Sarah looked at the blanket wrapped around her legs. It wasn't as tight as it had been, she'd loosened it when she had been leaning to watch everyone take care of Finn. But she could see the red stuff coating the individual threads. It really, really wasn't right, was it? The color shouldn't just coat the blanket... Sarah flipped the edge of the blanket to just see the brownish-beige fabric. Yeah, whatever Finn had done, nothing went through the cloth.

Another woman came into Sarah's room, although Sarah made a mental note to not assume that she was a nurse. The woman was wearing a mask and a visor and was gloved up and wearing some sort of smock thing over her clothes. She was carrying a covered tray and a big cup of water.

"We have to put you into quarantine," said the woman, who was probably a nurse, as she put the tray and covered cup onto the table next to Sarah's bed. "There's an intercom button there if you need anything."

Sarah saw the controls built into the rail on her hospital bed and nodded. The woman continued, "It seems like you've calmed down, so we're going to untie you. Please don't remove anything. If you need to go to the bathroom, just go slow and move your IV pole with you. We're not going to let in any more visitors though."

"Oh," she said before leaving again, "Almost forgot." The nurse opened a drawer and pulled out a little remote control, setting it on the table as well.

The food certainly smelled good, and Sarah took a drink of the cold water. It tasted of nothing, and she sucked hard at the straw for a moment. But the food looked...normal. None of the clinging red material that clung to everything else in the room.

Sarah glanced up, looking at her heartbeat monitor. She didn't really know what the numbers meant, but she knew her heart was beating faster. It was probably beeping faster wherever the nurses were, but maybe they were still too distracted. Or maybe it was faster but not fast enough to worry them. She should be upset, right? After all, Finn had just collapsed and then she'd been accused of being a druggie, so her heartbeat should be fast right now.

Sarah licked her lips as she glanced around the room. Almost everything was white again, with just a bit of teal left near where Finn had been standing. Could she wait? Should she wait? Would she really do anything, or was she actually going crazy? Sarah could feel her heart beating in her chest, according to her monitor nothing had changed but she swore it was pounding harder in her chest.

Sarah suddenly thought of her very last ballet performance, four years ago. She hadn't been allowed to go en pointe, but it had still been a real show, and she was going to dance with adults and everything. It wasn't just a thing where all the kids got to show off to parents; Sarah had gone to auditions and people had paid money for tickets and everything. She hadn't been nervous, but there was some great pressure filling her up, waiting for her to go out.

It felt like that. Sarah could feel every bit of fabric against her body, the cool of the cords on her arms and chest, a prickle on her scalp reminding her she hadn't showered today, a breeze from a vent over her head, her heart in her chest along with matching pulses in her fingertips. She could hear beeps and voices and steps outside, and they all seemed to come in sync with her own breath.

There was that same pressure in her head, telling her to do something, to perform.

Sarah watched the last bit of red glow fade from the room.

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The red was wrong. It shouldn't coat the fibers of the blankets, it should fill them. Just a bit of pushing... and...

Nothing.

Nothing happened, except that the red faded completely.

A shout from outside made her jump, breaking her concentration again. She heard more shouting, and Sarah recognized her mother's voice. With a deep breath, she reached out and pushed the intercom button. Someone outside whistled, and the yelling stopped. A speaker that Sarah couldn't see beeped, and she heard her mom's voice ask, "Sarah? Is that you? They won't let me come in!"

"It's fine Mom, really," answered Sarah. She paused, realizing that she actually felt kinda calm, she didn't have to manufacture even tones in her voice, "I don't want you to get sick. This is bad enough already, even if I feel fine."

"I was in there all night!" her mother's voice was rising again, and Sarah could hear the echo from outside. "If I was going to get sick from you, I would have already."

"Please don't get upset," Sarah said, her voice firm. "Really, I'll be fine. You should get some sleep, maybe."

"Sarah, I should be there..." said her mom.

"No, Mom," interrupted Sarah.

"Fine, fine! Fine," she said with an almost huff. "Do you need anything? They said they could bring your phone next time someone suited up to go in."

"Thanks, yeah, my phone would be nice. Did anyone get my backpack? I'd like something to read," said Sarah.

"Ok honey, I'll be right back then," her mom said. "Are you really ok?"

"Yes Mom," Sarah's voice drew out the words, finally letting some irritation show. "I'm fine. It's fine."

"Ok, I love you," she said.

"I love you too," said Sarah.

With a beep, the intercom was silent.

Sarah looked back down at her blanket - it was completely back to normal now. She couldn't see anything strange about it, and even though the fog in her room wasn't terribly thick it shone a pure white again. She couldn't see any sign of whatever Finn had done.

Sarah had never really looked closely at the fog before. It's not like the stuff ever changed before. Besides, it didn't exactly impact her life any, so it had always seemed best to just ignore it. But now it had changed, at least three times it had changed. And if this last time was something Finn did, maybe she'd done something the first two times.

The fog wasn't actually even in the room. She could see it was a smidge thicker by the door, almost like it was getting pulled in with the drafts. Looking around, Sarah noticed more of the bright mist gathered around her covered tray. She lifted the cover and saw how the glow was thicker beneath. With the cover off, she watched it slowly start to diffuse out into the room.

Sarah could feel the pressure build, an expectation filling her as she studied the fog that had followed her for almost five years.

She waved a hand through the thicker stuff above her meal and was surprised to see it move. Her hand left a trail of yellow mist, but in front of her hand, the fog thickened, showing first a steel grey color that slowly brightened into a true blue shade.

Sarah could feel the stuff for the first time, the blue fog felt warm against the skin of her hand. Suddenly the heat spiked, and it almost began to feel like burning. As the burning began to spread up her arm, Sarah flailed her hand, trying to shake off the intangible brightness that was gathering around her hand and spreading up her skin. She kept flailing, and finally in a panic she tried to wipe her hand on her blanket.

With a snap, the blue spread out into the blanket. This time though, it felt right to her. The way the burning ended suddenly was right, but the blue in the blanket was especially right. It fit. The whole blanket had taken on a soft blue glow to Sarah's eyes, and she knew without looking that the blanket had been filled. The energy was throughout the cloth, and not simply sitting on its surface.

Sarah noticed the aroma of the food again. She wolfed it down, hardly tasting it until she realized she was using a finger to get every bit of the gravy out of the little compartments on the tray. She was still starving and thought about buzzing the intercom again to ask for more to eat. But when she leaned back to reach the button, she found her eyes drooping.

She barely even noticed her blanket shifting to cover her and tuck itself tightly around her as she fell asleep.