Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER)

room.
    He smiled at Luca and Luca smiled back. Mr. Sullivan sat in the chair opposite Luca at the table and said, “Good morning, Luca. How are you today?”
    Mr. Sullivan was wearing sky blue. He didn’t seem nervous at all. “I’m great,” Luca said.
    “Are you scared?”
    Luca shook his head. “Nope. I’m not scared.”
    “Are you nervous?”
    Luca nodded. “A little.”
    Mr. Sullivan smiled, then laughed. “Have you been seeing any sad spiders?”
    Luca laughed too. His dad made up a game when Luca was first adopted. Whenever Luca was sad, his dad would tell him not to let the sad spiders start crawling on his body, then he would reach down and scoop the invisible creatures from Luca’s skin and throw them on the floor and stomp on them with a giant angry smile. Lately Luca had been having bad dreams. His dad, and some of the other men in white coats, had asked Luca to draw pictures of his dreams. Luca drew only two kinds of pictures: sad spiders or Terrible Scary — the place that held all the bad stuff that had ever happened to Luca, like when his first family died.
    Mr. Sullivan said the tests were supposed to help make the “sad spiders” and “terrible scary” go away forever.
    They had done practice versions of the test before, but this one was more serious. The real thing, his dad said.
    Mr. Sullivan held a card in the air, blank side facing Luca, then asked him what was on the other side. Luca guessed correctly each time.
    A spaceship.
    A carton of milk.
    Two girls skipping rope.
    Two boys playing video games.
    A happy family having a picnic.
    “Great job, Luca. Keep going,” Mr. Sullivan said.
    Luca smiled, feeling proud as his dad’s color softened from green and yellow to a baby blue on the other side of the mirror. His dad was happy, and that color was closer to proud.
    His dad was the first person to notice how Luca could sometimes read feelings, and sometimes even thoughts. He had always been good at it, since before he even realized it was something special, and not a thing most people could do. Before the operation, Luca could only do it sometimes, and not necessarily when he wanted. Now he was great at it, and could figure out feelings and see stuff on the other side of cards whenever he tried.
    It was like learning to ride his bike. At first it had been super hard and Luca kept falling. One time when he was first learning, Luca fell off the bike and onto the sharp side of a rock. It tore his knee open, and so much blood spilled out, his dad had a hard time calming him. His colors went from blue to almost red, while Boricio’s went from red to almost blue as he tried to make jokes to keep Luca laughing.
    Boricio had said, “Don’t let fear inside your house, Luca.” He tapped the side of his head. “That’s valuable real estate, and fear will try to squat without paying.” He shook his head. “Don’t let him.” Boricio dropped his voice to a whisper. “Fear’s a real bad guy, you know. A total jerk. And manipulative. The second he moves in, he’s gonna try to get you to live a boring life. So you never wanna let him in. You with me so far?” He winked at Luca.
    Luca winked back and nodded. He was always with Boricio.
    “He’ll keep knocking on your door, hoping you’re home, so you’ll want to be extra quiet and wait until he leaves. Fortunately for us brave guys,” Boricio pointed at his chest, “Fear’s not patient, and he’ll leave after a while. Once he’s gone, there’s nothing to worry about.” Boricio slapped Luca on the back. “Now get back on that bike and kick his ass out!”
    Boricio always had a way of making Luca feel safe. Luca climbed on his bike and rode it to the corner without falling. He hadn’t fallen since.
    Now Luca was great at riding his bike, just like he was great at doing all the stuff inside his mind.
    Luca wasn’t sure what they did to him, but it had something to do with his blood. He’d picked up enough on the thoughts of his dad and Boricio to know that the doctors had used some kind of special serum on him. Something super special, and secret. He’d also figured out that his dad was mad at Boricio for telling the doctors to do it. But he didn’t seem so mad — or scared — these days as he had been at first.
    Whatever they did, it made Luca feel better than ever before. Stronger. Smarter. Well, not smarter, but his thoughts seemed more together and he could remember lots more stuff easily. Things that hadn’t