The Experiment by Cassidy Shay (i can read with my eyes shut .txt) 📖

I run into a man. He’s a lot taller than me, but I’m not really that tall, so it’s not saying much. He looks to be about fifty, and he’s definitely grumpy.
“What are you doing in here?” He moves towards me, forcing me to step back into the room.
“Um, well, this used to be my room,” I say. He doesn’t look familiar, so he probably was transferred from a different floor after I left. I’m hoping he doesn’t know anything about the fifteen-year-old girl who used to live in this room. “I was just… well, I came back to visit. I don’t want to cause any trouble. I’m sorry. I’ll just leave now.” But he grabs my arm before I can take two steps.
“No, you’ll stay here. Toby, go get a couple Vipero. She doesn’t live on this floor, she’s not supposed to be here.” I make sure not to let the man see my face, because I no longer have blue eyes or a birthmark. I’d have some explaining to do if he noticed.
But when I see him eyeing my huge stomach, I know that he’ll already know that something’s off, so I give up trying to hide my face. “What the hell?” he whispers under his breath. But he doesn’t say anything else before Toby comes back with Vipero.
All three of them recognize me right away. There aren’t very many Vipero who don’t know me, because I’ve been pregnant and tortured and have made quite a bit of trouble for everyone. When they see me, two of them stop. I guess they don’t consider me a big threat.
Marc is the third Vipero. He steps forward and grabs my arm. What looks like a violent action is really just a worried reaction at seeing me. He pulls me out into the hallway and guides me through the halls, leaving the other Vipero to deal with Dave.
“What were you doing here?” he asks when we get to the stairs. “Do you understand how much trouble you get in for leaving your floor? How did you even get into the stairs?”
I hold up the key that I was given. Because I visit Julie, I was given a key to the stairwell. If I use the elevator, I can only go to Floor Four. But the stairs can’t monitor what floor I’m on. “You could get into a ton of trouble,” he tells me.
I laugh at that. “What would they do to me that they haven’t already done? I’m not afraid of them, Marc.” He stops walking.
“But you have people who are scared of them, of what they’ll do to you. You have people that care. You might not mind what happens, but what about Belle? Dr. Pender? Julie and Aron? Your two new kids?” He looks down the hall. “You’re a mother, Meagan. You need to be thinking about your kids.”
I know he’s right. But for some reason, it makes me mad. I yank my arm out of his hand. “Don’t tell me what to do.” I walk by myself to the stairs. I slam the door to the stairwell and stomp on each stair.
When I get back to the apartment, Mathew is at the table alone. “Where’s Belle?” I ask. He slowly looks up at me, a frown on his face.
“Where were you all day?”
I step forward and slam my hands on the table. “Where is my daughter?”
“She has been worried about you all day. You just disappeared and didn’t tell anyone where you’d be, what you were doing.” He stands up. “You need to be a mother. You have one kid, and you can’t even take care of her. How are you supposed to take care of three?”
I shake my head. “Just tell me where she is. Please.” He sits down again.
“She was really, really worried about, you know. She almost started crying. I sent her to Dr. Pender’s office to calm her down.”
I start heading to Dr. Pender’s office and I think about Mathew. For the last few months, he and I exchanged as little conversation as possible, and almost all comfort and warmness has left our home. But tonight he seemed worried about me. And if someone who hates me is worried about my safety, I know that I need to be more careful.
Chapter 29

A few days later, I plop myself down on one of the chairs in Dr. Pender’s office. Because of my stomach, I really can’t actually plop myself anywhere. But I do the best that I can.
“I want to get out of here. Now.” She’s doing something at the counter, but I can see her smile. She looks in some files, and then pulls out a piece of paper.
“Read this, right here,” she says, handing the paper to me. “I noticed this the other day, and I’ve been waiting for you to say something. If you use the right words, you might be able to get out of here.”
I look at the paper. It’s a summary of the Academy, dated back to when Dr. Pender first started working here. I read the second paragraph, the one that Dr. Pender pointed to.
According to Azuli Law, no Azulate individual or Azuli group of any size may, at any time, leave the Azuli Academy. The official definition describes an Azulate as a person who stored historical visions, known as Memories. An Azulate has blue eyes and a birthmark on their left cheek in the shape of an “A”.

It goes on to talk about more of the Azuli Laws, but I don’t need anything else.
I look at her and smile. Normally, this would be a time where I jump up and give her a hug. But when you’re as pregnant as I am, jumping isn’t really an option. I never thought that I might get out of here.

“I’m not an Azulate anymore,” I say. “I can leave this place, get out of here.” My smile tried to grow, but my mouth won’t stretch any farther. I stand up and give Dr. Pender a sideways hug. “Thank you, thank you so much!”
I waddle out the door and back to the apartment, where I left my key to the stairwell. I go to the stairs and try to run all the way to the ground floor. About halfway between Floors Five and Four, I have to stop. I put my hand on my stomach and catch my breath, then continue down the stairs at a much slower pace.
When I finally make it to the Warden’s office, I knock on the door. He opens it and I walk in, waving the paper. “I want to go out for a day. I want to go out tomorrow. I want to walk around the city. And you are going to let me.”
He looks confused. “Well, I’m sure that you would really enjoy that. But you can’t. According to Azuli Academy Law, Azuli are not allowed to leave.”
“Read me the law then,” I say. He goes to his desk and pulls out a blue book with black writing on the cover. He flips to a page and holds it up closer to his face.
“Right here, it says ‘No Azulate individual or Azuli group of any size may, at any time, leave the Azuli Academy.” He looks at me like I’ve wasted his time.
“Keep going,” I say. I had been hoping that the law book would have the same wording, and I guess I was right. I smile as he reads the definition of an Azulate.
“What’s your point?” he asks.
I step closer to him. “What color are my eyes?”
He rolls his eyes. “Green.”
“Do I have a birthmark right here?” I point to my left cheek.
“No, you don’t. Where are you going with this?” I don’t answer, just wait for it to sink in. Then, “Oh.” He rubs his forehead and lets out a slow breath. “This is what we’re going to do. I’ll think about it tonight. You come back tomorrow, and give me a few good reasons that you should get to leave. And I’ll make a decision.”
I smile and not. “Thank you.” I’m about to turn around and leave when I think about walking up all those stairs. “Hey, could I ask one more favor? I can’t access the elevator from this floor, and I really don’t want to walk up those stairs with this ginormous stomach.” He nods and walks me to the elevator.
For the rest of the day, I work out what I want to say to him. In my head, I write and rewrite several speeches, but none of them sound convincing enough. After a while, I decide to just wing it, say whatever comes into my head when I’m there. It might not be the smartest idea, but planning it out doesn’t seem to be working.
In the morning, I go talk to Marc. I have about as much bounce in my step as I can, and he laughs. “What put you in such a good mood?”
“I’m gettin’ outa here,” I say in a sing-song voice. Like I expected him to, he raises an eyebrow. “By Azuli Academy Law, I am not an Azulate. So I can leave.” He smiles, but he doesn’t look convinced.
“Good luck actually getting out that door. And if you do, what are you going to do? You don’t know anything about how that city works. You’ll be completely lost.” I hate to admit it, but I know that he’s right. I haven’t been out there since I was five. What do I know?
As I walk down the stairs later on, I think about what Marc said. I don’t know anything about the city. I don’t know the layout or where I would go to have fun. I don’t know anything.
When I get to the office, he’s standing with the door open, waiting for me. “Good morning,” he says as I enter the room. He wastes no time in getting down to business. “What did you come up with?”
“Well, first of all, I’m not an Azulate. So you have no legal obligation to keep me locked up in here all day.”
He nods. “We established this yesterday. But I have a question for you. If you are not an Azulate,
what are you?” I can tell by his expression that he thinks he’s got me stumped.
I think for a minute. “I’m a person… with an unusual knowledge of history and gorgeous green eyes.” I smile, hoping that maybe a joke with help me out a bit.
He smiles and waves his hand, telling me to go on and explain to him why I should leave.
“All of the Academy employees get days off. All of the employees are just people, not Azuli. So, if you manipulate the facts a little bit, you could say that all non-Azuli people at the Academy