And so it seemed that everything had gone back to normal.

Guy had spent his breakfast filling in a new patient and now Landel was rambling over the intercom like he always did. It made sense that the man would want to act like everything with Aguilar had never happened, though Guy couldn't help but wonder how things would change when night finally came. Knowing Landel, he'd have a long-winded speech prepared for them.

That was something that he could worry about later, though. Guy filed away the information about the doctors, but it didn't matter too much to him. He'd only been forced through that once, and had apparently been deemed a lost cause after that session. Speaking with a doctor here would just be a waste of time as far as he could tell, so that was fine by him.

Being placed in the Sun Room gave him access to the bulletin board, and perusing it gave him some idea of what had gone on last night, at least to the point that he understood that they'd had some sort of outside help. People were being secretive, but that was nothing new. Guy went ahead and put up a note for his friends, wanting to keep it up as a routine (at this point Luke should have been the one doing it, but Guy could talk to him about that later).

With that taken care of, he had little else to do but find himself a place to sit, and before long he located a comfy armchair. He took as seat, but as usual Guy couldn't help but keep an eye out for any friends.

[For Tear!]

[from here]

No, something was different. It wasn't until she reached the next hallway that Anise realized, but she could feel fonons - in the air, and in her body. It took a moment to process this, but as she thought about it, she quickly grew excited. Could this mean...!?

Tokunaga was retrieved from her back, and she held the doll in front of her in her arms. She focused her energy, and... to her delight, the doll began to grow. Its limbs stretched out, then thickened as the head and torso swelled to several times its original size. Once it was large enough, Anise tucked her weapon in the strap of the bag tied around its neck, then used her free hand to hold on to its head. When it finished growing, the doll was slightly taller than an average adult (and much wider), and Anise sat happily atop its big round head.

"Tokunaga! You're back!" she cried excitedly, wrapping her arms around the top of the doll's enormous head to give it a celebratory hug. "Let's go show the others!" This could only mean good things! Maybe they could finally escape!

The doll charged triumphantly through the hallway... then stopped at the door. The frame was too narrow for it to fit through. Anise had to shrink the doll down a bit, carefully squeeze through, make it grow again, and then they were off to find her friends!

[to here]

Well ... shit.

Everything had been as it always had been; the lights shutting off, the doors unlocking ... silence. At least, for a few moments. The moment the loud siren began blaring through the air, the teenager lifted her hands to cover her ears, hissing under her breath. "Why always the sirens? Why?" she moaned, pushing herself up from her spot on the bed where she had been sitting to the center of the empty room. Claire hadn't come to dinner. She was alone, and now -

What the hell was that strange light?

Bella groaned, darting towards her pillow to click on her flashlight before moving towards her closet. There had to be something. The bat. The shard of glass -

Even better. Bella's fingers found the grip of the knife she had used the previous night, spinning it around in her hand for a moment before turning towards her door and fleeing down the hallway. Screw waiting around for Edward trapped in her room. That was the last place she wanted to be.

At least the siren is gone, she suddenly realized, peering through the darkness, her feet beginning to move faster. Whatever code red was, she wasn't interested to wait around long enough to find out.

( to here. )

After an intercom broadcast like that, Kurogane felt somewhat better about the little information he'd gotten from Harrington the previous night. The man only sounded competent when he needed to but was an idiot otherwise. Unfortunately that was furthered proof of the General not employing the brightest of staff members, making another option for information closed to them.

Kurogane was again some steps ahead of his escort when he reached the Sun Room and ignored the soldier further as the ninja headed to look over the bulletin. Last time he'd missed something, and he wasn't about to have that happen a second time. With some searching he located Tsubaki's messages to others he didn't know but found nothing either written by the magician or addressed to him. That being the case, he left the board without any of his own writing and sought out a chair over a couch. If he didn't leave open a space by him, he had a better chance of being left alone. Or so he believed.

[free bird! bear]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning.

He'd spent the morning alone, trying to ignore any cutting remarks from a boy who wasn't there as he puzzled through things. Were the drugs responsible after all? A note on the bulletin had confirmed that someone else who'd been forced into the trial had been hearing things too, but Hakkai...

The call for lunch had been welcome; the day was barely half over, and Firo was already feeling exhausted. At this rate, maybe it would be best to just wait it out instead of trying to figure out what was causing it. If it was the drug, it should wear off after a while.

He accepted his gruel quietly, looking it over as he headed across the cafeteria—Hakkai had said it looked spoiled, but he couldn't tell any difference from what they'd served morning, noon, and night every day. Maybe the man was still seeing things after all, or maybe he was the one seeing things. It could have been bad and only looked alright. Or maybe it was just the color after all...

As took a seat, a new voice called out to him: "There's no point in you trying to figure it out, Firo. You're a real idiot, you know?"

Firo scowled. "I don't want to hear that from you, Berga," he growled under his breath.

[For Peter Petrelli ;_;]

Anise couldn't get out of the Cafeteria fast enough. The stench of rotted food was overwhelming, and she was starting to feel sick. Most of her nausea came from seeing the people around her eating it, though. Even her friends! Anise didn't know what to do... What if lunch ended up being the same?

The Sun Room didn't feel like it was nearly far enough from all the rot, and Anise was convinced she could still smell it even after leaving the Cafeteria. She considered ducking into that blanket fort to get away from it (wait, blanket fort?), but decided distance was a better buffer than a pile of sheets and cushions (but seriously, blanket fort?). After giving the bulletin a quick look-over (No one had said anything about the food yet. It wasn't just her, was it...?) she decided to duck into the Library. With her privileges, Anise probably could have run off to wherever she wanted, but she figured it would be too boring to do that if she wouldn't have anyone to talk to.

Come to think of it, Anise hardly ever came to the Library, even though she liked reading. It just never felt like there was enough time to read. The first and last time she came was the day she had that fight with Aidou. She wondered how he was doing. Maybe it was about time they made up...

The last time she came, she'd been looking up Earth myths and legends. Anise wandered back to that section, looking over the rows of books as she considered giving that another shot.

While she stood there, her stomach growled, and she set a hand on it with a groan. "Like I could even stomach a meal right now..."

[Tear.]

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress he'd made had been washed out of his memory.

He tried not to be disturbed by the deja vu, but it wasn't the sort of thing one was in full control of. And yet, his heart didn't race. His nose didn't bleed. His hands were shaking, but with a different tenor than the last time he had concentrated on them. Everything felt still, and whole, and maybe not right, but for the first time in weeks Billy breathed without trouble. There was no weight of a terrified, dying universe crawling over his shoulders and clamoring for attention. He laid there in bed for a long time. Victory. Not his victory, but someone else's, and that was good enough. He hadn't needed to be the one who saved it, he was just doing what he had to. Truthfully, he was glad to have not seen it. There was a lot Billy wished he hadn't seen.

He couldn't bring himself to react much to the fact that he was still here. Billy glanced around a couple times, vision blurred without his glasses, but saw that the room was basically the same. This time lit up, of course, although it didn't help him to gather many precise details. He would have almost said his aimless adventure with Captain Kirk during the night had been a dream, but it was all wrong, thematically speaking. Maybe if Kirk had been a squid dressed in gold lamé, he'd believe it. It really didn't matter what his dreams meant anymore, though.

( Kraken spoiler cut for those who mentioned wanting to read it. )

Any further thoughts were interrupted by a soldier he hadn't noticed entering.

"Get dressed."

Billy stared at the military blues from the night before. Clean and fresh, no sign of any blood, not that he'd been the one injured. There was even a little hat that he had missed the night before. He was going to look ridiculous, he could feel it.

"I think you'll probably find I'm not actually registered here," he tried to tell the guard, who was not impressed by Billy's claim. The soldier wasn't even moved by Billy pointing out that the dog tags didn't have his name on them. (Frederick Aldrich? An eerie coincidence that made Billy quietly comply with demands for a few minutes.) The man spoke in nothing but orders, which were easy to follow when you weren't particularly attached to any final aim. Billy was listless. Flotsam and jetsam. Getting back to London was an eventual goal, but he'd put in a call to someone later, and go back to whatever. His life, he supposed. He was already exasperated by the taciturn and far too serious military man. Once upon a time he would have wanted to gain purchase with him through inoffensive smiles and falsely friendly comments. Today, he could only give the man a tired look and equally brusque answers that didn't hide his irritation. Did he really look young enough to be pressed into a military academy?

He was led down cleaner versions of the hallways he had seen the night before, and into a large cafeteria, basically devoid of anyone beside himself and the assembled guards. Billy uncomfortably found a seat, and took a few seconds to just hide his face in his hands and block everything else out. The tray he had been given was immediately forgotten, just to the side of him, and he blamed his turning stomach on the adrenaline that was still working its way out of his system. It was so fantastically quiet in the large room, he wanted to drown in it. He only peered through his fingers when someone else in powder blue passed close to his table.

[For Castiel.]

Edward was a little disappointed there was no gun-toting escort awaiting him outside the door. It was lucky he had had so much experience with spontaneous teleportation -

- except his experience didn't mean very much if his senses were able to readjust themselves at the speed they always should. Though the change in environment was immediate and surprising, he - landed? Was that a sufficient term? - without nary a stumble. For a moment, he was strangely overtaken by all of his senses returning: the smell of the mask on his face (a mask? The air in the entire place, then, was polluted?), the starch of his uniform, the way the terrain was open to him, unhindered by the darkness.

Immediately he was taking in the environment directly around them, his eyes already darting around for the potentially "hostile" rebels. Edward moved by Bella's side - moved like a vampire at a speed he felt was blurred to himself - momentarily distracted by staring at his hands in the darkness. Just like when he had returned to Forks, he had become himself again. Fast, strong, inhuman.

It was shocking to realize he was now uncomfortable in his own skin.

Where they had been taken to was the very opposite of Forks. While the small town in Washington could not be accurately be described with any word pertaining to vitality, this place was run-down, half-standing buildings and empty streets stretched out before them.

He looked to the smaller man that had landed beside him, his voice misshapen by the mask. "Do you feel different, Venom? Like from when we first teleported?"

This was not how Bella had planned on spending the night. All she wanted to do was grieve and mope in solitude, and as she walked down the hallway led by an unidentified soldier (she had attempted to get away from them the moment they entered the room, but had been told that she had no choice in the matter. She could either come quietly with him, or be ... forced. She chose the easy option.) she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen. With every stop she took, the panic only rose.

What was going to happen? She heard that patients were experimented on from time to time, and she only hoped that was not the case here. If it was, she swore she wouldn't go down without a fight, that was for sure.

... Not that she could do ... much against an armed soldier, but still.

After a while, Bella was led towards a simple door that read "meeting room 2", and instantly the teenager tried to run. She didn't know what was hidden behind the door, but with the rising panic and paranoia, by the time she saw the room she was beyond crazy. Plus she was still in mourning -

Suddenly the soldier's arms were around her waist, pulling her towards the room, and Bella hissed under her breath, fingers clawing at the soldier's arm to no avail. "Let me go!"

The soldier said nothing, instead reaching out with his free arm to open the door to the meeting room with ease. He moved inside and towards the middle of the room and unceremoniously dropped Bella to the floor, still silent. The teenager remained, unmoving, on the floor, frowning in the darkness. Damn stupid soldier (who had quietly exited the room during her hissy fit.). Damn the fact there were no lights on. Damn loss. Damn being annoyed at the one person she was never annoyed with (slight lie. ... that was also a slight lie.). Damn the fact she was probably going to hate how the night continued.

Sighing, Bella only remained on the floor for a few more seconds before finally standing up. Dusting herself off, she looked wearily around the room, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried to not let the thoughts of fear take over her mind. She didn't want anything bad to happen. "Everything will be okayyyy," she whispered to herself, biting her bottom lip. "Everything will be okayyyyy ... because we are not in the mood for a panic attack right nowwwwww."

The dinner announcement came as something utterly unexpected. Rather than Harrington's excited tones, the calm accented voice of the General drifted through the intercom speakers.

"Code 1-8. I repeat: Code 1-8. All personnel are to report to your stations. No exceptions."

The intercom clicked off, leaving no explanation behind. The staff appeared to take the words to heart, however, as evident by their thin-lipped faces and snappy tones to the slower patients. They were in an obvious hurry to get everyone back to their rooms.

For what cause, they refused to divulged.

[ Those participating in the forced drug trials, please ensure to read this lounge post before posting to dinner. Thanks! ]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of felt like she was floating and bobbing in the water.

But she was alive.

Knowing how close she came to death last night, and remembering the lengths her friends had gone to in order to save her, there was no way Anise could let a little discomfort get her down. She had to be at her best today so she wouldn't seem ungrateful to Guy and Claude. On that note, she had to remember to thank them properly, now that she was better able to express herself.

While getting ready, Anise was surprised to actually run into Claude that morning. He came to her room asking for the notebook he stored there (or maybe it was an excuse to see her cute face again), so Anise happily located it and handed it over. She was pretty tired, but the big smile she gave him was genuine. Who wouldn't be happy to see her savior so soon after a dramatic rescue?

After he left, Anise finished re-tying her pigtails into a low position so the military beret would fit on her head, and then she was ready! Even though her stomach wasn't feeling that great, she figured sitting down to a decent meal would help normalize it. And luckily for her, she was among the few who had the privilege of eating such a meal. Anise filled a plate with french toast topped with syrup and fruit, accompanied by small portions of each of the available side dishes.

It looked like she was early, which meant there weren't a lot of people around. That was okay, though. Anise could get a good head start on her meal before any company came around. She sat down at a table by herself and started on her sausage first.

[for Tolten!]

[ from here ]

As Erika approached the meeting spot, she was pleased to see that she was, indeed, first to reach there. This was to be expected: Erika was closest to this particular hallway and she could have given the others a minute's head start and still probably beat them while walking at a leisurely pace. But Erika had hurried to get here and set up camp anyway, directing her flashlight to the ceiling while dropping her bag next to her feet.

Perhaps the detective was so anxious to get there first in an effort to get back at Sync for implying that he more or less found her useless. Yet he followed her around anyway! Hopefully, this would be the last "team exercise" she would be expected to perform in this place so she could finally rid herself of him.

This hallway was as empty as the last one, but Erika knew she was going to see some traffic very soon. There was only one place on her map where a med wing was and it was east, just as Aguilar said. It was definitely a place that she would visit sometime soon so she could collect more of those pins, but not tonight. After all, Erika wasn't so desperate for a pin that she would willingly subject herself to Unknown Drug X. Let the other idiots work out the side effects and she'd be more than happy to step in if the risks were really worth it.

Aguilar should have saved his rant for someone who cared. Rita was sure she wasn't the only one who had zero sympathy and zero inclination to start treating him like some benevolent leader. He thought of them as rational beings, so they should be grateful? Did they also need to be grateful that he wanted to use them as test subjects? How about the part where he was still holding them all against their will? What a bunch of crap.

But, whatever. Rita had her own plans for the night, and they didn't involve taking the advice of some deranged general. She slipped her backpack on her back, her chain belt around her waist, and with her flashlight in hand, she was ready.

She stepped out into the hallway, though there wasn't much point in it. Instead of turning and walking towards the exit, she walked straight up to the wall across from her door. The hand she wore the portal ring on was balled into a fist, pulled back, and then sent slamming into the hard wall. A high pitched shattering sound rang through the hallway, and Rita's world become distorted.

[to here]

While Peter was glad that he had been able to meet not one, but two new patients and give them some advice, he had to admit that he was itching to see a familiar face by now. Actually, it was one in particular that he was looking for, and one that most people who knew him would have been able to guess on the first try. In others words, he hadn't seen Claire all day and he was worried about her.

It was possible that she was tied up with a visitor, which worried him. While he had been through it himself and had come out of it okay despite the fact that he'd had to face both his brother and his mom at different points, he didn't know how Claire would be able to handle it. What if one of her family members showed up? Or a friend of hers?

Even though he was close to Claire, the fact was that he still didn't know that much about her. Where would she go, if given the choice? It seemed like outside would be far too cold to go by choice, so where did that leave him? He hadn't seen her in the Sun Room, so he decided to search the Music Room next. Teenagers were usually interested in music, weren't they? Granted, he didn't even know what Claire liked -- pop, rock, maybe even country?

However, as he walked into the room in question, there was no sign of his niece, which forced a sigh out of him. He figured he'd probably be best off searching elsewhere (maybe the Game Room next?), but decided to pause and give the CD collection a glance over. It was usually too crowded to get a good look at them, but not today. Maybe he could take a walk down memory lane...

[Free!]

The meal shift had come to an end without being able to ease Seishin's confusion. In fact, the conversation with Vino-san had only served to raise even more questions than he initially had. It had all sounded so strange and unreal, though he didn't think the other man had any reason to lie to him. He couldn't help but to be a little skeptical, however.

Though, he had been as equally skeptical when Toshio had first told him about the Shiki.

Toshio...he wondered what his former friend was doing right now. Had he been among the group chasing him? He and the villagers would've killed Sunako on sight. Toshio hated losing, though the former priest was no longer certain how well he knew him anymore. They had grown apart, as if a gap had formed between them during the last couple of months, one they were unable to cross. Seishin could only hope that Toshio and the others hadn't been the ones to find them, that Sunako was safe.

There was a certain irony in the situation. All his life he had been doing what was expected of him, but in the end he had forsaken the village, had wished destruction upon them. According to them, their village priest had done the unforgivable. He had betrayed them. Were he to find himself in Sotoba once more, he would face persecution and exile, if not death. He had already been facing it as he fled from them with Sunako.

Then, had he become Cain?

The male nurse from before had returned - though with the new information the former priest had to wonder whether this person really was a nurse, though it would explain the cold behavior - to escort him towards a new area. Seishin managed a quick stop in the lounge he had passed through earlier, which now had been set up as a movie theater in accordance to the announcement. On the wall he noticed a bulletin board. The darkness made it a little difficult to read any of the notices on it, but he had managed to make a quick copy of the maps someone had posted upon it. If he was indeed free to wander the halls at night, then these would surely come in handy.

He briefly considered asking if anyone knew about Sotoba, but he decided against it. Considering the circumstances in that tiny village, it may be best to keep a low profile for now. Asking about Sunako on such a public place may be far too risky as well -- she hardly needed others to find out what she was. Furthermore, the "nurse" grew increasingly more impatient with him and his 'dwindling'. The apology he offered was ignored as the other man brought him to the library, as he had requested.

Seishin wasn't certain what he hoped to find here, so he began wandering between the shelves as he scanned the titles of the books.

[Free to a good home.]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't very familiar with Earth technology, she'd seen the little devices in the Music Room that could play recordings of people's voices. This had to be something like that.

It wasn't long before Anise was escorted to the Cafeteria, and then to the section where edible food was being served. As she filled her plate with waffles, fruit, and sausages, she looked to the other side of the counter with a look of sympathy. It was hard to enjoy her own meals while knowing what the other patients had to suffer through.

She wasn't about to refuse her meals just out of guilt, though. Anise needed her strength for tonight. There was still a bit of a nervous twist in her stomach whenever she thought about what could happen down in the basement... but she wasn't going to back down. Not after promising her friends they'd go together.

With her tray in hand, Anise seated herself at an empty table in the middle of the room. She preferred to have company while eating, but it looked like she was one of the first patients there, so there was no one to sit with. Maybe if she minded her manners and tried to look her cutest, she'd attract someone handsome! Holding her utensils delicately, she began to cut her waffles into smaller pieces.

[For Battler.]

Anise was actually sleeping well for once. When morning came, she was curled up on her side, her arms tightly hugging her pillow in the same way they would usually hold Tokunaga.

All was peaceful... until she was awakened by a hateful voice.

Her eyes snapped open, and she jolted up into a sitting position. The Head Doctor... that bastard Landel was back! Those were her first thoughts, but as the haze of sleep gradually left her mind, she began to question whether that was actually true. There was something weird about the intercom announcement. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but... wasn't it a bit too much like another announcement she'd heard before?

"Did you sleep well, Dolores?" a nurse asked as she let herself into the room. No... she wasn't a nurse. It was that woman from yesterday - a soldier. Anise didn't want to start any trouble with her, so she merely answered with a nod as she pulled herself out of bed.

Wait a second... this wasn't her uniform. Well, it was, but it wasn't the one she was wearing last night. It looked like Anise was dressed in those gross-looking gray rags again, with only one noticeable difference: a pair of star-shaped stickers on the front, just above the smiley face on the left side. What was that for? And did this mean they weren't going to be treated like soldiers anymore?

Anise didn't have much time to wonder, as the "nurse" urged her to quickly finish getting ready, and to choose a place to go. As usual, Anise chose the Chapel. There was a bittersweet familiarity about the place. It reminded her of home, but it also reminded her of how far she was from home.

Once she was left alone, Anise sat down on an empty pew. She didn't feel much like praying today, and she still wasn't sure it would do any good, besides. Instead, she occupied herself by looking around at the decor and the staff, and then by picking up a hymnal and glancing through it. She really wanted to know what was going on... but it didn't seem like any clear answers were going to come right away.

[Edgar!]

Getting to check up on Neku had been good (even though Sora realized that he was the one who'd been approached, rather than doing the approaching), but when the buses finally made their way through the snow and into the town, the boy was completely distracted by the view that followed. It really did remind him of Christmastown. There were no lights up and he wasn't going to stumble on Santa's factory anytime soon, but it was still beautiful and he couldn't wait to get out into it.

So, the moment that the bus came to a halt, Sora waved a goodbye to Neku, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder for a moment as reassurance before he made his way down the aisle and eventually out the door and into the cold weather.

Sucking in a breath, he spun in a slow circle and grinned to himself. It was so pretty out here! And there was a whole thick layer of untouched snow that was just asking to be played in. Sora realized that his priority should have been finding a place where he could spend the twenty-five dollars he'd been given, he figured he'd have all day to work that out. Right now, he wanted to make the best of this weather, since he doubted it was going to be like this next week.

And so without delay he headed across the street and right into Magus Park. It also occurred to him that he'd finally broken his pattern of being injured whenever he came to town, which meant he had all the freedom to play around as he wanted.

The first order of business was making one of those snow angels that he'd learned about; it would be way easier than trying to make a snowman, he was guessing. Making use of the winter clothes he'd been given, the boy threw himself on the ground and started to fan out his arms and legs.

Maybe he was the leader of the Arts and Crafts club and maybe he'd fought against the Heartless and almost all of the Organization members during his journeys, but sometimes Sora just felt the need to be a kid again.

[For Tsubaki.]

Rita awakened in a cold sweat that morning. What the hell was that all about!? It had to be a trick, like the moving shadows from the other night... It just couldn't be real.

In the end, no progress had been made. How much longer was Rita going to be trapped in this dump?

Speaking of dump, that was about the moment when a male nurse entered the room, carrying a pile of worn clothes that looked like they came right out of the trash. He dumped them unceremoniously on her bed, and with an unfriendly glance, ordered her, "Put these on."

"Would it kill you to ask nicely?" Rita sneered, pulling herself out from under the covers and crawling over to where she could look through the pile. There was a dark blue knee-length skirt, a pair of purple stockings that came up to about the knees, a pink blouse, blue jacket, and a pink scarf. This was for that 'field trip', then? Well, whatever. They didn't look as stuffy as the military uniform, so Rita put them on.

Once she was finished, she found herself being led outside to some large machines - no, vehicles? - which several other patients were being made to board. Rita had heard very little about the Doyleton trip, other than the fact that they were apparently going to visit some Earth town. There was something intriguing about that - being able to see something that perhaps no one else from her world would ever see - but it was also a distraction that was going to further delay her escape, and that was irritating.

The vehicle that Rita was brought to was empty at the moment, so she sat herself down by a window and started looking through the various items she had been handed upon boarding. The money card was especially curious, and she wondered how much the allowance would allow her to buy. She assumed very little, but she hoped ten dollars were at least worth more than ten gald.

[Free!]

Night. Bella had been in the middle of talking to Claire when suddenly the lights dimmed, finally turning off. There was a moment of silence - and suddenly, the static.

Her hand's instantly leapt up to her ears, covering them from the offensive sound. Not that it did anything, of course, but it certainly helped. Mentally. If she was trying hard to block out the sound, maybe her mind would think it was blocking out the sound. ... Right? Right. Or ... something. Bella didn't really know; her mind felt somewhat frazzled after the loud static sound. Was this how Edward always felt? She didn't really know what it was like to hear thoughts that weren't her own, but she imagined it was just like that. Static. White noise.

Speaking of.

Right. She had plans. She had to get to Edward as soon as possible. Sure, her ankle still ached, but she would be damned if she wouldn't try to run. He could scold her after. She would gladly take the verbal beating if that meant that he was by her side.

Bella moved quickly, grabbing her flashlight from under her pillow. She didn't even bother looking for her bat. It didn't matter. She would be fine.

Waving quickly to Claire, the teenager moved out the door, limping into the hall outside.