"Momma? Who is he?" I vaguely made out a voice asking.

"A boy in need of our help, darling" another replied.

Where am I? Who are these people? It's so bright...

I forced my heavy eyes open, only to come face to face with a small girl. Frightened at the proximity, I startled, looking frantically for a place to hide.

Noticing I was on a bed, I crawled as fast as possible off the far side and slid underneath, finding comfort in the darkness. All my life, I've had bright medical lights shone at me, blinding me. This darkness... it's so peaceful. It doesn't feel threatening, it's almost welcoming, I feel safe for the first time...

"Why did he do that, Momma?" The girl questioned, though only silence followed. A moment later, the sound of the door opening could be heard.

"I trust you healed him, Michelle?" The new voice asked, pausing as they awaited a response. "Good, your duty is fulfilled. Take your daughter and leave us, I must find out what ordeals he has been through to end up on our doorstep"

Soon after, the door clicked shut again, indicating their departure.

"Do you want to come out and tell me who you are and how you ended up here, honey? It's okay, we're alone and I'm not going to hurt you, I promise"

The owner of the voice sounded trustworthy, so I slowly crawled out from under the bed, finding myself gazing up at a woman.

She didn't look like a bad person, she appeared friendly enough. But her whole body screamed authority.

"I am subject 17" I answered as she wrapped a blanket around me. I don't quite know how I managed to become human whilst I was unconscious, but I don't suppose it matters.

"Subject 17? Do you have a real name?" She asked. "Mine is Kathy Davies"

I frowned. Wasn't subject 17 my 'real' name?

"I don't know" I answered eventually. "I thought subject 17 was my name. That's what all the doctors called me, anyway"

At my response, I could have sworn a flicker of anger ran across Kathy's face, but it was gone so quick I could have imagined it.

"Well, is it okay if I give you a name?" I nodded slowly, still not completely sure of what a 'real' name was supposed to be. "Does Fabian sound okay? You look like a Fabian, and it's much nicer than calling you by a number, don't you agree?"

I grinned and flung my arms around her, tossing the blanket aside. The doctors never gave me a name, and I don't remember my life before the lab. I feel as if I've been accepted into the family, but a part of me knows I'll be kicked out as soon as I'm deemed 'better'. It's always the same.

"I'll take that as a yes then, Fabian! So, do you have any family to go to, or would you like to stay here with me and my family?" Kathy asked, surprising me. So she's not going to kick me out after all?

"I have no family, I've been living in the HTL for as long as I can remember" I told her, not moving my eyes from the floor.

"There was another boy, years ago, saying he was from the HTL. We found him in the forest, starving. So we took him in and treated him as if he were our own son, and one day, he just left and it broke my heart. But enough about Lukah. Would you like to stay with us? You can stay as long as you like, and we'll treat you as a son, too"

I nodded maybe a little too eagerly, causing Kathy to beam back at me. "We'd be glad to have you. Come on, let's get you dressed properly"

She handed me a button down shirt and a pair of short, which I slipped on. I tried my best to do up the buttons on my new shirt, but I don't think I did it right.

Kathy smiled in understanding, kneeling down before me and correcting my shirt.

"You put the buttons in the wrong holes, that's all Fabian. Please don't get upset" she whispered, wiping away the tears that were beginning to form in my eyes. "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone"

The memory of my first day at the leap house brought tears to my eyes. Everyone was so nice, treating a complete stranger like me as family. But I also remember the frequent flashbacks that became increasingly harder to deal with.

"Fabian? Fabian! What's wrong?!"

I vaguely made out adoptive mother's voice calling to me. It's so bright here, the lights hurt my eyes... Momma, where are you?

"Fabian! Honey please, please wake up. It's just a nightmare"

But it's not a nightmare! This place feels familiar... And the feel of the cool metal table beneath me seems all to familiar, like a long forgotten memory...

"Subject 17, it's time for your daily dosage of L27" the doctor said as he walked into the room, drowning out my momma's pleading voice. And just as he was about to puncture my skin with the needle, my real vision seemed to come back and I could move again.

Instantly I began to cry. I've been having the same nightmare ever since I was taken in here, alongside several others. In my last one I was strapped to the same bed, and all around me I could here the screams and cries of other children like me...

What's even weirder was that I was never asleep. Sure, I have similar nightmares whilst I sleep, but they don't feel real. No- these always happen during the day, and my eyes are never shut as when I eventually come back, I find myself staring blankly at whatever happens to be in front of me.

Now I know that what I experienced back then were flashbacks. At the time, I just believed what my adoptive mum said, that I was having nightmares during the day. It's funny that I didn't remember any of that until now. In fact, when I think about it, all I remembered are the positives of my childhood, until recently.

It's like all my memories are coming back at once. It's almost as if somebody bottled away all of my painful ones, and now the cork has come loose.

"Fabian? Are you alright?" Chase asked, pulling me back into the real world. I offered him a small smile in response. He smiled back at me, although it didn't quite reach his eyes though I didn't comment on that fact.

Without another word, he took my hand and led me inside though the back entrance. For some reason, all my brain could focus on was the small area of skin to skin contact between me and Chase. I felt my cheeks begin to grow warm, and I prayed desperately for them to stop as Chase pushed open the old wooden back door.

Nothing had changed since my last visit, the house remained untouched, even by nature. It was as if the area was holding its breath until my leap returned. How I wish they would come back...

"Where do we begin?" Zion mused, strolling casually inside. "What are we even looking fo- woah!" He exclaimed, tripping over the worn red rug that ran the length of the hall.

"Are you okay?" Chase asked absentmindedly, staring at the floorboards beneath where the rug had been displaced.

"No! The rug just tried to eat me! Look at it, it's out for blood! Chase, I really- you don't even care, do you?" Zion pouted, and I couldn't help but giggle at the fact a vampire had just accused a rug of being out for blood.

"I'm afraid I can't say that I do. But do you notice anything different about those floorboards, Fabian?"

I frowned, clinging tighter onto Chase's hand as I crouched down to examine them. And sure enough...

"They're a different colour and type of wood to the rest of the floor..." I paused, pushing my ear to the floor and knocking on the discoloured panel. "And it sounds as if there is a room below!"

I released Chase's hand and moved aside to allow him access to the floor. I was a little nervous about what we may find down in the basement, which is why I allowed him to go first.

He pulled up the trapdoor and dropped down gracefully, disappearing for a moment. A moment later, light flooded the room below.

"Oh, it's just the storage room for the water tanks. But why are there so many? Surely these are just for the occurrence of a drought?"

Cautiously, I dropped down after Chase, and I heard Zion follow me. The room didn't exactly appear to shed light onto the mystery of my leap's disappearance, so to say I felt disappointed would be accurate.

The room was huge, though. It definitely spanned the length of the entire house and possibly a bit more. And every single space seemed to house a water tank. And alongside those water tanks, dozens of empty plastic tubs were lines up.

"Weird, they're all connected up to the pipes in the house. No outside water supply seems to be used at all" Chase observed. Zion snorted.

"Yeah? Is that supposed to mean anything?" He retorted.

Chase shrugged, picking up what looked like a plastic tub. "Not alone it doesn't. But with this, it might"

He turns to us, holding out the empty tub so we could read the label. My eyes widened in shock. I've seen that before, in a flashback...

The label read 'Dipothemine'.