Page 121 of Wicked Little Nightmare

Ifelt like shit for leaving Lakey on that couch, but Kyle wanted to hunt, and apparently, he needed me to do it, so here I fucking was. The crunch of leaves under my boots was loud as Kyle and I crept through the dense forest, or at least, tried to creep. The underbrush here was ridiculously out of control. Every sense was on high alert - the sharp scent of pine, the rustle of branches, even the faint call of a bird in the distance. My fingers tightened around the cool metal of my rifle. The thrill of the hunt pulsed through me, that familiar rush of adrenaline.

We paused in a small clearing, scanning the area. Kyle's voice was low when he broke the silence.

"You know, Chimera's security was no joke. Like supermax on steroids."

I raised an eyebrow. "That right?"

"Oh yeah. Retinal scans, voice recognition, the works. Place was built to keep secrets buried six feet under."

The casual way he mentioned it, made my skin crawl. I kept my face neutral. What kind of secrets needed that level of protection?

"Sounds intense," I said, voice steady despite the churning in my gut. "They expecting a full-scale invasion or something?"

Kyle chuckled darkly. "More like making sure nothing got out that shouldn't."

I forced a smirk, trying to match his nonchalant tone. "What, they keeping King Kong locked up in there?"

"Something like that," he muttered.

We fell silent again, moving deeper into the woods. But Kyle's words echoed in my head, dredging up memories I'd tried to bury. I pushed them down, focusing on the hunt. The last thing I needed was to get lost in the past right now. The car ride back last week was more than enough playtime in the past.

Kyle's voice cut through the stillness again, low and deliberate. "You know, it wasn't just security they were obsessed with. The experiments... well, let's just say ethics weren't exactly a priority."

My grip tightened on the rifle, knuckles going white. "Yeah, like the bag babies." I kept my tone casual, but inside, my gut was twisting.

"Yeah. But not just newborns. Like how Rose was kidnapped or sold. Who the fuck knows? I haven’t been able to find out which, yet. They just take the kids they want and give them to whatever branch they can match the kids up with. Each sector is divided into different ideals they want to achieve. Real fucked up shit. I had no idea about the baby factory, so that might be new. I was around right after you and Lakey were made. I didn’t have the clearance to know what they were doing to you but heard through the grapevine about the two most promising subjectsthey’ve had to date." He paused, letting the words hang in the air. "But you don't wanna hear about that, right?"

I wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up, but curiosity won out. "No, go on," I said, my voice rougher than I intended.

As Kyle continued, his words vague but loaded, my mind filled in the blanks. Images flashed through my head, each more horrific than the last. Kids strapped to tables, skin splayed open, screaming...

Suddenly, I wasn't in the forest anymore. I was back there, in that sterile room with its too-bright lights. A little blonde girl sat at a table, her eyes wide and terrified. Some egghead in a stained coat was shoving puzzles at her, barking questions. I stood in the corner of my room, helpless, watching her through the plexiglass, her tiny hands shaking as she tried to please them.

"Patient X is showing promise," a cold voice said beside me. "Perhaps you'd like to assist with the next phase of testing?"

I blinked hard, trying to shake it off. But it clung to me like smoke, choking me with its intensity. I could still smell the iron, still feel the weight of expectations crushing me. Lakey and I had been next door cellmates. The feeling that we’d known each other our whole lives hadn’t just been happenstance. We literally had.

"Cam? You good?" Kyle's voice snapped me back to the present.

I realized I'd stopped walking, my chest heaving. "Yeah," I muttered, forcing my legs to move. "Just thought I saw something."

As we continued on our way, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched, evaluated. Just like back then.Just like always.

Kyle's voice cut through the lingering echoes of my past. "The physical conditioning was something else," he said, his tone casual but with an edge that made my skin crawl. "They'd pushthese kids to their absolute limits. Endurance tests that'd make Navy SEALs cry. They did the same to me, but I was about twenty-four when I joined. I thought I was joining some kind of private security sect. I’d done some military work, and they’d asked for me to secure their defenses. After that, they kept me on retainer for when they needed targets eliminated. I never asked questions. Until I met Sarah, that is."

I nodded, trying to shake the unpleasant feelings that were swirling in my depths. I didn’t normally pay too much attention to anything other than the blankness I usually felt, but the longer I spent with these assholes, the longer those lock boxes had to crack open. And no body wanted to see the day I cracked. But Kyle's words were hooks, dragging me back time and again.

My younger self, scrawny and terrified, was running on a treadmill that never seemed to end. My lungs burned, legs screaming for mercy. But I couldn't stop. Stopping meant punishment.

"Faster, Patient Y!" a voice barked. "Push harder or we'll have to motivate you."

I knew what that meant. The electric shocks, the ice baths, the sensory deprivation tank. My body moved on autopilot, fueled by pure fear.

"They'd make us fight each other," I heard myself say as I remembered the cuts on my hands, the words escaping before I could stop them. Looking down, I flattened my palm and looked, almost seeing the blood of my friend who was cowering in the corner, terrified of me. "Winner got food. Loser got... well, you can imagine."

Kyle whistled low. "Damn, man. That's fucked up."

I laughed, a harsh sound that scared a nearby bird into flight. "You don't know the half of it."

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