~~~~~

Y/n's Pov - April 22nd, 2041

I finish reading the fairy tale to the children and then put them to bed. I tuck them in and quietly leave the room. I check the other bedrooms to make sure they're all asleep.

I walk down to Isabella's room to check in with her as she asked me to earlier. I check the pocket watch I kept. It read 9:57 pm. I knock and gently open the door. She is sitting at the desk with a neat stack of files in front of her. She gestures to the chair across from her.

"Tonight, you will memorize all of the information on my lovely 38 children. I'm assuming it won't be nearly as bad as the daily tests you take," She says, sliding them over to me.

I quickly go through the files in about half an hour. I spend the most time on the top three children: Emma, Norman, and Ray. Norman has his intelligence, Emma has her quick learning abilities and athleticism, and Ray has his strategy skills. 

"None of them know yet, do they?" I ask her, suspicious of the top scorers.

"No, none of them have found out." She says, her violet eyes boring into my (e/c) ones intimidatingly.

"She's lying about this. I can tell from her body language and hesitation. I'm guessing it's Ray, Norman, or Emma, as they're the smartest kids here. She knows I can't do anything about it yet though. It's best to keep a low profile for now.." I think as I scan the files once more. 

"Do you mind if I bring these to my room for the night? I'd like to study the information on the children," I ask.

"I don't mind. Bring them back tomorrow morning and don't let any of the children see," She responds. I pick up the files as I go back to my room. My brown boots click quietly as I walk across the old wooden floors. I gently open my door and it lets out a soft creak. I sit at the wooden desk with the files to study them. I write down the behavior I saw them showing today in my notes. Ray's seems to be the most suspicious. I'll have to keep an eye on him to see if he knows. 

"I might not have been able to save my original family, but I still have a chance for this one. I can find out which one knows and then help them with an escape plan. I have plenty of information, so it shouldn't be too hard for me.." I think, finally closing his file. I hide the files in my drawer and head to bed.

~~~~~

I find myself in a dark room, the same familiar feeling as always. I go closer to the blood-stained curtains. I open them to reveal the same image I had been getting every night for the past 5 years now. My friends' lifeless bodies lay across the cold cement ground, their blood pooling around them. Behind me, I hear footsteps of the shadowy figure that seems to always haunt me. It was around 180cm tall (About 5' 10"), so I assumed it couldn't have been our mother or even Isabella for that matter. The only part of it that was visible was half of its right arm. It had what seemed to be a white button-up and a leather glove. It reached out to me. I brace myself, ready to be pulled away or injured.

Instead, it takes my hand gently, similar to how a parent would. It leads me towards the light at the end of the gate. As we get to the light, I begin to see its face, although it's very blurry. I can't make out too many of the features on the person.

"Big sis Y/n, wake up!" "We want to play with you!" I hear as the children pile on top of me. I recognize them as Alicia, Jemima, and Yvette. I pat their heads and uncover myself from the sheets. I put on the black dress/suit{Whichever you're comfortable with.} that I had been given as my uniform and walk with them down to the dining hall. Emma runs past us with a few of her siblings in her arms, the children squealing in excitement.

"Morning, Emma," I greet her calmly.

"Morning, Y/n!" She responds, full of energy already.

"Y/n, could you help me with cooking?" Isabella calls out.

"Sure!"

We cook together and we converse calmly. I help the children make their plates as she gets the smallest kids situated. Emma drags me over to sit with her, Norman, and Ray. I make sure to watch Ray's behavior closely, so I can pick up on any hints he might give away. He is my main suspect for now, as he seems to be hiding something and is always a little too quiet and serious for his age. 

As we walk down the hall to the classroom, I stop Ray in the hallway.

"Can we talk later? I have something I need to ask you.." I request. He nods and we continue with our tasks.

~~~~~

"Emma, Ray, Norman, and Y/n, perfect scores as always! I'm proud," Isabella announces.

"Wow!" "I wish I could get a score that high!" "How'd you do it?!" The children murmur.

"Norman! I challenge you to a game of hide and seek!" Don says competitively. Norman nods in agreement and the children flood the halls to go outside. I grab Ray from the crowd and drag him into one of the empty rooms. I look outside of the room to check for Isabella before closing the door.

"What did you need to talk about?"

"You know about the farms, don't you?" I say bluntly. He hesitates before responding.

"..How did you know? Did she tell you? Are you only here to keep an extra eye on me?"

"You're terrible at hiding things," I say as he glares at me. "I was suspicious of one of you three knowing about the farm. Last night, when I asked if one of the kids knew about the farm, I could tell she was lying when she said no. I watched your behavior, along with Emma's and Norman's, and you were the most likely to know...Now, what I came to ask is..Do you also plan on escaping?"

"Of course I do. Only an idiot would just sit here without any kind of plan. I plan on only taking Emma and Norman, possibly Don and Gilda too if they can make it. It's the best option for survival. Why do you ask?"

"I'm helping. While I was at Grand Valley, my mother and I had a deal where we would exchange information on the outside world and the kids at the farm. I've gathered information on the demons and the farms for 4 years now. I have it all written down in here," I say, pulling out the notebook filled with useful information and possible escape plans. I hand him it to look at.

"There's so much in here..Wouldn't our mom be mad if she knew you had all of this?"

"That's why she can't know. Assuming you also want to escape this place, you aren't going to tell her, are you? I mean, I am one of your most useful allies right now. It would be a waste to throw me away like that.."

"I'm not going to..Now, we need to make an escape plan. I plan to set out Conny's little bunny on her "adoption" to make them see the corpse. We'll need to act like we don't know when they tell us. What should we do after that?"

"We need rope, lots of it," I explain. "There's a cliff beyond the wall, so we most likely need something similar to a zip-line. We should train someone here to be able to throw that far, but who?"

"I think Don or Emma would be our best bet. They're both pretty athletic, so it should be easy for them," Ray says, still flipping through the notebook. I nod in response.

"We should go before Isabella gets suspicious of either of us.."

He agrees and hands me my notebook. We walk down the halls together to go outside. Once we sit down beneath the tree, I start writing out the possible escape plan we had made. We would need some kind of distraction, even though we would be doing it at night. I think something like starting a forest fire or one of the kids getting injured could distract Isabella long enough. We would also need to remove the trackers. I know exactly where they are located, I just need some kind of scalpel to remove it. We still would need to think about needed supplies to bring with us. Ray looks over my shoulder to see what I am writing. I tap out "e-s-c-a-p-e-p-l-a-n" in Morse code to him. We notice Norman looking at us in confusion.

"It's a strategy for a new game we're making," Ray says, trying to deceive the boy. Norman seems to be skeptical but doesn't ask anything else.

~~~~~

I walk with the stack of freshly cleaned plates to the cabinets. I start placing them in before I feel a presence behind me, followed by a hand on my shoulder. I look behind me to see the dark-haired woman staring into my (e/c) eyes seriously.

"Do you need anything?" I ask, confused as to what I have done.

"I found the notebook."