Chris liked to think he was a fairly good person. Quite forgiving, fair and firm and honest, with a loving family. A loving family which he would never allow to come to harm, under any circumstances. He fumbled with the bronze key on his padlocked door, glancing furtively up and down the street. Of course he had been caught up; the kids had just been spotted by the police and he was fairly quick to make sure that his own weren't among the pile of bruised and battered bodies. There was a dull thud of music coming from the very walls of his house however, and this never boded well. Chris took a deep breath, steeled himself, opened the door and padlocked it from the inside.

"SIENNA HARTWELL!" roared his husband from the dining room. "STOP HAVING A TWERK-OFF RIGHT NOW AND GET THE DISHES DONE!"

"BUT JAAAACOOOOOB, I'M ALREADY DOING THE DISHES!"

Chris found himself face-to-face with his daughter in the living room. The blinds were all shut and some new song that she loved was blasting out over the TV's speakers. She was garbed in nothing but a greasy T shirt and pair of underwear, furiously slamming her bottom up and down to the beat of the music with herself, who was wearing her pyjamas. She was also filming it on her phone from the side. In the kitchen, Chris' daughter was sulkily doing the dishes. Chris rubbed at his jaw, walked over to the speakers, and turned down the volume knob as all three of his daughter groaned in unison. "Listen to your father, Sienna. All of you." he snapped, taking the CD out of the DVD player and putting it back in the box.

"Which one?" asked one of the Siennas under her breath. Chris glared at all three of them and they folded their arms and looked at the floor before stomping off to 'do the dishes' as loudly as possible. Chris hoped they wouldn't break another plate this time.

Jacob came down the hallway in his socks and gave Chris a quick kiss on the forehead, his voice barely a whisper in Chris' ear. "She's been a nightmare as per usual," he muttered. Chris was certain that Jacob had a few silver hairs already since the lockdown and he sighed in frustration, knowing what was going to come next. "Look, Chris, I've been thinking; Sienna's a strong wom-"

"Please, Jake, not today. Certainly not today. I just finished my shift and the other affected teens all came back, on death's doorstep. Traumatised, the lot of them. Even Jay." retorted Chris sharply. He wasn't in the mood for this; didn't they know how much he was doing to keep them both safe?

The pash of broken glass interrupted their argument-to-be as both heads swivelled around to the kitchen. "I've got it!" called out one of the Siennas, stooping down to sweep up the shards of glass. Jacob looked over at Chris uncertainly, but the latter wasn't having any of it. He took off his shoes and undid a couple of shirt buttons as he padded up to their room wearily to get changed. Jacob trailed after him.

"We can't keep her forever, hun, she's old enough to look after herself. Besides, wouldn't you rather she was out there with-..." asked Jacob tentatively.

"With who? What's gotten into you? That's our daughter, damnit! The moment people find out what she can do..."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that! And I think our daughter's been around long enough to make her own choices!"

"No, don't change the subject - She's not some alien, Jacob, but she'll end up just like our serial killer; locked up and paraded around like a FREAK!"

Jacob rubbed at his face wearily. "You know I didn't mean it like that, Chris, I love her as much as you do and I tell her that nearly every day. Look. It's been a long day for the both of us." Chris didn't doubt him; ever since the incident, the pair of them had been alternating shifts. One guarded the streets whilst the other guarded Sienna...Chris had no doubt that Sienna was arguably more exhausting than looking after the entire city of Verona on your own. And that was just when there was only one of her, he added bitterly in his head.

Chris' shoulders slumped. "I don't want her getting hurt," he croaked. He was so tired. "The last thing I want, is for any of you to get hurt, I just keep trying to tell her that and she doesn't-..."

Jacob placed a hand on his husband's shoulder, smiling a little. "I'm sure she thinks the same thing whenever you go outside. Listen, if you'd just let her out, maybe we could both-"

"No. No, I'm not having any of it. She's not leaving this house until it all sorts itself out." announced Chris firmly.

Jacob clenched his jaw. "She deserves to choose." He repeated calmly.

Meanwhile, Sienna sat in the corridor outside her room. Once the argument settled, she lifted herself up and went into her room, slamming the door. If there was anything she hated more than listening to her dads argue (a passtime that became more frequent since she revealed her power) it was being cooped up indoors. She heard Jay got hurt, and Rachel-...and Rachel died. She knew she shouldn't be stuck in the house.

"I'm gonna go mad talking to myself. You, you, and you - get lost, I'm done. Need time to sulk." grunted Sienna. Immediately, the three clones burst into particles of light and disappeared, leaving the original sprawled out in her filthy room, staring at the ceiling. It was late, so she scooted along on her back and crawled into bed, shutting her eyes.

Next thing Sienna knew, the sun had risen behind the curtains without telling her. She felt lethargic and sullen, and she thought over what she was going to do. Her hand reached for her phone.

TO: Jay (AKA capn flatass)
stuck under house arrest man, the army of dad has spoken adn i gotta get out pronto. I need accomplices. You in?
. . .

Sienna put her phone aside and waited for a response. Not like she had anything better to do today anyway.

---

---

King woke up to the sound of calming whispers and the emotion of worry. Dim light burned his eyes, sending waves of nausea and brief pressure through his body, but it faded away as he tilted his head slowly towards the source of the outsider emotions. Beside him sat two figures, two familiar faces that were blurred at first but quickly formed family members he had not really expected to see. Cracked lips parted, sucking in a hoarse breath as he attempted to say something in greeting, but he was quickly cut off by Marie’s loud gasp and sudden grasping of his shoulder.

”You’re okay, Richard!” She cried, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wet with tears. King groaned at her strong grip, but forced a smile and lifted a hand to pat her head gently. Marie sniffed loudly, rubbing at her wet eyes with the back of her hand, but before she could reach out to touch him again a gentle arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back into her seat. Victoria King whispered something quietly into Marie's ear once she settled back down, and then she turned her cold stare to her son's face. King stiffened (or, at least tried to) and met her gaze with half-lidded eyes and a slight frown. She was sitting with her head held high and her shoulder back, and the colors around her were as faint as his father’s, but he could see the pale green of worry and past panic settle around her frame like heavy smoke.

“Momー”

”You fool.” Victoria said stiffly, lips pursing, ”I said not to go out, now look at you. You fool…” King felt his eyes widen as a brief flash of wetness gleamed in his mother’s usually cold gaze, and when she stood suddenly his heart thumped in panic but quickly it faded into a sense of surprise. Arms laced under his neck, holding softly, as if they were barely there, and the thick scent of expensive perfume and makeup filled his mind, making him even dizzier than before. A hug, she was hugging him. Holding him like a real mother would. Skepticism crossed his mind, a brief thought that made him question his mother’s motives, but it faded into another wave of sickness and he fought back the urge to vomit all over his mother’s back.

Eventually, she pulled away, glancing briefly down at the silently sniffling Marie before turning towards the exit. Of course she was leaving, she had things to do, people to see, questions to answer. King felt a small pang of guilt for making her worry, and his eyes closed as he let out a slight sigh. Marie stood slowly, watching Victoria leave with wary eyes. She then turned back to stare at her brother, lingering at King’s bedside with stiff posture, and she muttered quickly, questioningly;

”Who did this to you?”

King’s eyebrows furrowed briefly, and any attempts to look back at the night before were chased away by a never ending headache. Flashes appeared, brief pictures brightened by the storm or the emotions he remembered. A man, a strong man, with yellow and red surrounding him, and then darkness. King shuddered, then tilted his head towards Marie and said with a raw voice:

“I don’t know.” Marie looked taken aback by his answered, and then she turned on her heels, shoulders trembling slightly under the half-light of the clinic’s lamps. King tilted his head at the sudden variety in Marie’s emotional state, and before he could say anything she let out a soft,

”You’re lying.” Before vanishing out the door after their mother. King watched them go with wavering eyes, and then he let his head settle back into the pillow. Pain reverberated in his mind, filling his ears with white noise and his eyes with darkness. Really, he wanted to stay awake, get up and stretch and see who else was alive and well and doing the same as him, but honestly his body felt heavy with exhaustion, and the wound on his head, though now bound tightly and treated, still ached with the same pain from last night. He couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, and waves of drowsiness sent him back into a dazed state until he was finally breathing softly again, spiraling down into a dreamless sleep.

Location: The Clinic
Interacting with: Her Parents, Doctor Okada

---

---

beep beep beep

Katalina was dreaming, but is was more along the line of nightmares than pleasant dreams. First Alicia was breaking up with her because Jade apparently hated her guts, and Jay was no longer talking to her because Scout had gotten injured because of her.

beep Beep beep

She tossed in the bed as the dreams played out under her eyelids. All her worst fears playing out infront of her, leaving her alone, and feeling responsible for the previous nights events. With another jerk, she awoke, but kept her eyes closed. However voices started becoming noticeable. She couldn't make out what they were saying at first, mostly sounding like fuzz to her still pounding head, but soon she could make out her mothers voice. "...You sure she'll be fine Dr. Okada?"

"So far we believe she'll be fine. Preliminary tests show nothing wrong. She might have just hit her nose and head wrong last night and that's why she was unconscious when they found the kids. Aside from some minor abrasions she should be fine. However, I do want to keep her another night for observation. If she does have more head trauma we couldn't find the first time around, I just want her to be here safe instead of at home alone." Katalina recognized the voice as Doctor Okada.

"Thank you doctor." There were soon footsteps and then the sound of a door closing. Katalina's eyes fluttered open and the world bloomed into view slowly. Things were still fuzzy for a moment, and her head throbbed in protest as the overhead lights came into view. She let out a small hiss and tried to move her hand to cover eyes. However, her left hand seemed to be tethered to an IV line. "Oh! You're awake!" Molly's voice caused Kata to turn to the right to see both her parents sitting next to the bed she apparently was in.

"How long was I out of it?" Katalina tried to sit up, but felt hands pressing her down a bit. She saw her father had gotten up from his chair and was holding her down.

"Don't move too much. You're probably still a bit disoriented." Henry removed his hands once Katalina seemed to settle down a bit.

"Alright..."

"Its Wednesday, you've been out for about ten hours sweetie. Your father and I have been worried about you ever since the Smith's and us realized that you and Alicia had snuck out last night." Katalina winced with a bit of guilt there.

"I'm sorry... it was my idea. Don't get mad at Ali... not her fault."

"We're not mad at either of you, at least we are. I'm not so sure about the Smiths. We are just glad you're alright. After Herold called to inform us that they had found you in the woods... we had feared the worst. However, just because we're glad you're alright does not mean you're not in trouble young lady." Molly seemed to look a bit cross as she spoke those last words.

"I'll accept whatever punishment you give me. I deserve it." Katalina did want to complain at how unfair it was, but at the same time, she had broken quite a few rules sneaking out the night before.

"Well, for one, you are grounded. For two weeks. You are to come home straight from school or practice on weekdays. You can have friends over, but either your father or I have to be home to supervise. You are only allowed to go hang out with friends at their place as long as one of their parents are there, and they call either your father or I to confirm this. This goes double if you go hang out with Alicia. I want you to make sure her parents are there. I know you two are dating now, and that will be a bummer for a bit, but you did break the rules both on Monday and yesterday night. Yes, I know about you cutting school. Your teachers called."

Katalina groaned. Her rule breaking was of course catching up with her. "Anything else mom?"

"For the next month you will be working at the store with your father and I on weekend days you do not have anything swimming related. Four hour shifts. This is non-negotiable. We need the extra help, and you should have some responsibilities."

Katalina simply nodded. It could have been better, but it could have been worse. Her head throbbed as she nodded, and she reached up with her right hand and rubbed her temples. "Okay mom."

"One last thing. I don't want you associating with that Wilcox boy. Your father and I blame him for what happened last night. How irresponsible! Holding a party without his legal guardian around! We heard from Herold that when he tried to contact Luella that she was heading back to Tennessee, on Everett's insistence! And I know he had booze there... they found those empties. That boy has a few wires loose, and I don't want you hanging around with him." Molly looked furious as she spoke. Katalina had only seen her mother this angry once before, and that was when she had broken the front window years ago, but this paled so how mad Molly seemed at the moment. "Trust me, I will be letting him know that we will not be needing his services after this! Couldn't keep any of you kids safe, and he's of legal age!"

"Mom..." Katalina found herself cut off by her father.

"I agree with your mother. He chose to go ahead and host that party last night without supervision and quite a few of you kids got injured. He made a poor choice and he will pay for it." Katalina slumped back into her bed and sighed, and then nodded. She wasn't that friendly with Everett anyways, but this seemed a little harsh.

Molly leaned over and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Rest now. I'm sure you'll have some friends coming to visit you. They cancelled school today anyways due to what happened with Rachel yesterday. However, there is a stack of homework for you from Monday to do if you get bored. Your father and I need to go back to the store and do a few things. We'll be back around dinnertime. Love you sweet pea."

"Love you too mom and dad. See you later." Katalina sighed as she watched her parents leave and looked up at the ceiling and then at her self. "Ugh... I must look like a mess... at least its not that bad..."

Alicia slowly opened her eyes letting out a low groan as she slowly tried to sit up, then she felt a pair of hands resting on her shoulders to gently push her back down onto the pillows. "Where am I?" Alicia asked groggily when her vision finally cleared she could see her mother standing above her with a very concerned look on her face. "You need to rest Alicia, and you are in so much trouble for sneaking out the way you did last night. You could have been killed!" Alicia's mother said, Alicia quickly averted her gaze away from her mother she knew instantly that she was in trouble with her mother. "I'm sorry mom.." Alicia said softly and looked down at her right leg and noticed a blue cast was already there resting on a pillow. "You were lucky that it was a broken ankle and a few scrapes and bruises." Sarah said as she sat back down and gently rested her hand upon her daughter's.

"I already called Simone's that you wont be able to work for the next five weeks, so you are to come straight home with me after school. And you are grounded for the next two weeks." Alicia was about to protest, but she met her mother's eyes and knew that she wouldn't even be able to win this argument one bit she sighed loudly as she conceded to her mother's punishment. "I'm really sorry mom.. I didn't mean to scare you and the Hargraves so much. Kat and I wanted to have some fun.. for our first date together we are dating now." Alicia looked to see her mom who smiled slightly. "I'm happy for the two of you. But still you are to come straight home, she can come over but you aren't to leave the house." Alicia frowned slightly but nodded.

Alicia's thoughts quickly went to her girlfriend the last time she saw her girlfriend being loaded into separate ambulances to the clinic back in town. "Kat, is she alright?" Alicia asked looking very concerned Sarah nodded. "Shes fine, from what Dr. Okada said she just hit her head on something. What happened up at the lodge hun?" Alicia's mother asked.

Alicia froze when her mother asked, sure she could tell her mother that her best friend Jade had gone completely crazy and then suddenly caused an earthquake that destroyed the Wilcox's lodge. But then Alicia would sound completely and totally crazy, she would have to lie to her mother what happened. "All I remember was just a lot of shaking and running, it was just complete chaos I tripped and fell the rest is just a blur.." Alicia said softly leaving out the part where her best friend had tried to kill her and her girlfriend. Alicia laid back down on her bed and sighed softly as she winced slightly trying to move her toes, it was still in a lot of pain and there was still quiet a bit of swelling. "How long am I going to be here for mom?" Alicia asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest." Alicia's mother answered she simply nodded and ran her hand through her hair, her mind quickly going to Scout who saved her life and Kat's as well. "What about Scout, how is she doing?" Alicia asked. "She has a lot of burns, from what the doctors told me but she will make a full recovery." Alicia nodded slowly as she yawned she was getting tired now and ready to get some rest. "Go and rest i'll see you later." Alicia's mother said as she kissed Ali on her forehead and headed out of Ali's room, slowly Alicia allowed herself to fall into sleep.

Location: Verona Clinic
Interacting with: Each other

---

---

It had been about an hour since her parents had left, and Katalina was getting bored. She had gotten the okay from one of the doctors to remove the IV line, since she was conscious. She rubbed over the spot on her left hand that they had slapped a bandage over and frowned. She had heard that Alicia was also in the clinic and wanted to pay her a visit. After those horrible dreams she had had, she wanted to make sure she still had a girlfriend.

She turned and put her feet on the floor and then pulled them back up with a sharp noise. The floor was freezing! She looked around for a moment and found a pair of socks on the table next to her bed and tugged them on. She then put her feet on the floor again and took the first step out of bed. Her head throbbed for a moment in protest, but she shoved it aside. She walked out of her room and then inquired with one of the nurses, who directed Katalina to Alicia's room.

She knocked on the door and waited, not sure if the Smith's were still there with their daughter, or if Alicia was alone. She knew school had been cancelled, so there was a good chance that Sarah Smith was there with her daughter.

Alicia's mother had left shortly after she had taken her nap, though it was a quick thirty minute nap she grabbed a magazine off of the bedside table and quietly started to read. Most of her things were at home and she had nothing else to do other then read the dusty old magazine when she heard a knock on the door Alicia laid the magazine down on her stomach. "It's open." Alicia called out.

"Hey pretty lady... heard you were stuck here too and wanted to see you." Katalina popped her head in and then smiled as she saw Alicia alone. She plopped down in the chair and looked at her girlfriend. "How are you feeling aside from the cast on your leg? Also, nice color."

Alicia's eyes quickly lit up when she heard Katalina's voice and seeing her popping her head into her room. "Hey there my Kitty Kat." Alicia smiled as she quickly sat up, wincing slightly from the slight movement on her leg. "I'm doing alright, I was really worried about you how about you?" Alicia asked as she reached out to hold her girlfriend's hand, she looked down at the blue cast on her leg and smiled slightly. "It wasn't my choice, if I could have chosen it would be red like your hair." Alicia winked playfully.

Katalina could feel her cheeks burning from the blush that Alicia's comment had risen out of her. She happily took Alicia's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Well red is nice, but blue suits you. I'm fine, as far as they can tell. Apparently no 'head trauma' so far according to Dr. Okada, so there's that. I'm suppose to talk to Jay's dad later to give my statement I suppose... I'm just worried... is someone gonna... y'know, rat?" She frowned a bit in thought. Someone had done something to Jade, so Katalina knew the girl wasn't at fault, but what if one of the other party goer's pointed the finger at her.

Alicia gently reached over to brush a few strands of her girlfriend's hair out of her face. "I'm just happy that you are doing alright." Alicia looked out towards the window for a moment before turning her attention back to Kat. "Honestly I don't think that anyone would believe what had actually happened. I mean Jade caused an earthquake and magma came out of the ground, I wouldn't believe that story at all if I wasn't there or had super powers. That and I know that it wasn't Jade acting herself last night, someone somehow was controlling her."

Katalina nodded. "From what I know of Jade, from what you've told me, that wasn't her at all. I think when she wakes up and realizes what has happened, she's gonna be pissed that someone manipulated her like that. Have you heard how anyone else is doing? My folks had to go to work before I could ask. Like Scout? Any word on her?"

"That and Jade would probably be very pissed at Ashton for zapping her in the back with his power." Alicia said as she reached over for a glass of water that was on the table and took a sip from it. "I haven't heard from anyone else, other then mom you are the only other person that came to visit me. But what my mom did tell me Scout has quiet a few burns and resting right now, but I guess she is doing well."

"I hope she'll forgive him once he explains. And he did that? Huh, must have been while I was out. Hopefully not too many of us ended up here huh? But good to hear about Scout, that she's doing well. Not the burns. That's gotta suck, but if it hadn't been for her, well... last thing you and I'd be worried about is your cast color." Katalina sighed and squeezed Alicia's hand again. "Mom and dad are pissed at Everett... they're blaming him."

"We probably would end up being like Darth Vader or worse if Scout hadn't saved us.." Alicia smiled feeling Kat gently squeezing her hand and returned the gesture. "Why are they blaming Everett for? I mean yeah there was underage drinking there, but he wasn't the one who caused the earth quake." Alicia sighed rubbing the back of her neck. "My mom is pissed at me for sneaking out with you last night to go to the party."

"Something about the fact that there were no adults there, and an apparently Everett sent his legal guardian away... I don't know to be honest, but mom was pissed. Oh yeah, I'm also grounded for two weeks for cutting school and sneaking out with you. Just so you know. I mean you can come over, but one of my parents has to be there, same if I go visit you. Also I'm working at the store on the weekend apparently for the next month." Katalina let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair a bit. "How bad is your sentence?"

"That must suck." Alicia sighed slightly as she shifted around slightly in her bed. "Well I'm off from work for the next couple of weeks cuz of this." Alicia gestured to her cast. "I have to wait until my mom is done at the school to take me home, and I'm grounded for the next two weeks as well."

"I guess I'll just have to come and visit you then. Should work if your mom is watching you as well. And I can't say I didn't have it coming. Cutting and then sneaking out? I'm glad it's only two weeks. I think they went easy because of how badly beat up we all looked when they found us. I'm guessing. I mean I have no idea how everyone else looks now." She leaned in and looked at Alicia's cast. "Can I call dibs on signing it first?"

"I guess that's true my mom could have punished me even worse if I didn't get hurt. And I would love for you to come visit me and take care of me at my place and take care of your princess." Alicia giggled softly, and quickly nodded as she reached over and grabbed a black sharpie and handed it to Katalina. "Since you are my girlfriend you can sign wherever you want."

Katalina giggled and took a hold of the sharpie and uncapped it. "Sounds like a deal. My mom pretty much figured out we're dating, so I think that's why she mentioned you specifically earlier. But if you're not allowed out, I guess I'll just come take care of my princess. Especially if you're going to be in that cast for a few weeks." Kata signed the cast: "<3 <3 <3's to help you heal princess. Love, Kitty Kat."

"Well your mom is pretty smart for figuring that out pretty quick, then again we were pretty much cuddling each other after the whole incident back at the school. And I told my mom the moment I woke up that we started dating." Alicia said and watched as her girlfriend signed the cast and leaned forward and gently kissed her girlfriend lovingly. "I'm just happy that your okay."

"I'm happy you're alright as well." Katalina kissed Alicia back gently and smiled.

It was hot all around her. The earth was cracked, and liquid, hot magma rising. The view of three were in sight: The red head, Katalina, the brunette, Alicia, and the blonde, Scout. Kat was down it seemed, Alicia was looking in absolute fright as her grilfriend was about to be burned alive. All the while they were fearful, the blonde Scout was in front holding off every ounce of the hot lava with some kind of pale blue shield of some kind. Whatever it was, the lava just kept on pushing. Scout was bleeding, bruising, and burning all over She was yelling something at the source of the lava, but it didn’t seem to make out. All was heard, not only from Scout, but the other two as well were screams.

Screams came in, but didn’t compute with her. The white arms that had controlled the lava were determined to burn them like the Salem Witches burned in the Salem Witches Trials. The ears that belonged to those arms didn’t seem to understand what the screams meant. They didn’t register it completely. All she heard was their desperate pleas for this person to stop what they were doing. Those screams were like a banshee shriek to the ears, almost deafening them to the point that they would be ruptured or something like that.

After about a minute of back-and-forth struggles with the lava and the force field, words were being made out. These words, while still mostly muted, were registering with the ears. By extension, to the person whom these ears belonged to. “Jade…” Was what this person heard.

“Jade stop it.”

“Jade“

“Jade“

“Jade you have to snap out of it..”

“Jade“

“JADE”

As if her body had a sense of urgency, her eyes popped open so much that they were probably going to come out of their respective sockets. Jade’s body propped upward into a half-vertical position. Her body was a slightly obtuse angle. Disarrayed, Jade looked all around her, screaming lightly Her scream alerted the man in the chair to jerk up as well, his eyes propping open widely.

“Nurse! NURSE!” The man called out, jumping up from his chair, eying both Jade and the door for someone to come and help.

About ten seconds later, a female nurse came in. She was about as tall as Jade was. Her hair was red, she had a slightly pudgy figure, and eyes about as green as dollar bills. She looked at Jade. “Jade, you‘re alright.”

“What happened? Where am I?” Jade was panicking.. She saw a room, some machines, cords connected to her body. She didn’t know what happened. She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know how she got there. All Jade knew was that she was in absolute horror from that dream — was it a dream? Or a memory? — She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything at the moment.

“Miss Taylor! You’re in the hospital. You were involved in a weird event last night.”

Jade’s attention, while still frantic, seemed to calm down about as soon as her eyes fell upon the worried, rugged blonde man standing behind the nurse. “U-Uncle Charlie..” Jade’s voice was less panicky.

Charlie stepped forward. “I’m here kiddo,” Charlie held Jade’s hand.

]“What happened?” Jade’s voice began to waver into a high whisper.

“I don’t know exactly, but it seems a lot of you were hurt in some kind of natural disaster.”

“A lot of us?” Jade’s eyes suddenly widened. Charlie’s words seemed to take her full, undivided attention.

“You, Alicia, that Wells kid — everyone, in some way, shape, or form, seemed to have gotten some injuries.”

“Alicia!” Jade began to get off her bed, “I need to--”

“What you need to do is get back into that bed!” Charlie snapped. Jade stopped, staring blankly at her uncle. He never used that tone with her. “You nearly died!” Charlie told her bluntly.

The nurse turned around urgently, looking to Charlie. ”This isn’t wise..”

“She needs to hear it. Would you rather tell her?” Charlie asked angrily, but still in a serious manner.

Sighing, the nurse went to bring out Jade’s chart. “Let’s see, Jade Taylor,” scrolling through the information on her medical chart, the nurse saw Jade’s injuries. “Along with a nasty burn on your mid-back, cuts on the inside of your nose and mouth, fractured bones along your shins, it seems you also have quite the number of nerve damages along both of your forearms. Furthermore, according to Dr. Okada’s notes, the palms of your hands are severely burned, and you seem to be suffering from some kind of head injury, which the specifics seem to be unknown at this point. We may have to run some more tests.” The nurse concluded. She looked up at Jade. “As blunt as your uncle might’ve been, he is absolutely right. You did almost die, and if the cops hadn’t shown up when they did, and notified us when they did, you surely would have died, along with a few others who seemed to have it as bad as you do.” She told Jade, looking at her seriously.

“I-I didn’t realize it was that bad..” Jade said, her head falling down to the sight of her bandaged up hands. She didn’t realize that she was that hurt, but how could she? Jade didn’t even remember what happened! All that she could remember was a sudden blinding rage unlike anything she felt — or had for that matter — before. The last thing she even remembered was dancing, and then she woke up here.

“Do you remember anything about last night, Jade?” Charlie asked.

Jade looked up. “Just dancing, but then..” Jade looked down. She saw flashes of …something. It was like a-a-a-a shadow of some kind. Jade gripped her head, feeling intense pain centered around her forehead. Jade grunted in agony. “I-I can’t remember..” Jade regretfully said, looking to her uncle.

“It’s okay, just rest now. You had a long night.” Charlie comfortably said.

Jade smiled, laying her back against her bed. Her head met her pillow. “Uncle Charlie..” Jade said.

“Yeah kiddo?”

“How are Alicia and Katalina?” Why did she ask that?

Charlie looked to the nurse, wanting her to answer that for him because he didn't know how those two were.

"Alicia? As in Alicia Smith? Seems to have a fractured ankle or something. She's in a leg cast, but aside that, she's doing fine. Katalina Hargrave has a few cuts and scrapes. Both are expected to be discharged within the week."

“That’s good..” Jade’s voice faded. The blonde had fallen asleep.

---

With everything that happened, Grant seemed to be the lucky one out of most. He heard whispers. Some of them from his siblings who had just left not but twenty minutes ago. They told him that, for the most part, everyone walked away with semi-shallow injuries. Most of them had cuts and scrapes, a few broken bones here and there, but nothing too serious. They did tell him, before they left, that King, Jade, and Scout got the worst of it. When they told him that, Grant got instantly worried, especially about King. The guy had been a close friend of Grant’s for the better part of his young life. Before they turned teens, they always hung out. Grant missed that.

In his room, Grant saw a nurse enter it. “Nurse..” Grant timidly said.

“Yes? What can I do for you?”

“My legs are feeling stiff. Would it be alright if I walked around?” Grant asked politely.

The nurse looked at him. For a moment, the youngest Wells sibling wasn’t sure how she was going to respond. His worry was put to rest when she smiled. “I’m sure that’ll be fine. Just promise me one thing?” She told him.

Grant looked at her.

“Don’t run.” She laughed. Grant did as well. When she left the room, Grant stood up. He made sure to grab a robe because apparently the hospital gowns weren’t made to cover the backside. Whatever. Grant simply put on the white robe, tied it around him, and proceeded to casually journey on through the clinic. Not surprising to him, the clinic was reasonably busy. Given how many of them were hurt, Grant expected it to be busy. Still, there was enough room for him to be walking around at least.

As Grant walked around, he went past the rooms of his friends. He saw Jade’s room, where she seemed to be with company, so he didn’t bother her. He saw Alicia’s room, who she seemed to be with her girlfriend, Katalina, so he didn’t bother them. As he saw King’s nameplate, Grant half-hesitated on walking past it. He suddenly heard some yelling. He hid behind the door, not wanting to be seen.

Though he was indeed behind the door, Grant was able to make out bits and pieces. He heard what it sounded like a female’s voice, putting blame on him. Grant knew that tone of voice — that “everything is your fault” — tone. He heard it so many times from his father, Wesley. He heard it each time that, to his father, Grant did something wrong, or incorrect according to Wesley. He heard it each time Wesley would get drunk, and place any bad feelings that Wesley felt on his son. Yeah, he knew that tone all too well.

When the talking stopped, Grant half-wanted to peek through, but just as he was about to move, he saw King’s family suddenly leave the room. Grant tried to hide himself away from their view as much as he possibly could. His heart was beating kind of fast, a feeling some kind of nervousness entering his system.

Seeing King’s family exit the clinic, Grant, peeked half of his head through the door, seeing if King was awake or not. He saw low blinking of his eyes. It was enough to nudge Grant to enter his room. Even so, Grant still felt a bit awkward going into his room in the first place. The two of them barely had talked in recent years, and just because they happened to be injured(King more than Grant), it did seem out of place for Grant to be here. Still, after hearing what he just heard, Grant had to wonder that perhaps they were more alike than he originally thought.

Slowly approaching King’s bed, Grant took a seat at the chair. “Hey King..” Grant didn’t know what else to say, so he simply said hey. That seemed like any kind of ice-breaker if ever there was one.

King barely stirred when Grant spoke. He was dazed, stuck in an endless loop of calming darkness that would at times turn red with pain. He was sleeping, maybe, dreamlessly snoozing despite the aches from his wound, but the drowsy darkness soon began to twist with unfamiliar colors. Oranges and purples swirled into ugly browns, anxiety, guilt, nervousness. These weren't his, King's mind whispered, they belonged to someone else, someone near by. The emotions pushed at his mind, tugging him out of his unconscious state slowly but surely until eventually his eyes cracked open again and he was staring up at the ceiling with hazy vision. Colors twisted from the chairs beside his bed, strong and unyielding emotions that might have suffocated King if not for his currently half-dim mind.

He moved carefully, tilting his head towards the source of the feelings, and his mouth opened slightly at the sight of Grant Wells sitting stiffly in the seat closest to his feet. Words came and went, lost to the rush of pain he felt when he tried to sit up. His elbows trembled as they pushed his back against the pillows, shaking with a well-known feeling of exhaustion, but still he didn't stop shifting until he was propped up limply against the backboard of the clinic bed.

"Grant." King winced at his own rough voice, tongue darting out to wet his chapped lips once before he continued on, "What's up? You look pretty shitty." The corners of his mouth quirked up slightly, playfully, and his half-lidded eyes glimmered with a teasing light.

"Yeah," Grant said moderately low, half of a nervous chuckle escaping his mouth.

Looking at King, Grant felt a bit awkward being within earshot of him. So much time had gone by since they were this close to each other. He couldn't even recall how long it had been since they were even able to have a one-on-one moment. Added to the fact of what happened last night, Grant had it in his mind that something else should have happened to allow this to happen, not a tragic event.

"I was walking by, and I overheard a lady blame you..?" Grant wasn't sure if that's what he heard or not, "I guess I just wanted to see if you were alright." He fixed his position in the chair as he felt himself in an awkward position.

"That was just... Mmm--Mom. She came to visit." King shrugged slightly, withheld a groan of pain as his head moved awkwardly, and he cast his gaze down towards Grant's feet. "You know what she's like, right? I'm fine though... Probably." He lifted a trembling arm towards his head, tentatively stoking the bandage that was wrapped around his cranium while a small smile tugged his lips further upward.

"Yeah, I do.." Grant's voice suddenly went low. Distant. The all-too-familiar that came with knowing that kind of feeling he got whenever he thought of his father. The same was probably for King — it had to be. When he heard King's mother speak like that, painful flashbacks of his father entered his mind as if someone was tugging the strings that led straight to the memory lobe of his brain. That feeling of always being put down no matter the situation. It didn't matter if Grant was already feeling like crap, or if his mood was at an all-time high. His father always seemed to know how to kill it swiftly. He was like an executioner in that sense.

King blinked a haze of drowiness from his eyes again, lips pursing as he tried to scan Grant from head to toe. Poor kid, got caught up in last night's events too huh? King felt a pang of worry, small and old and familiar, a feeling he often held back in their middle school days. Closing his eyes slowly, he sighed, breath hissing passed his cracked lips like steam, and let his head settle slightly against the wall behind him.

"How're you doing, man? What happened to you last night?" He asked quietly, chewing on his bottom lip slightly.

As he thought about last night, Grant found it slightly difficult. It wasn't because he didn't remember what had happened last night. No, because he remembered everything. It just was too painful. "Last night.." Grant paused. The image of Dani came to him. It flashed quickly. "Dani almost.." Again he paused, eyes falling on King, "If not for," Another pause. Grant shook his head lightly as if trying to gather his jumbling thoughts. "Dani almost died last night. She would have if it wasn't for Malcolm. He saved her life." There, all at once, Grant said it. His voice was shaky, and a moderate amount of tears seemed to have started to fall from his two eyes, but he said it.

"Mal, Dani--?" King opened his eyes slowly and stiffened at the sight of Grant's tears. The worry in his gut turned to panic, a wish to stop the boy from crying, somehow, someway. King's mind literally whirred with thoughts, blossoming another heavy migraine that would have stunted him back into another daze if not for his stubbornness to stay upright and awake. Instinctively, as if some primal sense in him was telling him what to do, King allowed a blossom of warmth to form form his own emotional cloud. Good vibes, perhaps, and King created them without really know how or why.

King sent the cheerier feelings towards Grant, and just as they faded from his own cloud to hesitantly taint the other boy's the taste of copper met his lips. Blood. A nose bleed. King bit his lip hard, wincing as his head wobbled and then fell back heavily against the wall. Breathing heavily, King blinked away tears as his head burned with intense pain.

"Dude--" He breathed, voice tense, "She's fine now, right? N-No need to cry, don't talk about last night." King forced a trembling grin, a nostalgic smile from long ago, "Let's just forget about it."

And, as if something told him so, Grant felt some sudden feeling of positivity rush through him. It was kind of like someone was embracing him. Grant blinked, trying to understand what just happened because, a minute ago, his mind was in a fading light. He was seeing the sight of Dani all bloody, but now, he simply saw her(along with his other siblings) around him in his room. In the next moment, Grant's sight then came back to the sight of King. "I, uh — alright," that's all that Grant could say. He still was confused on what just happened, but a large part of him just went with it.

When Grant's eyes seemed to focus on King's face, he noticed that he was bleeding from the nose. "Are you alright, King? You're bleeding. Do you want me to get the nurse?" Grant asked worryingly.

"No, no I'm fine." King rose an uneven arm to rub at his face, smearing blood across his forearm and cheek messily. Blinking away any lasting wetness, King let out a heavy sigh and settled back into the warmth of his bed, staring at Grant from below his eyelashes. Topics were lost to his concussion, swept away with thoughtless clouds of discomfort and pain. Reaching for something, anything to walk about, King eventually sputtered out a cracked;

"How've you been lately?" And then sat back with worried, expectant eyes.

Somehow Grant doubted that King was as fine as he said he was, but he wouldn't push it. "I don't know, I guess I'm doing alright for the most part." Grant said, shrugging lightly.

"And everything's okay with you... Dad?" King winced briefly at past memories, sniffling once, "Don't answer that if you don't want to. in case he's still the same as back then." King smiled briefly, painfully, and then he allowed his head to loll to the side, waves of sleepiness threatening to shut him out from the conversation again.

"It's alright, I don't mind." Grant said, smiling. "Besides, I don't think he's really all that thrilled with me currently," he said, a sort of smug chuckle escaping his mouth, which was odd since Grant didn't usually laugh that way. If anything, he always did so with a bit of nervousness in his.

"I'd think so, the bastard." King grinned sleepily, "You, Grant, I'm glad you're doing okay. We don't really talk anymore, huh?" Memories of middle school days filled his mind suddenly, heavy, hazy images. Nostalgic events when they were young and friendlier. King groaned suddenly, eyes squeezing shut as agony rattled his skull back to dim blankness, and after a moment he cracked his eyes open again and awaited Grant's recollection.

"Not since before high school started," Grant said with slight disappointment in his voice. "But I get it. When we all entered freshman year, we just drifted into different circles. I don't blame you for keeping regular contact." Through his obvious disappointment, Grant put on a genuine smile for King.

"Sorry, Grant-- Just, sorry." King sighed out an apology, lip trembling slightly, "I wasn't a very good... Friend..." His voice lagged, eyes drooped, but quickly he pushed himself awake and turned his sad gaze towards Grant. The disappointment pouring off the boy was suffocating, but really, King couldn't help but feel responsible.

"Sorry..." He repeated.

"You don't have to apologize.." Grant said, looking at King
"I think it was all meant to be. I mean we have to go through some bumps in the road to find our way on the right track, right?" He said, kind of laughing. He probably sounded like someone reciting a fortune cookie that one would get from a Chinese Food take-out order.

"That's... Pretty gay, ya know?" King laughed, winced, then laughed again, eyebrows upturned despite his soft smile. Sitting back, he glanced towards the door, and then back towards Grant, feeling like something had been rekindled. It was a faint tug, but he swore he felt a bit more comfortable with the boy. Coughing once, King nodded lazily towards a passing nurse.

"We gotta... Catch up sometime, but now I just want sleep. Could you... Tell a nurse to get me some pain killers?" King wanted to raise his hands up in a pleading fashion, but they felt much too heavy to move, and instead he closed his eyes and smiled.

"Definitely." Grant smiled as he stood up from the chair he was sitting in. As he turned around, Grant looked out of King's room door, and saw a nurse pass by. "Hey nurse!" Grant called out. The nurse stopped. "It seems he's ready for some of that wonderful medicine now," Grant said, glancing over to King.

When the nurse came into the room, he began doing someone with some pills. They were probably those pain killers that King wanted. They would probably kick in rather quick, so Grant left the room and started to head back to his own. His legs weren't feeling stiff anymore.

---

---

Of all the place that his mother had to choose, it had to be the smallest town in Washington with an active serial killer on the loose. That's right. Find out your son can drop your cat in a portal and where do you go? Murdersville, Washington.

"Does this place even have a zip code?" Fox turned from his view looking out the window of their home, shared with a mom 'n pop antique store. So not only would the not get any visitors, it'd smell like old people everywhere. Lovely home. Guess it fared better than being surrounded by judgmental neighbors. Scratch that, religious, judgmental neighbors.

From the nearly barren kitchen, his mother barely made it through the archway with her coffee in tack. The cracked tile floors did a number on her high heeled feet. "Foxtrot, honey, don't be silly," she didn't looked convinced as she trotted over the creaking hardwood to where her son stood, "of course... they have that? I'm sure? Look, it'll be alright, sweetheart. We'll be fine, trust me. Just two more days till the movers come by." Marie stood beside her son, cupping his cheek with a freed hand, "Hopefully..."

"Speak for yourself—" she cut him off with a light slap and he flinched away, "-Ow! What the hell, mom?"

"Language."

"Sorry, Elder Sinclair," Fox mocked, rolling his eyes and following his mother the moment she started for the kitchen.

Approaching the table, he noticed the basket of goods set off to the corner. The basket looked kind of wonky and a little too festive for September, with glitter and that sticky, stringy holiday lint stuff stuck to the handle. Marie wrapped her hand around it and waved it toward Fox. "The folks downstairs were gracious enough to loan me cooking supplies, so I baked a few things," Marie said, giving the basket to Fox, "they were originally for your first day of class here, but—you know the story. However, I did hear gossip 'bout a few kids finding themselves in the local clinic. Why don't you be a sweetheart and drop those cookies off? Make a good impression."

After a few steps toward the door, Fox could barely hear her muttered, "Time to start over, thank God." He bumbled slightly, at the top of the stairs where he watched his mom stomp down. New beginnings, right, like finding out you can stick your hand into another universe and pull out that stick of gum you lost all those years ago. Obviously, that put him at a great disadvantage.

Lie when necessary, as his mother always told him.

"Alright Fox," he took a deep breath, straightening his sweater as he moved toward the door, "chin up. Tell no one you're hardly human anymore and a Mormon. Were. Uh. Are. Shit. Fuck.

"It's not hard to pretend you're Catholic and normal. Is that the go to religion? Uh, Protestant? I'll just run around wearing a Star of David—too Holocaust. Oh, that's awful. Why'd I say that," he eventually trailed off in his stride down the sidewalk, waving a bright green basket and wearing a red as Christmas Morning sweater with a sock monkey face on the front. He looked ridiculous.

---

Why was there no one up front? Fox breathed in deep, keeping himself grounded and calm. Not like meeting new people was a big deal or anything in a new town and not knowing where hardly anyone was. Was this even a clinic? Fox turned around to see the photo of a Dr. Okada in the lobby waiting area. So it was.

Taking a chance, Fox looked through the secretary's window for any sign of life. Not seeing any—which honestly should have scared the shit out of him—Fox decided, what the hell? With an all too loud clack from his shoes, and creaking from the door, Fox bolted down the hall to the absolutely nearest open door. None of his actions even registered that any of this seemed like a bad idea. Not the creeping on injured teenagers. Or trespassing through a clinic hallway. Possibly getting himself sick or running smack into something awful and sharp and dangerous. Like used needles.

Fox paused beside room entrance, his lips pulling into a grimace as his mind caught up to exactly what he was doing. Of course, that all happened too late because he stood right in the middle of some place he shouldn't be with a basket full of cookies. And he looked like a total weirdo in his choice of outfit. Fox looked down at the offending sweater, pulling his lips into a disappointed, slightly exaggerated frown. "I'm the stupidest," Fox mumbled, "you're such a dweeb."

Maybe if he turned back now—Fox turned his head up just in time to notice someone in suspicious nurse garb rounding the corner. Seeing no way out of this situation, Fox took the sharp turn into the wall, cursed and, then entered the room to nearly smack into a dark haired (very bushy browed) girl. His attention flung toward the sole bed's occupant, noticing the mummified girl in the bed and nearly mistaking her for a twelve year old. "You're short," he huffed under his breath, not even loud enough for himself to hear.

"Oh, crap," Fox greeted in the most nontraditional way possible, flung his free hand up and mentally prepared himself. He nearly cursed at the subconscious reaction from his fingers as they wiggled in preparation. "I'm new and I brought cookies," he announced and held up the basket of said goods, "and I'm not a Mormon. I mean. Uh. I'm... uh..." He slowly closed his eyes, squeezed them hard and brought his free hand to press on the bridge of his nose.

Closing his hand in a fist before letting it fall to his side, he tried again. "Foxtrot Sinclair and I've come with goodies," Fox smiled at his more successful second attempt and blushed a deep red for his first blunder. Wonderful impression. Last a life time. Might as well die now

Location: The woods -> The Clinic
Interacting with: Her mom

---

---

Tessa followed Everett and Alice as they found their way back to the road. She didn't say anything not since she had spoken to Alice. Her head felt like it would split in two, but she was safe. The shadowy man couldn't kill her if he couldn't see her.

The cops didn't look at her. That made it easier. It was getting hard to see though. The headache was burning her vision she saw nothing but the bright lights. Until she didn't see anything at all.

Tessa woke, it felt like her head had been hit with an axe. Even the light filtering through her eyelids was too much. She heard a rustle next to her, turned her head, cracking her eyes open just slightly. Her mother sat in a chair reading a magazine. She didn't seem to notice that Tessa was awake.

“Mom.” Tessa said, her voice was weak. Mrs. Gray looked up.

“Tessa! You're awake.” Tessa’s mom leaned forward dropping the magazine to the floor. “What happened?” Tessa shook her head slightly confused. “The cops picked you up near the lodge passed out covered in deep scratches all over your arms. And no one has seen your friend Austin. None of the other kids have said anything.” Tessa gave a slight nod understanding. She figured the use of her power had drained her so much she had passed out. Maybe she should have dropped it after finding Alice, but at the time not being seen seemed like a good idea.

“I don't know mom. I didn't see him.” Mrs. Gray nodded seeming to accept Tessa’s truthful statement. “Nina?”

“She's okay, better than some of the others are. Petyr is okay too.” Tessa nodded. Her head still felt like hell she reached up and rubbed her temples. “The doctors said you had some sort of head trauma. Your arms are stitched up, but they were worried about your head.”

“You're not mad? You seem unbelievably calm right now.” she was probably calm angry which was the scariest type of anger. The only time Tessa had seen her that mad was during the first fight after Janice’s death.

“Oh I'm livid. And I called your father, and he's livid. And you're basically limited to the house and school. I'm locking the shop for a month. Also I'm considering having you go to the therapist three times a week instead of twice.” Tessa didn't bother to argue. Her mother had every right to do that. She was surprised that her mom had called her dad. They hadn't spoken since he had left. “He's coming to town. He'll be here Friday.” Two days and she would see her father again after years. It only took her nearly dying. She was amazed with and proud of herself for not snorting at the thought. “What happened at the party?”

“I don't know. I remember there was a fight, and then the Earth...” she trailed off. Had the cops seen how destroyed the Earth had gotten? She was sure they didn't know how it had happened. None of the group that had been at the club meeting would, at least she hoped. This couldn't be good for keeping their powers secret. Though who would believe them.

“The cops said it looked like there had been an earthquake.” Tessa gave a slight nod. Not really saying yes to that, but it was the only explanation without telling the truth. A nurse came into the room.

“A Miss Gray you’re awake. Let’s get some food into you.” She gave a shooing motion to Tessa’s mom and stepped out of the room to return a moment later with a tray of food.

Location: Jelen Household
Interacting with: His Children

Sylvester Jelen sat at the kitchen table of his home. Sitting across from him were his children. All three of them were ragged, exhausted, and downtrodden, but for entirely different reasons. In his own case, it was because he’d just gotten off of work and started home for a few days from the logging project just south. About 30 miles outside of town he’d gotten a phone call from the Chief of Police, and that was where the trouble had started.

“So,” he began, finally breaking the silence at the table, “Which of you would like to tell me why you were out in the woods last night?”

“Well…” Petyr began hesitantly, “After the… incident at the assembly, Everett Wilcox grabbed us and brought us home before things got too messy. Then he invited us to come stay at the lodge while things blowed over. We, uhh…”

“Otec, the whole thing was my fault. I didn’t feel safe home alone with you out of town and when Everett invited us I accepted. Petyr wasn’t sure, but I insisted.” Nina spoke up, cutting off Petyr. “I just… I wasn’t thinking. Rachel… she was found the same way Jan was, so I was on autopilot for a bit.” She looked at the floor rather sheepishly.

Sylvester sighed for a moment. Deep down he understood the reasoning, and he had to remind himself that while he could look back on the situation and apply rational thought, his children would not have necessarily been able to do so. “Okay,” he continued, “And then, I understand there was a… party of some sort?”

“Yeah,” Petyr replied again, “That we’d been planning to go to since the day before. And since we were already at the Wilcox place, we figured, why not? Try to take our minds off things for a bit.”

“We had been invited since Monday, and well… yeah, as Petyr said, thought it would be nice to get our minds off of things. I mean Tessa and Alicia were there, as well as Ash, and before anything else, neither Petyr or I drank, but I know that’s not what you’re worried about. Or what you are asking about.”

“That’s correct, although it is good to know that you both were responsible in at least one area.” Sylvester took a drink of water before he continued, “So, how exactly did the campsite come to be a scene out of a disaster movie? And did either of you two have anything to do with it?”

The twins looked at each other uncertainly for a bit, as if they were quietly debating something between their heads. “Well?” their father said again, “I’m waiting.”

“Best we can tell there was an earthquake, and it caused the earth to crack, and it split up the party, and Petyr and I. It kind of sent everyone into a panic and into the woods, and well, um, some people tripped over things and got injured, like Ali and it was really confusing, and scary and I thought I was never gonna get to see you or bratr again…” There were the tattletale signs of Nina starting to cry emerging quickly as the sniffing began.

Sylvester mulled that over for a bit while Petyr reached over and tried to comfort his sister. Earthquakes were fairly common near Verona. The big ones not so much, but they did happen, and when they did things could be bad. But then why had the Chief acted like the kids had vandalized the place? “Is there something you kids aren’t telling me? Something I should know about, perhaps?”

“No,” Petyr said quickly, “That’s… that’s everything there was to it. As far as we saw, nobody did anything intentionally. Not that we could see much of anything, what with all the crap going on…”

“All I know is what I saw and that wasn’t much with the chaos that was going on. There were some kids that got burned pretty bad by the fire, but I’m not sure how.” Nina looked up at Sylvester and bit her lip.

Sylvester sighed again. The twins were hiding something about that party, and he could smell it, but at the same time he knew as well as anyone that once they clammed up there was no getting them to divulge it. “Well, I’m just glad you both are alright,” he finally said, “We’ll all need to be careful for a bit, especially given this nasty business that’s been happening of late. At the very least, I want you two looking out for one another. I say as if you wouldn’t do it anyway…”

He got up from his chair then and started for the living room. “I’ll make dinner around six, it’ll be here whenever you two get home and hungry. Be careful out there, alright?”

”Ano, otec. I think just work today… may go see Tessa at the clinic. Gotta ask her first.”

“Well, if you see her, give her my regards.”

“I’ll be in the garage if you need me,” Petyr said as he started for where he kept his drum kit.

---

---

Location: Jelen Household
Interacting with: Tessa @Kirah and Ash @Undine

---

---

Once her father headed to the living room, and Petyr to the garage to practice, Nina headed upstairs to her room. She plopped down on her bed and pulled out her phone. She had a couple of quick texts she needed to send out before getting ready. She opened the contacts on her phone and paused. She scrolled down to Tessa’s name.

”T- So, how grounded are you? Do you want me to come by and visit? I know you’re at the clinic. Want me to bring anything? Let me know! - <3 N”

She hit send and then scrolled through her contacts and hit Ash’s name.

”Hey, so I figure I owe you like a ton of hot chocolate for last night. Assuming you are not grounded, why don’t you stop by while I’m working today and I can start on that debt. Also would be nice to see you. Let me know soon. - <3 N”

Nina hit send, her mind swirling with thoughts as she did. She vaguely recalled kissing Ash on the cheek last night during all the commotion. Did it mean something? Did she want it to mean something?

She shook her head and sighed, and opened up her closet. ”Alright… what to wear… what to wear…”

Bryce woke up, eyes wide open and heavily gasping for air as if he had been recently submerged underwater. He let his senses pan out, veering his sights over to his bedroom door and then onto his closet. Nothing unusual. Perhaps there was just something that made him snap out of his sleep. Whatever it was, he won't be bothering himself to seek any reason as to why it had occurred, not like it was his priority or anything. Hands clutched to his blanket, he exhaled a breath of relief before shutting his eyes close once more.

Then his bedroom door creaked.

Normally Bryce would just shrug it off, assuming it all naturally occurred. He wasn't terrified all of a sudden though, he had his fair share of experiences, hearing similar sounds in the past even when he was still living in Chicago. He was instead bothered, annoyed for the most part knowing how such things could potentially interrupt his sleep. He brushed it off from his thoughts and let it sink away. Then he noticed something, and as soon as he did, a hint of his own fears provoked his intuition. He couldn't move and his breaths started to run thin.

He could only move his eyes and his mouth to let himself breathe freely, but the rest of his body was numb, as if every inch of him was pinned down to his bed and wasn't allowed to get up. He took a quick peek of his bedroom door and surprisingly found it to be widely open. No creaking sounds whatsoever, or at least none were heard before the recent one. He then felt a sudden shiver, like a swift, unseen movement breezed by and hid behind him. That was when his thoughts began crumbling in terror. He wanted to get up. He tried to squirm his way out of his bed, wiggling his toes and tried to pull his weight up. None of it worked, he still felt paralyzed and helpless. He wanted to shout for help, but shortly something crawled in, as it were someone else's presence. Then he started feeling weak, perhaps so weak that the strength he had gathered to shout was all drained out. Afterwards his eyes met with an image, a humanoid figure that slowly marched in from his bedroom door. It was a being of darkness, completely wrapped in shadows. It had eyes as red as blood and a mouth so wide that its smile reached halfway to its cheeks. It stopped as it came near to Bryce's bed, fixating at his terrified condition as if he was kidnapped.

Whispers were heard thereafter, indistinct and cryptic. Bryce didn't know where they were coming from, not even from the creature since it remained smiling. They were like segments of hushed conversations conjoined altogether, portraying a message he had absolutely no idea of. However, the voices slowed down shortly and as it did, the shadow creature moved over. Its head elongated, stretching forward to Bryce and stopped once it was a few inches closer to his face. Bryce, while lying helpless, could only do so much as to breathe anxiously.

As the creature sloped its head, it unleashed a terrifying scream. A scream that may forever scar Bryce's sleeping experience. He closed his eyes, trying to let everything subside entirely and let his body move. He squirmed and squirmed, struggling to let himself free from his numbness and make a run downstairs. Nothing happened. Bryce was on the verge of breaking down, he couldn't fully deal with his own fears much less with the shadow creature. He was powerless, unable to do anything to break away from the coiling nightmare. If he had one wish that could be granted instantly, that would certainly be to move freely.

As he opened his eyes, he met with the creature's face but his smile was gone and was replaced by a frown. He couldn't discern what it was going to do next but for certain, it didn't look quite satisfied.

"It's time," the creature said, its voice was low and guttural like it had a throat infection. "We will see each other again."

Bryce was followed with a prolonged shrieking sound that nearly pierced his ears. He could feel the motion of his head as he twitched consistently and gritted his teeth from the pain the sound gave. After that, he woke up, shouting as he lifted himself up from his bed and kicked his blanket aside. He breathed heavily, composing himself within the next following moments.

What he just experienced was something he never wanted to happen again but after remembering the words of the shadow creature, it's doubtful that was the last of it.

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The day was nowhere near unusual, not that it was something to be worried about. It was calm and crisp. The sky was in clear azure sight and the breeze was warm and lively. Chewie was playfully active, so there was a distinct indication that the day would turn out to be great as usual. He was jolting around in circles, greeting passersby with gleeful barks and a gaze that would surely make them stop by and adore the little guy. Surely, it would be lonely if he wasn't around. Playing with Chewie often gave him a nostalgic feeling of Chicago along with his siblings, all whom he spent his entire childhood with. It didn't mean that he was eager to return or anything. In fact, it was his father's wish to move at his grandmother's place but he dearly missed his brothers and sisters and waiting for a day to reunite with them felt nothing more than a distant occurrence.

Chewie stopped all of a sudden, as if he spotted someone or something hostile. Bryce was familiar of this behaviour but by judging if what Chewie spotted was hostile, it wasn't most likely the case.

"What is it boy?" Chewie wasn't barking or anything, he just stared at something blankly and as Bryce bent over to brush his back, he wobbled his tail and continued walking.

The clinic wasn't far enough. It was only a few walks from Bryce's home. The doctor was a friend of Bryce's grandmother and ever since the start of his monthly check ups, he clearly understood why they were such. Before stepping inside, Chewie started to bark aggressively and his nose was pointed towards the people seen from the glass windows of the clinic. There were a lot of them. Now, Bryce was a monthly visitor of the place. There were times when he even visited on a weekly basis but seeing people with that particular number was something he haven't seen in a while.

Did something happen? He asked himself, unaware of the recent events around town if ever there were any.

Chewie didn't stop barking and only did nothing but increase his aggression. Bryce carefully hushed him, rubbing his back. Chew chilled but his aggression was toned to into suspicious snarls. Bryce could only stay watchful of his behaviour but nevertheless, he went inside the clinic.

It was a busy environment. There was no nurse at the lobby who could re-confirm his planned appointment with the doctor. Bryce stood, clueless as to what was happening.

"Uhm..." He turned his head to one side and then to another, still looking for someone who could put him in the right direction. "Okay Chewie, seems like everyone's busy."

Oblivious still, he shrugged and raised a lopsided smile. Best he could do was to sit down at the waiting area until everything was settled. Whatever happened, it sure gave one heck of a commotion.

Alice blinked at the sudden new person in front of her. When was the last time she met someone new? In a town like Verona, you literally knew everything about everyone. She was a bit taken aback by the slightly panicked introduction, but quickly managed to lift a shy, sweet smile upon her face. If this was an anime, she would have one of those sweatdrops.

“Uh, hi Foxtrot! I’m Alice,” She spoke soothingly, hoping to calm his nerves. “You must be new, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before.”

“Uh, yeah, just moved here a day ago,” Fox stepped back slightly and reached for a cookie. Honestly, there were much better ways of making an impression, but that was too easy. Too simple. He just had to do it the hard way.

Smack into someone, Fox, yes, that’s a great ice breaker. “Want a cookie?” he tried, with a forced smile.

Her phone buzzed against her leg, so Alice fished it out. Normally, she wasn’t the type to be on her phone around people—especially around someone she’s never met before… Probably. Once again, she’s never really met someone new.

To: Alice
I’m grounded & not allowed to see King. Also headache of a lifetime

Alice’s brows knitted together in concern. Part of the reason why she came to the clinic was in hopes of running into Mal here. The being grounded part was understandable, but not being allowed to see King was probably going to torture him—the two were inseparable. With a quick “sorry!” directed to Fox, she tapped out a reply.

To: Mal
Take some aspirin! Chamomile tea also helps with headaches. King looks fine, I just dropped by. He was asleep, but the nurse said he should be fine. I have news about how he got hurt though. We gotta talk later. <3

To: Alice
I’m climbing out the window I’ll be there in 5

To: Mal
To the clinic!? Bad idea. Too many people here. I’ll meet you at Riverview Gardens?

After that brief exchange, Alice looked up at Fox and gave a hasty smile. “Sorry about that! And sure, I would love a cookie. You brought them for the kids staying here, right? We could find a nurse and have them distribute them to everyone. They’re beat up, so I’m sure that they would love to have some too.”

Mal was coming in a few minutes, and Alice had so many things she needed to talk to him about. But at the same time, she couldn’t leave the awkward new guy to fend for himself. He looks so lost and scared. She had slight inhibitions about inviting Fox, she really wasn’t the most lively person to be around, after all. She was afraid she would bore him or something, but again, she couldn’t leave him alone. “Um… I actually have to go meet a friend soon. Do you want to come along? I could show you around town, and you can meet so more people.”

In this situation either his mother would be proud or would kill him. Go hopping around town making friends while there’s a serial killer on the loose? Fox weighed his options for a moment before decided, what the hell? If he dies, at least he wouldn’t die alone.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Fox said, almost forgetting to set Scout’s cookie beside her. Hopefully, she could… uh… eat it. “I was kinda lucky this place was so obvious to find. Not sure what I’d do if I ran into, uh…” he coughed, and scratched his head before looking around. He sneaked back out to where the receptionist should have been—ecstatic to see her—and slide the basket over the desk with toothy smile. “Hi, my mother made these wonderful cookies for all the hurt teenagers from that... thing last night and she wanted me to drop 'em off. So, uh, here and there's plenty for left overs, so no need to ration them; treat yourself," he forced out with as much aplomb as he could muster, then slid back toward Scout's room with a curt wave.

“Alright, I’m all good to go.”

Alice led Fox out of the clinic and decided to take the scenic route--or as scenic as Verona could get, which was still pretty. Just the same everywhere—pointing out some of the more notable locations of the town. Alice was trying really hard not to be boring, but due to her shy nature there was a lot of “um’s” and pauses in her speech as she struggled to find words. “So, uh… What brings you here to Verona?”

Well, not the entirely best way to spend the afternoon, but definitely not the worse. Alice’s lack of demanding presence made roaming through Verona a helluva lot easier. Like a nice, relaxing stroll through a park. Fox smiled and nodded along with Alice’s tour, letting himself fall in step just behind her.

“Uh,” Fox paused, stopping slightly before picking up the pace to walk next to Alice, “it’s complicated, really. Um.” It might have been a great idea to come up with some kind of explanation for moving to the ass end of nowhere, Washington. Small 2000 population town where everyone knows each other? That’s tough to pass off as just ‘Oh, uh, we have family nearby’ or something equally dumb.

“Just a change of scenery,” Fox tried, not quite believing himself, “after my dad died, it’s been tough on my mom keeping up with the community in our old town. They were, uh, extremely religious.” At least that wasn’t a total lie. They were thinking of moving soon, or at least his mom was once he headed off to college. But, the unseen incident, the eclipse, everything put a halt to their previous plans. Not a fun time.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Alice murmured, looking down at her hands awkwardly. Dealing with a friend’s loss of a loved one had become rather routine for Alice in the past few years, but if there was one thing she never quite learned how to do, it was responding to the news of a death. Alice was grappling for another conversation topic desperately. She despised awkward silences. They seemed to follow her around, though. “Well, I hope you like it here! It’s a really small town that had a lot of troubles, but everyone here is really nice. I’m sure that you’ll find people here that you’d like.”

Small conversations came and went as the two continued their walking tour. There really wasn’t a lot to show off about this unassuming town, so Alice did her best to throw in little anecdotes here and there to keep things interesting. Thankfully, they had finally reached the park. Hopefully Malcolm would get here soon, so Alice wouldn’t be alone with this stranger. Fox was a very nice stranger that she could easily become friends with, but being around new people made her nervous.

“This is one of my favorite places here,” Alice spoke, leading Fox through the large, open field. It wasn’t a playground park, although there were a couple of swings and slides placed around the area. Riverview park was mostly gardens, picnic tables tucked into a spacious patch of green grass. Ironically, there was no river anywhere in sight.

“I volunteer here on the weekends to tend to the gardens,” Alice said with a soft smile, trailing her fingers against some flowers. Speaking of flowers… Alice had forgotten all about her new found power for a bit, and there was a small trail of pink flowers poking through the tall grass where she had stepped. There were definitely not there before, of which Fox narrowed his eyes once they’d caught his attention. Suspicion inked the back of his mind, yet he wasn’t prone to saying much. Though maybe he should; it’d make living here a lot easier if he had people to relate to.

After a moment of silence, walking quietly behind Alice as they made their way to a small bench, Fox cleared his throat. “So, uh, anything weird happen lately?” he attempted to change the conversation once he sat down, giving Alice the best disarming smile he could, “Aside from the—sorry, touchy subject I’m certain. Anything that’s not that happen recently?”

“Huh?” Alice felt her posture straighten when Fox asked his question. Why yes, literally everything that’s happened in the past two days have been weird. Which one would you like to know about? Alice gazed back at Fox’s smile, nervously running her fingers through her hair in indecision. If he was going to live here, he might as well know… But then again, Moon had said that it would be better to keep everything under wraps. “Um, well… What do you mean by weird?”

Fox decided why not try his luck? He pointed at the trail of flowers stopping just short of the sidewalk, though some pesky pink poseys stubbornly popped through the cracks all the way to Alice. “What about that kind of weird?” he said, turning his arched eyebrow toward Alice, “can’t just be a coincidence that you walked in a flower trail pathed exactly to your footsteps, right?”

Oh no. She had been trying so hard to stop that from happening until now. Alice hastily plastered a sheepish smile on her face as her fingers continued to come the front part of her hair. How was she going to explain this? There was no way she could tell someone she’s just met Oh hey, I can make flowers grow, hahaha crazy right? And expect him to stick around. “I guess not?” She managed meekly.

“Small town drama, huh?” Fox said. He tried his best for a charming, ‘don’t worry ‘bout it’ smile, however, he was pretty sure it came off more forced than he’d intended. Can’t say he didn’t try, though. “So, uh, wanna explain that?” he needed more than just ‘haha yeah, right?’ to even think about diving in with what he could do. Maybe the recent move did more to his anxiety than he’d have liked it to.

“Um, um…” Alice’s feet were swinging anxiously now as if she were a young child. A small sound of protest bubbled to her lips as her eyes flickered between the flowers and Fox. The poor, timid girl was never great at thinking on the spot, and in the end she stared down at her now still feet before murmuring in a very small voice, _{”You’re not going to believe me if I told you.”}

Fox strained to listen, leaning down further to hear her better. He chuckled and scooted closer, “Wanna try me?” His voice softened as he tried his best to reassure her.

Alice bit her lip in indecision, before bursting out, “Icanmakeflowersgrow”, all of her words flowing out in a sudden rush. Fox burst out laughing, rocking back slightly.

“Can you say that one more time? All I got was ‘I can shower so’?” he asked, biting his bottom lip to keep from grinning.

Alice gave a soft “ehhhh” before steeling herself. She turned a wide-eyed gaze on Fox, anxiously waiting for his reaction. “I can make flowers grow,” She whispered, much more slowly this time.

Blinking, Fox tilted his head to register her answer. Well, not the weirdest thing ever. Okay, no, to a regular person that’s kinda freaky. But, hey, he can… he honestly didn’t know what to call it. “That’s… something, definitely,” Fox arched his brows and nodded his head as he looked directly at Alice’s display in power, “Well, I guess I can do something too.”

“Really!?” Alice’s expression suddenly blossomed into a bright, relieved smile. She was so happy that he didn’t really seem to think of her as a freak. She let out a breath, not realizing that she had been holding it in anticipation. She noticed Fox looking at her flowers, so she gave a delicate flick of her fingers and they burrowed back into the ground without a trace. It probably wasn’t a good idea to leave them on display. It also gave her a chance to show off.

“Wait, you can do something too? So it’s not just us…”

“Yeah, look,” Fox turned around so that she could see the side of his face and put on the most determined look as his ears started wiggling. “Amazing right? We’re practically twins.”

Alice let out a peal of good-natured laughter at that. “You’re right, I can’t do that at all.”

To be honest, Fox didn’t expect this entire Verona thing to turn out a whole deal better. For all it was worth, his mother’s gift basket idea didn’t seem half bad as it did when she handed him the gaudy basket. Of course, the sweater still needed to be addressed, but Alice didn’t look like she minded. Maybe it helped his cute factor. Or something as superficial and stupid.

“But, really,” Fox said, lowering to a breathy huff, “I might be just a tad weirder. I can’t really explain, so I guess I’ll just have to show you?” He turned to watch a few strangers jog down the path and then averted his attention back toward Alice. “Um, is there a more private area in the park?”

“There’s a little hut over by the gardens. It’s kind of small, but it’s really cute.” Alice got to her feet and scampered ahead towards the hut before she spun on her heel and beckoned Fox over. The hut wasn’t too far away. It was nestled within the flower garden like it was some sort of fairy tale cottage--probably one of the reasons why Alice loved this park so much. It could probably fit in 4 to 5 people comfortably. She opened the door and made her way inside before turning around and looking up at Fox expectantly.

Once the door shut with an audible click, Fox faced Alice with a deep breath, “It’s kind of weird, so, please don’t freak out. We’re kinda practically strangers, so I honestly wouldn’t hold it against you.” After a moment of preparation, deep breathing, and psyching himself up, Fox raised both hands in the air and gave Alice a scrunched up look. Wiggling each finger, he plunged his hands forward with closed eyes and quickly imagined the space in front of him seizing, pulling toward a focused point and then wrinkling, expanding, and pulling apart to reveal a sizable chunk of just distorted space. From Alice’s vantage point, a spherical bubble wrapped around Fox’s arms, engulfing his hands in the space around it and further distorting his body from the neck to his waist. He yanked both out to reveal a pair of cookies and hoped to Jesus that no one saw the hands that took them in the clinic (cue Scout freaking the fuck out).

“It’s… I honestly don’t know what to call it,” Fox started, the spherical portal fading in a small wave that further flattened their physical world, “Um, but it’s not really just limited to that. I guess? I may have sent my cat inside and he’s still stuck in wherever the hell I put him. Freaked my mom out. It’s why we moved here; we weren’t too keen on being called Satan worshipers or the like, you know? Or getting arrested. Or dissected.” He advanced toward Alice with a cookie extended in offering, while he bit into his own.

“I promise that whatever they went through doesn’t emit radiation, so no poison cookies,” he said, trying to smile as reassuringly as he could.

Alice blinked multiple times in surprise. The surprise quickly wore off though, it definitely wasn’t the most surprising thing that she had seen. She reached out to accept the cookie and bit into it with a smile. “That was really cool, and this is really good.”

“I’m ninety percent sure that my mom made that,” Fox scrunched his face slightly, “otherwise I’m a thief. Anyway.” He busied himself with eating the rest of the cookie and moved to look out the hut’s small window.

Mal made his way across the park, pristine white trainers getting muddied though it was clear from his furrowed brow and his lips that were set into a thin, pressed line that he had more important things on his mind. Despite knowing that it was bad, and that he’d regret it later, he scratched at the neat puncture wounds from vines on his forearm, the plants having dug in the night before while he was healing other people. His dad hadn’t noticed, and his mom trusted him enough to deal with it himself – which he had. Sort of. He washed it to get rid of the dirt at least.

Shuddering from the light chill in the air as he stepped into the hut in the park with the beginnings of a rant, “Alice, I swear to god if anyone finds out what I did for Dani last night, I’m dead. Experimented-on dead. Marvel of the medical world dead– Who’s that?”

Alice moved forward to give Mal a quick hug. She had been worried sick about him after they got separated from each other. “Mal, if anyone finds out about what any of us can do… We’re all dead. Don’t worry, your power is one of the more subtle ones. And as long as we’re careful, no one is going to know.”

She stepped back, releasing Mal from her arms before glancing back at her new friend. “This is Fox, he’s new here in town. We were bonding. And it looks like he has abilities too.” Fox gave a stiff wave and a quick smile, choosing not to say anything in favor of Alice’s introduction. From the way Alice talked, Fox judged that there were likely more like them and maybe they thought it all centered around the town. Way to burst that bubble. He shuffled his feet and took a few steps behind Alice.

Mal pinched the bridge of his nose and paced. “Great. Even people from out of town are getting powers. Why isn’t this plastered over the news yet?” he muttered, before grimacing. Eyeing Fox up and down, he ended up saying, “Sorry – it’s not you; I’ve just been having a bad day and I really want to get King out of the clinic, like, right now, but that’ll just make everything worse and, aah.”
He shook his head. “You said you had news?”

“Mal, calm down. Your boyfriend was fine when I checked up on him. All he needs is a bunch of rest and he’ll be fine. It’s definitely not the first concussion that the clinic had to fix up. So just, deep breaths, alright?” Alice said as soothingly as she could, trying to calm her friend’s nerves. “Besides, if you go to the clinic now, you’ll heal everyone. Not only will it be incredibly suspicious, it hurts you, doesn’t it? Just relax. Everyone is going to recover. We’re all going to be okay.

“But, yeah.” Alice grimaced and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. Her voice faltered there and she fell silent, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“I probably gave him a cookie too, so,” Fox chimed in, giving a tiny fist pump, “yeah.” Mal’s lips quirked up into a smile at that, no matter how tentative. Better to keep things looking up than wallowing in grief. At least, that was what Fox supposed. He smiled, nonetheless, and took his little victory with pride.

---

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To: Siesie

where's ur house at again? i have a plan

To: Jay (AKA capnflatass)

lmfao how long have we been friends again? middle of New Verona, 24 Rainer St. its the blue house dont let dad see you

Sienna rolled her eyes at the message and tossed hte phone back onto her bed. She flicked through some of the music on her digital clock by her bed to listen to, wondering what kind of stupid idea was formulating through her friends head.

Elsewhere in Verona, Jay was frantically scrolling through Google Maps, trying to find a picture of Sienna's house. It didn't exactly help that he was so tired he couldn't even imagine the place, and he didn't want to be thinking of the wrong house when he was wormholing to it. It would be like saying Diagonally instead of Diagon Alley, and he'd end up somewhere like the girl's bathroom again.

Once he'd found it, he took one last look at his locked bedroom door. It was easy to open, of course, even from the outside with just a bit of jiggery-pokery, and that Jay was going to leave the house and his fate to chance to save someone else's fun he was sure spoke wonders for his moral character. Given how absolutely mortifying the lectures had been last night/this morning, he wondered why he was willing to subject himself to more if his dad opened the door and found he wasn't there.

Oh well, he thought – which wasn't much of one – and teleported straight into Sienna's bedroom, appearing near the window that had been visible on Google Maps. Moments later, a mobile telephone collided with his shoulder as Sienna shrieked out a "OH MY GOD-" and kicked back at the covers in sheer panic.

"Sienna? What's wrong?!" called out the familiar voice of Chris from downstairs, the thud of his feet on the wooden floorboards starting to become louder as he walked up to the bedroom. Sienna lurched forward and grabbed the nearest part of Jay she could reach with one hand. In one smooth movement, she swung the door of her wardrobe open and violently shoved him in with the other, slamming it shut and locking the poor boy in a sea of sweaters, jeans and bras.

And in good time, too; the door to Sienna's bedroom burst open and Chris looked in upon Sienna, out of breath and still in her pyjamas. "What's w-"

"LOOK WHAT I FOUND!" cried out Sienna triumphantly, scooping up an old glue stick on the floor and brandishing it out at her surprised father. There were a couple of long, silent moments between the two of them whilst Sienna waved the gluestick around a little for emphasis, before Chris rubbed at the back of his neck.

"O-kay Sienna, I'm glad you found you-"

"His name is Philip the Gluestick."

"-your Philip. I'll-...I'll leave you to it. Have fun-...sticking stuff." Chris shut the door and immediately went downstairs to express doubts about Sienna's sanity to Jacob, whilst Sienna dropped Philip and wrenched open the wardrobe door. She jolted when she spotted Jay, as if throwing him in with her panties might have made him disappear as instantaneously as he arrived.

Jay had somehow crammed his stupidly tall frame into the wardrobe, but it didn't look comfortable. Hence, almost as soon as Sienna opened the door, he was out like a rocket, having already left a trail of devastation in his wake. There had been something of an avelanche in the wardrobe – something that he offered a sheepishly apologetic glance for but made no effort to fix.

"Yo," he said, taking off his hat and wringing it in his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean to, like, scare you or anything. Escapes are serious, urgent business, you know?" 'Escapes' also seemed to be all he was good for nowadays, given that school was cancelled because of murder and he was banned from heading down to the skate park, or any other park that could be used for skating, for the forseeable future.

"Urgent, yes, but kind of pointless if the person you're trying to rescue dies of cardiac arrest when you arrive. Any other tricks up your sleeve? Are you going to pull out a hanky chain out of your ass or something?" asked Sienna in horrified curiosity. She had never entertained the possibility of more than one person having a superpower, and thought she had a chance at becoming something like a superhero for Verona. As soon as the initial shock wore down, she started considering a superhero duo - something like Batman and Robin, except much more accident prone.

Sienna shook her head. "It's fine, honest, but maybe a bit of a warning would help." Out of sheer spite, Sienna snapped her fingers and, with a faint humming noise, an exact replica of herself popped into existence right next to her - right down to the pyjamas she was wearing.

Jay blinked, though having seen so many strange things over the last few days – up to and including his ex-girlfriend summoning volcanos like something out of Black & White – that was the sum of his surprise. "Oh. You're one of us. I... may have totally forgotten that not everyone in town is, but good to know I didn't appear next to someone normal."

When on earth did he start saying 'normal' like it was a dirty word? Jay wondered if the power was going to his head.

Sienna couldn't begin to hide the disappointment in her body language. She sulked, shoulders slumping - her clone did the exact same thing. [colour=336699]"Fine. Pee on my parade."[/color] she grumbled, before wheeling around to peer at her copy. "Right then, me, your job is to keep dad and dad from figuring out I'm gone. Think you can do that?"

The other Sienna rubbed the back of her head. "Won't they start to wonder why you're not making any clones anymore?" she asked.

Sienna waved a hand dismissively. "Tell them I started my period, that might throw them off for a week or so." she decided. "As for you, J-man, you need to catch me up with all the goings-on. In case you haven't noticed, I've been locked in my house ever since I started acting up. Chris and Jacob won't let me leave," whilst Sienna talked, she went to the pantavalanche and rummaged through the pile of clothes. "So I've been trying to get out ever since, or just annoy them until they let me out." Sienna picked up a T-shirt and pulled off her pyjama top, getting changed. She briefly glanced over her shoulder. "You look terrible, by the way. Want a painkiller or something?"

"I'm good, I'm good. If I wanted that, I could go and ask my dad-dad for some morphine," he answered, before rubbing at his chin contemplatively. Really, a lot had happened in two-and-a-bit days. Jay turned around to face the wall when Sienna started changing, but he didn't stop talking. "There's at least... sixteen of us with superpowers, somehow related to the creepy eclipse, and I think I heard that the other group was getting chased by someone, so make that possibly plus-one. Jade Taylor went mental and ruptured the earth around Wilcox's cabin and... Well, everyone's out for the count, I think. I'd tell you more, but I wanna see if we can get anyone else to..."

He laughed. "Brainstorm. That would be a cool power name, right?"

"I'm already designing the costumes in my head." replied Sienna eagerly, tugging on a pair of jeans. "God I hope we don't have to do any running, I've only got my heels upstairs, my sneakers are by the door." she pulled on a pair of socks and then slammed her feet into her bright red heels; yes, it was a fashion nightmare, but she was in a hurry and didn't want to be complaining over blisters.

"Hoooold on did you say everyone had superpowers? That's my superhero-team-idea out of the window. Also, out for the count? They're not-...they didn't die, d-did they?" All of a sudden, the prospect of becoming SuperSienna didn't seem nearly as exciting as it did a few minutes before. She briefly checked herself in the mirror. Her clone looked up from the magazine she picked up off the floor and gave Sienna an uncertain thumbs up. "Yeah, don't you lie to yourself, I know it looks crap." she sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do, Jay, but I can't stay here if everyone's getting hurt. Chris and Jake will keep me locked up forever if they found out. Any idea where we're going?"

"I don't mean dead! Out for the count, like in boxing," Jay said, hurrying to reassure her, though he held out an arm, waiting for her to take it so they could teleport somewhere else. "Also, you look fine." Of course, he didn't have any idea what 'fine' looked like, so it came out totally sincere, unlike the clone's opinion.

"Given that most of our classmates are in the clinic, I'd say there? Playing hide and seek with the nurses and doctors? Anywhere's better than being locked up in your own house." The last bit was said with a certain sense of empathy to it, because Jay knew exactly what that was like – or he would, if he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. "I wanna get to the bottom of this mystery. If I need to break into my dad's office and get the police records, I will."

"Clinic's a no-go, really; I'm not going from my own house to hiding in a broom closet." responded Sienna flatly. "But the school's shut, right? At least, it should be, based on the fact Rachel-...y-yeah, you get the idea. Can't we use that for a while?"

Struck with the sudden realisation that she may be gone for longer than she anticipated, Sienna pulled out her old PE kit bag and started packing spare sets of clothes, socks and shoes. She also grabbed her phone and charger - which prompted an exasperated groan from Sienna II. "Aw, c'mon!" she protested.

"Hey, it's my phone to begin with, shush." snapped Sienna, stuffing it into the bag. As an afterthought, she grabbed the box of painkillers and whatever plasters and antiseptic creams she could find. If everyone was nearly dead, then Sienna wanted to learn from their mistakes. Still, she highly doubted that a couple of asprins will block out any pain from...whatever might be thrown at her.

"Well, all I really want to do is get out of the house. But hey, if you want to find the source of all this, then I'll be glad to tag along - from the sounds of it, I'm probably the only one able to come with you anyway." Sienna turned around and peered at Jay (or, well, his back) with concern. Her voice softened. "Are-...you sure you're alright though? You look knackered."

"I'll be fine. If cars can run on empty, so can I," he said, though it was touching that someone cared enough to notice. He shook his head to concentrate on the ideas. The school sounded good, but it was a murder scene, and probably locked up at the moment. The clinic was where everyone was... and he had to ask someone who had been in the other group what they thought.

Maybe even Alice. "We're going to the park, then," he decided, and wrapped an arm around Sienna's shoulders to take them both through a wormhole, landing them at a morose looking swing-set with a dull metal slide beside it. It was, arguably, the worst experience Sienna had ever lived through; she felt as if she just left all of her internal organs back in her bedroom. She barely had time to register what happened before it got very cold and dark and wet - the moment the pair of them had touched down at the park, Sienna fell flat on her face into the dew-covered grass. She let loose an incoherent gurgle as she tried to stop the world from spinning.

"Lessnot do that again," suggested Sienna weakly.

Approaching them, Jade Taylor saw the looks in their eyes: frightened, scared, terrified. They saw a side of the blonde that never was seen before. This side of her, unlike her occasional rage fits, or tantrums that she would throw, was something truly terrifying. Imagine the most terrifying state anyone could be in. Imagine that they were experiencing the biggest rage fit in their entire lives. Imagine that every ounce of their being was being put through such hell that they didn’t friend from foe. Imagine being in that state of mind. Now, multiply it by infinity, and you have exactly what Jade Taylor was in.

Arms raised, the magma rose with her. The large, thick goop that would burn anything into smithereens upon contact, was being formed at her will. The blonde, whose eyes were pure red with a black outline, looked to the two woman in front of her: one a brunette. Her figure slightly bulkier than the other. Long brown hair and a face that anyone would love. Her name was Alicia Smith. She was Jade’s best friend. The other, a redhead. Pale white skin, and slightly less loveable than Alicia, but still loved by many. She was Alicia’s girlfriend, and the object of most of Jade’s rage. Though the latter girl was the one Jade was aiming to hurt most, by extension of relations, Alicia was nearby, not leaving her side. 

Jades’ arms were coming down, but then she stopped. The words of her friend pleading with her. “Stop it, Jade! Please!” She heard Alicia speak, but all they did was halt her movements. The blonde didn’t’ respond. Her mind, as rage-filled as it was, didn’t hear her — not really. The only thing that it was so focused on — the only thing that Jade Taylor seemed to be entirely dedicated to was eliminating what she saw as a threat. 

As her arms were going to come down, something stopped her. Jade turned her head around, and saw someone standing there. She couldn’t tell who it was. However, as the blood red shade in her eyes started to fade and the black soon became white, Jade saw — well, she saw herself. This person was scared, but held Jade still. The rage-filled Jade tried to jerk away, but the other Jade wouldn’t budge. She simply shook her head, as if trying to tell her not to go through it. Rage-filled Jade stilled tried to jerk her away again, but the image of herself wouldn’t let go.

As rage-filled Jade jerked one last time, her arm became free, it went down, and the magma fell upon Alicia and Katalina. Then, her vision went black. One blink, and it came back.

And then Jade woke up.

Looking around her, Jade saw a familiar shade of brown. It was sitting nearby. “Alicia ..’ Jade said, still seeming to be disoriented of her surroundings. Jade then looked around. Further away, closer to the door it seemed, was a familiar shade of red hair. “Kata…” Jade’s voice seemed quieter, almost as if she didn’t know how to raise her voice. Well, at least in that moment she didn’t. “Why are you two—“JAde paused. She knew why. “— I mean, how long have you two been here?”

"Not that long. Your uncle stepped out for a moment and we've been here maybe twenty minutes at most? Just wanted to see how you were doing... also escape the looming doom of boredom in our own rooms." The redhead spoke up first, looking at Jade. 

Alicia was sitting next to Jade's bed her leg was resting on another chair that a nurse had brought in, when Jade finally woke up Alicia smiled at her best friend gently rubbing her shoulder. "How are you feeling? Do you remember anything that happened last night?" Alicia asked as she reached for one of the cookies that Fox had brought in earlier.

"I feel sore around my mid-back," Jade said, trying to find a more comfortable position in her bed. She found one by turning slightly to the right side. It happened to be the direction where Alicia and Katalina were, so it benefited Jade more. [color=e62020][b]"I..don't know." Jade was unsure, "I keep on having these dreams, but they don't make any sense." She said.

Katalina seemed to frown a bit and leaned back in her chair. She rubbed her temples a bit  before she spoke."I'll admit it is a little fuzzy for me at times as well, but I apparently drained my batteries something awful. I guess we gotta be careful in the future." 

Alicia took a bite out of the cookie she looked over at her girlfriend remembering that she had passed out from using to much of her ability before turning back to look at Jade. "Well, since I was pretty much awake the whole time, I remember a little bit more." Alicia said as she grabbed her cup of water and took a sip from it. "For whatever reason Jade, you sort of lost control or something and destroyed the lodge." Alicia said softly.

“I did what now?” Jade asked, shifting herself upward somewhat. She winced from the soreness, but that didn’t matter at the moment. What she heard Alicia say outweighed the soreness in her back

Katalina rubbed her temples. "I remember something about an earthquake, yes. Mom said the lodge was messed up a bit. Also... oh." Katalina's memory it seemed had started to click into place as she trailed off and looked off to the side. 

"Also what?" Jade asked, sounding almost pushy as she leaned forward. She, again, winced from the pain.

"It was like someone was controlling you Jade, you suddenly yelled and then the earth started shaking. Everyone at the party started running off into the woods. And uh, Ashton sort of shocked you so that you wouldnt hurt anyone.." Alicia trailed off leaving out the part where Jade was about to kill the two of them. She quickly looked over at Katalina reaching out to hold her hand. "Are you alright?"

Katalina took Alicia's hand and nodded. "I'll be fine, but the better question, is are you going to be okay Jade? Whatever was controling you pushed your powers well beyond what you were use to I'm sure. I mean... there was friggen magma." Katalina seemed to be avoiding saying something.

"Whoa, just slow down," Jade felt dizzy from all of this information that may or may not be true. "First you're saying I wrecked, destroyed Everett's lodge — or whatever happened to it, I sure as hell don't, and now you're saying there was magma?" Jade was shaking her head as she tried to grasp, well, everything Alicia and Katalina were telling her. "You have to be shitting me." Jade said, again kind of laughing, but also smiling too, "Alicia, you know that my power is only earthquakes. I mean, for fuck's sake, you saw me do it." Jade was looking to Alicia to pretty much confirm that all of what they told her was some kind of elaborate prank, and that she didn't turn into some fucking walking, talking, breathing volcano.

"It's the truth Jade! There was magma that came out of the ground and I knew that you were being controlled by someone because you wouldn't do anything like what you did at Everett's lodge." Alicia rubbed the back of her neck then she looked over towards Katalina for a moment. "You probably wouldnt remember because you were knocked out when Ashton zapped your back." Alicia sighed before finally saying. "And you were saying some pretty crazy shit last night too."

Jade was laughing until she saw Alicia's serious expression. Her eyes fell to Katalina. "Please, talk some sense into your girlfriend. She's obviously been smoking a little too much of that Mary Jane. Tell her that she's obviously mistaking me for some other crazy bitch" Jade said, almost pleading with Katalina to set her girlfriend straight. She was actually getting worried now. Alicia wasn't letting up on this ridiculous story of Jade going on some kind of rampage. 

"You know as well as I do that she doesn't do that. I was there Jade. There was magma, and well... yeah, you were pretty ticked off. It was like someone dug into the back of your mind and made everything you were hiding come to the front. You... even... you tried to hurt us. I know it wasn't you however, there was something bigger at play." Katalina looked at Jade dead on, never looking away.

"No, I couldn't.." Jade's laugh was gone. A confused, almost distraught look replaced her grin.

In Katalina's eyes, Jade could see it. She could see the grim truth of what both of them have been saying. Sure, at first she thought they were playing some kind of elaborate prank on her. And maybe they still were, but Jade knew enough about Katalina to know when she was joking; it was always in the eyes. As Jade looked at Katalina's eyes, there was something of a sadness in them. It was almost as if she was on the verge of crying or something akin to that. Jade knew that look all too well — it was the look that Jade often had when she would look into her own mirror as she was in a not-so-happy state of mind.

Jade looked to Alicia momentarily. She wanted to gauge if all of it was true. "Ali, you never have lied to me. This isn't true is it? I didn't ..attack you guys, did I?" Jade wanted — no, she needed for Alicia to simply say no, and that everything Jade was told was one horrible lie, and that they were just fucking with her.

Alicia's eyes met Jade's seeing the look in her best friend's eyes she was trying to wrap her mind around what had exactly happened. Everything that Katalina and her were saying was the actual truth. "Jade.. it is the actual truth." Alicia paused for about a minute, looking at her girlfriend, and then towards Jade finally. "I know you wouldn't hurt us, but you did actually try to kill me and Kat last night. If it wasn't for Scout — who jumped in between us and used her ability and Kat using hers as well to cool down the magma — neither of us would be here having this conversation right now." The look on Alicia's face she was telling the truth what had actually happened.

Jade had to take a moment to simply take all of that in. She had to just let it all set in. Everything was piling on top of her like a ton of bricks being suspended over a stack of paper plates by a thread slowly ripping, and the plates starting to crack from the pressure. At the start of it, Jade simply thought they were kidding — like maybe they were doing this as a prank — but she now saw that everything they were saying was the absolute truth. Alicia never lied to her whenever she looked at her like that. Jade knew that when Alicia took to that tone of voice, the truth would be spoken. She knew it, and now Jade's mind was in a much worse place than before.

"That means, my dreams are actually..." Jade's eyes widened, those bluish-green orbs showing through the moderate black eye shadow, "Oh god, what have I done!?" Jade had shrieked in a high-pitched scream. Her head shaking side-to-side, her hands gripping it so tight that one would think the eyes would come out of their sockets. her upper body was rocking back and forth slightly. All the while it was doing that, her deafening screams kept on coming.

"Jade it wasn't your fault!" Alicia said as she reached out to Jade to hold her hand when she suddenly started to let out a loud scream catching the attention of several nurses. One of them gently led Alicia and Katalina out of Jade's room, as she was led out Alicia grabbed her crutches and made her way out of the room. Alicia looked over her shoulder as one of the nurses had started sedating Jade to calm her down. She looked over towards her girlfriend with a worried look. "Should I have told her that?" She asked Katalina.

Katalina let out a soft sigh. "She needed to hear the truth, and better from someone that cares about her than doesn't. Give her time. We both know it wasn't her fault, now she just needs to know that everyone else knows that too. I hope."

---

---

Alicia looked at Katalina once the nurses had closed the door to Jade's room before nodding slowly. "I guess you are right, I hope she will be alright." Alicia said her eyes searching down the hallway and wondered how Scout was doing, she hadn't seen her since last night, and she wanted to thank her friend for saving them from the magma. "Do you want to see how Scout is doing?"

"Sounds good to me. I do believe we owe her our thanks. We should go see where she is." Katalina stretched for a moment before wandering the the nurses station. The nurse on duty was very helpful and pointed Alicia and Kata to Scouts room. Katalina gave her thanks and then walked back over to Alicia. "She's in that room."

Alicia awkwardly leaned herself up against the wall and watched as her girlfriend walked off to ask the nurse where Scout's room was. "Lead the way lovely." Alicia said when Kat came back Alicia smiled as she started to follow behind Katalina towards Scout's room and slowly opened the door to see Scout was asleep in the bed on the other side of the room.

Katalina seemed to frown a bit as she noticed that Scout was sleeping. "Do you want to wait for her to wake up, or shall we just let her rest?"

"We can wait, its not like i'm going anywhere for the rest of the day." Alicia said as she went over and pulled up a chair next to Scout's bed prepping her foot up on the edge of Scout's bed. Alicia looked at Scout very closely noticing all the bandages across Scout's hands and arms.

Katalina sat down in the other chair and looked Scout over. She seemed to frown more as she noticed the bandages. "Alright, we'll wait then."

“Mmm, I get no break today, huh?” Scout stifled a yawn, eyes barely opening as she easily awoke from her drug-induced slumber. Her mind was drifting, a blossoming meadow curling images that never truly formed, but the more her eyes opened the more the world seemed to form solid shapes and curves, and Scout continued to wrench her brain awake until the faces of Alicia and Katalina stood out brilliantly against the mundane room around them. Blinking lightly, Scout offered them a drowsy, quizzical look and a pout. “Ali, Kata... Hey?"

Alicia's face quickly lit up when she heard Scout's voice and then a yawn, she reached out to gently pat her friend on the leg. "Good morning sleeping beauty. How are you feeling?" Alicia asked, smiling softly at Scout she was really happy to see that Scout was awake.

"Hey Scout. What she said, how are you doing?" Kata seemed to perk up a bit as Scout woke up, a smile slowly crossing her face.

“Bad. I'm doing pretty bad." Scout lifted up her arms slowly, waving them around to the best of her ability before the aches returned and she was forced to let them drop. A pained sigh hissed through her lips, faint and obviously withheld, but real nonetheless. Scout shifted in her best, forcing her drowsy limbs under the thin blanket in an effort to keep the two girls' from staring at the wounds too closely.

Once comfortable, Scout leaned her head forward and assessed her visitors, eyebrows knitting together as she focused in on their injuries. “I assume you guys aren't doing any better, eh?" She muttered, blue eyes dim and cold.

"Dont try to move to much Scout." Alicia said softly as watched as Scout lifted up her arms getting a slightly better few of the injuries Scout recived, seeing the wraps over the burns made her cringe slightly. Alicia looked at herself and then over towards her girlfriend. "Well I have a broken ankle, so I will have this for the next several weeks and a few scratches." Alicia said softly leaning back in her seat.

"My mom was pretty pissed off at me for sneaking off last night to go to that party, so i'm pretty much under house arrest for two weeks and I have to be escorted home by my mom after school." Alicia said letting out a slight sigh, though she did deserve the punishment a little bit for sneaking out.

"Headache, scratches, and 'possible mental trauma' according to Doctor Okada. Grounded for two weeks, and working at the grocery store for the next month on the weekends. But honestly, could have been worse. However, I'm sorry to hear you're doing pretty bad. As Ali said, don't move too much. You did take quite a lot of damage last night." Katalina looked at Scout and bit her lip. "I owe you my thanks, like a thousand times over." Scout blushed briefly at Katalina's thanks, eyes lowering to stare blankly at her lap as her ears burned pink.

“Sucks to hear you guys are grounded, but it's better than being dead, right?" She smiled for a moment, a small, beaming smirk that lit up her face and then vanished as if it never existed at all. Glancing up at the end of her bed, Scout felt another sigh roll off her tongue, and her limbs pulsated with a faint ache that had been mostly ignored thanks to the various painkillers she had taken. She had a few rather sarcastic lines to say towards the others' and their blatant concern for her, but she bit down on her lip instead of speaking her mind. Not moving sucked, and being told not to move sucked even more, but Scout didn't want to hurt their feelings nor herself at the moment.

Her small shoulders rolled beneath her hospital gown, creaking as they rounded and stretched for the first time all day, and she winced against the noise before whispering a quiet: “No need to thank me, I'm just happy you two are okay."

Alicia smiled slightly tucking a stray strand of hair away from her face letting out a soft laugh at Scout's little joke. "I guess thats true, i'd rather be grounded then being a roasting pile of ash in the woods by Everett's place." Alicia said then reached over to hold her girlfriend's hand lovingly and looked over at Katalina. "Still we are really grateful for what you did last night. We wouldnt be here right now if it werent for you." Alicia said softly looking over at Scout. "So if you do need anything just ask. And your more then welcome to come over to my place anytime you want."

Katalina held Alicia's hand and gave it a small squeeze. "Very grateful. I mean I was out of it, so if you hadn't come along, I would have been ash. Or molten rock. So yeah, better grounded than dead. So... how bad is it, if I may ask? How long for you to recover?"

“Thanks, Ali. As for my recovery..." Scout glanced down at her lap again, shoulders rising and following in one stunted motion. “The nurses here won't talk to me, I think they're afraid I'll swipe something off them." Her face peeled into an inspired, humorous smirk, and she shifted her hands below the blanket to draw some attention to them.

“I doubt I'll be able to do any of that for awhile, hmm?" She twisted again under the covers again, lips forming a grim line as the wish to get up stretch came and went again. “A while, huh... I swear if I'm stuck in this bed for more than three days I'll go mad." She wanted to kick the covers off, and she wanted to sit up and lean forward and move, but the pitiful eyes of Kata and Alicia and the numbing effects of her pills kept her relatively still and calm. Dammit.

Alicia smiled gently patting Scout's leg. "No problem at all, we are friends after all." She smiled when Katalina squeezed her hand gently. "And i'm sure that the nurses and Dr, Okada wouldnt like one of their patients snatching their wallets or something like that." Alicia said teasingly. Alicia started to wonder if anyone else visited Scout. "So has anyone visited you today?"

“Alice has, and that's about it." Scout kept her response short and sweet, because it wasn't a lie. Alice had been her first and only visitor until the other two came in and, not wanting to slip up like last time, she merely kept her worries at the back of her head. Smiling faintly, Scout kept her eyes trained on the girlfriends and sighed. “How's everyone else doing-- have you seen Jade? Is she okay?"

Katalina nodded. "Just before we saw you. She's uh... not taking it well." She bit her lip and looked away for a moment before looking back to Scout. "You... do know it wasn't her fault, yes?"

"That was nice of Alice to come and visit you." Alicia said, she didnt know much about what happens in Scout's house, and just assumed that her parents came ad visited her already. Then Scout brought the subject of Jade and fell silent for a moment, as Katalina answered. "I sort of told her what had actually happened, and she sort of lost it after we told her and the nurses had to sedate her.." Alicia sighed softly looking out towards the window.

“It was definitely not her fault, I know it." Scout's stared owlishly at the girls, as if she knew for certain Jade's madness was from an outside cause. Her mouth opened slightly, as if she had something to add to the statement, but everything in her mind became dim and heavy as a second wave of drowsiness flowed. The meds were kicking back in already, huh. Scout blinked furiously, wishing only to will away the sudden burning that infected her eyelids and caused her body to feel limp, but already her mind was growing blank. Scout felt her head press into the pillow, and she stared up and out beneath half-lidded eyes.

“Sorry, guys..." Scout blinked again, lips forming a soft, sleepy smile.

"That much we got Kat and I were thinking someone was controlling her to do that.." Alicia said, and started to notice Scout's eyes were starting to get heavy and starting to crash. Most likely from all the painkillers that the doctors were giving her. "No need to be sorry, just get some rest." Alicia said as she slowly started to stand up again, and moved over to brush some hair out of Scout's face and gently kissed her on the cheek. "Lets head back to my room Kat." Alicia said as she grabbed her crutches and started to leave Scout's room.

"See you later Scout, sleep well." Katalina said before Scout drifted off and then nodded to Alicia. "Lead the way."

About an hour, possibly more, since Alicia and Katalina had left her room due to Jade losing her shit, she woke up. It wasn’t like before. She did have a dream, but it wasn’t something that Jade Taylor wasn’t used to by now. The past twelve or so hours have been torture for her. Plagued by those dreams of what she did. At the time, Jade didn’t know what they were. Thanks to Alicia enlightening her, Jade couldn’t stay asleep. She tried to go back to sleep, but those dreams were too much. No, that’s not accurate. It wasn’t that the dreams themselves were too much, but the guilt that Jade felt in her heart was building up. Jade knew that she wouldn’t be able to get past this guilt unless she did something.

Slowly getting her body up, Jade alerted the nurse who was checking her chart. “Miss Taylor! You shouldn’t move. You’re still weak.” The nurse said.

Jade looked at her. “Please, I need to get to Scout Presley’s room.” Jade said.

“I don’t think that would be wise.” The nurse was hesitant.

“Please..” Jade was begging. She never begged. “I-I have to see her.” Jade insisted.

“Fine, but not long, okay?” The nurse sighed, “both you and Miss Presley need your rest.” The nurse said, getting Jade’s wheelchair.

“I understand — and thank you,” Jade smiled. Yup, she definitely wasn’t feeling herself today.

The nurse smiled back at Jade as she would help the blonde into her wheelchair. It took a few moments cause the female nurse wasn’t exactly the most physically strong. It took her calling for some male help to properly get Jade into the chair. Once one did come, it was only a matter of positioning Jade into the chair. After about a minute of finding the right position, she eventually got in it, and the female nurse started pushing Jade to Scout’s room. It wasn’t long, probably a minute or two of pushing her, the nurse opened Scout’s room door, and pushed Jade in.

As the nurse wheeled Jade near Scout‘s bed, she stopped. “Okay, you have twenty minutes. That’s as long as I can allow you. Then you need your rest, am I clear?” The nurse said quietly.

“I got it.” Jade said, “thank you.” Jade smiled at the nurse. She smiled back and left.

As Jade saw the nurse leave, Jade looked at Scout. A melancholy expression to Jade’s face as she saw Scout’s hands. They were heavily bandaged. Jade knew why they were. She saw it in her dreams. They were bandaged like that because Jade couldn’t control herself. They were bandaged like that because Scout was selfless in saving Alicia and Katalina. They were bandaged like that because Jade’s magma powers put such pressure against Scout’s force-field that the residual heat transferred over to Scout’s hands. They were bandaged like that because of Jade. It was her fault.

As Jade’s hands grabbed Scout’s own gently, drops of water fell on them, darkening parts of the white bandages. “I’m so sorry, Scout,” Jade said lowly, “I never wanted to hurt you. You’ve always been a friend to me. Unlike most of everyone at that party, you never treated me as if I was an outsider, and you-you--” Jade’s voice suddenly cracked from the emotions she was feeling. Her eyes produced more tears and they fell on Scout’s bandaged hands, some falling on the bedding.”--you almost died because of me, because I couldn’t control my powers. It‘s my fault that I almost killed one of my best friends.” Her blonde hair-filled head was now down on Scout’s hand. With Jade’s hair and the heavy bandaging of Scout’s hand, it muffled Jade’s loud weeping.

---

---

Charlie had had an interesting past few days, to say the least. The night of the eclipse, he remembered staring up at the sky from his rooftop, mesmerized. He felt something weird, but he shrugged it off. And then, the migraine hit. Excruciatingly painful, the kind of pain that makes your vision blur. Charlie had scrambled back into his room, where he promptly passed out on his bed.

He'd awoken the next morning, his brain fuzzy. He'd gotten dressed, ignoring the dull ache in his brain from the migraine that had plagued him the night before, and gone to school, where things had started to take a turn. He'd been in Politics, bored out of his mind and having an intense staring contest with his pencil, when it suddenly rolled off his desk. He'd grabbed it and continued the contest he was having when all of a sudden, the pencil flew across the room. Luckily, no one had noticed, and Charlie got up to grab it.

Now, Charlie had always been a wannabe super hero. I mean who hasn't? But Charlie was well versed in how super powers manifested, and he was starting to think that he might have caught a case of the telekinesis, a thought that filled the teenager with fascination. He'd drifted through the rest of the day, anticipating a practice session that he'd already planned for when he got home. And practice he did.

When he got home he scattered a plethora of small objects on his desk, a paper clip, a marble, a pencil, and a pin. He explored the limits to his powers, finding that the paper clip was the easiest to lift, and that after too much use, the power shut off. All in all, he went to sleep that night, confident and rather happy. He was a super hero now after all.

The next day had been decidedly worse. The memorial assembly had dampened his mood, and rightfully so. He remembered the days when John Jackson roamed free. The town was constantly on edge, fearful that they might be next. It had been a tough time. And then, Rachel Lewis' body had been found. And that was even worse. He'd decided to skip the party at the Wilcox's lodge after the grim discovery, instead spending the night at home, practicing.

And then he had awoken this morning to hear that a bunch of his friends had landed themselves in the clinic. He had no idea what had happened and he very much wanted to so, he went to one of the few people that he figured definitely wouldn't lie to him. Katalina Hargrave, fellow nerd. He shot her a text, in hopes that it would be met with a quick response.

To: Kata
hey, what the hell happened last night??? i wake up and all of the sudden, half the senior class is at the clinic.

will I ever get back to sleep today

Scout's eyes cracked right back open just after Alicia and Katalina left, and she was met with a familiar blonde head sitting next to her. Stifling a yawn and blinking furiously to ward off any drowsiness she shifted, moving to sit up against the headboard again. Jade was crying, legit weeping over Scout's bound hands, and she wasn't exactly sure what to do. Dealing with emotional people, people who really didn't seem to be ready for her usually blunt words, was something Scout didn't really understand. She stared down at the sobbing Jade, eyebrows upturned, and she wiggled her hand slightly to try and grab the girl's attention.

“Jade? Hey... Hey, you okay?" She whispered, coughing once to try and restore her aching voice. “Hey, Jade, stop crying. I can't really understand you through all that snifflin'..."

As her head was deeply buried into Scout's bandaged arm, her blonde hair slightly concealed any noise she might or might not have heard over her crying. Fortuneately, Jade was able to hear Scout's words, which then prompted Jade to raise head slowly. When she looked to Scout, the sight of her black eye-shadow going down her face due to her tears wasn't the best sight. Added to that, her eyes appeared to be puffy in parts, and the sniffling that Jade was doing for the next few seconds made Jade seem like she was taking deep breaths.

"Scout.." Jade said, a sniffling breath making her pause. "I'm sorry." Jade paused again. She was trying to find it in herself to stop crying because it was getting harder for her to get complete sentences out. To try to help, Jade took a few deep breaths. Though slightly better, there were still remnants of her weeping left. "It's my fault you're like this. If only I could have..."

“It's not your fault, though." Scout's mouth almost fell open. Did Jade not realize she wasn't to blame for this? She shifted uncomfortably under her blankets, stifling a second yawn as her eyes locked directly with the other girl's. "I know it wasn't your fault, so don't blame yourself. I'm okay." Scout had no logical proof to ensure that Jade wasn't the one causing the chaos. Just... The tugging in her gut, and the memory of fear and rage in the air, it just didn't feel like Jade was responsible.

"I'm not dead, right? If I did die I would've haunted the shit outta you, but I'm not so it's okay." Her head lowered slightly, lips forming a small, goffy smile. “I don't blame you for this."

"But you should!" Jade said sharply, her fists clenching, slamming on her knees. "I should've been stronger. I should've been able to tell who my friends were. Instead, I—" Jade's eyes fell down to her open palms. They were shaking. Jade was shaking. "—Instead I almost killed everyone. I almost killed you, Jay, Alicia, Katalina, Ash — everyone. How can you not hate the sight of me? I do. I hate the fact that I was so weak that I couldn't stop myself." Jade said, her voice cracking. It was growing deeper, almost into a growl-like tone. Her eyes were like a rain cloud at this point. Her legs and hands were the soil that would be drenched in her eye liquid.

Scout shook, eyes narrowing slightly as Jade seemed to break right in front of her. What could she do? White-hot tendrils of uncertainty curled in her stomach, dragged at her mind and held her tongue back. She couldn't find words to try and calm the hysterical girl, and that very fact made her head swirl with anxiety.

“Jade--" Scout reached forward with a bandaged hand, but at the sight of it she quickly returned it to her side and merely tilted her head, sharing a forced, kind smile. “It's not your fault, really Something was off last night, and something used you." Her eyes twisted to stare down blankly at her lap.

“You're not weak, whatever happened last night was just stronger than you. Than all of us."

"Even if you say is true, even if there was someone or something controlling me, I still hurt everyone. Whether or not I was in my right mind, there was still that anger all built up. All of that anger from the past years built up, and because I was too stupid to handle it responsibly, you — and everyone else — paid the price. If only I could have just admitted to myself that I had all of these feelings towards certain people, maybe none of this wouldn't have happened." Despite Scout's best effort's Jade still felt this was her fault. Despite all of her efforts, it seemed that Scout's words would fall on deaf ears because Jade felt so guilty that she had no reason but to believe it was her fault.

“Is any really mad at you, though?" Scout's voice was cold, perhaps unintentionally so. She was concerned, confused, and unable to put her thoughts into decent words. Jade's guilt seemed to flow from her like a damless river, and Scout couldn't find a way to convince her friend that the chaos wasn't spurred from her ill-will. Sitting a bit taller than before, Scout shook her head, staring wide-eyed and pitifully at Jade.

“What's done is done, Jade. Everyone knows something is up, and I haven't met a single kid who's blamed you yet." She sat back slightly, eyes drooping, "It's time to start looking forward I feel. Just forget about last night. Just... Pretend it never happened."

"I can't, though," Jade said half-lowly. "As much as I want to — and I really want to — the images of what I did to everyone keep on coming back. Each time I fall back asleep, I see it. I hear all of those screams. Even worse than all of that, I see the looks on your face, on Alicia's face, on Katalina's face, on Jay's. I see how scared and terrified you all were," Jade's fists clenched again.

What she spoke was the truth. She did see all of their faces and how scared they must have been at the time. Despite what Scout said, Jade couldn't get those looks out of her mind. They stuck to her like glue. "And I know I wasn't in my right mind, or wasn't able to control my actions; but the fact of the matter is that I did that. I hurt you guys, and I have to live with that. " Jade looked up at Scout, "you may be able to forgive me or say that it wasn't my fault, but I don't think I can do that, not yet, anyways." A pitiful smile became of Jade's face. "I won't be able to look myself in the mirror with pride until I have made amends with everyone I hurt. Alicia and Kat might've saved me the trip, but I wanted to come to you first." Jade admitted to Scout, looking at her, "the truth is, I miss how we used to be. I'm not even talking about just hanging out as casual friends - I mean really being friends. I miss being able to come to you like before. I miss being able to come to you, Jay, Ash, and everyone about any problem I may or may not be having. I miss that bond we all had before Jay and I broke up. I miss how it was before I turned to drugs." Jade said, never breaking eye contact with Scout.

“Jade..." Scout sighed, eyes connecting with the bandaged hands on her lap. "Jade, we could... The bond, ya know, it doesn't have to be different." She leaned towards the blonde, eyes narrowed and glittering with a nostalgic light. Ah, their middle school days were so much easier. Even if all the girls were already stuffing and all the boys were close minded and stupid, back then, when they were small and innocent and happy, everything just felt right.

“Jade, we can go back to all that, you know? Just--" She shifted, head lolling to half-rest on her shoulder. “If you go and, and make up with everyone it can come back. They'll... They'll forgive you, I know they will." Scout smiled, a real, beaming grin that lit up her face in an unusual way.

For a moment, Jade wasn't sure if Scout was being serious or not. She felt Scout's head to see if she had a fever. Nope, she was as hot as she always had been(yeah, Jade paid attention to her in that way, as well). So, it wasn't a fever. That made Jade smile - like really smile. There was no fake, just do it because you don't want to alert her to your true feelings. No, this was a smile that would remind Scout of the old, pre-drug-addict, alcoholic, promiscious Jade. That smile belonged to the blonde niece of the edgy Charlie Taylor. That smile belonged to the attractive blonde that captured Jay's heart. That was a smile that belonged to a girl originally thought lost, but seemingly has been found.

"You really think so?" Jade sounded hopeful. "Scout, that's all that I really wanted. Just to be able to call everyone my friend again." Jade might have been showing tears, but they were actually happy tears. They were tears of joy and relief. They were full of hope and actually looking forward to the prospect of being friends with everyone once again.