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“He uses those stupid support groups to measure where we stand so he knows how far he can go. We’re helping him write the very rules he’s exploiting.

” He must read my disgust and sighs. “It wasn’t always like this.

Back in the beginning, he believed he could balance both of his goals: assisting special people like us, while pursuing his own obsession with knowledge.

In all honestly, he still believes that.

I’m sure he thinks what he’s doing to me is justified for the good of all.

Hell, he even loved my mother once. I don’t doubt that.

“Over time, however, his instinct for his research took over, and he lost touch with every other part of himself. He’s now created an entire universe where he’s God. That’s his obsession. All of this is to keep that universe in order.”

“But you’re still his stepson! A piece of him has to remember that. It has to remember your mother.”

He draws his knees to his chest. “I’m not a son to him. I’m not even a human anymore. I’m a test subject, his alpha lab rat. You’ve seen the way he looks at me.”

I have and it makes me shudder even now. Still, there has to be some hope. “Maybe we can get through to him somehow. Maybe if we just understood—”

Fire radiates from his eyes. “You saw what they did that day. Every day since then, they drag me down the hall and experiment with that shit until I can’t even scream anymore.

” His gaze melts into anguish, and I feel myself shattering.

“The pain isn’t a side effect, Rebecca; it’s their goal. Tell me what I’m not understanding.”

I grip his hand and allow the images to slice through me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whisper, and he pulls away with an urgent look.

“Someone’s coming. You have to hide.”

I let go and rush back to my place behind the door. After an agonizing moment, I hear footsteps as well.

Clausen surveys his son’s state before settling himself on Daniel’s cot.

“I wanted to apologize for today,” he begins in a gentle voice.

Daniel doesn’t look at him, his expression hardening.

“We didn’t intend for things to go as far as they did.

We just got caught up in the moment.” Daniel still doesn’t respond, except to wrap his arms around his legs and rest his forehead on his knees.

“How are you feeling? Would you like the temperature raised in here?” Daniel shakes his head.

“Can we talk about the results? We expected the cold water to have a diminishing effect, but it seemed to heighten it instead.”

“I’m not going to give you a new hypothesis to test,” he mutters.

Clausen sighs and leans forward. “I know these last few weeks have been difficult for you. I don’t expect you to forgive, but I hope you can at least appreciate the tremendous value of your sacrifice.”

“Don’t call it a sacrifice,” he fires back. “I never had a choice.”

“We all have choices, son.”

“I’m not your son.”

“Look.” He clasps his hands. “Your friend Rebecca asked me once at what point you had completed your duty to the world. At what point we would conclude you had given enough. You and I both know there is no end. Information is infinite, and you are probably one of the greatest conduits to pass through our time. At the same time…” He stops and watches Daniel for a moment. “Maybe you’ve done enough.”

Daniel’s gaze shoots to his.

“I’m not a monster,” Clausen says quietly.

“I know it might seem that way. I know these years have been difficult for you, but I’m not blind to what we’ve done.

What we were trying to accomplish was just too important to let our soft hearts get in the way.

You are a rock, Daniel. We turned you into a pillar of strength capable of surviving all known levels of human endurance.

It helped you survive and gave us unprecedented opportunities to test the limits of the human condition. But we’ve learned there are limits.”

“Forgive me if I’m not touched by your epiphany.”

Clausen sighs. “I can understand your resentment. You never asked to be special.”

“Being special isn’t the problem.”

Clausen quiets and rises with a pained expression. “I hope one day you can understand. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Fuck you. I will never understand,” Daniel spits at the director as he moves toward the door.

I wait another moment after it clicks shut before returning to Daniel.

“Are you okay?” I ask, sinking beside him again.

“I don’t know how to answer that question anymore.”

Fair enough. I take his hand instead. “So what do we do?”

“Same as always. Observe, adapt, and react.”

“What?”

He squints toward the opposite wall. “Observe, adapt, and react. That’s one of the things I’ve learned from all of this. It’s how we all negotiate our existence.”

“I don’t understand.”

He pauses, a pensive expression settling over his face. “We spend our lives struggling to preserve the illusion of control over our tiny worlds, but in the end, what do you really control?”

I think for a moment. “Your choices. Your actions.”

“Right. Observe, adapt, and react. We watch, we learn, we fight back. Our world is an interaction of your choices, my choices, Clausen’s, and a vast organism on top of that none of us can tame. Control is an illusion. Clausen and I play our games, but no one wins. It can never be over.”

“You will always just react to his reaction to your reaction.”

He nods. “Exactly.”

“So life is an endless chess match.”

“With layers upon layers of games at various stages. You’ve been playing Madison’s for a while now. What do you think?”

I loop my arm through his and lean against his shoulder. “That there are no happy endings by your logic.”

“You wouldn’t even be able to recognize one if you saw it since nothing ends.”

“Maybe not, but you’re forgetting something.”

“Oh yeah?”

I smile up at him. “You have an important variable on your side. A chess piece, if you will.”

His own lips lift briefly. “Are you trying to give me hope?”

“Me? Never.”

His smile fades. “I’ve searched for a weakness in Clausen for a long time.

I’d almost given up.” I wait as he gathers his thoughts.

“In a world of chaos, Clausen spent his life locked in a control fantasy. He believes he’s a mastermind, a grand puppeteer.

But maybe that’s only made him a prisoner of his own delusions.

He’s a slave to knowledge, which, in a way, is his weakness.

It gives us the power, not the other way around since we’re not just pieces of his universe, but the foundation of it.

He can’t hurt us nearly as much as we will hurt him by bringing it down.

And now, for the first time, I think we can. ”

“How?”

“It’s already cracking.”

“You think I’m the weapon.”

He studies me, and I have to rein in the intensity of my reaction.

“Yes. I do. He believes he understands our abilities. He thinks he can predict our behavior, but he can’t.

He didn’t control Anna, and he definitely lost the battle for you.

It may not seem like it, but I actually think we control him more than he controls us.

All we have to do is get you to shape his future. ”

I stare at him in silence, my heartrate picking up as everything in me steels for battle. It’s time. He may not have accepted it before, but now, somehow, I know he will.

I take a deep breath. “It’s already been done.”

“What has?”

“His future. It’s done.”

For the first time since I saw it, I broadcast the vision that’s haunted me since that first handshake with Clausen the day I arrived.

Daniel’s eyes shoot to mine, wide with awe. “He dies soon,” he whispers. “You’ve known it all along.”

“I didn’t understand then. I saw his death when he shook my hand on the first day. I thought I was seeing the tragic end of a brilliant man.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You had dozens of chances! It would have changed everything. It would have—”

“Exactly. It would have changed everything. You threw me into this and kept me in the dark so how could I possibly know what to do with a vision like that? I was afraid of giving you hope if there wasn’t any.

That what I intended as an advantage would cripple us instead.

Plus, I didn’t know what I saw. Bad things happen when I share my visions, especially when I don’t understand them.

Look at the result of the knife scene. And then… ” I stop, unable to continue.

“And then, what?”

I study my hands. “And then everything changed after your attempt and…” I let my mind finish the explanation.

“The vision that saved my life.” His eyes change again as I show him that one next. “No. That can’t be.”

I swallow. “I don’t know who kills Clausen. We have no way of knowing if it’s you. But I do know his days are numbered.”

“But you saw me here. I’m still here in the future!”

I shake my head. “Not here. In Clausen’s office. I saw your nameplate. Director Daniel Mueller.”

“No! That’s your fantasy, not mine. If I escape, I’ll run. I’d go to my cabin and—”

“And what? Make pies?” I focus on him, force him to finally confront the truth about himself.

“You wouldn’t leave, Daniel. You’d shut this place down.

You’d expose Clausen for what he was, what his research did to all of you.

You’ve been fighting a war your whole life and you wouldn’t retreat in the face of victory.

Director Daniel Mueller would end Madison Academy. ”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. I saw it. And I know you. Clausen was right about one thing. He created a rock, and you’re a creature of this horrible place. It will own you until you destroy it.”

He blinks, considering my words. “You think we can change the game. You think it’s time to go on the offensive.”

“Different people, different situations. That’s from the Daniel Mueller playbook. Clausen’s end is near. We just need to find out how and when.”

He studies me, still in shock.

“We have our ending, Daniel. We can choose to embrace it, or hope it’s wrong. But if you truly believe I can impact the future, then you better get ready because this place is coming down. Clausen’s universe is falling apart and we will be the instruments to make it happen.”

Daniel quiets for a moment and finally lets out a breath. “So, I’m assuming this revelation means you have a brilliant plan to make it happen.”

“The basics, but I need your help. We know Clausen wants to access my ability. I say we let him have it, and he can teach me how to use it in the process. Eager, oblivious Rebecca will gladly become Clausen and his gang’s new best friend while distracting them from you.

We can play this right and put you back in the library and gym while we construct all the pieces to bring him down. ”

“And you’ll touch them.”

“As often and discreetly as possible.”

A faint smile spreads over his lips. “This seems absurd. I don’t know why I actually believe it will work.”

“Is there anything about our world that isn’t? We’re still playing Clausen’s game, he just doesn’t know we’re cheating.”

“And the queen makes her move.”

I grin. “I believe they call this checkmate.”

Rebecca and Daniel’s story continues in CURSED, Vol 2 of the Gifted Trilogy.