I awoke with a start. Something wasn't right; something was out of place. I glanced around although it did me no good; there was absolutely no lights on in my room. Although, I say my room, but it really should be called my house. I have always lived in here. I've never set foot outside. The doctors keep me in here because, they say, I am dangerous. I don't like the doctors too much, but one I do like; Thompson. He was always nice to me. He told me stories about princes and princesses, he helped me learn what he calls math and science, and he even brings me things to play with sometimes. Unfortunately, he only comes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

I shook my head to be rid of those annoying thoughts. Thinking about my life is pretty much all I do, and frankly I'm tired of it. I reached over a little to find my lamp and touched it. It did nothing; I frowned. "It always worked before…" I tried it again, being that it was a touch lamp all you had to do was touch the base or the neck of it and it would light up. It still didn't work. "It can't be the lamp…" I thought to myself, swinging my legs over to hop off my bed. I put my feet down on the cold, white tile floor and shivered. This was really strange; it's never supposed to be so cold in here. I walked over to my computer, which was on the other side of the room, and pushed the power button; still no response. "What's going on here?"

I walked faster over to where the light switch was on the wall near my computer and flicked it on and off several times, still no response. I sighed in aggravation and walked over to the center of my room and looked at the ceiling. I knew there was a camera somewhere up there that blended in with the rest of the ceiling. Although they thought I didn't know there was a camera, I always knew, even before Doctor Thompson told me. I waved my hand, hoping to get their attention. Perhaps if they saw me up they would send someone down to see what was going on, and I could find out what was going on.

Five minutes passed by without anything happening. I put my hand down and sighed, "Are they all asleep or something?" I asked myself, walking over to the door. I knew I never went out the door, and it scared me to do so. I had seen a bit of the area outside my room when the doctors would come in or leave. They called it a hallway. The colors out there were the same as in my room, except their ceilings were white like all the walls, but my ceiling was black.

I placed my hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath, and turned it the way I saw them do. I heard a click, and wasn't sure what to do next. I remembered their arms going back after it would click, and the way their muscles worked, they must have pulled the door towards themselves. I pulled it slowly, realizing it was rather light, although the doctors said the door was solid steel. I thought steel was supposed to be heavy. The doorway was soon wide open and I could see into the hallway. I was still afraid, but I had to get out somehow. "What am I thinking? I'm not supposed to do this – but I can be free. No more needles or tests or doctors coming in to check on me. Freedom." I smiled slightly at this and bravely took a step forward. I could see the hallway every few seconds because the lights were flickering.

I walked very slowly out into the hallway and looked at the walls carefully. I tilted my head studying my surroundings. It never looked like this before. It was always clean, from what I could see when the door was open. The walls were all white and the lights were attached firmly to the ceiling, and all the buttons on walls or near doors were either yellow or red, but were always lit up. Now, there were a few red spots here and there along the walls, with some wires hanging out of the ceilings and I noticed the buttons on the walls were flickering just like the lights. I finally reached the middle area of the hallway and looked to my left and right, not sure where to go. I had always seen Doctor Thompson head towards the right, so I decided to go that way. "I hope there aren't any more new hallways.." I thought to myself, walking a little faster and braver this time, but I spoke too soon. I came up to an area where the hallway split into three different ways. Left, straight or right were my choices and I had never seen this area at all. Something to the left caught my eye though. I walked a little further into the very middle of the intersections of the hallways and faced the left, looking carefully. "Hello?" I asked when I saw something move. I was hoping it would be a doctor, but what if he made me go back? What could I do?

My questions quickly disappeared when I saw the movement again. This wasn't normal movement; it was no human at all. I could see that clearly. No lights flickered down that hallway, so I couldn't see what it was exactly, but I began to realize that it was slowly coming forward. I was scared, but I wanted to see what it was so bad. I had never been outside my room, I had never seen anyone except those doctors, and I just had to see what this new creature was. Maybe it could help me.

My eyes widened as it approached. It was definitely taller than me, with a very different body. From what I could tell, I don't think it had any eyes, but it sure had a mouth. I studied it carefully; it's body was black and it's head was long and smooth appearing, it had two legs and two arms, but leaned forward as if it were used to running or crawling in small places, it's tail swooshed back and forth softly. "Is it studying me as well?" I thought to myself, smiling a little. Perhaps it had never seen anyone that looked like me. Suddenly it hissed at me, as if deciding something.

"Can you talk?" I asked carefully, but as I did it turned and began walking down the hallway which used to be my option of straight, but now was to my right. "Excuse me?" I tried again, watching it walk off. Suddenly, without thinking, I ran after it, "I don't want to be alone. Please!" It turned back around to face me and hissed, causing me to jump back and fall on the ground. It didn't hurt, I was just startled that it did that.

It came closer to me, putting its, what I thought was its face, very close to mine. I looked at it with surprise, not really fear. Suddenly it grabbed my hand, jerking me back up to stand. I looked at its hand, it didn't have skin, but its outer covering was hard, like an exoskeleton or something. I looked back up to its face and tried thinking to it. I had done it before with some of the doctors, where I could get into their heads and I could hear what they were thinking. Doctor Thompson said that normal humans couldn't do that, and that was why they were studying me.

Suddenly it let go and began walking again, but I was still trying to connect to its mind since it wouldn't talk to me. I could not move while reaching out to another living thing's mind, but I did get one word before having to stop, "follow", and so I did.