Forgotten by Kailin Gow

couch. Not that I sleep that well with my hands still cuffed. In the morning, Senator Hammond’s men come to fetch us, blindfolding us again so that they can take us back to the entertainment room they left us in yesterday. Breakfast is waiting for us, in the form of fruit and pastries, coffee and juice, all laid out on the counter at the side of the room. We eat, and before long, the door open, letting in the senator. His bodyguards stand back in the corners of the room, watching.
                “I’m not going to ask if you slept okay,” he says. “That would be hypocritical of me. I hope your night here wasn’t too bad, though.”
                “So long as you get what you want, do you even care?” Grayson asks.
                One of Senator Hammond’s bodyguards starts forward, but the senator raises a hand to stop him. “I’m not going to lie to you. I need access to the device used to fade memories. I will do whatever I need to do to achieve that, but I won’t hurt either one of you unnecessarily.”
                That isn’t exactly comforting. Especially not when he’s already kept us here as prisoners for the night, and his men have beaten us both unconscious once. I have to ask the obvious question though. “Is there any news of Jack? Has he gotten back to the Faders yet?”
                Senator Hammond looks a little uncomfortable in that moment. “Ah. That’s the thing, Celestra. We dropped Jack back near the Location where we took the three of you an hour or two after he left here. I should have heard something from him by now. At least if he’s taking me seriously.”
                “What are you saying?” Grayson asks.
                “I’m saying that I think your friend is playing games with me,” Senator Hammond says, “and I don’t have time for that. None of us do. So I’m going to have to find a way to persuade him to hurry things up a little.”
                I don’t like the sound of that. Especially not when one of the bodyguards steps forward, reaching into his jacket. I’ve seen movies before, so I can guess at the kind of things a kidnapper might do to hurry Jack up. My stomach clenched and I can feel my body stiffen, getting ready act if necessary. So much for saying he didn’t plan to hurt us.
                Except that the bodyguard doesn’t come out with some kind of weapon. Instead, he passes the senator a flat touch screen.
                “What’s that for?” I ask.
                Senator Hammond turns it so that I can see it. “Watch and you’ll understand.”
                Images start across the screen, obviously taken from security cameras in the space they gave us to sleep in. There’s a section of me curled up on the couch with Grayson watching TV, looking like we’re a happy couple having a cozy night in together. Another part captures us kissing.
                “Why are you doing this?” I demand. “That isn’t how it happened.”
                Senator Hammond shrugs. “There’s more.”
                The next section is from the bathroom. I almost know what’s coming before it starts. Grayson helping me. Grayson washing me when I can’t do it myself thanks to the cuffs. It looks… it looks like the kind of thing that would really hurt Jack. My face burns red just at the thought of it, with both embarrassment and anger. Embarrassment that someone was watching all through that. Anger that Hammond is planning to use it against us.
                “You can’t send that,” I say. “Please don’t send it.”
                Senator Hammond shakes his head. “I told you. I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
                “But Celes didn’t do anything!” Grayson complains.
                “She kissed you.”
                “ I kissed her .”