"No." Jessamine sat up, her facial muscles tightening with resolve. "No way. I know what you're suggesting, and I—"

"—what am I suggesting?" Avery crossed his arms, quirking one eyebrow as he scanned her face.

"To go there, to that house. I mean," she huffed, "we don't know where it is, but you're going to figure it out, right? And then you're going to take me there with you, and I—" she hiccupped, and something bubbled in her gut. "I can't go. This thing inside me, if it is inside me, it's not going to let me, let us get close! It'll kill me first, won't it?"

Avery's eyes narrowed. "First off, we obviously need you to come with us, Jessamine. You're our compass to this place—we'd get nowhere without you. And second," he scoffed, "I don't know that a possessor can technically kill you. Well," he scrunched his nose and his mouth twitched, "there are ways, but we won't get into that right now. We... I will make sure this thing doesn't hurt you."

Shudders skidded up Jessamine's spine, stiffening her neck. Her fingers were restless, bending and straightening, shaking and curling. She couldn't sit upright anymore, and the nausea that she hated to call habitual started to crawl up her throat.

"We don't even know where to go," she said, her voice choked beneath her growing ailments—the headache was coming back, too. "Don't even know where to start."

Avery shrugged, as if that detail weren't as big of a deal as Jessamine was making it sound. "We start with that," he pointed at the screen, still paused on Jessamine's eerie eyes, "and the fact that we can manipulate that thing inside you into telling us where to go. It can be manipulated; every time we talk about this shit, it reacts, yeah?"

"Ugh." Jessamine tried not to gag and held in a burp. "It sure is reacting right now. See?" She frowned at him. "I can barely even talk about this place without getting sick, but now you want me to take you there, to be there while you go about rescuing all these vanished people? Can you imagine? I'll fucking faint, I'll—"

Avery zoomed over so fast Jessamine lost her breath. He anchored himself in front of her, hands gripping the armrests of her chair, shadowing over her with an air of determination and stubbornness that was at once terrifying and reassuring. As if he were about to seize her from the chair, wrap her legs around him, and carry her off somewhere—to save her, to protect her, conceal her from whatever was eating her on the inside?

"You're going to be all right, because, as I told you, I will make sure of it. I'm not letting whatever happened to Amy... if something happened to Amy... happen to you." His words were firm, unbreakable, and bared his teeth as he spoke; a predator stepping in to protect its mate, its young, gnarling at the menaces encircling them.

"Right." Jessamine wanted to trust him; and yet the more they discussed all these hypotheses, the more uneasy she became. Her belly was filling with angst and confusion and sickness, and she didn't know that she'd be able to do anything but point him and Jamie in the right direction, when the time came. She couldn't go there, couldn't confront the place that stole her memories. She couldn't face the blue beings that whispered to her, the red ones that growled her name, and the dizzying corridors covered in blood and bodies.

Fuck. Were those bodies—

She covered her mouth, pressing her palm hard against it in fear that if she didn't, something would spew out—words or vomit, she wasn't positive, but she didn't want to find out.

"What if they're not there? Amy, the others—what if they... left? Or," she gulped, keeping her hand over her mouth, her speech muffled, "what if they're dead?"

She should have put it all together from her nightmarish visions, but perhaps her conscience hadn't wanted her to see it until now. The house—whatever was within it wasn't benevolent, was it? The blue orbs might have been neutral, because they didn't prompt as much disgust in her abdomen when they popped up in her thoughts. But the red ones, and their eerie growling, and that glowing door that she kept being drawn to... what if Amy had gone inside the house and been unable to resist that call? And Landon, and Angela—what if they'd gone in too, though they'd discussed only sending Jessamine in?

And what if they'd never gotten out?

Avery shrank. He fell against the desk, rattling it, and scrubbed his face. "I... can't think that far ahead, yet. At this point it's about finding the forest, the house; once that's done, then we can prepare for the worst. But," he perked up, sucked in a heavy breath, puffed his chest, "I'd rather stay positive, at this moment. Amy—she's out there, I know it. It's about figuring out where."

Jessamine pinched the bridge of her nose, slowly removing her other hand from her mouth. The intense queasiness had subsided—for now.

"So, what will we do? Drive around near forests, and wait for me to get so sick that I collapse? Because this thing will go nuts the closer we get. It'll be like when—" She gasped, and smacked her hand to her mouth again.

"Like when what?" Avery pushed off the desk and cocked his head, watching her intently. His arm twitched at his side, and the glow from the security screen shone over him, basking his dark skin in a blue light. It almost formed a halo around his entire body, and his eyes were like two flashlights flaring over Jessamine. "Hey—answer me. Like when what?"

She realized she hadn't given him details on this—on how, when driving through Santa Rosa and heading off to Louise's cabin, all her negative sensations had multiplied, all her uneasiness had gotten worse. How she'd been sick to her stomach but fought all her drowsy, dizzy feelings to get through that meeting, to not embarrass herself. That Louise's surprising skill had shocked her into silence, had prevented her from clarifying all she'd experienced inside while on the way to her. And how it had all gotten better on the way home.

"When you drove me to Louise's place..." She swallowed, flinched at the sour flavor, and rubbed her dampened forehead. "I wasn't good. Like, at all. The closer we got, the sicker I was. But at that point, I was... well I still am a bit overwhelmed with all this supernatural shit that I didn't, that I don't believe in. I didn't think telling you about it would make a difference."

Avery gritted his teeth and spun sideways, his upper thigh pressed against the desk as he glanced towards the bookshelves on the other side of the room. "Your current state," he vaguely gestured at her, but didn't look at her, "was worse when we went to Louise's, is that what you're saying?"

Jessamine nodded, then realized he might not have seen her, as he was avoiding her gaze. "Yeah. I was... ugh, it was the worst I've felt, since this whole thing started. That forest—the one Louise's cabin is in—it gave me the creeps. It spooked me, and I didn't know how to explain it, didn't know why it was happening."

"I get that," said Avery, turning his head in her direction. "But why didn't you tell us any of this while we were there? You didn't," he snorted, "and you're a good actress, you know that?" He chortled, but it wasn't the pleasant laughter of someone entertained by a joke; it was the nervous laugh of someone who was trying not to explode in anger. "I had no clue how badly you were suffering until after we left, when you mentioned those flashes you were having. But those... they weren't the only thing happening to you, then?"

"No." Jessamine clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth hard to stop herself from shivering so much she'd fall off the chair. "The flashes came after we left, yeah. As if I was getting more clarity away from there, or something? But I was shakier than I'd ever been and I swear I almost puked several times when you took the car around sharp turns. And I... well, I was doubting it, doubting this, doubting you... so I didn't say it. I figured we'd get this over with, right? Maybe that Louise lady would see something that'd give you a location, and then you'd... you'd leave me alone."

"Leave you alone?" Avery's eyes widened, all manners of questions quarreling in his gaze. He fixed on her, as if hoping she'd read those questions so he wouldn't have to ask them out loud. "We have to fix you, Jessamine. I didn't... I'm not..." He rubbed his temples with one hand, and raised the other, fisted, pumping it in rhythm with his words. "Yes, I want to find Amy, but I'm not disregarding your health in the process, dammit. And if you don't tell me these things, how can I help you? I told you I'd help you. I don't lie."

"I'm sorry." Jessamine chewed on her lower lip.

She meant it; she knew, deep down, that she should have been more forthcoming with him. And though she hadn't been sure of him at that point, in the car, she'd had plenty of opportunities since then, hadn't she? They'd spent the entire evening together, drinking, unwinding, having sex—

"I figured... well, once we left, I started feeling better, so..."

Avery pounded his fist on the desk, knocking over a few collector items of Chad's. One rolled off and shattered on the floor—Jessamine cringed at how she'd have to explain that to Chad tomorrow.

"You weren't better, though! You asked me to come over and keep you company a few hours after I'd dropped you off!"

"Yeah, I did!" Jessamine wrinkled her nostrils, and a new wave of aggression woke in her; but not caused by the being that might have been coiled up in her. This was her, the real her, reacting to Avery's annoyance with a taste of her own. "Because I really did need you there! I did feel better, but I also knew if I fell asleep, my nightmares would be worse, especially after everything Louise unlocked in me. And guess what?" She sneered at him, wishing to seal her mouth shut, wishing she'd have learned to not yell her thoughts out so easily. "When you slept next to me I didn't have nightmares. I was okay! So drunk or not drunk, and whether or not this thing hates you, for some reason I slept easier with you near. Why? A coincidence? Feelings? Or because you're some fucking specialist? I don't fucking know. But there, now I've told you everything."

She was animated, something within her antsy and agitated. The being, maybe; but mostly her, loading up with concern, with sentiments she didn't get, and with a thirst for understanding that also terrified her.

Chills overtook her arms and legs, and her teeth clattered. Goosebumps popped up over every inch of her exposed skin—her forearms and her neck—and she hugged herself, rubbing her arms, desperate for warmth. As if she'd been drained, left with nothing but ice inside her.

"Hey, hey." Avery crouched before her, hands clasping tightly over her knees, to stabilize her. "You're going to trigger that thing, and it will make you sick."

She attempted to nod at him, but her head was too painful, and her jaw so taut, so stuck in place, that it refused to do anything more than clench harder.

"I told you," he said, reaching up to swipe a few hairs from her face, and tuck them behind her ear. "I don't believe in coincidences, and neither should you. Feelings?" He issued a smile so faint, but so real, it made Jessamine's heart skip a few beats. "Story for another day, yeah? But I'm glad I helped you sleep. Glitch, or onetime occurrence, or whatever it was."

He stood up, then moved around the chair, pushing it closer to the desk so he could be behind Jessamine. He proceeded to massage her shoulders, to coax the shivers out of her. Taming them, telling them to stop, whispering to them in a language of hands and fingers fixing knots Jessamine didn't even know she had.

"But what you've told me, about the drive to Louise's, then the drive back... well," his thumbs pressed deep into her collarbone, "it means that forest, that house... they're close. Super close. Extremely close to Louise's house, I'd bet. Meaning that's where we need to start. We have to go back that way, and convince Louise to help us one more time."

"C-Convince her?" Jessamine had relaxed a smidgen, with Avery's touch. Something still wriggled about in her belly, and the pain searing across her forehead was still debilitating, nearly rendering her blind. But the sensation of his fingers flushing out all her tension, or at least trying to, was better than nothing.

She couldn't see him, yet she could have sworn she sensed his wince; his fingers squeezed quickly, as if mimicking the movements of his face.

"She... was spooked by you, yesterday." He resumed massaging normally, but lighter now, as if to show that he was ready to stop. "She called me after we dropped you off, and she was... not herself."

Jessamine gulped.

Did I do that to her? Me, my presence, and whatever the fuck is inside me?

"Did she outright say she'd no longer help?"

Avery's hands slid up and down her neck, caressing, like petting the smooth hairs of a cat seated on his lap. And Jessamine almost purred at the feeling, too; she let her body loosen up and willed her discomfort away.

"No, but I know her. What she said... well, it doesn't matter, because to be honest, it didn't make a lot of sense. She kept saying how she'd never felt this way before, never sensed two souls so connected yet so different—yours and mine, apparently—and didn't know how to handle everything that happened in so short a time."

Two souls so connected yet so different—what?

Jessamine stretched her neck as Avery removed his hands and waded around the chair to face her again.

"She'll hesitate to help us anymore." He massaged his own neck, as if implying he needed a bit of a rub-down as well. Jessamine would have done so for him had they not been in the midst of a serious, life-changing conversation. "But... she will."

He flipped around and typed a few keys on the security device, removing the paused image of Jessamine on the screen, and returning to the software's main dashboard. He then offered his arm for Jessamine to heave herself up, and led her to the office door.

"I'm going to drop you off at your place, and I want you to pack a bag."

Jessamine, halfway through the EMPLOYEES ONLY door, stopped dead in her tracks. "A bag? What the fuck for?"

He gently nudged her through, and into the darkened, abandoned coffee-shop. "Because I don't know how long this'll take, nor do I know where it'll take us. After we talk to Louise... we may be in for a ride. Might want to notify your boss that you won't be in tomorrow."

"I have tomorrow off," said Jessamine, grabbing her purse and keys before allowing Avery to take her to the door. "But how is this going to take all night and possibly all day tomorrow?" A frosty sensation came over her, mingling with the sinister warmth developing in her stomach. "What the heck are you planning, Avery?"

He held the door open for her, and waited as she drew the blinds on the windows and switched the OPEN sign to CLOSED, then locked the door behind them. "I don't know. Depends on what Louise says, and how you feel going back in that area."

Jessamine's sudden convulsion made her drop her keys. She and Avery bent at the same time to fetch them from the ground, and their foreheads came close to smashing into one another.

"It's almost ten p.m." Her voice was soft, but clipped. "Do you usually just barge over to people's houses at night? What makes you think Louise will receive us at this hour?"

As they straightened up, he took Jessamine's hand in his. "She will, because she'll hear the urgency in my voice. Oh, and also..." He brought her knuckles to his mouth and kissed them, in perfect gentlemanly fashion, which caught Jessamine off guard and made her snort. "Wear something comfortable and a pair of good, sturdy shoes. We might be hiking tonight."

He released her, but motioned at her to follow him to his car, muttering about going to gather supplies and finding Jamie. He didn't explain the hiking in the woods at night part, to Jessamine's detriment, no matter how many times she questioned him on it.

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