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Geainst the faain, this tirief Don’t let ht I was alone here, I kneould be, and so it would be I reached for the ie of Cole’s face and held it at the forefront of my mind He wouldn’t be afraid He wouldn’t leave me

You have to walk out of here I felt the words settle in my mind Not just for them, but for yourself You have to walk out of here on your oo feet

The door cracked open, and the sounds fro in An oldhis head like a cluster of old dust His eyes narrowed behind his glasses, but I didn’t recognize hiful of his terrible scent--alcohol and le the halls of this place

The man let out a noise of surprise "She’s awake"

Another face appeared directly behind his, a woray scrubs, as quickly pushed aside to alloo PSFs in the room Their black uniforms were pristine, from their polished boots to the stitched red Ѱ on their chests I saw their faces and it was like living inside of a memory The moment took on an unreal quality

Focus

One last person entered the rooed, with sandy hair that turned silver under the lights His uniform was different than that of the soldiers, a black button-doithslacks I knew this uniform, but I’d only seen it once up close Camp controller One of thethe ca the day’s schedule

"Ah, there you are," Dr Freein the test"

The man--his shirt was e a hand forward, a clear go ahead

I setinto fists I knew better than to ask as happening, but I read the situation quickly enough to put together a guess The old man pulled a small, handheld White Noise machine out of his pocket and adjusted a dial on it

All the ti out, I had seenthe caestion that I was really a Green, working h each of theer pressed down on the device’s largest button, that I didn’t have to influence dozens--just four

"This is Green," Dr Freemont said

The sound that came out of the device was softer than I expected, as if I was hearing it from several floors abovemade the hair on the back ofcompared to the White Noise they used over the ca what frequency I can hear, I thought, shit--

Our brains translated sounds differently than a normal human mind; if the adults in the roo fly around their ears There was a spectrum of pitches that affected us, each of the for each different color I’d learned about it when Cate and the League had ular White Noise with tonesto root out those of us whoas a different color That sound, the thread of h ainst the Velcro cuffs, lettingmy whole body shake and thrash, as if the sound were a knife driving repeatedly into my chest The sounds that escaped the muzzle were low, animal moans

O’Ryan held up a hand and the faint noise switched off He stepped up closer to the bed, peering down at my face I had to force my hatred into fear

"Successful reaction," Dr Freemont said "Should I--"

The cah I saw his lip curl up in assessood look at hi overin his stance that reidly proud, his eyes cutting through every layer of control I’d built up, and I realized, a second too late, that this wasn’t a normal camp controller This was the ca hie had been done I’d shown too e"

There was a lot I could withstand now, but I knew a hit of that White Noise would be like stepping in front of a speeding train O’Ryan stood over ht he was in control here, didn’t he? That if he looked at, I couldn’t issue a command

I didn’t need to look at him I didn’t need to speak to him And, in the end, I only needed to affect one person

Dr Freemont’s mind was a swamp of faceless children and coes there in the e based on what I could reh the cae of hi it back toward his chest as he turned the dial back to its original setting He was angled away fro and sure of hi slad for the first ti it