--Jacob--

"Uh, Jay?" I ask, and he looks up from his sketchbook. "Where do we sleep, go to the bathroom, and all the other necessities?"

"You sleep on the floor. And if you need to go, just ask the guard to go to the bathroom."

"Do we get at least a blanket?"

He shakes his head, going back to drawing.

"And why do you know anything about this place?"

He ignores me.

"I know you'll ask this sooner or later, Shorty, and no. I will not let anyone take over my personal space for warmth while sleeping," Lily says.

"Bu-"

"Nope."

I turn to Jay.

Looking up from his sketchbook again, he shakes his head, then continues.

"But it's cold!"

"Be glad there's some heat in here, it's better than a tree," He says, and Lily laughs quietly.

"'It's better than a tree,' no duh. Where did that comparison come from?"

"Put the pieces together you idiot. Why do you think I always have leaves and stuff in my hair?"

"And you never bother to try to get them out?"

"Oh, trust me, I try, but a river can only reflect so well."

"Are you saying you have no house?"

He doesn't say anything.

"Honestly, I suspected this since the beginning. He's skinnier than me, the food-hating alien, which can only mean that he rarely gets food. I've always thought his only source of food was the school's lunch," Lily says.

"But...But what about your family?"

He holds his pencil still on the sketchbook.

"Do y-"

"Drop it."

"W-"

"Doesn't matter, drop it."

I shut up, for seven seconds. "Who is your family?"

Tossing the sketchbook and pencil down, he pulls his knees to his chest and puts his head down.

"J-" I take a step towards him, but Lily pulls me back, shaking her head.

"Leave him be."

I sigh.

"You know, I still have my phone, what if I just call the police?"

"Yeah," I say.

"Don't know why I didn't think of that earlier."

"No," Jay says quickly.

"Why not?"

"Can't you just take a no?"

"No, this is something the police should handle. What do you have against them?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Y-"

"Jacob, I'm not calling. If Jay says not to, I won't. I know the endless torment of having a solution but not being able to do it because it will have negative long-term effects."

"Why does nobody ever listen to me or answer my questions? Jay knows something about why we are here, we deserve to know what."

"Why does it matter? I can't change the past, it won't fix anything," Jay says, raising his voice slightly, and standing up.

I fight the urge to smile. I'm getting him riled up, and when people are emotional, they tend to make a statement about why. "It just does. First, the magic thing, now this, what are you hiding?"

"Everything, ok? What can you say to prove you know anything about me? You don't even know my real name!"

"Alex," I say, and something flashes across his eyes, but disappears before I can decipher it.

"That's only because Elliot called me that. That's the only thing you know about me, and that's the only thing you'll ever know about me."

"Well maybe if you actual talked, like everyone else on the entire planet does, I would!"

He clenches his fists, struggling for control. "I don't know why I ever bothered with you. I know I'm not good enough for anyone, I would've been better off never leaving this place."

His words cut through me like a knife, but this is the only way I'm going to get information. "You're a hundred percent right. Why did you leave here?"

"I don't know! I was an idiot, why the heck would I realize how big of a mistake it was? Why would I-Oh...Oh, nice try."

"Dang it," I say, all the fake anger washing out of my voice. "I almost had it."

"Don't try that again, and I mean it. If I start showing emotion, here of all places, all this blood everywhere will grow exponentially."

"I love exponential growth," Lily says, then realizes how gruesome that sounded. "But not this kind."

"But seriously, what'd you mean by 'leave this place?' Were you here before?"

"Why would I tell you? You're just like everyone else."

"How? What does that mean?"

He goes silent, which lets me think of a response that will get information.

"In your eyes, what is our relationship?"

He looks at me blankly.

"What the heck does that mean, Jacob?" Lily asks.

"It means, how much do you trust me? Because it's clearly not as much as Elliot."

"I don't."

"That hurt, no hesitation," I say, placing a hand over my heart.

"I can't. I physically can not."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Lights out kids," Mr. Wells says.

"There are no lights," Jay mutters, making me laugh a little.

--

"Wake up kids," Mr. Wells says.

My eyes snap open, my stomach twisting in knots. Today these people have the whole day to do something to us. What's going to happen?

Sitting up straight, I glance over at Jay, who hasn't woken up. The knot in my stomach only grows as I watch him toss and turn, breathing heavily in shaky rhythms. Whatever will happen is enough to give Jay nightmares, which only means it will be grim and harsh.

I give Lily a pleading look, and she nods, moving next to Jay. She gently shakes his shoulder.

"Don't!" He backs into the corner, his eyes wide as if someone was coming to deliver the fatal blow. What he's seeing, we don't. Trapped in his own living nightmare for himself of his deepest fears.

"Jay, it's just us. We're not going to hurt you," Lily says, her voice soft.

He stares at her, her words not registering.

"I'm Lily, I am not aggressive. It's ok."

He snaps out of his dream, looking down at the floor.

"You're ok, you're safe."

"No. We're not safe," He says. "We're trapped in the worst place we could be in. Kidnapped, yet again."

"Again?" I ask.

"Doesn't matter, we're as good as dead."

"Thanks for the comfort."

"This isn't something to joke around about. Th-" He immediately shuts up as a guard walks in.

"Alex? Since when do you talk?" The guard asks, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "Thirty beatings for you. Y'all have to be ready to go in half an hour." He tosses some clothes in for us to change into.

"Yes, sir." Jay stares at the ground, not daring to look the guard in the eyes.

"Hey, hey, wait," I say. "It isn't his fault that he was talking, it was mine. Don't punish him. And why is talking a bad thing?"

"So he couldn't ignore you? Make that thirty fifty. He's better than that."

I stare at the guard, my mouth agape.

He grins, walking out. The lock clicks.

"There's a dress in that pile," Lily growls.

I watch Jay, who doesn't seem phased by what the guard said.

He silently tosses the dress to Lily, a bland, gray t-shirt and shorts to me, and holds up a bra, confused.

"Jay, that goes to me," Lily says.

"What is it?"

"You don't know what that is?" Lily and I ask.

He shakes his head.

"It's a bra, which girls use because us girls have to care for children when we're older, and don't want... Stuff showing from our shirt. Thank you very much."

Turning red slightly, he tosses it to Lily.

I bite my lip, fighting back a smile. He looks so cute right now.

"Are we supposed to get changed in here? No doors or anything?" Lily asks.

"Where else?"

She squirms around a little, looking down.

"Ok, I'll solve the problem. Everyone look away from each other right now and get dressed. When we're all done, we will say so, and when the last person finishes, we're good. Okay?" I say.

She nods.

"Everyone get dressed in three, two, one."

We all face separate walls and slip on the clothes given to us.

"I can't get the zipper, dresses suck, could one of you help?"

Since I'm shorter than she is and won't be able to, Jay helps.

Once we're all done, Jay pulls out the wall-drawer, taking out a bottle of pills. He looks at the door as if waiting for something.

"Not pk day, but not n day," Elliot yells, walking by.

He puts the pills back.

"What were the pills?" I ask.

He doesn't answer.

"Hello?"

He shakes his head.

"Oh yeah...The guard. Is that why you don't talk much?"

The guard walks in again, this time with two other guards. Each one grabs one of us, pulling us out of the room.

We're taken to separate places.