Fan's POV:

I'm startled awake by the loud buzzing noise that was used to wake us all up previously.

Day 3.

I've decided to start counting the days. Every day that we will be trapped here. It's something that can help me take my mind off of the chaos going on around me.

Everything seemed to be happening so fast. It was only a couple days ago that I had first arrived at the new school, and it only took a couple days for it to become a living nightmare.

I sat up drowsily and rubbed my eyes after the rude awakening and sighed when I saw Cobs walk into the room.

Of course it was the same old routine. The one that had happened every day since we got here. Cobs would select a few people to get taken away and experimented on, and then bring them back. This time the person who got taken was Pickle.

I wonder if after all of this, he will let us all go. It's not very likely, we would probably just report him to the police and get him arrested. He's probably gonna kill us after all of this is over.

I looked over at Balloon. His severed arm was still on the floor, but it looked a bit shriveled. Its probably starting to decay. I felt bad for him, I couldn't imagine the pain of getting your arm cut off, especially without numbing. Cobs did numb his arm right?

I doubt it. I wouldnt be surprised if he didn't numb it just to make Balloon suffer. At least it was starting to heal.

I then looked at Lightbulb. She was awake now, but she looked sad, it was odd to me and also a bit concerning. She was always so happy and cheerful before this, but even yesterday I noticed that she was a little down.

I hope she's ok.

Pickle came back in after a while and he looked kind of tired and dizzy. There were stitches in his head. The others hadn't gotten that, im guessing that because Apple died, the scar that shouldve been there went away, and because Lightbulb's head was already broken open, it was... easier for Cobs to get the procedure done I guess.

I waited for Cobs to come in and take someone else away, but he just came in and started talking.

"Another subject was supposed to arrive today, but someone seems to be holding back the process. I will be leaving for a while to figure out who is doing this, so I expect everyone to behave while im gone. If any of you are planning anything or attempting to escape, I will find out." Cobs said.

I hated the sound of his voice and I so badly wanted to cut his arm off just like he did Balloon's.

What am I saying. This isnt me. That would make me no better than he is.

I just looked at the ground and tried to tune out the sound of Cobs talking. When he finally finished I glanced up at him as he walked out. On his way out he bumped the counter next to the doors, accidentally hitting a glass vile and causing a grayish-green liquid to splash on his arm and a bit on the floor.

Cobs shouted in pain then grabbed his arm where the liquid had splashed. I looked on the floor and noticed that the floor was dissolving where the liquid was.

I realized that the liquid was acid. Cobs rubbed his arm and I heard YinYang laugh a bit. "Serves him right." I heard Yang mumble.

Cobs whipped around to look at YinYang causing them to flinch. Cobs glared for a while then left the room. Yin sighed with relief and Yang just started cursing under his breath.

Why does Cobs have acid in the first place? What is he planning to do with that?

I was more worried now than before. I knew that Cobs was planning on doing something with that stuff. I just didn't want to find out what.

Guess we just wait and see...

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Test Tube's POV:

I sat in the Lunchroom waiting for Paintbrush to arrive so we could talk about the plan.

Where are they?

Finally I saw Paintbrush walking in my direction. "There you are! Where were you?" I ask them.

"Sorry, I slept through the alarm. Didnt get much sleep last night so I'm really tired." They respond sitting down at the table I was sitting at. They plopped their head down on the table.

Golly, they really didn't get much sleep did they?

"Lets just get started on this." Paintbrush mumbles. I nod and pull a laptop out of my backpack.

"I can use this to hack into Fan's phone and get the location." I say as I open up the laptop and begin typing in the password.

Paintbrush sits up and just watches. I start trying to hack into Fan's phone, but for some reason it kept cutting off. I tried over and over and eventually my laptop just gave me the "blue screen of death" and shut off.

"Dangit!" I smacked my head down onto the table and Paintbrush jumped up startled. They had dozed off while I was working.

"Wh- huh-?" They mumbled drowsily. "Sorry Paintbrush, I just couldnt get into Fan's Phone and now I might have to do it all over again." I say.

"If it didnt work the first time I doubt its gonna work again." They repsond rubbing their eyes, "lets try the other plan."

With that, Paintbrush pulls out a small camera.

I look at it confused.

"We can send this to- wherever everyone was sent to, and you can use your laptop to watch from it, just connect your laptop to it and you can get the location from there. I have a tracker on it so we can find it once it's there." Paintbrush says handing me the small camera.

I examine it for a bit. "Paintbrush, that is brilliant!" I exclaim excitedly.

Paintbrush smiles and I power my laptop back on and get everything set up, then connect the camera.

We then bring the camera into the gym where the equipment was and set the small camera in front of the bigger one.

I turn on the small camera and give Paintbrush a thumbs up. Paintbrush walks over to the buttons and gives me a thumbs up as well. I then move out of the way, and Paintbrush presses the red button.

I forgot to cover my eyes though so it took a while for my eyes to focus once the flash happened.

"You good?" Paintbrush asks me. "Yeah, just forgot to cover my eyes." I say. Paintbrush snickers a little but then gestures for me to come with them back to the lunchroom.

We head back to the lunchroom and I walk over to my laptop, Paintbrush following behind me.

Me and Paintbrush both high five when we see that the camera made it and was still connected to the laptop.

We look at the scene and notice that the camera ended up in some sort of lab. It seemed very silent until the camera started moving.

"Shoot." Paintbrush says. We both start to panic a bit but we stop once we realize who picked up the camera.

It was Lightbulb. Paintbrush covered their mouth and I quickly turned on the sound on the camera so lightbulb could hear us.

"Lightbulb!" Paintbrush exclaimed. Lightbulb gasped and dropped the camera but then quickly reached down and picked it up again.

"Painty?!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Yeah! Test Tube is here too! Are you ok?! Where are you?!" Paintbrush asked.

"I'm ok but I dont know exactly where I am..." Lightbulb mumbles. We then hear someone else speaking.

"Who are you talking to?" I hear a high-pitch voice ask.

Lightbulb turns the camera to the person who asked the question. It was Balloon, and behind him I could see Fan. They appeared to be in some sort of glass boxes.

"It's Test Tube and Paintbrush!" Lightbulb exclaims happily. Almost immediately, Fan perks up and he jumps up from the spot he was sitting in.

"TEST TUBE?!" Fan runs over and presses his hands against the wall of his box that was closest to Lightbulb.

"Hey Fan!" I say smiling, he couldn't see my smile, but he could tell by the tone of my voice that I was smiling. He smiled back.

"Oh thank goodness!" Fan looked ecstatic. "What happened after the call cut out??? I've been worried sick!" I shout.

"caught me talking to you. He didnt hurt me though, but it was terrifying." Fan mumbled.

I then noticed Balloon's arm. My eyes widened. "WOAH BALLOON WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ARM?!" Paintbrush exclaims before I even had the chance to open my mouth. Guess we noticed at the same time.

Balloon frowns and grabs the part of his arm that was still attached with his other hand. "Cobs cut it off... he used it as some sort of 'punishment.' The teachers caught me watching." He mumbled quietly.

I cringed at the thought.

That jeebweezer really cut off his arm as a punishment?!

"What are you doing?" I hear someone say. But it wasn't coming from the laptop.

I toppled backwards in my seat, but immediately hopped back up and slammed the laptop shut.

Paintbrush nearly fell backwards as well but managed to catch themself. We both looked in the direction of the voice.

I had recognized the voice beforehand and thats what made me so terrified.

It was in fact Cobs. Paintbrush looked like they wanted to punch his face into the floor.

"AHAHA WE WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING!" I shout saying the first things that come to mind. Cobs just stares at me suspiciously.

I chuckle nervously. "Shouldn't you two be in class?" Cobs suddenly speaks.

"What if we dont care about grades." Paintbrush remarks standing up out of their seat and glaring at Cobs. I quickly grab their arm and pull them back down.

"T-they didnt mean that." I chuckle elbowing Paintbrush in the side. They flinch and rub their side but still have a look of rage in their eyes.

Cobs examines us for a moment. "Head to class and maybe I'll spare you from detention." Cobs says as he walks off.

After he was completely out of sight, I deeply exhale. I didnt realize I had been holding my breath. Paintbrush balled their hand into a fist and punched the palm of their other hand.

"I swear the next time I see that sicko-" I put my hand on Paintbrush's shoulder, signifying them to calm down. They glance at me and then inhale deeply, then exhale.

I understand why they are mad, but we need to be careful about what we say to him. We don't know what he's capable of.

"Let's just get to class." I say to Paintbrush. They now look more sad than angry, probably thinking about Lightbulb again.

"We'll get her back." I say to Paintbrush smiling. They smile back.

We get up and head to class.

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Balloon's POV:

I'm glad Test Tube and Paintbrush were able to figure out how to communicate with us. It's nice to know someone cares about us, but I think they are more concerned about Lightbulb and Fan than they are about me.

Im not even really one of their friends, am I? They didnt even seem to care until Fan came to the school. I only know one other person that I would talk to.

Suitcase. I wonder if she misses me.

She was the only one who really stood up for me when Nickel would insult me or treat me unfairly, but then when she transfered schools, I was all alone again.

I haven't had the chance to talk to her in months, and now I dont know if I will ever get the chance to talk to her again.

I glance over at Lighbulb. She has a big smile on her face. "Might wanna hide that camera before Cobs comes back." I say to her.

"Oh! Right! Good idea." She responds. She picks up the camera and looks around for a place she could hide it.

She then takes the camera and puts it inside of the hole in her head.

Fan and I stare at her and she just shrugs.

Better than nothing I guess.

Almost immediately after Lightbulb hid the camera, Cobs walked back into the room. Lightbulbs smile faded when he walked into the room.

"I expect that you all behaved while I was gone?" Cobs examined the room.

Nobody said anything and a lot of people just stared at the floor. Cobs saw that nothing was different and smiled to himself.

Surprisingly Cobs didnt say anything more and left the room. I heard Fan exhale when he left. It sounded like he had been holding his breath.

"When we get out of here I swear I'm gonna kill that guy." I hear Knife say from the other end of the line of boxes.

"Who says we ever will get out?" I hear Yang say. YinYang then punches themself, or, I guess Yin punches Yang. "Quit being so negative!" Yin fussed. Yang rolled his eyes.

"Guys stop arguing, thats not gonna get us anywhere." OJ demands. That was the first time I had heard OJ speak since we had gotten here.

"Shut up OJ! You arent part of this!" Yang snaps. "Don't tell me to shut up! Im trying to help!" OJ yells back. "We're all stuck here and none of us want to hear your arguing!"

"WELL AT LEAST YOU WEREN'T STABBED MULTIPLE TIMES!!!" Yang shouts angrily. By this time, Yin had gone completely silent, not wanting to get stuck in the middle of the argument.

I covered my ears. I didnt like the arguing. Fan looked like he wanted to do something to help but he couldnt due to the fact that his box was the farthest away from theirs and he couldnt get any closer.

After a long time of yelling at eachother Yang finally snapped. He punched the wall of his box that was closest to OJ with all of his strength and left a huge crack in the wall.

OJ Gasped and fell backwards, spilling a little of his juice on the floor.

Unfortunately for YinYang, Cobs had walked in at the exact moment Yang punched the wall, and immediately assumed it was an escape attempt.

OJ glanced and saw Cobs walking over to YinYangs box, and YinYangs face turned from anger to fear. YinYang backed away from the wall they had punched and tried backing away as far as possible to avoid Cobs.

Oh no...

Cobs opened the door to YinYangs box. "So you're attempting to escape huh? Why am I not surprised." Cobs says grabbing YinYang's arm. "Wait wait wait this is a big misunderstanding!" Yin says frantically trying to pull away from Cobs.

Cobs ignores Yin and begins to drag them out of the room.

"Wait he's telling the truth!" OJ yells causing Cobs to stop in his tracks and turn around to look at OJ.

OJ flinched when Cobs looked at him but continued to talk anyway. "We- we had an argument and Yang got mad and tried to punch me- but accidentally broke the wall instead-" OJ says trying to stay calm. YinYang was just staring, still looking terrified.

Cobs examines OJ skeptically, but then tosses YinYang back into their box. OJ sighs with relief. He clearly didnt want to see another person suffer here.

Cobs shut the door to YinYang's box. "I'll take care of the crack later." He says before leaving the room again. Yin began crying and thanking OJ, and Yang was just trying to hide the fact that he appreciated it.

I was glad nobody really got hurt today, except for Pickle... he seemed kind of traumatized... but other than that nothing too bad seemed to happen.

The lights then shut off. We already know what that means. I lay down, trying to get comfortable. Its a bit hard since my arm isn't healed yet, but i'll get used to it.

I'm glad that Test Tube and Paintbrush are one step closer to getting us out of here, we can actually communicate and they can find help.

Maybe we do have a chance of getting out of here after all.

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