That evening, Luke Ellis found Kalisha Benson sitting on the lounge floor by the window, drinking a small bottle of Twisted Tea she had bought with all her tokens. Outside, Avery Dixon and Helen Simms were on the trampoline, with Helen teaching Avery a forward roll as darkness approached the unlit playground.

Luke asked why Kalisha had not warned him about the Stasi Lights test. Kalisha, preferring to be called by her full name and slightly slurred from the alcohol, downplayed her own experience as merely watching dancing colored lights until feeling woozy. Luke explained that he had been injected beforehand, suffered a severe reaction where his throat closed, and then passed out during the lights, likely having a seizure.

Luke further recounted that upon waking, he was slapped by staff and then confronted by Dr. Evans, who tried to make him identify ESP cards—testing for telepathy. Kalisha stated she had been given such card tests many times, but not in connection with the lights, and suggested they had mixed up paperwork by treating Luke as a telepath rather than a telekinetic. Luke speculated the abuse happened because he is not a powerful “pos,” noting that ordinary kids are called “pinks.”

When Luke asked if other kids had similar experiences, Kalisha said she had not asked them and offered him more of the drink. She then revealed she was “celebrating” Iris Stanhope’s memory: Iris, described as a minor telekinetic like Luke, had been taken an hour earlier, implying transfer to Back Half and that “we will see her no more.”

Kalisha began to cry at the loss, and Luke comforted her by putting his arms around her as she rested her head on his shoulder.