𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍 》TMR, Minho

051

My life went on, yet it didn't feel like that. It was the same cycle every day. Wake up, eat, do classes, do some tests, and sleep. And all the socializing I did was with the doctors. I hadn't made any girl friends. I hadn't talked to anyone. I hadn't even dared to look at Lizzy.

I never talked to the boys again. They wouldn't let me see them. A few nights I had knocked on the door of the cleaning room. I was one hundred percent sure I heard Newt's laugh and Minho's talks, and once I knocked it fell silent. No one opened the door that night. It caused me to cry myself to sleep.

One time when I knocked they did open. Alby had inspected me for a few good seconds, then slammed the door closed right in my face. They didn't even want to talk.

All that left me thinking if they really were the good friends I thought I had or if Randall was right and they had bad intentions.

And then there was sleep. I hadn't got a good night's sleep in... months. I kept having dreams, mostly ones that left me crying. I overthought a lot, which let me stay awake, or my hopeless tries of trying to talk to the boys in the night.

It was about a year after Randall told me I had to go to the girls. And I turned eight. "Happy two year anniversary," I had whispered to myself that night. More tears fell. More tears than I ever remember dropping in just one year.

So badly I wanted to go back, but a part of me knew the boys would probably still ignore me... for what reason? What did Randall tell them?

But after all the most tiring was the torture. For no reason Janson had tied me to that chair a few times a week, letting me go through all that torture. He said they had to test methods, apparently on a person, and for some reason that had to be me. They didn't think about letting me rest. Just dragged me through the hallways to everything. Even Mary couldn't get me out of bed.

"Lenora." She begged. "I don't want to drag you again."

I didn't reply and buried myself under the sheets. If they wouldn't let me talk to my friends, I wouldn't talk to them. Even Mary.

"Things aren't going well with you, Len." She patted me on the back. "And it won't help us get closer to a cure."

"I. Don't. Care." I grumbled in my pillow.

"Up you go." Mary lifted me out of bed and started to carry me to the girls' cafeteria. "Maybe at some point, they'll get so desperate with you that they put you back with the boys."

"Maybe that was my plan," I responded blankly.

"I've noticed."

She put me down in the middle of the cafeteria, so it would be embarrassing for me to resist and draw attention. I gave Mary a glance, then walked off to a table with no food, or friends.

No one noticed me, luckily. They were all just too busy laughing together. I leaned my head on my elbow and stared at nothing but the table, thinking about how I would spend my day. Classes, probably.

Later, I was right. I sat down in the exact same position as I did with breakfast, not paying attention to the teacher. After she told us to work on our books, she sat down in front of me.

"Divide twenty-one by three, Lenora."

Unbothered I looked up and shrugged. No one would torture me for not answering a stupid class question.

"Imagine it like... like you're with yourself and two friends. There are twenty-one cookies and three of you. How many cookies do each of you get?"

"I don't have any friends here." I snapped. "But if we really have to imagine two... Minho and Newt."

"Alright. You have twenty-one cookies and you need to divide them among you, Newt, and Minho. How many cookies do you get?"

"One," I replied in full confidence.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "How many would Newt get?"

"Zero."

The teacher stared at me in confusion. "I think this needs a little more practice, Lenora."

"Minho would have twenty," I added.

"That's not an equal amount."

"No one said it had to be equal, and even if you did, Minho would still have twenty. He would grab them off the table and steal Newt's cookies. I would fight and at least get one." I explained. "Now can I go back to my old friends? And class? Mr. Clover was much nicer than you anyway."

Her mouth almost fell open. "Lenora, we do not approve of saying things like that here."

"And I do not approve of you taking me away from the only thing I have left and acting like nothing happened, keep taking my blood and almost killing me like you did to my shuck parents with your stupid torture methods!" I raised my voice slightly, just enough for others to hear.

The teacher stared at me blankly, her eyes stone. I stared back the same way, yet the anger rose in me, making my breath heavier.

"Go do your work, Lenora." She commanded before walking away.

I stared at the paper, the letters dancing in front of my eyes like stars.

Who cares? Only that thought was enough for me to rip the paper apart. The teacher got up again, almost running over to me. I kept going, even when she screamed at me louder and louder.

When the paper lay on the floor in a hundred pieces, I got off my seat and walked out of class, not knowing what to think of my show. Hopefully, it would get me back to my old class, where I always did everything super well and paid attention.

Five minutes later, when I still walked around the hallways, an hand grabbed mine.

"Hello, Lenora." Janson grinned. "Mind coming with me? I'd like to have a little talk about what just happened."

"Hello, Rat," I responded. "Yes, I mind. I'd like you to leave me alone."

His face twitched into anger soon. I pulled away from the man and started running, yelling for... for what? At first, it was just screams, but then I started yelling my old friends' names. Minho, Newt, Fry, and Alby.

More guards soon ran behind me. I slid around the corridors, supple and fit. At some point, I arrived close to the boys' dorm. Would I go there?

Shuck it. I opened the door and ran in. Dozens of bunks surrounded me. Some kids lay in their beds, but some were empty. They stared at me, and I met a familiar pair.

"Alby?"

"Get out." He ordered.

"But-."

"Get out!"

Both those words broke my heart more. My eyes searched for the others before the guards would find me.

"They don't want to talk to you." Alby snapped.

"W-what?" The tears almost stood in my eyes. Losing friends was the worst of all. "Not even Min-."

"Not even Minho." Alby averted his head. "Leave, Lenora. Leave us alone."

Before I even had the chance to break down, the door got slammed open. I cried out when a taser was pressed against my back. Alby already turned away from me completely when I tried to look at him.

The shocks of the taser left me crying. It ached and burned, but was nothing compared to what came after. Torture.

Janson brought me to the stupid wired chair and sat me down, explaining how I couldn't just be rude to the teacher run to the hallways like that. 'There would be consequences'.

Those consequences left tears enough for a week, screams that made my voice hoarse, and pain that almost made it impossible for me to walk.