The World Forgot

She found her contract with Lacuna while she was collecting the things in her apartment that were associated in some way with Ryan. She looked over the crinkled pages carefully. Somewhere along the line she had forgotten that almost a year had passed since she was hired at Lacuna, and she was happy to see that she only had to go through with this procedure one more time after the one occurring tomorrow.

She quickly found her phone and dialed Ryan’s number. He picked up after several rings.

“Hello?”

“I only have to do this for another month,” she said quickly. “One more time and then we don’t ever have to go through with this again.”

It was silent for a moment as Ryan thought about what she had said.

“Did you hear me?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “What do you want to do about this?”

“I want us to have a normal relationship,” she said. “Once this is all over, we can start again and it won’t have to come to an end.”

“I like the sound of a normal relationship,” he responded. Amanda could tell he was smiling.

“I love you, Ryan,” she said, hesitantly. “I know you know me more than I know you, but there’s just something there between us that I can’t explain and I know that no matter what I will always end up loving you. Now, I don’t want you to say anything else. I’m going to hang up and I’ll see you soon.”

She waited just a second before she actually hung up the phone. She knew that Ryan loved her, but she wanted to hear him say it when she didn’t have to forget about it the very next day.

---

Howard Mierzwiak, Amanda’s boss and head of the Lacuna company, was always in charge of erasing her memory. She was currently seated in one of the exam rooms, the top of her head inside a brain scanner as Howard placed the items she had brought in on a tray in front of her. Amanda focused on the item, remembering the events associated with each thing in relation to Ryan as Howard located the memories in her brain.

When they were done, she returned to her desk to start the work day. She always met with Howard before the office opened so that the experiment wouldn’t interfere with the other clients.

Ryan didn’t come in today, which in some ways made it easier. She didn’t know if she could sit in the same building as him knowing that soon she’d be forgetting him.

When the day was done, she went to the pharmacy and picked up the prescription sleeping pills. She returned home, had a simple dinner and tried to watch some TV until it was time to get ready for the procedure.

She changed into pajamas and took the pills before heading to bed. It didn’t take long until the pills took effect and her eyelids got heavy. She was asleep.