The Animal I Have Become ||Private Unless Signed-up! Sign-up Link Inside||

OOC: Aha! Someone posted - therefore I can post for Switch again! *is using every possible excuse to do so* XD
You know what I noticed, Questy?
Shift - to put (something) aside and replace it by another or others; change or exchange: to shift friends; to shift ideas.
Switch - to shift or exchange: The two girls switched their lunch boxes.
...I never noticed this before. It's so ironically adorable XD Their names are so similar. O.o

I'd been doing pretty good - not screwing it up too bad or anything. I actually barely messed up anymore. It made my life feel pointless and stifled, being a list of commands in the form of a girl. I had wings, yet I couldn't fly, I couldn't be free. I so desperately wanted that freedom, so bad that it made my wings hurt as I stared out that little barred window longingly.
I knew the rules though. As a matter of fact, I HAD the rules, the main ones (although there were plenty more) hung up on the wall. Ten of them - Dr. Lee's own version of the Ten Commandments - on a sheet of paper.
It was looking out the window that messed everything up, this sudden burst of rebellion that did me in. As I was staring out that barred window, I noticed something squirming around on the ground of the yard. It was small, and looked helpless. And I realized it was a baby bird. I don't know how it got there, but I knew that the heat would kill it unless I did something.
So I did. I hopped to my feet, ran to the door - running without my footsteps being soft - then opened the door and went outside. I felt like I was going against God, and the non-existent finger in my back was jabbing so hard, but I needed to save the baby bird. When I scooped it up, it was half-dead, it's little bulging eyes flickering all over the place. It was kind of ugly, but it was alive.
And then Dr. Lee came out. "What are you doing?!"
"The-the baby bird, it was d-dying," I sputtered, holding up my cupped hands as if to prove my point. The bird made a little squeaky sound, and Dr. Lee stared down at it in utter disgust.
"Get inside."
"But-"
"Get. Inside. Now. And drop that thing."
I held my ground. "No. I want to save it."
His eyes flared, he grabbed the bird from my hand, and I lurched for it, "No!"
"You are to obey me. That is your existence. To serve. Not to want." He crumpled the bird like a used tissue, and tossed it on the ground. I watched in horror, and then he grabbed my arm, hard, and dragged me back inside.
Without a word, he started to, armful by armful, take my books out of the room.
"What are you doing?" I whispered.
"These books are getting in your head. They're giving you ideas. I'm taking them out."
One of the books on his pile slid off, and I picked it up and placed it on top again, then watched him go out with the last of my books.
And then it hit me what I'd done. First off, I'd completely disobeyed him, and then, I'd helped him take away my books. I might as well have held the door for him.
Out of the two though, I couldn't decide which was worse.
--
Beta Project
Subject: 13
This past week, the subject has seemed to make reverse progress. The books the subject is reading has seemed to give them 'happiness' and 'ideas'. The subject rebelled and disobeyed orders in order to save a worthless creature. The subject has remained stubborn, and as punishment, the books have been removed. Later, a shock was administered. The morning after the incident, the subject seemingly could not stop dripping milk off the spoon, even when the problem was pointed out to them, and they panicked. Another shock was administered, and breakfast was taken away. It has been decided that the surgery is necessary to achieve perfection. The operation will take place tomorrow. Despite problems, the subject has exceeded previous test subjects, and we are hoping that the surgery will not fail like it has before. While in operation, not only will the subject undergo the changes to have a perfect personality, but we will operate on the subject's body, organs, bones, and aesthetics to achieve total perfection physically as well, as we tried with previous subjects.
Measurements will be taken while subject is under anesthetics tomorrow. Major changes will not be made, most likely, eyes will be slightly enlarged, nose tip angle will be brought down, and subject's muscles, bones, and organs will be worked on to gain the highest health possible.
- Dr. Richard Lee

OOC: *ahem* Ok, so Crystal brought Galen, Shift, and Michaela/Mika/Silver (XD) out to the alley, where Shift patched up Rayk, and Crystal felt awkward, so she went back inside to clean up the blood. When she was getting supplies, Quinn appeared.

And for Switch...I suggest just reading her stuff, it's kind of important. But if you don't feel like it, the basic idea is that Dr. Lee is her father and wants her to become a completely perfect person.

IOC: I'm finally introducing my newest character! I feel like hitting Dr Lee where the sun don't shine. Poor Switch. Poor bird.
RP:
Ink
I was in a room next to that girl and the Doctor, as I call him. I heard all of their conversation, but I feel nothing. Of course. I am a weapon-trained not to feel emotion except for hate. It is normal for me not to feel, because I am not supposed too. I just stood up and stared at the dog collar around my neck that tethered me to the wall. Stupid thing. It administers an electric shock to me when I don't obey. But I am not supposed to obey the enemy. I am built to kill the enemy, slowly rip the delicious meat off their fleshy bodies and swallow it whole, then drink the blood and tears from them. Tears are weak, because they are a symbol of emotion and emotion is weak. But blood makes everyone strong. Then I lay down, staring at the ceiling. There is nothing to do in this room.

OOC: Woops, didn't even think of that XD I just stole the name of this doctor who (heh, Doctor Who) did my jaw surgery. It was the first name I thought of. Except my Dr. Lee was actually very nice. Definitely not a mad scientist at a School. XD

I was about to say something else, when I felt movement off in the shadows. I could feel their shapes, and I was pretty sure there were two guys, based on their size and smell. Probably Rayk and Shift. Again, meddling with my plans. I might have to have another friendly chat with Scrayp about that problem.
I grabbed Crystal's arms and yanked her into the classroom, pulling her over to the window. Fiddling with the lock, I slid it open, and started to climb out.
"Follow me, Crysie," I breathed, and, even though I was worried that she wouldn't, she clambered out after me. I shut the window after us - I couldn't lock it from the outside though, and scooped Crystal into my arms.
She made a squeak of surprise mixed with protest, and then struggled, saying, "Wait- put me down-! What the he-"
And then I took off into the air, my wings beating faster then most people could, my cheetah DNA letting me move through the air at a higher speed.
Once I was a considerable distance from the school, I landed and set Crystal down. Now I was in the moonlight, and my face was visible, and Crystal stared at me from the ground, her white skin glowing in the starlight, her mouth hanging slightly open in surprise.
Gosh, she was pretty.

"Q-Quinn?" my voice came out in a funny squeak, so I cleared my throat and tried again. "Quinn?"
No. No way. Quinn was...dead. He couldn't be standing here in front of me with his lopsided grin and caramel eyes and silver hair- when was it ever silver? - and...where did he get those scars?
Readjusting his ballcap, he crouched, and behind him I could see his tail - a tail? - swishing slightly through the grass.
Silently, I stood, turned away, and started walking.
"Crysie!" he scrambled up after me, grabbing my arm and whirling me to face him. "Where- where are you going?!"
I shook him off. "Away from you, because you're dead. Which means that I've officially lost it and your a figure of my imagination, you're a ghost, or you're a zombie." I paused, putting a finger to my lips in thought. "That's no good. Now I'm talking to my figments of imagination."
He grabbed my arms and shook me ever so slightly, making my hood fall down, like he was trying to shake some sense into me. It worked, and I fell - how pathetic - to my knees, suddenly unable to keep standing.
Quinn wrapped me up in his arms, so familiar, and rocked me back and forth a little. Slowly, I brought my arms around him in return for a brief moment, then pulled away, putting my hands on his face and staring at him.
"It really is you," I said quietly. "How? And- and...what happened to you? You're a mess!"
He pulled off his cap and gestured to me, "I could say the same about you." Oh, right. I self-consciously pulled my hood back up over my wounds.
"How are you...here?" I asked. My head felt full of cotton- I was so confused.
"It's a long story," Quinn said hesitantly.
I sat back, "I'm not going anywhere."
So he told me everything- from how his bones were crushed that day, but he was still alive, barely, and that the School saved him, replacing his crushed bones with manufactured ones that were stronger, and then experimented on him, giving him the fuzzy, slightly pointed ears, the tail, the silver hair, the scars on his face, the wings. He was like me now. A mutant.
Then he escaped from the School, and, using the information about the robbery - the nature of the theft made him suspect it was me - came here, and found me.
"I-I can't believe you survived," I said, touching his face again just to be sure he was real, my mind reeling.
"Crysie," he whispered, taking my hand and squeezing it tightly. "Did you miss me? Did you cry?"
I looked straight into his eyes, and it was like all those emotions came flooding back to me. Quickly, I swallowed hard, and just like that, put a lid on those feelings like I'd done for so long. "Quinn," I said seriously. "The day you died- the day I'd thought you'd died...I died too. I've only cried 4 times in my life, right?"
Quinn looked confused. "I thought it was 3."
I shook my head. "It HAD been 3. Until that day." Quinn's face changed to an expression of sadness, like he couldn't imagine the horrible emotional torture he'd put me through. He opened his mouth to say something when-
BEN zoomed into the area.
"There you are, Crys! I-" he took a look at Quinn and doubled backwards in shock, flying backwards through one tree and crashing into the next. Then he flew back through, until he was right next to me.
I hopped to my feet and Quinn did the same.
"B-BEN, this is-"
"Quinn?!" BEN looked flabbergasted. Right. Of course he knew all about Quinn, his coming straight from my head and all. "Woah, to be able to meet the famous Quinn- but...isn't he dead?" BEN flew backwards again, looking scared. "A zombie?!"
Quickly, I explained the situation.
"Look," Quinn glanced around. "You have some other friends, right?"
"Well, I wouldn't call them my friends..." I muttered, crossing my arms.
"Can you...not tell them about me? We can meet in secret or something. I just- it hasn't been too long since I left the School and...meeting more people already is just a little...."
I raised my hand to cut him off. I totally understood. It's hard to trust people right after going through all that. I didn't blame him at all.
"Yeah, they don't need to know. Besides, it's not like I tell Rayk everything," I said in minor annoyance. Actually, there's a lot more I don't tell him in comparison to what I do. Like an ant and a planet. What he doesn't get to know is the ant in that comparison, in case you didn't get that.
Quinn held up his pinkie with a crooked grin, and I stared at it, feeling like I was walking down memory lane.
"We'll be together forever, right?"
"Yeah, of course we will, Crysie."
"Pinkie promise?"
"Yeah. Pinkie promise."
I swallowed hard again, and took his pinkie in mine. "I promise," I murmured, then offered him a smirk- the closest thing I'll ever come to a smile.
Quinn cast a glance at BEN, and BEN looked kind of nervous and uncomfortable.
"BEN?" I prompted, with a look that said, 'If you've come out of my head, then you know that Quinn is a good guy. What's the hold up?'
"R-right," he said, looking at the ground. "I won't tell."

"Where are we going?" I asked for the tenth time. Each time I asked it, the panic in my voice rose a notch. And for the tenth time, I received no answer. Finally, we stopped by a room, and the whitecoat lead me inside, and made me undress. It was uncomfortable and cold. She stuck little round stickers all over my body, wires leading off of them all and connecting to a machine. Then she took my pulse, drew my blood, and a flurry of other doctor-y test type things.
"What's going on?" I asked as she undid my braid. My tail fluffed slightly to stay warm, and I self-consciously drew my arms over my body.
Taking my arm, she took me into another room, where I barely had time to look around before being forced to lie down, where I was strapped to the table.
But I had seen enough - the sharp instruments and whitecoats milling around the room with masks over their faces.
I started to struggle.
The surgery, I knew it, it had to be the surgery-!
Someone poked my arm - an IV - and a mask was placed over my face. I held my breath, but before long, I had no choice to breath in the sickeningly sweet smell. My limbs were cold and almost numb, and I felt like I was starting to float above the table on the almond scented air, but at the same time, was incredibly heaving. The world started blurring, and I vaguely felt someone doing something to fingers as I started to slip away. I hadn't even noticed when, but I'd stopped struggling, dead weight now, as my eyelids started to flutter shut. My thoughts were hazy.
No....no...I couldn't......let them......no...
The last thing I saw before everything went dark was Dr. Lee, leaning over me with something metal in his gloved hands.

OOC: I wrote more than I thought I had... *nervous laugh*

OOC: *flushes and looks away* Uh, y-yeah! The, uh, bandages.. Funny, ha. Ha ha. Ironic. And stuff. *pretends not to have heard the first part because this idiot doesn't know how to deal with walls-of-praise*

Crystal looked back in the direction of the school. "Look Quinn, I really want to hang around and catch up and everything- but if I don't get back...they're going to worry. As much as I don't want to talk to them, I can't just...leave them hanging." She looked at me, those magenta eyes piercing into my skin.
"I'll come around, don't worry. Carefully though," I say with a smile. "So we're not caught, right? I'll hang around in the woods by the school, so when you're alone, I'll go to you."
She nods and then purses her lips. "Be careful though...I don't know what all the others can do- they might like...sense you, or smell you, or...I dunno...but you get the idea."
I nod. I already know that Shift has a good sense of smell. I already know what all of them can do, since Scrayp knows it all and everything. I haven't told Crystal my own powers though, and I don't plan to. I don't really want to freak her out- although she does know the basics: enhanced speed by cheetah DNA, and enhanced strength from the replicated bones.
And the bit about my reptilian DNA and how my body temperature matches the surroundings, like a lizard.
But I won't tell her about the hormone thing- that could be my asset after all.
I reach forward and trace the cut on her collarbone, then touch the bruise on her cheek and the slice on her forehead, each after the other. "Get that taken care of, ok?"
"Yeah. See you around, Quinn," Crystal says and takes me off guard by hugging me - quickly, but still. Then she's gone, BEN on her tail.
But there's one thing that bugs me. Since I've started watching her, she hasn't smiled once. So, ok, I thought, maybe she's not a super smiley kind of person, I mean, she never was to begin with, but she at least used to smile and laugh some. I thought maybe her seeing me again would at the very least bring a smile to her face.
But the whole time we talked....
She didn't smile once.
She was... Different. Harder. Colder. Distant.
What changed?

I land in the shadows of the school building and head back inside. I find where I've dropped the cleaning supplies, but leave them there. I still plan on cleaning up after all. After I, at the very least, clean up my cuts, and then get a new pair of clothes from somewhere- my clothes are soaked with blood, although most of it is Rayk's.
Of course, before all that, I should probably explain my absence if anyone noticed. If I'm lucky, no one knew I was ever gone.
But I'm one of the unluckiest people on this planet, so we all know that's not the case.
I've already steeled myself, prepared for whatever questions might be asked, planned answers in advance.
Most of these answers involve silence or sarcastic responses. My two greatest friends.

Lights, pulsing softly under my eyelids. Voices, quiet, fuzzy. I can't make them out. Cold on my skin.
My eyelids are heavy. My body is heavy. I can't move or open my eyes. I feel so tired.
I don't know. I'd elaborate on that, but I can't. It's as simple as 'I don't know'. Because I don't know- anything, as a matter of fact. I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am. I can't remember anything. Not a single thing.
I do know that I should feel panic or fear at the fact that I have no memory, as that is the proper response, but I do not feel a thing.
A sudden image flashes into my mind- the face of a boy. No name or memories attached to that face, just the boy's face itself, brown hair and eyes, and part of me knows that he is near my age and that I should remember him, I should know who he is, that he's important, but I don't know why. I don't know this boy at all. I have never seen him before in my life.
But who am I to say? I can't remember my life, if I've even had one.
All I know is that maybe that face is the only memory I have left, if it even counts as a memory, since it is a simple image alone, so I hold onto that image, I memorize it's details on the blackness of my eyelids, I keep it there.
It's all I have.

Ooc: Ari going undercover 8)
RP:
Ariana
I walked into the surgery room. I have no idea how these people can keep these coats on, they're so freaking long. I got out the supplies I needed, putting the mask over my face. God, I hope these people don't recognize me. Stupid drama. I sigh and my heart sinks when I see the girl I'm supposed to help operate on. She looks so fragile like this, so helpless. It just makes me want to save her now, but that can wait until much later. If she trusts me. "Oh yeah, you see, I know I cut you open and all, but it was fake. I didn't mean it." Like she'd believe that. I wouldn't trust myself, either.

OOC: Wait, are you 'operating' on Switch? Cuz if you are, that's over and done with...she's just in recovery or whatever and they're waiting for her to wake up.
Sorry if that's where you were going with that.... >.>

Or is it somebody else?

Ooc: I'll change it to someone else XD Fail

OOC: Ah, sorry! XD

I turned black - camouflage - as I came back through the school and out into the alleyway, and BEN disappeared, oddly quiet since we ran into Quinn. Ok, so Shift would be able to smell me, and Rayk would be able to...shadow feel me or whatever, but I didn't really care. I just wasn't in the mood for being all stark white and obviously noticed. Did you think I never got sick of being so different? I did. It's just...now I had a way to change. It was nice. Maybe tomorrow I could experiment with skin tones, hair and eye colors - maybe black hair and blue eyes? Who knew. I could do just about anything now. Of course, doing it too long was tiring, so it wasn't like I could change myself to look like a normal girl and stay that way for the rest of my life.
That would be boring anyway.
I took a detour and slipped into the bathroom to clean the blood and dirt out of my cuts. I'd have to do something about my clothes later.
Then I came back into the alley, reverting back to normal colors - well, what was considered the normal colors for me, AKA, white and magenta, hoorah - then, before Rayk or Shift could say anything about where I'd gone, I slid down into a sitting position against the wall, a good few feet away from Rayk.
It's not like I wanted to sit right next to him. Ugh.
"If you guys have something to say," I drew my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms over them, and rested my head on my arms. "Now's the perfect time to keep it to yourself."
In other words, I was making it pretty obvious that I didn't want to talk about it - about anything.
Knowing Rayk and his moronic stubbornness, he would demand answers anyway.

I opened my eyes, seeing lots of white. White walls, floors, people wearing white. A few machines bleeped and blinked lights.
Something in my head identified the area as being the School. The people were scientists, otherwise known as whitecoats, and that one, the one walking towards me, was named Dr. Richard Lee.
I couldn't remember anything, yet I knew this, like something was telling it to me, projecting the information straight into my head.
I worked on thinking more about this place- and information flooded in.
The Beta Project. Where they went into subject's minds and rewired them, putting electronic pieces into their minds, like having a sensor and supercomputer installed in your brain. They could program commands, information, codes, and these types of things into this technology. Memories were wiped out, save for the stuff necessary to survival and daily life. The subjects lost their ability to have choices or opinions. They were created to serve. They had no emotion.
"Welcome back, Beta-13," Dr. Lee said. He helped me up from the table and gave me a mirror. I stared at it blankly. The girl I saw had big blue eyes and brown hair tied in a braid. Her clothes were simple - a pale green shirt and a grey sweatshirt, jeans, sneakers. This girl was me.
"Beta-13?" I repeated.
Dr. Lee nodded. "You are simply a beta, a test. We aren't sure if these operations function correctly or not- that's why you're a beta. The 13th, specifically."
"What happened to the others?"
Dr. Lee shook his head, "The others were dysfunctional. They were defectives - either retaining memory, or still having opinions or refusing to obey orders." I thought back to the image of the boy - I'd remembered that, right? Then I must report to Dr. Lee that I too was defective. It was my duty. He continued, "So we had no choice but to terminate them."
I had no fear. No fear of death. Yet, in my head, almost as plainly as if it was my coding, I decided that I was not going to show that I was defective. I would work past that- ignore my problems, and be the perfect Beta.
"You have a sensor in your head with some pre-programmed information. That's how you already understood that this was the School. That same sensor should also read facial expressions, tones of voice, words and actions, and tell you how to correctly respond. That'll be useful in order to not give you away these following weeks."
I'd noticed this. My sensor currently was telling me to nod, so I let it carry that suggestion into my muscles, nodding away at what Dr. Lee was telling me.
"I'll explain your testing mission after the following analysis," he said. "Before we let you go into the field, we need to make sure that you are working well enough to even be able to do that much. While you were in operation, we went into your mind and put your previous greatest fears into this machine here." He pat a sleek looking, large device next to a chair. "If the operation worked, you shouldn't fear these at all. The goal is to face the fears you had before the surgery to see if you still hold that fear. This machine will put you in an unconscious, dream-like state, where you will be put into situations of your worst fears. When you're under, you won't know it's a test, so there won't be any pressure to do this correctly, or any feeling that none of it's real. It won't feel any different from real life."
I nodded some more, and took a seat.
"Are you ready?" he asked, connecting a few wires to my face and hands.
"Yes, Dr. Lee," I said, and he slid a needle into my skin.
A few moments later, everything went dark.

Ink
I opened my eyes and saw that I was strapped to an operation table. I glanced around, struggling against the straps that held me in place. I saw a girl with her hair in a braid passed out, but I was too far away to see what they were doing to her. Annoyed, I continued struggling. If they already had one guinea pig, why'd they strap me down? I had a bad feeling about this.

OOC: Well, I for one, have buckets of muse to share - at least in this thread. Anyone want some? Oh, and there's this song I've been listening to for like...hours on end, on loop. It's Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift and it's so...beautiful...I can't even. It makes me feel all comforted, like it's cold outside, and I'm in a warmer, safer place.
It's nice.

Imagine, for a moment, that a rather imposing guy covered in bandages, who looked like he'd been through hell and back, who also looked rather emo, was sitting about 2 feet away from you, and just...staring. Staring. Like you were meat, he was a dog, and he really really wanted to eat you. At least, that's what it would feel like.
If you guessed that this was what I was enduring right now, then congrats. You're only a semi-moron. Go get up and eat a cookie or a slice of cake to congratulate yourself on your incredible deducting skills.
It was highly unnerving. Just having Rayk stare at me. It actually made me want to lose my cool. Like I was a bug under a microscope. I mean, he wasn't even staring that intently at me - just sort of watching, observing.
It was pretty much one of the creepiest things I'd gone through in a while.
At first, I just ignored him. Easy enough. Right?
But it was like...ignoring a fly that kept landing on your arm no matter how much you shook it off or swatted at it.
Finally, I broke, turning and saying, "Take a picture pretty boy, it'll last longer."

I was on a street, I wasn't sure where, but that didn't matter. Suddenly, I felt myself sinking, and when I looked down, there was quicksand beneath my feet. I didn't do anything, just looked back up at the people around me - surely, someone would lend a hand to help.
Everyone who came near just kept walking. They noticed, they saw, but they ignored. They refused to help me.
"Hello?" I called out at the people. "Please help me. I'm sinking."
Nothing.
No response.
It was like I was entirely alone.
I closed my eyes and let myself sink. I didn't mind it.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a tiny box. It was small and cramped, and honestly could have given anyone claustrophobia. When I shifted positions, it got smaller around me. Again, I didn't really mind. It was just a small space. Why would I care?
The box grew until I could stand up again, and then, it started to fill with water. I looked down sharply as the cold liquid quickly rose, to my knees, to my waist, to my chest. As it started to cover my face, I felt a horrible sensation that my sensor identified as panic. But I couldn't feel. I wasn't supposed to feel. How was I feeling panic and fear. I pressed my hands against the box walls, unable to breathe, feeling desperation. The emotions made my head ache, and suddenly, nothing. All the feelings were gone, which was good. I was working properly again. I closed my eyes and let myself succumb to the water - welcome it even.
When I opened my eyes again, for the final time, I saw a boy, tied to a pole, several yards in front of me.
"Please," he said. "You're better than this. Don't do it."
It was him. The boy from the image in my head - the one I remembered. Why was he here? Who was he? I asked the questions, but I didn't really care about finding out the answers. I had no cares.
Don't do it... I looked down at my hands, and saw that I held a gun. Oh. I was supposed to shoot this boy - kill him. Swiftly, I released the safety and aimed, perfectly, at his heart.
I started to pull the trigger, but-
No, I couldn't do this, not to him, he's my friend-
-I hesitated.
My head hurt, deep, aching pain-
-I fired.
My eyes opened - the test was over. I hadn't even realized it was a test. It was like he'd said- it had felt so real. The boy was in the test. Maybe my old self knew him. She was afraid of killing him - of killing or hurting her friends.
How weak of her. I was better than that.
Another scientist man sat in front of me, scribbling on a paper. He looked up.
"You did good, Beta-13," he grinned, unhooking me from the machine. Then his expression became serious, and he glanced around to be sure no one was earshot before leaning in.
Lean in, my sensor told me that this was the proper response to his body posture.
I leaned in as well.
"Listen, Beta, you did awesome on all the tests- except the last one. You- you hesitated. You shouldn't have hesitated, you should've fired instantly. But... You're already doing better then all the other betas, alright? We've worked so hard on this project, that I can't imagine not letting you pass just for something small like that. So, look, I'm going to pass you, ok? Just...you know not to make that mistake again, right?"
"Yes sir, of course," was my instant reply.
He smiled again and wrote something else on the paper, then got up and left.
Soon, Dr. Lee came over. "Alright Beta, time to get in the field, time to try you out and make sure you work in all the right ways. I'm enrolling you in school. Your fake name will be 'Sam Lee', ok? Your goal is to befriend a certain target, and once you have both gotten close, you will terminate him. He's someone you used to know - here."
He gave me a folder, a file, on a boy. It said that I used to be in a cage next to him and that we were 'friends'.
It seemed to me that they wanted to be sure I would not gain attachments to a person, that I could kill someone like ordered, even someone I used to know, even someone I spent a lot of time with.
I flipped a page and saw a picture.
The boy was the one from my 'memory', the one that had appeared in the test.
The boy's name was 'Shift'.