“There are two-person caskets?” I was breathing heavily.
“We’re about to get in one.” Adam looked at me. He turned to me and grabbed my shoulders, making me face him and meet his eyes, though I could barely see his eyes in this lighting. “You’re going to be okay.”
I nodded, focusing on breathing, on relaxing. I stepped away from him, reached down, grabbed the rope, and grunted as I tried to pull it up. As I let it go, I exhaled. “This is too heavy.”
Adam reached down and pulled it open with ease. I wasn’t a weakling. I did fifty push-ups daily. I could carry my own weight and then some. Somehow, I couldn’t open that lid.
“If we need to get out . . . ” I looked at Will.
“We’ll get you out.”
“So you’ll stay here all night?”
“Yup.” That was the third guy. “All night.”
“What if you fall asleep and you don’t hear us shout? Has that happened before?”
The three of them looked amongst each other. Finally, Adam nodded as he looked at me.
“It won’t happen tonight.” Adam squeezed my hand. “Trust me, I scream pretty loud.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.” I looked at the ground. “How deep is this?”
“Not classic burial deep,” Adam said. “Three feet? Maybe four?”
“Deep enough that I can’t climb out on my own.” A chill ran through me.
“Why would you need to climb out on your own?” Adam asked.
“I don’t know what you’re going to try to do to me in there.”
“Jesus Christ.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Are you serious? You’d rather be buried alone?”
“No. I don’t know.” I crossed my arms. “Let’s just do this.”
They helped me get into the casket. Adam came next, slowly lowering himself beside me. Once we were settled, both of us lying on our backs facing up, Will and the third guy stood over us, only their cloaks visible in the dim moonlight. They looked around as if making sure we had what we needed and shut the lid over us. I shrieked. Adam laughed.
“It is not funny.” I bit my lip. “This is crazy. Why do you do this?”
“To achieve your full potential.”
“How the hell is being buried alive achieving your full potential?”
“It’s mind over matter,” he said. “Mind over matter.”
“This is crazy,” I whispered. “You did this by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“And did you achieve your full potential?” I asked, mocking him.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever achieve my full potential, but I keep trying.” The smile in his voice made me smile.
“I spoke to my friend Aisha.”
“What’d she say?”
“She told me what happened on Friday and confirmed that I have no memory of it.” I turned on my side, surprised by how much space was actually in this casket. I couldn’t see Adam, but I knew the moment he turned his face toward mine.
“At all?”
“At all. She did say something interesting though about them doing an experiment on me during those days. Is that legal? Could they take my memory? Is there even something that does that?”
“Fuck, I hope not.” He looked away. “Some people say electric shock therapy does that sometimes.”
I nodded. I’d heard that. I turned on my back again and scooted a little closer to Adam. He brought an arm around me and I closed my eyes. It was strange, to feel safe inside of a box while being buried underground.
“Tell me about your upbringing,” he said after a moment.
“Did your parents attend Ellis?”
“No. Well, I don’t know. I was adopted. My adoptive parents didn’t.”
“How old were you when were you adopted?”
“I was a baby, five months? I can’t remember. I’d have to ask Karen.”
“So you don’t remember anything before the adoption happened.”
“Or much after. Don’t they say we truly don’t remember anything until age three?”
“Depends on the person. The human mind was built to withstand trauma. We box things up and filter out things that can deter us from moving forward.”
“Tell me about Karen.”
“Karen.” I sighed. “She’s nice. We’re not the best of friends, but we look out for each other.”
“Was she who you were talking to the other night?”
“Yeah. She’s in Florida. She says I visited her on Friday night, but I don’t remember. I went over there and her neighbor said the cops were called, Karen was taken to the hospital. It was a big mess.”
“Is she okay? Why was she in the hospital?”
“She allegedly pulled a gun on me and shot into the air and I guess even she went into shock over it.”
“What the fuck? She tried to shoot you?”
“It seems that way.”
“Seems that way? What the hell kind of mother tries to shoot her daughter?”
“Well, yeah, that’s the thing, I know I’m a huge pain in the ass but I don’t think she’d pull a gun on me for no reason.”
He stayed quiet.
“What? You’re not going to say it’s no wonder you ended up at The Institute or it’s no wonder you need meds to calm your crazy or whatever other generalization comes to mind?”