Juliet was at ease. Then again, she was always at ease. She couldn't remember the last time she felt anything different. Whenever she would think about that, all of those annoying fuzzy feelings would come and Betty would give her a dirty look.

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror after she woke up. Everything was sort of gray, so she never knew what color her eyes and hair were. Her eyes are light, so maybe they were green or blue. Her hair was light, so maybe it was blonde.

Her mother was in the kitchen when she went downstairs, washing some dishes. Juliet wasn't hungry so instead she went straight outside. Her neighbor Timmy was selling lemonade. Unfortunately she didn't have any money so she wasn't able to buy a glass.

She waved at little Timmy as she walked over to the playground, where the dog was. "Hi Doc." She greeted him as she pat him gently. She didn't know where he came from, but she wasn't able to think of that.

She wasn't supposed to think of anything.

Betty would get angry.

Doc licked her hand as she turned to walk back to her house. She would sit outside for a while. Maybe ask her mother for some money to buy Timmy's lemonade.

Speaking of... there was a little girl about the same age as him on the sidewalk. She was adorable. She had the same light eyes as Juliet only they were slightly darker. Her hair was light too, but much lighter than Juliet's. It was like they were opposites.

"Hey," the little girl spoke to Juliet. "Have you seen my father?" She asked.

"Your father?" Juliet repeated. "I don't think so. Why don't you go ask Betty? I'm sure she'll know."

The little girl frowned. "That's what the boy's father said too."

Juliet only smiled in return. "I hope you find him."

She decided to watch the little girl. She went to Betty like she suggested, and it seemed not even Betty knew where her father was. The next thing Juliet knew, the little girl ran back and punched Timmy! Betty must have made her do it. How awful!

Normally Juliet would have just sat there and let Timmy cry. Nothing new. But for some reason the fact that a strange little girl hurt him caused Juliet to have a real thought:

Where did she come from?

She waited for Betty to get angry at her, but nothing happened. She was distracted for once so Juliet let slip another thought: Timmy was hurt. He needed help. Juliet jumped up and jogged over to him. "Are you okay?" She asked, kneeling down to him.

"Yeah, my jaw hurts," Timmy answered. "That girl is a bully! Just like..." He stopped and widened his eyes.

"Just like what, Timmy?" Juliet questioned, also shocked she was speaking so much and... thinking so much.

"Like the bullies from when I went to school," Timmy remembered. "Why don't I go to school anymore?"

"I used to go to school, too," Juliet said. "I... I had these best friends, they..."

"What were their names?" Timmy asked curiously, rubbing his jaw.

"I... I don't remember..." Juliet held her chin as she stood up and tried her hardest to-

"Yo, Jules!"

"Bria," Juliet nearly gasped. "Her name was Bria, and then..."

"I'm gone one day and Juliet is already giving a new boy gifts?"

"Anthony..." Juliet whispered in remembrance.

"Where are they?" Timmy asked. "I want to meet your friends."

Juliet shuddered. "I don't know where Bria is. Anthony... he disappeared. No one could find him."

"Maybe he got abducted by aliens." Timmy said playfully, and then groaned in pain.

"I'm going home," Juliet decided. "Put some ice on your jaw, okay?" She instructed. As she walked down the lane to her house, she passed Old Lady Dithers. "Mrs. Dithers?" She addressed. "What is going on?"

"What-what do you mean?" The old woman replied in horror.

"I'm thinking, Mrs. Dithers! Thinking! Betty doesn't let us do that!" Juliet exclaimed. "And I'm remembering things from before I was here. How... how did I get here?"

"We're not really here," she admitted. "We're not really talking. It's all made up! We're sleeping, dreaming. The dream became a nightmare... It has to end, it just has to! But we're not in charge..." She looked across the lane at Betty. "He is, and he doesn't want us to wake up!"

Juliet gulped. "I'm going to wake us up!" She exclaimed, running into her yard and into her house. She returned upstairs to her bathroom, holding the sides of the mirror as she stared at herself. Everything was black and white, she finally realized. What does she look like? She needs to remember...

Her eyes are blue. Her long hair is... blonde, but darker than that. It was strawberry blonde. That's right! "MOM?!" She screamed, sprinting back downstairs. Her mother was drying dishes as she looked upon her daughter.

"Yes?" She said in a monotone that made Juliet sick to her stomach. They really were sleeping. They needed to wake up... but how?

Juliet's answer came in the form of a little girl bursting through their front door just moments later - the little girl looking for her father. "Juliet!" She called out.

"How do you know my name?" Juliet nearly yelped. Her mother just stood there without a word, still drying dishes as if she had to continue her trance.

"He doesn't want to admit it, but he wants to see you," the little girl informed. "Come on, I've found a way out of here but we have to go now!"

"Who-?" Juliet dared asked, and the child's response changed everything.

"Charon."

In that instant Juliet blinked, and it was like she could remember everything at once. It hit her so fast she nearly fell over.

The bombs.

The Chinese.

The war.

The end.

Charon.

Juliet was now in tears when she heard gunshots from outside. "We need to go!" The girl screeched.

"Mom!" Juliet turned and grabbed her wrist. She dropped her dish rag and was led out feeling confused. The girl took Juliet's other hand and escorted them outside, where Chinese soldiers were gunning down everyone in the lane. Juliet screamed, praying that they wouldn't shoot her.

"Keep going! Get to the door!" The little girl screeched some more. Juliet barely had time to turn her head to make sure her mother was still following her. She appeared halfway out of her trance, but not fully like Juliet was.

"Juliet-?" She let out fearfully.

The little girl leaped through the door at the playground. Where the hell did that even come from? Betty was standing next to it, completely enraged. Juliet was almost afraid she'd stop them.

"Goodbye Juliet." She spoke... sadly. Juliet ignored her and plunged headfirst into the glowing white door with her mother.

The TV screen Juliet remembered seeing turned off in front of her eyes. The Lounger she remembered climbing into slowly opened. The tears that came from her eyes finally rolled down her face. Wait... she'd just started crying seconds ago, right?

So why did it feel like...

Her vision was beyond blurry but she could make out two figures approaching her. One had blonde hair much brighter than Juliet's. "Wait, is that..." Juliet heard one speak. It was a female. The blonde one. "The name Charon saw from one of the computers…"

Charon-?

Juliet wanted to move so badly but she was afraid of vomiting if she did. "Which name?" The other figure asked. It was a male.

The blonde female spoke nervously. "Juliet-?"

It was less blurry now so she looked down at them from the Lounger. Whoever the two of them were, they looked fairly alike. Upon better vision and closer inspection of the blonde lady, Juliet realized who she was, but it had to be impossible.

It was the little girl who'd woken her up. Only she wasn't little anymore.

"Juliet," she repeated. "Are you okay?"

"Where's my mom?" Were the first words out of her mouth. She attempted to lean forward but was suddenly overwhelmed by the nausea she expected.

"Don't do that, lean back," the man next to the lady ordered. "You've been sitting there for a very long time. It's best you don't move until your body can readjust."

Juliet wanted to ask how long she had sat there, and why he would say that. Just moments ago she crawled into the Lounger. To the right of her, she heard her mother gasp for air. "Mom-!" Juliet screeched hoarsely.

The older man went over to Autumn's Lounger, instructing her not to move as well. "I'd like to know why they're still alive," he added. "The other vault residents were murdered in the simulation."

"Why weren't you killed?" The lady asked him. "Or me?"

The man had to think. Juliet turned her head to look at her mother. She was blinking slowly, staring at the man as he said, "Because we aren't the vault's original residents... which could mean they aren't either. When did they..."

"Juliet," the lady grabbed her attention. "Do you think you can move yet?"

She nodded as the lady held out her hand to help her climb off the Lounger. "I'm Sylvia," she introduced. "Can I ask you something?"

Juliet nodded again.

"What do you think today is?" Sylvia asked her.

Juliet frowned. "It's October 23, 2077." She answered.

Sylvia widened her eyes in pure shock as Juliet's mother spoke, "Is it safe to go outside? The bombs stopped already?"

Juliet ignored Sylvia and took a step toward her mother, but she felt a sharp pain in her waist. She stumbled but kept her balance. When she joined her mother, they weakly hugged each other as the man took his turn to speak.

"My name is James," he greeted. "I'm a half ass retired scientist. Sylvia is my daughter..."

Explains the similarity, Juliet thought to herself.

"This is going to come as a big shock, but... the bombs you speak of, that happened two hundred years ago." James finished.

Autumn let out a laugh as Juliet grew slightly stiff. "You think this is a joke?" Autumn spat. "The world's at war, didn't you know?"

Juliet looked deeply at Sylvia. Her blue eyes were darker than her own, but they looked so sad and afraid.

Her father wasn't kidding.

"Mom," Juliet let out. "He's serious."

Autumn scoffed. "I don't believe you, Juliet! Using jokes as repression isn't going to... hey, who's that over there?"

James and Sylvia turned around, and Juliet found herself looking across at a tall... a tall...

What the hell was that?

A person?

He sulked out of hiding, coming into view. He wore dark clothing - some kind of armor maybe, but other than that he was red everywhere. He looked generally pissed off, letting out a low grumble. "What-?" Autumn simply said.

"He is a-" James started, but Juliet interrupted him with half a shriek.

"Charon-?"

James was beside himself with confusion as Sylvia stepped back so Charon could walk up to the group. "Charon?" Autumn realized. "What happened to you?" She looked at James now. "You said two hundred years, so why is... I..."

Juliet couldn't even turn her eyes as her mother fainted. James knelt down to her, followed by Sylvia while Juliet was frozen.

Was it really Charon? She could never forget the look in his eyes, but she needed to be sure.

Wait for it...

Patience...

Wait...

"Juliet." He finally spoke, and that was all she needed to hear. She always loved how he spoke her name, because he was the only one in the world who emphasized the last letter of her name.

She can't stop looking at him. Why was he so red? Why was he... like a zombie? Where was his skin? Her love of science from school began to kick in as she thought this out. He was there when the bombs fell, which means he was exposed to radiation... it had to have peeled his skin right off.

"Two hundred years?" She asked softly.

Charon cast his eyes upon Sylvia, who frowned at him. "We talked about this, Charon. You can talk to whoever you want."

A brief flash of anger ran through Juliet - why did she say that? As if she owned him or controlled him? She let it go for now when Charon spoke, "Yes, Juliet. Two hundred years. Everything you know is gone."

Juliet gulped. "Not everything. I still have you."

His reply crushed her heart instantly. "Not anymore. You do not hold my contract."

...contract-?

Juliet was seconds away from attacking Sylvia when the lady herself popped up. "Charon, can you go check to see if the way out of here is safe? I'll talk to Juliet."

"Yes." Charon obeyed, not letting a second go to waste as he turned and disappeared out of the Lounger room.

Sylvia now looked at Juliet. "It's not what you think it is, I promise. I don't know a whole lot, but all I know is that he was conditioned to obey whoever has his contract. When I got the contract, I told him I wasn't going to treat him like a slave, but he insists I'm just his new employer, so he'll serve me."

Juliet quivered as she started shaking, feeling horribly sick. "What happened to him-?"

"What do you mean?" Sylvia asked back. "Oh, wait... did you know him before he was a ghoul?"

Ghoul-? That's what it's called?

Juliet nodded at her. "I'm not sure. A lady from Underworld said it just happened to a lot of people after the war," Sylvia explained. "I'd love to ask you what Charon was like back then, but I don't think now is-"

Not anymore.

Juliet burst into a fit of tears, covering her eyes as she wept. Sylvia gave her father a look of remorse, trying to understand. It was hard for her to accept that she and her father were born out in the Wasteland, instead of Vault 101 like she was led to believe... but to be sleeping for two hundred years and waking up to crap like this?

Oh, hell... what were they going to do?