* * *

  Sarah awoke as a cough scraped its way along her dry throat. She reached for her water, but the cup was empty.

  Robyn groaned, shifting in her sleep.

  Sarah crawled out of bed, clenching her teeth together to suppress the following coughs. She closed the door behind her gently.

  It was barely morning, Mom and Dad shouldn’t be up for another hour at least.

  Stumbling through the darkened living room, she made her way to the couch, but her legs weren’t willing to carry her any further. She crumpled like a puppet with broken strings. Pain shot through the side of her face, jarring her awake when she had been about to lose consciousness. Right cheek against the cold, hard floor, her eyes wandered around, trying to understand what had happened.

  Sarah pushed herself up, but a breath turned into a cough and each breath after that became harder and harder until she again collapsed onto the floor.

  She brought a hand to her temple with some effort to check for blood. Her eyes struggled to focus. Cuts, scrapes, and dark splotches of dirt covered her hands along with fresh blood.

  Sounds filtered through then, dispelling any remaining notion of normalcy she might have. Part of the living room and the outer wall was missing, replaced by smoke and a cloud of dust. It was difficult to see anything, and even breathing took extra effort.

  A new shockwave shifted flame and floating dust in the corner of her eyes. The wall of smoke in front of her billowed and parted. Beyond it, there was still a wall, blackened and half destroyed. It was too wide and tall to be the wall of a corridor. Was this another part of the building?

  Amidst the shifting smoke, she found traces of letters, though she couldn’t make out any words. She crawled forward a step, her muscles yelling at her in response. Dark red blossomed along her hands, peeking through the dirt. Shouldn’t she be wearing gloves? And—she felt her face gingerly—there’d been a mask before, right? With some effort, she looked down at herself.

  Red inundated her view, but except for some darker spots, it was only the fabric of her dress.

  Wait! Dress?

  This really wasn’t the dream with the dark corridor then. Had she been wrong to think that the smoke and fire belonged to that same place where the ten minutes seemed to matter so much. She desperately rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hands, hoping to clear her vision. If this wasn’t the corridor, where the hell was she?

  An outstretched hand suddenly reached for her, flesh so burned it looked raw. She didn’t dare take it, afraid the contact would hurt the person, but the hand latched on to her wrist.

  The odd smell of charred flesh invaded her nostrils and she reflexively jerked her head back. The motion brought fresh pain to several parts of her body, too many to inventory on the spot.

  When her eyes finally focused, she couldn’t look away. She might not have recognized the face, half burned and covered in blood as it was, but she would know those blue eyes anywhere.

  She wasn’t sure how he was still conscious, never mind able to move.

  “Go.” His voice was hoarse, barely audible. His eyes flitted towards their right as if indicating the way out, and then he released her.

  Sarah rose to her knees, ignoring every complaint from her body. Unwilling to abandon him, she grabbed on to him, using her weight to drag him along in the direction he’d indicated.

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  He protested once, then laughter sounded amidst a bout of coughing, and he started crawling forward on his own power.

  Sarah’s throat burned with each labored breath.

  Loud cracking sounds echoed around them with rising screams. The ceiling came down on them, blackening the world.

  Sarah rolled over on the cool living room floor, wiping at her eyes.

  Was there no end to this?

  * * *

  Sarah covered her mouth as she yawned. Sleep would not come for a while longer.

  The garden felt chillier than usual. Pegasus placed an arm around her, pulling her closer as he moved a rook over. She was surprised by how awake he still looked. But that might be a result of their company.

  Zeus stared at the chess board, tapping the top of a bishop. “Yes, it would be difficult to test such a theory.”

  “Is there even a way to test it?” Sarah asked, holding back another yawn.

  Zeus moved his rook. “How many times have you seen the same event repeated?”

  Zeus was difficult to read, but for once she could see his expression reflecting her own feelings.

  How many times had she watched them die? How many of those times were an actual replay of the same thing—if any—and how many of them could be a separate event? “I’m not sure.”

  “Please keep a record of that as well going forward. And as I already said, try not to cause any trouble for the time being.”

  Still the oversight committee, she imagined.

  “Be as careful as you can.”

  Sarah assumed that meant she should stay in her room barring any other life or death scenarios.

  Zeus sighed. “Regardless of the trouble it’ll bring, good job last night. It was a good thing you stopped them when you did.”

  “There was a second trigger?” Pegasus asked.

  “We believe so. I had Griffon and Mockingbird review the footage. Since the building blew up anyway, there’s no proof. But if they get the prisoners to confirm it, that would be good enough.”

  Pegasus tossed him a worried glance.

  Zeus waved him off. “Your recording didn’t contain anything overly incriminating, I’ve already checked. As for the team, they should keep whatever thoughts they have to themselves, as instructed. Wolf will be the greater risk, so I’ll try to hold on to him here for a while.”

  Pegasus seemed to catch something that Sarah missed in their leader’s tone and frowned.

  “You’ve missed some developments,” Zeus whispered with a bitter sort of laugh. “General Roussef’s resignation is official. The next in line will be one of General Moore’s people. I’m not sure how much he’ll want to shake things up on a command level once he gets his hands on the W.R.O., but it’s best that Sarah lie low.”

  Sarah opened her mouth to protest.

  “I know, last night was unavoidable.”

  Pegasus scoffed.

  Zeus glared at him, but Pegasus was calm as always.

  Thankfully, Zeus hadn’t complained about her going outside with Pegasus. Maybe he’d already yelled at Pegasus separately for that—or was planning on doing it later.

  “You can head back to your room and get some rest.” Zeus waved them off.

  Sarah got up, swallowing a groan when her legs complained. She hadn’t noticed how tired she was. How many more nights like this one would she have? Chasing down things that may or may not be real?

  “What’s wrong?” Pegasus asked once they reached the elevator.

  “It’s nothing, just… I’m trying to figure out what to do. What should I do now?”

  “Right now? Rest.”

  Sarah would’ve stuck her tongue out at him if the doors hadn’t opened then.

  “Keep doing what you’ve doing, I guess.” He shrugged. “Get as much information when it happens again, so we can prepare.”

  “But now that I think it’s real, I can’t bear the thought of being a useless bystander in someone else’s tragedy. Just collecting data like a vulture, watching someone die.”

  He stepped in front of her, placing a kiss on her forehead. “What do you want to do?”

  Could she do anything but watch?

  She shrugged. “I know it might sound silly, but I can do my best. Wherever I am, I can do my best to not let anyone else die.”

  “Sarah…”

  It was a vain hope, maybe. She planted a kiss on his lips before continuing towards her room. Regardless of the weight placed on her conscience, she wanted to be able to do something other than despair. The thought of fighting back against fate or whatever it was lifted her mood a bit.

  Whatever improvement to her mood she’d achieved suffered a blow when she remembered what awaited her beyond her door. She hesitated with her hand on the doorknob, bracing herself to face the notes on her wall. Would she be able to sleep before going over them again?

  Pegasus placed a hand on hers, pulling it away from the door. He entwined their fingers together, drawing her away.

  “On second thought, I think you should come with me.”

  Sarah followed him automatically, letting him lead her down the familiar hallway. Even thinking required too much effort.

  “You’re taking me to your room?”

  He pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist as his breath tickled her ear. “Because I don’t want your mind focusing on anything else but sleep.”

  Did he also not want her to look at the notes on her wall?

  He opened the door, pulling her inside without turning on the lights. Neon highlights colored the darkness.

  “Won’t my mind focus on you, though?” she asked with a smile.

  Pegasus kissed her, his soft laughter trembling against her lips. “I’d hope so.”