"Is this the place?" Casey asked.

A long sidewalk wound its way up the hill, cutting through a manicured lawn. The grass shimmered with dew, lit by the occasional lights dotting the path to Weaver Hall. The massive building crowned the hill, enveloped by shifting clouds of fog that drifted across its windows like a swarm of ghosts.

Alex took a step forward, her mind focused on her Pinpoint ability. When she thought of Seth, she felt an invisible hand press against her back, guiding her in the right direction. "Yes. Seth's inside."

“Why here?” Will asked. He loomed behind her, his muscles tense and an obvious scowl plastered across his face. He’d been in a bad mood ever since Casey had woken him up. Which was fair considering he’d just lost a fight, gotten captured, and now he was being forced to work for his captors.

"I don't know," Alex said.

They were flanked by two agents from Torch Labs. An odd duo. Casey Andrews stood tall, eyes forward, and there was a hunger in her stance like she was itching to leap into action. The other was Christopher Upton, a balding man in his forties. He was hardly paying attention to the mission, instead focusing on the painting he held in the crook of his elbow.

That painting was tied to his ability. On the drive over to Shelby State, he’d demonstrated how it worked. Upton had detailed some beer bottles on the canvas, using his own blood as paint. Then he’d peeled the bottles away as if they were stickers, and somewhere in the process, the beers had become real, physical things.

It was one of the weirdest things Alex had ever seen, which was saying something because she’d seen some crazy shit at Eldridge Creek. But even considering the parasite’s magical powers, Upton’s blood paintings felt distinctly unnatural.

Upton had offered one of the beers to Alex, which she’d promptly rejected. She wasn’t going to drink something that was created out of thin air. Actually, it was worse than that. Upton had used his blood for the paint, so technically she’d be drinking his bodily fluids. Absolutely disgusting.

Will didn't seem to mind how gross that was. He'd accepted the drink and chugged the whole beer in one go.

He still held the bottle in his good hand, and he bit a chunk of the glass with his metal teeth. Alex winced at the sound of him chewing glass. God, did all the wishes of these parasites have to be so grotesque?

"If he's truly here," Casey said, "let's go say hello."

"Hold on." Alex stood her ground. "Seth already killed one of your people. We can't just mozy on in there and expect him to play nice."

"I’m not worried about how ‘nice’ he is. If he wants to cooperate, fine. Otherwise, I’ll hit him with my hypnosis."

“Why take the risk?” Alex asked. “The whole reason I came with you was so I could convince Seth to work together. If I go in there with two strangers, who knows how he’ll react? He might start blasting before I can get a word out.”

"So what?" Casey stepped in front of the group, blocking their path. "You want me to let you speak to Seth alone? No way that’s happening."

"Why not?"

"We went through a lot of trouble to capture you two, we aren't going to let you go that easily. For all we know, you'll run tail the moment you're out of sight."

A fair suspicion. Alex didn't trust Torch Labs, and it seemed they didn't trust her in return. That put them at an impasse. "We're wasting time. If you want our help, you'll eventually have to trust us."

Casey turned to Upton, but his eyes were buried in his canvas, not paying attention to a word of this conversation. "Fine. Alex, you can talk to Seth. Will stays here with us."

Will bit another chunk of his bottle, and he quickly swallowed when he heard his name. "Me? What the hell? Why I gotta stay here?"

"Because," Casey said. "Trust goes both ways. Alex, if you can convince Seth to talk with us, then there's no need to worry. Right?"

Alex bit her lip. Leaving Will in the custody of Torch Labs was a bad idea. Which was why she’d convinced Casey to wake him up in the first place. Splitting up now might complicate things, but Alex didn’t see a way around it.

"Right," Alex said. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Weaver Hall was quiet this time at night. As she walked up the sidewalk, dim lights shimmered across the windows, reflecting off their polished sheen. Alex reached the door, expecting it to be locked. Instead, the door latch clicked as it slid open, releasing a puff of air that dispersed the fog. Alex slipped inside.

What was Seth doing here anyway? Casey had said some of Grace's agents had attacked him about an hour ago now. Perhaps he’d fled his apartment and was hiding away in a random building. Maybe some of his classes were in here, and he knew the area.

As for Alex, she'd never been to Weaver Hall. All of her film classes were on East Campus, hidden away from the aerospace buildings and the rest of the engineering halls.

Lucky for her, Alex didn't need directions. Her Pinpoint ability told her exactly where Seth was. Down the hall and to the right.

She started across the tile floor, self-conscious about how loud her footsteps were. As much as she'd argued to come alone, Alex couldn't be sure that Seth wouldn't shoot her. They hadn't exactly separated on good terms. And even back at Eldridge Creek, she hadn't felt safe around him, especially when he started swinging that shotgun around.

Alex stopped outside a room at the end of the hallway. This was it. Pinpoint told her that Seth was waiting inside. She took a deep breath, then opened the door.

She was met by the twin barrels of a shotgun. Seth leaned back in his office chair, the heavy gun held out as if it were a pistol. His eyes burned with black fire, deep pits in his face that crackled with malice. Alex's chest hitched at the sight of them, and the hair stood up on her neck. How far gone was he?

"Alex." Seth lowered the shotgun. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't shoot her. That was a relief. Alex forcibly unwound the tension in her shoulders, then she hurried into the room and locked the door behind her. They didn't have much time before Casey got bored and barged her way in.

"Listen," Alex said. "We need to talk."

Seth turned back to the computer and began typing on the keyboard. "I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"Dude, did that parasite eat your brain? I'm not here to check up on an old friend, this is urgent."

"Really? Because last I saw you, you were so eager to get away from me. Now you come crawling back."

So Seth was still upset about that. Understandable, Alex supposed, but she didn't have time for drama. "Okay, that’s… whatever. The point is, after we left the sheriff's office, a flying woman chased down our car. She captured me. And Will, and it turns out she's working for Torch Labs."

Seth glanced away from the computer monitor. "Ah. Jess's notebook had said something about Torch Labs."

"Right! Anyway, Torch Labs wants us to help them take down Owen. After they captured me, I learned that they sent two people to your apartment. They say you killed one of them."

Seth's cheek twitched, the hint of a smile which he quickly masked. "The invisible man and his pet?"

"Um, maybe. I don't know the details. But look, they have two more agents waiting outside the building right now. They wanted to come in and take you by force. I convinced them to let me talk to you."

"I would've preferred the fight."

Of course, he would have. Why were all of Alex's allies a bunch of meatheads? All two of them, but still. "Listen, I don't trust Torch Labs."

"No shit."

"Which is why I'm here. It was my best chance to get away. I think we should run."

Seth swiveled his chair to the side, his black stare sending shivers down her arms. "Really? The way you were talking, I thought you'd teamed up with them."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I didn't have a choice. And while I agree that Owen needs to die, Torch Labs isn't innocent in this matter. They abuse the powers of the parasite as well, and once Owen's dead, who knows what they'll do to us. They'll probably kill us too."

Seth lifted his shotgun and rested its barrels over his shoulder. "Then screw running. I'll kill them first."

"No! God, does everything boil down to blood with you people? No, I don't trust Torch Labs, but we shouldn't burn our bridges with them just yet. We might need them."

The office chair squeaked as Seth turned back to the computer. He shrugged, then began typing away. "Whatever you say. Look, I'm kind of in the middle of something, so running isn't really an option."

What the hell could he possibly be doing that was more important than escaping those psychos outside? Alex eyed that shotgun, and she slowly inched closer, keeping out of the way of the gun's twin barrels. She leaned in toward the computer monitor.

Seth was typing something into the terminal. White words flashed against a black background, scrolling up so fast she couldn’t read them. In that mess of text, one word managed to stick out. Updraft.

Alex had used the university's virtual machines before. Quite often, actually. Whenever she had to edit a video, she rendered it out on Updraft since it was much faster than her laptop. And since she had to edit a lot of videos for her film classes, Updraft saved her a ton of time.

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

"It's a long story. You remember my project for the career fair? Somehow, my demo can enhance the Signal. Increase its resolution. It makes a huge difference to the overall output, and that's only using my laptop. I thought I could improve it even further with Updraft's processing power, but I'm running into issues."

Seth's demo could improve the Signal? No wonder Grace wanted to get her hands on his laptop. Leveraging Updraft’s computing power was a great idea, the logical next step. Unfortunately, the Torch Labs agents waiting outside soured Alex’s curiosity. As interesting as this demo was, she was more concerned with being captured and possibly killed.

"You know," Alex said, "the whole benefit of a virtual machine is that you can use it remotely. Let's leave and figure this out later."

"I know," Seth said. "But I don't remember how to access it on my laptop."

Was he kidding? Seth was smart enough to write a program that could improve the Signal's power, but he didn't know how to access university resources? Even Alex knew how to do that, and she didn't know shit about computers.

She hurried around Seth and crouched down so she could reach his laptop. With a few clicks, she found the university's preferred SSH client, typed in Updraft's IP address, and started the connection.

"There," Alex said. "Type your login, and you should see your virtual machine."

"Damn." Seth rolled his chair over and started typing. "Who knew the film student would be so smart."

"I'm not completely useless."

"Do you know how to configure the firewall?"

"What's a firewall?" Alex asked.

Seth turned to her and gave her a blank stare. "You know what? I take back everything I just said."

"Whatever. Can we leave now?"

Seth sighed. "I suppose."

Great. That was step one of Alex's plan. However, the next part would be more difficult. Especially since Casey had held Will behind. She'd been smart to keep a hostage.

"There's a slight complication," Alex said. "Remember the agents waiting outside? I convinced them to let me talk to you, but they wouldn't let Will come with me. We need to grab him before we run."

Seth frowned. "Look, I told you I don't mind fighting them." He rattled his shotgun. "A few shots from this baby and boom, problem solved."

"No fighting," Alex said. "I have an idea. You said your laptop can play an improved version of the Signal. Can you start that up?"

At that point, Seth had already closed the laptop and had it halfway shoved into his backpack. He pulled it back out, laughing as he did. "Ah, little Miss High Horse wants a new wish?"

Alex rolled her eyes, but he wasn't wrong. She didn't like the idea of her parasite evolving, digging its roots deeper into her core. And all the abilities she'd seen thus far had been vile and gross and downright uncanny. However, she'd been thinking about her next wish for a while now and she'd settled on something that would solve all their problems. If it worked.

Static crackled from the laptop speakers.

The sound nearly knocked Alex off her feet. She'd known the demo had improved the Signal but to this degree? Her entire body vibrated to the noise, her flesh blurring into the air around her. She stumbled forward, her knees wobbly. It felt like she was merging with the universe. And Seth wanted to make this even stronger?

The energy built in her core. The parasite drank in the Signal's power, growing stronger by the second. The black slug reached out, the pressure building higher and higher until—

[Integration threshold exceeded. State your desire.]

Finally, Alex had gotten her second wish. She'd been thinking about what to choose for a while now, and she had an idea in mind. However, with the Signal bathing her at full blast, she found it hard to think. What had she wanted? Alex needed to be specific with the wording, otherwise the parasite could misinterpret her wish. She also needed to think fast. Alex could already feel the parasite's patience waning.

Um, um, um. Back at Eldridge Creek, their main goal was to escape the farm. The problem was, they needed their car, and then they were blocked by a gate. And even with the car the flying woman had been faster. And now they were trapped in a building with two enemies waiting outside.

In all these cases, the problem was transport. If Alex could teleport or make a wormhole or a shortcut or something like that, then all their problems would be solved.

[Wish granted.]

Alex took a final step over to the desk and slammed the laptop shut. The Signal cut off, and as soon as it did, she released the stale breath she'd been holding. "Jesus Christ! That shit hits you like a truck. I feel like I almost passed out."

"Yeah," Seth said. "But it affects you less with each stage you evolve. Since reaching stage five, I can listen to the sound without too much distraction."

Stage five? Alex wondered what his Integration was looking like. She didn't know what it meant to reach 100%, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Speaking of which, Alex opened Inkling.

Inkling Version 1.0

Name: Alexis Booker

Stage: 2

First Shadow [+50% Efficiency]

Strength: 10

Reflex: 18

Vigor: 9

Clarity: 14

Integration: 42%

Free Points: 4 [+4 Each Stage]

Wishes:

Pinpoint [+10 Reflex | +10% Integration]

Shortcut [+5 Clarity | +30% Integration]

Her newest wish was called Shortcut. The name sounded promising enough. Hopefully, the ability aligned with what she'd planned for. There was no way to know until she tried it.

Alex closed her eyes and tried to focus. She worried it might be difficult to activate the Shortcut ability. It turned out to be pretty intuitive. She reached her hands out, and energy streamed away from the parasite and gathered in her palms.

For the next step, she needed a destination. That was where Pinpoint came in handy. Alex thought about Will, and his location burned in her mind. This felt different than before. Her evolution must have also enhanced Pinpoint. Now, instead of just a sense of general direction, Alex could see him through the walls, a ghostly form that shimmered in the distance.

With the destination decided Alex reached forward and grabbed at the air. Energy crackled at her fingertips, and the air seemed to solidify in her grasp. It felt like she was touching reality itself. Alex pulled at the solidified air, trying to tear open a hole. It stretched like it was made of gum, and it took all of Alex's strength to keep pulling until a black tunnel appeared between her hands.

Alex peered into the hole, stretching it wider by the second. Black walls surrounded the tear in reality. They undulated and shimmered and were covered in slime. Alex groaned as she pressed deeper into the Shortcut. The tunnel expanded, and then the end popped open, revealing the sidewalk outside Weaver Hall.

Will turned toward the hole in reality. He frowned, cocking his head to the side. Casey and Christopher stood behind him. They all stared at each other for a prolonged second before Alex grabbed Will and yanked him into the tunnel.

Together, they stumbled back and fell onto the computer lab floor, covered in slime. Alex closed the Shortcut.

"What the fuck?" Will said. He glanced around, blinking rapidly as he tried to adjust to his new location.

"Shut up!" Alex said. She needed to think. The Shortcut had worked wonderfully, though she could do without the slimy walls. Why did these parasites have to add something gross and disturbing to all their wishes?

Now that they were all together, Alex needed to open a new Shortcut. But where did she want to go? Home? Her student apartment? Her parents or her sister? No, Alex couldn't involve any of them in this mess. Besides, Torch Labs would be able to track her down if she went anywhere familiar.

After Casey had captured Alex, she’d taken her phone, her gun, her hatchet, Jess's journal, and the vial with the meteorite fragment. However, Casey hadn't checked her back pockets.

Alex reached behind her jeans and fished out a long lanyard. Dangling from the cord was a laminated name card for a Dr. Thomas Rose. She didn't know who that was, but it was the last clue Jess had given them. He had to be important, and it was time to find out why.

"Okay, let's go," Alex said.

While focusing on the lanyard, Alex activated Pinpoint. She hoped the laminated name card would be enough of a connection to find him. Her prayers were answered, as a ghostly speck appeared in the distance. His was far smaller than Will’s had been. He must be miles and miles away. The Shortcut would close the gap.

She thrust her hands out and opened a Shortcut. This time, it was harder to tear open the portal. Alex clenched her teeth, and her arms shook as her muscles strained. The hole slowly opened, revealing the walls of black slime. Instead of a straight tunnel, this one sloped downward, and it was far longer than the first one she'd opened.

Alex glanced at Will and ushered him inside. He followed her lead, nudging his way into the dark tunnel. After a few steps, he slipped and fell on his ass. Will screamed as he slid down the sharp slope, the slime carrying him down like a cursed water slide.

Seth followed him, and Alex jumped in behind them. She squeezed her muscles tight, trying not to resist the current of slime that dragged her downward. The black walls undulated beneath her. Slime soaked through her jeans, her sweater, her hair. She sputtered, and it felt like she was being swallowed alive by a massive beast.

A few seconds later, she fell out the other side and landed against hard stone. Their destination was pitch black. Even as she rapidly blinked, she couldn't see a damn thing. Will and Seth groaned from somewhere nearby. At least they were still together.

"Does anyone have a flashlight?" Alex asked.

"Hold on," Seth said.

A light burned Alex's eyes, streaming from Seth's phone. He swept it in a wide circle, the light harsh against the gray rock. They stood in another tunnel, though this one was natural compared to the slimy walls of Alex's Shortcut. The tunnel cut through rough stone, and occasional wooden supports held up the roof.

Alex leaned against the wall and gazed down the slope, following the light until it disappeared into sheer darkness. This wasn't just a tunnel, it was a mine shaft. She'd never actually seen a mine shaft before, but what else could this place be?

And if that was the case, Alex knew exactly where she was.

They were back at Eldridge Creek.