It took precisely three seconds for Kyla to get back to her senses. 

Oh no. No no. This couldn't be happening. 

Her evening had gone very, very wrong. 

She threw her full weight against the door, crying out when her shoulder hit the metal. The bang it created rang throughout the small, narrow room. 

"ARWEN!" Kyla screamed at the top of her lungs, "You bloody fucking liar, let me out!"

She kicked the door, screamed all sorts of absurdities and used obscene language she had never used in her life. 

Her phone. 

She was an idiot. 

She still had her phone. 

Kyla slumped against the door and searched the two pockets of her jeans. Then she searched again, because maybe she had just missed it. 

But she didn't have her phone. 

Her only means of communicating with anyone was gone. 

Breaking out in a cold sweat, she looked around. The single incandescent tube on the wall cast a clinical and agitating white light down on the room. It was the kind of white in hospital wards. Kyla had always hated hospital wards. 

At the back of her mind, she was panicking about where the others were, about what had happened to them. 

But she couldn't worry about them before getting out herself. 

There was a glass panel in the door. 

In one last, desperate attempt, Kyla rammed into the door a few more times. It rattled and banged loudly each time, but the lock didn't give. 

So Kyla laid herself flat on the floor. She made up her mind to kick through the glass.

Puffing out fast breaths, she kicked at the glass with all her might. A shock of pain shot up from her feet all the way to her spine. In spite of that, she kept trying. 

After five whole minutes of trying, Kyla had a sprained ankle, split knuckles and a massive panic attack beginning to build up. 

She collapsed against the door again, breathing heavily. 

A pair of feet appeared beyond the door. She could see the combat boots with the undone buckles. She hadn't even seen the person yet, but panic bloomed in her chest. She pressed herself against the opposite wall.

The door opened. The yellow light from outside contrasted with the sickly white inside, and Kyla was blinded for a few brief moments. 

"Get out."

It wasn't Arwen. That was a relief. Kyla pushed herself to her feet, and a strong hand gripped her arm. 

"Where are my friends?" Kyla asked instantly. 

Her vision adjusted. 

It was a girl. Probably a year older than Kyla. Short blonde hair framed her face like curtains at a theatre. Hooded, russet brown eyes glinted dully in the yellow light. There was a small scar over her eyebrow, and another below her left eye along the plain of her cheek. 

"Stay calm," She began walking, pulling Kyla along with her. 

"Who're you?" Kyla asked, limping along to keep up with the girl's quick pace. 

"I'm Ada."

They turned a corner into a longer hallway. 

"Where are we?" Kyla could make neither head nor tail of the location. The stone walls and stone floors and cracks screamed 'ancient ruins' but the metal doors they walked past, the light bulbs, the clinical white of the room she had been in and the few people around them said 'ancient ruins but with new things'. 

"Zip it before I taze you."

Aghast, Kyla turned her horrified eyes on Ada. Ada noticed and shook her head, "I was joking."

"It didn't sound like it," Kyla retorted. 

"Oh, hey Ada!" 

The loud voice startled Kyla and she turned out ready to strike, but stopped.

Kyla wrenched herself out of Ada's hold and launched herself at Dana, who was with a grinning and long-haired boy. He was wearing a worn out jacket and had an ear piercing, and was the one who had greeted Ada.

"Mac," Ada lifted her chin in acknowledgement. 

"Kyla, what the hell is going on?" Dana whispered frantically. 

"I don't know, I don't—did you see the others?" Kyla was pulled away from Dana before she could get an answer. 

"Talk later, not now," Ada warned, "Wait until no one can hear us."

Her heart was beating painfully fast in her chest, but something told her that Ada wouldn't harm her. Neither would that boy who she had called Mac. 

"So, what's your name?" Mac asked pleasantly as if everything was completely normal and peachy. 

"Who are you guys?" Kyla shot back instead, "What's going on?"

"Was I this loud and curious when I first came here?" Mac asked, leaning towards Ada. 

"No, you were knocked unconscious," Ada said without a trace of a smile on her face. 

"Right," Mac nodded, laughing as if at a fond memory. 

They climbed up what seemed to be a never-ending spiral staircase, passing a few doors along the way. When they stopped at a landing, Mac knocked on the only door on the level. 

It opened, and Kyla caught a glimpse of several beds inside before the doorway was blocked by a form taller than even Arwen's. 

"What kind of fucking time is this to bring in new people? And didn't we just get one three days back?" 

The boy clicked his tongue and stepped aside. Ada and Mac pushed Kyla and Dana inside. 

"Close the door, Drawstring, we'll talk it out," Ada said in her unattached monotone. 

What kind of name was Drawstring?

It was some sort of dormitory. It was long enough to accommodate six single beds placed parallelly, and wide enough to allow two such rows of beds to fit while leaving enough room for sufficient movement. The floor had white tiles on it, and more of the white bulbs in translucent holders mounted on the stone walls. The contrast between the stone walls and tiles was almost too much. 

Kyla and Dana stayed near the door, afraid to walk further into the room. 

Drawstring towered over them, and while holding their gaze with his fiery glare he locked the door. 

"Stop scaring them." 

"Dont fucking tell me what to do, Penny," Drawstring said bitterly. 

Drawstring was intimidating. His mouth was turned down in what appeared to be a permanent scowl. He had the beginnings of a mustache. His long arms were peppered with small scars and words scrawled with pens. Kyla managed to read some of them, and found that they were reminders and timetables. 

There were two other people. 

The girl called Penny had straggly dark hair that fell just beyond her shoulders. There was a small bunch of wilted flowers in the front pockets of her light denim jacket. A small birthmark on the side of her neck stood out prominently against her pale skin. 

"Bucktooth, come say hi," Penny said cheerfully. She slid off her bed and came to greet Kyla and Dana, "I'm Penny."

"And I'm confused as to what's going on," Kyla said, not feeling even a least bit guilty at ignoring the girl's outstretched hand. 

"Gosh."

The other last remaining occupant of the room stood from where he had been sitting on the floor and tinkering with something. He pushed his cracked glasses up his nose and brushed some of his sandy hair out of his face. His name had probably been earned because of his large front teeth.

Ada had been quietly observing the ongoings from her bed, and she spoke, "Look. We'll answer your questions. First you both need to calm down. Pick a bed on the other side."

~~

Penny and Mac were helping Kyla clean her split knuckles using some fabric and water from a water bottle that Mac had procured from under his bed. Ada had 'fixed' Kyla's sprained ankle by forcing it to move using her hands. 

"Who found you?" Penny asked casually. 

Kyla exchanged a look with Dana. 

"We found someone in the woods," Kyla said carefully, "But before I tell you the story I need you to promise you won't be doing anything to my friends or me."

"Gosh, we won't," Bucktooth shook his head. He was tending to a cut on Dana's hand. 

Well, that was a feeble reassurance.

Drawstring was still glaring at Kyla with utmost loathing. 

"Fine then," Kyla said. The small silence was filled with water falling back into the bottle from the cloth which Mac was wringing before putting away. 

"We were in Graves Park," Kyla said, "We heard someone and thought they'd be hurt, so we followed the sound into the woods. There was a girl—"

"What did she look like?" Bucktooth cut in hastily. He avoided meeting Kyla's eyes and trained his gaze on Dana's hand instead. 

Kyla had, in fact, noticed how the girl looked. But she hadn't wanted to let Arwen know that she had. 

"Her hair was in a braid," Kyla said, recalling the girl and shuddering when the image of her dead, lifeless form resurfaced in her head, "Light eyes."

"Fuck," Bucktooth was out of the room in four strides. His jaw had gone tight, and he covered his mouth with his hand just before the door slammed shut. 

A tense silence followed in which everyone except Dana and Kyla looked down at the floor. 

"Did he know her?" Dana asked slowly. 

"Oh, we all knew her," Penny sniffed, "Her name was Thalia. She came here only last year, I think. Always talking about a way to get out."

"Arwen got to know and ordered for her to be killed before she could influence the others," Ada said, pulling out a pen from her pocket and examining it deeply for no apparent reason. 

"She and Bucktooth were…" Mac raised his eyebrows and debated on the right word, "Good friends."

"They were dating," Penny clarified. Turning around, she pointed to the unoccupied bed at the farthest end, "That was Thalia's."

Kyla was only just noticing that the room had three windows. They were the gothic kind she had only ever seen in books and on the internet. There were no handles to open them. Just glass. 

"I'm sorry," Dana said when silence had reigned for two minutes. 

Nobody said anything in answer.

"So...Arwen does all this?" Kyla questioned. Her hate for Arwen grew to unimaginable extents. 

"No, Arwen's one of the Gatherers," Drawstring said, crossing his arms and tilting his head.

"What's a gatherer?" Kyla was full to the brim with questions. And fear, but the curiosity drowned out the fear for the moment.

"The people who've spent their life here up until they reach the age of twenty," Ada explained, sitting down on her bed and lifting one boot-clad leg over the bedstead, "They get sent out into the world to gather more people and send them here."

"What the bloody hell for?" Kyla's fear and panic and curiosity was mingling with fury. 

"Calm down, birdy," Mac said, laughing a little. 

"Don't ask me to calm down, we were just abducted," Kyla snapped. 

"Give us five minutes to explain everything," Mac said, holding up five fingers to emphasize his meaning. 

"Go on, then," Dana pulled her legs up onto the bed and crossed her arms, pulling the expression of a confused and angry child. 

"So, this place is called the House," Ada was peeling off her outer jacket to reveal a faded maroon t-shirt, "It's where the Gatherers bring all the people. The House is an abandoned ruin deep in the woods of somewhere—zip it, nobody knows where exactly this is, let me finish— and is run by the High Lord. He claims he's a scientist—"

"He's just crazy," Mac interrupted. 

"—and that he's working on something. He needs us for his...for his experiments. We're his test products. He...modifies us to suit his needs, and gives us different abilities.

"The Gatherers bring in new people whenever they can. Mostly it's orphans, who they bring in young because they can be influenced easily, but sometimes it's people your age. The second case involves lots of complex procedures and is mostly avoided.

"I think Arwen thought you were suspicious after what you had seen and what Thalia told you. You would let other people know if something wasn't done to you. So he brought you here to stop you from drawing attention. 

"Everyone who is brought here is never allowed outside. There are dormitories and rooms arranged on every floor, and all of them are impenetrable after lights-out. A group of modified people called the Elite patrol the corridors after lights-out. They don't think, don't feel. They only do what they are told. The High Lord always said it's a special honour to be chosen to become an Elite. The people he chooses have seperate holding chambers."

Ada paused here and her eyes glazed over before she quickly shook her head and went on, "Anyone who tries to get out dies. We know because we've seen people try and fail. The High Lord has their bodies put in glass cases as examples of what happens to anyone who tries to leave."

Feeling nauseous, Kyla swallowed several times to keep the sensation down. 

Ada was talking about things from dystopian novels and movies and fantastical stories that people liked to read about and see movies about and which could not, by any means, be real. None of it made any sense and Kyla expected someone to yell 'Ha! Pranked you!' at any moment. But nobody did that. 

The door clicked open and Bucktooth walked in, followed by—

Kyla was already shooting across the room to get to Jack, Shay and Maisie, but she stopped with a gasp of horror when she saw Shay's face. 

"I'm fine," Shay rasped, "Oh, gods— I need to sit down."

A girl with startlingly bright red hair was behind them, along with another girl with green-blue dyed hair. 

"I got there first, Lora."

The dyed-hair girl looked livid, "You think i care who gets there first?"

"Exactly, you don't. All you care about is getting extra credit," the girl with red hair spoke with a slightly drawn out smolder, which was surprisingly attractive. She went on, "Go kiss Alessandro's ass, do him a favour. Go become whatever great Gatherer you want to, you have my blessing."

Lora struck out at the other girl and caught her jaw.

Everyone inside roared in protest, and Drawstring moved forward, "Get the fuck away from here before we all kill you one by one."

He looked thunderous.

"Get the fuck out of here, Lora, you don't want to be caught out when the lights go out," Ada said, monotonous but threatening. 

Lora glared at all of them, "You've all gone soft. Have the newbies, I don't care. Everyone knows who's going to make a better Gatherer."

Wiping the side of her mouth, Lora glared straight at Kyla. Then she turned and walked off down the stairs. 

The red haired girl shouted a few curses after her, then walked inside and shut the door. Looking grim, she raised her chin in Shay's direction.

 "This one wouldn't stop struggling. Arwen allowed Derek and Freya to have their way with him just to get him to shut up."

Swallowing painfully, Kyla helped Shay get to the nearest bed, where he sat down gratefully. 

Jack and Maisie, looking shaken and terrified, and angry in the former's case, stayed standing. 

"What in the name of all that is good is going on?" Maisie asked the room at large. 

Mac was by her side in an instant, brushing her hair from her face, "You've got a bruised eye, did you know that, darling?"

Nobody could get a single word in before Maisie socked Mac in the face. Kyla let out a small sound of surprise. Bucktooth bit down on his fist and Drawstring's look of rage slowly changed into a smirk.

Swearing violently, Mac stumbled to his feet, "Oh my fuck…"

Maisie flexed her fingers, "Don't call me darling and do not touch me."

Mac moved his jaw slowly, "I was just trying to help you, you stupid birdy!" 

"Why does he call everyone birdy?" Dana whispered to Penny. 

"No one knows," Penny shrugged, "Mac came here as an eleven-year-old. He had his old memories erased because he would not stop crying about them."

"Had his old memories erased?" Kyla demanded in a scandalised whisper. Shay winced when her fingers accidentally grazed a bruise on his arm. 

All the lights of the room went out, plunging their surroundings into darkness. 

"Don't worry, it's just time for lights-out," Ada's voice said tonelessly from Kyla's right. 

Shay's hand found Kyla's, and they sat very still for the next few seconds. 

"Ruby, do your thing."

The redhead made a non-committal sound. A sound similar to that of a match being struck reached Kyla's ears, and then Ruby was holding up her hand with all her fingertips set aflame. 

"Holy mother of God!" 

Jack and Maisie backed away from Ruby as fast as they could. Kyla's throat ran dry, and Shay was visibly sweating. 

"How—how the absolute f—"

"Do any of you ever fucking shut up?" Drawstring drawled in a bored manner. 

"How is she doing that?" Maisie shrieked, "What kind of sick joke is this?" 

"Not a joke," Ruby perched herself leisurely on the bed at the very end of the second row, moving her fingers around as if she enjoyed being on fire. 

"She's resistant to fire," Ada explained, "And she can also produce fire if she tries hard enough."

The light from Ruby's flaming fingers caused everyone's face to be cast into flickering shadows. 

"That's what you meant you said you were modified?" Dana asked, sounding so nervous that Kyla was tempted to reach out and give her a hug. And she would have had it not been for Shay's slightly shaking hand in hers. 

"Yep," Penny nodded, "I can do this—"

She stood atop her bed and reached out to touch the stone ceiling. Her finger came in contact with the stone, and she lifted her legs off the mattress. 

"No way," Jack muttered feebly. 

Penny was moving around the ceiling with her hands. 

"She's like some sick cut-off from SpiderMan," Maisie said into her hands. 

Kyla couldn't believe her eyes, "How is this even possible?" 

Drawstring was smirking again, as if he enjoyed seeing the confusion and surprise.

The boy called Bucktooth answered, "Some stuff gets injected into them. They get connected to tubes and wires and such. Takes a week or so."

A feeble explanation.

"What about you four?" Kyla asked shakily, "Can you do these freakish things too?" 

"Birdy is rude," Mac commented, "I'm not modified yet. But I'm being trained on how to make poisons with the other Brewers."

"I'm not enhanced either," Bucktooth shrugged, "I'm a Tool-Maker. Tool-Makers make whatever the High Lord wants us to make."

"Bucktooth also makes other weapons unsolicited by the High Lord," Ruby said smugly.

Bucktooth rolled his eyes and tucked his arms around himself. His dark sweater almost blended in with the surrounding darkness. Whatever sorrow had gripped him before had vanished.

"Drawstring and Ada are Mindbenders and Fighters," Penny said. Now she was sitting cross-legged on the ceiling. Her hair fell down in a curtain. Had it not been for everyone being so calm, Kyla would have freaked out. 

"Mindbenders," Shay muttered, "Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse."

"Hey, I'm a Fighter too," Ruby said, yawning as she did. 

"This can't be real," Jack was shaking his head vehemently, "This can't be real, not at all. Rubbish. This is a joke and whoever thought this was a funny idea is going to be arrested."

"By who, Arwen the Officer?" Ada scoffed. 

Kyla turned her full attention to Shay. In the light of Ruby's fingers, it was a little harder to see his injuries properly. 

"Can someone please hand me the water?" Kyla looked to Ada. 

Ada tossed her the water bottle and she barely managed to catch it. 

"Do you need the cloth?" Mac asked, lifting the rag up. 

Shay groaned, "Has anyone ever washed that?" 

Mac shook his head as if it was no big deal. 

"Here, have this," Maisie took off her outer shirt. Mac wouldn't stop looking at her, as if wearing a t-shirt was the most sensual thing in the universe. When Maisie noticed, she flipped him off.

Kyla accepted the checkered shirt and folded it up before pouring some water onto it. 

"It'll sting," Kyla said sympathetically. 

Shay tried to smile bravely. 

"Ruby, go closer to them," Penny said politely. Ruby moved to sit next to Dana on the adjacent bed. 

Shay had a split lip as well. 

"What were you thinking?" Kyla demanded in a low voice, "Sometimes you're so stupid it makes me want to get your head checked."

Instead of answering her, Shay hissed when the cloth came in contact with his lip. 

Kyla had done this loads of times before at various football matches. Moving carefully, she cleaned up the dried blood and some dirt on his cheek. 

"Did Arwen do anything to you?" Shay asked, bending his head so that she could dab at a bruise on his jawline. 

"No, he just threw me in a room," Kyla said, exhaling slowly. 

The others had started talking again. 

Dana and Jack were arguing already, and Penny was trying to mediate from the ceiling. Ada was sitting silently, staring at Kyla.

It was unnerving, to say the least. 

Well, what about the situation wasn't unnerving? 

"You're hurt, just let me—"

"I am not hurt! It's just a scratch!"

"It's bleeding!"

"So? Haven't you ever seen bleeding wrists before?" 

Kyla looked around at Dana, who looked taken aback. 

"Come here," Dana ignored Jack's protests and pulled him to the farthest bed, where they began having a heated whispered conversation. 

"Are they always like that?" Ada asked, her eyebrows raised by just a fraction to indicate that she was mildly amused. 

"Almost always," Maisie said, huffing a laugh. 

Kyla wondered how Maisie put up with the pain. 

She quickly finished up with Shay's injuries. 

"There," Kyla said, and put Maisie's destroyed shirt down. Shay smiled a little and nodded. 

"Thanks," he reached out to brush some imaginary dust off Kyla's face. 

A thump from the door caused Kyla's heart to jolt. 

"It's just Fritter, he's the Elite who stays here throughout the night," Bucktooth said. 

There was a silence that lasted for half a minute. The sound of insects chirping, although almost inaudible, was present. 

"We have to get back to our parents," Maisie said, her voice wobbling for the first time that evening. 

"You can't," Ada said vacantly. 

"Wh—why the hell not?" Shay questioned loudly.

"Zip it, or lower your voice," Ada said condescendingly.

"They'll have erased you by now," Drawstring said flippantly. 

A dull buzz invaded Kyla's hearing, "What?"

"Arwen would have ordered the Erasing by now," Penny explained, looking sympathetic, "Your parents won't remember you. No one will."