COLIN

As I slowly stir from my glorious, drug-induced sleep, the first thing I notice is that I'm laying on my back. I find this a little weird. I've never slept on my back before—usually just on my side or on my stomach. Oh well. First time for everything, I guess.

The second thing I notice is a soft weight on my chest. I move a little bit and I determine that there's definitely something on top of me. Naturally, I open my eyes to see what it is. It takes a moment or two for me to fully register what I'm seeing. When I do, my eyes go wide.

"Oh no…"

Lisa.

She's draped peacefully over my abdomen, head on my chest with her arms tucked neatly underneath mine. Her breathing is rhythmic and casual. Her face is expressionless. I can tell she's still sleeping.

It would sort of be nice to know exactly how we ended up like this, but I can't remember a goddamn thing. The cells are gassed at night, which means that we tend to fall asleep without even realizing it. Nonetheless, I'm certain of one thing: there's no way that we would have consciously gotten into this position ourselves. So either somebody put us here like this, or…

Well. Maybe we did this in our sleep…?

Bologna. I can see that we're both on the bottom bunk right now, and I think I would have remembered if I woke up in the middle of the fucking night to crawl into bed with my cellmate. It would be different if she somehow ended up in my bed, but this is impossible. From what I can see, it looks like everybody's still asleep in the cell next to ours. Must be early. Thank god; I'd hate for Taylor to see us like this and get the wrong idea. I mean, it's not exactly like I'd be able to explain myself through soundproof glass. Maybe I should've learned sign-language, after all.

LISA

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. This isn't happening.

He's underneath me. Colin is. And he's not underneath me as in, like, we switched bunks or something. I mean I'm literally on top of him. It's sort of nice here, to tell you the truth, but that doesn't mitigate the fact that, one, he's not supposed to be in my bed and, two, I have no fucking idea how the FUCK we got like this in the first place.

I'm pretending that I'm still asleep so I can decide what to do. He's already awake, though. He just whispered, "Oh no," so I can safely assume that he's noticed me laying on his chest. This is not good. I can't remember what happened last night, to top it off. We fell asleep to the anesthesia in the air, as usual, and now, boom, here we are. I guess it's possible that he might have woken up in the middle of the night and climbed down from his bunk into mine... but that just doesn't make sense. For one thing, there's no motivation for him to do that. He's queer, he's blissfully taken, and he's not interested in me, period. For another, it doesn't explain how I ended up on top. This has got to be some kind of cruel joke.

Colin's fur is warm and I can feel him breathing underneath me. His muscles are tense now that he's awake and aware of what's going on. I'm too embarrassed and too confused to give myself away right now. I wish I knew what the hell to do…

COLIN

I try to move a little bit to see if I can gently slide out from underneath her, but that's too much to hope for. She's got me pinned. Worse, my right leg is falling asleep. I guess this means I have to push her off. I would really, really rather not wake her up, though, if at all possible. If I somehow manage to get myself out of her bed without disturbing her, then I'll be the only one who knows this even happened. I hope she's a heavy sleeper.

I pause for a moment to watch her again, half expecting her to suddenly open her eyes and gasp and slap me in the face or something. To be honest, I don't think I've been in a predicament quite like this before. Having a girl on top of me is, shall we say, a new experience.

Her eyes are still closed and she's breathing softly in time. Her hair is partly covering her face. She looks very beautiful like this, actually.

As soon as I start to move, I feel her heartbeat quickening.

LISA

He's moving. Oh god. Oh god. This is bad. Play dead, Lisa.

Doesn't work. When he puts his hands on my waist and starts to lifts me up, my eyes snap open from surprise. Apparently this startles him, too, because he drops me.

"Oh!" he says, bolting into a sitting position. "Jeez, oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, it's okay! I was already awake." I'm a little out of breath. No, scratch that, I'm fucking petrified. I think I'm about to faint. "Oh… oh god." I feel myself go limp and I collapse onto the bed.

He rushes over to me. "Are you alright?"

My head is spinning. "I'm… I don't know. This is so… this is… oh god. Colin, what the hell is going on here?"

"I don't know! My god, oh… fuck, I mean… goddamn it, this is just too weird."

"Tell me about it!"

He looks directly at me, eyes serious. "Believe me, Lisa. I have no idea how we ended up like that."

I can see that he's telling the truth, and I'm a little relieved. "Neither do I," I admit. "All I remember is falling asleep. You were on the top bunk and I was down here. Same as every night."

"Yeah, that's what I remember too. God." He moves to the edge of the bed and puts a hand on his forehead. He allows himself a nervous chuckle. "What a hell of a way to start the morning, huh?"

Silence. After a moment, we both start laughing.

TAYLOR

"What the hell...?"

"What's wrong?"

"There's only fifty-one cards in this deck."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, man, I just counted. Twice."

"Count 'em again."

"I'm tellin' you, Rex, there's only fifty-one cards in this deck. Here, you count 'em."

I glance over the railing of my bunk in time to see Kyle hand the cards to Rex. The hyena counts them patiently. "Fifty-one. I'll be damned. What the hell is goin' on here? I just counted these the other day."

"Yeah, so did I. There were fifty-two in that deck yesterday, I swear to god."

"You suppose somebody took one out last night?"

"I dunno. S'possible. I don't see why, though..."

"Doesn't really matter. There's fifty-one in the deck now."

"What's missing?"

Rex spreads the cards out on the floor. "Looks like the Jack of Hearts is gone."

"Shit. So what do we do?"

"I guess we play without a Jack of Hearts."

"Or," says Sean from the bunk underneath me, "you could just use a joker instead."

Rex shrugs. "Sure, that works too, I guess."

Kyle adds a joker and begins shuffling the cards. "Up for another game, Sean?"

"Nah, not right now. Maybe later, though."

"Fair enough. So whaddya say, Rex—Jack of Hearts is wild?"

"Whatever."

After the game starts, my attention eventually drifts to the neighboring cell. To my surprise, Colin isn't in his bed. I guess he's already up. A quick glance in the mirror reveals Ms. Cellmate sitting alone on her bed and a towel missing from the pile next to the fruit bowl, so apparently he's taking a shower. Not a bad idea—I could use one myself.

As I start down the bunk ladder, though, I notice a curious detail. Out of the four beds in the neighboring cell, it's obvious that three of them—including Colin's—have not been slept in. They're all neatly made with pressed sheets and fresh, unused pillows. This strikes me as odd; there's no way he could have slept on the floor or even on any of the other beds, because I remember falling asleep next to him at the glass last night...

"You hungry, Taylor?" Sean asks.

"Actually yeah," I say, dropping my previous thought. "What's in the bowl?"

"Looks like apples today."

He tosses one to me and I look at it. It's flawless—brilliant red, no blemishes. "Can't last forever, can it?" I say, sitting on the bottom bunk.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Sean grabs an apple for himself and sits cross-legged on the floor. "How're you holding up, by the way?"

I shrug. "You mean in general?" I take a bite of the apple.

He waits, considering his words carefully. "I mean… you know. With your friend and everything."

I lower my eyes, swallowing. "I'm not sure."

The two of us are quiet for a moment, listening to Rex and Kyle playing cards. "I'm sorry," Sean says, "I didn't mean—"

"No, no, it's fine," I say. "Thanks for asking, actually; I was beginning to think nobody cared."

"I've noticed you two, that's all. I just… you know, I feel sorry for you." From his eyes, I can tell he's being honest. "If you ever need anybody to talk to…"

I allow myself a faint smile. "It's nice to know somebody's looking out for me," I tell him sincerely. "Thank you."

"Hey," he says, laughing a bit, "no big deal." He lowers his voice and leans closer. "I mean, it's not like we've got the friendliest company, right?"

"Yeah, no kidding," I chuckle. It feels good to laugh again. "But hey, I guess it could be wor—"

Suddenly without warning, the cell comes alive with a low static hum. My heart stops. Everybody snaps to attention, looking for the source of the noise. It seems to be emanating from everywhere.

"The hell is that?" says Kyle.

Rex puts a hand up. "Shhh!"

The static rises in pitch and steadily increases, then disappears, then reappears—almost as though somebody is adjusting a frequency dial. After a moment, the static cuts out altogether. Nobody speaks. Nobody even breathes. For countless seconds, I can hear my own pulse.

"Hello," says a man's voice.

I grab onto a bed post to keep myself from shaking. The voice is deep and deliberately cold; it sounds like he's speaking over an intercom. I recognize the voice. We all do.

"I hope that all of you are enjoying my hospitality. Indeed, it's a pleasure to have your company, and I look forward to meeting with you individually throughout the course of your stay."

Robotnik. Back from the dead. Impossible.

"Since my time is valuable, I shall refrain from any further introduction and move to our primary objective. The following individuals will be the first to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to the Robotropolis torture chamber: Ralph from cell A1, Buster from A2, Brandon from A5, Taylor from B2..."

I stop breathing. I can feel the eyes of everybody in the cell looking at me. I glance to the neighboring cell and see Colin standing at the glass, wide-eyed and frozen.

"...Slick from B4, David from D1, Ginger from D4, Nick from E1, Red from E3, and Olly from E5. Forgive me if I've mispronounced some your names; I found many of them too silly to merit concern for accuracy. For your convenience and ours, we will extract these individuals late in the evening after all of you have been sedated. Have a splendid afternoon."

I sink to my knees, trembling. I can't speak. Even as my eyes begin to sting with tears, all I can think about is Colin. I wish he were with me now, holding me and protecting me. I can see him just ahead of me, pressing his palms furiously against the glass. I know that if he could, he'd shatter that wall with his bare hands.

"So what happens now?" says Kyle behind me, quietly. "What does this mean?"

"Means he's dead," says Rex.