My eyes flit open, and I'm sitting on the floor, back against a white wall. White shirt, navy sweatpants. Bare feet, frozen skin. The four walls around me are like an ocean willing to drown everything it can.

I'm back in the Enhancement Project. The place where people are no longer people and where sanity comes to die.

The much-too familiar sense of fear and doom fills me. It's nothing new to me, but it's gut-wrenching. I can't help being afraid of how realistic the room feels. It's like I never left.

I turn to the side, and Stephen's familiar features sit right next to me. His deep brown eyes meet mine, a loving smile looming underneath the fear, even when he's not smiling. Just like old times. We've come so far yet find ourselves back where we started.

Without any thought, I rush into Stephen's arms, hugging him tightly. Stephen pulls his head to the side and kisses my cheek desperately. He rests his chin on my shoulder. I rest mine on his.

"This isn't going to end well," I manage to say into his shirt. "Just know that whatever happens, I'll never forget about you."

"It's not the end," Stephen says. He struggles to convince me of his words. "We're not dead yet. It'll be fine."

I release him from his hug, and then somehow my hands are bound with ElectriWrist cuffs. I gasp, yanking my wrists against the cuffs. They clank together loudly, like nails scraping on glass. But I'm still trapped within them.

"What the--" Stephen begins, and then I'm no longer sitting on the cold floor. Instead, I'm cuffed to a metal stake perfectly drilled into the spotless floor. No longer are we in the tiny cell. Now we're contained in the vast, pale atrium.

Stephen's arm brushes against the back of my forearm, and then I realize the cuffs lock us back-to-back on the stupid stake. We both pull against the cuffs, trying to break the metal. My bare feet skid against the floor as I struggle, creating more grip for me to yank with.

I finally let out a scream as I keep trying to fight the cuffs. The metal pinches my skin, and I hiss. This is hopeless.

"Timeliness for the sake of productivity; control for the sake of order," a cold voice blasts overhead. The words echo through the atrium. It rattles my eardrums.

"Order has never been more important than it is now. If you truly honor your country, you honor your family, life, and liberties."

I blink, and then a dozen startling Screeners appear before me. I sense even more of them behind me, or in front of Stephen.

The Screeners' red visors are sharper and scarier than ever. I'm going to die. This time it's for real, and every cell in my body yearns to flee. I clatter the metal against the stake, crackling the silence. All the Screeners keep their helmets trained on me. I swallow.

"This is your opportunity for national pardon. Rise if you desire the redemption."

Stephen and I hold our breath. The Screeners toughen their stances.

"Then in the nation's eyes, you are a traitor!"

The Screeners pounce, whipping out weapons I've never seen before. The first strike is blunt, and it crushes my arm. I scream at the pain, crippling to the side. Then the next lash comes, and the one after that. One smacks me in the cheek, and another punches my stomach.

I grunt, then screech in pain. Huffing for air, I curl into a ball even though my arms are stuck to the metal stake. Kick, lash, punch. The pattern continues over and over. Blood drips down my burning cheek, smearing onto the white floor as I twist around, yelling.

My limbs buzz in reddening pain. Stephen grunts and growls from behind me, then finally releasing the eeriest yell I've ever heard in my life. Worse than any other horror we've endured. Much worse than watching my dad kill me in the previous Equinox task.

How can this be fake when the pain is so real? They mimic reality so well they're seamless. Equinox tasks twist the truth, making the pain real but the context totally insane.

Another lash whips my backside. I scream, Stephen screams. We're all just screaming for the end that's never been in sight.

"I give up, I give up!" I finally say. My ribs feel like they're completely destroyed, and I have no more willpower. I can't be expected to hold on while my life faints in and out before me. "I quit."

The beatings stop, and I hear a click from behind me. Bare feet step around the stake, joining the Screeners. I look up from the ground.

Stephen stands before me, unscathed. I can't help inhale in shock. He was just in so much pain, I can't believe this.

"There is no giving up," he says. His voice isn't normal. It's the cold Enhancement Project voice, not his own. "You are a traitor, and all traitors are punished."

I feel the blood glitter on my wounds, fearing another fight. My heart pounds in my ears. I don't want a final showdown with Stephen. He's such a strong survivor of the Project, not an enemy.

Stephen's eyes turn cold, and our invisible connection distances. My body shakes so badly the metal cuffs rattle against each other.

"Don't do it, Stephen," I warn him. The weakness in my voice takes over. "Please, please don't do this."

"This isn't my choice," Stephen says. He's back to normal. "You have to understand. I can't stand the pain anymore. The Enhancement Project tortured me for years. I can't take it anymore. I want a normal life for once."

"And do what?" I say. "Live out the rest of your life in some factory and spend every second obeying ridiculous rules? There's more to life than that. I don't know exactly what more life has to offer, but I know there's more. There's always more, and it's worth the suffering."

"Holland, you can't do it alone. Just quit, and we can get back to real life. Remember when we were Screeners in Philadelphia? When we went out and got lunch like normal civilians do? I want that, and so do, you. We want life to return to normal."

Stephen pauses. "So will you join me?"

I open my mouth to turn him down, but truth rings through his words. I do want life to be normal again. But if I take the easy route like Stephen, I'm going to live with that guilt for the rest of my life.

Yet if I give in, at least I can do something to help the rebels. Maybe move up the ranks at some job and sabotage it?

I look at Stephen again. This is my choice, but for the right reasons. Surrendering doesn't always mean you give up completely. "I will, okay? I'll do it. I'll give in."

Stephen shocks me with twisted laughter, snickering like a demon. "Haven't you learned yet that it doesn't work that way?"

The Screeners step closer to Stephen, and then the bolts of electricity enter my brain. I scream and keel over, the volts causing me to fade in and out within seconds. My lungs struggle, and insanity descends. Flash upon flash, yell upon yell.

Conscious thoughts fail to form in my mind. All there is of me is lighting, thunder, and rain. I'm screaming, crying, and spazzing out. I can't grasp how much pain I'm in until my voice cracks and scratches.

My screams echo, intensifying the knives of unbearable pain. The rationality behind everything is gone. I'm yelling like I'm burning alive, or maybe being charred from the inside out. Pain, hurt, injuries. Blood, lightning.

The pain doesn't cease, but I feel heat on the back of my neck. The warmth spreads down my spine and through my nerves, first warming then burning. The lightning fades into fire, hotter and sharper. My eyes press shut, and I hyperventilate for air.

Dots dance under my eyelids, yellow and white. My body is on fire. I'm screaming, and the world doesn't care. No one's here to save me. It's just me, the Project, and the Equinox.

Then the fire stops. My breathing is still labored, and I'm twisted up around something cold, probably the metal stake. I don't move an inch. I just breathe and wait for the next horrific attack from the Equinox.

Then I realize that horror might not come. So I keep my eyes shut and don't open them an inch.

-- -- -- -- --

well this chapter was pretty graphic and mentally scarring. but will this be the last torture chapter?

Question: Choose an option: no more Equinox, no more torture, or no more Stephen.

plus, don't forget about the 250K Contest in the previous chapter/part. there are some cool prizes and awards i put together. if you have any questions, just post them on that chapter. your submission can be short or long, either is perfectly awesome. part of each prize is a video from me, which i'll critique your submission and basically talk about how amazing you are. and who wouldn't want that, right?