Caroline (The One Who Got Away)

Chapter One

Hawkins circa 1979

"Tell me. What do you see?" Said the man. 009 had her eyes closed, trying to see what the man wanted her to see. Currently, he was testing her ability to look into the future. Her head was already aching and it hadn't even been a full 20 seconds. If you were to ask who the strongest kid of the bunch were, she couldn't even be an option.

That was her insecurity. The thought of all the older kids laughing and poking fun at her for not being able to lift up a ball using her mind. She made a face, and the man lifted his arm up and touched her shoulder.

"Open your eyes." He said. She did, her eyebrows furrowed. Not out of anger, but shame. She felt ashamed with herself. "It's alright. Not everyone gets it on their first try." He states reassuringly, nodding at her.

Not Everyone.

"Instead of focusing on seeing it, focus on your other senses. Hearing, feeling, smelling. Try again." She did. Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath in, her heart racing. She saw a flash of an image appear, it looked like it was actually happening in front of her. She couldn't tell what was happening, so she tried to search for more. She could hear the sound of a pen scratching on paper, she wanted to open her eyes and see if the man was messing with her by making her believe that she was doing it. But then she saw another image, one of his hand on the paper.

Then, something else happened. A flash of an image showed blood everywhere, on the walls, the floor. Bodies of the adults and children scattered everywhere. Another one, in the rainbow room. It showed one of the girls hanging up on the wall struggling to fight for her life. Then it went away. That was when she heard a scream.

She opened her eyes suddenly, blood was slowly streaming out of her nose. The man handed her a towel, which she used to wipe the blood off her face.

"Now, what happened?" He asked calmly. She looked at him like he was crazy. She realized that he had no idea what she saw. When she opened her mouth to tell him, she was scared that he would do something with her. A few years before, a kid who had a very horrible vision was tased in front of all of them. As if he were at fault for the vision he had.

"You were drawing. With a pen." She looked around at the table in front of her. "On that paper." She pointed. He smiled at her.

"Very good." He picked up a pen and began to scribble on the paper in the exact same way that he did in her vision. When he looked up from the paper, the smile was still on his face. She decided it was best to smile back, scared that he'd think something was up. "Alright. Time to head back to the rainbow room." He said, slapping his legs and standing up, heading for the door. She followed.

Walking through the halls with him, she couldn't get the image out of her head. Looking at the walls, all she saw was blood. The floors too. She swore she saw a bloody hand reaching out from around the corner. No matter where she looked, she was haunted with the vision she saw.

Walking into the rainbow room, watching the man go over to 010, she sat down in a corner. For a few minutes, she thought about what she had seen, and if it were real or not. That perhaps it was just apart of her twisted imagination. Or, it could be real. That one of the kids might betray the rest. Her head jerked over to 003. He was definitely the strongest out of them. If anyone could do that, it'd be him.

I have to leave. I need to get out of this place.

———

It has been days since 009 left the lab.

She sat on the sidewalk outside of a gas station. She was sitting in her dirty clothes which she stole from a store a couple days before. People gave her strange looks, it could have been because of her shaved head, or perhaps the hospital gown, but she felt uncomfortable with all the stares.