Hello everyone. So things are starting to click together for Hope. It's not going to get much easier for her anytime soon however.

HopePOV

I got up from my bed and walked into the bathroom. I splashed some water across my face and caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. I was speechless by what I was seeing.

Yes, I had gotten paler but my eyes were becoming red, like the people holding us captive. My skin looked different and I'm pretty sure I was even a bit taller. I blinked at myself in disbelief. These changes weren't normal in any way but yet, here they were. I stood staring at the mirror for a while before I finally tore myself away.

I went into the common room where I found Beth and Sheila, however this time I actually looked at them. Their appearance had taken a sharp turn as well. I could not believe how different we were starting to look. It made me wonder what they were doing to us. Were they making us like them?

"You guys need to look in the mirror," I blurted out, feeling like I should have said it differently. But it was too late to take it back now.

"Why?" Beth asked, frowning at me.

"Trust me," I said, stepping out of the way so they could step around me. I watched them step into the kitchen. It was only a few seconds before Sheila let out a loud stream of cuss words as she marched back into the common room.

"Calm down, we're are going to get in trouble," Beth said, following Sheila as though she could somehow calm her down.

"We're going to get in trouble! Look at your eyes, we're already in trouble! We are in a shitload of trouble!" she shouted, looking like she wanted to throw something or hit something. I couldn't help but relate considering we were in the same boat.

I was about to say something when Shane and Frederick burst quickly into the room. They beamed when they spotted us.

"It's treatment time, come along," Shane said opening the door to the lab. We stepped into the lab to find that there were only three chairs this time.

"Where are Jack and Luca?" Sheila demanded.

Shane and Frederick exchanged an expression before staring back at us.

"They weren't responding as positively to the treatments as you ladies have been. They have been dismissed," Frederick said in a way that sent chills down my spine.

"Yes, you will be moving onto the next phase of your treatments, congratulations," Shane announced as though this were some kind of reward for hard work. I knew from the last time that a new phase of treatments meant more pain. I wanted to fight, but if I was right about these people, I didn't have a hope in Hell.

A man walked in with IV bags filled with silver liquid. I gulped and started to brace myself for what was coming. But I knew, this was going to be the most painful one yet.

These treatments never ended quickly enough. I was right about the pain being worse than ever this time. But something different happened near the end of treatments. I fell into a state of unconsciousness but was still aware of the pain flooding my body.

The pain ended and I began to slowly awaken. The first thing I noticed was thumping. I couldn't tell where it was coming from but it sound wet.

As I came closer to being awake, I noticed that my heart was beating crazy fast but it didn't hurt nor did it feel strange. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. We were back in our beds and despite the lights being out, I could see around the room as though they were on.

I felt different now; stronger, powerful, dangerous... I stood up so effortlessly, it almost didn't seem to be real. I walked to bathroom, taking note of how differently the air felt on my face as I walked; how the dust particles danced so elegantly through the air but never settled. I felt like I was walking faster despite the fact that I was putting barely any effort in.

In the bathroom, I took note of the fact that I didn't need to be in here. I wasn't even sure why I had even walked into the bathroom. I turned to leave when I saw my face in the mirror. My head started to spin as my reflection processed with my brain. My eyes had hardly any color aside from dark red.

What terrified me, was I now looked like them!