The experiment

Do you know what happens at midnight? No one does, we are told to be asleep by 11:30, we are given a vitamin each night at 11. The night I decided not to take mine, well… let’s just say it didn’t go so well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I sound crazy don’t I. But, I’m not. Maybe after you hear more, you’ll believe me.

First off, you had better know about where I am from. I was invited to this prestigious school for girls, and my parents were thrilled. Of course, they were. No boys, and no me being at home anymore. Heck yeah, it’s a great situation! For them. They sent me as soon as they could, paid the tuition in full. And two weeks later, I was gone. And this school was weird. Extra strict rules, no freedom, have to wear the same thing every day. which was an ugly gray jumper, black socks, and brown shoes. We had 5 sets of them for every school day. On weekends, we were allowed in our casual uniform, which was only slightly less itchy than the school one, and just as ugly. Okay, I know, it sounds like a typical private school. But I’m telling you, there was something weird about it.

The first few weeks were actually alright, but as the months went on it got worse. We were ridiculed for not looking like the other girls. We were too heavy, too thin, not tall enough, not perfect enough basically. It sucked, but we listened. There was no discipline, we just, listened somehow. Every morning we were greeted by the headmistress on video, telling us how today was going to be another great day. And the nights, we listened to the school's fight song, despite us not having sports. No one questioned it though.

We didn’t notice when some of the girls went missing. They said that there were a few students who were out sick, then they would never reappear. But again, no one seemed to notice at all. No one but me at least. Unless every other girl kept it in as I did. We were given our vitamins at 11 and they did it one at a time and watched us until we swallowed it. They tasted atrocious, so we swallowed them quickly. We heard from our parents once a month, and the rest of the time we were in isolation. After 5 months, I decided not to swallow the pill.

It was nearly impossible, it tasted so bad and the nurse stared through me for what felt like forever. She finally moved on, and since I was at the end, 2 or so minutes later, she finally left. I hid in my pillow and spit it out doing my best not to gag. I looked back up to see the other girl’s heads hit the pillows at the same time. Silence followed. I looked around, barely able to see anything as the lights shut off. My heart pounded a mile a minute, I quickly realized I shouldn’t be up. I tried to fall asleep by myself but I couldn’t. I was too scared. I couldn’t bring myself to put the pill back in my mouth, so I laid there, trying not to shake and trying to calm my breathing and my heart.

Moments later, I heard the door open. Beams of light flashed across the white walls, blinding me when I looked at it. I tried to lay as still as I could. I heard footsteps coming across the room then stop right next to my bed.

“Shit, I’ve been caught.”

I thought to myself and my bottom eyelid started to water. There were no sounds for a while. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes as hot tears started to stream down my face. I noticed the light shine towards me through my closed eyelids, then quickly leave.

I heard another pair of footsteps crossing the room and I closed my already sore eyelids tighter.

“This one, number 43792. Isabelle, she’s the last one. Can I get a nurse to grab her? And fill out her chart saying she caught that flu going around. Get her to the room, and wait for my next instructions.”

My eyes shot open as I heard movement in the bed next to me, a pencil on paper, then receding footsteps. I had no idea what was going on, but I wanted to find out. I looked around and watched the lights click off, then listened to the door close. I took the glass for my water and tip-toed to the door. I used it to try to hear the footsteps so I knew when it was safe to leave the room. I’m not actually sure if it helped, but I opened the door to the dimly lit hallway, free of people. A white noise that was barely playing bothered my head. I lightly and slowly stepped through the hallway. Past the cafeteria, the classrooms, and to the restricted door where the headmistress is.

I put my ear up to the door as I heard faint voices arguing.

“This is failing, I don’t know how many more girls we are going to lose. This isn’t working at all. We need to stop, send these girls home. We don’t need any more deaths.”

I heard a chair move and the headmistress's voice echoed through the hallway.

“We got these girls from their parents, put them through all of this, what do you think will happen if we send them home? We won’t get another chance to test this. The deaths are tragic yes, but acceptable. It’s trial and error. We will have full control over the ones who survive, which will be the best ones because they will be the strongest.”

My heart pounded harder than it ever has. I heard one of them move and I backed away from the door.

I successfully snuck back to my bed and stared at Isabella’s bed the rest of the night, She was dead. How could she be dead? How could all of those girls be dead? What was going on? A thousand more questions whipped around in my head. In the morning, I got up with the rest of the girls and tried to act as normal as I could. I watched the headmistress cheerfully greet us telling us it would be another great day. I kept a straight face as I began to sweat and shake. I hoped no one noticed. The day went normally, no one noticed that I was off. At 11, I decided not to take the pill again, for some dumb reason. The taste was even worse than the night before, but I made it through. Once the girls went to sleep, and the lights went off, I looked around. It was dark, but I strangely felt like I wasn’t alone.

I rolled over in my bed trying to get comfortable. I was quite tired, but I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking to myself how dumb I was not taking that pill again. I listened as they grabbed another girl from across the room then left. I opened my eyes and that feeling came back. I went to get up to go see who they took and I felt a cold hand grab my arm. I froze, as I heard a voice go,

“We have cameras, Rachel.”

I felt something get pressed against my face then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was here.

I look up at the corpse staring at me. His eye was nearly out of his greenish skull. He looked at me with wonder.

“You know, that’s not the craziest story I’ve heard. That girl you mentioned, Isabella, I think she’s here. You should go find her. Oh, and welcome. Enjoy your stay, because it’s forever”

I turn to the doorway and feel a weight of relief, I might be dead, but at least I’m out. I smile and walk through.