“…what the…” The words slipped weightlessly and quietly from Andie’s mouth as she staggered backward. Emotions and ideas swirled throughout her head, desperate for a solution to the mess of a problem before her. “What the fuck.”

Twin forces pulled on Andie, one screaming for her to run as far away as she could, the other screaming for her to charge the monster before it hurt anyone else. Slowly but surely, the second voice began to win out as she hesitantly approached the -

Wait, what the hell was Andie doing? Had fighting nightmares gotten her so used to ignoring the little voice that told her “this is a terrible idea” that she’d forgotten sometimes charging the evil monster head on really was a terrible idea!? Honestly, what did she hope to accomplish here? Did she think she could just punch the psychological manifestation away? She didn’t have her dreamwalker powers when she was awake, and she wasn’t invisible either. All that she was likely to do was make a fool out of herself punching at thin air - unless there was a person at the center of that blob of thought doodles, then she’d get charged with assault instead.

Andie ran for the nearest alleyway to hide herself, each step costing more force of will than she’d ever spent charging toward danger. She was leaving those people to the mercy of that… thing. Dooming them to depression, and possibly death. There was nothing she could do, she knew this in her head but her heart refused to accept it, dismissing every good reason to run as the excuses of a coward.

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Andie slowed to a halt and stood in silence for a moment. She just felt so helpless. No, she didn’t. She didn’t even feel a little helpless, she still felt like the big damn hero. She still felt like she could help - like she should help. Every fiber of her being screamed for her to go back and fight. Frustration boiled inside her like a clogged up teakettle on an open flame, ready to blow. She tried to cast off even a little of it by kicking a nearby dumpster as hard as she could.

Now her toe hurt like hell.

Still, she kicked the dumpster again. What else could she do?

What else could she do…

Finnegan! Finnegan could - Wait, no. Andie had no idea how to contact Finnegan. Still, she couldn’t just do nothing.

Maybe she could come back later that night with Dyllan and Cedric. They could do some scouting and figure out what was up with that monster. If it was too tough to fight - which it probably was - they could work together to figure out how to get Finn’s help. Yeah, that was it. Andie had a plan now. She felt better.

She wasn’t running anymore - she was biding her time.