Chapter 2 - Show Me Your Face, You Coward!

Next thing she knew, a contract and a pen were sitting in front of her. Of course, something like this had never been done before, so the police had to cover their a*ses in case something went wrong.

Halia hesitated for a second. Was she really such a selfless person that she would put her life on the line for strangers? What if something went wrong? She had watched sci-fi films before; experiments like this didn't usually end well...

"What happens after?" she suddenly asked.

The doctor looked at her confusedly.

"I mean, after we catch the killer (assuming that we do). Will these memories be stuck with me forever? Will I be stuck with someone else's thoughts for the rest of my life?"

"So far, our tests have shown that the memories will only remain in the recipient's mind for 3 months. The memories will be transferred via electric impulses which will fade with time."

"That's why we chose you. You have the ability to access your memory better than the average person, so hopefully, you can unlock as much of your colleague's memories as possible before the 3 months is over."

At that time, the door to the office flew open and some men ran in pushing a body on a bed. "We got her here as soon as possible."

The doctor immediately jumped up out of his seat and instructed, "Take her to the lab". He walked over to a bookcase and quickly pulled out three books. A moment later, the ground began to tremble and the bookcase opened up to reveal a long tunnel. As the men pushed the bed into the tunnel, the doctor turned and looked at Halia with urgency, "Are you going to sign that?"

Halia took a deep breath. "It's just 3 months, not forever," she told herself. She then picked up the pen in front of her and signed her name.

"Follow me," the doctor called out after he saw that she was done signing.

Halia took another deep breath and followed the doctor into the tunnel. After they both stepped in, the bookcase closed behind them and the tunnel lit up with a blue light.

The tunnel was cold and smelled like hospital disinfectant. Halia could see the two men with the bed not too far ahead of them, the wheels of the bed rattling as it sped towards a door at the end of the tunnel.

The doctor quickly caught up to the bed. As he overtook the men, he slid open an eye scanner beside the door and aligned his face to it. He then placed his fingers on a pad. A few seconds later, a green light started flashing and the door opened.

"Hurry, take her to theater one!"

After the doctor and the men with the bed rushed in through the door, five men and women in lab coats ran out and dragged Halia inside. Before she could even take in her surroundings, she felt a sharp pinch on the back of her hand.

She had been injected with something.

"Sorry, Miss Feng, this is urgent!"

Halia panicked at first, but then her head quickly felt heavy and her body got weak. She stumbled a few steps backward, the world spinning around her. Finally, she felt herself land into a pair of strong and warm arms. Looking up, she slowly made out a face. A pair of soft, gentle eyes looked down at her reassuringly, "Everything will be OK."

This voice was very convincing.

Halia felt like all her energy had been drained from her body. As she looked up one last time at the pair of gentle eyes, she nodded her head and fell unconscious.

Everything turned dark and silent.

Halia couldn't tell how much time had passed, but slowly a pair of eyes appeared in view again.

"It's those gentle eyes again," she thought to herself.

But, as she stared into the dark brown pupils, there was something different about them. No, they weren't the same gentle eyes that she saw before she fell unconscious. These eyes contained a sense of pity and pain.

A moment later, the silence was broken by a man's laughter. It came from the owner of the eyes and it carried a sense of ridicule, as though he was mocking himself for feeling pity and pain. Then, like a flip had been switched in his head, his eyes immediately turned cold.

Halia felt her heart race and her palms sweat. She was frightened.

Next thing she knew, she felt a sharp pain in her neck and the eyes in front of her suddenly turned red. Not just the pupils, but the entire eye, including the eyelashes were a blood red. Blood? That's when Halia realized, the man's eyes were actually covered in blood. She instinctively held her neck where a throbbing pain was growing and looked down at her hands...

It was her blood!

Halia collapsed sideways as her head began to spin. Just before she closed her eyes, she saw a pair of hands holding a cross...and red...everything was red.

"No, this can't be," she thought to herself.

As she was plunged back into darkness and silence, Halia was in disbelief. Was she dead? What happened?

Unwilling to accept this fate, Halia forced open her eyes and jumped back up screaming. She couldn't die just like that. She didn't even get a proper look at her killer.

"Show me your face, you coward!"