Subject 116

6

Hallie was kind, it was an obvious thing to notice from a first impression. She cared about what I had to say about things, and she didn't even know me, while I wasn't allowed to have much input on my status with the rest of the staff, otherwise I would feel I had to stop due to a constant unsure tension in the room. I hadn't seen that kind of compassion in many people, and even if I had, I couldn't remember them. So I would call Hallie the first. We watched the sunset at the window together. It really was beautiful, I wasn't used to seeing so many colors through just one space. Witnessing the sky constantly get darker until it faded into a deep orange, which soon made it's way into a black. She seemed to be just as captivated as I was, even though she must have seen this thousands of times. She told me it was different every time she watched it go down, and was appreciating how wonderful our planet really is. She had a good mindset, I liked her already. She lost her mother to the explosion, and she was still able to find the flawless corners of the world with ease. I envied her, but not necessarily in a bad way. If she was able to have such a positive way of thinking, maybe I could develop methods to do so as well.

Eventually, she took me over to meet Monica and Peyton. They were... complicated. They were so frustrated with each other all of the time, yet there was a different aura with them. I don't think they hated each other, so I was baffled why they were so aggressive. Peyton would always be finding ways to pick on Monica, so she would punch back. Lydia came around too, Hallie already told me about her. I think she was afraid of me at first glance, but I wouldn't criticize her for that. I was quite the opposite from average looking, since I had a pretty good idea of what an average person looked like, now that I was surrounded with them. People could mistake me for a corpse if I was staying perfectly still. 

Lydia hid behind Hallie for the most part, but started to take tiny steps out when she saw that I wasn't a threat, at least not to her. Hallie knew I was a potential danger, but treated me no differently from the others. That was exactly what I wanted, and I think that's what the doctors were looking for as well, or that's what they had been telling me. They wanted to avoid the possibility of my ability coming out and hurting those around me. So far, it was working very well. I felt validated, not like a machine running through the same routine every day. I wanted to talk to the doctors about addressing me differently, but if this was going to be an ordinary thing from now on, I wouldn't really have to. If I was getting more time with Hallie and the others, I would be spending less time with the doctors, and in that small, cramped room. That would be good for me, if their goal was to make me seem more humane. I didn't expect the submersion procedures to come to a complete stop, but they should hopefully start to slow down, once I proved I was calm enough to be outside with the others. I didn't feel like a threat, not for one second, and I hadn't shown any irrational behavior at all, so I was still wondering about why they still had to put me through the same loop of so-called therapy every day. 

Peyton made a lot of comments about my appearance, and Monica hit him for that too, but I didn't have a problem with it. They all looked like normal people, I was nothing more than an experiment for the time being. Once I was released, I would find out my origins, the explosion happened in a fairly small town, so if I did have any family or people close to me, they would make their way to me if I couldn't do it first. 

I told him the same things I told Hallie, that I wasn't sure what happened to me to make me seem so slim and somewhat scary. The doctors seemed to get used to it, so I figured they would too. They all seemed very accepting, even Lydia, who at only five years old learned to accept people for who they are. But I didn't know who I was, that might have been why she was so unsure. I could have talked with them for hours, learning more about the outside world, and what had gone on in their lives that might give me some potential memories, or at least ideas back. But it only felt like a minute before it was completely dark outside, and Doctor Brahms was waiting for me in the opening to the hallway. The spirit I had before, dropped out of existence when I saw her. It's not that I didn't like her, she was an alright person, but her presence made me disappointed sometimes. She gave me a look trying to calmly lure me out of the room and back to where I belonged. She knew I didn't want to go with, but just kept staring like she was waiting for me to have a change of opinion.