Toward A New World

We kept walking down the dark corridor in silence.

I didn't know how to process exactly what had happened or how I even got to this point. Or what should I say to Daiya. Or the fact that my body double spoke to me, seemingly knowing more about myself than I ever could. And Dr. Vex...how well had I truly known him?

The sound of our footsteps continued to patter against the floor as the hallway began to lighten up with the white staircase we came from, coming into view. No words were shared between us and in a time like this, I could use a bit of quiet.

I looked up the staircase and saw the door to the factory had reappeared and the steel door to where Experience III was held remained glued shut. 

"Well, open it. You have the keys. Everyone seems to trust you with things." Daiya spoke for the first time.

"I don't like this feeling between us,"

"Why didn't you tell me about the notebook?" Daiya rubbed her arms, "Dr. Vex was important to me too. Imagine waking up and you see the person who rescued you dead in a pool of blood. Here-" she lunged towards me and grabbed my suit, "Where is it?! Let me see it!"

"No-" I pushed her away and I didn't realize how hard it was because she fell to the ground.

She got up quickly and shot me a look that reeked of bad intent.

 "Why can't you show me?! It's the last thing he left behind! Keeping fucking secrets from me, I can't stand you! Do you think you're better than me, or something? What?!"

"It's not that, it's just...I haven't opened it either-"

"You're lying-"

"Why would I lie? I have had no chance to open it. With the lady from Nolan-50, to being imprisoned and spied on every day, taken to see the person who gave me life wither in front of my face..." I continued, "I think Dr. Vex wanted to die."

"Why would he do that?" she snarled, "He wanted to uncover so many things-"

"Do you think we would've been able to get in here? Meet Experience III? Someone like us? Get information on how this world is? Nolan...we have to go above ground. It's a waste fighting each other like this. I'm not going to open it until I find out who's truly behind his death."

"Hm, you're talkative. What's gotten into you?" Daiya asked, her voice lightened a little. 

"This world, project Experience, we're a part of it. Dr. Vex was killed for bringing us here. I feel...responsible. Maybe if he'd never met me, he'd still be alive..."

Daiya leaned against the door. "I doubt that. I'm sorry, it's just, huhh, you don't understand. Those days were hell...Dr. Vex got me out of there. I owed him my life. In the end, what did I do for him?"

We sat there for a moment, surrounded by the white walls. I couldn't possibly know what she went through, but I felt it. 

All of a sudden, I heard a voice inside my head.

"Reia? Daiya? Is that you?" a boyish voice spoke in a soft tone. It was so faint that I wouldn't have heard it if it wasn't in my mind.

I fumbled to grab the keys in my pocket to open the door, but before I did, I turned to Daiya. "Do you remember when Dr. Vex asked us where we were born?"

"I do, yeah. I don't know. It's kind of sad, no? Not knowing where you came from."

"Yeah..." I paused. 

Maybe there's a reason to all of this. The man with the violet eyes awoke a power in me I didn't know existed. And Dr. Vex found me after that. Introduced me to Daiya, and the train. I did love the neon train. I met her. My body double. The people that attacked us, Nolan-50, Nolan...how could I live in a world I knew nothing about, but wanted to control every aspect of my life? 

Who was I? I still didn't know. 

If there was one thing I gained from Dr. Vex, it was to question everything. 

I took out the notebook from my left pocket and held it out to Daiya. "Here. I don't want you to think that I am hiding something from you. A bond between two people...a friend, was it?"

She smiled and reached out for the book but pulled her hand away. "Yes. A friend...a bond between two people."

I put the key in the slot and turned it. The vastness of the white room enclosed us once again, but this time, there was an exit. We could leave. The little boy sat there with a smile wide as his mouth could stretch and wiped his face. I swore I saw that strange liquid roll down it. 

"I knew you would come back! I knew it," he laughed within my mind.

I wonder why Daiya didn't want to look at the notebook. I can't understand her sometimes. 

I walked over to the boy and loosened the chain to his feet, then his hands. I stepped back instinctively. I remember Franz had told me he was uncontrollable. What did he mean?

"Woah, woah, woah, woah! Put me down, put me down!" Daiya screamed.

"Hahahahaha," the boy laughed.

I looked up and saw Daiya was floating in the air, flailing in all directions. The boy had clasped both of his hands together while he kept his eyes on her. She moved side to side, up and down with no control over it, until the boy let his hands go. Daiya plummeted straight to the ground but somehow landed on her feet.

"You bastard!" she jumped towards him, but I leaped in front of her before she could reach him all the while he kept laughing.

"That's for calling my game stupid. I remember! You called my game stupid," the boy spoke, but this time I didn't hear it in my head. 

"You can speak out loud?" I asked, "And can you not do that to Daiya again."

"I only told you to not speak out loud, not that I couldn't! Hehe,"

"This tricky kid," Daiya muttered, "You could've killed me you know, and how did you do that? You can read minds and move things with it as well?"

"Not exactly," he trailed off, "I see a pattern in the minds of people and guess! All of those scientists thought in a linear way, so do you. It's easy to know what you'll say or think next. As for moving things..."

He stepped back and put his hands together again, "Expand: Mind Game,"

The chains started floating in the air and began to swing violently above us in a circular fashion and in an instant, they dropped to the ground. This boy...lets on a lot more than he says. 

"I suppose that's why they chained me up," he rubbed his wrists, "But I'm free now, thanks to you two. I owe you!"

"You're strange..." Daiya exhaled, "And wait, you did all that to me because I said your game was stupid? I didn't even mean that. Kids..."

"I don't know. Whenever people say something about my mind...I don't like it. Those scientists never spoke to me, always sitting up there, watching, but I heard their thoughts," his face darkened, "And I'm probably older than you!" He stuck his tongue out towards Daiya.

"So now what?" he turned to me, "I never know what you're thinking but wherever you go, I go! After all, I have nowhere to go."

"We're going to Nolan-70," I responded.

"Above ground?"

I paused. "You know about above ground? Have you b-"

"Nope! I just heard them talk about it. How they have to meet some quota to build the city before they went up each day..."

Wait. I remember there was a clock that showed a daily quota. So, all that equipment was for Nolan. Why would they need so much?

"Who said you're coming with us?" Daiya interrupted my thought, "We freed you and we're going to free those prisoners because it's wrong. Doesn't mean you're coming with us."

"Yes, it does!"

"No," she butted her head onto his, "...it doesn't"

"Yes, it does!

"No, it doesn't! You just tried to kill me!"

"I only have one question," I cut in the middle of their feud, "Experience III. Do you know who you are?"

They both stopped and looked at me. 

There was a connection between the three of us. It wasn't until Franz mentioned something about project Experience, that I started to think about it a little deeper.

"I knew you were interesting. Mmmm, I don't know. I know that once I understood that I was sensitive to my thoughts, and what people said about them, I started to get these powers. Do you know who you are?" 

"I don't, but I think by staying along with the both of you, I will,"

I walked towards the door and opened it up. The two of them trailed behind me as we headed up the white stairs.

"Wait, how old are you?" Daiya asked the boy.

"379,"

"379?! How do you even know that?"

"I don't know, I heard them mention it one time,"

"You're lying,"

"Hehe,"

As I was about to open the steel door, I felt something. It rang of warmth and gave me a soft buzz in the middle of my chest. For the first time, I didn't feel so empty. 

I could see it. 

The door towards a new world.

***