"I just wanna be yours."

-MICHUUL, DUCKWRTH

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"What are you going to do now then?" I ask, glaring up at them, voice shaking.

Rosa rounds the chair and flips open the black box. I tilt my head back to get a view of what's inside to see a little dial and a couple of buttons that link the chair to the box.

"When the building in the woods was burnt down, this room was built for the sole purpose of dealing with students like you. And with this in mind, I'm about to serve the purpose of the room and induce physical pain. I believe electrocution will destroy the part of your brain that is triggering the voices. No more voices equals no more deaths."

I try to scramble out of my seat but it doesn't budge. "You're going to electrocute me?"

"We're saving you from yourself!" Rosa says from behind me.

"Please!" I yell, giving up on escape since it's clearly impossible. "Please don't do this to me. Just let me go!"

"That's the voices speaking," Rosa surmises. "They don't want to die."

I want to scream. It's not the voices! It's me! It's Olivia Mitchell. "Don't do this," I say so quietly I barely hear it myself. I can feel tears streaming down my cheeks but I do nothing to stop them.

I turn to Jasper and yell through my tears, "How could you do this?!"

He winces and yells back, eyes stoic, "Because I love you! And I care too much to watch you live with these voices in your head!"

"You don't love me!" I reply, shaking my head to shake away the tears.

He stares at the ground again.

"Get ready," Rosa says from behind me.

I'm about to protest again, when I feel a large jolt of electricity pulse through my body. It feels like I'm being struck by lightning. My head is racing and the voices are yelling and shouting and I don't know if it's a voice who's screaming or me. It's excruciating, and the whole time the tears are coming in free fall I'm screaming at Jasper who isn't showing any emotion. He just watches.

Without warning, the electricity stops, and I gasp for air. I can still feel tingles of electricity in the tips of my fingers as my heart frantically tries to pump blood back around my body.

"I'm sorry," Jasper says quietly, shaking his head.

"You're breaking my heart, and all you can say is sorry?" I reply in a crackly, smashed-up voice.

Before he can reply, Rosa starts it again and I'm on fire once more.

And I scream the only word that I know can lessen the pain.

"ALEC!"

"You hear that?" I ask Seth who's sitting beside me on the sofa next to my comfy armchair. We've been searching for Liv for ages, ever since she bolted in the Dining Hall. Jasper also seems to have disappeared. Night is falling and we're sitting in the library, our brains completely blank of any places she could possibly be.

The police have been questioning people all day in here, and so we're sat in an empty corner between the Philosophy section and Biology section where the police haven't situated themselves.

The library is close to empty, the investigators beginning to leave for the day as everyone is going to sleep. There is barely any noise apart from the quiet chatter of a few nearby Wallflowers, the tapping of rain on the windows and the distant rumble of thunder. There's also the fire in the heath, crackling and burning.

"Hear what?" Seth asks, without looking up from staring absently at the floor. He's sitting lopsidedly on the couch, body slumping with his foot tapping against the floor.

"I thought I heard someone call my name," I mumble, frowning slightly.

He runs his hand through his blonde hair and sighs heavily. "Probably the storm outside," he replies.

There's a long moment of silence before I hear the sound again. Louder. It's definitely my name. I can hear the soft beginning of Al and the harsh end of Lec.

I remember how my mother used to say my name before I went to bed when I was five years old. How she tucked me into bed and whispered my name until I fell asleep, wrapped in my blankets. I remember how I'd have night terrors every night and that she'd stay with me until I managed to fall asleep. Then she died. And twelve years later, I'm still having night terrors.

But where is it coming from? And who's it coming from?

I stand up and look around. "I definitely hear something. It's Liv. She's yelling my name." It's her. I can hear her voice.

Seth breathes out what I assume is a laugh. "You're hearing what you want to hear," he says with a wink.

I scowl and ignore him, leaving the warmth of the library and walk into the emptiness of the corridor. Seth appears beside me in an instant.

"You weren't kidding?" he says as I fast-walk through the hall.

I shush him, trying to listen to where I can hear it coming from. I hear it again, a little closer this time.

He speaks again but more quietly, "And you're sure you're not crazy?"

I stop abruptly and face him. "Seth. I'm not crazy. I can hear her calling my name. Are you going to help me find her or not?"

"If it's who you think it is, then of course," he responds and we take off running.

"She's too loud, someone is going to hear," Rosa frets, moving away from the black box.

It feels like it's been hours of endless torture. Sweats coats my forehead and hands and pretty much every area of skin. My hair is sticking to me and suddenly the rain water in my clothes doesn't seem so bad. Jasper is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, staring at his feet.

I can barely keep my eyes open; everything is becoming blurry and unclear. Dots are forming around my vision like the world is closing in around me.

"We're in the basement, we should be fine," Jasper reassures, pushing away from the wall.

With barely any strength left, I grunt, "How did...how did you manage...to bring Jasper into this?"

"He came to me. And I saw how close you both were. It meant he would do anything to save you from yourself, even tell your headmistress about the people you killed. Honestly, I was ready to approach someone else... Alec West," she says.

I spit some saliva onto the concrete floor and grumble, "Alec would never have stood watching you do this to me." I shoot Jasper an accusing glare. "He has a heart."

Jasper grimaces and looks at his feet again.

Rosa steps in front of me and places her hands on each arm of the chair, leaning in so our eyes are merely inches apart. "Are the voices still there?"

The voice that replies is quieter, weaker- like it's beginning to fade into the dark abyss of my mind- but it's still there, Can't get rid of us that easy.

"No," I reply blankly.

She frowns, leans back and mutters, "She's lying."

"I swear I'm not!" I plead, but they ignore me.

Rosa presses her thin pink lips together in a look of disapproval before heading to the steel door and opening it.

"Where are you going?" Jasper asks as she's already half-way out the door.

"If the voices are still in there then we're going to be here a while. I need to go and check the power supplies aren't damaged by the storm. I'll be back soon. Keep her quiet." And then she's gone.

And it's just the two of us.

I don't think I can hold on much longer.

Where are you, Alec?