u/Silver-Program-110

For the first time in a while, Tessa is in a pretty good mood.

Emma is back from the dead. Her plan actually worked. She’ll have to give Rachel, Hope, and Forge something to repay the favor of making it work later. The woman she loves is okay.

Tessa also feels pretty interconnected with a lot of the other people in her life, too. They all seemed to accept her in her current vampiric state.

Everything that’s happened has made her want to come out of her shell a little more. She will always be reserved and secretive, but what everything made clear to her is that she truly is cared for, and wants to be more open to letting people know she reciprocates that. The New Mutants, the Hellfire Club, The Hellions (both current and former) (except for Manuel probably), her fellow X-Men, her students, her older colleagues. She leaves this situation with deeper trust than she had before.

She even might have broken some ground with Monet, a relief after the mud slinging match their first meeting became. She wasn’t 100% sure if this was a mutual feeling, it may take some mediation from Emma to make that truly happen, but Tessa understands where she’s coming from a lot more, now.

Tessa sits in her office at the school. She debates writing up one of her logs. She never did understand why the students enjoyed what was basically a long form lecture so much. Perhaps they just liked her?

To be loved is to be known, as she would learn.

Tessa had less reason to hide the fact she was drinking blood, now. Good, because she had made actual progress in her alcoholism and was getting a little tired of pretending she hadn’t. But she still didn’t want to walk around with a clear container full of blood. So, she bought a water bottle. A fairly high end one. She drank from it when needed.

Tessa had no idea what floodgates she was opening.

All across the Xavier’s Mansion Student Discussion forum, the students were posting jokes about Sage. “Memes”, as it is often put.

Tessa knows what a meme is. Obviously someone tapped into the internet knows that. But she had never understood the “why” of them. And this current wave being posted about her did not help her understand in the slightest.

It was nothing mean spirited, but all very confusing to Tessa. One end made more sense, at least. A lot of vampire memes. She has never bothered to add Twilight to the pop culture center of her brain, but she supposes she may have to, given all the comments on a post editing her into a photo of what she can only assume is a group of vampires. More baffling to her is a picture where her face has been edited onto a woman riding a surfboard. What the hell is Surf Dracula? How does surfing pertain to her?

What baffles her far more, however, is the attention that her new water bottle seems to be getting her. The students have seemingly begun to apply the “VSCO” label to her. Even after doing research, she doesn’t get the trend at all. She isn’t from Generation Z, after all. This trend only applies to them, she thinks? Not that she understands what the “trend” is to begin with. Utterly baffling.

As she’s about to find out what “and I oop” means, she hears something left outside of her office. She goes to check, and left outside is a care basket. The label is addressed to “VSCO Vampire”, and it is full of scrunchies, a pair of crocs, and a disposable camera.

………

Sage calls Emma to her office.

My lioness, please tell me you understand a single word of all this? I’m afraid one of the few things that escapes my understanding is what draws people to trends online.

Sage and Emma are chatting as they approach the Hellfire Club. Sage is explaining the events of the previous confrontation with Manuel.

Vegetable, queen, and Hellfire.

“And if he hears those words, he will-“

Tessa nods.

“You said this was the doing of Monet? To think I had to guide the Cuckoos in the direction of this kind of technique, and she landed there without any need of my guiding hand. Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more proud of her.”

Emma is beaming as she thinks about the pride she feels towards one of her stars pupil, and Tessa is beaming as she’s allowed to watch her lover get excited about her students again. She missed this so much.

One student needed a particularly firm talking to, though.

I told Manuel if he was lying, I’d pass these phrases to Raven, who I feel will have a lot of fun with them.

“Shall I be proud of you, too? That’s cruel enough it nearly surpasses what I may do today, should he give me the wrong answers. Now, are you in the system yet, my love?”

I’ve been connected for about 10 minutes now. Ready on your signal.

“Wonderful, I expected nothing less. Let us take back our kingdom, Tessa.”

The two women stand in front of the door of the Hellfire Club, which Manuel currently resides in. Sage places a finger to a button on the side of her glasses, and the lights in the building turn off. Manuel is in the darkness. Alone.

Emma enters the mind of Manuel, and drops a single word.

“Panic.”

With that, Emma kicks in the door of the Hellfire Club, standing triumphantly in the doorway, Sage close behind.

“I’d have thought you were happy to see me, Manuel, but it looks to me you’ve seen a ghost.”

As Tessa’s glasses alert her to another concerning viral post, she sighs. What this time?

After reading it, she speaks aloud to herself

….oh f%#$

Tessa notices an influx of eyes upon her. She can’t really tell how everyone is feeling, but it’s not hard to guess.

Sage quickly ducks into her office.

God dammit! I had her dead to rights! I was so close to solving this. So close to avenging Emma!

Sage checks her blood supply. One vial is left, and it’s about time to drink it.

Guess it’s better it came out this way than the alternative, but it’s still not ideal.

She drinks the last vial of blood, and uses that time the best she can. She compiles a file with the information she’s figured out so far, and sends it through an encrypted network, hoping it is received by Monet. If Sage doesn’t get to solve the case, she hopes someone else can, and Monet, as someone who was there with her, and meant so much to Emma, had a pretty fair claim to being the one to do it.

Then? She locks the door. The secure, blast proof kind.

She plans to lock herself away, where she can’t hurt anyone. To drink any other blood, offered or not, would mean both accepting her new life as a vampire was permanent, and accepting Emma was gone. And she refuses to do either.

If she breaks free, she hopes Wisdom can keep up his end of her contingency.

Not the way she hoped to see her lover again, but better than the alternative.

As Sage stood, listening to the reading of Emma Frost’s will, she realizes something very quickly.

There is no way in hell Emma Frost wrote this.

She has no proof of that, she would be the first to admit. She analyzes it afterwards. Everything about it seems to check out. According to the will, among other things, Manuel De La Rocha was the new White King of the Hellfire Club, and owned the building, now.

This felt odd, but once again, it was hard to prove. But sometimes as a detective, you have to rely on what you know to try and prove what you can’t. And Sage had a strong hunch based on one thing.

Emma had never told her about her will. But what Emma had told her about was her vision for the Hellfire Club. One they shared, and morphed together.

They both had their troubles at the hands of men who looked down upon them. They bonded by forever freeing themselves of the looming eye of one they shared. There was one idea that was foundational to the New Hellfire Club:

No Kings.

Something about this isn’t adding up. Sage goes to confront Empath. She needs answers.

She doesn’t come alone, though. Monet comes with her. Outside of pure sharing information, neither of them have spoken much after Tessa had broke down crying. She honestly has no idea where she stands with Monet right now. But in spite of that, they are one of a mind. They won’t stand for what was done to Emma, or to Paige.

We need to talk, Manuel.

Sage sits at the interrogation desk. On the other side, Monet and Paige stare at her expectantly.

Please state your name and-

Tessa trails off.

She had gotten so used to doing her interrogations that she had a whole script ready to go in her head. She doesn’t have to heart to recite it. She knows the women sitting across the table are innocent. But Paige is involved in this, somehow. So, Sage isn’t going to play this like an interrogation, not fully.

Forget what I was just saying.

Both of you deserve to know what’s happening here. So I’m going to give it to you as plainly as I can in hopes we can figure this out.

Emma Frost was found dead in her office yesterday. Shattered, even in diamond form. As of now, only a few people know. You are among about 9, not counting whoever the murderer is.

Security footage shows Paige shooting Emma. I have it to show if you need proof, but I will not show it unless asked. I can imagine that would be very distressing for Paige to see.

I find it extremely hard to believe it’s that cut and dry, and that Paige would ever choose to do that to Emma. So, I need your help, Paige. I need to know what you remember from two nights ago. I need to know if there’s anything strange that happened to you, or if Monet noticed anything strange with you.

Sage goes quiet for a bit.

I am sorry. About how I handled myself trying to ask earlier. Emma was my world, and I don’t know what to do without her. If I don’t solve this case within the next few days, there is a real chance….

Tessa looks away as she finishes the last bit.

That I won’t be able to. Period.

So please, help me.

Paige Guthrie. Sage has video proof that she murdered Emma Frost. In an easy world, this would be the end of the case.

In a world with superpowers, this is just where it starts to get complicated.

Sage is sure of one thing. Paige had no reason to shoot Emma Frost, but the security feed showed her doing so very clearly. Maybe she was going to learn that she misread Paige, she can’t count out that possibility, but Sage couldn’t see a world where that was the case. So what were the other options?

There were several possibilities, but one stuck out to Sage. Telepathy.

Paige had recently left the Hellions to join Generation X, a team headed by Monet St. Croix. In spite of her particularly rough encounter with Monet recently, Sage didn’t mind this. But Monet clearly held some animosity towards Emma. She made this extremely clear.

Sage couldn’t tell you exactly where it came from, and she obviously couldn’t ask Emma. But the possibility was too strong, and Sage couldn’t ignore it. Even if her hunch was wrong, someone had involved Paige in this. It wasn’t impossible it was Monet.

Sage approaches the door of Generation X’s new residence. Joining her is Sam Guthrie. Sage wanted as few people as possible to know about Emma’s death before it was solved, but after contemplating her options, she realizes she should bring Sam in. This is his sister, after all, and the fact he already knows about her condition is helpful.

Even after seeing the footage, he refuses to believe it could even be a possibility Paige could have committed the murder. Sage assumed as much. She counted on it. She wants someone with her to help on several fronts.

There is a real chance this is not going to go well. Sage was essentially about to accuse someone who already hated her of murder via their friend. She wanted someone she could trust who could at least try to protect her in the case of escalation. But she also wanted someone who would hold her accountable, if need be. She didn’t need a repeat of Domino. Especially not to someone like Paige.

Sam also comes with an added benefit, which is that he can easily contact some of the other New Mutants, and via Illyana, they all can arrive quickly. She isn’t hoping for a fight, but needs to be ready in the case of one.

Sage walks up to the residence, umbrella in hand and Sam behind her, and knocks on the door, bracing herself for what she is sure is going to be an extremely unpleasant conversation.

There is no possible way this is what happened.

Sage keeps rewinding the security footage. She has found the exact moment where Emma was shot. This should be an open and shut case right here.

But it’s not, because what Sage sees on the screen is Emma Frost taking a shattering bullet from Paige Guthrie.

Paige. She wouldn’t do this, would she? Sage admits that she hasn’t known her for that long, but she and Emma were close in a way that didn’t lead itself to a motive.

Unless….

Sage may have her primary suspect.

Sage has someone to go visit, soon.

Sage stands alone in the room where the love of her life died.

Four people are aware of what happened, including herself.

Analysis protocol, rundown. Access code, Mme. L’echec.

Emma had always hated that name. Miss Faliure. Very self loathing. Sage had meant to change it, but hasn’t had a real reason to think about its meaning in regards to herself in a long time. That changes unless she solves Emma’s murder.

Using this protocol, Sage, using her computerized glasses and computer-like brain, runs down the situation she finds herself in.

Emma Frost is dead.

The words hurt to get out.

Her death occurred in diamond form. Key information obtained through this assessment.

Point A. The cause of death must have been via either something strong enough to shatter her, or fired at a near imperceptible weak point.

Point B. This implies the culprit either exercised extreme stealth, or was someone Emma would trust.

As of current, I am among one of the only staff members present at the school. The X-Men are away, as of now. Emma said she would tell me about this mission when she returned home. She never did.

I have called upon several people for help, but I would be a fool to dismiss them on pure trust. Other than these few people, no-one should know. This would be devastating news to the student body.

The body was found by Callisto. This raises suspicion of Callisto.

Emma and Callisto have been working together very closely. I have not been following these deals very closely, but to my knowledge, Callisto has no misgivings. No motive.

Statistical probability: low. I will not rule her out. But it’s not probable.

I have asked Callisto for two things. Circle back to the second later.

Callisto brought me Forge. Forge has been at the school since last night. It is not yet possible to determine time of death, but given my last time speaking to Emma was last night, his presence at the time of murder is likely. He is a man of means as well. His inventions could pierce Emma’s diamond skin, perhaps.

He lacks any discernible motive, though.

Statistically probability: worth exploring, but low.

Forge is a vital part of this. He doesn’t seem to agree. I have asked him to put Emma back together. He says he can, but doesn’t seem to see the point in doing so. Says he can’t fix the dead. Even if he’s right, I want her together for a proper send-off. Emma deserves better than to remain here shattered.

Finally, Mystique.

It feels weird to say I don’t suspect Mystique. Maybe I am falling for a ruse. She can take the form of just about anyone, and is known for her manipulation. Her alibi is her wife, who though often trustworthy, can be more manipulative than her when need be. I should suspect them, but I don’t. Once again, motive fails me. Mystique has nothing to gain and everything to lose in her current position by attacking Emma.

I have brought her here for an important job. She will be posing as Emma until we solve the murder. The students cannot know Emma is dead, and they cannot know I am among the only staff members present. Mystique is a vital part of keeping the school out of a frenzy.

Statistical probability: lower than it should be.

I will check this room for other clues, and otherwise, check the security feed. It will either show me the culprit, or point me in the right direction. Even a cut feed tells me a lot about who could have done it.

Of course, there is my other issue. My condition.

Sage looks into her bag. Inside are several vials of Emma’s blood.

Enough to last me 3 more day, and that’s assuming I wait as long as possible to take each vial, which is dangerous. If I can’t solve this case within 3 days, it’s likely I’ll be too ravenous to do so.

The idea of just getting blood from someone else of course passed my mind. But I can’t. Call it a symptom of grief, I don’t ever want to try the blood of another person. It has to be Emma. I won’t accept anything else.

I also will be limited in my investigation. Not much to do but all I can.

So, my final request of Callisto. I have asked her to deliver a message for me, a message I am sending out to three people, who I can only hope are not involved in this.

Callisto, if successful, will deliver this message to Domino, Pete Wisdom, and Elektra. Two people who are hard to track down, and Domino. I have confidence she can do it. Whether or not they work together or approach separately, is up to them. But I need them to be ready.

It’s very simple, really. There is a high chance I will lose control of myself. This is true whether or not I succeed. And if I do? I need to know there are people willing to contain me, or, in the case that isn’t enough? End me. I need people who I trust to make that call if it comes down to it.

Diagnostic, end.

Sage looks once more to Emma.

I won’t rest until I know what happened to you, Emma. You will be avenged.

She stands still for a moments.

I love you. I always will.

Sage, after doing some investigating of the crime scene, leaves the room, with “Emma Frost” and Forge entering the room after her, to get started on their parts.

Every horror that Tessa has ever encountered in her lifetime is etched permanently into her brain. Her time as a child soldier. Her time as a servant in the Hellfire Club. Her torment at Bogan’s hands. Genosha. Her recent struggles at the hands of Dracula.

Nothing she had witnessed came close to the pain of seeing Emma dead on the floor.

Tessa drops to her knees. She lost her lover within a year of learning she even knew how to love.

Tessa sits there for a moment. Replaying the moments they shared, together. Their vacation. All of what they accomplished together. All the lovely dates. All the moments Emma taught Tessa she was more than what she was made to be.

All of that shattered on the floor along with her heart.

My lioness…

Tessa’s voice chokes up as she speaks the words. Callisto looks solemn. She can’t offer Tessa words of comfort. She would fail if she tried. There is perhaps no-one who can.

Tessa stands up. She doesn’t cry. She knows that she is not what’s needed right now.

It’s time to be Sage. She looks to Callisto.

Go get Forge, Callisto. He’s in his office. He always is. I’ll stay here. I have a call to make.

Callisto, dependable as always, doesn’t ask questions. She goes to get Forge.

As she leaves, Sage drops to the ground again. She buries her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. She isn’t the machine she’s already tried to be. She is Tessa, and she just lost the woman she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

When she’s finished, she’ll make the call. But for now, she needs to let sorrow win, for a bit.

Tessa was becoming accustomed to the darkness, by this point. Even a bit of sunlight could do serious damage to her, and she lives in constant fear of being a danger to others, now. So, leaving the house was not something she took lightly.

However, she knows she can’t simply stay in the dark for the rest of her life, and she has some files she needs to pull from her office in the school.

So, when a package from Forge arrives in the mail, Tessa knows it’s her time to attempt a return to the outside world.

Inside is a parasol. It’s a seemingly simple thing. But, Tessa wanted contingencies. She didn’t want to worry Emma (who already has Pixie on standby in the event that this goes wrong.) by just taking a simple umbrella. So, she had Forge design one by her design. It auto-corrects its position, so that there isn’t a risk of her skin being exposed to sunlight. In the event that this fails, it can project a barely visible barrier that should cover what it can’t. As long as it remains in Sage’s hand, she should be okay.

She walks up to the school, fighting back her nerves. Realistically, this is fine. Most of the core X-Men are somewhere else, right now. Most of the students are busy. She’s probably overthinking how many of them would even hold her vampirism against her. But that’s part of the fear. Taking this lightly, and someone getting hurt as a result.

As she stands before the front door of the school, she takes out a flask, and takes all the liquid contained within it down. It is, of course, Emma’s blood. But anyone on the outside would just assume she had fallen back into alcoholism, again. She’d rather they think that.

Emma saved Sage from Dracula, but the battle was not without consequence. James Proudstar has sustained critical injuries, and Vlad had left a very potent mark on Sage.

Sage was different, now. Vlad had turned her to a vampire, and his death didn’t change her new reality.

Being a daywalker would have been nice. Sage had gotten used to going out more. She’s relegated, for the time being, to only being out at night, and only the hours where darkness is king. This meant she could not take Ruby on her morning walks, for now. Emma was more than happy to provide this walk for their dear dog, but she unfortunately couldn’t do much for Sage on this front. The treadmill missed the point of why she liked those walks.

Even at home, all the curtains have been shut, pinned down to prevent sunlight from getting in. She mostly stays in rooms with the lights off period, now.

The other major thing that was hard to come to terms with was the hunger. Sage needs blood, she craves it. She can still eat human food, but it does nothing for her.

Emma was the one sustaining her. She was bloodletting to Sage, satiating poor Tessa’s hunger with her own blood. Tessa can’t help but feel guilty every single time, though. She suggested blood donations, but Emma insisted.

This keeps the hunger at bay, which mostly allows Sage to retain control of herself. The hungrier she gets, the less control over herself she has. She doesn’t want to know what would happen if she lost it again.

Emma’s blood tastes rather pleasant. She hates to admit to herself that she likes the taste, because acknowledging that is accepting that on some level, this is who she is, now. And she hates that.

Emma and X-Force know about what happened to her, as well as Forge, who Sage put in a request with. But no-one else knows. She has no idea what other people would think. Her friends, or heaven forbid her students, seeing what she’s become? It petrifies her in a way not many things do. If other heroes find out, would Blade come knocking at her door? She is a genuine danger to others right now.

She has always had a level of worry about this, that she’s someone walking the line of becoming a monster. Now, she’s a literal one.

She is in her study. She sits at her computer, exactly 57 tabs open. Trying to research a true cure for vampirism. Too many conflicting accounts. Nothing that she can do quickly. Nothing that she can do right now period but keep it at bay. Sage should come to terms with the fact that she’s found herself in one of her least favorite positions: lacking control. But she doesn’t want to accept that.

She stops her search as a mostly black webpage reminds her of something. She hadn’t considered its absence, but it’s clear to her now that she can no longer see her own reflection in the screen.

She stares at her screen, aimlessly, stunned by the realization. She knew this was a symptom of vampirism, but the reminder devastates her. Even her job and hobbies acted as a reminder that she is fundamentally changed.

She sits alone in the darkness for a while. Words she spoke to Emma that night ringing through her head. She speaks them aloud, if only to express the tragic irony to herself.

What a sad life that must be.

The worst part is not the bite.

It hurts, sure. But that’s to be expected. A twinge of pain is nothing Sage has not felt before.

It also isn’t the rage that slowly leaves with the rest of the feeling in her body as her life force was drained. She couldn’t even begin to believe the things coming out of this man’s mouth, the claim he seems to have tried to make on the woman she loves. The assertion she wasn’t enough for her. She unfortunately had no time to let this rage get the better of her before Dracula made his move.

She had done her research when the X-Men made the clearly foolish choice of working out a deal with Dracula. She knew what to expect when he bit down. She was either dead, or she was going to be turned. The choice was entirely in the hands of her captor.

Despite the initial feeling, what’s made clear is that Dracula didn’t choose death for her. But she might as well be dead, now. She certainly looks the part. That’s how it feels. Dead yet alive.

And yet, the first sign that she’s begun to change comes through her betterment. Sage has recently sustained some rather severe injuries. One, a result of Mother Righteous sending a diamond-clad stomp from Emma straight into her ribs. The other, the result of Monet St. Croix losing her temper. This recovery process begins to happen in real time. She begins to heal from her injuries. And eventually, Sage rises.

Sage is no longer what she once was. She feels cold. She feels a newfound strength, coursing through her veins. It’s a horrific feeling, yet not an entirely unpleasant one. There is one part that is hard to face, though. She is overcome by a new feeling. An indomitable one. A craving. A desire she does not feel she can overcome.

Hunger.

This is the part where usually, Sage would preform a threat assessment. This seems like a pointless notion, right now. The threat is very clear. She is being held captive at Dracula’s Castle. She cannot reach Emma, and Dracula made sure she didn’t sneak any of her tech along with her.

Tessa knows she cannot beat Vlad in a fight. That didn’t stop her from trying, in some squashed hope that someone who could would arrive before she was taken.

She has been left in his throne room. She is currently in a cage. She could probably try picking the lock, something she could do easily assuming no enchantment, but to try something would be a fools choice. This castle was crawling with Dracula’s minions, and Sage did not like her odds at escaping that horde.

She didn’t have to keep contemplating though, as the doors to the room slam open, and inside walks her kidnapper. Sage hopes she’s about to get answers, as opposed to the far more likely option, her final moments alive.

(This is following up a comment thread on an excellent post made by u/MonetIsBetterThanYou

It was very fun please do read it if you’d like and haven’t yet. It’s messy as hell you’ll love it.)

Tessa finally decides it’s time to get up. A few bar patrons have offered her help, but she refused.

Her plan was a success, technically. Snap Monet out of her rage, and bank on her common sense. This went without a hitch.

This calculation had not included the possibility of Tessa getting flung like a ragdoll. She doesn’t even know what part of her body hurts right now. All of it, maybe?

There is a high probability Tessa “won” the verbal fight today, if you can win such a thing. But Monet handily won the physical won, and much as Tessa maintained her composure, as she tended to, she’d be lying to tell you Monet didn’t land any verbal jabs that stung her either. Not ideal either day.

Tessa makes her way to the car. She’s running on pure instinct right now. She’s struggling to unlock it, when a familiar voice is heard from behind.

“You look like $%#&. Is that broken glass in your hair?”

Before she’s able to respond, Tessa ends up collapsing.

As she comes to, she is being carried to the door. She can see who was talking to her, now. Callisto of the Morlocks, who worked with her lover as her White Knight. Callisto begins to kick the door repeatedly. She yells at the door.

“Hey, Frost! Found a &$%#ed up stray cat you may wanna see!”

Sage had gotten used to spending her days behind screens. It’s what her powers were best for, after all. She can fight, she’s extremely competent in the field, but there is no-one alive who can keep track of every variable quite like she can. Girl in the chair.

Sage has not been this in a few months. She still sits down at the computer occasionally, but most of her surveillance and research is done via her glasses, now. With Emma, she’s always on the move nowadays, and Forge’s upgrades were automated enough that she didn’t really have to do much with school security anymore, just the routine check-in and allowing him to link with her systems.

So, having to stay still sucks. She hates doing it, by this point. Unfortunately, broken ribs require rest to heal, and much as Sage wants to power through it, she has a partner that cares about her wellbeing and won’t let her, and she happens to love that partner a lot. So she’s at rest, in a comfortable chair, filtering through feeds. It’s been a day and she’s already going stir-crazy. She’s trying to do her old job to keep herself sane.

She isn’t even really sure what she’s looking for. An excuse to rush out of the house, maybe? No, she’d just call the Hellions, or the X-Men, or one of the people she was considering recruiting. Where the hell even is Domino? But she continues, it’s something to do.

She is a peerless hacker. She has access to almost every single feed in the world. Somehow, nothing of interest seems to be happening that isn’t already being handled by some other hero. Committing crime is so stupid, she thinks to herself. Why rob a bank in New York? She watches a feed for a bit, some petty criminals trying to rob a bank and getting caught almost immediately. Speedball did it. Speedball!Hilarious. Tessa would laugh if it wouldn’t hurt to do so.

It gets old quick, though. She goes back to switching through cam feeds. This is a waste of time, but she has nothing but time to waste. She idly jumps from feed to feed, eventually getting into a rhythm where she’s barely even looking before switching. As she does this, though, a mortifying scene flashes on the screen, for just a moment, before the next feed is turned on. She switches back quickly, but the room seems normal, now. Just a mostly blank shot of a floor. Sage knows what she saw, though. Her memory is so sharp even a brief flash doesn’t leave.

The floor had words written onto it. The camera wasn’t in color, but it wasn’t hard to figure out it was written in blood, if the chopped hand slightly visible in the corner was any sign. It said, plainly:

See you soon, Tessa.

But now on the feed, the room was empty. She stares, petrified. She knows exactly what that means.

She thought she was on a wild goose chase, and gave up. But she realizes in this moment: Bogan is probably back, and there’s nothing she can do about it. She can’t send anyone even if she does find him. She can’t do it herself. She starts clicking rapidly, spending less than a second per feed. All she needs is a glimpse. A glimpse. Just one glimpse. Just a slight glimpse, and then…

What the f&$% is she gonna do?

She gives up. All she can do for now is hope he bides his time long enough that she can recover, and that nothing intense happens to her anytime soon. Can’t be that unreasonable, right?