Jason, Janelle, and Cynthia
Location: Cynthia's Office, Seattle, Washington
Jace and Janelle were walking, when suddenly, they weren't outside anymore. He looked around at their surroundings, and saw that they were in an office of some kind. There was a woman sitting at the desk in front of them, but it still made him wonder how the hell they wound up there. He glanced back at the door, and saw others walking past. Where were they, and what happened. Janelle was confused too, she couldn't see their surroundings, but she knew that they weren't outside. This place was strange, but she couldn't tell where anyone but her brother was. She gripped onto him, before she spoke, "Jace? Where are we?" she asked him, before he could tell her about their surroundings.
Cynthia jumped upon hearing the voice of a girl, nearly knocking her tea over. Her pen slipped in her hand, a document ruined as it slashed across the page. She groaned, her day simply couldn't get any worse. She'd have to ask the receptionist to print out a new copy of this page, after she chewed the woman out for letting people into her office without notice. Turning, she faced a young man and an even younger looking girl. The girl simply stared off into space, and the boy clutched her as if she was a priceless object. They were in street clothes, and she knew she didn't have a meeting scheduled. So why were they interrupting her?
Cynthia slowly got up from her desk to greet them a tad more formally. She held out a steady hand to the boy, since the girl seemed a bit shaken. “Cynthia Markov, prosecutor.” It was then that she noticed their clothes were damp and their hair clung to their skin. She looked outside her floor to ceiling window, the rain slamming against the pane in fat droplets. Her brow furrowed, there hadn't been any rain clouds in the sky during her daily commute. Upon a more thorough inspection, she found herself trying to place their faces. She had definitely seen them before. “I'm sorry, but...are you two lost?”
Janelle jumped, startled at the sudden voice. It wasn't one she recognized, and she hadn't known she was there before, otherwise she wouldn't have originally spoken out loud to begin with. She remained silent now, waiting for her brother to say something, he at least could make eye contact with the woman, as opposed to just speaking to her without seeing.
"Uh, sorry, I'm Jason Gauger, and this is my younger sister Janelle. I'm still not even sure how we got here to be honest. One minute we were headed to the store, next thing we knew, we were here," Jason said to Cynthia, "Sorry, for dropping in". He was still a little confused as to what was going on, but it was the best he could do. There was nothing else he could say to explain what happened. He leaned down, and whispered to Janelle, describing the area they were in, and what the woman looked like.
“You're fine -both of you are fine, I just wasn't expecting any guests until tomorrow, at two.” Cynthia said, throwing a dismissive gesture to ease the boy's nerves. She watched him mutter into the girl's ear, picking up descriptions of herself and the room around them. It was then that she realized the girl was blind. She felt a pang of sympathy for the girl. If she had been dragged here under the notion that she was going to the store, she must've been shocked to find herself in a law firm. “You don't know how you got here? You had to have taken the elevator up.”
"The elevator?" Janelle asked, after her brother had finished his description, and the woman started to speak again. Usually she could tell if they got into something like that. The feeling of movement, of rising, that is not something she could easily ignore. There was no way they got into an elevator, she knew that for a fact. "Sorry, um, that just isn't possible. The movement of an elevator is very distinct, not something you could ignore. It is also not very likely that we took the stairs, since the movement of that is very clear as well, and requires walking. One minute we were outside, and it started to rain, then we were here. There isn't much that could have happened for us to have gotten up here".
Cynthia's brain worked quickly, trying to connect the dots between the situation. She stared deeply into the eyes of Jace, her mind scanning all of her memories for where she had seen him before. The solution hit her like a ton of bricks. She cursed, striding over to the see-through walls of her office and twisting the blinds shut. She caught the gaze of a coworker, who seemed to want to know what she was doing, and offered them a brief smile before the blinds closed completely. She turned back to Jace and Janelle, the smile gone from her face. “Who are you and why were you in my dream last night?” Like her, they had been witnesses and not perpetrators, but that didn't mean they weren't aware of something she wasn't.
Janelle was a little confused, but Jace was quick to catch on. The woman had been among those he had seen in the dream. "I could very well ask you why you were in my dream," he said to her, giving her a strange look. This was not something he had expected to happen to them when he had gotten up this morning. "We also already told you our names, and I'm still confused on how the hell we got up here from the street below!" His sister looked at him, then back to the woman. "Why don't we all just calm down and try to figure this out together. There is no need to yell Jace," she said to him. Jace took a deep breath and let out it out again. "Sorry," he mumbled, before taking another breath. "She is right though, I also don't really know how to answer your question. I'm just as confused as you are".
Cynthia steeled herself against Jace’s harsh words, the blows bouncing off of her easily. A quick eye roll was her only response, but she flashed a small smile of gratitude towards his sister when she calmed him down. She found his little outburst to be quite rude, but he had been pushing him, and he was young. She was glad his sister had a handle on him, otherwise they would have been stuck arguing rather than finding a solution to their issues. “When I asked who you were, I wasn't talking about your name. I was talking about your possible connections to the victim, or the perpetrator.” She held her hands up defensively, not wanting him to yell and rouse the suspicion of the people in the other rooms. “I'm not implying that you did anything illegal, I'm just as confused as you are. Maybe you recognized some of the others in our dream? If you're real, they must be too. I'm just wondering how we're all connected.” She had a creeping suspicion that she knew how they were connected, but she didn't want to blurt out her abilities.
"I don't really know, all I know is that when I woke up this morning, I saw the news about her death. I haven't seen her before, and from the news it seems like she is from the other side of the country. I don't know anyone else from the dream, and the idea of us being connected in some weird way is interesting". He wasn't too sure how to answer her questions. Janelle wouldn't really recognize anyone, while he wasn't really one to try and remember the faces of strangers. Throughout all of this, his sister remained quiet for the most part, her only contribution so far was telling the woman about elevators and calming him down. He didn't know if she had an answer, and was expecting her to remain silent, when she spoke up again out of the blue. "Maybe it has to do with our abilities," she said, unsure of why she suddenly brought it up. This woman might not know what she was referring to, but it was a thought that had crossed her mind while the two were talking. To her, it was worth the risk of bringing it up if it might help to solve their problems.
Cynthia was struck silent when the words flew out of the sheepish blind girl's mouth, she blinked once, twice, thrice, before she could string together something coherent. Perhaps the peacemaker wasn't as tentative as she had once thought. It took a certain level of tenacity to openly talk about abilities in front of someone who could have been none-the-wiser, someone that would have assumed her either mentally inept. Luckily, Cynthia knew what they were talking about all too well. “That would explain how you got up here.” She mused, seemingly nonchalant. “Does one of you teleport? And who caused the sudden downpour?
Jace was shocked when the woman seemingly knew what his sister meant. He needed to talk to her a little bit later about openly discussing it with random people they didn't know. Nonetheless, the woman did know what she meant, meaning that she had to have some ability of her own. "I don't know who could have caused the sudden downpour, but it is Washington State, the place is kind of known for the rain. As for teleportation, neither one of us can do that. Naturally anyway..." Jason wasn't too sure how to really word it. His sister can just say that she controls ice, for him it was a little more complicated than that. His ability was pretty random in some ways when you thought about it. It also could be a little bit unpredictable, depending on who he passes by or bumps into. This is going to be a long day.
“That's true, the rain probably isn't as big of a deal as I originally thought.” There had probably been some rain clouds outside, that she hadn't noticed while she was caught up in her work. Pushing that information aside, she tried to think of the cause of their visit. Aside from teleportation, there wasn't a logical explanation -that she could think of- as to how they had appeared in her office. “Maybe it was-”
A sudden rap at the door cut Cynthia off, and she released a small sigh at the interruption. She walked over to her door, pulling it open to reveal a slightly frazzled Jessica. “Cynthia, what are you doing? I heard you talking in here.”
Cynthia opened the door further to show Jessica her guests, gesturing at them pointedly. “I'm practicing some statements with my clients.”
“There's no one here, Cynthia. Do you need some time off?”
Janelle couldn't see the woman who Cynthia had opened the door for, but she could definitely hear her. The two of them just stood there, silent for a moment. The woman couldn't see them? How was that possible? Jace looked at Cynthia and the woman, Janelle just listened in. There was no way the woman couldn't see them, unless she was blind like she herself was, but from the sound of it, she wasn't. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder. We get more questions, instead of the answers we're looking for. It sounds like Jace and I might not really be here, but once again, that poses the question of how?"
Jace looked at his sister, then back at Cynthia. There was no way any of this could be possible, yet it was. Somehow, they were there, and they weren't there. All of it was getting even more confusing than it had already become. "So wait, that woman there can't actually see or hear us? Janelle's right, this does create more questions than answers. Too bad we didn't even answer the first question of how we got here before more turned up".
Cynthia refrained from turning around to shush the siblings behind her, giving Jessica a false, confused smile instead. “Like I said, Jessica, I'm practicing, for when the clients actually come in tomorrow. I'll talk to you during our lunch break,” She began closing the door, only stopping when Jessica began to speak up. Cynthia stepped in first, needing her gone as soon as possible. “I know you're concerned about my health, but I assure you I'm seeing someone. Why don't you go work on that domestic dispute, and we'll talk later?”
Jessica nodded, not wanting to let it go but realizing that Cynthia wouldn't talk to her anymore for the time being. Besides, they didn't talk much outside of work, so it wasn't really her place. “Gotcha, we can go that diner you like, I'll pay.” And with that, she turned and strode back to her office.
Cynthia closed the door, one hand firmly on the knob even as she turned to face the pair. “I think the best option -for now at least, is to trade information and meet somewhere a bit more private.” She walked over to her purse, digging into her wallet and whipping out a business card. On the back, she jotted down her personal cell number, and passed it off to Jace. “Call me, alright? We can get this sorted out.”
