"How are you feeling, Adam?" A voice asked in the darkness.

"Who's Adam?" He thought, "He must mean me" 

"Cold." Another voice replied. 

The second voice sounded like Michael, but it wasn't, Eddie could tell. Where had it come from though? The room was dark, and freezing. Eddie tried to stand, but his body wouldn't obey him, as if it wasn't his own. His eyes searched the room, but there was nothing. Far off he saw movement, obscured by shadow. Whatever it was, it was the biggest thing Eddie had ever seen.

"Wait till they see you." The first voice said. Eddie knew it to be Hank, but it felt so foreign, so unfamiliar. Devoid of the kind, welcoming tone Eddie had become so used to from him, instead it felt prideful, and cold. 

"What am I?" The second voice asked.

"You're the perfect culmination of all we've worked for, all we strived to be." The first replied.

Eddie felt something deep down. Rather, he didn't, That was it. There was no feeling, Eddies chest was empty. He strived to look, to get an idea of where he was, though he knew he'd never been there. 

"Would you like to see, Adam?" The first asked.

"Yes." The second said.

"Please stand." The first replied. 

Eddie's body moved on it's own, slowly rising out of the chair. He heard a switch flip, and watched as the bright white lights flickered on. At first, all he could see was Hank standing with Laura, who was diligently taking notes. But as his vision began to clear, His heart began to sink. "What is that thing?!" He thought. Eddie had never felt such fear, such genuine terror before. He wanted to scream, he wanted to run away, but he couldn't. His body refused to obey him. "Oh my God" He thought, "That thing is moving." 

With a jolt, Eddie shot straight up in his bed. His hands were trembling, his face wet with sweat. "A dream?" He thought, "It had felt so real... No, nothing like that could be real." He decided. His got up and rinsed off in the shower, then got dressed for the day. He glanced at the time, it was nearly time to head to the lab. Eddie enjoyed his time in the lab, it was the only time he'd ever been around people. At least, the only time he'd been around people his own age. He especially liked Michael, even though all they did was run on the treadmill. He considered Michael his first ever real friend, though he wasn't sure Michael felt the same. Eddie combed his hair, and sat on the corner of his bed. Every Morning he waited for someone to come get him, he knew when they'd come, but he enjoyed the routine. Surely, like clockwork, there was a pounding on his door. 

"Good morning, Eddie!" Michael called from the other side.

 Eddie swung the door open and nodded at Michael. Eddie wasn't sure why he didn't speak, he never felt compelled to, he wasn't even sure he could. Regardless, he tried to be expressive in other ways. He still felt connected to people. He followed Michael to the lab, Clara not far behind. As he walked in, He noticed a lot of the usual staff were missing, Theodore, Robert, and Monica. Even Hank and Laura weren't at their usual posts. Instead random lab technicians where scattered around the room. Eddie didn't like that, And it appeared neither did Michael. Eddie followed him as he marched up to one of them, the only one who looked like she carried herself with any purpose at all. 

"Where is everyone?" He asked, as politely as possible. 

"Hank's team is busy this morning." She replied sternly. Her voice was commanding, even though she spoke low. Eddie had never seen her before, her hair was short and brown. She carried what Eddie assumed to be a pistol of some kind, he'd never really been this close to a gun. 

"Just curious." Michael said, "Are we supposed to just do what we normally would?" 

"Yep." The woman said. 

"Okay," Michael replied, "Thank you," He glanced down at her name-tag, "Cynthia." 

Cynthia nodded. 

Michael turned and he and Eddie began walking to their usual tasks. "Short but sweet, right?" He said, nudging Eddie. Eddie smiled and nodded back. He wasn't sure how to feel about Cynthia, she hadn't spoken enough for Eddie to make any judgements about her, but she made him uneasy. Eddie knew it wasn't fair to her to feel that way, but he couldn't shake it. He decided it was best to just get to work. The rest of the morning went fairly normally, Eddie and Michael ran on the treadmill, they lifted weights, answered math questions, general physical and mental training. Eddie excelled at all of it, he'd long since passed Michael in test scores. The day moved on though, same as every day, they quickly approached the time the two of them would split up. Michael had to get his blood drawn, and Eddie could return to his room and enjoy a movie or two before dinner. As Eddie thought of that he realized he was feeling something new, he wasn't sure what it was, but he knew he didn't want to be alone. He couldn't get it out of his mind, He still felt the stare of that thing, he felt it like daggers. He didn't know if he could forget those eyes... those horrible yellow eyes.