Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reagan blinked as her vision suddenly appeared, wincing as the light hurt her eyes. She couldn't remember the last thing that had happened, all she knew was that one moment she was in a car with her father and the next she was here.

Where even was she again? As she finally started to get used to the brightness, she looked around and noticed that she wasn't alone. 

She saw a girl who looked to be about eighteen, a boy who looked a year younger than the girl, and another boy who looked younger than her. They were all preoccupied doing their own thing as they continued to be driven to who knows where.

"What...?" Reagan managed to mumble out, catching the other's attention who finally realized she was awake. The first person to react was the friendly looking brunette who smiled at her.

"Oh! You're awake, hi there!" The boy said with great enthusiasm, Reagan was a bit taken aback by his demeanor and gave an awkward wave. She wasn't really used to someone with his energy, but he seemed harmless enough.

"Finally, sleeping beauty arises." The older girl rolled her eyes as she went back to doing whatever she was doing. Reagan glanced at her and realized that she was filing her nails— she didn't bother asking where she got that.

"Oh hey there! You're awake now huh? That's cool, who are you again?" The other man asked with a grin as he scratched the back of his head nervously. He seemed erratic and was practically vibrating on his seat, Reagan wondered if he was under the influence of drugs.

"I’m Reagan Ridley, you guys are…?” She mumbled as she scratched her head, still trying to comprehend what was happening. The brunette with the friendly smile let out a soft chuckle as he stared at her.

“I’m Brett hand! Nice to meet you Reagan!” He says, showing her his I. D. Reagan realized that they were all wearing lanyards with cards on them, she mentally cursed at herself for not noticing that sooner.

“Are you alright? You seem pretty out of it.” Brett asked with a concerned look, the other girl— Gigi , Reagan took note of that, huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Anyone would be out of it after being knocked out and taken to some shady ass orphanage.” Gigi muttered as she went back to filling her nails, Reagan’s eyes widened a bit at her words.

“Oh hell no! You don’t even remember don’t you?” Gigi says as she stared at Reagan’s expression. She was done seeing these guys waking up and realizing they’ve been abandoned by their families.

Reagan furrowed her brows as she tried to remember, all she remembered was her dad telling her that they were going to visit her mom. “Fuck, what a liar!” She muttered to herself.

“What’s wrong?” Brett asked once again, Reagan merely groaned as she gripped her head. 

“My dad said we were going to my Mom’s house, didn’t think he’d throw me in here .” She sighed as she slumped back down on her seat. She wondered when their ride would end because it seemed like they’ve been on the road for a while now.

“Sheesh, talk about tough love.” The other boy— Andre, said before bringing his knees to his chest. Andre proceeded to rest his head on his knees and closed his eyes, slowly trying to drift to sleep.

“Aw, don’t worry Reagan! My parents say that the people in the orphanage are really nice and will probably love me more than they ever did!” Brett says with a reassuring smile.

Silence loomed over as everyone gave a concerned yet confused stare at Brett.

“Brett’s repressed trauma aside, how long have we been on the road for?” Reagan asked, shooting a slightly worried glance at Brett before going back to her tired expression.

“Hell if I know, addict over here’s the one who’s been awake the longest— makes sense that he’s getting rest. After I woke up though, it feels like it’s been hours, and four consecutive bathroom breaks…” Gigi muttered before she sighed.

“Quite a long trip, don’t you think?” Reagan said with a curious tone in her voice, Gigi merely shrugged as she leaned her chin on her arm. Brett stared at the two before tilting his head.

“Has it really been hours? I can’t really tell.” He laughed. Gigi rolled her eyes once again as she pointed at Brett.

“Are you serious? You were awake before I was…” She said with a raised brow. Brett merely chuckled as he shrugged, scratching his head.

“I’m not that good at keeping track of time whenever I’m doing stuff!” Brett said before going back to doing what he was doing— which Reagan realized was drawing on the wall of the bus with markers.

“Where did you get markers?” Reagan asked with a confused tone. Brett merely pointed over to a box underneath one of the seats, when Reagan grabbed it she saw that it was filled with a bunch of random junk.

“The hell are these?” She asked, raising a brow as she pulled some kind of broken toy from it. Gigi shrugged as she stared at the box in disgust.

“These dumbasses think we’re like 7, those are the kind of shit I played with before phones existed, absolutely awful.” Gigi said with a dramatic tone, Brett looked at them with a small frown.

“Aww I don’t think it’s that bad, look!” He says as he got out some scented markers and inhaled them. Gigi and Reagan stared at him like he was fucking ridiculous, but Brett was long gone in his little lala land.

“Goddamn, I am surrounded by crazy.” Gigi says as she rubbed her temples, Reagan doing the same.

“Tell me about it…” Reagan muttered as she slumped down on her seat, staring at the celling.

A few more minutes had passed and Reagan was about to fall asleep until the bus had skidded to a halt, she snapped back up and stared at the door that was being opened.

She looked around, realizing that the rest of them had fallen asleep. She was about to wake them up until robotic arms suddenly grabbed all of them and placed shock collars on their necks. 

“What the-?!” She said as her eyes widened once again. If the others didn’t wake up from her loud exclamation then they certainly did wake up when they felt the thing that clamped up their neck.

“Is this bad? This kind of hurts…” Brett said as he tried to touch the shock collar around his neck.

“Why the hell do we need shock collars in an orphanage?!” Gigi exclaimed with confusion and annoyance, pointing at the thing around her neck.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Andre said in a confused tone. “Shock collars? What kinda sick fantasies are you assholes gonna pull?!” He said with a frown.

The robot arms retreated back as someone stepped in, they looked like some kind of man dolphin thing. The strange creature nodded at the robot arms and turned back to the kids in front of them.

“Sorry ‘bout the collars! It’s kind of a protocol or some shit like that, anyways, welcome to Cognito Orphanage.” The man said as he pointed back at a building behind him.

“I’m Dolphman, the guy assigned to take care of you twerps, so just follow me and don’t wander off.” The man(?) said as he ushered them inside the building.

Reagan stared at the man wide-eyed before gulping.

“What the actual fuck is happening?”

Chapter Text

Reagan was quiet as they were being toured around by the “orphanage”. Mister Dolphman was showing them the different rooms that the building had, they were about to enter the next one until she felt a tug on her sleeve.

“Reagan…? Is it just me or is this place kind of creepy…” Brett said with a slightly nervous tone. Reagan stared at him before looking around and glancing at Dolphman.

“Definitely isn’t just you buddy, this place is all sorts of freaky…” Reagan muttered as she saw a door that had multiple “Do Not Enter” taped all over the door.

“Yeah, I hope we don’t get hurt or anything — I’m sure we’ll be fine! These guys are nice, yeah, nothing bad is gonna happen…” Brett said as he slowly tried to reassure himself.

Reagan was about to say something until Dolphman had cut him off, opening the door of a room. “And this is the bedroom, where all you kids will be staying. Bedtime is from 8pm to 6am, you can’t leave your room during that time or else you’ll be disciplined.” Glenn muttered the last bit.

“Kids my ass.” Gigi muttered as they were left to talk in the room. It was a bright white room which creepily reminded Brett of those weird experiment lab movies but he shook that feeling off.

There were beds with tables beside them that had a bunch of stuff on them that could entertain them, they looked around until they realized that there was another kid in the room.

“Who the hell are you?” Andre asked in a confused tone, pointing at the teen with an accusing finger. The boy with blonde hair stared at them before snapping his fingers.

“Oohhh! You guys must be the new people in this ward! Nice to meet you guys, I’m Orrin.” The boy said with a friendly smile as he held his hand out for a handshake. The group looked at him with a skeptical stare save for Brett who shook his hand happily. 

“Nice to meet you Orrin! I’m Brett, that’s Reagan, Gigi, and Andre!” Brett said as he pointed back to the three who were still looking at Orrin suspiciously. Orrin gave them a wave.

“How were you here before us?” Gigi asked with a raised brow. Reagan stayed silent during this whole ordeal as she stared at Orrin. Something about him felt familiar to her but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Oh! I’ve been here for a few days now, I came from another orphanage and they moved me here because of reasons they never told me.” Orrin explained with a small shrug.

“That’s sus as fuck, dude.” Andre pointed out before he walked over to one of the beds, laying down. “Damn, this bed is actually pretty comfy.” He muttered to himself as he closed his eyes.

“Aaaand he’s falling asleep again, but honestly? I agree, I’m too tired for this shit. That is enough crazy for Gigi today.” She said as she slumped onto her bed, covering her eyes with a pillow.

Reagan stared at the two before glancing at Brett and Orrin who were talking about whatever weird nerd shit they were into. She paused for a moment, wondering if she should ask Orrin about something until the lights went off and an announcement played over the speakers.

Brett let out a surprised yelp and looked around confused. “What was that about?!” He yelled as he looked around but obviously saw nothing because of the dark. “Ahh! I don’t have night vision!”

“Of course you don’t dumbass! That was the bedtime announcement, it seems like they’re really intent on keeping us in this room during the night…” Reagan said as she stared at the door, her eyes squinting.

“At my last building, when someone sneaked out during bed time, they weren’t seen at all the next day and when they were finally brought back— they seemed kind of… off.” Orrin said as he scratched his head.

Reagan rolled her eyes at that. “Yeah, totally not suspicious at all.” She said sarcastically.

“I’d rather not think about it… This place is already weird enough, what if monsters come out and eat us?” Brett said as he continued to run around frantically. Reagan groaned and face palmed.

“Brett what are you, five? No monsters are gonna eat us because they don’t exist!” Reagan sighed as she crossed her arms. Orrin walked over to his bed and grabbed a flashlight from underneath his pillow. 

“I mean, I’ve been waiting for the right time to use this— of course I never really tried going out of the room myself.” Orrin said sheepishly as he turned it on.

Reagan’s eyes widened a bit as a small smile formed onto her face. “It’s settled then, we’re gonna check the outside after hours.” She said with a small nod. Orrin smiled back with excitement.

“Wait what? You guys are gonna check it out now ?? Isn’t that a little bit risky?” Brett said, concern seeping through his voice as he stared at the other two. Reagan thought about it for a moment before grumbling.

“You’re right, surprisingly.” Reagan muttered. “It’ll be too suspicious, we’re going to have to plan this out for a few more days.” She says as she gestured to the door. “They definitely have tight security, if we plan this out for a few days then we’ll be able to map this place out.” 

“Yeah! Especially since we’re probably going to go to those secret doors.” Orrin said with a cheeky grin. Brett looked a bit confused until he snapped his fingers as a lightbulb practically went off in his head.

“Ohh! That taped up door!” Brett says.

“Congrats genius, but yeah no— if we’re going to be checking those places out then we’re definitely going to know where to go and where to hide just in case. I say that tomorrow we should walk around and secretly draw a map.” Reagan says with a smirk.

“Alright!! Like a little adventure then? Well, I suppose if I’m with you guys then I’m sure that no monster will come after me!” Brett said, his fear completely gone now.

“It’s settled then! Tomorrow morning we should all draw a map of the different rooms in the building!” Orrin said with a smile.

Brett yawned as he walked over to his bed. “Yeah! I’ll see you guys tomorrow, goodnight!” He said with a smile, Orrin also nodded as he went to sleep, wishing them goodnight.

Reagan walked back to her bed, staring at her ceiling before sighing. 

Looks like things just got a bit more interesting.