The House

Chapter 21 Advice

I found Charlotte after I saw in her in the memory of a play. She had always been a very good actress and we sometimes got to perform together in small presentations for our class. During the test, I had to push Charlotte off stage making her break a leg, literally.

When we explained what was going on, Charlotte decided to leave. She had been locked up in a room, starving under a spotlight for a long time, after all.

But that didn't matter to me. There had only been one thing in my mind, and that was him.  For some reason, after telling everyone about my plan, all I could think about was hearing what he thought. So, after finding more pictures in the computer, this time of Lawrence, and Annie and Aaron with their families, I walked into his room.

Just like last time, he was tied to the chair, wearing the same dirty suit. His face should've healed since the last time I saw him but there's no doubt that someone is torturing him constantly, maybe even every night. His face is so swollen and bruised... I feel bad for him.

"You're back," he smiled shyly. I was sitting right in front of him, on the floor. I wanted to untie him, but the ropes where too tight.

"I wanted to talk to you," I say. There were so many things I wanted to say and ask, but there was something in specific that kept bothering me. "But first, what's your name?"

The way he looked at me. Damn. It was so sweet and tender. It felt as if... as if I was what kept him going, what kept him awake and sane through the pain.

I felt loved.

"Ryan," he said. "I... I didn't use to have a name, until we met."

Ryan. "What do you mean?"

"You'll think I'm crazy,"

I remembered the video of my parents, and my truth. "I won't judge you. I think you're the only person who has treated me normally in here."

He giggled. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you." He took a deep breath. "My brother, Nathan, is the only son of our father, a well known politician named Michael Kepler. I know that doesn't make any sense, but hear me out. After years of service, Kepler became obsessed with the idea of training the perfect soldier, but he wanted more than any scientist dared to do... that's when I started to come into the picture.

"He thinks Nathan is a Saint, if not a God like himself, so if he could just replicate him... that would be the perfect guinea pig for his experiments. So, he studied for years before he started his clonations. They were all deformed at first, but he eventually created me. He fed me and educated me, but he never took care of me. My mother, Nathan's birth mother, did. She loved me like a real son and I loved her like a real mother."

"Loved," I say. "In past?"

He nodded. "She died two years ago."

"I'm so sorry..."

His sweet smile disappeared. "Kepler used me. If it weren't for Mother I would've ended his experiment with my life, but even afterwards I stayed alive. For her.

"Ever since I was created I never had a real name. Kepler would just call me N.27, and whenever Mother tried to come up with a name for me he would always beat her, because that's also something he did. He beat her, as if it were a hobby... I'm sure he killed her in one of his rants, but I can't prove it.

"It turns out that a couple of months after her death Kepler got bored with me. I never knew why, but I kept hearing him and Nathan talking about a girl. Kepler was really excited because Nathan would finally meet her."

"And that was me, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "The more they talked about you, the more I thought we were the same, so I wanted to meet you. I found out about what happened to you before you were born and I knew, I knew, you would understand me so for the first time I asked something from Kepler. I asked him to take me with him and Nathan to your school."