“What could I remotely explain?!” Jackie said, her shouting alone caused her to move in the shredded paper gripping and trapping her limbs. “I was in a hole! FOR 3 MONTHS, APPARENTLY!”

Leslie slowly wiped his hand with his face, sighing once the palm slid down to his mouth, settling for a few seconds.

“Yes. We didn’t want to assume the worse, but you know as much as I do about the mortality rates during these Trend events.”

“You thought we were dead…?”

Jackie stiffened, with a crestfallen expression shattering her rageful one.

“M-my parents—they thought I was dead…?”

Leslie bit his lips. He wasn’t looking at his patient.

“Just—please! Leslie, just tell me what’s happening here! This feels like my Mindscape but it isn’t—It’s weird, it’s freaking me out more--!”

“Another experimental siVictim process…” Leslie explained, walking about in this white void. “A Mind Jail. It’s going to be procedure for every siVis user, once in Extant custody, to be put under and be questioned to determine if they’re a threat or not.”

“Without due process?!” Jackie sounded hurt. “Did the legal system die when we were out--?!”

“We’re still drawing lines again on our maps. It happens when a series of disasters change the landscapes too much.”

Jackie gritted her teeth. It was so hard. It was so hard not to lump Leslie with the apathetic incompetence of Extant, but the constant “we’s” are making that hard for her.

“Leslie. We were in a hole for 3 months. You know yourself that we’ve fucked up our superpowers. What the hell could we possibly do…?”

Leslie still didn’t meet her eyes. “Something. That’s more than enough reason.”

Jackie shook her head in disbelief. Her mouth open and formed in disgust with her eyes squinted with brow furrowed.

“One minute you’re bemoaning about us being used as test mice for Extant tech, and here you are giving out mind whammies for your so-called patients. The hell happened to you, man…?”

Leslie looked at her. His stare was already so stoic, icy. This was like he wasn’t behind these eyes anymore. Completely disassociated.

“You wouldn’t know. You weren’t here.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Jackie was taken aback, causing her body to hang from her prison. A confused look etched on her face.

“Now then. What happened?”

Jackie’s lips wavered. “If I tell you, you tell me…?”

He wasn’t looking at her, he was pulling back his lab coat’s sleeve to look at his wrist.

Jackie had to squint, she had no idea what it was.

It had white, red, and black colors—the wrist band was black, and a long red arrow stretched from his wrist to his palm, where an ocular circle was nestled into his palm. He pressed the button multiple times until an A.R. projection came out of his palm.

Leslie looked at his A.R. tablet, plugging things in as he tapped at it. “We have people coming in to tell you anyway.”

Jackie roared in her throat, unleashing a burst of frustrated movement in a single second, thrashing violently in her hold.

She sighed heavily, feeling her vocal cords raw.

“We found ourselves… Deep within the city’s underground. And not in the tunnel system, but… Swallowed up by the city. It was siVis or Shiftication, some combination of both but we trapped ourselves due to us hitting… Well. Rock bottom. There was no sense of time passing, we didn’t even know until that robot told us. That’s what happened. That’s all we know.”

“With no food, no water, no supplies at all?” Leslie questioned.

“We had that other robot, didn’t we--?” Jackie shot back.

“The Davenboy unit?”

“I refuse to call any of these toys by their name,” Jackie frowned. “Vehemently refuse.”

Leslie didn’t even banter back, just tapped away.

“JUST—” Jackie screamed at him. “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?! TELL ME! I TOLD YOU WHAT I KNOW--!”

“There was a unit reported and it was broken,” Leslie continued on. “How did you manage to make it work?”

“We literally passed it around like it was a joint—you have a fucking brain, I know it’s not only fast but you can think for your fucking self!” Jackie growled. “We passed it around—”

Her eyes widened with worry.

“—Maddie!” she softened, almost apologetic in tone while refusing to say sorry. “Did you get her back in time—she was really sick--!”

“A fever that not only caused her to lose weight, but nearly killed her,” Leslie’s stony face was illuminated by the hovering screen. It showed that he barely made an expression. Only movement whenever he talked. “She’s still deep in sleep, and probably won’t be awake for a few more days. Her parents came and they have her in custody.”

Her heart sank like a rock. Her face was petrified. Her mind was clogged up with multiple thoughts and emotions.

“But thank you for the information,” the tablet vanished as he looked up. “All has been recorded and reported, and the people who want to see you are coming right this second.”

“Yo…You know her…” Jackie dragged her head up. “You quipped back at her whenever she said something horrible, god fucking damn it… Why act like a drone? Aren’t you hurt?”

Leslie grimaced. “I’m not a drone. Not more like a drone than anybody else, anyway.”

With that, he turned on his heels, waving Jackie off. “Hope you’ll get better soon, Ms. Jackson. Glad to have you back with the magic.”

He evaporated into a mass of pixels. Jackie mumbled wordlessly at the entire display.

“Lord, help me…” Jackie said and did something she hasn’t done in such a long time. “Just tell me… Is all of this my punishment…?”

Her lip quivered, she bit down so she could stop it and stop the possible tears.

“But why does everyone have to suffer the blowback…?”

And the nothingness responded.

So she just hung there, suspended. Waiting so long that she’s regained the ability to feel what minutes are. It was a matter of 3.

“Hellllllooooo~”

Jackie’s blood stilled in that moment. She couldn’t understand what was happening.

But Eclaire Sinclair was standing before her. All with a plastic smile stretched over her face.

“Well now! Long time, no talk! Life’s been keeping ya’ down in the dumps lately, huh?”