Alexis Kathan didn't react at first. She gripped the armrests of her wheelchair, feeling her stomach acids churn. Odetta also just sat there, reliving all the cruel memories. "I-I didn't mean to cause harm to Tellie."

Alexis didn't know how to reply. "Whatever."

"Please," she begged, tears forming. "No one will visit me, my family thinks I'm a freak and I'm done with Lypsie for a lifetime. I have no friends, Alexis. I-I'm alone, I feel lonely for once."

"Yeah, it sucks," Alexis replied, frowning. Maybe she should have felt bad for Odetta, a girl was suddenly abandoned after being tricked far too many times. But she didn't.

Her hatred was stronger than pity.

Alexis closed the cover of her journal, tucking the pencil away. "We're done here."

Odetta's eyes went wide. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to see you anymore," she rested her eyes on Odetta. She saw insecurity, anger, vengeance, pain, and trauma, things that Alexis has experienced herself. Except, Odetta was desperate—the kind that could kill.

"You can't leave me, I just to-told you what kind of bad things I had to endure," she whispered, tears pooling from her eyes. Alexis felt like she was put on the spot. "I was tricked, scorned and controlled by Penelope and Lypsie. I'm a victim, you have to help me get out of Wood-Briar."

"Odetta, don't make this harder for me," Alexis said, hearing herself whimper.

"You're just like them all!" Odetta hissed, catching the attention of other visitors. She was letting her act slip, Alexis could tell. "You're cr-cruel, Lexis! You're leaving me to rot! I went through hell just like you!"

"We're finished," Alexis repeated, but her voice shook with uncertainty.

"You have to help me, you have to help me," Odetta said over and over again. She pressed the palms of her hands to the glass panel that separated them. Alexis felt her sweat trickle down her forehead as she wondered if Odetta could easily break the panel. "It's the r-rule."

"No."

"YOU'RE SELFISH!" Odetta shrieked, clawing at the glass panel. Alexis screamed out of shock, clinging onto her bag for dear life. Odetta thrashed, kicking away the plastic chair. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME, YOU NEVER HELP! YOU'RE A SELFISH BI—"

Odetta was cut off when a security guard grabbed her arms and two others rushed to restrain her. Odetta hollered and shouted for Alexis to help, but she just sat in her wheelchair, dumbfounded. That dimmed spark—it was relit into a burning and screaming blaze.

"Sedate her!" a guard yelled as he got punched in the nose. Blood trickled down his nose and onto Odetta's hospital gown. Visitors gasped and pointed at Odetta as if she was a freakshow. A man yelped in surprise. "Get that mad girl under control!"

"LEXIS, HELP!" Odetta cried, her tone more innocent but equally as vicious. Alexis panicked, her eyes widening in fear. She felt so weak and defenceless in her wheelchair, having nowhere to go. She felt trapped as Jenna Parley ran in with a needle.

Odetta roared to life. "LET ME GO!"

"That's enough from you!" Jenna said, injecting the needle into Odetta's arm. It didn't help as Odetta kept fighting back. She elbowed the most weak-looking security guard in the jaw, escaping. She ran to the glass panel, her pleading eyes spilling into Alexis'."Help me," she whispered.

Alexis never felt so terrified in her life, but her reply was the same. "No."

Suddenly, those pleading eyes turned into rageful ones. "YOU'RE A MONSTER, ALEXIS KATHAN—"

Jenna suddenly injected another needle into Odetta and the girls collapsed the nose-bleeding guard's arms. She was taken away, swept through the steel doors by a group of guards. Alexis was shocked, still catching her breath.

What the hell just happened? Jenna left the room briefly to join Alexis on the other side of the glass panel, asking her if she was okay. Alexis nodded even though she was horrified out of her mind.

YOU'RE A MONSTER, ALEXIS KATHAN. Alexis oddly remembered the little Asian girl with her mother. She remembered how the girl looked much like Lypsie Lee, though she hoped that the girl, Lian, would not turn out the same way. She swallowed hard, closing her eyes for a moment.

Alexis was called a survivor because she wasn't a psychopath and made it off the island. Others called her a monster, just like Odetta. Maybe they wouldn't say it to her face, but the way that mother looked at Alexis...it made her feel foreign.

Did she deserve to live, to survive the incident?

Alexis was being honest—a whole lot of people would prefer if Tellie Hollows or even Penelope Goode made it out alive instead. But no, it was Alexis Kathan who made it out alive.

"Miss. Kathan, hello?" Jenna snapped her fingers in Alexis' face. She jerked back to life in a cold sweat. She wiped and rubbed off the sweat on the wheelchair's arms. "Oh dear, you look miserably pale."

"Sorry, what were you saying, Jenna?"

"That we will be giving Miss. Johnston has a high dosage from now on," she said, a pristine and mature look plastered on her face. Alexis merely nodded along until she thought of something else.

"Do you always carry two needles?"

"Well, I always carry a needle with high dosage no matter what patient who is throwing a fit," she explained, smiling kindly. Throwing a fit, Alexis thought. Interesting.

"No, I mean carrying a second needle."

Jenna's smile faded for a second before the corners of her lips tugged once more. "I knew that Miss. Johnston was going to be out of it, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I won't be giving her that privilege anymore. I suppose you can never be too safe, correct?"

Alexis sighed heavily. "Correct."

"Now, Miss. Kathan, you've had a long day after dealing with Miss. Johnston's fit of rage. And if I'm honest, perhaps you should go home. This is all frightening, and you are due to meet Miss. Lee. Miss. Lee...she can be extreme."

Alexis pondered the question. No, I need to get over this nightmare, her mind retorted. Meet with Lypsie. "I don't think that will be necessary. Thanks for the suggestion though."

Jenna Parley gave a thin smile. "Very well, Miss. Kathan."

She grabbed the handles, pushing the wheelchair in another direction. Alexis was confused until Jenna explained. "Miss. Lee is a very intellectual yet criminally advanced girl. I blame her father, Atlas Lee, for raising her in the middle of a mafia gang."

"But I didn't have to go anywhere special for Odetta's meeting."

"Yes, but Wood-Briar is divided into two sections. One is where the patient mentally ill and is mainly a danger to themselves. Miss. Johnston fits loosely in that grouping. However...Miss. Lee is a danger to the facility. She's a tricky one."

Alexis scoffed as they entered a room. "Tell me about it."

She tensed up as soon as she saw Lypsie Lee sitting in the room, smiling, well, more like grinning like the devil himself. There were security guards lined up by each wall. "Hello, Lexis."

Alexis' brows furrowed together. Lypsie always knew that Lexis always got a rise out of her. It hasn't even been five minutes and she already got a wave of déjà vu crashing into her.

Lypsie's black hair was cut short, making her look more prim and sharp. She also wore a hospital gown like Odetta's. Her eyes were wandering searching around the room.

"Hi," Alexis said, her throat running dry. Jenna locked her in place at an old plastic desk. Jenna Parley nodded and left the room, shutting the door. Lypsie kicked up her legs on the table, earning frowns from the guards. "You see well and are placed at Wood-Briar."

"O-M-G, no way!" Lypsie mocked. Alexis could barely grasp the personality change, she always thought that Lypsie Lee was just a special and quiet girl. Not some crazy chick. "How have you been, Lex? Is adjusting to the wheelchair still hard?"

"Thanks to you and Odetta."

"How is my ex-girlfriend, hm?" Lypsie's words were filled with venom.

"You both have been having issues in the faculty?" Alexis asked in the same mocking voice. She felt bold and brave, but it faded away once Lypsie growled in jealousy.

"She's been avoiding me like the plague," she tsked. Sounds like Odetta dodged a bullet, Alexis snorted at her own humour. "Oh well, her loss. I never even liked or loved her, she was just a pawn."

"Wow, no regards for the girl?" Alexis was only a little shocked. "Heartless much?"

"I'll tell you who's truly heartless," Lypsie hissed back. "Penelope Goode."

"She's dead," Alexis replied aloud. It took her a while to sound confident when saying so. "Leave Penny Goode out of it. Also leave Tellie Hollows out of it, it's disrespectful. Why did you kill Penny?"

"She's a total toxic bully, that's frickin' obvious, Lexis."

Alexis rolled her eyes, clenching her fists. "Other than that."

"What is there to say?"

Silence, utter and pure silence. The two girls stared at each other, eyes narrowing. While Alexis could see all the emotion in Odetta's eyes, she couldn't figure out what Lypsie felt. Betrayal? Hatred? Pride? No, there was no emotion at all.

"Let's change the gears," Lypsie spoke up suddenly. "I'll ask you a question, just a single, simple question, okay? What did you think of Penelope Goode, the golden girl, huh?"

"Stop," Alexis muttered, shaking her head. "Stop it."

"Tell the truth, don't be a liar about it—"

"I thought she was my actual friend, okay?" Alexis interrupted, disloyalty flooding through her pores. She shut her eyes, massaging her temples. Her fingers lingered over a scar over her right eyebrow that occurred in Omfori.

Lypsie smirked, leaning in. "Details, pretty please? Or will I have to beg for it?"

"Enough, Lee," a tall guard said in a gruff voice.

Alexis rolled her eyes, blowing off loose steam. "Penny came to my bedroom and talked about my future. She tried to say that I should follow my dreams and that kind of hopeless crap. She was acting nice. I thought she was actually my friend, as if that could make up for all the bad things that she did to me.

"Perfect."

"You know what's not perfect?" Alexis felt herself getting heated and angry. "I thought she truly did care, that she'd lead us all to victory. Maybe that's why we all fell apart when you murdered her.

"But we held up didn't we?"

Alexis gave a meek nod. "Fine, my turn now to ask a question."

"What is this, twenty questions?" Lypsie snorted. "But go ahead."

"Why the hell are you so obsessed with the Odyssey, and mainly Calypso?"

Lypsie froze, as if she was preparing for this, but suddenly forgot her cue. Like stage fright, but not stage fright. She cleared her throat, as if she realized she was acting weak. "I always believed in the Greek gods and that whatnot. My father's mafia gang was very keen on that vision."

Sounds like the mafia made huge impacts on her life, Alexis thought. I could care less about her sob story. "So...you thought of yourself as a god? Or goddess? Like Calypso, but different?"

"When Dad read me the tale of the Odyssey, I asked him why I was named Calypso, I always felt so bad for her character. Sure, she wasn't perfect, but he cared for Odysseus for seven years." Lypsie set her lingering eyes on Alexis. "The poor woman deserved better, no?"

Alexis shifted in her wheelchair uncomfortably. "I guess."

"Dad just laughed at me, and it stuck with me ever since," Lypsie said wistfully, clasping her hands on the table. "I wanted Calypso to desperately have her happily ever after, just like Penelope or Odysseus. No matter how evil or vile it may seem."

"You never loved Odetta, did you?"

Lypsie paused briefly. "What?"

Alexis continued, an anxious feeling bubbling. "You were so obsessed with Calypso, you wanted that fictional to get h-her happily ever after in this insane fantasy of yours. You wanted to be Calypso."

"I hate my full name," she argued, but Alexis could see the struggle in her eyes. Struggle. That's what she saw in Lypsie's eyes, it's so clear all of the sudden. "You're senseless."

"You didn't love Odetta, maybe 'Calypso' did, but you didn't. You on-only wanted Calypso to be."

"You can't fake love!" Lypsie gave a cold laugh.

"Maybe you're right, maybe you did somewhat love Odetta," Alexis decided finally. "But Calypso was your fake 'personna' or something. Who is the real Lypsie Lee?"

"We'll never know," Lypsie said, dipping her head. "It was nice to see you."

"You killed Penny," Alexis reminded.

She grinned. "So?"

"Heartless." Alexis saw Jenna Parley coming inside the room on cue. Alexis wondered if Jenna was watching the whole time. The woman injected yet another needle into Lypsie's arm, and she didn't resist.

"Take Miss. Lee went back to her room," Jenna said as all the security guards took the grinning girl away. Alexis shuddered, shaking off the bad energy that clouded her. "Miss, Kathan, are you okay?"

"Maybe you were right, Jenna," she admitted, "this is too much."

Alexis waved goodbye to Jenna Parley as Kirks Witcher pushed the wheelchair forward. "Sounded like you were in Wood-Briar for a while."

"Yeah, well, some stuff happened," Alexis snorted. "Did I keep you waiting?"

"In fact, you did," Kirks said smoothly. "What's next?"

"The interview."

Kirks gave a tight smile. "Of course, being stared at by nosy reporters is great."