The searing pain building up within Jackie’s smushed cheek woke her up. Instantly alert, she ripped it from the asphalt, and every single damn thing that weighed on her, did.

She instinctively felt said cheek with her left hand, a wound way too impressionable, way too fresh to simply be skin irritated and indented due to rock. Her senses are alert, but so attuned to the world around her, it’s all still a blurring yet pitched mess, causing her to hunch over.

And she’s still shaking, shuddering, and sweating because of the mortal terror she and hundreds of others were subjected to for possibly hours.

She had to get a hold of herself… But she didn’t know how. How, when she’s against a world that refuses anything to happen?

A world where meaning goes to die, yet refuses to let people do the same?

Some broken hellhole, that’s so fucked that people can fall into it—causally spat back out—give them power that they clearly were never meant to have—that constantly proves again and again that things can and will get worse?

If she wasn’t clutching her drenched gown, it was her pounding head. Since this was her right, while her left still planted onto her cheek, she felt she looked as crazy as she was getting. No more circulation. Just no more. Jackie knew at this point; her body just can’t handle anymore stress that it was already overtaxed by.

Even so. Fitting, that this nightmare world can’t let her despair, either.

Frankly, one of the reasons being simply having no time to, as a loud—profound—and most importantly familiar, “SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT” rang in the air.

A quick succession of cringing, crumpling, then realization followed. Jackie shook her head—somehow still pounding against her head harder than her racing heart against her chest, to clear it and to express just how much this whole thing is so stupid yet so torturous. Jackie figured that just like turning on a TV and leaving it on some channel you forgot about: her siVis-attuned hearing was still trained on the rest of the girls.

Jackie snapped her head towards a Maddie, recently woken up, on her knees gripping her own head, at something that caused her to express genuine anxiety that despite all of this, didn’t know that she was capable of.

Jackie looked at what caused this, and she wished she didn’t.

She didn’t get what she was looking at. It was truly, and utterly, insane.

It could only be best described as… Jackie’s head throbbed harder trying to make of this.

Space stretched thin, then layered again, hung up and intertwined like using spider web as wrapping paper. A translucent, cobbled together air-wall that latched and uprooted nearby buildings to merge it into its very structure.

What laid before the disaster area, the part where Jackie wanted to see the most… Was the ruination of people and what was once their lives.

People were pulled from the rumble, Shift recovery officials of Extant seemingly where the only ones moving, bustling from group to group, feebly aiding victims that were hurt and victims that were lost. The crowds becoming a near-crush because they’re looking toward the grotesque wall.

People who lost their homes, people who has nothing left, people who now have no reason left to hold onto their sanity…

And the worst part was that Jackie could not focus on the scene. Her vision, her sight, it was getting worse. She knows what she was looking at and yet, they’re starting to become blurs. Smudges.

And now dots, become she tried to wipe her eyes.

She wished she hadn’t.

After furiously rubbing her eyes with her hands, shaking her head to rejog something—anything… She glanced back down at her hand that held her hurt cheek.

There wasn’t blood. It’s sad that she wanted to see blood, after seeing this.

But her hand was covered in… Crumbling dust—sparking across her palm. Glittering as it bounced about on her once-human skin.

She couldn’t see her cheek, but she can feel it. Feel it succumbing to it’s wounds, crumbling in on itself as the pain… Well, it didn’t feel like pain anymore.

She just felt herself, little by little, fall apart.

Startled—struggling—scared, she used her siVis to focus her eyesight, feeling her eye dilate, shrink, then finally grappling with the adjustment system—whatever that means. Working though her wincing, fighting back against it as the tensing clogs up the adjustment.

The girls… Well, they all are just staring at the wall. Maddie still clutching her shaking head, Aiko on her side as she pants away per second it feels like, River on her belly as she looked away, around, then finally down as she couldn’t take anymore… And Tracy begun curling into a ball, burying her possibly-tear-covered face.

Damn it. Damn this…

The screams of “LET US GO”, blaring into her siVis-enhanced ear, and pounding into her headache, that proceeded to slam against her in retaliation.

Jackie crumpled, her eyesight going blurry again, her crumbling cheek falling apart further as she holds it, and the other invisible, hard to define scarring all catching up to her. And just as hard to reach, much less heal, because there wasn’t simply anymore time.

But she will not yield. She didn’t build herself up, she didn’t live, just to give up—to be deconstructed. She adjusted her eyesight again, looking towards the increasing screaming.

Two boys, can’t be no older than 12. They were held back, literally within the mittens, of two Extant Recovery workers. As they struggled, their messed-up clothes got further jacked up, their bruises were more apparent. The one with the long, brown hair kept screaming,

“JUST LET US GO, JUST LET US GET IT!”

Jackie couldn’t think, let alone try to read into this scene. She looked toward the Extant workers.

They always looked as creepy as what they clean up. Something out of an old movie from the 50’s, blocky, reenforced, and obtuse hazard suits. Cream-toned, any curve tightened into edges, rimmed at the base of their elbows and knees with obsidian braces. The braces held together the suits and the massive, streamlined, multi-purpose gantlets and boots they wore able to scale, cultivate, and grapple with the environment they often had to face. They weren’t holding the kids back, so much as restraining them with the combination of the volume of their suits and the gantlets morphing into a firm hold alone, using themselves as the wall padding in some mental patient’s room.

Worse part was the “TV visors” that jutted out from their trapezoid helmets.

The design intended for the workers to remain anonymous, creating this two-way mirror effect where normally, all you see is a face covered in harsh shadows, making out one’s mouth and cheeks but eyes, nose and everything else overcast with darkness. Then you had the opposite effect whenever the Shift related things started to happen, only revealing their eyes… but still being featureless, giving the imagery of a wide-eyed yet beady eyed evil Astronaut from a bad monster movie.

But they said nothing, to the boys that continued to struggle and struggle. And that was the reason for the anonymity for these workers: they had every right to do what they can in the event of a Shift Noumena crisis, even against the victim’s best interests. Break property, quickly getting people out of the situation even if it meant harm…

Then it clicked within Jackie as it rung hollow within her. She quickly scanned behind her, and her fears were proven.

Tons of the Recovery workers, holding back pre-teens to young adults, trying to overpower and bone rush them as a unit. They came in all shapes, sizes, nationalities, and creeds… Wanting the same thing.

To try their hands at gaining siVis.

This… Always happened. Always has to be an extra concern in dealing with the Shift. Teens… Kids, trying their hand in being lucky and having enough to spark something. Most of the injury, death, and Warp cases aren’t the victims that never knew or never could outrun, escape…

It’s the fools that knew full well that they’d lose their lives but went for it anyways. It’s gotten to the point that you have to prove that you lived or knew someone in a Shift effected area or else you’re grouped up with the foolish masses…

…That Jackie stupidly joined and is forever grouped with, now.

She wanted to take those children away herself, back at the blockade that they’ve fashioned.

In fact…

“HEY!” Jackie called out towards the boys, they and the workers turning to her.

She moved her hand, letting her cheek be the example, her point.

“YOU DON’T WANT THIS!” she screamed at them. “YOU DON’T WANT THIS AT ALL!”

They looked at her, bewildered and a bit scared. Maybe she’s exploding again? It’s so often now that she might not be able to feel that anymore. Not a trend anymore, but a staple.

“MY HEAD HURTS, EVERYTHING LOOKS UGLIER, AND I—I,” she screamed so hard that her body forced her to gulp back the excess saliva. Was it her? Or was it the elephant in the room…?

She crumbled over, starting to cough, pulsating the pain rocking her head, her body, her soul.

“I’M AN IDIOT, I’M A FOOL—DON’T BE LIKE ME, IT’S OKAY TO BE…To be…”

Jackie wanted to say the words, but somehow the pain felt sharper than the others.

But the shorter of the two boys, lightly shaven, short hair with circular designs embedded, decided to speak.

“We have a friend! He’s really messed up; he’s been fighting this thing for all of his life--! We have to keep helping him! We need to keep helping him, we can’t anymore if we stay like this--!”

That line practically punched her in the side of her head.

The headache was getting to the point where she felt delirious, even with siVis-enhanced sight, it was starting to waver. Never mind the fresh tears accumulating, her heartrate hammering her body again: all she could witness, all she could understand were smears, dots, and distortion.

But she could still hear.

“WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING LEFT PLEASE; OUR PARENTS ARE ON THE OTHER SIIIDE! WE CAN’T TAKE CARE OF HIM, WE DON’T HAVE HOUSES ANYMORE! WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING AND WE NEED TO, WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!”

It didn’t matter who said that.

Jackie’s mind scattered, and she became trapped within it.

She fell into this… Void of cascading colors. Merging and creating waves of different, shining shades. It all collided to create this realm of navy blue, with pulsing colors, fading to brilliant, as the waves push themselves and pull.

Jackie landed hard against something. While it didn’t hurt… In fact, all of her previous pain—which put her into near paralysis up until that point—is just… gone. The only reason why her back ached upon the impact was that it was some semblance of physics.

She darted her eyes about, forcing her into action mode, because she just can’t afford not to at this point. She took in the sight, and feared that she’s fallen into some other fresh hell like before…

But… It felt familiar.

Jackie then tried to hoist herself up... And saw gigantic puzzle pieces snap together in the far, radiant vista, so far away that they’re almost shrouded in shadows.

She wondered why at this point she was still surprised.

The complex emotions quickly gave way to anger, as she continued to sit up and quick, only for the puzzle pieces in the distance combine just as ferocious. The cruel irony of that was what followed.

The once distant, monolithic pieces started to pull closer and closer pieces in response to this action, causing the very piece she landed on to flip over, constantly tossing her like a ragdoll and join in without seconds to spare.

As she screamed and flailed about; Jackie tried to grab whatever she could despite the possible dangers of free falling and latching onto something. But she couldn’t afford to be logical in a situation of possible death, much less any situation dealing with the Shift.

She saw a smaller puzzle structure, and stretched her arms out towards it, her arms taking the brunt of the impact as she gripped on for dear life. The absence of pain was good, otherwise what she needed to do next was going to be torture.

It was as big as a board, but it was something she can use as leverage. She used her upper body to lift herself up, making great progress.

Too bad that the piece then flipped about, coasting downward full speed. Jackie could only hold on for dear life until it clicked into place into a bigger piece; the impact bouncing her chest first, knocking the breath out of her.

She screamed again, in full rage, starting to pound her fist against the puzzle structure, over and over. Not did it shake with each punch, the whole realm shook as well.

She kept doing it, until she felt better. Of course, the structure remained unharmed. And of course, it’s surface reflected her deranged, damaged, and desperate face.

And she finally a good look at her cheek “wound”.

The skin near it became infused with the puzzle-like gash. What was once a layer of connected puzzles, various broken pieces that were crumbling towards the ends and edges. Giving off this fluffy, felt appearance as the sparks skittered off the broken pieces.

What was just road rash, became this.

What was just a normal girl, became this.

She saw the structure starting to breakdown, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The lost girl then fell once more as the puzzle piece broke into more of itself.

As she fell further and further down, the pieces that once plagued her begun to surround and fall with her.

It was… Surreal. What was her falling down endlessly, became a slow descent onto a possible “bottom” of this pit.

Jackie then noticed the pieces falling and piling onto each in such a way, it created a stage of some sort. A stage she then landed on left side first. There wasn’t really anything to it, nothing elaborate in the design. The pieces made itself into flooring.

But that didn’t last long, as suddenly, the pieces rose and fluttered together to begin creating this dense cloud of activity.

And then it begun to create something Jackie knew all too well.

Jackie… Just couldn’t believe what they were doing.

They’ve started to make the steps of Richardson Recreational. But… Just the steps. Just the steps, and the front of the center, which was lined with white blocks of stone and a black-metal framed automatic doors, which had a card reading device based near the side of said doors so members can get in.

But there was a certain detail that… If this was some kind of trick or… False illusion, that shatters that fear.

The Forever-Wet Paint that leaked from the black railing, where it intersected with the step. Jackie often messed with this mystery substance every time she came here, pointing it with her sneaker as it smushed under her foot, but slowly but satisfyingly retained its shape. The railing was dry, but yet this goop existed.

These pieces… These pieces of herself? They’re creating something dear to her.

Not only that… They’re recreating her memory of her Dad’s retirement party from the police. A very certain, and personal scene that she doubts her own father thinks she held close.

Because… That was ultimate their dynamic. He served in the military, got discharged and came home a local hero—only to go join the police after because he simply that good of a person. He never stopped, despite having very good reason to.

And she herself back then barely started.

She wasn’t too mesmerized to notice that not only were the pieces done with their work… She was starting there on those steps as well. A much younger her.

Her blonde hair was shorter, to her chin and done over many times to get it right. Her hands were buried in a grey hoodie, also sporting plain jeans, both oversized but not from her own volition. Because she was tall, more or less the same height back then… Which was a disaster for a then-former middle schooler… On the cusp of going to high school.

She knew that she was doomed. She knew that she had to do something, or else she’s going to be massively steamrolled.

But that was the thing. What could she do?

She fought back before, she tried to do every single thing she thought of before. It only made her problems worse, because she searched constantly for this solution that was just as fleeting and lost as she was.

The younger Jackie looked towards the evening’s sky. The shade created the perfect downcast that surrounded her, with the streetlight’s glare being so distant, so far away.

“You know it’s against the law to get out of stepping distance of cake, right?”

The young Jackie couldn’t help but smile at that. And the Jackie now found herself smiling just as brightly as well.

Jack Sr. came out of the center, fork in one hand with paper plate in the other. A giant of a man, taller than his daughter by a few inches. Built like a brickhouse, causal shirts like he wore being stretched so much they’ve turned into muscle shirts. Combined with wearing his shades, shaved head, and golden-gray stubble, he looked as he was often viewed as, a titan.

And atop his head, he was wearing a balloon hat of various cartoon-ish colors, while his lips and cheeks were covered in white frosting. When he came over and stood next to his daughter, he purposely smiled at Jackie. Knowing good well that she’ll start laughing.

And that she did. Damn it. This only proved her anxiety, the reason why she came out here, right…

He quickly sat the fork down and grabbed the tissues on the plate, that were next to the near-finished cake. He put his now-free hand on Jackie’s shoulder, patting it. “Tell me what’s the matter, babygirl.”

Young Jackie looked down, before admitting it, “I feel like a failure.”

She continued on, knowing that her father wasn’t going to butt in or instantly debated or screamed “no, she wasn’t” back. But she had to take a sigh first, not wanting to in some degree, “You… You and Mom are amazing. You’re kickass at your jobs, you’re celebrated as… Paragons almost and you managed to raise me right while being kickass paragons.”

The young, lost girl chuckled a bit, “Maybe my problem wasn’t that I was going to be some bad kid… Mr. Pete, Mr. Roger: all of them in there came up to me… ‘There’s no telling what you’re gonna be, kid’. ‘You’re going to be crazier than Jack; you might solve world peace or something!’ The reality… Just hits in so many ways proving that I’m just some sort of dud.”

She was met again with silence, then she finally purged what raw thoughts she was trying to reason out this whole time.

“I should be… Getting awards now or something. We’re having this awesome party about you putting yourself out on the line again and managing to make that work. I-I can’t even make my own legs work sometimes; I can’t focus on not only doing work on time but getting nothing but great grades. I should be doing you proud… And I can’t…”

She meeked out a “that’s all” to her father, before he unflinchingly hugging his dear daughter with a single arm.

“First off,” Jack began. “We’re proud of you unconditionally. Kinda goes with the parent thing.”

“Of course…” Young Jackie whispered back.

He then stopped the hug, and gently turned his daughter towards her, looking at her.

“It’s easy to see people succeed… But the truth is that we fail to see the many, many, many times that they’ve failed.”

What a weird place, the young girl found herself in. Inspired once again by her father… Yet once again faced with the fact that he’s perfect and she’s not.

“You’re young, Jackie. You’re allowed to struggle and fumble right now, forget the negatives that come with it. Because there’s grown adults that still struggle because they let those negatives get to them. The important thing is, the important thing to do, is being able to face your problems. Work towards solving them and meeting them head on. Because that’s the thing, baby girl…”

Jack smiled warmly, putting his fist lightly on his daughter’s shoulder. “We’re so used to complaining about our problems; when we do something about them first, they won’t know what hit them!”

The young girl nodded, and for the first time getting here, felt assured. “Okay… O-okay…”

“Now, we’re all gonna be here when you’re ready to come back,” Jack then kissed the top of young Jackie’s head, ruffling her hair before smoothing it out again as she giggled. “Stay strong. Because you and I know what you are already.”

“Yeah,” Young Jackie responded. Jack then went up the stairs, pulled out and inserted his card, returning to the party.

…She always wondered, why there was this card system. It wasn’t like a crime problem in the town, everyone in town got one or were able to get one.

She didn’t know, then. The implications.

That thick, metal frame was an anti-Shift countermeasure. Seal the doors and windows, creating a twisted cocoon death trap.

She didn’t know, and as Jackie looked on, recounting them, made her wish that she didn’t WANT to know.

The memory shattered into dust, causing Jackie to cover her eyes by crossing her arms over her face. She felt the flutter and clustering of the swarm, swerving about and around her.

As everything slammed together, she looked towards the noises of a hand playfully smashing against the lockers. She saw her younger self staring along with her.

The stage has now recreated the main hall of Cedar High, the kids just as paralyzed as her younger self because of what was happening.

She was a cocksure chick, wearing a white tube top that hugged her chest and exposed her belly with cameo-printed cargo pants. This exposed not only her fiery skin, but her toned arms, legs, and hints of it on her stomach. But if it wasn’t the skin, if it wasn’t the sheer—angry delight she had etched on her face, it was her scarlet hair that earned her this name.

Scarlet was surrounded by the Girls’ Basketball team as she playfully tossed about and manhandled a guy. Her glee in doing this was infectious amongst the ones young Jackie could see.

“Aaaaaw,” Scarlet cooed as she lightly and effortlessly swung this guy about. “Little creep doesn’t have anything to say now? Ran out of shit he can pull outta his aaasss~?”

Jackie tried to recount what exactly happened, but like everything regarding high school, it was either the most overblown, stupidest shit or something that was clearly and utterly desire that was treated like nothing. There was no middle ground… The guy soon rejogged her memory.

“L-let me go! I was just minding my own business; I zone out, I didn’t know I couldn’t go sit in the gym while you were practicing!”

Scarlet didn’t stop moving him about and didn’t listen to a word he said, “All the excuses you could’ve came up with and you went with that? You zoned out directly at us running around and sweating up a storm, huh?”

“Fuck you!” the guy whimper-shouted.

“Nah,” Scarlet laughed out. “I like staring at sweaty girls just as much as you do: and I’m upfront about it without being, y’know, creepy.” She then stopped, holding him by wrapping an arm around him. She overdramatically closed her eyes, using her free hand to touch her neck, trying to act like what she thought acting in a play would be like “And yet I’m the big bad bully…”

“YOU ARE!” the guy lost it, screeching at the tops of his lungs. “JUST BECAUSE YOU’VE—YOU’VE BEEN SHOVED INTO SOME SHIFT HOMELESS TRAILER PARK THING; YOU CAN JUST DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT BECAUSE EVERYONE PITIES YOU!”

Whatever “lighthearted” bullying she was doing then, it quickly changed the mood as Scarlet slammed the guy into the lockers, hoisting him up.

“You’re funny,” she said with little to no humor in her voice. “Too bad I hate comedians.”

Scarlet always thought she sounded great, delivering that one liner to people that pissed her off. Viewing this with hindsight kinda diminished the worry she felt from her younger self…

Nonetheless, the young girl bolted towards the confrontation and grabbed Scarlet’s arm, squeezing it and nearly tripping for her trouble.

Young Jackie was out of breath, aching from the previous night’s botched exercise “routine” she started up again after quitting for a month. And that “squeeze” showed that Scarlet wasn’t for show.

Scarlet, her team, the guy, and everyone else just looked towards this giant of a girl. Seeing what she was going to do next.

Her voice gave out, creaked and cracked as she tried to demand, “Let him go, please.”

Despite claiming to be this humorless personification of rage, Scarlet just laughed, laughed loud enough to cause a domino effect across the halls.

The red girl let go of the bullied guy, and she didn’t have to force Jackie to lose her grip. The despondent girl did it herself.

Scarlet then wiped her eye that created and let a tear trail down her cheek. She patted Jackie’s shoulder, exhaling after the mirth.

“You’ll, uh, grow into it, kid.”

The team loved that, as they laughed more as Scarlet walked away long with them, shaking her head.

At least she hadn’t completely failed, the young Jackie thought. She tried to help the guy.

The weird thing of all this, from Jackie’s point of view, was that the guy… Well, he wasn’t a guy.

But a mass of the pieces constructing some shape of a man. Creating this effect of a sketch in emotion, an outline of a blank human. She wanted to know why, but she was… Swept up in this trip on… Into, memory lane.

But the guy with no identity pushed her away, saying nothing to her, but walking away.

…It then occurred to Jackie, as he walked alone, started to fade away.

She couldn’t remember him because he had to transfer to another school. What happened there, being bullied by Scarlet and being saved by Jackie: it ruined his entire social life because he was deemed this creep that let girls play with him. He was gone in a matter of what could’ve been extreme, isolating months.

But he was right… Due to the Safehouse Act, people greatly affected by the Shift are displaced into these homes and given a lot of chances and resources so that they can animate into society again. To… See that be possibly twisted…

Once again without warning, the pieces swarm scattered around Jackie, this time blowing her onto her back. After reacting to this, setting up and standing, they’ve instantly created this next scene.

“Mom,” Young Jackie came into her parent’s room. “Maybe you can help me with this…”

She always winced, in retrospect, when she phrased things like that. It’s not that she and her mom aren’t close, it’s just that her mother was a very busy, very hard woman. She wasn’t that she was unapproachable, but what you saw, what you talked about, is what you ultimately got with her.

She needed something like that, because at this point, she was going to break.

Young Jackie was covered in sweat, panting, and was just plain exhausted.

“I-I’m trying, I’m trying like Dad said—Like,” she tried to reason. “But he’s him, he’s able to make his mistakes work, make the nothing out of something and call that progress. But I can’t! And I’m not like you—someone that can’t get compromised and can logic things out… I’m just…”

Dawn sat down her papers onto her lap. Even without her giant of husband, and her giant daughter, she was short. She looked up at her daughter, with her glasses hung from her nose a bit.

“Well of course,” Dawn said. “No one should be like your father. Not even your father.”

There it was. Dry and precise.

Dawn adjusted her glasses, “Jackie dear… Don’t you think you’re wearing yourself out?”

“Possibly…” Young Jackie admitted, feeling like an idiot.

Dawn softened her tone and Jackie listened the most whenever she did so, “When we’re worn thin, we tend to make very rash decisions that we would never have done in the first place. Dear, being proactive is a great gift that you have… But being proactive without the reasoning backing it up is aimless, deadly. It can destroy the point that you were making.”

The young girl managed to catch her breath, her thoughts, and finally her mind again. She could only look down because she recognized this and chose to ignore. Meeting her problems head on, with every single thing she had. And she was driving away whatever she could’ve gained.

“There’s no shame in taking breaks,” Dawn continued. “We need breaks. When we’re rested, we let our minds rest. And ready to tackle whatever problems heading towards us because we now know how it works and how we work. Decisions can be in the moment. Solutions take time.”

“Yeah,” Young Jackie said, looking down at her titan of a mother with a worn smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

Her eye settled on the documents, something she’ll soon learn about in the future, way too fast in retrospect.

“Fair Warning” forms. “The already comatose legal system will be some horrible mix of automatic and tributional until we figure out what this stuff is.” Putting her mother out of the job and into some unending hiatus.

Jackie was knocked down by the swarm again, getting ferocious before she did. Had it been painful, it would’ve hit her like a truck…

What Jackie saw… Wasn’t a memory, exactly.

It gave her pause before getting up again, before sitting down because at this point: she’s going to be flung into the not-sky at this point.

It was just… This dusty plane. A dessert, but not even having any vegetation or followed the rules of what a dessert is to qualify.

It was a statement. A pledge.

Young Jackie drew the line as she looked towards the mass of shifting darkness that existed on the other side.

“There…” she finished. She pointed to herself, “I’m here…”

She then pointed to the darkness. “You’re there.”

It advanced forward, sprinting like a madman despite not processing any limbs.

Young Jackie stepped forward, in a wide stance, to meet it.

They collided, but it was clear that it’s too much for her. Didn’t mean that she didn’t try, as she strained, grunted, and used her all to give it a fight. But it quickly steamrolled her, knocking her on her butt.

“Not… Ready… Yet” she huffed out. “How…? How can I get ready…?”

She brought her knees into her chest, grabbing her long legs, as she lowered her head and closed her eyes.

She parsed, she hummed, she ruminated. The last action aided her thinking. She opened her eyes, staring at the line. The darkness was over it, starting to cover it in it’s smoke. She detachedly dug her finger into and drew aimlessly in the sand, if she can’t do anything else. How can a lanky tree of a girl can be strong enough to stand against and beat this dark wind?

She needed to face it. She needed to grow into herself to face it. She needed to find the solutions to growing into herself so that she can face it.

…Work towards it.

The lost young girl may’ve found her way.

She shot up, walked towards the hazy line, but stopped short of it.

She crouched down, drawing a short tick. She then got up, walked back works, then did the same again.

She kept doing it until she returned to where she sat, sitting down again as she looked elatedly at her solution.

A finish line turned into a track, having markers where she can hit, where she can have visual, actual progress. She did it! She finally did it…

“Now then…” Young Jackie pointed towards the respective tick. “Who am I… What do I need to be, two ticks from now…? And when I get there… Will that be enough for what’s coming? And if that’s not enough… I’ll use the rest of the ticks and make what I need the ticks.”

The young girl found herself stood up. “This is my starting line.”

Jackie of the present tried to… Figure out whatever this is. She remembers coming to this conclusion yes, but…

And before she knew it, Jackie of the past was starting to look like her current-future.

The now pony-tailed, toned, confident, she was pushing back against the darkness and was winning. Her shoes dug into the sands, gaining traction as she lifted with her legs. She finally pushed back at a perfect time, finally defeating the darkness plaguing her life.

The triumphant girl roared, planting her feet further into the sands, as a statement.

Like she did with her other foot tracks: marking them near each and every tick. A statement that she fulfilled her pledge.

Of course, her figuring out how to work out, what her plan was and what worked for her didn’t go like that, she thought. It was grueling because somehow, it was much harder than actually doing it—which was it’s own level of hell. She had to convince her father for putting her body on the line, had to figure out how to build muscle for her to tighten up, change her diet completely, and god there were times where she just wanted to straight up quit…

…She got it now. This was a visualization of her thought process, how she… Visualized it. If this was a siVis thing of recreating memories, then what’s stopping her from completely visualization thoughts in general?

Jackie had a feeling what the next memory was going to be, and oddly enough, it just begun.

Young Jackie wore a sports tank that showed off her arms and belly, with her sport shorts reaching just short of her knees. And to make things all the more clear, she had her gray hoodie tied at her waist. She took it off once she got out of mom’s car and knew it’d be a symbol for people that wouldn’t recognize her to connect the dots.

She walked up to Scarlet’s locker and lightly planted her fist against it. Causing her and the two girls of her team to turn around.

“…Damn,” Scarlet said flatly. “I didn’t expect you to grow that fucking fast. It’s only been a few months—”

“Training does wonders when you finally know what you’re doing,” Jackie then crossed her arms. She felt like she was hiding behind a costume. A costume she worked hard on mind, but a mask nonetheless. She had to make it hers. She didn’t work hard to mess up now.

“Yeah…” Scarlet, again, said flatly.

“Huh,” Jackie remarked. “You bullied a boy into transferring and yet you’re doing what you accused him of.”

“Hey man,” Scarlet tried to rebut, “You look good, but not that good for me let you talk shit this much. The hell do you care, anyways? You gonna beat me up for his honor or something?”

“Well no,” Jackie stated. “But I am going to make sure that something like that never happens again.”

Scarlet looked amused. “Ooooh?”

“Yeah. I’m going to keep my eye on you and have my ear to the ground. If you start causing rumbling with your temper tantrums, I’ll be more than happy to calm you down.”

Scarlet laughed in Jackie’s face, “You bulk up just a little bit and you think you can take the world, huh? Fine then. Anyone that pisses me off, I’m going straight for you, Wonder Girl.”

Jackie was still stern, taking her all not to flinch. She then proceeded to smile, “We’re going to be the bestest of friends.”

Scarlet looked Jackie up and down, sucked her teeth, before walking away with her cronies.

Jackie glanced around her, seeing some people were watching and then pretending that they didn’t.

It wasn’t until second period’s bell started to ring, as people rushed to and into their classes, that Jackie deflated, blowing out the building pressure into air escaping from her mouth, falling into and leaning against the lockers.

“holy fucking shit, I might actually die… If she doesn’t literally fuck me first… I gotta figure out a plan…”

Jackie, both past and present, found themselves at the dessert again. Starting at the line and the ticks, stuck once again despite the progress and systems in place.

A sigh transitioned into her into the school’s weight room. It was gym class, and she was taking it easily, just finishing on the treadmill for the other student to get on. She saw Scarlet, struggling with the weight machine, more or less alone. Oddly enough, her usual posse wasn’t with her in this class.

Jackie knew that the redhead felt her stare, so she just came over.

“Fuck off.”

“Nah,” Jackie rebutted. “You’re pushing too hard. Either lighten up or adjust the weights—”

“I know hooow to work the machine, jackass!” Scarlet spat back.

“Funny…” Jackie rolled her eyes, only for them to settle back and figure out that she wasn’t joking.

She was straining herself, the pain visible on her face. Whatever goal she was gunning for, it was just too far right now for her, and she couldn’t admit that.

…Of course.

“If you keep going, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Jackie said, finding herself mapping out the ticks so… Helping Scarlet can be the finish line.

“I know!” she yelled back. “No pain, nooo ga—ack!”

She stopped in her tracks, the weights coming down. Jackie then went to the back of the device, take out the pen mechanism, and plugged it into the lighter weights. Before Scarlet could roar back at her, Jackie already circled back.

“Maybe everyone else is scared in telling you something, but I’m not anymore. Guess what? Pain takes the gain anyways—there’s pushing yourself and then there’s mutilating yourself. I know you’re a big girl and very fond of this shit for me to say this, to get it through to you; you’re never going to get anywhere being like this. So, drop the headstrong bad-girl thing. It’s making you weak.”

Scarlet could only pant in rage, something that she couldn’t keep up when it was so easy up until now.

Jackie then finished, “How did I go from lanky loser to shit talking you with some hard truth? Simple. I grew. And I grew stronger.”

Scarlet then got up, took her towel and exited the weight room as the rest of the class stared at Jackie in mock awe and horror.

Jackie could only look at the weight machine. “Ewww. She didn’t wipe down…”

Later on, after washing off, cleaning up and dressing back up in the washroom, Jackie stepped out into the hall, only to find a sulking Scarlet against the wall, staring at her.

The tension could’ve been cut with a knife.

“You were right, I’m mad, and you suck for being right,” she pouted out.

Jackie blinked rapidly. “Thanks. I think?”

It wasn’t tension, just profound, silent downtroddenness.

Jackie then walked up to her. “You’re going to be amazed how much you’ll improve. All you have to do is… Just throw all that stuff holding you back away.”

“Right,” Scarlet dejectedly said. She looked at her with her brown eyes. “And you think that’s gonna wash away everything that I did before?”

“Hell no,” Jackie said bluntly, surprising Scarlet. “But it’s a start for the better and that’s what matters. Besides, uh… You might wanna wash off, yourself. Were you sulking so much that you skipped shower time?”

“Shut up,” Scarlet got up and walked past Jackie. “But thanks.”

Jackie smirked. “No problem.”

What followed was something out of a dream. After clashing time and time again, she managed to tame and even befriended Scarlet. Still rowdy, of course, but she managed the impossible—while being on top of her classes, winning some awards, and even being an unofficial gym aid in said class. What was once just some lanky kid finally became a giant herself, thanks to the continued guidance of her parents. She took everything that came to her head-on, keep moving forward, and became a leader of sorts towards everyone that followed her.

It came, to the point, of Scarlet recommending her to the coach of the Women’s Basketball Team. Something Jackie wasn’t even aiming for, she was more of an educational pursuer. But she needed the diversity and experience, so she took it, becoming a valued player and got into the in-crowd she was prepared to face off against all those times ago.

Too bad none of that didn’t matter.

Jackie was jerked backwards, just as the Young Jackie was thrown out of the mall along with her friends.

“THIS MALL AND THE SURROUNDING AREA WILL BE CLOSED DOWN,” the Extant Recovery shouted, with their featureless, blank eyes stared at the crowd.

The group on top of the roof grabbed the metal sheets with their large gantlets, then jumped down to drag the plating as they fall down, covering the building in what felt like seconds.

“REFER TO AETHERNET UPDATES REGARDING YOUR STATE; THE IMPLICATIONS ARE BECOMING NOTICIBLE!”

While shaken up, the girls didn’t pay any mind…They’ve been through these Shift warnings and proceedings all the time. The mall would be closed for a month or so, they have a story to rant about in the locker rooms, everything’ll calm down…

Then the “Collocation of Education” announcement happened. Schooling will be in an indefinite pause, all students will be given a literal free pass to go or do anything that their immediate future needed, and it come into effect at the end of the semester.

It crushed her. It wasn’t just about… About the fact that she was doing great. It… It was hitting her from a place she didn’t know about then.

She fell into the rabbit hole she found herself buried in for the next two years. She tried to find something, anything, that would finally fill her in, ease her now-aching, anxiety ridden mind… And nothing. She just found similar people that come from the same place as her.

She went to her parents, to for support when she needed it the most…

“We have to leave, Jackie,” Jack Sr. said.

“Why…?” Jackie looked back and forth, between her parents in the living room. “Is… Is the town…?”

Dawn nodded, and stated way too matter-of-factly, “The implications are becoming more and more noticeable. We have to join the exodus and we need to do it quick.”

“B-but,” Jackie felt so vulnerable, so lost again. Feelings that she hadn’t felt in years. “I won’t be able to say goodbye to everyone for the last day of school.”

“You have the final basketball game to use it, at least,” Jack pointed out.

“Yeah but—” Jackie was cutting herself off, feeling herself getting angry, “Why now? Why can’t we wait?”

“Listen to us, Jackie,” Dawn said, bluntly. “We can’t keep ignoring this.”

“Ignoring this?” Jackie paddled back.

“We were notified about this for a long while… We… We wanted you and the other kids to have the best time, we kept this a secret because—because we—”

Jackie couldn’t believe this. “You knew this ever since… Ever since we all started high school…?”

“Your father is right. We had you all in mind, keeping the information away from you all. Having this hang over you like a cloud, when you all deserve a normal life… Well, we didn’t have a choice. Now we can’t ignore the signs. This town is going to be wiped out.”

Jackie rose from the couch, “Then let’s move up the timetables: let’s just—if you all knew this whole time, then what’s wrong making our last day the same day as the finals?”

She tried not to raise her voice, not to freak out. Her parents, basically the perfect people on the planet… And they missed her up by preparing her for a life that was a lie?

Her growth, her achievements, her life: it was pointless?

Jack made a pained face. “Some, if not most, of the families decided to stay because… This is all that they have. They’re hoping that Extant will provide enough aid to—”

Jackie waved her arms, her twisted reflection gleaming off her trophies. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?! You’re just—Just—You’re just piling this on me out of nowhere!”

They said nothing.

“All this time—you taught me, over and over, about never giving in, about being honest, about—about stuff that I doubted until it worked out! For people that told me that I can grapple with and—and face anything with enough grace and I can do anything! So what about this Shift stuff?!”

“…Sometimes,” Jack began. “Sometimes, you just have to let bad things happen to you. There’s things that you can’t handle, fight back against. What control we have, we have to treasure it.”

Jackie couldn’t scream, yell, or fire back. She just stared at her father.

Jackie was so into this, reliving this stressful event, that she took the place of what the “actress” was and she didn’t notice. The scene changed around her, and she found herself in the locker room.

It was an honorable loss, but a loss all the time. What felt good in the moment, was immediately consumed by the growing darkness that consumed the line, started to consume her. The team where talking to each other, conversing, still in lighter spirits. Except for Jackie, who was sitting on the bench. Stewing in this.

“Yo, Jackie,” Scarlet snapped at. “I know you hate losing, but I thought you wanted to make this great or whatever you said back then.”

Lie raised her eyebrow, “You saying that you blocked that whole speech out and you admitted it to Jackson?”

Scarlet shrugged, “Hey, I heard it spiritually, and that’s what matters.”

Everyone in the room laughed, and then Jackie stopped that real quick.

“Fuck you,” Jackie said, despondently.

“…I mean,” Scarlet turned back to her. “I actually heard it, I’m sorry that I can’t recite it, girl.”

“How can any of you act like everything’s okay…?”

“…Because things are okay—” Scarlet retorted.

“No, they aren’t!” Jackie rose. “We all know what we could all die or worse, everything’s going to change!”

Scarlet shrugged. “Sure. But this whole Shift thing is beyond us, excuse us if we’re not thinking about it 24/7 like you are now.”

“And you’re not?!”

“Jackie, chill,” Scarlet stared down her “friend”.

Jackie tightened her fists. She tried to accept it, she tried applying everyone’s so-called philosophy, but she can’t. The problem was that she wasn’t the one to accept things, to roll over and effectively die.

“So,” Scarlet snapped at her, “Let’s wipe our tears, get cleaned up, and fucking move on. Shit’s bad, and we can’t do anything about it!”

Jackie just stared at her.

Scarlet stared back, feeling her growing intentions in the air. “Careful now, Jackson.”

“You know what I’m going through right now.”

“And you’re being a massive baby about it. Boo hoo.”

“Scarlet—”

“Guess what, Ms. Perfect? Nothing matters, what you’ve been doing doesn’t make you above that.”

“Funny,” Jackie said with the anger brimming to the surface. “Me helping your ass was a part of that.”

Scarlet paused. “You’re starting to sound funny yourself. You trying to be a comedian or something?”

Her signature threat, something she hasn’t used in years, and it’s directed towards her.

Everything that she worked for, blown back in her face. Everything that she built herself towards, gone now.

Jackie found that word, that feeling, that’s now consumed and broke her apart.

She needed to do something.

Without warning and without thought, she started to grapple with Scarlet. The fight was starting to get messy, bags falling, the girls throwing themselves against the lockers, the other girls trying to stop it…

And as the fight got heated, the stage was falling apart by the steams. The other girls started to turn into a mixture of pieces and dust, the lockers and surrounds eroding away in dust. And soon, Scarlet herself was turning into dust.

Jackie found herself within a familiar dessert, pushing and overpowering “Scarlet” and throwing her onto the ground.

She looked around, just hurt. Hurt to relive this memory, her at her lowest, and taking things out on people that… Regardless of their views, were still her friends. Family.

And now they all lay before her, broken and turned into dust.

There was nothing that could prepare her for this. And what little control she had? She made them meaningless.

What better way to show that then what’s happened in the past few days?

She looked around, and then realized something even worse.

She went over the line. The line, she made and self-imposed upon herself.

She fell onto her knees. She’s trapped, trapped within her little world of false progress. A world she broke the rules of if that meant keeping her happy—in control. But in the end, she crosses the line and became the same meaningless darkness that she’s fought against.

She began to wail out, crumbling over as she breathes in the scattered dust and remains of everything she’s destroyed. And she did it for what felt like hours.

hey

Jackie shot up, looking around.

Heya, uh, I don’t know you of course, but you dropped your banana once and I kept it in case if we ever met again.

“…What?” an emotionally distraught Jackie could only mutter.

It’s a bit bruised, but it’s as fresh as it can be! I want you to hold it. Puuutting it in your hand…

Jackie felt it, despite looking at said hand right now.

I want you to focus it on it, because while I don’t think it’s that weird, it’s weird enough for you to get out of this funk…

Jackie honestly has nothing else to do. So, she indulged this… Weirdly nasally voice.

You must’ve had a rough time, lately, if that’s okay to point out… I’m totally a stranger, in any other situation, you shouldn’t be listening to me at all. But, in this strange case, I need you to voice on my voice—Also really focus on the banana, I want you to grab it how you do it!

Jackie gripped it.

Good! Good, good, good! Nicely good. Now I need you to focus on… I know it’s hard, but can you find the small, good moments you’ve had recently. I get that it seems like… Y’know, there aren’t any. But I need you to trust this friendly stranger.

She shook her head.

See! You shook your head here! Outside here, by the way. You’re really, really stuck right now, and you’re more than capable of getting yourself out. You have to find something, anything, please.

Her mind was racing… She held her head, the headache started to drum heavy, hard.

And suddenly, Edith appeared as Jackie fell back.

“Edith” was a strong word, but more like a sand-statue in pieces. It started to speak, “…There’s no need to hurt yourself more… Reality can do that fine….Treasure…”

Jackie wavered, hesitated…

Her parents were next to be constructed, “We can rebuild… What we’ve broken… We love you…”

She gripped her head, rocking back and forth…

And finally, the girls—as they were in Pell Forest, laughing and being quirky, was the last to be simulated.

I know things are hard, take it from your mysterious, hopefully friendly stranger… Reality’s been giving us massive, massive scars right now—scars that might not heal that well. But at the same time, we can still heal. And healing… Healing can shrink scars, right? These bad moments, they’re just gonna shrink away… But you need to heal first.

“…Yeah,” Jackie nodded. “Yeah. You’re right…”

She begun thinking about these little moments and closed her eyes.

And suddenly, she was back to reality. Her vision was still blurry, but she can make out the banana in her head.

“Good!” the blob that was the kind stranger said. “You can teach your friends over there what you just went through as well! I gotta go, I got my own… People I need to help.”

The kind stranger began to walk… Or rather, what Jackie thought they walked, moving away.

“Th…Thank you!” Jackie shouted out. Maybe it was a wave or a hand raise, but it was communication all the same. The least I can do.

Jackie looked back down at the bruised banana, coming into color and shape as it’s black on the back and the rest yellow. She lightly squeezed it.

If anything this foolish, rash young lady can do, the least she could do was to move forward.