I awoke to a commotion down the hall from my room. I looked out a window and saw the sun was already heading for the western horizon. I had slept for more than twelve hours. Everyone had met and discussed the files without me.

The distant voices grew in volume once I opened my door. As I tiptoed down the hallway, I realized it was Jessie and Jason, engaged in an argument.

"Tell your dad this shit isn't funny," Jessie shouted in Jason's face.

"Relax, dude." Jason gently pushed him away.

"This has to be some kind of fucked up joke," Jessie said.

"I can't believe it either."

Jessie paced down the hallway, appearing to have lost interest in berating Jason, who turned and noticed me for the first time. He smiled.

I made a face and kept walking. He caught up to me quickly with his long-legged strides.

I stopped in my tracks, and he lurched to a stop a few feet ahead of me. "What do you want from me?" I asked him bluntly.

He held his hands up as someone might when confronted by police, to show they're unarmed. "I just want to talk. We don't keep many secrets here. I'm curious what you felt the need to lie about."

"We went to the city."

He blinked a few times, as if surprised that I willing to tell him so quickly.

"A guard saw us, we hid in a club, and..." I internally debated whether or not my getting drunk was relevant. "A man recognized me from wanted posters. He dragged me into a bathroom and I got beat up trying to get away. Kyle showed up before...anything more happened."

When I glanced up, he looked just as disgusted at the implication as I had felt that night.

"Kyle took me to the hospital. They freaked out about my blood results."

"Yeah, everyone freaked out today, when my father said we should all be dead. Though he put it in more pleasant terms than that." he paused. "I still don't see why you lied."

I sighed. "You know your dad. You know how he'd react if he knew we deviated from the plan and unnecessarily put ourselves, and by extension everyone here, at risk," I said. "I lost track of the number of times I felt certain I was going to die or get caught. But everything turned out fine. So why does he need to know?"

He nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Okay what?"

"I'm not going to tell anyone. If you tell me one more thing."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Today...this is the most words we've ever spoken to each other," he pointed out. It was true. "Why is that?"

I thought for a moment. "You usually hang out with different people. Plus it's a little weird with your dad always being around."

He nodded understandingly, suddenly looking a bit sullen. We parted ways, with him heading outside to help in the garden and me the cafeteria to eat.

There was an uneasiness in the air. Everyone was eating silently. I grabbed lunch—just potatoes and beans we'd grown ourselves—and sat down at the fullest table beside a few close friends.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Rosalie said playfully. "You have to let me fix your hair." Before I could respond, she seemingly produced a hairbrush from thin air and began brushing the snarls out of my short, jagged hair. "If you had let it go any longer like this, it would have turned to dreadlocks."

There was only silence when there normally would've been laughter. Everyone's minds were in other places, processing what they'd been told, but Rosalie seemed to cope by pretending things were normal.

I stared at the floor. In my periphery, I saw Kyle sit down across the table.

"Dude, you're bleeding," Shaun said. My eyes snapped up to Kyle's face. A droplet of crimson liquid splatted on the table in front of him. He quickly grabbed his nose, stopping the flow of blood.

"Are you okay, man?"

"Just a nosebleed," he replied, but I got the sense that he was trying to reassure himself just as much as he was us.

"You should go see Doc," I suggested. "He probably wants to know about any medical issues, even minor ones, considering what we found."

An alarming amount of blood was dripping onto his food as he tried to eat. He eventually agreed and excused himself.

"How'd the meeting go?" I asked.

"I don't know what I expected," Kole muttered, "but it wasn't...this."

"We still have no idea what the government's motivation is. What did they do to everyone who was taken? Why are they keeping it all secret?" Jade sighed.

As I walked back to my room, I inexplicably felt sobs building behind my ribs, forcing their way into my throat. I couldn't stop them. I entered an unlit, unused corridor and leaned against the wall. The weight of my long-suppressed emotions all pouring out at once was crushing. My legs slipped out from under me, my back sliding down the length of the wall until I hit the ground. Tears spilled from my eyes and my body shook. I pulled my knees against my chest, becoming as small as possible.

I heard footsteps approach, then stop. My vision was too blurred to recognize the figure. I heard someone sit down against the opposite wall, in the darkness. A few minutes passed before I was able to speak.

"I'm a fucking mess."

"Me too." It was Jason.

"Of course it's you," I whispered. "Why? You're so lucky. You have your father."

He took a shaky breath. I couldn't read his face in the shadows. "If this is how we're going to have to live for the rest of our lives, always hiding, I'm not sure it's worth it."

Slowly, I realized he was putting into words exactly how I'd been feeling for so long—the reason for the empty, hopeless feeling in my bones. "But the only alternative is, what, turning ourselves in?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure how much longer I can live like this."

"Me too."

_______

this is rough...well, the whole story is rough, but I wanted to post something

I'm starting college soon, so I'm not sure how I'll proceed with this tbh

It's been fun to write, mostly unplanned, just letting the story flow from my brain :P

I suppose I'll continue if I have the time + motivation