Questioning

(Perspective switch from Cameo to Vlad)

Delaina takes Cameo by the hand and simply leads her back to their room. Neither say anything. This is probably good, considering Cameo hasn't actually zoned out in over two weeks. She needs the sleep. Damn Alex and his wanting answers. He knows she's invaluable to finding where things come from, but that didn't mean he had to use her.

Alex looks a cross between disappointed, confused, and pissed at me for losing her mind. Makes sense. I did lose her.

"What happened in there, Vlad?" he asks simply. Maybe it won't be so bad.
"I'm not sure. They saw her."
"Who's they?"
"This blonde girl and the guard from the storeroom. I lost Cameo when the girl saw her. They were cutting the message out. But I don't think those are the people who sent it. They just put the papers together. They work for whoever sent the message."
"This blonde girl." Michael asks. "Is that Yasmine?"
"No," I quash this right away. "It looked a hell of a lot like her though. Uncanny. But it wasn't her."

"Why the hell did she go to Egypt?" Daniel asked me. Egypt is pretty random, even for Cameo. But we don't know everything about her. All I know about her is that she's been to Egypt, her parents were astronomers before they died, and that she's the single prettiest and most interesting girl I'd ever known. I try not to smile as I think of an answer that won't make Danny and Mikey laugh at me. They like to do that, considering they grew up with me and Alex. Neighbors on either side.

"I'm not exactly sure. She'd been there before, so she probably linked the origin of the paper to the invention, a la papyrus, which is Egyptian." Clever of her.

"When did her mind kick you out?" Alex broke in.
"She didn't. She didn't mind me there." I answer.
"How do you know that?" Michael asked. " I think I'd mind if the person I liked knew my every thought." Crap. Why does Michael always know everything. Damn you, Delaina. I'm so gonna teach her something about keeping her mouth shut later. I love her and her blabbermouth though.
"She said a few days ago that she didn't care if I knew what was in her head as long as I never told anyone. She's a closed book anyway, so I don't know very much about her. Delaina probably knows more about her than I do."

"I do." I hear Delaina say. "But you know enough for now. All you should know is that she really likes you." She smiles. "She thinks you guys think she kicked you out. You know she didn't right?" I smile inwardly. She does care.

Alex interrupts her. "Vlad, don't worry about if she likes you or not, worry about what kicked you out of her head. If she didn't, what or who did?"

I shrug. Its all I can do.
"Well, guys, there's nothing we can do tonight, we should all try to get some..." Delaina's interrupted by the sound of someone entering the computer room quietly.

It's Cameo, and she does not look like she'll be able to sleep ever again.

"She was inside my head. Telling me they weren't who they said they were. She said I wasn't what they said I was. That I had to help them, or..." She suddenly stops talking and looks into my eyes.

Now, I've stared helplessly at this girl nonstop for two weeks. Id know if anything about her was different. This looked like the same Cameo, on the surface. But...her eyes were different. They were, if even possible, an even lighter blue than usual, her hair was a sick black, even more so, and she was paler than usual. She looked ghostlike. Not scary, but still.

"I didn't kick you out, Vlad." She says this like she's sorry I left.
"I know." What else can I say?

She walks toward me with a fragileness I'd never seen in her before and gives me a hug. She's never hugged me before.

"She kicked you out. She jumped inside my head and forced you out. She's gonna say I did it..." at this point, she's too tired to even talk, and she drops off on my shoulder.

I'm not even given the time to enjoy the fact that she trusts me enough to fall asleep on me before Alex has another epiphany.

"This isn't good. If Delaina and Vlad's earlier observations are correct, Cameo's never gotten tired from a history trip before. Which means either she hasn't gotten any sleep..." here he shoots me a dirty look. Crap. He knows about my little date scheme. Damn Delaina and Mikey to hell. If they're not careful, I'll tell Alex they've been dating for nearly a month. Blowing up my spot like that.

"...or she's not a retroclairvoyant." With that, he looks down at her like he's never seen her before.

"If she's not a whatever word that was that you said, then what the hell is she?" Delaina asks. She looks confused. Cameo was her friend, despite how oddly she'd reacted to my bringing her. She always hated when her friends were under a microscope, and she was sure Cameo didn't like it either, her being all quiet and all.

Alex's expression is a cross between worried and excited.

"I've only read about this, and that was from a very questionable source." He says this worriedly, then goes back to excited when he looks back up at us from the exhausted Cameo. "Guys, I think we've stumbled upon a human specter."