Irene woke up a while later in the security office. Amelia had her arm around her, and the first thing Irene saw was Eugene berating a very guilty-looking Tristan. "Damn you, Tristan! You want me to go to prison or something? The police are going to think I had something to do with all of this."
"No, they won't. Look, she's awake. Irene, are you okay? What happened?" Tristan said as he rushed to her side, while Irene looked into the worried faces of her friends.
"I'm fine."
"You remember your name? You remember who I am? Who is that guy?" Amelia asked dramatically as she pointed at Tristan.
"Yes, Amelia. I remember."
"You mean you got your memories back?" Amelia asked excitedly.
Irene slapped her hand to her face as she responded, "No. I still don't remember anything before the night I was found. What I'm trying to say is that I'm feeling okay; nothing worse happened to me."
"Oh, okay. Good." Amelia nodded.
"Why did you faint?" Tristan asked with furrowed brows.
"I don't know. I looked at that sigil again and heard voices speaking a different language… Everything just went dark," Irene explained, and Tristan and Amelia looked worriedly at her while Eugene looked freaked out.
"So it's true? You really did lose your memory? You don't remember that night at all?" Eugene asked, and tired of answering that question, Irene looked at Amelia and Tristan, who filled Eugene in on the situation as they knew it.
While Amelia and Tristan explained the events to Eugene, Irene was lost in thought. 'Why did I collapse at the sight of that sigil? What was that strange whispering I heard? Maybe Dax was right, and we should have started by trying to retrace the party that night.'
Irene was well aware that someone was trying to keep her memories from her and didn't want her to find out who killed her parents. And she didn't know what lengths they would go to in order to keep things that way.
She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket and saw that she had a message.
It was from Roman: < Hi Irene, it's Roman. Not trying to be creepy, but I realized I had your number from a group project we had to do a long time ago. Are you free tonight? I was wondering if you wanted to hang out. Get to know each other better? Maybe that's a bad excuse for a date, ha ha. >
Irene looked up at her friends, "We're done here, right? We don't need anything else?"
"I think so. Why? You got plans?" Tristan asked, making Irene contemplate for a second before shaking her head.
She texted Roman letting him know that she had plans for the night, but she might be free some other time. Roman was understanding and wished her goodnight.
"Nah, let's head home," Irene said as she stood up, then turned to Eugene. "Eugene, thanks again. You've been a huge help."
Eugene nodded while the three friends left the silver tower together.
Outside the building, Tristan sighed, "Well, so that was a busted lead… Sorry, Irene."
"Complete waste of time, and a completely leveled-up freak-night account," Amelia grumbled, making Tristan scowl.
"Will you let that go? I don't even play it that much anymore."
"Guys, it's okay. We have to try and explore every lead. At least, that's what Detective Diego said he did. If we're going to be good investigators, we have to do the same, even if we end up with nothing afterward," Irene said.
"But this could all be really dangerous. You fainted after looking at that weird symbol," Amelia said, with a frown on her face.
"Yeah, another thing to try and figure out. That symbol must be tied to my memories somehow," Irene said, with a thoughtful look on her face.
"What, by magic? What do you mean?" Tristan asked.
"I mean, I don't know what I mean. But we have to keep searching for answers."
"Well, what do we try next?" Amelia asked.
"Dax was right. I think we need to find out more about the party and figure out where I went from there."
"Dax? Your cat?" Tristan said, giving Irene a strange look.
"Uh, I mean, when Aunt Ashley isn't home, sometimes I talk to Dax. It's something I thought of earlier," Irene explained nervously.
"Look, we're all tired. Let's call it a day, huh?" Tristan said as they headed to his car.
"Couldn't agree more. But tomorrow we need to hit the ground running, searching for clues again. Because somebody is out there trying to keep me from getting my memories back. And whoever it is, they're not going to stop messing with me until I put an end to it for good," Irene said, while Tristan and Amelia nodded their heads in agreement.
*****
It was another day, and Irene was back in chemistry class.
"Back in the Middle Ages, what we're doing in this lab today would have been seen as a miracle. But we now know that in chemistry, there are no miracles. Every material phenomenon can more or less be explained by physical and chemical reactions," Mr. Brown said, while Irene couldn't put her finger on why the lecture had her feeling down.
Next to her, Amelia was taking notes. Across the classroom, she saw Roman.
He looked up and grinned at her. Irene found him cute, then smiled back at him.
Suddenly, she felt a strange tingling on her scalp, like someone was watching her. She looked toward the door, but there was nobody there. 'Damn it. I could have sworn somebody was standing there again.'
"Irene?" Mr. Brown called out.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if you knew the answer to question three… If the reaction we're working with today releases energy by giving off heat and light, what type of reaction is it?"
"Endothermic reaction," Irene answered, but Mr. Brown shook his head.
"No, that's not right. An endothermic reaction absorbs energy from its surroundings. The answer is exothermic reaction."
"Right, sorry," Irene mumbled, then perked up when someone entered the class, delivering a message from the main office. Mr. Brown glanced at Irene.
"Irene? Mr. Johnson wants to see you in his office," Mr. Brown said, and Irene stared at him blankly.
He continued, "The guidance counselor? Right, sorry. You don't remember. Amelia, why don't you go with her and show her to the main office?"
As Irene got up, the whole class watched her go, including Roman, whose eyes followed her retreating figure.
Irene made her way to the main office with Amelia at her side. "I'm sure everything's okay, Irene," Amelia assured her as they reached the counselor's office. After making sure Irene had entered the office, Amelia turned around, heading back to Mr. Brown's class.
Mr. Johnson ushered Irene into his office with a smile and asked her to have a seat.
"Hey there, Irene. How have you been?"
"I'm fine."
"Really? That's good to hear."
"Thanks. Just trying to stay positive after all that's happened."
"Glad to hear it. Well, on that note, I'm sure you know why I've called you here today."
"No," Irene responded, a frown marring her face.
Seeing the frown on her face, Mr. Johnson waved his hands, "That's alright. No need to worry or anything. You're not in trouble."
He paused for a long time, looking uncomfortable. Finally, he fixed Irene with a friendly smile. "We're friends, right? You and me?"
'Uh, he knows I lost my memory, right?' Irene wondered, replying, "I don't know. Are we?"
"I would like to think so. And you know what's important about friendship? Honesty. It's important to me that you keep whatever you were on that evening out of this school."
"Oh, you mean the drugs?"
"Yes. I don't want anything bad like that happening to anyone else. Okay? If it was someone in this school who supplied you, you can name them. You won't get in trouble," Mr. Johnson said.
Irene sighed as she thought, 'I guess not everyone is like Aunt Ashley. He definitely thinks I took the drugs willingly.'
"I'd like to help you, honestly. But I don't have any memory of that night."
"Are you sure?" Mr. Johnson asked, giving Irene a skeptical look.
"Dead sure," Irene said, and Mr. Johnson leaned across his desk, looking Irene in the eyes.
"Are you sure there's nothing else you want to tell me?" he asked.
Irene looked away from him. There was a lot on her mind, from her parents to what Eugene saw standing over her the night he found her, but Irene didn't know who she could trust.
"If I knew anything, I'd tell you," Irene replied, and Mr. Johnson leaned back in his leather chair.
Irene couldn't tell if he believed her or not.
"If you find out anything or remember anything, let me know. I'm here to help. You can go back to your class," Mr. Johnson said, as he dismissed Irene, and she nodded at him, relieved that the questions had ended.
Later that day, Irene was on her bed, staring at the ceiling with a million thoughts in her head, when her phone rang.
She looked at it and saw that it was Roman calling her. She was about to pick it up when she heard a sudden noise from her window, and she jumped.
Irene sent Roman's call to voicemail just as Tristan slid half of his body through her window. He hoisted one foot in the window.
'He's going to knock over that pot… AGAIN!' Irene mused, as she quickly sat up and took action immediately.
Irene was too far away to catch it, but she managed to anyway.
'What the—' she mused, feeling a strange pressure extending from her outstretched fingertips. The pot floated in midair, suspended by her powers alone.