Page 3

TWO YEARS EARLIER…

LEX

Aiden grunts while face fucking the girl on her knees before him. He holds her head and thrusts hard into her throat. She gags before he blows his load. When he pulls out, she gasps for air, his cum dripping down her chin like milk.

Aiden’s lip curls in disapproval before saying, “I had to put all the fucking work in there.” He shakes his head at her. “Your turn, Lex.”

My cock is already out and waiting as she crawls to me. All of the female patients willingly bow down for us. We rule Sunnycrest. Aiden, Eli, and me. Zero, Twenty-Five, and Forty. The three of us are the only patients to survive every experiment thrown at us, which has made us infamous.

We’re not taking advantage of the girls. They practically line up to suck us off daily. We don’t go for the ones who are completely batshit or high on whatever drugs Acacia feeds them, though. We still have some standards.

The girl, whose name I can’t remember, creates a seal around my cock with her lips.

Aside from the remnants of Aiden’s cum, her tongue is as dry as sandpaper.

Still, I groan while she gets to work. It’s not a great blowjob, but it beats using my hand.

Next to me, Eli lounges across the bottom bunk, legs outstretched and humming to himself.

“What’s the plan for tonight?” I ask Aiden.

Aiden returns to his top bunk to stroke the giant rat that he keeps as a pet. The rodent gives me the creeps, but I’ll never tell him that. When they die, he keeps the skulls, wearing them around his neck on a chain. In the real world, that’d seem crazy, but here? It’s normal.

I owe Aiden and Eli my life for taking me under their wing. I’ve been in Sunnycrest for three years. They taught me how things work and how to survive. I was sane before I got here, but now… I’ve never been fucking crazier, despite what Acacia says.

I didn’t talk when I first arrived. I had ‘selective mutism due to trauma’, according to my clinical notes.

Watching your parents burn alive in a fire is enough to screw anyone up.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t speak.

I even stayed silent through hours of Acacia’s experiments.

That’s why he liked me so much. I was his challenge.

Countless other subjects endured less and didn’t survive.

It took him almost a year to coax a scream from me, and when it happened, my scream was the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.

As we aged, Acacia moved us to a different wing in Sunnycrest. Usually, he likes to keep the experimental subjects separate.

There’s no point mixing them among the general population.

The general population, or gen pop as we call them, are other patients who are here for therapy because of a criminal order—not kids like me, Eli, and Aiden, who were handpicked to take part in Acacia’s torturous games.

However, over the years, we developed a mutual understanding with the doctor holding us prisoners.

They experiment on us, and we experiment in our own way with the other patients.

Perhaps that’s one of his experiments in itself.

“Acacia’s yearly freak show will be the same as it always is,” Aiden mutters darkly.

I exhale deeply as I come. A brief relief. The girl backs away, breathless, looking up at me for some kind of compliment. Her desperation is sickening, and I kick her in the stomach. She yelps, making me harden again. I’d rather she scream over my cock than suck it.

Not put off yet, the cum bucket turns to Eli. “Do you want me to do you next?”

He shakes his head. He doesn’t fuck them every day. Only when he feels like it, and today, his head is elsewhere. Tonight is on his mind, too.

“Why are you still here?” Aiden says, making a shooing gesture with his hand. “You better practice sucking dick if you want to come back again.”

She nods furiously. “I will.”

She scampers out of our room, back to whatever hole she came from. Thirsty fucking bitch.

“So?” Eli asks. “What’s our plan?”

“We’re not allowed in the main hall,” Aiden says.

I roll my eyes. “Obviously.”

“But he’ll parade us around in the lab for everyone to see,” Eli mumbles.

It’s the same every year. Rich white guys come to watch and torture us, taking bets on how much pain a human can withstand. We’ve been here for so long that we’re conditioned not to feel pain, but Acacia is a sick motherfucker who keeps pushing limits.

Aiden’s nineteen, and Eli and I are seventeen.

Sunnycrest Asylum only holds youths up to the age of twenty-five.

The older we get, the less interesting we are to Acacia’s customers.

Most prefer the young kids, but they’re too unreliable.

Acacia goes through them quicker than lab rats.

Our endurance makes us special subjects and part of his longitudinal study, which is why we haven’t been thrown into the furnace with the others.

Aiden peers through the tiny window of our cell to point at a car pulling into the lot. “Look who it is.”

Acacia . We know his car. In fact, we know everything that happens here.

Acacia thinks he rules Sunnycrest, but we also have a big influence.

Not just with other patients, but with the staff too.

They fear us. I see it in the way they watch us; their fingers always flutter nervously around their waistband, making sure their stun guns are within reaching distance.

We’re mad and dangerous. Those that know about the secret experiments also know we’re fucking invincible.

We gather to look through the glass. As is his yearly tradition, Acacia’s wife and twin daughters join him for the open evening.

The girls get out of the car. They’re identical and impossible to tell apart, except one has bleach blonde hair.

Even though I can’t hear the blonde talking, I can tell she’s confident from the way she throws her head back when she laughs.

She’s too confident. Arrogant, almost. The other—a brunette—shifts around uncomfortably, like she’d rather be anywhere else.

She crosses her arms as if she wants to melt into the ground and disappear.

“I’m surprised he lets them come here,” Eli says bitterly. “His precious fucking daughters.”

We know all about Sarah and Erin. We hear Acacia talking to them on the phone and listen to the orderlies gossiping about the rich Acacia family. Those two bitches have everything, and they don’t realize their father built their fortune at our expense.

Aiden grins and looks up at the vent above his bed. “Are you thinking what I am?”

I return a smile. “Right ahead of you.”

“Eli?” Aiden prompts.

“Fuck it.” Eli sighs. “Why not?”

They will tranquilize every patient this evening to ensure there are no disruptions, but we have an orderly under our thumb who pockets our medication. We don’t need pills. Although, having them can be a useful bargaining chip sometimes.

Aiden unscrews the vent bolts and removes the metal grate, then squeezes himself into the shaft.

With his broad shoulders, it’s a tighter fit for him than me and Eli.

A few years ago, we started mapping the asylum’s vents.

At this point, escaping is still futile due to Acacia’s security measures.

We have to wait for the perfect time. Until then, navigating around through the ceilings has become our favorite pastime.

I’m next after Aiden, and Eli follows close behind. We slither on our stomachs like snakes. Many would find the tunnels claustrophobic, but they’re oddly comforting to me. They give us the freedom we need.

We crawl until we’re above a store closet next to the kitchen, where staff are busy preparing food for the annual event. Aiden painstakingly unscrews the grate, moves it aside, and drops to the room below. We follow one by one.

Through the hall, we hear the kitchen rumblings. The catering staff have all been called into the main hall. This is part of Acacia’s routine. He briefs everyone ahead of the main event to ensure it runs smoothly.

“Come on,” Aiden says, creeping toward the kitchen when we’re sure everyone’s vacated.

Hopefully, we can swindle some nice food. Anything will be better than the shit they serve us. We creep out of the closet. We’re about to enter the kitchen when someone clears their throat behind us.

Fuck.

I spin to see a girl leaning against the wall, raising her eyebrows in amusement.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asks.

There’s a smile in her tone, and an ease to the way she challenges us. Self-assurance like that only comes from having everything you’ve ever wanted.

Aiden doesn’t flinch when he sees Acacia’s daughter, drawing himself to his full height and crossing his arms. She isn’t intimidated, though.

“That’s none of your fucking business,” Aiden growls menacingly. “Why don’t you run back to Daddy?”

The blonde rolls her eyes. “I’d much rather do something fun.” She takes a hip flask and a pack of cigarettes from her purse. “Is there somewhere we can sneak off to? These events are so dull.”

“Sarah!” Another girl’s voice floats toward us. “Where are you? Dad’s looking for you.”

Sarah freezes. “Shit.”

Aiden seizes the opportunity to snatch the cigarettes from her hands and tuck them into his pocket.

She glowers at him but doesn’t argue. Instead, she calls back, “I’ll be right there, Erin.”

“Sarah!” Acacia’s voice booms, making the three of us shrink away, pressing our backs against the wall. “What are you doing back here?”

She catches my eye, and I put one finger to my lips. She grins and swipes her hand across her mouth in a zipping motion.

“Sorry, Dad,” she says. “I got lost.”

She winks before sauntering away, leaving us to retreat into the safety of the storage closet.

Acacia’s voice is full of rage when he speaks to her. “Next time you get lost, you’ll end up staying here.”