Burning a hole in my mind

Craig rips the phone off the receiver immediately at the first ring… “Talk to me” said Craig. The other line was silent for a second… “Sir, we lost the Saudi investment funding…” “You’re freaking kidding me, I’ll get the jet warmed up, I’m coming to close this…”

Della sighed. “Sir, the jet was repossessed 3 months ago. The Saudi funding fell through 9 months ago. You stopped paying me 45 days ago. I’m calling, as a friend, to remind you to take your memory pills.”

In that moment some of the previous year’s events further resolved in his mind. He was relieved that his recollection was patchy - nobody wanted these memories. He grabbed the memory ablation pill and swallowed.

I felt weird. Very weird. I started to forget basic things, like my last name or what the animal with white stripes is called. I started to forget what happened yesterday, and what I just did. I remembered my investment though, and maybe I caused... my death.

My mind became more and more fractured. My memory, object permanence, and cognitive processing deteriorated. I was left with a reptilian brain, no concepts of what I was seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing. Just stimulus and response. Not quite dead but inhuman.