There was nothing like being laid bare before the world to see, and in both senses of the word.

Well, Jackie and the rest of the girls were exaggerating, but one often falls into that mindset when they stood before someone naked.

To set the scene accurately, each of them were separated, using the same “technology” as before which separated their sickbeds before, but more intimate, more vague. Where there was armor-plating in the first example, this one had just a white space, seemingly on all sides. There, each girl was standing there, their gowns to the side of their feet, before this field being put up, was asked by Leslie to sit in a formation with them circled around with their backs facing each other’s.

To his credit as both a medical professional and questionable, mixed quality as a person, he asked the girls thoroughly if they wanted to do something like this, stating that there could be another way to obtain the information and detailing the precautions with any possible leeway to make the already private sessions more comfortable. And after five, understandable, minutes of silence latent with sighs and groans, all five ultimately agreed on the basis for time, as their families were waiting for them.

That and the fact that Leslie will briefly see their attributes for seconds until he cranks them away added some sense of security. In some weird sense, a sense to get used to.

Jackie’s body, enhanced by toned muscles that showed years of hard work and personal self-improvement, was open, taken apart, highlighted by Leslie. He triggered the puzzle-like infostructure she has to keep in mind now, and at various parts of the body he checked how it responded. To see if it reconnected if one of her arms moved, if it separated further when a leg stretched, and if it was tracking every time her chest showcased her breathing.

Now, Jackie was the least resistant to being naked, almost to an uncaring yet understanding response that tripped up the others. But this? She was exposed in a different sense, embarrassed in a different sense. What was a whole day based on clarity; this was a heavy way to close it out. But it was typical lesson, nowadays it seemed; reality checks portrayed and communicated by surreal horror. She couldn’t help to be a bit bitter, ashamed, and again, lost.

She paid attention to Leslie’s fingers versus her body; and it brought home how something she’s sure everyone had heard but didn’t put stock into it and how much of the information regarding Shift and siVis awareness was just as flawed as the attempts of accepting it and integrating it are.

…Now she realized how bad the finger watching was, okay, retreat into the thought--

“When in the presence of a siVis one, you’ll understand that they have weak-points; locate them and flee the scene if possible”. Jackie dwelled on the fact that the so-called “advice” was way too vague to mean anything, and berated it within her head not taking into account of how much unimaginable fear said victim would be in to even think to do something like that, when most siVis ones can turn the ground into a pool of living quicksand talking heads. And considering how simple it seems now watching Leslie literally poking her and causing this reaction, regardless if it doesn’t last as long, made her fuming that there was no diagram to go along with the information.

“Are you uncomfortable?” Leslie stopped, and Jackie realized that she was shaking her head, and felt her face into a pout.

“Sorry,” Jackie replied, “Lost in thought.”

“Fair enough,” he resumed, inspecting away, “I need to move back and double check the next patient. You only have a minute more of this, and you all can go home.”

“That’s good… That’s good…”

Jackie couldn’t help but to think about how she shattered her home, broken the physical things and fractured the sense of it, the principal, the atmosphere her parents carefully made for her.

She didn’t know how to handle any of this. And yet, she has the tools in her hands that can? Unbearable negative emotions that now run deep? Fear of the unknown that isn’t just in front of her, but the very world she lives in? All capped off with feeble, human efforts that just get swallowed into the haze of confusion, meaningless. All of it, what she is… Meaningless, in the end…

She hated the fact that the world she believed in helping, one full of many meanings from many different people, is being warped away, and they—she—can’t do not one thing about it. There would’ve been honor in doing something only to fail and be consumed by it—at least that’s a better scenario than whatever this is, she stewed in the thoughts.

“Hm,” was all that Leslie said, what Jackie could hear, before raising up and then walking into the white void. Jackie looked down at herself, everything settled back into place, with her new perception and possibly unlocked aspects of herself made her features… “pop”, as if they’re in the best shape of her life. Which added to the mixed bag that is currently Jackie Jackson.

She worked hard, creating and maintaining this. She was lanky and tall for her age back then, and of course began the ridicule and the mocking in her early teens that defined her more than she defined herself, then that served the realization. Why let them do that when she had the final say on the matter? With the help of her father, she began working out, starting with little and crawled herself towards the advanced stuff, and before any of them knew it, she became what she is today. She came back to school with a smug mantra, if they’re going to make fun of her, surely the joke’s going to be on them since she’s now better than them? But…The opposite happened. She became “cool”, much to her confusion and honest surprise. She even became somewhat of an unofficial gym aid during said class, reformed one of the bullies that became her best friend, and went into basketball when she was sure she was going to suck. Everything worked out and it was the best time of her life so far, and to twist the knife further, was so sure she could keep it up. She remembered the sequence clearly: first fallout, then move, finally shift. All in that damn order from out of nowhere.

What would this be? A result? Aftermath? …Mistake?

Thankfully, in one sense, that they all returned to the hospital room, as the thick platforms slid back into the floor and the rest are putting their gowns back on… And turned to see Jackie still in the nude.

Maddie instantly turned on her bare hell and still covered the side of her face, “Oookay, uh…”

“Hm…?” Jackie craned her head back, not really getting why the others are shielding their eyes in their respective ways: Tracy covering her face completely, Aiko closing her eyes as they twitch due to inactivity, and River looking down.

“…Oh, right, sorry…” Jackie kicked up her discarded gown and instantly putting it on. “Sorry, girls, sorry girls…” She tried to laugh. “I was lost in my mind and I didn’t know where I was. I’m not used to the former and the latter it’s just how I am…”

“Of course, the sporty one doesn’t mind it…” Leslie chuckled out under his breath.

Jackie squinted at him, “I can hear that, now.”

“Oh, I know, I didn’t make it an effort to hide it. I just found it funny, no sexual over and/or undertones here,” he replied with a light smirk on his face. “Plus, I’m sure I’m voicing the same thing the rest are thinking.”

She pouted as she took the time to put on her gown again. Newly issued and pretty weird; they conceal everything while being able to be easily thrown off—just depended on your intent and motion. Cyan, not quite form-fitting but snug, with the crease for the open sealed and on her side.

“I mean,” Maddie shrugged with a somewhat surprised look on her face, “Got us there, doc. Nurse. ‘Nur—'?”

“Come on—It’s not like I have anything to hide, following the law about indecency and shame off the table!” Jackie found herself defending herself, crossing her arms, “I’m usually 40% clothed during the warmer days, weeks, or months anyways! Perfectly normal!”

He begun plugging away his findings on the AR keyboard, “Again, it’s more the fact that someone like you would totally do what you all did, and I found amusement in all that, nothing overly sexual. And if you don’t think that’s it and feel completely uncomfortable, I will cease and desist.”

Jackie undid her armcrossing to bring her hands up to her face, fingers twitching, and then forming into a fist.

“You’re just—A seesaw! A human seesaw!”

Leslie laughed uproarishly at that, “My, that’s honestly a new one, congrats!” He turned his head towards Maddie, “Better than combinations of things I’ve heard before.”

“See, I take it all back,” Maddie looked toward Jackie, “He’s the responsible one that has to act like a damn kid about it.”

“Can we please,” Tracy cut in, making everyone turn to her, only for her to lock up.

“…Can we please…” she sighed, trying again, “Get the final report? So, we can all go home…?”

“But of course, Ms. Goodwin,” Leslie answered, swiping the keyboard away.

River seemed to glance quickly at Tracy, trying to twist her lip about, as if she’s instantly recognized something, “Goodwin…?”

“Of course, all of you are comfortable with hearing this all at once?” Leslie looked toward and across the assorted young women.

“Well,” Aiko scratched at the side of her nose with her pinky, “The same thing happened to all of us, so what’s the point of a one on one…?”

“…I’m actually surprised that you’re the first to somewhat catch on…” Leslie honestly replied, leaning on the wall. And before any of the rest chimed in, he issued his diagnosis.

“So, all of you have your siVis partially locked.” Blunt.

“…What…?” Was all Jackie could muster at that point.

“Whaaaaaat?” Aiko whined out, hands thrusted palms first towards Leslie.

“…I love how much I think we’re face deep into the dirt; somehow there’s a grimy level of even more fresh shit to stomp us down into,” Maddie described her pained amusement.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” Aiko continued to express.

There was only a swift and audible whacking sound as Tracy facepalmed herself, shaking afterwards.

“Great,” River shook her head and couldn’t stop doing it.

“…Does that…” Jackie could feel the rise of anger building and building.

“Like, I’m not even mad,” Maddie laughed out. “Just asking why even give the effort to spit on us; we’re already drowning in pure shit anyways.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!” Jackie exploded, so that the fear doesn’t claim her anymore.

Leslie slowly raised up his hands, “Self-influence. Auto-rigor of the siVis one’s design. As the information codex explained; siVis is just about you as you are it, it’s showing you as you are, could be, and more. You influence each other in conjunction and your contribution is making sense of it to make sense of yourselves. Something inside you all mutually agreed that maybe you should ease yourself into siVis use and it’s going to be limited until you all convince yourselves that you can use it…”

Jackie shivered at that. Someone so comfortable with herself, confident in it, now forced to fight against it, like somehow, it’s another enemy of hers. The idea that she has made her own self foreign to her mind was a problem that couldn’t be understood, much less solve.

She gave into the fear again, as her arms helplessly flopped to her sides. Her once fists uncoiled into daggling fingers, hands too heavy to even look at in despair, even though she couldn’t help to try.

Leslie frowned a bit, as they all looked to him, their faces searching his for any and all kinds of reassurance or caveats he just doesn’t have. He looked a bit angry himself, not really at them despite being another example of what he’s possibly directing his anger at.

“This could happen for a number of reasons, but the prime one we need to address first is how you all could possibly gain siVis.”

“We get it,” Aiko sounding fed up, “We get that you don’t think we should’ve done what we done, but don’t act like we couldn’t do it. We wouldn’t have done it if we couldn’t!”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Leslie said coldly, calmly. “Like Tabby Morrow, like Dr. Taber herself—Like me, thank god for it, especially now. You all weren’t supposed to and that’s the thing we’re confused by more than anything.”

And nobody said nothing for two minutes.

Leslie continued, he himself trying to be professional but failing, “It’s realization, after all. It works less and less, the chances dwindle, the longer the person takes the realization and doesn’t push it further into ignition. In other words, Joe Average, you and I, people that constantly see this crazy shit day in and out and no reach that threshold, already missed our chances years ago. Tell me what happened.”

Still silent on their part, Jackie begun to be puzzled about the silence versus Leslie’s claim. She wants to find the words, to answer the question, to use the clear proof that they have… But nothing. Like a lump in her throat, paired with a hazy mind. But this is like trying to remember the face of a criminal that clearly and nearly pulled a knife on you; surely this should be vivid…

“So tell us, any and everything, about what happened. What caused this, because it wasn’t the Shift days ago, it couldn’t have been. What exactly happened to you girls, because none of this does not make a lick of sense more than usual. If you actually want to help yourselves for once—”

“WE DON’T EVEN KNOW!” Tracy screamed out, tears coating her face as she looked deranged, twist, hurt and lost. “And I know that the others don’t either! It was beyond us and everything that is; we experienced something that people never have and won’t for thousands of years if we’re lucky! It’s not exaggeration, it’s not farces! I can’t—We can’t—Even access the memories from our minds! But it’s still fucking there!”

She collapsed in a total fit, covering her face again, doing something that’s between sobbing and catching her breath. Despite out of nowhere it was, everything clicked into place with Jackie. Why Tracy was more morose, and more importantly…

As it continued to happen and the silence congealed to the point of it being hard to pierce, Leslie took it upon himself to cut through it.

“Is that true?” he sensed that it would be his final question to them.

“…Yes,” Jackie muttered. “I th…I thought it was weird how it didn’t… Intrude so far into anything yet. Ruled my—our thoughts. We talked about what we did, but… It’s a block, beyond that. How we haven’t talked about even amongst ourselves aside from the personal stuff…But she’s exactly right, I fear. What happened as a whole, what exactly we went through… It was just too much for us to handle.”

River didn’t feel like it was her place, but she softly put her hand on Tracy’s quivering shoulder, all she could do in her depressed state, looking squarely down at nothing. Aiko was getting restless, as if she was holding back her energy and seemed like she was going for straight to the door, but still thinking it over. Maddie of course looked the least bothered by this, just putting on a smirk and chuckling to herself as she closed her eyes.

Jackie was still helpless. She tried looking to her struggling hand, the only thing left to do something, and it looked alien. She looked to the right, the same result. Suffering from the aftermath. Accepting she’s made the greatest mistake in her life. All of them did.

Leslie then sighed in a huff, and the room grew just as darker.

They noticed the room getting darker as the cacophony of screams made the room vibrate.

Jackie was the first to snap out of it, covering her ears as she scanned the room itself, now able to spot every nook, every detail that she had but couldn’t access before.

The room was plunged into a shade even with the fluorescing lighting. Thick, off-color shade of the deepest grey. Jackie, they, can still see, maybe blaming the girls’ enhanced sight being the rest, but it still messed with their eyes due to the texture of it all, and the fact there was the grainiest texture to it.

The worse part was when they noticed the shadows.

Stretched, exaggerated, and could no longer represent the shape of the object it owned its existence to; as if the tail-ends were an old chord, unproperly installed and no one cared, minutes from snapping away as it bottled-necked.

In now a mode of panic, they checked to see their own shadows and a semblance of dread and disgust filled each of their chests. The very same thing.

Thin, mispresented, elongated, simply and utterly wrong. And as Tracy, hiding behind her guard of fingers with the two near her right eye opened for her, she rose, as her shadow caught her while she was hunched over.

It choppily followed her lead, updating itself at such a sluggish pace, it didn’t even bother to. She was upright, yet the thing that was once her shadow corrected itself by standing up, but her back still hunched over, within a knot no human, not even siVis affected ones, can place themselves in.

Leslie ran to open the door and bolted to help with the evacuation under way.

The girls followed in a rush and tried to not pay attention to the things that failed to follow after.

The shadows lagged, crunched, halted, and was dragged into a pile of mess. They along after their hosts, writhing and barely holding on.

They all paid for trying to avoid their shadows.

They saw the stiff, pulsating, two-dimensional growth, twitching along the walls—ceilings—and floors, before they saw the people and patients crammed into the once hallow hallways. The voices of authority like the security guards, other nurses, medical staff and doctors were lost in the flood of panic and hysteria that outnumbered them. People were crushed and became the crush, and it felt like everyone in the building was either in this hallway or was like this in general. It was something out of a horror film, but trying to be artistic, Avant Garde. But it failed, and it was the failure was what made the colorless images so scary.

The girls were somehow swallowed up within the colorless masses, unable to tell who’s who or find the people that mattered most to them. The display was still, but wavering, enough personal space to panic, but the panic quickly closed off access. They were submerged on all sides when all of them needed to breathe.

But the shadows were free. Free to dance sickeningly and without pause. Looming, and before every single exit or pathway, contorting and suffocating everyone present as they looked on, cornered. Surrounded.

Trapped.

“EVERYONE, PLEASE, CLOSE YOUR EYES!”

Jackie’s attempt to crane her head three or so times toward Leslie paid off; even if she couldn’t directly see him. He was desperate, angry but desperate.

“JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES, THEY CAN’T HURT YOU, PLEASE, JUST LISTEN TO ME!” and he was instantly drowned out, within the waves of fear.

Jackie snapped her neck back and held against the person that pushed against her, “LISTEN TO HIM, LISTEN TO EVERYONE ON THE MEDICAL PERSONEAL; REMAIN CALM!”

They tried shouting over people for their own good, but their voices paddled, splashed violently, against the constant, turbulent airwaves. They were too focused on one thing, a thing that they all in someway all thought about. What they were slowly wired into doing by this land of the unknown. Even this microcosm of humanity reflected the collective’s thoughts, their worries, their ultimate fever. And it was answered all at once:

siVis ABILITY!

The only voice to breakthrough and reached out towards everyone, because it didn’t travel through the air. Everyone heard it and there was no way not to hear it.

Everyone promptly lost their minds, before the real reason to do it appeared before them.

Jackie froze when she saw her shadow turn three-dimensional before her, too sucked up in the state to notice that it was happening with everyone. It was different, this time; not aimless and distorted anymore. Just a simple, goop shape that formed from nothing and quickly took up all the space before her, before everyone, before she knew it.

It formed itself into a thick, ever-present wall that shouldn’t have stretched as far as it did; the space she was in had no more space to take and yet it took it all. A formless, pitch black wall that stretched for miles and it was corralling her from all sides, even before her.

She felt every single bead of sweat, from her condensation from head to toe, flung off in different directions as she punched, driven—no thought—driven to do something, anything. Her wide-eyed vision that was shaking along with her body didn’t care if the punch meant nothing, she threw one again and again and again and again, again again again again, and again until she realized the shockwaves that left an impression sucked forward towards her arms, snaring them tight. She jolted, shot, backwards to free herself as if that were an option, but the wall wasn’t pulling her; she provided the push and pull. She was so close to it, she couldn’t use her legs as a last resort, and because it was simply too late. She was being absorbed into the wall and the wall was her world.

“H—help—Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp!” she screamed out, sounding so panicked, so little. “Please God no please, please, pleeeeeeeeeaheheheheeeese…!”

And soon she was close enough for her mouth to be covered, whipping her head violently to pull away out of survival instincts that were never supposed to deal with something like this, something this magnitude. The wall enclosed her in every single stance, every viewpoint. Every move she made meant precious little and ultimately, it was the absorption that consumed her. There was no time for thought, couldn’t afford to, with the next action that could be her last.

She reached out to her body, and the lock didn’t respond.

She pleaded to her body, and yet, the lock wouldn’t budge.

She told herself that it would be the end of her, both of them, if they continue this. Still, the lock remained tightened.

Jackie felt the lock, it’s layout, as she banged against it, trying to rattle it open. It was just enough of her arms, legs, and midsection than the lock, her siVis jointed tight at places as she tries to activate it, rest back into their natural form. She did this to herself, she had to remind herself as she tried to control herself. There was nothing she could truly do and she wailed out as a last ditch effort to deny the claim, the now status quo.

She refused.

In a sense of terror and anger, she tried moving her left submerged left arm to her trapped right, straining as she had no choice but to be absorbed into the shadow wall to make it work. All of her work, just getting to the point where she can touch her arm within the ooze with no feeling. She felt a pocket mass and tried to dig into it, right as her face was taken by the sludge, now working in pure darkness. She carved with her nails into the pocket and felt her muscly forearm and thought back to Leslie’s fingers.

She pressed down her fingers into her forearm and the whole arm extended itself into its pieces, activated. The outline of the structure work glowed briefly in the shadows, before being consumed instantly. And like a hot knife through butter, it cut through the darkness towards the other arm and she proceeded to do the same again, two arms extended out and active.

They pulled themselves out, grabbling the wall and Jackie pulled her head free, gasping for air wildly.

She steadied her gasps into breathing, and she was set. Still heavy, hammering through her body, but still set, steady, conquered.

It was terrible, the pounding of her heart made Jackie’s vision quake. Attempts of transitioning to catching her breath failed, any attempts to still himself unraveled with each, nanosecond long shake running down her body. And her mind raced and crashed within before proper thoughts were formed. She was in a complete state of fear, even with her small victory, as she felt her arms slowly click and snap back together without any audio to accompany it. She turned back to her personal hell and a ping of fear added itself into the inner flurry and was struck by it.

It started to dissipate at varying levels, the levels themselves wiggling and weaving into each other to create a sickly effect, before evening out into snake-lite tendrils that feed it’s other fellow shadows around her, the effects of the space it created for Jackie wearing off, putting her into a new, fresh hell.

Shade and shadow horrifically merge back and forth, forward and reverse, so dream-like that it doesn’t have a strong presence but was tangible enough to be on the edge of reality, like any other nightmare. The narrowness of the hallway, once was the main problem for the victims, was warped to make way for the terrible display of each and every person tormented by their personal shadows. So tormented, that their losing battles created a maze of sorts, Jackie witnessing the snapshots as the interplay of shade and shadow ghastly wipes the current scene away, replacing it with a new one. The sounds of agony were prolonged further and lowered but lingered enough. What made matters somehow worse was the fact that the ghastly wipe worked on Jackie as well, even with her unlocked sight, being plunged straight into darkness for what felt like minutes but was brief enough seconds to make her vision choppy.

She hated this. She hated how this got the best of her, that made her into a sniveling, sweating wreck. And she hated that this, whatever this is, is taking advantage of something personal, something so traumatic, and something so defining as someone’s fear. Invasive, disgusting… Needless.

She will not let this take over her, not another thing that did, especially something as sick and fucked-in-the-head as this.

The world threw a maze in front of her and she had to think. A maze of fear, that she has to navigate in a way of warped dimensional space, trying to find her people and possibly has to fight their fears as well. Her tools are locked away and she has to physical jailbreak, in a sense. Really, she deemed that there’s absolutely no way in beating this, much to her frustration. But getting the girls out of this, and most importantly Leslie, is all that she can do now. Freeing Leslie might lead to a possible phase 2 that she can devise if and when she succeeds in this.

If her eyes were useless in this problem, maybe her ears would be optimal? That was something she’s at least played with, so all she has to do is put it to work. Jackie reached up to her right ear, messing with it, and expanding it, settled in its respective pieces. She was at least grateful that she herself can’t see this and her general discomfort in being able to do this now is far outweighed by what’s happening now. She wants to sleep on it, versus never being able to if she fails. What she sought after wasn’t to increase her hearing, but to listen out for sounds that she’s already heard: the voices of any of the girls and Leslie, even twisted into screams and wailing.

She had to be smart and had to attune to senses that were alien to her, even if she used them before her enlightenment. Not focus on the pain of others, even if that notion of playing favorites—being selfish—sucked for her. She pushed the omnipresent suffering away, putting her into a mode of muffled silence as she scanned for anything.

It was only a minute until she picked up on Maddie’s garbling, and then she sprinted. Supped up on fear and driven by bravery, Jackie ran into the maze’s horror walls while unlocking her arm again and took a swipe to breakthrough.

It felt tougher to cut through, as if… As if the defeated fear shadow merging with the other wasn’t just adding to the madness, or it’s power; but to lessen the weaknesses as well. Great, not only a shifting, aimless maze; but one that reinforces itself as well. Even if it was harder to rip through the oozing, quivering walls; Jackie already did it before and she was too pissed to let tiredness get the better of her.

She didn’t focus on her sense of location; she didn’t dwell on how each new space was simply a reversed “room” from the ones she’d broken through before. Her method of listening for Maddie and using her arms to tear through was bitter work. Work that paid off when she reached Maddie’s nightmare.

Maddie dangled a foot or two off the ground by webs of spear-like thorns, and yet somehow that observation didn’t portray the painful sight enough.

Every single rigid line erupted from her, mainly from her chest captivity and her mouth, causing her head to be cocked back as she darted her panicked, yet vacant eyes. She was twitching, and anything more than a jerk shot out yet another collection of thorn from out of her body, causing Maddie to groan in agony. And it seemed to get worse, as Jackie was there.

Her horrified and understandable pitying stare, made Maddie squirm helplessly, causing more and more thorn to come barreling out and the previous layers dig into her more. What was a panicked, yet vacant look turned into despondent, yet ferocious bitterness? Jackie didn’t get it, but this wasn’t the time, the place.

“MADISON!” Jackie roared. “BEAT IT! IT’S LIKE YOUR FEAR! OWN IT BEFORE IT OWNS YOU COMPLETELY!” She then pointed to her now-shifted-back-arm, “REMEMBER WHAT LESLIE DID!”

Maddie responded with a few grunts, slowly but surely moving her un-barbed arm towards her buried chest. What followed was her body shifting, getting harder into its various ejected pieces and each of the thorns snapping as easily as they sprouted and bounded her. And with a few shakes and swings, she dropped on her feet, then fell promptly on her hands and knees, panting, wide-eyed, scared—Like Jackie but still emotionally distant. Trying to be.

Jackie rushed over, picking her up, “We have to find the others.”

Maddie looked at her with her maddened eyes, glaring while stuttering for breath, “And why the hell--?”

“After all we’ve been through so far—Are you really going for the route of fucking everyone over just to save yourself?”

“Save myself and the fucking person I know and care about.”

The realization of her parents hit Jackie where the fear made her raw. Maddie’s feverent, animal like stare only hit upon her exposed wound.

She gritted herself, keeping true to herself—versus what the fear wanted to make her into.

“If we go to the source of this, all of this can stop! Not only do we owe it to the rest of the girls and their families; we might be the only fucking ones able to stop it!”

“Fuck…” Maddie sighed out, putting her hands on her face.

Jackie once again activated her arm again, before holding Maddie close walking toward the moving darkness. “You can rest, but I’m dragging you along with me.”

After being exposed to, knowing all the tricks of this isle of illusion, Jackie didn’t have a harder time navigating the maze. She spent more time checking on Maddie versus their surroundings, as she continues to mull over their situation.

The thing about siVis that she learned and was interested in was the fact that it existed on its own timetable. This trek felt like hours, it could’ve been just 20 minutes whenever this was over, but neither mattered. siVis events acted as they may, and this fact they were trapped in this time abyss—where time was paramount, would add to this horrible experience.

(Jackie and Maddie argument about the futility of this, both realize that they’re as green as the siVis user, giving them more hope)

After a long stretch of time, but somehow very little, passed; Maddie accidently slipped and fell, hitting the ground on her side. Jackie immediately disengaged, or at least tried. Her siVized arm remained activate, frustrating her as she watched Maddie writhe on the ground. She didn’t care, she rushed over to Maddie and picked her up with her free hand via her gown, where the small girl tried to stop her taller cohort. Jackie didn’t get a chance to question or counter it, Maddie ripped away from her grip by jerking forward, hands and knees on the ground.

“The fuck is the point?” Maddie spat.

“Maddie, we just got fucking through this already--!” Jackie barked back.

Maddie craned her head and yelled back, “Fuck you! This siVis guy’s shit is way too strong, even if we fucking find him!”

“We still have to solve this!” Jackie yelled, her voice conveying determination, fighting against the venom that Maddie stewed.

“What can five neutered chicks and some doctor can fucking do?! Think!”

“I AM THINKING,” Jackie roared, lunching forward and grabbing Maddie by her shoulder. “YOU CAN WIN THE DAY WITHOUT STRENGTH!”

Maddie, to her correct, just stared back at a pushed Jackie.

“You always make fun of River, but you’re just like her!”

Maddie then scoffed, again staring directly up at Jackie, “There’s a different between giving up and being a sad sack—and cutting your loses and surviving. She’ll fucking die laying in the landfill that I’m here that is her room, and I’m out here knowing how the world works, following the goddamn curve. Give me one good ass reason why I should be willing to die than doing what I know we’ll save my life?”

Jackie didn’t know what she was angry at more, the sheer, disgusting callousness or the fact even in this crisis—this human does the thing that everyone hates, and so proud of it. Was that brief moment back then, the time they can’t recall, all show?

The angry girl, who’s been so angry for far, far too long bit her lip, slowly shook her head side to side, before grabbing Maddie’s other shoulder. Face to face.

“If you wanna betray everyone, go ahead. I want you to. But the fact of the matter is this; I’m using all reason that I possess to not to throw you away and leave your ass. Why? Because giving in to any of these useless, worthless, meaningless emotions isn’t going to solve the fact that I’m in Hell now. I’m going to spend my energy crawling myself out.”

Maddie can only turn her head.

Jackie felt herself smile, which was weird. She knows that the rest of her face is still twisted up in rage. Damn siVis, making her aware…

She softened, “What you want—we want, and the greater good that needs to be done here are mutually exclusive. So, for our own damn sakes, let’s keep working together.”

Maddie pushed Jackie away, as her grip softened along with her demeanor, Jackie trading back another angry, shocked look. Maddie got up with her own power and shrugged.

“Still doesn’t change the fact that we’re literally junior siVis people.”

Then it hit Jackie.

“…So is our victim, here.”

Maddie arched her eyebrow.

“If there’s a siVis user here, it has to be on the floor above ours—like the guy they wheeled in! Think about it, with an ability like this, the person would’ve—I mean—The ability would keep us in those horrible places! And the fact that we, ‘junior siVis’ users can cut through so easily…!”

Jackie pounded her fist into her head with a confident smirk, “It makes so much sense!”

“…Or the dude could suck,” Maddie pointed out. Jackie instantly sighed, looking at Maddie with tired eyes. Only for Maddie to steal her smirk, “Either way, it’s good for us.”

Jackie then laughed, “Jerk.”

“Bitch,” Maddie corrected, walking up to her side. “But I’m always right~”

Jackie patted her shoulder, “Sure. But c’mon.”

The duo continued, slashing through the maze, and search through the shadows, prepared and renewed for whatever’s coming next.

But nothing could prepare them for the sight before them.

A multi-legged, towering shadow creature is limbering forward, struggling with all of its perceived might to drag a limp and bounded River. It’s spiderleg-talons were digging into the floor in the many failed attempts to gain traction. Then Jackie realized the struggle is comical, while River really is crushed by the weight of the tetherhooks dug into her bare back that she has to bear, her arms moving as the rest of her body can’t.

“RIVER!” Jackie shouted, “YOU CAN GET OUT USING SIVIS!”

The fear creature’s legs are practically halfway into the ground, writhing and getting tired doing it. River hasn’t moved one inch, even if she could.

Jackie feared that she would be the one most accepting of her fate, and quickly let her mind race as Maddie already made up hers. The small girl walked forward and cupped her hands around her mouth.

“I know it’s your thing to be a sad, depressed sack; but can you not do this right now?!” Maddie said and Jackie couldn’t believe what was being said. “If you live through this, you can continue to be like this all you want; so let’s use that brain of yours for once and not whine about using it, huh?!”

While Maddie’s sharp tongue can’t slash through these reins, nor spurred River to cut said reins immediately, it was a deep cut, nonetheless.

River squirmed, but it was purposeful. Using the binding, she rubbed her arms up against them to create enough pressure to force the activation, their usually shape and state allowing River to get them out. She then started crawling herself, slowly but surely getting ahead of the fear creature that’s still milling about. Trudging forward, she gets ahead of it as the chains pop and cast off, with the creature slowly succumbing to its exhaustion, dissipating and adding itself back to the collective. Jackie and Maddie rush over to help her up.

When Jackie turned to Maddie, she wanted to question her about what she said. It could’ve gone horribly wrong and then they possibly could’ve had them face off against the creature and they’re barely in the state to even think straight. But she had to admit, it was something she couldn’t do…

“See? We need you here to hurt all of our feelings…” Jackie smirked at Maddie, as the latter folded her arms. Besides, she wasn’t even looking at Jackie.

Maddie patted River’s shoulder as it became normal again, “Seriously, lady. I know I don’t know you and you don’t know me but… It ain’t healthy walking around without a damn soul. Research nerd stuff, write a book—do something that isn’t doing nothing but hating yourself. It’s disgusting and no, you can’t make it fucking work.”

River’s face was framed within the shade, creating a shadow over it. Then she moved her head away from it, looking towards the others. “Anything to compare notes with?”

“These things seem to react and mimic our fears…” Jackie reported.

“And it’s fucking with space,” Maddie added.

“Right,” River responded. “A lot more shapeless, though. More like living shadow puppets versus spawning in Freddy Krueger.”

“Oh god, I hope not,” Jackie stressed out.

Maddie snorted, mostly in quiet disbelief, “What are you, 12-?”

“And well space is warped, maybe our general location hasn’t changed,” Rive continued. “Kinda has to be, since you guys just found me and each other relatively close. Versus being scattered around… It’s more like multiple rooms were just added around us. We didn’t move, just that the room did.”

Jackie nodded; Jackie loved this. “Let’s just find Tracy, Aiko and then Leslie next.”

“Woah, woah, woah…” Maddie waved her hands. “Why Nurse Wetblanket?”

“Because I have a hunch…” Jackie answered.

River caught on, “The one they wheeled in; before we were cleared. You think that’s the siVis user?”

“It’s my first guess,” Jackie said. “And if it’s wrong, he has the potential access to the other ones we could make.”

“Well let’s get a move on,” Maddie pressing down on her forearm, activating the rest. River followed soon after, with a proud and reassured Jackie looked on and followed their lead.

Despite the haze and darkness, they scaled through and found Tracy in no time. But they were another set of eyes directly on her.

There she was, face down on the floor, nearly lifeless. What was above her were a cluster of shadowy, leering eyes twitching and throbbing to look at one thing: her. As soon as Tracy looked up to her fellow women, a series of black pillars bashed her down into the already crater-scarred floor as the eyes rapidly look at her with contempt, rage and bitterness, accusatorily.

Without thinking or the others’ input; River charged in while panting. She slid over, getting on top of Tracy, tanking the pelting from above as the eyeballs go berserk—as if in dismay to why someone, anyone, would ever defend her.

Tracy somehow found the strength to flip over to look distressingly at River, even if it was motivated by fear and jerking to see what was happening. Once again, her doughy, glassy green eyes are widen opened, paralyzed with shock.

“How—the—why—how—where did--?!” Tracy started.

It took River around seconds to notice that she wasn’t feeling exactly pain; but more so disturbance. She glanced down quickly at herself, seeing the hammering pillars are struggling to go through her, again, to no pain. Something that she figured, but of course wasn’t sure on in the hazy maze of uncertainty.

“That could’ve ended badly at best or made things terrible at worse, River!” Jackie exclaimed. “Why do this?! What the hell?!”

Tracy looked up to River, expecting an answer herself.

“I—I, know you’re scared,” River began, wincing as the pillars amp up trying to break through. “I—I know how overwhelming things can be—But, but you have to get out of these anxiety-inducing things by facing them—Aaah! S-so please, you have to face them, whatever they mean and you don’t have to be so brave—Fear and anxiety can help you out just as much!”

Even though her face was beginning to twist against the pressure, and the very anxiety that’s gripping her from the inside; she never failed to look Tracy sincerely in the eyes. “Please… I know you can be… So much better than you think…”

Tracy’s own eyes softened again, but the fear was clearly still there. And like the manic eyes about them; she studies River for her intent, and unlike them, is grateful for it.

“Also use your siVis shit!” Maddie added from afar, showing how to activate her arm, waving it. River closed her eyes sharply, as if she forgot to mention that at the end of her speech and most likely did.

Nevertheless, a spurred-on Tracy moves River out of the way, to face the onslaught. With her activated hands, she shields her face from the pillars, looking away with her cheek smushed against the floor. She yelped, deciding to push the ones targeting her face back, clearly stunning the creature. Seeing this from her transformed fingers, she then got up and slid over to the mid-paused pillars and pushed them up the same fashion; the eyes taking one too many before becoming a blob on the ceiling, being reabsorbed into the collective.

Tracy trembled, looking at her hands before they settled again, heaving. But once River gotten up, Tracy found herself leaping towards her for a hug, wrapping her shaking arms around the other girl. A symptom of her mania? Another spur-of-the-moment thing? A high of being alive? All these thoughts raced in River’s mind, before herself returning the hug, if not meekly.

Jackie rushed over with Maddie in tow, “Good job, Tracy,” the tall girl said. She then patted River’s brown hair with a proud smile on her face. “And excellent job, River.”

A face that’s so often burdened with negative emotions looked so lost in this advent of positive ones. River could only nod, confusingly.

“Alright,” Maddie breaking the early celebrations up, “We only have the daredevil next, and I can fucking bet you that her shit’s gonna rival those Saw movies…”

The rest looked at each other in shared worry.

Maddie brushed back her hair, fiddling with her ear, “How’d you do that ear thing—Jackie, was it?”

“Yeah and like the stuff with the arm… Feel it out, I guess,” Jackie replied activating her ear. “But good idea, if we all can tune to her sounds, we’ll find her quick than usual.”

And with Tracy and River doing the same, the lot continue the search. Like they assumed, their numbers made cluing into any traces of Aiko more noticeable and detectable. But what they were getting back wasn’t making any sense.

They heard mumblings, which made them believe that she was far away as they thought. But the mumbling got closer. River elected to go further as the rest stayed at the spot, only to come back to report that the mumble gotten further as she moved away, confounding them greatly. Scoping out the area that was nothing but the same as usual, Maddie was in a huff.

“What the fuck is this?” she asked, “Can we take the time to take in how fucking batshit this whole thing is? And my god, this floor is the rankish stuff that I’ve stepped on!”

Jackie looked down towards her bare feet… Only for it all to click together; as it was all blacker, textured, and slimier than usual. She instantly got on her knees and pressed her an ear to the “ground”.

“Ohnonononono,” she said to herself, on bated breath to see if her horrors were proved right.

And to her horror, the mumbling turned into muffled screaming.

Jackie looked to the others, with it all written on her face.

Tracy covered her mouth, but the words were still clear, “Of all the fears to have… We have to dig her out!”

There was no need for agreement, they all activated their arms and started to cleave around for Aiko, trapped in a pool that gets more gelatinous, more slippery, more unruly the more you dig.

Taking such frantic, sweeping swipes at the ground caused them to gain ground faster than they could think with their buzzing minds, Tracy screaming out as she found a hand emerging and clamping desperately onto her wrists.

Without any of the hesitation that has gripped her before, Tracy pulled herself back, shouting and grunting, for the others to come and assist. Everyone raced over and grabbed each other’s underarms, with Jackie at the back providing the strength they need.

Aiko’s head resurfaced, almost all of the sludge clearing away… Except the parts that have a death gripping on her, pulling her back so hard that her terrified face is stretched back, along with her head bent at an awkward angle. Tracy wasted no time.

“B-Beat it, Aiko! Beat it using siVis! F-focus your hands, okay?! M-make it some c-cool stunt o-or something!”

The buried girl’s eyes began to alight when Tracy said what she said.

“O-oh, y-yoou liked that? Uh, which--?” Tracy shook her head, as she figured it didn’t matter. “Yeah, let’s see you beat it! Beat being buried life! D-doing a stunt on death itself! C’mon! Live! Live in that moment, like you said!”

Tracy tried to motion how to activate using her thumb in her struggles, as her face began to turn as red as her hair. But it was enough, as Aiko let go a hand to activate the one that’s still gripping, hoisting herself up from her trap with siVis-unlocked strength alone; her binding straps popping off dangerously, but Aiko was rising from the pits all the same.

As the others collapsed on their backs, sides and rears; Aiko tried to stand tall as the floor settled and became solid again. Even if her knees were buckling, leaning forward and couldn’t stop her shivering, she wanted to prove that she conquered her fear, much less the concerned and sympathetic crowd before her and more herself.

After Jackie got up, and then the others, she proceeded to hug Aiko despite her visible protests. She yielded within a minute or two, becoming still.

“And that makes five,” Jackie said, grimly. But the tone was betrayed by the fierce, tired look in her eyes. “Now to fix this shitshow. For all of our sakes.”

“The nurse, right…?” Tracy asked.

“Indeed. And luckily for us…” River pointed to the direction she ran in to search for Aiko, “I heard him straight ahead. Was gonna report that, but, well…”

Jackie nodded, letting out and looking at Aiko, “Are you going to be okay?”

Aiko nodded back, vacant but was listening.

Jackie rubbed her shoulders and got in front of the girls. “We’re at the final leg, everyone. We can do this. We can make this a good day.”

The five young girls moved forward, braving the darkness ahead and around them, so that the goal that could’ve been above and beyond them can be achieved. No more fear. No more being lost. While they didn’t complete the maze, they got what they came for in record time.

Leslie was fighting against the manifestations of his demons, tussling even if it’s futile. What he was protecting was the completely untouched door to the stairway, but the influence of the siVis ability is creeping towards it along with the horde. He constantly pushed away the twisted caricature of not only people, but those affected by the Shift Noumena, siVis, and anything else the girls couldn’t exactly recognize. He fought back with the procedure he performed on them, just pushing them back, but he was so overwhelmed as they came right back. Despite it all, he shouted, he raged, he cursed not in the way Maddie does, but in terms of wishing venomous hatred for these soulless things. Or what they’re based on. What they meant.

The girls rushed in, not exactly thinking it, but clearly don’t want to give up or stand idly by now when they’re so close. Jackie herself grabbed and shielded Leslie, he being extremely surprised as the shadows wail on her.

“Would it by a tad cliché to say that all you need to do is not be afraid…?” she winced out.

Leslie looked at her, up and down, “How did you--?”

“We can compare notes when you stop giving into your fear! You did the rest and you’re more trained by it than we are! So, you just doing that would be it for them!”

He returned with an intense glare, as if she was one of the shadows.

“…Please,” Jackie pleaded. “I know we’re a part of the problem, we do. But unlike most of them—us… We’ve learned. We’re gonna right this wrong, we’re gonna actually use the things about ourselves we’ve failed to consider—hell! Here, how we go here, was a marriage between that and siVis! We can make it work. We’re already learning our lesson…”

With his intense glare, he began to close his eyes. And soon, the shadows lose form once more, crawling away.

Jackie let go of him, clearly winded along with the rest of the girls that had their own ways and episodes in dealing with the mess. With a cough and look at Leslie, Jackie proposed her plan.

“Are your supervisors, who brought the one after us in, are they upstairs?”

“Yeah,” Leslie said bitterly. “Glad to see you all using your heads.”

“Told ya’ we had ‘em,” Maddie added on, tapping hers, namely the forehead. “We just don’t LISTEN to them time to time!”

Leslie rolled his eyes, trying to hold back a smile until he remembered what was at stake. “Let’s go.”

He pointed to the relatively untouched stairwell, the door blown off it’s hedges by the door’s own shadow.

Jackie was surprised, “That’s… Convenient.”

“There’s a lot of this that’s fishy,” Leslie began. “9/10, an siVictim’s activation is a burst, uncontrollable and showcases the strengths and weaknesses of the person, leaving in what we usually call an impression. This should’ve been worse.”

Jackie then looked down, hearing that. Their running theory of the victim being weak as they are was basically shot down and continues to show how much they’ve botched their situation.

Leslie looked at the group, noting Jackie, but chose not to address it, “This gives us a chance, whatever this may mean, to storm up there and get in close enough to help sedate him.”

Jackie looked at the boy, as he turned forward. He was barely audible, but Jackie heard it:

“The bastard might’ve gotten to Mom and Dad…”

The group bolted for the stairs, running by the door and climbing up the stairwell, cloaked in shade as well despite it being a sanctuary. And the shade grew thicker and thicker, as they got close to the heart of the problem, the sight being so reassuring yet so terrifying of what could possibly be next. They reached the top floor, where the door was smashed against the opposite wall, with just blank darkness within the entrance.

“Here it is…” Jackie’s voice rung out, so vulnerable. “Finally…”

Then Aiko’s voice croaked out, as she was looking down the stairwell, “Guys…?”

Jackie’s heart sunk at that, but it strangely, she felt that way before. Getting used to it? She ran and looked over the railing to see what waited them.

All shape, sizes, abstract, simple, complex shadows raced after the group and had been for some time. And as they were crowded together, they were as deep and black as the shadow within the door. As the rest of the girls could only crumble in exhaustion, Jackie looked on.

“They can’t be our shadows…” Tracy whimpered out.

“…Yeah. They aren’t ours,” River answered for her, and everyone.

Jackie looked at Leslie, “Go.”

He was taken aback, even lowering his guard so much that he looked more frightened, more distressed than what Jackie could’ve ever pictured him looking like.

“If you get hurt by this and all of what we did was pointless,” Jackie coldly stated, motivated by something hotter. “Go! We can buy you time, and if you solve this, maybe everything can revert back to normal!”

“You were just saying you were learning!” Leslie said in… Concern? “You can’t do that when you’re dead—”

“THEN GO SO WE DON’T DIE! YOU HAVE AN OATH; NOW DO IT!”

Leslie relented; he ran into the darkness as the girls faced the oncoming one. Once again, as Jackie moved back to them, somehow different faces portrayed the same emotion.

Jackie couldn’t help but to sniffle, as she activated her arm with her hand molded into a fist. Feebleness, despite all that they’ve done. But then again, it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t fucking enough.

Meanwhile, plunged into darkness, Leslie could only rely on something of the mix of muscle memory, spatial awareness, and total recall running in the now dank halls. Even with the run-ins, bumps and pauses, he figured out how to get to the siVis Trauma Center, using his ID card to get into the doors. This was it; he could assist his parents in solving this patient’s cosmic mania to save everyone, the girls, Jackie…

What was supposed to be blinding light at the end of the tunnel turned into his greatest nightmare.

Two doctors, an older couple, was mutilating a patient.

Using some kind of technology; they were trying to harvest patient zero’s pieces of himself, turned into exotic “puzzle pieces” by siVis and the machine’s help. The lowered flexible prongs the machine had buried itself deep into the broken man. They looked towards Leslie, feverent. Caught.

Leslie was speechless.

“Why did you have to do this of all times, Leslie?!” the older, greyhaired woman with a bun and glasses with chain-hoops hanging off of them. A familiar, passive-aggressive phrase turned into condemnation. As the balding, also glasses wearing man could only watch on.

But none were paying attention to the patient, leaking darkness from the orthoses of his head so much that it masked it. They couldn’t see him, but he could see them. Leslie walking in, with such an expression, seemingly is what drove him over the edge.

He jerked, kicked, struggled and violently spasmed as he screamed more and more, despite his throat raw and still in relative pieces. The pieces themselves began to glow and spark, with the two professionals look in wonder and adject terror as they never seen this before.

The piece that the machine hold started to glow brightly, started folding in tandem, disassemble, reassemble, until the very room and its people began to warp. And before they screamed themselves, protested, run, or knew; a very familiar, wispy glow overtook them and the hospital in darkness.

The glow stripped things down to the essentials, moved within space that wasn’t up, down, right or left, and overtook the hospital of horror. A Shift occurred and warped the hospital in half, then the block, then the neighborhood, soon part of the city.

Then it hardened.

Sliced the hospital in half.

Then the neighborhoods in its path.

Then it continues to slice through the city.

Then finally, the island of Davenport itself.

And just as it began, it disappeared. Leaving with warped destruction and many, many implications.

And one more thing to fear, even there already was just too, too much.