Claire's POV

"Yo, sleeping beauty you alive in there?" Eve called banging on my bedroom door.

"Jesus Eve," I said opening my door. "Im trying to sleep!"

"Yeh well not anymore, come on im taking you out somewhere special today." Then she turned round and headed down the stairs, sounding like an elephant on the way. I grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed to the bathroom. The shower felt amazing, right up until the point when it turned viciously cold. I screamed and turned it off, wrapping myself in a towel trying to get warm.

"Right." I said storming down the stairs. "Who turned on the water?"

"Shane." Eve said pointing lazily towards the kitchen. I walked in to find Shane filling up the kettle.

"Aren't you meant to get dressed after a shower?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"I would, but I didn't really have a shower. Someone turned on the water!"

"Damn, I just wanted a coffee!" He said holding his hands up in surrender.

"And I just wanted a shower, coffee can wait."

"Actually," Eve said walking into the kitchen. "When you're a morning monster, they really can't. Here have a mug, you're a definite monster." I glared at her and took the mug then held it out to Shane to fill it up.

Eve was right, I certainly felt better after some caffeine. I was upstairs getting dressed when I heard my phone ring. I looked at the screen to see Myrnin's bunny slippers lighting up.

"What?" I asked flatly.

"I need you at the lab, its—."

"Don't tell me it's urgent, with you it's always urgent but when I get there, its something to do with Bob!" Bob was Myrnin's pet spider, I was going to kill it but Myrnin insisted that Bob was no different from me.

"Claire," Myrnin said, annoyed now. "This is nothing to do with Bob, this is to do with the safety of Morganville."

"Great so now the machines have stopped working, again!"

"No, not quite. But it's important, now come or I shall have to get you myself." The idea of Myrnin coming to Glass House wasn't entirely reassuring.

"Alright, alright, im coming!"

"Oh and by the way, don't use the portals!"

"Why would I—?" But he had already cut the line. When would he stop dragging me off so unexpectedly! I grabbed my backpack from my bed and trudged down the stairs.

"Hey." Shane said sitting on the couch. "Thought coffee was meant to kill the big bad monster."

"It did." I said, deadpan.

"Myrnin?" He asked.

"How'd you know?"

"Wouldn't be the first time he's hauled you off for Bob." He had a point, but this time it's not for Bob, apparently. I shrugged and went down the hall.

"Hey." Eve called from the kitchen door. "I was meant to be taking you out today, where are you going?"

"Sorry Eve, Myrnin needs me, maybe tomorrow." Then I opened the door and stepped out into the warm breeze of Texas. Like always, it was dry and sunny. Today was no different. I enjoy walking though, it gives me time to think about theories, they always occupy me when im bored. It also bring me so far away from reality, I don't even realize I get to where I need to be. I was standing outside the alley, just staring at the ground.

"You okay girl?" Someone asked, I looked up the find Gramma Day sitting on her swinging chair with a shotgun next to her.

"Yes, thank you." The I started walking down the alley but got stopped.

"You make him better." The old lady said.

"Who?"

"The trapdoor spider. who else? You make him better, but he'll always be the little leach of a next door neighbour." I nodded then turned around again. Myrnin's lab was as clean as I'd ever seen it. The books that were once scattered over the floor had been stacked neatly into more stable looking shelves. The lab tables had been arranged on one side of the room, with the equipment stashed away in draws according to different things.

"Do you like it?" Myrnin asked jumping down from a ladder that had been attached to a rail that ran across the shelves. "I gave it a little makeover, thought it would be more practical."

"It's certainly… different." I said still amazed at the sudden change of setting. "So why did you bring me here, not to mention excluding the portals."

"That's the problem, the portals are not working."

"What do you mean by not working?"

"They open up to locations outside of Morganville."

"Can people, you know, open them from outside of Morganville."

"No, only the people inside can open them but cannot control the where abouts that they end up. Here let me demonstrate." He walked over, in a new clean path; to the door which held shut a portal. He opened it to reveal a black nothingness. Nothing happened.

"Um…" I said staring into the portal.

"Exactly." Myrnin said. "I am thinking of the hospital but there is nothing there, and the lights would not be off as I recall the hospital is open 24/7."

"So what are we actually looking at?"

"I haven't a clue, my dear, could be anything, a room with the lights turned off, a black hole or just nothing."

"But if the lights in a room were turned off, you'd be able to see, you have super eyes. And a black hole isn't possible."

"Portals exclude my vision and anything is possible, especially with me." That was true; Myrnin had built a machine that stored a human, well vampire, brainthat ran Morganville. When it was destroyed Myrnin built a new one, without a brain. "Here you try." He said stepping aside. I took a step forward and thought about Glass house, the sweet smell of Shane's chili, Eve's shoes pounding down the stairs and Michael's guitar playing his blissfully beautiful music. I opened my eyes to find… a beach. It was sunny and strangely deserted. You'd have thought such a clean beach would have at least one visitor.

"Okay… wanna go to the beach?" She asked staring at Myrnin in confusion.

"Best not to, it is extremely strange and very dangerous." I rolled my eyes at the lack of his knowledge on sarcasm.