“I don’t think she did it.” Future-Adam’s eyes flicker briefly to me. He knows. And he’s trying to protect me.

“Me either,” I say. I need to talk to him alone to find out what he knows and what he’s hiding from the others.

Chris slams his empty soda can on the table. “Then who did?”

“I’ve always suspected Aether Corporation,” Future-Adam says. “But I never found any evidence and the police closed the case quickly. They had their killer, and she was conveniently dead. They didn’t want to look any further than that.”

“No surprise there,” Trent mumbles. “Like they’d care about four dead foster kids.”

Future-Adam stands and walks to the window, resting his hands on the frame as he stares outside. “There’s something we discovered—something you’re going to discover—about what happened to the other people who went to the future. I believe Aether killed all of you to protect this secret.”

“Wait—what other people?” Trent asks.

“I thought we were the first,” Zoe says.

Future-Adam shakes his head. “That was a lie. Aether sent teams of scientists and other people to the future before our group. But they all came back…damaged.”

I knew it. I knew there were others before us. “Damaged how?”

He turns back to us, his face grim. “Brain damaged.”

08:25

08:25

My stomach twists. Maybe Aether wasn’t lying to us about the possibility of brain damage from looking up our future selves. Could this be what the scientists were talking about when they were worried about something happening again?

My God, is this the reason I end up killing the others and myself?

“Hold up,” Chris says, jumping to his feet. “Are we gonna be brain damaged too?”

“What does that even mean?” Zoe asks, her voice rising.

“No, we were all fine—at least while we were in the future,” Future-Adam says. “And I was okay when we got back. I lied to Aether and said I didn’t remember anything to protect all of us. I assume the rest of you did the same.” He pauses, frowning. “Although I can’t say for sure what happened to you. We were split up for questioning as soon as we returned to the present. After that, I never saw any of you again.”

“You never saw us again?” I glance at the younger Adam and our eyes meet. The idea of never seeing him again bothers me more than it should.

“No,” the older version says. “I heard two days later that you were all dead.”

“So you don’t know for sure if we were brain damaged or not?” Zoe asks.

Trent starts flicking his lighter on and off. “Maybe that’s why Adam’s the only one still alive now. They killed the rest of us off because we were damaged and he wasn’t.”