My name is Charlie. I'm 14 years old, I think. Who knows? Who would care? I don't. I don't even remember when it is. Sad isn't it? That's what a place like this can do to you. Make you forget the good things that have happened to you and make the bad things burn in you memory forever. I sound different from before don't I? Trilox says that I'm different from when I first met him. He's the only "person" who I actually talk to in this place now. I don't talk to anyone else. There's no need for me to say anything anyway. They tell me to do something, I do it. Whatever it is, I do it. No mater what it is, "Get me a glass of water," "Hold out your arm dear," "Do a handstand," I do it. No questions asked. I just do it. It makes me seem mindless doesn't it? Or that I have no will of my own. I guess that's true. I'm now just a puppet for these people. I make no choices for myself, they make my choices for me, the only things that they don't tell me is when to sleep, when to go to the toilet or what to eat. These are the only things that I control in this hell that I call life.

You'd think when I'm lying in bed I'd dream or at least think of my parents.

I can't.

I finally figured out what that green stuff in that syringe was, the one that Jade gave me long ago. I haven't figured out everything but I defiantly know it was a depressant. Not the drugs like E or whatever. I think that's the opposite of a depressant anyway. I was only twelve when I was told about drugs. The kind of depressant I mean is that it depressed some of my memory. When I say some, I mean practically all of it. I can't remember anything of my life before living in this cage. All my memories now revolve around this building. So when I try to remember my parent all I remember is a fuzzy picture.

The only thing that seems to still be me is my accent, I have no idea where it came from though. Before, when I asked Doctor what accent I had, he told me not to ask questions. I never did after that. I think he didn't tell me because I might have then remembered some of my life before this place. What could I do though? I couldn't exactly rebel could I? A few times I had questioned Doctor's actions or I didn't do something quick enough or he was just generally in a bad mood I would be the one on the very painful receiving end.

I just learned to accept it, like everything else. The injections, they were the worst in the first month. I had to have one every twelve hours. Until last month it was every two days. The only reason they stopped was because they said that it was now permanent.

Both of them.

That means that my powers are now permanent and have no chance of fading away. It also means that my memory loss is permanent.

Another thing I accepted was that I was always being evaluated and tested. They don't make it obvious but it happens. Whenever I'd go into the rooms full of dishes they'll check if I'd made any progress from the last time I had an injection.

I'm being watched constantly. Wherever I go, whatever I do, they'll be watching. Another thing which I've found out is that the bracelet Doctor gave me has another little surprise. Something, which I wasn't about to find out, but I did. Apart from that it has an inbuilt torture device it's also something else. It's a tracker to say exactly where I am. So I can't run away either. Since there are cameras everywhere, they'd see me trying to get out. If I do somehow get outside the gate in the enclosure, that would trip a silent alarm alerting everyone I was trying to get out. And the outcome would be the same. I could be caught and be "corrected."

I know from its description that I should take off the clasp from the bracelet but I can't. It seems to be a really powerful magnet so I cant.

Therefore I am trapped in this place I now call home. But it's not a place where my heart belongs; it's just a roof over my head.

And that's what I was staring at, that fateful night. I was staring at the ceiling, unable to get to sleep. I sighed for what seemed to be the fiftieth time that night.

'Trilox? You awake?'

Yeah, Ah'm awake. Somethin's goin' to happen.' Trilox is the only "person" who stops me from crawling into a ball and trying to kill myself. If I left, Trilox would be on his own and wouldn't be able to talk to anyone else. It's strange, after the who knows how long I've been here, Trilox has taken a bit of a shine to my accent.

'Wha' do ya mean?'

'Ah don't know. Ah can just feel that somethin's goin' to happen.'

'Ah see. Do you wanna go for a walk? Coz Ah just feel Ah need to do somethin' insteada lyin' abou'.'

'So where will we go?'

'Ah want to stare at those trees.' In some of the staircases there's windows looking into the outside world. Just down the road is like some park with trees and grass. I've never felt the wind on my face, just little breezes from the windows. There's the enclosure at the back but absolutely no wind gets there.

 'Heh. How did Ah guess?'

'Dunno. Maybe you read my mind?' it's a long running joke between the two of us but we don't seem to tire of it for some reason.

'Will we be goin' then?'

Sitting up, I picked up Trilox from the window and let my feet do the walking. I must have walked that route over 600 times now.

And since I thought I knew about my surroundings, that's the reason I ended up on my backside. Someone had just bumped into me, or to be more precise, ran into me. That's the thing though. No one runs in this place. I mean, what kind of self-respecting adult runs, apart from like, after a bus?

"Ouch!"

That's when I looked closer at the "adult." That's the reason she was running. She's a kid.

'Charlie? What' happened? You nearly sat on me!'

'Trilox. . .it's a girl.'

'A girl? So? . . .Oh.'

'Yeah . . .oh.' we were acting like this because there's no other kids in this building, apart from me. Which means she's from the outside. Which means she isn't allowed in here. Which means if she's found and caught . . .

'We have to get out of here and fast!'

"You have to get out of here." I said quietly to her as she started to stand up.

"Oh yeah? Says who? You?" her brown eyes blazed with defiance. She was pretty small. She only came up to about halfway between my elbow and my shoulder when she was standing up. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and her (long) fringe was tucked behind her ears.

"Please! You've got to go!" I quickly turned around and scanned the area to see if anyone was coming. "They mustn't find you here!"

"Oh? So who's they? Anyway, I've got to complete my dare."

'A dare? What's that?'

'It's when somebody challenges somebody else to do something to prove they aren't scared. Something along those lines anyway.'

'Seems kind of dumb to me.'

"What do you have to do to complete your dare?" I was trying to not talk in my accent so that she would understand me better and so I wouldn't have to stall when she asked me what I was saying and wasting more time.

"Aw fine! I see! You just want to chuck me out don't you?"

"Please!" I pleaded. "What do you need?!"

"I just need something to prove that I actually was inside of here, okay? I thought this place was haunted."

'Why don't you give her an apple or something?'

"Trilox! You're not helping!" I realized too late that I said that out loud instead of my thoughts.

"Who's Trilox?"

"He's uh. . .my. . .uh."

=Great, this place isn't haunted. It's a mental institute.=

'Is there any point? Just shove her out!'

With a slight shrug, I quickly walked up to her.

"H. . .hey! What do you think doing? Let go of m-mfph!"

Somehow, I was able to drag her outside, while holding her mouth AND dodging her blows so that she didn't hit a certain place that was pretty obvious she was aiming for. I let go of her at the gate of the enclosure.

 "Why did you do that?!" she all but shouted.

"Not so loud! You've got to go!"

"So you keep saying. Just tell me why!"

I was getting panicky. There would have been a small alarm now to say I had gone into the enclosure.

I heard the girl snap her fingers. "I know! Since you won't let me back inside I guess I'll just have to take you!"

"What?!" I gawked at her. "I . . .I can't.

'Charlie, you won't have another chance. When they find out about this, and they will, you'll know what'll happen.'

'But what about the tracker?'

'Try my blade. It's made of a metal alloy. Quickly!'

I pulled out Trilox and shoved it in between the clasp. The magnet must've gotten confused because it just clicked off.

"You have a blade? All right! That was probably made in there so my dare's done!"

I let the bracelet drop and it out a light note when it hit the ground.

"A bracelet?"

She will probably never know how such a common object controlled my life.

"Will you hurry up and get over here then?" She was already on top of the gate and jumped over.

I hazard one last look at the prison I had lived in for two years. Seeing nothing of danger I climbed over the gate and ran after the already disappearing girl. The moon suddenly hid behind the clouds and we used the semi-darkness as cover. As I was running underneath the trees I longed to touch for such a long time I hit me. There would be no one checking on my progress, giving me injections (although that had already finished, I don't want to have the threat of them having another idea of what to inject into me) or telling me what to do. I realized what that meant. Slowly a small smile played on my lips, something I thought I couldn't do anymore. One thought echoed though my head, in time with my thudding footfalls.

'I'm free!'

* * *

Gravel crunched underfoot as someone walked towards the spot Charlie was standing in mere seconds ago. A wrinkled hand picked up the bracelet and turned it over slowly.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. You shouldn't have done that, you know that, you know what will happen when you get back. And you will be coming back. When you do. . .I'll make sure that you won't leave again. If you tell anyone about this, they will no longer exist in this world…" The soft voice echoed in the enclosure, holding its deadly promise.

 THE END

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So what do you guys think? Yes, THE END means the end. That's this uh, wajamacallit, fic finished. So should I make a sequel? Hmm, now that's really hard to think about. Now's the part for my reviewers:

Wingcanine: That's soooo not fair! You've got like, less homework than me AND you're a year older than me! So I take it your keyboards fixed then?

Dudems: Okay, since you said that you're going to hate me for stopping it here then.

And this is for all the people who reviewed throughout, um, which isn't exactly a lot. * Shrugs * oh well, to you guys!

Beyblade-Luver

Dudems

Natheas

Wingcanine.

Charlie: You just had to end it there didn't you?

DID: What? what's wrong with the ending?

Charlie: Can't you ever let anything good happen to me? Couldn't you have just let me escape? But oooh no! you had to have that little bit at the end didn't you?

DID: Weeeell. If I didn't, there wouldn't be a sequel.

Charlie: A seq-* Gulp * a sequel? 

DID: Yup

Charlie: You mean I'm going to have to go through all of that all over again!?

DID: Not exactly.

Charlie: Do I even want to know what happens in the sequel?

DID: They get to see what Trilox looks like! And, um, there's some other stuff but I forgot them…

Charlie: The brain melting thing with is the internet strikes again.

DID: Yeah, well, I don't know when my sequel will be out but look for the names The Hidden or The Ghost of/from the Past.

Charlie: They sound. . .nice.

DID: do you want me to re-write The Experiment so it ends up as a PG-13????

Charlie: On second thoughts, they're really really good!

DID: Good. So don't you guys forget. The Hidden or The Ghost from/of the Past.