Victoria Evans. Yup, she could do that. She could handle that being her name again, looking like herself again, going back to the life she'd only just started to accept was over. If she could survive this hellhole of a boat she was trapped on, surely a little identity issues couldn't compare.

  Victoria. Vic. Vicky. Vee.

  As long as she wouldn't have to be 'Tori' ever again.

  The familiar icy chill consumed her senses as darkness dragged her down into nothingness. She'd almost become used to the show-and-dance of it all, the way all sensation from one body would tear away from her as that of the other enveloped her. Like some kind of fucked up custody battle over her soul.

  But this time, in a way, she felt almost maternal. As if taking control of Tori was a way to give her a break. Tori had somewhat become her own entity, in Victoria's mind. Reminded her of her siblings back home. Her older brother who she'd never met, not so much, but the younger kids... Sometimes she wondered if they still thought about her at all. If they'd wondered where she'd disappeared to. If she was ever coming back.

  Her whole life, Victoria had tried to protect her brothers and sisters from her parents, as well as from the house itself. All those nights Eden would come into her room because the arguing was making it hard for her to sleep. The mornings before school when Lilith would tug at Tori's arms and cry, begging her not to leave. The bus drives home when Noah would try to convince her to miss their stop so they'd have an excuse to be back late. Then there was Tobias, who... was only born a few weeks before Victoria died. She couldn't help but wonder how he was doing now.

  Her mother never got her name right, never cared, never took the slightest interest in her life. The woman only liked being a mother until a child would become old enough to form their own opinions, like a kid only wanting a dog while they're a cute little puppy. That was why she refused to stop having them, it seemed. It wasn't fair to them.

  And her father? Please. If ever he wasn't in jail, he'd be at some mate's garage sleeping on a couch for a month, or off with some new woman. Victoria used to tell Eden and Lilith elaborate stories about where he'd have gone – tales of castles and dragons and quests to complete. The bedtime fables stopped working when he started coming home more often, bringing with him his beer and shouting.

  She wondered if her sisters thought she'd purposely left them. Maybe they were too young to believe something like that, but maybe they were also too young to know better. Maybe Noah had told them she wasn't coming back in his own soft way. Maybe Noah had tried looking for her. Unless he too thought she'd gotten a chance to run away and taken it, leaving them behind in that shithole of a house. She had to hope he knew better of her.

  Though maybe she had. As Autumn. She'd had the chance to go there, to take them away and bring them somewhere safe, and she hadn't done it. Instead she'd gone and started a new life as if they were just a passing thought.

  When this is all over and I'm myself again, I'll save them.

  She held onto that thought like a lifeline as she finished settling into Tori's body, and took in a shallow breath with rotting and punctured lungs.

  It'll be over soon. I promise.

  Her eyes fluttered open slowly, eyelids heavy from the recent dose of Silverleaf. The blurry light focused around her, forming a dim room filled with cabinets and storage. A blinding lamp shined above her head, the hue a cold blue like a dentist's office. Before her sat a figure hunched over a stool seat, fiddling with small metal tools on the table to her left. Tori's form was elevated, tied at the waist to a medical bed of sorts, and her wrists were zip-tied together.

  She slumped, head lolling slightly as the heavy sedation finished creeping up on her. She knew she had to sell this, play as 'the undead Tori-husk' until an opportunity arrived to take action, so she let herself drown in the sensation of decay that hugged her so unforgivingly.

  Her gaze fell on the person beside her again, taking in a good look.

  Diego looked a little younger than she'd initially expected. Sure she'd seen him from afar at school earlier that year or gotten blurry and unfocused glances of him through Tori's eyes a few minutes prior, but never really observed him.

  His collared shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, exposing messy scarring along his arms alongside a rather expensive silver watch. His hands were rough and battered, nails short and neatly kept from forming into claws. An old and faded tattoo rested beneath the skin of his right forearm – a cursive name now an illegible blue puddle. A silver cross necklace dangled from his neck like a salute to irony itself.

  The man's glasses sat crookedly on his nose which seemed broken. His stubble was a mix of light browns and only a few greys, much like his slicked back hair which held only a single grey streak at one side. While his black eyes were deep-set and aged, the rest of his face bore hardly any wrinkles. His skin almost glowed with health and youth, yet housed the occasional scar along his lip or cheek. A clear lack of sun damage kept pigmentation steady along his features. It seemed impossible to slap an age onto him. He really did embody the saying of 'old soul', thanks to a cheap excuse for immortality that really just slowed cellular decay down.

  A grumble of a huff escaped him, alongside a raise of his brow and a slight shake of his head. He slid a handful of equipment to one side and searched a different drawer, rubbing a temple.

  Up close like this, he didn't seem like a monster. Didn't give off the vibes one would expect of someone planning on torturing and killing a few teenagers they'd kidnapped. Decades of working in the police force had left permanent marks all over his appearance and his soul itself, almost to the point where Victoria couldn't help but wonder where he'd gone bad. Did he truly believe he was doing the right thing here? Or had his career built up an ego so solidified that he didn't believe he ever could be wrong?

  "So why don't we just toss her overboard now before they can do something about it?" Apple muttered bitterly from across the room, rubbing sanitiser onto her hands at a sink.

  Tori drew her attention over to her now. Not in hopes of understanding her better like she had with Diego, but purely with simmering rage at the memory of Apple's earlier confessions.

  "Because I want to witness the two loop." Diego replied just as enthusiastically. "That description you sent me of what it entails was rather lacking."

  "I was across the street, I couldn't get much closer without either Zach or Autumn sensing me." Apple scoffed. "And what I said was exactly what I saw."

  "You wrote 'They got too close and her soul started ping-ponging from one to the other so Zach stabbed Autumn to force her into just that one because pain keeps her stuck.' Y'know, you should consider becoming an author, you have this phenomenal way with words and a truly unmatched ability to paint a scene–"

  "What else did you want me to say?" Apple cut in, offended. "Should I have described the weather? The colour of the grass? What they were wearing?"

  "Jesus Christ, it's like I'm talking to a child." Diego shook his head, raising a brow to Tori as if to say 'can you believe this?'

  Though his features shifted more seriously as he registered a slight change in Tori's demeanour. The way she'd become a little more responsive, the steadying of her usually broken breathing pattern, the colour of her irises having changed from a pure ghostly grey to a more light blue, even if her pupils stayed white. He narrowed his eyes at her and put down the tool in his hand.

  Tori gulped, biting back the urge to reply. She had to remind herself to stay looking as dazed and drugged as possible. Besides, the usual Tori couldn't speak anyway, not without Victoria's soul telling the brain how to make the correct sounds with her mouth.

  "Y'know somehow Avery is far better at listening to instructions than you are, and the girl's seventeen." He shot a glare over his shoulder to Apple. "It's almost sad you're harder to work with than a teenager."

  Apple flinched slightly in hurt.

  "You're her dad, of course she–!"

  "Oh please, she didn't see me as a dad until years after her biological father passed. 'Mum's boyfriend' was the best I got for a decade." He sighed, each word carrying a transparent resentment. "I'm just relieved I only met you after you'd become an adult. If you'd been Zach's age I would've just put you out of your misery that day."

  "It's almost like I have substance abuse issues."

  "You are a substance abuse issue."

  Apple stuck the finger up and scowled at him, only to give up and walk off. Resentful grumbles fell from her lips with each breath as she left Tori's line of sight completely.

  In the corner of her eye, she spotted Diego pulling something out of a larger drawer. He carefully slid the chunk of blue plastic onto the desk, the glass of the vials clinking together from momentum. There were four, she counted. The plastic of the rack hid the bottom halves of the vials, thus concealing their contents. Though the way Diego pulled on a pair of latex gloves brought her heart rate back up again.

  He took hold of Tori's left hand and leaned in to inspect her ring finger, or rather lack thereof.

  "This was you, I'm guessing?" He muttered. "Ouch. It's a clean cut, I'd have expected more of a rip."

  Tori shut her eyes, praying she didn't seem lucid. She'd been choosing to ignore the simmering pain from her hand and having it pointed out was making that a challenge.

  "So you've got a vampire's PSI, but your teeth are too rotten to endure that pressure." Diego noted aloud, dabbing a cotton pad in alcohol before pressing it against the open wound.

  Tori couldn't stop herself from crying out in response to the pain, her back arching off the bed and her shoulders jolting.

  Diego tilted his head.

  "Couldn't have felt nice to feel over a thousand pounds of pressure rip through your flesh, huh? Especially with blunt teeth, assuming you used your front teeth to chomp it off."

  With his free hand he lifted Tori's upper lip to get a good look at the newly grown fangs she sported. The girl flinched slightly.

  "Fresh fangs on a six month old vampire." He smirked. "You took your sweet time, huh? I guess that's a given when your cells are actively decaying."

  He leaned in closer.

  "Are... Are they serrated? At the backs?" He grinned wider, ever so curious. "Wow. Do you have any clue how rare that is? It's such an interesting adaptation, essentially the next evolutionary step. Better for tearing up flesh and bone instead of just piercing a vein. What a shame it's wasted, that you'll never turn anyone and pass on the trait. Maybe I should keep them for research."

  Oh. So that's where he went bad – morbid curiosity. Great.

  "Don't freak her out, her brain can still understand body language and the occasional word. You'll get her all panicky again." Apple called out from across the room doing who knows what. "We don't have any other sedatives that'll work on her."

  "Yeah, yeah." Diego rolled his eyes.

  He ripped off his gloves, threw them in a bin, and slipped new ones on.

  "Blood sample, skin sample, hair sample," Diego noted aloud as he pointed to each vial on the rack, "Ah, I'd love to get a brain tissue sample next."

  Brain what?!

  Tori gulped, hoping desperately the dread wasn't showing on her face.

  "You can't get a brain sample from her and keep her alive without a whole team of neurosurgeons." Apple walked over and picked up a vial to inspect it. "You didn't happen to bring the correct equipment for a lobotomy, did you?"

  "Apple, Tori's body is in a state between life and death in which it can sustain severe and potentially lethal injuries without much immune response, brain activity, nor healing, yet will continue to function. Every wound simply stops bleeding and is left as is, like they're chips in the marble of a statue. A few cuts here and there won't kill her."

  He reached over to the desk and picked up a scalpel.

  Tori felt the walls close in on her. The air grew cold. Her slow and rotten blood began to boil. Her claws twitched. She had to do something.

  She could barely move, still sedated, but she had to do something.

  Her wrists were cuffed with zip-ties, but she couldn't just lay there.

  She really had run out of time.

  Diego placed a palm against Tori's eyebrow for support before lining up the tip of the scalpel against her temple.

  "I'm just curious how big of a sample I can take before Victoria's shoved into the body in response to the pain–"

  Using all she had left Tori reached up and ripped Diego's arms down. She snatched the tool from between his fingers, her wrists still stuck together. In the brief moment before he could react, she used the combined strength of both arms to launch them upwards and push the scalpel through his left eye.

  Blood sprayed.

  Diego shrieked and stumbled backwards.

  Apple ran over in shock.

  Tori clawed the rope off of her waist and bolted for the door.

  The harsh icy wind slapped her in the face alongside the suffocating scent of salt as she scurried down the metal steps, the door slamming behind her. Cautious not to slip on the scattered puddles that lay on every surface, she hurried down the staircase and pushed the approaching door with her entire body weight.

  As it opened she collapsed onto red and dirty carpet, finding herself at the start of a long and empty hallway.

  "Thank you for making Tori wear complete outfits instead of the bare minimum, Zach." She muttered to herself as she pushed through the overwhelming pain and got back to running. "And sports bras instead of bras. So much better. I don't know what I'd do without shoes on right now."

  Her breaths turned to shallow pants as she checked each door hoping to find one unlocked. She grunted and switched to using her right hand when the simple act of turning a handle proved difficult with a missing finger.

  "I... love... these stupid runners." She grumbled as she continued her racing, looking down to her ruined and tattered running shoes. "Always hated 'em... but... they're better than tetanus."

  Every door was useless. Every turn went nowhere. She could hardly see with the dim and dying lights along the walls.

  And then, as if she hadn't been punished enough, everything went black.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "The fuck?" Tori felt for a wall to steady herself with until her night vision would activate. "Cutting the power on a boat, are they insane?"

  But as the darkness began to light up with her eyes working on overdrive, the shadows reminded her of–

  "ZACH!"

  Her distorted and raspy voice bounced off the walls and down the endless hallways as she took off running faster than before.

  "He's gonna blackout! Shit! He probably already has!"

  Every limb ached with decay. This body could barely walk to begin with, it had no energy to spare. And with the additional injuries from Tori's recent meltdown, she barely had any control over her limbs thanks to the sheer nerve damage that came with mauled up flesh and exposed bone. She could directly see a vein on her left forearm peeking out from a deep missing chunk. The girl could feel her heart on the verge of giving up, but she'd decided she'd crawl if it came down to it.

  "He's all alone. He's gonna blackout while he's alone with my body, both still tied up. Fuck, he'll go all freakout! Damn it!"

  Something loudly cracked in her ankle and she hissed out in pain, but chose to ignore it.

  "I'm coming..."

  A door marked the end of the labyrinth, and she slowed to a wobble. Shaking her head to wake herself up, Tori gave a grunt of effort and pushed it open, once again met with the outside world.

  She finally let herself breathe. Her blueish skin tingled at the cold as she leaned against the metal railing and looked out at the horizon.

  With the power cut off, there were no floodlights to rely on, and her night vision could only stretch a few metres. Despite that, she'd have hoped to at least see one light out there indicating land. But no, just an endless blanket of jet black waves and the moon above, mocking her. At least the faint moonlight was better than nothing.

  "We weren't in there." Tori glanced behind her at the cabin rooms. "I'd have heard Zach nearby."

  She looked out at the open dock, decorated with the occasional crate or bundle of ropes.

  By ferry standards this boat wasn't massive. It was only a few storeys and maybe a few football fields long. At least it wasn't a cruise. Still, there were definitely areas she hadn't checked back inside, including below the deck. The main problem there was Tori's body not being 100% turned even after all this time. The built in abilities were lacking at best and nonexistent at worst. Victoria's other body had fresh and flourishing abilities in comparison, and that was what she'd grown accustomed to. If she'd been in that body instead it would've felt like playing Marco Polo in a pool, but this was like playing Hide N' Seek in a forest you'd never been to... at midnight... with loud music pumping in your ears and your hands tied.

  Which reminded her...

  She brought her hands to her mouth and tugged at the zip-ties with her brittle front teeth, hoping that if she could bite off a finger with them she could bite off some plastic. A tooth chipped at the force, but the ties snapped in half, and she flexed her hands free.

  "Okay, where am I?"

  Tori shut her eyes and let the rhythmic lapping of the waves dissociate her from her form just slightly. Enough to bring her back into the dark abyss that stretched between her two bodies like the River Styx. As she focused on her other self's presence, a mental map began to form behind her eyes like a sixth sense. A game of hot and cold.

  She opened her eyes, setting them on a specific spot down and to her left.

  "Gotcha."

  But the sound of Apple's yelling and hissing from across the boat stole her attention first, and she gulped.

  "Fine. Guess we're racing!" Tori called back, throwing her hands in the air as she prepared for more psychical exhaustion. "... Please don't be an unfairly fast runner. I can barely move."

  As it turned out, Apple was very much an unfairly fast runner.

  The woman was on a diet of human blood, of course Tori couldn't compete. Not only had Tori been just barely functioning off of bacon and chicken hearts for months, she was also... y'know... a fucking corpse?

  "Why can't I be like those zombies from The Crazies or something?!" Tori groaned through the pain of each movement. "Vampires are supposed to have enhanced speed! I've ran faster than this for the Beep Test in school!"

  The thump of her shoes against the carpet boomed under her feet. She put extra weight into each step, hoping the idiot she was looking for would pick up the noise and call out or something.

  "I think I've..." Her brow furrowed at the absurdity. "I think I've swam faster than this."

  "Keep yelling! It'll really keep you hidden." Apple's bitter voice came from somewhere in the distance, a few floors above.

  "Oh fuck off, you piece of shit!" Tori barked back. "Can't you turn into a bat and piss off?"

  "Why does everyone think we can do that?" Apple muttered under her breath.

  Tori paused atop a flight of stairs, a wave of exhaustion pinning her in place the moment she gave herself a break. The regret was immediate.

  "ZACH!" She called again.

  Nothing.

  She was close, it was just a matter of getting there before Apple could. She wasn't so sure that was possible anymore.

  "Don't fall don't fall don't fall–" She rambled under her breath as she descended the staircase ever so carefully, gripping the rail tightly with her claws. "God, that would be so embarrassing, if I died by tripping."

  She could hear Apple's quick steps above her.

  "To be fair, I did die from trying losing my virginity in a tent, so maybe tripping isn't so bad after all."

  "What?!" Apple's voice came from upstairs.

  "Not talking to you!"

  In all honesty Tori was worried that if she stopped yapping she'd simply pass out. Talking to herself was the only thing proving to keep her attentive and aware. It just became difficult when the person chasing you had enhanced hearing and you were becoming too delirious to make sense anymore.

  The fraying bandages on her older injuries were starting to irritate her as movement made them unravel. She clawed at the gauze wrapped around her neck, nails slicing through the netting material. The once white cloth had been stained a dull beige from a mix of blood and general dirt after being in place for months. She curled it up in her hands and threw it behind her, not caring if she left a trail. Her fingers came up to brush the tender exposed skin of her neck, and she noted the slight texture change as they felt the patch of scar tissue that had once been the exact bite she'd suffered that eventful night. It still felt new. She almost felt a phantom sensation of those teeth piercing the flesh there.

  In a way it felt almost symbolic to be free of the bandage, finally feeling her fatal wound for herself. Though it reminded her of the other injury she'd had that night, and her hand lowered to hover over her chest.

  Tori checked around the next corner before running down a new hallway, knowing she was close now.

  Making a mental note of the fact she couldn't hear Apple anymore, Tori halted against a wall once more. She let out a shaky exhale that carried with it months of dread, and lifted up her shirt.

  Her abdomen held more scars than she'd expected. Random little ones from her own claws, scrapes from falls, nothing out of the ordinary. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her sports bra... and there it was.

  A palm sized, circular patch of thick scar tissue parallel to her heart. Her chest was slightly caved in around it. She gulped and felt the skin with her fingertips, letting herself accept it was real. A heavy sense of doom pooled at her feet and weighed on her shoulders, like a cacophony of flashbacks were just waiting for the slightest opportunity to come flooding her way, but they were held back by the way her memory had been blocked out so strongly.

  You'd think taking a giant stick through the heart and out the other side wouldn't be something you'd forget, but even humans are capable of being blissfully unaware they went through serious trauma until decades after the fact. She knew one day the memories would come back. But for now, just seeing the proof it happened at all felt like closure.

  Whether it meant she'd been stabbed by a stranger, by the original Autumn Laurence, by Apple or Diego, or possibly even herself that night, the result was the same. She could live with not knowing the full picture, so long as she could survive all of this in the first place.

  Tori fixed her clothes and turned her attention to the door at the end of the hallway. That was the one. She could hear that familiar breathing, smell the cinnamon scent that felt like home. But she couldn't barge in, not when her other body wasn't blindfolded – she'd fall into a loop the second she'd look at her. There was only one way she could play this.

  But it was a pain in the ass.

  She carefully sat down in front of the door before slipping out of that body and opening her eyes in the other. Now oxygen was cold and fresh, her limbs had mobility, and her night vision was at peak performance. Thank god.

  "I'm back." Victoria sighed in relief before snapping into focus and searching around the dark room for anything helpful. "I stabbed Diego and Apple's pissed, but–"

  Her voice cut out as we made eye contact. I gulped.

  She narrowed her eyes at me, features softening with concern. "Baby? You okay?"

  "Yeah." I choked out nervously, nodding a little too fast. "I'm good. Why wouldn't I be good? I'm great. Haven't gone anywhere, can't go anywhere, and you didn't take that long, so yeah, I'm going good."

  "Your pupils are pinpoints... in a pitch black room..." Her expression scrunched. "You don't feel weird at all? Maybe a little anxious?"

  "What? Me? No. Yeah. No, no, no, I'm good. Didn't you say Apple's coming? C'mon, we don't have time to chit chat." I shifted against my restraints. "Let's go. I'm totally ready for murder. Psyched myself up and I'm good as gold."

  "... Is that why your fangs are out?"

  "Gotta be prepared."

  She looked me up and down, not an ounce of trust on her face.

  "... I'll deal with you in a sec, just hang on tight."

  "Cool. No rush. Happy to chill."

  Victoria looked over her shoulder to the ropes that tied her wrists. She'd been awake long enough for the nightshade effects to have almost completely worn off by now, though she could smell traces of the herb on the restrains, as if they'd been soaked in the substance for an extra kick. That explained the dull stinging of her hands earlier.

  "So how are we getting out of here?" I spoke up, tone wavering.

  "Just gimme a sec." She replied softly.

  In the corner of my eye, I watched as Vic slumped against the wall, and the door opened a few moments later with Tori at the other side. Tori ripped a bandage off of her leg and wrapped it around her eyes like a blindfold, before carefully entering the room. Each step was slow and calculated. Meanwhile Victoria – soulless – looked around in a daze like she did every time she became empty. Tori paused and swallowed thickly.

  "Little to the left." She muttered under her breath.

  I stayed silent, merely observing with absolutely no clue what she was doing. The open door was making my hair stand up, knowing at any second someone could peek their head in.

  Tori sat across from her other self who stared at her with wide and blank eyes. She hesitated.

  "This is fine." She huffed, despite the way her head was spinning horribly from her bodies being a metre apart. "At least it's not overstimulating in here."

  "What are you doing?" I frowned.

  "Trying to use Victoria's eyes to see what I'm doing in Tori's body?"

  "And... that's working?"

  "It's... kinda like looking at your reflection in a mirror that's facing another mirror?"

  Tori's hands trembled as she carefully sliced at the ropes tying Victoria's wrists together. I sat back, genuinely impressed she was handling this so well.

  With the ropes cut, Victoria instinctively brought her hands to her lap to rub at her raw wrists. Tori sighed in relief. The girl cautiously backed up and sat down against the opposite wall, then tightened her blindfold, and switched again. The zombie slumped, the fresh body gasped to life.

  "Holy shit that worked." Victoria blurted out in disbelief, immediately getting up to search the room. "Oh my god. Okay. She can sit there."

  "Damn." I looked between the two of them. "That was... obscenely risky."

  She rummaged through the junk on the desk as well as the cabinet drawers, subconsciously tuning in to what Tori was up to, which was thankfully nothing but sitting in place and picking at the carpet. At least she hadn't run off somewhere. Apple was still undetectable, which was concerning. Maybe Diego had called her back like an escaped pet dog.

  "Yes!" Vic grabbed the flashlight hiding behind an old book. "... And there's no batteries. Of course."

  "Wait, you stabbed Diego?" I asked an entire three minute later than intended. "Like how?"

  "Uh, scalpel to the eye?" She shrugged, searching the next drawer.

  "Ouch." I blinked. "Do you stab things often?"

  She spun around and gave me a baffled look.

  "... I'm gonna ignore you."

  "Well I just wanna know how safe I am right now." I murmured. "I don't wanna be locked in a room with some murderous psychopath."

  "Says the guy who attacks when the nightlights go out."

  "And maybe I should! I don't know you. Not really. Don't really know anyone. People can change overnight. Maybe you're a different person suddenly. Maybe you're not real. Maybe none of this is real. Maybe I'm still in the tent waiting for you to come back–"

  "I hate this part. 'I can't trust anyone, anyone could hurt me at any point in time. I have to defend myself. No one is safe. I'm not safe. So yes I'm gonna kill anyone who looks at me funny. It's just self defence, Tori.' Something like that, right? You've given me that speech so many times I've lost count." Victoria grumbled. "At least now it makes sense. You were attacked out of nowhere when you died. You were supposed to be safe, you walked those streets every day, and you had me on speaker. I... I get why your mind does this when you're in the dark. I really do."

  She walked over and knelt before me, her eyes filled with such love and empathy.

  I tried to scurry away, my breaths speeding into hyperventilation from the proximity alone. Every nerve set alight. My mind screamed 'danger' over and over again.

  "If I let you go, will you promise you won't run off?"

  I blinked stiffly, watching her stuff a battery she'd found into the flashlight.

  "I have nowhere to go..." I murmured. "They'll find me anyway."

  "Promise me you won't leave the room without me."

  Victoria clicked the small torch on and flickered the light in my eyes. I couldn't help but thrash and hiss. It burned.

  "F-Fine! Promise!"

  "Mean it!"

  "Eu juro! Desliga isso!"

  "Hm." Her eyes narrowed. "You know I have no idea what that means, right?"

  Regardless, she placed the torch down to illuminate the room instead of my face. Tori hugged her knees in the corner. I hunched over to catch my breath.

  "I've got you. Okay?" Vic whispered as she leaned in and hovered her claws above my ropes. "Just breathe. Don't run. I'm gonna cut these and free you, but you're still weak and you're in a blackout, so you can't leave my sight. Alright?"

  "... Yup." I gulped, shivering from adrenaline like a leaf. "Won't run."

  She hesitated for a few moments more, then sliced the ropes.

  I bolted.

  "ZACH!" She snarled, grabbing my leg and yanking me back in place.

  I yelped and crashed down to the floor.

  The door was still open. I had to get out.

  I scrambled back up and scurried past her desperately. Victoria tried to take hold of my shirt only for a piece to tear off. She cursed under her breath and ran after me.

  Out the door, I went for the first direction I saw since every hallway looked the same. I thought I'd escaped for a second until that damn flashlight beamed in my eyes.

  "FUCK!" I ran face first into a wall and collapsed.

  Victoria stood above me, keeping the light positioned just right. She shook her head and grabbed me by the collar, dragging me back into the room while I screamed and squirmed like a child being pulled away from a slide.

  "PLEASE! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I CAN'T BE HERE! I HAVE TO GET OUT!"

  "Uh huh."

  "I'M SORRY I RAN! I'M REALLY SORRY! LET ME GO– AAH!"

  She flickered the light in my eyes.

  "Keep on shouting and alerting the others, why don't you." She scowled.

  Tori turned away when we came back into the room despite being blindfolded, like she was watching a sibling get scolded and pretending not to be listening.

  "I hate doing this by force. I know it sucks, but I have to snap you out of this as quickly as I can." Victoria frowned. She helped me stand back up and hugged me tightly, keeping the light in my face. "I've got you. You're safe. Just let yourself calm down. It's not dark anymore, let the light bring you back."

  I kept my eyes shut tight while I panted. All that screaming had reminded my brain that my jaw was still decently messed up, duct tape still slapped onto it to keep the pieces together. Pain was an anchor, at least, and so was light.

  The light wasn't... that painful. It was almost calming. Maybe. And Victoria was hugging me, she'd protect me if anyone tried to hurt me.

  I didn't... really need to be scared.

  "Any better?" Vic traced circles on my waist with her thumb out of habit. "You stopped shaking."

  "I 'unno..." I slurred, head pounding.

  She tilted her head, studying me under the light.

  "Zach?"

  "I'm here." I sighed.

  "You..." Her brow furrowed. "Do you know where you are?"

  "Yeah, yeah. Being pinned like an idiot."

  "No, I mean– Wait, you didn't black all that out?"

  "What, my screaming?" I chuckled weakly. "Was I supposed to?"

  She nearly dropped me, eyes snapping wide.

  "That was a blackout, Zach. A darkness-induced blackout. You... You're telling me you remember all of it? Just like that?"

  "Yeah..?" I cringed, meeting her eyes. "I'm really confused right now."

  "You've never–!" She stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Y'know what? We don't have time for this."

  Victoria let me go and helped Tori up, keeping a close eye on that bandage of hers. I shook off the remaining nerves and slapped my face a few times to wake up. We exchanged a nod as well as the torch, and I held it to my face with one hand and took Tori's wrist with my other as we left the room for good.

  "So what's the plan?" I muttered, looking around for any sign of Apple or Diego. "Where are we going?"

  "The dock." Vic shrugged. "No point hiding in this labyrinth. May as well face them head on."

  "What about Tori?"

  "She can sit in the corner and wait for it to be over."

  "..." I found myself glued to the determination on her face. "I'm really proud of you."

  "What?" She immediately blushed furiously.

  "I'm serious. I'm insanely proud." I smiled. "Give yourself some damn credit, Vic."

  She kept her gaze on the path ahead, trying to focus on leading me the right way and not the way her cheeks were burning.

  "I just... wanna survive." She mumbled.

  "I think you say 'just' too much, y'know. You're always doubting your own words." I chuckled. "Be firm."

  "I wanna survive." She nodded. "I'm going to survive."

  "You always have. Got a will so strong you possessed your own corpse."

  She gave my shoulder a light shove along with a scoff.

  When the last door opened and we met the outside world again, I nearly collapsed from the fresh air alone. How long had I been in that room? Felt like days.

  Victoria hadn't been exaggerating earlier, there was nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see, spare the moonlight on the tips of the flat waves. I couldn't help but feel a sliver of disappointment, but I'd already accepted that we were stranded.

  Vic guided Tori to sit down beside a crate out on the dock. I wandered over to an edge. The chill of the metal railings against my arms was almost therapeutic. It definitely helped numb the pain from those ropes, at least.

  I focused on the splashes of the water against the exterior of the boat, joined by the call of a seagull overhead. There was another faint noise as well, one far away. It was heavy and thick, like the thudding of a fan.

  I glanced over to Victoria, who was already giving me the same look. She could hear it too.

  It was growing ever so slightly louder. Nearer. For a few moments we stared at each other, minds working on overdrive, until–

  "Helicopter." Victoria whispered in shock.

  I snapped my head up to search for it in the clouds, but I couldn't find any indication of one. No lights, no silhouette. It was too far away.

  But it was definitely there.

  "Think they'll notice us?" I muttered on my way back over to her. "Or skim right by?"

  "They could be looking for us." She crossed her arms. "Maybe if Malachi really did end up calling the police."

  "Can't say when we don't know how long we've been here." I shrugged. "But it's something. I reckon if we manage to turn the power back on and get the floodlights working–"

  Before I could get the words out, the sound of a deep snarl came from beside me, and I found myself tackled to the ground by my own principal.

  Victoria didn't have a second to blink before Apple did the same to her, and a cat fight broke out.

  I tried desperately to dodge every slash of Diego's claws as we tumbled across the deck, which proved a useless attempt. I couldn't see, couldn't react, couldn't move properly. He scratched my cheek, then my neck, then both shoulders at once all in the span of one breath.

  Victoria managed to kick Apple off of her and run off in my direction. Apple's head hit a crate from the force of being blown back. She shook it off and scurried away, but not to follow Vic.

  "You little shit!" Victoria scoffed and spun around, realising where she was going.

  "Don't–!" I tried to call out between hits to the face.

  Apple pounced at Tori and ripped the bandage right off of her eyes.

  The moment their eyes met, Tori and Vic shrieked out in unison.