Freddy opened his hatch and tossed me on top of what I would describe as an operating table. Before I could react, he held tightly onto my wrists, grasping them with one claw and tying them together with the other in duct tape. I frantically kicked at him, but he withstood my strikes, and before long he had my two hands taped together. He pulled out what looked like a hot glue gun, attached to an outlet I couldn't see, and extracted a mountain of the paste on the table. I tried to pull my wrists away, but he retaliated by slamming my fists into the burning adhesive, and I hit my head on the table from the force. I let out a scream as my hands burned, but Freddy kept his weight on it. I squirmed in place, trying to escape, but it became even more difficult to maneuver around while on my side.

"Stop! Stop, please!" I begged through ragged breaths, but Freddy didn't move an inch. It felt as if my wrists were sizzling, and though he was gluing the tape down, it still reached my skin. I continued crying out, even if I knew Freddy wouldn't let go. It was just impossible for me to sit still while it torched my hands. My eyesight was becoming blurry from my tears, and the cold wet it left on my cheeks and nose starkly contrasted with the heat spreading through my hands.

When it cooled down–or it felt numb, I couldn't tell–he strapped down my wrists one last time, attaching them to the edge of the table. He could've just used that from the beginning, but Vanny most definitely wanted me to suffer as much as possible in my final moments, even if that meant using nonsensical methods.

I hadn't given up yet, and when Freddy retracted into the corner of the room, I pulled my body back trying to free myself, but they just wouldn't budge. I tried curling up and kicking it, but still, nothing, and when I saw the blood leftover on my sock, I felt disheartened. With nothing else I could do, I shuddered as I continued crying, trying to remain silent as if that'd keep my dignity.

Freddy wasn't crowding around me anymore, and I spent this time getting used to my surroundings. It was dark, and what lit up the room were neon signs that were flickering and falling apart. It smelled awful, like something was decomposing nearby, but I tried not to focus on the scent. Across from me was another table, but it had a small computer and chair as well. I could hear rats scurrying around, but I couldn't see the floor well from this angle. There were two entrances that I could see; a door and an open air vent in the wall. Freddy just stood expectantly at the door, until he suddenly grabbed onto the handle and opened it, and someone walked in.

"Vanessa...?" I muttered weakly. She wore Vanessa's clothes; the white buttoned up shirt and black tie, with the black pants to go with it. Her hair was now up in a bun unlike her usual ponytail, but her face was clear to see. She even had that mark on her face left from when Michael had fought her before catching her in Mazercise. My mind began racing with thoughts as I struggled to come to terms with wild thoughts. I thought I confirmed she and Vanny weren't the same! Did she trick me? Was she lying the whole time? I didn't understand how they could be the same. I wanted to yell and scream at her, but all I could do was whimper, "No, no, no," over and over again.

"She is my spitting image, isn't she?" the woman said, and now I wasn't sure who was in front of me. She rested her hands on the table and leaned in close. "I can assure you, Vanessa and I are not the same."

I shivered when I felt her breath on my ear. I hid my face between my arms not wanting to look at her, and I heard her step away. If she isn't Vanessa, then she must be Vanny, but how? She looks just like Vanessa. Were they identical twins? But then how would Vanessa not know her real name?

"She made it to the end of the maze," she explained, almost sounding disgusted when talking about Vanessa. "You should've seen the look on her face when she saw me waiting."

She brought her hand up to her face and touched her sore. "Your daddy sure does love you. Who knew he had such a punch?" she commented condescendingly. I was putting the pieces together, little by little, but it was hard with how much she withheld. It sounded as if Vanessa made it to the end and then she took her place. Michael didn't notice the difference and assumed that the woman he caught was Vanessa. But if that was true...

Vanny purposefully revealed Michael was my father. She must've been hoping I'd react the way I did. This was my fault. It's my fault. Oh, God...

"Have I officially broken you?" she asked from afar. She sounded as if she had her back turned to me, but I didn't want to move my head to look. "That's a shame. I wanted to see you struggle." I dug my head further down, now feeling the cold table on my face. I knew it wasn't true, but I wanted to believe that if I didn't look at her, she'd leave me alone.

Vanny suddenly pulled my head back from my hair, forcing me to look at her. In her other hand was a syringe, and I immediately started wriggling around, as if that'd get me away from her. She wrapped a band around my upper arm, cutting off a portion of my circulation.

"Hold still," she ordered, and she brought the needle closer to my arm.

"No, please no," I pleaded, kicking my legs as it was the only thing I could do as she inserted it into my vein. The unexpected piercing caused me to let out a weak scream and strike my foot into her abdomen. She hadn't anticipated it, and the force that shocked her made her arm unsteady. The needle punctured further than it should have before probing back up, tearing into my vein. I let out a screech of pain while Vanny scowled at me.

"I told you to hold still!" she yelled. She quickly injected whatever was in the syringe before quickly removing it. It hurt feeling it move through me.

"Great, now you've got blood everywhere," she complained, but I went back to softly crying as I felt my arm ache. It was bleeding quite a bit, but the arm band was likely constricting most of it. I couldn't attempt to pull my hands out again, as it caused my arm to throb more. I didn't know what Vanny had injected me with, but I didn't care. I just tried not to focus on my arm bleeding out in front of me.

Vanny grabbed onto my arm and took off the band, rubbing it a bit as she attempted to remove the denting. The bleeding continued on my lower arm, and she squeezed it as a poor attempt to apply pressure. I let out a gust of air, trying to hold back a scream from the pain. She thought out loud, "Hm... You should be dead." I closed my eyes and tried to block her out.

She tried to caress my face, but I turned my head to stop her. She then forcefully grabbed my chin to make me look at her. "You really do look just like him," she said, examining my face. She didn't need to elaborate any further, I knew exactly who she was talking about. "Of course, the two of you are nothing alike," she continued. I already knew that.

"You were put at a disadvantage. It's not your fault you're so... mediocre," she said. "Parents try to say they have no favorites, but of course they do. He saved your mother, after all."

I had no idea what she was talking about. My brother may have been ambitious, but a hero wasn't one of the words ever used to describe him.

"Well, not literally," Vanny finally clarified, "but him being born set her record straight. That isn't very common, you know."

Oh, I supposed that made more sense. I wasn't aware my mother's addiction problems were from before Evan and I were even born, but from what Vanessa said, it seemed as though they reached much further into the past than I originally knew. Then she got clean for us, and relapsed after his passing. I didn't know if that made it better or worse.

"It's only natural for Evan to be her favorite," Vanny declared. I already knew Mom liked him more, but even so, her words pierced my heart.

"Vanessa and I are kinda like that," she said. I hated the way she was talking to me, as if this was a normal situation and she was just a friend. "'Course, I'm William's favorite, while Vanessa is still behind. I'm the brains, she's the brawn. She's also the heart, the stupid, and the pathetic. Just like you."

She took a breath as she recalled the past. "But Evan and I? We were unstoppable. He believed that we were going to take on the world together. He had no idea there were two Vanessas," she said.

I finally managed to squeak out my own words, "What did you do to him?" Vanny seemed surprised by this, and she put her head back as she thought.

"December twelfth, six years ago. It was his golden birthday. Turning twelve on the twelfth of the twelfth month. Needless to say, he thought it was going to be his year," she said, chuckling to herself a bit. I recoiled from her carefree attitude.

"Even though it was his birthday, all he wanted to do was help me with my little project. I'll admit, I admired his work ethic. He was just a kid, but he knew exactly what he wanted out of the world," she said. Her words angered me. She doesn't get to reminisce about him like that after what she did to him.

"You look confused," she noted. I was a little confused, but I wasn't going to admit that. "Evan and I met way before his birthday. Doesn't matter how long, just know that by the day of his death, he believed we were friends."

I couldn't imagine how terrified he must've been. I didn't know if Vanny was lying to me or not, but the idea of a friend betraying you so harshly... I trembled in place.

"I told Vanessa that we'd have to kill him that day," she declared. "She knew I'd been planning it for a while, but because of that silly heart of hers, she was hesitant. His death ended up taking much longer than I had anticipated."

What was that supposed to mean? She didn't torment him like this, did she? I sincerely hoped not.

"Did he suffer long? Yes, yes he did," Vanny answered her own question. I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to hear about all the pain my brother went through in his final moments.

Vanny most likely knew how much I didn't want her to continue, so of course she kept speaking. "Maybe he's the reason I find the lead up to be much more gratifying than the actual murder. Watching him squirm, cry for help, gurgle his blood... And when I finally got bored, I smashed his head in. His brains spilled out like the guts of a pumpkin after being squashed."

I gagged at that visual. I could envision what it was like for him, covered in blood and his voice breaking as he begged for mercy. Evan... I'm so sorry. I wished I could've done something, anything to help him, but I was too young. I had no idea he even knew Vanessa and Vanny while he was alive, though Vanny made it seem as if he wasn't aware of her existence.

"You've been fun to watch, too. The most fun I've had since him. You should feel honored," she said. That didn't make me feel better. I wished I could do something to shut her up, but she seemed to be enjoying herself during this one-sided conversation.

"But back to Evan, it turned out I'd killed him wrong, believe it or not. William apparently needed his brain intact. Oops," she said, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal. I almost couldn't believe it. How could she be so heartless?

"Now you're probably thinking, 'What the hell are you talking about, Vanny?'" she said, as if that was some kind of revelation. Obviously, I was lost during this, and she didin't have to make me feel stupid for having trouble following along. "William exists now, as an AI in his old springlock suit, but he doesn't want to remain a robot forever. He wants to try something new. You and Evan were the best candidates."

"He believes you and Evan may have possessed properties similar to remnant," she explained. "You were conceived after Michael was injected with it, after all. What if you two were born immortal?"

I... hadn't even thought about that before. Well, I supposed I didn't have much time to think about it, as I only recently discovered our lineage. How did Michael's remnant affect me, if it did at all?

"That was the theory at first," Vanny said, "but then Evan died after that blow to the head, so maybe not immortal, but there's certainly something different with you two... His smarts, your... something. We still have to discover what makes you so special." She chuckled a bit. I ignored that blatant insult. How was I supposed to react to that?

But... It was interesting to think about. I didn't know if I agreed with it, though. I didn't think either of us had something in our blood like that. I would've noticed by now. Evan was just intelligent for his age.

"Being tasked to push you to your limits has been quite entertaining, and once you eventually die, you and William would swap places," Vanny said.

That felt out of place. What was this leading to? I glared at her, studying her face as I tried to read her, but she was so confusing.

"You've ever seen Freaky Friday ?" she said, and I just felt even more confused. "Imagine that, but forever. He'd use your body to live, and you'd either join the Amalgamation or take his suit or maybe even Heaven." She laughed at the word "Heaven," clearly not believing in such a place.

Swap places? She wanted William and I to literally swap places? I felt sick. I couldn't imagine William living as me, much less me living as William. This felt unreal, impossible, improbable, like random nonsense she was spewing out just to mess with me.

"While we waited for you to get older, we tested something else," Vanny said. "Specifically, we tried to recreate what Henry had done, but more controlled. A possessed animatronic, with several melted souls, working together. Evan was the first."

No... What else could she have possibly done to him? What was the point? She killed him, what more could she want from him?

"We've had souls intertwine with each other in the past, but that was pure coincidence. We wanted to push the limits of possession. There's still so much about remnant that we don't understand," she said. She talked as if she was proud of her discoveries.

"You will be part of our most ambitious experiment yet," she declared. "Whether it works or not, we don't know, but if it does, I hope you feel satisfied knowing your death won't be meaningless."

She didn't even know if it was going to work? Being a sacrifice is bad enough, but knowing that it might not even work... I'd die without any significance.

"So, as a reward for surviving so long, why don't you choose how you'll die? So long as it doesn't ruin your brain, anything goes," Vanny said. She grinned down at me, knowing that I wouldn't want to make any kind of decision like that.

"No, no," I pleaded, feeling my tear ducts fill up again. I didn't know if I was just too weak or if I was losing my voice, but every noise I made was so quiet. I didn't even feel like I could scream anymore. "Please, no," I implored.

"Oh, you want me to choose? How gracious of you!" Vanny said with delight. I shook my head as I felt my eyes get heavy. She moved away from me and walked across the room to get something.

My breaths became shorter and shorter as I began to panic. I felt my whole body shudder as I attempted once more to free myself of the restraints, but they still wouldn't budge.

"Don't do this," I begged between gasps. She walked back with a knife in hand, and I went back to wriggling around. She put her free hand on my side and I shivered from her touch. She scanned me up and down, debating where she'd strike first.

"Relax," she said, rubbing her hand along me until she reached my leg, "I'm not going to kill you just yet." I didn't know if I should be relieved or more terrified. She traced her hand along my lower leg, and I tried to kick her again. She expected it this time and took a step back to dodge my strike.

She glanced over at me and smiled. "I have to make sure you can't run away," she murmured. I didn't need her to explain any further. I brought my legs closer to me as if that'd stop her.

"Grab his ankles," she ordered Freddy. He maneuvered through the room and reached out to me. His claws dug into my skin once again, and I tried to pull my legs out of his grasp, to no avail. He kept my legs straight along the table as I trembled.

"Stop, please! Please," I wept. My throat hurt from all my crying, and when I raised my voice it cracked uncomfortably. Vanny basked in my malaise before slicing into my calf. I let out a loud screech of pain as she carved through my muscle, leading up to the back of my kneecap. She slowly tore it out, and Freddy let go. I instinctively cowered my legs closer to me and sobbed, feeling my intense pulse push through my body and exit as it bled.

Vanny rubbed my arm with her bloody hand, pretending to console me. I bit back my insults as she leaned in close.

"Don't–Don't touch me!" I yelled at her, trying to pull away my shoulder from her grasp, but I couldn't move it far due to my hands still being tied to the same place on the table. She put her knife down on the table in front of my abdomen, pointing it towards me, and placed her hands on the strap around mine. She slowly unbuckled it and tore the glue that had hardened off of me, peeling it like dried skin. I yelped from the stinging it left. She examined the burn closely, making a mental note of its condition. I didn't know what the purpose was, but I started to believe that she was throwing as much at me as she could before I was on death row, believing something was different about me because of this remnant I may have inherited.

She made me get off the table and land on the floor with my feet. The pressure that shocked through my newly torn muscle hurt like hell, and I bent my leg up so that I was leaning on my untouched leg while the other had minimal force on it. My heart palpitated, and I swore that when my injured leg hit the floor, the blood rushed through faster.

I could theoretically run, but the way my leg burned whenever I took a step prevented me from doing so. I wasn't stupid, I knew Vanny was tortuing me. Rather than tie me up completely, making me completely vulnerable, she'd rather I have a way that could escape, but would force me to go through so much pain in order to do so. This way, my death was ultimately on me, as the way out was clear and open, and I just... couldn't run.

I leaned onto Vanny while I tried to keep my balance on my one good leg. She pushed me to Freddy, and I stumbled back and caught myself with my injured leg before Freddy grabbed onto my tied hands and held me close. I cried some more, a mixture of the severe stinging in my leg and the horrors I was facing.

"Why... what..." I couldn't even get my sentences out as I tried to think, but it was impossible to focus enough. I wasn't going to let Vanny break me so easily, but it was getting difficult to pull myself together.

"William isn't far," Vanny said, ignoring me. Oh God, was she going to make me limp all the way there? I shook my head in a weak attempt to indicate I didn't want to go. Even if I didn't have this injury, there was no way I wanted to meet him.