Ashleigh delayed the trip back to Summer as long as possible while waiting for news from the hunting parties. She knew she wouldn’t hear back from her father’s team in the south, but the northern team did check-in before they absolutely had to return.
There was a small pack of fae creatures found at the burial mound. But, according to the report, they weren’t doing anything, simply standing at the site, hovering around it. Some of the fae were severely injured but still dragged themselves around the mound.
The hunting team put them all down and then swept the surrounding forest, finding a few injured stragglers. But, from the sounds of it, none of the creatures put up a fight.
It was strange, to say the least.
On the drive back to Summer, Ashleigh had a nagging thought.
“Hey Clara?” she asked.
“Yea?”
“Obviously, you know a lot about the fae history and such. But do you know where the actual mounds are?” Ashleigh asked.
“No,” Clara replied. “I had a vague idea of each. But only from what I have pieced together from the stories I have read.”
“What about you, Galen? Do you or Caleb know the actual locations of the mounds?”
“As far as I know, the locations of the burial mounds have never been placed on a map. Each time a new one is found, that information has been shared, but not the locations.”
“Wait,” Clara said. “Don’t you know?”
Ashleigh looked up.
“I know the northern mound, but the one to the east, I have never known the exact location, and the south was really just rumors to me until you and I tried to find it the other day.”.
“Why were you searching for the mound?” Galen asked.
Ashleigh hesitated before responding.
“I have just been curious about the fae since the attack. I thought maybe the mounds could provide some clues as to how they came back or if there were more of them.”
The look he gave in the rear-view mirror told her two things. The first, he didn’t believe her. The second, he would keep it to himself, for now.
“So, you know that there are three mounds in Winter and that they are to the north, east, and south. But you only know the actual location of one of them?” Clara asked.
Ashleigh nodded.
“That seems kind of strange….”
“Yea…” Ashleigh said, “even weirder… I feel like I’ve been to the one in the east, but I honestly have no clue where it could be.”
“Sounds like you may have had a treatment,” Galen said.
“A treatment?” she asked.
“There is a tea that can make you forget,” Galen began. “You drink it, and the person giving it to you will repeat the things you are meant to forget. But, while you drink the tea, your mind becomes pliable. It accepts the rewrites.”
“That’s… awful!” Ashleigh shouted. “How could this have happened to me?”
“Well, it sounds more sinister than it is,” Galen continued. “It’s a common practice. The thing is, it is a voluntary treatment. The person drinking the tea has to accept the change, or else it will cause fractures in their mind.”
“Why would I agree to lose my memories?”
“You don’t really lose them. They are in there somewhere. That’s why you feel something. If you think hard about the memory and focus on it, it can return. But it will hurt like hell,” Galen said. “The point of the treatments is to keep vital information safe. So, my guess is that Winter warriors who scouted the mounds are given the treatment so they won’t know where each one is and can’t be forced to reveal it.”
“But why are the mound locations a secret?” Clara asked.
“That,” Galen said, “I don’t know.”
“It’s not just Winter, though,” Clara said. “There are mounds in Spring territory and several of the lesser packs’ territories. But, again, no one seems to know the actual locations.”
“Yea, it seems pretty clear that there is an agreement to guard this information against general public knowledge.”
“So, when you say it’s voluntary….” Ashleigh asked, directing the conversation back away from the fae. “It can’t be forced on anyone?”
“It can,” Galen sighed. “But, forcing it fractures the person’s mind. It pushes back against the will of the person taking the tea and traps a part of them behind a mental barrier. They can see, hear, and remember everything that happens to them or that they are told to do but are unable to stop it.
“The person would be almost a blank slate, programmable. But just like recording over and over on the same video. Eventually, it causes a breakdown and bleed-through. The person would slowly shatter from the inside out.”
“Goddess…” Ashleigh whispered, covering her mouth as she suddenly felt sickened by the thought. “How could anyone survive that?”
“It would take a pretty strong will or a desperate desire to survive,” Galen replied.
***
“It’s ok… It’s ok….”
His voice echoed along the cold dark walls that surrounded her. She took a shaky breath in and pushed it back out. It was getting harder and harder to resist the temptation to simply lie down and let it all go.
“Take another sip,” he whispered.
A whisper that echoed in this chamber like the booming voice of a demon calling out from the darkness.
Liquid seeped in through the small cracks in the walls around her. Trickles at first. She got up, struggling for the strength to stand. Then, the trickles turned into gushing fountains, filling the small cave-like room with the vile liquid.
“That’s a good girl.”
She screamed out as the liquid rose over her feet, waist, and chest. She lifted her head to the ceiling, praying that this time, just this time, she would avoid this fate.
“There is no reason to remember the things that don’t matter. So let them go, send them away to the dark room inside your mind with no key.”
She forced herself to move. She climbed up the rocky walls, desperately pulling herself out of the liquid as he spoke those damn words.
“Forget about the conversation, forget about the feelings, unnecessary, unnecessary.”
She gritted her teeth and pushed even harder to get out the rising liquid. Her hands ached, and the rock and stone cut into her weakened flesh.
“Forget about Axel of Winter.”
She growled inside the cave of her mind.
“Nooo!” she screamed back angrily.
“Forget him, Alice!” he snarled furiously.
Holden’s voice shook the cave. Alice clung desperately to the rocky walls, feeling her hands cutting and tearing. But still, she held tight.
“It’s too soon since her last treatment…” another voice whispered.
Alice clung to the wall.
“Her mind can’t handle much more of this. She’s already shown signs of fracturing,” the voice continued. “If you push too hard, she’ll shut down entirely.”
Silence filled the cave. Alice took deep breaths. Holding herself up was draining all of the energy she had left. But the liquid was still there. Still waiting to pull her into the depths and drown her repeatedly.
“She needs rest,” Holden sighed. “Put her with the others.”
“But no one is supposed to–”
“Do not test my patience!” Holden shouted, shaking the walls of her mind once more.
“I don’t mean any disrespect, but my orders….”
“Come from me,” Holden hissed. “Do as I say, and keep your mouth shut.”
Alice took a chance and looked back at the grime covered window that served as her eyes in this place. Holden was leaving the room. The other man stepped closer to her. She recognized him from all the treatments, but she didn’t know his name. He wore a lab coat.
Lab Coat stepped in front of her. His expression was filled with shame.
“I’m sorry, Alice,” he whispered. “I wish I could do something more for you.”
Alice couldn’t see what he was doing, but the liquid in the room was slowly receding. She lowered herself, trying to do it slowly and carefully, but she was too weak. Once she let go of the vice grip on the rock, her hand froze up, and she couldn’t grab hold of anything else. She fell back and hit the ground hard.
Her physical body reacted, letting out a groan of pain and gripping the chair she sat in tightly.
Lab Coat came back into vision.
“Alice?” he questioned, looking closely into her eyes. But there was no more response from her.
He moved her into a wheelchair, strapping her in so she wouldn’t fall forward. Then, he rolled her down a dark hallway, taking several turns Alice couldn’t track with her focus so scattered.
Finally, he approached a door that required keycard access. The door opened, and Alice gasped at what she saw.
“It’s a good thing you won’t remember this,” Lab Coat whispered. “Or else you’d never be able to leave this room again.”
Alice stared out her grimy window. Her bloody hand covered her mouth as her dry, scratchy eyes burned from the tears that welled up in them.
“For now,” Lab Coat whispered, moving her onto a bed and strapping her down. “You’re just going to rest for a few weeks. Giving your brain a chance to recover from all the treatments. Then you can go back to playing your games.”
She heard the loud buzzer of the door being opened and its slam closing behind him.
Alice lay down on the cold hard ground in the cave of her mind. She pulled her knees to her chest and wished she had let herself drown in the tea.
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