(Stella's POV)

This was growing out of my hands.

Inocencio wasn't who I considered him to be.

Carabeth wasn't as sweet as she seemed and wasn't even related to Theodore Walson, yet, she used his last name and they weren't even espoused.

The guy, Theodore is a total pervert. Slept with housemaids and made pervy annotations for all the obligations I did.

I demanded to notify Livia to some extent. She is the only family and asset that I have left.

AEF is going down to ashes and we need to vacate right now but then there is Carabeth and Theodore.

I need to start planning our revolution before I am 'presented' to Inocencio. Carabeth wants me to marry him and accommodate him in the dictatorship, as his trophy wife who can only pop out kids with no opinions.

I looked at the flamboyant gown that I was forced to dress in. Carabeth was the female Devil who ridiculed and humiliated me.

And what was the 'humiliation'? It was that she would have Oliv thrown out the Facility in a day and even more dangerous- she'd have her as a toy for Theodore.

She is my baby sister!

I was letting the droplets fall as I let my head engulf in all the hatred that was billowing up in my capillaries.

I know, I was Stella Renee, the Supermodel, the lady to be espousing with the popular Inocencio Ginio, I was supposed to be fortunate but I wasn't and could never be.

Oliv was never supposed to end up in CEF, her parents desired her for as far as I could remember. But they never could have had her as a different duo declared her as theirs and then it became a huge dilemma and the Jury declared that none of them were her bloodlines. After a week, statements were that a day after giving birth to Olivia Huntingdon, her mama, Talia Anaasi Huntingdon had died. Then she was sent away to CEF.

"Stella!" That was Olivia's voice!

I would crumble if anything happened to her.

Before I knew my door was busted down to bits of wood chips of sandalwood.

Two men costumed and cloaked in black barged in with a mallet and an atomizer that was pointed to the bird crest necklace tied around my neck and one of them growled: "Are you Stella Renee?!" It was more likely a declaration than a question.

"Yes" I stammered and the mallet guy motioned me to stand up and tugged me by my hair the atomizer guy angled the atomizer to my stomach and dragged me out of the room by my hair and I had never been so glad to see Carabeth.

"I thought I told you to beat them and paralyze them," Carabeth lamented in my direction and said in utter repugnance to me "Well, the rodent has been caught by the cats, hasn't it?"

Rodent?

"Carabeth?" was all I could utter before being hauled to the nearby room and flung on the floor like the ragdoll all the girls in CEF acquired as presents and engaged with.

One of them entered the putrid room held the foam-covered mallet up to my head and smashed it to my head.

My vision blemished and I was beginning to feel vague. "Rodents are anticipated to be exterminated and inundated where swine rest."

Why would I be called a rodent? I have been the most dependable in this place.

I felt like I was dying but the only name that was giving me the will to get up was Olivia and me being there for her "Stay down. The other girl, what was her name? Oh, yes, Olivia was much easier and gave up by the time we lashed her back." he said

Olivia! My sister was being lacerated by those monsters and I am here trying to get past this mallet man.

One more blow and I was out.

____________________________________________

(Olivia's POV)

That still hurt. That punch in the stomach got me cradling to the ground and that pain wouldn't crack down on me.

All I heard was monotonous noises and things being clashed.

My head felt a bit too light and my vision dimmed but bright enough to see that I was placed on a hard bed and I was stripped, my head was fastened to two alloy hooks that appeared to hold my head in a position.

Wait, two metals holding my head!?!

The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" was playing and some guy was singing along in the most horrible toning possible, "Ah, look at all the lonely people" he sang until my ears throbbed and I was feeling nauseous and then more clashing of metal came and I was hoping that I could just have all this situation gone forever.

"Ah, I hope she doesn't wake up yet." The singer said and then walked over to me and thrust a syringe into my abdomen; I couldn't pretend any longer and shrieked and the guy slapped a palm over my lips and said: "Keep still, or else Carabeth will have us both killed if you don't cooperate in her work." I gawked at him as he lifted his fingers from my lips and I said: "Let go of me! You pervy monkey! I need to see Stella, immediately!"

Before I knew an unyielding slap was given to my side cheek and I whimpered as the man brushed my painful cheek, and said in a harsh tone "You need to welcome the process or the consequence will be much more dangerous than you would ever understand in that pretty little head. Do we have an agreement now?"

I nodded and I was suddenly feeling somnolent and apathetic but he spoke, "You'll be happy if you let me work."

My eyes shut and I may never have been so grateful for the deathlike feeling that crept onto my back as I slept like the dead.

______________________________________________

(Two hours later)

I woke up, realizing that rather than being on my Facility bed I was actually on a cold, hard table, in a dark room. A deep voice said in a monotonous voice, "Sorry! Due to technical difficulties, the simulation has been interrupted. Normal services will resume shortly." 

Moments pass and I fall asleep, tired. I wake in a softer and plushier bed sometime later, on what appears to be as normal a day as any other. 

I woke up from the disturbing sleep in an empty room next to a sealed envelope that seemed to have a letter in it. I grabbed a fine-linen material envelope and read the inside note as fast as I possibly could:

Dear You,
The body you are wearing used to be mine.
I'm writing this letter to you for your survival.
I hope you survive better than me and do whatever you are asked to do or else they will make you live to regret it.
I would tell you more but the rest is...complicated.
All the best.
Yours,
Stella Renee

Who is Stella Renee? 

I shrugged it off and got up from the bed, stretched my arms, and heaved a surprising sigh.

I started humming a song and started dancing as I slid around the room, exploring.

The knock interrupted my investigation. I walked to the door and opened it, and a woman with mahogany hair, dressed in a strapless white sweetheart shirt that fell till her knees and a black legging with a pair of black and white Adidas.

She looked impressive.

She held her hand out for me to shake it, I shook it and a strange feeling enveloped me, it was my instincts telling me to run.

"Hi, you're Stella, right?" She said.

My name? What was it? I forgot my name.

"Yes," I stammered nervously, and it came out more like a question than a statement.

"I am Carabeth, Cara for you," she said and started fidgeting with her hands.

'Run' my brain chanted but I ignored the throbbing sensation growing in my bones. "Is it always this cold here?" I asked as I  rubbed my sides and she just looked at me as if she knew something was off.

"Yeah," she said slowly, "if you like, you could borrow my clothes for today and we'll go shopping tomorrow, sounds good?" 

"Yeah," I said as I nodded and then ushered her into my room, embarrassingly I didn't know much about the room or the place I'd be living in, "I'd love to give you a tour of the house once you freshen up." She spontaneously.

I went to freshen up but something was wrong.