Chapter 7

“December, twenty thirty-nine. Greed can drive anyone to do malicious things. I didn’t know then, but I do know now. I don’t have a lot of options….”

An hour can feel like an eternity when you’re in the same room as a dead body. I can't stop staring at Malva, I wish I could, but every time I do, an overwhelming paranoia screams at me to make sure her body is still there.

I always thought the day Malva dies a brutal death would be the happiest day of my life, I know it’s twisted, but it’s true. Every day I spent locked in this prison, I hoped for the day I would see her head on a stick. I wished her death would be slow and painful, the same way she tortured me in the testing room. Some part deep inside of me had hoped that she would suffer in every way she had done to me: psychologically, physically, maybe even emotionally. I never expected that day to come or for it to be as disgustingly morbid as it actually is. I should be happy right now, ecstatic that the woman who caused my life to turn into hell is dead. But instead, gut-wrenching fright crawls its way through my body.

Is this an appropriate response? I guess so when it comes to seeing a dead body in general. Nobody should be happy to see someone dead, at least nobody who is mentally sane. But in this context, I don’t know what I should be feeling. I don’t know if either emotional outcome is right or wrong. If I were happy, it would be as if I pulled the trigger myself. As if I wanted to kill her with my own hands. I didn’t want to kill her, right? Right. It was my choice not to kill her. Well, kind of. She tried to pull the gun from my hands before I finalized my choice, but I think in the end, I wouldn’t have. I hope that’s what I would’ve chosen.

This feeling, I suppose you can call it grief, could arguably be worse. It’s an endless cycle of grieving her death and boiling with anger. Why should I be miserable when someone who hurt me for months gets killed? It doesn’t make sense. Neither outcome makes sense. Then again, there’s no true right or wrong here. I should have been able to process what happened an hour after she died, right?

No, I shouldn’t be worrying about the person who’s quite obviously dead, I should be concerned for Lily. She still hasn’t woken up; however, she is getting somewhat jittery. Her elbows launch out at random, and her knees sometimes spring the sheets away. Lily’s twitches are so violent to the point that I nearly get tossed off the bed, yet she still remains asleep somehow. Her face constantly scrunches up, her eyebrows squeezing together to crush her glasses, and her crow feet appear so tight that her skin might tear. Her lips keep mouthing different words, and her jaw can sometimes clench so hard that her teeth might actually crack. Sometimes, she even whispers, “Please stop.”

Her violent movements have pushed her sleeve up, and I suddenly take note of a scar on her arm. Just below her elbow, there is the wrinkled skin of a bullet scar, very similar to the one I have on my own leg. Every time I try to get a closer look, her body spontaneously moves.

I’ve been arguing with Imelda about what to do. I don’t want to wake her up because she needs the rest too. At least, that’s what her large eyebags tell me. Imelda says to take her tester out, but I don’t know what damage that could cause. She generally knows more than me about this technology, there’s no doubt about that, but I question her judgment. Sure, she’s led me this close to an escape but at what cost? Betraying Coroz? Leading Malva to get killed? I don’t know how much longer I can keep up with her advice if we keep getting people hurt.

Back then, when I had the gun, Imelda could have pulled the trigger. She nearly did in the cafeteria, and she was close to taking over again moments ago. I can only feel glimpses of her emotions and thoughts, but it’s not enough to figure out why Imelda didn’t just take this opportunity for herself. I know she wanted to; there’s no question about it. And nothing was holding her back. I could barely control her last time, and it wasn’t like she was genuinely trying. So why waste the one opportunity where she could have done what she wanted?

No, come on, I need to keep my mind on track. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I just don’t want to wake her up in general. When she’s not fighting her imaginary enemy, she looks somewhat peaceful. This is the most serenity I’ve felt in a while, at least when I’m not glancing over at Malva’s body. I’m not ready to get back into action. Then again, I can’t avoid it forever. I should just find another way to wake her up, but first, I need to take care of Malva’s body. Watching the color fade from her face has caused me enough horror as it is.

Stepping out of the room, I find Lily’s lab coat still on the floor next to her body. That should be enough to cover Malva’s horrific face. I toss the coat over Malva’s head, and the shape of her face finds its way through the fabric. It’s better than watching the color slowly fade, but at the same time, it’s somehow more haunting.

I then grab a reusable plastic cup from the disorganized tub by the kitchenette, go to the bathroom within Lily’s room, and fill it to the brim with the coldest water I can get.

Going back into the room, I stand over Lily’s bedside. Is it really a good idea to wake her like this? It’s not like shaking her will make a difference. She won’t wake up with her own jolts, so I don’t think it would be any different if I gave her a good shake. Imelda doesn't think this would work, but it’s worth a try.

The waterfall soaks Lily’s face and hair; she jolts awake, swinging her arms in every direction possible. Her hand slaps the bottom of my chin, causing me to clap my jaw. Every pain that finally settled around my head starts up again, including my blistering headache. Tunnel vision blinds me for a quick second as I stumble around the large room. Two steps this way, two slips the other way; I finally find my footing and step away from the bed, waiting for her panic-induced tantrum to calm.

With heavy breaths, she eventually calms down and wipes the water off her face with the side of her bare arm, smearing the crusted blood around her mouth with the water. She takes a minute to breathe; her eyes are wide open, quivering in sync with her breaths. Her head jolts around the room; as she takes a moment to slide her fingers across the bed, feeling the rough texture of the worn-down sheets.

After processing that she’s awake, Lily bends in a way for the device connected to her spine to make an appearance beneath her skin and gets a firm grip on the needle. A loud click echoes in the silence as she disconnects it from the device beneath her skin and rips the tester’s needle out of her spine. I jump to catch her as her back goes limp, and her eyes give a thousand-yard stare. It’s a feeling I know all too well. Not like I ever got used to it, but it helps to have someone there. She would know.

Lily puts the tester in her pocket. As she slowly begins to regain consciousness from the whiplash, she turns her head towards me and mumbles under her breath, “Thank you.”

“You have blood on your face,” I sign, taking a knee beside the bed. Lily looks into the bathroom’s open door, examining herself in the mirror on the other side. With her clean hand, she does her best to wipe the red mess off of her face, eventually giving up after most of it rubs off. With a quick double-take, she catches eye contact with Malva’s t-shirt-covered head peeking into the room. Swallowing hard, Lily holds back the tears that threaten to fall.

“Is she...?” Lily questions without being able to spit out the truth. I nod my head.

She takes her round glasses off to rub her tired eyes, pulling her face up and down while pondering the next step. Her sore eyes can’t process what they are seeing. Baffled at the disgusting scene, Lily closes her eyes to avoid looking at it too long. Every deep breath she takes hiccups at the edge of tears. With a knuckle on her mouth and a tremble in her voice, she questions, “Jada, could you assist me in moving her? I can’t stand seeing her in the living room.”

My stomach turns and knots into a ball; I do not want to touch the dead body of Malva. If I do, I might throw up again. That’s if there is anything left in my stomach to splatter down the sink. I don’t even know if I got all of it out from the first time, so maybe I would just dry heave over the sink. I shake my head; Lily gives me a look of concern. “That’s alright, I understand.”

She pushes herself to sit higher on the bed, her thin arms shaking to hold up her weight. With a jump, I get up and move away from her to give her room. Lily turns to her side, sits on the edge, and stares at the ground; she shakes her head back and forth, trying to shake a thought out of her head. She looks over at the body and whimpers, “Ellie. Ellie, Ellie, why?” She releases a deep sigh, her spine shuddering, stumbling around to say something, but there’s nothing to say. Lily rubs her eyes again and slides her large glasses behind her ears.

With crooked glasses on, she pushes herself up and makes her way to the living room. I take her spot on the bed as she drags one foot behind the other. She keeps a reasonable distance from the body as she stumbles over to the torn-up couch and sticks her entire arm underneath to grab the elevator key, shuffling it out of the tight space. She gives it a good stare before placing it into her pants pocket and turning around to meet the body.

Lily hovers over it for a good couple of seconds, and puke shoots up her throat as she looks down the puddle of blood where the bullet would be. With all of her might, she pushes the vomit down with a hard swallow, coughing up spit and letting it go a couple of feet away from the body. Tears make her eyes glow red as she gently lifts the coat slightly off Malva’s face with two fingers, only to let out a faint shriek and drop it once again.

With a couple of hard blinks, the tears built upon the edges of her eyes fade back as she pulls the coat off Malva’s face and puts it on. She grabs Malva’s two arms, dragging the dead body into the room, leaving behind a smeared trail of blood. I jump off the bed and take a few steps backward until my back pushes against the wall on the other side of the room; the stench that emits from her is revolting. Lily pushes the bathroom door open with her back and places Malva on the molded tile floor. Searching through Malva’s coat pockets, she investigates to steal a ring of keys, a golden chain with a J charm, and a voice recorder. Then shuts the door and sits against it.

I join her on the floor, sitting against Malva’s moldy tomb. Tears begin to fall from Lily’s eyes once again, staring at the charm that lies on her vibrant red-stained hands.

“Jada, what have I done?” she quivers. Lily’s hand trembles; her crying is not nearly as violent nor theatric as when Malva died. The numb emotion on her face makes the tears seem out of place.

Something feels wrong about being here. No, that’s not it. Something feels wrong about being here with her. The warnings Coroz and Malva gave finally settled in the back of my mind. Both of them had an intense distrust towards Lily; maybe she truly is not everything she displays herself to be.

Coroz knew why she was chained up in this room and mentioned something about her having to do with his scar. Malva also said that she had the intention to kill them. Before these last couple of hours, I thought she was only here because Malva was holding her here; but could it be something else? Could she possibly be the reason why Coroz has that giant scar on his neck? Or was Coroz just trying to guilt-trick me into falling for his plan?

Malva made it clear that all the horrific things that happened in this facility were not only her own doing, but that was a given. I’ve seen Lily in the operating room, and during the tests, so obviously, she’s had her fair share of participation in this chaos. Why did everything suddenly change? Why was she all of a sudden another hostage rather than the assistant I’ve always seen? She must have done something to begin the chain of events that led me to be here now, sitting beside her behind a dead body.

Then again, why should I believe those two? Coroz helped with kidnapping to get out of this dump, and Malva wanted to kill me multiple times within the last couple of hours. No, within the previous couple of months, perhaps! On the other hand, Lily has not really given me a reason to distrust her. If anything, she’s been the only humane person I have met besides Imelda. Even then, I’m not sure I can genuinely call Imelda a “person,” she’s just this dead voice inside my head. Lily, on the other hand, I can even go as far as to say she has killed someone for me. Now that I think about it, Imelda also seems to have had a good past with her. They were friends at one point before things became violent and terrorizing. What could have happened between Malva and Lily to have created such a disastrous situation? I don’t understand why my mind screams that I shouldn’t entrust her with everything I have left. Maybe not just yet. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that I have a friend, or friends, I should say. I sometimes forget that Imelda’s still constantly buzzing in the back of my head. I’ve had this buzz for a while, so thinking about her as a companion will take time. It’s nice to figure it out and know I’m not alone in all of this.

Lily’s eyes glance at my hand; she gently grips it and levitates it towards herself, comparing it to the golden charm.

“I’m guessing this is what she used it for,” Lily signs with sorrow. The charm is the exact size and shape of my disgusting burn scar. Even a bit of blood is stained onto it, eating away at the pure gold. Her lips curl in, and she wipes the last couple of tears, distraught by this news but not surprised. She still lets out a flutter of laughter to cope with everything that has happened. “My fiance gave me this, a goodbye gift just before we left to come here. God… if only he could see me now.”

Brian, that was his name. At least according to what Imelda remembers from the rare occasion of Lily mentioning him. The man in that photo in the living room seemed really happy with her. They genuinely looked like they were in love, and everything felt so lively in that photo. A liveliness that’s hard to understand after these months. I’ve never fallen in love or felt a glimpse of anything bright for a long time. They were bright lights bouncing off of each other in a beautiful world. I wonder what he’s doing now that she’s gone. I’ve always wondered how my family is doing without me, but what about the other people here? I was the newest. These people must have been here for at least a year, maybe even longer.

The silence is haunting. I try to find something to say, but nothing comes to mind. Just to break the tension, I sign, “How long have you known him?”

“My fiance? Oh, it’s been about…3 years? Yes! 3 years.”

“And…Malva?”

The room goes quiet for a moment as Lily gathers her thoughts.

“Ellie…Malva and I have a complex past,” Lily states, playing with the necklace's chain. I’m honestly not too surprised. I think Lily forgot I was there when Malva died. Her cries when she shot Malva are scorched into my memory. She begged me to help save Malva, making a rather significant promise that I doubt she can keep.

My thoughts keep levitating on those photos. They must have known each other for quite some time, and they looked cheerful with each other. Similarly to the photo with Brian, their light was bouncing off of each other in the selfie. I’m not exactly sure what their relationship was, but I’m pretty sure sworn enemies wouldn't do the things that Lily did. Especially for the person who was trying to kill you.

“It’s incredible how long you could know a person, yet they surprise you in ways you can’t imagine. I mean, we met our freshman year of college, so that would mean we’ve known each other for almost twelve years,” the corners of her mouth slightly lift, hinting at a smile.

Really? Did Malva surprise her when she became a psychotic murderer and tortured people in an underground base? Because in that case, I would be pretty surprised too.

“It’s ironic, in a sense, that we would always brag to everyone on campus about how we had an ‘amazing future’ and proved it by graduating as valedictorians with master's degrees. We were…inseparable back then, so much so that we became roommates in our second year. I remember staying up together until three in the morning to study for any big exam we had, and by the end of the night, we would go to the nearby 7-Eleven. Ellie was always craving a slushie. I believe half of her savings went into buying those things. I’m surprised she doesn’t have, or didn’t have, diabetes! Either that or she just hid away from the doctors,” Lily lets out a small laugh through the grief. “She would always pressure me into getting a cherry one; I would give in and stay up until six in the morning. Oh, but Ellie loved mixing them all, and the cashier would always give her the weirdest look. She took forever to drink it through! That crazy lady would go layer by layer to get every flavor in one cup.

“She would also pull me to every insane midnight campus party available, and we always had each other's back no matter what. Oh, we always ensured that neither of our drinks was touched by sick people and kept the creeps away. I even remember when she beat up a jerk who touched me inappropriately by the restroom after one too many beers. He woke up with a terrible hangover and a broken nose, but never figured it was Ellie who did it. Now that I think about it, she was always so protective of me those years.

“Oh dear, I recall one time when we heard of a great bar near the school, and when we got there, it was the most run-down bar on the worst side of town! You should have seen how embarrassed I was. It was not the crowd I was used to. These women and men at the bar, with tattoo sleeves and piercings around their ears! And those big earrings where they pull your earlobes! One gentleman had one I could’ve sworn was at least twenty centimeters! The other woman had a piercing right between her eyes! I couldn’t believe it! My goodness, it was scary! It wasn’t Ellie’s crowd either, but she always refused to back down from any get-together. She told me, ‘Don’t worry Jenny, just act cool!’ Then, five minutes later, she proceeded to start a bar fight. You should have seen the guy she picked on; a rather muscular thirty-year-old with a full sleeve and a beard! He was three shots into the night, and oh goodness, was he ready to let out that drunken madness! She got beaten so badly, and it was a huge mess. These people pulled us apart, and security dragged the man out as he called every person in the bar a different slur! We eventually ran out and swore never to come back, but that didn’t last too long. We returned the week after and found out the people who worked there, plus the regulars, were extraordinarily kind! I suppose you truly can not read a book by its cover! Oh, the things you learn just by sitting back and taking a moment to watch.”

I wish I could have sat back and watched how to get out of here, but I guess life isn’t just a movie with a plain narrative. Or a straightforward moral, either.

“Oh!” Lily exclaims, “And Ellie would flirt with every person on campus, no joke. I remember once I walked in while she was…with someone in the room. The worst part was that the person was in my English class, and they would never talk to me out of embarrassment. They even transferred out of the class, and I never saw them again. Ah yes, Ellie was always the troublemaker. It wasn’t until our third year when we…well, I don’t particularly enjoy looking back at those two years. Not that they were bad necessarily! B-but things have changed since then. Feelings changed since then.” Lily holds the charm in her hand, “I’ve moved on since that time, and I suppose Malva never truly was able to let go. When we first moved down to this facility, I realized something. She must’ve thought things would return to that time in our lives, but I knew they never would.”

An awkward silence fills the room as Lily thinks of a way to change away from the sensitive subject. She giggles, “Once she put a, oh how do I say this? How old are you, my dear?”

“I’m not sure,” I sign. “I lost track of the date, so I do not know if my birthday passed or not.”

“Well, I do believe it should be sometime in May or so, does that help?”

My birthday is April 3rd. This means that my birthday has passed while I was trapped down here, and I didn’t even notice it. I thought I was twenty this entire time, but I can add my own age to the list of things I didn’t know. Twenty-one, I’m twenty-one years old. That’s weird to think about. I hit a huge milestone and didn’t even notice or think about it. I suppose when I’m just trying to live day to day, holidays aren’t anything but just another day.

Another flood of realization hits my heart. It never settled in my mind how long two hundred days truly is and how much of my life I actually missed out on. Birthday parties that were never celebrated and milestones that went unnoticed. I think the only people who probably remembered my birthday are my parents and my sister; it's quite sad to think that those are the only people who would actually care. I didn’t have too many friends, and even the ones I could make in class were not too close, just someone to study with at the library after hours. They didn’t even bother to give me their Instagram or Snapchat, so I don’t think they planned to keep in touch. At the end of the day, it never bothered me. I didn’t mind being alone, but the company was appreciated.

Maybe if I get out, I can finally try beer to see why my dad always liked it. Actually, I did try it once when I was younger; I was about ten when I stole a sip from my dad’s cup out of curiosity. Well, I’m not sure if dipping my tongue in the glass could be considered a sip. He wasn’t too happy about it, but he still laughed it off and told me I could try it one day. I wouldn’t say I liked it at the time, but maybe now he will give me one of his glasses out of the freezer and let me take a good sip.

I sign to Lily, “Twenty-one.”

“Oh alright,” Lily exclaims, “You also look awfully young.”

Apparently, we were both wrong about my age.

“Well, she was a reckless young adult. She put the biggest...dildo she could find on the top of the flagpole in front of the main office. They needed to call the fire department to get it down because they did not have a ladder large enough. ‘Til this day, I still don’t quite understand how she was able to accomplish that or how she wasn’t caught! All I remember was her running out of our dorm with it and laughing that good ol’ giggle!”

These sappy stories make my blood boil. I hate how Lily still humbly looks upon Malva despite all the events she’s put all of us through. Lily probably believes the person she killed was this happy-go-lucky, reckless person; in reality, that person died long ago. Every time she says her name, I can’t see the same person she sees. A fury within me boils towards the woman who tore me from having a peaceful life. She took me away from my family, schooling, and generally having a normal life. I just want to get out of here, return to my peaceful home, and be with my family again. I should never have had to ask for this.

I try not to show it, though; for some reason, Lily’s joy makes me feel the warmth I’ve been craving. Her smile is incredibly bright. The memories of her youth made her cheeks glow with a hidden red hue again as she regains some life to what used to be dead eyes. The vibrant smile looks like it almost took a couple of years off her age. It’s like these wholesome memories made her radiate a joy that was contagious; I began to smile too.

“Although we split into our own paths after schooling, I caught the attention of the military. They had an idea and needed someone who could execute the project. They saw that I was a great candidate for the assignment, supposedly because I was in the area and it relied heavily on my field of study. They found me in a tiny house in Klamath Falls with my fiancé and our two big ol’ basset hound babies. I loved Klamath, but to this day, I find it funny that we could never find waterfalls in the area, just Oregon forests as far as the eye can see.

“I was living my best life and thought it would get better. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on an unreleased piece of technology, there was no way I could have turned that down; but, I knew I could never take this project on my own. I contacted Ellie, who was living in Miami at the time in the cheapest one-bedroom apartment she could find. She was not in the best place in her life at that moment, as didn’t have a job, a partner, or anyone. It had been forever since we made contact, so I suppose she was glad to see me.

“We received the funding for the project and were on our way. They gave us everything we needed. Floors of lab space, a team of researchers, and the hardware was already halfway completed; it was only a matter of getting it to work in the way they intended. Ellie and I were the first to have chips implanted into our heads, and proudly too. They always say the best leaders are the ones who work with the team, not only command them. It was lovely, you know?

“We had a whole team of lovely scientists! I say that as though we were a large group, but it was only a team of seven, including Ellie and I. Soldiers walked these halls, too; we made friends with each and every volunteer who entered. I still remember many of their names; Mary, Alaya, Jamie, and Imelda. Imelda! Oh, she was an uproar!”

A wave of Imelda’s joy rushes through me. She thought Lily had forgotten her, but I guess not. All of those joyful moments they shared remained alive in their memories.

“She would always play the funniest pranks on poor Ellie. One of my favorites was that she would constantly scream just before we had to insert the testing needle! Ellie and I would jump every time, and she would laugh till she couldn’t breathe.”

A light giggle plays in my ear as the serotonin gushes through my mind.

“Oh! Jamie had brought a tattoo machine from Amazon down here with him when they transferred and loved to do art on these little fake skin patches. They told Imelda about a large piece they were working on, and Imelda being Imelda, volunteered to get it done! I was so amazed when Jamie had put the most beautiful tattoo on her forearm of The Last Supper. I will never forget the amount of detail in that piece of art; they went over it day in and day out with a single needle to make it perfect. And I’m surprised Imelda never got it infected down here.”

Does Imelda have a tattoo? Well, of course, I’ve never seen it. She’s always had her sleeves down in memories, and the single time we met, it was always covering her forearms. Now that she mentions it, I can visualize a clear image of it from Imelda’s memory. She’s right when she said the detail was incredible, as the artist went back with a singular needle and got every detail down. Even the texture of the face was exact for how tiny they were.

“Jamie gifted Imelda the machine since Imelda also became interested.” Lily turns away from me, looking down at the ground and mumbling, “They left the program to pursue that career choice. I’m glad they did. I’m glad they left before…before… ”

Imelda’s excitement fades away into a pit of despair, swallowing my heart whole. The life in Lily’s eyes fades away as she grips the necklace with all the strength her fragile hand can force, almost cutting herself with the sharp edges of the charm, slumping her shoulders forward. I can tell she’s trying to repress a memory that she just can't pull herself to say, draining all of the joy left in her. But she takes a deep breath, puts the chain around her neck, and lightly places her hand over mine.

“They...shut us down. Our supervisors gave us a deadline, after deadline, after deadline. But before we knew it, they didn’t have a use for us.” Her voice breaks as she forces herself to continue the story, “Ellie received the news before I did and did not take it well. I kept questioning her as to what was going on, but she never acknowledged or answered me. She just pretended like everything was going as usual. Ellie was always the kind of person who refused to give up, even when all hope was lost. We were extremely close to finishing and Ellie, being the stubborn person she is, refused to drop everything. People started leaving, quitting the program, retiring from the lab, and heading home. The money we had leftover began to run dry, and Ellie hid it all away from me. All she had left was a handful of soldiers, two researchers, and me. She wasn’t about to lose the work we put into this. Of course not. The determination corrupted her and twisted her reality until she slowly began to lose her mind. Kicking the other two researchers out and forcing soldiers to stay, no one was allowed to leave. She isolated me into doing paperwork and shoving me into an office on a floor away from everyone.

“The very last time I saw her leave the lab was when she came back with a gun with a couple of extra bullets. She told me it was for protection, just in case someone came in to interrupt operations. I would never have suspected that it was to actually kill people who tried to leave or threaten them to stay in their place.”

The story abruptly stops as Lily feels the chunk of her ear that Malva shot off. Now that I take a closer look, it took a relatively large amount and white puffiness from the blazing hot bullet blisters into a pouch of clear puss. She lightly taps it but quickly reclines her hand and sucks the air between her teeth.

I still can’t believe how lucky she got, the fact that I ran in at the right time. She would not be here now if I were a second too late. I don’t think I would be here either, Malva could have easily just finished both of us off at that moment, but I’m surprisingly glad she didn’t. At the same time, I don’t even know how I’m still alive. I've been burned, beaten, cut, stitched, shot at, and yet I’m still here. I really shouldn’t be; all of the odds were pinned against me. Should I still be here? I don’t think this was meant to happen. I don’t believe Imelda was ever meant to survive, and neither was I. We were nothing but data points and test subjects to Malva, yet here we are.

Lily continues to feel around her ear as she continues, “Back then, I could never understand why she did not tell me what was going on. She told me things were operating as they should be but, at the same time, hid every piece of mail that would give away reality. Every piece of news, advertisement, and letter that hinted at the war tensions dying was thrown away before I could even touch it. I didn’t even notice how much mail was missing at one point.

“She cut all connections to the outside world, even messing around with the wires in the Wi-Fi routers, telling us that we were receiving poor connections. That was one of our only ways to reach the outside world, besides the terrible signal from this flat. At one point, she broke our telly's antenna and called it an accident.

“More and more people tried to leave, and she wouldn’t kill people with her gun that often, but when she did, she told me they had just…just quit the project.” Lily grabs my hand tighter, trembling, “I mean…I don’t even know why she would go this far. Even if she made a successful chip it would be no use as it’s only accessible through chip-to-chip contact, hence making chip-to-brain contact impossible. Unless she was planning on moving to series 10, which means she would've been planning on… How many people actually quit? Oh god. How many bodies were there? Ellie said their violent outbreaks had something to do with the experiments that scrambled their brains’ chemistry. I stupidly believed her. How long ago was that? I-I only ever found one body. How many more were there? A-and she needed more test subjects to complete it, but there was barely anyone left. And-”

She lets go of my hand, and with a loud clap, she covers her mouth, forcing herself not to say what comes next. Her breathing shakes as she tries to calm herself, but she can’t speak without tears building up in her eyes.

I look out the door into the living room. Right out there is the hallway with a direct exit out of here. I could leave right now. Take the key from Lily and run out, leaving this hell behind. At the same time, she’s giving me something I’ve longed for after all these months: an explanation. It was never a priority, but it would be nice to know. I guess that’s why I stayed and listened. Deep inside, I’ve always wanted to know, why me? What happened? Why did I need to suffer for so long? I want to know why I’m here, and so does Imelda. This story is not just mine. No, my story is intertwined with everyone around me. Lily, Malva, Coroz, and Imelda. My story is incomplete without knowing theirs. Imelda knows a lot, but she has her questions too. We can both find the answers we are looking for, but only out of Lily.

It’s been a while since I’ve comforted someone, so being friendly has become a foreign language. I still need to try, or else I won’t get any answers. I gently rub Lily’s back; she looks over at me as I strain a soft but crooked smile onto my face to calm her down. Her breathing eventually returns to its average pace, but she’s still trying to hold back the next part of the story. I sign, “What happened, Lily?” She can’t repress it anymore.

“Ellie started kidnapping people. I don’t know how, but suddenly a new face appeared without any paperwork or explanation! I didn’t question it. Of course not. I-” Her voice breaks as she continues to suppress it, although the words force themselves out on their own. “I trusted her. How stupid was I? I trusted her even though it was obvious! She began to give excuses to put people in the detention hall. I didn’t know. I thought these people were volunteers or soldiers. Dear Lord, I didn’t know! I was carving these innocent people!” Although she is trying to cry, no tears are left to fall.

That would explain why she was so kind to everyone. She didn’t know any better. I can’t imagine the guilt she must hold on her shoulders, torturing ordinary people without noticing. If I were in her shoes, I’m not going to lie. I’d honestly rather kill myself than live with that for the rest of my life. I think she would want a bit of an explanation. She deserves to know what happened.

I tap her shoulder and sign, “It was a college campus.”

“What?” she cries, trying to process what I said.

I can remember the day everything happened like yesterday, a memory that has been burned into my brain, just like the scar on my hand. “There was a text message I received saying that a college in Oregon gave tours to a couple of randomly selected students from my high school. I was dumb enough to fall for it. Two other people got there that night. Malva told us we needed to use the back entrance because she didn’t have the right keys for the front door. When we began to walk to the back door, a van drove up and blocked the way out. Malva held us at gunpoint while Coroz jumped out the back of the van and began to inject us with something. Both of them tied us up and tossed us into the van. One moment I was sitting in the back of the van with both of them; the next thing I knew, I woke up in an operating room with my head shaved. You drugged me up again just before the operation.”

Her jaw falls to the ground as she whimpers, “You remember?” Her breath trembled in fear, but for some reason, she quickly swallows down the information. No tears, nothing. The room feels tense, I know she wishes she could say something, but nothing seems like the right thing to say. Lily is holding something in; it’s just begging to come out. “Jada,” Lily chokes, “I know an apology means nothing at this point, but I am so terribly sorry. I could never make up for what she… what we did to you and those poor people.”

I never expected an apology. Hell, I didn’t even want an apology. But somehow, it gives me a bittersweet release I didn’t know I needed.

“You want to know how I figured everything out? We needed to insert a new chip into another test subject, and she dragged this poor young girl into the operating room. Annie, that was her name. She woke up before Malva could put her on the table, and she tried to hold the child down. I asked her what was going on, and-” Lily pauses to take off her glasses and rub her eyes together, taking a deep breath, she sighs “-s-s-she tried to force me to perform the surgery. Ellie injected her neck with a sedative and held a bloody gun against my head; she told me that she would kill me if I did not implement that chip inside the child.” She looks at me but soon shoots her glare away so as not to make eye contact. Her eyes are dry as she had already cried out all the tears she possibly could, staring at the dirty floor.

It pains my heart to know that child is still here. I saw her earlier, those eyes. I still can’t put my finger on what she reminded me of. An emotion so soft and warm, but also damaged beyond repair. Yet, she still held onto it as much as she could. The idea that Malva was vicious enough to have tried performing surgery on her disgusts me.

If she was so young, then how did she end up here? Why was she on the college campus? Wait a minute, I do remember her. She was on the college tour with her older brother, and the brother kept telling her that if she were nice enough, they would go out for ice cream after dinner. She didn’t want to be there and was quite stubborn about it. The child didn’t even walk that much. The only times she would is when he grabbed her hand and pulled her. I guess the parents forced him to bring his sister; that was the worst mistake of their life. She had pretty long hair, which I found unusual considering the operation we all had called for the person to have their head shaved. For her to have the length that she has after it being shaved would be a miracle. I sign, “Did you do it?”

Lily turns away from me, muffling her mouth with her hand as she mumbles, “Of course not, Jada, I refused. I wouldn’t dare lay a hand on her. Though Ellie insisted that she would kill me if I didn’t comply, I knew she couldn’t.”

“Did she…” I begin to sign before pointing at the spot of the bullet scar on her arm. Lily rolls up her sleeve, allowing me to see it in full display. “This? No. No, this wasn’t her this… never mind. She didn’t do this, but she eventually figured that I wouldn’t work with her and went insane, locking me away in my bedroom. I’ve been trying to break out for weeks now and knew she couldn’t complete the project. She needed me for the surgeries; they were almost impossible to do alone. I also studied the hardware on my own time when she isolated me from everyone, so I know more about how it works than she does. Ellie would only come into the room to force information out of me with threats and beatings, occasionally she fed me the canned food she found lying around, only so I could not die from starvation.”

Tampering with the charm, Lily stares down at my hand and sighs, “The day you all worked, she felt as though she needed to brand her successes. The series nine. She stole this necklace my fiancé gave me and did that.”

“All?” I question.

Lily’s face glows with a hint of red on her ears, but she avoids looking at me, “Of course. You and Coroz.”

The room is dead, except for the hum of the AC; I suppose you can almost call it awkward. Lily then turns to me and asks, “What was your life before…all of this?”

I barely remember at this point, I remember being happy, but even that emotion is incomprehensible. The only thing I remember is that I didn’t feel as empty as I do right now, and I didn’t fear for my life every time a door opened. I was at peace. My biggest worry back then was whether or not I would pass my classes. I remember laying outside in a hammock with my books; it was a paradise I took for granted. The crisp Oregon air didn’t smell like fecal matter, and the sun’s warmth was always just the right temperature. In the winter, the snow would give a thin sheet of beautiful pure white that was nice to look out to from within the heated house. I would love to sit by the window, listening to my music and going through an entire library of books.

My sister would always loved to read non-fiction. Any book that had to do with history would make her empty her piggy bank; the book’s price didn’t matter. If she could get her hands on it, she would. I never saw the purpose of reading stuff that has already happened. I just wanted to escape. Fantasy books were my pleasure; I was into them as long as they had aliens, wizards, or monsters. We tried trading books every once and a while, but it never worked out. I took so much of my life for granted, and I hope I can get out to appreciate it for once.

I turn to her and sign, “I lived with my mom, dad, and sister in Klamath too. I was in the middle of my summer break, trying to figure out what I would do for the rest of my life. What I wanted to be, and if I even wanted to go to college. ”

“Oh,” Lily says in astonishment, “Did you have anything planned?”

“No,” I sign, “Just general courses until I could figure it out. I suppose science was always somewhat cool, but I’m not sure.”

The room falls awkwardly silent. Lily’s obviously looking for some sort of conversation starter. “Your sister,” she chokes up, “Is she younger or older than you.”

“Younger,” I sign, “And deaf. That’s the reason why I know how to sign. How about you?”

“What about me?”

“Why do you know sign?”

“Oh. I’m quite sure I’ve told you this before, but maybe you forgot, I always saw it as an interesting language to learn. My high school forced us to take a language, which just stuck with me. I can only understand it, though, I was never good at speaking it. Or...signing it, I should say.”

After a slight chuckle from both of us, the room quiets again. I don’t know what to say anymore. What am I supposed to say now? Sorry for your loss? Because I sure as hell am not.

“Jada,” Lily croaks, breaking the silence, “If you have any questions, don’t be scared to ask.”

I have a million questions I’d love to ask, but most of them have already been answered. I can’t help but think about why Coroz has that scar. “Do you know why Coroz has that scar?” I sign.

“What?” Lily questions, her eyes widening in fear.

Maybe she didn’t translate it well, “Coroz, why does he have the scar on his neck?”

Lily looks to the ground and stutters, “I-I-I don’t know who you’re talking about, sorry.”

“You’ve mentioned him before, just now.”

Lily takes a deep sigh and places her hand on my shoulder, “Jada, I’m sorry, but there are some things I want to…I must leave in this facility. I have regrets I don’t want to bring to the surface, and sometimes it's best if certain things are left unsaid.”

Well, if it doesn't affect me or my ability to get out of here, then I think she’s right. There is one thing I do need to know, though. I sign, “What did you do to Malva?”

Every time she opens her mouth to say something, it immediately closes as she retracts whatever was about to spill out. I’m not going to let her hide this, too; I sign again, “What is interpolation?”

“Well,” she starts with a crack in her voice. “I’m sorry, my dear but, you’re not going to like this. Ellie is not completely dead.”

What does she mean by not completely dead? You’re either dead or alive, and last time I checked, getting shot is quite dead. Hell, her body is even beginning to smell through the door.

“I wish you were right, kiddo,” thinks Imelda.

That’s right. Everyone says Imelda is dead, yet I hear her. I can feel her consciousness with me. No, inside of me. There are memories sewn into my head where I watched her die, and she even told me herself that she’s dead. What is this middle ground between life and death?

“This is going to need quite a bit of explanation,” Lily continues. "The chip in your brain holds a good amount of your brain’s functions, except bodily functions. So, I suppose you could say it holds your consciousness. One side project we worked on was called interpolation. It was made for people who were at risk of dying with important information. Its basic premise was to put their consciousness into another person’s chip to preserve them until we could revive their body. Unless the victim’s chip or brain is seriously damaged, or if they’re fully brain dead, they could transfer their data to live on another person’s chip for as long as the second person lives. Ellie is currently alive in mine. But I fear she never fully completed that portion of the project.”

In the small seconds of silence, Imelda’s memories chime in, “You’re right kiddo, this is a middle ground between life and death. I don’t have any fancy terminology, but as I mentioned before, I do consider myself a virus. I suppose Malva is now one too. That’s good for us, and terrible for her.” A small chuckle of success echoes in the back of my mind.

How come?

“’cause I would consider this a fate worse than death.”

What does she mean by that?

“I have spent the last couple of months watching your life go by like a movie that I could see through my own eyes. At most, I can give a couple of hints to keep you alive, but I had no say as to where I was going or what I was doing. When I say that I watch through your eyes, I mean that in the most literal sense possible. Every cut, stab, and shot you’ve taken…I felt them all. You had the choice to try anything you wanted to, but I had to endure it in silence. I can just hope that Malva has to go through the same thing.”

No wonder why she always called for me to stand up for myself; it’s because she can’t. She wanted to fight back this whole time, but at the end of the day, all that’s left of her is her voice and the ability to feel pain.

As I keep thinking about the concept of chips and viruses, something doesn’t make sense. Coroz brought it up briefly, and I shrugged it off, thinking I couldn’t trust him. I can’t trust him. At the same time, he has, yet again, a point. If the victim must be somewhat alive to complete the transfer of data, how did Imelda die before I entered and still become a part of me? Imelda’s memories say she died long before I came in here, so this ruleset doesn’t make sense.

“Jada, I just realized something. I can take over your body. I nearly took over your hand twice.” thinks Imelda, “Does that mean Malva can take over Lily’s?”

My heart drops as Lily begins to empty her pockets of everything: her keys, including the one for the elevator, pens, and paper. The voice recorder drops out of her pocket, but Lily catches it before it can hit the ground. She takes a good long stare at it, then at me, before putting it back into her pocket.

“She never put restraints on the victim I-I think, no, I know that she’s unrestrained in here. I-I can feel her fighting me. Her hands, they are a-all over me I-I can feel them. S-she’s after you, and I’m sorry. Jada, I am so sorry. I put us both in terrible danger. I need you to promise me-” she swallows hard to hold herself together “-if she ever takes control of my body, punch me, beat me with a bat, shoot me if you need to, I don't care.” She puts all of the objects desperately into my hands and closes them, “Just make sure she doesn't cause more harm to these people. And if anything were to happen, please, you have to go to floor eight and release all of the people. T-the keys on the ring should be able to open the cells. I-I’m not sure which one goes to which. B-but Please. Promise me you’ll do that.”

It’s promise that I can’t make confidently, but this was my goal since I first tried to escape. Lily’s a ticking time bomb to Malva’s resurrection. I’m the only person out of their cell who isn't either trying to kill people or has a maniac in their chip. If what Lily says comes true, the lives of all of these people are in my hands. Now I definitely can’t escape by myself. If I choose to run out of here for myself, I would have to leave everyone behind. None of these people have a chance. That child down the hall doesn’t have a chance.

I don’t know how far I can get if Malva resurrects. Every single time she’s fought me, she’s beaten me to a pulp. Maybe not every time. I’ve been better recently, at least with Imelda helping me. I don’t know if this is a promise I can keep, but I’ll do my best. I’m too deep into all of this to turn back now.

With all of the items she gave me in my pockets, I hesitantly sign, “I promise.”

“N-Now,” Lily studders, “Before Ellie takes over, if she does, I have a question too.” Lily places her hand on my shoulder and looks deep into my eyes, searching for something, “Is it true? Is what Ellie told me true? Is she in there?”

Imelda bounces around my head in excitement, ready to finally somewhat make contact with her old friend. Unlike when I told Malva, I excitedly sign, “yes.”

Lily’s eyes pop out of her head as she gasps, shrieking, “No!” Her face drops into terror as her nails dig into my shoulders, staring deeper into my eyes. Imelda’s excitement fades into questioning. She releases her grasp on me and backs away, soon enough jumping to her feet, repeating to herself, “No, no, no, no!”

“What’s wrong?” I sign.

“Has she told you anything about a deal Ellie offered?” Lily sternly questions.

Imelda falls quiet, but her anxiety makes my heart race in fear. The tension in the air is dreadful, and for once, some deep fear turns towards Lily. She hasn’t changed, yet this question she tossed onto me feels like a threat. Imelda knows the answer, but she holds it back to…protect me? I have no idea what she’s talking about, and I sign “no.”

My blistering headache begins to pound again, causing me to scrunch up in pain. Imelda breaks my heart into two as her screams of outrage play in the back of my head. The angrier she gets, the worse the migraine pounds throughout my head. I fall to my knees, gripping my hair and begging Imelda to stop.

Lily takes notice, rubbing my back and asking, “My dear, did you ever get any rest for your head?” I nod my head no; my head pounds harder than ever. “Oh my goodness, you need to rest for a bit!” She hesitates for a moment but slowly makes her way over to me. With a gentle touch, she grabs my shoulder. I meet her eyes, those eyes looking at me as though she’s looking at a ghost. Lily reaches out her hand with a tremble, staring me down as though I was a dog about to bite her. I slowly grip her hand not to startle her, and she helps me off the floor, guiding me to the bed.

“Please just sleep for a bit,” she recommends. “We can get everyone and leave after that.” She helps me lay down, the thin pillow soaking a small portion of the pain away.

Lily pulls the tester out of her pocket and stares it down, pondering her next move. “Jada,” she says, “Do not believe a word that woman says.”

My head fills with the echoing word, “Why?”

“She,” Lily catches her words, only to release them, “She’s a liar. Imelda only cares about herself, and that’s it. Whatever she’s told you was to get herself out of here. Do you understand me?”

I think-

“Have I made myself clear?!” Lily yells.

“Yes,” I sign, unable to process what is happening.

“Good. Before we leave, I need to check your chip to see what’s going on between you two. You could be in just as much danger as I am. You must cooperate with me if you want to get out of here alive, understood?”

“Yes,” I sign again. Imelda makes my heart skip beats in fear. The same fear she felt back at the lab right before her death.

“Good. Now, what exactly do you see when you go in?”

“My chip was this weird pastel place,” I sign, “Where I could just randomly pull knives and a machete out of nowhere. And-“

“Do you see her?” Lily interrupts.

Imelda puts tears on the verge of my eyes, begging me not to answer. Something’s changed in Lily. No, something’s changed in how Imelda views her. This is no longer some friend but a boogeyman from the past. With the tester in her hand, I’m afraid she will do something to her. What would she do with that information if she found out the truth? I sign, “No.”

“No?” she questions. The room’s tension gets tighter as she commands, “Are you lying to me?”

My trust in Lily slips, as her trust in me slips too. I’m already halfway in on this lie, so I need to complete it. “No,” I sign, “Is it true that Coroz can create a gun in there?” I question, trying to change the subject.

Lily raises her voice in shock, “Coroz knows how to control his chip!?”

“I think so,” I sign. “He threatened me once by-”

“Why would you teach him how to use it?” she whispers to herself, looking to her side as though she were talking to someone else. She pauses for a moment before returning to her average volume, “We should probably be alright as long as he doesn’t have a tester.”

Lily walks into the living room, grabs the tablet off the floor, and swiftly marches back in. She sits next to me on the bed, and I move over to make room for her. “Jada, I’m sorry, but I must look inside. I need to know if she’s actually in there. Because if she is, then I’ll have to…” she stops mid-sentence to take a moment and ponder.

Imelda ponders too, and a scenario pops into my head that I refuse to accept. Does Lily want to kill Imelda? No, why would she? Unless there’s something she knows that Lily doesn’t want her to know. Lily reaches for my shoulder to turn me around, and I slap her hand away to sit up.

She looks at me with shock in her eyes, “Do you not trust me?” she questions. I hesitate to answer and raise my hands, but she interrupts, “Jada. I have done nothing but care for you during your time here, and you do not trust me?”

Guilt makes my heart turn to steel and questions my judgment. I need to stand my ground. As much as I want to trust Lily, I know I can trust Imelda more. She has no reason to trick me; we aim for the same goals. Hell, she encouraged me to begin this whole escape and got me this far. I ran in blindly for Lily, and I didn’t even know what she wanted. I didn’t know what she was planning until I crossed her path, so we could be on two opposite escape routes. I’m sorry, but I can’t trust her with that tester. I have no idea what her intentions with Imelda are. In one swift motion, I try to grab the tester from her, but she moves it out of my reach. The headache from exhaustion returns and leaves me weak.

“Jada. I would never want to hurt Imelda,” she croaks with a crack in her voice, “Please trust me when I say that. I just need to know.”

Imelda and I ponder together, what does she want? These mixed messages tangle us both, making us question our realities. We want to trust her, that’s without a doubt, but we don’t know what she wants to do with us. Well, I don’t know what she wants to do with Imelda. Imelda’s also withholding information from me, but it has to be for a good reason. Every time she was able to give information to help me, she would in an instant; but for once, this needed to be kept away from me. Imelda’s not only pissed but filled with grief too. Whatever Lily’s trying to hide in her past is no small secret; she wants it gone. But maybe we misunderstood her. Imelda wants to believe that Lily wouldn’t hurt her. Not after those years of friendship. But is her life worth the risk?

I’m struck with the realization that Imelda never expected to get out. Even if we get out, she would never be a whole person on her own. Of course not. That was never the plan. We never honestly had a plan after we got out, now that I think about it. I guess I was just going to walk around with this little pocket buddy for the rest of my life. That’s at least what I thought.

Imelda never did this to live out a long life, but instead to guide me to mine. If Lily stabbing me one last time would help me get out, Imelda’s willing to take that risk.

On the other hand, I’m not. Imelda was the only person helping me every step of the way, even when I didn’t know she was there or appreciated her. I don’t know how I could get out without her. But she’s right. At the end of the day, we need to take every chance we can get to get out of here. Even if Lily…I’d rather not think about that outcome for Imelda’s sake and my alliance with Lily.

I turn around, granting Lily access to my spine. “T-thank you,” she studders, surprised that I obeyed. She rubs the needle with the clean portion of the lab coat, “I know this is not very sanitary, but it will have to do.” I inch forward to sit on the edge of the bed while she moves to the opposite side, lowering the back of my tank top until it reveals my scars. “I am so sorry, my dear this is going to need to go pretty deep. Please don’t move too much.” The needle pierces on top of my spine, causing my fingers to curl while I endure the cold syringe sliding deeper under my flesh until it clicks into place on the device against my spine. When Lily puts the earpiece inside my right ear, she lightly grabs my cheek and questions, “Oh dear, did that hurt? Are you alright?”

I jokingly sign back, “Don’t worry.”

“Alright,” she giggles, “I believe there’s a mobile phone Malva has hidden somewhere on this floor. After I take a quick look into your chip, I will search for it and call the authorities before Malva can do anything. Until then, get some rest.” I hear the beep in my ear and begin to lose consciousness. My body falls into Lily’s slender hands as she tosses me onto the bed with the strength she has.

Once again, I open my eyes to see the pastel world, or as I should now say, my chip. I can't stop staring at the sky. It seems that it should be almost dome-like now that I look at it closer, except there are no walls. Like a rainbow, it's hard to find the end of it, and I question if there is one.

The ground below me molds itself into the divots of my bare feet; walking on it is almost heavenly. It's like freshly trimmed grass, but it's one large mold instead of many tiny blades. It was made that way to compensate for the heavy weight I feel pressing my entire body; the gravity is just a bit heavier than usual. It's not serious enough to crush a body, but it's enough to make you uncomfortable from the extra weight. My muscles must work harder to move around to compensate for the pulling, as though I were underwater.

“Jada?” I hear a voice call out.

I quickly turn around and see Imelda in the distance. My heart sinks. A rich red hue hazes over her stern face, with fresh tears still slightly streaming down. She walks up to me, forcing a gentle smile. With a violent stumble, she inches closer, “I can’t believe you made-made it this far,” she croaks, trying to force a bright tone into her voice. The glitchiness of her voice has worsened with her emotional state. “I’m happy to see you again. I-I’m actually happy you’re alive in general, kid.”

What happened to her?

“I can’t tell you. Jada, I’m sorry, but when I was still alive, I overheard a conversation between Lily and Malva before I…well, let’s be blunt here, I died.” She gives me a quick pat on the head. “I can’t give you the details of it, but all I can say is I believe I know what happened, how things went downhill for those two. I’m disappointed in her choice, but I don’t blame her either. I just –“

Ba-ding!

The sound of a tiny charm startles me, making me grab the machete out of the dense air. I turn around to see a message floating on a light baby blue screen:

“This is Lily. I don't know if you can see this. This is the messaging system’s first test because I can not find a microphone. I can see you but don’t know if I can hear you. Please make a noise if you can read this!"

This is one of the oddest things I've ever seen. Imelda peeks over my shoulder to take a look at it as well. I lightly touch the "read" button on the bottom, and the screen disappears into nothing within a blink.

“Wow, I can’t believe they finally have that working,” Imelda exclaims. “The messaging system used to always drive Malva crazy! Let’s see, how can we test the sound system?” She questions. I spawn a second machete and clash the two together. A sense of power rushes through me; I slide the two together and listen to them sharpen each other, the metal ends harmonizing as they work together. The pull of the heavy blades is almost addictive, a rush of adrenaline that I don’t want to let go of.

I look over and meet Imelda’s astonished eyes. With her jaw on the floor, she looks down at her palm. Imelda closes her eyes, trying to summon something in her hand, but nothing appears.

“Come on!” she urges. She presses her eyes even tighter, but still, nothing appears. Another message shows up on a floating screen behind me. Imelda walks up behind me and once again reads the letter with me.

"It's me Lily again. I do not see Imelda anywhere, but I will take a deeper look to see if I can find her virus. Meanwhile, experiment with what you can. I’m not sure how much Ellie was able to accomplish. This chip is your mind, so don’t overthink how to do things. I hope you can have a bit of fun testing and finding what you can! If you want to wake up, flick your fingers to bring up the menu. Please take a quick look at the menu too. I don't know what you can find, but I hope you can have some fun! I'll see you when you get out! :)"

She types like my mom, especially how she repeats herself twice in one text; I guess they don’t re-read it once they finish. Maybe it’s something with the older generations, but I don’t quite understand it.

“Huh. Interesting,” Imelda huffs. “She probably can’t see me because I’m a virus, not a real person. That’s…good! We don’t need to worry about her finding me…at least for now.” She glares at the floor in wonder and sticks her hand out.

Once again, she closes her eyes with all her might as she tries to do something. What in the world is she trying to do?

“Welp, that didn’t work. You want to try?”

Try what?

“Malva told me that successful chips can mold the ground. I’m not exactly sure what she meant, but it was worth a try.”

I look down at the floor and question what he means by molding it. I try to get a grip of it with my hand, but there’s no major intent I can pull from, so brute-forcing it isn’t an option. Did Lily say the chip was in my mind? Maybe I can move it telepathically? I put my hand in front of it and think of what I could do to it. Maybe just lift it up a bit? I’m not trying to do anything extreme, just enough to see if it’s true.

The ground begins to jiggle, hardening into a tiny hill. I jump back, startled by the sudden movement of the flat ground. Without my concentration, the mountain falls flat. I’m not actually terraforming this world with my mind, am I?

“You did it!” chimes Imelda. “Try it again!”

I try to see different ways to mold it, recreating the tiny hill and thinning the tip until it almost turns into an upside-down exclamation mark. However, when I cut it in half, the upper portion falls and deteriorates into the ground, like a water drop going back into the ocean. I continue to play with the world, making even more tiny hills. I need to try something else, spikes! All of the mountains suddenly sharpen their tips, startling Imelda into a stumble. How far can I go? How big can I control? I turn away from Imelda, and in one sudden push into the ground, a gully almost as wide as a river digs its way through the flat floor! Imelda laughs in excitement, running up to the canyon and standing on its edge in astonishment. I let go of it all, resetting the world into a flat plane. I can’t believe it! What else can I do?

I create a large pillar, summon the machete, and slice through it. A power rushes through me, and a burst of joy flourishes through me with the destruction of the post.

“You…you really are successful, Kiddo!” Imelda shouts, “I-I didn’t believe it, but oh my god! Keep going!”

Create another pillar, cut through it like soft butter, and watch it melt. More. I need more! Two towers, slice it! Three towers! Four! But cutting through it quickly is getting boring. Make it thick and sturdy, like a giant tree! With Imelda’s bright cheers giving me energy, I keep swinging into it, put all of my force, and pull it out. Every inch I add into the indentation, the wider my smile pulls itself. The fury I had bottled up pushes me to hit harder with each swing. Sweat drips off my face, and I’m having trouble breathing, but I don’t care! I begin to scream, letting all my anger give me an adrenaline rush I wish I could have used against Malva. The wrath, hate, and rage is released into the thick pole. Finally, I get through the entire pillar and kick it down with the rest of my energy. I’m a telepathic superhero with a machete! This place is awesome! I don’t ever want to leave!

“Woah!” Imelda exclaims. Her excitement dies down as she sits on the ground. “You’re successful.”

Does that mean Imelda is too?

Imelda chuckles in disappointment, holding a smile. “No,” she sighs. “No, Kid, I’m not. My chip was never completed when I died, so my consciousness is just a half-baked experiment. I’m not even an entire person,” She looks at her hand, brandishing the transparency on her fingertips. Waving the hand back and forth, she tracks the doubling imagery left behind by her motion. “I’m just leftover ones and zeros. Just a virus. Since I’m only a small part of you, it wouldn’t make sense for me to be in the system.” she sighs in disappointment but quickly picks up her sweet smile and cheers, “That’s ok. I’m happy you were lucky.”

“Well, ya’ look like you’re having fun.”

That does not sound like Imelda.

Shocked by the recognition of that voice, Imelda looks behind me with a tremble in her neck, gasping loudly and her eyes shrink into her head. The machete weighs down in my hand with the dread of karma, and the smile smacks off my face. It can’t be.

I turn around to see Coroz standing behind me, his hair cleanly done. He perfectly fitted into a suit and accompanied by a golden chain. His thumbs calmly tuck themselves into his pockets, and his mischievous smile is wide as always. “Came here to see if you’s was the one who bit the bullet. I guess not.” I look at him up and down. Where did he get the suit? Do I look different too? I examine myself only to find I’m still wearing the same raggedy outfit I’ve always had. “Oh ya’ like the fit?” he smirks, pulling his golden chain, “Figured I’d give myself a new look, considering I’d see ya’ again. I’m guessin’ ya’ don’ know this trick yet.”

How the hell did he get here? Didn't he need a tester to get into someone else’s chip? Wait, he did get one. When Malva pushed him back into his cell, he stole one from her in the same way he was able to pickpocket those keys out of her lab coat. That’s why she was missing it. He steps towards me; I point my machete at him for defense.

“Oh please, fuck off!” He laughs, pulling a revolver out of thin air. A rock settles in my throat, but I still stand my ground. I guess he wasn’t lying, but if he can make one, maybe I can too.

I try to summon a gun, but when I pull it into reality, it’s filled with blanks. Without a second thought, I pull the trigger, only for nothing to happen.

“Oh darlin’, ya’ need to have a memory of firing a gun to know how to do it!”

“W-What are you doing here?” Imelda questions with a tremble in her voice.

Coroz looks over my shoulder, shocked and chuckling with irritation. He struts closer, the gun by his side, stares at Imelda with a crooked grin, and lets out an even louder chuckle, “Imelda. Imelda!” As he prances his way over, I keep an eye on him, trading out the gun for the machete and trailing him with the tip of my blade. He strides right next to me and gently tries to lower it with one finger. I refuse to drop it, pushing it closer to his neck, right against his scar.

“Oh wow. So scary,” he chimes with sarcasm.The tip of the revolver pushes into my side as he clicks his tongue. I try to keep my stance, but my palms sweat unbearably as the gun gets pushed deeper into my side. He leans closer to me, slightly pressing his neck against the machete. “Get rid of it,” he commands.

I stand still, wanting to plunge it into his neck. But if I do, my guts will get blown apart. He pushes the gun even more into my waist, towering over me with his grin sliding away from him. “I said get rid of it,” he commands once again.

I’m in no position to be acting rebellious. I let go of the machete, letting it disappear into thin air and hoping for the best.

“That’s better,” he grins. He releases the gun from the depths of my stomach and slowly makes his way over to Imelda. Do I defend her? Do I even need to protect her? I thought they were friends at one point. Maybe he just wanted to see if Imelda was actually here?

“How ya’ doin’ buddy?” Coroz cheerfully chimes, throwing the gun to his side and letting it melt into the floor. “Ya’ lookin’ rather ghastly! What a spooky ghost! And man, what a playground ya’ got here!” he takes a quick spin before locking eyes with Imelda once again.

“G-get away from me!” Imelda commands with a quiver, taking backward steps away from Coroz.

“Oh c’mon! Aren’cha glad to see me?” He sarcastically cheers as he picks up the pace.

“N-no you’re here to get-get-get! me. I know you. You probably have some sort o-of plan with Malva and-“

“Malva and I are done,” Coroz interrupts.

“N-no,” Imelda stutters, picking up the pace as well. “T-then what do you want from me?” With a quick flick of Coroz’s finger, a small lump forms behind Imelda, causing her to trip over it and fall on her back.

Coroz takes four long steps in rhythm with his words, humming, “What do I want?” With his hands in his pockets, Coroz swings his foot up and lands hard on it, bouncing his way closer to Imelda. “Lem’me see.” He leans over Imelda, grabbing her cheeks and squashing them under immense pressure. “Ya’ not only screwed me over once!” In an instant, a pocket knife appears in his hand, slashing it across Imelda’s face leaving a gouging aperture from the top left corner of her forehead to the inside corner of her right eye. “But twice!” he laughs, raising the blade above his head and leaving one more blood channel across Imelda’s face. This time, it slashes from under her left eye across her lips. Imelda shudders on the floor, covering her face with her hands as they fill with blood. The ground engulfs her arms, leaving her wounds open for Coroz to see.

I grab my machete and jump in to save her but fall flat on my face as something grabs me by the foot. Getting back on my feet, the ground around my ankle keeps a tight hold of me as I notice Coroz’s hand pointed out at me.

“And Jada,” he chimes, turning around with a crooked grin. With his hands back in his pocket, he lands on each foot heavily, singing with each step, “Jada, Jada, Jada.” The revolver reappears in his hand. “You’s was naïve enough to listen to her. Maybe ya’ don’t have to deal with Malva, but now-” He shoots a bullet into the floor next to me, causing me to jump and curl the same way I did back in the cafeteria. “Ya’ stuck with me.”

“Leave her alone!” Imelda shrieks, but Coroz completely ignores her.

“How did you get here?” I engrave into the floor. He reads it and laughs like a lunatic, swinging the gun in every direction.

“Well, that’s one way to communicate, even here ya’ can’t talk?”

I nod my head no.

“Lem’me tell ya somethin’ sweetheart, we unrestrained! We can go into whoeva’s chip we wanna go into, and I chose yours. And by the way, I ain’t here for either of ya’. I was just messin’ with the two of you’s.'' With a snap of his finger, the restraints on Imelda and I release, and the gun disappears. With one hand, Coroz flicks his fingers to bring up a light blue menu. He passes through so many options I can’t even tell what he’s choosing, “My body’s just chillin’ in the cell ya’ left me in.” He shuts his hand, finally getting rid of the menu, and puts his free hand into his pocket, popping his hip to one side. “Speaking of which, did ya get out? Huh? Did using me for info and then leaving me to rot in this shithole worth it? ‘Cause now the two of ya’ need to deal with me for a long, long time!”

Coroz grabs the gun out of thin air and spins the barrel playfully, startling me. A large wall appears between us; the chip molds to my desires before I can even think. “Oh wow, looks like ya’ did learn some new tricks!” Coroz says sarcastically. The ground below me shoots up and grabs my wrists, holding my arms down again. I try to mold it myself, but the restraints pull to collapse my knees like a table every time I tug it to stand up.

“You’s cute, ya’ know that? Ya’ really think this is ya’ territory?” The ground wraps itself around my ankles as he aims at me. I struggle to move the ground, but it’s no use. The only thing I can do is move my head to the side, but the ground behind me stretches and wraps its way around my neck, holding me in place. “Revenge is sweet,” Coroz turns around to watch Imelda get up from the floor, sprinting over. “Wouldn’t ya’ agree, Imelda?” he beams.

“No!” Imelda cries, her arm reaching out for a way to save me.

Coroz abruptly begins to cough and wheeze, smoke pouring out of his mouth. “What the hell?” he asks before dropping the gun to the floor. “Ya’ know, two minutes here is like an hour out there when ya’ ain’t talkin’ to someone outside.” He continues to wheeze, doubled over on the floor, but he won't let go of the smile. The ground’s grip slightly releases, and I take control to pull the restraints off me.

“I’m thrilled Malva didn’t kill you.” He’s barely able to talk, gagging on the smoke that won't stop spilling. He turns to Imelda and giggles, “Congratulations, Imelda. Ya’ played me once again.” His laughter overpowers the gagging. The sinister grin is covered in the tears that pour out of his vibrant red eyes. He tries to lift the ground but is too weak to overpower me again. I push all of his attempts down, and he gags, “OK Jada. I guess ya’ got me beat right now, but eventually, the smoke will getcha’. If I didn’t have more plans for ya’, then damn-” he tries his best to re-make the gun with the leftover strength he has, “...I would ha’e kept my promise and killed ya’ where ya’ stand.”

My lungs feel heavy from smoke, and my eyes dry out. What’s going on? Is something going on outside?

“Kid, are you ok?” Imelda questions.

I double over as smoke falls out of my coughs, Imelda catching me before I fall to the floor. “Kid!” she cries. Imelda desperately tries to create a menu with the flick of her finger, but nothing appears. With a quick gasp, she questions, “Kiddo, what’s happening?”

I fall out of her arms on all fours, choking up even more smoke. “Kid!” She screams, “You need to get out of here! The menu! Get the menu!”

As much as I’d hate to leave her here with Coroz, she’s right. I need to get out of here and figure out what’s happening outside. With the flick of my fingers, the blue screen reappears with three options: Messages, Transfer, and Wake. I gently touch “Wake” and jolt up in Lily’s bed.

The smell of gasoline burns my nose, and smoke fill the room. Is this a fire? How did it start? I get up and stumble towards the door, squinting to see beyond the smoke. The metal doorknob of the exit burns my hand, jolting me back. Smoke pushes its way through the frame, and a large fire going against it awaits me. I rapidly search around the room for Lily, but she isn’t here anymore. I check my pocket to find the lone elevator key still floating around, so she must not have gone far. Unless I want to suffocate in here, I need to get out.

With a sturdy kick, I try to break the door open to escape from this prison. The weak wood gives in as my leg pieces through, but the hole is not big enough for me to crawl through. I keep kicking more wood off the door; but quickly recognize that if I keep going with this method, it will take too much of my energy. I back up all the way into the rim of the bed and run full force into the door. The wood is not hot enough to burn me, but it still strings like frying oil; the door breaks into a million pieces as I’m tossed into the blazing living room.

I look around to see Lily sitting on the couch with a gasoline tank beside her, the room filled to the brim with smoke. The TV, bedroom doors, and the rest of the sofa next to Lily are on fire. I cough and wheeze as the smoke begins to collect in my lungs, it’s irritating to breathe, and I double over against the searing wall.

“Lies,” says a voice.

It sounds like Lily, but her accent is different. “Lies, lies, lies! All she tells are fucking lies!”

Lily gets up from the couch and grabs me by the shirt, almost making me stand upright as my knees still drag on the floor. Her accent is gone. Did she set the place on fire?

“And you swallow it all down with just a glimmer of hope that she’s some great person!” Lily shouts, punching my face. The vicious hook lets my back teeth come loose. That’s when it clicks. This isn't Lily.

This is Malva