HALLUCINATION

02. THE HORROR ORDER

My eyes snapped open and I practically sprang up from the bed I was just sleeping on. My throat felt tight as I desperately gasped for air. There was a thin layer of cold sweat that glossed my forehead until I wiped it off with the sleeve of my t-shirt. I closed my eyes again as I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. My heart was beating quickly as I glanced around the room. "It was just a dream," I whispered to myself. "It was just a dream."

Another voice spoke up, causing me to jump slightly. "Sorry to break it to you blondie, but it wasn't a dream." I turned my head in the direction of the voice, which wasn't much of a surprise when it turned out to be loudmouth Leo.

"You don't ever shut up, do you?" I replied sarcastically. Between the reality of the dream I just had and the fact that I'm already reliving this same conversation twice now, I'm really not in the mood for him or his jokes.

Leo smirked and tilted his head to the side. "Nope." He sent me a fake pout. I rolled my eyes as Leo continued to ramble on about something, but I tuned him out half way through his sentence.

As I stood up from the bed I was laying on, I realized that he was right though. My 'dream' wasn't a dream. In fact, it was very much a reality. Slowly, I wandered to the center of the dimly lit room and spun around taking in my surroundings. The huge room only consisted of seven beds, which lined each of the four metal walls. I recognized each of my friends from the past as they laid there, still knocked out from the smoke bombs. By now, the Horror Order must have split up everyone and were beginning to form groups.

I spotted a door in the middle of one of the four walls, so I decided to walk over to it. Before I even touched the exit, Leo spoke up again. "Already tried it," he called out. "Damn door's locked." I ignored his statement about the door and tried pulling on the handle, but it didn't budge. Leo scoffed, "Like I said, Blondie. The door's locked."

I rolled my eyes. "I knew that," I remarked. I found myself making the same actions and decisions as I did last time I was here. Maybe this time I'll do things differently. I have the knowledge of every event that happened in this compound. The only problem was that I didn't want to mess up the future by causing a butterfly effect. Every little thing that I do or say now could cause a ripple in the timeline, and if I ever wanted Five to find me and teleport us out of this twisted past of mine then I had to follow along with Silas and his plans again.

Leo chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that?" he asked. "It's not like you've been here before."

I feigned a chuckle and just shook my head. "You have no idea," I muttered to myself. Although I was still facing the door, I could feel Leo's glares burning a hole in my back. He may act stupid but I knew him better than he knew himself. Leo was very observant and he never stopped until he got what he wanted. I could tell that he was becoming more and more curious by how I was acting and what I was saying.

"Last night, at Miracle Home, you kept sayin' that we had to get out of there," Leo spoke up. His voice was laced with curiosity and something else that I couldn't quite pick up. "Why?"

I let out a small sigh and kept my back turned to Leo, so he wouldn't be able to look at my face when I lied. He was always able to detect when someone wasn't telling the truth just by looking at them. "I had a bad feeling about last night," I replied simply. "And I turned out to be right."

Leo's low laughter made my stomach churn with nerves. "You expect me to believe that?" He asked as if my statement was too ridiculous. I didn't blame him though. I wouldn't believe myself either. I had to be more careful and aware of everything from now on. "One second your preaching for an escape and the next some emos with guns show up and take us hostage."

I finally spun on my heel to face the irritating blonde. "What's your point, Leo?" I asked, becoming annoyed with his sudden interrogation.

The tall boy sent me a skeptical look. "I think you know something that we don't," he proposed.

I let out an exhausted sigh. "Ever heard of 'the less I know the better'?"

"Ever hear of 'the more you know'?" Leo shot back. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a victorious look.

My brown eyes rolled once again. "'The more you know you don't know," I finished his quote. Leo's brows furrowed as he wore a confused expression. "Aristotle, genius."

"Whatever, blondie," Leo remarked. "All I'm sayin' is that I'm keeping an eye on you. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

"All of a sudden we're enemies?" I questioned him curiously.

"We were never friends," Leo said.

I sighed and shook my head, turning my back on him once again. Leo was going to be the death of me, literally if he keeps this act of suspicion up. My main focus is living through my past and then getting the hell out of here. Hopefully, if everything goes the same way it did before, I would run into Five at Griddy's like last time.

I began to examine the door, when I noticed the word Section A painted in black letters above the door. Out of curiosity, I held up my wrist and pulled my sleeve up, revealing my unscarred wrist. I should've known there wouldn't be anything imprinted on my skin yet.

The quiet creaks of one of the metal beds behind me signaled that someone was waking up from their unconscious slumber. I glanced over my shoulder to look at who was waking up when I noticed that it was Bree. My legs moved fast to stand beside her as her eyes fluttered open. I watched as she slowly sat up and gazed around the room in a frantic state. "What happened?" She asked worriedly. "Where are we?"

I opened my mouth to explain everything that had happened but decided against it. Instead, I shrugged and shook my head as I lied, "I don't know." Bree looked like a deer in the headlights as she took a glimpse of the room we were all locked in. I could feel Leo's eyes on me again as he listened from afar. I knew he wouldn't drop this until he got the answers he wanted, but I was determined to remain secretive and protect the timeline.

"Isn't it obvious?" Zara spoke up bitterly from the bed behind Bree. She wore an unimpressed look as she continued when neither of us answered, "Those guys drugged us and kidnapped us. Now, we're probably miles away, where no one is gonna be able to find us."

"Not like anyone would come for us anyway," Leo commented. He was sat beside his friend, Henry. It seemed that everyone was now awake.

Eleanor frowned and tilted her head to the side out of confusion and curiosity. "Why not?" She asked softly.

Leo rolled his eyes. "No one gives a shit about orphans." The reality of his words seemed to hit too close to home for everyone in the room as it went uncomfortably silent. Everyone had their own issues when it came to family or personal problems. I never really spoke of any of my own history because I didn't have much to talk about. My parents left me at Miracle Home when I was just an infant. I never found out why they abandoned me or even who they were, but none of that really mattered because they were gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

Suddenly, the lights hanging from the ceiling began to flicker until the room fell into an eery dimness. All of our hushed conversations came to an abrupt end as our eyes circled the room in worry, until a projector was casted beside the doors. The shaky image of a skull was shown in black and white. Then, a voice spoke through the speaker that was hung above the locked doors, "Welcome to the Horror Order."