Brianna Acero and the Second One's Return

29. I meet the doppelganger

"What's going on?" I ask when we reach Christian, who is having a heated conversation with Jordan near one of the other cells.

I never imagined this floor to be so huge. There are at least twenty cells on each side, and those are only the ones I can see. The corridor stretches on into the distance, and it's so long that I can't even see the end of it. Men and women sit behind the clear glass walls separating them from the outside. Some lay on small cots while others are forced to sit on the floor; chained to the wall. As we walk by they stare at us, eyes shining with hatred as they spit insult after insult. Some of them even go as far as banging on the glass, yelling at us, though the soundproof walls keep the noise from reaching us.

"Ah, so you've finally arrived," scolds Christian when we reach him, storming towards Simon Says' cell, opening the door to pull the man out. Simon struggles as our director forces him to his feet, shoving him out the door.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I ask.

This guy is dangerous, and I honestly don't want to be anywhere near him after what he's done to me. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of helplessness that washed over me when I realized I wasn't in control of my own body.

"You'll see," says Kalen, coming up to stand next to me, a look of disdain on his face.

Christian pushes Simon Says onto the chair they placed in the hallway, tying his arms behind his back with a silvery colored cord. It must be the titanium alloy fiber rope that Jordan had been talking to us about during one of our classes, designed to never break, but to be flexible, like a real rope. Only this one was ten times stronger and couldn't be cut with regular equipment.

"You can stop now, we know you're not him."

My confusion turns to anger when I see what happens next.

Simon Says rolls his eyes. Except, now they aren't Simon Says' eyes. The dark brown is replaced by a light blue, eyelashes elongating, shape-changing. Simon Says starts to transform in front of our very eyes, skin tightening and turning darker, hair growing to his shoulders, face morphing.

In front of us sits a girl, a girl with long dark hair and black boots with bright red laces. This must be the girl I heard in the changing rooms, and I recognize her as the morph we saw during our training session, the one that sat next to me in class. She's the one that helped Simon Says escape?

"You have a lot of explaining to do," says Christian, bending down to look the girl right in the eye with a murderous stare. She leans back, trying to put some distance between them, but he just keeps invading her space.

"So, I suggest you start talking."

The girl's brave facade starts to crack, and I can tell she wasn't prepared to face the consequences of her actions. She trembles, intimidated by our directors' giant frame, and she breaks eye contact almost instantly. I don't know how she and Simon Says knew each other, but after hearing what I heard, they both must be working for someone, probably the man she was talking to that day in the locker room.

"Well?" Says Christian, scarily calm.

To my surprise, the girl doesn't let fear get to her, and she looks back defiantly, keeping her mouth firmly shut.

"Fine, you want to do this the hard way?"

Again she says nothing.

Cassie cracks her knuckles and surges forward, but Kalen stops her before she can do anything too rash. He seems just as riled up however, if the heat emanating from his body is anything to go by.

Christian grabs another chair from the security room to our left and drags it out to sit directly in front of the girl, who doesn't flinch when he slams it on the ground in front of her.