After finishing searching the whole room and hiding the black ball, Layla had finished getting rid of every trace of Pure there was in her room. That included her own things as well. Pure didn’t have many agents or students who could infiltrate the base while it was still the school term, so she was safe for now, but it still made her worry.
Although she was safe now, what would she do once the summer holidays arrived? The original plan was to head back to the Pure base, but that was no longer an option. Pure didn’t know what happened to her, and if she didn’t have a good excuse for not responding, perhaps she would have been thrown out of the Hundred Ranks and banned from coming back to the school.
’I wonder if Mum is even worried?’ She started to think as she laid in her bed, completely worn out from the search.
Just then, a knock was heard at the door. "Layla, is it okay if we come in? it’s the doctor and Cia is with me as well." Hayley said.
"Yeah, sure," Layla shouted.
As the door slid open, Cia came in with the doctor behind her, but Layla was amazed when she saw Cia. She looked like an almost entirely utterly different person. One of her hands was rubbing the other up and down, and she was nervously looking around the room. She looked like a piece of glass that was on the verge of shattering any second.
"Now you take your time in here, okay, while I go talk to your roommate. Don’t worry, Layla is one of the kindest girls I know, and you two used to get along." Hayley said, unsure if that was true or not but just wanted to do everything she could to comfort her.
Hayley, the school doctor, and Layla had left the room to have a small talk with each other.
"I don’t know if you already know this, but Cia seems to have forgotten everything that happened. We don’t really know why, and since she was found in the hotel lobby, we can’t link it to anything either. It’s been a few days since this has happened, and there have been no signs of recovery. What we want to do is slowly adjust her back to her old routine. Hopefully, it might spark something back in her.
"You know the doctor’s office is always busy, and she can’t stay there forever. I would have liked her to stay for a bit longer but I can’t, which is why I’m asking if you can look after her. If you notice anything strange or out of the blue, please come to me straight away. Is that okay?"
Hearing all this, Layla felt obliged to say yes; after all, it was partly her fault that all her memories had been removed in the first place.
"Yeah, that’s fine. I will look after Cia. Can I just ask, have the school tried contacting her parents about this at all?" Layla asked.
"Yes, we wanted to inform them immediately, but with the details that are registered, we aren’t able to get in touch. If we do, I’ll let you know straight away." Hayley replied and left as soon as she finished since she had a hectic schedule ahead of her.
Entering back in the room, she could see Cia had opened her wardrobe and was looking at her clothes and items as if they were all foreign to her. After that, she pulled out her bag from underneath the bed, and with the things inside, she picked them up one by one, but still, she could not remember anything.
"Did you know me well?" Cia asked with her voice shaky as if it was about to crack.
Layla came over and sat on her own bed, which was not too far from Cia’s, while looking at her.
"No one at the school knows each other that well since we all came from different schools before, but we were roommates since day one, and you and I used to be on the same team."
Through her words, she could see that Cia was trying to remember, trying to think back if there was anything, but there was nothing. After realizing this, Cia started to break down in tears again. She was crying with her hands covering her face and sobbing away.
Layla quickly came over, and out of instinct gave her a big hug to her side.
"It’s okay, Cia, even if you don’t remember everything, it doesn’t matter. You can make new memories, right? Who knows, maybe your life before was a bad one."
But Cia continued to cry; it didn’t matter if it was a bad one to her, she just wanted to remember who her parents were, how she grew up as a kid. She couldn’t even remember the person who was comforting her right now, and it all was a terrifying thought.
’Will she be like this forever?’ Layla started to think. ’Perhaps removing all her memories was too cruel in the end; I should ask Quinn tomorrow if there’s anything we can do.’
That night, the two girls decided to sleep in the same bed together. It was the only thing that made Cia feel safe now, having someone who knew her next to her.
The next day, when Layla had woken up, she looked at her wristwatch to notice it blinking away. Cia’s face by her side was a little puffy from all the crying.
She quickly got out of bed and listened to the message quietly.
’Layla, if you still want to do this, let’s all meet in the park forest where we trained with Peter at ten AM; everyone in the group will be there.’ The message had been sent by Quinn.
Looking at the watch, she realized it was nine AM now, so she quickly got dressed and did her best to get ready as soon as possible. The sound of opening and closing of wardrobes had eventually woken Cia up, as she rubbed her swollen red eyes to see Layla in a rush to go somewhere.
"Why are you up so early?" Cia asked.
"I have to go for my usual morning... er run," Layla replied.
"Can I... Can I come with you?" Cia asked.
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