I look around the library, at the spines of books glinting on the endless rows of shelves. I look from Similar to Duplicate and remind myself that we’re all just kids. High schoolers. We didn’t want this. We didn’t ask for this. We didn’t ask to fight and hurt and kill each other. My body floods with warmth, and it’s like I can somehow feel what the Duplicates are thinking. I’m not getting individual thoughts like in the past, when I read Harlowe’s and Ollie’s and Jane’s minds. This time, it’s like I’m tuning into a staticky radio station, with bits and pieces of thoughts streaming in and out of my head.

The Duplicates’ thoughts.

Fight them…

They only want to destroy us…

What we were built for…

The reason we exist…

No. That’s not right. This isn’t why they were created. Maybe it was the reason at first, but it shouldn’t have been. It’s all wrong.

I summon all of my mental strength to send my own thoughts back to them. I’ve never done this before. But it feels like if we’re going to have any shot at getting out of here, I have to do this. I have to find a way to get through to them.

Focus, Emma.

I can make that static louder and stronger if I focus on it enough.

I block out everything that isn’t the Duplicates and their minds. I think of what I want to tell them. What I need them to know. And things begin to sharpen. To clarify. It’s like there’s a string that connects my mind to the Duplicates’, and without even understanding it, or how that could possibly be, I’m doing everything in my power to harness that connection and send the most positive, healing thoughts into their heads.

You don’t have to do this. None of us do.

I think maybe it’s working, because the Duplicates seem focused on me. Quiet. Even a little enthralled.