Chapter Three: Family

Mike woke up quickly once his alarm went off, but made slow careful movements, as if to be able to freeze at a moment's notice. Immediately he noticed he wasn't alone in the room. Matt was fast asleep on his bed, blue comforter was pulled up around the lump, only the top of his head was visible. That was enough for Mike, though. What was more concerning was the fact that Chris was nowhere to be found. Chris was known to sleep until one or so unless someone got him up. This immediately put Mike on edge. He grabbed the plastic butter knife he kept under his pillow -the psychologists wouldn't give him access to anything else that could be used as a weapon- and made his way to Chris' bed. He noticed that it was cold. There was no evidence that Chris had been there for several hours.

Immediately Mike's mind went into overdrive. What if the wendigo came in and took Chris in the middle of the night? Matt and Mike would both have been asleep, neither of them would have been moving, but Chris would have been messing around on his phone, running his fingers over touch-screens and keyboards. Moving. The wendigo could have certainly picked up on those movements. Mike made his way over to the door, cautiously putting his hand on the handle. His three fingers on his left hand were ready to pull down on the silver handle, his right hand was held above his head, the knife ready to go in case in needed to shove it into a wendigo's head. He pulled down on the handle and peered out slowly. No sign of the monster. It was safe to take a step forward. He looked around the hall and made his way over to the living room. Mike let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He saw Ashley asleep on Chris' lap, his head hunched over on her back. He had never been so relieved to see someone cuddling their girlfriend. "Cute, isn't it?"

Mike physically jumped and felt his heart beat in his chest. "Oh fuck! Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." He calmed down once he saw it was just Sam in the kitchen, making herself a vegan smoothie of some sort for breakfast.

"Scare you?" Sam chuckled.

Mike tried to play it off, shrugging, acting like it wasn't a big deal. "I was just flattering you. You were trying to scare me, weren't you?"

Sam laughed. "Sure. Sure." She then let out a laugh. "I'm surprised you didn't wake up the whole house with that scream."

"I wasn't trying to wake them up. If I was, they would be." He let out a sigh and made his way over to the pantry, grabbing a box of cereal, before making his way to the fridge, grabbing the milk, careful not to grab Sam's soy-hemp-almond-fake-wannabe milk, and grabbing a bowl from one of the cabinets. Sam worked on her smoothie, adding the fake milk and lots of greens he didn't care to learn the names of, to the blender. They were silent for a few minutes. It was making Mike uncomfortable. He was dying to break it. He looked around, trying to figure out where all the cameras were, as to make sure he didn't attract attention to themselves from the psychologists, but seeing how it was six thirty in the morning, he wasn't too concerned. The people watching them were probably half asleep. "Find any leads?"

Sam looked confused. "Any what?"

"Leads, you know? When I got you, Em and Chris in here?"

Realization crossed Sam's face. "Right." She focused on pouring her smoothie into a large cup with a paper straw. "To be completely honest, Mike, I think you're just paranoid."

Mike shook his head. "No, I'm not. I know I'm not. Sam, I was there, the psychiatrists offices, for my therapy session, you know, and I went to the bathroom, when I heard these doctors talking about some sort of plan. They said something about the 'survivors' and 'putting us to the test.' Sam, that's got to be us. There's no one else here! Why do you think that we've been in this house for so long? They don't care about our health that much. They're using us for something. I want- no, I need to find out what they're using us for!"

Mike noticed Sam take a breath in slowly, as if she was trying to think things through. "Why don't you call your sister and talk this over with her? Get a third party who isn't involved in this mess to give their opinion?"

Mike rolled his eyes, initially, then thought about it. Yeah. His sister. She would either agree with them, or talk some sense into him, and she wouldn't freak out like either of his parents. "Alright."

Mike finished eating his cereal and went to the porch outside, so he could get a bit of privacy while talking to his sister. He looked around carefully. The sun was starting to lighten the sky. The wendigos wouldn't come after him at this time... he hoped.

Mike was close to his sister, would say she was, realistically, one of his best friends. She was a year younger than him, a year below him in school. Currently she was in her freshman year of college, similarly to Jess, Ashley and Matt. The two of them grew up together playing Mario Kart in his room, or watching Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians in her room. They drifted apart in high school, when Mike became incredibly popular and she drifted into the background. He hung out with his group of friends and had a string of girlfriends and went to parties while she focused on her extra-curriculars and avoided overly large, crowded social scenes at all costs. Most people didn't even know he had a sister. Still, he knew he could always count on her. She would cover for him when he missed curfew or was too hungover to go to church and family lunch on Sunday mornings. Smiling, he opened his contact list and scrolled down his contacts until he saw the one that said Katie, and called her. He hadn't talked to her in a while.

She answered the call, though her voice was tired. "Hello?"

He forgot she slept in almost as much as Chris. "Hey, Katie."

He could hear the smile in her voice, though it was disguised in a sleepy voice. "Hey, Mike. What's up?"

"I actually had a question for you."

"Hit me." She seemed unsurprised by this.

"Do you think it's possible that the psychologists could be using us for some case study or something?" Mike asked the question carefully, so he wouldn't freak out his sister.

He heard her take a breath and think about it. "I don't think it's impossible. Why?"

Mike sighed. "I overheard the psychologists saying something the other day while I was at my therapy session."

Katie seemed a bit more interested in this. "What did they say?"

Mike let out a chuckle. "I might be paranoid, but I heard them say 'they were going to put us to the test,' or some bullshit like that."

He could almost see Katie nodding her head. "Well, it's possible, but I don't think it's going to be a big deal. You're probably overreacting. You went through a lot. You're mind is going into overdrive, which is understandable. If it does turn into something, call me back, alright?"

Mike nodded, though he knew she couldn't see it. "Of course. Call me if you ever need anything, 'right?"

He could hear her laugh. "Sure." There was a pause. "Be safe, kay?"

"I will. You too." He knew she would.

"But I've got some dank weed I want to hit up!" They both laughed. "Love you."

"You too. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and went back inside where Sam was waiting for him. "Katie says I'm probably overreacting. She said it's possible they're going to test us, but it won't be anything big, like I was thinking it would be."

Sam nodded. "Thought so."

Mike went back to his room and started to get ready for his classes for the day, political science, composition and a seminar class. He and Sam were the only ones who took early morning classes. There was a city bus leaving for the campus in about half an hour that he needed to catch. He didn't have a car like Ashley or Matt, or a bike like Sam. He had to depend on the bus to get to classes.

He threw himself into his schoolwork, focusing on making a 4.0 in all his classes. It wasn't because he was particularly motivated to be a good student, it was because he needed a distraction. As far as distractions go, school was a good one. It kept him from going insane.

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