"Are there any phone charging stations in this place?" Maggie asked the others.

"I haven't seen any,” Tonia shook her head.

"There's definitely none in this ward,” Mrs Huff said. “They don't let the patients use anything electrical."

"My phone's almost out of battery,” Maggie put the device back in her bag.

"Do you want to charge from mine?" Tonia offered. "I have the BuddyCharger app.”

"Nah, that's all right. It's useless anyway with no signal. I just like the safety of having it with me.”

Maggie walked around the bed to see Annora’s sleeping face.

“How does she look?” Tonia asked.

“Pale.”

“That’s three seizures since we got here,” Tonia whispered.

“I know.”

“Maggie, would you mind coming to the toilets with me?”

“Not at all. Mr and Mrs Huff, we’ll be back in a minute.”

Tonia held her hands under the cold running water. “I don’t think I can do this.”

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“What do you mean?” Maggie replied.

“I don’t think I can watch her deteriorate—it’s heartbreaking. I just keep thinking about what he did to her. It makes me so angry. It’s like I can feel my blood getting hot.” She placed her wet, cool hands over her face. “And I keep looking at the time, keeping track in my mind of this horrible countdown. And it’s like she’s getting worse every minute. And then I flash forward to midnight, and I wonder what or how it’s going to happen…”

Maggie put her arm around Tonia. “Jessa’s out there, remember. She might be able to stop him.”

“But she might not. Since all this started, we’ve been putting all our trust in Jessa and her “intuition,” even though nobody really seems to know what that is. We trusted her, then Mr Fletcher trusted her, then the Agency trusted her. And now they’re all out there following her around like she’s some super army general.”

Tonia stared into Maggie’s face in the mirror.

“What if she’s not what they think she is? Or what if she’s not what we think she is? What if she’s just a person, with no more ability than you or me?”

“We can’t afford to think like that.”

“I can’t help it. And it’s not just Annora. I also keep thinking about what it was like on the journey from your house to here, and then imagining them out there…”

“Are you worried about Flynn?”

Tonia sighed. Her mouth turned downwards. “No. I can’t think about Flynn right now.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t. I mean, I’m thinking about him as part of the group that’s out there. But I can’t think of him as my… whatever he is.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“I don’t think he’s actually my boyfriend yet. We haven’t said that, anyway.”

“He likes you a lot. A lot.”

“I like him a lot too.”

“Look, it’s completely okay for you to think about him—”

“I should be focusing on Annora!” Tonia interrupted.

“Annora has your focus. You’re here for her. But you can’t make yourself feel bad for thinking about Flynn, or any of them, or anything else. Nothing you do or think right now will change Annora’s situation. So just keep doing what you’re doing. Just be here for her. Keep showing her how much you care and how much you love her.”

“Maggie, I’m so scared,” the tears finally wobbled from Tonia’s eyes.

“Shh,” Maggie pulled Tonia into her arms. “We’ll get through it.”

Tonia took a deep breath. “But maybe not all of us.”