It took me longer than anticipated to finish this chapter because I began a new year of college, but I'm personally feeling very motivated lately with my Heroverse stories, and for the time being, I can see myself staying very focused on this project, and I hope I'm able to keep an update time as consistent and short as humanly possible.

Special thanks to the readers:

Flameas: I don't really get why you say that about Lori and Leni's parents lol Sounds like an interesting headcanon though, I guess we'll eventually find out if it's true or not.

Guest: It wouldn't be fun to spoil that, would it? lol

STR2D3PO: You're on to something…

Jeff: I like the way you think hahaha Can't say much without spoiling anything, so thank you for the review!

Very special thanks as well to my friend The Siege Perilous. He's a vital part of keeping my motivation high up and helping me brainstorm some ideas.

Chapter 4:
What I've been looking for.

"I cheated on my college's admission test! Some day they'll figure it out and they'll expel me!"

"My parents hate each other and it's my fault that they're still together! If it wasn't for me, they would get a divorce and we'll all be happier, but they know they can't provide for me unless they're together!"

"None of my friendships are real! We all hate and envy each other, but we need to pretend we're united to keep our reputation!"

They say the human mind is programmed to detect patterns and establish relationships. A very useful tool, though there are some phenomenons where our brain decides to see a connection where there's none. For example, finding faces on a tree's bark or a cloud. We shouldn't always trust what our mind thinks we're seeing.

That being said, I was pretty convinced that whatever was happening to the cheerleaders was the same thing that had happened to the football players the day of the game. They were all grunting in pain, with bloodshot eyes, almost crawling in their attempts to stay balanced, and revealing what seemed to be their worst insecurities and their darkest secrets.

Mazzy was among them, on her knees, grabbing her head. A chill went down my spine. I ran to her, having to avoid crashing into Chelsea on my way there, though she looked at me with desperation in her eyes before she started to yell.

"The only way I can get people interested in me is by offering my body! What happens if someday people don't find me attractive?! Why can no one like me for who I am?!"

Despite all the resentment I felt for her because of what she did with Sully, to see her like that filled me with pity. It was obvious that she was in pain for whatever had taken hold of her. And the stuff she said… It certainly didn't turn her into a good person, but it was sad to hear that she viewed herself that way.

My focus shifted to Mazzy when I finally got to her. I grabbed her by her wrists —to let her know I was there for her, and to avoid a repeat of what happened with Sully— and I looked at her in the eye. Or, well, to the bangs covering her eyes.

"Mazzy, listen to me, you need to take a deep breath," I said, trying to control my own anxiety to convey a sense of calmness to her. "Don't freak out, ok? It's alright. You're alright. Everything's gonna be fine."

My attempts to keep her emotions under control didn't seem to be particularly successful. Heavy tears began to fall down her cheeks, and just like with Sully, I noticed the tension in her neck veins, like adrenaline was rushing through her system. She was hyperventilating, and my own lack of knowledge on first aids was starting to make me uncomfortable.

"L-Luna… Luna…"

"Shh. I'm here. I'm here. Don't worry, it'll be fine."

"I… I'm worthless! I'm such a disgrace!" She yelled, trying to break free from my grip, but I managed to keep her with me.

"Don't say that! Mazzy, you're wonderful! You're such a great friend! You're amazing on the drums! Don't sell yourself short!"

"You're better at music!" She retorted, her hair swinging around with the quick moves of her head. "Sam is so much more social than me! I don't stand out on anything! I'm horrible, I can't even show my face with that ugly scar on my forehead! I thought Sully loved me, but not even he truly loves me! I'm a failure!"

"Of course not!" I said, getting more anxious by the second with how fast the situation was escalating out of control. "Mazzy, you're—"

"Useless! Worthless!"

"No!"

"AAAAAARGH!"

My heart skipped a beat when I heard that guttural roar behind me. I released Mazzy just in time to see two cheerleaders grabbing each other by the shoulders, trying to take the other down. A third one grabbed a purse and threw it through the air with unsuspected strength. They were all entering a state of primal violence. And if the cheerleaders were doing it, then Mazzy would probably be following after them any moment now.

I looked around me. We were all in the open space between the auditorium pavilion and the main building of the school. The entrance to the high school was just around the corner, but by this time most of the students would have already left. There was no one there to help me.

Or to be a witness.

With a sudden flashback, I remembered Sam's words.

"You gotta stop it, you have the power to do it!"

I did. I did have the power to help my friend and all the other girls. But at what cost? How much was I willing to risk for them? After the accident, I had promised myself that I'd never use them in public, and through all these years I had stayed true to that promise, only using them in situations where I was sure no one could get hurt. With Tabby or Sam in my room, to help them or to convey emotions with music that words weren't enough for. I used them with myself to calm myself and avoid anxiety episodes or panic attacks. Never with someone that didn't know about my powers or that I didn't share a deep bond with.

If I didn't do anything, if I ran away and called the cops, no one would be with them for a good while. They were starting to fight each other. What would happen if one of them ran away and attacked innocent people? What if they didn't get immediate medical attention?

How many people was I willing to leave adrift just so I wouldn't have to use my powers?

I looked around me once again. No one to be seen. I was by myself, with no one to rat on me. Maybe… But if I did…

Reality hit me like a truck. I couldn't allow Mazzy to get hurt. And the rest of the girls, even though they weren't my friends, they also deserved to be helped. As annoying and disgusting as they were, right then they were in pain. I needed to act. Like…

Like a hero.

I sighed, standing up. I wouldn't raise my volume. I wouldn't do anything that could potentially hurt them. I would just calm their emotions down, I would ease their anxiety, and then I'd call the emergency services. It wasn't a big deal. No one would get hurt. No one was going to die.

I closed my eyes, ignoring my shaking legs and the cold sweat that ran down my forehead. I focused, imagining myself floating in a dark void. All the yelling and the sound of the fights around me vanished away, leaving me almost in a trance. And then I began to sing, soft like a ballad, in a calmer, gentler tone than the original song. I pictured myself playing it on the piano, and I put all the emotions I wanted to convey in my voice.

I don't know what's worth fighting for
or why I have to scream.
I don't know why I instigate,
and say what I don't mean.

In that strange dimension that I traveled to whenever I focused, I could clearly see the sound expanding from me like waves that crossed the infinite emptiness of space. Like the waves that a drop of water makes when it falls on the surface of a lake. Each one of those soundwaves carried within all the emotions I was singing with, transmitting them to everyone in range.

I opened my eyes and suddenly I was no longer floating in a void, but rather on the grounds outside my school, and all the girls were around me. The first few lines of the song seemed to have affected them immediately, since even those that had been brawling were now staring at me, their eyes still filled with hysteria and anger, but at the very least they seemed to have their emotions under control.

I kept singing, raising a hand towards them, trying to help me focus the calm emotions I wanted to make them feel. I had to make sure that they didn't have any desire to fight or let out their outbursts of anger. They seemed to be hostages of very violent emotions, so I had to put a lot more energy and focus on my singing to override those.

I don't know how I got this way,
I know it's not alright.
So, I'm breaking the habit,
I'm breaking the habit tonight.

My singing and everything I put into it were able to beat the dark, violent emotions that controlled them. They stopped their fighting and screaming, ending up still on their feet or knees, though their eyes were lost. Next to me, Mazzy was still having a hard time breathing and she wouldn't even look in my direction like I wasn't even there. I hesitated before awkwardly waving a hand in front of her face, but she didn't even flinch.

They were calm, but whatever affected them was still there. Their ragged breathing, their hearts beating fast and rampant, sweat pouring out of their skin. I had merely cut the strings of a puppet, leaving them unable to move but still not in control of their actions. I tried to speak to her, but she muttered more of the same: how much she hated herself, how there was nothing extraordinary about her life, the emptiness that Sully had left in her heart.

Had I overstepped with my powers? What if I went overboard and now they were in a sedated state? But if that was the case, why were they still talking about those insecurities? What could be drawing these reactions from high school kids? This wasn't normal. There was no rational explanation for this.

Which only left one possibility.

"A villain?" Sam said. "That… sounds crazy. You really think that?"

The Sun was setting on the horizon as we both walked to our homes. After controlling the situation with the girls, I called for an ambulance to come and check them. Several had to arrive to take the docile girls to the hospital, where they made all sorts of tests to get them out of that mental state they were trapped in. Police arrived shortly after, alerted of what had happened, and they asked me to explain what I had seen. I was as honest as I could, only hiding the fact that I was the reason they calmed down. I said I had no clue why they stopped yelling all of a sudden, and the whole situation was so weird that they didn't seem to doubt my testimony.

They allowed me to go to the hospital to check on Mazzy, but the doctors didn't let me see her. Sam went there as soon as she got out of detention, and I did tell her everything. Including my theory.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. It can't be a coincidence that two different groups of students suffered such similar episodes only a few days apart. It has to be some sort of power that affects people's minds. It makes them violent."

"And what about all the stuff they say about themselves?"

"That… I don't know," I admitted, "but I can't think of any other explanation. One person can have a panic attack or a mental crisis like that, but not so many people at the same time. It has to be some superpower at work."

"But why? And who?"

I shrugged, putting my hands inside the pockets of my jeans.

"I don't know. But the two incidents happened at school. And think, who was targetted?"

"The football team, the cheerleaders, and Mazzy," Sam said. "Mazzy was probably collateral damage. So someone's attacking the popular kids? Is that it?"

I nodded.

"Well… If that's the case then they got what they wanted, right? We shouldn't be too worried about it," she suggested, but I didn't share that feeling.

"And what if they're not done? Maybe they want to hurt more people. Maybe they want to hurt the same people again. Sully and Mazzy didn't deserve what happened to them. We can't ignore this."

"And what do you suggest? It's not like we have any idea of who it was."

That was true. There was no way we could figure out who was behind those attacks. As far as we knew, there was no one in our school with any sort of powerset. I was convinced that Tabby and I were the only two unless Nova, Eclipse, or the new Ace Savvy were also students, but none of them had the power to do what we had seen.

I sighed, frustrated with the whole situation. Two of my best friends had been victims of an attack, and because of it, their relationship was over. Not only that but I had been forced to use my powers on other people, something I swore I'd never do again. I was disappointed in myself, and I found myself already hating whoever was behind all of this. I wanted to make sure they didn't get away with it, but there was nothing we could do.

Suddenly, Sam snapped her fingers.

"I got it!" She said, giving me an impish smile.

"I know that face. You want to do something really stupid or really dangerous."

"A little bit of both!"

"Ugh… What do you have in mind?"

"Both attacks happened within the school grounds, right? They're supposed to have security cameras all around. We could sneak into the school and check the tapes."

"Wowowo! Are you crazy? Sneak into school and check their security cameras?"

"It shouldn't be that hard to do. You said there was no one else near the cheerleaders and Mazzy. Let's just pay attention to see who walks by before they go crazy, and then we check the videos on the match to see if there was a suspicious movement. If the same person appears twice, we got them. If there's no one… then it's probably one of the cheerleaders, right? They're the only ones that were there both times."

"First of all: you're out of your mind," I let her know. "Second: we would get in so much trouble if we got caught. Third: do you really think it's that easy to hack a security room? It's not like the movies, Sam!"

"No one's gonna catch us, there's no one in school at night."

"And how do we avoid the cameras to get there?"

"We don't have to. Why would they check the tapes? They would only do that if we break a window or something crazy like that. The cameras are there to scare people off and in case something really bad happens; there's no one who's constantly watching the files just in case they missed something. Look, we're not that far away from school, and the janitor's still there finishing up his cleaning. This is what we're gonna do: I'll say I lost my phone, ask him to please let me check our classroom to see if it's there. We'll insist until he walks there with us. Once there, if you can chat a bit to distract him I'll simply take the lock off one of the windows. I'll cry a bit, complain I didn't find it, thank him for his help and we leave. We wait for him to finish, and then we sneak through the open window. It's a flawless plan! Absolutely nothing can go wrong!"

She spread her arms like she had just finished an act, waiting for my applause. I silently stared at her for a few long seconds.

"Tricking the janitor to leave an open window so we can illegally sneak into the school at night, check the security cameras, and look for someone with superpowers," I repeated, trying to convey my disbelief. "That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard in my life."

"Stupid like a fox," she said, tapping her temples.

"There's no way it'll work."

"It definitely will. Dattebayo."

"Sam, listen," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I want to get to the bottom of this. I really do. But this plan is insane. There was to be another way of investigating. You're not gonna convince me to do this, alright?"

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this," I said, covering my face with my hands.

We were hiding behind a bush outside of the school. We both had texted our dads letting them know we would spend the afternoon at each other's house. Neither Chunk nor Sam's dad would bother asking each other if that was true, so we could be there, at night, without anyone looking for us.

Sam's stupid plan had worked out perfectly. The janitor wasn't thrilled with the idea of letting us in, but when we said he could walk us to the class to make sure we didn't do anything weird, he agreed to it. Sam acting desperate helped a lot. Sometimes I forgot how great of an actress she was.

"He's leaving now," she whispered, peeking her head over the bushes.

I did the same, and indeed, the janitor was getting in his car. It was already nighttime, and the only lights that were on were the light posts spread out on the sidewalk and the parking lot. From our hiding spot, it was easy to follow him as he turned on his engine and drove away from school. We waited for a minute to make sure no one was around and then we ran to the back of the building.

"This is crazy. We're gonna get in so much trouble," I said as we neared our classroom.

"Come one, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Get arrested? Doesn't that sound bad?"

"Yeah, well, we're minors. They're not gonna put us in jail. They'll call our parents, we'll get grounded, we'll cry a little saying we wanted to help our friends, and everything will be forgiven."

"What if they kick us from school?"

"They're not gonna do that… I think."

I rolled my eyes but decided that it was too late to turn back now. We reached the window we left open and, trying our best not to make any sound, we got inside.

"Phase one is complete," she announced, fishing her phone out of her pocket to use as a flashlight.

"What's phase two?"

"I don't know; I didn't think we'd get this far."

"Sam!"

"Chillax. We only need to sneak to the entry where the doorman has all the computers with the security cameras.

"And how are we going to get access to the videos once we do?"

"I bet you anything that there's a folder on the desktop with the saved files."

I clicked my tongue. "There's no way it's that easy."

"What do you wanna bet?" She said with a challenging grin.

I rolled my eyes, walking until stopping next to the door.

"First we should get past our first obstacle," I said, before turning the door handle to show her it was locked. "All the doors must be locked with a key. How are we going to open them?"

Sam made a show out of walking next to me and taking a swiss knife out of her pocket. She always carried it with her, usually to file her nails, open up a bottle, or challenge her enemies to a knife fight. I raised an eyebrow, and her smile widened. She put the tip of one of her tools inside the lock and began to move it around. About fifteen seconds later, I heard a click.

"No way."

"Rule number one: never underestimate Sam Sharp," she said, opening the door and inviting me to walk out.

I grabbed my phone, turned on the light, and stepped into the dark halls, Sam standing right next to me.

"Isn't this exciting?" She asked in a low voice as if she was afraid of anyone hearing us. "It's a little adventure. Just you and me."

"It's a little exciting," I admitted in the same tone.

And then, as we kept walking in silence, with our shoulders almost rubbing into each other's, I realized that a sense of nostalgia flooded my heart. I debated with myself whether it was worth it or not to bring it up. I didn't want to risk opening old wounds. And yet, I knew Sam was strong and she would be okay with it. So I decided to risk it, telling myself that I needed to be strong and keep my emotions in check.

"You know? Lately, we haven't had a lot of time by ourselves," I mentioned nonchalantly. Sam turned to look at me. "We always have Mazzy and Sully with us. It's been… a while since it's only been the two of us."

She grinned, though, behind her teasing, confident look, there was a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I didn't know that sneaking into school counted as a date."

I couldn't hide the blushing that took over me. I smiled at her joke and pretended not to notice how our fingers bumped into each other as we walked to the doorman's room.

"I used to take you to the park or to get a burger at a Deli," she continued. "Had I known you were into this sort of adventures I would've let you pick our dates more often."

"Hey!" I complained, giving her a gentle shove. "This was your idea, not mine."

"You wanted to get to the bottom of this."

"But I didn't want to get us in trouble," I said, shaking my head with a smile. "Besides, I'm the one that bought us the tickets to Dairyland, remember? I was definitely the most fun, adventurous of the two."

"Not in bed."

"You say that now, but I always knocked you out for ten minutes."

"Don't be so cocky. Even a broken watch is right twice a day."

"Sometimes it was more than twice a day."

She blew a raspberry, making her cyan bang swing in the air. I couldn't help but chuckle at it, and she soon joined me.

It all went well, after all. Sometimes it felt weird talking with my best friend about the times when we were a couple. I was afraid that Sam would think I still had those romantic feelings towards her, which could be a huge setback in our agreement of staying as just best friends. Luckily, Sam was able to joke about these things without making it embarrassing or awkward. Her laugh warmed my heart, and her beautiful face when she smiled filled me with happy feelings.

After many years of friendship, when I turned fourteen I decided to finally confess to her that what I felt was something stronger. I had been lucky enough for her to love me back, and soon we began a beautiful relationship. We had been ecstatic, enjoying every moment, every kiss, every touch, every hug for the year that we were together.

Eventually, I could feel that flame of passion getting dimmer. It took me a long time to understand my feelings. The love that I felt for Sam never left, but it was no longer a burning, passionate, romantic love. It was just the love one feels for a friend, someone I wanted next to me for the rest of my life, but not necessarily as a couple. It took me a while to comprehend it, but thankfully, one day Sam came to me and told me we needed to have a talk, and she expressed the exact same feelings I had. We decided to end our relationship on good terms, and ever since we were back to being best friends.

Six months went by, and even though I sometimes felt a little awkward talking about our past relationship with Sam, it was nice knowing that we both had been able to move on with no issues. I'd never had someone that knew me like she did, the way she did. I was glad to have found her and have her by my side.

We soon reached the room we were looking for, and from the window, we could see the screens showing the security camera's feed. Sam grabbed her swiss knife once again and did whatever she did to open the door.

"Don't you think he'll wonder why the door's open when he comes back tomorrow morning?" I asked, very worried.

"Eh, he'll think he forgot to lock it."

"We're leaving a lot of this unaccounted for. Relying on luck. I don't like it."

"Trust me, everything's gonna be fine, alright?" She reassured me in a whisper as she got to a computer. She grabbed the mouse, clicked a few things, and then chuckled. "Told ya: it's on the desktop."

I let out a sigh. Our public education needed to seriously reevaluate the security measures in schools. Sam began scrolling down the files.

"Alright, I think I have today's. It's gonna take a bit to go over it, you can check the one from the game in the meantime."

I sat on the computer next to her and, imitating what I'd seen her do, I looked for the security camera that covered the stadium, and once I found the folder, I opened the file from the game day.

I fast-forwarded and let it run, keeping my eyes on the team and anyone that got too close to them. At some moments I put it back at normal speed, thinking I had seen something, but I couldn't find anything suspicious.

Sam's video was shorter than mine, so I heard her buff when I still had a lot to check.

"There's absolutely no one in the nearby areas, as far as I can tell. Though… it's weird."

"What?" I asked, pausing my video and looking at her screen.

"Check this out."

She rewound the recording a few seconds, showing me Mazzy and the cheerleaders having a strong verbal disagreement. She probably had spotted them leaving the school together and couldn't stop herself from confronting them. There was no audio, but they all looked hella pissed.

And then…

"What was that?" I asked, leaning closer to the screen.

"Weird, right?"

She played it back. One moment, Mazzy and Chelsea were screaming at each other's faces. And then, for some reason, they all began to cough, waving their hands in front of their faces. The argument stopped right away, and soon some fell to the ground, grabbing their heads in evident pain.

"I don't get it. What happened?" Sam asked. "There's no one around, at least not that the cameras can get. And… I don't know, it looks like they got sick."

"Look how they move their hands while they cough," I pointed out. "It's like they smelled something."

"A perfume? Bad breath?"

"Seconds before the symptoms started?" I said, incredulous. "No. No, there has to be something that made them act that way. Something that put them in that state."

"If it was something they smelled, then it's not a villain's superpower."

"No… I guess not. But, what was it? Where did it come from? I don't see anyone else in the video."

I drummed my fingers on the desk, not even realizing that it turned into a beat.

"Something like this doesn't just come out of thin air. It's clearly someone's doing. And look at the cheerleaders; none of them was expecting it. They were all victims. No… I don't know what happened, but there's something we're missing."

Sam sighed, rewinding the video one last time, maybe hoping to find a key detail we missed, but there was nothing. This time she let it run, and we got to the part where I joined the group. I saw myself kneeling next to Mazzy, trying to get her to calm down. And then, me standing with my lips moving as I sang to change their emotions.

The good news was that there was only one hand gesture that gave me away. No one would know what I was doing; I could say that I was just trying to talk them down, to make them stop. Maybe, if the police found this video, I could find a good excuse to keep my secret from being revealed.

But I was most likely going to get caught. The world would know about my powers. I hadn't even considered that there might have been security cameras around that area. It had been a terrible mistake on my part, and it could now cost my life. Me and my family's.

I was starting to feel my heartbeat getting stronger and faster, but Sam put a hand over mine, gently caressing it.

"You did the right thing," she assured me.

"I promised I would never use them in public," I said with the softest voice. "I promised it. I swore I'd never do it again. What kind of person am I if I break my own promises?"

"The world isn't black and white," she offered. "One of my aunts had a car accident a long time ago, and she swore she would never drive again. But last year my cousin had an accident. My uncle wasn't around, so my aunt had to take the car and drive him to the hospital. Do you think it was worth keeping her promise no matter what?"

"I… I'm afraid that after doing it once, I might not stop," I admitted.

"And why do you think that? I thought you hated your powers. Or powers in general."

"I did. Uh, I mean, I do. I still hate them. But..."

"But you hate them cause you think that using them always hurts people. Or at least that's what you thought, but today you used them, and not only did you not hurt anyone, you also saved a bunch of people. Luna, powers aren't a curse nor a blessing; they're what you make of them. You're not carrying the legacy of any hero or villain. You're Luna Morrison, and it's up to you to make your own story."

It sounded really pretty, but my heart wasn't ready to accept those ideas. I wasn't ready to face the fact that using my powers to help others had… felt good.

"Did you find anything in the game's video?" She asked, changing the subject.

We both went back to the other computer, where I resumed playing the recording. The football team seemed to be doing alright during the game. Then they got to the bench, grabbed some water, listened to the coach, and suddenly they all went nuts.

"I don't see anything weird," I said, playing the scene back.

"Oh, look! There we are," Sam pointed with a smile, and we saw ourselves and Mazzy watching the game. But then I stoop up and walked down the stairs. "Oh, this is where you went to talk with Carol."

"Uhg. Yeah."

"You never told me how that went."

"There were more important things to focus on."

"My best friend's love life is important to me."

"Well I don't have to—"

"Wow! What happened to you?" She laughed, interrupting me.

I turned to check the video. I saw myself looking around for something. Or someone.

"Oh, yeah, someone bumped into me," I remembered.

Sam frowned. "No. There was no one else there."

"Uh?"

I rewound a few seconds. There I was, walking down the steps, almost reaching the same file as Carol. I could see in my face the moment of doubt, that moment where I regretted it and tried to get back to my seat.

And then, my body lost balance for a second. I almost tripped forward, but I managed to balance myself and then turned around to look for whoever had walked into me. But, like Sam had mentioned, there was no one in the video.

"What the hell?"

"Are you sure you felt something?" She asked, seemingly worried.

"Yeah, I remember it. I felt someone walking into me when I suddenly stopped. But… how could it be?"

We both stared silently at the video, letting it roll. I followed myself, looking at me talking with Carol. Sitting next to her. The smiles on our faces. It all was going so well until I ruined it with my big mouth.

"Look at that!"

Sam shook me out of my thoughts. She paused the video and rewound it again, pointing with a finger at the team's water drum.

"What about—? Ooooh… Oh, no."

In the recording, we could clearly see the cover of the water drum opening for a few seconds before closing itself again. There was no one around it. Nobody noticed either, with everyone being so focused on the match.

"What do you think it was?"

"A ghost?"

"Sam! I'm serious."

"...so am I."

We checked the video again. It wasn't our imagination. Even if there wasn't a lot of detail, the top of the water drum that the players drank shortly after was clearly opening and closing by itself. Only that Sam and I were old enough to know that inanimate objects didn't move by themselves like that.

"It must be some kind of telekinetic power," I mumbled, loud enough for Sam to hear me.

We exchanged a look, and we both thought the same.

"Eclipse?"

"Then she is a student in our school?"

"But why…? No, her powers don't affect emotions," I considered. "It must be someone else."

"Maybe it's not her powers," Sam said. "If she was near the water, maybe she put something into it. And with Mazzy and the cheerleaders, it looked like there was some kind of gas. Maybe it's a drug or something, right?"

"It might be..."

"Though now that I think about it, I don't think it's Eclipse," she said, squinting her eyes and rewinding the video to the part where I tripped on the stairs.

"And what do you think it is?" I asked, not understanding where she was going with this.

She played back the scene where I almost fell, turning around to apologize but not finding anyone.

She opened her mouth to explain her train of thought, but something caught our attention in the corner of our eyes. We turned to one of the many screens, one that was showing the dark interior of the auditorium.

Where someone was currently walking on the stage with a flashlight and a toolbox.