“This is wrong and you know it!” With those words echoing through the hall, Setrea Evans slammed the door of her bedroom, allowing that sound to punctuate her shout. While it was still fading, she stomped across the room and slapped her hands down on top of the vanity desk, staring at herself in the mirror. She had changed a lot in the four years since she had been transported from her own world to end up in this incredibly different one.
She could still remember how scared and confused she had been, particularly when it had turned out that her arrival had coincided with the disappearance of Sterling and Elena Evans’ son, Simon. And not merely in the sense that he had gone missing when she showed up. She had literally taken his place, appearing in the boys restroom at his school. Which had only added to her confusion and general… freakout when other boys had appeared and started shouting at her in a language she didn't understand. She had run away, using her recently acquired ability to Manifest Alistae to push their attention away from her as she raced through the building, growing more and more upset with each confusing and utterly alien thing she saw. This wasn’t the statue her city had been built on, the statue she had lived on throughout her entire life to escape the monsters below. This was the ground. She was on the ground. Terror had filled the girl, as she had shouted for her father to no avail, before scrambling into a tree (a tiny, pathetic little thing compared to the skyscraper-sized statue she was accustomed to), but at least it had gotten her off the ground. There, she huddled in a ball, whispering pleas for her father to find her.
But it was not her father who had found her. It was Sterling and Elena Evans. They had taken her in, taught her how to understand their language, and learned that their son had almost certainly been transported to her world at the same moment that she was transported here. They promised that they would put all of their resources into finding a way to send her home and get their son back.
That had been four years ago. In the intervening time, the Evans had essentially (and legally as far as records were concerned) adopted Setrea. She had become a part of the family, had learned their secrets about the so-called Ministry, and grew to be a sister to little Cassidy. And Cassidy had grown to be a sister to her. While Setrea was still desperate to see her father again, her attachment to Cassidy had grown to the point that she was uncertain about what her true place was, about where she really belonged.
It was that very attachment to the younger girl that had fueled both her shout and the slammed door. Now, staring into the mirror, the slim blonde girl snarled, “It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”
The wrong thing, in this case, was the fact that the Evans were planning on erasing Cassidy’s memory. Not everything, of course. Just… just the horrific tragedy that had happened. Her best friend, Anthony, had been murdered alongside his entire family and household staff by people working for Cassidy’s own grandfather. Cassidy had been saved, but she saw all of that and now she was traumatized. So her parents wanted to take that away and ‘fix’ her by erasing the memory. Which was wrong. It was completely wrong. Yes, Cassidy had gone through a terrible thing. But she shouldn't have the memory of her friend erased. She should be able to get over it properly, to move on in her own way. She should have her mind respected. Erasing her memory just to create an immediate ‘fix’ for it was… bad. It was bad. Why didn’t the Evans see that?
She couldn’t let this happen. She couldn't allow them to erase Cassidy’s trauma like that. If she wanted it, that would have been… still probably wrong, but at least understandable. But her parents hadn’t asked her. They weren't going to ask her. They were just going to take it upon themselves to make the decision because they didn’t want Cassidy to be sad. And while Setrea understood that, considering she certainly didn’t want Cassidy to be sad, it wasn’t their place to do something like that. Anthony was her friend, and traumatic or not, she deserved to hold onto his memory and get through it the right way.
All those thoughts and more worked their way through the girl's mind over those few seconds while she stared into her own eyes. The thought of what she had to do terrified her just as much as her sudden arrival in this world had four years earlier. Partly because of what it meant she would be giving up. The Evans were her best chance of finding a way back to her world, of seeing her father again. The resources they had were essentially unmatched, especially now that they had to put four years worth of work into solving the problem. Pissing them off right now, it was… it was…
It was Cassidy. No matter how bad it would be for her own prospects of getting home, she couldn't let them do that to Cassidy. That was all there was to it. She couldn’t let that happen to the girl who had become a little sister to her. The girl had already been traumatized by her grandfather, she didn’t need her parents to betray her too.
Besides, it was possible that they might calm down eventually and realize that she was right. Especially if she could help Cassidy through her trauma the right way. Even as that thought passed through her mind, she mostly dismissed it. Even if they accepted their daughter had moved on the proper way, they wouldn't trust Setrea again. Not the way they did now. She was throwing that away.
But for Cassidy, she would have thrown away a lot more.
Decision made, Setrea pushed away from the vanity and moved to grab a backpack from the nearby shelf. She immediately began to throw important things into it. A couple simple changes of clothes, toiletries, a first aid kit she had insisted on having in her own room as soon as she found out what they were, and a few other essentials. But most importantly, she shoved several envelopes full of cash into the bag. For the past several years, since learning how important money was, Setrea had been secretly storing actual cash in envelopes hidden throughout the room. She had more in a couple other places outside the house, but there was over twenty thousand dollars just in these ones. Nothing compared to what the Evans themselves had access to, but more than enough to get by for awhile.
Once the backpack was full of everything she thought she would need immediately, Setrea slung it over her shoulder and checked the hallway just outside the door. These rooms had been Simon’s before she was moved into them. This was the west wing of the third floor, while Cassidy’s rooms were on the east wing on the same level. Seeing no one, she quickly and quietly raced down the hall, stopping at the grand stairway that marked the middle point between the floors. To her left, the stairs (wide enough to drive a car down) led down toward the main foyer. To her right, they curved up and around to head toward the fourth floor, where Elena and Sterling’s own rooms and more private offices were.
Seeing no one below, Setrea moved to the stairs leading upwards and crouched before straining her ears to listen. There. Elena was talking--not to her husband. She was on the phone. Listening for another few seconds, Setrea realized that the woman was talking to Kent Jackson. The memory man. She was calling him over to do the thing. And from the sound of things, he was already on his way. They were going over details while he was driving. Or being driven, whichever. He was coming. Which meant Setrea didn’t have a lot of time. Not if she didn't want this to turn into an even bigger problem.
Glancing around once more quickly to make sure no one was looking, she continued running down the hall to reach her adopted sister’s room. Trying the door revealed it was locked, so quickly hissed, “Broadcast now, Cassidy’s bedroom. Hey, hey let me in. It’s Setrea. Let me in, we need to talk. Please, Cassie, let me in. It’s important.” With the ‘broadcast now’ command, her words were sent into the room through the intercom.
There was a pause, stretching on long enough that Setrea was starting to doubt that Cassidy was actually in the room. Then the door opened, but only a crack. The eleven-year-old girl herself, short, pixie-style dark hair framing a face that had been incredibly pale and lined with tears for the past several days, appeared there. Her voice was soft. “Hi, Setry. Can you ummm, come back later? I don’t really--”
“It can’t wait,” Setrea insisted. Without hesitating or even taking the time to ask, she quickly started to push her way into the room. She was still afraid that someone would come by and interrupt. “I know you're upset and want to be alone, but--” In that moment, she got the door open and stepped in right past the younger girl, only to see that Cassidy, in fact, was not alone.
The instant she saw the totally unfamiliar younger blonde girl, Setrea all-but launched herself across the room. She caught the girl by the shoulders, demanding, “Who the hell are you?”
Cassidy had quickly shut the door, and threw herself between them, hands shoving the two apart. “Stop! Stop it, she’s my friend! She’s--” Staring up at Setrea, eyes filling with tears once more, she managed a weak, “Her name is Paige. She… she was Anthony’s friend too.”
For Paige’s part, the girl simply announced, “I wanted to see Cassidy.”
“You… snuck inside,” Setrea realized. “Her parents don't know you're here. You got all the way across the grounds and into her room without letting anyone see you.”
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Cassidy quickly pleaded, “Don’t tell my parents, please? They… they wouldn’t understand. She’s--” Glancing to Paige briefly, the girl added, “She’s special. I promise, she’ll leave as soon as--”
“No.” Setrea quickly put in. “I mean yes. She will. But so will--look, Cassie, we…” She paused then, at a loss for a moment of how to explain what was going on.
“Her parents are going to do something, aren’t they?” That was Paige, staring intently at Setrea with a knowing look. “They’re going to do something drastic.”
So, after a very brief hesitation, Setrea explained the situation in as few words as possible. She told them that the Evans had access to a man who could alter memories, and that they were going to have him use that to erase everything about Anthony and what had happened to him. The entire time she was talking and explaining that, she also grabbed one of the younger girl’s backpacks and was filling it with essentials.
Cassidy, of course, freaked out at the mere possibility. She very nearly went storming out of the room to yell at her parents, before both Setrea and Paige stopped her.
“We have to leave.” Paige was the one who made the announcement. “We have to get out of here, Cassie. You already told me you didn’t feel safe in this place. You--” She glanced toward the older girl before turning back to her friend. “You had me teach you how to get out of here without setting off any alarms or being seen by the cameras.”
Taking that in, Setrea opened her mouth to question it, before stopping. “You were--right. Do that.” She focused on Cassidy. “Listen, as soon as your parents calm down, I promise you can come back. But we need to leave. We have to get out of here before they fuck with anyone’s mind, okay? Go with Paige, get out of the house and meet me just past the gate. As long as they think you’re still in this room, it’ll be okay. But they’ll never let me just walk out of here with you. And Cassie, leave your phone here. We can’t take them.”
Cassidy hesitated slightly before leaning in to give her a quick hug, murmuring something quietly under her breath. Then she quickly threw a couple more things into the backpack that Setrea had been filling for her, tossed her phone on the bed, and moved to the nearby window. Meanwhile, Paige took a moment to stare at the older girl thoughtfully for a moment before joining her friend.
Setrea watched them briefly, then exhaled and turned to head back out. Reaching the top of the stairs, she looked down just in time to see Sterling and Elena there, opening the door to greet Kent Jackson himself. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, they didn’t have time. There was no more time.
Hoping the other two would get out and off the grounds before Cassidy’s parents realized she was missing, Setrea focused on Manifesting Alistae, allowing the power to shift everyone’s attention away from her. It didn’t make her invisible, as she would still be readily apparent on-camera, but it would stop the people at the door from noticing as she sprinted down the stairs and out the still-open door while they were politely greeting Kent Jackson.
Once she was out the door without being seen, Setrea ran down the grand sidewalk, across the front driveway, and across the grounds toward the side lot where the staff parked. She didn't trust herself to find every tracker that might be on any of the Evans’ own cars, and realized that they would stand out anyway. So she ran to that lot, eyes scanning the vehicles there. Part of her felt bad at the prospect of stealing someone else's vehicle, but she knew the Evans would take care of them. So, she settled on a ten-year-old pickup truck. It looked completely average, not too old and not too new. It wouldn’t stand out on the street.
One of the things that she had been given by Sterling himself was a special Touched-Tech device. It looked like a key with a small remote attached, but this would fit into and start almost any ignition. Along with that toy, Sterling had also taught the girl how to drive. The man had wanted her to know how to take care of herself if she was going to work with the Ministry, even though she technically wasn’t old enough to drive legally yet. But then, she wasn't even from this world, so her actual age to get a license seemed a bit immaterial.
Starting up the truck, she pulled out and headed down the separate drive toward the staff entrance. Her hand rose to hit the button on the remote clipped to the sun visor, and the gate began to open. The guard stationed there glanced up, but all he saw at that moment was a truck that belonged to the gardener heading out. He barely paid attention before turning back to his phone. Why wouldn’t he? He’d seen the truck go in and out every day for years by that point. This was a truck he knew leaving the grounds. There was no reason for him to pay too much attention. Especially when Setrea used her power to push his focus away before he could look up far enough to see her driving.
She pulled out through the gate, imagining the Evans and Jackson talking on their way up to Cassidy's room. Whispering hopes that they would take their time, she drove around to the front of the mansion, glancing that way. There was no sign of any problem yet. No guards running around, Elena and Sterling weren’t flying out the front door, and she couldn’t hear any alarms. But that probably wouldn’t last for long.
Pulling the truck to a stop just past the front gate, she leaned over and opened the passenger door. Part of her wondered if she should honk, but she didn't want to attract the attention of the guard there. And in the end, it wasn’t necessary. She’d barely opened the passenger door before Cassidy and Paige came darting out of the bushes. They clambered in, and Paige shut the door behind them, blurting, “Go, go!”
Setrea went. She shifted into drive and hit the gas just as the sound of the phone attached to the guardhouse began to ring. Before anything else could happen, Setrea floored it, sending the truck flying down the road. They passed the gate leading into the private neighborhood, the guard there idly waving.
And then they were out. They were away from the Evans’ house. But not totally free. Not by a long shot. Setrea knew that without a doubt. Sterling and Elena would put everything they had into finding them. And given who they were, ‘everything they had’ was quite a lot. They wouldn't be safe until they were out of the state. They wouldn't be completely safe even then, but at least once they got out of Michigan there would be a little breathing room. Which they could use to lay low somewhere until the Evans came to their senses and realized they didn’t have to fuck with Cassidy’s memory.
But first they had to get to that point. And right now, they were barely out of the neighborhood. They had a long way to go. Or at least, two of them did.
“Where should I drop you off?” Setrea asked Paige. “Your parents are gonna be worried about you if you stay with us.”
Paige, however, shook her head. “I don’t--I can’t--my dad is…” She paused. “Just go. I’m going with you, and you don’t have time to argue. I’ll explain later, but my dad is worse than the Evans. He wants to--” Once again, she stopped herself, clearly torn on how much to say. Eventually, she settled on simply repeating, “I’ll explain later.”
That whole exchange raised a lot of questions, but Paige was right, they didn’t have time. So, Setrea simply kept going. She headed not toward the freeway, but for the nearest mall. In minutes, the Evans were going to have every authority figure in town watching for this truck. They had to ditch it and get something else. And then most likely ditch that shortly afterward. They would have to keep changing vehicles. Not to mention everything else they would have to do to stay ahead of the search.
In that moment, a rush of feelings flooded the sixteen-year-old girl’s mind. What the hell was she doing? She was all alone in this world and the Evans had taken her in. They had helped her, taught her, cared for her. They were everything she had here.
No, not everything. Cassidy had been there. As she thought about that, Setrea glanced that way. She watched the girl looking out the window, looking so small and terrified about the whole situation. Cassidy was a sister to her. She couldn’t let them erase her memory, couldn’t let them fuck with her mind, no matter what. Hard as this was, she had to do it.
With her resolve renewed, Setrea pulled the truck into the parking lot of the mall. She remembered what Sterling had taught her about taking a car if she ever needed to, when he had been going over emergency measures. He had been training her to help handle Ministry business basically since she had learned enough English to understand them. And now she was putting it to use in getting Cassidy away from them.
Pulling the truck into a spot next to a car parked in the far rear side of the lot, Setrea told the others to get out. She did the same, then hesitated. Staring at the truck, she swallowed hard before moving around the back where the other two were. “Cassidy, come here a sec.” When the younger girl took a step that way, Setrea put both hands on her shoulders. “Look at me, okay? I want… I want you to know that this is your choice. If you want to go home, you can. Maybe we can talk them into changing their minds. I--I don’t want to take the choice away from you. I want--” She swallowed hard. “You’re my sister, Cass. I just want to--I’m sorry.” She had no idea how to say what she needed to.
“You’re my sister too,” Cassidy informed her. Then she embraced the other girl firmly. Her voice was soft, yet not quite as empty as it had been for the past few days. “I miss Anthony. But I don’t want my parents to make me not miss him. Grandpa…. Grandpa made him die. But they want to take him away.”
Flinching, Setrea hugged the girl even tighter. “They aren’t thinking straight. They want to help you, but… but they aren’t doing it right.”
“They’re gonna be mad at you,” Cassie whispered. “Really mad.”
“I’ll handle it,” Setra assured her. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Soon, she had used the special key on the next car, and pulled out with the two younger girls in the back. Once they were out of the lot and headed for the freeway, she looked in the rearview just in time to see several police cars with lights flashing heading into the mall. That was quick enough that the Evans probably did have their employees’ vehicles tracked. It wouldn’t take long for them to find out what car was missing from the lot and spread the word, but by then the trio would be out of the city.
Speaking of trio, she looked up into the rear-view mirror, finding Paige’s eyes staring at her. “I need you to explain now. What were you talking about back there, with your dad and all? Why do you want to come with us?”
“It’s a long story,” Paige flatly replied, shifting a little. “And… and a crazy one. I don’t know if you’ll believe me.” Her eyes glanced toward Cassidy. “... Either of you.”
Her words made Setrea smile very slightly for the first time in awhile. She thought of everything that had happened in her life to lead her to this point. “Oh, believe me, there’s an awful lot I’d probably believe.
“So why don’t you start from the beginning. We’ve got plenty of time, and a long way to go.”