I had been given a new set of overalls to wear shortly after my blood transfusion since Mike had ripped the upper half apart to administer the stitches and bandages. It had been three days since then and I hadn't showered. After my conversation with Abigail, I asked a Pied Piper officer for permission to take a shower which was granted. I had to be careful washing because I didn't want to mess with the bandages Mike had put in place, so instead I stood close to the falling shower water cupping handfuls and cleaning myself that way. The Pied Piper staff must have decided hot water was too much of a luxury since the only water which came from the shower head was a constant lukewarm temperature bordering on cold.

I returned to B-6 and found Blain doing one-armed push-ups beside his bunk.

"57…58…59…60," he said, finishing the exercise and standing up.

There was the sound of a loud clap as we both took a firm grip of the other's hand; his hand engulfed mine and I could feel the considerable difference in our weight and overall strength vastly in his favour. I felt tightness and the threat of more pain flaring up in my right shoulder and my stomach from the tension of my muscles tugging at the stitches holding my wounds shut. Blain eased off first and sat on his bunk.

"What's good?" he said.

I wondered whether I wanted to tell him about my conversation with Abigail and decided I didn't have a particular reason not to mention it.

"Abigail's invited me to a dinner tonight. Robert Hoffman's hosting it," I said.

"Good, good," said Blain, scratching his temple and smirking, "I got an invite for that yesterday."

Oh, I thought, so he just neglected to mention that until he knew I was going too. How nice of him.

"Are you going?" I said.

"Yeah," he said, "Tiff and Mikayla are going too."

I felt a stabbing pain in my gut as it tensed, tightening up the stitches there. My mind raced trying to make sense of why all four of us were being invited to the same dinner. I fell into silence trying to figure out what it was about the four of us that made Robert Hoffman decide we were worthy of being invited.

I moved over to my bunk and sat down. I found myself staring into space. Blain kept his attention fixed on me. There was something about his look which made me feel like I had to say something to avoid any more potentially awkward silence.

"I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing we're all chosen to go," I said.

"What could be bad about it?" said Blain.

I could tell by the way he was asking he was just as unsure about the whole thing as I was. As tough as Blain was I couldn't help but notice how young he looked as he gazed at me with barely disguised apprehension.

"Have you talked to Robert much?" I said.

"Some," said Blain, "Had one long session with him. Seemed like he was trying to figure me out."

I nodded.

"Yeah," I said, "Me too."

"Do you trust him?" said Blain.

"No," I said, "Not at all."

I sat down on my bunk and after a few minutes laid back and stared up at the ceiling.

I daydreamed about turning on my lightbulb hands and racing down the white corridors, dispatching one Pied Piper officer after another like some super powered assassin. I optimistically simulated in my mind reaching the third floor checkpoint (with dead or severely burnt and wounded Pied Piper officers in my wake.) I tried the scenario but with Blain added in and found that, even at my most optimistic, I just couldn't see a way for us to get beyond the third floor checkpoint without getting gunned down. We were growing in our powers but we were still so far off from being able to ignore the threat bullets posed.

I smirked at that thought. I was assuming that, eventually, I would become powerful enough that bullets weren't going to be the concern they currently were. There were a lot of assumptions which were being made for that to be the case; for one I was assuming my power would just keep growing; for all I or anyone else knew (as far as I could tell) our powers could have already reached their limit. If that were the case then even if we could somehow escape the facility we would always be at the mercy of the governments of the world hunting us.

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I shook my head like an etch-a-sketch to clear up my mind, starting over. I decided to stick to what seemed the best option for escape: Sophie.

Sophie had somehow discovered a possible hidden exit leading deeper down into the facility which might be a means of escape. Assuming she was right and assuming there was no dead end somewhere deeper below, that would mean our hopes after escaping the facility were fixed on surviving long enough with the use of our powers to outrun the Pied Piper forces and whoever else might come for us.

If only I could test out my powers without risk, I thought. There were things I was tempted to try. Changing my voice and maybe my facial structure were two ideas I had; maybe changing my hair colour too. If I could change my physical appearance then hiding from the Pied Piper officers would be much easier, in theory, at least. The problem however was the addictive nature of the power.

George had given into the promise of his own inner mental struggles stopping by letting the power take control over him; and he became a monster. Adam and Holly had tried to embrace their darker animalistic sides in some Jungian sense only to also lose control, also becoming monsters.

I had also seen how Jay and Amar had become addicted to using their powers of freezing and changing their eye colours; something they seemed to have tempered because they had swapped their way of using the power for Holly's way.

And I had felt it too. The seemingly unending desire to tap into the coiled state. Even laying on my bunk, a part of me wanted nothing more than to get up and get into the coiled state. I was sure my heart would leap with joy at the sight of my Meter turning orange; that was how bad I wanted to go into the coiled state again. Having an excuse to enter the coiled state when Adam had lost control of his power had been a very welcome one; how could I not enjoy powering up and bulbing up facing down a were-lion man and a cougar-cat-woman? It was scary, sure, but also easily one of the most exciting experiences of my life.

As nightmarish as that whole experience had been, in hindsight, I found myself replaying what happened over and over as if it were a favourite movie of mine, and I was the star. The satisfaction I felt upon remembering how my bulbed hands scorched Holly when she had tried to attack me hadn't faded even after three days.

What kind of psycho was I to take pleasure out of something like that? In the game of using our powers I had out-powered her, for a few moments at least, and the joy I was taking from it was concerning; and yet another part of me wanted to not care how much I enjoyed the whole experience despite how much I tried to guilt myself into thinking it was all something to be upset about.

Stay miserable, I thought, because you don't want to get addicted to the rush of fighting for your life. You'll become a psychopath in no time.

I remembered back to how I had laughed and fought back against Tommy which, in a way, felt like a long time ago. I had enjoyed breaking his nose far too much. Worse, in the moment, I felt completely justified in doing it.

Reece and Christopher returned from the exercise area two hours later. They sat on their bunks and rested and Blain and I sat in silence too. Shortly before it was time to leave for the Hoffman's special dinner a conversation sparked up between Blain and I.

"That thing you did with your hands was sick, bruv," said Blain.

He was still looking up at the ceiling with his hands resting behind his head. I was doing the same.

"Thanks," I said, aware of Reece and Christopher listening in on our conversation. I wondered if they were going to take offense considering it was Adam and Holly who had been our adversaries.

"Did you turn your hands to solid bone?" I said.

"Yeah," said Blain, "Pretty sick, init?"

"Yeah," I said, "Makes sense given your boxing background. Made you pack even more of a punch."

"Can you both shut up?" said Reece, suddenly.

I looked to Blain, who hadn't moved at all except for his eyes moving to one corner, fixing on Reece.

"Sorry," I said, trying to diffuse the sudden tension, "We weren't trying to make light of what happened with Holly."

"Yeah you better not be," said Reece.

I sat up on my bunk. There was something to the way Reece was speaking that told me that, though he was angry with us, it wasn't the kind of anger that made me fear he might suddenly transform into a monster. He was annoyed, but very much in control of his temper.

Bootsteps alerted us to the arrival of two Pied Piper officers.

"O'Bannon, Penniman, time to go," said one of the Pied Piper officers.

"Where are you going?" said Reece.

"Shut up," said Blain.

And then we both left with the Pied Piper officers with Reece and Christopher watching us go from their bunks. It felt good to be chosen for special treatment and to have a small win over Reece and Christopher, but another part of me wondered if, by the same time tomorrow, I might wish to have stayed behind with them after all.