I bite my bottom lip in nervousness, my hands balled up into fists, anxiously waiting for someone to start saying something. I steal a quick glance at Wil. He runs his fingers through his hair, his shoulders tensed. Clearly, he is not at ease either by what Key had said to the both of us merely minutes ago.

“There’s something we need to tell you,” Key’s voice echoes through my mind, constantly leaving me wondering about the meaning behind those words.

I wonder if it is a good thing or not, whether she’s going to deliver good news or quite the opposite. Endless possibilities of what she has to say to us runs through my head. We’ve only just met her – and the twins – and there are only so many things they know about us. But then again, there are a lot of things about this world that we do not know about. Perhaps it has something to do with the common knowledge most citizens should know. Except us. But then again, I don’t know if we are called citizens of this world in the first place.

“Y-Yeah, sure. I guess,” I say, stumbling over my words once I realised that neither of us has yet to reply to Key.

She nods in reply, not uttering a single word. She takes a sit on one of the white seats across from us. She crosses her right leg over her left and places one hand on her lap. Her other hand reaches up to her face and she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, giving us a clear view of face compared to several moments ago when she had hair creating a curtain in front of her face, obstructing her features. As usual, there is nothing that gives away her emotions. She is calm and collected, without even so much as a twitch to betray her.

I tap my foot anxiously, waiting for her to say something to break the awkward silence that is starting to settle.

She doesn’t.

Wil clears his throat, effectively shattering the quietness. “Go on,” he says, prompting Key to continue with whatever she has to say.

Her eyes are focused on the ground. She blinks and her eyes shift up, staring straight at us. They seem glazed and have a faraway look, almost as if she has a lot of things on her mind, but they seem guarded as well, like she does not want anyone to see through her exterior. It’s as though she has many secrets she does not intend to share with anyone any time soon. She probably does. We all do.

The only question is how big of a secret it is.

I push the thought away from my mind. It’s not in my place to know.

“You know how we are all, in one way or another, linked to the Tree right? As in, the Data Tree.” She pauses, looking at us in such a way as if she is waiting for a response from us. I nod and she continues. “You are also failed experiments, am I wrong?”

My face hardens at the mention of us, as in, experiments. I steal a quick glance at Wil at the exact same time he turns to look at me. Talk about coincidences. Our eyes meet and one lingers in both our gazes. How does she know that we’re experiments?

But more importantly, how does she know we’re failed experiments?

We have not mentioned it to anyone, not even the twins, though I assume that they know about it as their parents are, after all, the persons-in-charge of us and our project. If they bring it up, I’d understand. But Key? Maybe not so much.

“How do you know about that?” Wil asks, carefully selecting his words, not wanting to give anything away. I can hear that his voice is strained, as if he is trying not to burst or break down.

“I just do,” she says, nonchalantly, like it is not a big deal. Well, she’s wrong.

It is a big deal, to us anyway.

She’s not supposed to know about us after all. No one – other than the involved parties – are. And even if we’re not in the facility anymore, I would like to keep it that way. I would not even want to imagine what would happen if the public knows.

I suck in a deep breath of air, my eyes tearing up. I chew on my bottom lip, as I always do when I’m nervous, willing myself not to cry. I cannot make myself seem vulnerable, not in front of Key. I do not want her to see my weakness. The less she knows about me, the better. Yes, I may appreciate her hospitality and helping us run away, but that does not mean, in any way, that I trust her. I am still rather wary of her.

She knows much more than she lets on. She’s putting up a façade so that she does not seem too suspicious. I wonder where she gets all the information from. I wonder how much more she knows about us. I have to stay on my guard whenever I am around her. I cannot let anything slip. Who knows what she would do if I do.

“What were you trying to tell us?” I say, prompting her to continue.

“Do you know how the system works?” she replies without hesitation.

“Umm…” I answer, trailing off, not knowing how to phrase my thoughts.

That is the question, isn’t it? Do I really understand how the system works. I mean, I know the basics of the system, as do everyone, probably, but do I really know the system. All I know is whatever the researchers back in the laboratory fed me with. I wonder how much more is there to it. I wonder how much of the truth they are hiding from us, from all of us.

My eyes sweep across the space around me. Aries and Aristelle stands several feet away from where Key sits at the end of the hub, just in front of the door. Aries has his back to us, facing Aristelle. He has one hand pressed against the door, leaning his weight on it, seemingly casual. His other hand is in his pants pocket and his shoulders are sagged. The way he carries himself makes him look like he hasn’t a care in the world.

Aristelle, on the other hand, has her hands clutching each other tightly behind her back. She rubs her hands nervously and, unlike her brother, her shoulders are tensed, giving me the impression that she has a huge burden to carry. I wonder what it is. The siblings talk to each other urgently, but in hushed whispers. Although I can hear that they are discussing something, I assume, dire, I am too far away to distinctly hear the words that pass between them.

I know I should not be nosy, but I wonder what they are saying.

There is an empty seat beside me and two vacant ones beside Wil. The row of five seats across from us is empty, aside from Key, that is, who is sitting directly in the centre, almost as if she is trying to make a statement of some sort.

A hand rests on my right shoulder, bringing me out of my daze. I jump slightly, startled by the sudden physical contact. “Miri,” Wil’s voice drifts into my ears.

I advert my attention to the said person. “Yes?” I whisper.

“You okay? You look like you’re really out of it.”

My lips curl up into what is supposed to be a smile, though it feels like anything but. Right now, it just feels like my facial muscles that are supposed to work in order to seem pleasant. “Yes, I’m fine,” I reply too quickly.

The look Wil gives me in response tells me that he is seeing through the mask that I have put on, but he does not say anything about it. I run my fingers through my hair, actively seeking out any knots that might be there, another habit that I have acquired, another one I do when I’m nervous or uncomfortable with something. The pit in my stomach grows significantly. For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this in my gut… Whatever ‘this’ may be.

Perhaps I am just nervous about what our – as in Wil and I – fate may be. Perhaps I’m worried about leaving my chances of survival to the hands of strangers, of whom I barely know anything about. Who knows way too much about us than they’d care to tell. Or perhaps I am simply scared of the unknown, of the future.

To be honest, I’m rather sceptical about Aries and Aristelle as well. Why do they know so much about us. I mean, they clearly know more than most people should – it’s all about knowing the right people or, in this case, being related to the right people – but still, how? No one is supposed to know about us, aside from those from the facility or directly involved in the project; we were clearly told about this for as long as I can remember. Obviously, their parents made an exception for them. Either that, or they did some snooping, though I highly doubt that. Who knows?

Key is just too much. She’s too mysterious and arcane. She does not reveal about herself but yet, she knows so much. It’s almost as if she spends her time collecting information as a failsafe or something of the sort.

Among the three of them, she’s, no doubt, the one I am the most sceptical about.

“You were saying?” I start, indirectly forcing Key to continue when I realise that she has stopped speaking.

I wonder why she keeps pausing for such long periods of time. Or perhaps I have not been lost in my thoughts for as long as I thought I was.

“Do you know how the system works?” she questions once again.

“Only what those from the facility told us,” Wil answers for me. Or rather, what they programmed in us, somehow, I continue in my mind, though I did not voice my thoughts. It would just be foolish if I did.

“Which is probably what the rest of the datas of this world of ours know,” she says, her voice not revealing even an ounce of whatever emotion she is hiding inside.

How she manages to conceal all of them without breaking will forever remain a mystery to me. I feel too much.

“Well, you know what datas are, right?” She pauses, as if waiting for either of us to reply. It’s almost like she does not believe we would know anything. She’s treating us like we have been locked up our entire lives. Technically, we have, but we know more that we let on. I guess it’s the same thing as what Key is doing to a certain extent.

When she realises that neither of us is going to respond, she continues. “Datas are the most basic unit of the system. We basically make up the system. The Tree entrusts us to keep the system up and running. The Tree is the core of the system. Without her, none of this will exist. I do not think I need to explain which datas are deleted and when and why. I assume you know all that.”

“Yes, we know all that already. Why are you telling it to us?” I say, my eyebrows knitting in confusion.

“That’s what everyone is told,” Key replies, seeming as if I never said anything in the first place, completely ignoring my question. “What you’re not told is that every data is connected to the Tree can be tracked.”

I take a deep breath of air, my head dizzy with the new piece of information.

“Initially, only the Tree can access the tracker. But recently, the Tree has granted access to the feature to some of the higher ups. That’s also how the Tree can keep account of every data under it’s care.”

My eyebrow furrows in confusion. Something does not add up. “So, why are we experiments? What are they trying to experiment anyway?” I ask with caution, choosing my words to the best I can. I know it’s a bit farfetched with what we are currently discussing, but my instinct tells me that it’s not as far off as I may think it is.

Key replies with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry, but I do not have any knowledge on that area. I’ve been trying to find out.”

I do not see how all that information, about the tracker and such, relates to us, but I guess knowing is better than not knowing at all. We’re technically not data as we were created. And if we were created by others and not by the Tree, there’s no way we’re connected to it right?

If so, then how exactly did the Data Tree communicate with my dreams?

I push these thoughts out of my mind. I am thinking too much. That dream is probably due to my active imagination that has run wild. It probably has nothing to do with the Tree in the first place. I’ve got to learn how to control my thoughts and emotions, to ensure that it does not cloud my judgement.

I turn to Wil. His eyes are glazed and moves in and out of focus, making him seem like he’s there at one moment and then lost in thought in the next. “Wil?”

His eyes drift to mine. “Yeah?”

“Just checking to see if you’re alright or not. You seem out of it.” I supress a smile, realising that this is exactly what Wil asked me several minutes ago.

He flashes a smile, but it seems forced, fake, like he’s doing it just for the sake of doing it. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just thinking.”

I nod in reply, turning my attention out the window, watching the world go by as we travel, no one uttering a single word. I wonder how long the ride on the train will be. I wonder where we’re going. I wonder what we’re about to do next.

I wonder when Wil and I are finally going to discover the truth behind who we actually are.

 Two chapters in one week! Yay! I'll try to post once every three to seven days. :) I hope enjoyed this chapter. Please vote, comment and follow me. :) I also hope you'll stick on with me til the end. Til next time guys! (Sorry for the short author's note)