Chapter Six: Welcome to Eden

I followed Hector outside in a pair of slippers given to me by some of the other scientists. Looking back at the building I was being held in, it turns out it was a regular warehouse on the outside. It wasn’t surprising at this point. Cloudy skies hung overhead, and I thought it might rain. Surveying my surroundings as Hector led the way to his car, parked at the end of the walkway, I noticed a city nearby. The warehouse was located on the outskirts, and I imagined for obvious reasons. As I came to realize, I was nowhere near my home. I was plucked from my roots and thrown into a habitat I was unfamiliar with, lost and without direction. I was following a man I’ve never met before, and he was going to take me to a place I’ve never seen. I didn’t have much choice but to go along with him. I figured I could blow him up if anything went south. At least that was comforting. 

As we got closer to his car, I saw a boy standing outside beside it, waiting patiently. He was blonde and still a little taller than me. The boy sported glasses like Hector, and he was dressed in a white polo and navy cardigan. His appearance made him seem like he just waltzed out of the 50’s. His face brightened when he saw us, but it wasn’t in the cheery manner in which I had expected of someone who looked clean-cut. 

“About time, Hector! Not like we have actual work to do or anything.” The boy seemed agitated. 

Hector looked at me and gestured his hand to the boy. “Desley, I want you to meet Donald. He’s one of the many who are similar to you.” 

Donald and I glanced at each other without so much as saying a word. I didn’t know what to say to him, and I wasn’t much for being social at this point in time. I assumed Donald was putting his thoughts together as well. Hearing his first remark made me believe he would disregard me for his other priorities. He scanned me over, staring at my face before his eyes trailed slightly above. Without saying a word, the boy turned his back to me. He fidgeted some, and this made me look at Hector for an explanation only to see a smile come to the man’s face. When Donald turned back around, he was holding a wool, charcoal sock hat. 

“For your head.” He held the hat out to me. “At least until it grows back.”

As baffling as it was for me, I wasn’t about to ask where he got the hat. I was cautious in taking it from his hands, but I was also very thankful. 

“Donald here is somewhat of a genius, and he can project things as well as manipulate whatever atoms and particles he needs to create his designs.” Hector got around to informing me. “He’s also part of our research team.”

“But as an inventor.” Donald clarified. “I create the equipment.” 

“Equipment?” I questioned at first, hardly able to believe a boy, who looked the same age as me, was capable of such things. It was astonishing to hear, so I did not know what to think of it. 

“I know it’s hard to believe, but in our world, nothing is ever what it seems.” Donald said with an almost starry look in his eyes. It may have been that look that pushed me to believe him. To believe all of this. I still couldn’t transfer my thoughts into words, so I looked down at the hat he had given me. The wool made it feel warm in my palms, so I could only imagine what it would do for my scalp. I slid the hat on over my head and pulled it down partly over my ears, the top of it slouching slightly. 

“Thank you.” I managed to say.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get use to everything.” Donald smiled at me before turning his attention back to Hector. “We need to get going. I have analysis I need to run that I’m extremely behind on. You know how she gets, and I don’t want her blasting me into the middle of the ocean.”

“She assured me that was a one time thing, Donald.” Hector remarked. “But as you wish. I’m sure Desley would like to get some actual rest.”

Again, I didn’t say anything. We all piled inside Hector’s vehicle and started off towards the city. Donald sat in the passenger while I sat in the back. They both talked back and forth on topics that had me lost and confused. This world Donald mentioned sounded complicated. Erratic. It made me wonder what I was getting ready to walk into, and in all honesty, I started to feel anxious that I was going to be trapped in it. It felt like the time when your parents insisted on having you go to summer camp with a bunch of kids you didn’t know. You knew it could go one of two ways. You either made friends and had a blast without much concern for your time spent there, or you were by yourself and trapped slaving through activities that made adoption seem appealing when you returned home. Option two was a prison, and I feared that was what I was walking into. 

We coasted through the downtown area, and I was still unsure of what city I was in now. It was incredibly vast, and the skyscrapers seemed endless. People of all sorts crowded the sidewalks and alleyways. There were outdoor market places we passed by, bike couriers buzzing up and down the streets, so much life in one place. It was unlike anything I had seen before in my hometown. If it had been at any normal time, I would be completely fascinated by everything I saw. I would make a mental note of everything to tell my mother about when I returned home. That’s what hit me though. I couldn’t tell my mother about all of this. I couldn’t tell her anything anymore. I couldn’t even tell Thomas. We drove by a massive, outdoor arcade I knew that Thomas would be jealous to see. As real as all of this was becoming, I came to the realization that everything else had been real, too. 

Kyler was dead. Another boy was dead. Keith was more than likely the same. I felt Thomas might as well had been dead. Brain damage and without the ability to move his body anymore. It was all because of me. The consequences were real. My mother didn’t want me anymore. She might as well had been dead, too. This was my life now, and maybe I should have been dead also. This was all real, and now I’m riding in the car with two strangers I just met, who say they can help me by throwing me among others with the same burden. That is exactly how I saw myself. A burden. A curse. 

Hector drove to an urban part of the city where the streets began to look dirty. Graffiti caked the sides of most of the buildings, and the houses were in shambles that have yet to be condemned. We came to a courtyard that had taken up the space between two other buildings. It was gated in with a sign above that read “Institute of Eden” above. Hector pulled in through the gate, and we passed by two security officers, who appeared unarmed. There was a smaller building in the middle of the courtyard, the back side of it cut off by a stone wall on each side. Hector came around a circular drive that surrounded a fountain in front of the institute’s entrance. Parked near the steps that led inside, Hector and Donald urged me to get out of the car with them. I wasn’t feeling too confident. The outside of the building looked rough. Dead plants clung to the sides and appeared to seep into the brick. The windows looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in years. The air itself felt like it was poisoning my lungs through my nostrils, but Hector assured me it was the scent of the city. I was not use to it considering where I grew up. 

I followed Hector and Donald through two twin doors, and my shoes were immediately met with a white, marble floor. The interior was the complete and polar opposite of what I was led to believe, and I marveled at it. Among the floor being a pleasant surprise, murals and other large paintings covered the walls. There were also extravagant rugs and other tapestry neatly placed around the lobby. A set of stairs would have us at the second level, and I could only imagine what was up there. I wanted to se for myself, but Hector asked for me to follow him.

“See, not everything is as it seems in our world.” Donald repeated himself as I walked with him down a flight of stairs far off to the side. 

“This place is unbelievable. Do other people live here?” I asked. 

“Just those who have the clearance to. Those in the labs don’t, and we keep security tight all day and all night.”

“Why?”

We walked down the stairs and the length of a small corridor that led to an elevator at the end, Hector pressing a button off to the side before saying, “Because what we do here, what we research can’t fall into the wrong hands. That and the public wouldn’t understand people like you and Donald. They’re not ready for it. If word got out what we do here. What we have. It could be bad for all of us.”

“There was a savant over twenty years ago who almost flattened an entire region. You wouldn’t really hear about it because it was covered up by Eden.” Donald said as we piled into the elevator. 

“That incident is what started Eden.” Hector continued. 

I looked between the both of them. “What’s a savant?”

Neither of them gave me an answer. The elevator descended, and it felt like we were in there for minutes. Each second brought us deeper. Donald exchanged another series of words with Hector about all of the things he had to get done. Sweat was accumulating in the palms of my hands. I didn’t know if I was getting hot or if I was just nervous. The elevator slowed down.

“Welcome to the Institute of Eden, Desley Morgan.” Hector said before the doors opened.

My eyes squinted at the brightness of another lobby under the building. The floors were pure white, an aquarium on the wall across the room, and dozens of people in lab coats running around. There was a woman sitting behind a desk off to our left, her nose busy inside a book. White was everywhere. Donald didn’t waste any time scurrying out of sight down a hallway to the right of the aquarium. He hardly said a goodbye when he darted out of the elevator. Hector began talking to me about the different activities that everyone is in charge of, but I couldn’t pay attention to him. I was in some state of shock at something like this existing beneath a ghetto. We walked about the lobby, myself heading straight for the aquarium to stare of the species of fish I didn’t recognize. Hector made a remark about the fish being a product of one of their experiments, and they were all so beautiful. They were brightly colored, and some even had a shine or a glow to them. Like me, they were only a danger if they were released into the rest of the population. 

I didn’t see a girl approaching us from the other hallway until Hector spoke. “Ah, Dahlia! Just the girl I wanted to see.”

“Donald sent me this way. I thought I felt a different vibe with you.” Dahlia replied. 

Dahlia appeared to be my age. Her hair was jet black with the ends dyed a soft lavender. She wore a red shirt with a tattered denim skirt and ripped stockings. Her shoes looked just as beat up as her skirt. Dahlia’s eyes were what really stunned me. The girl’s eyes had a glossy appearance and lacked in any color. They looked as if the iris didn’t exist in either eye. I tried not to stare at her, but she seemed to not notice.

“Dahlia, can you be a dear and let the assistants know to have the lab ready in a bit? I want to run a few tests on our newest member.” Hector motioned to me. “This is Desley.”

I watched as Dahlia’s face turned to me. “Yeah, the one who blew up the bridge. I know who she is.”

Pause for a dramatic moment of awkward silence. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of this one.” I could hear Dahlia’s voice, but her mouth didn’t move. It was like her voice echoed in my head. 

“Yes, well, I’m going to give Desley a tour of the facility. I would like things to be ready when we get back.” Hector slipped his hands into his pockets.

Dahlia smiled at him and suggested, “Hector, why don’t you go ahead and get everything set up to your liking while I take Desley around? It will give us a chance to get acquainted. I might even introduce her to some of the others down here.”

“Well, I don’t see a reason to disagree.” Hector shrugged. He took a step closer to Dahlia and leaned to her ear. “Just make sure the boys behave themselves. I don’t want any incidents.” 

Dahlia had promised Hector to keep an eye on me during the tour. Without much left to say, Hector let us go as he left down the hallway from Dahlia came from. Out of being uncomfortable and alone with another stranger, I adjusted my hat and continuously glanced at the fish. Dahlia stood in silence beside me. Staring. Stoic. Awkward. Unnerving. I stayed facing the fish tank, but I could feel Dahlia’s eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. My fingers constantly tapped the side of my leg. I would have preferred Donald’s presence over this one. I was beginning to feel like a freak, but at the same time, I didn’t feel as freaky compared to the girl’s behavior. 

“So!” Dahlia smiled and spoke, grabbing my wrist. “Let me give you the grand tour of the place!”

I couldn’t get a word out before Dahlia dragged me away from the fish tank and down the other hallway. Her silence turned into never ending chatter as she gave me a brief history of the facility, the founders, the people, and the basics of everything they do there. I already knew some of this from the conversation Donald and Hector had in the car. Dahlia navigated the lower levels of the institute and the flowing river of people gracefully whereas I would have gotten lost at the first turn. It seemed easy to get lost considering every are looked like the last. Hallways and labs. Labs and more hallways. People in their white coats rushed from one lab to another. Some were carrying paperwork. Others carried devices and other electronics I’ve never seen. The glances I could make inside the labs didn’t show me a whole lot. I mostly saw workers either building something or examining objects under a microscope. One lab had x-rays hanging up in the lighting. As wonderful a job Dahlia did at getting us from one place to another, I was curious at how often she would accidentally run into carts that were left near the wall. Luckily, we came to a calmer part of the facility where not many were buzzing around like bees. Dahlia appeared to walk slower as well. 

“Can I ask you something?” I tried to get Dahlia’s attention 

“What’s up?”

I couldn’t find any other way to word it without sounding stupid. “Earlier, y’know, with Hector. How did you talk without moving your mouth? I mean, that was you, right? Or am I going crazy?”

“You’re going crazy.” Dahlia grinned. 

I sneered. “Very funny.”

“We can all do that, dummy. Well, those of us who are considered unique. It’s pretty basic. You’ve heard of telepathy before, right?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve heard of it before. I just never believed it was possible.”

“I think after being here for a bit, you’re going to figure out that nearly anything is possible, Desley.” Dahlia smiled wider as we approached a large, open area shielded off by a wall of glass. I hated glass. 

Dahlia gestured with her hands. “Here is the last stop for now. This is the arena. This is where we come to exercise our abilities routinely.”

There were two boys already practicing inside the arena. Well, a boy with a blue mohawk was more or less standing around while an oriental boy was stretching. Dahlia stopped walking long enough to let me watch. The oriental boy had taken a firm stance before a machine with a nozzle at the front. There were cubes and rectangular blocks scattered throughout the arena. A hum came from the machine that began to make the floor vibrate. I got closer to the glass. The oriental moved into a defensive position. The glass began to shake as the floor vibrated more, and the other boy ran for cover behind one of the blocks. 

At the height of the humming, a stream of fire exploded from the nozzle. My heart nearly bursted from my chest as the flames engulfed the boy in front of it. I couldn’t look away either. Then I saw a break in the flames where the boy had been positioned. He was standing perfectly still, perfectly calm as if he had an invisible shield around him as the fire passed over. I watched as he appeared to hold his hands out, whatever field that was around him slowly breaking the stream of fire more. He took a step forward, manipulating the flames and pushing them back. Now, the stream appeared to be hitting a clear wall. Slowly, the flames began to die down to where the nozzle couldn’t spit anymore. Smoke drifted up from the charred ground around the boy, but he remained unharmed. Mohawk boy jumped and cheered from behind one of the blocks, and he charged towards the oriental for a high-five. I, myself, applauded the performance. 

As the two boys talked amongst each other for a minute, I turned around to look at Dahlia. I was speechless at what I had just witnessed. Dahlia also had a smile on her face, but that smile quickly faded as she leaped towards me, grabbing the back of my shirt and nearly yanking me off my feet. My head snapped towards the arena again as Dahlia had ripped me away, seeing one of the rectangular blocks crashing into the glass in front of my face. It scared me out of my skin. It startled me enough to stumble over my feet and fall on my rear. Luckily, the glass held up as it rattled in place. I stayed on the floor for a moment to let my heart rate slow down, Dahlia offering to help me up. I only wanted to be left alone. I swatted her hand away along with any other attempt she made at helping me to my feet. 

The boys’ laughter could be heard from the arena. Haughty laughter. I could imagine the tears in their eyes, too. I regained the nerve to stand back up, seeing the oriental still in the middle of the arena with one hand on his waist while the other boy was hunched over and holding his stomach from laughing so hard. I felt embarrassed. The amazement I felt turned to disgust in a matter of seconds. 

“I’m sorry, they usually have better manners than this. Daisuke can be a dick sometimes.” Dahlia frowned. 

“Which one is Daisuke?” I glared at the boys. 

Dahlia crossed her arms. “The Japanese boy. Daisuke Yamato. The other one is Demitry Morello. He’s mainly harmless aside from his instigating.”

“Just give me one minute with him.” 

“And do what, exactly?”

I looked at Dahlia. I looked at Daisuke. Then I looked back to Dahlia. “I blew up a bridge once. I think I can handle him.”

Dahlia sighed. “Desley, bridges don’t fight back. Daisuke can, and he can fight very well.” Dahlia walked near the glass, her gaze falling on Demitry. “Look, don’t let it get to you. You’re just new, y’know?”

I huffed. My mouth opened to add to my initial statement, but I stopped when I saw Dahlia flick her hand followed by Demitry simultaneously punching himself in the face. Daisuke watched the boy with the blue mohawk drop to the ground, and he immediately began teasing his friend. It did make me feel a little better. Dahlia spoke nothing of it, only urged me to follow her. She didn’t say how, but she knew Hector was ready for me. To sum up the rest of her tour, she briefly explained the housing rules and locations for where our kind stayed. Thankfully, we didn’t sleep among the labs and busy bees. Where “our kind” slept was on the second level of the main building. Girls to the left. Boys to the right. The common area was located in the center. The more she spoke about beds and private rooms made me long for a decent rest after all of the chaos I’ve been going through. It made me wonder how long it was going to be before that. 

Dahlia led me to the lab room Hector had spoken of earlier, and there the man was waiting. A dozen of assistants held their posts at a monitor. They were plugging in data, confirming the green light to run certain programs, and other things I couldn’t wrap my mind around. The one thing that caught my eye was a chair in a gated off section of the lab. It reminded me of a dentist chair. I turned to ask Dahlia what all of this was for, but she was already leaving the lab. Abandonment was starting to get annoying. 

“Desley! Perfect! You’re right on time.” Hector left the individuals he was with. The man guided me into the section with the chair and had me sit in it. He positioned the chair to where I was facing the ceiling, my legs level with the rest of my body. 

“What is all of this for?” I asked him. 

“Well, Desley, we are just going to run a test to see if we can measure how much potential you have.” Hector informed me while he began to secure a thin, band type of device around my head. “See, this thing is a neural scanner. There have been hypothetical statements in the past about how much of the brain’s power we are able to use. Well, the neurons. The brain contains a hundred billion neurons, and the average human can control a small percentage of those neurons.” He looked at an assistant waiting by the entrance, giving her an eye gesture to say he was ready. “Children like you can control more than the average human. Sometimes the amount can even increase. Your abilities and strength of those abilities are all determined by what percentage you can control.”

“I think I get it.” I said as I watched him, eyes squinting in the light.

Hector paused for a second. “It sounds easy, yes, but it’s a lot more complex than it sounds. The abilities that develop are as random as they come. Some of them can be scary.” 

“Are mine scary?”

The man looked down at me for a second before walking away. I heard him leave the section of the lab with a glass door sliding behind him. The lights dimmed, and a voice over a speaker asked me to remain still until the test was over. Hector stood behind his staff as they worked through the data coming through on their screens. One screen monitored the brain activity while several others had numbers running across. Hector would occasionally glance to the other section of the lab while he waited for the results. Some of the assistants began to have a confused look on their faces. Others ran the numbers again while double checking their data. 

Hector approached one of the women at the monitors. “Abby, what is it looking like?”

“I’m not sure, sir. These numbers are inconclusive. We’ve ran the data over and over again with no clear results.” Abby said. 

Another man beside her spoke up. “We can understand the results being unclear if Desley was below average on the neural scale, but that’s not the case. Obviously.”

“Either her neural capacity is very low�"or it’s so high that it doesn’t register. From ten to a hundred percent control, we would at least have some kind answer. Not this.” Abby continued. 

“It might be possible that the bursts and sudden surges could have degenerated her neural control. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.” Hector paused when he heard stuffing at the lab entrance, seeing Demitry stumble into the activity. “We’ll just have to keep an eye on her for the time being. See if anything new comes up.”

Demitry was marching towards Hector, ignoring everyone else in the lab and disregarding their purpose for being there. His nose was red and his eyes were slightly watery from Dahlia making him hit himself earlier. 

“Hector, we need to talk about Dahlia.” His voice was stern but not too serious for Hector considering his young age. 

“What is it now? I’m in the middle of something.” Hector gave him the same level of sternness. 

Demitry had an entire rant planned out in his head about his colleague, but the more aware he became of the assistants going mad at the monitors his attention turned elsewhere. The boy began snooping and peeking over shoulders to gain a better grasp of what was going on. He had no shame in invading someone’s personal space. Hector allowed him to do this routine, seeing another need for his presence in the lab.

“What’s going on here?” Demitry asked Hector while nearly being in Abby’s lap. 

“We’re running a test on the new resident.” Hector said. 

“The one that was with Dahlia?” Demitry looked up at him. 

Hector stared at the cluster of numbers that remained inconclusive. He glanced at Demitry without saying a word before nodding his head toward the test chair in the other section of the lab. “Demitry, how do you feel about Desley?”

Demitry stared at the man, his eyes moving towards the closed off area. He closed them for a minute, and then he took a deep breath. “There’s a lot of confusion. A lot of fear. Maybe worry. I can feel quite a bit of anger. Loneliness. Nothing out of the usual for new arrivals at first, but the hostility that lingers does bother me.” 

“Very well, Demitry. That will be all. We’ll talk about Dahlia later, okay?” Hector dismissed the boy. 

It had taken a while, but Hector finally came back into the room with his assistants and allowed me off of the chair. He wouldn’t tell me much about the results, only that he’s interested in seeing what will happen over the next couple of months. Passing those in the lab, I could see the confusion and curiosity on their faces. The chatter and tapping of their fingers on the keyboards silenced as I walked with Hector. He said he was going to take me somewhere as we left the lab, something he wanted to show me. The man was secretive about that, too. He led me through the maze of hallways and workers just as Dahlia had done before. We passed a smaller lab and study that was labeled “Donald O’Connor” at the entrance, and I caught a glimpse of Donald pulling gears and other material out of the air. This place truly was a wonder. Hector wouldn’t speak to me as questions about our destination came up. Whenever he did speak, his tone was more serious. 

As the crowds thinned out, we came to a part of the facility that had a restricted sign in the middle of the hallway. Hector informed me that no one was allowed in this section except for him and Markus. The hallway appeared different than the rest of the facility. The floors were a dark color, and the lights looked as if they were never upgraded to the current fixtures. It gave the hallway an obvious older feel. A trip back in time. Hector led the way to a lab entrance at the end of the hall, the door removed with dents and other damages around the threshold. We stood outside in silence as I stared into the ominous darkness that lied beyond the entrance, leaving me with a leery feeling in my stomach. I still received no explanation from Hector as he continued forward. I waited a moment before following him in. 

There was a dingy, damp smell that permeated inside the lab. My slippers shuffled against the grime that had been left on the tiles from years of not seeing a broom. Hector found his way to a control box and gave us some light, which was dimmer than the light given in the hall but enough to see the shambles the abandoned lab had been in from a long period of neglect. Nothing was touched. Hector stood by the control box and allowed me to walk around. The computers were older, and most of the monitor screens were busted out. Some of the overhead lights, which matched those in the hallway, hung from the ceiling by a cord. Other had fallen to the floor somehow. Glass littered the tile. Desks and tables further into the lab were thrown on top of each other and turned over. Brown stains covered the walls. The more I ventured into the lab, the more I began to realize that something terrible happened in here. Then I came to a large clearing among the tables and other lab equipment. There was a complete circle where the tile on the floor was either cracked or missing altogether. What remained of the floor was deeply charred in the center of it. I stared at the black engravings, and I could almost feel the chaos that came from it. I could hear the faint screams that echoed from it. I would have gotten lost if it weren’t for Hector placing a hand on my shoulder to bring me back. 

“I wanted to show this to you.” The man said. 

“What happened here?” I asked without taking my eyes off of the char. 

Hector adjusted his glasses before speaking. “Years ago, we had a savant with abilities that were beyond our comprehension. Powerful. Exciting. He filled us with a lot of hope. With every new ability he discovered, the closer we were to solving all of the problems our world has today.” 

“Lemme guess. Something bad happened.”

“Yes, you’re correct in your assumption. His power grew beyond his control. We knew it. He knew it. We saw it coming with how his behavior changed. He became hostile. Violent towards everyone and everything that crossed him.” Hector paused. “Then one day, he lost it during a routine test. He couldn’t control his power anymore. People died. I lost friends that day, my wife among them. I would have had a daughter. There was nothing we could have done to stop what was happening, and all of us almost died.”

His story wasn’t making me feel much better about myself. “Why are you telling me this? Like, I get it. I’m dangerous. I’m unpredictable. I accidentally killed people, and I almost killed my best friend. I don’t need anymore reminders of it.”

Hector shook his head. “I didn’t bring you here for that, Desley. I brought you here to tell you that it was someone of your kind who stopped it. She was just as dangerous and unpredictable as you, but she saved everyone in this lab. Do you understand what I’m telling you, Desley? Your abilities do not decide if you are good or bad. What you choose to do with them is what defines you.” The man took a glance around the lab, the memories filling his head of where his wife was standing when it happened. “This is why we do what we do. Normal people like me can’t prevent disasters like this, but you can. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Then how come no one prevented me?” I replied. I understood what Hector was trying to do, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood for a pep talk. What I had done and the events following it hung over my head like a storm cloud. Hector was mustering up a reply, but I dismissed myself from his presence. I wanted time to myself. I didn’t want to talk about any of it. I didn’t want to hear about how unique I was. Taking a normal life away from your best friend takes the pride out of it. Whatever Hector saw in me was only an expectation I was going to let down. I didn’t belong here, and the others knew that, too. 

I wandered around the hallways until I found a path I was familiar with that led back to the lobby. I didn’t bother smiling back at the receptionist as I entered the elevator that would take me back up to the building. I knew my own way from there. Down the corridor and up the stairs to the marble floors. Since no one could stop me this time, I followed the second set of stairs in front of the building entrance up to the commons area. Luckily, it was vacant. My slippers were met with more marble flooring. There was a flat screen television mounted on the wall across from me, a massive, red couch before it. I wasn’t assigned a room yet, and I was exhausted. So, I made my way over to the couch and collapsed on the cushions. What did I get myself into now? I covered my eyes with my arm, and I stayed like that as I recapped over everything I experienced. I was initially hoping to fall asleep. As vacant as the commons area was, I still felt like I was being watched. I assumed this place had been wired up with numerous security cameras. However, when I lifted my arm away from my eyes, I saw that I really was being watched. 

A little boy was barely peeping over the armrest ahead of my feet. His eyes were blue, and his hair was a dark brown. He had a face like an angel. The boy was in his pajamas and covered up by a robe, and he didn’t utter a word to me. He stared at me as I stared back at him. I was waiting for him to bombard me with a million questions like all little kids tend to do or ask if he could watch television and blare the volume. Instead, the little boy only smiled at me. A feeling of warmth came over me, and for the first time since leaving the cube…I smiled. Somehow, everything was going to be okay.