𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 | 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐎𝐧𝐞 | 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙴𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 | 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕

^^^

Five led us to a huge glass building. A large sign next to it bore the company's name.

MeriTech.

'What the hell was MeriTech?'

When I asked Five about it, all he did was open the door and gestured for me to come inside. Reluctantly, I took a few steps into the building. I didn't like it, it was big, glass and very, very bright. Five, on the other hand, looked like he was at home. He moved with astonishing freedom.

Or perhaps he just knew what he was looking for.

We took the lift to one of the top floors of the building. I didn't say a word, afraid that Five would just decide to leave me here to my fate. After we got off the elevator, we walked for a while longer down a long, hospital-like corridor. But I was sure this whole MeriTech wasn't a hospital at all.

Finally, Five stopped in the main lobby of the second floor. This room was as bright as the rest of the building, but green accents were added. What caught my attention the most were mock-ups of the human body, probably plastic. But they were very accurate, and that made me a little anxious.

"Creepy" I muttered under my breath but Five quickly shushed me.

He was obviously not impressed with the building. Suddenly he started rummaging through his pocket and after few seconds took out a white, spherical object, clutched it in his hands. He looked at me for the first time in minutes and extended his open hand to me.

I froze. The object the boy held was an eye.

It took me a few seconds to realize it was an artificial eye. I sighed with relief.

But I still didn't know why we were there.

"Now I'll do the talking," he whispered in my ear as we approached the reception desk.

I nodded. I wasn't going to oppose him, especially on issues I had no clue about.

"Can I help you?"

We both stopped. Standing next to one of the couches was a rather pudgy man in a white coat. He looked like a doctor but probably wasn't one.

'God, how I hate not understanding anything...'

Five turned to him, looked at the artificial eye again, and nodded.

"I need to know who this belongs to."

The guy glanced briefly at the item the boy was holding in his hand, then his face changed to a slightly surprised expression.

"Where did you get that?"

"What do you care?"

I smiled and approached Five. I grabbed his arm and fluttered my eyelashes.

"I'm so sorry about my brother, he's not good with people that much." I faked a smile, baring my teeth. "We found it in the park, actually. Uh, must have just—" I giggled slightly here and clicked my tongue, "Popped out."

"Exactly," Five agreed, "I wanna return it to the rightful owner."

"Oh... What a caring young man," commented the receptionist behind the counter. Five, like a caring young man should, gave her one of his cute, fake smiles.

"Yeah, look up the name for me, will ya?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," the guy interjected, tilting his head slightly. "That means I can't tell you—"