Season 3, Episode 1: "Radio Silence"
You know, if you think about it, humans thrive on communication. I mean, how long could we really go without e-mailing, talking on the phone…even talking in person? Can you even remember a day where you haven't talked to someone? It seems like we talk to each other an awful lot, but what would happen if our lines of communication went dead, so to speak? If you're communicating with someone over a walkie-talkie and the line goes dead, they call it "radio silence." But what if radio silence became real silence?
Fi watched the "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING PENNSYLVANIA" sign roll past her through the window and let out a sigh. The encounter with the wraiths and her father in New York had caused a minor obsession, and she had refused to talk to any of her family members because of it. Although she knew that they were only trying to help, they hadn't been the ones her father had appeared to. All the signs, everything that had happened, they had all led to that rooftop, and now her father had been taken from her again. She'd been scanning her inbox for any sign of an Unknown sender, but there had only been e-mails from people like Gabe and Tad who had heard what happened and wanted to talk to her. Of course, she hadn't responded to any of them, but she'd heard that Jack had e-mailed Gabe to let her know Fi was okay, just shaken.
Turning away from the window, she rolled over on her bed until she was facing the opposite wall. The door to her room opened and Molly stood there, looking in.
"Fi?" she said, waiting for her daughter's response. When Fi didn't say anything, Molly let out a soft sigh.
"Fiona, I just wanted to say good night. We're stopping in Cleveland tomorrow to fuel up, and then after that, we're going to try and go straight for home. Just thought I'd let you know," she said, smiling and closing the door.
When her mother was gone, Fi rolled over onto her back. New York seemed so far away, but going home didn't seem like it would make anything better. There were so many memories of her father there, and the thought of losing him when he'd been right in front of her was almost too much to bear.
Then again, what use was moping around? Although she'd been impacted by what had happened to her, it wasn't worth shutting the people closest to her out. If anything, she needed all of their support more now, but the last two days of giving them the silent treatment had made things more difficult to her. If she was going to make things better, she would need to sit down and talk with them; let them know how she was feeling and see if there was any way they could help. For now, though, she'd have to hope that sleep would make her feel better.
She sighed again and closed her eyes, surprised to feel drowsiness come almost immediately. With a yawn, she turned onto her side and drifted off to sleep.
-X-
As Fi fell asleep, a faint light flitted outside her window, moving at the same speed as the bus. It went through the window and hovered over the sleeping girl. As it did, a soft, shimmering dust fell from the light and onto Fi; it vanished as soon as it touched her. The light went through the window again and vanished, leaving as quietly as it had appeared.
-X-
Fi's eyes fluttered open as she woke up, feeling the bus moving. She gave a sleepy smile when she realized that she wasn't feeling as bad as she had been, probably due to what she'd thought about before going to sleep. When she looked at her alarm clock, she realized that everyone would probably still be sleeping, as they didn't have anything to do today.
Rolling out of bed, she walked over to her laptop and turned it on, immediately going to her website to see if she had mail. She frowned when she didn't find any, and no one had updated anything on the forum, either, so she figured she would see if there was anything to eat.
Slowly, she opened her door and looked to the front of the bus; Irene was driving, which meant that Ned was probably asleep. Her suspicions had been right; no one besides Irene was up.
A search through the cabinets proved fruitless, and she realized that she'd probably have to wait until they got to Cleveland to eat. Thankfully, she wasn't that hungry, so she settled on going back into her room for the book she'd been meaning to read. When she had it, she settled into a seat and started reading.
-X-
Fi just finished the chapter she'd been reading and heard a door open behind her; when she turned around, she saw her mother coming out of her room. With a smile, Fi got up.
Her smile vanished when she realized that no sound came out when she tried to talk. Fear started to creep into her veins when the same thing happened on her second attempt, and she could see the same fear on her mother's face when Molly tried to talk as well.
Hurriedly, Fi looked around and started rooting through the drawers near the sink, trying to find something; when she closed the drawer, she had a pen in her hand. She ran past her mom into her room and grabbed a sheet of paper sitting by her laptop, then showed it to her mother.
Mom! I can't talk! she wrote, holding the paper up when she was done. Molly looked at the paper, then squinted at it. Fi frowned and turned the paper around, shocked when there was nothing on it. She set it down and started to write again but this time, the pen stopped working. She rifled through the drawer to get another pen, but every one she found didn't work.
When she looked up at her mom, she knew what she would have said had she been able to talk: "Fi, what's going on here?"
-X-
Fi leaned back against the wall behind her bed, frustrated. Her laptop was working, but when she tried to type something, the keys wouldn't work. First every pen on the bus stops working, then her laptop won't type? Although she didn't know exactly what was going on, it was all too weird to be random coincidences. Something weird was going on.
She looked up when someone came in her room; Jack stood there, and Fi gave him an angry look. He turned to the door and knocked on it, but no sound came out. It was like the door wasn't there.
A few moments of awkward silence passed before Jack left the room, apparently disturbed by something. She tried to wave to him, but something else was wrong. Although she knew how to make the motion she wanted, it was like she couldn't. She lifted her arm, which seemed odd, as she hadn't been able to wave at Jack.
Suddenly, a thought occurred.
She could move her arm when Jack wasn't in the room, but when she'd tried to get his attention, she hadn't been able to. Could it be that whatever made it so they couldn't talk made it so that they couldn't communicate? It was entirely possible, but what had that kind of power?
She got up from her bed and walked into the space in the front of the bus, seeing Ned poring over a map. He seemed to be confused, and he kept turning the map around on the table. Fi stopped by the table, wondering how hard it could have been to read the map.
When she caught sight of what was on the paper, she froze. She realized that she couldn't read any of the numbers or words on the map. She knew how to read, but the symbols on the map seemed strange and incomprehensible.
She gave a lurch as the bus skidded to a stop, startling everybody. Fi could hear the sound of the tires scraping across the road, but nothing inside the bus made a noise as the bus stopped. Everyone got up, shaken, and Fi ran to the front of the bus; Irene was there, but she was staring at something.
Fi looked out the front window of the bus to see that there was a road sign, except…it was empty. No words occupied the green sign, so apparently, whatever was affecting them was starting to affect the outside world.
-X-
Fi sat in the nonmoving bus with everyone who, understandably, was as frustrated as she was. Every time she wanted to get someone's attention, she couldn't. She'd tried to consult the book of Celtic magic her aunt had given her, but the words didn't make any sense. No one in the bus could communicate with anyone else, and Fi noticed that, although everyone should have looked extremely depressed or at least extremely confused, they all had neutral expressions on their faces.
Then, she had another thought: what if they didn't have expressions on their faces because facial expressions were a form of communication? It would make sense, although now, it seemed like whatever was causing all of this seemed more malevolent. Could it have been Bricriu, or another dark spirit? Without the ability to communicate, she felt helpless in the face of what was going on. How did you fight something that had this kind of power?
-X-
Although everyone looked normal, Fi could tell that everyone was…getting more depressed? Losing hope? It was hard to tell, but the shift in everybody's emotions wasn't a good one. The day had, surprisingly, passed without incident as they sat, stranded on the side of the road. Strangely, no cars had gone past which was starting to make her think. Rather than mope, she needed to figure out how to put everything right. She got up from the bench she was sitting on and walked over to Molly, who was looking out the window. Fi put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, but the fear she had felt when all of this first started happening came back when she felt…nothing. It was like her mother wasn't even there. She drew her hand back and turned around, rushing to get out of the bus before she went insane. She couldn't even feel her own mother who had been right in front of her, but apparently, a touch on the shoulder qualified as communication. Although she was starting to understand the rules of this sick game, it didn't make things any easier.
When she stepped outside, she saw that the sun was almost done sinking behind the horizon, and she did a quick survey of her surroundings. The road stretched out in front of her as far as she could see, and a forest surrounded the road on either side. Maybe whatever was doing this was out there, in the trees; at least, she hoped it was. If it wasn't…well, she didn't want to think of what would happen if it wasn't.
Suddenly she heard something from the trees to her right. She turned to look at the source of the sound, and then froze.
"Fi!" A voice was calling her, but it was her own voice. She squinted when she thought she saw a flickering light.
"Fi!" the voice called again and, without hesitation, she ran after it.
-X-
Fi's voice continued to call to her as she ran after the flickering light, which was heading deep into the woods. Although she should have been more careful about it, the loss of her voice and hearing it again was overriding her caution.
As she passed tree after tree, she followed the light in the distance, hearing it calling her name and occasionally giggling. Although she was desperate to find out what was going on, the fact that whatever the light was had decided to use her own voice to lure her made her angry.
After chasing the light for what seemed to be forever, she stopped when she saw it hovering in the middle of a clearing. She stepped carefully over to it, making sure she didn't startle it; she didn't want to chase it anymore.
"Fi…" it said, and she walked over until it was a few feet away. Although it looked similar to Bricriu, she was sure that the Will o' the Wisp didn't have the ability to steal voices.
"Hello, Fiona," it said, expanding itself until it was a large mass of glowing energy. The light faded, and a shape took form until it became solid, and a mirror image of Fi stood there.
"Nice to finally meet you." The other Fi smiled.
-X-
Fi was in shock, although she couldn't express it at all.
"Oh, I figured that I'd take a shape you were comfortable with," other Fi said, studying her "double."
"I'd imagine that you want to know what's going on. Well, I found you after I picked up on some immense energy coming from you. You seemed so sad, and I decided to make things better for you. You didn't have to talk to anyone about what happened; that's what you wanted, isn't it?" Fi was getting frustrated again. This other Fi presumed so much, and it was through these presumptions that the spell that made it unable for anyone on the bus to communicate had been cast.
Staying in the clearing was pointless. She couldn't let the other Fi know that it wasn't what she wanted, that she wanted the spell undone, or even let her mother know how she was feeling. Since she couldn't tell other Fi to undo the spell and the other Fi assumed that she'd wanted things this way, she might as well not have bothered chasing the light at all, only to have been taunted by an image of herself.
She turned around and started to walk away.
"Fi, wait," other Fi said, and she stopped. Turning around, she faced other Fi with a blank expression.
"Are you…sad that I did this?" Other Fi looked confused.
"But…you didn't want to talk to anybody after you saw your father. I gave you what you wanted. Aren't people usually happy when they get what they want?" Other Fi sounded even more confused. Fi turned to walk away again, but something other Fi said stopped her.
"…unless it wasn't what you really wanted." Fi turned around again.
"If you're sad about this, then it would make sense. Oh, Fi…I'm so sorry…If I'd have known…" Other Fi walked towards her and made a motion; glowing dust showered Fi.
"Everything's going to be the way it was, but I'm going to offer some advice before I go: be careful what you wish for, Fiona Phillips. You have a bigger impact on the spirit world than you think." With that, other Fi started to glow and the light shrank back to its original size. It zoomed off into the night and when Fi couldn't see it anymore, she tried to talk, but with no luck. Had the other Fi lied to her?
-X-
The walk back to the bus through the forest seemed to take longer than it actually did, but she finally reached it, still stranded on the side of the road. With a heavy heart, she reached for the door handle and opened it, feeling a strange sensation all over. She stopped for a second, then walked up the small staircase and saw everyone still in the main room, looking despondent.
"Everything's going to be okay," she said, breaking the day-old silence that had weighed so heavily on all of them. Molly got up.
"Baby?" she said, walking over to Fi.
"Mom," was all she had time to say before her mother rushed over and wrapped her in an embrace.
"Hey, does that mean we can talk again?" Carey said, and she could hear Jack answer him.
"Hey, I can read again!" Ned exulted.
-X-
As the bus moved toward Cleveland, Molly sat in Fi's room, holding her daughter in her arms.
"I'm so sorry, mom. I meant to tell you, but…" Fi said, but was interrupted.
"Baby, you shouldn't be sorry. Did you really see your father?" Molly asked, and Fi nodded. Molly sighed.
"What…did he say?"
"He said that he was protecting me. That there are dark spirits that…want to hurt me." Fi nestled further into her mother's arms.
"You mean that…he's been watching over you?" A hint of hope crept into Molly's voice.
"He's watching over all of us," Fi said, and tears began to slide down Molly's cheeks.
"Maybe he tried to warn me," she whispered, and Fi sat up.
"What?" Molly wiped the tears away.
"When you and Rachel left, I had…well, I had a feeling that something terrible was going to happen and…well, I saw you. In trouble," Molly said.
"You saw me?" Fi asked, confused. Molly nodded.
"It was almost exactly like the night your father died. I felt that something was wrong and then…I saw it. This time was different, though. I saw you in trouble, and then…everything was okay." Fi stopped to process everything her mother was saying.
"Dad saved me," Fi said simply, and her mother looked slightly stunned.
"Mom, if you saw what happened before it happened…" Molly cut her daughter off.
"Baby, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're safe," she said, embracing her daughter before getting off the bed.
"Now, try to get some sleep, okay? We'll be in Cleveland tomorrow," she said, smiling as best she could. Fi did the same, then moved around on the bed until she was under the covers.
"Hey, Fi? Before you go to sleep…could I use your laptop?" she asked.
"Um…yeah," Fi replied, and Molly picked it up before leaving the room and turning off the light behind her.
When her mom was gone, Fi drifted restlessly off to sleep, still thinking about what her mother had said to her.
-X-
When everyone on the bus was asleep, Molly opened Fi's laptop. Although she never really used computers, it wasn't hard to find the search engine Fi had bookmarked. Her fingers paused over the keys as she prepared to type, and when she finally stopped, she looked at the word before pressing search.
PREMONITIONS