Chapter Fourty Four
547 Words
Xavier’s POV
He didn’t sleep.
Couldn’t.
The words from the file looped through his head all night. Subject M-01. Neural reconditioning. Project Mnemosyne.
Each one felt heavier than the last.
And that photo—
Mila.
Strapped to a medical bed, IVs running into her arm, her face pale and still.
By the time morning came, Xavier’s jaw ached from clenching it. He’d tried to convince himself it wasn’t real — maybe an experiment gone wrong, or just an old file mislabeled. But deep down, he knew.
It was real.
And someone had tried to erase it.
*****
He cornered Eli before first period.
The boy jumped when Xavier slammed a hand against the locker beside him.
“Talk,” Xavier growled. “Now.”
Eli blinked, nervous. “About what?”
“Project Mnemosyne.”
The color drained from Eli’s face. “You—how did you—?”
“Your keycard,” Xavier cut him off. “You dropped it. I used it. Now tell me what the hell that was.”
Eli hesitated, glancing around the hallway. Students milled by, unaware of the storm brewing between them. Then he grabbed Xavier’s arm and pulled him into an empty classroom.
He shut the door quietly. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“Too late.” Xavier’s voice was low, dangerous. “What did they do to her?”
Eli rubbed his temples. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
“Try me.”
Silence. The only sound was the faint hum of the lights overhead.
Finally, Eli whispered, “M-01 isn’t a code name. It’s a classification.”
Xavier frowned. “Meaning?”
“She’s the first successful subject.”
His stomach turned. “Subject for what?”
Eli hesitated, then pulled a folded paper from his pocket — a faded lab record.
Xavier snatched it. At the top, in black letters:
PROJECT MNEMOSYNE — PHASE ONE: MEMORY RECONSTRUCTION
His throat went dry. “What is this supposed to mean?”
Eli’s eyes darted to the door. “Mnemosyne was designed to test how memory can be erased, rewritten, or implanted. But M-01… she didn’t react like the others. She remembered. That’s why they shut it down. She wasn’t supposed to remember who she really was.”
Xavier’s grip tightened on the paper. “You’re saying they—played with her mind?”
Eli nodded weakly. “And the worst part? Her father was part of it.”
*****
For a long moment, Xavier said nothing. The room felt smaller, colder.
He thought about Mila’s calm smile, the way she sometimes flinched at loud sounds, how her eyes seemed to see through people — like she was searching for something that didn’t exist.
Now he understood why.
He folded the paper carefully, shoving it into his pocket. “You tell no one about this,” he said, his voice deadly calm. “Not until I figure out what they’re still hiding.”
Eli swallowed. “You’re not going to tell her?”
Xavier’s jaw tightened. “Not yet. Not until I know how deep this goes.”
But as he walked out, the thought gnawed at him.
If Mila wasn’t supposed to remember…
What would happen when she finally did?
- Writer
