Kidnapped, put through tests, but then released with a cliffhanger

Date: 5/2/2020

This story is long and skips around a bit, so I’m just listing whatever I remember really. Basically, the dream started off with me and a bunch of other kids getting kidnapped and brought to this building near a mostly abandoned beach. The beach itself seemed like a run-down tourist spot; a few people milled about in cheap flowery shirts and cargo shorts, wearing wilted flower chains around their necks and snapping photos of a below-average view of the ocean. The sand was so course that the boardwalk, which was smartly built very big, was where everyone stayed. A few buildings lurked on the boardwalk, most of which were abandoned, although there was like one tiny ice cream shop right near the water that was still in business. The water itself was dark and stormy even near the shallows, if you could even call them that, since the water level quickly deepened to the point where swimming here was a hazard all on its own- not to mention the fact that sharks, dangerous jellyfish, and more swam around below the waters, mostly unseen but definitely known. Occasionally you’d spot a fin stick above the water or see a splash and wonder what it could’ve been; even then the water was so dark, such a deep, navy bluish gray, that any pictures taken here would turn out terrible. The sky was a pale, ghostly blue, dotted with clouds sometimes, and the sun a harsh white light that provided no warmth in the frigid air. It was quite chilly for a beach, even year round, and the common breezes didn’t help at all. Tourists who’d under packed often looked regretful, shivering in their bikinis and short-sleeved tropical wear. The few people that lived on/near this beach- which consisted of the three person family running the ice cream shop, an old washed up fisherman, and some old couple that only ever came down to stare at the ocean wistfully- were always seen bundled up with a mix of fall and summer clothing: thin long-sleeved shirts with ankle length jeans, a scarf wrapped around their neck and sturdy sandals on their feet- perhaps even a woolen hat if it was extra cold, maybe fingerless gloves- and always, ALWAYS a pair of sunglasses, pushed to their head or hanging from their shirts, unused. The building we were kept in was down near the far left end of the boardwalk, where nobody ever went. A few tourists might pass by but none even turned to look, which was surprising because of how big of a building it was. It must’ve been a hotel at some point, but now it was so broken down, with crumbling bricks and boarded up windows, that nobody even spared it a second glance. Inside, however, had been quite fixed up. More sturdy, plastic type boards had been set up behind every window, framed by newly-installed plain metal walls, complete with visible screws and nails along the borders and in every corner. The floor had been poured over with plain, smooth concrete, sometimes painted white or black but mostly just gray, gray, gray. The rooms themselves had been secured with password locked doors, each made of heavy wood framed by thick metal, locked double or triple times. The interior was pretty basic. From what I could tell- after all, I was a sort of prisoner here so I only knew the places I’d been allowed to go- but from what I could tell, there were a few main places that formed your basic jail setting. On the third floor, the hotel’s bedrooms had been remodeled to create prison rooms. The peeling wallpaper had been scraped clean and the walls bleached, sometimes padded with metal slabs wherever there had been a hole or crack, and the floors had, just like everything else, been covered over with smooth concrete. The furniture from the original hotel was long gone, replaced with small beds that were most likely some of the cheapest money could buy. They had a basic metal frame, no headboard or footboard, and no legs; the beds sat on the ground, literally just a rectangle frame of metal that held up a patched, broken mattress. The springs had been removed from the mattress, leaving only uncomfortable, bumpy stuffing to rest on. There weren’t any pillows and the only blankets were thin sheets, so small it was impossible to fit underneath of them. At least, impossible for me- although I’m so small I somehow doubt it was just me who couldn’t fit. Other than the beds, the rooms had no other furniture. Usually there were two or three beds in a room but a few of the other rooms had only one. Those kids were considered unlucky because in a situation like this, loneliness could be unbearable. At least, I’d assume. I was lucky enough to room with three other girls, and I was probably only this lucky because I’d been one of the first people there. As the rooms filled up, the only ones left became the lonely rooms, so getting kidnapped first had a few benefits. In addition to having roommates, being kidnapped first also let me learn my way around before our kidnapper started having us do what we’d been brought in to do. In the dream, I’d been mostly very calm about all of this. When I was kidnapped I’d been hit over the head, hard, so now I had a bandaged head that throbbed whenever I moved around too fast. But I considered myself lucky, since one of the girls in my room- a heavier girl with shoulder length blue hair and a kind face- had been hit much worse. She’d been hit over the front of her head, and the impact had broken her glasses. I was not so unlucky, as I still had my glasses in one piece. But the girl who’s glasses had been broken had been given them back with so much duct tape and superglue around them, they barely fit on her face. Which was also doing a lot worse than mine. Her nose had been badly scraped by her broken glasses, her lip had been broken open in several places, and she had a gash on her forehead that bled so heavily in the first few days, she kept getting taken out of the room to replace her bandages. I was very perturbed by the whole situation, since usually kidnappers didn’t act this way, as far as I knew. None of the girls in my room had even seen the kidnapper, and the ones in other rooms who had, recalled hardly anything. The kidnapper had been wearing all black, including a black hood and mask. They couldn’t even tell what sex the kidnapper was, which would help only in theory, since the chances of anyone escaping to go tell authorities seemed next to zero. From our bedroom ‘window,’ we got just barely a glimpse of the boardwalk. The metal bumped out from the actual window a bit, and if we angled ourselves right we could see through to get a peek at the boardwalk. But there was no way anyone below would, or even could see us. Even if they looked up, the angle at which we had to position ourselves to see out would block us from their view. It was nice to see something other than our rooms, though; something other than gray concrete and metal, bleached walls. The third girl in our room was a brunette who was very angry, as opposed to scared. She seemed like the sporty kind, especially when you looked at her clothes, which were all name brand. I admired her spirit but it was a bit tiring, and I was worried it’d get us all in trouble with the kidnapper. I wasn’t very scared myself, like I said, I was pretty calm, if not confused and tired. And bored, especially. I was so bored I even started singing, which I never do in front of people, ESPECIALLY people I don’t know. But I guess these girls were kind of my new roommates, and besides, we were all victims together. I doubted they’d be judging me on my singing abilities. A strange thing was that we had all been stripped of certain items. All shoes had been taken, we only had socks, and that’s if we were wearing socks before we got here. Any jewelry, including piercings, was also confiscated to who-knows-where. Any drawstrings, from pants of sweatshirts or what have you, were taken as well. Buttons from shirts had been taken away. Hair accessories had been taken too, with the exception of one girl who had been wearing a scrunchie. For whatever reason, she’d been allowed to keep it. Or maybe the kidnapper just missed it when they were taking all of this stuff from our unconscious bodies. Whatever the case, we were all growing anxious. The rest of the building consisted of three ‘areas’: The food area, which was a wide, lobby-like area on the first floor. The ground was black concrete and there were no tables or chairs. One of the walls had a tiny slat, made with metal that rounded off at the bottom, almost like one of those ticket areas made smaller and turned from glass to metal. We could reach just our hands through to grab flimsy plastic trays with food on them. The food was just average, no better than school food, but nobody was complaining. After all, at least this kidnapper didn’t turn out to be a crazy cannibal who made us eat our own skin or something terrible. In comparison the soggy burgers seemed delicious. After eating on the hard floor, we’d return the trays back into that slot on the wall. I remember when I first got there, along with a group of about seven other girls, we were hesitant about what to do. We were the first here and didn’t know anything. I suggested we just put them back and that seemed to work. The second ‘area’ was a bathroom / shower area. I was especially thankful for this because a kidnapper definitely didn’t have to give us showers or anything. Whoever this person was, they weren’t too bad, as of now. The floor was a smooth concrete that was layered over with a smoother, clear plastic material, making the floor a bit slippery. There were three long benches where everyone sat their clothes, and then there were a few rows of classic bathroom stalls, nothing special. Except the toilets flushed quickly and really low, and had no lids or buttons or anything- they were automatic. Also, the toilet paper was kept with no cardboard roll inside, just sat on the back of the toilet. On the opposite wall from the toilets there was one long countertop, on top of which there was what looked like a single, long sink. The drain of the sink was smooth and tiny, built in the center. All along this ‘single’ think there were little faucets, maybe ten in total. They were evenly spaced and had no knobs; like the toilets they were automatic. They spewed a quick, five second burst of mildly warm water. There was only a small dispenser of soap on either side of the counter, which dispensed the tiniest amount of watered-down soap, presumably originally a pearly white color. It smelled like lavender. There were no towels or hand dryers, which pissed a few of the girls off, but as someone who normally just wipes their hands on the front of their jeans anyways, I didn’t particularly mind. On one corner of the countertop there was a holder with about twenty some slots, each holding a brand new plastic toothbrush. There was no toothpaste but I was still extremely glad for the toothbrush. We each called our own and had our own designated spot; mine was a red toothbrush in the third spot from the right. In this bathroom area, there was also a little place with about twenty showers. It was pretty impressive considering the size of the room. With the bathroom stalls to your left, and the benches in the middle of the room, then the shower area was located straight ahead, opposite of the entrance to the room. There was a huge doorway- more of just an opening really- that led to another room almost exactly the same size as the last. This room, however, had only showers in it. They lined the walls, going in a ring around the room, each very simple. There was a plastic white curtain, no rings, hung over a plastic shower rod. Inside there was a shower head built into the ceiling, which was pretty luxurious considering the situation. There was a small knob tucked into the corner at about chest level, with a very smooth, almost soft knob that turned left and right; all the way left was off, and the more right you went, the hotter it got. The floor of the shower was plain concrete with some sort of porous surface that absorbed and drained the water. The water itself never went past mildly warm. On the benches there were always just enough towels laid out, depending on how many girls there were, smelling fresh and clean. We put the towels back on the benches when we finished showering. The final ‘area’ was kind of an unknown. We were taken there once every day- and by taken, I mean the doors unlocked to lead us there and only there, leaving us with the choice of either staying in place or going through the newly unlocked doors- and it was entirely empty. The room itself was large, on the first floor, and had probably been a lobby back when it was a hotel. The floor was white stained concrete, and the walls that same bleached white with patches of metal. In the center of the room there was a rectangle of black paint, perfectly painted and angled as if it had been meant to measure out something. We all puzzled over what this room meant, but eventually gave up and used it as a social room instead. After all, we were locked in our rooms all night and morning until we ate and used the bathrooms. It was nice for everyone there to talk. Which also brings up the question of why we didn’t just refuse to go into our rooms, or all go into one room- honestly, the real reason was because we knew we were supposed to. This kidnapper had been nice so far but we didn’t really wanna test that. Eventually there was at least twenty some girls there. The bathrooms were always completely full, every shower and toothbrush used, and mealtimes were kind of noisy in comparison to the whispered chatter that went on in my first few days being kidnapped. It had been almost a week and I was starting to miss family and friends, wondering what they were thinking and if they were super worried about me, but I was at the very least glad for the company of the other girls. Not to mention quite a few of them I actually liked- not just because we were kidnapped together with nobody else to be friends with / talk to, but also because I genuinely liked them as a person. The brunette girl in my room was one of them. I liked the energy she gave off, and how passionate she was. Plus, with nothing else to talk about, we ended up discussing our interests, and it turned out we had a lot in common there. Even though she was sportsy, she loved video games as much as I did, and by the sound of it she just as good, if not better than me at Beat Saber. We even went as far to exchange our usernames for steam, oculus, and various other multiplayer games (through memory only of course) for when (if) we ever got out of this place. Luckily we both tended to use the same username for everything, or at least similar usernames for everything. We spent quite some time discussing different games and geeky stuff. She also turned out to actually kind of like literature- or at least, a few types of it anyways. And seeing as I’m a complete nerd I get super excited at the mention of any type of literature, so when she mentioned she enjoyed The Hunger Games and a few Shakespeare titles, I was thrilled to engage in discussions about them, and even more surprising was the fact that she also seemed to enjoy discussing that sort of stuff. She also talked about her sports- she played volleyball and soccer, apparently, and was very good at them both- and although I didn’t have any knowledge about any of them, at all, she was more than happy to explain them to me, along with different ‘plays’ she was proud of and her favorite moments in her games. I still didn’t fully understand what she was talking about the whole time but it sounded interesting and she sounded really good at it, so I tried my best to discuss sports with her and was super supportive whenever she told stories about her favorite moments or whatever. We became fast friends which is funny considering we were both victims of kidnapping that would’ve never met otherwise, she literally lived in a different state and even though she travelled for sports, I don’t ever go to sports games or anything so I wouldn’t have met her either way. Another girl I kind of became friends with was a cute girl with super short pink hair, and who apparently used to have a lip piercing. She wore extreme pastels and probably would’ve looked like a Tik Tok ‘soft girl’ if she had access to makeup. However she was very quiet and shy, like me except somehow ever shyer, and she was a total nerd like me. We read pretty much all the same books, even when it came to manga, and she also watched quite a bit of anime, some of which I was a fan of too. We talked about that but mostly just enjoyed each other’s company because we were both pretty quiet and liked the rare peace. Plus, she and I made a pretty smart pair; with our combined observations and inferences, we figured out a lot about where we were, and made lots of plausible guesses as to WHY we were here. We both figured from the way the entire thing was set up, that this whole kidnapping had been planned out for a while. And the way that we were kidnapped right when we were alone / vulnerable suggested the kidnapper knew our schedules and knew us well enough to be able to find us at our ‘weakest’ and bring us here. That, plus the fact that we were from such varying places- all across the country, in fact- caused both of us to agree that the kidnapper had chosen us specifically for some reason, and that the kidnapper had been watching us and planning our capture for a while as well. We also agreed that the kidnapper was going to have us do something, perhaps use us for a test or do some sort of sick ‘game’ like in the movies, or maybe even to groom us before selling us into labor or on the black market. Also, the fact that we were all girls pointed to a worrying purpose as well. The kidnapper wouldn’t go through all the work of capturing us AND treating us this well without a full purpose. We made a bunch of guesses as to what that purpose was. We were in an oddly specific place, an empty place. Maybe we were just being kept here, well groomed and well fed, until we could be illegally sold somewhere. Perhaps the reason why we were chosen had to do with the requirements of whoever was buying us. Maybe we were being well-kept so that we’d be more able to be put into child labor- although I doubt that someone would single me out as a kid who would be a prime candidate for child labor, seeing as I wasn’t the most physically fit, especially compared to some of the girls like the brunette. Maybe we were going to be put into some sort of twisted, illegal experiment. That would explain the variation between us girls. And maybe said experiment was one having to do with young females as the subjects, which is why we were all high school age girls. We were being well-kept as one of the control variables. We never actually came to a solid conclusion, but it felt nice to be able to ponder it, and to talk it out. It made me feel productive and gave me more of a feeling of preparedness, or maybe just less of a feeling of confusion and ignorance. Anyways, I was at this kidnapping place for about two weeks before anything actually happened. The rooms were all full and the bathrooms were put into timed rotations- not by the kidnapper, but just as a rule we agreed on together- so that everyone would be able to shower and use the bathroom. We also decided we’d use the showers to wash our clothes too, since all we had were the clothes we came in. It was a bit awkward to have to either walk around in just a towel for an hour, or to wear wet clothes, but it worked. The room where we ate (which we only ate lunch and dinner, not breakfast) was pretty full as well, there wasn’t nearly as much free space now. And the lobby type room actually seemed much smaller now that there were enough people to spread evenly throughout it. We went to our bedrooms as normal at the end of the day, knowing time only by the schedules made by the doors and the small amount of light coming through the crack in our covered window. I was sitting on my ‘bed’ talking to the brunette girl, who was also up. We were whispering because the other girls were in bed too, most of them probably sleeping. The blue haired girl was laying in her bed too, eyes closed and softly humming something; we left her undisturbed. She was talking about a soccer game of hers where it had been really close- she was talking about how she managed to make the shot that won them the game, and despite not liking sports, I was invested in the almost story-like quality of it. She was just getting to the point where she describes her wild dash across the field, seconds ticking down till the end of the game, and preparing to kick it into the goal from farther away than seemed possible- when I hear a voice coming from above our heads. “Hello, everyone,” the voice says. It crackles and I realize it’s coming from a speaker, hidden in the walls or ceiling somewhere. The voice is definitely female, and definitely older than us. Maybe late twenties or early thirties if I had to guess a specific age. The voice continues to introduce herself- Mayfly, she says, is what you can call me. May works as well, apparently. May continues to talk crisply over the speakers: she’s finally gathered everyone she needed, and now we would finally begin. “I bet you’re all curious as to why you’re here,” she says, and I hear a girl in another room somewhere shout “no shit!” May explains that we’re all here for a very good reason. She’s trying to find a specific person, a “very special person,” however the identity of this person is unknown. She managed to narrow it down using “science and math, above all else,” and we were the ‘final candidates’ as to who this person is. She doesn’t say what’s so special about this person, only that they probably won’t know they’re special, so it’s no use asking around. She says that starting tomorrow we’ll begin a series of tests to narrow down the choices even more, and will continue similarly until she finds the “special” person who she’s looking for. The speaker cuts off after that and everyone is silent for a moment. Then I hear murmuring begin, in all of the rooms. “Wonder what’s so special about this person?” asks the brunette. “I wonder what we all have in common, that she managed to narrow her choices down to- out of everyone in the whole world, we have something they don’t. I really wonder what it is?” I say slowly. We all ponder these questions, and more, but come to no conclusions. If anything, thinking about it all only brings up more questions. What are these tests? How will they narrow down the choices? What will happen to the girls who don’t make the cut in these tests? Will they be set free? Forced to stay here, but kept out of future tests? Or worse, killed? And what about the special person this woman’s looking for? What will be done with them? What is so special about them, that this woman has gone through all of this work and probably more, just to find them? Why is this special person specifically a teenage girl? With more and more questions coming to mind, and with the answers seeming a million miles away, I decide to go to sleep. I tell the other two girls that we should probably try and do the same, so that we can be well-rested for these so-called “tests” tomorrow. We all try but I feel our combined anxiousness and confusion mingling in the air, as we lay in our beds staring at the ceiling, unable to clear our minds. I end up sleeping a solid six hours that night, give or take a bit, which I consider good sleep, seeing as most of the girls probably slept for only three or four. When the doors unlock we go to the bathroom area like normal, except everyone’s talking anxiously in hushed voices. The tension in the air is almost palpable. I make sure to clean myself extra, as well as to scrub my shirt, although I can’t say why. I just feel the need to be extra prepared, and there’s not much else I can do. We eat lunch like normal and I make sure to eat all of it, even the disgusting parts, and drink every drop from the plastic water bottle. We brush our teeth and use the bathroom again- I take the time to clean every inch of my teeth and even brush out my hair using my fingers, which is a nightmare because of how long it is. But I feel really refreshed and a little more prepared after I’ve brushed and braided my hair, washed my face again (even after already having showered), putting some hard soap from the shower under my arms as deodorant (it works surprisingly well), and cleaning my clothes. I guess the extra hygiene lets me feel extra energized or something. Then, we’re taken to the lobby type area, where we normally have our first free time. Everyone’s either silent or whispering; we’re not dumb, we all know that these tests are probably gonna happen in this room. The black rectangle on the floor, the suspiciously empty space, the lack of anything else in the room- it all points towards the fact that it has another use besides just a free area. I’m one of the first in our little ‘line’ or group, because we all walk together and generally we walk in the order of who got here first. I don’t know why, it’s kind of an unspoken rule. Brunette girl is walking next to me and we exchange glances, not having to say anything to express our combined nervousness, excitement, and even little bit of fear. When we get to the room, we all go silent. There’s a few things set up here, but our main concern is the woman sitting at a wooden table, right where the black rectangle is. Nobody’s talking so I edge to the front and say, in as confident a voice as I can muster, “hello, Ms. Mayfly.” The woman beams at me. She looks like a woman from an advertisement. She’s averagely pretty, with no wrinkles or lines on her unnervingly smooth face. She has one small birthmark by her lip, just a dot. Her lips are averagely sized, as is her nose, but her eyes are bigger than normal and stand out on her white face. They’re an emerald green, sparkling behind a pair of oval wire glasses, that just barely manage to frame her eyes, they’re so thin. She has sleek black hair pulled into a ponytail, and she’s wearing a businesslike suit top with a white blouse and a pencil skirt. She has on black heels that click when she walks towards me. At first my mind tells me to back away (I hear a lot of the girls behind me do so), but I decide that I’m not going to because I’m already kidnapped. What else would she do to me? Not much, at least not now, because it would ruin her experiment. Besides, she wouldn’t risk hurting anyone here who could be that special person she wants. “Ah, of course!” she says. I blink. Of course what? The woman meets my eye with pursed lips. “I’m glad to see you’ve realized that this is not a place to be afraid of. Remind me of your name, again?” I tell her my name. She beams again. I notice that she has annoyingly perfect teeth, candy white on candy pink gums, perfectly straight and aligned. It’s irritating rather than attractive, at least to me. “Ah, yes. Well, since you’re the first to introduce yourself, I guess you can be the first person to undertake test number one! I’m quite interested to see the results.” She look around at everyone in the room- the girls have all filtered in and are pressed against the wall and the now-closed metal door. The woman tells us that she’s pleased with our compliance, saying she’s glad she didn’t have to force any of us to do anything, which would’ve been “quite a bother,” in her words. Then she points to the thing at the back of the room and starts explaining. It looks like a photo booth, but bigger. The black curtain hides the interior from view. My stomach turns with anxiety as she explains the test, and I try to listen as well as possible because I managed to make myself the first tester. The little booth was simply going to test some simple attributes, she explains. It wouldn’t be painful or require much from us, but she wanted us to try as hard as possible; those who passed the test would not only be allowed to continue in her experiment, but would be rewarded as well! She doesn’t say what will happen to those who don’t pass the test. I feel my heart slamming against my chest when she tells me it’s time for me to begin the test. She assures me that she’ll be watching everything, from my results to what I’m doing to even me in real life, through her laptop, which is linked up to the booth. She’ll even have audio directed from the booth into her earpiece. She calls me to her first and she reaches into a small box sitting on the table and pulls out what looks like a large ring. Then she tells me to turn around. I do, putting my back to her, wondering what the hell shes going to do to me. When I turn around I see the other girls, watching me or the woman, or glancing at the booth. Brunette girl, who’d been right behind me the entire time, catches my eye and nods, then gives me a wary grin and a thumbs up. I smile, and calm down a little bit. My heart settles down to a slower racing, and I can no longer feel it in my throat. However, I do feel something cold close around my neck. I reach to grab it but stop myself, recognizing the smooth coldness as the metal of the ring that the woman had gotten out. I feel it snap around my neck and the woman tells me I’m ready. I reach a hand up and feel the collar, frowning. I felt like a dog. It beeped and had all sorts of glowing lights and nonsensical numbers. I go over to the booth and step through the curtain. Inside looks pretty regular. There’s a little plastic seat with a headrest but no arms seated near the back. In front of it is a controller. Across, on the other side of the booth, is a screen, with a single button on it: start. A video-game? I think. It must’ve been some sort of miracle that the first test dealt with a video-game, literally one of the few things I was actually good at. I gain a little more confidence and sit down in the chair. My heart skips a beat when a voice blasts from the walls all around me. The voice (which sounds suspiciously like a mixed up version of May’s) tells me that my objective is simple. I was going to be placed in a game-like environment with a little ‘avatar’ that represented me. It gave me controls on how to move the avatar. Then it told me, I had to reach the end of the video game ‘course’ as fast as possible, without dying. It explains different things that’ll ‘kill’ me, and then says I can start whenever I’m ready, or request to hear the explanation again. I secretly thank my brother for providing such heavy competition in Mario 64, because I’d worked so hard to beat his scores that I could do this stuff in my sleep. I move the controller around a bit to get the feel of it before pressing start. Then the screen turns to a basic little field. It’s like Mario but generalized; I’m a tiny, blank stick man-like figure, and the blocks are simply designed like ‘stones’ rather than bricks. There are no coins or power ups or anything. However, there are enemies, and they’re basically my avatar but red. I get halfway through the course with ease until I run into a serious problem. There’s literally a wall of stone right in front of my character. I feel the time ticking away as I try jumping into it, chasing enemies into it, even tricking the enemies into ‘attacking’ the stone by getting them to the wall and jumping last minute. I try attacking the wall myself, run into every brick to look for a secret passage, and even go back through the areas I’d passed, looking for anything. I come back to the wall and see my time has almost gotten to the point where I would be considered ‘average,’ which isn’t at all reassuring seeing as how good I normally am at these games. Finally I squint at the wall, watch my character, and think. An idea comes to my mind that’s so incredibly stupid, I almost don’t do it, because I don’t want the lady watching to see my dumbass trying it. But I figure that time was running out and I had no other ideas. So, almost guiltily, I stand up, go over to the screen, and poke it, hard, right where the stone is. To my surprise, it breaks. I break more of the stones to allow myself through, then go back to the controller and guide my character through more obstacles. I don’t tap the screen after that, I get through just with my controller, until I get to the end and there’s no flag or anything to suggest I’d won. I go to the screen and decisively drag downwards, and my character flies up as the perspective changes and they’re suspended in midair, right in front of a flag. I quickly run to my controller and manage to maneuver the pixel dude onto the floating platform before they fall back down again, possibly dying (I didn’t know if fall damage was a thing in this game). The speakers play a little victory sound and the game resets, however before it does I see a leaderboard type screen pop up. A number 3 starts at the bottom of the screen, below the ‘leaderboard’ box, them shoots up to the very top, with a score of 800,000 and something next to it. Below that score, pushed down from the top spot, there’s another number, with just a few points lower than 3’s, with the number 0 on it. No other scores are there. I realize that the 3 was my score, but wonder who 0 is. If I was three, then the other kids definitely had numbers too- but then I realize it couldn’t have been any of them. I think, maybe an AI or somebody else who tested the game- or maybe Mayfly herself. After all, nobody else had gone before me, that I know of. The speaker voice tells me I did a good job and that I should exit from the back. It warns me not to say anything about the test to anyone until everyone has tested themselves accordingly, or else I’d face severe consequences. I step out from the back and hear May talking. I’m a bit flushed and breathless from the excitement of the game, like I always am after putting so much energy into completing a level competitively. But I’m smiling a little because it’d been so long since I’d done anything (okay two weeks isn’t THAT long but it felt like it in this empty place) and I actually ended up enjoying myself. When I round the corner of the booth I see almost everyone grouped in some sort of line system, forming neat little rows in the other side of the room; everyone in these rows has a collar like mine. A few kids stand in a line by Mayfly- they’re picking up collars and examining them before putting one on themselves, meaning that the collars apparently auto-lock. I assume the collars have names (or maybe numbers or something) on them because Mayfly is wearing her scarily continuous, extra-wide smile and staring at her laptop, sitting at the other side of the table from the collars. When I round the corner she turns her beaming face to me and I feel some of my happiness fade into irritation. “Well done, Ella! I’d expect no less from you, from what I’ve heard!” I freeze. What she’d heard? I wasn’t exactly that popular, I didn’t even have social media or anything, so where did she ‘hear’ anything about me from? The only conclusion I can come to is somebody that knew me. She must read my mind somehow- maybe my collar shows my heart rate changing or something- because she says, “oh, now, don’t go thinking too hard. A smart girl like you, might just end up finding what she’s looking for- and what would you do once you knew that, hm? Better not to think about it at all.” Suddenly a chill runs down my spine, and my stomach drops- what did that mean? Did she hurt someone from my family, or one of my friends? Kidnap them too, then leave them somewhere else- maybe even dead- once she’d gotten information? Or was one of my friends or family in on this somehow, maybe paid or maybe working for this woman? The thoughts were horrifying, so I took the woman’s advice and stopped thinking them for a bit. They nagged at the very edge of my mind like flies buzzing on a screen window, and I firmly pretended I didn’t hear them, or their implications. I walk over and brunette girl points to a spot in front of her, where I’m supposed to stand. I don’t know how the numbering system works because I wasn’t the third person here, and besides I’m the first person in the first row, so it makes no sense. Brunette girl taps my arm and whispers softly, asking what happened. I do a half-shrug, then murmur out of the corner of my mouth, “I’m not allowed to tell, sorry... but you’ll be fine.” She frowns at this information then asks if I was smiling- she told me it looked like I was when I came out of there, but she couldn’t tell. I confirm and again say nothing else, but smile again, which frustrates her. Eventually everyone has a collar and is in line, and she calls everyone from the rows, starting front to back, then right to left. Brunette girl goes next and she, too, emerges grinning. When she gets back to line and the girl behind her leaves, she catches my eye, and we both smile. I have to suppress a laugh, just because we’re both so happy about this and when we were expecting the worst, we ended up getting video games instead. She giggles but we don’t say anything cause we’re not supposed to. A lot of girls exit looking relieved, but quite a few exit looking upset or annoyed. One or two exit smiling a bit just like brunette and I did. After the last girl exits the booth, everyone starts whispering. Brunette and I immediately laugh and talk about how glad we were. Then we talk about the game, it’s mechanics- we both agree it was basically a rip-off of Mario- and how well we did. I mention the leaderboard screen and she nods, but seems confused as well. “I think we each have numbers,” she says, “but there were two numbers already there, besides mine. Zero and three.” I nod. “What number were you?” I ask. She tells me, seven. Then she asks my number and I say three. She giggles and says that she almost beat me- she was off by two or three points- then says, “I guess you weren’t lying when you said you were pretty good.” I laugh and we talk some more. Then Mayfly calls for our attention and we quiet down, anxiety returning. She tells us that a lot of people impressed her today, namely three and seven, who beat the base ‘high score’ made by an AI (brunette and I exchange prideful glances) and that she was very pleased with all of us. Then she says that seven people didn’t pass the test. Murmuring starts up again and I think that the test was probably to see if we tapped the screen. I whisper this to brunette girl and she agrees- seven people in here didn’t complete the course, or at least got a terrible time because they didn’t make it past the wall for a very long time. May continues, then lists seven numbers, telling those people to step forwards. Even though she said I did well, I still hold my breath, waiting for my number to be called. It isn’t, of course. Seven girls step forward, a few bashfully, a few embarrassedly, and most fearfully. None of them are girls I ‘know’ very well- I’m glad to see that neither of my roommates are called, nor is the pink-haired girl who became my friend. However I still feel for the girls who walk over to Mayfly. She tells them to go through a door behind the booth (it was always locked until now), and tells the rest of us to proceed to dinner. We eat in strained silence for a bit, and eventually the mood relaxes and we all discuss the test, our numbers (“I can’t believe I got my lucky number, that’s so weird!” “Yeah, well, I have no idea what to do with my number. What the heck is eleven? I don’t even LIKE that number”) and what’s going to come next. Brunette girl and I agree that, if the future tests all involve video games, chances are one of us two is going to be the ‘special’ person. I don’t know whether I would want them all to be games or not, because on one hand, it’d mean I didn’t have to worry about being disqualified and possibly killed or taken somewhere terrible, but on the other hand being the “special one” didn’t sound that appealing either. Not to mention if one of us WAS the special person, that would mean the other person would be disqualified, and I really liked this girl. I definitely didn’t wanna see her sent off to die just because I beat her in some stupid test. The rest of the day went by like usual, except there was an odd amount of empty space where seven girls should’ve been. Their beds were removed from their rooms, according to the girls who were their roommates, before we all went to sleep. The next day, our test was completely different. We still went into the same booth, however the screen and controller were gone, replaced with a small touchpad right in front of the chair. The speaker played different frequencies and told us to press when we heard something, and to stop pressing when we didn’t. My roommates and I passed again, however six girls were ‘eliminated,’ leaving more empty space in the dining area and bathrooms. Day after day we participated in weird and weirder tests. Eventually there were only ten of us left, and my roommates and I were included in that number, along with my pink-haired friend. The next day, Mayfly tells us the ‘real tests’ were going to begin now. As always, I go first. I’m kind of scared again like I was in the beginning, because there was no booth, and instead there was a temporary room set up, with walls and even a door hiding half of the lobby area from view. Whatever these ‘real’ tests were, they didn’t sound good. And somehow I felt that they weren’t gonna be as easy as video games, reaction time tests, tests on intelligence and hearing and puzzles and other similar things. Those were things I was good at. But if she had us run an obstacle course or something, I knew I was gonna fail. I go through the door and close it behind me, as instructed by Mayfly. I hear it click and know that it’s been locked behind me by May, who followed me to the door for that exact reason. The room is pitch black, and the floor feels soft under my socks. I feel along the walls for a light switch and find one, but it’s stuck. I put both hands on it and feel around- there’s something over top of it. I unscrew that something blindly, then flip the switch. I’m in a small, well-furnished room. It looks like a small living room straight from one of those old fashioned houses. The floor is reddish carpet, very plush and luxurious. I wiggle my toes, lavishing the feel of a floor other than concrete, and feel the softness through my socks. There’s a two or three person couch pushed against one wall, and in front of it, a dark wooden coffee table, with three elegantly carved legs made to look like those weird animal shaped- y’know, like all the super-fancy and slightly old fashioned chairs and tables have. There’s a few hinges hidden underneath of the tabletop which means that the table opens up somehow, with extra storage inside. Situated on another side of the coffee table, with it’s back turned to me, is a plush chair that exactly matches the sofa. I move to see the front and notice a few decorative pillows on the sofa and one on the chair. There’s a very intricate rug underneath of the coffee table that’s smoother and less stringy than the carpet, and is basic colors woven in an oval shape- browns, blacks, whites, grays, and a few warm colors, with golden trim. On top of the coffee table is a stack of 4-5 magazines and newspapers, an empty coffee mug, and a little decorative plant. Across from the sofa there’s a very fancy fireplace, with brand new looking bricks shaped elegantly into a sloping pattern than runs into the ceiling- which is much lower than the ceiling of the lobby area where I just came from. It has a little metal fence thing in front, blocking off a pile of blackened logs and ashes, currently unlit. Little golden candle holders line the walls, holding white wax candles that flicker with realistic flame. However I hold my hand to one and find that it emits no heat whatsoever, and decide that it’s a hologram or something. Against the wall which has the door on it, there’s a few bookshelves made of that same intricately carved dark wood, holding various old books that seem very boring. I pull one out and am surprised to find that it’s blank, no words or pictures whatsoever. A few spaces on the bookshelves hold decorative plants like the one on the coffee table, or things like a little carved golden box (complete with an annoyingly strong lock) and a few important looking vases / cups. Against the opposite wall is a dark wooden desk, with a very fancy dark wooden stool, backed by a thin but tall row of gold-painted bars connected at the top by another piece of extravagant dark wood. On the desk there’s a candle in a golden candle holder with a little handle, meant to be carried around, and it’s also lit. There’s a stack of a few books and some papers scattered on the desk, some stacked neatly and some out as if they were recently being worked on. Theres also a single newspaper. There’s a pot of ink and a jar with a few quills, an expensive golden paper holder, a small decorative potted flower, and a pair of glasses on the desk as well. Next to the desk is a bigger potted plant with very fancy leaves that fan out largely, taking up almost all of the rest of the space on that wall. The desk has a few drawers and cabinets on either side but they also have (different) locks on them. After a few seconds of inspecting the room I go to the desk and look around. The papers are filled with random letters and numbers, seemingly useless, although I’m careful to put them back in place because by the looks of it, this is a classic escape room. Luckily I had an obsession with those a while back and so now I tend to be pretty good with them, just cause there’s some patterns and commonalities you pick up, but also cause I was good at puzzles in general. I try each of the drawers and am not surprised when none open, but it was worth a try. The newspaper on the desk is from the USA during WWII, talking about war stuff and whatnot, but seems like it’ll be some sort of clue, so again I leave it there. I go back to the coffee table, and carefully remove the items from the top- careful not to mess up the order of the magazines/newspapers just in case they’re important- and try to lift the lid. It clicks, as if it’s locked. I get down on my hands and knees and look at the underneath of the table, and sure enough, there’s a little passcode lock. The first numbers I try are the beginning and ending years of WWII, because of the newspaper, but they don’t work. Then I try my birth-year although I’m unsurprised when it doesn’t work. I realize there’s gotta be a clue somewhere in the room and go over to the stack of magazines and newspapers and, careful to remember their order and starting pages and everything, go through them all. When I flip to the second-to-last page of a newspaper (also about WWII) I see a crossword. Only one word has been found, and it’s not even on the list of words to find: circled with dark pencil is the word, “desert.” I frown, making sure to remember this, and place the magazines and newspapers back in order and stack them next to the coffee table. Desert... I try to think of something to do with a desert. I think of hot, but that’s three letters, and there’s four numbers on the code for the desk. I glance all around the room and my gaze lands on the empty mug. There’s not even a drop of water in there... the ideas of a desert and of no water connect in my mind and I crawl quickly over to the mug, which I sat carefully on the carpet next to the table. I inspect it carefully and it seems regular, if not very fancy, at first. It’s painted royal blue and it shaped in a way that goes inwards until halfway down, where a ring of intricate golden braid like patterns loop around the cup like a bracelet. Below it the cup goes inwards even more, back to its royal blue, before expanding at the bottom almost like a wineglass does. The handle is made of the golden braid pattern as well. I look all over it and when I look at the bottom, there’s a small date carved into the bottom- it seems like one of those numbers that’s put on products for whatever reason. The year labeled is “1763.” I try this number on the lock and the table clicks open. Inside are a few items. First, there’s a tiny golden key. Then there’s what looks like a flashlight meant to go on a keychain with your car keys, except when I press the button it shines a deep blue light- it’s a UV light. Lastly, there’s another code etched in the bottom of the desk, “adbc.” I grab the key and immediately try it on the box. When it opens I’m disappointed. It’s empty. The inside is lined with smooth red velvet, flat as can be, as if there was never anything in it to begin with. Then I remember that some ink only shines under UV lights and grab the UV flashlight, turn off the regular lights, and shine it all around. I’m surprised at how much had been hidden in plain view. On the bricks of the fireplace, right in the back, there are two handprints, like someone was trying to push the back of it out from the inside. On the couch there are little swirls coming from the buttons in the cushions, which spiral out to form a little spot on the back of one of the seats. On the bookshelves, two books glow. On the desk, certain letters on the first paper glow, forming words and sentences. And in the box, there’s yet another code. The room continues to be your classic escape room deal. The two books had random seeming letters, but when you pushed them together they formed a code. When you peeled the fabric of the couch back right where the swirl was, there was a small wooden door with a word lock. After turning on the lights I found all of this in decent time. Putting in the strange letters from the desk unlocked the door, only to show another, smaller door, with another number code. The code from the box unlocks this. Inside there’s another, smaller locked box, this one with a letter code; a weird puzzle cube that’s mixed up (it’s not a Rubix cube, it’s made of wooden parts that must have to be arranged correctly somehow); and finally, a piece of sandpaper. The small locked box opens with a code that comes from the sentences made from the books- the sentences themselves are a riddle, and the answer is the key for this box- and inside is an actual, big silver key. I try the key on the desk but it only opens two drawers. Inside of one there is a completely black puzzle (literally a puzzle with puzzle pieces and everything), which reveals a code formed when placed under the UV light. In the other drawer there’s a candy bar. I solve the puzzle and find another riddle with another word, possibly a code. Then I open the candy bar and slowly eat it, and find a chip of some sort of pottery inside. The chip turns out to be from the potted plant, which is missing a tiny piece, and when I fit the chip back into place I hear the scraping of pottery against pottery, and see that the bottom of the pot has slid out like a drawer. Inside is a small pin decorated with a single, tiny ruby on the end. I pocket it. I look around again and go over to the fireplace. The metal fence stops me from going in, and when I try to move it, it’s locked, just like literally everything else in this damn place. The bottom of it is held in place by the tiniest lock, which is a letter code. I try the one from the puzzle but it doesn’t budge, so I use the UV light again and decide to find the code from the papers on the desk. It’s a riddle but has an obvious answer with just the right amount of letters. I use this and the metal gate unlocks, and I step into the fireplace, thinking that it’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic. I put my hands against the wall where the handprints were and push. Two bricks move onwards and fall into a hole below, revealing little metal pads each with their own code lock. The puzzle’s code unlocks one, but the other won’t budge with any code I try, so I end up going back to try and solve the cube. It’s harder than the other puzzles but I solve it and it turns out to be a box, and inside is a scrap of paper with another riddle. The riddle gives me the answer to the second code on the fireplace wall. When I put the code in I hear bricks shifting and see that several bricks in front of me (in the center) have come loose. I push them all in and find a locked box inside of the hole in the wall. The box requires the key. I bring it back to the coffee table and place every item I’d gotten there, thinking. Then I feel the silver key I’d gotten with my fingers and notice that it’s really soft- it’s not metal, and not even plastic. If I scrape hard enough with my nail a bit of the material scrapes off. I hesitate before deciding to use the sandpaper. Underneath of the original silver key is a (real metal) golden key. It doesn’t fit the locked box from the fireplace but it does unlock the other cabinets on the desk. Inside of one there’s a book with a riddle, which gives me another code, I’m assuming. Inside of the other there’s a blank book. When I use the UV light it simply says “look closer,” nothing else. I look closer at the desk, every inch of it. Then I find that one of the intricately designed patterns on the side of the top of the desk has moving parts. I eventually figure out how to move them so they fit together perfectly and then push them inwards, and something on the top of the desk pops up. Underneath of the papers a giant board has risen, the size of a large game board. I clear the desk and find out it’s a map. Then I think of the pin. I go through the newspaper from the desk again, using my UV light just in case, and end up finding that one of the newspaper’s main articles is titled: “The Great Escape.” The article itself talks about a bunch of war hostages had escaped from a prison set on a specific island, and it names the island. I go to the map and search for my mind for knowledge of geography, which wasn’t the most expansive. I think back to seventh grade social studies and manage to find a location to match the name- at least, I think. I carefully stick the pin where I think it belongs and something else clicks. The board rises yet again, revealing a cabinet with a letter lock. I use the code from the riddle that I found in the desk’s cabinet, and it works. The wooden door swings open to reveal a strange, thick board, almost a box. It’s about the size of a small book, but much thicker. On the top of it there’s four slots/indents, differently shaped. One is the size of the small key from the beginning, which I place inside- immediately I hear a click. Another is shaped almost box-like, and I end up using the paper holder from the desk, which works. Another click. The third slot is weirdly shaped, I can’t tell what it is. I use the UV light again, shining it literally everywhere. That’s when I notice stuff on the ceiling. There’s a picture of a shovel labeled with the words, “The Great Escape!” At first I figure that it’s just a hint towards the puzzle I’d already solved, but when I go back to the newspaper, it never mentions anything about digging or shovels or whatever. I eventually realize that it was hinting towards something more literal- I go around the room, feeling the edges of the carpet, and in a stroke of luck I manage to find a spot under the sofa with a strange indent. When I press down the carpet peels inwards, revealing a little hole that contains a match. I place the match in the fourth slot and it clicks. Then I try exploring everything I still hadn’t touched yet. I look at the fancy vases, which seem to have nothing. I look at the sides of the bookshelves, with no success. I check out all of the decorative potted plants- the one on the coffee table turns out to actually have something. The bottom of it has a little slot. I pull it out and see that the inside of the pot is hollow, meaning the plant is fake. In the hollow space there’s a pocket knife. The knife doesn’t fit into the third slot, but I know it’s definitely a clue so I pocket it. Then I continue looking around. Soon I notice that I haven’t touched or even looked at the candle holders at all- how could I have forgotten the candles, they were the classic levers for secret doors in every single game ever! I check each of them and pull, and one near the fireplace comes forward like I’d suspected, and I hear a click. But as far as I can see nothing happens. Then I check the candle holder on the desk and find another surprise: Lost once again, I go back to inspecting everything I hadn’t touched yet. I end up looking at the pillows. When I turn one of the pillows on the sofa around, I see the patterns change to form a large red “X” on the back. My mind goes from the X, to the pocket knife. Then, feeling only slightly bad, I cut open the pillow. Feathers spill out of it, along with a tiny model car. When I turn the car to its side, it fits into the third slot, and clicks. Then the box unlocks. I open it, hoping for the key out of here, and instead find an old library card. Using the card I find the title of the book which had been read, and sure enough that book is on the tippy top of one of the bookshelves. I reach it by jumping; I hadn’t checked the top books because I’d assumed all the books were empty, just like the rest. When I try to open the book, only the first page can open. The rest of the pages are glued together. The text is old fashioned so it’s annoying to decipher, but it’s another riddle. I solve the riddle and it turns out to be the title of one of the other books, which again I jump to reach. This one opens up the same way, only it reveals a lock made of Roman numerals. It takes me a while but I eventually find that one of the vases has a ‘design’ looping around the side which is actually a bunch of Roman numerals. I plug in the Roman numerals a few times until I find the right starting point, and the book opens up to reveal a bunch of boxes filled in with red, green, blue, or yellow, aligned in a specific order. Again, it takes me a while to puzzle out but I eventually realize that a few of the books on the far right bookshelf are those exact colors, like they match the colors in the box exactly. They’re in a different order than the boxes in the book, but there’s just enough of them, so I pull the books out in that order. When I pull out the last one nothing happens, so I look through the books, which are empty normally and with UV light. But then I see that behind each of the books is something written in that invisible ink. A bunch of arrows, in a specific order. After a bit I manage to solve this puzzle, which basically required you to find a specific book on the shelf, by first starting at the top right book, and going the direction of the arrows. When I pull out that book I see a little panel behind it. It has a four digit number code. Eventually I find the code, which is the year which WWII started. It opens and reveals a red button labeled “DO NOT PRESS” in tiny black font. Of course I press the button because I’m That Dumbass, and I hear a huge click and the bookshelf in the middle suddenly drops into the ground, revealing a wooden door with a silver handle. I jump when the bookshelf comes down because it literally kills my ears, but then go to the door and try it. The door swings open, unlocked from the candle holder switch most likely, and there’s a long dark hallway. At the end is a piano. I go through the top books on the shelves again, with UV and without, but find nothing. Then I go through the newspapers and find a word circled in dark red inside of one of them, “tried,” but it doesn’t seem applicable. Eventually I decide to more closely inspect the chair, since nothing had happened with it yet, and find that (unlike the couch) the cushion comes up. There’s a little hatch in the wood with a code and the word from the newspaper unlocks it. Inside is a clip from a newspaper article, talking about Mother Mary and some special day devoted to her. I go back to the piano and try playing Mary had a Little Lamb and after only thirteen notes I hear a click and a hatch opens on one of the walls of the hallway. Inside is a box, simple and black, with a really long letter passcode. On top of the box is a carving of the silhouette of ten little boys in soldier outfits, posed casually together. Only their outfits are colored; their faces and arms and legs are all the blank black of the box. It low key takes me a long time but I eventually figure out the code: AndThenThereWereNone. Once I figured to count the number of soldier boys I immediately made the connection between Agatha Christie’s book and the design, and when I put in the title of the book, the box opened, holding a simple bronze key. I run to the door and stick the key in; it fits, then clicks open. I push open the door and whoop in both relief and excitement, of finally being out of that room and having solved that huge puzzle. The other girls are sitting on the floor, however there’s only a few there. May explains that she has enough versions of these rooms for half of us; the rooms could reset after we were out, so the rest of the girls would go after. I count the girls and there’s only five there, excluding me, which means I’m the first one out. However both brunette girl and pink haired girl are part of the half that hasn’t gone yet, and I’m confident that one of them could have beaten me, especially pink haired girl. This comes as a relief because it means they’re likely to move on. May congratulated me, and asks what my thoughts were- reminding me not to be specific or mention anything about the room itself, of course. I pause, then tell her that a lot of the things in the room seemed to be almost specifically tailored to my strengths (music, since I play the violin and used to play the piano; puzzles, since I’m good at those and at logic; riddles, since I tend to be really good at those too; History knowledge, especially about big events such as WWII, because I’m a nerd; the amount of reading I had to do, since I read a lot and am I quick reader; and the last puzzle, which required specific knowledge of a specific book, and couldn’t be guessed otherwise, etc.), and I even ask if she made the rooms specifically for different people. She responds that it’s just my luck that it played to my strengths, and that everyone has strengths and weaknesses besides. I think, but don’t say, that it’s very strange how these tests have avoided every single one of my weaknesses. We didn’t do anything super physical, we didn’t do anything pertaining to knowledge of current events and people, government (in general) / current laws, history specific to different names of people- they were all big weaknesses that I have, and none of them were a part of any of the tests. Even math, which although I was above average at, I hated- even that was mostly avoided. The tests continue and I wait there for a long time. After brunette girl and pink haired girl leave, I have nobody to whisper-talk to, I straight up take a nap on the floor. A while later brunette girl comes back and wakes me up. Everyone who went in the first half is back, and brunette girl and pink haired girl are both back as well, the first of their half to finish the puzzles- as I’d expected. Brunette girl and I whisper about the puzzles, since everyone who’s sitting down around us has already finished. She says that she’s really glad she was forced to read And Then There Were None in eighth grade, and I respond with pretend shock, saying that I actually really liked it and read it on my own. We both agree that school ruins everything for us. Then she talks about the piano and how she literally had to try so many times before she could get the pattern down- not because she didn’t know what to do but because she didn’t know how to play the piano. I admit that I was kind of a music nerd so it was easier for me- but then I say that it was just luck that I came across a piano and not, like, a flute or something, because I would’ve been in the same boat as her then. Pink haired girl joins the conversation and soon I get a feel for how we all did. Brunette caught on to the fact that they were supposed to rip open the pillow faster than both the pink haired girl and me, but I point out that usually my first thought when seeing a beautiful pillow isn’t to destroy it, so you can’t really blame us. She responds by reminding me about the big red X on the back. However, like she said before, she struggled with the music bit. She also struggled with the map puzzle, although I told her that I did a little bit too which seemed to make her feel better. Pink haired girl solved the sliding bookshelf a ton faster than us, but was tripped up by the pillow, which took her a LONG time to figure out, and she also spent longer than both of us on the fireplace, because she just hadn’t thought to climb INTO the fireplace. We both console her saying that it’s probably normal to NOT want to climb fully into a fireplace that looked to be previously lit, and that both of us were just weird. Overall, I was more well-rounded than them, but they definitely beat me in a few aspects. It made me feel better that is three stuck together even when it came to our scores / tests, though; I definitely could tell we would get really similar scores, meaning we’d all be likely to move on together. After a while Mayfly announces the results, and only three girls are eliminated, leaving seven of us remaining. Dinner was quiet that night. The next day is a strange test. It’s a test commanded by her: she takes us each back to a room and has us do things. She has us breathe different ways and stretch different ways, too. Then, she gives us a shot of something strange- the idea of an experiment flits through my mind again- and tells us to do things that should be impossible. She asks us to try and walk on top of a pool of water situated in the room. She asks us to move a pen without touching it. She tells us to try and set the dummy on fire, with nothing but our body and our breath. She even asks us to find out if we can close our eyes and still see. To my surprise, I can do quite a few of these things. I focus all of my energy on making my feet steady, firm, to step on the water. And I actually manage to stand on it, for a few seconds, before I lose my balance on the small rippling waves created by my wobbling legs. Then, when she takes me to the dummy, I focus on my breath again. After huffing and puffing and looking like an idiot for a few moments, she tells me that I can stop, now, and that fills me with the desperation and annoyance needed to boost my energy enough- I huff and feel a warmth rise from my stomach, and something really hot burns my throat and mouth, as if I’d drank too-hot hot chocolate again. A tiny burst of flame, almost just a spark, sputters from my mouth. She dummy is set on fire, just a small patch at first, but it spreads. When she asked me to move the pen, I can’t manage to do it, but she doesn’t seem too upset so I decide I still might pass. When she asks me to close my eyes and see, I do so hesitantly. She’d removed my glasses so I couldn’t barely see with my eyes open anyways. The world goes black behind my eyelids, and I focus on trying to ‘see’ somehow without opening my eyes. Then I somehow feel something else- like an extra pair of eyelids I didn’t know I had until I tried to lift them- I feel them lift slightly, and once I’ve felt them I can open them easily, like I would with my normal eyelids, although I use my hand to make sure to keep my real eyelids closed. Suddenly, the world lights up- kind of. I see swirls of color come to life. When I move around looking at everything, I notice that I can see the general outlines of everything, if not faint. However when I see Mayfly, she’s super bright. Red colors flow through where her veins would be, and green swirls of light are right over her eyes. A giant blue-and-black ball swirls in her chest where her heart should be. She emits a faint glow that’s a dark, grayish green, an unsettling color that ripples with sudden bursts of pea green or blue. I see words floating around her head, standing out against the blackness and faint outline of the rest of the room. Her thoughts. They read almost like I’m hearing them. I see flashes of other things, too, flashes in first-person if riding a pink bike, getting fired from a job, typing something furiously into a computer with three screens- The images cut off almost as soon as they came, leaving me feeling breathless. Occasionally I’ll see an image float around her head, shadows and hints of things of her past, but I firmly keep my ‘eyes’ off of them, and instead turn behind me. The glow of every single girl in the lobby area provides a brightness that I think would normally blind me, if I was using my real eyes. They all have different shades of red in their veins, different colors in their eyes, and most intriguing of all, they each have different swirls over their hearts. In addition, they each out of a general ‘glow’ that’s basically like an aura. I manage to find who I’m pretty sure is brunette girl, based on her height and where she’s standing. Her soul- that’s what I’m assuming the swirl in her chest is- is bright, spring-grass green, mixed with strands of deep-plum purples, sunset-oranges, ocean blues, and a tiny bit of plain, bright white. Her eyes glow deep hazel, the same color as they are in the ‘real world’. Her ‘aura’ glow is electric blue, with some green near the middle that fades gradually as the glow softens. It almost seems to ripple. Then I find pink girl, in a similar way. Her eyes are the same blue as I know them to be, and her soul glows simple colors. There’s a soft duckling yellow, mixed in with some dark blue, a strand of pink the color of her hair, a strand of a deeper mustard yellow, and surprisingly, a tiny little spot of black, swirling around with the rest of the colors, almost unseen. Her aura is a deep, calming blue, like a royal blue but softer. Unlike brunette girl’s aura, pink haired girl’s aura doesn’t move at all. It’s still, peaceful almost. I ‘squint’ and see some words above their heads- then quickly stop and open my real eyes, not wanting to intrude on their privacy. Mayfly asks what I saw, tells me to give every detail, and I try, but describing some of it is hard. She seems pleased once I’ve described all that I could. Then she sends me out and tells me to call in the next girl. Every girl goes in and comes back out looking either shocked, confused, or worried. When brunette girl gets back I risk getting in trouble by talking to her. I quietly ask if she could do anything- I don’t say anything specific, trying to refrain from mentioning anything about the rest in front of the girls who hadn’t gone- and she nods, stiffly. I raise my eyebrows and try to think of a way to ask what she could do, but decide that I could just wait until everyone had gone- besides, she might not even want to share. When everyone’s gone May tells us all, once again, that we’d done an outstanding job. Then, to my surprise and horror, the calls my number directly. She tells me to come stand right next to her and face the rest of the kids; my mind immediately goes to ideas of punishment in the form of a lesson. Was she going to make an example out of me? Kill me to show the others what happens if you fail these tests? I couldn’t lift the pen even when I tried, my fire was weak and barely there, and my ability to stay on top of the water was probably terrible in comparison to everyone else- what if I was the only one who failed and she was going to punish me for that? However, I’m relieved when she tells me to close my eyes and use my ‘inner eyes’ to help her with her studies. I agree, and close my eyes. It takes me a moment to feel around for my ‘inner’ eyelids but when I find them I open them and look around, if you can call it that. I tell her I’ve got it and she calls two girls forward. I’m astonished when I see thoughts bubbling above their heads almost faster than I can read / hear. Their thoughts are filled with worry, despair, desperation, and even slight, horrified curiosity as to what would happen next. She tells the girls that they failed this test. I watch pityingly as the girls’ thoughts run wild. One girl thinks of her little brother at home, and wonders what would happen if he found out that she was dead. Her brother’s name was Samuel, but she called him Sam the Man, and sometimes just Samimy- her brother has a stutter, apparently. I watch a few memories of her brother before I manage to shut them out. The other girl is thinking more deeply. She’s wondering if she was good enough to get into heaven, and if there’s a heaven at all. She worries about that one time when she had sex with a guy who turned out to be a criminal (yikes, bad luck, I think sadly) and questions if that would send her to hell. For a moment I see the guy she had sex with, when she first met him. He’s well-built, with shaggy blonde hair and otherwise average looks. He has a lip piercing and tattoos which made this girl (in her past) think he was cool. He wears a biker jacket with the symbol of a gang on it and I wonder if the girl knew what that symbol was. I manage to fend off the rest of the memories before the actual memory of them having sex appears because I do NOT wanna see that. The girls’ combined thoughts are so strong I gasp a little and step back slightly. It’s as if the rest of the world, all the outlines and the rest of the girls and even myself, has faded away. All that existed were them and their swirling hearts and pumping veins, and their frantic memories mixing with thoughts and endless questions, their auras which pulsed darkly in fear. Then Mayfly turns to me, and startled me out of this complete absorption by saying, “can you see?” I forget how to talk for a moment and my mouth hangs open. Then, breathlessly, I say, “everything...” Mayfly seems delighted. She asks me to describe the first girl to her, as well as I can. I feel terrible doing it, like I’ve intruded on her privacy or stepped in somewhere where I shouldn’t have, but I do as May says. I say, “her glow, it’s pulsing really darkly, she’s scared... and she’s thinking- she’s thinking of Sam the Man, and what he’ll do without her- I, oh, he’s her younger brother I’m pretty sure, has a stutter too... and she’s mostly sad, thinking about that, also wondering where she’s being taken...” The room is silent except for the frantic scribble of Mayfly’s pen. I see her aura all around the air next to me, flickering with excitement. She asks for the second girl and I hesitate. I tell May that she was wondering about the afterlife and where she’d go, then I pause, trying to find a way to explain what else she’s thinking about without actually saying it. I settle on, “she’s thinking of some thing’s she did in the past- people she knew, I guess... and if, uh, knowing them would send her to- to Hell...” Mayfly pushes for more details and I feel myself blush. “Um, it doesn’t feel right... I mean, I don’t really think I should tell you, at least not now...” Mayfly says in a gentle yet scarily light tone, “go ahead anyways.” I feel my hands shake a bit as I take a breath. I feel bad for the girl. I say, “she knew a guy... blonde hair, good build, otherwise pretty average... he had tattoos and piercings though, wore a leather jacket I think?” Mayfly nods. I continue cautiously. “Well, er, she and this guy were... close, and um, he turned out to be a criminal? And also, I don’t think she knew this but, I’m pretty sure he was in a gang also.” Mayfly asks why I think this and I describe the gang symbol I saw, and she nods and confirms my theory. I sense thoughts from the girl, even more frantic, wondering what I saw and if I saw them having sex and wondering what would happen to her if she fucked a gang member, and I shake my head and open my real eyes because I feel like I’m intruding on their privacy way too much, way more than they deserve anyways, especially if they’re going to be sent off to their deaths. Recording their thoughts before being killed, it was terrible... and it made me FEEL terrible too. I try to look them both in the eye apologetically but they both are avoiding looking at me entirely. Mayfly sees me open my eyes and tells me that it’s okay to get headaches and that she’ll have me continue this when I’ve rested and felt better, because she didn’t want to push me more than I could go. I tell her, in a tiny voice, I didn’t really have a headache or anything but that I was feeling really bad about going through their thoughts and memories; in truth, it felt like an intrusion, and the guilt was strangling me, closing my throat and flushing my face, making my hands sweat and shake and my legs feel like lead. I told her I didn’t think I could do it too often without my mind starting to block everything out and put my vision back to blackness, out of pure horror and guilt, like a reflex I couldn’t control. I didn’t know if this was true but it sounded like it was. Mayfly seems disappointed but nods and tells me to get back in my row. Then she escorts the two girls to the death door- that’s what the girls had been secretly calling the door where the failed kids go through, never to return. I’m shaking like a leaf when I get to my spot up front, refusing to look anyone in the eye because I felt like a terrible person and they probably thought I was, too, and I didn’t want to look into their eyes and see that. I stare at the ground and press my hands against my cargo pants, but the material just makes my hands slip down instead of actually steadying them. I try to focus on my breath but then I feel a warmth start in my stomach and clap a hand over my mouth; almost unbearable heat sears my hands and mouth and throat for a solid five seconds before falling back down to my stomach. I think, oh, so you didn’t wanna work at all with Mayfly, but now all of a sudden you’re gonna be extra like that? When I slowly unclasp my hands from my face smoke drifts from my lips, dark and dangerous, for a few seconds before it stops. I think, oh God, what the fuck is happening to me? and then I hear the words and realize I said it out loud, and blush even harder. May returns a few minutes later like always, beaming as her heels clicked into the silent room. Then we go to dinner. That night I eat silently with pink haired girl, blue haired girl and brunette girl, avoiding their eyes, but glad that they’d let me sit with them like always. When we get back to the room brunette girl quietly tells me that it wasn’t at all my fault and that I shouldn’t feel bad about anything that happened, because this- all of what was happening- was solely Mayfly’s fault. That makes me feel a bit better. Then blue haired girl adds that it’s not like I could choose to just, NOT see what I was seeing, so there’s no way I can blame myself for it. She says that if anyone else had been able to see like I could, they’d be put up there with me- maybe instead of me- and they’d do the same thing. After talking with my roommates a bit I feel a ton better, and then we start talking about the other things. I discover that apparently, the only kids who were disqualified in this test were the ones who could do nothing at all- so not being able to move the pen didn’t matter. Brunette girl told us about her whole experience first. She explained that she count balance on the water really well, and didn’t fall in at all; in fact, walking on it was as easy as walking on land. She also had good ‘skill’ with the fire, which burst out in blue-and-white flames her seconds try, right in command. She couldn’t lift the pen at all though, and couldn’t see anything no matter how hard she tried. Both blue haired girl and I were impressed with her water-walking and Fire-breathing abilities, though, and she seemed secretly pleased by our praise, although she acted like it was whatever. Blue haired girl was slightly different. She, too, was good at walking on water- although not as good as brunette girl, as she fell in after a few minutes by losing her balance while walking. She was completely unable to breathe fire, which she admitted scared her the same way i was scared about the pen. When she closed her eyes she could just barely see- she saw a tiny flicker of white light here and there- but that was it. However when it came to the pen, she was amazing. Not only could she lift it at will, but could control it fully, even writing with the pen without touching it at all. Brunette girl and I were like, no freaking way, that’s awesome! Then came my turn to share. Brunette girl told me I didn’t have to since the whole thing earlier had bothered me so much but I tell her I’m fine now. Then I explain how I did, leaving the sight for last. When I finally get to the seeing part, I pause, wondering how to describe it. Eventually I explain as well as I can, telling them how I could see outlines of everything, but mostly I saw people; red light in veins, pulsing and flowing; colored light over their eyes, the same color as their ‘real’ eyes; thoughts appearing over their head in sentences that were almost heard rather than read; memories flashing in first person, so quick that I didn’t know how longer memories came and went so fast; people’s auras, a soft glow around their bodies; and finally, their souls. I explained that I could see Mayfly’s the best, but that I could see everyone else through the wall fairly well- distance didn’t seem to matter at all. They both immediately ask me to describe them. I try to do so in the nicest way possible because some things would sound really rude- for example, telling them their soul was black, or something- but luckily I don’t have much to avoid with them. I tell brunette girl about her electric aura (it was very pretty, in an upbeat way, I assure her) and about her swirling, colorful soul. She asks about the rest and I tell her about her hazel orbs of light and about her veins, which were red; although I mention that her veins were darker than most of the other girls’ veins. She seems relieved that there’s nothing obviously bad with her soul. Next I describe blue haired girl’s figure, although it’s hard because I didn’t see hers as well. She gave off a baby pink aura with mixed warm colors flowing through, and her eyes were their regular gray-green color (the color of beautiful moss in a gentle forest, I say). Describing her soul is more difficult because hers was harder to see, and I admit this during my explanation. It was a pinkish color like her aura, with mixed oranges, duckling yellows, and a strand of blue the color of her hair but darker (“that’s the color my hair used to be!” she said excitedly). A little strand of white and another little strand of bright red ran through her soul as well. Her veins were normal colored. They both seem really interested in what I saw, as well as what it all meant. Brunette girl asks me to describe May’s figure and when I finish both girls conclude darkly that her personality definitely matched her soul; muddy, threatening, dangerous and all-around evil. Then, brunette girl asks, “what does your aura look like?” I pause before saying I don’t know. I’m just as mildly surprised as they are; how did I not think to look down at myself? But at the same time it’d be hard to see my own soul fully, not to mention my aura. Blue haired girl suggested a mirror and I kept this in mind, planning to maybe ask Mayfly about it later. We go to sleep and the next day the tests are the same, only different for each of us; she does harder tests for our specific strengths. I get tested on my seeing ability, by seeing how accurately I could read and remember multiple thoughts, how well I could see memories (“what color was the dress in that memory?”) and even what I could see in animals- and if I could guess the animal from that. She brought a few mice in, then a dog. She seemed pleased with what I did. Then I mentioned the mirror and she agreed that it was a better idea than none, and brought me a mirror from her lab. It actually worked, which I didn’t expect. My eyes were the same ocean gray-blue, swirling orbs in black nothingness. The faint outline of my person showed the ends of my hair and when I wiggles my fingers I managed to see it by focusing on their thin outline. My veins had very dark blood, which I was hesitant to admit to Mayfly. My aura was a sky blue, however occasionally there’d be sparks of soft greens, pinks, and yellows; and sometimes the light closest to me pulsed a gray the color of my eyes, or a deep royal blue; once, to my everlasting confusion, it flashed a bright red. My soul was a confusing mess. Almost every color of the rainbow was there; the majority of my soul was the colors of a soft sunrise, pale yellows and watered down oranges and coral reds, and even the slight fading color of lilac to sky blue. Through the main strand of colors, other, more vivid colors appeared. A small strand of bright red looped around, closely followed by a deep royal blue and a bright purple. There was quite a few separate strands of white running all throughout my soul, and in the center it glowed an iridescent color. Mayfly seemed super excited by that last part, for some reason. When we finished the tests that day she told me in particular that I did very well, and that I would be rewarded; and everyone else could see what happens if you try your best and do well. Nobody failed that day, which made us all glad. The following morning the door was unlocked by May herself, and she took just me to a room filled with tons of clothes. She told me I’d be given my own desk/drawer, where I’d be allowed to keep four outfits of my choice, plus the one I was wearing. I’d also have access to a dryer, stored below my drawer. Plus, as an addition to the drawer, I got one stick of deodorant. The idea excites me more than it should. If you think about it, it’s really sad how happy I was at the fact that I now had multiple pairs of clothes, and a dryer to dry them with. I choose four outfits that I really love. The one I’m wearing is a pair of loose cargo pants, held up by a felt rainbow belt which I was allowed to keep because it was a thick material, yet had no metal clasps or anything. Over that I have a tight-fitting black tank top, and a red flannel shirt which I kept partially unbuttoned. Under these clothes I had a plain pair of white boxer shorts and a regular bra. For my next outfit, I choose loose ripped blue jeans and a gray graphic T-shirt with the words, “Fire is spreading” printed across the top in simple white lettering. Below the words is a little mockingjay symbol, and light flame patterns flicker along the mockingjay itself. Mayfly even lets me choose accessories to go with the outfits. Normally I wouldn’t do any of that but I’m overjoyed at the prospect of all of this, so I choose a black hair tie, a small black rubber band (basically a tiny hair tie), and another wristband that’s a simple rainbow color, almost exactly like my belt but smaller and tight-fitting to my wrist. I also grab a pair of black socks, some red Calvin Kleins, and a bra- there are a lot of clothes here my size, which makes me think she’d prepared all of these clothes beforehand. Then I put these into the top drawer of a small little table / dryer. Outfit number one. For my second outfit I choose some tight boy’s underwear, my regular type of bra, and some plain white socks. I find a pair of bleached skinny jeans that fit me beautifully, and put on another (black) graphic T-shirt (this one with the words, “Fourth Wave Survivor” printed to look like an official badge on the breast). Then, over top of the T-shirt, I find a loosely fitted hoodie, almost completely plain black until you get to the front, where there’s one word printed in purple font, outlined by white, across the front: WICKED. I find a white scrunchie to add to this outfit, and then outfit number two is done. For my third outfit I decide to have a little fun. After all, if I’m gonna die soon, I wanna do it in style, right? Better now than never. I choose a regular type bra with thinner straps and a tighter band around my ribs, and some plain Calvin Kleins again. Then I grab a cropped, off-the-shoulder shirt, which is slightly loose-fitted and white in color. The shirt itself has the words “Clever girl” on it, and behind that it has a picture of Blue from Jurassic park, on top of a circle ‘background’ with red and yellow and green. The rest of the shirt is covered with scattered green foliage, and is made to look like it’s been all torn up- the bottom comes down in little strips of ‘torn’ fabric, and there are a few slashes high up on my rip cage or on my back that show even more skin than the shirt already shows. It looks super cool though, especially to my geek self. And the shirt definitely shows off my slight but definite abs. Then I find a pair of loose dark blue jeans with pockets and a nice fit, and ‘wear’ that makes it match the torn up shirt. Finally, I grab the accessories. First, a dark green rubber band. Then a simple black choker, plain fabric- something I’d never usually wear, but which actually kind of looks really good with my current outfit. I also grab a belt with a nice looking buckle. Finally, I choose a pair of gray socks, with white toes and heels. For my final outfit I decide that I should probably choose something to sleep in. I grab a pair of longer Calvin Kleins, a plain rubber band the color of my skin, and look around for something to sleep in. Eventually I settle on an XXXL shirt, hidden all the way in the back of this ‘closet,’ which is plain blue and has a vague reference to Harry Potter on it, along with a pretty yet simply picture of the silhouette of a clock tower in a city. Then I’m done, and feel much better all of a sudden. Mayfly reminds me that this is my reward and mine alone- if I share with anyone, we’ll both be punished. Even the dryer counted as sharing, and she assured me that she’d know if I let anyone in on my prize. I promise I won’t share and thank her for the clothes and dryer. She tells me that anyone who tries their best and impresses her will get the same treatment. She helps me carry it back to my room- and by helps I mean, she escorts me to my room while I carry it- and my roommates look excitedly at it. Mayfly reminds us to get good sleep and then leaves, locking the door. I explain to the girls what my reward is, although tell them sadly that I’m not allowed to share. They seem slightly envious but brunette girl promises me that I’m fine. I get changed into my ‘pajamas,’ not really caring if the other girls saw me naked since at this point we had all lived together for a while, anyways. Sleeping is much more comfortable than usual and in the morning I change into my first outfit, with loose ripped jeans, the Hunger Games graphic T-shirt, and the pair of ‘matching’ black socks. Then, since we always have extra time in all of our schedules anyways, I brush out my hair while I’m waiting, then braid it in a simple french braid with my black hair tie. I put on the bracelet and feel happier already. After putting on my deodorant I can almost forget where I am in my giddiness. The other girls still seem slightly envious but they also seem happy for me. Brunette girl tells me that I look good and have good taste in clothes, and that once we get out of here we have a lot of stuff we’re gonna do together. I blush, wondering what exactly she’s implying, and she grins. Then, something weird happens. The glowing that I saw when I opened my ‘second’ pair of eyes, appears now, with my regular eyes open. I catch a faint glimpse of her soul and aura, along with her veins, eyes, and- even scarier- her thoughts. I only catch a few words- “exactly,” “how many?” and “same thing?” before I rip my eyes away and rub them, hard. Brunette girl asks what’s wrong and I debate lying to her, but decide to tell the truth. She asks how much I heard of her thoughts and I tell her exactly what I heard and she blushes, and I apologize and say I have no idea how or why it happened. She says it’s fine then curiously asks if I’m going to tell Mayfly. I tell her that I probably will, since maybe she accidentally gave me too much of that shot or something, and could fix me. The dream skips a bit and suddenly, there’s five girls left still, and we have a final test. She’s going to take us to the ocean- everyone had been told to avoid it for ‘government purposes’ so we wouldn’t run into anyone- and she’d put us in a ‘dangerous situation’ to test our ‘abilities under pressure and danger.’ All of us get really anxious as she takes us outside. I’m happy to smell the fresh air again, to be outside and see the sunlight and sky and even birds! but I’m also horrified at what she’s going to have us do. She has us wait by the water and then leaves to do something, and we chatter nervously. I tell brunette girl that if we survive this I’m totally taking her to a theme park and stuff, and she smiles anxiously and agrees. Blue haired girl is humming softly to herself, staring apprehensively at the water. Mayfly comes back and tells us what the test is, and how it’ll work. Basically, this test was the last one. We would all be tested at the same time, rather than separately like we’d been doing. First, we’d be placed in the center of the water. Our goal from there was not only to survive, but to do our best to ‘exceed’ at our initial task and work to get rid of the danger permanently- or at least semi-permanently. All of us process this silently. The frigid air seems to almost melt in the combined body heat, and I’m almost sweating by the time she orders us to follow her. I’m suddenly glad that I’d chosen the torn up shirt outfit to wear today, because if it got wet or torn up even more it’d just look natural. She takes us around to the actual beach part of the water, and leads us to a pool-like area of the ocean. It’s immediately deep like the rest, surrounded on three sides. Two sides have towering stone cliffs blocking it off; the other side is the land, where we are. The water filters out into the open ocean from the large opening between the cliffs, however there’s been a large stone slab, mixed with hard metal bars and chains, that blocks off the pool area from the rest of the ocean. Really it’s less of a pool and more of a shaped pond or lake, because it’s still a big area. May takes us along the edge of one of the cliffs, to a point near the center of the lake. There’s a small boat with just enough room for all of us. She orders us onto it, once again reassuring us by saying that she’ll be watching from afar. The boat whirs off into the lake with all of us on it- and then the motor sputters to a stop, with us in the middle of the giant lake, and suddenly it starts to break down. Everyone initially freaks out but my roommates and I remind them that we can walk on water. As the boat sinks we each step off, some more surely than others, onto the rippling waves. Adrenaline pumps through me and in the heat of the moment, or perhaps just because of the repetitive motions of the waves, I’m able to stand so well on the water it’s almost like standing on land. Me, plus brunette girl and pink haired girl who are confident in standing on water, all help the girls who aren’t as confident step off of the boat and find balance. Soon we’re all standing here, five scared girls, on the dark ocean, and I realize what we’re really going to do. “There’s gonna be some sort of sea monster,” I say to the silence and crashing waves. Pink haired girl says shakily that we won’t be able to fight it if we can’t see it- and as she says that the world glows, without me even having to close my eyes. I tell them this and look down, and my heart drops to my feet. A huge swirl of veins lines a creature in the shape of a giant snake, which is circling the bottom of the water. I tell the girls this, and brunette girl asks how big. I tell her, the size of a large whale, maybe bigger- except smaller in width, like a snake. Suddenly it starts to swim up, right towards us, and I tell the girls this. Blue haired girl says that she can kind of see it too, as can another girl, the only one I don’t know as well. We all scatter in different directions, and manage to make it out of the way just in time before the creature bursts from the water. It’s massive; the splash sends an impact that almost knocks me from my feet. One girl, the one I don’t know, actually falls into the water and struggles to get back to a standing position; brunette girl, who’s nearby, helps her back to her feet. The creature itself looks like an armored worm. It has different links that stick up from its body, like plates of metal or something, but shinier like scales. It’s face is a dark black, and more matte, like rubber, yet I see no eyes. The only indicator of that being it’s face is the lack of armor/playing and the enormous mouth that opens wide. I catch a glimpse of huge, wicked teeth, before it’s jaws snap shut over the space where we just were. Then it falls back into the water and the girls start to panic, asking where it is. I shout that it’s coming for brunette girl and she runs across the water; her speed is astounding considering she’s running over such unsteady ground. I shout the directions of the worm while running to get as far away as possible while still remaining close enough to help. She eventually manages to escape by just outmaneuvering it, so it chooses another girl instead, the one who struggled to stay on her feet. I tell her that it’s coming for her and shout to run; she’s too far away for me to do anything else. She panics and falls into the water and my vision peaks to the point where both the light world and the regular one overlap, and I see the creature perfectly through the waves, scales and all. I run towards her as fast as I can but the creature shoots upwards, it’s mouth wide, and she disappears between its massive maw, screaming. The death of the girl sends horror and panic throughout the rest of the girls but I shout for them to try and use whatever powers / abilities they’d been taught. I see it circle the bottom again, and my throat is getting sore already from constantly shouting directions above the roar of the ocean. Soon it rises again and chooses a new target- blue haired girl. She’s nearby me so I warn her and she runs, but she’s not gonna outrun it and I tell her so, then tell her to go closer to the ‘gate’ thing so she can use some of the heavy rocks and metal parts to mind-throw at it. She manages to make it in time with me constantly shouting and running parallel to her from afar, and she focuses and several large rocks rise from the air. I tell her the exact position as well as I can, sounding like one of those auction guys, speaking so fast my mouth even hurts. Then when it’s almost to her (and I’ve told her that it is) she hurls the boulders into the water below her and runs to the side. The creature recoils as one boulder strikes it in its open mouth, knocking out several teeth; right as it closes its mouth from the first hit, a second boulder hits it on the softer skin of its nose. It shrinks back down to the bottom and circles again, more agitatedly, and I tell everyone that it seemed to hurt it- maybe if we kept doing similar things, we’d be able to ‘defeat’ it. However blue haired girl was the only one able to lift items like that, as far as I knew. But the idea of being able to hurt it made everyone steel themselves, feel a bit of hope for survival. It comes to the surface again, and this time, it heads straight for me. I take off on the water, letting everyone know. I see it slowly gaining on me from underneath, and an idea strikes me. I wait for it to start rise from the water, then dive to the side, straining my rib cage and legs the same way I strained my feet to stay above water. I manage to stay above and as soon as the creature emerges from the water inches away from me, I grab a hold of some of its plating using the firm ridges. I feel myself quickly lifted from the water and my stomach turns, but I take a deep breath and blow, and feel familiar heat rise to my mouth. It bursts from my parted lips in a bright explosion of blue flame, searing the creature’s scales. I hear it let out an ear-piercing shriek before it falls back down to the water, carrying me with it. I let go last minute and manage to land somewhat roughly on the surface. However it doesn’t go all the way back down, and instead rises again (I’ve already started running out of the way) and sticks it’s head and part of its body from the water shark-style, speeding after me from the side this time. I realize it’s going to do this not a second too late, and somehow give myself a burst of speed I didn’t think possible. I feel the wind around me and steady my breathing and let the wind almost carry me, although somehow the wind is going wherever I want it to, which is very convenient. I feel the creature behind me, not gaining but also not losing, and know I have to do something. My mind settles on the classic punch-to-the-nose deal, except obviously I’d need more than a punch. But the idea of the wind and of powers and everything gives me a thought that is almost certain, somehow. As I approach the cliffside, I put on one last burst of super speed, gaining a few feet on it, and use that extra distance to turn and face it. It’s massive mouth opens right in front of me and I jump, somehow flying above its head. Then, as I land on its snout, I put my fist down to do a ground-pound type move with my fist. The blow sends the creature back below the water, recoiling and squealing again. I gasp for air and feel something warm trickle from my eyes, and swipe it distractedly with my forearm. It’s blood. But I don’t have time to worry about that because it’s circling again, although a bit slower than before. The fight continues like this, with brunette girl outmaneuvering it and spitting flames, blue-haired girl and the pink haired girl chucking boulders and even logs at it, and me punching it and spouting fire. It gets to the point where the creature seems heavily damaged; it swims slowly and almost with a hesitation in its back tail, like something’s broken. It’s scales are melted and chipped and even broken in places- in one place the broken scales were impaling it’s soft skin underneath. It’s soft snout was possibly bleeding, it recoiled before we even attacked now, and it’s teeth were all but completely gone, broken by all of blue and pink haired girls’ rocks. However, the creature snarls from under the water, loud enough for us to hear it from above, and suddenly charges. Of course, with my luck, it chooses me to be it’s next victim. I start running again, not quite feeling tired yet because of the adrenaline, but getting there. It rises to the water then raises the front half of its body, chasing me from the side and above. Out of nowhere its head dives down at me like a bird pecking and I dive out of the way. It does this several times, and I punch it two or three of those times, but after recoiling and squealing it goes right back to chasing me. Then, its tail spurs like a wheel and it gains incredible speed that there’s no way I can match. I realize it’s going to catch me and swallow me but I tell myself I won’t die; it didn’t have hardly any teeth left to bite me with, so if I managed to stay in it’s mouth area without being swallowed I would be good. And even better, I might be able to use its teeth to kill it. As it dives down to peck at me I look up and move out of the way of the few teeth it has left. Darkness consumes me as its mouth slams shut; I feel squishiness all around and through the gaps in its maw, which allow light in, I see that the mouth is quite barren now. I grab ahold of the dangly thing in its throat and hold on for dear life as it dives back down into the water. Immediately water starts to fill its mouth and I realize I’m going to drown unless I kill this thing and/or escape soon. I let myself drop onto its tongue, which moves backwards as I touch it as if to push me down it’s throat. I use my extreme speed to run to the front of its mouth, near a single tooth. The tooth is still almost half the size of me, and wicked sharp. I grab the bottoms of it where it’s not sharp, hold my breath as the rest of the mouth fills with water, and pull with all my might. The tooth comes out after a second of pulling, probably thanks to the strange super strength I’d used to punch this dude. With the tooth in hand, still holding my breath, I swim to the top of its mouth, carefully because every time it moves I’m jerked to the side and I don’t wanna accidentally stab myself, until I’m at the dangly thing again. My ears pop from pressure and I realize with horror it’s diving down again; I stab the tooth up into its throat and a squeal bursts from its throat, right next to me, so loud I actually cover my ears. I push the tooth farther up until it disappears in soft tissue and dark black blood seeps from its mouth. I feel it’s movements go still and quickly swim to its mouth. I heave the jaw apart, again probably with my super strength, and find myself near the bottom of this ocean area. The light seems so far away. But if I’d lived this long, I refuse to die now, so I kick my legs and pump my arms and use the same energy I used with the wind on top of the water to spur me through towards the top. My lungs start to burn, I was underwater in its mouth for at least thirty seconds and as far as I know, the most I can hold my breath for is two minutes. After about a minute my movements get frantic, but I can see the light as well as the shadows of the four girls above me, tiny specks against the light blue of the surface. And about a half a minute after that, my vision starts to dance with spots and stars. By the time I can actually fully see the surface, I’m scared I’m going to pass out. But one of the girls close to me- I can’t tell which, my vision is fading- must see me, because she dives underwater. Im almost at the surface when my entire vision goes black and I feel my arms and legs start to go limp. Then, I feel someone grab me and I’m dragged to the surface- literally, they carry me fully above the water. I think mildly that someone with that strength, had to be brunette girl. I’m too busy gasping for air to test that theory though. My vision clears and I see that I’m right. She’s looking at me weirdly and I say breathlessly, thanks for saving me, and she sits me on the water, where I now have enough energy to stand. She asks if it’s dead and I say yeah, I killed it. She nods and I tell the other girls it was dead, and together we walk back to the front of the beach where Mayfly is waiting. She congratulates us and tells us that based on our collar’s monitors, we must’ve done very well. Then she demands a full account of the story. The other girls tell the story up until when I was swallowed, allowing me to catch my breath fully, which I’m thankful for. Then, they turn to me, after describing how the creature disappeared below the waves with my inside of its mouth, presumably dead. I explain that I’d known I’d be swallowed, but also that it had hardly any teeth left- so when it came to swallow me I dodged the few teeth it had and landed in the mouth ‘safely.’ From there I pulled it’s tooth out and stabbed its throat, then opened its mouth and swam out. Then brunette girl finishes for me, saying how she saw me swimming up and grabbed me. However she looks at me strange and adds that I didn’t look like me at first, because I was covered in all black- it’s blood, I explain- and tears of red blood flowed from my eyes. She thought at first I was another monster. She seems embarrassed to say so, although I laugh and apologize for scaring her, not caring what she’d thought then. The only thing that mattered was that we were all alive. But when she takes us back to the building and tells us we can shower and change (she’d provided new outfits for the other girls, and laid out one of mine for me) we all seem to realize that we might not all survive. After all, she was choosing the special one from this. As far as we knew, the kids who failed were sent to death. I was horrified at the very idea. Either way it went seemed terrible- either one of the girls would be chosen, for what I don’t even know (possibly worse experiments or even labor of some sort) and the rest of us would die. On the other hand, I’d be chosen and have to go through whatever she had planned next, while the other girls were sent off to die. It was a lose-lose situation. When we get to the shower room I scrub the blood, both black and red, from my body, but even after I’ve scrubbed and scrubbed I still somehow feel it in my pores, under my nails, stuck on my skin forever. I touch my cheeks and imagine red stains where my blood flowed. Of course, it’s all just my imagination, but the thoughts make me feel awful. I get dressed in the outfit I came here in, put on deodorant, and tie the flannel around my waist, feeling like I was going to overheat in here. I put on the choker- the only thing I could salvage from my other outfit, since it was all black- and braid my hair loosely. I think, I must have terrible circles under my eyes, and laugh at the absurdity of the thought. Here I was, possibly preparing for my death, and I was worried about bags under my eyes. The other girls ask what’s so funny and I say, “nothing, really. I’m just so scared I feel like I’m gonna laugh or cry or something, and I guess I’d rather laugh.” They don’t respond, but brunette girl nods understandingly. Then we’re given a full meal, which nobody finishes. I barely touch mine, although I drink the water. We’re taken back to the bathroom, and then finally, instead of going to bed, we’re taken to the lobby. It’s clear again except for the single table, which now has six seats around it: one on either of the short sides, and two on each of the longer sides. Mayfly is sitting at the farthest chair from the doorway, which seems to be the ‘master’ chair- it’s fancier than the others. Her laptop is closed in front of her and she’s beaming. She tells us that she got the footage and watched it- apparently she’d had several cameras at that scene, both on the monster and in our collars. She says it’s very interesting how I escaped, and when I say (partially humbly, but mostly just tiredly) that it wasn’t all that, she opens her laptop and proceeds to replay the events from the viewpoint of my collar. My entire body freezes up as I both see and hear everything that happened. I feel like I’m reliving it again. I want to look away, it’s making my stomach hurt and heart pound and lungs constrict, but I can’t seem to pull my eyes from the footage until she turns the laptop back around and says, as if she can’t tell that I’m freaking out, “quite a few of the things you did there were inhumanly possible. Such as pulling out the tooth and lifting its jaw. Do you know it’s jaw is over one thousand pounds, with the added weight of its head and scales? Even underwater, that’s a lot. And it’s tooth would’ve required unbelievable force to pull out of its mouth.” I nod, not meeting her eye, still trying to calm myself down. I shake my head like a dog ridding itself of fleas and squeeze my hands on my thighs to stop the shaking, and manage to calm down enough to say, “I guess.” She then proceeds to tell us that the tests revealed who the special person was. She says that she’d had suspicions all along but had to be 100% sure. It’s me. She walks to the side of the table and invites me to do the same, and I follow her orders, my mind completely separate from my body at this point. I’m stuck in my head, thinking about what was going to happen to me and my friends, thinking about what this all meant and my family at home probably thinking I’m dead. She presses a button on the collar then types something in. It clicks and falls off, and I rub the spot where it used to be, relieved. The skin there is sore. She tells us straight out that the other girls would, unfortunately, have to be eliminated the same as “everyone else who’d failed a test,” but she assured them that their death would be painless as opposed to the other girls’ deaths, because they’d gotten this far. I plainly say, “they won’t die, though. You can’t.” The woman seems surprised and starts to threaten me, saying she very well can and WILL kill them, but then blue haired girl speaks up bitterly. “We’re going to die anyways, just let us die now. At least it’s painless.” I gape at her, wondering if she’s lost her mind. But then pink haired girl adds, “I saw this coming from the beginning. Better to get it over with. Don’t make it longer than it has to be.” I shake my head and everyone’s gaze turns to brunette girl. Her eyes widen and then she says sadly, “yeah, it’s useless trying to argue for us. We all were signed up to die the moment we got here. Arguing is just gonna make it more painful for everyone involved.” I’m suddenly angry at them all for just giving up. I ask if they’ve lost their minds and why they’ve just decided to give up right at the very end, and they give me some more of those half-assed “it’s been coming for a while” answers. So, I say something like, “have you all just forgotten the preciousness of life? Or were you ignorant enough to have never known it?” Blue haired girl says just as angrily, “it’s not precious, it’s fragile. Stop making this worse.” I say, “maybe it’s not precious to you, but it certainly is for me. If you won’t live for your own will, would you do it for our sanity? You all try and act strong before it, try and cover the whole thing up with sugar coats so that you feel better about how helpless you are- or at least better about the helpless situation you’re in- but really death isn’t anything other than bitter. We don’t live to die, we live to live! And you guys are acting like it doesn’t even matter. Not a single one of you really wants to die. And no death is actually painless. All death comes with pain. And it’s messed up that you’re okay with that, as long as the pain isn’t yours.” Then I add, “it’s pure selfishness to give in on the promise that you’ll be spared, when you know everyone else will be hurt as a result. I don’t believe a single one of you would be able to leave without causing any pain- I know your families and friends are, and will be missing you. And even if you claim they won’t, I will. Damn, ya’ll are really more evil than I’d thought. I’d really looked into your souls and seen bright colors. But now they’re turning black. I can see it. What’s happening to you right now is almost as bad as death- you’re letting this whole thing ruin who you are. At least, when you die, you won’t die as yourselves. Maybe that’s what you want.” The girls seem extra surprised at that last part, and don’t respond, except for the blue haired girl who mutters. Then Mayfly says, “those certainly were very convincing arguments. I’ll consider them.” Then I pass out. When I come to I’m in the lady’s car, not restrained or anything. She tells me she’s going to drop me off at home, and gives me a cover story- which she promises to kill me and everyone I love if I don’t use- and the cover story is that I was kidnapped by some random guy, and May (“this nice woman”) saw me waving through the crack of one of the windows during her afternoon jog, and managed to get me out on her own. She didn’t call the police because I demanded that she took me home immediately after, because I wanted to see my family. That’s all. She stops at a store near my house when she sees a sign advertising chocolate covered blueberries, and goes inside to get them. I ask her to get me some too, remembering that my grandma loves them. She actually obliges, and I snack on a few on my way home. The dream ends with me in her car, going home. I don’t know if the other girls died. By the time I was in the car, I had somehow realized that this was a dream- maybe that’s why I woke up.