No guards. No lights. None of the surveillance monitors are on.

Grace’s shoulders drop, and she clenches her fists. “I knew it.”

“What?”

“I knew something was up.”

I shake my head. “So what—”

“We’re alone.”

I blink. “What do you mean? We’re not supposed to be alone.” The words spill out of me uncontrollably.

Grace narrows her eyes, and I can feel the distance and the ignorance between us. “Something happened outside, I think. The whole staff has been acting all weird. Distracted or something. I don’t know.”

I nearly laugh, because what else can I do? “I didn’t even notice.”

Come to think of it, didn’t I? I remember Jemma staring at the computer screen, like she didn’t hear a word of what I was telling her. The guard who didn’t see the twin sneaking around in the hallway.

“Told you this wasn’t normal,” Grace says.

“What isn’t? Tattling to the guards? That won’t get you anywhere.”

Another voice from the shadows. Again, I jump. I’m not meant for this sneaking around, even when, apparently, there are no guards here to stop me. When Reid saunters into our line of sight, his movements casually predatorial, my unease doesn’t falter. Especially not when I see the other boys behind him, down the hallway. All of Hunter’s crew, with their leader in the middle. They’re far enough away that I can’t make out their expressions, but they seem to be purposefully blocking our exit.

Reid grins at me. “We were waiting for you.”

I can still feel his hands on me. I can still feel the ghosts of his punches. I force myself to remain upright so I don’t crumble.

Grace turns around, and the set line of her mouth betrays her annoyance. She’s not the type of person to be intimidated easily. “What is this, a midnight picnic? Go away.”

Reid shrugs. He jerks his head backward in the direction of the others. “Hunter wants to see the new kid, and when they didn’t show, well… You know how it is.”

With those few words, the tension of the night grabs me. I was going to this initiation willingly, but I foolishly forgot about it for a moment, and now I’m trapped.

One of the other boys walks up to me.

“It’s bullshit, is how it is,” Grace mutters. She takes a deep breath and steps into the guard station.

Reid gasps—and the sound echoes throughout the hallway. “Whoa, Grace, what are you doing?”

She doesn’t answer, and he turns to me. “What is happening here?”

“The guards are gone,” I say, once I’ve finally found my voice. “They’re not patrolling either. They’re…gone.”

His shock is palpable—and it’s mirrored on the faces of the people behind him. Some of them have been here for years. Guards are part of daily life. Being observed constantly is part of being here. And with no reasonable explanation, we’re left with an emptiness that has the gravitational pull of a black hole.

The camera lights still blink, but if we’re only being observed from a distance, that hardly matters now, does it? Unless… “Grace, do you think this is a test of some sort? A psychological experiment to see what we’ll do?”