"The Orlon family. A family of psychopaths, sadists, and geniuses."

"Why are you ending that with a compliment?"

"It's not one. It's a fact. You've seen the work these people have done. They're insane, both in the literal sense and regarding the fact that their work is- should be- impossible. They create entire organisms and breed them to create absolute monstrosities. Those monsters are then translated over into the drugs that are forced onto unwilling teens such as ourselves. The point of this experiment is to test out the serums and see how they work in the human system."

"Geez, they go straight to humans? Why not throw that stuff into rats and dogs or something? Seems like that skips a few protocols to me."

"No kidding. I guess that protocols aren't really something they consider when they are illegally kidnapping teenagers and injecting harmful drugs into them against their will. Can I continue now? Good. As I was saying, these people do this experiment every year with a group of four teens. The only similarities between the children are their birthdates, which are the same, and the color that their eyes glow when they use their abilities. Occasionally, their eye colors will change as Carson's did, but that's not intentional, only a side effect. Oh, right, the side effects. Obviously, as an experimental drug would, these serums have side effects. It's like the really fast words that companies need to put at the end of their commercials. These drugs are possibly lethal and generally dangerous, putting the user in harm despite the scientists' best efforts to keep it as safe as possible. And the reason it will never be perfect is that they are attempting to alter the human body in ways it should never be touched and altered. They are trying to turn humans into creatures that they are incapable of becoming. Because of their accomplishments, this line of scientists views themselves as gods, and in some ways, they are."

"This is all good and grand, but how do we stop this? From the way you're making it sound, these people are unstoppable."

Rhiannon looked down, hiding her face from us. "Not unstoppable. But... very, very hard to defeat. There's a reason this has been going on for decades and no one has noticed or stopped them. People have tried. I've tried. We all do."

"They've never faced a group like us before," Dakota said darkly. "I'm someone with quite a lot of pent-up rage. I'd like to see a skinny young adult try and touch me."

"You probably won't even get the chance, Dakota." Rhiannon's eyes widened, and she looked panicked. "Nevermind what I just said. We need to keep our spirits up."

"No, no, what were you saying? Why won't Dakota get a chance to fight the scientist?" I tried to look the girl in the eyes, but she wilted and refused to meet my gaze. "Surely we'll have the best chances if we work together."

"That's exactly why they won't let us work together!" Parker interjected. "This isn't their first rodeo. They've got to have some way to separate us and make us vulnerable-"

"Why don't we come back to this another day?" Rhiannon interrupted. She looked up at us with sadness- and something else... panic, maybe?- in her red eyes. "I've explained enough for today. Let's change the subject. All you guys need to know is that you have to prepare and train yourselves. Otherwise, you'll be fine."

I stared at her for a moment more, trying to decipher her demeanor, but gave up and went back to talking to the others. "We should do that, then."

"It's getting pretty late," Parker responded. He adjusted his baseball cap, which he'd somehow managed to hang on to up until this point. "We need to rest while we have the opportunity to."

"You've been sleeping all day," Dakota deadpanned. "You can sleep if you want, but I'm going to practice using my powers. Wanna come?" He asked me.

I thought for a second. "Sure. Why not?" It was only just now hitting sundown, after all. We had a few hours before we needed to get some rest. Practicing certainly couldn't hurt us.

"You guys go ahead," Rhiannon told us as she made her way over to her sleeping bag. "I'll join in a while if I don't fall asleep first."

As we set up to get into position, I felt that something was off around us. After dealing with this experience for as long as we had, I'd begun to develop somewhat of a sixth sense to tell when something was about to happen. Dakota seemed to sense the same thing, and we looked each other in the eyes with dismay. We remained in our fighting positions, but instead of facing each other, we stood back to back, slowly circling to see as much of our surroundings as possible. A crash came from my left- Dakota's right- and I felt my adrenaline spike as I stepped away from Dakota and snapped my wings open. The rush of air caused my hair to fly around my face as I stood to face whatever was about to challenge us.

"The end is approaching."

My hair stood on end as a voice reached my ears, quiet and soft. It wasn't loud like the scientists' voice, or normal like his goons', but somehow worse. The way it was whispered was more sinister and threatening than anything that the other people he had sent could have produced. My fear rose unnaturally, spiking in ways it hadn't before, even with the brushes with death I had previously encountered. It felt as if someone had reached their hand into my head and twisted my feelings- specifically whatever controlled my fear receptors- and increased them tenfold. My paranoia grew rapidly, and I wrapped my wings around me in a final effort to protect myself from whatever force was causing me to become so terrified. "Carson?" A voice asked tentatively. "What's wrong?"

I turned rapidly to see who had asked and found a small boy. No, not a small boy. Was it? My vision flickered back and forth almost like a glitch. Who was that standing in front of me? How did they know my name? Why was I shaking so much?

"Carson! Snap out of it!" A girl this time? The boy was suddenly accompanied by a female slightly larger than him, one with eyes less innocent but just as endearing. "Okay, we'll do this the hard way then! Forgive me later, alright?"

The small girl- or was it?- reached her hand out and gently ran her hands over my wings. Before my eyes, she began to morph into an adult version of herself, this one with a grey beanie. I felt myself losing focus on the girl as my vision flicked from one reality to the next. My wings unwrapped and I felt the familiar state of euphoria settle in as I hummed along to an indistinguishable tune.

"Perfect. Now we need to get her out of this state, too!" someone shouted, but I barely heard them. The fading sun caressed my face and I could feel a gentle breeze touch my cheeks. I stared at the emerging stars and admired their beauty rather than focusing on the constellations. One was bigger than the other, one smaller, one even tinier than its former-

"Carson!" The breeze was no longer touching my cheek and in its place was a rough, calloused hand. I gasped for breath and was sucked back to the present, my mind reeling.

"Wha?"

"No time to explain." Dakota stared me in the eyes, and I barely connected him with the little boy from earlier before I focused on what he was saying. "Girl in bushes. Girl controls fear. Girl controlled you. Rhiannon knows girl. Rhiannon is scared of girl. Got it?" I definitely did not get it, but I nodded anyway. "Good. Now group up."

Parker and Delilah had awoken in the commotion- or at least, I assumed Delilah did. As usual, she was nowhere to be found, but I gave her a pass this time due to her current condition. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, we stood back to back in a similar fashion that Dakota and I had practiced earlier, though this time there were three of us.

Another noise from the bushes. Rhiannon moved to cover her ears and shouted for us to do the same, but the action didn't work nearly as well for her as it did for us.

"Guys?" The girl asked hesitantly, and I whipped around to make eye contact with her. I was met with a sight I'd never wanted to see again. Her hair was a shade darker than it was before and her limbs were convulsing rapidly. "There's so much... emotion..."

"Rhiannon," I called desperately, shaking her shoulders. "Come on. Fight it. You don't want to do this."

Terror flooded my body when she lifted her head, a smirking face staring back at me through her parted black hair. "Oh, I do."

I hopelessly scrambled to get away from her, scenarios- all of them ending in disaster- running through my mind at the speed of light. I took a deep breath and pulled Dakota toward me, getting into position to fight my friend. No, she wasn't my friend. In this form, she was someone else.

She looked me up and down, taking notice of my shoulder-length feet and raised palms. "Do you really think you can beat me with my own techniques?" She asked, crossing her feet and cocking her head.

"No, I don't," I admitted. "But it's better than nothing." As I finished my sentence, Dakota shot forward and socked her in the cheek, sending her flying. We all stood in stunned silence as she stood, wiping blood from where it dripped down her jaw cracking her neck.

Dakota spit on the ground and prepared to launch again. "You have no idea how long I've waited to do that," he snarled.

She simply grinned wider, her eyes flashing. "I like it when they play hard to get. Makes it more interesting." The pair ran at each other, and a scuffle occurred, leading to the both of them rolling on the ground in a fight to get out on top.

"We need to get to the source!" I shouted to Parker. "If we can take her out Rhiannon will snap out of it!" He nodded, and after one last look back at the two teenagers, we headed into the brush as silently as possible. "Be ready to cover your ears if you have to," I whispered, grasping the rough bark of an oak tree and peering around it. In front of me was a young girl, no more than seven or eight, sucking on a lollipop and lying on her back on a log. I put my hand over my mouth to stifle my sound of shock, and her eyes popped open as she sat up. We ducked back behind the tree, waiting until it was silent once more to peek back over. She had returned to her original position. Nausea engulfed me as I watched this carefree little girl eat candy and bask in the night air as she made our friend try to kill us. Was she even aware of what she was doing? How young was she injected with those mystery drugs to give her this horrific ability? I managed to keep my composure this time as I saw a small pocket knife glint in the moonlight in the grass next to her log. I motioned for Parker and I to retreat, and when we got to a spot where I thought it was safe for her to not hear us, I murmured, "we need to hurry and get that knife away from that girl. I'm afraid we're going to need to either threaten her or... hurt her."

Even in the dark of night, I could see him pale. "You... really think it's going to come to that?"

I grimaced. "Unfortunately, yes. You've seen what she did to Rhiannon, and what Rhiannon might do to Dakota." I paused, thinking. "Do you think you can use some water to lift it away from her?"

"Don't you literally have telekinesis?"

"Oh. Right." I started toward our hiding spot but hesitated. Was it really worth it to risk hurting everyone and temporarily losing myself in the process?

"Whatever you're thinking, stop. You've got this. This is exactly what Rhiannon was talking about earlier- you need to learn to control it one way or another. We were given an upper hand, so we need to use it."

I studied Parker carefully. He stared back at me shamelessly, his red-and-black hat sitting crooked on the crown of his head. Despite his proud, confident appearance, I knew we were all suffering and couldn't go on like this for much longer. His tattered shirt and torn jeans were evidence enough. Dakota was back there fighting for his life against someone with ten times his experience and was relying entirely on his strength to keep him alive. Delilah had probably crawled off somewhere to die. This was our only chance; after all, how much worse could this make our situation? We were already probably not going to get out of it alive. At least with this, we'd have a chance.

Wordlessly, I nodded. I had to do this. It was our only shot of getting out of here alive.

I grabbed Parker's hand to lead him behind me and we carefully made our way back to our hiding spot. I motioned for him to hold onto me in case I fell over and narrowed my eyes on the knife. Something pulled in my mind and it shot into the air. Oops. Too hard. The female shot up at the sudden movement and, in her haste, impaled herself on the floating dagger. I gasped, rushing forward to catch her as she fell backward, crimson seeping through her shirt and pooling in the ground below. Shaking, I whispered, "No, no, no, no, no, wake up, oh god, we're going to get this out of you, oh god, you're going to live through this, please don't die, I didn't mean for you to die..." She didn't respond. I sobbed, my chest shaking as I held back the louder wails. I couldn't stop staring at her small form lying in my lap. She was already turning cold.

"Carson, it wasn't your fault," Parker told me, keeping his voice low as though I was a wild animal he didn't want to scare away.

"Yes, it definitely was," I answered quietly. I was shaking uncontrollably as I stood, carefully resting the body where it laid on the log just a few moments before. "I know I said I would do it if it came down to it, but oh god, I didn't expect to actually kill the girl. She couldn't have been more than eight, Parker. Eight years old. She didn't know what she was doing, she was innocent, she was-"

The boy wrapped me in a hug, resting his head on my shoulder. My eyes rested on my bloody hands, scarlet liquid dripping from my fingernails. I'd actually done it. Sobs racked my body and I sunk to the ground, Parker sinking with me in an attempt to comfort me in any way that he could. Ugly cries racked my body, and I coughed violently, tears making a mess of my face and cutting through the blood drying on my skin. I'd killed someone. I'd actually killed someone.

"Carson. Hey, Carson?" I turned my head up to meet his eyes and searched them. Was he scared of me? Did he think he was next? All I found in his dull amber eyes was pity. Despite my actions, he wasn't the slightest bit afraid, and in that realization, I found more comfort than words could have ever given to me. "I know you're terrified and upset, and you have every right to be, but we really need to go see if Dakota needs any help." At his soft but forceful words, he helped me to my feet, and though I could still feel tremors making their way through my body, I was able to walk by myself.

A feminine scream pierced my ears, and it was one of rage, not terror. "It didn't work," I blubbered. "She died for nothing, Parker. The girl died for nothing. Rhiannon is still trying to kill us."

"I'm sure it wasn't for nothing," Parker soothed, but his voice was on edge. "Come on. We need to get in there."

I stumbled over the tree roots and plants that were in my way in my haste to get to our camp. Dakota could only hold out so long. I could mourn the girl and give her a proper burial later, but for now, I needed to focus. We sprinted into the clearing, skidding to a halt as we took in the scene around us.

Dakota seemed to be fairing pretty well; it seemed that Rhiannon was playing the game fairly. No limbs had been crushed so far. Rhiannon had a nose bleed and noticeable bruises forming on her exposed skin, but it seemed that she wasn't in as bad of shape as I'd expected. Both of them must have had trouble landing hits on each other; that, or they weren't showing their injuries.

"Look who joined the party," the girl laughed, cocking her head.

"I hope you didn't have too much fun without us."

"Nonsense," she drawled, her eyes flashing. Her pitch-black hair sat unnaturally on her shoulders as she continued. "The fun, in fact, has just begun."

She had a taste for theatrics, and because of her dramatic introduction, I saw her attacks coming. The teen sprinted toward me and I aimed to dodge, but she grabbed the back of my shirt- right between my wings- and threw me to the ground. She had a sickeningly sweet smile on her face as she planted a foot on my chest and aimed to brush her hand along my feathers. "It's time to sleep now, Siren."

Oh. Oh god. From dealing with the girl and having already been controlled today, I didn't know if I was strong enough to fight this off. It was so easy to sink back into the easy, lukewarm sea of emotions, but there was always going to be sharks in the water, lurking just under the surface, ready to strike. The shark- Rhiannon- was waiting for me to give in to the positive emotions. I had to stay above the water in the shallows where she couldn't reach me.

I felt my gaze focus again and my mind snap back into focus. Had I done it? Had I actually beat it, even with my state of exhaustion? No. No, I hadn't. The black-haired girl on top of me was nowhere to be seen. I lifted my head, looking around wildly, to find Parker raised off of the ground, his feet a foot from solid earth. "It's time I put an end to this," Rhiannon shouted.

"No! No, Rhiannon, it's not!" I stood frantically, my feet stumbling over each other to steady myself. "You've already done so much that you can't undo. The person who did this to you is..." I felt my throat close, but I spoke through it. "She's gone. Dead. Her body is rotting in the forest over there. She can't possibly be affecting you anymore, not enough to overwhelm you this much."

"This is what you're missing, Carson," she stated. "It's not just artificial fear that does this. The delicious horror that's pouring off of both the three of you and of my own vessel is enough to feed me and bring me out. All it takes is a catalyst, and I'm freed. My own disgust, deep within myself, is enough to keep me going. The only way to get your stupid friend back is to finish the job."

"No! No, it's not!"

"Enough talking!" She screamed, clutching at her head. It twitched back and forth like two people clutching for the same steering wheel. "I'm finishing this."

I watched in terror as she raised her hands methodically and swiftly. Before I even had time to react, the teen grinned and twisted her hand painfully slowly. Parker's eyes widened, and from the outside, it didn't look like anything was happening. That was, until his leg began to shrink.

Woah.

That was...

A lot of something.

As his limb shriveled, unknown substances poured out of it; I had to look away and vomit at the sight. It seemed as though it was never going away, the sounds and the smells and the sheer morbid sight behind me. Hours, days, weeks, months seemed to pass before she finished and the boy sunk to the ground. I turned around carefully and, doing my best to keep my focus off of the substances surrounding me, I attempted to tend to the boy's wound, which was bleeding quickly and violently. His lower left leg was... gone. It seemed like it was chopped off from the knee-down. I raced for the roll of gauze we had been using Delilah- the girl was still nowhere to be seen- and wrapped up the... hole? in his leg. The methodical process continued as I frantically tried to stop the bleeding, and to some extent, it worked. I was so focused on bandaging Parker that I forgot all about the older girl who was right above my head.

A loud thump broke my concentration and I looked up in shock. Delilah had appeared next to me and Rhiannon was on the ground, surprisingly close to me, rock clutched in her hand. Her red eyes were finally- finally- closed.

"I just saved your ass," she whispered, her throat scratchy from not being used.

Maniacally, I laughed. I actually giggled. I'd just killed a girl, had Dakota fight for his life, and now Parker was about to bleed out- and the entire time, that bitch could have just shown up and knocked her unconscious with a single tap of her finger. This wasn't funny at all, and yet I found myself cackling, tears tugging at the corner of my eyes and my hands slapping the ground as though this was the funniest thing I'd ever heard in my life. Oh my god. So much for giving her a chance. "Get. The hell. Over here. And help."

Delilah, surprisingly serious, nodded grimly and got to work cleaning him up. She focused on making sure the boy stayed awake while I held pressure on the wound. The warm crimson around my knees began to harden and stick to my skin as I sat and did everything I could to keep him alive. "Delilah. Stop crying." I glanced first at Parker, who had spoken, and then at the teenager with the gauze wrapping her neck, sobs racking her chest and tears leaking down her face. My heart hurt a little bit, but I ordered it to harden. She could have saved us so much pain today- someone's life- if she'd shown up sooner. Actually, she could have saved even more pain if she didn't run and hide every fight. This girl was the key to letting us win and getting us out of here, but she was too selfish to help in any way that would put her in danger. In some twisted way, what she was feeling right now was deserved.

"You can't die Parker. You can't die! Please stay awake!"

"I'm not going to die," he soothed. "It's alright. I trust Carson." My blood ran cold at that. "You should trust her too. She wouldn't let me, or anyone else, die in this hellhole."

Yeah. Right. I'd never let anyone die. He must've not heard when I told Rhiannon her tormenter was dead and rotting; that, or he didn't believe me.

"I'm pretty sure I've done everything I know how to do," I admitted. "From what I see, he's going to be fine, we just need to get him some medicine so it doesn't get infected. There's a pretty good chance it's going to, but we can try. Is anyone interested in taking a trip into town with me?"

"You can't go in the state you're in," Dakota says, walking over to where we were sitting. He had taken care of himself while we were fighting, but otherwise I wasn't certain why he didn't jump in earlier. After seeing him glance at Delilah, I could only assume he had gone to find her, but in the end now wasn't the time to ask. I looked down at the ground to study my appearance and found I was absolutely covered in blood. Most of it wasn't my own for obvious reasons, but he had a point.

"I'll clean up before we go. Somehow. We can try to take a detour before we go into the actual town. Hopefully no one takes any notice."

"Let's go, then."