The girl opened her eyes.

Where the hell…

Was she dreaming?

No wait, that wasn't possible. You couldn't get a headache like this in a dream.

The girl rose, and lost her balance instantly.

"Woah there." Strong hands steadied her. "Take it easy."

"What…" she tried to form words, but her tongue wouldn't obey her commands.

"Breath in and out deeply," the voice spoke. "The anesthesia has to wear of first."

"Anes…" what?

If only this headache would clear up.

"Come, you have to sit down."

She was guided a few steps away and then gently pushed down. There was a strange sound when she sat down.

This wasn't a bed. What was it?

Oh, a bean bag.

"What's your name?" the voice asked.

The girl looked up. She was staring at the gentle face of a girl about her age. She had very long brown hair neatly tied with a white bow that made her jealous. Like herself, this girl had green eyes.

"I'm Halley," the girl said.

The other girl smiled. "Like the comet?"

She nodded. Behind the girl she noticed all the walls were white.

"I'm Monika," the other girl said.

Only now did she notice something was off. This girl wore a grey shirt and grey yoga pants. But her hair contrasted this completely. There was no way she had put on these clothes willingly.

Halley looked down. She wore the same uniform. Luckily, it looked like they had let her keep on her underwear. Not her shoes though. Like Monika, she was barefoot.

"W-Who undressed me?"

"I don't know," Monika said. "Look-"

Sounds reached them.

Monika looked over her shoulder. "We're out of time. Listen to me, Halley."

Her tone got very serious. "Do not resist them. You hear me?"

"Resist who?"

"Promise me."

"Hey, you," a voice called.

"I have to go."

Monika stepped away from her just as they arrived.

There were two of them, both dressed in a black uniform. One had blonde hair and the other black, but both had identical buzz cuts. They were very tall and broad shouldered. While their uniform didn't show any insignia, it looked like they were some kind of military.

"Get up," the black-haired one said to her.

She hesitantly stood up. "Who are you?"

"No questions. Come with us." He grabbed her arm.

"Hey, don't touch me." She pulled her arm away.

The man took a short black stick from his belt and pushed it against her chest.

She screamed and fell on her knees.

Electricity, she realised. That thing was a cattle prod.

"Up," the man repeated.

Halley stood back up. Her legs were shaking.

"Hey," the second one said. "Give her a break. She's just arrived here."

"Exactly, so best she learns the ropes immediately."

"No need to do it like that." The blonde man put a hand on her shoulder. "What's your name, girl?"

"Halley."

"Okay, Halley. Just, do as you're told and then we won't have to hurt you, okay?"

She nodded.

"Who-"

"Shh," he shushed her. "No questions. Just come with us."

The black haired one put his stick away and started walking. The other one got behind her and gentle pushed her to follow.

They started walking towards what looked to be an elevator. There was a panel next to it.

When the man scanned his iris, the doors slid open. It was indeed an elevator.

They got in. The men stood on either side of her.

The doors closed again.

Strangely, this elevator only had grey walls and some lights on the ceiling. No buttons anywhere in sight. However, at the top, she saw a camera and a speaker.

Hm. Must be safety features. This elevator was controlled from somewhere else to make sure they couldn't escape.

Her suspicion was confirmed, because after a few seconds, it went up without them doing anything.

After about five seconds, the elevator slowed down and stopped. The doors opened.

Once again, the mean one went first, the kind one stayed behind her.

They walked in a white hallway. After they passed several doors, they stopped at one. There were no signs on any of the doors and she didn't see any windows either. Meaning these guys knew the layout by heart. Probably a safety mechanism as well.

The first one knocked.

"Come in," a voice said.

They entered.

It was a reasonably big room that looked a bit like a doctor's office. A fact enforced by the man sitting behind the desk.

It was a man in his forties maybe, with black hair with hints of gray in it. He wore a suit with a lab coat over it. On his face were black spectacles.

"Ah, there is the new specimen. Thank you."

"We'll be outside," the man said.

They both left and closed the door behind them.

The doctor stood up from his deck.

He stood right in front of her.

"Undress please. I want to have a look at you."

She hesitated. But then she remembered what Monika had said.

Halley removed her shirt.

She was in an unknown location and they brought her to a man in a lab coat. This had 'illegal human experiment' written all over it.

Halley got out of the pants.

The man looked at her. "Undress," he repeated.

Halley felt a cold shiver go down her spine. She only had her underwear on now. Surely he didn't mean…

The man raised an eyebrow. "Am I not making myself clear?"

She swallowed hard. Slowly, she reached back and unclasped her bra. She dropped it with the rest of her clothes and hid her chest behind her arms. Luckily, her breasts were pretty small so she could easily hide them.

She looked down at the floor.

Suddenly, the man grabbed her chin hard and forced her to look up at him.

"Are you stupid or defiant?"

He was really strong.

"Answer me, bitch, which is it?" he demanded.

"I-I'm sorry, sir. I'm just stupid."

She had a suspicion that if she didn't reply or said 'defiant', he'd call the guards back to use their cattle prods again, or worse. Monika had warned her for a reason.

The man let her go.

"Let me be more clear then. Strip completely and put your hands behind your back."

With shaking hands, she pulled down her panties and stepped out of them.

Halley put her hands behind her back.

"Legs wider," the man ordered calmly.

She did as he said.

"Hm, not bad." He walked around her and studied her body with his eyes.

Luckily, he didn't touch her.

He stood back in front of her and picked out a light from his pocket. "Open your mouth."

She looked at him defiantly.

Did he think she was just some kind of plaything?

With a sigh, the man grabbed a fistful of her copper-colored hair.

What was he-

Halley screamed. He was pulling super hard on it.

"Be quiet," he hissed.

She shut her mouth. Halley had to bite her lip hard so she didn't start screaming again. He wasn't pulling on it anymore, but he kept a firm grip.

In an attempt to stop the pain she had involuntary got up on her tiptoes. So if she even moved slightly now, she would hurt herself even more. And it wasn't easy to balance herself like this.

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

"Ah, no."

"No, sir," he corrected her.

"No, sir," she quickly repeated. "Please let me go."

"Lying girls should be punished," he said. "Don't you agree?"

"I wasn't lying, sir." She couldn't hold this position for long.

"I asked you if you were stupid or defiant. You said stupid, but you're clearly defiant."

"I-I'm both, sir."

"Hm."

"Last time I was just stupid. I didn't understand your command. This time I was defiant." Her legs were screaming, but she had to stay in her tiptoes. It would hurt a lot more if she let go.

"And stupid. What do you think Monika warned you for? Some electric shocks? Silly girl. If you disobey me one more time, you'll wish you were never born. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

He finally released her.

Halley sank back down to her feet.

Monika was not joking around apparently.

The pain kept stinging.

"Now, where were we?"

She opened her mouth wide.

"That's bette," he mumbled.

The doctor looked into her mouth with the light.

When he was satisfied, he listened to her heartbeat and took her blood pressure. All throughout, she was naked.

"It all looks fine," he said when he was done. "You're a good specimen."

She said nothing. Halley didn't like how he called her 'specimen'.

"Let's get started."

He opened a fridge behind him and retrieved a brown bottle from it. There was a whole bunch of text on it, but she couldn't read it from there.

The doctor took out a syringe and filled it with the liquid. Which turned out to be a disturbing piss-yellow mixture.

She hated needles with a passion, but something told her they didn't care much about her preferences. And, she reasoned, this would not hurt much compared to what had already happened.

As she had expected, the man ordered her to stick out her arm and gave her an injection. He disinfected it first, so at least they cared about that. Although that was probably more about keeping their test subject alive than genuine concern about her.

"Get dressed," he said.

He didn't wait for her though.

Before she could even put on her panties again, he had already called the guards back in.

"Hurry up," one of them said.

She put on her clothes as fast as possible.

The doctor wasn't paying attention to her anymore. He was sitting behind his desk and writing something.

While she was still putting on her shirt, the guards pushed her out and escorted her back to the elevator. She had to put it on on the way there.

They pushed her into it and closed the doors. This time, she was alone in the elevator.

The elevator brought her down again.

When the doors opened, she stepped out.

This was the room she came from. It was a reasonably big room with white walls. The only furniture were white bean bags spread out over the room. There was one door at the back.

When she entered, Monika stood up from one of the bags.

"Are you okay?"

"No," Halley said.

"It's much easier if you just do as you're told," Monika said.

"I noticed," Halley said dryly. "Are they doing experiments on us?"

Monika nodded very softly.

"What are they looking for?"

"No idea."

She noticed Monika threw a concerned glance at the ceiling when she said that.

Halley looked subtly.

There were cameras all over the ceiling.

Of course. They listened in on them. That's how the doctor knew Monika had warned her. And why they had arrived just as she woke up.

She noticed there was something else as well. A screen with red numbers on it.

17:14

A clock.

"I'll show you around," Monika said.

Halley followed her through the door at the back. It wasn't locked.

They entered a semi-dark room. The lights here were red. They were placed on the ground.

The room had four steel bunk beds. Three bottom ones were occupied.

"Don't wake them," Monika whispered. "They are very tired."

They walked through the room to another door at the back.

This turned out to be a bathroom. There was a sink with several brightly colored toothbrushes (the only color in this room) and toothpaste. Two beakers as well.

Next to it was a simple toilet. On the other side was a shower head with a drain at the bottom. There was only a single grey switch to operate it. The floor around it sloped slightly towards the drain.

On a low stool in the corner (also white) were several towels neatly stacked with a bottle of shower gel and shampoo next to it.

It all looked pretty miserable.

Halley noticed there were cameras here as well. Most of them seemed to be pointed at the shower. No chance for privacy.

"If you're thirsty, you can drink from that tap," Monika said. "It's the only one we have. The yellow toothbrush is for you."

She checked. There were five toothbrushes. So they had brought one for her as well.

"What about food?"

"They come with food three times a day. At eight o'clock, twelve and seven in the evening."

"Okay."

"They do their experiments between breakfast and dinner. So don't shower during the day, because they won't wait for you to get dried off and dressed again. You can sleep, but make sure you can get out of bed right away if they come."

She looked at the shower. "Is the water warm?"

"That depends," Monika said.

"On what?"

"They can change the temperature remotely."

"Well do they set it high or low?"

"Depends." Monika's tone urged her to stop questioning it.

"Okay then."

"Every few days they come to bring you fresh clothes."

"And if I need anything else?"

Monika raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, okay." Of course. The guards didn't care about what she wanted. She would get whatever she needed to survive, nothing more.

"I'm going back," Monika said.

"Monika. How-"

"Don't," Monika warned her. "Don't ask about the experiment or about me."

Halley nodded. "I understand."

Monika left her.

Halley had to pee urgently.

She didn't want to do it in front of all the cameras, but she knew she had no choice. She would just have to swallow her pride. Sooner better than later.

The rest of the day was eerily silent.

She met the other girls during dinner, but they didn't speak a word to her.

Dinner consisted of pasta with cheese and ham. It was reasonably good, given this was basically a human experiment prison.

The guards watched them closely while they ate. Even though they were only given spoons to eat, she noticed they counted them before getting out again.

After dinner, they all got to bed. There was nothing else to do anyway.

The other girls had the four bottom beds, so Halley ended up as the only one on top.

She got under the covers and started crying softly.

There was no way she would ever get out of here. Only now did this realisation crash on her. She would stay here until one of their experiments killed her.

The beds gave it all away. There were eight beds for five girls. Why would that be? They could simply put three bunk beds and they would all fit. The other girls had clearly been here for a while, but she had just been brought in. Why?

She knew the answer very well. Normally there were eight girls, but four had died. She was replacing one of them. They were probably already abducting the next girl to fill up the other beds.

Somehow, Halley cried herself to sleep.

She slept restlessly until someone shook her awake.

Halley opened her eyes.

"Hey," a cute voice said. "I'm Sayori."

What the hell?

Halley got out of bed.

She threw a glance at the clock. It was 2:02.

The other girls were all out of bed.

Halley joined them on the ground.

What was going on here?

"Come on," Monika said. "We don't have much time."

She was holding something in her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Escaping."

Monika put on a circlet and took a deep breath.

"Link Start."

A/N: thanks to everyone for your reviews. I love reading them.