• The screams don’t bother me anymore. I hear them when the others go to see him. They don’t understand him like I do; they’re scared of him. I know differently, I know he loves us. He told me, he says pain is necessary. It’s progress. We’re special. So when I go, I don’t scream.
    “Your cell mate has left us.” He says, simple. He isn’t one to waste words.
    “Will I get a new one?”
    “There is a new subject. He has been giving me problems.”
    “Problems?” I ask, worry tainting my voice.
    “Yes. I think he will be your new cell mate. You will keep him in line for me.”
    “He won’t be worrying you anymore.”
    He doesn’t answer.
    After he finishes, he sends me back to my cell.
    “So you’re supposed to keep me in line, huh? Good luck.” A voice says
    I turn.
    “What?”
    “You heard me.”
    “Yes, you won’t be worrying him anymore. I don’t understand how you could be so troublesome when he’s trying to help us all.” I reply
    “Help us? He’s EXPERIMENTING on us. He ruins us. How is that helping?”
    “Ruins us! What he does is progress! A little pain in return is nothing!”
    “He’s a sick man.”
    I hit him with my arm, got him in the head, and he dropped like a rock.
    “Don’t insult him!”
    I walked over to him. I ripped my shirt and wiped the blood from his face.
    “I’m sorry...sometimes I forget what it was like before. Before I realized he loves me...us...that is.”
    He looked at me, “He doesn’t love us.”
    “Yes he does. You just don’t understand yet, but you will. I was scared at first, but then he showed me.
    I held out my left arm
    “Looks real doesn’t it? It’s not it’s metal and it was a successful experiment. He took my arm and then replaced it with this metal one.”
    I look at my hand, my fingers close into a tight fist.“That’s what he’s trying to do you know...fuse technology with genetics...”
    “He cut off your ARM! Now tell me, doesn’t that mean he needs a check up from the neck up?”
    “A check? Stop talking about him like that!”
    He looked like he was going to say some more, but then thought better of it.
    “So what’s your name?”
    “My name, I don’t understand.”
    “What do I call you?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “Let’s make up one.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah, it’ll be fun.”
    “Doesn’t sound like fun.”
    He stared at me.
    “Karma.”
    “What?”
    “Your name, it should be Karma.”
    “Why?”
    “Well, because it just feels like karma needs to happen. He’s crazy.”
    I turned and stared at the wall. He tried to talk to me but I refused to answer.
    “Ok, look, I’m sorry. Come on. Please talk to me?” he said.
    “Alright, as long as you promise not to disrespect him.”
    “Ok, fine, just talk to me Karma.”
    “What do I call you?”
    “EX, with an E.”
    “EX?”
    “Yeah, I picked it.”
    I heard footsteps approach.
    “What’s going on?” he asked
    “Lunch time, exercise, dinner time and back here.”
    He had no time to answer. Our cell door opened. Keyman, as I called him, never bothered to walk me to the lunch room. I never gave any trouble.
    “Let’s go.”
    “Wait, you get to walk there by yourself?”
    “Yes.”
    I grabbed his hand in a death grip with my metal arm. He wasn’t getting away from me. He looked at me with this look. His head turned sideways and his hair slid over his face. It made me feel...different.
    We walked in silence and then entered the lunch room. I found my seat at the table in the back corner. He sat in front of me. I started eating the “smush.” He stared at it, disgusted, and pushed it away.
    “Eat. You need your strength.”
    “Only if you answer some questions.”
    I was quiet I knew he’d never survive if he didn’t eat and for some reason, he needed to survive.
    “Fine. But you have to eat it all.”
    He picked up the fork and started eating it, reluctantly.
    “How long have you been here?”
    “Five years.”
    “Five...years?” he asked, incredulously
    “Yes.”
    “What did he do to you?”
    “He gave me a metal arm, put various technology in my body and injected me with experimental concoctions.”
    “Why do you let him do it to you? All this pain, why don’t you say enough?”
    “Pain is progress. If I don’t let him experiment, how is he supposed to perfect what he’s doing?”
    “It’s not right!” he said
    “I can’t get out of here anyway, I tried once, back before I realized.”
    “What happened?”
    “When I went in to see him, I stole one of his scalpels, picked the lock, and ran out.” I said
    “Why didn’t it work?”
    “It did. I got over fifty people out before he caught me. That’s when he took my arm, for my insolence. But even though I disobeyed, he gave me a new one.”
    “I see...” he started contemplating
    We ate in silence after that, he didn’t ask me anymore questions.
    A shrill bell sounded.
    “What’s that!” he asked.
    “The bell that means the doors are opening to go for exercise.”
    We walked to the opening door.
    “Not him.” The guard at the door said pointing to EX. “He’s going to see the doctor”
    “Now?”
    “Doctor’s orders.” he replied
    EX was pulled out of my grasp. I didn’t say anything. I went to exercise in a daze. Was he going to come to dinner? Was he going to “leave me” as the doctor says?
    The bell rang again.
    I walked back into the lunch room and sat back in my place alone. I didn’t eat anything.
    “Oh, so only I have to eat that crap on a plate?”
    “EX!”
    I looked him up and down; he looked fairly in one piece. He came and sat down in front of me.
    “Everything good?”
    “Yeah...but something is bothering me.”
    “What?”
    “Well, he asked how I was enjoying my new room. I said it wasn’t as good as the Empress hotel. And he said...he said it wouldn’t matter, I wouldn’t be staying there for long...”
    He looked worried.
    “He won’t kill you. I’m sure.” But I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure at all.
    We ate dinner, talking about nothing, and about everything. I could say anything to him. He cared about what I said. We walked together back to the cell, I held his hand. Keyman locked it after us.
    “Goodnight EX, see you tomorrow, alright?”
    “Yes...Goodnight Karma. I hope you have sweet dreams. Tonight and all nights...and I’m really happy I met you.”
    I yawned as I got down on the bed. “Me as well.”
    I heard something. I opened my eyes. What woke me up? Looking around, it seemed like all was well. Except...where was EX. The door! It was open!
    “No!”
    I was on my feet in a flash. I ran out the door, I noticed a scalpel in the lock and grabbed it. This is my fault! I just ran, the way I went, hoping if he followed what I told him, he’d do what I did.
    “Ah!” his voice cut through the darkness.
    I ran to it. There he was, fighting with a guard. There were people huddled behind them. They didn’t even bother to help; they were too afraid. EX was losing. I didn’t even think, I ran and stabbed the scalpel in the guard.
    He screamed, falling to the ground.
    “Quick,” I said
    Nothing mattered but him. I had to get him out. We followed the path I had taken all those years ago. It was like I was watching a movie, turn left...turn right...and this is the part where he caught me. How did he know?
    “Again...again you do this, didn’t you learn last time?” His voice. The doctor’s voice.
    I stopped.
    “How did you know...?” I asked.
    “It’s you. If you had stayed in your cell, I wouldn’t have known anything. You. Are. My. Spy.”
    “What?”
    “Your whole body is mine. You have a GPS tracker in your arm; you have cameras, secret alarms. You are my masterpiece.”
    I was too shocked to speak.
    “We’ll take you on! Come on Karma, we’re leaving.” EX said.
    “You would kill me?” the doctor asked “You aren’t able to. You are not a killer.”
    “Maybe not, but I could knock you out.” EX replied
    But he didn’t get it. He didn’t understand. The doctor was looking at me, I knew what he wanted.
    “I give up.” I said
    “What! No, Karma, what’s going on in your head!” EX said. He didn’t want to leave me, and as much as I didn’t want him to...he had to get out.
    “Very good.” The doctor said. He had known this all along. EX was a test. It was all another experiment.
    “Karma!”
    “EX. Don’t you get it? It’s supposed to be like this. For you to be safe, I have to stay. Even if you did knock him out, you heard him, I have a tracker, I have cameras, I am his...masterpiece...”
    He was silent.
    “Go. Get out. Take them.”
    “No...I can’t”
    “Yes. Go, but do me a favour. Don’t ever forget me.”
    “How can you stay here? He’ll kill you!”
    “No he won’t...he wouldn’t...not his own daughter...”
    EX was silent, he looked at me, his mouth hanging open, I could see it, he finally understood.
    “I promise I won’t ever forget you, Karma.”
    I stood there, once again. I watched as the subjects escaped. But this time, they contained something I experienced. They contained someone I experienced. They contained love...they contained EX.