The Enhanced

Chapter Twenty Eight

Slowly, the night wore on and the moon got higher and higher in the sky, as we all got more drunk.

Even I could feel my balance was slightly off and my vision felt less sharp after my third beer. But I felt free and I didn't care if I was being a bit irresponsible, that was why I was here, that was why I had left the facility in the first place. For my own freedom to make stupid choices that teenagers always made, I wanted the chance to make mistakes.

After a while, people finish their food and the fire begins to burn lower and the conversation seems to die out.

And so, Hayden suggests a Truth or Dare game, I feel giddy at the suggestion, I had never played any sort of game like that, I truly felt like a highschool kid.

The game goes slowly at first and we each have a turn, luckily my truth given by David was simple enough, he had asked who my first kiss was with. Knowing that admitting I had never kissed anyone properly, other than a drunk Aiden, would cause me to seem very lame, I lie. I tell them about a boy named Michael who was my boyfriend for a month. They seem to buy it and we move on.

But with half of the party completely drunk and barely able to stand, the game gets a little more Interesting. Alice is dared to take her bra off, Aiden is asked who the hottest girl here is, to which he answers another boy named Amir, this causes the group to become all the more rowdy and loud. I began to understand Hayden's logic in basing the party where nearly all the houses were all empty and therefore no neighbours would cause any trouble.

Hayden has to drink half a bottle of vodka without taking a breath, which he does, before throwing it all back up again barely a minute later, along with seemingly everything else that was in his stomach.

When it gets to my turn, I realise that it was Alice's turn to give me a truth or dare and have to withhold a sigh. I make eye contact with her and tell her I choose dare. I realise there is little point in trying to avoid her, I was stronger than her, smarter and I had some common sense.

She smiles at me choice, happy that she had the power to make me do anything she wanted. She doesn't break eye contact with me as she comes up with a cruel dare that would surely embarass me.

Eventually, her eyebrows perk and her gaze intensifies as she opens her mouth. "Jump in the lake... naked." She says in a tone as smooth as silk.

Her gaze is wicked and the corners of her lips upturn, she seems to want to pat herself on the back as she watches me squirm, deciding what to do next.

I had to do the dare. I had to. Everyone else had done all theirs. I couldn't be the one person that didn't.

I close my eyes and finally heave the sigh that had been sitting in my throat. I had been taught not to be seen naked in front of anyone, it was disgusting. That's what I had been told for so many years. But I had left the facility to be able to make my own choices, have my own opinions, make all the mistakes I wanted.

If I wanted to irresponsible, I could, because I was a free woman.

And finally, I decide that I wouldn't just do this dare to be cool and fun, or to shove it in Alice's proud face, it would also be for me. It would be the real thing that disconnected me from my past, the real thing that broke my ties with it.

I wasn't a prisoner, or an experiment or even a guest. I was at home, with people I chose, I could drink and be stupid. And U would be, just for the hell of it.

I open my eyes with a smile and see Alice's eyes turn from happy to suspicious. I was doing after all, at a distinctly horrible dare. But I didn't care. I could be fun and stupid.