddenly, another person appeared in the room and ripped Colette from her thoughts. The sounds of laughter disapeared along with the smell of roses and was replaced by the distinct smell of cheap cologne.

"Yo Kaden, you will not believe where I just came from. Girls. Girls everywhere." Colette raised an eyebrow. At first, she thought he had taken the simulation and the effects had just worn off but the body of the boy in front of her had not been in the room before like it would have been.

Kaden coughed, stifling back a laugh. "That's great, you'll have to take me with you next time." Colette could tell he was trying hard to hide a smirk. "We got a new roomie while you were... having fun." He winked at Colette, jerking his chin in her direction.

The boy turned around to look at her. He had long, dark brown hair that was in a curly mess all the way down to his chin and the most gorgeous hazel eyes she had ever seen, Colette practically gaped at him as he took her in. His skin was much darker than Kaden's and his body more lean. He looked like the gods had taken special care in making him themself.

"Ah, so this is the girl you went to fetch." He did not look impressed. Not that she was expecting anyone to be impressed by her but his gaze made her feel so little, like she was nothing compared to his god like features. "I'm Jordeen, but you can call me Jordy." Jordy gave her a small smile before turning back to Kaden. She practically melted at the flash of perfectly white teeth.

Kaden nodded. "She's our way out. She's going to save us all."

They both looked at her and God had she never felt so small and helpless in her life. These guys in front of her, they were expecting so much from her. They wanted her to fix this dying world and save everyone from the Paradisium Federation. Colette was just a girl. One girl. Worst of all, she had no idea where to even begin.

In fact, she understood absolutely none of what had been happening to her. Colette wasn't even sure all of this was even real. The possibility of the Paradisium Federation enslaving thousands of minds. People had powers now and there was another world the Paradisium Federation had just created out of thin air and simulation serum. It seemed surreal.

It all felt like another horrible nightmare and tomorrow she would wake up in her bed, all sweaty and scared, but completely fine. Her life would go on like normal and she would forget about it. If that was the case, Colette had to have one messed up mind to think up and dream of something this elaborate and bizarre. The rational part of her mind was thinking "pinch me", but, sadly, she had not been listening to that side of her brain lately.

The only thing that kept her from turning her back on these people and the only thing that helped her believe she did not belong in some mental ward -- that there was no way she could be so absolutely insane as to make this whole thing up -- was that she had people counting on her and she would not let them down. No matter how insane it seemed.