Evermore ღ Newt TMR³

20. It's No Use

Sorry if you're not enjoying this double chapter stuff, but I figure that two slightly shorter chapters can sometimes be better than one slightly bigger chapter.

Anyway, enjoy!

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The words hit her like a ton of bricks. Her memories? She was finally going to get them back? No, there was no way it could possibly be this easy.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "What's the catch."

Janson chuckled. "Touche. Although, I wouldn't call it a 'catch', as much as a two-for-one. You want your memories from the Maze? Fine. But that means you get your memories from before also."

This was certainly an intriguing proposition. She had said after Newt's death that she wanted more time with him; maybe this was the chance to have that.

She couldn't have more time, but she could at least get back the time she lost.

Newt had asked her not to get her memories back, because he wanted to create new ones. But the new ones that he gave her weren't exactly the ones she wanted.

Shutting her eyes tightly, not allowing any of the image to catch her gaze, she said, "I'll do it."

She couldn't see, but Janson was grinning. He was grinning that way that people do when things are going exactly the way they want them to.

/\/\/\/\/\

Not even ten minutes later, Lori is in an operating room and hooked up to the machine that had given her friends back their memories.

Janson was off to the side observing, as was her mother. The thought that she is there is comforting, but that doesn't change the fact that the metal thing dangling about her head freaks her out.

"Are you ready?" The nurse asks, holding a needle.

Lori nods, and the nurse inserts the needle into her arm, putting her into a numbed sleep.

The last thing she remembers, is the sound of the machine whirring to life as it lowers towards her face.

/\/\/\/\/\

'Talia! Talia, come out for dinner please,' Lucinda calls to her young daughter. 'And let your brother know also, darling.'

The little girl with the fiery hair drops her dolls, 'Yes, mommy!'
She rushes out of her room and goes to her older brother's. He was only a year older than her, but he still managed to look much older than her. 'Mom said it's dinner time!'

He looks up from his video game and smiles at his sister, 'Okay, just let me finish this level.'

The girl grins and leaves his room, running out to join her mother and father at the dinner table.

They were happy. They were a family.

+ + + + +

The glass smashes as it hits the wall.

The young girl named Talia with the hair the color of the sunset is older now; maybe ten. Old enough to understand what is happening in her world.

Old enough to know to run when her father is wielding a knife.

His eyes are crazed, his mouth releasing angers grunts as her brother pushes the dining table into his legs.

Talia picks up a second glass off of the table and throws it, aiming better this time. The glass smacks him in the side of the head.

'Run!' Their mother screams, blood running from a cut on her arm. She looks to the boy, 'Take your sister and get out of here! Now!'

The boy nods, grabs his sister's hand, and drags her roughly out of the house. She protests, not wanting to leave their mother in there alone.