Everyone thought that Emily was crazy. Not lying necessarily. Just seeing things that weren’t there like usual. Only Barbara seemed to truly believe that the Shadow had possessed Luke briefly even if she didn’t want to admit it.

Emily and Luke both got two weeks paid leave to recover. Emily for seeing the ‘Shadow’ and Luke because of his seizure and brief amnesia. The doctors said it was probably shock from whatever had triggered the seizure that was affecting his memory. But Emily had been spending some time with him, and he seemed as sharp as ever. He believed her too about what had happened. She almost wished he didn’t though. He was quieter than usual as they both tried to understand the riddle. But none of it made any sense to either of them.

— — —

Two months later, things had settled back to a more normal state. Emily was going through her normal cycle of hyping herself up to tell Luke that she was only attracted to girls. She was close to actually telling him this time. She had put it off in the aftermath of what happened with the Shadow, but she could feel herself building momentum to tell him soon.

“Emily?”

She looked up and saw John, the lab director, standing there, “Come to my office? There’s been a new opportunity that’s come up and I’d like to discuss it with you.”

She blinked, “Opportunity? Oh, what is it?”

She quickly cleaned up a bit and then quickly walked after John, her white lab coat swirling behind her as she speed walked after him to catch up.

“Confidential,” John said, “Can’t discuss it in public. But I think it’s a big step up for your career. You’d be chief scientist of one of our branch labs.”

“C-Chief?” Emily said, “I’m not nearly good enough to do that!”

John shot her a look and raised an eyebrow as he opened the door to the office, “My recommendation says otherwise. Are you saying that I’m wrong?”

They walked into the office and sat down, the door closing with a click behind them.

“Well, ah. What exactly would I be doing?” Emily said to reset, while reprimanding herself mentally. You were always supposed to be confident about what you could do or you wouldn’t get promoted. Or at least that’s what Mom and Dad had told her. She had been happily in her position alongside Luke for over seven years now and she didn’t mind staying. But she shouldn’t be so negative about whatever John was offering her.

“Well, there’s a special project that could use your talents,” John said, “Mr. Rose suggested it could be a good fit for you, and I agreed with him. It’s similar to that protein modeling you do, except far more complicated and sensitive. We only want the best to be working on it.”

“And… and I’m the best?” Emily asked hesitantly. No, bad Emily. Was she even trying to get this opportunity? Emily thought about it for a second, and realized that she really wasn’t. She was comfortable here at the lab. She didn’t like the thought of going somewhere else if she didn’t have to. But Mr. Rose suggested her for this position. Did she want to disappoint him?

“I think so,” John said, “It’s a rather specialized field. None of us here, including me, are that familiar with it. I think that you could pick it up rather quickly if you put your mind to it.”

“And what would I be doing?”

“Can’t tell you the details of the science unless you agree. But as chief scientist you’d determine what experiments the others did, what avenues they explore to achieve your goal. Run your own tests on the equipment. We’ll be hiring a lab coordinator that you’ll work with to help handle the paperwork and other management things that I have to deal with all the time. I think some management experience would do you some good. Build your confidence, spread your wings a little without my oversight. So, what do you think?”

“That… Hmm. That sounds exciting I guess? Mr. Rose really suggested that I work on it? You think I can do it?”

“With an attitude like that you can’t!” John said, “Chin up, this is an excellent opportunity for you. Almost wish I could take it myself. Just get a little confidence, add some more enthusiasm, and you’ll be fine. As much as we like you here at the lab, wouldn’t you like to control what experiments you’re running? You can’t get that here, the powers on high have too tight a grip on us for our projects.”

Emily liked working here. With Luke, with Barbara, with all the other scientists. She didn’t mind not having creative control too much. But… Mr. Rose and John had such confidence in her. How could she turn them down after all that they’d done for her? Tell them that actually, she’d rather remain in place and not advance any more.

“When do I start?” She heard herself say.

John smiled and rapped his knuckles on the desk.

“Excellent. I’ve got the contract here. Nondisclosure agreement and the details of your employment. The location is rather remote, so do keep that in mind when you move. Look it over when you get home. You’re locked in for a two year contract if you do this, so make sure you really want it. With how hush hush this is, Mr. Rose doesn’t want people coming and leaving the positions, too much of a security risk. There’s still a month until you can start at the earliest, so take your time in thinking about it.”

He took a large stack of papers in a large binder and handed it to her. She fumbled with it for a few seconds before settling it against her side under her arm.

“Okay. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. And for Mr. Rose for suggesting me.”

John chuckled and waved her off.

“Just treat me right when you’re eventually my boss, why don’t you? If you do well in this position, it may be closer than you might think.”

“Thank you, sir. I won’t forget how much you’ve helped me, even through my… difficult times.”

“Hmph. CODA is like family. We all try to help each other. That’s what Mr. Rose wants. Just doing my best to live up to the ideal.”

“Well, good job doing that then,” Emily said, voice cracking a little at the attempted joke.

“Alright, shoo,” John said, “Back to work with you. Don’t lose those papers, you have no idea how much ink I had to use to print all of those pages out. Damn printer jammed twice…”

Emily left and returned to her experiments, keeping the big binder close by at all times. She wondered what in the world she would tell Luke about this.

— — —

“...So, I’m uh, gay. You’re my best friend, but I’m only attracted to girls. Thought I should… tell you finally.”

Luke sat there, blinking rapidly as he processed the information she had just told him. They were in her apartment, on either ends of her couch with both of them already having drunk quite a few beers already.

Emily was feeling rather tipsy at the moment, she had always had a low tolerance. But Luke seemed fine. Or was she just too drunk to tell? Oh, she was telling him her big secret. Had to focus…

“Oh.” Luke said.

“I wanted to tell you a while ago, but I always chickened out at the last moment. But now I’m going away to the new job all alone, and I wanted to tell you before I left…”

“But… but you haven’t been with any girls?” Luke asked, “Any at all…”

“I…” Emily reached out and missed the beer can she was reaching for. She recalibrated and grabbed the can successfully this time.

“I kissed Alice one time? Does that count? She was attacking me, and it was the only way to get out of her grip. Surprise attack, like in that movie I saw. The ghosts told me to do it, hehehe. What a first kiss. She was more stunned than she should have been. Maybe she swings that way too? She was so hot, even if she was also a bitch and I hate her…”

Luke stared at her. She looked down at the now empty beer can. Oh, when had she drunk that?

“Heeeeey, Luke. Sinestra had an idea. Now that I’ve told you, I can tell you that too!”

“Em, You’re drunk,” Luke slurred, “Who even is Sinestra?”

“Siiiinestra? Sheee’s my friendly ghost. Didn’t I tell you about her? She visits me sometimes, I make her go away with more meds. She stops the mean one from yelling at me anymore. Aaaanyway.”

There was a pause.

“What?” Luke asked.

“What?”

“You were saying something about your ghost? Sinestra?”

“Oh. Oh yeah. Fuck, I’m so drunk. Why am I talking about it? Not supposed to tell you about her… Just think I’m more crazy.”

Emily went to grab another beer can and missed by a mile. Luke stood up and unsteadily walked over and swept them out of her reach.

“Heeeey!” She protested.

“You’ve had enough… lightweight.” Luke said before going to sit back down.

“Oh. Yeah, probably. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Sinestra. She was saying, the two of us would make a great team. We go to a club or something. All the girls go flocking to you. I stand nearby and pick off the stragglers that are left! Thaaat way we can… filter them out. If they’re not having any interest in someone as handsome as you, then maybe they’d be iiiinto me. You’ve haaaad, like… tons of girlfriends. You can give me tips on how to do it! Romaaance and stuff.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Luke stared at her for a long moment before bursting out laughing.

“Hahahaha. That’s so dumb. You think I’m handsome enough that every girl that’s interested would go for it? What if they just thought the two of us were together and backed off?”

“Grrrrr. I thooought it made sense. I donnn’t know, it was just an idddea. Sinestra’s, not mine. Or was it me? God, that’s so confusing. Teach me, oh master. Teach me to romance!”

Luke suddenly looked depressed, “You’re going to your new lab next week. Remember why I’m here? We’re celebrating your promotion.”

“I knooow. I didn’t want to do it, but Joohn and Mr. Rose expects so much from me. I doon’t want tooo dissapoint them after theeeey’ve done so much for me. I like our lab, hopefully the people at the nneeew lab are nice too.”

“I’ll m-miss you, Em.”

Emily scooched over next to Luke, everything blurry in her vision for some reason. Fuck, she was so wasted, “P-Plllatonic hug? Friendship hug?”

Without waiting for a reply she clumsily wrapped her arms around him.

“I-I’ll misssss you tooo, Luke. Best friend in the whooole Wor- worrrrl…. Zzzzzzzzz.”

Luke looked down and saw that Emily had dozed off mid sentence. He carefully extracted himself from her arms and shifted her so her head was resting on the arm rest of the couch, her body sprawled awkwardly across its entire length. He lifted her feet and put them so she was fully on the couch instead of half falling off. A little bit of drool dribbled out of the corner of her lips and she muttered something in her sleep before shifting her body slightly.

Luke stumbled over to her closet and found some blankets and a pillow. The couch was taken and Emily’s bed was off limits… He would sleep on the floor. He laid down and shut his eyes. Through the drunken stupor, he let the melancholy rise up fully. Oh, Em. Why hadn’t she told him sooner? How could this happen to him?

But the alcohol was strong enough that despite the uncomfortable floor, Luke quickly fell asleep on the pile of blankets. His dreams were filled with whirling chains and dancing puppets, words that were not his own swirling through his subconscious mind and manifesting in his dreams.

— — —

Emily shook her head and tried to pay attention as the meticulous man at the new lab went through all the shiny new equipment that was being used. The building and lab itself had been around for a while, but it had been fully upgraded to top quality two years ago. The former chief scientist had moved onwards to another project and Emily was the replacement. The meticulous man stressed the word replacement rather hard. Maybe he could tell she wasn’t quite as enthusiastic in the new position as she pretended to be.

She was excited to get to be in charge and do something new. But at the same time she was feeling a little lonely being away from Luke, her family, all the people at work. But she would be working here for two years, so she may as well try to settle in. This place was in the middle of nowhere and the night life was non-existent, so she should try to make friends at work where she could.

“Sorry, Matt,” Emily interrupted the man giving the tour, “I’m feeling a little lost here. These machines are all rather nice, but what’s the big project that we’re going to be working on?”

The man paused mid step and looked at her.

“They didn’t tell you? Do you have any experience in virology?”

Emily froze. “V-V-Virology? No?”

He clicked his tongue and looked at her in distaste.

“Typical. You can’t even be thirty and they’re already putting you here on a project like this? No offense, but you hardly seem ready for this.”

“W-What’s the project?” Emily said while glancing around nervously.

“Ah, I can’t fault you for that at least. Classified project here. Our goal is to create a virus that can create genetic change to the human body all in one go. Cure genetic diseases, cancers, you name it. Anything caused by a genetic mutation in the body, this virus should be able to go in and fix, while bypassing the usual immune rejection issues of genetically altering only a few cells at a time. I have over twenty years experience in virology and graduated from CODA International University. What are your credentials by the way? I don’t think you said. What was your focus?”

Emily felt like she was going to be sick. This was her big project? Sinestra knew somehow. How could Emily have known? Oh no, her hallucinations would go rabid once they knew. She was locked into the two year contract! She had to work here, there was no backing out now. Not if she wanted to work at CODA.

“I… went straight from CODA classes to working at the lab in the International headquarters. I didn’t have a focus or anything like that. I did a bit of everything while I was there,” Emily said numbly, “I don’t have a degree, but John Tret, the lab director there, said that my work was exemplary and that I would be able to learn what I needed to know on site.”

Matt sniffed disdainfully, “As if. I spent five years getting my degree. Three of those years were focused on virology alone. How could you hope to catch up in so little time?”

“People say I’m smart,” Emily replied absentmindedly, “I was learning calculus in middle school. I was told that I was the boss here. First order, please go find what texts I need to read to get a good baseline knowledge to understand what you do here. I’ll go set up in my new office.”

“But Emily…”

“That’s Ma’am or Boss to you for now, Matt,” Emily said as she started walking away, feeling annoyed at the man’s dismissive tone towards her, “I’m chief scientist, and we’re not on a first name basis yet. Just because I don’t have a degree doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. Don’t come in my office unless it’s urgent. Thanks.”

Matt looked offended, but Emily hardly cared. He had been a jerk the whole time ever since he’d introduced himself. She could already hear the building wind and whispers around her, both female and male. She ran to the space that would be her office, a large desk sitting there ready for her to use, but otherwise bare. She slammed the door shut as things grew to a crescendo around her.

Everything fell silent as she frantically locked the door to the room, cursing her trembling hands.

“EmiLy, yOu hAve to lEaVe,” Sinestra said.

Emily turned around to see two figures crawling out of their respective portals. Sinestra and the male ghost. Emily had never gotten its name, it was usually too busy yelling at her to explain itself much.

“I’m locked in a two year contract. I can’t leave!” Emily said as quietly as she could.

“You WouLd dOom the WoRld for yoUr joB?” The male said.

Sinestra took a step forward, “I’m sorry, EMily. We diDn’t reAliZe what tHis wAs. You HaVe to go. PleAse reMeMber yOur pRoMise. You hAve so mAny otHer pLaCes to go. WoRk soMewHere else for a few yEars, CODA will tAke you baCk aFter. The CoNtrAct says yOu can’t work at CODA for fiVe years if you bReAk it. You can fiNd wOrk soMeWheRe else for that time. Use us as an eXcuSe. You can do it, and I’m sUre thAt John will hElp you. MayBe even Peter Rose will too. They might eVen let you bAck to CODA without enForcing the coNtract if you eXplain to tHem pRoperly wHy.”

Emily froze and thought about it, imagined going back to John and Mr. Rose and admitting that she couldn’t do it. That she was insane after all and that her hallucinations wouldn’t let her work at a virology lab.

Emily reached into her bag and pulled out her four orange pill bottles. She carefully took out three of each, her hands still shaking. She was only supposed to take one, but she had to make them go away.

“Emily, you kNow thOse won’t woRk,” Sinestra said in a sympathetic tone, “You cAn’t run fRom this. We’ve both bEen calm and silEnt for yeArs now, for you. All we aSk in reTuRn is that you go aWay, get awAy from here. You hAte it heRe alReAdy, we caN tell. Why are you pUsHing so haRd to stay? MoNey? Will moNey buY you fRiends, hAppiness? JuSt like how yoUr inteLLigence did in sChool? Or faiLed to do so, more like? MoSt people hEre will be like Matt, not reSpeCting you beCaUse you’re too yOung, too inExpeRieNced to leAd tHem. You can go baCk to Luke, to your old fRieNds at the lab. Your FaMily. SafeTy.”

“S-Shut it Sinestra, you jerk! You’re not my friend! You’re only nice to me so you can manipulate me better! Stupid alter ego. And I’m going to get rid of you, if one pill doesn’t do it then three will! I’m- I’m not going back there holding my head down as a failure b-because I broke into hysterics on the first day.”

Emily started taking the pills all at once, twelve whole pills she had to swallow to make it all go away and return to normal.

“Oh, Emily. I am yOur fRieNd,” Sinestra said sadly, “We’ve aLreAdy exPlaiNed as mUch as we cOuld. This job iSn’t woRth it. Just gEt out of heRe, live haPPily somEwhEre else. PLeAse.”

“No! You’ll be going away any second now. Any second.”

“Then I’m soRry, Emily,” Sinestra said, “I won’t let yOu maKe the miStaKe that I did, have you live with tHe gUilt of it all. If we can’t cOnVince you to leAve, then we’ll juSt haVe to makE it so othErs force you ouT instead.”

Sinestra turned to the male ghost and they exchanged glances for several seconds as Emily panted out of breath watching them, feeling herself start to feel woozy as the drugs rushed through her system. She sank into one of the chairs sitting in the room and felt her mind start to go fuzzy and the world swam around her.

“Are yOu sure?” the male ghost asked.

“Yes. I think it’s the oNly way leFt. She won’t breAk the coNtrAct. I don’t know wHat elsE to do. We haVe to gEt her out soon. I don’t rEmeMber when it exActly happEned.”

“AlriGht. But we caN’t let up for eVen a moMeNt. It’s for her oWn goOd.”

Sinestra was staring at Emily and walked up to her. Emily twitched a little, the drugs were really rushing to her head, she couldn’t think properly.

Sinestra leaned over and raised a ghostly hand and rested it on Emily’s cheek. It felt cold, like an ice cube.

“I’m so sorry, Emily. It’ll all be ovEr sooN, and you’ll be fRee of us. We’re doiNg all of tHis for you. I hope you nEver get to uNderStaNd why we hAd to do tHis. Leave the pRojEct and we’ll stop. Be HaPPy and sAfe. ThAt’s all we waNt.”

“Uuuuugggghhhhh,” Emily groaned in reply.

The two ghostly figures walked up to stand over her, and looked down at her from above as she lay there sprawled out limply on the chair.

“DoN’t bUild tHe viRuS,”

They chanted as one,

“DOn’T buiLd thE VirUs,”

“DOn’t bUiLd The ViruS,”

“Don’T BuiLd the ViRuS.”

Emily’s world swam even more as the words pounded in on her skull. Finally, it was too much and Emily slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

— — —

Emily opened her eyes, feeling stiff and something crusty in the corner of her eyes. She groaned and sat up in the chair she had collapsed in. She was nursing the mother of all headaches right now, and rubbed at her temples. She only realized after a few seconds that the pounding wasn’t from her headache, but someone knocking at the door to the office.

The ghosts were gone, and the sound around her had returned to normal.

“Yes?” She croaked out, “ What is it?”

“Its ah, Matt,” the voice said, “You’ve been in there for over two hours now. I’ve collected the works you’d need for an elementary knowledge of our work. Just wondering if you have any further orders.”

“You sent the list to my work email?”

Emily confirmed while trying to ignore the pounding in her skull and wobbly legs as she stood.

“Yes, Emi– Ma’am. I sent it. Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”

“Yeah,” Emily said, while suppressing her groan from the monster of a headache she was nursing at the moment, “Start discussing with the others all the basic approaches to making this virus that you can think of. Just as many different ideas as possible from the whole group. The broad strokes. We can narrow things down to the most promising paths once we’ve got most of our possible approaches down in front of us.”

There was a pause on the other side of the door, “Hm. Very well. I’ll discuss it with my colleagues then.”

There was the sound of Matt’s feet receding into the distance. Emily looked around the bare office with the single desk and two chairs, one of which she was sitting in. She should probably start decorating so she could pretend she hadn’t been passed out from overdosing on her meds for the last two hours…