Undiscovered (Unremembered #1.5)(14)

“It’s called snow. It’s what happens when the rain freezes.”

“Snow,” she repeated with delight. She bent down and tried to touch it, but then remembered it was nothing more than a very convincing hologram.

I smiled at her fascination, wanting so badly to be able to show her these things for real. To take her to these places.

But first things first.

I had to get her over that wall.

I tapped on my slate, ending the simulation. The breathtaking scenery drizzled out, leaving us with the desolate reality: this yard that had become our entire world together over the past few months. That house where she lived. This compound where we were both prisoners.

“You can take out the lens now,” I said.

She reached hesitantly up to her eye and floundered, not quite sure how to accomplish the task.

I stepped close to help her, once again feeling the dizziness that always came with her proximity. My fingers brushed her hairline, her cheek, her eyelashes, as I gently pulled on the corner of her eyelid. “Blink.”

She did.

The DigiLens popped out, and I caught it, repeating the process on the other side. I removed my own and returned them to the case in my pocket.

“Those places are real?” she asked, peering at our somber surroundings. I hoped she was seeing them as I had come to see them: not a place to stay. A place to leave.

“Yes. Very real.”

“And they are located on the other side of this wall?”

I nodded. “A little farther than that. But essentially, yes. Would you like to go there with me?”

She looked at the house behind her, then she looked at the wall in front of her.

Then she looked at me.

I held my breath until my lungs threatened to pop.

I could feel the fear radiating off of her, irritating my skin. Their brainwashing was strong. It was the only way they could keep her here. And, even though I hated the thought of it, I needed to use the same tactic to get her out.

“You’re not safe here, Seraphina,” I said. “They will keep erasing your memories, manipulating your mind. I don’t know why you’re here or what their ultimate plans for you are, but I don’t want to wait around to find out. I have to protect you. I need to protect you. But I can’t do it in here. They watch everything. They monitor everything. They know everything. But outside these walls, they can’t touch you anymore.”

Once again, she made the slow circle with her gaze.

House, wall, me.

“My father—” she began to say.

I stopped her before she could go down that road. “Your father doesn’t love you. There’s no way he can. Not if he keeps you locked up in here like a lab rat. Like a science experiment. That’s not what normal fathers do. Sera, you have to believe me. You have to trust me.”

I watched her breath grow heavy. I watched her mind spin. The way it did when she was searching for a definition she doesn’t have.

“Sera, please.”

I held out my hand. She stared at my fingers like she could see every skin cell, every atom. And who knows, maybe she could.

“When you came here today, I didn’t remember you,” she whispered.

“Yes. They erased me from your memory.”

“But I knew you. Somehow I knew you.” Her mouth twisted as she tried to form the right words. “I can’t explain it. I…felt it.”

She brought her fingers to her lips, touching them curiously.

It had been three nights since I’d kissed her right here in this yard. I knew that memory was long gone for her, but it was as though she were searching for it now. Trying so desperately to grasp something that was only a shadow now.

The blood in my veins sang. “I kissed you,” I told her.

“Kiss,” she said, an echo of the first time I taught her that word.

“Do you remember?”

“Yes,” she said but her voice was heavy with doubt. “No.” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know.”

In one step I was next to her. I closed my arms around her and pulled her into me. “It’s okay. I know it’s a lot to take in at once. I’m sorry.”

She collapsed into me and I held her. It felt so good to hold her. But I also knew we were running out of time. There was a window and it was small.

“Seraphina,” I murmured into her hair. “There are some things they can’t take away from you. Parts of you that they’ll never have access to. No matter how advanced their technology gets. No matter how many times they scan your brain. Those are the parts that I love. That’s what you have to cling to.” I placed my hands on her shoulders and stepped back, holding her at arm’s length, forcing her eyes to connect with mine. “You need to come with me.”

She turned away, casting her gaze to the ground. Like she couldn’t look at me.

“If I go with you,” she said softly, causing my whole body to tighten, “will you kiss me again?”

Everything released at once. My breath, my muscles, my heart.

I moved toward her again. Not with urgency this time. But with all the patience in the world. I placed my palm flat against her cheek, memorizing the shape of her face and the softness of her skin for the thousandth time. She closed her eyes.

I’d like to think she was attempting to memorize me, too.