The Lessers

Chapter Six

Hi guys! Ali here. I know it's been a really really (really) long time since my last update, but I'm finally back on wattpad after spending some time getting my life back on track. I hope you guys understand that I've gone through some personal issues that I'd rather not discuss and didn't mean to just abandon this book. That being said, I do believe it has potential and that is why I came back to it. I've worked on it quite a bit and I finally have an idea of where it's going to be going.

I hope you guys enjoy, and stay tuned for Seth and Lyssa's story! (Please vote and comment, I'd really appreciate a helping hand getting this book off the ground again!)

Love,

Aly

------------------------------------

As she looked back on her past week at the facility, Lyssa felt like she was watching a montage scene from one of the old movies her parents used to watch. Except instead of a catchy song of the olden decades it was eerie silence in her head. 

The minutes felt like hours and the hours felt like days and the week that had passed felt like a whole different life. And in this whole different life Lyssa was a listless drone that nonetheless felt the ache in her feet and in her knees from the manual labor of the past meaningless hours. And while she wished she could say that she had shut her mind off that would have been a devastating lie. As she swept, organized, scrubbed, and inputted data she thought about what had transpired in the laboratory with the doctors and their test subjects.

She thought about the events of that day, replaying the everything in her head so much that she wasn't sure anymore what was her memory and what was her imagination. Eventually it had all become a blur and she wasn't even fully sure that what had happened hadn't been a dream. It would sure make more sense for it to be a dream.

But a few details stuck with her. The gut feeling she had experienced when she saw the boys in their cells was all too real to have been a figment of her imagination. The color of Seth's eyes, the feel of his hands as he had pushed her, had all been too real. While much was becoming fuzzy, these small details stayed with her. And she couldn't possibly have dreamt them up.

Every time her mind wandered to Seth she tried her best to push the thought away, but the more she tried, the harder it was to think of anything else. 

Of anyone else.

She'd been an entirely different person back when she had helped that boy and hid him in her shed. She had been a fresh-faced 16 year old girl, full of ideals and fantasies of changing the world. So much had changed since then, so many terrible things had happened. Now she saw the real world and how it was: cruel, unrelenting, and unchanging.

No matter how she tried to rationalize it in her head, though, she couldn't convince herself that she had become a better person in any way. Seth was right, she was just like the people imprisoning them and experimenting on them. She was one of the people doing this to them. No matter how she looked at it, she knew she couldn't be a part of this. She had always thought that how Lessers were treated was wrong, but there was nothing she could do to change how Uppers abused their powers. 

Yet now that she knew more, she felt many times over more powerless. 

There was nothing she could do.

Her duty was to herself, not to some boys she didn't even know, and to save herself she had to pretend like nothing was wrong. She had to keep being Dr. Sander's assistant, and last 7 years until her time was over. She would be free.

But they wouldn't.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. 

Her decision made and with a heavy heart, she found herself in Dr. Sander's office. She knocked. When he opened the door, she tried her best not to flinch at the sight of him. All she could remember was the heel of his boot on her throat and how terrifying he had been. Dr. Sanders smiled. "Yes, Alessandra?"

"I'm ready, Dr. Sanders. To do my job."

His smile was predatory, as if he was a lion who'd been circling it's prey for quite some time, and was finally about to go in for the kill. She felt for a brief second as if she was making a deal with the devil, but quickly brushed that thought away as she had brushed away so many before.

She was simply doing what she needed to, and she simply could not let her emotions get in the way. She had to think of herself first. If she didn't prioritize her own well-being, then who would?

"I've been waiting for you to say that", he drawled, almost mockingly. "I'm glad to hear your head is back where it's supposed to be. However since our last setback a few days ago quite a bit of our staff were... relieved of their positions", he paused, adding distastefully, "We're putting a hold on the project for now".

Lyssa let out an involuntary sigh of relief that certainly did not go unnoticed by the doctor. Luckily, he made no comment, simply instructing her to continue doing what she had been doing for the past week. According to him, the laboratory had been trashed in the previous debacle and had not been put together yet.

Lyssa briefly wondered what was going on in this high-ranked government facility if a week wasn't enough for an army's worth of Uppers to clean up a mess, but chose not to let her opinions be known this time.

Something was seriously off about this place, and it wasn't just that they were experimenting on those boys.