The next morning, Seth was awake again by dawn. Usually he would happily get up and watch the sun rise through the branches of the tree outside his window but today he was in a different place. There was no tree and no sunrise to be seen. The huge cement buildings blocked the horizon from view and all there was to see were the Officers switching shifts.
Seth tried to pick his book back up but he finished it quickly and found himself staring out his window at nothing. He was still conflicted about what he thought of this place. Frasier seemed nice enough but there were also times when something seemed off about him.
He wondered what Patrik thought about all of this. He hadn't seen or heard anything from him since the Officers had collected him the previous day for his mental examination. Seth assumed they must have brought him back to his room again afterwards but he wished the Officers didn't insist on keeping the two of them separated. It's not like they could give each other hints about the Tests when they were going through them at the same time.
Eventually, the sun peeked out over the tops of the buildings and Seth heard a soft shuffling from down the hall.
Patrik, he thought, and rushed to press his ear against the door.
"Good morning, Patrik," and Officer was saying.
"Good morning..." Patrik answered. Something about it didn't sound right. There was a tremor in his voice; Seth didn't like it.
"If you'd be so kind as to follow us, we'll take you in for your emotional examination."
"Okay," Patrik murmured. Seth could barely hear his voice.
Neither Patrik nor the Officers uttered another word, and within moments Seth could scarcely even hear the sound of their footfalls.
He retreated back to the window and watched the men march Patrik across the courtyard and out of sight. He wondered what the emotional examination would be like.
He sat by the window and watched the Officers in the courtyard for a long while, studying them, trying to figure out if there was something more going on behind closed doors. Eventually he gave up. Nothing they were doing seemed odd to him, but they weren't doing much of anything at all, really.
He thought to himself that maybe it was all just in his head.
He'd seen Gianna every single day for his whole life and she'd never seemed the slightest bit strange to him. Darbee at the front desk had seemed more than polite, and Frasier had responded almost like a proud father when Seth had done well in his mental examination.
Surely he was just overanalyzing everything because he was in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people. He'd always liked structure and organization in his life and that had been thrown out the window when he'd arrived here. That was all it was—just stress from being ripped from his usual routine and tossed into a completely different world.
Eventually he supposed he would get used to it and things would go back to normal. He would develop a new routine and this place—or wherever else they sent him after he completed his Testing—would become his new home.
He sat and thought for another short while, pondering this and that as he waited for the Officers to return and collect him.
Perhaps a half hour later, they did.
When Seth answered the door, he was greeted by two new faces. It seemed that Frasier and Darbee were the only people he was ever going see more than once in this place.
His brow furrowed as he tried to remember whether or not he'd heard them bring Patrik back. He could've sworn there'd been nothing but silence since they'd come for him that morning.
As the Officers walked him back through the main building, he noticed himself becoming familiar with the route they took, anticipating this door and that corner before he could see them.
It didn't take long for them to come to a halt in the examination room. A single wooden chair sat in the centre of the room. Frasier was already there and waiting.
"Seth," he said, opening his arms in delight. "Come in, come in. Are you ready for the last examination?"
"I guess so," Seth said. If he was being honest, he really wasn't sure what to expect. After yesterday's supercomputer, an old chair was the polar opposite of what he thought he'd be greeted with when he walked in today.
"Wonderful," Frasier chirped. "Take a seat."
Seth did as he was told. Frasier wheeled over a small metal table from the corner of the room. Seth hadn't noticed it earlier.
Atop it sat a flat rectangular device and a heavily wired headset. He slipped it onto Seth's head, pulling it down until it covered his ears.
"Today's examination will be a little different to yesterday's," Frasier started. "Though I'm sure you've already figured that out for yourself. Essentially, all you have to do is sit in this chair and respond truthfully to a series of questions. The Officers will stay with you again—they will be the ones carrying out this examination—and I will be in the other room, monitoring your reactions. Depending on how you respond, this examination could be very short or very long, so please prepare yourself. I also want to warn you that it can get overwhelming; but that's the point. What we're trying to do here is discover how to bring you to your emotional breaking point. Do you understand what that means?"
"Yes," Seth answered, blinking. This was not what he had anticipated at all. The headset was digging in uncomfortably.
"Okay. Are you ready to begin?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
"Good. I'll see you soon." Frasier flicked a small switch on the device and left.
As soon as he was out of sight, one of the Officers turned and closed the door. The other moved closer to Seth where he sat on the smooth wooden chair.
"What is your name?" the nearest Officer asked. He had light hair and a stumpy chin and his eyes were cold and hard.
"Seth."
"Your Tag Number?"
Seth recited it for him.
"What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?"
Seth scoffed. "What kind of a question is that?"
"Answer it, Occuptant," the other Officer ordered. This one had dark hair and darker eyes. His voice was low and rough.
Seth stared at him.
"When I was little—maybe four or so—one of the Officers was helping me with my bath. I needed to go to the toilet but I didn't want to ask her because I thought it would be awkward. Instead I held it for as long as I could but eventually it just came out. She told all the other Officers about it and after that they always asked if I needed to go to the toilet before I took my baths."
The Officer nodded, accepting his answer.
"The worst thing you've ever done to another person?"
Seth stopped and thought for a moment. "Last year I got into a fight with Nathan because he was making fun of a group of younger Occupants in the Hall. I punched him and fractured his nose but I kept going until he was on the ground. The Officers had to pull me off him. I was on punishment duties for a month."
"Do you regret it?"
"I don't regret hitting him. He deserved that. I do regret taking it as far as I did though."
The questions continued.
"What is the biggest lie you've ever told?" he was asked.
"If it was a choice between your life and another's, would you kill them?"
"What is your most commonly recurring dream?"
"What defines a bad person in your eyes?"
"How often do you touch yourself?"
"What does it take for you to truly trust another person?"
It went on for what seemed to Seth like hours, each question gradually growing more intrusive, more offensive, more abhorrent, and Seth continued to answer them. Eventually he began to feel the effects. He was exhausted, he was upset, and his temper was beginning to run short.
After a particularly personal question, Seth lied when they pressed him for an answer. A sudden shock ran through his temples, jolting him hard enough his entire body went stiff, his jaw seizing and his fingernails digging into the arms of his chair.
"Screw you. I'm done with this." he spat after the dark haired Officer barked another question at him.
It was then that the door swung open and Frasier returned. "I think that will be enough," he told the Officers. "I believe we can safely say that Seth here has had enough for today. Thank you, Officers."
The two men nodded and stepped back, resuming their places on either side of the door.
"Well done, Seth. There aren't many Occupants who last as long as you do. This examination is the hardest one to go through."
"Can I go back to my Residence now?" Seth asked, staring Frasier in the eye.
"Of course." He turned to the other men. "Please, escort him back to his room."
Seth lifted the contraption off his head, and rose from his chair. He ran his fingers through his hair, massaging his head where it hurt from the helmet. He glanced down and there, by his feet, something caught his eye. A small red fleck. His brow furrowed and he looked up, his eyes scanning the room. On the wall, there was more. A tiny spatter of red halfway between the floor and ceiling.
The same height, he realised with a sick tightening in his stomach, that his head would have been at while he'd been seated.