"Eight, we're ready for you." The man who is not my father says, and whose real name is Brenner. I know his name because the man he'd send to hurt me the most, called him that once by accident in front of me and I made sure to remember it.
I also made sure to remember the days they'd come to get me, so I could be prepared. They took me when I was a child, but I'm not a child anymore and I'm not theirs.
As Brenner and the other man take me out of my room and into a hallway, I look back at my door, which has a small label on it that says 8. Then I look around at all the other doors in the hallway that have labels with numbers as well, and I start to feel worried that I won't be able to do this, but I know that I have to try.
I hide my fear so that Brenner and the other man won't notice, and they don't because I know how to make someone see what I want them to see.
We walk past a door that has the number 11 on it, and I think about a girl with bright blonde hair who was given that number, and who I haven't seen since the day a woman showed up and tried to take her from this place. The woman called the girl by her name, but I can't remember it.
We walk a little further down another hallway until we get to a small room with a table and a chair inside. I sit down on the chair, as I know I must do when a test is about to start, and the other man comes over and puts a cap made of wires on my head. There is also something else in the room, a television has been set up in the corner and Brenner turns it on. A man in a suit appears on the screen, speaking in a different language I do not understand.
Brenner then asks me in his controlled way of speaking, when he is trying to make someone do what he wants, "We'll try this again Eight, and I want you to really focus this time." But I hear the threat in his voice.
"Show us. Make us see them." He says taking a step back. I stare at the screen and do as he says. I make them see the man on the television appear inside the room. The man is here, but he isn't whole, he is distorted like how he appears on the television, and his voice and words sound far away and jumbled.
"Eight, you need to focus!" demands Brenner, losing grip of his control. Blood starts to drip from my nose, and then the picture on the television screen cuts out.
I look at Brenner, but he can't stand to look back at me, thinking that he is witnessing his failure. He shuts off the television and the projection of the man I was creating in their minds disappears.
"I'm disappointed in you Eight. I hate to do this again but," Brenner stops as it is difficult for him to admit, "You're not ready."
The other man walks in and takes me by the arm. We leave Brenner and the other man pulls me along to another area, which I know is where they take us when we are going to be punished.
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Kali (K8LI) : A STRANGER THINGS Story
Mystery / ThrillerKali Prasad was abducted when she was a child, but now she is grown and so have her gifts. Journey back to the time when Kali was referred to as Subject Eight, in this one shot story about the horrors of Hawkins National Laboratory.
