I advanced through the dark hallway, my hand against the left wall as my only guidance. Each step echoed, reverberating against what sounded like metal floors and metal walls.

Step, step, step...

It was sort of maddening.

I tried to imagine Antoinette going through this same path, being guided by the wall the same way I was, but all I could think of was what would be at the end of this road.

"Just how long is this thing...?" I wondered aloud, and when I started to brace myself to a longer walk, I saw the light at the end of the hall. A fluorescent light, hidden behind a door.

I ran towards it, driven by my desire to find her, and opened without hesitation.

What awaited me was a large room, filled with computers showing numbers and codes I didn't understand, thick cables along the floors, and idly sitting on a swivel chair wearing my coat, I saw...

"Antoinette!"

She looked up to see me, and time seemed to stop for just a moment.

Then I saw recognition in her face, a relief that I was here, and it was like I could breathe again.

"Antoinette, you... what the hell? Are you really there?"

I cautiously stepped forward, feeling unsure of my every action, as though one wrong move would make her vanish again. It couldn't be that after everything, I would find her safely.

My concern was pushed away when she stood up.

"You made it," she said, almost beaming, and shattering the illusion that she was just part of the scenery.

Something tightened in my chest when I heard her voice; I didn't know what came over me in that moment, as I acted without thinking.

As soon as we made eye contact, I ran up and hugged her as tight as I could. I made sure that she was here, that she wasn't going to slip away and disappear again.

"Woah, Sebastian? Hey, ease up. I told you I was fine, didn't I?" I heard the smile in her voice and a wave of relief washed over me, followed by embarrassment over what I just did, making me step back with my face heating up.

"Right. You're right, I - yeah, you did. I just..." I hesitated, not knowing how to put those feelings into words. Instead, I shook my head and cast them aside.

"You really had me worried, I thought you had..." I trailed off, diverting my attention away from that undesirable thought as I glanced around. "What is this place? I deserve an explanation, you know."

"I believe I can answer that."

An unknown voice reached my ears from somewhere in the room, raspy and confident, definitely a man's voice despite its feminine touch.

I took Antoinette's arm, ready to run out at the first sign of danger, but that was when he walked out.

A scrawny tall kid with pride in his face and a bowl cut hairstyle. He waved at me, dressed in a large jacket where his hands were hidden under the long sleeves. Seeing this, I didn't feel as wary anymore, but still stayed on guard.

"Calm down, Sebby boy, I won't bite," he laughed. "Unless you're into that."

I knew immediately that I wouldn't like this man.
Antoinette moved my hand away as she said to me: "Yeah, I had to deal with a whole lot of that these past days. You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

The boy merely smiled, and he approached me with an outstretched hand I didn't want to take.

"Pleasure to meet you. My name's Dominique, ex-member of 1-A."

My eyes widened, thinking for a moment that I misheard. The same Dominique that Claire told me about? The one we weren't allowed to talk about?

I took his hand thinking about this, suddenly feeling suspicious of this entire situation. He must have seen my face, because after giving me a firm handshake, he showed me his hands like one would to a police officer.

"You've heard of me, I take it? Don't look so surprised, you'll get wrinkles. Here, take a seat - Antoinette, bring us something to drink, would you?" He pushed over another swivel chair over and took a seat, while Antoinette rolled her eyes but left anyway.

I watched her leave, and then stared at Dominique.

Antoinette seemed to be on good terms with him, or at last neutral ones, so I wouldn't lose anything getting an explanation. Much less from a former 1-A member.

But what was this all about? A secret base of sorts? I hesitated to take a seat, but decided to keep an open mind, my curiosity spurring me on.

"Well." He leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "Where to begin, hm? Let me start with the most important thing. Welcome to the Anti-Paradise Headquarters, Sebastian Hernández. It's such an honour to finally meet you."

I narrowed my eyes at him. There was a lot to think about in those sentences, but I addressed the bit that bothered me the most.

"Meet me? Is that what this is all about?"

"Well, duh! You're a freak, Sebastian, and I say that as a compliment." Before I could snap back, he turned to the computers and rapidly typed something up. The screens changed, I was now looking at what looked to be surveillance footage of Paradise; the Life Sphere, the great lake, the mountain and more.

I stared in awe as he continued, indifferent to my reaction.

"Ever since your unexpected arrival, I've been watching over you. I've seen you directly fight against the screen, something no one cares to do - because no one knows what we know." He turned back to me.

To be tagged as an anomaly was one thing, but to actively be sought out and watched like I was some test subject was another deal entirely. My hands felt clammy, but I tried to ignore them, focusing on another point.

"Wait, what do you mean 'unexpected'?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Okay, check this out." He went back to the computers and brought up a screen where I saw a long list. "Do you see this? This list shows everybody that's meant to come in - it's constantly updating, so everyone that finds their way in here will show up on the list. Except -" Dominique gave a dramatic pause as he pointed at me- "For you. Your name appeared minutes before you got here, when it should've been a whole day's worth, at least. Isn't that amazing?"

I couldn't share his enthusiasm.

"So - and this is just my personal theory - since you were an unexpected arrival, you didn't have the time to load (that's a metaphor, I say that metaphorically) all your memories."

I heard his words ringing through my head. Could that be why? It sounded plausible, but for some reason I couldn't shake off the feeling that that wasn't it.

... If it was, it only brought up another question.

"Now I know what you're thinking: what is up with this unexpected visit to deathville? To that, I say...!" He didn't continue his sentence, and I looked at him quietly until he would finish.

But instead, he rubbed his head and looked away.
"I don't really know."

I deadpanned, but the thought of having arrived here by accident hadn't even crossed my mind. I glanced back at the list as I let that information sink in, but then I saw one name stand out, making me freeze the second it processed. Though I read it, I needed to re-read it to make sure I didn't imagine it.

Because there I could read: "Joseph Hernandez."

The moment I read that name, I felt a flurry of emotions I didn't understand.

Joseph, I remembered that name. The realization crashed into me suddenly: my brother.

Surely there were hundreds of different people with that name, and yet I couldn't avoid this bad feeling that had drilled into my head.

Before I had the chance to say anything about it, Dominique spoke again.

"But I didn't bring you just so we could chat, no no. I bring you here today with an invitation."

At that, I looked back to him. That name still lingered in my head, but at the moment I had a conversation to take care of.

I took a deep breath and sobered up. Whatever memory I could recollect, I would think about later.

"Alright." I leaned forward. "What's this invitation?"

Dominique smirked and lowered his voice to a confidential level. "So here's the tea, sis. I want you to join the Anti-Paradise rebellion. There's only two of us - me and Antoinette - so I could really use your help!"

Could he really call this pathetic rally an invitation?

Antoinette came back before I could give an answer, with two glasses of water.

"There isn't anything else to have in here, it's a pretty low resource base," she said, holding out the glass to Dominique, but then moving it back at the last moment. Looking at him dead in the eye, she downed the water in one go. The other glass she handed to me as Dominique looked crestfallen.

I snickered at the display, and seeing her come back like this spurred me to make my decision.
"I'm thinking," I said. "But first, I want an explanation as to what exactly happened here. Why is Antoinette of all people allied with you?"

"He just used me to get to you," she explained. "After the Christmas party, I went to the lake but..." She frowned and looked away. "Things didn't really pan out between me and Nat. I took some time to myself, and before I know it I'm in this place, in a room down the hall there."

"I did try with someone else who had a connection with you, but that backfired like a billion percent." Dominique smiled sheepishly. "When I brought that squirt, Alex I think his name was, he was just screaming the entire time." He waved his hands dramatically. "So I tried to kickstart his memories of you, but for some reason that just freaked him out more, which seriously annoyed me, by the way, so I left him in his room and put your coat with you."

I tensed.

"How did you know he didn't remember me? I only tol- right, I forgot you had these cameras."

If he really was brought here out of nowhere and had to deal with Dominique, it'd be no surprise he'd be scared. What memories he had of me, however, I couldn't guess. The only one I had of him was of a really long time ago, but that wasn't enough to warrant such a reaction.

In any case, all my immediate questions had been answered. I sat back in the chair, letting it all roll inside my head: Pen's fear of me, my unexpected arrival, the possibility of my own brother coming here in the next few days, and everything that had to do with Dominique's existence and Antoinette.

"Sebby boy, are you still kicking?"

I snapped back to attention, remembering where I was. I thought my habit of spacing out had died off.

"Yeah, I'm here. It's a lot to take in so suddenly."

"It's fiiine, take your time, because I still haven't told you the best part!"

I glared at him tiredly, and he continued with a smile.

"I've had nearly a whole year to get this stuff under my head, it was easy since I had no one to talk to."

"I'm inclined to believe that."

Still, I took this chance to heed his advice and take my time, so I excused myself and went for a self-guided tour of the base.

Taking first impressions from that messy computer room at the start, I was surprised to find the rest of the base was surprisingly tidy. Most of the rooms were empty anyway, with items laying around like sledgehammers or wooden planks, but some had things like power circuits or massive energy generators, and one room where there was only a large pad on the ground and a control panel at its side that I didn't want to mess with. I went past these, deciding to ask about them later, and through the wide and dim hallways, I found myself in a barebones bedroom.

Where Dominique slept, I supposed. On the floor of the room next to this, I saw bedsheets simply lying about.

Bothered by this unorderly sight in an otherwise clean environment, I got to picking it up.

"That's Dominique's bed," I heard Antoinette say from behind. I turned to face her, bedsheets in hand, and raised an eyebrow.

"No, his bed is in the next room over."

Antoinette looked amused. She came forward and set the bedsheets back on the floor as she said:

"No, this is. For now, at least. He insisted that I could use his bed, because it would make him a terrible host if he let me sleep on the floor."

I glanced back at the cold floor, Dominique's bed, and rubbed my neck.

"He's a little creepy," I said. "I dunno what to think about him." Then I decided to lay out my thoughts. Antoinette, if no one else, I could trust. "Are we sure that we can trust what he's saying? For all we know, this is just some big ploy out against us and Dominique is really a spy."

Antoinette looked at me with a deadpan. After saying it out loud I realized how crazy that sounded, but I still had my suspicions.

"We don't know anything about him." I kept my voice down. "We don't know how he got this place either, or why he left the first time, and and we sure as hell can't ask Claire. It's -"

"Sebastian."

Antoinette took my hands firmly, and I flinched. When I looked at her, our eyes met.

"Dominique is weird, but he can be trusted. He showed me all the ways this system is messed up, running a make-happy dystopia. Every day, you know, kids are out there getting those tortures as punishments for speaking against the system or for wanting to leave this place and pass on." She tightened her grasp. "The system is keeping us locked in here and forcing us to be happy, whether we like it or not."

I grimaced. I didn't like having to trust this near stranger, but having this vantage point and all this information was definitely an advantage in some way.

While I weighed my options, conflicted, Dominique's voice reached us from the door.

"It doesn't have to be that way."

We both looked at him. I frowned, still thinking about what I thought of him.

Dominique smirked and walked towards us. "Cause ya boy found an exit to Paradise."