JACKIE:

I snapped awake and found myself back on the couch in Life Rite’s high-rise apartment. The fireplace was still on. Firestorm warned me I wouldn’t be able to stay in the slipstream for long with such a small fire portal, but that exit was much more abrupt than I imagined.

I felt disoriented and groggy, like waking up with an awful hangover. My heart pounded in my chest and my throat was dry, but never mind that. I needed to get back into the slipstream to find out what happened next. If Grace was my mother, and she was still alive, I had to do whatever I could to help Firestorm save her.

“How do I get back in?”

I looked around for the remote to the fireplace and found it wedged between the couch cushions. I turned up the heat and refocused my attention on the flames.

My eyes crossed, and my head ached. Despite feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted, I kept staring into those flames…

“How frustrating!”

It wasn’t working. Maybe I needed a break, but I couldn’t sit idle. I needed to know what came next.

What happened to my mother and the villagers that night? How do I factor into all of this? Could I escape from Life Rite’s steel grip? How could I save Grace and find Baxter? Was he alright?

My headache increased as the questions swirled around in my overtired brain. The pain from the gunshot wound in my abdomen came back to remind me of my physical weakness in the here and now.

“Maybe if I eat…”

I stumbled to my feet, walked to the kitchen, and opened the fridge. My body felt frail now that I was standing. Was the PX virus finally showing symptoms? I chugged two bottles of water and shoved a bunch of strawberries in my mouth.

Someone knocked on the door, so I froze. I’d hoped it was Baxter recovered from his gunshot wound, but it was more likely someone from Life Rite coming to take more samples of my blood. Those bastards! I had to be ready for anything. I swallowed the strawberries, closed the fridge, and hid behind the door frame.

The door opened before I could make it there. A reminder that I wasn’t in charge here. Beatrice walked into the apartment with Alpha close behind her.

“You okay, Jackie?” Beatrice said, “You look awful.”

“Worse than usual?” I asked sarcastically.

Beatrice feigned sympathy. “The virus must be taking its toll. Alpha will collect another quick blood sample so we can see what your levels look like.”

“No, thanks.”

Firestorm’s adamant statement about not giving any more blood rang in my mind. Strength jolted back into my body, supplied by my desire to protect myself from whatever Life Rite had planned. I ran away from the drone coming toward me and opened the fridge to block it. As it zipped around the fridge door, I grabbed a water bottle and shooed it away.

“It is a felony to damage me,” Alpha said.

“Stay away!” I screamed.

“Calm down,” Beatrice added. “Jackie, this is part of the agreement. Remember?”

I looked Beatrice in the eyes and asked her point blank, “If I have a contagious virus, how can you be around me?”

She smiled and replied, “I’m vaccinated, of course.”

Crap, I hadn’t thought of that. Still, I had questions about the validity of that statement.

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Instead of trying to spar verbally with such a powerful woman like Beatrice, I gave a generic, “I don’t trust you or anyone at Life Rite. Before I comply, I need to speak to a lawyer.”

“How are you going to pay for legal counsel? Jackie, think this through…”

The drone tried to come for me again with its needle drawn, but I swatted it away with the water bottle.

“Give me space!” I ducked and headed for the door. I grabbed the knob and pulled, but found it locked.

Beatrice crossed her arms and shook her head.

“What the hell is going on here?” I screamed, losing the patience to pretend anymore.

“The virus must be moving faster than we thought,” Beatrice said with a look of concern. “We better sedate you.”

I swung the water bottle in front of me like a knife. I must have looked so desperate, but who cares? There was nothing to lose anymore.

Alpha came at me again.

“Keep that thing away from me,” I yelled.

“Alpha, pause.” Beatrice called him off and approached me with confidence.

“What’s your plan here, Jackie?” Beatrice knew she wielded all the power.

I needed to change the dynamic, and fast.

“Listen, I’ve seen the rebirthing Life Rite gives rich people. I’ve been to Bennu Island. Sure, I don’t know how it all works together yet, but it’s obvious Life Rite values some people’s lives over others. I will not be a pawn in whatever game you’re playing!”

I blurted it all out without thinking it through, bracing myself for her reaction, and praying to get the upper hand somehow.

Beatrice stood still for a moment, digesting what I had said. Unlike me, she planned her response with precision.

After a long pause, she finally said, “How do you know about Bennu Island?”

I paused, mouth agape. Had I said too much? Or just enough to make Beatrice respect me?

“You have access to the slipstream, don’t you?” Beatrice asked.

I wondered how much Beatrice knew about the slipstream.

I said, “I’m not telling you anything. Call that lawyer… now!”

Beatrice said, “It’s easy to believe what you see in the slipstream, so how can you know what’s real and what isn’t?”

She was right. The slipstream had a funny way of making me question reality. Had I been to the probable future? It seemed so ridiculous. Yet, it all felt so real, so I doubled down on my position.

“I saw the boy in the cage. I felt his pain. And I know Life Rite has something to do with it because in the future…”

Realizing how crazy it sounded, I thought about how much to divulge. If Beatrice knew about the slipstream, she probably knew way more about it than me.

“Go on,” Beatrice prodded. “Tell me.”

I said nothing, unsure of how much I even knew. Turns out, silence can be more strategic than speaking.

“So you saw the boy in the cage,” Beatrice said. “So what? It’s easy to empathize with someone you watch in the slipstream. Especially if it involves puppy love…”

My mind raced. Beatrice knew about Grace and Zayne.

“So you sympathized with what you saw. Jackie, that’s normal. Don’t beat yourself up for choosing the wrong team.”

Beatrice spoke with such confidence, it was hard not to feel like a complete imbecile around her.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Of course I’d choose my mother…”

I got choked up saying that out loud. I tried to suck the emotion back to get my point out.

“Even if she was on the losing team when the villagers stormed the complex, I’d stay on her side no matter what. I’m used to being a loser.”

A tear fell from my eye. I couldn’t keep it in much longer.

Beatrice smiled sympathetically. “Is that where you left off? Let me show you the rest of the story, Jackie. You deserve to know the truth about… your mother? Grace is your mother. Is that what you’re saying?”

I nodded. It felt good to confirm that I had found my mother. Even though she abandoned me as a child, I planned to stick by her side no matter what.

Beatrice nodded. “I see… Follow me into the slipstream, and I’ll show you the truth. I have nothing to hide. Innocence is ignorance in disguise.”

“What do you mean?”

Maybe it was the headache or the gunshot wound or my low self-esteem that was magnified around Beatrice, but I had no clue what was going on now.

“There’s two sides to every story, and things aren’t always so black and white. If you follow me, I think you’ll see another side of love,” Beatrice said.

She was convincing. If Beatrice knew about the slipstream, and she knew about Grace and Zayne, maybe she knew about Firestorm. Was it crazy that I was following a phoenix? Two perspectives were always better than one…

Without thinking it through too much, I decided I had to follow Beatrice into the slipstream. I still didn’t trust her, but needed to get a grip on what all this meant.

“Fine. Let’s do it.” I moved toward the couch, sat down, grabbed the fireplace remote, and turned the blaze up to full blast.

“Is this fire portal is large enough to bring us both into the slipstream? I’m new to this, so you tell me.”

Beatrice sat down next to me and smiled. There was something almost sinister about her smirk, and it made me uneasy. Her drone parked itself nearby. I was grateful for the pause in its incessant clicking noise.

“This is perfect,” she replied. “You’re doing great, Jackie. Show me how you enter the slipstream. I’ll follow your lead.”

It shocked me to hear someone like her say that to someone like me. Emboldened, I took a deep breath and concentrated on the flickering flames that would once again carry me into the slipstream, this time with the most powerful woman in the world by my side.

What would she show me next? How would the story unfold from her perspective?