Subject 116

27

I hated how much she looked like me. Body completely shriveled, unnatural hair bleached by chemicals, an obvious scar beginning to form on her chest from the machine that stopped her system from working. Exactly like mine. But why was I allowed to survive when someone as pure as Hallie had to die?

I didn't need to check, I felt it as soon as I saw her. Hallie was dead. She was supposed to leave with us. She had a father waiting for her at home. I began to piece together what might have happened underneath my blood-curdling screams of nothing but pain.

Someone must have seen her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have shut the light off to deter attention away from us, and she wouldn't have slid the card down the hallway rather than giving it to us herself. She sacrificed herself so that nobody would see us. It was so like her. It sounded exactly like something Hallie would do. Because I knew her.

I don't care how many more experiments I might go through in my life, I will never again forget the time I first saw her. I was alone and clueless, unsure of anything to do with reality. Not to mention I looked like a dead man.

But she approached me with that warm smile and tried to figure me out, since I couldn't do it myself. She took care of a child who she didn't even know, she comforted those who had lost, when she lost so much herself. She put everyone else before herself, always. When I was sick, she took care of me, aside from slapping me. But I guess I deserved that. If she was willing to give up her own life for mine, and so many others, then I understand her frustration now. I understand a lot now.

Monica went through loss after Peyton died. Now Hallie was gone, and there was nothing I could do to bring her back. How was Lydia going to react to this? She saw Hallie like an older sister, clearly a better guardian than whatever she had at home.

Better question, because I couldn't control myself, how was I going to get out of here?

This was the first time I had ever let myself go, I had never felt such an overwhelming feeling before, at least none that I could remember. I remembered Hallie, Monica, and every event that went down in this place. But I still knew little about myself. But I couldn't care about that right now. In fact, I wasn't thinking about that at all.

I felt something drip down my cheek as I was screaming. These were tears, I was crying. It was so foreign, and scary. My heart was beating ten times faster than before, and my throat began to feel raspy from how much I was straining it. That headache felt like nothing now, losing Hallie was worse than anything I could imagine.

It should have been me. I would go through a hundred more submersion sessions if it meant that Hallie would get to escape. I had nothing up until now. She deserved to get out of here more than anyone. But I just had to pull through instead.

I put my hands against the glass and balled my fists up, every nerve in my system going haywire. I wasn't in control of anything anymore. My body was betraying me, along with my voice. I just couldn't stop crying.

She was still burning in my memory. That sweet face I would never get to see again. There was nothing left but a vessel, it wasn't Hallie anymore.

I hadn't even thought that someone might hear me, but two people finally arrived at the door, shocked at both my outburst, and why I was here in the first place. They both had lab coats on. They were the enemy. They did this. They ruined my life forever and killed the person I cared for the most. They didn't deserve to be alive. It should be them inside that pod, not Hallie.

I felt something release. Like some of the tensed up nerves washed away. It was a relieving feeling. I don't know why it happened, but as soon as that relief came over me, both doctors dropped dead.