It had been days since 636 was first brought to the spacious test room. Each night she’d lay awake thinking about Seth. Worry was quickly taking her over. She didn’t care that she was finally out of the chains and the cage. He still wasn’t.

She knew how much he hated them. How much he would fight the doctors without her there. She just hoped he didn’t do anything rash that would get him hurt.

The tests had only gotten weirder for her. She wished someone would explain why she was here. Not just in this room but why she was in the laboratory at all. From birth she had been here. Sitting in a cell. Constant pricks and pokes of tests eating away at her. The shots of golden liquid they used to inject into her everyday. What was the point of it all?

“636.” Dr.Willow called her name and she quickly got out of bed. She held her head down as the two men that had been present the past week walked up to her. The whole time only paying attention to their different heartbeats. She had gotten better at determining where someone was without looking at them. 636 practiced even when she wasn’t asked to. It was the only way she could pass the time and keep her mind off of Seth.

The men set a cement brick in front of her and she widened her eyes in surprise. Dr.Willow pulled out the same clipboard he’s had for the duration of all the tests.

“Break it.” He ordered. 636 flinched at the sound of his loud voice.

“What?” She spoke before she could stop herself. One of the men pulled out a metal baton and whacked the back of her knees. She fell forward, reaching out to catch herself and in the process scraping her palms.

Dr.Willow cleared his throat. 636 could tell he was uncomfortable but she couldn’t pinpoint why. A drop of sweat dripped down his pale forehead, 636 watched it until it fell to the floor.

“Break it.” He ordered again. This time however she picked up on how tense he was.

636 stood up despite the pain in her legs. Looking at the gray brick in front of her. She could feel a slight pull around her. Staring at the brick in front of her, she brought her fist back. Somehow she knew she could do it.

Break it. She told herself.

She slammed her fist down and crumbled the brick into pieces. 636 heard a loud crack and a slight pain emitted from her hand and she brought her fist up to examine it. Surprised by what she had done, she backed up. She was not only afraid of her own strength, but also of what she saw on her own hand.

Red and gold littered her wound. The red was blood, she knew that much, but the gold was new to her. It shined the same way the golden liquid that was encased in her daily shots did.

636 watched as the wound closed up slowly but the warmth of her blood could still be felt on her hand. Frozen in shock she didn’t move. Not even when Dr.Willow walked over with a rag and started wiping the blood and gold away. He eyed the rag, now stained with the two colors, like he was expecting this to happen.

He threw the cloth away and nodded to the two guards. Arms latched onto her shoulders and roughly held her. The guards put her chains back on and guided her out of the room behind Dr.Willow.

“You’ve reached the final stage. We’re done with the tests for now so you can return to your cell.” He didn’t turn to look at her as he guided them all through the white hallways.

636 closed her eyes, confused but glad to finally be out of that room. As they walked further, she began to recognize the halls. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought of finally returning to Seth.

For a while she only heard the footsteps of those around her and her own, but using the new hearing technique she had learned, she focused on the sounds coming from further up the hallway.

There was an argument going on but she was still too far to pick up what they were saying. Only being able to hear the tone of the voices. They were both male and seemed to be stressed about something.

“I told you it was too much but did you listen! No, you decided that you knew better than me!” One voice yelled as her group rounded the corner. Dr.Willow paused, now hearing the voices.

He turned to look at 636 and then back at the direction of her cell. 636 followed his line of sight to see two scientists outside of Seth’s cell.

“Look what you did! What will the boss think about this? After all the trouble he went through to get that subject!”

Dr.Willow quickened his pace, 636 following suit until they stood outside the cell doors.

“What’s going on?” The two froze.

While Dr.Willow was confronting the two men, 636 turned towards Seth’s cell expecting to see his smiling face but instead was met with his form lying on the floor.

Time seemed to stop at that moment. The only thing 636 could hear was her own heart racing. It was so loud and echoed through her ears, there was no way the others couldn’t hear it.

Seth wasn’t moving and when 636 tried to listen for his heart, she couldn’t find it. Her breathing started to become labored and she fell back. The only thing keeping her from hitting the floor was one of the guards holding her up.

“Seth?” She called out but there was no answer. She didn’t know why she expected one. “Seth!” She called again, louder, voice breaking.

“Seth!” She screamed and started thrashing away from the pair of arms holding her. The weight of them was slowly getting heavier.

It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.

The grip around her tightened and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Like she was drowning in the open air. Lungs failed as her world fell apart.

Not real. Not real. Not real.

Seth’s form never moved. No breath. No heartbeat. No life to be seen or heard.

Real.

“636 calm down!” Dr.Willow’s words meant nothing to her. Unimportant compared to the pain in her chest.

One of the doctors pulled a large black bag into the cell and grabbed Seth’s limp body. Eyes widening, 636 was snapped back into reality.

“Don’t touch him! Don’t you dare touch him!” The doctors continued as if they hadn’t heard her cries. Hadn’t heard her plea to them. Her warnings.

636 felt a rage she had never known before and tried even harder to break free from the man's grasp.

“I said don’t touch him!” She yelled again, holding out her arm towards the doctor. She wanted nothing more than to crush the man for hurting Seth. For even daring to touch someone she cared about as if he were nothing.

His body was roughly placed into the large bag and 636 screamed again. A flash of goldish orange and blue light seeped through her blurry vision and the doctor holding Seth bellowed in pain.

Pain. She wanted him to feel pain. The same strength that she felt when smashing the brick returned to her. She knew she could cause him to crumble, even if she couldn’t touch him.

The man continued to scream out in agony, begging for it to stop. 636 focused on his chest and instinctively balled her fist. Instantaneously the man crumbled. An implosion.

All that remained of him was a sack of bones and flesh. Red blood coated the cell’s floor.

“Contain her!” A voice yelled.

She didn’t care what they did to her. As long as they didn’t touch Seth. She wanted to apologize to him. For lying. For not protecting him. For not being there.

If she only had time.

The familiar feeling of a needle breaking skin spread through her neck and the world went black.