My heart beat twice as fast as I tried to make sense of this room. They wouldn't do anything to hurt me, would they?

I was filthy and low, a disgrace who had broken a Doctoral Intervention. Maybe they had given up on me and this was some Early End. I wasn't ready for that!

"Let's begin," a low voice rang in the small room. I spun, surprised to see both Doctors and a few grey-clothed Assistants seated behind another windowed room. Warmth-less blue light shone above their heads, cascading the floor in rivulets of light. My helpless brain twisted fear into inspiration, trying to spare me from a complete breakdown.

"Miss Baird, I need you to sit in the chair now." His command rang in my ears. "That is, if you want to ever hope to meet your Soulmate."

Was this really the only way to become True again? Surely there was some other treatment, some medicine or something, anything else to cure me.

"We do not have all day. I can have Guardsman Redfield assist you if you are incapable of following the Intervention," his Soulmate chipped in, her face hard and eyes cold.

Redfield walked in, a commanding presence who would harm me. I was an Untrue Soul and until they fixed me they could hurt me.

Hastily, I stepped onto the pedestal, warily watching Redfield out of the corner of my eye. I turned, then placed myself in the chair. I tried to calm my breathing, 'Sacrifice, however painful, is the only path to truth.' I already sacrificed my freedom, now I had to sacrifice more to regain it.

Redfield walked forward, a menacing smile on his face as he started securing me to the chair. The Recitation's comfort didn't hold me for long as he strapped down my arms and legs. He then moved upwards, clamping down my torso and pausing just before my neck.

"I hope this is torture. Traitors like you only deserve pain," he growled, tightening the strap around my neck.

My eyes went wide. They wouldn't treat me like a Traitor, would they? This was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate.

"Alright, we're ready to begin," the silver-haired doctor said as he stepped around the chair towards me. "My Soulmate did the theoretical backing for this procedure and we're quite confident that within a few treatments you will regain complete unity with your Soul."

Dr. Thornbury stepped next to him, placing pads on my face with wires attached.

"In order for any effect to occur, we will need you to recall all that you can about the day your father Ended," she said, a false smile on her face.

With a nod, the silver-haired man held up a syringe filled with a colorless liquid. I pressed myself against the chair, trying to get far from whatever was in store for me. No! I had to give in. This was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate.

My voice trembled. "What is that?" He didn't reply and only moved closer, the needle coming terrifyingly closer and closer to my face. Grasping my arm, he injected me with the liquid and stepped back.

"What is that?" I repeated, my mind soaked in an all-out war between the possibility of love and the immediacy of fear.

"Never worry, it's simply a substance to help you recall the moment you became Untrue. Relax, you'll feel its effects soon," the doctor replied, cool blue eyes mine gently.

She was right, warmth soon spread through my body and lingered. I sighed, feeling the fear dissipate. This was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate.

"Think of your father, Miss Baird. It'll make this easier for you."

How could I not think of him? All of this had come from his choice, his desertion of us. One minute there, the next gone.

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Warm afternoons are my favorites! I run home, hair streaming behind me like feathers on a bird. Tonight my dad said we could stay up late and watch the stars. He always spends time with me, unlike Mom.

Sprinting along the road, I neared the small house, my bird hopping excitedly on my wrist. Lessons had just let out and he would be home soon! I hopped onto the porch and shoved my way through the screen door.

Just in the kitchen were my dad's work shoes. Maybe he had come home early!

"Dad?" In my excitement, I threw down my bag and tore through the kitchen. "Dad? Are you hiding from me?" The door to his room was open.

"Da--" I fell silent when I saw him. Hands grabbed me from behind, pulling me back into the kitchen. I curled into their embrace, recognizing Mom. She sobbed, confusing me more.

"Wha-what happened to Dad?

"He left us, Melanie. We need him and he left us," she wailed. That confused me more; he's still here, he's just not moving.

"He didn't leave us, he's right there. I'll go wake him up!" Mom's arms fell away from me and I ran back to their room.

"Dad, wake up! You need to go help Mom. She isn't happy and it's because of you. Come help!" He didn't react. I ran around him, hoping to see his smile at the joke he had played on Mom and I.

There was no smile. His face was pale and his eyes were closed. He looked like Grandfather and Grandmother on their End Day.

"Mommy," I called softly, "I think today was Dad's End Day."

"No, Melanie. He chose to die without me. He's dead." She still sobbed from the other room.

End Days were peaceful, an End prearranged between Soulmates. Death was not. I started to cry too. He didn't say good-bye. At least when Grandfather and Grandmother had their End Day I could say good-bye. My Soul grew cold and my bird stopped flapping around in panic.

I sat down hard, sobbing and staring at the freezing patch on my wrist. My bird was immobile, a single tear running down its beak.

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The chair beneath me was solid again, and I was too, tears streaming down my face as I fully remembered the terrible day. If that was all I would have to undergo, I would survive the emotional pain. This was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate.

"I see it worked," the man said, staring intently at a pocket interface. He exchanged the interface for a mask and piece of plastic, frightening me more.

"Open." I refused, pressing my head against the seat. He frowned and yanked my jaw down. I shrieked as he jammed a rubbery piece of plastic into my mouth.

"You may be wondering what is about to happen. In hopes that this will ease your fear, I'll explain," she said with a pensive look on her face. "'Fear does naught but distort the truth.' We injected you with a memory recollection enhancer and muscle relaxant, both to ease your mind and allow you to recover the memory. From here, the true treatment is an electrical current which, when passed across the Soul, can affect the emotional reaction to a particular memory." She paused, knitting together her fingers.

"When you were in the memory, sensors were scanning the emotional response parts of your brain. As high emotions can affect the Soul immensely, we wanted to verify that this occurrence was as emotional as you described."

I tried to struggle, to break out of the restraints, but my arms felt soft and heavy. Instead, my eyes stayed wide with panic, taking in the terrifying room.

The man stepped forward again, securing a mask to my face with straps and flooding my nose with a sweet smell. Nothing happened at first. This was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate, this was for my Soulmate.

Then my fear dissipated as warmth flooded my chest. My body felt at peace with what was to come, even if my mind still screamed. The cool mannered doctor reappeared, a long tube and needle in his hand. He slipped the needle into my wrist just belong the tauntingly still raven and hung the bag of clear liquid above my head.

Fear had lost its grip on me and, as the world began to fade, so had reality.

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"Come fly with me, little birdie

Come fly away.

Though the ground is hard and cold for a bird

The sky is warm and bright.

Come fly with me, little birdie

Come fly away"

I laid on the cot, haunted by my father's song. The song was a relic from a time long since gone, passed down through the generations of my father's family. His song repeated

"Come fly with me, little birdie

Come fly away."

and my throat ached as I shivered. The thin sheet spread over me did little to keep me warm. Everything felt wrong wrong wrong.

I was in a glass-walled room, blue light shattering my skull. My head pulsated with anger, dulling my senses with its pain.

Where was I? Murky memories were dredged up of me going to the Lesson Hall, seeing Mara, being dragged from the Lesson Hall, then nothing. Now I was locked up, away from the sky and wallowing in pain.

A knock on the glass startled me out of my stupor, and I sat up. My head spun and I collapsed on the cot. The door opened with a whoosh and a man rushed in. His voice was distant, asking me if I was alright, did I know where I was and did anything hurt. I stared at his blurring face in confusion, unwilling to speak through my burning throat.

"Much. Pain. Where am......I?" My voice came out raspy, concerning the man. He looked like a Guardsman, dressed in black armor and carrying a shock-baton on his waist beside a pocket interface. The guard flipped it open and typed commands, his face torn between military hardness and kindness.

The world rang as my eyes took him in seemingly for the first time. Honey hazel eyes, black hair a curly mess on his head, and a soft yet sculpted face.

"You're at The Facility, remember? Do you know why?" He leaned in, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. Something was wrong and I couldn't remember what. I shook my head through shivers. Why did everything hurt so much? His eyes widened, twin bowls of syrup reacting to my response.

"I'll go get the Doctor," he exclaimed, racing off. I laid still, shaking in the empty room. None had ever mentioned The Facility. If the last thing I remembered was being dragged away, something must have gone horribly wrong. Bitter tears fell from my eyes. What had I done?

"Little birdie, what's wrong?" The voice of my father was as clear as if he were beside me. I rolled over slowly, feeling my head protest the movement.

He stood there, looking the same as he had the last time I had seen him. I had nearly forgotten the way his mouth turned up in a slight smile or the mess of black hair on his head.

For a moment, he stared straight into my eyes and I reached up to touch his comforting hands that I had desperately missed for so long. Just before my hand met his, he sat on the floor beside another terribly sad raven.

"I can't find him," she wailed, pointing her devastatingly sad face towards his. He ruffled her hair gently and pulled her close. The little eyes of child Melanie were filled with tears.

"Find who?"

"My eagle," she sobbed. "I dream of him every night, but he isn't anywhere." He smiled gently, briefly looking up at me. I gasped, he couldn't be here.

"That's how this works. You wait and hope until you find him one day. 'A Soul lives only for its mate.'" His quotation of Recitations was perfect, whyever I was here must be for my Soulmate.

The man burst through the door, causing my father and the younger me to disappear.

"No!" I cried shakily. "Come back!"

A nut-brown haired woman with streaks of gray sticky up from her bun pushed past

him and sat on the bed beside me. Dressed in red, she had to be a Doctor.

"What? We're right here," she said, brows furrowed in confusion. Tears still streamed down my face. Had he really been here?

My mother saw him, not me!

"Miss Baird, do you know who I am?" I shook my head no. I had never seen her in my life. Had I? I couldn't remember anymore!

"Go get blankets and Dr. Thornbury from his office. He'll know what to do," she commanded with steel in her voice. The amber-haired boy rushed off, leaving me with the unfamiliar woman. Her cold hands stroked my hair, sending shivers down my spine. The only comfort I wanted was from a man who was gone.

And now only I could see him.

"So, what do you remember?" She looked at me thoughtfully from a lined face, an older Soul than most. Her gray hairs told me she must be close to her End Day.

I opened my too dry mouth, wishing desperately for water to calm my pounding head and sore throat.

"Counseling," I rasped, unable to say more. The brief reply was enough to surprise her and she stood quickly, heels clicking as she left the room.

The too blue world dimmed. My eyes shuttered open and closed, finally closing despite the pounding of my head.

Would I ever remember?

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