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And Orange Like the boy with the bloodya deep breath, "just lie back on that cot and we’ll get started Now, please"

I didn’ttoo quickly to le to even look at hi toward the machine "Don’t make me call in one of the soldiers They won’t be nearly as nice, believe le touch, and then the ray circle was a bright white light, blinking as it set itself up for another test It was breathing out hot air in sputters and whines that seemed to prick every pore on my body

All I could think was, He’ll know He’ll knohat I did to theain, le lecturetrue This was not a safe place This ht I was going to faint That, or he was going to force me onto the cot himself and hold me there until the machine came down and locked over me

I hadn’t been ready to run before, but I was now As htened on the door handle, I felt his hand push through my unruly mass of dark hair and seize the back ofhand on my flushed skin made me flinch, but it was the explosion of pain at the base of , his eyes suddenly unfocused But I was seeing everything--i wheel, a wo forward to kisstoward reen field, a hand running through a little girl’s hair… The ies played out behind my closed eyes like an old home movie The shapes of people and objects burned the around behind hosts

Notto e--were they hts?

Then I sawand s Yellow I felt my lips form the words, as if I had been there to say theirl froer, and the table and laptop in front of her rise several inches froain, thea pencil between his hands, studying it with a terrifying intensity--the pencil bursting into flames Red Cards with pictures and numbers on them held up in front of a child’s face Green

I squeezed es that ca,down through rain-spattered glass, but I saw the handcuffs and the chains I saw everything

I’ toto keep fro sick all over ripped the back of my neck "I’m Green," I sobbed, the words half lost to the ht before, but now it only a behindhim to believe me "I’m Green…please, please…"

But I saw my ivenof himself in me I knehat I was

"Green…"

I looked up at the sound of the voice that floated down to ht back, his eyes unfocused He wasnow, hison the words

"I’ his head His voice sounded stronger I was still on the floor when he went to shut down the machine, and so shocked when he sat back down at the desk that I actually forgot to cry But it wasn’t until he picked up the green spray paint and drew that enormous X over the back of the uniform shirt and handed it to