I lay in bed as I went through the day before’s events. After being carried to the infirmary with the other two guys I was inspected by Ms.Terise. Her aura of cheerfulness seemed diminished as she kept glancing back at the two guys who I hurt and back to me. She didn’t say anything about it but I could tell by the look in her eyes she felt disappointed. Whether it was in me or them I don’t know.

And I don’t care. Or at least that’s what I try to convince my self. I rolled over savoring the comfy bed. I woke up before my alarm clock so I was milking this time for what it was worth. But in what felt like no time at all the clock blared its usual blare.

Groaning I hit the alarm clock shutting it off, rolled off of my bed and hit the switch to the lights. Unlike the previous two days, Julian wasn’t there, all of his stuff was still here but his suit was gone. I hadn’t seen him yesterday since- since they carried me off to the infirmary.

Something to worry about later, I grabbed my suit quickly and went to the bathroom which was fortunately empty. Mack was nowhere to be seen which I didn’t know was either a blessing or curse. After a refreshing shower, I quickly brushed my teeth and got suited up. I stopped in front of the mirror, looking into the face that glared back.

Time to man up and face the music, I didn’t know exactly what was going to greet me at the mess hall. But what the hell, whats the worse that could happen? I left with a hip in my hop as I headed over to the mess hall for breakfast.

In just a couple of minutes, I reached the double doors. I pushed them open and stepped inside to meet the scene. People were either sitting at tables eating with their friends or milling about gathering pre-determined food from the tables. In record time the conversations dimmed as whispers writhed throughout the room.

The polite ones merely whispered inconspicuously to their friends while casting quick glances at me. The less-inconspicuous people just stared at me while I walked to get a plate. Who knew I was so popular? Or maybe they never saw someone add food onto their plate like I did. It was either my impressive choice of food or my “confrontation” the other day.

After getting my apple juice filled up in a red cup I scanned the room ignoring the stares and whispers until my eyes rested on Julian who was also whispering with Ashley. I smiled slightly, which I buried further down as I walked over to the table and sat down a solid foot away from Julian. Not so close as I was still dipping my toe into the water on what our friendship was at but not so far as too seem far.

I didn’t say anything for a minute, neither did Ashley and Julian. Until finally Ashley broke the silence.

“So I heard some things Chase” She commented slyly as she glanced up from me from her bagel with cheese.

“Did you now?” I questioned with fake interest as if I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

“You know one of the guys left, the other is rumored to be going under therapy after what you did to them” Julian spoke up. His voice barely above a whisper as he kept his eyes trained on his cereal.

“Oh…oops,” I said while clenching my jaw not too look disturbed by the news.

We eat for a while in silence after that until I felt a light tap on my hand. I glanced up and it was Ashley, now if I had any skills with the ladies I would smile and act normal. What really happened was that I was so surprised that I knocked over my apple juice all over my bagel.

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If I thought the torture was bad this was worse, but at least it broke the ice as it was at least thirty seconds of Ashley cracking up at my expense. Just then a stranger plopped down opposite of me next to Ashley. He was tan with black hair and black eyes to go with it and was tall and gangly. He smiled at Ashley which for some reason irked me a little bit.

He stook out his hand “I’m Stephan with a ph” he said with a crooked smile.

I shook his hand and responded like any normal person would if they were in my situation “Congratulations, I’m Chase with an S its a pleasure to meet you”

I thought it was clever, Ashley laughed which made me measurably happier and even Julian smiled from his deep stupor. Stephans’ face darkened for a moment before he changed back into his cheerful demeanor.

“So I heard you beat the shit out of some guys yesterday at the gym,” He said a smile never leaving his face, but there was something about the way he said it unnerved me.

“Okay” I responded not entirely sure what to say to that. I took another bite out of my apple juice’d bagel.

“So why’d you do it? From what I’ve been told you just snapped from the pressure and took it out on some guys.” He said. If I was more observant I might’ve noticed how Julian’ s fist clenched at this.

Thankfully I was saved by my watch going off signaling me to leave for the prep room. Without answering I muttered a quick “see ya later” to Ashley and Julian who was still staring at his food not even looking anywhere near my direction.

As I walked ignored the whispers that rose up again. I threw away my remaining food in the trash bin and turned around to bump into another guy. Before I could say anything in an over-dramatized voice he stepped back with his hands up like he was surrendering “You gonna punch me?” he said his voice filled with fake fear.

Looking around I realized everyone was watching, I took the smart move and just turned around and marched out of the mess hall. I quickly made my way down to the prep room as I tried to calm myself. There was no use to get worked up over something small lest I have another “episode”.

I finally made it to the prep room and reset my self to its usual calm state before entering. Unlike the first two days, there were two people in the room this time. Mr.Richards and Ms.Terise talking hurriedly and pointing at the tray of needles. But quickly after seeing me, they stopped talking.

“Just remember what I said,” Mr.Richards said as he shook her hand.

He pushed past me and out the door without even a single glance as Ms.Terise motioned for me to sit down.

“How are you feeling Chase,” She said her normal cheer back even if it was slightly tempered by… something.

“Peachy,” I said with a nod as I lay down on the chair in the correct position ready to be injected once again.

Like normal she chose the needle but when she put the drug into the needle it seemed like there was a higher concentration of it. I shook this out of my mind as it was just probably my mind playing tricks on me.

After the alcohol cotton swab, she penetrated the skin once again with her needle and pushed the drug into my system. Unlike the other two days, I felt it immediately. I felt a shift in my eyes as the room swam in and out of focus. My focus seemed to sharpen tenfold as I shakily grabbed the armrest and hauled my self up. There was a convenient mirror to my side which I grabbed and looked into. I seemed kinda the same except for my eyes, my eyes were straight black, not the dark brown that people like Stephan had but the jet black of your pupils.

They had enlarged, like the heroin users you saw on television. I was quickly ushered to the control room, something wasn’t right. Was it like this the first two times? I felt the pounding inside me once again, vague but still there in the empty abyss that is my soul.

A fist materialized seemingly from thin air as I was knocked to the ground. The feeling was immense it was as I could feel every nerve firing off, every speck of my body was amplified sending off signals of what it was feeling.

You think you know how most things feel, It felt like I was in a state of such hyper-awareness that I couldn’t comprehend what was happening around me. Powerful arms held me in place as a pair of feet hit my knees pushing them past the locked out point. After I was let go I crumbled to the floor, I tried to stand up but My knees couldn’t support myself anymore.

Maybe it was a message, that I wasn’t going anywhere for what was coming. Whatever it was he wasn’t going to forget what came after.