Six couldn’t come fast enough. I paced my cell while Karl napped. I was scared, but also a little bit excited at the same time. Things were horrifying, but I had grown accustomed to them and some kind of interaction other than Karl’s shrugs and grunts and the mute passive aggressiveness of the guards seemed nice.

As soon as 5:55 hit, I woke up Karl and left my cell with glee.

“Do you know why they call it The Studio?” I asked Karl as we descended the stairs to the main level of the facility.

“I… don’t… know,” we were at the aforementioned hallway by the kitchen by the time Karl finished.

“Lotta help Karl. Lotta help.”

I heard the sound of a thundering piano before we even reached the door. Vibrating the floor, the notes were melancholy and haunting. They washed me with cold right before I knocked on the closed door.

The piano stopped. Footsteps approached the door and soon I was face-to-face again with Bory. He greeted me with an ashy smile and ushered Karl and I in.

“Welcome to The Studio.”

All the faces, bodies around the room were familiar, but unintroduced. I had been sharing a prison with these people for weeks, but had never even uttered a word to any of them other than Bory.

“Why do you call it The Studio?” I asked.

Bory led us over to some chairs in the corner, tucked into the group before he answered.

“This is the only room where we are all approved to be together unsupervised, but they watch and record everything we do in here like it is a TV show. But,” Bory leaned into me and whispered into my ear the rest, “we bribed the guards in charge and they delete anything we say or do in here which wouldn’t be approved. So it is a bit like a sanctuary for us.”

“Oh.”

I was becoming shocked by how such weird stuff was become normal in my brain. How what he just told me added up to me just fine.

“Okay, get comfortable you guys. We need to make some introductions,” Bory continued.

I leaned back in my seat and scanned the room like the first day of class in a new school. The appearances of everyone freaked me out, but they all appeared to be fairly friendly.

Bory sat in the center of the room. Turned his attention to Karl and I.

“Okay everyone, we don’t have too much time before we have to be back for dinner, so let’s get this started. I want to officially introduce Luca and Karl. I’m sure you have seen them around, but I know that not everyone around here has been officially introduced.”

Bory looked to Karl.

“Karl, can you introduce yourself please? Tell us a little about yourself.”

Karl stood up with a hundred-yard stare.

“Uh. Hi. My name is Karl.”

Karl sat down.

“Mesmerizing,” Bory started in. “Luca, can you top that?”

I stood up with wobbly knees. Wiped my lips even though there was nothing on them.

“Uh, I’m Luca. I don’t know why I am here. I don’t know what this place is, but I guess I should make the most of it. I’m from Pennsylvania. I’m twelve. I like music, sports, hanging out with my friends. Well, used to like all that. Now I just like reading the crappy books we have here and sleeping a lot. So yeah.”

I couldn’t believe something as simple as that could have made me feel 100 times better. I guess I needed some human, or subhuman based on this crowd, interaction.

“Well done, Luca. Well done,” Bory picked it back up. “Well, let’s go around the room then. I’ll get it started. My name is Bory. I’m from a small little town in Illinois, by Missouri, Cairo. I’m only 14, but have probably been here longer than anyone else, since I was four. I hate it here, but I make it by each day by doing what I can to help everybody else get the most out of it. I know, I’m a hero.”

Bory turned to the group and pointed at the only girl in the group.

Pale, hunched over with a stack of tall, black curly hair lined with a few shocking blonde streaks and dark eyes, she wore a long white dress that barely clung to her rail thin frame. She put her head down when Bory’s finger landed upon her. She stood up with her head down and played with a bracelet on one of her wrists.

“I’m Liz. I have only been here for a few months. My dad was in the military, so I lived in Switzerland before I moved here. It was a lot nicer there. I like to read a lot and am usually pretty tired. I also like making sculptures out of the horrible food they give us here.”

I was mesmerized by Liz. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, even when the next person, clockwise in the circle from her started introducing himself. She became the only person in the room.

She had those big soft eyes. Like that actress from the show New Girl. She had crazy style like she just didn’t care. Her lips were soft. Her hair dark, but radiant. She looked innocent. Made me feel guilty about feeling sorry for myself about being there. This was so much worse for her. Suddenly I didn’t even want to leave, because that would mean I would never see her again. Oh how the sight of a beautiful girl can change everything in just one glance.

I didn’t even notice the boy next to her introduce herself, but I quickly realized that wasn’t completely because I was distracted by Liz. The boy next to her seemed to come in and out of focus. One second I could see him, one second I could just see a foggy haze in front of his blue plastic chair. He seemed to waver in and out of existence.

The boy next to disappearing fellow cleared his throat, stealing my attention.

The next boy was a hideous eyesore. His skin hard and dry in patches, rigged and a bit crimped, he almost looked like he was covered in scales. Like a lizard man.

“I have been here for about five years. My name is Gil. I lived in Brazil for most of my life before I came here. I like swimming, fishing and going to the beach, all things I can’t do here. So yeah, things are pretty cool, obviously.”

Next to Gill was the boy who had been playing the piano. On the surface, he appeared to be the only kid who didn’t have something obviously wrong with his body, but he wore a small, white mask across his eyes, nose and upper cheeks so who knows?

He spoke in a dramatic tone with a classical accent I had to try and ignore as not to laugh.

“My name is Eric. I’ve lived in this hell for years. I was born in Paris, Texas, but I can only faintly remember it. I enjoy music, dreaming and dreaming about music.”

I was beginning to enjoy this process. All of my comrades appeared to be fairly enjoyable. No longer scary, they now had personalities and life attached to their deformed figures.

I highly anticipated hearing the story of the next character, a hunched over boy who was so short, I wondered if he was a midget or just a very short young man.

But I would not get the chance. We were interrupted by panicked scratching upon the door.

“Seriously?” Bory fumed.

The door flew open and I jumped back in my plastic chair when I saw Stinky Junior crouched in the doorway on all fours.

“Dinner is starting early,” Stinky Junior announced with splatters of slobber upon his face.

“Thanks for letting us know, Jun,” Bory said and then shook his head in disgust. “Let’s go, I guess.”

I started following everyone else out of the room, trying to find the right pace where I could saddle up next to Liz and not seem like I did it on purpose.

Success. I found a way to sit next to Liz in the dining hall for dinner. I was so excited and nervous I almost couldn’t breathe. I tried to choke down our usual Tuesday pot roast and soggy vegetables.

I sat next to her for a few minutes and was only able to force out a single “hi.” I knew I needed to do more or I might appear to be a twin of Karl.

“So…”

My brain tried to think of something normal to say.

“Is there like a separate girl’s bathroom just for you here?”

Failure.

“What?” Liz fired back with confusion.

“Oh, uh…”

I tried to think of a way to quickly change the subject.

Liz let out a deep breath. Looked to me with apologetic eyes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. I just really hate this place. So I hate answering questions about it. I’m really sorry for being a jerk. Your name is Luca, right.”

Fireworks went off in my head.

“It is. Your’s is Liz?”

“Yes.”

“Is that like, short for Elizabeth?”

“Nope, it’s just Liz.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Sure is.”

I couldn’t tell if Liz was being sarcastic with me. She played with the peas in her mashed potatoes.
“I gotta ask you something, is that okay?”

My heart fluttered. Liz turned the table. She was interested in something about ME.

“Yeah.”

“Why are you here?”

I thought about it for a second.

Did I tell her the real reason? Did I make something up? Did I even know the real reason?

“I got caught breaking into a house.”

There. Great. Made me look romantically harmless, but also a little bad.

“Tell me why you are really here. That’s not the kind of reason someone ends up here. With some people like Bory or Gil it’s pretty obvious, but some like you and me, it’s not. Tell me the truth, please.”

My face blushed, I almost choked on the cold pot roast in my throat.

“I was found in one my classmates’ room in the middle of the night. Don’t know how I got there. Don’t know why I was there. Don’t know what I did, but the next day or so, I was on my way wherever this place is.”

I was sure I had just blown it with Liz. She probably thought I was a weirdo now.

“Understandable. Probably one of the least weird reasons anyone is here. I suspected you were like me.”

Like me! Like me! That sounded so great. Progress.

“Why are you here?”

“I don’t really know.”

“Oh, come on. I told you my story.”

“I know, but mine’s not even really that good.”

“That’s not fair.”

“So, life’s not fair.”

“Come on. You gotta tell me now.”

Liz took what seemed to be only like her second bit of food. She went on with some cold mush in her mouth.

“Okay.. I poisoned my boyfriend.”

I really did choke on my pot roast for a second this time. Coughed and leaned over the table for a few seconds.
“But not in the way you are thinking. He was poisoned from making out with me. Apparently I am toxic. Like seriously toxic. Like my saliva or just me lips are so toxic it poisoned him. He live though.”

“Oh okay,” I said as if I really thought that was much better given my instant feelings for her. “That’s okay…”

The lights in the dining hall cut out. We were instantly plunged into complete darkness.

“Oh shit,” I heard Liz whisper in the dark.

“What?”

“The guards are probably going to come in with flashlights soon. Just go to your room.”

“Why?”

“They’re out.”

“Whose they?”

“The Kids. Trust me. You don’t want to know unless you have to. They are a lot worse than old Stinky Junior the wolf. Just go when the guards come.”

Liz was telling the truth. A cluster of guards walked into the dining hall clutching flashlights.

“Alright everyone, head back to your cells right away,” one of the guards barked out. “Leave your dinner on the table.”

Everyone started filing back to the stairs which led up to the cells as swiftly as possible, their haste bubbling the uncertainty and fear boiling in my blood.

I turned to ask Liz another question, but she was already almost at the stairs.

I followed as fast as I could.

I caught up with her at the top of the first set of stairs. I talked to her without breath.

“Thanks for the heads up back there.”

“Stick with me. I won’t lead you astray.”

We reached the first level of cells and I was going to continue the conversation, but Liz took off down one of the rows of cells.

“Oh, I ‘ve never stopped on the first level.” I said, halting Liz for a moment.

She turned back to me.

“Oh yeah, it’s the girl’s section, and yes, there is a girl’s bathroom there just for me.”

“Oh, okay. Well, nice.”

“But go to your cell as fast as you can. Seriously, I’m not messing around.”

“Oh okay.”

Liz was off before I even replied. Heading towards the end of the row of cells. I lingered on the platform of the stairs for a moment, watching her walk away.

She walked to the end of the row of cells on the level and disappeared around the far corner.

“Move your ass gaywad,” one of the guards jarred me when he barked in my ear.

I followed his orders and went up into my cell where Karl was already asleep on the top bunk. A guard came by and locked the door.

I went over to my bed. Laid down and stared up at the wooden boards of the top bunk above me thinking about the magic of Liz until noises from the outside of the cell shook me from my daydream.

I got up from my bed and walked over to the barred wall of the cell.

I could hear the noises clearer now, they were little feet sprinting around down in the distance of the dining hall. I didn’t focus on them for long though, quickly delved back into my daydreaming of Liz until I was literally sleeping and hopefully dreaming about Liz.

I stirred in the middle of the night again. My eyes flashed open, still dreary with sleep. I gave the room a quick scan until I heard some shuffling over by the cell bars.

In the pale blue light of the night, I could see something trying to slip through the cracks of my cell.

Barely three-feet tall, clad in a white toga of sorts and topped with a close cropped head of buzzed hair, it was a little boy. He was trying furiously to squirm through the cell bars and had made progress, but still had about half of his body to get through.

“Oh my God,” I screamed out.

The top bunk rustled.

“Karl. Karl. Karl. Wake up.”

The little boy in the cell bars shot me a look of glowing eyes, flashed spiked teeth. My heart almost stopped.

“KARL!”

My last scream seemed to do the trick. Our entire bunk shook.

I saw Karl jump down onto the floor.

The boy’s glowing eyes locked onto Karl. He furiously started to wiggle back out the bars. Karl’s hulking form descended upon him.

The boy squeaked his way out just before Karl got to him but he dropped a flashlight before he sprinted away.

I ran up to join Karl at the edge of the cell, suddenly confident with the support of my massive roommate.
I bent down and picked up the flashlight.

Something wet and sticky upon the flashlight immediately caught my attention. I held it up to the slight moonlight the ceiling windows let in.

I dropped the flashlight. It cast a beam of light upon something far more horrifying than a little bit of blood.
The nearly-skinned body of one of the guards hanging from the rafters of the ceiling, dripping down upon the platform outside our room.