Stolen Souls

chapter eleven

I'm missing you
What the hell did I do
-New, Daya

chapter eleven

I turned around instantly and pushed on the bars. They didn't budge, and neither did anyone else's. I started to panic— what if they did the experiments again?

James was the first to yell, "Camden! Kylie! Leave! Now!"

"Did you really think we were going to leave you?" Camden yelled back.

"Yes!"

"Then you're a lot more stupid than I thought."

We heard footsteps slowly coming down the staircase. James told them to leave again.

"No way," Camden insisted. I watched him as he tightened his grip on the bars. His eyes flickered to mine, but when he saw I was watching, he stared straight forward again.

James groaned in the cell next to mine, and we heard a voice start to speak, "Well, look who I found?"

A man dressed in a white lab coat strolled into the room. He was grinning, obviously pleased with himself. Continuing towards the computer with the wires connected to the cells, the scientist began to type without looking down at the keyboard.

"You really thought us assistants would have left?" He snarled at us.

"Where's the Soul?" James demanded.

"Oh, the Soul isn't here. No one knows where the Soul is, and no one will know," he chuckled.

"But- but the letters—"

"Oh, the letters! Written by your dead sister, of course!"

"You wrote them!" Kylie shouted since James was in denial. Her shout was met with another laugh from the assistant.

"Every single one of you thought you'd be finding the Soul today? Hmm?" He stared each one of us in the eye before looking at the empty cell to my left. "What use is finding the Soul before finding who the owner is?"

He doesn't know I'm the last Soul.

James must have realized this too because he mouthed 'Pretend' towards me when the assistant wasn't looking. I faintly remembered reading or hearing something about everyone wanting to kill the last Stolen Soul. Hopefully, if I pretend I'm not it, I won't get killed.

"We were- we just wanted to get an idea," James stuttered in response.

"Oh, but I have an idea!" The assistant said joyously. "You know, I've heard all of your files have been updated."

"Our files?" Courtney asked.

The assistant ignored her and surveyed each one of us again. When he saw Camden, his eyes lowered into a glare and the corners of his mouth turned upward into a smirk. He wheeled the computer and wires to the front of Camden's cell. They both stared at eachother; neither breaking eye contact.

"Out of the five of you, you're the one I remember."

"I can't say the same," Camden said coolly.