Page 74 of Amnesty

“Because I don’t eat like a pig?” Am retorted.

I snorted.

An odd feeling wrapped around me, and I glanced over. Sadie was staring between the two of us with an odd expression on her face.

Amnesia cleared her throat and put the box on the table. Both her hands wrapped around the hot chocolate, and she sat forward in her chair.

“Sadie? Would it be okay if we talked?”

Sadie looked at Amnesia. “About what?”

Am glanced at me, and I nodded. “Eddie said you told him you know me.”

“You don’t know me?” she asked.

Slowly, Amnesia shook her head. “I don’t remember anything before waking up here in a coma.”

“Nothing at all?” Sadie asked, pulling the coffee into her chest.

“Well, I do have a few memories that have come back, but nothing that tells me anything about who I am.”

“What do you remember?”

Amnesia swallowed. “The cave we found you in, that place was familiar. And hair braiding.”

Sadie’s face lit up. “We used to braid each other’s hair all the time.”

Amnesia’s body tensed. Admittedly, so did mine. I didn’t say anything, though. This was their time.

“We did?” she asked, sitting back. “Every once in a while, I’ll hear giggling, like maybe we liked it?”

“It was our favorite thing to do,” Sadie said fondly. “It’s how we passed the time.”

“But he didn’t like it,” Amnesia said, her voice low and afraid.

Sadie nodded solemnly. “Oh no. He hated it. We weren’t supposed to do anything he didn’t allow. That’s why it was our secret.”

“But he found out.” Amnesia pressed. “Didn’t he? And I cut my hair?”

“You remember that?” Sadie’s eyes widened.

“I think so. So it’s true, then?”

I couldn’t imagine what it was like to have to rely on other people to tell you about your own actions. Your own life.

“Oh yes,” Sadie’s voice dropped. “He was so angry that day. I don’t know why you had to make him angrier. You should have just let him punish you. But you didn’t. You fought back… I thought you learned not to fight back.”

Chills ran down my spine. The way she talked. It was so normal to her, as if she didn’t realize how twisted it was that she learned to allow herself to be “punished” and not fight back.

“I did fight back, though, right? I got a pair of scissors and chopped off chunks of my hair.

“We both got punished for that, you know,” Sadie intoned, her eyes going blank. “He might have broken your arm, but he punished me, too.”

“How?” Amnesia sat forward. “How did he punish you?”

Sadie turned her dark, emotionless eyes on Amnesia. “You know how. You know.”

It took everything inside me to stay rooted on the bed. To not grab Amnesia by the waist and haul her the hell out of the room.

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