The electricity crawled through my veins like fire ants carving a labyrinth. It pulsed, stopping my heart.

That was the first time I’d felt misery in slow motion.

The cold shackles dug into my skin where they pinned me down to the dense metal chair while my body convulsed. Sweat dripped into my eyes. Piercing screams rebounded off the colorless walls of the dark room.

I had a sick feeling they were mine.

Pain blurred my vision and I felt removed from the broken sobs that wracked my chest. It was too much. The currents traveled from my fingertips moving up my neck. My throat was raw as it pleaded for mercy, but I couldn’t form words. I was going to die.

_I am dying._

I shook uncontrollably as I stared down the mirrored window. My thoughts were agony and came in fragments as I struggled to form coherent conclusions. It occurred to me that I couldn’t remember anything. I was here for something. Why? Why was I here? Who was doing this? WHY? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Panic shredded my nervous system as I searched to find the answers to my questions and came up blank. I was losing my mind. I didn’t know my name. Who was I? Where was my family? Do I have a family? Where am I?

Anger brewed in my chest stemming from my fear. Glancing at the mirror a conviction grew. I wouldn’t let them see me go out like this. With whatever will power I had left I ground my teeth together.

The room fell silent other than the slight chattering of teeth and electricity popping. Every nerve ending in my body screamed, but I did not. I shut my eyes but that only made the pain more acutely felt. Tears streamed down my face mixing with the sweat. I glared hatefully at the window.

a monotone voice issued a command.

“Interesting, turn it off.”

Feedback sounded. Then, in an instant, the twisted game of pain changed. My entire body felt like millions of pins and needles were being inserted, pulled out, then reinserted, over and over again. I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth which sent waves of suffering through my chest.

My heart felt like it was running a mile, hiccuping, then running twelve more. My head pounded as if my brain was desperately banging on the walls to get out. I couldn’t move at the same time I couldn’t stop shaking.

A well dressed man walked out from the shadows, appearing from a door I had not noticed. He walked up to me and peered down with intrigue, as if I were a blood sample and he couldn’t wait to count cells.

“How are you feeling?” His unnaturally normal sounding voice asked.

I looked up into his eyes as words floated around our heads. E.Y.P.S CORP. Jensen. Memory project. Clean slates. Programming. Soldiers.

I felt a shift somewhere in my spine. And I remembered him.

My voice trembled as I responded.

“Where’s my bother?”

Surprise lifted the man’s face and he glanced at the window.

“You don’t have a brother.”

“Yes I do. His name. His name is Jensen…You took him…when you took me. What did you do to him!?”

I was yelling now and the man seemed to grow nervous.

“You really would have been better off if you’d just forgotten.” He started to walk towards the door straightening his lapels. “Doctor. Up the voltage. Test treatment four. Most unusual but clearly necessary. Start in 10…9…”

The man opened the door to exit and terror clawed it’s way into my heart and made a nest there.

“No! Wait! You can’t do this! Please!”

The man paused at the door and turned back smirking at me.

“Of course I can.”

“Please.”

He smiled kindly and my stomach dropped.

“Don’t worry Wells,”

He walked out the door.

“You won’t remember a thing.”

The door clicked behind the man and searing pain erupted across my shoulders.

Then the world went black.

**_***_**

_Wells…Wells…Wells!_

I awoke in a room with light filtering through a window. Confusion dotted my thoughts. There was something important I felt I was forgetting. A dream maybe. I stumbled out of a bed with scratchy sheets. My body was stiff and exhausted. I stumbled around a room I would have sworn I’d never seen, but somehow it felt familiar. I found myself in a bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I awoke fully. I was decked out in a light purple t-shirt, and black shorts.

Strange markings scarred my face. They crawled from my temple to disappear beneath the collar of my t-shirt. I pulled off the t-shirt and gasped.

_What happened to me??_

__

The branch like scars wrapped themselves around my torso, like poison coloring my veins.

_Lichtenberg Figures._

The word came to me like a bug hitting a window shield. Where had I heard that? Something about electricity. I shivered. These scars were from…electricity?

A noise from the main room made me jump.

A boy with black curly and a rich tone of brown skin opened the door to the bathroom. He wore a light purple jumpsuit with the acronym E.Y.P.S on the chest. Light spots danced in my vision. Lichtenburg figures peeked out from his collar but didn’t reach his face. They stood out jarringly against his skin.

“Wells, what are you doing!? We are gonna be late. Get ready.” The boy tossed a purple jumpsuit my way. When he walked back into the main room I caught the lettering on the back of his jumpsuit. It said, “Jameson.”

Handling the jumpsuit Jameson had thrown me I looked at the back. There, thickly embroidered with black thread: Wells.

_Wells?_