Chapter Text
I'm stood in front of a glass cylinder. The glass cylinder. The one with the subject, Chase. He looks completely at ease for someone suspended in a cylinder filled with liquid and practically being kept alive by the wires linking him to the enormous computer tracking his progress.
But then again, he doesn't know, and when he does, I'm not really sure what will happen. He can be rather unpredictable sometimes, even though his reactions have a certain pattern to them.
He always forgives, though. It's a habit of his, and it tore my heart to see it in action.
Thank God that stopped a while ago.
It's been a while since I managed to get them to stop their experiment on him, and heaven knows what that could have done to him if I hadn't intervened.
I'll never forget his tears.
I'll never forget him. It's impossible to.
Chase Hollow came to the establishment a little while after his 16th birthday, after his mother passed away and he was left with no-one else to take care of him, which is why he was sent to us, because he couldn't really go anywhere else. When I saw his name on the file, I nudged Deacon because of their matching surnames (he wouldn't shut up about how it didn't mean they were related, I just think he didn't want to feel anything near to guilt over not being able to help someone) but when Chase (or Charlie, as it is officially) actually came to the building, there was no humour in the matter. That child was broken.
He was smiling or rather, trying to, and every so often he would break down into tears, sobs wracking his whole personage. I felt so sorry for him, and a few weeks later I was spending hours with him on a daily basis.
Over the course of those weeks, he cheered up, and I would find my thoughts chiding me for staring too long, or repeatedly making "accidental" physical contact more often than I should have liked. But he was so addictive, he could have been classed a national threat. Days and nights became characterised by thoughts of being with Chase, of spending time with him, of just being with him. And I had a feeling he felt similarly, but maybe that was me being delusional.
But then they decided they wanted to explore the effects of grief on a person. And who else was better than Chase, the person who had lost everything?
That's when they got started. Simulation upon simulation, reenacting all sorts of situations, all sorts of torture.
The worst ones were the ones where they put him through what had actually happened to him again. Those were the ones where he screamed, cried and thrashed about in unspeakable pain.
My poor heart, struck by the arrow of Eros, broke into the most miniscule of pieces.
After a month of helplessness, I finally came up with a solution to my suffering, and I presented an alternative to the higher ups.
I would run my own "experiment" on Chase. And given my position, they would never decline me
Not if they still wanted their jobs
That is why he's currently in the same building as me and the other Hollows. That's the only reason why he looks so at peace. It's taken me so long to run the right simulations to bring his mental state back to what someone could call normal (you'd probably have to squint, even after all this time, but I'm doing my best, ok? I may be some sort of super genius, but I'm only 20).
The door slides open, and I turn around, probably looking bewildered, and possibly slightly tense. I relax at the sight of who it is. Prunella and Deacon Hollow walk in, or rather, Deacon walks in holding Prunella. I sigh, Prunella has gotten mud all over her boots again, and is now not allowed to walk on the floor, but she doesn't seem to mind. She's probably enjoying the ride, especially since it means she can annoy her brother by pulling his ear every two minutes. I'm surprised he hasn't dropped her extremely unceremoniously, but then again, his patience seemingly knows no bounds. Like that one time when Chase accidentally got yoghurt all over him through the unfortunate explosion that occurred when he couldn't open the thin tube, and he didn't even get that mad, he just went and changed his clothes. Though in hindsight that was probably due to how Chase was finally warming up to people (other than me), and that was enough for him to forgive Chase (and me since I was also involved).
"You need some rest Nox, we've barely even seen you recently. I know we were all really close, but you need to take a break" Deacon's free hand came to rest on my shoulder.
"You know I can't, not when I'm so close. He's so close to coming back to us, I don't want to lose everything right now," tears threaten to prick at my eyes.
Prunella looked at me somberly (seriously, this child looks wayyy too serious for an 8 year old) "You can't get good stuff in life if you don't rest enough so you can enjoy them fully, take a break."
We need to stop letting her read the same books as us. She's got the soul of an old, philosophical scholar and I don't need her being the wisest person in the room at all times.
"Well, I can't really take a break yet," I point to he thing on my head, where a couple wires connect me to the same device as Chase. "I can take a break tomorrow, but for now, I'm almost about to make a breakthrough with Chase, and then once I report that to the higher ups, they'll be off my back, and I can rest knowing that I'll never need to carry out another 'experiment' again. My parents did say that they wouldn't bother me after this, and it's not like they can deny their higher ups." I had full confidence that this would be the last day, because this was the first time Chase hadn't remembered something too sad, and even better, he'd made it more than an hour without mentioning… anything else that had happened.
Deacon seemed slightly relieved, but he was still worried. "How much longer do you think this is going to last?"
"I'm not sure, but hopefully we'll both be with you guys in the lounge before half an hour passes." I replied, slightly unsure despite how my voice didn't shake. At all.
As if on cue, Chase's eyes fluttered open, and it was like the world was reborn.