Page 7 of Twisted Liars

“It’s a mix of propranolol, benzodiazepines, and scopolamine. It’ll knock you out and erase any memories that are currently forming, so you won’t remember a single thing from the last day or so. Maybe even longer,” she explained. “Tomorrow, you’ll wake up with absolutely no idea about anything that happened down here tonight.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’ve heard of one of those drugs. I watched a documentary about it in health class.”

“Good for you,” Zara said, rolling her eyes. “That means you know it definitely works.”

I nodded slowly, knitting my hands on my lap as a plan formed in my mind. “From what I remember, it prevents newly-formed memories from turning into fully-fledged long-term memories. It basically turns that stretch of time into a total blank. But if a person is able to create some sort of association between the missing time and something else that seems unusual and out of place, it can help the memories come out. So for example, if I do this…”

I trailed off and picked up the baseball bat Jensen lent me for my protection tonight. I grasped it close to the end and smashed it into my forehead before any of the adults could stop me.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ali shouted, wrenching the bat out of my hands.

“I’m going to wake up tomorrow wondering why the hell I have this gigantic bruise on my forehead,” I said, wincing as pain ricocheted through my skull. “That’ll force my mind to start letting tonight’s memories pour back in. It’s kind of like a forced reboot for the brain.”

Dr. Carmichael laughed like I’d told a joke, and Zara clapped her hands. “Bravo, Amerie. Very smart,” she said. “But you can’t seriously believe that we didn’t think of that already.”

“We know there’s a slim chance that you’ll remember everything from tonight,” Dr. Carmichael interjected. “But we have a backup plan in case that happens. So all you’ve done with that bat is cause yourself some unnecessary pain.”

I stared at them, eyes wide. “Backup plan?”

“Even if you recall every single word spoken here tonight—which you probably won’t—it doesn’t matter,” Zara said. “From now on, we’ll be keeping an extra-close eye on you. Every word you speak, type, or write will be monitored in ways you can’t even dream of. Wherever you go, you will always be watched. Even if you think you’re alone, you can trust that you’re not.”

“You’ll have a strict curfew and your windows and door will be locked from the outside at night,” Ali cut in. “If anyone asks why, we’ll say that it’s for your own safety, given your precarious mental health and troubling drug problem.”

Zara nodded and picked up where he left off. “You won’t be able to go to the police, because you have no idea which ones are in our pocket. You can’t tell any of your peers either, because you never know which ones are secretly first or second-degree Rosmerta members who’ll come straight to us with anything you say to them.”

“You won’t be able to trust anyone in this town, really,” Ali added. “You’ll have no idea who to confide in, because you’ll know that any single one of them could be it.”

“If you get any clever ideas like slipping a note to someone in town who you really think you can trust, or writing a letter to your old friends back in Howland, here’s a little something that might put you off,” Zara said, eyes glittering with malice. “If anything like that ends up getting back to us—”

I narrowed my eyes and cut her off. “You’ll kill me?”

“Of course not!” she said, one hand fluttering at her chest with shock and indignation. “We want you safe and healthy, sweetheart. But if you dare to tell anyone a single word about anything you happen to remember from this conversation, we will do something to that bio mom of yours, and your two half-brothers. They’re real cuties, you know. Six and eight years old.”

“You wouldn’t,” I said in a hollow voice.

“Oh, yes, we would.” She smiled thinly. “I trust that threat will be enough to keep you in line if you happen to remember anything we’ve told you tonight?”

I swallowed hard and looked at the ground. “I just don’t understand,” I said, knitting my fingers together on my lap. “If you aren’t taking me away tonight, and you don’t want me to remember anything you’ve told me… why the hell did you tell me in the first place? Why did you even bring me here tonight? Just for some twisted fun?”

Zara shook her head. “No. It’s all part of the plan.”

“What plan?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Well, firstly, we needed to lure you out tonight so we could drug you and get you to the hospital. That way Flora can do a checkup and bloodwork to ensure that you and the baby are healthy without anyone knowing the real reason you’re there.”

“The second reason is the hospital stay itself,” Ali added. “We’ll use that as an opportunity to make it look like you’re descending into a sordid lifestyle in the underbelly of society. We’ll call your former social worker tomorrow and tell her you were hospitalized because of an altercation with a drug dealer, as evidenced by a series of text messages on your phone that we’ll plant soon. We’ll also contact the police over the incident, so there’ll be official records in that department.”

“The bruise on your forehead will actually help to verify that nasty drug dealer altercation story, so thanks for that,” Zara said, dipping her chin toward my head. “We’ll get a dog walker to find you passed out on the beach first thing in the morning, which is how you’ll end up in the hospital in the first place.”

“Ms. Arthurs may want to come and visit you out of concern, or at least send a colleague who is closer to the area than her. With your lack of memory, you won’t know any better, so you won’t be able to deny the drug dealer story. She’ll become yet another person in your life who believes you’ve gone off the rails.”

I was silent for a moment. Thinking. Weighing my options. “If I’m in the hospital, one of the other doctors will realize that I’m pregnant and put it on my official medical record,” I finally said, brows rising. “Then Ms. Arthurs will realize something else is going on with me.”

“No, Flora will see to that,” Zara said, gesturing to Dr. Carmichael. “She can access those records and delete them, along with any records of the tests performed by other doctors.”

“Anyway,” Ali interjected, sounding bored. “We knew you were looking into the Rosmerta Society for your silly little article, so we figured it would be the perfect way to lure you here tonight. And it worked, didn’t it?”

I slowly shook my head. “That still doesn’t make sense,” I said, brows furrowing. “Why didn’t you just lure me here and drug me in the dark before I saw any of you? Why risk telling me anything when there’s a chance I might remember?”

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