Mark's POV

After telling Felix and Cry that I knew someone who had a way to get our memories back, they glanced at each other before Felix demanded, "Lead the way!"

I smiled. "Alright, but don't gather any unwanted attention. You know how I was talking about someone here observing us?"

Felix nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, I figured out who, and she's at the front of this room. We need to leave and go find some people I met."

"Okay," Cry replied, "so we should be fine if we just walk to the exit like normal?"

I began making my way to the exit. "I think so."

Felix and Cry followed me, leaving their food on the table. No one paid us any attention as we walked to the exit smiling and pretending to be engaged in a conversation.

I opened the door and held it open for them. Once they were in the hallway, I let the door close and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm almost surprised that went so well."

Felix chuckled, "What? You didn't trust your own plan?"

"Something tells me that things didn't go this smoothly at the orphanage," I muttered.

"What was that?" Cry asked.

"Nothing!" I replied, pulling a smile.

Cry looked skeptical, but before he had a chance to make a comment, Robert grabbed my shoulder. "Hey, good job getting them here."

I spun around, smiling. "Great! Now, we just have to go find–"

"Wait, why's Robert here?" Cry asked.

"And why'd you throw headphones at us and yell at us to put them on?!" Felix demanded.

Robert smirked. "Cause if I didn't, you wouldn't remember meeting Mark or getting an explanation to Cry's theory."

Cry slapped his hand to his face. "That alarm was going to erase our memories if we didn't have something covering our ears."

Robert chuckled, "About time you connected those dots."

"Back to what I was saying," I announced. "We need to go up to Ethan's room. He's waiting there to explain everything to Cry and Felix. He also has a way to get our memories back."

Felix and Cry smiled excitedly, but Cry's smile dropped a second later. "Who's Ethan?"

"Apparently, one of my friends," I replied. "He wants to help everyone here get back to their physical bodies, as far as I know."

Robert motioned to the staircase. "We'll follow you."

I grinned before turning on my heel and darting down the hallway. Felix, Cry, and Robert eagerly raced after me.

A few people lingered in the hallway, but I quickly found my way around them to the stairwell entrance. I swung the door open and held it open until everyone was inside. I let the door close before I raced passed the three men and lead them up the staircase.

By the time I opened the door on the landing, I was out of breath. I leaned against the open door, put my hands on my knees, and panted until everyone was out of the stairwell.

Cry laid down on the floor once he made it into the hallway. Felix sat down next to him and leaned against his side. Both of them panted heavily while Robert looked around, confused. "How are you three out of breath?"

Felix lazily pointed a finger at Robert. "How are you not?"

Robert shrugged. "Maybe you three just need to work out more?"

Cry coughed before replying, "Fuck you."

"Just a suggestion! I only meant it in good humor!" Robert defended. "Last I heard of Mark, at least, he was working out every day. I'm pretty sure Felix and Cry worked out often, too."

"How the hell would you know our workout schedules?" Felix inquired, slightly disturbed.

He shrugged. "Mark used to post stuff about it almost daily."

Felix and Cry exchanged glances while I replied, "What do you mean 'post'?"

Robert put his hands up innocently. "Never mind. You'll find out soon enough."

I straightened up. "If I wasn't so curious, I'd let us rest a bit longer. However, I really want to know what the heck you and Ethan keep hinting about. Let's go find him."

Felix sighed but hopped off the ground. He helped Cry up, then we began making our way down the hallway.

I remembered Ethan's room being the first room after I turned right. I walked to the end of the hallway, then pivoted on the ball of my foot, turning to the right.

There, I saw Ethan pacing back and forth down his hallway. Tyler was propped up against the wall with sunglasses covering his eyes.

Once Ethan saw me, a smile of relief spread across his face. "You're alright! You took so long to get back up here, I thought Katherine caught you!"

I grinned. "Yup, and everyone else is fine, too." I motioned for Robert, Cry, and Felix to come over. They jogged down the remaining part of the hallway and stared at Ethan in awe.

Felix was the first to comment. Pointing at Tyler, he asked, "Who's he, and is he okay?"

Ethan smiled demonically. "Oh, yes. He's fine." He squatted down next to Tyler before reeling his arm back. "He just needs to snap back into reality." Ethan let his arm shoot down, his hand slapping Tyler across the face hard enough for it to echo down the hallway.

Tyler's head snapped to the right. His sunglasses flew off and his eyes flew open. "What the hell?!"

"Nice of you to join us," Ethan replied before opening his door and ushering Tyler inside.

Tyler stayed planted against the wall. "Why did I just get slapped–hey! You're the guy who dragged me up the staircase and kicked the side of my head!"

"The name's Ethan." He cheekily reached his hand down for a handshake.

Tyler stared back up at him in slight shock before slapping his hand out of the way. "Why did I get dragged up here? I want dinner."

Ethan took a second to think before replying, "I've got a monster drink and potato chips."

Tyler tilted his head. "A...monster drink?"

Ethan's jaw dropped, but he quickly regained his composure. "You'll love it, just come on in and listen to what I have to say."

Tyler hesitantly nodded and picked himself up off the ground. Ethan walked into his room and held the door open until everyone was inside.

I leaped onto the bed next to Felix. Cry sat on the floor, leaning against one of the bedposts. Tyler sat on the floor a couple feet away from the bed. Robert and Ethan stood up in front of all of us.

"Alright," Ethan began, "where should we start?"

"Why don't we start with how the heck we're supposed to get our memories back?" Felix asked, managing to sound somewhat polite.

"Or how the two of you figured out what was going on in the first place?" Cry suggested.

"Ethan helped me get my memories back," Robert answered.

"I got mine back by figuring out that everything here was out of place," Ethan began explaining. "I started asking around and figured out that no one could remember anything from before they got here. My first theory was that we were all being experimented on, and I assumed someone would be observing us somehow. After a while, I got around to questioning Katherine, and I figured out that she was that person."

"Okay," I replied, "but how did you get your memories back?"

"That's a bit of a long story, which I'll explain later if it's necessary, but for right now, let's just say I snuck into her office."

Tyler raised his hand, obviously feeling awkward in the middle of our discussion. After being called on, he asked, "How would sneaking into her office help?"

Ethan grinned. "I snuck in there because I assumed she had some sort of undo button, if that makes sense. I guessed that she had some way to directly extract memories or plug memories back into a person's mind."

"Seeing that you have your memories back," Cry replied, "I'm going to assume that that was a correct guess."

Ethan nodded. "Of course it was!"

"Back to my question," Felix demanded, "how are we supposed to get our memories back? Did you rebuild or replicate whatever restored your memories?"

Ethan looked at the ground, then clenched his teeth before shaking his head.

"Then how are we going to get our memories back?" I inquired.

He looked back up, smiling nervously. "We're breaking into Katherine's office."

A/N

So I finally got around to listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.

Between that and history of the entire world, i guess, I had a better history lesson than most of my teachers have taught.

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOS!