We were ordered to go down to the basement after we ran out of powdered sugar. It was dark, the lights didn't come on when we walked in. They didn't even flicker when we tried to switch them on manually. I tried to feel around for the shelves.

Someone grabbed me from behind. I heard Shang yelp, but I couldn't see where he was. A muffled glove came over my face and I felt drowsy. I finally fell unconscious when a metal bat bashed up against my head.

As I drifted off into dream-land I could feel warm liquid dripping down my face, and a pinching in my arm.

I woke up first. The room was dark, but not pitch black. I felt around and found Shang beside me, breathing steadily. I must have been wearing some sort of restrictive jacket because I could barely move past Shang. I could feel metal circlets around my hands, joined together magnetically, the same on my feet as well. Some sort of plastic gag was wedged in my mouth, making my jaw ache. It felt like hours before someone finally came to get us, but it was probably only minutes. It was so quiet, I could hear my heart pounding, like an echo that never faded.

Shang woke up beside me at the sound of the footsteps, muttering nonsense to himself. A rough hand- or maybe it was a glove- yanked me up by my hair and dragged me to another dark room. I could hear Shang struggling against someone behind me.

It wasn't until they removed the cloth over my face that I realized it hadn't been dark, I'd just been wearing a blindfold. Glancing over at Shang, I tried to give him a reassuring look, but he only quivered, tears pooling in his eyes.

The men, some were women, I think, were wearing thick black masks. Their bodies were covered in some sort of hard, black, form-fitting suit. "Before we remove the gags, you must know that if you speak a single word out of turn we will shoot."

I strained my neck to get a good look at the room. It was cramped and square, stark white and made entirely of tiles. I couldn't tell where the entrance was, if there even was one. Besides the two in front of us, there for four guards stationed around the room. Each one had a large gun in their hands, and two smaller ones holstered at their thighs, with what looked like knives sheathed at their hips.

Tears ran from Shang's eyes as he yelled against the gag. He received a merciless blow to the head from a metal black stick the second assailant was holding and shut up instantly.

The first person glared at me from the glass slits in his mask and I nodded in understanding. He removed the gags and began to speak. "We are representatives of the organization Humans for Humans. We are often referred to as an underground hate group, but we prefer to think of ourselves as a human cleanser, we harbor no hate for those with a soul. Our undercover spy, Ms. Wu, who you know better as Mei Quing, has confirmed that you are indeed of the lunar race, like your mother, Song Lín, who was disposed of five years ago, is that correct?"

He was so straightforward. I couldn't say I word. I was stunned. Who were these people, and how could they know? Nobody knew! Our father had kept the secret so well! What did they mean about my mother? She had died of letumosis. A thousand thoughts whirred through my brain like a giant swarm of bees.

I was suddenly bashed in the head by a guard. I could hear my brain reverberating in my ears with a sickening thud. "Answer the question. Is the previous statement correct?" he repeated.

I bit my lip so hard I could taste blood and mumbled through my teeth. "No."

Shang whipped around to look at me, fear practically oozing from his face.

"You understand that if you lie, by the HfH Code of Conduct we are permitted to use force or any form of torture we feel is necessary to get the truth? We are also given permission to dispose of you in such a way that may be deemed as inhumane? Not that you are human, of course."

My mouth stayed sealed shut until in one swift movement, the second figure standing in front of us pulled the knife from its sheath at her side and held it beneath my jaw. I could feel its pin-point blade jabbing at my skin. "Answer the question" the figure uttered with a sinister bark. I instantly recognized the voice. It was Mei. I could feel Shang staring at the two of us with disbelief.

"We are not lunar." I lied through my teeth, barely opening my mouth to speak for fear of cutting myself against Mei's blade.

The man sighed and looked to the guard in the far right corner. In a flash, he aimed his gun directly at Shang.

I didn't even think, "We are! I lied! We are lunar! WE'RE LUNAR!" the words spilled out of my mouth before I could even think about what I was saying. Shang sat frozen beside me, he didn't even turn his head to look at the gun behind him.

No one had ever known our secret. Our mother had escaped from Luna with her family at a young age. She was the only survivor when their ship crashed. Our father had helped her acclimate to society, he even got her an ID chip and a job. No one knew a thing. How could anyone know?

I could almost feel the man smiling from behind his mask. "Indeed. Are you aware that your father has been seized for harboring lunar fugitives and is being questioned by our men at this very minute?"

"We aren't fugitives! What did you do to him? Where is our dad?"

"Answer the question, sugar." Mei growled with a false sense of endearment.

My eyes twitched. "No and we aren't fugitives!"

"We never said you were. Are you aware of the fact that your father is sympathetic to the lunar plight and has been harboring escaped lunars within the walls of your own home?" He paced in front of us, speaking as if he were detailing things from a to-do list.

"H-he wouldn't do that! He's just a woodsman! Please, you don't understand, we've done nothing wrong! We just-"

A blast louder than any firework I'd ever heard echoed throughout the room. Shang cried out in agony, attempting to clutch his foot with his restrained hands.

"What did you do?! What did we do?! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!"

I felt a stinging zap pound through my body. Suddenly, I was on the floor, convulsing, as electricity crackled and popped in my veins. Another guard stood above me, handling an electrocuted paddle. Shang was still shrieking, I couldn't move. How could this have happened? What did we do?!

"That will be all for now." the man stepped over my paralyzed body and exited through some hidden door, followed by Mei. A guard stayed behind to pull me off the floor and then we were left to our own weeping selves.

"Shang?" I croaked. "Shang, are you okay?"

He didn't reply, only moaned. "Please, Shang, answer me!"

"M-my foot..." he murmured, I almost didn't catch it, "I can't...I...I can't move it."

"Oh no, no, no. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry Shang, I just. I don't understand what is going on."

We sat there for hours. At least, I think it was hours. Time passes so differently when you're aware of it. No one came to help Shang with his foot, but I did my best to pull the shrapnel out. I couldn't get much, every time I tried to, he would fall over again, yelping. Once I got the largest pieces out, the wound wouldn't stop bleeding.

I've never wished more in my life for some sort of Lunar power within me to spring free in that moment. If I'd ever used it before, I'd been unaware, it had been unintentional. Our mother never used her powers in front of us, though Shang once told me he thought she was always wearing her glamour. She never taught us anything about ourselves and even if she had planned to, she died- was killed- before she had the chance.

Shang eventually passed out from blood loss while I tried desperately to remember how to stop it. My father explained it to me once. All the woodsmen were trained to heal injuries. Working out in those forests was one of the most dangerous jobs humans still had. The worst ones were usually done by androids.

After hours of tears and sweat and blood, a new guard finally walked in. They were just as rough with us, but they bandaged Shang's foot and gave us both some sort of shot. He wiped the blood off the floor with a rag like it was just spilled water. I still don't know what it was supposed to do.

I think it was a man, it sounded like a man. He was alone and he even answered a few questions, though most were just met with silence.

"Who are you people?"

Nothing.

"What do you want with us?"

More silence.

"Why do you hate the Lunars?"

That perked him up a little. "You don't have souls, you aren't human. Earth is for humans not you rats."

"But we're just kids, Shang is barely thirteen." I countered.

He didn't reply.

"How did you know about us?"

"We got an anonymous tip. Wu infiltrated and confirmed." He stated flatly.

"Who tipped you off? Nobody knew!"

"We didn't know about you, just that your father was harboring the criminals." he replied, but didn't answer the question.

"Do you even feel bad? Do you feel remorse for shooting a child?"

"I didn't shoot him." his voice was so steady.

"My mother...we were told she died of letumosis. I even saw her before she died, she was so sick..."

"The blue plague has no effect on Lunars, but we've developed a poison that can create similar effects on you."

So...had they really killed her? Was my mother really murdered?

"Did you people kill her?"

He pulled some sort of medical spray from his kit and sprayed Shang's bandages. "Yes."

The sound resonated through the room. All I could hear was Shang's steady breathing and the echo of his "yes" bouncing off the tiles.

He got up and dusted himself off, casting a dirty look at Shang's peacefully sleeping face. "Wait, wait!" I called, I still had so much to ask him.

That didn't stop him though, he started for one of the walls, but not before I blurted out, "Are you going to kill us?"

He finally stopped, an actual reaction. For a moment, he just stood there, as if in some sort of suspended reality. His hesitation made me tense.

He pursed his lips and answered, "Yes."