![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmXmRtATeCvw26VjfYsrWGUnFR5q2if9KLVaW6ytvwXjY5/ai_generated_7810166_1280.jpg)


Emma's desk was cluttered with boxes of research papers from her father's office, which she had secretly smuggled out. Her face filled with questions. Questions that needed answers. She could feel that something wasn't right. 

Her memory was beginning to haunt her, it felt like she was seeing double these days. There was a silent whisper from her childhood that seemed to echo continuously deep In her memory. Echoes of her twin sister, who her parents had told her, died at childbirth.

She sat there in her office alone and with the boxes filled with photographs in her office. She gently moved her neuroscientist award plaque on her table to a safer position as she continued her search. 

Searching for anything that could be a clue to what she was looking for. From research papers to photographs to family albums searching between familiar faces. One of the photographs was a picture she had never seen before: she was with a girl with a face like hers and the same dress as hers, both smiling at the camera. 

"It's not possible. You died at childbirth" she whispered to the photograph with her and her twin sister.

Her hands trembled and her face turned pale. She needed to know what exactly her parents were hiding from her. Quickly, she scattered the box for more clues. 

If Claire was gone, then why was she in the picture? She wondered.

Then, in the scattered lot, she found an old VCR with the label 'Claire research'. Quickly she slotted it into a VCR machine in her office. Her heart pounding and her mind racing. 

The screen flickered, then came alive with pictures of a girl dressed in a white robe sitting in a white room without windows. She looked dazed and stared blankly at the wall. Then her father's voice echoed. 

"Tell me what you remember, Claire?"

The little girl looked from left to right and shook her head
"No, I don't remember anything. What's happening to me?


Emma gasped in shock as she replayed the video again and again trying to be sure what she just saw. But then again it was the same question and the same answer in each clip. Then she realised the laboratory was her father's old laboratory at their old house. 

She slumped into her chair and ran her hands through her hair. She needed more answers. Was Claire truly a lab rat for her parents? She felt lost, even her reflection in the mirror was of Claire's.

Quickly she got up and grabbed her coat. In the thick of the night, she rushed out the door. She knew where to find more answers to the questions haunting her. Her father's old laboratory. The house that held the truth.

Hitting the brakes at the now abandoned house. She got out and walked into the house. Pushing the front door, she was greeted with the familiar scent of the old floorboard, bringing back memories of her childhood. She walked straight to the basement where her father had situated the laboratory and his study. A place he barely let her into.

Prying the door open she switched on the lights and just as she could remember from her childhood, everything was still intact.

From medical equipment to dusty files and monitors. In the middle was a leather chair with straps. She took a deep breath. 

"Father, what did you do here?" She asked 

"Take away memories of people like me," a voice replied from behind her.

She quickly flinched and turned around to see a figure standing in the doorway. It was Claire. She was alive. Her eyes burned with rage and sadness.

"Claire?" Emma called.

"I knew you'd come seeking the truth one day", Claire replied, stepping out into the laboratory.

“But you died a few minutes after we were born", Emma said with a shaky breath.

"That's what they made you believe." Claire raged "Because I was that experiment that made you the Hyperthymesia you're now"

Emma tried reaching close but Claire moved back. "What? You didn't know of their obsession with perfecting memory? And I had to be the fall," she paused. "Go on! You have the perfect memory, remember it!" Claire yelled in pain.

Emma searched her mind, seeking the truth. Like a puzzle, the missing pieces fell into place. She quickly turned and tried to leave the laboratory.

"Where are you going?" Claire asked. 

"To make them pay," Emma replied without looking back. 

She walked out of the basement back to her car and drove straight to her father's house. There was rage and disappointment in her eyes. Every memory of hers now felt like a lie. 

How could her parents twist their memories? Claire's words repeatedly echoed in her mind.

*"I was that experiment that made you the Hyperthymesia you're now"*
 
She slammed her fist on her steering wheel and honked at almost every car on her way. Her drive to her parent's house was a combination of blurry street lights and going against traffic laws.

She pulled up to her parent's driveway and walked the remaining distance. She pounded hard at the door as her father quickly opened.

"Emma dear, what's wrong?" He asked but Emma brushed past him and stormed into the house.

"I found Claire" she replied instead and waited to see his reaction. "Alive and with memories of everything you did to her"

Her father's face fell. He quickly looked pale.

Just then, her mother appeared from the room. "Emma dear, it's not what  you think?" She said with a voice filled with fear and shock.

"Then what am I supposed to think because everything I know or remember is a lie?" she raged.

Her father stepped forward to touch her, but she pulled back. "Emma dear, we made you what you are today and..." 

"At the expense of my sister" she cut him short. Her stare was cold. "At the expense of Claire, the scapegoat, and what exactly did you even do to me? Why can't I remember the few years I spent with Claire even though I have the best memory anyone could have? What?!" She yelled.

Her mother, who was now in tears, unravelled the secret. "It was never our intention to hurt you or Claire. But what we learnt from studying Claire we used on you. Your hyperthymesia… it’s not natural.” she said. "We're sorry"

"Yes, we're sorry dear. We're willing to tell Claire the whole truth. We just wanted our kids to be perfect but Claire happened to be a recipient of our mistake”. Her father confessed 

"You experimented on Claire and turned me into your perfect experiment." Claire sobbed. "Well I'm sorry too"

Just then they could hear police sirens in the distance. 

Her parents both looked at themselves. 

"Emma, what did you do?" Her father asked, pacing up and down in fear as her mother silently pleaded in tears.

"Seeking justice", Emma replied without remorse. "Seeking justice for Claire and I. And if you think that you'll use your affluence to work your way out of prison, I've here recorded as evidence all the conversations we had", she added, raising her mobile phone for them to see. 

The police got closer and walked into their house. Read her parents' rights before cuffing them.

Just before they were whisked away. Her father turned and said, "You were our perfect experiment, our success".

Emma shook her head. "No, you didn't perfect me. I was a result of your twisted dreams and experiment whose price was paid by another."

She stood at the door watching the police drive her parents away. She didn't know what to believe again. If the very people that were supposed to protect her could manipulate her, then what was safe to believe?  

She got into her car and drove away, tears streaming down her face. She was going to meet up with Claire again at least to make peace with her and maybe heal together. 
 

[source of picture](https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-doctor-female-7810166/)