2

I'm not sure how long I slept, but it felt like I had just fallen asleep when my door was opened, and the grey-haired doctor from earlier opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Hey, honey. Are you up?"

I sit up and rub my eyes. "Well, I am now. Is everything alright?"

"Of course, sweety." She flashed me a grandmotherly smile and crouched next to my cot. She glances around nervously. "I'm not supposed to be in here, but I wanted to answer your question from earlier, Andre."

"And who are you?" I asked, sitting up.

"Call me Hanna, please. You are here because your parents gave you away for an experiment."

My eyes widen, and I stare at this woman as though she'd lost her mind. "Why would my parents do that? Why can't I remember?"

"They altered your memories when you were first brought in." Hanna put a hand on my shoulder. "I promise I want to help."

I wrap my arms around myself and shiver.

"I know this is scary for you, but I want to help as much as possible. I hate what these scientists are doing to you, children." Hanna looks over her shoulder. "I'll explain what the experiment was later. I should go."

She stands to leave. "Wait!" I scramble to my feet. "So, are you working against the scientist?"

"It's not safe for me to say." Hanna smiles. "But in a way, I suppose I am."

She left, closing the door behind her. I wasn't sure how long I stood there gaping at the closed door.

Could she be telling the truth? Andre thought.

I didn't know if I could trust Hanna. I mean, she could have told me the truth...but how do I know that she didn't help them in altering my memories?

Can I trust anyone here?

I opened my door and looked up and down the hall. Hanna was gone.

Toward the end of the hall, a door was open, and I heard voices inside.

I stepped out of my room. My bare feet made light tapping sounds against the cold floor.

When I reached the room, I heard kids talking. I opened it, and the squeaking hinges gave me away. All the kids in the room turned toward me with wide eyes.

A kid with dark curls and dark brown eyes approached me and held out his hand. "Hey there. I'm Justin. Or as the doctors call me. Subject 495. What's your name?"

I hesitate for a moment and then reach out to shake his hand. "I'm Andre. How do you know your subject number?"

"Well, you've got a tattoo on your biceps. See?" Justin rolled up his sleeve. On his arm was S495.

I pull up my sleeve and read the number out to him. "Subject 1000."

Justin ran his fingers through his curls. "Oh man, they've gotten up there." he grabs me by the wrist and takes me toward a table in the corner. "Hey, Amanda. I just made a new friend."

Amanda looks up from her book. She had pale skin, emerald-colored eyes, and blonde hair tied back into two ponytails.

"Hello. Your Andre, correct?" she marked her page and closed her book. "Pleasure to meet you. You must be the other patients the other doctors were talking about."

I take a seat beside Justin. "How long have you two been here?"

"We've all been here since we were infants. Some of us don't have parents, and others just gave their kids away to get some cash." Amanda shook her head.

"Have you guys ever been to the third floor?" I asked.

Justin and Amanda look over at me with their mouths open.

"You've been off this floor?" Justin gasped. "Really? What'd you see? Were their other kids?"

I shake my head and pull a fashion magazine toward me. "No. It's a little hard to explain." I flip open the book. "I was lying on a metal table with doctors standing above me holding knives. Then they knocked me out, and I woke up in another room."

Justin was sitting on the edge of his chair. "And?"

I shove the magazine back to the center of the table, uninterested. "I woke up in a room with bodies. Bodies of young boys." I glanced over at Amanda and saw her flinch. "I saw four doctors in a room surrounding a decaying body. They brought it back to life, and it attacked one of the other doctors."

Amanda covered her mouth in shock. Justin jumped up in his chair and whooped.

When the other kids turned toward us, Justin shouted that I had been on a different floor than them. Suddenly, questions erupted all around me, and I slumped down in my chair.

"What was it like?"

"Did you see other kids?"

"Were you trying to escape?"

"Were they doing experiments on you?"

The last question got my attention, and I sat up and looked around for the person who asked it. "Who asked that last question? The one about the experiments?"

A boy wearing all black stepped forward. "I did."

He was wearing a black shirt with a skull in the middle and black jeans that were ripped at the knees. He wore silver rings on his fingers and dark makeup around his eyes. His nails were also painted black.

Damn. He's good-looking.

I swallow. "I'm not sure what they were doing to me exactly, but they were standing over me with knives."

"Lucky you." the boy snarled. "Most of their stupid experiment gives us odd abilities. You might be the only normie."

Before I could answer, the boy vanished, and I blinked in surprise. I felt someone's hot breath on my neck, and I whirl around to see the boy standing behind me.

"What the-"

The boy sighs. "They gave me invisibility."

"Stop showing off, Will," Justin said, shoving him away. "Go back to being creepy or whatever it is you do."

Will rolled his eyes and disappeared into the crowd of kids.

"Don't mind him," Amanda said, opening her book. "Will's been through a lot in his thirteen years. In fact, we all have."