I’d always been close to my sister, so it didn’t take me too long to notice. She had changed. I saw it the first day she came home from summer camp. She didn’t change the way people change from influence of meeting new people, but she had changed into a whole new person. I’d often find myself looking into her room to see her staring blankly at the wall, which my parents seemed oblivious to. Perhaps “person” was the wrong word to describe her. She had lost all emotion and feeling. My sister had become a robot.
“Hi Rose,” I said, sitting down beside her at the dining table. Her mouth twitched as if she were trying to smile, but fell quickly back to her usual blank expression. I clenched my jaw, ignoring her lack of response. It had been a week since I'd gotten an even remotely close-to-human reply from her. I knew that something was up. Dinner that night was uncomfortably silent, only the clicking of the utensils or the occasional grunt my father broke it. Partly, this was what made it worse. The fun family dinners that were full of conversations and laughter still hung in the back of my mind, but I knew they were gone.
Suddenly, Rose didn’t want anyone to be around her. I really didn’t know how to talk to my sister anymore. She kept herself hidden in her room all day, speaking to no one. If my mother or father spoke to her, she never gave more than a single word response. It was like she was gone. A replacement of the once interactive and talkative sister I knew was no longer here.
I’d tried to explain to my parents, who both had just laughed it off with the excuse that she was merely “growing up”. When I offered them some suggestions of therapy or actually talking to her themselves, they only got angry.
“Aidan, we don’t have time to discuss Rose’s “problems”. Me and your father have more important things to do. Right Michael?” My mother had said, clearly exasperated.
?“No but - ”
“Aidan, this isn’t the time for your games. Your sister is fine, she’s already seeing the school counsellor,” my father concluded.
“It’s just a phase. Why can’t you leave her be?”
It amazed me that the two of the people living in such close quarters with my sister could not see the transformation. Then again when they were both actually home, they tried their best not to be, burying themselves with work. I figured that my parents would be no help, and that I’d have to deal with this by myself. That day after school, I waited outside the gates as two of Rose’s closes friends, Violet and Kate appeared.
“Hey Violet, hey Kate,” I said, as they both smiled and waved rather forcedly, and walked over.
“Have you guys noticed anything weird lately with...you know, Rose?” I decided that getting to the point was the best way to go.
“Rose? We’ve barely noticed that she was back!” Kate snorted.
“I know! Ever since she left for camp, she’s completely shut us out,” Violet added, examining her perfectly filed nails, “No phone call, text or even an email. Tell her to give us a call sometime, you know, if she still cares.”
“Yeah, hope she’s not too busy with her new summer camp friends,” Kate smirked, flipping her hair. They both began walking away, as Kate ended the conversation with a flip of her hair
“Oh...well thanks then,” I said, satisfied with my answer.
Therefore, I decided to take these matters more seriously. I did some research on the camp that Rose had allegedly gone to, finding no clear matches for “Girls Annual Academic Excellence Camp”. Puzzled, I kept going. Continuing to find nothing related to the camp, I realised that it did not exist. Rose had made it up. I didn’t know why she would do this, but my sister was not a liar. Whatever the reason, it must’ve been big if she were to make up a whole camp and disappear for
?two weeks. My parents refused to believe, and my sister refused to listen. She’d shut out her friends, and turned her back on our family. School counselling was also clearly not in her favour. What could I do? I needed to find out what had happened this summer, where she had disappeared to. Then I thought so hard, I could almost feel the cogs turning in my brain. If my sister would not tell me anything by choice, then I needed to get it out of her by force. I’d need to get her when she was at her most vulnerable, when she would spill it all. I decided to turn to the only method I thought would work. I remember overhearing a conversation the school stoner Jane was having one day in school, and realised that if anyone knew where I could get a truth serum, it would be her. She was more than happy to help out, putting down an address and a roll of weed that I politely declined, with nothing in return. I felt bad, but it was all I could come up. I needed to get my hands on the drug that would reveal all the secrets my sister was hiding.
Following the directions Jane had passed over to me, I came to an alleyway between two terraces of houses, lights dimmed so it was darker than ever. Night had just begun to fall, so the sky was streaked pink, red and orange. If it were not for my determination to help Rose, I would not have come. My legs were trembling with anticipation, and I fumbled with the wad of cash I had in the left pocket of my hoodie.
“Hey you! Aidan Carson?”
I jumped on the spot, backing away too far and hitting the stone wall behind me. Hearing it out loud, I immediately regretted using my real name. Turning around I saw a man wearing black sunglasses and an oversized hoodie standing in front of me.
“Yeah,” I said, “Yeah, that’s me. Are you...Tim’s friend?” I stuttered, a little thrown by the sudden sketchy appearance.
“Look, I ain’t gotta lot of time. Let’s see the cash?”
?I handed it over, feeling it snatched out from between my fingers. He flipped through, counting the money in his head. He slipped a thin box out from his pockets.
“There’s an empty syringe in here, with a cartridge of extracted Belladonna. One drop could make your enemies spill their darkest secrets, ” he said, nodding his head to the box. I took it, thanking him.
“What’s a kid like you doing with it anyway? School project?” He laughed at his own joke, a deep stream of hollow coughs, that could only be the result of long-term smoking.
“You said no questions. That was the deal,” I replied coyly, a sudden burst of confidence filling me. Raising an eyebrow at me, he shrugged it off, before drawing and lighting a cigarette.
Swinging around on my feet, I started to walk back, speeding up with each step. Holding the box in my hand, my fingers started to shake.
That night, I lay in bed, despite my knowledge that I wouldn’t be sleeping. I waited for hours, listening to the soft humming of the air conditioner. The moonlight shone through my curtains, slicing through the room, leaving one half of it pitch black. Outside on the streets, nothing stirred, and the houses were shadows, dark and gloomy. I looked to the clock, which read 1:42, and decided it was time. Being careful with every movement, I slowly sat up in bed, listening for any sign of movement. Nothing. I continued down the hallway, floorboards creaking with each step. I could see Rose’s dark figure, lying with her back turned to me, worryingly still. I walked around to face her. Looking at her now, it was as if nothing had happened. As if she were still the same Rose that sneaked me extra candy under the table at dinner, or let me crawl in bed with her during thunderstorms. I almost couldn’t do it. Almost decided I could live with her like this. But I knew this wasn’t the sister I grew up with. I took the Belladonna out of my pocket, and placed it onto her bedside table. I knew what I was about to do. If the Belladonna did it’s job, everything my sister had done at camp, will be revealed to me. It was the only way. As quietly as I could, I slipped the
?syringe out of it box. I felt along the body of the syringe, sliding my fingers around the edges. It was white, clean and reminded me of the vaccinations I used to get when I was younger. This injection however, was the furthest thing from my old vaccinations. My hand was trembling a little, and dragging the plunger towards me, it was like pulling the trigger on a gun. I almost dropped the syringe, but was fast enough to save it from hitting the ground. As I did so, my hand hit the bedside table, waking Rose up instantly.
“Help!” she screamed, but I covered her mouth with my hand. I acted fast, holding her down with one hand, whilst the other pushed the syringe into her arm. I felt the silver tip lodge its way into her soft skin, and a chill ran through my spine. She squirmed beneath me, trying to pry my hand off her face, sinking her nails into my skin making my arm jolt. I pushed down on the syringe, and as the grey liquid seeped into my sister’s veins, her tensed body went limp almost immediately. I recoiled fast, backing into her wall. Rose’s limp body was lying very still, and with each passing second my heart beat grew faster. The seconds turned to minutes. I froze, each beat like a clap of thunder. My brain couldn’t process what had just happened. Had I just killed my sister? As I leaned forward to check, her body lurched up before falling back into place. At that moment, the racing of my heart was all that I could hear, and I grabbed her wrist listening for her pulse. It was still there.
“Aidan?” The sound of her voice made my heart skip a beat. She was alive! The drug had worked.
“Rose? Yes, I’m here,” I replied, kneeling beside her bed.
“Aidan...” she repeated, her hand searching for mine. I held her freezing hands in both of mine. I knew I needed to ask her now, as I vowed never to do this again.
“Rose, where did you go this summer?”
She sat up, looking directly at me. “Camp. I went to camp,” she replied, and for the first time in weeks, I heard her normal voice again.
“You went to camp. What did you do at camp?” I pressed on, “Amy was there wasn’t she?”
?At the precise moment I had said Amy, it was like the button in her switched. Rose jolted up and emotion flooded back into her eyes, now streaming with tears.
“Amy! They killed Amy! Aidan, they killed Amy! My best friend!” she said, desperation filling her voice.
“They killed Amy? What? Rose, calm down!” I put my arm around her, placing her back onto her bed. Her tears dripped down her shirt, and her chest was heaving heavily.
“They killed Amy...” she rasped, as her head bumped onto my shoulder.
“Rose...tell me what happened,” I gently asked, thinking out each word carefully. “June 12th. I received the letter. They said...they said they needed me. That I had been
selected by their authorities. They said it was an honour to be chosen, that I had to go. So I did.” She stopped, closing her eyes, as if it was painful for her to recite.
“Each day it got worse. They took us, one by one, into the room. At first, it wasn’t too bad, just some questions, some tests. Then it got worse. The girls returned, bruises covering their arms and legs. They tortured us. Beat us. Brainwashed us. But one night...one night it all changed. Amy was called in before me, and I knew she was scared. She told me to sneak in the back. To make sure she was alright. And so I did. I saw them. The room was pitch black, apart from a pillar of light in the centre of the room. They held her by both her arms, which were red from their grip, and they pushed her into the chair. It wasn’t just a normal chair, but it was similar to the ones that you would find at a dentist. But this chair was different. It had straps, at the top, centre and the bottom, and both the arms. They tied her down, strapping her in. She tried to get out. She moved but it was as if she were too weak.”
Squeezing her cold hands together, she looked me in the eye, exposing to me the sorrow and regret I saw in them.
“Then he came in. He was wearing...wearing a white lab coat, with white gloves. He said a few things, things I couldn’t hear. Then he injected her with a red substance, drugged her. A couple
?of minutes and she relaxed, as if her body was deflating. I was about to run, run far from that room, but a part of me told me to stay.And I am so glad that I did.”
“Mathers, Is she sedated yet?”
“Yes,” a small man was putting away a syringe, stained with the colour red. He looked to be about fifty, with balding white hair and wrinkles strewn across his face. Shifting closer, I saw that he had a glass eye, that seeing made me feel queasy. He reached across a silver table, taking a pile of wires and connecting them to the nearby machine.
“Link her in,” Mathers said, nodding towards Amy, who looked lifeless as she lay in the seat. The man in the suit did as he was told. I hadn’t seen his face yet, but something about him seemed familiar. I wasn’t sure what would happen know, I’d heard that they did some kind of questioning, but this didn’t look like that. He attached the wires to her head, and pressing the buttons with his fingers, the machine came to life, radiating light in all directions. I quickly ducked back behind the dresser, where they wouldn’t see me. With my eyes shut tight, I counted off to ten before glancing around again. I saw Amy sitting up, back straight, eyes dilated. I peered carefully into her them, seeing no life in them, as if I were staring into a dull black hole. She was sitting completely still, not blinking, which made me feel uncomfortable, seeing my best friend looking as if she were dead.
“Ok, show me,” the man in the suit asked. I stared at him. I knew him. It was quite hard to forget someone who came to your house for dinner every Sunday. It was Brad Jenkins. Suddenly, the machine started buzzing, sending waves of electricity through Amy’s body. It seized up and started jolting as if she were in a seizure.
“What is this for? Why is she doing that?” Brad asked, crossing his arms and watching closely.
?“Patience Mr. Jenkins. This allows her body to prepare for what is coming. We need to relax all her veins, her nervous system and her subconscious brain,” Mathers explained, rolling the sleeves of his lab coat up. He pressed more buttons. Amy stopped moving.
“Ok, she is ready,” Mathers said, “Do what you have to do.”
“Thank you Mathers, if you may step outside,” Brad said, removing his suit jacket. Mathers nodded, and left. As he walked closer, I held my breath and shrunk against the wall, the trail of his cologne wafted as he past.
“Ok now. Amy, I want you to tell me something. Can you do that?” Brad circled Amy. “Yes,” she replied. Her voice was in a monotone, emotionless and empty.
“Ok Amy...do you know why you are here?” Brad asked, taking out a pen and notepad. “Yes. Because they want us here. I am here for the DGI. I am here because they are who I
am now. I am one of them, and I will do everything under the command of Brad Jenkins, leader of the DGI,” she replied.
“Excellent. That will be all for tonight my dear, tomorrow we will continue,” Brad smiled sinisterly, white teeth displayed. Something about it made me feel distraught and uncomfortable.
“One last thing dear, do not mention this to any of the other girls. It will be our little secret,” he whispered into her ear, before once again injecting her with the red substance.
Rose closed her eyes, swaying a little before I pulled her back into place. “Amy wasn’t herself anymore. I had lost her. What they did to her emotionally and physically traumatised her. And they took me a few nights later. I was put in Amy’s place. And it continued. For two more weeks. Each night it got worse. Each night I lost another piece of myself to the DGI. An organisation founded from inside the government. Founded to prepare us for something.”
“The DGI...who are they? Rose, what happened afterwards?” I kept asking, knowing the gate to the truth was about to burst open.
?“They didn’t tell me more about them. But they did tell me what they wanted. They were choosing us, taking us into a summer camp. Recruiting us for their army.” Rose looked into my eyes, and I could see tears beginning to form.
“Rose...tell me. Why did they want this? Why were they creating this army?” I asked, steadying my voice to keep it gentle.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, “They wouldn’t tell us why, they just needed us under their control.”
Rose’s voice was trailing, lowering with each word. I tried to grab her, but she fell back down, hitting the pillow with a thump. The Belladonna was beginning to wear off, and soon she’d be back in that inhuman state. That’s when the truth dawned on me. The letter Rose received, claiming she was one of the few elite academic students selected for outstanding achievement, to receive intensive training at a special summer camp was all a cover. They brought the students there so they could brainwash and manipulate them for whatever purposes this DGI wanted. And to think that my father’s friend, Brad Jenkins, who’d known us since we were born had the audacity to be a part of it. That’s why, all these weeks Rose has done nothing but stare at the blank wall of her room. They did this to her. To Rose.
My sister, a weak flower, was unable to handle what had been forced upon her. She had been named Rose, because she was born in spring, and grew up surrounded by a spectrum of flowers that grew in our backyard. But a harsh winter blanket of snow was thrown on the ground, and my rose had been crushed beneath it. Yet she had grown out, stronger and flourished, held and supported by the DGI.
The truth was out, and I knew that what was done is what I must live with now. Whatever had changed in Rose was irreversible. I had to accept it. This was not my sister anymore.
“What have I done?” Rose shot up beside me.
I looked at her, her eyes filled with fear and shock.
?“What have I done?” she repeated, her voice insistent, filling the room with an eerie echo. She opened her bedside drawer, extracting a syringe filled to the brim with the same red liquid she had described to me.
“Rose, no!” I lunged at her, but with surprising strength previously unknown to me, she dodged out of the way and kicked me in the stomach. I gasped, my stomach clenched, as she drifted over to me.
“Rose. You promised. You promised me that no matter what, we would be there for each other. Always,” I gasped, trying to pry some emotion out of her. “You told me, that as my sister, you would never ever change, never turn your back on family. You promised.”
“I’m sorry Aidan,” she whispered, as a tear dripped down her face. “I’m so sorry.”
I felt the tip of the needle enter my skin, felt the coolness of the metal slide against my flesh. I saw Rose sitting on her window sill, pushing open the windows. From beneath her bed, she removed a previously packed duffel bag, and dropped it out the window. She took the half-empty syringe, and pushed it into her arm. Tossing it behind her, where it landed inches from my face, she looked at me right before left. Escaped right out of the window. I was unable to react. My sister had just jumped out of the window. Jumped right out of the house. She left us, choosing to return to the DGI rather than stay here with us. I opened my mouth to scream, but the room was beginning to darken. I couldn’t feel my lips, let alone make any sound. My fingertips were starting to go numb, and soon I could feel my heartbeat quaver and decrease. One beat. Two beats. The moonlight started to waver and blur. Then, it disappeared altogether.
2 weeks later
I couldn’t allow myself to forget what had happened. To let what I knew just exist. I had to do something. I couldn't believe that Rose chose to leave us at her own choice, but realised it was
?because of what the DGI had done to her. They had destroyed her. I had to find my sister, and I had to find the DGI. I realised, that in order to successfully achieve all of this, I needed to go to the one place all of it would be found, where I would strike gold. I needed to get into the camp. I knew that it was impossible to locate it without the letter, nor was it possible actually getting into the camp grounds. Luckily for me, I was able to dig through Rose’s drawers, her wardrobe and bookcase, to find the white envelope specifically pressed in between two encyclopaedia’s. I dislodged it carefully, smoothing out the four edges, and tore it open delicately. I slid the letter out, skimming it.
“New Hampshire,” I murmured, despite being aware there was no one beside me. I had the essentials packed for days, and was ready to leave at any given moment. But there were a few things I needed to do before I left. The first loose end I needed to tie up was my parents. On Sunday morning, precisely two months after Rose had come home, I decided it was time to go. I wrote them a letter, an excuse for my absence, and had it pinned onto the refrigerator. Then I sent a carefully scripted email to my school, explaining why I wouldn’t be attending this year, forging a signature of my father to sign it off. I left early at 6 am, knowing they would still be asleep. They’d be furious when they saw our empty beds later than morning, but at least they’d finally see the truth.
Closing the door I’d seen almost everyday for the past six years, for what may be the last time, was a little devastating and I almost stopped myself. Almost. But my yearning to find out what had happened to Rose and the DGI outweighed it.
The bus ride took about three hours; three hours of me watching out the window at the green parlours of grass, flowing past me each minute. I really don’t remember what it was like as I approached the camp, it was all a blur, but I do remember the hairs on my neck stand up when I saw the grey walls of the camp. This was like no other camp I’d ever been to, the dagger sharp spikes that lined the top of the wall drew my attention, and it was like I could feel them piercing my skin already. I could barely see the inside, but already knew this was where the warmth of the sunlight came to a stop. I looked around me, at the deserted surroundings, swearing I could see tumbleweeds
in the distance. The wilting flowers along the side of the road, and the drying grass gave no sign that it every rained. The gates to the camp were no better than the gates to a prison, guarded left and right by armed soldiers.
“Let ‘em in!”
I heard the creaking of the gates as the two soldier’s each grabbed a door and pushed, a cloud of dust filling the air. Time to go in. My heart was beating in my throat, and my eyelids were twitching. My hands jerked, and the letter would’ve slid out from my fingers if the bus hadn't jolted to a stop.
“Hey, get out!” The bus driver called, and I immediately jumped off. Ahead of me, I stared at the blank dark doors, leading to a giant building. They opened. A man in a suit stepped out, arms wide with welcome.
“Welcome Aidan. We’ve been expecting you.”