“Psst! PSSST! Wake up, sleepyhead!”

  I awoke to the sound of Zero’s voice and to the feeling of being shaken as I opened my eyes and saw her looking around frantically while shaking me.

  “What is it?” I said as I brushed her hand off to sit myself upright.

  I looked around the room,, and the lights were completely off, which then directed me to look at the time. “Why are you waking me up at 3:14 in the morning? Also, the doctors told me you were in a comatose state. If you truly think of me as a friend, then–”

  “Shhhh! I’ll explain on the way! Right now, you just need to trust and follow me!”

  You’re telling me to be quiet when you’re basically screaming.

  She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my bed, before tightly grasping my hand and leading me out of the room.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Shhhh! I’ll explain when we get there!”

  This girl….

  We left the office and went past the training hall and the lavish lobby, to get back to the gray hallways I was so familiar with. However, during nighttime, they were vastly different. The gray mechanical hallways had green and red lines flowing throughout them. They were hardly noticeable before, but in the dark those lines shone an eerie shade of their respective colors. If anything, it at least provided color in these monotone hallways.

  Zero had her back to the wall and was making large tiptoeing movements.

  “What are you–”

  “Shhhhh!”

  “You do realize you’re saying ‘Shhhhh’ louder than I’m speaking, right?”

  “Huh? I am?” She said as she covered her mouth.

  Zero then looked toward me with annoyance before putting her finger over her lips. She did a forward roll before switching over to the other wall, and stuck to it like glue. We have been in this hallway for 3 minutes now.

  “Alright, enou–”

  “SHHHHH!”

  “Shut up! Gods, you’re annoying! Where the hell are we even going?!” I snapped at her. I lightly covered my mouth upon realizing how loud and unlike me this was, and even Zero seemed surprised.

  “Uh, sorry. I guess I was being a little obnoxious.” She said meekly, looking away from me slightly.

  “No, I should be used to this by now. I apologize for snapping.” I responded, putting my hand up in surrender.

  “That doesn’t really make me feel any better.” She pouted, lightly kicking some dust.

  “Then maybe you should try acting more mature. Now, where are you taking me exactly?”

  “We’re going to make a quick pitstop to my room, then we’re heading to a place I like to call “The Forbidden Area”.” She said with a serious expression, shrugging off any other emotions she may have had a couple seconds ago.

  “What are we getting from your room?” I asked, ushering her along the hallway.

  “Just some stuff that could help. C’mon, it’s just down this hall!”

  “I’m surprised your room isn’t near the lavish entryway to the single-digits area. Aren’t all of their rooms there?”

  “Yeah, but way back, I requested to be put out into these halls instead. I didn’t want any more special treatment than what I’ve already been getting. Even still, my room got a big upgrade compared to others.” She sighed, shaking her head.

  “Why even do that in the first place?”

  “.....” She remained silent, keeping the same serious expression, before her eyes suddenly lit up. “Ah! We’re here!” She said, pointing to a brightly colored door at the end of a small hallway. The muted colors of the lifeless hallways greatly contrasted with her bright pink and white door. It had jewels all around the linings of the door, and a large pearl in the center. Two poorly-drawn wings were surrounding the pearls, and Zero looked at me with sparkles, waiting for me to comment on them.

  I almost talked about how tacky it looked, but considering what she has gone through recently, I realized it wouldn’t hurt to be nice.

  “It looks great,” I said, slightly averting my gaze from the wings.

  “You were definitely about to say how tacky it looks.” Zero said, staring closely at my face while I looked away.

  “....I wasn’t.”

  “You were.”

  “Can we go in now?” I sighed nervously.

  Her usual smile returned as she placed her hand on a scanner next to the door, causing it to slide open. “Mi casa es tu casa, my robotic friend!” She exclaimed, raising and lowering her eyebrows.

  “When did you start—GAGH!”

  I walked into the room and was immediately flashbanged by the amount of bright colors in the room. This was not an exaggeration. I was momentarily blinded by the brightness of the room compared to how dark it had been lately, so much so that I needed to cover my eyes and look down for a moment.

  “You’re such a wuss. Have you never been in a girl’s room before? It’s okay to feel embarrassed. Haha!” She chuckled, patting my shoulder.

  “You daft fool! What chose the colors in your room, a color-blind giraffe?! Oh my god!”

  “You jerk! These are the colors of hope! The light shining in the darkness, something you’ve never experienced, obviously!”

  I rubbed my eyes and opened them slowly, being able to actually see the room this time. The walls were a mixture of yellow and pink, with many poorly-made drawings and pictures of her with her family. On the far right of the room was a bookshelf with many picture books like Rhythm Heaven, coordinated by the series and volume number. There was a white desk next to the bookshelf with various unfinished drawings, and a light pink computer.

  “I didn’t know you liked drawing so much. Also, I don’t know much about computers, but surely you can communicate with it?” I asked, picking up a drawing of her holding a sword up to the clouds.

  “I don’t….really. When you’re stuck in a place like this, you try to draw a world where you can be free. It’s….comforting. And that computer is useless, it doesn’t connect to anything outside this place.” She said, rubbing her elbow.

  I glanced at her bed, and it was even brighter than the rest of the room. There were so many pillows and stuffed animals on the bed that I couldn’t even count them all. It was white and pink, with stitched flowers lining the blankets. However, there was something curious about this bed.

  “Why does it look like a piece of this blanket was torn off?” I asked her, kneeling down to look at the ripped blanket.

  She remained silent for a moment before I heard her slowly walk over behind me. “My dad tore off a piece of that blanket. What was stitched there reminded him too much of Mom.”

  I wanted to question her more, but even I could see this subject was not a light one. I turned my attention back to the bed and noticed something underneath it. It looked like paper, so I assumed it was another drawing and reached under.

  “Hey! What are you doing?! Stop!” She yelled, reaching her hand out. I dodged her hand and pulled the item out from under the bed. It was a picture book titled My Love for Your Pain. It was clear from the cover art what type of book this was.

  “Hey, remember when–” I started, but the book was immediately snatched out of my hand. Her face was beet-red, and she looked at me with utter embarrassment and hatred.

  “You–”

  “Stop talking.”

  “But remember—”

  “Shut. Up.”

  “....”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You saw nothing.” She said, glaring with murderous intent.

  “I saw nothing.”

  “Great! Moving on….” She said, stuffing the book in a drawer. “I’ve never been in the Forbidden Area before, so we need some stuff to be prepared. Like this!” She said, pulling out a flashlight. “And….this too!” She said, retrieving a small object from her drawer.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a flash drive! This doohickey can store data and transfer it over to my computer. What if we find super-secret data files or something, and have no way of bringing them back? That’s where this bad boy comes in!”

  “I feel like that kind of thing is traceable.”

  “So what? It’s not like they can kill me.” She shrugged, placing it in her pocket.

  I wasn’t talking about you….

  “Where’s your katana?” I asked, noticing it was nowhere in the room.

  “It’s undergoing maintenance. It couldn’t handle that much force when you used it last, but it’ll be back stronger than ever!” She said excitedly, pounding her chest. “Oh! Here!”

  She rummaged through another drawer and pulled out a sheathed army knife, tossing it to me. “You always gotta be prepared with a weapon, just in case! And last but not least… here!”

  She gave me a black cloth that she directed me to wrap around myself. We both did so, and we were wearing matching cloaks.

  “These were made by yours truly! Grovel in awe and thanks that we now have the cover of night!”

  “These look like you just tore a spare curtain in half.” I said, inspecting the ‘cloak’ I was wearing.

  “Hey. Compliment me.” She said with the same murderous gaze.

  “I-It looks good.”

  “Right?! Now c’mon, we got rules to break!” She said, gleefully grabbing my hand as we left the room.

  We reached the end of the hallway from her room, and looked around the corner to see if anyone was there, before motioning me to follow her as she started sprinting down the hall.

  I quickly followed as our loud footsteps echoed across the hallways. Ignoring the need to be stealthy, we ran for quite some time until I saw a hint of light in the corner of my eye.

  I grabbed Zero and pulled her against the wall, keeping my hand over her mouth. She struggled slightly until she noticed the light and the footsteps resonating through the halls.

  We stayed quiet until we saw a facilitator with a light on top of their head walk past. They were wearing goggles, and I saw a faint glow in them as he disappeared down the hall.

  I deemed it all right to continue moving, so I released Zero.

  “They have infrared glasses.”

  “What is that?”

  “They can see in the dark basically. We stuck to a wall and weren’t in their line of sight, which is why we were fine, but we have to be very careful from now on.”

  She nodded her head profusely before crouching and walking in front of me. I could tell she was taking this far more seriously than before.

  We ventured the winding halls, avoiding two more facilitators in the process, until we faced our second obstacle. We turned the corner before seeing a short hallway and seeing a facilitator standing in front of a large metal door. Upon closer inspection, this was the same place I was taken to after I caused a scene in the cafeteria.

  “We need to get past him. What we need to see is behind that door.” Zero said.

  “I see.”

  That was a tough ask; there wouldn’t be any way to get past him without making it known that someone got through that door. If he were specifically assigned to guard that door, it would be unlikely that he would move anytime soon.

  “Did you bring anything that could distract him? Like, from your room?”

  “No, all I have is the flashlight. Did you?”

  “Obviously not, I’ve been stuck in bed for two weeks, and you randomly brought me here.”

  “...I don’t like your attitude. Before, you were like a robot going *beep boop* to everything I said, but now you’re biting back.”

  “Just shut up and help me think of a way to get past that facilitator.”

  In all honesty, I could think of multiple ways to get past him; the problem was the evidence we would leave behind upon doing so.

  “What about your gift? Can it be useful in this situation?”

  She quickly shook her head before closing her eyes.

  “If I had to put a label on my gift, it would be more for fighting. It could help here, but it’d be way too loud.”

  What even is her gift?

  “What about yours? I don’t know what it is exactly, but maybe it could do something?” She said, imitating the sword slash I did in the fight against Zagra.

  “I don’t know how to use it. I’ve tried feeling the same way I did in the battle, but to no avail. Just think of me as someone who doesn’t have a gift.”

  She started biting her nail as we continued to think of a way to get past the facilitator. It seemed like we had no other option except to turn back, until I sensed a presence behind us.

  I quickly turned around and covered Zero’s mouth again while sticking to the wall. I heard tiny footsteps slowly get closer, but I couldn’t make out the person. The lights above us seemed mainly for decoration, as, despite them glowing dimly, my visibility barely improved. However, judging from the size of the footsteps and how they haven’t seen us yet, it was safe to say it wasn’t a facilitator.

  I poised to attack as the footsteps came closer and closer, until the person in question was finally visible, and I lowered my guard.

  “No.9? What are you doing here?” I whispered.

  She jumped back slightly before quickly running over and crouching down next to us.

  “Me? What about you guys? I saw you and Zero run by my room, so I started following you, but you guys were way too fast, so I…got….lost.” She said while looking away with an embarrassed expression.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged.

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “I mean, she dragged me out of bed with no explanation, and is saying we have to get through that door.”

  “It’s super secret! Meaning you can’t come No.9!” Zero said angrily, poking her forehead with her finger.

  “H-Huh? Why not? I want to be in on the secret!”

  “Because you don’t wanna get out of here!”

  “Yes, I do!” No.9 confirmed, shaking her head up and down.

  “You’re lying! You always look so happy here, and you don’t try anything to leave like us!” Zero retorted.

  No.9 started sniffling, signaling she was about to cry.

  “I’d like for you both to kindly stop speaking so–”

  “Waaaaaaaaah!”

  I couldn’t help but face-palm at this ridiculous situation.

  “Hey?! Who’s there?!” A voice yelled from the short hallway.

  Are you serious?

  It seemed like we were going to be forced to come to blows. I heard his footsteps quickly approach the corner as I sprinted out and kicked his calf as hard as I could. Despite being far smaller than him, I’ve had to stall fierce monsters bare-handed; I am by no means weak in strength compared to an adult.

  “Gah!”

  He stumbled slightly, but before he could do anything I uppercutted his left forearm, causing him to drop the firearm he was holding. I quickly grabbed it and aimed at his direction, putting my finger to my mouth to signal his silence.

  “No.9, get rid of his memories! Can’t you use your voice control to do that?” Zero yelled.

  “I don’t know if I…”

  “What’s the hold up? If we don’t, he’ll just tell everyone! Is it too complicated or something?”

  “No, that’s not it….I just–!”

  “Zero, we’ll find another way. Don’t put pressure on No.9.”

  “Wha-huh?! Why am I suddenly the bad guy here?!”

  I glanced over at No.9 and gave her a nod. I know she doesn’t want to do it because of the drawback we talked about earlier. It wouldn’t feel right to ask this of her when there’s such a big risk.

  “It seems the only option is to dispose of him,” I said as I tightened my finger around the trigger.

  His eyes widened in fear before No.9 suddenly yelled.

  “Take such a good nap that you forget we were here!”

  Even though I wasn’t the target of her voice, I could feel the vibrations of it reverberate through my skull.

  The man quickly fell asleep, and the three of us set him up on the wall next to the door.

  “No.9, are you sure that was ok? Do you feel alright?”

  “I’m fine, it wasn’t that complicated, so I should be fine. Thanks for worrying about me.”

  I nodded my head, and Zero looked at both of us with a dumbfounded expression.

  “Did I miss something?! What in the heck happened while I was getting treatment?!”

  I looted his sleeping body and found a keycard for the door in front of us.

  “Do you know what’s behind this door, Zero?”

  “Hey, don’t change the–!” She stammered before sighing and giving up. “Ugh, whatever. Unfortunately, I don’t. This is the only place my dad keeps secret from me here. Which is why I want to see it so bad! He knows I want to get out of here. I’ve tried basically everything but I always lose in the end. There must be something in here that can help us escape!”

  “So that’s why you brought me here.”

  When she argued with no.9 earlier, she told her that she didn’t have a desire to escape, which is why she wasn’t allowed to join us. It seemed that she wanted her and me to follow a mutually-aligned goal of escaping together.

  “No.9, you can’t come in!”

  “Why not? Without me you wouldn’t have even made it past the facilitator!”

  “Wait.”

  I stopped them before the argument would progress further.

  “It’s a fact that we couldn’t have gotten past him without your help, however who’s to say something won’t happen after we walk in. I need you to do something for me.”

  I walked over and placed my hand on her shoulder.

  “I need you to stand watch. If you’re choosing to help us, that means that if we get caught you’ll be considered an accomplice. If you don’t want to, you can leave and we’ll forget this ever happened. But if you really want to help, with your gift you’re the only one that can do this, and I promise to tell you everything we see in there.”

  She looked away as if she was thinking before turning back toward me.

  “....Pinky promise?”

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  “You don’t know what a pinky promise is? Here!”

  She held out her pinky and prompted me to do the same.

  I held out my pinky, and she grabbed it with hers and shook it up and down.

  “It’s a promise!”

  What is the significance of doing it with pinkies, is it cultural?

  “No! You can’t tell her, she’ll ruin the plan!”

  “Logically, she has no reason to do this after helping us. I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Another ally is always better, and turning her away now after she knows so much could make her an enemy.”

  Zero put her hand to her chin until nodding her head.

  “Fine.” She said as she looked over at No.9. “But if you tell anyone what happened here, I’ll show you why I’m not included with the rest of you in training.”

  Was it not because she was always in the sickbed?

  No.9 then stepped to the left as I swiped the keycard on the door. An intense mist was soon let loose as the door slowly began to open.

  “Let’s go 963.” She said as she held out her hand.

  I grabbed it as we slowly walked into the unknown.