Dan's POV

While Nate and I were walking back to the dorm Jason and Phil were in, I noticed that he couldn't keep his eyes off the key. He was holding it in his left hand while his right arm was attached to me.

"Is something wrong with the key because I really don't want to go back to the painting," I commented.

"I don't know," he replied hesitantly, "I just don't like this. We're locked in an orphanage, and some of the people here act like they've known us our whole lives."

"Are you talking about John knowing your name?"

"Yeah, it just doesn't make sense!" He continued, "I mean, him knowing your name wasn't that weird because you guys are basically famous–"

"I'm not famous," I cut him off.

"But someone recognizing you wouldn't be nearly as odd as someone recognizing me."

I thought for a moment. "I guess that's true." I noticed Nate's normal expression change to one of worry. "Don't worry, though. Phil and I are gonna take care of you and Jason until we find Mark and everyone else. Once we find them, we're going to go find who locked us up here, and make them release us."

"But are we going to be okay? Earlier, you said that you doubt everyone will make it out alive. Were you being serious?" He was practically in tears as he continued, "Is someone gonna die?"

I stopped walking and turned to him. "Listen to me right now, Nate. Earlier, I was being ignorant. No one's going to die, and I'll make sure of it. You're gonna be fine, we're going to find Reagan and Percy, and they'll be fine too. Same goes for Jason and all the other YouTubers."

Nate let out a long sigh before whispering, "Promise?"

I smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. "Yup, now let's go get Phil and Jason. Time to see if this key opens anything or if we'll be adding it to our collection."

Nate giggled, "This is so weird."

"What is, other than the obvious?"

"I would never let any of the orphanage workers touch me, let alone hug me. The only people I even considered letting near me were Reagan, Jason, and Percy. Now, I'm hugging you, someone I just met a few days ago."

I smiled and hugged him tighter as I chuckled, "Probably the videos."

He giggled back, "Probably."

I heard a groan of frustration escape a dorm a few doors down and I let go of Nate.

"What the heck was that?" he asked, looking up at me.

"It sounded like it came from the dorm Phil and Jason are in," I replied.

"Let's go!" he yelled, grabbing my arm and dragging me down the hallway.

We raced side by side down the hallway before stopping in the doorway of the room Phil and Jason were in. Inside, Phil was sitting on a small bed in the corner with his head in his hands. Jason was heaving piles of clothes out of drawers.

"What's going on?" Nate asked with a tilted head.

Phil let out a loud groan before standing up and pointing at the drawer. "There's literally nothing in that drawer other than white shirts and it's really starting to get on my nerves."

Jason let out a loud sigh as he sat back from the drawer. "I bet there's cooler stuff in the closet."

"If only we had the key," Nate commented as he pulled the key out from behind him.

"Haha! Score!" Jason cheered as he ran to Nate.

Phil stood up and walked to me. "Where'd you find it?"

"It was in the frame of a very peculiar painting," I responded.

"Really? What was the painting of? Did you see who painted it?" Phil questioned me.

"The painting was really weird," I began. "There was a huge monster just like the one that turned into a human-sized figure. It was in a cage roaring while people outside of the cage were crying. Oh! And get this! It was by someone named John Higgins from 1742."

"John Higgins? Is that the John we met?" Phil asked.

"Not sure, but Nate pointed out that one of the people who work here's name is Ms. Higgins."

"Neither of those makes sense, though," Jason stated as he walked to us. "You said it was from 1742. There's no way one of them could've painted it."

"Or they could've put the wrong year," I offered.

"That's probably what they did," Nate stated sarcastically.

"Anyway," I continued, "we found a key in the framework."

"What makes you so sure that it unlocks the closet?" Jason asked skeptically.

"It's the only key we have," Nate answered for me.

"That's good reasoning to my standards," Phil replied.

"So let's try the key!" Nate cheered as he approached the closet door.

Nate stopped in front of the door and turned around. "If something jumps out of this closet, you better kill it before it kills me, understood?"

I pulled Kyle out of my belt loop. "I don't know what would jump out of a closet, but sure."

Nate smiled at me before turning back around to face the closet door. He pulled the key up to his face and examined it before plugging it into the keyhole. "It fits," he muttered in disbelief.

"Really?" I asked in shock.

He turned the key and a click rang throughout the quiet room.

"Holy shit, it worked," Jason mumbled.

"Watch your language," Phil murmured while staring at the key in awe.

Nate began to turn the doorknob but stopped himself. "Okay, I'm serious. If some scary shit jumps out of this closet–"

"Don't worry about it," I cut him off.

"I'm a bit fucking worried considering a closet door just opened from a key we found embedded in a frame," Nate replied.

"What do you want us to do? Make a team plan?" I asked sarcastically.

After a short pause, Nate responded, "That's not a bad idea."

"You're kidding, right?"

"It's okay," Phil cut in, "if something jumps out of the closet when you open the door, I'll pull you away from the door. Dan will use the sword–"

"Its name is Kyle," I interrupted, causing Phil to glare at me. "What? I just thought you might want to know its name considering you name everything and–"

"As I was saying," Phil proceeded, "Dan will use Kyle to fight off whatever jumps out from behind the door. Jason can just do whatever."

"I could close the door once Dan gets the thing back in?" Jason offered.

"Yeah, okay. Jason'll do that. Now, can we please open this door?" Phil asked.

Nate nodded his head. "Okay."

Nate turned the doorknob and swung the door open. He covered his head as I raised Kyle, ignoring the immense pain that rang throughout my back.

Nothing jumped out at us.

"I told you we didn't need a team plan," I muttered as I tucked Kyle back in my belt loop.

Nate laughed nervously, "At least we were prepared?"

"Why aren't you guys paying more attention to what's in the closet?" Phil asked while staring at the closet.

I looked back toward it to find that the door led to an entirely different room. "Whoa," I murmured.

I walked toward the door with everyone else trailing behind. There was a light switch on the wall. I flipped it and the room immediately became clear.

There were lab coats hanging on all the walls, along with chalkboards that looked like they were being used to track data of some kind. Lists of names laid across a dusty desk. Some of the names had lines through them while others were highlighted.

I quickly scanned over the names but didn't see anything that caught my eye. When I looked away from the lists, I saw Phil going through the pockets of one of the lab coats. He pulled out a few pens and a name tag.

"What's that say?" I asked as I walked up to Phil.

"There's so much dust on it I can barely read it," he mumbled. "Umm, Katherine...I can't read it. I think the last name starts with an 'R'. Maybe an 'e' in there?"

He handed me the name tag, and just like him, I couldn't see the last name. "What is this stained with? There's no way that's dust," I commented.

Phil shrugged. "Not sure."

"Uh, guys?" Nate called from the opposite side of the room.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Come here."

Phil and I exchanged uneasy glances before walking to Nate and Jason. "What'd you find."

Nate didn't respond, he simply pointed at a sign underneath one of the lab coats.

Human Experimentation.

A/N

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Btw, 2017 is doing aight so far

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOES!