I considered listening in on Abigail and Tiffany's conversation. To do so would have been as easy as putting my ear against the wall. I moved over to the wall and heard the briefest sliver of conversation.

"I would like to make you an offer," said Abigail.

I stopped listening after that. As much as I wanted to know what was being said between them it ultimately wasn't any of my business and, I figured, it would be a breach of trust between Tiffany and I. Small things like this mattered…right?

When their conversation was over I made sure to catch a glimpse of Abigail leaving down the hallway. She headed down the narrow steps and, as far as I could hear, out of the bed and breakfast.

I knocked on the wall and Tiffany's muffled voice came back a moment later.

"Burg?" she said.

"I'm here," I said.

"Can I come over?" she said.

"Sure," I said.

Tiffany left her room and made her way over to mine. At first I had assumed the Pied Piper security would have had us under enough scrutiny to make little trips between rooms like this impossible; but there wasn't any officer on our floor to worry about; for the time being at least.

I opened the door for Tiffany and stepped aside to let her in. She seemed energetic and, I noticed, she smelled of smoke.

"Did she make you an offer too?" I said.

"Yeah," said Tiffany, "Two grand a week, stay at a private facility, help them learn more about whatever weird thing is going on with us."

I hesitated to say what I was about to say next.

"So," I said, "Do you want to go for it?"

"Yeah," said Tiffany.

She sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. By the look in her eyes her mind appeared to be racing a hundred miles a minute.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"Yeah," she said, "It's just a lot to take in, you know? Two grand a week is a lot of money. That's one-hundred-and-four thousand a year. My family doesn't have any money, Burg. This could change our lives."

"Yeah," I said, "But what if it's too good to be true?"

Tiffany shook her head. Her nervous energy wasn't getting any better. She stood with her hands to her hips and breathed quickly.

"What have we got to lose?" She said, "It beats staying here not making any money. Why? You don't want to do it?"

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I looked at my feet.

"I don't know," I said, "I don't know what to do."

"I say we do it," said Tiffany, stepping closer to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. I looked up into her eyes and she had hers fixed on mine.

"We've got something they want," she said, smiling, "Why shouldn't we take advantage of that?"

I thought about my friend and knew what he would say. As if the ghost of my friend where speaking in the room with us I let what he would say come out of my mouth.

"Because we don't have any real reason to trust them," I said, "Are we supposed to just believe that they won't do anything…evil…to us once we're at their facility?"

"Like what?" said Tiffany, drawing her hand back.

"Maybe they'll dissect us," I said, "You know, run messed up experiments on us."

Tiffany rolled her eyes and moved over to the bed and sat down.

"They just want to learn more about what makes us so special," she said.

Tiffany patted the bed, gesturing for me to sit next to her. I resisted the urge to do what she wanted and could tell my reluctance was upsetting her a little.

"Burg?" she said.

I relented. I moved over to her side and sat down on the bed.

I tried to think things through. Before when Abigail had made her offer to me I had immediately wanted to accept. The fact I was talking to a very attractive woman who looked great in a pencil skirt and heels probably had something to do with it. After thinking it through however there seemed to be way too many 'what ifs' for my liking. I wanted to go ahead with it because the alternative meant staying in Lintern, which more than anything seemed like the less interesting option. But less interesting might mean it also being the safest.

My Meter device was still green. Again a fresh bout of nasty stitches tightened up in my gut. Just the thought of having to go through that treadmill ordeal again brought on a flood of anxiety.

"Okay," said Tiffany, "Consider this. What if our Meters go orange and we have to use the treadmills again? And what if we go through all that again only for our Meters to turn red. And then we blow up?"

"We don't know if that will happen," I said.

"Okay," said Tiffany, "That's the problem. We don't know enough about what is happening to us and everyone else. If we don't go and work with this research division, then maybe days or weeks from now we'll be helpless when our Meters turn red and we have no way to go back to green?"

I buried my face in my hands and sighed. This was getting stressful. If I were an orphan, with no family to worry about, then perhaps it would have been an easy decision. But I had to think of my Mum, and Dad, and my brother and sister. I also had to think about my friend. What would they want me to do? Would they want me to go to the facility, or to stay in Lintern?

Tiffany put her hand on my shoulder again.

"Burg?" she said, "You said we would stick together. So I'll do what you want to do. But I think we should do this. I don't think I have the guts to do it on my own though. Please will you come with me?"

Tiffany's question hung in the quiet of the room for several moments. Yet again I had found myself at an impasse. Yet again I thought about my friend and what he would think of everything that had happened so far. It had been my decision to not run away that brought me to share this moment with Tiffany. It had become that much harder to get off the elevator that seemed to continue propelling us forward. If I didn't get off now how far would it take us?

"...okay," I said, quietly, "Let's do it."

"Thank you!" said Tiffany.

She wrapped her arms around and held me in a tight embrace. It felt nice to be hugged, but I still felt detached somewhat from my decision. Now I had agreed to go with Tiffany, the elevator was going to keep carrying us forward; for better or worse.