The cool air brushed her face. She felt the sun beat down on her, warming her to the bone. She looked up, determined to get every once of sunlight she could on her now pale and ghostly face. She felt the heat become warmer. She sighed in happiness, letting the warmth engulf her and swallow her whole. So welcoming. So peaceful.

She breathed in deeply, forcing the now slightly hot air into her lungs. Something was wrong. The air was growing warmer rapidly now, and it was starting to become uncomfortably hot. The air burt her inside, and charred her face. She screamed, feeling all her hopes and dreams fade away until nothing was left. Nothing but crushed hope and hard reality - there was no use. She would never escape, never see the true sun again, never see Jacob and Marissa again. As the heat started to burn so hot she felt like her eyeballs were going to pop, she thought of one last thing. One last thing to make her miserable ending to her existence slightly more bearable. She thought of Jacob, the night he had admitted to her that he truly was her friend, and that he would never leave her. She pictured it in her mind, pictured his soothing voice as he said those words, like a river over smooth stones. "Julia, I am forever and always..."

The heat became too much. She couldn't finish the thought. She saw bright lights flashing before her like the ghosts of all she would never see or do. She should never have jumped out the window. She would take their crazy experiments over this torture.

She screamed. She was gone.

**

Jaysmine snapped open her eyes. In a split second decision, she grabbed onto the broken glass of the window frame. She thought of what she had just seen. Julia, the name came clearly to her. The window was wrong. She was the last one they did this to. She was a warning for Jaysmine. She hauled herself back through the window, wishing for one moment she could truly see what was going on in this lab.

As she remember the ever nearing scientists, she gripped the still-wet face cover from earlier and slipped it back on just as the door opened. She peeked out the loose bottom, and pretended not to know what was going on. The high heeled scientist eyed the smashed window suspiciously, and Jaysmine held her breath and crossed her fingers with hope that she wouldn't see through her petty disguise. She looked around her, and out of the corners of her eyes she spotted a flash of metal. Jaysmine's heart hammered, but as she looked closer, she realized it wasn't the knife - or anything else she had suspected. Instead, it was her phone.

Rookie mistake, Jaysmine thought. She pretended to stumble around blindly for a few moments, so the scientist wouldn't be suspicious of what she was about to do. The scientist was still observing the window with great interest, and she no longer was paying attention to Jaysmine. Perfect, she thought. She wandered around for a while, slowly inching closer to the lady. Finally, she was in arms reach. She grabbed the phone quickly and walked away, trying not to give away her euphoria.

She went to the broken up mattress and stuffed the phone inside, as the scientist looked up. She walked over to Jaysmine, and she tried not to look in her direction so the scientist would not know anything was up. Finally, she spoke to Jaysmine, really softly. "Don't get any tricks up your sleeve, missy. Or you'll be left like Julia".

There it was, that name again, the one from her vision. Could the scientists tell she had learned who Julia really was? Or were they trying to confuse her even more? As these thoughts ran through Jaysmine's head, another scientist walked in. She heard his heavy footsteps from the hall. At least, she assumed it was a man because she couldn't really see to be able to clarify. She felt a plate of something being thrust into her hands, and the scientists both walked out. Jaysmine waited several minutes longer just to be sure that they were truly gone. During these moments, she finally realized how hungry she was. It drove into her like a knife, gnawing on her from the inside. Satisfied the scientists were no longer with her for real, she slipped off the face mask once again. She looked down at the plate and her eyes lit up.

On the plate was a bunch of sugar coated marshmallows - Jaysmine's favorite for as long as she could remember. But no one had given her any recently, and no one knew it was her favorite except....

Her dad! He must have been the one who had sent this. She placed one tenderly into her mouth, and quickly spit it out. After so long without food, her stomach revolted against the sugary sweetness and made her feel sick. The marshmallow had tasted like cardboard and wet paint mixed into one. Disgusted, she stuck the plate under the bed. Giving it a second thought, she stuffed them all into her mouth and swallowed. She never knew when her next meal would be.

Now, ever so carefully she took out the phone from the bed mattress and dialed Fiara's number, which she had known by heart since second grade. She waited impatiently as the phone buzzed. After what felt like hours, she heard Fiara's voice, static but true, over the phone. "Hello?" Jaysmine asked slowly.

"Hello, who is this?" Came Fiara's response. Jaysmine felt a knot of worry start to form in her stomach. She started to respond. "Uh, hey, it's Jaysmine, Fiara, reme-" but her voice was cut off by Fiara again. She sounded angrier than Jaysmine had ever seen her cool, collected friend.

"HOW DARE YOU TEASE ME ABOUT JAYSMINE!" she shrieked over the line, "YOU KNOW SHE DIED A WEEK AGO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Jaysmine heard a sob and then felt the line go dead. Her head felt fuzzy. What had she just seen? Was that the rumor? She was dead?! What would her friends be thinking right now? They must be miserable! Jaysmine's legs felt rubbery and she sank to her knees, unable to process what she had just heard.

She was dead to the world.

==========================================

Hey! Sorry for the reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long wait!

I've been having some life changing stuff going on for the last few months and

i've been super distracted...

pweas forgive me...

I know you guys probably already gave up on me...

IM TRYING!!!!

~Gabby <3