“They use your weaknesses against you,” Bill explained the following morning at breakfast to me, Jeffree, Ashley, Alicia and Kerli.

“It was stupid,” Tom added.

“Looks like you were the stupid one,” Jeffree commented, “You’re the one with the black eye,” he noted.

“Shut up,” Tom ordered as he looked away. He didn’t seem like he really wanted to talk about it, so we all faced Bill again and waited for him to keep going, but it was looking as though we were going to have to prompt him.

“Bill, are you gunna—“

“Say something dammit!” Jeffree screamed as he slammed his fists against the tables. Ashley and Alicia grabbed Jeffree. Kerli held onto Bill.

“Jeffree! Calm down before the guards see you!” Ashley reminded him. Jeffree rolled his eyes.

“Yeah! Don’t scare the poor boy,” Kerli told him as she stroked Bill’s hair almost as if he were some sort of pet. I swear Kerli likes him more than me, and she’s known me practically since the beginning and this guy for maybe three days! Girls... I’ll never understand them... “Bill, if you don’t want to share you don’t have to,” she told him.

“No, I said I would,” Bill replied.

“Yeah Kerli, he said he would,” Jeffree reinforced. Kerli rolled her eyes at him. Bill took a took breath.

“Anyway, we were dragged into this circular room and there were a bunch more officers, but these guys looked tougher and meaner; they were. They grabbed Tom and dragged him into the middle, and then grabbed me and strapped me to a chair so that I was unable to move. They took Tom’s shirt off and then tied his hands up to the ceiling so that they were hanging in the air. I was so scared. I thought they were going to hurt me, beat me, scratch me, burn me... but they didn’t. Instead, they did all of that to Tom and made me watch,” Bill shuddered. Our mouths dropped.

Even I had to admit that that was pretty cruel, but I guess it was the perfect punishment for the both of them. Bill was extremely fragile and emotional whereas Tom seemed to be the complete opposite.

“Shit,” Alicia muttered. There was a long silence at our table. Suddenly, Bill burst into tears. Kerli quickly grabbed him and snuggled him some more. Yeah, they’re definitely going to get married someday. I mean, as long as Kerli doesn’t get executed this year, but I’d rather not think about that because then I think about the fact that it’s also my last year. Ugh, great, now I’m thinking about this topic again...

“It’s okay now,” Ashley coaxed, “I mean, at least you guys learnt your lessons,” she shrugged. Bill nodded rapidly, whereas Tom more or less shrugged which wasn’t very surprising.

When breakfast ended we went back to our chambers for awhile before being forced down to our See The Light meeting session. God this sucked. I’ve been doing these stupid sessions for four years and so far nothing’s changed! It’s a load of bullshit if you ask me.

“Now, today I want to bring up a very sensitive topic,” Mrs Stein began as she eyed everyone in the circle. Tom was picking at the filth underneath his nails, Bill was looking down sadly (probably because he was still traumatized from Unit 82) and the rest of the group looked less than enthusiastic. Nevertheless, Mr Stein continued. “Class A Stranges,” she said as she looked directly at Jeffree, “Specifically the ones who are locked up in an asylum.” I noticed something shift within Kerli, and I knew she was going to hate this meeting more than any other one we’ve had before. Ashley and Alicia gripped each of her hands.

Mrs Stein proceeded to explain what will get you your own asylum, how to prevent it, and the current teens in there. The meeting was nearing an end when she turned specifically to Kerli and the rest of us.

“I decided to talk about this today because there’s some news in that section of this facility...” Mrs Stein began. I immediately knew that it was going to be about Renee. Why else would she be staring at us like that? “I’m sure you all remember Renee right?” she asked. The group nodded. “After recent incidents regarding her behaviour they’ve made a big decision. They’ve never had to do this before her, but she’s too dangerous to be kept around. So, rather than waiting until she’s 18 to—“

“No!” Kerli screamed knowing exactly what she was going to say next, “No! They can’t do that! They can’t!”

“They have to keep everyone else safe, Kerli,” Mrs Stein began.

“We are! She has her own chamber for God’s sake! We’re as safe as can be!” Kerli shouted.

“Things have changed honey,” she informed her calmly as she moved closer to Kerli. “Come see me after the meeting okay? I have something to tell you,” she whispered to her. Kerli nodded slowly as a tear rolled down her cheek. Mrs Stein stepped away and then began to conclude today’s meeting. I’d tell you about how boring and pointless the conclusion was, but I wasn’t focused on that. I was focused on poor Kerli.

She was losing her best friend before the due date. If any one of them was going to be executed it should be Kerli who leaves us first since she’s older than Renee. It’s just how things go. Or, at least, it’s how things used to go. I guess we really can never know what’s going to happen here.

When the meeting ended, Kerli went over to talk to Mrs Stein. Ashley, Alicia, Jeffree, Bill, Tom and I all tried to wait behind so we could figure out what she had told her, but the officers ushered us out too quickly and we knew that we’d all have to wait

So that was it. We were going to lose Renee. Just like that. I felt so useless since I knew that I couldn’t save her. As we walked back to our chambers I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the news.

As we marched in silence I took quick glances at everyone’s facial expressions, and it seemed as though they were thinking the same thing as me...

What were we going to do?