?Reggie! Reggie!? His voice was panicked. ?They?ve gotten loose and are attacking people in the facility!?

The earth below her feet shook angrily. The lights flickered from an unexpected interruption of power. People were screaming in surprised fear and some were leaving the room. No, it wasn?t a room. It was a laboratory. It had beakers and test tubes with racks of materials. Paper was everywhere. The papers must have been someone?s work. To Reggie it all looked like a chaotic mess and it was since the building was being evacuated, especially since They have started a rampage. But who were They?

?W-what?? Reggie asked blearily as if she had been asleep moments before. ?Th-they did?? She didn?t know who they were but she needed to know fast.

?Reggie! We have to get out of here before they reach our area! Come on!? He turned and was scrambling up what looked to be a partially broken stairway.

Reggie ran a hand down her face. Okay, Reggie, what?s happening?

It wasn?t supposed to be like this. We were just trying to create someone who could help. They changed and now?I didn?t want to be the one to live through this. Just get me out alive.

Hell. A noise, no?an explosion in the background broke the communication and Reggie looked around. She saw the notes that had been used to create whoever They were. She heard footsteps and her gaze swung wildly to the door above the stairway. Was it Them? No. No one came through, so it was probably just more people fleeing the building. Reggie turned from the workstation and started to shakily make her way to the stairs.

Grab the paperwork! We can start again. I know how to make it better. I can start over. It will work next time. We have to try again.

Are you kidding me? They are eating people! She had seen those movies when human hybrids had started chewing on the poor saps working in one of research facilities. She didn?t want to be one of those victims.

We have to try again. I can fix the formula. I can make it perfect. I know what to do.

Then you do it. Get yourself out alive if you want your work. She felt it. The tether she had set in place the night before.

The bracelet about Reggie?s wrist glittered like a beacon. It was calling her home. Don?t try again. Don?t do this to anyone else. That?s all she could say to the true Reggie before she sucked in a breath to follow her beacon home and let Reggie deal with her own mess.

Arlene woke from her slumber with a start as she fell out of her bed onto the floor. ?Ow,? she groaned and rubbed her left eye with the heel of her left hand and placed her right hand over her heart. ?I hate those ones.? She lowered her left hand to finger the smooth round malachite stones around her wrist. She had the bracelet specially made and had been unfortunate enough to forget it at home, but luckily had little need for it at the time. She pressed her palms to the floor then up to stand. Arlene paused mid step as it still felt like the earth was moving below her feet. When she finally took her first step, she stumbled then straightened and brought her shoulders back as she forced herself to focus on the now as she made the walk to one of the many windows. Two fingers lifted the blackout curtain back to see what the day looked like.

Damn. It was still dark outside, but her mind wasn?t going to let her go back to sleep. Her body felt exhausted and shaky. Nevertheless, she knew how she needed to start her day. She walked around the room to light a few candles, especially those that would heat some scented wax she purchased. Then she sat at her piano and began to play what brief story of Reggie she had to feel and had to let go from her system. It was sad, guilt ridden, and yet eerily full of hope. All the feelings she had felt during her brief time as Reggie and somewhere, deep down, she had the feeling that Reggie did go back for her life's work but she didn't know if the woman had made it out of the building alive. So if uncertainty had a sound then she added what it felt like at the end of her playing.

The gunshot boomed through the air. Then it went dark.

Faith pressed a hand to her mouth in a gasp as she read a letter. The gunshot boomed through the air. Then it went dark.

The delivery man handed Faith a sealed envelope amongst a crowd of family members gathered at her home. No faces, just people. Arlene knew, but didn?t know who they were. Faith had taken off into a run, like a chubby gazelle, as the door to her room slammed shut. It?s funny?.the room seemed connected to the back patio. Arlene could sense and in her mind?s eye see that Faith pressed a hand to her mouth in a gasp as she read a letter she had freed rather haphazardly from the sealed envelope. No one knew what the letter contained, but the sense that something was wrong was thick in the air. It choked you. No one knew what was coming, except for Arlene. She could see the hidden gun being freed, the finger flicking the safety off to eventually press the trigger, and the loud shot of the gun.

Faith was dead. She had killed herself. Her family frantically ran to her room to try to see what happened as some people screamed. Each person in shock and some desperately clinging to the notion that this wasn?t real and Faith hadn?t died. But it did happen. Her brain matter was splattered around her room. Some people wanted to know what was in the letter, but it was coated in her blood and no one dared to touch it. What had shocked the girl so much to kill herself?

The scene replayed again and again as each moment zoomed out and became magnified. Arlene was disoriented each time as she was unable to determine if she was an active participant or an observer of incident. Her role could go either way.

She heard the man named Andrew ask why and what was Faith given. Arlene thought it was her, or rather the body she inhabited, answer that she had no idea but everything was no fuzzy. The scenes weren?t clear to her and she was feeling lightheaded. She was losing hold on her true moment in her reality as the scenes kept replaying faster and faster, but nothing with nothing being revealed. What was she here for? Why had she been called? She wasn?t a sleuth and most times she was either an active participant or just a witness. Usually a hand that held the true person having his or her experience.

Arlene felt her breath becoming labored. She was being sucked into this reality and she had to release the hold. She didn?t want to hear another gun shot. The air was thick with this death as it lingered and replayed. She took hold of her beaded bracelet and whispered an incantation she had been working on for a quicker, safe release. Soon enough, Arlene sat up in her bed with sweat on her forehead and a racing heart. This was a new travel and one she didn?t like. Nevertheless, she rose and lit several candles for Faith and her family. She touched several of her charms for safekeeping for herself. Later, she would work on something stronger to try to prevent another unraveling.