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Lyrica was ten when they moved her into the same room block as Ethan and Jasper. Both boys had watched with interest as this small– even smaller than a ten-year-old girl should be, they thought. But they were all smaller than they should have been. Jasper was skin and bones, except for the muscle they had forced him to put on. You could count every single one of Ethan’s ribs. But this girl, she was even smaller. All of her joints were emphasized. She looked like a walking skeleton.
As they had walked her in, Dr. Russo had been close behind. Both of the boys had shrunk back into their enclosures as she passed by, averting their eyes. But that didn’t mean they could miss what was being said.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get some weight back on you. That experiment was unsuccessful, so it won’t be repeated. I think you’ll do well being back in gen pop with the other kids. Now, we’ll bring your things at some point, you just get settled in for now.” Ethan knew that on the other side of the wall, Jasper was also quietly listening while pretending to be occupied. Dr. Russo thankfully paid them no attention on her way back out.
There was a sigh of relief from Jasper’s side, and Ethan finally turned his eyes on the small girl– only to find her looking back at him. Her soft blonde hair was wavy, and her blue eyes were hollow when he looked into them. He knew that look. She’d been in the isolation room, then. He sighed and settled in on his bed, watching her.
“Hi. I’m Ethan. Were you in the deprivation room?” He got straight to the point, and the girl blinked.
“Yeah. Yeah, I was. How did you know that?” A soft, lyrical voice filled his head. The only issue was her mouth never moved as she spoke.
“That’s a neat trick. Are you a telepath?”
“Something like that. Sorry, I’m Lyrica. I haven’t talked to someone in years. I forget I need to use my voice.” She hopped up on the bed and curled in on herself. Her sweatshirt was almost long enough to cover her legs entirely as she pulled it over her knees. “I’ll try to speak verbally. That way you can both hear me.”
“Don’t worry about it. We understand. How long have you been in here?” She looked up and sighed at him, lowering her head to rest on her knees.
“What year is it?”
“Nineteen ninety-nine. I think.” He sighed softly at that. He was ten, he knew for sure because Dr. Russo made sure he knew, and he’d been born in nineteen eighty-nine.
“Ninety-nine? About six years, then.”
“Oh, you’re the same age as we are.” Jasper’s voice came from the next room over, and Lyrica’s eyes flashed over to him. She smiled faintly at him. Ethan could only imagine he was waving at her. “I’m Jasper. Nice to meet you. Even if it’s in this place.”
The rest of the day, the three of them had talked, and talked, and talked. Slowly, but surely, Lyrica began to unwind. She even started to laugh at their jokes as they tried their hardest to cheer her up. Some light came back into her eyes. It made something in Ethan’s chest lighter as she came back to life. Maybe there was hope for all of them yet, if they stuck together.
Maybe.