Coming to, I noticed that I was no longer strapped down to a hard chair. Instead, I laid on a mattress, covers pulled up to my chin. A bright light made it hard to open my eyes. “She’s awake! Taylor’s awake!” a parrot screeched.

“Claude?” I asked softly as multiple people thundered up the stairs. Someone stopped them at my doorway. “Hush! She’s still recovering. One at a time.”

Someone grabbed my hand, and I turned to look at them. It was a Taylor. Seeing my own face on someone still gave me goosebumps. Her face looked drawn and tense. “What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she lied, and looked to the door. Without my glasses on, I couldn’t see the face, but I could tell that Indie stood there, acting as guard. “I’m hungry,” I told Taylor.

“I’ll get some soup for you.” She hurried out, relieved that she didn’t have to spend more time with me, the invalid.

“What happened?” I asked Indie.

“You were Tased. Not a pretty sight, let me tell you. While you were spazzing out, your attacker didn’t notice my sneaking up on him. I knocked him and the evil Taylor out, took the darts out, and released my superior. Then we tied up the bad guys and got you and my accomplices out of there.”

“Thanks, Indie. I feel disgusting. What time is it?”

“It’s right after lunch the next day.”

“Can I take a shower or something?”

“Dunno. How do you feel?”

“My stomach hurts. Like, the skin. But I’m hungry, too. And I have a headache. And my hair is all gross, and I’m all sweaty.”

“Your skin hurting would be from the Taser. You probably have some burns there. You’ll get fed in a minute, and your headache is from dehydration. We might be able to sponge-bathe you, and wash your hair. Because of your weakness at this point, it’s not advisable to let you shower by yourself.”

I took in all the information. “Where did you learn all this?”

“Oh, around.” Her tone invited no further questions. I closed my eyes. I was just so tired, but Claude woke me before I could slip into slumber. He flapped over to the headboard and rested there like a little bodyguard.

Taylor woke me up a little later. “Gosh, teenagers sure do sleep a lot. Is she going to sleep for a hundred years like Sleeping Beauty?”

A little grumpy at being woken up in the middle of a nice dream, I growled: “Just teenagers that have been Tased by their other selves. And shut up. You’re a teenager, too.”

“Woah! Little miss grumpy here!” I sat up gingerly, and she tried to feed me a spoonful of broth.

“Hey, I can do it myself.” I took the spoon and bowl from her and noisily slurped down the whole bowl. Now full, I was tired again. “I’m so tired,” I told her.

“Don’t go to sleep, though. You’ve been sleeping for the past eighteen hours.”

“At least I have an excuse.”

“And what would that be?”

“Dimension traveling, fighting with my other self, being tied to a chair; I could go on all day.”

“Yeah, but you don’t need to sleep longer. Why don’t you get up and sit on the couch? Read a book, or something. Be with the crew. Come on.”

“Let me get clean first, jeez.” I pulled the covers off and walked to the door. My legs were a little wobbly, and my stomach hurt with every step I took, but otherwise I felt fine. My headache had cleared up, and I looked forward to my bath.

Now I wasn’t looking forward to my bath. “Do you guys really have to be in here with me?”

“Yes,” they answered, rolling their eyes simultaneously.

“Come on! I’m not going to drown or anything! I’m not a toddler! Besides, there’s only going to be, like, three inches of water. I’ll get clean and get out.”

Indie looked at Taylor, calculating. “That’s okay,” Indie finally answered. “If you want privacy. I’ll go run the bath water, and you can wash your body. We’ll help you wash your hair.”

Who’s the boss here? Taylor or Indie? Since when did Indie make decisions for Taylor?

Thought wondering, I rolled with it. “Okay. Why don’t we do hair first?”

“Alrighty.” Indie grabbed a towel and set everything up. Instead of running the bath, she turned on the faucet. Forced to bend backward in an awkward position while they massaged my head, my back cried out in pain. I put up with it, though. I was just glad to be clean again. Finally, they finished. Indie turned on the bath and I ushered the two of them out. I undressed and bathed quickly, noticing the two circular burns on my stomach, the sources of my pain.

I got out and redressed in a clean yellow jumpsuit. I felt so much better now that I had gotten clean. My fresh outlook almost allowed me to forgive the maniac Taylor, but not quite.

I wandered downstairs, into the hustle and bustle, just the same as it had been. People greeted me, still unsure which one I was: the leader, the evil triplet, or the nice triplet. I wanted to go into the garage/meeting room/prison cell to see how they were doing.

Someone stood guard. As I got closer, I could see Torrin, grim-faced. “Hey,” I said. “Can I see them?”

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“Which one are you?” He looked down at me, his face still guarded but more friendly now. “

“I’m the one from the other dimension. The nicer one.”

“Other dimension? What? I thought you three were identical triplets!” His eyebrows furrowed.

My heart pounded at the mistake. I tried to recover: “Other dimension? My tongue just slipped. I meant to say, “You look like you’re paying a lot of attention.” Not dimension, attention. It’s not like you could travel to other dimensions, anyway. That’s a silly idea.” I rambled on like this for another minute or two, until Torrin grabbed my shoulder.

“You’re from another dimension, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t deny it. I nodded, deeply scared at letting the secret out. He looked at me again. “That explains everything. Does Indie know? Or Finni?”

“No. Just you, and the other two Taylors. If anyone else knows, they haven’t said anything. What do you mean, ‘That explains everything’?”

“I never heard anything about Taylor being a triplet. Her dad and her brothers never said anything about extra sisters. I just added it all up, and nothing made sense.”

He had a point. I felt embarrassed that I didn’t see this before. My face flushed - I needed to get out of here. “Can I visit the captives?”

“I guess. I have to go in with you. We can’t stay long. It gets ugly pretty quick.” He unlocked and opened the door, following me in.

The two chairs were now occupied by the evil Taylor and her accomplice (I think someone said his name is Baxton). They faced away from the door. Taylor heard us come down the stairs and yelled, “Let me out! I’m innocent!”

Torrin didn’t reply, so neither did I. He whispered to me, “Do whatever it is you want to do.”

I actually didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I walked in front of them, where they could see me, and studied them. Taylor’s hair, greasy as fast-food French fries. His eyes, rimmed with black like a raccoon. Their stained clothes. I didn’t know where to look, so I looked at each one alternately. I said nothing, only assessed, and then glanced over at Torrin. He had been studying me. When our eyes met, he looked away. “I’m ready to go,” I told him, then left.

Taylor shouted after us: “Come on, let me out!” etc, etc. I noticed she never once said ‘we’, or ‘us’. It was all about her. I almost felt bad for her and wondered how she felt so driven to blame others for her problems. I knew they must be hungry and tired and probably had the need for a toilet. “Let’s see what we can do,” I told Torrin. He seemed happy enough to follow me and help me out. He never offered a suggestion, only agreed with me. It was nice to be around someone who wouldn’t question me, but made me wonder why he was doing so.

I made the jailbirds a sandwich each, with a bottle of water. I discussed what we could do for a bathroom for each of them. “Would we have to be in there with them? Or let them in by themselves? Maybe they wouldn’t come out, though. I guess they would have no reason to stay there. No food, nothing else to do. I dunno.” Whenever I asked Torrin for his opinion about anything, he just said, “Whatever you think is best.”

They eagerly devoured the sandwiches and gulped down the water. We had unstrapped their hands only, so they would eat but not get away very easily. Just as quickly as they ate, it went through their system. “Excuse me, but I have to use a toilet,” Baxton said politely, surprising us.

Torrin escorted him to the bathroom right down the hall from their makeshift cell. “No funny business. You get in, do what you need to do, get out. Staying in will only cause further punishment, you know.”

“Yes, I’m quite aware, thank you.”

Something was up. We should’ve separated the two of them. Why is Baxton so polite all of a sudden?

Finally, I was alone with Taylor. I prepared myself to talk. “I don’t understand how you felt, wanting to hurt Taylor and I.” I took a breath, and she made everything awkward: “I don’t want to talk to you. Leave me alone. Don’t come back.”

I heeded her warning. I didn’t want to get verbally chewed out by another self. “Sorry for the sandwich, then. Gosh.”

She said nothing. I left, not even speaking to Torrin. I had wanted badly to rebuild my relationship with Taylor, but she shut me down every time I reached out. Frustrated, I collapsed on the bed and read a book.

A Klaxon jerked me awake early the next morning as the sun rose. Leader Taylor had slept on the trundle below me, but now she sat up, wide awake. “We need to leave. Now. Get on a jumpsuit and follow me outside. Don’t turn on any lights.”

All of this was so cryptic. “What’s going on?”

“We’ve been reported. Armed government vehicles are within a mile closing in as we speak. Hurry!” She collected Claude and checked on her brothers. This was my first time seeing them in this dimension. Obviously, they looked the same, except without any smiles. A little fear tinged Tanner’s face, but Thomas looked bored.

“How often does this happen?” I asked Taylor.

“First time,” she replied, throwing together a bag, which she handed to me. She gave instructions to Claude, who flew downstairs. For once, he was silent. I ran downstairs and waited for them. After an eternity, they came down. “What took you so long?” I hissed. I could see, through the half-open blinds, sleek gray cars pull up, followed by a gray van.

I received no answer, only a ‘follow me’ hand motion from Taylor. “Tanner, go release our hostages, then meet us at the place.”

I wondered at it all, but was too frightened to question anything. I could now see people, soldiers, getting out of the vehicles. They carried weapons.

“No one’s there,” Tanner said. He had been gone only a minute.

“What do you mean, no one’s there?” Taylor’s eyes were frantic.

He shrugged. “No one’s there. Come on, we have to go.”

If anything, the evil Taylor will get arrested as the leader Taylor, I thought to myself. I worried out the back door, through the neighbor’s lawn, across the street, and into the woods; until we slipped into the woods. Substantially darker because of the overhead foliage, the forest enveloped us.

The winding trails, similar to the ones in Dimension 2, soothed me. My fear of a government agent lurking behind every tree, stump, and bush, subsided. Alas, for if it had, maybe we would’ve been on guard for an ambush.

Two camo-coated agents dropped from above while others swarmed from every direction. I heard Maniac Taylor’s voice coo, “Aw, the widdle biddy rebels walked right into a twap! Poor things. Too bad for them!”

She betrayed us, the little twerp. We didn’t deserve this, but couldn’t fight back. There were too many of them, and only three of us.

Only three - until Claude arrived, that is. Two grizzly bears came lumbering up the path, and attacked. I turned away, not being able to stomach the sight. The other soldiers, when they recovered from their stunned stupor, opened fire on the bears.

Unfortunately, Casper’s guards were no match for the firepower. Full of bullet holes, they died right next to each other, soldier’s bodies strewn around them, dirt soaking up the blood.

A tear slid down my cheek, a tear I hadn’t realized I was holding in. These magnificent creatures, so harshly cut down, touched a place inside of me. I wanted to hurt the agents, to torture them until they felt the pain I felt. And all because of a misunderstanding; all because the feds didn’t want to come to an agreement with the animals.

We were handcuffed and tossed into the van. Gagged and bound, we could do nothing to cushion ourselves against the harsh turns. By the end, I had several bruises.

We arrived at our destination as the sun reached its zenith, high in the sky. I was very hungry and tired. Then I saw the facility, all concrete and metal. Lots of windows, but all covered in thick metal bars. Towers posted along the topped-by-barbed-wire wall every few hundred feet gave the building the look of a castle. A sign above the entrance said: Morita Women’s Correctional Facility. A correctional facility?

What were we going to do?