"Karkat?" Roxy says through the concrete wall. "can you hear me?" She asks. She hears a faint "yeah" coming from Karkat. "what about you, Aradia?

Are you there?" Roxy asks, putting her ear against the concrete on the opposite wall. "uh-huh." she hears. "I-I'm so sorry about your friend Sollux" she

says, tugging at her hair. "it's his own fault anyway. He knew it was going to happen if he tried to escape again, yet he did it anyway." Karkat sighs. "I

can't believe they did that to him." Roxy holds her face in her palms. "well, he's in a better place now." Aradia says, trying not to sound like she's crying.

The truth is, Aradia was in love with Sollux. They spent every day together. She even kissed him once, and he didn't run away. Sollux was staring to

have feelings for her too. "Hey Karkat, when are they going to let us out?" Roxy asks, worried they'd be in there forever. "well, they keep me in here

every night as a safety precaution. I think they'll let us out in the morning." Karkat says, leaning against the concrete wall. "i hope so..." Aradia says,

lying down on the dirty floor. Eventually, Karkat and Aradia fall asleep. Roxy stays awake, too bothered by her thoughts. She stares into the darkness,

letting her mind imagine what frightening creatures could be lurking there. Roxy sighs, and closes her eyes, wondering what time it is. "it's probably

been about five hours since we were thrown in here." she thinks, dozing off to sleep.

Roxy hears a loud bang and jolts awake, looking around; trying to see if anything's there but the room is too dark. She can barely see her own hands.

"w-what was that?" she asks herself, walking to what she thought might be the back of the room. Roxy mulls over the words Karkat said earlier. "well,

they keep me in here every night as a safety precaution. I think they'll let us out in the morning." she remembers him say. "a safety precaution? Jeez,

he doesn't seem that dangerous..." she says, thinking about Karkat. She remembers how he was zoned out, dragging his hand across the wall and

mumbling. Then she remembers the "dream" she had. "man...that dream was weird. I wonder who that man was...then again, maybe i don't want to

know." she chuckles, trying to cheer herself up. "goddammit Roxy, you're in a fucking mental hospital," she hides her face in her knees. "what did i do

to get in here? Why the fuck can't i remember?" she starts to anger herself, realizing where she is and what just happened. "s-someone just died...for

trying to fucking escape!" she feels tears well up in her eyes. "I-I'm in a crazy-house..." she scoots into the corner of the room. "I'm locked in a

FUCKING crazy house! Shit, shit, shit! I can't believe this happened...how long am i gonna be here?!" she cradles herself, sniffling. "are you okay Roxy?"

she hears Aradia say quietly on the other side of the wall. "n-no, no I'm not." Roxy says, biting her lip to keep from crying. "why am I here Aradia? I'm

not crazy, I've never had any records of mental illness in my entire life, so why the fuck am i here?" she says, choking back the tears. Aradia stays silent

for a moment, then says, "then fate wanted you here." Aradia smiles, even though she knows Roxy can't see her. "someone wanted you to be here for

a certain reason, we just don't know yet." Aradia gets close to the wall and puts a hand on it. "but I"m sure eventually, it'll all come together soon

enough." she says calmly, like the words of a mother. Roxy feels a little better, and decides to tell Aradia about her dream, hoping she can help.

"Hey Aradia?"

"yeah?"

"can i talk to you about something?"

"of course!"

"well, my first night here, i had a nightmare..."

"pfft, who wouldn't"

"yeah but...this was different. It was a very vivid dream"

"well, go ahead and tell me."

"alright...so in the dream, i woke up and squirmed out of my restraints. Someone slipped a key under the door and i unlocked it. Then, i went to this

buliten board with Karkat's name circled. I walked to the the third floor and got a really creeped out feeling..."

"well, you know what goes on up here, right?"

"no, what happens?"

"well, this floor is where they brainwash and lobotomize everyone. It's also where they do their other dirty work..."

"what do you mean by dirty work?"

"surgical procedures, some say even torture."

"torture?!"

"yeah, i don't know if they mean literal torture or that the surgery is torture. I know that they don't use anesthesia during the operations."

"that's fucking terrible, how can they just do that?!"

"because they feel like since we're the mistakes of society, they can do anything they want. Anyway, back to your story."

"oh, right...where was i?"

"creepy feeling on the third floor."

"yeah, so when i walked up to Karkat's room, he said my name and told me to run, This was before i met you guys too."

"whoa, future telling dreams..."

"but then i turned around and this guy was towering over me. Then i woke up."

"wow, that's really freaky. Do you know what the guy looked like?

"all i know is that he was tall and had orange eyes."

Aradia is silent for a minute. "orange eyes?" she says. "yeah, and some sort of dripping substance on his face." Roxy remembers. "tomorrow you need

to tell Karkat about your dream, Roxy." Aradia says, losing the springy tone in her voice. "why?" Roxy asks. "he needs to know, it think it may have to

do with his friend." Aradia says quietly, so quiet that it's hard for Roxy to hear. "wait, Aradia, what do you mean?" Roxy says, trying to learn more. At

that moment, Roxy hears someone on the opposite wall whisper something. "Karkat?" she asks, moving to the other side. "what did you say?" she

presses her ear to the concrete. All she can hear is whispered mumbling. "Karkat, speak up." she says, closing her eyes to focus on the noise. "Roxy,

necesse est ut de loco isto, et venit ad te. ingressus ad occidendum te. exies ante suus etiam nuper. ut quae sunt in pejus. ne moreris propter

temetipsum, non in cella. malum est. roxy obsecro vos ego." Karkat says, panting, his voice cracking. "w-what? Karkat, i can't understand you." Roxy

feel scared again, and feels a chill down her spine. "Karkat, are you okay?" she asks with a worried tone. She gets no reply. "Karkat?" she asks once

more.

Karkat starts screaming and crying, clawing at the wall. "Karkat, What's wrong?!" she yells. Karkat screams even louder, his shrieks echo in Roxy's

ears. "Aradia, what's going on?!" she asks Aradia. Aradia doesn't answer. Roxy remembers what Vriska said when she met her. "Karkat, please tell me

what's wrong." she says, loud enough for him to hear over his screams. The shrieking and murmuring began to subside after Roxy said that. "Karkat, i

want to help you. Please, tell me what's wrong." Roxy says calmly. "Karkat answers almost immediately, "that's what they all say." he says in a hushed

tone. "what who says?" Roxy asks. "the doctors, the nurses...fuck...everyone says that." he starts to hyperventilate. "i-it's okay Karkat, calm down, i

REALLY do want to help you." Roxy says, in fear that he might start screaming again. "you do?" Karkat says, still in that dark tone, unlike his normal

one. "yes." Roxy replies. "then I'll help you in return." Roxy can tell that Karkat has his face against the wall like her's. "how could you help me?" Roxy

feels a little bit of hope return to her. "I'll help in any way I can." something shuffles behind Roxy, in Aradia's room. "she must've stayed quiet while he

was screaming." Roxy thought. "so Karkat, i want to know they put you here." Roxy asks, trying to sound as sincere as possible. "didn't you hear

during the meeting?" Karkat bangs his head lightly on the wall from bringing up the meeting and what it caused. "yeah, but if I'm going to help you, i

have to know the whole story." she feels bad for making him spill out the details to her. Karkat sighs and begins the story.

So I decided to write Karkat's backstory in another chapter because I'm going to write it from his perspective in past-tense.

Thank you for the reviews and advice, I'll try to fix the paragraph formatting and all that. the reason i haven't is because every time i do, changes it back. so if any of you have advice on how i could fix that, leave a review please.

-Jake-