Memory Risk

Chapter 4

     Nine o'clock arrived, and Maddy stood at attention outside the main door. The screens illuminated, and the yellow, smiling face faded in. Stacie and Jordan sat on the couches, watching Maddy take her turn in the confession room. Vivienne sat at the table, at the back of the room, eating an apple, keeping to herself. Aiden stood in his spot, leaning against the frame of the doorway to his room. The voice over the intercom caught Trent's attention, and he exited his room, just as Maddy was walking inside.

      "That face is creepy," Stacie commented on the screen character as it faded back out to black.

      "It's an emoji," Trent informed her.

      "What," Stacie asked.

      "The smiling face. On the screen...It's an emoji...We use them during texts...Messages we send with our phones...Little computers we carry around in our pockets to communicate with each other."

      Stacie took the information and tried to process what Trent was telling her. What he was explaining sounded familiar, but she just couldn't grasp it. Every time she would focus on a thought, her brain would skip over it, and take her thoughts back to the beginning. They all would try hard to focus on memories, and stop when the frustration was too much.

      Trent walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and then sat on the couches with Jordan and Stacie. He was still deep in thought, and no one was trying to scare him off. They all waited patiently for him to get comfortable. Thinking on what little he had said made them all crave more. Stacie was the only one that wasn't good at hiding the fact that she couldn't wait for Trent to give more knowledge of the outside world. She leaned in, and scooted closer, but Trent wouldn't even look at her.

       "I hope she knows what she's doing," Trent commented on Maddy entering the confession room.

       "Isn't that the point," Aiden replied. "We don't know anything about anything."

       "You help a lot with that," Jordan interjected.

      Trent nodded his head at Jordan's comment. "I realized why I took part in this project. It was heavy. I wasn't happy. I should have waited." He turned to look Jordan in his eyes. "Do you think you're pure? Do you think you don't have secrets to hide? Because I think you've got some skeletons. I can almost bet."

      "I'd agree with that," Aiden remarked.

      "What's that supposed to mean," Jordan asked Aiden.

      "I saw you outside," Aiden answered. "With Maddy. She didn't look too fond of your advances...Out by the pool."

      "Screw you," said Jordan.

      "Just saying, I wouldn't put it past you...To have skeletons in your closet," Aiden said.

      "I was a good guy," Trent interrupted. "I was successful. Life was good. Just needed help to get over something. The more I've thought about it, the more I see that this place can help. If I had my pick, I'd choose to not enter the confession room." He turned and looked at Stacie for the first time. "It's not worth it. They've given us a gift. We should not waste it. And if someone doesn't take the opportunity one of these nights, I'm thinking of going back in, and having them taken away again."

      "Yeah," Stacie asked.

      "Yeah," he answered. "There's happiness it what you have. I was too blind to see it. I let fear lead me into another mistake. I've learned at least one lesson from this experiment. And that's what we're here for."