Page 52 of He Will Always Love Me

Something about what he says sparks something in me.

“I remember sneaking into a dusty schoolhouse.”

He clears his throat. “I remember living in one.”

For a moment we just stare at each other. A mutual appreciation of understanding passing between us. And despite all the difficult memories, I smile.

It really is good to find someone who finally understands.

“So, you need more subjects?” Hyx says, breaking the silence. “I suppose I’ll agree to be a part of your experiment.”

I grin almost manically. Definitely good.

CHAPTER 27

HYX

I’m the muscle, not a scientist, I think to myself as Libby pulls out another flash card.

“Alright, and what does this one make you think of? Remember just say the first thing that comes to mind,” she repeats for the fiftieth time.

I give her a deadpan look, and she shrugs.

Scientists. I should have known what I was getting into. Why did I agree to this again?

She’s smiling so wide and so hopeful that it makes my heart ache.

Right. That’s why.

I look at the flash card she’s put in front of me. It’s a picture of a river.

“Rest,” I say.

She immediately scribbles that down in her notebook. We’ve been at this experiment of hers for nearly an hour. I’d thought it would involve a lot of scanning my brain wave activity or taking blood samples.

Instead, she took me back to her place. Normally, I wouldn’t complain about that, but somehow it doesn’t seem we’re going to end up anywhere near the bedroom. So far, all she’s done is show me flash cards and then write down what they make me think of.

“Okay, okay, one more flash card, and then we’ll move on to something else,” she promises.

I raise my eyebrow, unaware that today’s experiment had a part two to it.

She lifts up another card, this one of a playing card.

I immediately grimace. “Trouble.”

She writes that down. I let out a sigh. Libby really is determined to prove the whole past lives thing scientifically.

To me, it’s always been more of a feeling than anything. Something you can’t explain with science.

Though to her, it doesn’t seem to be a case of needing to prove it with science as much as to show it with science. She seems to believe it wholeheartedly, she just wants a way to demonstrate it. A way to illustrate her work neatly.

And if that’s what will make her happy, then so be it. I’m just not sure it can really be done this way. But I want answers just as much as she does as to why I wake up sometimes with the sound of toxic alarm sensors ringing in my ears, so I might as well stick around for the ride.

She beams up at me. “This is going great so far!”

I furrow my brow. “Really? Me saying the first thing that comes to mind is helping you gather data?”

She nods vigorously. “You see, I’m trying to use a lot of the same methods doctors use on patients with amnesia. Because in a way, that’s kind of what we have. Our memories have just been reset for this life, and we need to recover the old data from our past ones.”

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