The Institute

Despite his anger, Luke continues to grieve his parents and sleepwalks for three weeks. Noting Luke’s newfound obedience, the staff members leave him alone for short periods. This complacency gives Luke the opportunity to explore: On one of his explorations, he finds a key card for the elevator and swipes it.

George is taken to Back Half, and more newcomers arrive. Most nights, Avery sleeps in Luke’s room and delivers telepathic messages from Kalisha. According to her, the children in Back Half watch documentary-like movies about influential people they don’t know; they are accompanied by Stasi Lights that induce headaches. With this information and the internet, Luke learns that the children are being used as psychic assassins to kill people in staged accidents and suicides.

Luke is forced to put his grieving aside when Harry has a seizure and inadvertently knocks one of his twin “sisters,” Greta, across the room, breaking her neck—and leaving both dead. That night, Helen is taken to Back Half.

Doctor Hendricks suspects Luke developed telepathy and has the sadistic technician Zeke take him to “the tank” to force a confession via near-drowning. Luke resists, and the men give up, convinced he has no telepathy. One of the staff, Dave, is sympathetic during the ordeal—but slaps Luke hard enough to knock him down when he says