CHAPTER 2

February 15th, 2008

The scientists stood solemn in front of me with grim looks on each of their faces. Three men who I knew were Jay, Jack, and David were talking amongst each other. I...just knew it was them. Something inside solidified and molded the fact to my brain. Just as I knew I was watching a scene play out that was a year past the incident that caused that girl's death—Megan. I was remembering my time here more clearly. True memories instead of...dark things to feel haunted by.

The haunting feeling still persisted, don't get me wrong. There are definite ghosts that haunt these halls, and I fear I'm looking at a few of them now.

"So Greg and Mason are gone?" Jack had the most puzzling look on his face. His hair was chopped short—it looked like a personal job out of haste. Salt and pepper colored the face that had seen stress more than most. Yet, the expression that painted his gaze was...anger. Jack, the one whose words I'd heard the most clear through those notes was by all accounts a timid individual. Always preoccupied of what others thought of him. It wasn't in his nature...at least, I believed, to be so up front and direct. There's something different about him. His whole demeanor shifts uneasily, he looks to be completely fine physically, but he looks different somehow.

"Ran off to New York," David said with an air of contempt in his voice. He was scratching the back of his head fervently.

"It's not a plot against you," Jay said, nervous. "This isn't some conspiracy."

"I'm not wholeheartedly surprised regardless," Jack says. "Spineless and not at all worth the work we're doing."

"Greg's always been that way," David says, leaning in looking at Jack.

"Dave, what do you mean?" Jay looked at the other with concern in his face. "You've never thought that…"

David brushed him off. "Oh come on. He's always been the spineless one! Can't even handle his kid right…" David quickly looked to Jack as he realized his slip. Luckily, Jack was deep in his own thoughts, his back now turned to the both of them. "We're better off," David called to him.

Jay was shaking his head. "They couldn't do it anymore, that's it. I don't blame them. They were sick of the lies, of the pain they caused."

"Oh? Now they're sick?" Jack barked back. The veins on his forehead popped out of nowhere. His face was beet red. "They weren't sick of the pain they put me through when Greg threw me in that makeshift gas chamber. Both of them weren't here for the work. They only aimed to suss out the outsider. Play their high school bullshit and LOOK WHAT HAPPENED."

"Now, Jack, I understand what they did wasn't right," Jay says, his hands held up defensively.

"Don't think I don't remember you not stopping them, the both of you," Jack says. "You're just as culpable for what happened that day.

"Y-Yes," Jay begins. "I understand my part I played in the accident. A fact I do not hide from anybody. That's why I'm here—to make up for the—"

"It only happened because Greg was head of the project, sir," David broke in. The look on Jay's face equaled my own as I saw the absolute level of kiss-ass that David was showing. "Now that you're in charge we have more freedom to do with as we please," David says.

"And that I am glad for, David. You're working your way towards my forgiveness. Now, Jay, you have quite a bit of work to do before you get to that point."

"Y-yes sir," Jay nods, but the look itself confused me. I stood there staring at this group dynamic that confused and only piled on questions to the increasingly growing mountain of already existing ones. Just why was Jay so—

"First thing's first is we're going to continue testing," Jack turned around and started walking—shocking both of the other scientists into following behind him. "And we don't stop until I get satisfactory results."

"Continue?" Jay asks, picking up the momentum to catch up.

Jack looks at Jay, not slowing down a moment. I had to pick up my own pace to follow them. Jack had a wild smile across his face. "Yes, it is quite unfortunate that Greg and Mason couldn't be here to see this."

"Something tells me you have a solution with that smile," David says.

"I do, and it involves Jennifer," Jack says.

"You're going to test on her?" Jay asks.

"I am, we are. I've also got work to do to get an extra pair of hands around here."

"What does that mean?" Jay asks.

"I'm in the process of transferring over one of the guys from the east coast over here. His name's Sal Muhn, and I think he'll be a good amount of help," Jack says.

"Right," David says, unconvinced.

"It should take a few months for the process to fully go through," Jack says.

"And what if he doesn't agree with your ideals, Jack?" Jay asks.

Jack looks to Jay with a serious look, "Well then, we'll just have to kill him." He laughs and the look of horror that Jay's face grows to tells me that this isn't some dark humor that's shared between them.

I know dark humor—I practically exude the stuff. I think that qualifies me to tell that this...this was serious. This wasn't a threat...it was an inevitability. The world around me filled in like a painting—the colors started to fade and drip down to the ground. As it made contact the droplets changed color and bounced across the floor and walls until the vision changed before my very eyes.