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Chapter 1: Jonathan

I gave the girls a look, and two of them stared back at me. I smiled as I thought about what I would do once they tried it if I succeeded.

I'm finally going to get out of this place.

But then a feeling of dread hit me. What do you mean, get out of this place!? You're hopeless. There's no chance of success with you. You're going to fail, like how you did with all the others.

I shuddered, and fidgeted with the hem of my shirt, starting to breathe irregularly. You won't achieve anything this time. What makes you think that you'll do differently this time? You aren't good at this. You don't deserve to-

I blinked out of it and rested my hands on the table. Conceal it. You can't show weakness around here. I pushed away my thoughts and forced a smile on my face. "Well?"

"Hey sir, are you sure this is safe?" the girl who had glasses and black hair in a ponytail, was busy with the experiment, toying with it in her hands, and looking it up and down. "It looks a lil'... How can I describe it... Musty? Fugly? Hm... Not sure."

The other two nervously laughed and smiled at the bespectacled girl, who smirked.

I started to sweat. What if Eden said something different than what I usually answered? I never leave the subjects with anyone else. I decided to ask them what she said. I knew it would be suspicious. But how much more suspicious could we be? "Well..." I laughed, keeping my smile on for as long as I could. "What did Eden say?"

"She said it was alright, but she seemed kinda suspicious. She said, 'Oh, Jonathan's nice once you get to know him if you have the time to.' Which indicates that you are suspicious, or as we say, sus," the same girl said.

"Uh..." I started, avoiding the subject, "All you need to do is drink this, and you'll be alright. Then, I'll let you go. Deal?"

"I don't think it'll be that easy," the taller girl at the other end said. "Why go through kidnapping us if you were just gonna make us try some crap and let us go?"

"Just try it, it can't be that bad, right?" my smile faltered. Please, take it. I'm going to succeed. I swear.

"But-" I interrupted the child in the middle.

"Shut up. Try it," I muttered forcefully. I couldn't take it anymore. Imagine if I failed to even feed it to the subjects! Boss would humiliate me. I was already bad enough.

He's going to beat you anyway. You're going to fail.

I gulped. I got these thoughts every time. It pained me.

The girl with glasses gulped at me and put the test tube to her lips. "This is so funny, how I'm just gonna die before high school," she laughed. "High school was my dream."

But just before she lifted the vessel and drank the contents, someone interrupted her...

"Wait."

I looked at the girl in the middle, with dark brown hair and a mole.

"Don't do it."

The bespectacled girl raised a quizzical eyebrow at her. "Uh, sure."

She put the experiment down, and I looked at the girl in the middle. "What? Why did you say that?" I asked, slowly getting irritated, and worried. Why wouldn't they try it? These subjects were more difficult than the others. And it was nerve-wracking. My time here was limited. You're going to fail? Ha! Imagine. Oh, you don't need to! You're already failing every child you meet, left and right!