"Mice are skittish," he whispers, cool, daunting breath fanning over her paling face, "always running. But in the end?" He steps closer, hand outstretched, "They get caught in the trap." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Barbara had a sister. Eleanor survived Hawkins. Barely. Something watches her. Not hunting. Not saving. Just... learning. He offers quiet. Control. Safety that feels wrong the second it works. And she lets it. Trapped, trembling, alive. And somehow, for reasons she can't explain, she's not running.

And for the first time since the world had broken him, Henry chose not to destroy what he found

~ SEQUEL TO *NONCONFORMITY* ~ "You know, sometimes I start to like you and then you open your mouth and I'm reminded why I don't," I turned away from him and smiled into my pillow. I wanted to sit here with him in the dark until my eyes couldn't stand the light anymore. We could be nocturnal, wake with the moon and live our lives wrapped in bed sheets. "You say the loveliest things," He whispered in my ear. He gathered me in his arms, warm as could be and horrifically inviting. I melted against him until everything ran slow and saccharine. Lips pressed against my temple, and then I felt the weight of his head as it dipped onto my pillow. "Peter?" "Yes, sweetheart?" "Why can't I shake the feeling something bad is going to happen?" ~ After being taken from her home, Sixteen needs to fight not to lose her mind after returning to the arms of Martin Brenner. Hallucinations and nightmarish visions seem to follow her everywhere she goes, as does a man she thought she'd killed five years before.

"You're dreaming, I should think," His breath caressed my skin. It was there and then gone, far too fleeting. "So why am I here, Sixteen?" I didn't have an answer. "I don't know," I muttered. My heart thumped noisily in my chest. I could not think. "Can you make it stop?" His eyes flitted over mine. I could feel him like an infection. Crawling through my veins, warming my blood, shutting down my organs one by one until I was helpless, left with no other option aside from watching as he overtook me. "Do you want me to make it stop?" He gently tilted my head up. I was soundless as this all unfolded, unable to fight it, unsure if I even wanted to. ~ After Sixteen is abducted and taken to Hawkins Lab, she must adjust to life under the oppressive glare of Martin Brenner. Peter Ballard, an orderly who oversees her training, aims to the transition all the more difficult.

I don't do love, I do guys. Love just doesn't make sense to me. How can you devote your whole life and who you are to one person? How can there be only one person in the world that is made for you? Love is just crazy. Love is not for me, and it never will be.