One Up

Chapter 12

I sit on my cot with my arms around my legs, feeling the tears fall gently down my face. They are going to replace me, and then what? What exactly do we get to be 'experimented' on.

My stomach starts to grumble and I soon realize that I haven't eaten anything in what feels like days. There is no clock or calendar lying around for me to check, and no food for me to eat. Sighing, I take the small fleece blanket on my cot and cover myself, before falling into a restless sleep.

I haven't slept more than a few hours when I hear the familiar squeal of hinges. Looking up, I find Milee and her two brooding body guards entering the doorway. This time, she is dressed in a navy blue mini skirt and a blue blazer with a white blouse underneath. Her heels click against the tile flooring as she approaches.

"Well, well, I guess the scientist liked you a little too much," she says, her cold, amused-gaze traveling to my neck. I quickly touch the spot where the needle was injected and let out a hiss of displeasure. Not having a mirror, I cannot check the damage, but I can only assume that it is bruised.

"It's a shame," she starts, kneeling down to my level. "-that he had to give you too much information." I give her an uncertain look. What did she do to him? Having guessed the nature of my thoughts, she smiles before explaining. "Let's just say, Marion won't be pricking you with needles anymore."

With her words, I understand. She killed him. No wonder; he spilled the beans of their little game to not only me, but to my clone as well. Milee c***s her head at my silence before giving a laugh that almost sounded human.

"What happened to the chatterbox we had before? You were nothing but non-stop questions if I remember correctly," she says, putting her thumb and finger to her chin in mock thought, but her eyes never leave mine. Still, I keep my mouth closed. Maybe, just maybe, the more I listen, the more information I can gather.

I watch her as her mood goes from curious to disinterest, before she rises from her crouched position. She starts turning to walk away and finally, I speak.

"Milee," I say, causing her to turn to meet my gaze. "What is the date?" I ask. She only laughs before walking to the door and opening it. She turns to me once more, her wicked grin plastered on her face.

"It's not like you have to worry about it," she says, before she strolls out of the room with her bodyguards. With that revelation, I slouch further into the cot.

In other words, I may not live long enough to find out.

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(Sage's POV)

I don't know how long it's been since I arrived here, but all I know is that I am a damn fool for getting trapped - again. My mind wanders back to my warnings to Samara. I tried to tell her that this was a setup. Her above everyone else because unlike everyone else, her closest relation wanted her captured. She doesn't know, but her shots in the game were programmed to be more lethal. She would hit her mark every time, as long as she was close to her enemy, but I never had the time to explain that to her.

I look at my hands, studying every vein, every skin cell. Unlike everyone else, I don't have family to go to, or family to miss me. All I remember is waking up in this facility with no memories. I had nothing to my name. No one to my heart.

I was all alone.

They trained me to beat people into submission as a way to bring people's fears to light. Only, beating people never seemed to work, so they made a different aim for it. They rigged together a whole new system, and they orchestrated the

International League of Gamers in order to find the best video game players in the world to play into their little trap.

I know some -if not all- of the gamers here in this facility will die. My mind instantly thinks back to Samara. When I first found her going to Ephrata High School, she had me. She had me with her wide, green-blue eyes. She had me with her gentle smile and her warm energy. She had me... and now I can't bear the thought of her dying in this place.

How can I explain any of this to her? That I practically stalked her for the last few months in order to try and warn her? How could she believe me? She will question how I know all this information, but then I'd have to tell her that I am not me. Or at least, not the original me.

How do I explain to her that I no longer have family? Or friends? Or even memories past the day I woke up in this facility?

How do I tell her that I, myself, am a clone?