Scarlett’s POV“Beetle. Coffin. Bird. Fly.”I cleared my throat and repeated, “Beetle, coffin, bird, fly.”The Medic nodded. “Very good, Scarlett. Now: land, doctor, earth, blood.”A tiny furrow appeared between my eyebrows. “Land, doctor, earth, blood.”“Very well done. Here.” She passed me a sheet of paper, upon which was a list of hastily written, but neat, words. “I’ll time you. You have thirty seconds to memorise the words, and then I want you to turn the paper over and write down as many of them as you can remember. Got it?”“Yeah.” My heartbeat picked up. I’d always enjoyed exams before, had enjoyed pushing myself to do as well as I could, but this had real life consequences beyond my grades. I needed to do well. I needed my memory to be intact. I needed this affliction to be short-term.“Okay. Your time starts now.”I grabbed the paper and stared at it so intensely that my eyes started to burn. Biting my lip, I recited the list of words over and over.“Time’s up, Scarlett. Fli
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