|
“We’ve got three days to put together a plan and figure out what sticks” Victoria says, packing up most of their makeshift camp as Scarlett puts on a clean white shirt. “There’s not exactly much to talk about other than how to prevent it” Scarlett replies, turning to watch Victoria chuck the remainder of their camping equipment in the back of their truck. “We’ve got to figure out an escape plan” Victoria says, reminding Scarlett that the task of stopping a terrorist attack isn’t cut and dry.
“You said the Maldives last night, so I’ll trust that you know best when it comes to hide outs” Scarlett replies, staring at the truck for a moment before looking over to Victoria. “Are we sure this is even gonna work?” the unconvinced blonde asks, watching Victoria put the final pieces of painters tape over the ends of her truck. “If they’re looking for a silver Silverado, they won’t be looking for a black Silverado” Victoria replies, popping the lid off a can of black paint. Handing Scarlett a brush, Victoria climbs into the truck bed and begins applying a coat of paint over the roof of the vehicle, applying careful strokes to the surface whilst Scarlett uses the brush to sponge the truck. “What the fuck are you doing, Scar?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett dab at the truck as if it were a cereal bowl. “I think I’m painting the truck?” Scarlett replies, what is meant to be her definitive response coming across much like a question, which she partially intended for. Staring darts at her with a raised eyebrow to send her point home, Victoria watches Scarlett brush as if she were confident in what she were doing before continuing to her own efforts. “So what’s the agenda for today?” Scarlett asks, following along with Victoria suggesting they find somewhere in the far reaches of the forest to hunker down and safely return to the realm beyond. Confused, Scarlett questions what more they need to know from the realm beyond that they don’t already know. “Well for a start, we’re back in the office building” Victoria replies, reminding Scarlett that they have yet to make it inside the double doors. “Already on top of that, I think we can stop this thing before it actually goes down” Victoria replies, stealing Scarlett’s attention from the task at hand like a moth watching a bug zapper power on for the first time. “I don’t care if I should or shouldn’t be, but I’m afraid of how you think we’re going to stop terrorists from blowing up Baton Rouge” Scarlett responds, the manner in which she voices he concerns convincing Victoria that the idea is further ‘out there’ than most. “Listen, if we can find just one of the men in the van, we can follow him and collect whatever evidence we need to turn him into authorities.” Her mouth slightly ajar, Scarlett dabs the tip of her brush with a small amount of paint and flicks it at Victoria, getting her right beside the eye. Looking to the blonde with her hands up, “What was that for?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett place her newly free hands on the unpainted portions of the hood. “Are we talking about the same authorities that currently have us wanted for murder?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria’s expression throw her a curveball. “Why do you look like you know something you’re not telling me?” Scarlett jokes, watching Victoria look around the forest as if there were anyone out there to overhear them as the question remains needing an answer. “It was self defense against a corrupted police officer, and I’m pretty sure publicly acknowledging that is worth it if they can bust an act of domestic terror” Victoria replies, putting the nerves back in Scarlett almost as soon as she believed herself to be free from them. Rolling her eyes and hanging her head as if it were a robe dangling from a clothesline, Scarlett tells Victoria that she doesn’t like the dance with fire they’re starting to play around with. “We’re not going to get burned as long as we give them exactly what they want” Victoria replies, promising Scarlett that there’s an out to be found, and they’re going to take it. Returning to giving the truck a makeover, Victoria and Scarlett brace through the hot summer sun of Louisiana, shaded by the trees to the sound of the cool winds whipping through the branches. “Don’t worry” Victoria says, watching Scarlett look up to her with a look of well-hidden concern. “We’re not gonna spend the rest of our lives outrunning the law, Scar” Victoria says, watching the genuine smile of Scarlett lift the mood instantly, giving everything the feeling that it’ll be alright. = Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = “I know, mom” Rachel says, apologizing to her family for not having returned, pacing around the Bensen’s living room and watching the newscast run down the information of her lifelong friend. “I will” Rachel replies, the concerns of her mother resonating through the phone as worried muffles, Rachel doing her best to make coherent sentences out of her mothers low quality phone. Leaving Rachel to her conversation, Nora joins her husband near the front door as he surveys the front yard through the curtained-off window. “They’re still out there?” Nora asks, watching the sea of news vans and angered civilians causing an uproar directly outside of their front door. “I should go out there” Al says, his suggested efforts immediately being cast aside by his wife, who reminds him that he has no idea what their response to seeing him might be. “They can’t shoot me because they think my daughter’s a murderer” Al begins, stopped by Nora when she informs him that they don’t need a reason to start casting stones. Putting his hands on her shoulders, Al tells Nora that they’ll need to address the media eventually. “The police are going around suggesting the officer had no hand in getting killed, and they’re dragging our daughter’s name through the mud. We can’t just let them do that.” Understanding the place in his heart that Al is coming from, Nora tells him that there is a need to be concerned. “Our daughter, like it or not, is wanted for murdering a police officer. She became a runaway the day before. The public doesn’t care about detail, they care about what the headlines read” Nora says, acting as the voice of reason and finally making a compelling case. “I can’t just watch it happen” Al replies, watching his wife sink her head. Relocating his hands from her shoulders to her head, Al presses his forehead against hers, assuring her that they need to do something before someone takes actions into their own hands. “Nora, I would not be able to live with myself if someone shot our daughter because the cops fed them lies and I just stood back and let it happen” Al says, giving his wife as kiss on the head before telling her to take Rachel and go upstairs. Doing as instructed, Nora guides Rachel to the third floor, stopping at the top of the first set of stairs and looking back at her husband, who takes a few deep breaths before reaching for the doorknob. The sound of Nora taking in a deep breath draws him to glance towards his wife, flashing her a smile before giving her a subtle nod as she disappears around the corner, and he pulls the door open. | “Alright, let’s-” Scarlett begins, pausing as she and Vic enter the realm beyond expecting to return to the inside of the office, only to find themselves in an empty Baton Rouge street. “Where’s the office?” Scarlett asks, surveying the lay of the land and noticing the realm beyond entrenched by the starry night sky, but completely lacking any color. Neon signs are powered down, the street is vacant, and the city is engulfed in a pitch black nothingness. “What kind of dumb fucking game is this shit?” Scarlett shouts, feeling the ground beneath her rumble as the sky is suddenly blanketed by bright red. At the end of the street, the beast explodes from beneath the asphalt, immediately making a break for the two girls. “Now what the fuck is this bullshit?” Scarlett shouts, throwing up a shield in front of herself and Vic, only for the best to swipe at the shield as if it were a fly, sending the girls flying backwards with a violent tenacity. Scraping and dragging along the ground a few hundred yards back, the girls pick themselves up and watch the beast taking aim at them once again. Firing a few rounds off with her service weapon, Scarlett watches the dashes of energy bounce of the figures head, refusing to phase him in the slightest. “Fuck you!” Scarlett shouts, watching Vic pull a concrete pillar from it’s supportive place beneath a building’s front and shattering it over the figure’s head. Stunning it for a moment as it drops to the ground in a thunderous heap, Vic attempts to send a shield ripping towards it, only to halt when the ground begins rumbling in a way foreign to the girls. Looking beside them, the girls notice the building, no longer finding support in the concrete pillar, toppling over and threatening to crash to the ground. Taking Scarlett by the hand, Vic pops out of existence for a brief second before returning with Scarlett a few yards away. A safe distance from the collision, Vic and Scarlett watch the building collapse onto the beast, burying it beneath hundreds of tons of concrete and steel. Silently surveying the damage and watching a number of other, much smaller buildings crumble to the ground, Vic and Scarlett just wait for whatever comes next. Much to their surprise, what happens next is only a continuation of the fight they just had, as the beast emerges from beneath the rubble, taking aim at the girls once again. Stood in place watching the beast storm towards them as Scarlett fires off one round after another, Vic comes up with a solution on the spot and puts it into effect. Grabbing Scarlett’s arm, Vic pops up directly behind the beast and grabs it’s leg, popping out of existence once more. Taking her chances, Vic returns all three to the farthest place she can sense existence in and lets go of the beast. One final time, Vic returns to existence milliseconds later, standing beside Scarlett and watching the beast kamikaze off the edge of the realm beyond. All of these events having taken place within less than the blink of an eye, Scarlett rushes over to the edge, looking down into the pit of eternal darkness below. “How the- What the-” Scarlett asks, pointing back and forth between the edge of existence and her friend, now harboring a newly acquired ability to teleport. “Are you gonna tell me how you figured that out or am I just supposed to guess?” Scarlett asks, Vic insisting she just had the instinct to try it and watch it payoff. “You’re getting used to this” Esotera says, emerging behind the girls and frightening Scarlett. “Stop scaring me!” Scarlett shouts, watching Esotera chuckle and toss her arms outwards before addressing Vic directly. “When the realm starts getting comfortable with you, it lets you act on instinct the way you would in real life” Esotera says, informing Vic that the realm is beginning to trust her. “What about me?” Scarlett asks, placing her hands on her hips as Esotera glances at her, spending three seconds staring at her before brushing her off, returning to her conversation with Vic. “It seems like the realm has decided to reward you” Esotera says, disappearing as a van pulls up. Slowing to a stop, the van’s doors open up, and from the van emerge four men of varying backgrounds, all dressed in normal, discreet civilian clothing. Unfortunately for the girls, the men lack any features on their face, instead sporting a soft covering of skin, much like the faceless figures found in the one hall in the office. Unmoving, instead standing like statues, the men remain motionless as the girls scout them out, noticing one man unlike the rest. Behind the driver in the back of the van was a white man sporting a fast food uniform, barely helpful on it’s own, but crucially sporting a legible nametag. “Ryan” the nametag reads, immediately opening the flood gates for the girls to begin speculating to just what level this new information helps them. “Well?” Scarlett asks, looking to Vic for her insight, only to find the girl finding interest in something other than the nametag. “Where are you going now?” Scarlett asks, tired of having to chase Vic around the realm beyond without knowledge of where they’re going to end up. This time, however, hits differently for Scarlett, as she watches Vic hit the jackpot as she rears the back of the van, reading off the fully legible license plate number. “Does this answer your question?” Vic confidently says with a smile, turning to look at Scarlett before the shoe gets placed onto the other foot, with Scarlett finding interest elsewhere. Pulling the van doors open, Scarlett expects to find a buildup of explosives, only for the back of the van to offer the girls something much more intriguing. Inside the van is a long hallway stretching to a perfectly white room at the very end, completely shattering the laws of nature. Tapping Scarlett on the arm, Victoria takes her sights away from the back of the van to their immediate surroundings, pointing out that they had been returned to the hall of the faceless figures inside the office. Gasping, Scarlett takes her hand away from the van doors, noticing them to have turned into the double doors at the back of the hall, and furthermore, to be completely open, with nothing impeding their progress. Attempting to step inside, Vic holds Scarlett back, telling her not to take any step further. “Don’t try to stop me, Vic” Scarlett says, pausing once Vic says her gut is telling her that something about this isn’t trustworthy. “We’ve been blown up and almost crushed to death trying to get inside these doors, do you really think it would just stroll up to us on the side of the road, give us the answers we needed and leave it as easy as that?” Biting her lip, not wanting to leave this opportunity to waste, but also knowing that Vic is the one with her instincts intact and not the other way around, Scarlett stands there with her foot still suspended in air. “We’re not done with our work yet, Scar” Vic says, taking Scarlett’s hand and leading her away from the double doors. Taking a couple cautious steps back, Scarlett and Vic watch the doors slowly close up, sealing it’s interior with a satisfying silence. | The roaring crowd growing timid, gradually turning into silence as Al steps onto the top step of his family’s home, asking the crowd to allow him to address their concerns. “I’m not gonna walk out here and tell you that I know everything about my daughter, because I’m sure that I don’t” Al opens, refusing to play into the face-saving notion he’s grown to hate situations like these play out beneath the banner of. “But I’ll tell you that I know for a fact that my daughter isn’t a cold blooded murderer” Al continues, hearing the heckle of one man lost in the crowd calling his daughter a cop killer. Making it clear that he isn’t out to call the police liars, Al chooses to state that he will challenge the validity of the clip until his concerns are addressed. “There are complete holes being left in that video that are not being addressed, like why the officer needed to remove the driver from the vehicle despite the stop being made as a wellfare check” Al begins, putting a damper on the crowd for the moment being. “Or why the driver wasn’t handcuffed despite being taken to the back of the car, or why the driver was removed in the first place, that the entire footage would clear up.” Suddenly the mood of the crowd begins to shift, some still firmly on the side of his daughter’s guilt, whilst others begin to join the countless others challenging the nature of the action. “I grieve for the officers family, I truly do… But there is no way this edited-down version of the footage answers all of these questions or tells the full story. If these officers wish to call my daughter a killer, prove your point and release the full goddamn tapes!” As the crowd begins talking amongst themselves, Al raises his finger to tack on an additional point, only for the crowd to hush at the sound of a rip through the air. Atop the stairs, Al looks on at the crowd, standing in the place he once stood before falling forward and collapsing to the bottom of the stairs. Screaming in horror, the crowd of civilians and news anchors begin hurrying off from where they came from. At the bottom of the stairs, amongst the help of few selfless people from the crowd, Al lays in a growing pool of his own blood, dead from a gunshot wound at the hand of a member of the crowd he died addressing. Hearing the sound, Nora attempts to run out of the home as police arrive at the scene, with the selfless civilians attempting to tend to Al pushing Nora back into the home in the event of further shots being fired. Within moments, patrol cars and an ambulance spill into the street, with doctors rushing to the aid of the man who died the instant the bullet ripped through his heart. Screaming as she is shoved back into the home, Nora calls for her husband, spotting the look of fear forever frozen on his face as Rachel stands there, traumatized. | “Found it!” a newly blonde Victoria whispers in the library cubicle beside a newly brunette Scarlett. “There’s a Ryan Seypore that works there in Hammond just outside Baton Rouge” Victoria says, fist-bumping Scarlett having found their ticket to freedom. In the truck, the girls lay out the plan and make sure to keep to it strictly, opting to park behind the restaurant in the employee parking lot. Staring at the black van with the identical license plate to that of the men in the realm beyond, Scarlett and Victoria find their five hours of waiting to be worth it when their person of interest appears through the door. Tailing him for what feels like an eternity, the girls are led to Lettsworth, Louisiana at the northern border of the state, where the van takes a turn to an off-road portion of the road. “Keep those headlights off” Scarlett says, bracing for whatever the pair are about to drive into as they take the turn to follow the van down the horror movie-like passageway into the unknown. The sound of the pebbles being reburied into the dirt below the Silverado’s tires keeping the girls from being perfectly stealthy, the air is only aided in noise by the roaring engine of the van just up ahead. “Stop!” Scarlett says, patting Victoria’s hand as the car breaks in the middle of the pathway, watching the van drive off a few yards ahead, coming to a slow stop at the base of a decrepit barnyard. Emerging from the driver’s seat, Ryan walks into the barn and disappears into its interior, giving Scarlett and Victoria all that they need to play negotiator with the corrupted police department. Throughout the rest of their sleepless night, the girls make various stops at random houses throughout Louisiana, ending their journey with one important stop in a quiet, tucked away suburban neighborhood. Slipping an envelope through the doorway, Scarlett returns to the truck and tells Victoria of them completing their cycle of deliveries. “I told you I had a plan” Victoria replies, fist bumping Scarlett as she proceeds to fasten her seatbelt. As they continue driving, a momentary through the window of an all-night bank teller gives Scarlett a glimpse at a television screen. Unable to read the words of the banner on the newscast, Scarlett urges Victoria to pull into the ATM line just beside it, feeling like it is of some importance. “It’s probably just them shit talking us even more” Victoria replies, her attempt at denying Scarlett her weird request ending when she notices the puppy dog eyes. Groaning at the unnecessary detour, Victoria strolls up to the ATM and presses random buttons to make it appear as though she were checking her account. Just past the ATM, Scarlett reads off the bottom of the banner and painfully whispers “no” to herself as the truth slaps her in the face like a vengeful backhand. Taking her eyes of the screen and reading the same text as Scarlett, Victoria looks over to the girl on the verge of completely breaking apart. “Drive away” Scarlett says, Victoria trying to calm her down before Scarlett yells the same request, turning into an immediate demand. Putting the car in drive and parking off the road just beside a bridge, Victoria watches Scarlett burst out of the vehicle, only to immediately follow after her. “Scarlett, wait up!” Victoria shouts, catching up to the distraught girl with the fresh heartbreak and hugging her from behind as she drops to her knees. “I’m so sorry, Scar” Victoria says, dropping to her knees behind Scarlett and wrapping her arms around her friend, unable to do anything to make matters better. Having to find out through the news that your father was shot to death trying to protect you is one horror in itself, but knowing that it was because of you is a completely different level of self-annihilation. Limp in her friends arms, Scarlett just drops her head and gasps for air through open weeping. Knowing her apologies do nothing to help her devastated friend, Victoria puts her forehead to the back of Scarlett’s, trying to show her that she’s not alone in this, regardless of how it may feel right now. Pausing for a moment, Scarlett looks towards the sky and watches a shooting star dance across it, the nature of it seeming like a combination of antagonistic and nurturing. “We have to go, Scarlett” Victoria says, understanding the pain her other half is feeling, but unable to waste a moment in returning to their camp before they’re seen. Pushing herself to her feet, Scarlett walks to the truck, lightly brushing off help from Victoria in favor of getting the job done on her own. Climbing into the vehicle, Scarlett shuts the passenger’s side door as Victoria climbs into the driver’s seat, turning the key in the ignition. “Are we doing the right thing?” Scarlett asks, her tears still streaming, but the heavy guilt on her conscience moving aside long enough for the question to be asked. “What exactly are we doing?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett turn towards her and admit that she’s only growing less fond of the world by the day. “We’re running away from crooked cops who’ve made us the bad guys for stopping you from being raped!” Laying out the situation in a straight line like that certainly puts things into perspective, but only further muddies the waters between what is truly right and wrong. “You heard it on the radio the other night, they didn’t show anyone what he tried to do to you…” Scarlett says, no longer looking at Victoria, instead grabbing at whatever straws there are to pull whilst she stares down at the floormat beneath her feet. “... And my dad’s dead because of it” Scarlett says, again stopping as she clears her throat and wipes away the tears. Faintly, Scarlett caps off her question, though has very little strength to do so, her words coming out faint and hopeless, dainty due to the strong dread in the air. “Is giving them an out really the right thing to do?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria rub her shoulder and remind her that it’s the only option to save thousands of innocent lives. “We can’t just go have a conversation with people about to blow up the capital city of Louisiana” Victoria says, her words at the start turning humorous as she goes along. “If there’s any stopping this, they’re the only ones that can help with that” Victoria says, not liking the circumstances, but understanding that doing the right thing has to come with consequences at times. “Either way, the second we give over this evidence, we’re free to live our lives and not have to live every day in fear” Victoria says, placing her hand on Scarlett’s leg as the newly-brunette woman returns her warmth with a smile through the tears. Putting the car into drive, the girls return to their forest campsite and wait for the new day to approach, only a few short hours remaining until their judgment day begins. | “Good mornin’” Sheriff West says, walking over to his wife and giving her a kissing on the head. “A letter came for you in the mail” his wife says, returning to her sink as West rounds the table, finding a manilla envelope in the place of his plate. “Something from the precinct?” the wife asks, watching West shake his head, assuming such an envelope would be waiting for him at the station if that were the case. Peeling the envelope open, West reaches inside to find another, smaller manilla envelope with handwriting in red ink on the front reading ‘Confidential.’ “I’ll be right back” West says, walking to the opposite end of the home and taking a seat behind his desk. Turning on the light directly beside the middle of the large wooden center, West tears open the manilla envelope and lets it’s contents fall out onto the table. Contained within the manilla envelope are an aluminum cap, two pictures of a van beneath the midnight sky, the location of a cafe just outside of Louisiana, and a small list of demands. Directing West to attend that place outside of Baton Rouge jurisdiction, the note demands he attend alone, tell no one, and come with two plane tickets to Hawaii. Signed by Scarlett and Victoria, the note tells the man that they will give him something much more important to his career in exchange for their freedom. Telling him not to be late and to come alone, the note signs off with West being reminded that the full dash cam footage does not need to released, and his deceased officer can remain innocent, thus wiping responsibility off of the precinct. Swallowing a mouthful of his coffee, West leans back in his chair and picks up his cellphone, calling in sick to work. The officer on the other line being a close friend, West tells him he just needs to help his wife with some errands out of town, and he’ll be back in tomorrow. Convinced that he wants to hear what these two individuals have for him, West goes against his best instincts and opts to take them up on their word. Walking out to the kitchen, West kisses his wife goodbye and states that he’d be back later in the evening. Walking out the door with the confidential information in his hand, West thinks about calling the station to ask for backup quietly, only to think better of it. Recalling the girls having been seen saving someone from a building collapse, West assumes them to be capable of more than they appear, and elects to do as told.
0 Comments
Silent, almost intentionally trying to refrain from speaking about the events of just under an hour ago, the girls running away from their prior life simply wait for the other to make the first move. Operating on instinct alone, Victoria aims to drive until the can no longer run on fumes, and Scarlett sits in the passengers seat, seated in silence, as if this were the realm beyond and she was just waiting to wake up.
After a few minutes, Victoria notices the truck beginning to feel the effects of an empty gas tank, and pulls into a random gas station to refuel. Coming to a rolling stop, Victoria unclasps her seatbelt and turns to Scarlett, aiming to speak, only to be unable to find the words, and instead opting to simply exit the vehicle and fill the tank like they came here to do. Now alone, no longer able to fixate on Victoria’s heavy breathing to escape the silence, Scarlett closes her eyes. Entering the gas station to the cheery sounds of an automatic bell, Victoria walks up to the counter and requests fifty dollars worth of gas on the third pump. Instructing the teller to keep the change, Scarlett returns to her vehicle, takes the pump and begins to refill as if this was identical to the prior one-thousand times she had pumped gas before. Looking towards the top of her pump, Victoria notices a small screen displaying the news, which immediately commands her attention. No mention of the murder of an on-patrol officer, as crooked as he may truly have been, Victoria stands completely clueless to her surroundings as she just waits for the inevitable to dash across the screen, accompanied by a bright-red “Breaking News” banner. As the pump begins to click, the special edition of breaking news never comes, but Victoria remains standing there, just waiting. The truck no longer needing any additional gas, and the pump no longer pumping gasoline into it, Victoria remains stood there, watching the television with her finger squeezing the latch. “That is all for us this morning, we’ll see you once again at ten” the anchor proudly spouts, closing the show and allowing a random infomercial to begin. Swallowing the ball of spit in her mouth, Victoria notices the pump having done its job and returns it to the pump. Climbing back into the driver’s seat, Victoria looks to Scarlett, who stares at the roof of the truck above her, and turns the key in the ignition. Before pulling out of the gas station, Victoria looks to Scarlett and attempts to say something, literally anything, to no avail. Putting the car in drive, Victoria drives forward and makes for official city line to exit Baton Rouge, and enter Lafayette. = Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = Pulling off the road and onto a dirt track leading down to a little campground in the forest, Victoria puts the truck in park, making sure to hide it behind the tall trees, and out of sight from any direct pathways. Finally, after nearly three hours of silence, Victoria speaks up, telling Scarlett that it is time for them to get back in the realm beyond. “Have you lost it more than I have?” Scarlett asks, “What if someone finds us and calls us in while we’re asleep?” Shaking her head, Victoria tells Scarlett that they’ll set an alarm for a half an hour and return when the alarm goes off. “It might cut it close, but we have to go back at some point” Victoria argues, suggesting advice from Esotera would help them get their plans straightened out. Struggling to fully commit to this plan, Scarlett folds and gives in, telling Victoria that they’ll need to find some place completely out of sight if they’re going to keep heading into the realm beyond for these answers. “When the alarm goes off, we get what we need to make a camp and we ditch the truck” Scarlett says, immediately watching the disgust come across Victoria’s face. “What?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria caress the steering wheel. “The one thing you don’t tell people that drive a truck is that they have to give up their truck” Victoria replies, watching Scarlett look at her with the most judgmental eyes one could sport. “As I said. We get the shit we need, we ditch the truck, we make a camp. Nothing more, and strictly nothing less.” Nodding, Victoria begins to set her alarm and lays back, ready to leave behind the chaos of the realm of reality in favor of the realm beyond. After a few minutes, the girls both fall asleep, finally beginning to have a more firm control over when they do and don’t doze off. Emerging back into the crowd of party people in downtown Baton Rouge, Scarlett and Vic elbow their way through the horde whilst calling out for Esotera’s name. After a few moments, the touch of synthetic skin grabs both girls by the arm and teleports from the center of the crowd and into a quiet, danty, colorless warehouse. “What happened?” Esotera asks, “You’re trembling and your skin feels tight.” Looking at the woman for clarification, Esotera informs the girls that any stressful or fear-inducing situation the girls fall asleep suffering from is represented in a tight, restricted sensation when touched by synthetic skin. “Something’s off” Esotera suggests, “much more off than usual.” Looking to each other before they outright say it, Vic looks to Scarlett to break the ice, hearing her outright admit that they had killed an officer a few hours prior. “In the realm of reality?” Esotera asks, placing her hand to her forehead once her concerns had been clarified in Scarlett’s words. “He was trying to force Vic into his car, it- it felt so- so off” Scarlett says, with Vic concluding her statement by acknowledging that he was most likely looking to have his way with her. “Okay, he should have had a bodycam, so just-” Esotera begins, looking for hopeful suggestions before Scarlett informs her that Baton Rouge does not have a law requiring law enforcement to wear body cams. “Someone like him wouldn’t wear one if he didn’t have to” Vic concludes, watching Esotera’s head drop like a disappointed mother. “We don’t know what to do now” Scarlett admits, watching Esotera look up to her, before she places her hand on Scarlett’s cheek. “You did the right thing, it just has some pretty awful repercussions” Esotera states, telling the girls that without footage, their claim of self-defense is practically already dead in the water. Their heads hung in disappointment, neither girl can truly be upset at the response, having previously assumed it to rest along the lines of improbable to impossible. “What the hell do we do now?” Scarlett asks, the panic in her voice beginning to appear through the cracks within it. “You can hide away” Esotea suggests, having to think outside the box for a solution. “Hide out somewhere and lay low, other than that, I have nothing” Esotera concludes, apologizing once more for lacking the help and advice the girls were looking for. “So that’s it, huh?” Scarlett asks, the question tearing the hopes of all three figures in the room as it leaves her lips. “It’s just over? Just like that?” Scarlett asks, the anger beginning to build up. “We come here to stop the world from five tragedies, and with another one yet to come, we’ve failed to make any difference after fucking two?” Scarlett shouts, looking to Esotera, who looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Scarlett asks, the question being aimed at Esotera takes a detour to be answered by Vic. “Three tragedies” Vic says, capturing Scarlett’s wandering eyes as if the two words were a beacon for Scarlett’s attention. “The murder of that officer and the succeeding manhunt for the two women responsible serve as the third tragedy” Esotera admits, watching Scarlett’ heart sink into the dark trenches of her chest. “But that tragedy wasn’t one we had to stop. It was-” Scarlett starts, stopped in her tracks when Vic effortlessly ends her sentence for her. “-It was one we caused” Vic says, looking to Esotera with pain-filled eyes. “We’re not the one’s stopping the disasters from happening, are we?” Vic asks, standing from her seat as Scarlett looks at their represented subconscious. Stepping up to Esotera, Scarlett begins to tear up as she forces herself to answer the question that Esotera can’t, or perhaps, won’t. “We’re the ones that are starting them” Scarlett declares, Esotera’s look at her out of the corner of her eye giving her all the confirmation that she needed. “Just by being here” Vic begins, “Just by knowing what’s going to happen, we already set out the motions for them to play out, don’t we?” Esotera, looking towards the girls, knowing just as much as their subconscious does, simply nods as Scarlett and Vic stand in shock. With her hands on her hips, Scarlett says the whole point of stopping the tragedies is over now that they’re fugitives. “Not exactly” Esotera states, the eyes of Scarlett and Vic cementing their focus on her. “Just because you’re fugitives, doesn’t mean you can’t still try to stop the tragedies from happening” Esotera admits, reminding the girls that they’re still part of the realm of reality. “If you can figure out what the disaster is and when it happens, you can put a stop to it.” With the declaration that the fight is only over if Scarlett and Vic choose to abandon it, the will to live long enough to make up for their wrong doings give them a sudden second wind. “Not getting caught is just another obstacle thrown into the mix” Vic says, turning to Scarlett, who is quick to point out all the other obstacles they overcame prior. Suddenly, the girls throw aside the loose fugitives concern and ask Esotera to insert them back into the bar when they return. Esotera states that she’ll do her best before watching Vic and Scarlett prepare to blow their brains back into the realm of reality. “One more thing!” Esotera shouts, pausing the return to the realm of reality for another moment and walking closer to the girls. “I know I said it before, but I think with these new ‘obstacles’ in your way, it’s worth reminding you that if you die in the realm of reality, you don’t die permanently.” Looking to each other with a scared, broken smile knowing that actual death is a card to possibly have to deal, Vic and Scarlett nod, thanking Esotera. “You die in the realm beyond and you no longer exist, but if you need to play the card up there…” Esotera starts, pausing for a second to take in what she’s about to say, knowing what she knows about the girls. “...Ending it up there is the last ditch resort, alright?” Esotera asks, hugging the two girls she’s grown rather close to as they disembark the realm beyond. | “Sweetheart, I want you to get some rest” Al says taking a seat beside Nora on the couch, watching the news in case they can get a glimpse at where their daughter is. “I can’t sleep, Al. Not while Scarlett is missing” Nora replies, taking a cup of coffee Al wished he wouldn’t have to give to her. “Alright” Al replies, sinking into his seat as he and his wife silently watch the news, hoping for a miracle. Suddenly, the eerily peaceful sights of infomercials is interrupted when a knock at the door strips Nora’s sights, bringing her to her feet in an instant. Opening the door, Nora’s disappointment shows when she finds Rachel, asking to come in. Opening the door, Nora asks Rachel if something is wrong, only for Rachel to admit to not going home when she left the home earlier in the morning. “I remembered Scarlett saying that she knew of a motel that she would go to if she needed to stay somewhere out of sight, so I went there” Rachel says, putting a speed into Nora’s steps as she asks what she found. “The manager said she and Victoria were there last night, but they left for no apparent reason before the sun came up” Rachel says, giving Nora newfound hope. “Where did they go?” Nora asks, the hope still intact, but coming to a sudden stop when Rachel admits having no response. “He said they were in a gray Chevy Silverado when they pulled up, and that was what they left in” Rachel says, the hope she afforded Nora with immediately dashed when Al calls them both into the living room. “What is it Al?” Nora asks, Rachel and herself turning to the breaking news report, showing the picture of Scarlett and Victoria behind the exact Chevy Silverado plastered on the screen. ‘Two Fugitives Wanted for Killing Officer’ is the chosen branding on the bottom ticker, the faces of Scarlett and Victoria as clear as anything representing the alleged killers. Standing in her living room, completely engulfed in horror at the combination on her television screen, Nora collapses into her husband’s arms as Rachel looks on, stunned into silence. Running over the names, ages, make and model of the vehicle in addition to its license plate number, as well as the girls being declared missing persons, the anchor pulls no punches. Calling the girls ‘wanted murderers’ on more than one occasion, the anchor unknowingly puts the Bensen family and Rachel into a full state of shock. Before they can have a moment to comprehend the sights they’re bearing witness to, the three are interrupted with a second knock on the door. Opening it on the family’s behalf, Rachel comes to look at the officer staring at her from the other side of a glass door. Opening it, Rachel asks the tall officer if this is in relation to the two girls, which he doesn’t answer at first, until he spots a distraught Nora and Al just inside. Understanding that they’ve more than likely already become aware of their reasoning of stopping at the house, the officer gives a simple nod to Rachel, who opens the door, and allows the officer entry. | With a similar bell to that of the gas station they had just departed hours earlier, Victoria and Scarlett enter a store near a forest on the outskirts on Lafayette, careful not to step on any toes. Walking in without an issue, the girls cautiously roam the mart in search of everything they’d need to survive within the boundaries that nature chooses to offer them. Scanning through shelves of outdoors gear and taking whatever they deem to be worth the purchase, the girls end up with a few arms full of equipment and little chance at being able to pay the hefty price of it. “We’re already wanted for murder, right?” Scarlett whispers, shrugging her shoulders and placing everything they need by a door near the back of the building. “When you hear me giggle, start shoveling everything out the back door, alright?” Scarlett says, telling Victoria to be ready before walking back to the front of the store. “Hey, my friend and I are looking for directions. Do you know how to get to the beach from here?” Scarlett asks, making sure to get the young nerdy teenager with heavy acne eating out of her hands before swooping in for the kill. Walking behind the counter in a very convincingly seductive manner, Scarlett takes the cashier’s attention and lets out a playful laugh, serving as Victoria’s cue. Taking a handful of things and propping the backdoor open with a rock, Scarlett covers for her, welcoming a non-existent customer through the front door as the automatic bell goes off. Hurrying back and forth in hopes of making Scarlett’s encounter brief, Victoria hurries back into the store and shuts the door behind her. “Sky, do you know where we’re going yet?” Victoria asks, unable to come up with a better code name, but making up for it in her hurry. “That’s right, I almost forgot!” Scarlett says, looking back to the teen as he gives them precise, detailed directions. Selling the encounter the rest of the way, Scarlett whispers something in the teen’s ears as she taps the inside of his thigh, thanking him for his help. Returning to Victoria, the pair walk through the front doors cleanly, Scarlett thanking Victoria for not being long. “Why’d you grab his junk?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett’ mouth playfully drop as they reach the truck. “I didn’t grab his junk, I tapped his thigh” Scarlett replies, Victoria repeating the question with the correct phrasing. “Well we know he won’t be looking at the news when he goes on his next break, won’t we?” Scarlett replies, having made sure to cover any secondary ground, buying them time they otherwise wouldn’t have had. “You’re an evil genius” Victoria responds, watching Scarlett shrug, wishing she could just ‘ball-tap’ her way out of being a wanted murderer. “We’ll make it through this” Victoria replies, assuring Scarlett that they’ll clean their names soon enough. When the night sky consumes Lafayette, Louisiana, Scarlett and Victoria sit on rocks in front of their tents as Victoria gets a small campfire going. “Where’d you learn to do that?” Scarlett asks, watching Victoria’s technique hold the appearance of someone who’s done this thousands of times. “I’ve lived on my own for a long time, Scar” Victoria says, keeping the fire low enough to avoid detection. “I’ve picked up a thing or two about surviving out here when I have to” Victoria replies, watching the smile on Scarlett’s face tell the story. “You wanna learn how to keep a fire going?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett nod before handing her a few loose pieces of moss. “When they’re dry enough, you’ll want to get it under the stick and around the fire. You don’t want the stuff to put it out” Victoria warns, pulling it into smaller pieces. Within seconds, Scarlett is lining the sides of the fire with moss, watching it burn whilst the smoke remains at a minimum. “Veery good” Victoria says, humorously pleased with Scarlett’s progress, suggesting she could get pretty used to living with nature. “When we find somewhere more permanent, I’ll teach you how to make a Dakota” Victoria says, leaving an explanation for later. Looking at each other in silence, Victoria smiles, telling Scarlett they could evade the law for years if they find somewhere out of the way. “It’s not like we’ll be struggling to get by out here, it’ll just be something we’ll have to get used to” Victoria continues, watching Scarlett look towards her and smile, the pain of not being able to go back to the way life used to be hiding away behind a relatively comforting though of a decent life still being possible. “I know” Victoria says, Scarlett not needing to say anything for Victoria to realize that she’s scared. “I’ve haven’t known you for half of a month, but it feels like I’ve known you forever” Victoria says, putting her hand on Scarlett’s back and rubbing her shoulder, easing her concerns where they rest. “We used to think a ton of things weren’t possible… But we know more now than we did back then” Victoria says, locking eyes with Scarlett. “We’re not just going to get through this, we’re going to thrive in this” Victoria concludes, watching the pain of Scarlett’s smile disappear the second time around. Patting her on the back a few times, Victoria returns to tending to the fire, assuring Scarlett that now would be a great time to get some rest and start putting together a plan when the sun comes up. Nodding her head, Scarlett watches Victoria walk into the tent and seal it behind herself, leaving Scarlett to stare at the flames. Pulling her legs up and resting her chin on her kneecaps, Scarlett wraps her arms around her shins as if to keep her legs tied up. As the picture of the bright flames reflect in her eyes, she begins to take in a few deep breaths, eventually losing it as the tears squeeze through her eyelids and roll down her face. One after another, the tears land on the ground beside the fire, and Scarlett lets out the build up of hurt, worry, concern and fear that she’s hidden well over the last number of hours. Inside the tent, Victoria watches Scarlett let out what she had been keeping inside, refusing to interrupt her, allowing Scarlett her chance to grieve for the life she once knew being buried where she sits, long dead and gone. | “Mrs. Bensen, my name is Sheriff Joe West and I work with the BRPD, the Baton Rouge Police Department, and it’s come to my understanding that your missing daughter has been video taped killing an on-duty police officer in cold blood.” The introduction not taking emotions into account, West makes it clear that he is sorry about their daughter currently being on the run from home, but his business belongs with the deceased officer killed at Scarlett’s hands. “I know this is all a lot to take in, so if you need a moment, please say so. But right now, we’re working against the clock, so I’d like to touch as many bases I can, alright?” Sheriff West asks, watching Al nod his head as his wife stares blankly at the front door. “Ma’am?” West asks, watching her snap out of her tunnel vision to stare at him, quickly dropping her head once she remembers why he’s here. “I’d like our attorney to be present” Nora replies, refusing to speak despite West informing her that she’s not under arrest. “Ma’am, you don’t have to speak with us, but we’d really appreciate your help” West says, the first half of his response serving enough for Nora to walk away, leaving Al alone on the couch. “I’d like to know what proof you have of my daughter being guilty of this crime” Al asks, watching Sheriff West informing him that an encounter was documented in a police cruiser’s dash cam that featured an officer being shot and killed. “After a few seconds, your daughter and another woman, I assume this Victoria Shea you mentioned in your police report, were found staring at the officers body and leaving the scene of the crime. “I’d like to see the video proof you have, Sheriff” Al requests, informed by West himself that he cannot share that footage with him. “Well if it happened the way you suggested that it had, then there is no footage of my daughter pulling the trigger that resulted in the death of your officer” Al says, playing hardball with Sheriff West, who begins getting frustrated. “Sheriff, if I may?” Rachel suddenly calls out, West informing her than he is not allowed to speak with her unless a parent or guardian allows him to. “Well you don’t have to talk, you just have to listen” Rachel says, the warm demeanor from her original request to be entered into the conversation being thrown aside in favor of a direct approach. “What the news footage happened to leave out was why Scarlett was left in the vehicle while Victoria was at the cruiser.” “I don’t see why that’s so-” West begins, his attempt at interjecting being silenced when Rachel reminds him that he is not allowed under law to speak to her without a guardian present, suggesting he ‘pipe down’. “If Scarlett was alone in the front seat and Victoria was at the back of the cruiser, the only way that’d be possible would be if Victoria was handcuffed before Scarlett exited the vehicle.” With a smile on her face, Rachel takes a seat beside Al and stares down West, who is helpless to add anything into the conversation. “If this was a wellfare check, there’d be no reason to handcuff Victoria, therefor no reason for her to be at the back of the cruiser unless something beyond legal limitations was taking place… Which only means that your officer was doing something he had no legal right to do.” Catching Rachel’s drift, Al looks towards West with wide eyes, finding a flaw in West’s story of his own. “Your dash cam footage never showed Victoria being removed from the vehicle Sheriff” Al says, watching West’s eyes lock onto him with a stare designed to be intimidating. “You’re hiding something” Al exclaims, turning towards Rachel, who comes to the conclusion that Victoria was unlawfully removed from her vehicle. “I believe we’re done here” West says, attempting to get up and leave, only to be stopped by Al, who tells him that he isn’t going anywhere. Brushing past West and standing between the Sheriff and the front door, Al expresses that he is well within his legal right to do so, with this being his property. “Sheriff, I’ll give yout his ultimatum right now… Either you release the full dash cam footage, or I’ll make sure the public gives you no other option.” The conversation having taken a drastically different turn than it originally looked, Al steps aside, extending his arm to greet West on his way out of the home. “Your daughter is in danger, Mr. Bensen” Sheriff West calls out, walking to the door of his vehicle before turning around, facing the Bensen family patriarch before climbing in. “Don’t make my job difficult if you want her to have a fair shot in court” West threatens, angering Bensen, who takes the petty attack personally. | “Where do we go when this is all over?” Scarlett asks, looking at the different patrons of the bar, whilst trying to focus on Vic’s words as they fight for supremacy over the roars of the crowd. “Somewhere without an extradition process, so they don’t fly us out if they ever catch us” Vic suggests, throwing the Maldives out as her personal choice, much to the wonder of Scarlett. “How the hell would we afford to live in the Maldives?” Scarlett asks, sifting through napkins and glass cups in search of any indication of what the date is. “My grandparents passed their belongings down to me when they passed” Vic admits, “They didn’t trust my parents with the sudden influx of cash… And it seems like they were right to.” “I’m sorry, Vic” Scarlett says, watching Scarlett turn around with a smile on her face. “Don’t be. The only reason I don’t spend a lot of money is because I can’t make the purchases I want yet!” The idea of owning property, buying stock, making investments in real estate aren’t possible if you’re not an adult. “In the Maldives, I’m equal to everyone that can breath” Vic says proudly, “We’ll make it work.” After a few more minutes of searching through cabinets, Scarlett stumbles upon a receit printer, with its most recent print out being the margarita of one of the women at the counter. “It’s four days from now” Scarlett says, watching the crowd part and the explosive van roll to a stop as he did the day prior. Hopping over the counter with her service weapon drawn, Scarlett kills the two men in the front of the van, only to watch another two hurry from the back of it. Chasing after them, the girls are forced to split up when the two terrorists head into opposite directions, taking their own routes. Scarlett being led into a collapsed construction sight, she eventually crosses paths with Vic once more, who was taken through a busy city. “How did you get here?” Scarlett asks, watching Vic look around, having noticed the terrorists they were chasing having vanished. Almost immediately after the question is raised, the girls notice the sight of the shooting star above as the sky begins to grow dark. “Good to know I’ve got my own personal bullshit to remind me it still exists!” Scarlett aggravatedly shouts, attempting to walk away until the touch of Vic tapping her on the arm pulls her right back in. “It’s getting bigger” Vic says, pointing to the star falling at a rapid speed, and growing closer to the ground with every second. “It’s not getting bigger” Scarlett says, taking a few seconds to assess the star, coming to the conclusion that it’s falling. Watching the star take a nosedive, the girls follow it until it disappears behind the line of buildings, with a massive eruption occurring, sending a plume of smoke and fire into the sky, blocking out the sunlight. “What was-” Vic says, stopped when the sky goes black and an explosion of bright white light appears out of nowhere. Suddenly, the girls find themselves back in the office space of the faceless figures. “Esotera!?” Scarlett calls out, her request for their embodied subconscious nowhere to be found. Tapping her friend on the arm, Vic points out the double doors in the back having returned, wide open and awaiting their company. “Now or never?” Scarlett asks, looking to Vic and slowly walking towards the doors, making sure not to interrupt the faceless figures. As they come within feet of the doors, the white lights of the room turn into a sudden shade of bright red, and the beast from the stairwell bursts through the office doors. “Run!” Vic shouts, making a belign for the double doors, only for their only escape to slam closed in their face. “Shit!” Scarlett exclaims, throwing a shield up and allowing the beast to crash into it, only to be sent flying backwards as the shield is thrown directly at him. Reaching for a desk, Vic aims for the beast, ready to let it fly until the pulsating heat of a burst of fire drops her to her knees. Without even noticing until it was too late, the double doors had exploded from the inside, spitting the girls back into the realm of reality on a sour note. Waking up in a daze, sweating from the heat residue of the realm beyond being present when they returned, Scarlett and Vic look to each other, as if to ask what more they can do. Silently laying back down, the girls notice the dawn of a new day begin to show, ending their slumber for the night, and returning them to the awful hand they’ve been dealt. “Scarlett!” the distant voice of her friend calls out, the words fluttering through her head as she fades in and out of the two realms she shares her life with. Again called for by the woman in the driver’s seat, Scarlett remains battling the urge to fall asleep before the sudden sting of a hand to the face jolts her back. “What the fuck?” Scarlett shouts, tending to the handprint on her face as she brushes off the apology from Victoria. “Well you weren’t answering me when I called for you, so I went to the next best thing” the driver replies, watching as Scarlett adjusts the seatbelt, keeping it from continuing to strangle her.
“How are you staying awake?” Scarlett asks, still fighting to keep her eyes open through their obvious want to close for even a few minutes. “We’re either about to become missing people or already have been, so that’s a good motivator” Victoria replies, instantly pushing Scarlett into an apologetic state of mind, having been the one to push them onto this track to begin. Reaching out to turn the dial on the truck’s console, Scarlett’s hand finds a similar fate as her cheek did a few moments prior. “Vic, cool it with the slapping!” Scarlett says, watching the driver apologetically bounce her head up and down. “Sorry, it’s… Well, it’s a stress reliever” Victoria replies, putting a smile on Scarlett’s face. “Keep it up and I’ll have to get us into couple’s counseling” Scarlett jokes, pushing the fear of being their own providers aside for the few seconds. On the long road into Baton Rouge, the headlights of the car spot out a few ambitious rain drops beginning their crash into the ground. “We should find a place to settle in for the-” Scarlett begins, pausing to check the clock as it near five o’clock in the morning. “-Well, morning” Scarlett concludes, bringing about more laughter, finally getting Victoria to ease the worry for the first time since their original departure. Passing the ‘Now Entering Baton Rouge’ street sign, the rain quickly begins to come down hard, forcing the girls to pull off to the side of the road. “Fuck it, we’ve got soft seats. We’ll settle down here for a few” Scarlett says, presenting it as a solution as the dry sand below quickly turns to mud. Turning the key and powering the car down, the two girls look to each other with an expression of worry. “Everything’s gonna be alright” Scarlett says, watching the smile on Victoria’s face assure her that the pair are on the same page. “I trust you” Victoria says, the little under the week she’s known her feeling like a lifetime. “Is it weird that I trust you this much?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett smirk and drop her head against the headrest as her seat turns into a recliner. “We’re a strange set of clairvoyants. If this doesn’t give us the free ticket to become BFF’s, I don’t know what can” Scarlett replies, reassuring Victoria that she isn’t losing her mind. Without response, Victoria nods to herself and drops her seat back, taking in a deep breath as the two girls close their eyes, having earned their return to the realm beyond. = Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = Sat to the chorus of phones ringing off the walls and the unprovoked uneasy feeling in the air, Rachel and the Benson’s sit patiently waiting to declare their daughter a missing person. Her leg tapping against the floor until the hand of her husband prompts her stop, Nora watches the officer stationed at the front desk as if he was just going to drop everything to help her. “What is taking so long?” Nora asks herself, ultimately finding small but existing reassurance in Al’s promise that she’s perfectly fine. “Why would she just disappear like this?” Nora asks, resting her head against her husband’s chest as he pulls her close. “We don’t know that she meant to disappear, Nor” Al says, “For all we know, she went out trying to buy you a surprise present and got spooked by everyone looking for her. We just don’t have answers, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing from top to bottom.” Finding herself in a similar position to what she normally finds herself in, Nora refuses to argue, putting her faith in Al’s composed response, hoping for it all to just be a case of being too blown out of proportion. “Bensen?” an officer calls out, reading off a clipboard and capturing the focus of the distraught mother like a moth to a porch light. “Yes, yes that’s us” Nora says, swiping the hair from her face as she shoots to her feet, following the officer’s hand directing the trio to an office in the back. “And when did you last see her?” the officer asks mid-conversation, told the events exactly as they unfolded. “Do you know this friend?” the officer asks, both parents looking back to Rachel as the teenage girl stands against the wall directly beside the door. “Her name’s Victoria. I don’t know her last name, she just started at our school” Rachel replies, challenged by the follow-up question of whether or not Scarlett had ever had prior interactions with the girl. “She told her where to find one of her classes in the hallway a few days ago, but I haven’t seen them interact with each other other than that.” Writing this down in the notebook, the officer asks Rachel if she has any reason to believe Rachel to be a threat to Scarlett’s well-being. Stuttering for a second, the brief hesitation enough to captivate the three adults now staring at her as if she were on stage performing on Broadway. “Not that I would know of” Rachel replies, pausing for a second before admitting that she doesn’t have anything to base that off of. “Do you have any reason to believe that Scarlett would run off without saying anything?” the officer asks, Rachel’s response being interrupted by Scarlett’s mother assuring the officer that she would never. Folding his hands together and taking a brief glance towards the floor, the officer apologizes to Nora. “Ma’am, I understand your concern. As a parent myself, and I can assure you that we do not always know our children as best as we think we do.” With that statement, the officer looks back to Rachel and asks the question a second time. “I’m not asking you if she has done this in the past, but as someone that is close with her on the level of an acquaintance, would your assessment of her indicate that she would be the kind of person to run off without saying anything?” With the question, Al keeps his eyes forward as Nora plants her own on Rachel, watching the young girl give her answer as if she was a television program reading off the lottery numbers. “Knowing Scarlett…” Rachel begins, taking in a deep breath as her eyes find Nora for a brief second before wavering off. “...If there was a good reason for it, I’m confident she would.” With this assertion made, Nora looks away with disappointment. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Bensen” Rachel says, watching a hurt smile come over Nora’s face as she nods to the girl. | “That’ll never get old” Scarlett says, gliding her hand over her skin as the pleasing touch of her skin turning from synthetic into flesh acts like a fetish. Vic appearing beside her, gliding her hand over her skin much the same, the two look to each other as if they know exactly what the other is thinking. “It feels like winning a marathon, don’t it?” Scarlett says with a smile, watching Vic humorously shake her head and head into the main street. “Wait, why are we out here?” Scarlett asks, not needing to hear anything to feel Esotera popping into existence behind the pair. “As I said, a much more open environment will be beneficial to you two” Esotera replies, joining the girls in their stroll down the street. “Where is everyone?” Scarlett asks, noticing the downtown area of Baton Rouge lit up, ready to impress the existing nightlife without any signs of the night’s life to be seen. “This is your dream, not theirs” Esotera responds, placing her hand to the door of one of the buildings before popping onto the other side of it. Looking to each other as if they were about to open presents on Christmas morning, Scarlett and Vic walk up to the doors and attempt to lean on them, only to fall directly through and drop to the ground in the entry way. “Ow, what the hell?” Scarlett asks, dusting herself off as Esotera fails to hide her enjoyment. “Funny is it?” Scarlett asks, pointing her hand forward as if to grab Esotera, only to be sent flying back into the wall, disappearing through it as if it were never even there. “Where the fuck did she go!?” Vic asks amusingly, telling Vic to check out the opposite wall just as Scarlett crashes through it and drops to the floor. “I’m too good for your powers to work on me, little one” Esotera jokes, turning around to walk into the building as Scarlett gets to her feet. Throwing her hands forward with a smile, Scarlett is sent crashing through the windows without Esotera having to lift a finger, eventually crashing through the opposite side of the building once more as Esotera lifts an eyebrow. “Did I not already have this discussion with you?” Esotera asks, watching Scarlett pick the splintered wood from her hair and reply with a simple but firm “Bite me.” “Follow along” Esotera exclaims, laughing at the muttered name calling of ‘show off’ from the upstaged young blonde. “Where are we going?” Vic asks, following Esotera and beginning an ascent up a never-ending stairwell colored with a splash of bright red. As they continue their ascent without question, the bright red lights begin to flicker, with the stairwell beginning to rumble until the sight of something large near-miles above acts as a massive shadow. “What is that?” Vic asks, noticing the growling of the original beast from their introduction into the realm beyond. “What do we do?” Vic asks, only to cut herself off and ask why the beast keeps growing closer. Suddenly the sound of twisting metal accompanies the task of dodging falling bolts and screws, turning their current predicament into one more dire in nature. “We have to get out of here!” Scarlett shouts as the beast rapidly falls closer to them, and the metal stairs beneath their feet begin to shake rapidly, threatening to collapse at any moment. Suddenly, the touch of Esotera’s hand grabbing their wrists and squeezing tight snap them into a seperate room, lit with a natural white light and the feel of something safe from an earthquake. “What the fuck was that?” Scarlett asks, her request for further information blocked when a horde of disfigured monsters race from respective empty rooms, making a break for the duo. Attempting to call for Esotera, Scarlett notices their overseer having disappeared, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. “On the desks!” Vic shouts, climbing onto one as one of the seemingly thousands of the disfigured inches closer to Scarlett at a full sprint. “Scarlett!” Vic shouts, watching the girl nail a backflip onto the desk’s surface. Service weapon in hand, Scarlett blows the disfigured head into bits and joins Vic in running along the desktops as if they were playing a massive game of ‘the floor is lava.’ Before long, the girls break out their shields and toss them around when necessary, wiping hundreds of the disfigured into death in the snap of a finger. Shot after shot taking down the disfigured as if they were beating a video game level, Scarlett and Vic dash through the workspace wiping away and taking out the disfigured, which only continue to pour from their pockets. “Vic!” Scarlett calls out, watching the girl wipe out crowd after crowd of the disfigured. “Send a shield at the ground!” Scarlett shouts, taking aim and firing off as ordered, disappearing through the walls as Vic soon follows. Not having seen what happens like Scarlett, Vic watches the ground she once walked disappear in the blink of an eye as she throws herself through one room after another before finding herself popping through the roof. “Holy fuck!” Vic shouts, her words extending as her ascent reaches its peak, sending her back down slowly before the pace picks back up, ending with her slamming into the office floor and sending a shockwave throughout, wiping every single disfigured from existence. Looking at her posture to notice herself having unintentionally landed a superhero-like pose, she looks towards Scarlett as she smiles from ear-to-ear. “Super fucking cool, isn’t it?” Scarlett calls out, admitting that her sneak attacks on Esotera ended up paying off. “I knew they would” Esotera exclaims, reappearing before immediately watching Scarlett try to take aim at her again, only to send herself ripping through the office walls once more and crashing through the opposite side. “Learn your fucking lesson, please!” Esotera proudly exclaims, with Scarlett pointing towards her, promising that she’ll get one over on her someday. “When that day comes, I’ll probably kill myself” Esotera says, watching Scarlett wrinkle her nose and shake her head. “Why did you bring us here?” Vic asks, switching the conversation onto what she hopes to be a more productive path. “Find out for yourselves” Esotera suggests, opening every door in the office before popping out of sight, leaving Scarlett and Vic to their own work. Shrugging towards Vic, Scarlett walks down one of the many maze-like hallways in an effort to randomly pick at what is made available to her. | With the dawn of a new day arriving over the horizon in the form of the sunrise, Rachel finally puts an end to the car ride from hell in the driveway of the Bensen’s. “Thank you again, Rachel” Nora says, quickly getting out of the car and heading for the house. “If you need us to explain to your parents why you were out all night, let me know” Al says, making for the door before pausing for a moment, noticing Rachel’s head sink. Knowing how much Rachel’s concerns took a backseat to their own throughout the night, Al gently taps the young girl on the shoulder and does what he can to help put her worries at ease. “I’ll never claim to know everything about my daughter, but I know she wouldn’t just voluntarily go after danger.” Al looks Rachel in the eyes and promises her that Scarlett will show up. “It’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of ‘when’, alright?” Al asks, watching Rachel offer a brief half smile before the man exits the vehicle. Pulling out of the driveway, Rachel’s phone goes off, vibrating like a bat out of hell as a piercing alarm escorts it. Noticing the amber alert for both Scarlett and Victoria, Rachel puts the phone back down and heads for the highway. As she fights off any exhaustion, Rachel thinks to herself for a moment before stopping the car on the side of the road. Pulling up her phone once again, Rachel looks through the text log of her past conversations with Scarlett before her eyes widen, spotting something of interest. Suddenly, Rachel does a complete u-turn and drives off to the opposite end of town than what she searched the night prior. | Locking the front door behind him, Al walks into the kitchen to find his wife already sat with a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. The room still mostly darkened by the lack of the sunlight, Al takes a seat beside his wife and places his hands over his wife’s. “She wouldn’t just run off, would she?” Nora asks, trying as best as she can to make sense of things that don’t make sense. Watching the pain of not knowing whether or not her daughter is safe visibly weighing on his wife, Al tells her to keep from the worst case scenario from overwhelming her. “Keep your hopes out that she’s just out somewhere and doesn’t have her phone on her” Al says, grasping at whatever straws he can pull from the tower of possibilities. “Did we do something wrong?” Nora asks, her question remaining unanswered as Al lightly pats his wife’s hands, refusing to let Nora continue to needlessly second guess herself. | Walking up to the managing office and knocking on the door until her call for help is answered, Rachel finds herself approached with a goateed man in a plaid robe. “Looking for a room?” the man asks, fighting off the exhaustion of being awoken in such a way. “No, can you tell me if you’ve seen this girl anytime since yesterday?” Rachel asks, holding up a picture of Scarlett on her phone. Unfolding his glasses and looking at the screen, the man admits that she and another girl have a room just at the end of the motel. “Sir, those girls are currently listed as missing people. Can you please do a wellfare check on that room?” Rachel asks, watching the man walk over to a wall and free a backup pair of keys. Making the long walk to the end of the corridor, the man gives a few knocks on the door before unlocking it, entering the room and asking Rachel to remain outside. Surveying the room, still with the television on and turned to the news, the man finds no sign of any current residents, with all of Scarlett and Victoria’s belongings having been taken. “Sorry, kid. They’re not in here” the man mutters, still groggy from the sudden wake up call. Hand to her head with the hope of anything falling out of the sky, the woman asks if the man can give her anything that may help find them. “I’m not supposed to give out that kind of information” the man replies, watching the girl place her hand to her hip and ask if he genuinely believes her to look like a threat to their well being. Letting out a deep breath before thinking over whatever he can come up with, he mentions a truck with a mid-2000’s look. “Not something too modern of flashy. Pretty sure it was a Silverado… A Chevy” the man says, watching the woman take down the info in her phone. “Pretty sure they left before 11:00 last night” the man adds in, remembering them not having answered the door when he went around offering new towels. “Thank you, I appreciate it” Rachel says, returning to her truck and calling the Bensen residence, offering them the new information. Upon hanging up the call with Scarlett’s family, Rachel tries Scarlett’s cellphone again to no response. Gently placing her phone back into the console, Rachel slams the steering wheel once before pulling out of the lot and returning into Prairieville. | “Anything?” Scarlett calls out, shuffling through folders of blank papers and cabinets of unmarked files. “Nothing” Vic replies, frustrated enough to carelessly throw a folder of loose papers to the ground, laying them out before scanning the barebones room once more. “Why does this place have so many papers just laying around everywhere?” Vic calls out, blindly tossing folder after folder around the room, letting papers fall to the ground in a heap wherever they please. “If everything in here is blank, let’s just look for the things that aren’t” Scarlett suggests, reaching onto a random desk beside her with a nameplate, the letters on it all scrambled and mangled with reckless abandon. Surrounding her at every side are eggshell covered walls, generic brown desks, gray plastic chairs and pearly-white sheets of printer paper. “Everything’s all bland” Scarlett calls out, catching Vic’s eye for a moment before the girl on the other side of the building suggests they look for what stands out. Leaving her little nook at the same time as Vic, the two girls meet at the back of the main working space, eying a common cat poster across the room from them. “Just hang in there” the poster reads, putting an eye roll in the motions of the girls as they approach it, staring down the only thing out of place in the room. Being the first to reach out, Scarlett shrugs her shoulders and tears the poster down, revealing a window to a much more vibrant side of the realm beyond. Walking over to the regular building’s windows to find a few neon lights every other building, the sight in this new viewing point offers a much more vibrant and lively city. “That’s not Baton Rouge” Vic points out, watching Scarlett remove the very realistic photo from the wall to reveal more eggshell coloring. “No, it’s n-” Scarlett begins, stopping herself as she takes a glance at the window Vic had just come from. Looking down into the street, the entire area lights up in exquisite, other-worldly colors they never even dreamed of seeing. Unable to let out more than a little “Woah”, Scarlett places her hands to the glass and feels a warm, welcoming surface. Feeling a cold wind dancing across the back of her neck, Scarlett gets the strange desire to push forward at the window keeping them sectioned off. Casually walking forward, Scarlett emerges through the front door of the building she just accompanied, lost in a crowd of fun-loving people dancing on the vibrant Baton Rouge square. Soon joined by Vic, the girls take a step into the middle of the road, void of cars but not of life, and stare up at the dark sky lit by the luminescent sights of bright neon bliss. “I’ve never seen it look like this” Vic mutters, her breath being stripped away by the beauty of the life around her. “This is the realm beyond, I think that’s kind of the point” Scarlett replies, watching Vic take in the sights afforded to no one other than the pair. Taking the walk through the city, watching the smiles on the faces of people they aren’t even sure exist in the realm of reality, the two girls find themselves lost in the shuffle, and don’t seem to mind at all. Scarlett tapping her arm, Vic follows her blonde friend into an open bar with smooth jazz circulating in ways that almost seem visible. Surveying the place as if they were unseen spectators, Scarlett and Vic take two seats near the window, taken aback by the sights both outside the bar and inside. Sitting back into their seats and looking at the sights afforded to them, Vic and Scarlett glance towards each other with pure smiles. “I never thought I’d see it all look like this” Scarlett says, watching the road outside begin to part, making way for a line of golf carts and go-karts setting off fireworks. Watching the parade pass by with a smile on their faces, the feeling starts to fade away once the cold air starts brushing against Scarlett’s neck again. In the sky, the sight of the shooting star dashing across the sky is found once more. Suddenly, the crowd begins to space out once more, this time directly in front of Scarlett and Vic’s table. With an uninterrupted view of the street, the joy and amusement begins to fully wear off once Vic points out that she now spots the shooting star Scarlett had been talking about. “What? I thought you couldn’t see it?” Scarlett calls out, watching the surprise on Vic’s face match the surprise of her own. Suddenly, the surprise is replaced with horror as the black van from the night prior slowly rolls to a stop in front of the girls. Without needing to say it, Scarlett and Vic both recall their exit the night prior and take the moment to burst from their seats. With the clothes on their back and the hairs on their head going wherever the wind takes them, the girl hurry for the back of the bar before the sudden sensation of flames torching their skin returns them to the realm of reality. “Ma’am?” a uniformed officer asks, the sudden burst of light from the explosion turning into the sudden burst of light from his oversized flashlight. Knocking on the window beneath the pouring rain, the officer awaits a response until the pair of girls finally awaken, rolling down their windows and shielding their eyes from the harsh light. “Good morning officer” Victoria replies, rolling her seat up as Scarlett does the same. “You girls got somewhere to be?” the officer asks, noticing the soft tone in Victoria’s voice hesitating to be immediately upfront with him. “Car break down?” the officer asks, repeating his question a second time after Victoria fails to properly hear it the first time around. “Oh, yeah. We’re just waiting for the tow truck and sort of dozed off” Victoria replies, giving the officer a smile. Glancing back to his cruiser, the officer opens Victoria’s door and suggests she step out of the vehicle. “I’ll drive you two out to the tow lot, get you out of this rain” the officer says, waving off Victoria’s hesitation to step out of the vehicle. “I said step out of the vehicle ma’am” the officer says for a second time, this suggestion sounding more like an order. Not willing to cause a stir and still shaken from running off from Prairieville, Victoria obliges, stepping out of the car despite Scarlett’s suggestion otherwise. Slamming the door shut behind Victoria, the officer leaves Scarlett alone in the front seat and walks her friend towards his cruiser, sliding his finger down her cheek in the process. Spotting this, Scarlett unclasps her seatbelt as the officer holds the backdoor of his cruiser open, catching his attention as she notices Scarlett’s door open. “Ma’am, I’m gonna need you to stay in the car” the officer warns, one hand on his gun as the other starts lightly shoving Victoria into the back of his car. “What are you doing?” Scarlett asks, rounding the back of the car directly into the sight of the cruiser’s dash cam. “Get back in the car, ma’am” the officer says, his gun now taking aim at Scarlett, who stops in her tracks at the sight of the officer still trying to shove her friend into his backseat. “You can’t do that!” Scarlett shouts, struggling to move with the gun aimed at her and the sights before her unfolding. “I’m not gonna say it again ma’am, you get-” the officer begins, stopped when Victoria fights him off and tackles the gun out of his hand. “You bitch!” the officer shouts, slapping Victoria across the face before lunging to the ground, the gun he’s aiming to retrieve instead picked up by Scarlett and aimed at his head. Understand his current predicament, the officer holds his hands up and crawls back towards his car, walking in front of it. “Put your hands in the air!” Scarlett shouts, the officer doing so as he stands directly in front of the vehicle’s hood. “Give me your cuffs slowly!” Scarlett demands, watching the officer lower one of his hands towards his belt loop before glancing over to her friend as she climbs up from the ground. With the small moment being more than enough, the officer’s second hand flies down towards his belt and grabs hold of his taser. Noticing the turn of events unfold through the corner of her eye, Scarlett places her sight back onto the officer and instinctively pulls the trigger as he frees the taser from his belt. Still standing, Scarlett fires another two shots and watches the dirty cop collapse to the ground, the taser falling to his side with him. Still, Scarlett lowers the gun to her stomach as Victoria walks over to survey the sights for the first time. “Scarlett, wha… What did you just do?” Victoria asks, watching Scarlett’s lip quiver as she slowly walks up to the body. Illuminated by the headlights, every detail from the loose strands of her hair to the strings from her sweater sleeves find themselves clear as day beneath the morning dawn. Standing by her side as they stare at the body, Victoria turns towards the car, noticing the blinking red light atop the small black box in the center of the window. “Shit” Victoria says, both she and Scarlett staring directly into the camera as it continues to record. “We need to go” Victoria says, lightly pulling Scarlett’s arm as the gun drops from her hand. “Scarlett, we need to go” Victoria repeats, her pull on Scarlett’s arm growing more stiff as she tugs the blonde towards the car. From the camera’s perspective, the girls climb into the vehicle on either side and drive off into the morning sky, leaving the deceased officer laying in a pool of his own blood. Kicking up the wet sand beneath their tires onto the body, the girls disappear beneath a hill as the footage rolls on. The sights of a morning sunrise for twenty minutes before an onlooker stumbles across the scene calls in police make it seem like nothing more than an art-inspiring clip. The runaway girls, now with their actions having stained their hands with blood, only darken the target on their back with a much brighter, bolder bullseye. “Oh, fuck” Scarlett exclaims, sat in the passenger seat as she and Victoria listen into the flood of sirens engulfing them at seemingly every angle. “We’re late!” Vic mutters, gritting her teeth, angered at the missed window, with the focus of still seeing the sight for sore eyes herself. “Hurry before we’re swarmed out!” Scarlett shouts, watching Victoria ferociously pull down a few streets before arriving at the scene of the chaos.
“Oh my god!” Scarlett shouts, joining Victoria in gazing at the dismantled building, noticing the rubble of the formerly-intended skyscraper not even reaching past three stories. “It’s so much worse than I thought!” Scarlett says, watching Victoria climb out of her car and race towards the scene of the destruction. “Vic, wait!” Scarlett shouts, hopping out of the car and running after the woman, hell-bent on getting to the man stranded in the place they once met him in. “Victoria, wait!” Scarlett shouts, barely dodging a car coming within inches of mowing her down as her friend disappears into the collapsed remnants. “Fuck!” Scarlett mutters, continuing her run, coming to an understanding that it’ll take throwing herself into the carnage to save her friend from eminent demise. “Victoria, where-” Scarlett begins to shout, forced to leap back to the ground as the earth beneath her begins to shake, and the remaining debris huddled higher than the rest begins to slowly sink inwards. “Victoria!” Scarlett shouts, standing up and beginning to race for the building until the rubble caves in the rest of the way, crushing whatever remains below it as the dust litters the air. Stuck in place as if she were encountering the realm beyond for the first time all over again, Scarlett watches the dust raise in the air without worry over being caught in whatever flutters out. Mouth dropped and eyes wandering from one side of what remains of the building to the other, Scarlett whispers Victoria’s name once more, knowing the way she came in is no longer viable as an escape route. The events having happened so soon, Scarlett turns around and slowly walks back to Victoria’s car as the civilians at every end of her scream in horror, pointing the first responders towards where the girl entered. Distraught and not yet understanding how to cope with the sights she’s just witnessed, Scarlett silently returns to the vehicle and climbs into the driver’s seat, turning the key in the ignition and staring at the building, mouth still agape. After a few moments of sitting in complete silence, Scarlett notices something out of the corner of her eye, watching two people covered in the dust of the broken rubble escaping through another gap in the bricks. Staring at them for a moment before their identities dawn on her, Scarlett turns the key and shuts off the vehicle, rushing up to the pair and directing them towards ambulances. “Victoria!” Scarlett shouts as she hurries up, assisting her friend in helping the injured man towards help. “What the fuck did you do that for?” Scarlett asks, looking at Victoria with tears weltering in her eyes as the pair watch the man comply with the paramedics. “That’s the guy I put down” Victoria replies, watching him nod at the question of his well being, assuring the medics he had nothing more than a few cuts and bruises. “You’re a goddamn hero, kid” one of the many paramedics says, patting Victoria on the shoulder as he rushes towards the remaining rubble, with a few pedestrians applauding the woman for her efforts. “Let’s get back to the motel” Victoria says, leading Scarlett back towards the car, assuring her that they have some work to do. = Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards = “There’s gonna be something here, I’m sure of it” Vic says, ascending the staircase alongside Scarlett, expecting the realm beyond to hand them a case file for their next great disaster in it’s usually screwed up way. Stumbling across one of the many disfigured with their backs turned, Vic looks to Scarlett to take the opportunity to harness their newest ability, using this newfound telekinesis to pick up a small plant and launch it across the room, dropping the disfigured before putting it down with a well-placed bullet. “You done, Scarface?” Vic asks, walking past Scarlett and heading for the center piece of the building. Turning towards the hall of the faceless, the pair proceed to open the double doors and find another puzzle to solve. Pulling them open without a countdown, Vic and Scarlett both walk into the hall as if nothing had ever changed. Gone are the double doors in the back, replaced with another slate of drywall as the faceless return to their business as per their normal. “Did we have the wrong floor?” Scarlett asks herself, walking out of the hall and seeing the same scenery lining the walls outside the hall. Taking the liberties of addressing the absence of the double door entry, Vic tells Scarlett to keep an eye out for anything out of place whilst she shifts through cabinets of useless garble. Eventually, Vic stumbles upon a book she recognizes the cover of, unable to put her finger on it, but realizing that the piece belongs to their realm of reality. “I know it seems barebones, but I’ve seen this cover a million times before” Vic says, handing Scarlett the book as she shifts through whatever else she can find. “Come on, there’s gotta be something here” Vic says to herself, resorting to invading the worker’s personal space, looking through the cabinets on their desks for a new lead. “Goddamnit!” Vic shouts, slamming the drawer shut, and taking in a couple deep breaths as her hair covers her face. “This is fucking bullshit” Vic says, looking over to Scarlett, who leaves Vic to spazz out, assuming she needed some way to cope. “If it’s not here, there must be places we have to look through” Scarlett suggests, telling Vic to calm down and think this through. “We’ve got the entire day to find something, we’re drugged out of our minds, remember?” Convinced they’re not crunching time, Scarlett tells Vic to take it easy and let things play out the way the realm beyond intends them to. “It’s pointing us in these different directions, it’s only a matter of time until they bring another one down on us, alright?” Scarlett asks, rubbing Vic’s back and telling her to cool off. After a few minutes, the pair leave the faceless hall and prepare to immerse themselves in the rest of the office. Walking through dimly lit corridors in search of something calling out for them, Scarlett and Vic walk past one empty room after another, chairs and desks abandoned in the line of duty. “Left side” Vic calls out, pulling a paper weight and zipping it into the face of the disfigured stood guard by a room illuminated in a brilliant white. “After you” Scarlett says, letting Vic lead the way into a cafeteria, each seat empty and the trays upon the serving counter sparkling clean. Taking one step into the cafeteria, the ground below begins to bend, reacting with the weight of each step taken. “I guess we’ve gotta get use to this kind of thing” Scarlett says, taking off from where Vic jumped back, startled by the feel beneath the soles of her shoes. “Holy fuck, this is trippy” Scarlett says, pulling her second foot onto the floor and steadying herself as the room begins to sway back and forth. “It’s like I’m on fucking acid!” Scarlett says, amused as she calls for Vic to join in. Putting her concerns over her prior experience behind her, Vic steps into the room, stumbling over the waves of the floor. Suddenly, the doors behind them slam shut, and the sound of the booming thud causes Vic to fall backwards in fear, disappearing beneath the floors surface. “Vic?” Scarlett calls out, turning around the see the girl having vanished beneath the surface, poking her head out a few moments later, keeping herself afloat as she struggles to climb onto one of the cafe tables, soaking wet to the amusement of Scarlett. “That was fucking hysterical!” Scarlett says, walking over to check on Vic before being shoved into her own pool for her troubles, jokingly referring to Vic as a bitch as she climbs up a table of her own. “I was trying to help you!” Scarlett says, resorting to the notion that it came at the price of humor at Vic’s expense. Mustering up the courage to give it another go, Vic places her foot onto the ground and steadies herself, ready to walk again as Scarlett follows suit. | Wiping the sweat from his brow as he digs his saw into a log, Al calls out for someone knocking at the front door to meet him in the backyard. “Who’s there?” Al asks, caught off guard when Rachel greets herself. “Rachel? I thought you were with Scar?” Al asks, watching Rachel’s eyebrows lower and her head tilt, assuring Scarlett’s father that there weren’t even plans made for that. “Scarlett said you needed her… Something urgent” Al says, again assured that she hasn’t seen Scarlett at all today as Nora climbs down the back stairs. “Rachel? Why aren’t you with Scarlett?” Nora asks, watching Rachel’s demeanor turn into one of concern. “I don’t know what Scarlett told you, but I haven’t seen her since school yesterday” Rachel replies, beginning to sound off the alarm bells in Al and Nora’s heads. “Do you know where she is?” Al asks, watching Rachel look towards them with almost as much worry as they themselves appear to hold. “No, that’s why I came here. She isn’t answering her phone” Rachel replies, watching Al immediately rush into the house and reach for the keys as Nora tells Rachel not to worry. Walking after Nora as she locks the backdoor and exits through the backyard, Rachel watches Al frustratedly climb into his car and turn the key, unable to start it. “What the hell is going on here!?” Al shouts, popping the hood open to find the car having been tampered with, the engine having been flooded. Grunting in anger as he slams the hood shut, Al’s anger subsides when Rachel offers to drive the pair in her car. Not one to pass up that kind of offer now, Al walks towards the car and climbs into the driver’s seat, watching Rachel state that she’s the only one allowed to drive the car. Sighing, but understanding that the law is the law, Al climbs into the backseat, leaving Nora to the passengers side as Rachel climbs into the driver’s seat. Pulling out of the driveway and onto the main road, Rachel asks where they’re off to, finding the parents unsure of where their destination is. “Okay, I might know where to go” Rachel says, turning away from the on-ramp in favor of an alternative route at the last possible minute, taking the vehicle out of the suburbs and into the outskirts of Prairieville, Louisiana. | “This place is pissing me off” Scarlett says, grabbing onto whatever she can find for support, each step further pulling her towards annoyance. All of a sudden, the sound of her own name being called from within the sanctum of the main dining area forces the woman to rush to Vic, watching her stare at the room surrounding her. Noticing something off about the girl, Scarlett calls out Vic’s name in hopes of a less paranoid response, only to find the woman scanning the room, looking frightened by what could come next. “Vic, what’s going on?” Scarlett asks, watching the woman turn towards her as her balance begins going. “Look around” Vic says, playing off her fear with a composed demeanor, allowing Scarlett to view the predicament through her own lens. After a moment of gazing around the room, Scarlett notices the cafeteria line and every table having disappeared from the room, unable to figure out why the phenomenon has occurred. “Where’d the tables go?” Scarlett asks, watching Vic turns towards her slowly, watching the ground below her continue to shake despite Vic not moving an inch. After a few further moments, Scarlett looks towards the way they came and sees nothing more than a blank wall where the double doors once resided. Looking back to the girl and pleading for an answer, Scarlett watches Vic turn towards her and inform her that they submerged below the surface. Looking at Vic as if she had three heads, Scarlett looks up to notice the ceiling far closer to them than it once was, suggesting that the water level below them is rising. “This room is sinking, Scarlett” Vic says, cautiously starting to walk around the room to look for a way out. Accepting that the situation won’t be changed by arguing about it, Scarlett joins Vic in looking for alternative routes out of the room, searching throughout whatever spots they can find. “Keep looking!” Scarlett shouts, caught in the corner of Vic’s eye before she dives below the surface and begins swimming towards the double doors. The deep blue water beneath their feet already difficult to see through to start with, Scarlett fumbles her way over what remains sunken below the surface until she finally catches a glimpse of the presumed exit at the last possible moment. Going back up for air, Scarlett dives right back down and takes her shot at the doors, desperately trying to push them in to no luck. “Damnit!” Scarlett shouts, splashing the water as she emerges from below the surface, admitting that the doors don’t budge an inch. “There’s someway else, there’s no way we’d be condemned to death without an alternative route” Vic exclaims, stammering around the room before suddenly having the where withall to look up. “What about that?” Vic asks, pointing directly overhead to a vent system, suggesting they ride the rising water level to the top and make an escape the cinematic way. “I’ve got a better idea” Scarlett says, brandishing her firearm and sending off a shot towards the vent, popping the cover open before pulling something free from beneath the water. Like a dolphin splashing out from beneath the waves, a cafeteria table suddenly pops up and hoves beside the girls. “Get on!” Scarlett directs, watching Vic turn towards her with an amused face, her grin disappearing once she realizes that Scarlett’s suggestion is legitimate. “You wanna drown?” Scarlett asks, watching Vic climb onto the table before joining her, pulling the table up slowly before the vent comes within arm’s reach. Climbing through the vent, Scarlett lets the cafeteria table drop back into the sea below, only to watch the previously lower water level suddenly rise with a massive surge, spilling into the vent. “Hurry!” Scarlett shouts, crawling through the system with Vic as the water below them swashes around like the tide crashing into the shore. Taking the turns of the vent in whichever direction it opts to carry them, the pair notices the water beneath their hands and knees begin to rise, threatening to drown them out if they’re not fast enough. Despite the do-or-die situation, the girls take a much needed reprieve as they encounter a split in the path, with two separate options afforded to them. “What are you doing?” Scarlett asks, unable to see what Vic can, and just as enamored with the idea of the paths as the woman in front. “I’m gonna trust you on this one” Scarlett shouts, waiting for Vic’s response, feeling as though the fork in the road wouldn’t exist without a reason. “It pushed us into this vent on purpose, I’m one to believe the path we take matters towards what comes next. Just trust your instinct” Scarlett calls out, waiting eagerly as the water begins to rise towards the middle of her forearms. “Preferably before we drown, though” Scarlett shouts, watching Vic take the left-most path, outrunning the water as if lifts past the bottom of her chin. “Save your breath!” Scarlett shouts, doing her best to empty her lungs enough to keep as much air as she can contain when the moment calls for it. Struggling onwards as the splashing water throws itself into the girl’s eyes and ears, Vic manages to spot a momentary burst of light coming from the very end of the corridor roughly fifty yards out. “I see it!” Vic shouts, the task at hand now going from the search for a way out to a race against mother nature. Still a number of yards away, the girls find their mouths and noses touching the water as a mere two inches further would completely cut them off from oxygen. A few seconds later, the rush of water lifts the level again, splitting the girls off from their supply, turning the race from one against water to one against their own lung capacity. The bursts of light growing more rapid and more visible, the girl notice the end growing closer, fighting their way until their last breath. Finally, the cold metal surface and bone-chilling waters are replaced with the sensation of water boarding as they fall through the end and crash into the compacted dirt below, their faces exposed to the swell of water joining their drop. Gasping for air between coughs as their lungs get used to the rush of air it had quickly become unadjusted to, the girls catch themselves in the moment they find find themselves embroiled in. “Where are we?” Scarlett asks herself, the first to make it back to her feet as she walks a few feet away from the drain. “Are we outside?” Vic asks, joining Scarlett in staring off in wonder as they walk the empty streets of Baton Rouge. “Have you found what you were looking for yet?” Esotera calls out from behind them, her clean and well-maintained appearance making Scarlett and Vic look like druggies just coming down from a high. “Where have you been?” Scarlett asks, informed that she’s been digging into whatever she could to help the girls. “I may be your subconscious, but you’ve given me a life of my own. I figured I should do something with that life” Esotera says, answering the most obvious question. “You’re still in the realm beyond, but it’s mirroring the realm you’re most used to” Esotera informs, letting the girls know that the realm beyond is evolving into something the girls can become more perceptive to. “So they’re killing a shit ton of people, but putting us on training wheels while we figure out the puzzle?” Scarlett asks, watching Esotera shrug in response. “If you choose to look at it in that light, I will not try to dissuade you” Esotera retorts, “But if you wish to know what I view it as, I will tell you that this is just another step in your indoctrination into the realm beyond.” Angered, Scarlett tells Esotera that she’d rather not be a part of the realm beyond if it is only going to hurt people and force her to watch. “I want out” Scarlett says, further annoyed when Esotera apologetically returns with the fact that there is no choice in the matter. “Unfortunately, there is no permanent solution from the realm beyond as far as I am aware” Esotera states, forcing Scarlett anger to further boil before it begins tipping over the edge. “This is fucking bullshit!” Scarlett shouts, silenced by the sudden surprise of two vans pulling up to the curb and coming to an immediate stop. “What the fuck?” Scarlett mutters, the picture of the skylight dying into darkness brought to a stubborn shift as Vic shouts for Esotera to vanish. Doing as told, Esotera disappears into thin air, returning to her prior work as Vic hurries up to Scarlett’s side, pulling her by the arm as her gut instinct of something being off is proven correct. With a sudden blast, the girls are thrown from their feet and enraptured by a massive explosion, lighting the night sky a horrifying orange, burning their flesh before their bodies can return to the ground. After a brief two second engulfed in the intense heat, both Victoria and Scarlett awaken in the realm of reality, jolting from their sleep in a traumatic daze, looking to each other for the affirmation that the experience was over. “An explosion and getting flooded out?” Scarlett asks, looking to the other girl, who finds herself just as baffled by the combination as her. “What explosion in the middle of town sinks a building into the ocean?” Scarlett asks, Victoria wiping her eyes away before turning on the television and attempting to forget about the whole ordeal all together. Before long, Victoria is reimmersed in the events of the realm beyond, seeing news coverage detailing her own heroic actions in vivid detail, asking her to come forward so the Baton Rouge Police Department can formally thank her for her actions. “Holy shit” Victoria mutters, with Scarlett quickly hopping out of bed and running for the television screen as the picture of both Victoria and Scarlett rushing away from the scene and escaping in their vehicle plays on a loop. “Please tell me we’re still in the realm beyond?” Victoria says, taking a seat beside Scarlett and taking in the pictures as they scroll by. “We’re definitely not” Scarlett says, joining Victoria in a state of wonder as the wounded man they heroically saved pleads for them to come forward so he can thank them. | “Why would they be out here?” Nora asks, following Rachel through an open field in the middle of nowhere. “Scarlett and I come out here to drink sometimes” Rachel says, turning towards the two adults and assuring that they only have two drinks at maximum. “The world just gets to cluttered” Rachel continues, “It’s nice to come out and forget about it for a little bit so it doesn’t keep weighing us down.” “You two shouldn’t be drinking” Al says, watching Rachel nod and suggest that they’ve known that for a very long time. “But I shouldn’t be one to talk” Al continues, admitting that he’s glad they remain cautious to not push it too far. Opting to stay quiet, Nora starts to ask where they are going, only to cut herself off upon the sight of a small but noticeable dip in the ground. Coming closer to the end of the stable ground, the trio peer over the edge of a dip, leading to a small little makeshift campsite at the very bottom. Walking to a crafty dirt staircase the girls managed to craft, the trio find themselves at the bottom of an intersecting dip, surrounded by litter comprised of shattered bottles and torn fabric from weathered picnic chairs. “This is where you guys disappear to?” Nora asks, met with a disappointed ‘yes’ from Rachel, upset at the fact that Scarlett is nowhere to be seen. “Maybe she came her earlier with someone?” Al suggests, “Maybe she’s on her way home and we just passed her at some point?” Detoured from his hopes as Rachel gets off the phone with Scarlett’s answering machine once again, the trio begin to ponder where Scarlett could be hiding out at. Calling for his wife, Al notices her holding something in her hands, curious as to what it is. “What’ve you got there, hun?” Al asks, walking over to find his wife holding Scarlett’s journal, carefully tucked in between two trees to keep it from being dampened by any incoming rain water. “Is that Scarlett’s?” Al asks, watching Nora look up to him and admit that she doesn’t feel okay with invading her privacy like this. “Sweetheart, if this can tell us where she is, we need to read it” Al says, not one for invading one’s personal space, but changing his tone when the situation reflects a need for it. “We can apologize to her after we find out where she is, alright? Until then, we need to know if she was here” Al concludes,gently taking the book from his wife and searching for the most recent entry. Reading the most notable entry, Al discovers something peculiar in her words that concern him, though ease his worry. “What did she write?” Nora asks, watching Al struggle to comprehend most of what the words even describe to begin with. “Something about going to another world when she sleeps and solving mysteries or something” Al replies, tossing Nora for a turn harder than the worst of drugs can cause. “She said she saw the train wreck happen the night before it happened” Al calls out, the conversation pulled off course slightly with Rachel’s question of whether or not she mentioned the girl’s name. Upon reading the name ‘Victoria’, Al watches Rachel come to a sudden realization that she knows exactly who Scarlett is referring to. “I don’t know anything about her, but I know she’s new at the school” Rachel replies, following Al as he works his way up the stairs. “We’re going to the school” Al says, climbing into the backseat as Nora looks through her phone, searching for Scarlett’s phone number once more. “Al, honey?” Nora calls out, “What did the end of the book say?” After taking a moment to recall, he mentions something along the lines of a building falling during construction, watching Nora turn to face him, eyes widened and her mouth dropped. Handing Al the phone, Nora watches the man’s reaction do the same as he looks at a picture of Victoria and Scarlett on the front page of her facebook, with the request that the two girls make contact with the police department for their heroic actions. “That building collapsed while it was under construction, Al” Nora says, watching Rachel’s mouth drop at the sight of her best friend leading Victoria away from the scene. | “What the fuck are we gonna do?” Victoria asks, begging for Scarlett to say something as the girl turns off every light in the room and tries to calm her nerves. “We don’t do anything” Scarlett replies, stating that they need to skip town. “I can’t leave the school, Scarlett!” Victoria shouts, only for Scarlett to make it clear that they have no other option. “Our picture is all over the news, Vic. If either of us go back home, everyone and their mothers will know about us” Scarlett shouts, declaring that this is their only option. “We’ll crash at my place” Victoria says, immediately ridiculed by Scarlett. “No, I… I live alone” Victoria says, watching Scarlett take a mental step back. “My mother and father disappeared a few months back. I’ve been keeping up on the payments” Victoria says, telling Scarlett not to worry about it. “Don’t make a fuss about it, I’m much happier now, trust me” Victoria replies, refusing to allow Scarlett to feel sorry for her. “But if these people find out who I am, they’ll find out about my parents being gone and they’ll drop me in foster care” Victoria says, pleading with Scarlett that she can’t just drop everything and run away. Refusing to take Victoria’s leas lightly, Scarlett tells Victoria that there is no way for her to go back to the school without immediately being recognized. “The only way out is by getting away until this all boils over” Scarlett says, apologizing out of guilt, but pushing forward the evasion knowing that it’s the only current option. “Please, Vic” Scarlett asks, putting her arm on Victoria and pulling her in as the tears begin to form, telling her that it will all be alright in the end. “Alright” Victoria replies, nodding to agree to the terms, packing her things and getting ready to depart the motel room. Getting into the car, Scarlett and Victoria pull out of the parking lot and hit the road, listening to the officers begging the girls to reveal their identities to the Baton Rouge police department. Switching the dial to cut off the feed, Scarlett puts her hand on Victoria’s and tells her again that everything is going to turn out okay. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, and then we’ll get back to normal” Scarlett says, promising Victoria that everything is going to be alright. Driving out of Baton Rouge, the girls begin to make their way up north, ready to lay low for everything to blow over, and then get on with their lives the way hey intended to. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed