There was no way in fucking hell that I was standing here staring at my brother. There was no way. I told myself over and over that I was dreaming. He was dead, or close to. Why else would I need to take place?

"Hey, little sis."

God, I would have never thought that I'd hear him say those words to me ever again. Never in a million years.

"Are you really here?"

He laughed, "Yup. At least I think so. Who knows; I could be a ghost..." Having everyone here like this, I was pretty damn sure that I was dead.

Jackson put his hands on my shoulders, "We should catch you up."

No matter who was talking to me, or where we were in the room, my eyes were constantly drawn to Collin. It was almost like I didn't want to look away now that I had him back, for the fear that he would leave me again.

I wasn't even relieved when I saw that he was perfectly healthy. I know I should have been happy that he was alive and well and looked to be in better health than I had ever seen. But I wasn't. I had almost given my life away so he could live. I don't even think he knew that, nor did I even think his life was ever in jeapordy.

"Sam, are you even listening?"

"Hm?" I glanced up, for the first time peeling my eyes away from Collin. Jackson was frowning and looked a litter irritated. "What?"

"I've been telling you what's going on for the last five minutes."

I scoffed, "I know."

"What was the last thing I told you?" he challenged, his eyebrow raised.

"Um, that you're... bitchy?"

Collin burst out laughing, startling everyone. Jason rolled his eyes, Jackson growled, his teeth grinding together. The rest of them, Heffburn, Rousseau, Silas, Emily, and Layla, didn't react.

"Pay attention, please. Or I'll start acting like I had originally."

"You mean creepy and mysterious?"

Jason chirped up, "Listen, mate. Maybe she just needs time to adjust to the fact that everyone she thought was dead..." he looked deep into my eyes, they sparkled, "are not."

"What happened to you?"

Jackson grunted, "That's what I've been trying to explain to you."

"Well, love. It's kind of shocking, so let me know if you need me to stop so you can have a little time to soak it up." I sighed. I guess I was avoiding knowing the truth because it would be so hard to swallow. I guessed it was time I learned what happened.

"Okay. Tell me."

"Mathias is completely and utterly taken with you."

I blinked, "Excuse me?"

Jason nodded, "He's very much in love with you."

"How is that possible? Doesn't he want me dead?"

He shook his head, "No. He wants you all to himself. When Emily met Collin, Silas kept telling his boss all about the crazy sexy sister. Mathias was unconvinced how crazy sexy until he saw you with his own eyes. He vowed right there and then to eliminate anyone else who were to love you. He started with Collin.

"He knew how close the two of you were, and he wanted you all to himself, and by taking your brother out of the picture, it was suddenly possible. That was, until, you came here to find out the truth about your brother's disappearance.

"It was like you were magical. Everything about you made everyone in this room crazy about you. Heffburn looked at you like a daughter and was willing to do everything he could to make you happy. Rousseau was a fucking crazy person for a while, but he realized, too, that you meant a lot to him. Silas was a pawn to you, he meant so little, but to him, you were everything. He never felt anything about anyone as deeply as he felt it about you."

I could feel Silas shift where he was standing. To have someone else tell me how he felt wasn't comforting to him in the slightest.

"And Jackson. He loves you like a little sister. He took it upon himself to make sure that nothing bad ever happened to you. He considered you his family, his best friend."

Jackson cleared his throat, "I can speak for myself."

I glanced over at him and he was staring at me with lust in his eyes. It shocked me completely. "You were more than a sister to me. And I know that it's unfair of me to be marrying another person and say this to you, but I do love you. Hell, every fucking person in this room loves you."

Emily scoffed. I wasn't surprised.

Jason took over, "Oh, but me, love. The second I saw you, I knew that I was gonna love you forever. I knew that it wasn't air or food that was going to keep me alive, but it was going to be my love for you. There aren't words created to tell how much I love you. There aren't feelings that can be described to illustrate what I feel like when I'm with you. I guess it's fitting we're in a psych ward, because I'm crazy about you."

I chuckled. "How romantic..."

Jason pulled me closer to him, "It was always more than just sex to me. I loved every moment I spent with you. Even when I was buried deep inside-"

Collin groaned loudly, "Shut the fuck up before I put a bullet in your brain."

Silas shifted again, but this time, so did Jackson.

"With more and more people professing their love to you, it was nearly impossible for Mathias to have you all to himself. So, he made you prove your loyalty to the HSD by tricking you into agreeing to being part of 'the plan'. His plan, the secret mission that he didn't tell a soul, was to get you to forget about everyone you loved. He planted a note in the room with you, and when you came to, that note was supposed to spark a feeling for him in you. He was trying to push everyone else out of your thoughts.

"He made the rules, the most important being that you tell someone when you remembered something about yourself that way he would know how fast you were remembering everything so he would know how much time he had to plant fake memories in your brain of him.

"But you were too damn smart to admit anything. By not telling Jackson what you remembered, when you remembered it, you fucked over his plan. And, you started to become closer to Jackson. Which continued to fuck him over. Nice job, love."

"It wasn't like I did it on purpose."

Jason laughed, "No. But, good job anyway."

"Thanks?"

It was quiet in the room while they waited for me to take it all in. Mathias basically fucked my life over so he could have me all to himself. But there were still some things that I didn't know about.

"Wait, how are you both still alive?" I glanced between Jason and Collin.

Collin smiled and stepped forward, "Mathias couldn't crack me. He started out with basic questions about you, trying to know everything about you as he could. Apparently he had some very unorthodox methods of being the best boyfriend. He didn't operate on me at all. Just strapped me to a chair and every time I would get out of hand, I got a slight shock."

"Why did he want me to take your place if he doesn't want to operate on me?"

Jason made eye contact with Jackson for a few seconds before he turned back to me, "Do you remember when he first messed with your brain and you turned on Jackson? You said so yourself, everything that you had trusted had been spun around and turned into something dangerous and not comforting. It wasn't a coincidence that you turned against everyone that day. Mathias wanted to see how you would react if he touched up a few parts in your brain."

I widened my eyes, "He did operate on me."

Jason nodded gravely. "Unfortunately, he did, love. But, by making up a story about your brother and how he was on the brink of death and only you could save him, he used your love for your brother to put you right into his arms. He wasn't planning on letting either of you go. But, he did get a sense of how completely capable of true love you were. It only made him covet you more. And as long as he had Collin to give him the information about your likes and dislikes, and he had you, he could have you, and he would almost be like a savior to you."

"An angel of light," I breathed.

"You're on the nose today."

"So, he saw me and wanted me to himself, so he tried to wipe everyone from my memory? Why didn't he just kill everyone?"

Not that I would have preferred that method...

Jason laughed, "Because he couldn't win you over by destroying everyone you loved. All he needed to do was make you forget that you loved them to begin with and put himself into the memories that you had created with us. It was genius."

I glanced at Jackson who was staring straight at me. It was weird knowing how he felt about me now, and it was even worse knowing how he felt while the girl he was supposed to love was in the room, constantly glaring at me. Then I thought of something else.

"Layla."

She perked up now that her name was mentioned.

"Why was Layla in the cell?"

She scowled, "Well, my brother didn't have time to analyze every sibling pair he came into contact with, but he wanted to know how strong the bond was mentally between a brother and sister. He experimented on me so he could know more about your devotion to your brother. However he realized that when I wasn't too pleased with him for using me for his human trials, he fucked around in my brain and made it so I found him flawless even after everything he did for me."

All of the pieces lined up. Every bit of evidence that I was given, every story I was told made complete sense. I understood everything now. Except one bit.

"Why was I so infatuated with him?"

Jason leaned closer, smirking, "He put artificial feelings in you to be attracted to him. When you started to smell his bullshit, it 'wore off' and you realized how big of a douche he was."

"How?"

Jackson interrupted before Jason could say, "Your mind is too strong. It's the same way you fought him messing with your brain when he turned you against us."

Silas groaned, "Okay, okay. She gets it. Now, tell her..."

I glanced at Silas, who was grinning wickedly. Everyone glanced around the room like they all knew something that I didnt. I turned to Jackson with a puzzled look on my face.

"Tell me what?"

The one person whom I thought would be honest, just cleared his throat and looked away. "I don't know if we should."

Emily scoffed, "You're fucking joking, right? She's the key to getting us the hell out, and you're not going to tell her why?"

Maybe I had been wrong about Emily. Maybe I didn't want her to shut up as bad as I had originally.

I looked to Jason, "Tell me."

Jason looked away too, "You see, love... Um, you're... special."

"How?" I growled between clenched teeth.

"Um, because."

Silas groaned, exasperated, "You're all good for nothing. Sam, your brain is magnificent." The whole room stiffened as a unit. "It's almost like you have some sort of special abilities that makes you, like Jason said, special."

"What?"

Silas crossed the room and crouched next to me. "Your brain, I've seen scans of it; pictures that would blow you away. Your brain is so colorful."

I frowned and my eyebrows met. Colorful? Meaning my supposed to be fleshy brain was just really a rainbow flag? How... interesting. "Thanks?"

I scoffed, "Sam, your brain is made up of two hemispheres. Right brain and left brain. The left side of your brain is all logic: numbers, reasoning, problem solving skills, and things like that. But your right side is all creativity: imagination, intuition, and insight. Normally a person will be more dominant in one side of the brain than the other. And if they aren't, it's 50/50. You..." he sighed, "You're 100/100. You use every part if your brain equally."

I stared, dazed by his words. He continued, like he was talking about the greatest scientific discovery ever. "Normally when you sleep, your brain enters a non-REM cycle and then a REM cycle. When the REM cycle starts, you store long-term information, such as names and faces, you store what you did that day and how you felt about it, and most importantly, it stores facts and information, like how I'm spitting out all of this useless shit. The brain is so lit up with activity during this cycle, the brainwaves are very rapid and long. Yours are off the charts. I've never seen a brain scan with so much color in my life."

"What does that mean?"

"We're guessing that you're able to access a higher percentage of your brain. For example, the cerebral capacity of storage, whether it be anything you retain in REM or the things that you do throughout the day are stored in your cerebral capacity. Most humans only use about," he glanced at Jason, then flicked to Jackson, then back to me, "What? Twenty percent?"

Jason nodded. "Einstein used about twenty."

Silas beamed, "And our beautiful Samantha here, has used fifty at least."

Fifty?! I wasn't even sure what that meant, but it was way more than one of the smartest men alive.

"You're special, Sam."

Emily added, "Told you that you're the key..."