On the way I couldn’t help but ask questions. ‘Are there many?’
He thought for a moment. ‘There are probably thousands, but only some of us are here.’
‘Why are they here?’
‘Same reason you are. Our families abandoned us, if indeed we had families. We all ended up here, well…not all of us.’
‘What do you mean?’ I wanted to know.
‘A few years back, some kids like you and me came to the hospital, but instead of ending up down here with us where we could’ve helped them somehow, the doctors came to the decision to analyse them more thoroughly, to dissect them. They found nothing. Some days later we saw, from the single window we created, three black vans turn up. They took the four dead children with them. I was quite new then, I must’ve been about thirteen, I saw them with my own eyes.’ He suddenly looked uncomfortable, like the memory had some impossible effect on him.
‘So why are we like this?’
He remained silent for a long time. We stopped outside a door.
‘I don’t know. But we’re trying to find out.’ He opened the door and we stepped through. Inside was a long corridor, branching out into small rooms. I will never forget my first impression of that place. A prison.
He led me to the end of the corridor, to a room identical to mine. It was his room, but there was one thing out of place. A teddy bear was sitting where a pillow should be.
‘How old are you?’ I asked him. ‘What’s your name?’
‘I am exactly sixteen years old. My name is Roger. What’s yours?’
‘I’m Sally.’ I had to contemplate for a second. ‘I think I’m about fifteen.’ I mumbled. He nodded, satisfied by my answer.
‘We are all between twelve and seventeen. I am the second oldest here. There is only one exception. A girl called Lucy. She is just seven years old. And she is the most unusual of us. She is closer to normal. Would you like to meet her?’ He went to his bed and picked up the teddy bear.
‘Yes. Very much so.’ He showed me out into the corridor. My curiosity wasn’t as strong when I entered that place. I focused on the other sounds. There was a tapping from one of the rooms to my left, a mumbling sound to my right, and at the very end of the corridor I heard the strangest sound to be heard in this place, a child crying. I looked at Roger questioningly. We stopped outside the room where the sound was coming from.
‘Lucy’s room. This may come as a bit of a shock.’ He opened the door slowly. Inside was a crowd, gathered around a bed. A few children turned and saw Roger and me there.  They allowed us to get to the bed. I saw Lucy for the first time. She seemed to be asleep, her red hair was spread on her pillow like a fiery halo, but tears were streaming down her face. The children around her all had a notebook of some sort. They were writing hastily.
‘She dreams.’ Roger whispered Reverently.
‘She can dream? Is it possible?’ I asked confused. In all my life I have never had a single dream. I would sleep and sometime later I would wake. It was as simple as that. There was one girl sitting as close to the bed as possible. She had darkish blonde hair and was clinging onto Lucy’s hand. There was no emotion in her eyes but there was a single tear clinging right in the corner. Lucy seemed to be mumbling through the sobs. Every time she said something, the girl next to her clutched a little harder. I guessed this was the reason she was so close to tears. A girl like me, with no feeling, was crying.
‘What’s happened?’ I puzzled aloud.
‘You see the girl next to the bed? Her name is Peggy. Lucy can tap into memories we don’t have, we have been made to forget. Lucy unlocks them and Peggy sees it in her mind. That is what has driven her so close to tears.’ Roger seemed enrapt.
‘But…how?’
‘We don’t really know, we’re trying to figure it out.’ Roger said, still gazing at Lucy’s face.
I tried to stop myself, but my feet just wandered to the other side of the bed to Peggy and my hand darted out to grab Lucy’s. Peggy let go of her other hand suddenly and fell to the floor but Lucy…her eyes split open and stared at me with the palest blue eyes ever. She stared at me so intensely and without warning began to scream in my face, the faint traces of terror on her face. She snatched her hand away from mine and fainted.
I felt roger grab me and rush me out of the room.