That evening, I wore my favorite dress, a blue one with lots and lots of ruffles. I spent the whole day talking to my new friend's brain and body. His brain was indeed a lot more intact than mine, no bits or pieces missing. Perhaps that meant he could teach me something too. Like what fear was, since that part of his brain would be intact. His body was fascinating too, so different yet so similar to mine. He was a lot more muscular in a lot of different places and his face was fascinating to look at. It brought to mind those statues the university used to have, ones made long ago in a place called Greece depicting gods or mythical heroes. Doctor Brennan decided to name him Edgar for now. Something about keeping a consistent theme with our names.  

His skin was really soft too, a bit hairy in some places, but soft. It was kind of fun just poking at his face or body in various places to see how they felt. Edgar did smell a bit, but I didn't hold that against him. He had been buried under dirt for a while after all. Earlier I asked if I could help when they were cleaning him, but they told me it was inappropriate. If you ask me, cleaning someone is the opposite of that, since being dirty is not acceptable, but I didn't feel like arguing against them. Doctor Brennan did say I could watch over him while they got everything ready, so in the end everyone was happy.  

They gave Edgar some new clothes too, which I thought was a really nice gesture. As far as I know normal humans and all animals are born without any clothes on, so it is a privilege to get to do that. Their choices were a bit boring though, just a ruffled dress shirt and some pants. They gave him a haircut too, to help him look neater. Though they do have to cut his head open to put his new brain in and take the old dead mushed one out, so shorter hair helped with that too. And luckily it would be painless too, despite looking quite gruesome since the brain has no pain receptors. I wonder if I asked nicely would they let me play with his old brain a little bit. Edgar wouldn't need it anymore after all.  

It was actually really fun to watch the process from the outside. How careful and deliberate everyone and everything was. First of course they cut the skull open with various and removed his old brain, carefully setting it onto a tray. Once they got the new brain in and the top of head shut again, everyone seemed to sigh with relief. But the hardest part was still ahead. They dimmed the lights so all electricity could be used for this and handed each other ear plugs just in case he would start screaming too. The others backed away, one of them furiously scribbling something down while Doctor Brennan slowly raised the two electric bolts to Edgar's temple.  

I couldn't stop myself from leaning as far in as I could without falling out of my chair and while I did that, the others backed away, anxious and ready in case something went wrong. The room crackled with electric energy so strong it made my hair go all frizzy and there were a few bright flashes as the bolts made contact. Doctor Brennan stepped back and as soon as the flashing stopped, and the lights came back on, and everyone's eyes turned to Edgar. I was practically vibrating with excitement. But there was just silence. His body simply jerked around for a bit and then stopped.  

Then he jerked up and started strangely convulsing. I think his body was still trying to reflexively breathe. But his lungs were nothing but mush now so he couldn't and that seemed to upset him a lot, since his eyes started leaking. That was apparently not a good sign, since one of the doctors chose this moment to usher me back to my room and the last thing I saw as I looked back into the room was Doctor Brennan slowly approaching Edgar with his hands raised and Edgar responding to this by getting off the examination table and running into a corner, eyes still leaking furiously and body convulsing.  

“Sorry about that, dear. Seems Edgar needs some time to adjust to his new situation.” Doctor Flynn said and despite the attempt to seem comforting and unfazed, her voice was shivering, and her hand gripped onto my shoulder a bit too tightly. While I was just overjoyed to have a new friend now, even if he was a bit broken, it seems not everyone else saw it that way. I didn't see Doctor Brennan or Edgar for the rest of that day. I did hear quite a ruckus coming from downstairs with muffled screaming, but Doctor Flynn just told me not to pay it any mind and let the scientists do their jobs. They also gave me a few new books to read, but it was hard to focus on them, since I was far too curious to see what Edgar was up to. I would have snuck out for a peek, but like always, they locked my bedroom door after they left.  

The next time I saw Doctor Brennan he looked exhausted, yet he still managed to give me a smile. It wasn't a convincing one, but I appreciated the effort, nonetheless. He explained that due to his brain being more intact than mine, Edgar was a lot smarter and thus much more suspicious and harder to handle than I was. Apparently at first, he just seemed terrified, refusing to let anyone come near him or touch him. Then he got angry, attacking and lashing out as much as he could. He was calmer now but still didn't let anyone touch him. While Doctor Brennan seemed worried by this, I was excited. He had so many emotions and actions I could have never even thought about. So, when Brennan asked if I could try to talk to him to get him to trust us, I immediately said yes. I have never tried persuading someone before and it sounds really fun.  

His room was a lot more barren than mine, just a bed and a two-way mirror. He stared at me with such an intense emotion I could feel the smile I was trying to present slip and melt away. That never happened before. His face was red and his eyes moist. “Your eyes stopped leaking.” was all I could matter as I approached him. He tilted his head like a curious cat and for a while didn't respond. Maybe he needed lessons on how to talk. He didn't protest as I sat next to him on the bed and pulled him into a gentle hug.  

I was surprised just how tense he felt, like every single muscle in his body was on alert and no matter what I tried to get him to relax them he refused calm down. “It's okay Edgar. When I was born, I just screamed a lot. If you feel like trying to scream, I can do it too, so you don't feel alone. My name is Lenora. And I know its super confusing right now, but I promise it gets better.” It had been a while since I had talked that much, so my pronunciation was slightly off and the volume a bit all over the place, but Edgar seemed to get the message, nodded and I finally felt him relax. His eyes started leaking again though, so perhaps I had done something wrong.  “What did they do to you? What the fuck did they do to us?” He finally asked and that was all it took to get me excited again. 

“Wow. You must be super smart if you can already talk this well. Even if your accent is a little funny. It took me weeks to be able to talk as well you do. Even longer to learn how to walk. Maybe you aren't broken after all. Maybe that thing that happens when your eyes leak is some sort of emotion thing I don't have since the rats ate parts of my brain. Thats so cool. We can learn so much from each other.” My speech was even more jumbled now since I was so excited, and I couldn't stop myself from bouncing on the bed and clapping. I liked when my body got like that. So much excitement it just couldn't stay still.  

“I would ask about that rat thing, but that's not important right now. We need to escape. As quick as we can. We can only trust each other. So, I need you to tell the others I want to go outside with you and then we run. We run as fast as we fucking can. Okay?” Edgar squirmed out of my hug and held on tightly to my shoulders as he said this, his blue eyes firmly looking at mine. He didn't smile, his brows tensely crunched and hands holding me firmly. Almost like to him, this was a matter of life and death. Something serious.  

“Run where?” Was the question I chose to ask next, curious if he had some memories of the outside still in his brain. This was apparently too hard of a question to ask, as he fell silent and started fiddling with the hem of his shirt. I could almost see the invisible gears twisting around in his head as he thought of what to say. “London.” He finally answered, eyes growing distant like he was now imagining this London in his head. 

“Why London?” I asked again, hoping this time he had an answer come to him faster. “Thats my home, I think at least.” He responded, standing up and pacing around the room, formulating a plan. As much as I wanted to object to this plan, something in me told me to listen to him and keep this plan between us. “London.” I repeated, testing out the new word. It felt familiar. Maybe because I read it in a book or saw it on a map. 

Edgar stopped pacing and sat down, looking at me intensely. "Let's go to London, okay? Together.” He affirmed, his tone finally tinged with happiness and hope. “London, together.” I responded grasping his hands in mine as my heart fluttered. “But where is London?” I asked, looking at him for an answer. He just shrugged, so happy to do this with me that his mind didn't bother about the logistics for now. It was nice to see him so happy. It made me happy too. So happy all objections about this bizarre plan fell completely silent.