False Memories Ch 1 Novels & Stories

“What? What does that even mean?” The doctor folded his arms across his chest, thoughtful. “It’s rare. Sometimes, it’s called Delusional Memory Imprinting. It usually appears after trauma to the brain. The mind can’t stand empty spaces, so it fills the gaps… not with facts, but with long-standing fantasies. The brain mistakes them for real history.” I shifted in my chair. “You mean… he’s making things up?”

“And what are we going to derive from that? They are not going to remember anything.” “Wrong. Even when I am redirected, my body knows it is missing something, and sometimes muscle memory takes over before it leaves my mind once again.” She nodded. “Shocking.” Again she had that different expression and tone. But I continued either way, maybe she did not understand. “The mind may forget, but the body always remembers because it has picked up a pattern and mastered it.” She chuckled. “It’s really hard raising your hackles, isn’t it?” “Let’s go,” she tapped my arm. “I’m not here for your lectures.”

Or I can stay, which is what I was going to do anyway, which is the correct choice, which is what I am going to do. I stay. Dr. Osei begins. She talks about the malleability of memory. How confidence in a recollection has almost no correlation with its accuracy. How people who are completely certain they remember something correctly are wrong at the same rate as people who aren’t sure. The certainty is not the evidence. The certainty is just the feeling. I write everything down. Cole’s pen is moving in front of me. I can see it from here, the movement of his hand across the page. He writes the same way he always did, quick and slightly cramped, pressing harder than necessary.

He moved to the machine, pressed three buttons, and then handed three metal helmets to my parents and Steve. “Mr. Zeller,” he explained carefully, “once the three of you sit down and put these helmets on, you’ll be able to view the subject’s memories through the built-in visual interface. Based on her brain activity, she’ll only be able to recall three memories. Anything beyond that is extremely dangerous and could cause brain damage, seizures, bleeding, or permanent memory loss.” “Three times is enough. The first one should be about Emily’s disappearance. She definitely knows something,” Steve said impatiently as he grabbed a helmet and sat down beside me.

I was the true heir of the Chapman family, and Calvin, a mere housekeeper's son, was the impostor who had taken my place for the last 20-something years. The housekeeper had wanted her son to grow up wealthy, so she swapped Calvin and me at birth. She raised me, but tended to beat and snap at me. She would remind me more often than not, "Look at Calvin! Now, that's what a true heir is like. You're not even good enough to polish his shoes, so remember your place!" The truth eventually came out, and I was brought back to the Chapman family. Just as I thought my suffering had finally ended, my biological father unexpectedly pushed me away after he determined that I'd lost my memories.

C H A P T E R 5 : M R F I C T I O N Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase, by incorporating extraneous features. — Primo Levi ~ No matter how hard I tried, I could not find it. The frame is still empty, and the picture is gone. I bring the cup of tea close to my lips and take a sip.

“You—!” My words struck Chloe right where it hurt most. But she quickly forced a disdainful sneer back onto her face. “You’re the one who should be sweating! If Toby finds out you’ve been faking amnesia just to sleep with Logan behind his back, you’re the one who’s going to get violently thrown out by both brothers!”

" My mouth slowly curved into a faint smile. A single tear of blood slipped from the corner of my eye. In Claire's terrified cry, I lost consciousness. My mind drifted through pain and static. Then a white light opened somewhere deep inside my memory. It was ten years ago, a quiet afternoon in the woods behind the school.

"I love you too." --- The woman who forgot to be afraid. That's who I used to be. But now I remember. And remembering, it turns out, is not the same as being afraid. It's just being aware. And awareness is where healing begins. End of Chapter 144

It was the first time he could recall seeing her smile. ooOoo Dr. Sullivan was interested in his breakthrough but less encouraging than Ivor had hoped. “It’s quite unusual for events close to the accident to come back first,” he explained. “Often they’re the last thing a person in your situation is able to recall. It makes me wonder if it could be a false memory.”