Nov. 11, 2002/Nov. 15, 2002

He glanced down at my feet and then looked up at me. Then he sighed. "If we're quick about it." he said.

I followed Osamu down the steps and away from Nathaniel, leaving him to read my half-begun letter.

I followed Osamu back to the place where I'd met him. In the staircase. Looking now, the wall had been smashed open.

"That's how I got out," Osamu told me, his voice tight. "After you passed out, I clawed my way out of there, with my tail between my legs. I ended up running straight into Deborah, and she immediately knew what happened."

"Did you end up getting your reward?" I asked him. "Did she end up helping you?"

He looked away. "Yes, and no." He paused. "She gave me a dose of the antidote, but I have to keep injecting people if I want to wean off of Life's Blood safely at this point in the experiment."

I tried to restrain my jealousy and anger that was bubbling within me. "And you're trusting her not to kill you in the process?! You have no idea what that medicine is doing to you! And you're going to keep injecting people for this, I assume?!"

He shook his head. "No, Rena, in both senses. I don't trust her and you know that. And after I saw what was happening to you-- what I did to you-- I just can't do that to anybody else. And," he continued. "I'm far from Deborah's good side. I know that if I make one wrong move, I'd-I'd be toast! Burnt toast specifically."

His words softened the stone forming around the edges around my heart. "But you still went out of your way to save me?"

He nodded. "What's happening to you is my fault, and I admit that freely."

I shook my head, but offered him a smile. "It's not really, really, but thank you." I said.

He lifted his hand to point at the break in the wall. "You first," he said. "I'll keep watch. Just in case."

"Thanks," I told him as I turned away and stepped through the hold he'd made 6 days ago.

Oddly, enough, as ominous and scary it felt to be back, it felt just as comforting, if not more comforting than any other emotion. I tried to shrug off the feeling of comfort that was bleeding within me.

It was the kind of comfort that made my stomach churn and my mind hazy. It was the comfort of being under a blanket, but instead of a normal blanket it was a blanket of fog.

It took only a few glimpses for my eyes to adjust. Someone had turned off the light at some point. Blankets were strewn on the ground and torn up against the walls, one of which had a gaping hole. I turned away, it was the one that Osamu had broken through to inject me.

Even though I told him it wasn't his fault, I couldn't quite disagree completely. He had practically destroyed any hope I had for a happy life by breaking down and relenting to Deborah. I would have been better than him. I wouldn't have let Deborah get to me like she had gotten to him, manipulating him.

No. That's the wrong way to think. I told myself as I moved aside blankets to find my shoe. He's suffering too. Someone injected him too. Don't think of yourself all the time, Hoo. Keep an open mind. OH! There it is! I spotted my shoe in the corner, and in my rush to get over there, accidentally knocked a canister to the floor, causing a bit of a ruckus to be made. I paused for a moment, waiting to see if I'd annoyed Osamu or not, but I didn't hear anything, so I continued as if nothing happened.

I stooped down to my shoe and found my sock stuffed inside. I gently pulled the sock, the tip of it brown from my dried blood, and slid my foot inside the shoe. I laced up my shoe and stood up, wobbling for a moment. I stood very still for a moment and squeezed my eyes shut. I hadn't had my left shoe on since before I got injected, and it already felt foreign on my foot. I waited for my body, or at least the serum in my body, to adjust to the change in balance.

Once I felt stable, I opened my eyes again.

I turned around and headed for the exit hole. "Osamu, I found it!" I said excitedly as I rounded the corner.

I stood shock still.

I saw her first. Her with her flashing snake-like eyes. Her with her cat-eyes glasses. Her with the meanest look I'd seen on her yet. Her with a gun in her hands. It had a long thick needle attached to it.

A serum gun. Not pointed at me, but at Osamu. Centimeters away from his neck.

I saw him second. Him with fear and woe in his eyes. Him at her very whim. Him unable to do anything but what she tells him. Him looking up at me, begging for forgiveness.

I wanted to run out. I wanted out of this. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. But-- but it was no nightmare. That's what I hated about it. There was no nightmare to wake up from.

There was steel in her voice when she spoke. "Not another step, Rena Hoo."

Like I was going to move towards her... but was she counting backwards as well? "You too, Subject 58." she spat at him as she walked tauntingly towards me. Well, if she counted backwards, I wasn't going to take that chance.

I stood perfectly still, refusing to move backwards, but shaking all the same. Each step she took closer to me drove fear into me like a spear, but so did a touch of relief. Osamu was getting progressively one step away from instant pain the closer she stepped to me.

If I was going to die right here right now, at least I'd make every effort so that Osamu might be able to get out of here alive. "What are you going to do to me?" I asked, putting a bit of force into my words, refusing to let my voice quaver. "Go ahead. Inject me."

She was right up in my face. My eyes were level with her mouth.

"Did you think that I wasn't expecting this? Did you honestly think that?" She laughed. "Of course you did. Because you're foolish, Rena Hoo." She smiled. "Foolish."

I let her words fall like dust on the floor. "You're the one who's really foolish, Deborah." She laughed. "I'm serious." I told her. "You think that you won't be caught?! Well, I hate to break it to you, but the police are on to you. There's an undercover officer on the case."

Her mouth twisted into a wry grin. "Oh, I know that. I'm well-acquainted with him." I wasn't sure if she was telling me the truth. Judging by her manipulative record, she probably wasn't.

I had to keep her distracted for Osamu, or for someone to come and stop her. "So then you must know all about the incident." I said pointedly.

She scowled. "YOU know NOTHING about the incident." Why wasn't Osamu moving?! "Then again, I wouldn't expect you to. I told Wesley you were useless, but I think I was wrong."

She pulled the serum gun up and pressed the dull side of its tip to my neck, hard enough for it to hurt, but not hard enough for it to break my skin. She traced a line down my neck, ever so slowly, as if she was carving my neck apart.

"You're a great bargaining tool. And such a sweet subject to experiment on. You're always so devoted to not giving up." She removed the needle from my neck before pressing it against me even harder. Just get out of here, Osamu! Spots swam before my eyes, but I was able to blink a lot of them away.

"And so innocent too. I didn't want to be the one to tell you, but Osamu works for me. He works for me. He's done everything I've told him to. From injecting you, to bringing you here. And all for this," she said triumphantly as she held up a vial.

I felt a stab in my gut. 

The vial glinted an innocent blue, a stark contrast to the red Life's Blood and counteragent mixture I saw in the serum gun.

"Rena," I heard Osamu plead softly.

But everything had turned stale. I couldn't move. I found myself staring unblinkingly past Deborah.

It was a lie. Was it all a lie? Why was it a lie? Why did he lie to me? I was gasping for air, drowning in lies.

"Rena," I heard Osamu say.

I heard his words echoing in my mind. "She's a manipulator...You don't know how much she manipulates....I'm on her bad side...One wrong move and I'm toast."​

She was swirling the blue liquid in the vial and saying something, "Lies. They were all lies. Lie after lie after lie."

"Let her die in peace, Deborah, please." Someone was begging her. I felt myself blink slowly.

"Silence, Liar."

Lies. Lies. Lies.​

It hit me. "Lies." I croaked. "Liar. Lies. Lying." My sanity began to come back to me with each syllable. I breathed in slowly. My gut ached.

Deborah pressed the serum gun into my palm. My fingers found their way to hold it. She pushed me towards Osamu, who was standing there with bloodshot eyes. "He lied." she said, danger seeping into her voice.

I turned the serum gun over in my hands.

He never lied to me.​ He always told me the truth. Why did she give me this?

Osamu stood perfectly still and I tilted my head to look up at him. I breathed out, and "Lies," escaped my mouth, with a hint of realization seeping through.

My fingers tensed on the trigger. I only had one shot at this. Osamu shut his eyes, before changing his mind and opening them. A whirring noise came from the serum gun. I took a ragged breath.

It all happened in a blur.

I whirled around and aimed for her neck. Her-

-her hand met mine and twisted the gun out of my hand. She tossed me to the ground and

pounced on top of-

-Osamu.

For some reason, I couldn't pull myself off of the ground. Osamu cried out, brutally in pain, a single time. Deborah tossed the serum gun over to me and it clattered on the ground, empty.

"Rena," Osamu whispered, his teeth gritted.

"Osamu." I coughed.

"You're bleeding," Osamu managed to say before falling to the ground.

"Osamu," I whispered. I pulled myself onto my knees and tried to make it to his side. My strength was gone. I collapsed to the ground, and reached out with my arm to try and reach him. I couldn't.

I couldn't reach him. Despair sunk in me like rock. 

Deborah was walking towards me. She stepped on my outstretched hand, putting all of her weight onto my hand. I was too weak to cry out in pain.

"I'm sorry Rena," whispered Osamu. "Whatever I do, just know tha-a---" His voice got cut off by a kick from Deborah in the side.

Tears dribbled down my cheek and onto the ground. "I know." I said.

My gut was throbbing. I pressed my free hand against my burning stomach. There was a thin hole I felt in my belly. I knew it had to be deeper than I thought.

Deborah had stabbed me.

"Deborah, what happened!?" Someone called. I recognized the voice. "HOO!" he cried, spotting me.

"She injected Subject 58 and he stabbed her!" Deborah claimed, somehow almost convincing me. How was she always so convincing in her lies?

I felt Osamu shake the floor and roll over towards me. I reached out with all my might for his hand. My hand was so weak and the muscles felt crushed.

But then I hit his hand. Just the tip. Just the tip of his finger I felt. And that's all I needed.

Nov. 14, 2002/Nov. 15, 2002

"Hoo, thank goodness you're still alive," Nathaniel was saying. I blinked a few times. I was sitting in a seat, and I glanced down at my belly area to see it all wrapped up. "They fixed your..wound. You were out for two days. Technically three."

Deborah was standing behind Nathaniel. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could, Deborah told him to leave, or told a doctor to get me out of there. I don't remember which, but Nathaniel was gone and I was taken up a flight of stairs and put in a room with white walls and a single locked door. I was also alone.

I sat down wearily on the wooden floor.

What had happened to Osamu? Where was he? Is he okay? I wondered over and over again.

The handle on the door flicked downwards and it creaked open. I tensed, expecting it to be Deborah.

But the door opened and it wasn't Deborah. And it wasn't Nathaniel.

It was Osamu.

I remained perfectly still, not sure if he was okay or not.

His eyes lit up when he saw me and he entered fully into the room, closing the door behind him. My heart sank when I heard the dead bolt lock click inside the doorframe.

"Rena?" he asked me hopefully.

I nodded, a bit frightened. "Osamu?" I asked him.

He narrowed his eyes and his forehead creased. "No," he said with meaning, "No, I'm- I'm-- That's my brother's name."

He sat down on the floor next to me. "Are you okay?" he asked me.

I felt tears threatening to blur my vision. He was acting like this was normal. Like he wasn't, he wasn't-- "I'm fine." I told him, "I can't believe I was out for two days.. are you okay?"