❛you make me feel like a ghost!❜

Growing up in a hidden facility as a human science project was, obviously, not a good way to grow up. The experiments started before they were even born. Most of the kids died soon after birth and if they didn't, it wasn't long before they dropped. It took The Visionaries quite a few trials and errors before they were able to get the kids to survive. It took even more trial and error after that to ensure that they possessed some kind of inhuman ability. None of the children were ever fully aware of their purposes. All they knew was that they had a higher purpose.

Over time, there were certain children that were pulled away from the others. These children were considered to have the strongest powers of the bunch. They were going to be the front line of whatever their higher purpose was. There were eight of these children. All locked away from the others and given far more extensive training than the others. They were prohibited from seeing the other children. The only people they ever saw were Fauna, guards, and the facilities doctors.

Out of all the people in the group, Milo spent most of his time with Melody-- despite the fact that she didn't like anyone in the group and tried to avoid Milo as she did with everyone. Being in such close quarters with the same people for so long caused most of the kids to be extremely distant from one another. They only really spoke during training, or if someone got into trouble. There never was much to talk about seeing as they never did anything or saw anything. Silence had become a good friend of theirs. The only kids who seemed to talk somewhat frequently were Tucker and Alistar, they were attached at the hip and always seemed to find something to talk about. Vera and Vincent were close when they came in but as time passed, they grew distant. There was still a strong twin bond there, they just rarely spoke anymore. No one really ever knew what to talk about. Their biggest topic of conversation was debating how the hell Tucker and Alistar always had something to talk about.

For the longest time, most of these children never questioned The Visionaries' intentions or their overall purpose in life. The only child to question everything was Melody. Because she heard them-- Fauna and The Visionaries. She heard them and she knew their plans. That's why the guards watched her. And that's why years later when she started spewing out some of what she knew during a fight with the guards, she was dragged from the room where the teens were kept. The other seven teens watched as she was dragged from the room. They had no clue where they were taking her but they were sure they wouldn't see her again. Kids had come and gone in their group-- they figured that this was what was happening with her. She was gone for a whole month. The only one who asked questions was Milo, but they were never answered. The kids had just begun figuring she was sent back to basic training. But after that month, the doors opened and they watched as the guards walked her to the kids' shared bedroom, laid her on her old bunk, and left. Everyone watched from the common room, staring at Melody on the bed. Milo was the only one who made his way into the room to check on her.

Milo hated remembering what happened after that. They weren't fond memories. And truthfully, the experience was traumatizing and painful for him. But what happened then eventually led to the children's escape. They took those who wished to go with them and left those who wanted to stay. Using Alistar's ability of Reality Warping, they were able to create a reality that The Visionaries and everyone in the facility lived in. A reality in which they, along with all the kids they helped escape, died while trying to escape. It was a dangerous and risky thing to do but it was their best option. And if they were to ever escape the fake reality, the escaped kids would be dead for sure.

After escaping, all the children and teens separated into their own groups and went on to start new lives. Milo and the seven other siblings he had grown up with stuck together for two years. For two years, they stayed together, finding solace in one another. Or at least they all thought they were. As it turned out, Milo was finding no solace there. After two years, Milo finalized his decision about leaving and being on his own. He loved them, sure. But he was incapable of finding relief surrounded by these people.

The day Milo announced that he would be leaving, he could see the looks of betrayal on the faces of those he called siblings. They were surprised and somewhat hurt by Milo's "sudden" decision to leave. They were unaware this was a decision a long time coming. They didn't understand why Milo would want to leave-- they were safer together. Even if The Visionaries didn't know that they were all still very much alive, the group still felt that they were safer in numbers. But Milo wouldn't listen. His mind was made up and he was determined to leave. There was nothing they could say or do to keep him there. Not even Melody could convince him to stay. Mandy had suggested that they could go with Milo wherever he wanted to go, but MIlo made it clear that he wanted to be alone. Very much against the group's wishes.

Truth be told, Milo had an increasingly hard time getting over the feeling of betrayal he still felt even after two years. Of course, it wasn't everyone's fault that he felt the way he did and he didn't blame them. But it wasn't like they helped him either. Constantly belittling him for still feeling hurt by Alistar's and Melody's decision two years prior. None of them seemed to understand why he felt the way he did and they sure didn't make any attempts to really understand-- despite their claims that they did understand. There was a small part of him that understood why Alistar and Melody didn't tell Milo about their plan, but he was still hurt.

Melody had been his best friend. He was the only person Melody ever talked to. Sure, she needed Alistar's ability for her plan. But didn't Milo deserve to, at the very least, know about the plan? Didn't he deserve to know Melody was intending on faking her death? Instead of having to believe that she was really dead? Instead of having nightmares for weeks straight about her death because he felt like he should've done more to help her? Instead of feeling like shit every day he woke up because he had lost his best friend? The experience was traumatizing for him and he still had trouble coping with it. The others just didn't seem to understand that. None of them were affected by Melody's "death" the way he was. They weren't close to her like he was. They didn't even really like Melody at the time. They didn't feel useless the way he had. They would never understand the way the situation made him feel because they didn't care about Melody the way he had at the time.

More than anything, he blamed The Visionaries for the pain and betrayal he felt. None of that would have ever happened if The Visionaries never existed. Granted, if The Visionaries never existed, neither would they. There were times that Milo believed that that would have been for the best. He had spent the first seventeen years of his life being trained to fight something later on in life. With no answers to what or why they would be fighting from The Visionaries, life always felt bleak. However, it felt even bleaker now.

Getting away from The Visionaries was the right plan of action, sure, but what now? What were they meant to do now? Start over and live a normal life? The others might have been able to do that, but not Milo. He wanted to forget those seventeen years more than anything but being surrounded by these "siblings" he couldn't. He always felt like an ass when thinking about it but they were constant reminders of the things they went through back with The Visionaries. Constant reminders that haunted him, both when he was awake and asleep. Milo felt that in order for him to move on, to start over, he had to get away. He had to be on his own. It wasn't like he was completely cutting the others from his life, he just couldn't see them every day.

This was something that Milo had to do for the sake of himself and he hoped that the others would come to understand that someday. He insisted he'd still call and check in every now and then. The others felt like that wasn't enough. In the end, it was the best that he could offer them. They would have to learn to make it enough.

From then on, Milo went by Graham, his middle name. The name Milo just reminded him too much of the facility. And truthfully, he didn't wanna be Milo anymore. He wanted to be someone else. He didn't like Milo. Milo felt always so useless and stupid. He didn't wanna be useless and stupid. It wasn't like he wanted Graham to be some hero or something, though. He didn't really wanna help people and be in the spotlight. He also didn't wanna be a villain, just going around and hurting random people. He wasn't sure who Graham was meant to be but for now, Graham was just someone somewhere in the middle ground of existing. And he was fine with that.

word count. 1664!
I rewrote the beginning of this and wanted this to be longer but there really isn't much more to add honestly? But I just wanna give a little background on some stuff. Obviously, there will be more in-depth stuff later. Chapters after this will be longer though I promise!! The first chapter is already at like 4.6k words I believe so I figured one short background chapter will be fine <3

posted. december 21, 2020
hexgiris.