Difference

Chapter 9

Tess leads me back to her room, and when we get there she slams the door closed behind us.

"This can't be happening!" She cries, and crashes onto her bed. I walk over and sit down next to her.

"We can still get out before they make us go into the room, right?" I ask wearily, already knowing the answer. She shakes her head.

"I was counting on another half a year of planning. This is so sudden, there's no time left. There's not a lot of seventeen year olds, which means they'll 'fix' us soon. Really, really soon," Tess sobs, and I feel like sobbing with her. I force myself to keep it together.

It seems like our whole life just crashed right in front of us. There's no doubt I'll resist and end up like Tommy. I wouldn't try to stop them from "fixing" me, but I'm not going to let them do that to me when I don't even know what it is that they're doing. Yes, they said it would be painless, but I'm having difficulties comprehending exactly how a room will be able to take something inside of my soul out of it without me feeling a thing. I confess this all to Tess.

"It is painful. And your difference won't just be gone. It'll be stored in another room. A room full of bottles filled with differences," Her reply is simple, like she's already thought about it. I stand there stunned for a few seconds before I can actually think straight.

"What?" I can come up with nothing better to say.

"They steal your difference from you. The people who work here. They steal it and give it to themselves. They're not fixing us. They're making themselves superior," Tess says slowly, like she's just now realizing how dangerous this is.

"Wait. Let me get this straight. They put us in a room that hurts us and extracts our difference from us," I start, and she nods.

I continue, "They tell us we're fixed, but then they put our difference into themselves, and then they have that power."

"Exactly," Tess says.

"And how exactly do you know this, and why did you think of telling me now?" I question.

"I made a friend a few years ago. She was new here, so I helped her. She's a couple years older than me, so she's already been to the room and left. But she came back to work here, and I ran into her a few weeks ago. She changed her name and her look just so she could find out more about this place, but I knew it was her. She told me all of this, and she said once a month all the staff get together in the room full of differences and they each pick out their favorite one. Then they go into The Room, and she's not sure what they do in there, but they come out with whatever ability that bottle contained," Tess explains. I shake my head. This is too much for me to take.

"So we've got a couple days before we need to get the heck out of here?" I ask, even though I already know the answer again.

"Yes. We need to tell Jakob," She answers.

"Let's meet up with him at dinner," I suggest, and she nods in agreement.

"I feel like I've been crushed," Tess says.

"Same here. This is too soon and sudden. I'm still shaking," I add. She sighs and sounds like she might cry again. I can't blame her.

The bell scares me like always. I don't jump, though, because the fear the bell causes isn't even close to how scared I am right now.

We head down to the cafeteria, along with a crowd of other girls. I'm just beginning to notice how these hallways only contain girl rooms. But that doesn't matter now. Nothing matters except getting out of here.