For some reason, I wake up at 5:30 with a massive headache. Groaning, I wake up and take a quick shower. The cool water rid me of my headache, but it also reminded me of all of the things we had discovered about Fitton. How he left his wife for a job after being married for thirteen years- never divorced. How he crashed his car as a ruse three years ago. And how Arien still loved him.

After I finish my shower, I dry myself before changing into a steel blue, button down shirt with blue jeans. I let the first two buttons be undone and the back of my shirt untucked since I wasn't going anywhere where I was to dress formally. Slipping on some brown leather shoes, I make my way to the elevator. Inside, I press the button for the ground floor. I doubt anyone else would be awake at this time.

So when the elevator stops on Level 7, I frown in confusion. The doors open to let Benen enter, then close again, heading down to the ground floor. "I didn't think anyone would be awake this early," I comment.

Benen shrugs sheepishly. "Well, I just woke up early because I was thinking about-"

"Laurel?" I finish, smiling. I chuckle lightly when the male Altruistic nods, a blush slowly spreading across his face Sighing, I say, "I woke up because I had a massive headache. Luckily, it went away when I took a shower."

"That's good," Benen replies, nodding. After a moment, he asks, "Isn't Mrs. Goldberg- Susan- sleeping in the conference room?"

I take a minute to ponder that. "Oh yeah," I muse. "Maybe she's awake."

"Or still sleeping," Benen adds as we both step out of the elevator. We hear the elevator besides us opens, and we can't hide our shock when Donovan steps out.

"What?"

Benen shakes his head. "You're awake," he says.

I shake my head. "What he's trying to say is that we weren't expecting you to wake up this early," I explain.

Donovan shrugs. "I felt pretty rested, so might as well come down," he says. I nod as he joins us in our small walk to the conference room. "Wait," Donovan suddenly says, causing us to stop. "What if she's sleeping?"

"That's what we're trying to see," Benen tells him. He then turns to me. "Oh wait- can't you just track her thoughts to see if she's dreaming or if she's actually thinking about something?"

"I can try," I say before closing my eyes. But I only hear thoughts about Laurel and about how telepathy isn't real. Opening my eyes, I look to the both of them. "I can only hear your thoughts about Laurel-" I begin, pointing at a now blushing Benen. "And your thoughts about telepathy not being real," I add, pointing to a speechless Donovan. "And by the way, telepathy is real. Well, now it is," I add.

Donovan shakes his head. "Okay, that is seriously awesome! Can we use on people?"

"I'd rather not get in trouble," I say, earning a pout from the male Sovereign.

Benen furrows his eyebrows. "But that's only our thoughts," he says, voicing my realization.

I nod. "But that's what I sensed. Let me try a farther range," I suggest. Then I hear Sophie, Laurel, and Audrey's faint and mixed-up thoughts, so I assume that they're still dreaming. I then look at the two boys again. "The girls are sleeping," I begin. "But no sign of Susan."

"Maybe she isn't in the conference room," Donovan mutters, his hand on the conference room door.

Benen shrugs. "Do you want to try again?" he asks me politely.

I nod. Closing my eyes, I hear an unfamiliar male voice think, God, that took longer than it should've... But I practically jump in surprise when I hear the words, Someone's listening to me. And the thoughts go away.

Benen and Donovan look at me. "What- is she in there?" Donovan asks impatiently.

I shake my head, "I don't think so. But maybe it was from a dream, since it was in the voice of a male that I've never heard of." I leave out the part of the thoughts fading away suddenly since I think I'll tell Sophie before I assume anything.

Donovan sighs. "Let's just go in, okay?" he huffs. I'm getting hungry over here." He pats his stomach as it growls loudly, earning some laughter from the male Altruistic and me.

Chuckling, I relent. "Fine, but we shouldn't be too loud. We don't want to annoy someone."

"Yeah, because we're going to make so much noise that we're going to wake some girls up," Donovan scoffs. "Do I need to remind you that they're six to eight floors above us?"

Benen rolls his eyes. "It doesn't hurt to be cautious," he tells the male Sovereign.

"No, it's just annoying." With that, he pushes the door open and drags us into a room of pitch-black darkness. Donovan groans, "Ugh, it's even darker in here than the time when the two lovebird decided to kiss." I shake my head when Donovan makes a shuddering noise.

"Hey!" Benen exclaims, most likely blushing. "You could've left if you wanted to!"

Before Donovan can snap back, I hush both of them, "Both of you, stop it. I found the light switch." Sighing at the immaturity of the two boys, I swiftly turn the lights on. I then hear someone fall to the ground with a THUD, and I look down to see an unconscious Benen.

"Benen?!" Donovan shouts, also noticing him the the same time as me.

Dread pooling into my stomach, I grab Donovan's shoulder, grabbing his attention, then look forward.

And almost on cue, we both start screaming.

In front of us, we see Susan on the ground, a green liquid dripping down the sides of her slightly ajar mouth. Her fingers are bloody with small shards of glass, and I think that it came from the small, broken glass bottle next to her. Her eyes are still wide open, with small shards scattered across her forehead, making small incisions across her now pale skin, signifying that she's been laying here as a corpse for a while now.

Shaking his head, Donovan shouts a few foul words before saying, "I'm going to go get Wallace!"

"Do you know where he is?!" I ask, panic and desperation lacing involuntarily into my question.

"Yeah! I'll be back!" And before I can say anything else, Donovan rushes out of the room as a cursing mess.

In the meantime, I transmit to the first person I can think of. Sophie! SOPHIE!

I- what? Fitz?

Oh God, Sophie!

I can hear the fear and panic in her thoughts as she transmits, Fitz! What happened?!

Susan, she's...

She's what, Fitz? Is she sick?

I actually shake my head.She's even worse than that.

What?

Susan's dead, Sophie.

WHAT?! I can almost see her jumping up right then.

And I'm staring at her.

Are you alone?! Sophie transmits worriedly.

Benen fainted, and Donovan went to get Mr. Wallace, I explain mentally. So right now, yeah, I'm alone. Do you think you can come down here?

Oh, of course! I sigh in relief at her answer. I was just about to come down myself earlier. I'm in the elevator right now, and Laurel's with me. Fitz, are you alright?

I run a hand through my hair. Sighing, I transmit to her, Honestly, I have no idea. But here's the weird thing-

We're heading to the conference room- and what is it?

She looks a lot like how Arien looked after she was killed.

I turn around to hear both girls scream at the sight in front of them. Immediately, Sophie rushes over to me as Laurel collapses besides the unconscious Benen, saying his name over and over again as she shakes him awake. Meanwhile, Sophie stands besides me and looks at the gruesome scene. "She does," is all Sophie breathes out before she steps back, her face paler than mine.

When Mr. Wallace, Donovan, and now Audrey, rush in, Sophie shrieks slightly, grabbing my arm in surprise. Forcing myself to look away from Susan, I place my slightly shaking hand over hers. Mr. Wallace curses under his breath as Donovan loudly says a slew of foul phrases. Mr. Wallace then calls 911 and walks away from us so he can tell the police what's happened.

Sophie and I both look down to see Laurel and Benen hug each other, both looking away from Susan's corpse. I'm about to glance up again when I feel two arms wrap around my neck, one hand tilting my head down so I'm staring at the ground over Sophie's shoulder. Closing my eyes, I sigh and wrap my arms around her as well, the sound of Mr. Wallace talking to 911 becoming a background sound.