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The closer they got to the compound, the faster Elijah's heart raced. He was anxious, and the dismay of his memories was consuming him. It was inside a truck much like this that he'd woken up in one morning, surrounded by other terrified kids, no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there. He remembered the smell of blood and wolfsbane, and the familiar sting of silver against his skin; he recalled trying his hardest to remember anything before he woke...but just like right now, he didn't know where he'd come from or who his parents were.

He exhaled deeply and tried to see through the small gap between the tarp and the front of the truck, but it was still storming outside, so he couldn't tell how far they were from the lab. Instead, he focused his senses, and it didn't take him long to locate the mass of human auras. They were getting nearer with every second—they were probably only a few minutes away—and that made Elijah's anxiety intensify.

Some of the kids started sniffling and crying. Most of the older ones were clearly trying to put on brave faces, hiding their fear with anger and annoyed frowns, but Elijah could see through them. He knew how they all felt, he knew how mortifying it was. But knowing that Zoe would tell her dads about this place once they were far away enough brought him a little comfort. These kids would see the outside world again sooner than they must be thinking.

He then shifted his sights to Zoe, who was looking around at the crying kids as if she wanted to tell them that everything was going to be okay, but to Elijah's relief, she kept quiet.

The truck started slowing, and every demon and lycan sitting inside lifted their heads and looked around fearfully.

Elijah heard voices outside.

"You finally made it, huh?" a man said, sounding amused.

August chuckled and replied, "Damn storm. Got turned around a bit for a moment."

"Looks like it's picking up. Better get into the loading bay before Schricklend skins us alive."

"Definitely don't want that happening," August laughed.

The man patted the van loudly. "See you later."

"Later," the fae replied.

The truck started moving again.

Elijah pulled his hood over his head and clenched his jaw, trying to calm down, but he was just seconds away from being inside a building just like the one where he'd spent nearly all his life. He could smell the pharmaceuticals, he could hear the cameras buzzing as they scanned the compound, and he could sense the desperation and agony in the air. His instincts began telling him to get out while he could, but he had to hold his ground, he had to keep his composure. Haru was inside...and he wasn't leaving until he found him.

He took another deep breath and calmed down as best he could, focusing on what he had to do once they were inside. Then, he looked at Zoe and Jake again, who both looked anxious; when their gazes met his, though, determination flickered across their faces.

The truck jolted as it drove over something; the tarp stopped floating in the wind, and through one of the gaps, Elijah saw the inside of the loading bay.

They were in the facility.

The truck halted, and the engine turned off. What Elijah knew was a security door buzzed loudly and clicked open, and then heavy footfall echoed from the right.

"All right, let's get them in," a man said.

Someone opened the back of the truck, and all the kids gasped fearfully as they turned their heads to look.

"All of you out, one by one," a security guard ordered.

There were four guards, all wearing the same black armour and carrying stun rifles. They eyed the kids skeptically as they climbed out of the truck and lined up against the wall; Elijah knew too well from experience that they were just waiting for one of them to make one false move so that they had an excuse to use their weapons.

When Elijah got out of the truck, he walked past the guards and then squeezed into the line beside Jake and Zoe; the kid he shoved out of the way didn't fight, he looked too afraid to even breathe too loudly. The demon then glanced at his companions, who looked cautiously at him.

August then climbed out of the truck. He looked completely confident as he strolled towards the guards like he hadn't been nervous at all to begin with. "Yo, you got a lighter? I'm gonna head out for a smoke," he asked the four of them.

One of the guards reached into his pocket. "Here, pal. Make sure you get it back to me."

"Will do. Thanks." The fae then left the loading bay, glancing over his shoulder at Elijah as he walked out into the blizzard.

It was going to plan...so far.

"Listen up," one of the guards then called once all the kids were lined up. "You're going to head through that door in a single file line; when you get into the hall, you will sit and wait in complete silence until you are called. When you're called, you get up slowly, and you will follow the guard into another room. Is that understood?"

Nobody said anything.

"I said: is that understood?!" the guard yelled.

All of the kids nodded stiffly.

"Don't give us an excuse to tase your little asses again," he grunted.

Another guard then moved to the front of the line. "Let's move," he called, leading the way towards the only door in the loading bay.

Elijah followed behind the other kids, and as he stepped into the hall, which looked just like the one he'd waited in thirteen years ago, his heart started racing again. He watched as the kids started sitting down on the floor, and he quickly located another door on the other side of the room. He knew that the closer he was to it, the sooner he'd be called inside, and once he was in, he could deal with the doctor and the guard and go back for Zoe and Jake.

He walked past the sitting kids and slumped down ten feet from the door. Zoe and Jake sat close to him, and while the rest of the lycans and demons filed into the hall, he shifted his sights to the two guards standing on either side of the door that they'd come through. He was going to have to deal with them, too.

Once all the children were inside, two of the four guards stayed in the loading bay and closed the door; the other two looked around slowly, their fingers twitching over the triggers of their rifles.

"What now?" Jake whispered.

"Shut up," Elijah growled back.

"I said Silence!" one of the guards yelled at a crying girl.

Elijah wanted to kill both of them; he wanted to take their precious rifles and shove them down their throats. But he couldn't. He had to contain his anger and hatred.

The door ten feet from him opened, and who must be Doctor Schricklend and his guard stepped out. Elijah watched the bald man as he slowly eyed each of the terrified kids.

"Him," Schricklend muttered, pointing to a small boy.

His guard stormed over to the boy and harshly pulled him to his feet. Then, as the kid cried and stumbled, the guard escorted him through the door and slammed it shut behind them.

"Where's he taking him?" Zoe whispered.

Elijah scowled at the door. "Testing his blood and ethos levels," he murmured, keeping his voice as quiet as possible. "He determines whether the kids are sent to the combat floor or the study floor. Combat means they watch us kill each other, and study means the kids are used in their disgusting experiments. Some kids, though—the really unlucky ones—are used for both."

"Is...that what happened to you?" Jake asked.

"Me, Haru, and so many others," he muttered, his heart starting to ache.

Zoe frowned despondently. "We have to stop this."

He wanted to stop it, but the only way to save these kids was by telling the Nosferatu where this lab was. He couldn't do that until he and Haru were far enough away.

They sat in silence, waiting. The only sound came from the sobbing kids and the occasional grunt and shuffle from the guards. Schricklend came out of the room every ten to fifteen minutes, taking a new kid in every time. Elijah was beginning to feel frustrated; it didn't seem like the doctor was picking kids because they looked stronger than the others, so there was nothing to do but sit there and wait.

Schricklend's door opened again, and his eyes finally met Elijah. But when the man raised his hand and said, "That one," he was pointing to Jake.

"W-what?" Jake panicked.

Zoe looked just as horrified as the pardus did; she subtly grabbed his hand for a moment.

Elijah had but seconds to prevent him from ruining everything. "Just go and do as they say. We'll find you."

Jake looked horrified, but he did as Elijah told him and got up when the guard approached. The pardus then nervously went into the room, and when the door shut, dread quickly enthralled Elijah. What if Jake blew it? What if it was all over?

"Is he going to be okay?" Zoe whispered anxiously.

"As long as he doesn't try to be a hero," he muttered.

"I don't think we have to worry about that."

Elijah watched the door; he tried to listen to what was happening on the other side, but he couldn't hear anything. It was likely that the walls had silver or vendite in them.

He waited...and waited. He wasn't sure how long passed, but when the door finally opened once more, Schricklend looked over at him and Zoe. The man's eyes shifted between them, and Elijah suspected that the doctor was about to call Zoe over. Schricklend raised his hand and pointed...at Elijah.

Relief struck him, but moments later, his anxiety flooded in. He had to remember that he wasn't being processed, though. This wasn't like it had been thirteen years ago.

"Him," the doctor said.

The guard made his way over and pulled Elijah to his feet, and as the man ushered him towards the door, the demon did his best to calm down and prepare himself.

When he got into the room, which looked the same as all the doctors' offices he'd been in all his life, the guard made him sit down and closed the door behind him. Schricklend sat at his desk and started typing on his computer, and as Elijah stared over his shoulder, he saw the guard glancing down at his phone. It didn't look like the doctor had any weapons, so all he had to do was deal with the guard.

"Roll your sleeve up," Schricklend said.

Elijah wasn't going to waste a single moment. He burst up out of his seat and grabbed the guard in the blink of an eye; with one hand, he held the man's throat, and with the other, he snatched his weapon. As he choked and struggled, the man tried to fight, but Elijah snapped his neck and swiftly turned to face the doctor.

"You press that button and you'll know what it feels like to get shot by one of these," the demon warned, aiming the stun rifle at Schricklend, whose hand was hovering over the large red panic button.

Schricklend frozen, trembling. "N-now...just calm down. I'm not going to hurt—"

"Shut the fuck up with that bullshit. I know what you people do here." He prowled a little closer, keeping the weapon aimed at the doctor. "Here's what you're going to do: you're going to open that door and tell those other two guards that you need help—you're going to say whatever it takes to get them in here. Understood?"

The man nodded.

"And don't even try any of your secret little codes or signals; I know every single one of them, and if I see one or even half of one—" he pressed the rifle against Schricklend's head, "—I'll pull the trigger."

Schricklend nodded again. "Y-yeah, no, I get it. I'll do it."

Elijah grabbed the man's arm and pulled him out of his seat. Then, as Schricklend slowly headed for the door, the demon stood beside the wall and out of sight, ensuring that the guards wouldn't see him until they were already in the office.

The doctor scanned a key card attached to a string on his belt against a card reader, and when the door buzzed and unlocked, he pushed it open and called, "Could I get your help in here, please? This kid fainted."

Heavy footfall came towards the office, and as the doctor went to his desk, Elijah watched the two guards step in. The demon immediately grabbed the first and shoved him into the other, knocking them both to the floor. As the door shut, Elijah sprung on them; he quickly tore out the first guard's throat, and before the second could fire his weapon, the demon grabbed it and smashed its stock into the guard's face over and over and over until his head was nothing but a puddle of blood and brain matter. Then, he got up and aimed the weapon at Schricklend.

As he held his hands up, the doctor whimpered. "I did what you asked," he murmured.

"Where did you send the kid who was in here before me?" he demanded.

"Uh...to...to the holding floor."

Elijah didn't know where that was, but he soon would. First, though, he needed Zoe. "Get up."

Schricklend slowly stood up.

"Call in the girl with orange hair."

The doctor went over to the door again, unlocked it, and said, "You," pointing to Zoe.

Elijah watched through the gap between the door and the wall as Zoe made her way over, and once she was in the office, the demon pulled the door shut and kept the stun rifle aimed at Schricklend.

Zoe stared wide-eyed at the bodies.

"P-please don't kill me," the doctor pleaded. "I did what you asked. I-I have a family!"

Elijah scowled furiously at him. He knew that he was lying. "You have a family? A man who participates in taking kids away from their families? Don't fucking make me laugh."

"I did as you asked."

"Yeah, and there's just one more thing I need from you," the demon growled.

"A-anything, please...just don't—"

Elijah mercilessly forced his hand into the doctor's chest and ripped out his heart. He watched the man's body hit the floor, and then he took a bite out of the bloody organ. As he consumed it in several large bites, he learned that Jake was on floor -7 and in room 2B. He learned that all subjects were on that floor but divided into different rooms depending on their stats and purpose.

"Do you know where Jake is?" Zoe asked.

He nodded as he ate the rest of the heart. The only way he was going to get down there was if he was a doctor, and not only did he have a key card, but there was also a white coat hanging on the hanger by the door. He didn't look much like a doctor, though; he wasn't going to fool anyone. So, he looked at Zoe. "You're a doctor now," he said as he pulled the key card from Schricklend's belt and handed it to her.

"What?" she asked, wide-eyed.

"Put that coat on and tie your hair up," he said as he went to Schricklend's computer.

"O-okay," Zoe said with a nervous nod. "What if they ask me something?"

"They won't," he muttered as he found an allocations file and opened it. "The doctors practically run this place; no one speaks to them unless the doctors speak first." Inside the file, he saw folders for each floor, so he opened the folder -7, and inside were twenty different folders, each representing a different room.

"What about the other doctors, though?" Zoe asked as she put the white coat on and put her hair up with a pen.

"They're too busy to talk to anyone," the demon said, opening the first folder, room 1A. Haru wasn't in there.

"Okay...I hope so. How do I look?"

After looking in the room 1B folder—where he didn't find Haru's name or subject number—he glanced at Zoe, who was pulling a few strands of her hair down to frame her face. "Fine," he mumbled and then set his eyes back on the computer. He searched folders 1C, 1D, 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D, but Haru wasn't in any of them. He snarled irritably and opened folder 3A, and there, finally...was Haru Okaminoou, 0547. Elijah's heart started racing once more, but this time, it was excitement, desperation, and relief which gripped him. Haru was there—he was really there, and Elijah didn't want to waste any more time.

"He's in room 3A," he said as he hastily pulled off one of the dead guards' armour and put it on, and he quickly tucked as much of his hair as he could under the helmet. Then, he wiped the blood from his face and washed his hands in the sink by the shelf of needles and syringes.

"What about the bodies?" she asked worriedly.

"By the time anyone comes to check on Schricklend, we'll be done and gone," he said confidently as he took the clean rifle, and then he led the way over to the door which would take them deeper into the facility.

This was it. All he had to do was get to the elevator, take it down to floor -7, and find room 3A...and then he'd be with Haru again.

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