Answers, Questions, and a Trip to Egypt

"What? You don't think I..." I'm freaking out. How am I going to figure this out?

"Do what your abilities have always done. Delve into the history of the paper, see who's in the past of this paper. Starting tomorrow, or later today," he amends after seeing 4:16 on the digital clock on the ceiling above the exit door, the one we entered through. "...we'll start training you. Everybody else has some form of control over what they can do. You don't, and now that you know what it is, you do your best to stay away from it. The key isn't avoidng the power, it's unlocking it, and knowing where the key is." Alex finishes.

"Okay...wait...Alex, I can't communicate while zoning. If I could, doing it would be easy. I'd have the information, then lose it once I snap back."

"Well, it's a good thing you've befriended a mindreader then, idnt it?" Alex smiles. Vlad looks slightly uncomfortable. Going into my head to find out if I liked him was one thing, trying to interpret my muddled thoughts with nothing but the thinker to guide him was quite another. Very bad things could happen if he got lost in there. I would know. I think those thoughts.

Vlad turnsb to look at me. "Cameo, I think you can help them. You're the only one who's going to know who's sent this message. Don't worry about me. I can get into your complicated head every day if I wanted to. I don't, but still. If I can get through there and out without a problem, I think I can do it when its a little cloudy." He says all this with a smile and confidence in bhis voice.

"Are you sure?" I say. Im not letting him risk this unless he's sure.
"Cameo, you're not even sure what will happen. Don't worry about it. Just worry about getting the information. It'll be my job to make sense of it. Okay?"

Well, if they're all so sure. "Okay, I'll do it. What do I have to do?"

Alex takes it from here. "Okay. You take the paper in both of your hands. Concentrate on it. Vlad, keep a close eye on her thoughts, and if you can, steer her the right way. I've got a feeling the Outside is behind this. Very behind this. So if she sees Yasmine touch any bit of that paper, you know she's involved. Seeing into the past is hard to recreate some memories, but she's one of the best I've seen. She can do it, provided she's not confused too early."

Delaina breaks in. "Alex, what if its just her paper, and she's not involved?"
Alex sighs. "Then we're in deep shit. At least the Outside isn't a mystery. Pray that these answers don't raise more questions."

She sits back next to Michael, who's got an arm around her. Alex shoots him a dirty look while Delaina checks on the third computer, which was the last to adjust to our group. He shrugs. Two guys, fighting over Delaina. This should be interesting.

But that isn't my concern. My concern is finding the history of this message...okay...where to start? How abut the first letter? Okay, the first letter...D...

While thinking about this, I feel myself falling out of existence...wait...I'm not zoning out...am I?

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I feel like I'm falling. But I'm not...I'm floating...wow...so this is what happens when a mindreader guides you through your own thoughts? Wow...ow. I fall with a thud onto a hardwood floor. Okay, so no out of body experience. Okay, that's fine. I can still use my body.

I don't feel anything upon my fall. All I can feel is paper in my hands...what did I need paper for? No pen? Oh right, the message. I've got to interpret a message for Alex.

I'm sucked backward...onto an egyptian papyrus field? Okay, waaay too far back...although Egypt is rather nice this time of year. I remember my father taking me before he died to see the pyramids...before that drunk made ghosts out of my parents.

Suddently I hear garbled voices, like I'm underwater. The voices sound familiar.

"She's in Egypt! Wow, its nice this time of year...oh wow,,,her parents are both dead. Explains why she lives with her sister...she knows we're listening." The voice directs to me. "Cameo, you went way too far back. Go forward, to maybe two days ago, or yesterday."

It's Vlad. He's the mindreader. I guess forward, away!

The forward happens slow, then speeds up as my head passes through the millenia.

I skid to a stop when I see the D. The very same D that's in my hands....

Is in the hands of a blonde girl. If that's not Yasmine...the girl lifts her head.

It's not Yasmine. It's just a girl who looks a LOT like her. Interesting...but there's something really off about her. Even more so than Yasmine. This girl seemed...soulless...Creepy.

I watch her cut out the paper into the Dear the Inside, Chicago and pass it along to a guy who held out his hand for it.

It's the guard whose bullet meant for Delaina killed him instead...wait...this was yesterday. That guy died two weeks ago. Something doesn't make sense. He didn't seem as creepy as the soulless Yasmine, but he's walking around. He's supposed to be dead.

Both of them, paper in both of their hands, stop working. They turn their heads in my direction. Look into my eyes.

They know I'm here. They can see me.

Crap. This has never happened before. I've walked in on people in my head doing al kinds of things, and they've never seen me. This is not good.

The disembodied voice that sounds like Vlad is relaying this to Alex, Delaina, Michael, and Daniel. They're all debating on how to get me out.

Luckily, they don't seem to hear or see them. It's just me.

"Who are you?" the girl asks me. "How did you get in here?"

"I don't know." I answer. I really don't know, do I?
"Andrew, call them." The girl sounds panicked.
"I can't. They don't allow calls to them remember? They don't want triangulation."
"They'll risk it once they hear this."

"Hear what?" I ask.

The girl turns to look at me, like "why the hell are you asking questions when you're the one who just popped in?"

"Now that's not entirely fair is it?" she says in a really sweet tone. Too sweet. Maybe this is Yasmine after all.

She tries to quickly incapacitate me by knocking me out, but I just as quickly get out of the way. Oh hell no. She doesn't even know me.

"Yes, I do." I hear her say.

Whoa. She can read minds too.

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I feel myself fall to the floor, banging my head on the way down.

I don't fall to the floor, though. Alex grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet.

"Cameo. What did you see? You've gotta talk to me."

Daniel grabs a chair for me to sit down. I slowly begin to settle back into my body again.

Vlad kneels down to look at me in the eyes. "Cameo. You've got to tell us. I lost you at about the time they saw you. Something derailed me. Do you remember anything after that?"

I can't say anything. Nothing coherent anyway. I clear my throat, trying to get the words out.

Why can't I just say it? They have to know what I saw.

I open my mouth, expecting to hear myself say that they have a boss, they've got technology, that those were the lackeys who had no idea what they were cutting out, that the girl read my mind, then I got pulled back.

What I actually say is...

"They're all dead."