I started from the beginning, remembering the day we met.
“Are you new here?”
“You don’t have to help me…”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
The extractor gobbled up the memory in seconds, so I quickly fed it another one. I dug deep and tugged on the memory of the first time he kissed me…
“You like it when I touch you, Milo?”
“Yeah…”
“Good. That’s good…Because I like touching you, too…”
My chest ached as the memory was torn from my mind, but I forced myself to carry on, even as I started to lose sight of why I was doing this in the first place.
The extractor began latching onto the happy memories on its own, syphoning them up one by one, until all that was left was an unexplainable ache where my heart used to be.
All the lazy mornings I’d woken up with Jay’s mouth around my cock.
Every warm, cozy evening on his couch, playing Stardew…The night he’d brought me a bouquet of forget-me-nots… which had also been the first time he’d ever called me baby.
The NeuroExtractor devoured the memories of all the times he’d held me.
All the times he made me laugh. Tears streamed down my face as one by one, the happiest memories of my life blinked out of existence.
Most of them went easily, flying from my mind like dark matter being pulled helplessly into a black hole… but one memory… one memory seemed to hold on. It clung to my mind as the extractor shredded through my consciousness, and I found myself smiling through my tears as it hovered briefly in my mind’s eye.
It was the memory of the way Jay’s lips curled whenever he said my name.
My-loh.
Somehow, he managed to always make those two syllables sound like music.
He made my name sound likepoetry.
My throat closed up as I watched him writhe and fight against the restraints as he desperately tried to get to me.
He wasn’t humming my name in the way that had always made my cheeks heat and my toes curl.
No.
Now he was screaming it.
“MILO! MILO—NO!PLEASE! BABY, DON’T DO THIS!” His voicebrokeas he screamed and screamed, his own face now soaked with tears.
I gave him what I hoped was a comforting smile, praying he understood why I had to do this. Why I had to forget him.
‘It’s because I love you…’I whispered, but I didn’t think he could hear me.
No one could.
Not with the echo of Jay’s grief shattering against the concrete walls.
It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that Luke wouldn’t be able to use my love for him as a weapon.
