{Emily}

There's an old saying that goes, "I remember it like it was yesterday." Well this memory still feels like it happened yesterday. I was walking down this long dark hallway with a young woman who I called my mom at the time. Her long blonde hair hung from her head in wavy curls on her shoulders. She wore a pink dress with the skirt going down to her knees. I must admit that I hate the color pink but this woman could pull off wearing anything because of how beautiful she was. I mean she was so beautiful she could pull off wearing a trash bag so to speak.

She walked me down the dark hallway, actually she dragged me because this hallway scared the shit out of me and made my skin crawl. "Come on child! You're going to meet someone who is going to change your life for the better!"

"Why do we-" I started.

"Don't even start!" Mom snapped.

Not wanting to earn my mom's wrath I shut my mouth and didn't say anything else. We finally made it to a huge steel door. Mom knocked on it and a slot opened and two black beady eyes looked at us. "Ah madam! It's so nice to see you again! I hear you have someone you want me to meet?"

"Yes Uncle 42," Mom said. "Or at least I heard that's what your name was?"

"Oh yes that's my name!" Uncle 42 said.

The door opened to reveal an old man who looked like he was my mom's age but ugly and not handsome in any sense of the word. He had gray hair and green eyes and he was dressed in blue jeans and a white t-shirt. He had a nametag on his shirt that said Uncle 42 on it. He reached out his hand like he was expecting me to shake it. Instead of shaking his hand I shook my head and backed away.

Mom clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Child, show some respect and shake his hand!"

I shook my head again. "I don't want to! He's creepy!'

Uncle 42 didn't seem offended by this but he did seem rather amused. He chuckled, "Don't worry ma'am, I get that all the time. Children tend to find me a little bit creepy and that's understandable. I am the lead scientist here!"

Mom rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah whatever, so how much are you willing to pay?"

"Hmm, how about 100K?" Uncle 42 responded.

"Works for me!" Mom turned to me. "Listen child, this place will be your new home!"

"No! Mom, I don't wanna stay here!" I cried. "Please don't leave me here!"

Mom shook her head. "Nope, I've made up my mind child, why do you think I'm not calling you by your birth name right now? You aren't fit to be my child so you will stay here from now on."

"But why? What did I do?" I asked.

Instead of answering me she turned to Uncle 42 and asked, "How soon can I expect payment?"

"Ah, here we go!" Uncle 42 went over to a desk and pulled out a checkbook. He wrote out a check and handed it to mom. "You can cash that today if you want? Anything else?"

Mom shook her head after she took the check from Uncle 42. "Nope, that shall be all!" She turned to me. "Finally I am free of you! Goodbye and see you never!"

She walked off and the steel door slammed shut behind her.

Uncle 42 looked at me and grabbed my hand. "Well now child, let me take you to your cell and give you your number and from now on that will be your name."

He dragged me down another hallway and went to a machine that looked like a huge typewriter and typed something and gave me a name tag after he typed something on it. "From now on your name is 32401! Put the name tag on because if you don't, I'll lose my temper and that would be bad for me to lose my temper on your first day here."

I swallowed and did what I was told.

"Hey Uncle 42!" I heard a voice say, "Did you get another lab rat today?"

Uncle 42 groaned, "Yes Dominic, I did."

I turned around and saw a young guy who looked like he was a teenager like me. He had brown hair and blue eyes and he wore black jeans and a white t-shirt. He also had a blue baseball cap on. I didn't like him anymore than I liked Uncle 42. This guy looked even creepier than Uncle 42 and he made my skin crawl!

"Wow, she's beautiful!" Dominic exclaimed. "How old is she?"

Uncle 42 looked at me. "How old are you 32401?"

"I'm fourteen," I squeaked.

"She's a teenager!" Dominic cheered. "Uncle 42 can she come live with me? I'll finally have the sister I've always wanted?"

Uncle 42 raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? It's her first day here! She hasn't even been tested on!"

"Uncle 42, didn't Dad tell you I've been looking for the perfect little sister?" Dominic growled, "All of the other lab rats were too old to be a little sister! She's five years younger than me! She's perfect to be my little sister! And she'll be the strongest lab rat you've ever seen after she's been tested on! You'll see!"

"Alright fine," Uncle 42 groaned. "Just make sure you bring her back here at midnight on the dot for testing. Got it?"

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Dominic's face brightened. "Yes sir!"

I shook my head and protested. "No, no, I don't want to go with him! He's even creepier than you are Uncle 42!"

"What was that?" Dominic roared. He walked over me and slapped me. "Listen little girl, you are now my younger sister and you will act like it or I'll make sure every test you go through will be as painful as possible! Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Use your words 32401!" Dominic barked. "You will act like a little sister, do you understand me?"

I nodded again. "Yes."

"Good now, come with me!" Dominic said. He grabbed my hand and dragged me down another dark hallway. Along the way I wondered how many dark hallway's this place had. We went up a flight of stairs next and through a wooden door and outside a black SUV was waiting for us. Dominic dragged me to the car and opened the passenger door. When I shook my head not wanting to get in, he practically pushed me inside and roughly buckled my seatbelt.

After that I dared to speak because I was pissed. "I don't like you!"

Dominic looked at me and smiled. "You know something 32401? I don't give a shit! You're going to be my little sister and you should be honored by this! A lot of younger lab rats would kill to be in your position but like I said they're too old to be my little sister."

I made a face and stuck my tongue out at him. That was a big mistake because he reached over and slapped me so hard I saw stars.

"Stop being so difficult you stupid little bitch!" Dominic growled. He paused and gave me a creepy smile. "You know what? Keep the attitude, I like it! I always imagined my little sister with a lot of sass. And I keep holding onto your anger for whoever dropped you here. It'll help you grow stronger and you'll get so strong to the point where you'll be able to ascend to the heavens along with me!"

"Ascend to the heavens?" I repeated. "What does that even mean?"

"You'll figure it out soon," said Dominic. "But today is your first day and I don't want to overload you with a lot of information at once."

I didn't say anything. He started the car and we drove down a long windy road. The road ended at the start of a forest. When we got out of the car Dominic grabbed my hand and dragged me down a dirt road for what seemed like forever and we came to a stop at a house. The house looked like a rundown house, the type of house in the woods that one would see in a horror movie. The place looked like it hadn't been taken care of in years and the wooden front door looked like it was going to fall off the house any minute now.

"And here we are!" He said in a sing-song voice.

I frowned. "You live in this crappy place?"

Dominic thumped me on the back of the head rather hard. "Ow!"

"Don't disrespect your home 32401!" He growled.

"Home?" I said.

"Yes home," Dominic said. "Don't worry there's more to it than it meets the eye."

I nodded. "Okay."

He took out a small key and put it in the lock of the door. When we entered the house my jaw dropped. The house looked like a huge mansion. There were two flights of stairs with a brown carpet rug on them that greeted us. Off to the left of the stairs was a living room with two huge couches in it and a flat screen Tv sitting on top of a Tv stand in front of them. I didn't get a chance to see what was on the other side of the stairs because Dominic dragged me up the stairs and to a bedroom. At this point I was terrified and trying to figure out a way to escape.

He opened the door to reveal a room fit for a girl. The walls were painted pink, the carpet was red and there was a small doll house off to the side. The blankets on the full sized bed were pink with red hearts on them and pillows were of course covered with pink pillow cases. Wow this guy really wanted a little sister! I don't know which is creepier, him or this ugly pink room?

"This is your room 32401! Yes you will go by the name 32401 as long as you live here," said Dominic. "You're a new recruit so therefore you are considered a lab rat."

Before he could say anything else we heard someone say, "Hey Dominic! I'm so glad you're home!"

I looked behind him to see a woman who might've been about as old as Dominic was, she was blue jeans and a tan short sleeved shirt. She had black hair and brown eyes. She smiled at me. "Dominic dear, who's this? I hope she's not my replacement."

"Eww gross! She's only fourteen. She's nowhere near ready for that stuff and I would never do that to my little sister!" Dominic declared.

The woman beamed and cheered, "Yay! You finally found her! Does that mean what I think it means?"

He nodded. "Yup! Now let's let 32401 rest okay? We need to start showing her the ropes as soon as possible but tonight I have to take her back to Uncle 42 for her testing."

The woman nodded. "Oh by the way 32401 my name is Sergeant 22! I hope we can be good friends because you're Dominic's little sister now!"

She held out her hand and I shook it. Little did I know that was going to be the day that my life would turn into hell on earth. Thankfully this time when I snapped out of the memory I realized that I had been sleeping and the memory was a dream.

When I woke up from having that memory Red came over to me and licked my face. It was almost as if he knew that I had a nightmare. "Aww thank you Red, you love me so much don't you?"

Red licked my face again and wagged his tail. I looked over at the alarm clock and grinned. Today I have the day off and because it's a Sunday I usually take today to write my stories and not really do anything else. So that's what I did. I got out of bed and took a shower and changed out of my pajamas into a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

I went out to my living room and sat down on the couch and started to write.

***

{Toby}

It was after work Monday and I decided to follow Emily again. I waited outside her apartment out of sight as much as possible. Just like what happened on Saturday her and her friend Anna came out of her apartment and walked down to the abandoned warehouse. On the way I managed to overhear bits and pieces of their conversation.

"Are you sure you want to do this again?" Anna asked, "It's not like your powers are going to go away anytime soon."

"Yeah I know that," said Emily. "But I need to brush up on using them if Dominic is my trail. There's no way in hell I'm going to be executed or worse become the next leader of A-Circle like Dominic wanted me to. He really needs to wake up and see everything he was taught was a fucking lie! I mean, seriously, once he finishes his training he'll be able to ascend to the heavens and live amongst the gods?

"I found out it was just a ploy to keep him around so he could take over his father's company! And because of what I found out Uncle 42 wanted to kill me and you know the rest."

"Yup!" Anna said, "Oh well let's get this practice session over with. Thankfully you got Red a new chew toy so he doesn't chew on your couch this time. I must admit, the site of that chewed up pillow was cute and funny at the same time. He can't help it, he's still a puppy for crying out loud!"

Emily chuckled, "Yeah and because of that I don't have any pillows on my couch anymore! Thanks a lot Ms. Dog sitter!"

Anna giggled. "Hmm, maybe I'll give him more pillows to chew instead of a chew toy?"

"I'll just take it out of your paycheck then," Emily said. "And I'm practicing more because I don't want to go back to the name I had before."

"Yeah I get it," said Anna. "Don't worry, because to me your name will be Emily forever!"

I didn't bother to follow them into the blocked area of the abandoned warehouse because their conversation gave me something to go by on what to research. I had to figure out what A-Circle was and who Dominic was on top of that. Also I figured that if I found out what was going on I could help Emily out and keep her safe.