Page 87 of The Order: Rise of the New Empire

"Forest!" I yell, getting in the woman face. "I have a fucking name-"

"No, you do not," she snaps, grabbing my cheeks between her fingers. "Whatever association you think you have to the woman who gave birth to you, you are wrong," she warns, looking me up and down. "You have one purpose in this life. One goal. To end the Marked's existence once and for all. You know how vital that ideology is to save the human race, correct?" she questions, my head slowly nodding.

Is there no way to stop the evil they fear so much and keep my kind safe?

"End Marked, like the boy on the other side of the wall?" I question, Melanie's eyebrows raising.

"You both have the opportunity to save the world. Why not take it?" she questions, my face pulling away from her hand.

"It's easy to save the world when you have no idea what you're missing out on," I snap. "If I am to live and die fighting for a cause forced onto me, the least you can do is let me leave this room and go outside, even for a moment," I whisper. "What do you think happens if I run? If I don't come back? I have no idea how the world works. This is all I know. I promise I will kill as many damn bunnies as you want, and let you poke me for hours on end, but please, Melanie," I whisper. "Let me, and whoever ison the other side of that wall get some fresh air," I beg, her foot tapping as she debates the proposal.

"If I do that, Thirt-Forest, do you promise to work harder than you have been?" she questions, crossing her arms.

"I swear," I plea, glancing back at my sorry excuse for a bedroom.

"Fluorescent lights and glass windows would make anyone go mad. Just give me a second to not feel like one of those animals stuck behind the cage."

Fixing her lab coat, she shakes her head.

"Thirty minutes outside," she hisses. "Only thirty minutes. Wearing a blindfold. If either of you try and take it off, you're both done."

Nodding my head graciously, I grab her hands.

"I promise, Katiana," I whisper, her eyes growing wide.

"W-Why did you just call me that?"

Racking my brain for an excuse, I touch my temple, trying to formulate where that name came from.

"I-I have no idea," I admit, the lie detector scanner still strapped to my brain, reading nothing but green. "It just felt... right."

Looking at me with wide eyes, she slowly backs away, leaving the room, coming for me only an hour later.

"You only get thirty minutes," Melanie's husband whispers, the thick blindfold over my eyes as he guides us both down a narrow hallway. Feeling the ropes around my wrist, a sedative lingers near my neck, ready to be used at any moment.

"Why isn't Melanie the one taking me out?" I question, the look of fear plastered on her face when I said the name still solidified in my mind.

"She was not feeling well," he lies, gritting his teeth as he speaks.

Doing the one thing I am not supposed to, I creep into the man's mind with my Call, the bright eyes of Melanie touching my mind.

"It's a girl!" she whispers, holding her husband's hands with joy.

"I thought you were infertile-"

"I suppose we have been graced by the miracles of science," she whispers, rolling her hands over her bump.

"We can call her... Katiana," she whispers, my Call ripping free from his mind.

An unborn child.

One settled in Melanie's stomach.

No wonder she looked so fearful of my knowledge.

Even I had wondered why that name had decided to touch my mind.

"Thirty minutes," he reiterates, a cold wind brushing over me, my nose filling with the most intoxicating smell I have ever experienced.

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