Level 2 (Memory Chronicles) (17 page)

When I feel the supple fabrics of my Earth clothes, I open my eyes and am overcome with the desire to see my reflection. My compact mirror appears in my hand. I peer at myself. Okay, a much paler version of myself. One with impossibly red lips and dark hair. One that looks like Snow White.

I set the compact down beside me and smile. It feels amazing to have these pieces of home, these pieces of myself I thought lost forever. I am overcome with the urge to dance, so powerful that I don’t even care with whom. I
sway to an imaginary beat in my head and spin around in circles across the hive until I fall into Julian’s lap, laughing.

When I look up at his face, I stiffen. His lips are parted and his stare greedy. He runs his hand over my forehead, my scalp, and then smoothly yanks my hair band out, setting my hair free to fall around my shoulders.

I leap out of his lap. “Wanna dance?” I ask, pulling him to his feet.

Where our hands meet there is a low hum of electricity, nowhere near the levels of intoxication I felt for him before. Am I conquering my addiction to him at last?

By the confusion I see in his expression, I can tell he senses something has changed between us. My hate for him has diminished, but so has the desire. I give him a sad smile and squeeze his hands gently before letting them go. “Never mind. Don’t want to interrupt your game.”

“Are you forfeiting, Julian?” Mira asks with a nasty little smirk. “So unlike you.”

As he sits back down, he glances at me. “No,” he says forcefully, turning his focus back to the board. “I am in it to win it.”

They continue to play, and I decide to do my nails. I could probably employ the Mira method and imagine them already done. But the painstaking process that goes into making your nails shine—the soaking, shaping, buffing, coloring, topcoat applying—I’ve always found it cathartic. And the result makes me feel finished, ready to face anything.

I drag the coffee table closer and move my hands in a
circular motion above it, willing all of my nail-care supplies to appear. When they do, I busy myself with the attainment of the perfect polish, scrunching up my nose at the strong chemical odor. It’s strangely satisfying, though, to finally smell something, after what seems like centuries of thinking I’d lost that sense for good.

Oddly enough, when I finish and look up after admiring my pearly pink nails, the hive is empty. Was I that engrossed in my work that I didn’t even hear Julian and Mira leave?

Excited to finally be alone, I decide to see this as a sign that now is the time to rescue Virginia. I owe it to her to at least try. And when I find Neil, I want him to be proud of the person I’ve become, a friend to rely on. Before I can change my mind, I knock out the code and slip out into the corridor.

All clear outside as well. Where could they be? I break out running, this time in the direction Julian pointed me in. Once I pick up Virginia, will I be able to find my way back here? Do I even want to? Or can I maybe make it on my own now?

My boots are too clunky to run in. I pause long enough to morph them into a pair of gray running shoes to match my sweater. Thinking I hear the low buzz of the scanner drones, I leap to the nearest alcove between hives and crash straight into Julian.

He laughs. “You should have seen the look on your face when I made that buzzing sound,” he says. He mimics how freaked out I must have appeared.

“Ugh. Not funny, Julian.” I punch him in the arm. “What are you doing out here?”

“I had a hunch you might make a break for it when you saw you were alone.”

“Where’d Mira go?”

A shadow crosses over his face. “Eli got news that a hive collapsed in another quadrant, and they went to check it out.”

“Did they cause it? Have they hurt more people?” I hate that Eli’s tactics are so brutal.

“Hey, the hive collapsed on its own. We had nothing to do with it.” He grabs my wrist. “I told you being out here alone isn’t a good idea. Where are you going?”

I wriggle away from him and start walking. Though I’m not entirely convinced they had nothing to do with the hive collapse, it’s not my main concern right now. “I’m going to get Virginia. I’ll come back.” The last part might be a lie. I’m not sure yet.

“You’re nothing if not persistent.” He falls into step beside me. “You’ll need my help. Virginia will be weak. She’s safer in her hive than running around out here with only you to protect her. Especially when you can’t even protect yourself.”

I hate that Julian is right again. I do need him. Despite being strong enough to materialize hair, clothes, and nail supplies, I doubt I’d be able to defend myself against a scanner drone—or something worse, because I don’t know all the rules here. And of course I still hold out hope that he’ll
lead me to Neil eventually, so it pays to stay on his good side as long as I can stand to. “But won’t you be going against Eli’s wishes if you help me?”

He bristles. “Eli’s not in charge of everything. And this is important to you.”

It’s great he finally understands that. “Fine. Come with.”

Julian leads me through the maze of turns back to my old hive. There are no signs of imminent collapse in these sectors, though when I look closely, I detect hairline cracks in the infrastructure, cracks that etch out random patterns like glaze on a ceramic mug.

I practice homing in on Virginia’s brain waves while at the same time protecting my explorations. In my attempt to do both, I effectively end up canceling my own weak signal. This is obviously going to take more training. Coming without Julian would have been a massive mistake.

At least my mental conditioning is vastly improved since Julian first broke me out, allowing us to make much better time than before. In fact, when Julian tells me we’ve arrived, without a single pit stop to plug in, at first I don’t believe him. It’s not until we step inside and I recognize the supine shapes of my fellow drones that I allow myself to get excited.

I bound up the stairs to Virginia’s chamber and gaze at her. Even in her resting position her half smirk shines through. I glance down at Julian and see him inspecting the jagged edges of my former chamber.

“It took a real hit,” he calls, his voice booming through the hive.

Virginia stirs, twitches her nose, like she senses something is amiss. She opens her eyes, and I put my finger to my lips. “Shhh . . . ,” I say, trying to mimic the honey tones of Mira’s most soothing voice. “It’s me. I’m back.”

She scoots away from me, her eyes bulging. “Who the hell are you?”

CHAPTER 13

I FEARED AS MUCH.
The Morati’s doping gas has made Virginia forget me, like it made her forget Beckah. “I’m your friend. Felicia.” I enunciate every word and will her to remember our bond.

But my attempt only seems to annoy her. “How’d you get in here? Why do you have hair?”

“I’m here to rescue you.”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I realize it’s the wrong tactic to use with her. She stares me down. “Look, I don’t know you. And I don’t need to be rescued.”

“Want to hear something random?” I lean over as if about to share a hot piece of gossip, and I know Virginia can’t resist gossip.

She nods.

I lower my voice to a whisper. “There’s a boy in the hive. He has hair too, and he’s incredibly easy on the eyes.”

“Seriously?” She shifts position so she can peek down, and her eyes lock with Julian’s. She smiles in appreciation. “Wow, he
is
hot.”

Virginia’s complete one-eighty makes me giggle, and as she lifts herself out of her chamber, Julian laughs too. Virginia practically skips down the steps, and I follow her, hopeful I can convince her to come with us and preempt any plans Eli might have for overloading her brain. Even if she doesn’t remember me, she’s still my friend. And I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.

She stops in front of Julian and reaches out to touch his face, as if to make sure he’s real and not some figment of her imagination.

He flinches slightly when her hand makes contact with his skin. “I’m Julian,” he says, encircling her wrist and giving her a dazzling smile. He pulls her hand away gently and then readjusts his grasp so he can shake it in greeting.

“Don’t know what y’all are doing here, but it’s fine by me. Certainly breaks up the monotony.” She surveys the hive. “Where’re you going to plug in?”

“We’re not staying,” Julian says. “This is a prison, and it’s time you escaped. Let me show you something.”

Julian leads Virginia over to the flat expanse of wall and taps in the code, triggering the door. “Take a look.”

“Whoa!” Virginia peeks out cautiously and turns her
head right, then left. Shuddering, she backs up and presses herself against the nearest chamber. “I think I’d rather stay locked up.”

I groan. Why does she have to be so difficult? I don’t want to have to force her to come. “If you join us, we can show you how to get your hair back.”

She shakes her head back and forth. “No way. I don’t want my hair that badly.”

Julian gives me a
What now
look as the door shuts seamlessly. I tap the side of my forehead in an
I’m thinking about it
gesture, and he nods.

“Why don’t you sit with me, and I’ll answer any questions you might have.” He takes up his cross-legged, straight-backed yoga pose in the middle of the floor, and Virginia plops down in front of him eagerly. She really must be boy crazy.

“Can I check out your chamber for a minute?” I ask.

She startles at the sound of my voice, as if she forgot that I’m still here. “Go for it,” she says, waving dismissively and turning her full attention back to Julian. He whispers something I can’t quite hear, and she whispers back. At least Julian is good for distraction.

Once I’m positioned comfortably in Virginia’s chamber, I scroll through her folders idly, trying to form some sort of plan. Since she never met me on Earth, she has no stored memories of me. But is there some way I can insert myself into her life? Like the way Eli imprinted all our memories with visions of our deaths? I scan her tags, praying for inspiration. And then
I see it. Ouija board. Of course. I click on the memory to live it first and see if there is anything I can use to my advantage.

It turns out to be a fairly standard teen Ouija board experience, at least if movies and books are to be believed, with Virginia in the basement trying to impress the girls on her cheerleading squad. Because they tease her, Virginia ends up getting out a Ouija board to show how grown-up she is. Someone uses the planchette to spell out a scary message, and they all freak out and then bond over the experience.

I wonder if I can stay remote enough in the memory to affect it instead of merely reliving it, like I did with my tainted memory of Neil at camp. I’ll have to concentrate on manipulating the planchette to spell out what I want it to say. I go in.

Burrell, Virginia. Memory #26376

Tags: Ouija board, Rainbow style, Cheer squad, Sleepover

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Virginia’s mother calls down the stairs that the pizza has arrived, and Virginia sighs with relief. Six pairs of eyes have been drilling into her all evening, obviously still upset that Virginia was chosen to replace their former teammate on the squad.

Virginia retrieves the pizza and sets it out for the girls. Amy makes a few snide comments, which have Virginia
biting back her anger. But they eat in relative peace.

Soon Amy is taunting Virginia again, wondering aloud if the night’s entertainment will consist of board games for babies. Virginia had planned to share a pedicure basket from her mother’s salon with the girls, but doesn’t feel like it anymore. She remembers the Ouija board her brother brought back from college and dares the girls to use it.

Amy says she’s not scared. She declares Ouija boards to be fake and has no problem joining in.

They light candles and plunge the room into darkness to set the mood, huddle around the board, and place their hands on the planchette. Here’s where I come in. The candles flicker, and I move the planchette to spell out:

W-H-E-N-Y-O-U-D-I-E

The girls freak out, pull their hands away from the board. Until one of the girls, Gail, insists they continue.

As if hypnotized, the girls comply. I cause the planchette to wobble wildly and spell out:

T-R-U-S-T-F-E-L-I-C-I-A

I swoop an arc from the
A
to the “good-bye.” And with a
whoosh
the door to the basement slams, blowing out all the candles.

The girls’ screams ricochet through the room. There’s a pounding on the stairs. The door swings open, and the
lights come back on. Virginia’s mother checks to see if everything’s all right.

The girls are shaken, but Virginia’s mother comforts them by assuring them that Ouija boards are a load of bull. To make amends Virginia offers up her pedicure basket, and the girls react with enthusiasm. Because there are twenty colors to choose from, Virginia proposes to paint each nail a different color, rainbow style. The first layer of ice has been melted, and Virginia smiles for the first time that night.

I burst out of
Virginia’s memory. I never believed in Ouija boards before—never touched one, actually—but this one might be the key to getting Virginia to come with us. I mean, it’s not like I actually talked to those girls. I only altered the memory so it seems like I did.

“Hey, Virginia,” I call. Her seated posture is as perfect as Julian’s, and her expression is spellbound as they stare at each other. “Don’t you feel kind of woozy?”

Julian looks up at me sharply, and as he does, Virginia slumps over.

She picks herself up and climbs toward me, her movements sluggish. “Gotta plug in,” she says.

I step aside so she can get into her chamber. Once she’s positioned, I point out the Ouija board memory on her hologram screen. “I think you should view that one.”

“Uh, sure.”

When she’s out, I watch her. She flinches every so often. Must be her reactions to Amy.

Julian joins me. “So what was your big plan?”