– Chapter Five –
By the time the trio of clones made it to Austria and found Janika's house, the sun was starting to set. They'd spent the better part of the day getting lost in the busy streets of Salzberg, though things were much easier than they had been in Frankfurt now they had Katja with them to translate signs and ask for directions. She also translated a menu at a small diner they'd stopped in for lunch. The German woman didn't seem to mind at all, even though she said very little during the whole trip.
The journey had still been exhausting, mentally if not physically. Whenever the clones attempted to make contact with Janika, they failed to get through. Janika never once answered her phone, so after some debate, the trio made their way to her home, leaving Leigh and Aila anxious for the new clone's reaction when they came face to face.
When the three stopped near the house, they stared at it for several minutes, not quite sure what to make of it. It was a big house, and it was located at the top of a large hill overlooking the town. If the clones didn't know any better, they'd have thought the house was abandoned. The yard was overrun with tall, dead weeds and grass, and so were the thick stone walls surrounding the property. The stone pathway up to the steps was cracked and had splashes of red at random places. Even stranger than that was the array of pumpkins. Not just pumpkins, but fully carved jack-o-lanterns that really had no rhyme or reason for being where they were. They were placed in random locations all over the yard. The house itself looked old and full of cobwebs on the outside.
"Um…is this…the right place?" Aila ventured to ask after several minutes, checking the address on the paper and the address on the rusted sign hanging awkwardly from the stone wall.
"The files don't lie," Leigh told her with a shrug. "God, she's gonna be some kind of Gothic Halloween freak, isn't she?"
"Don't judge, Leigh!" Aila scolded her.
Leigh shrugged again. "She shouldn't live in a creepy house then, should she?"
"Komm, lass uns gehen."
Aila and Leigh stared at Katja, who stopped in her tracks towards the front door and looked back over her shoulder.
"Let's go," she repeated in a language they could understand. "Ve need to find her quickly."
"Wait – wait!" Leigh whispered, but Katja had already made it to the door and was knocking loudly.
"Katja, don't you think we should prepare for what we're going to say to her? Even I'm quite scared for the poor girl's reaction when she sees us," Aila added.
Katja said nothing. She knocked again, louder this time, but there appeared to be nobody home. Katja pulled a face and hurried back over to Leigh and Aila.
"What are you doing now?" Leigh demanded. Katja shot her a look, but Leigh missed the scowl hiding behind her large sunglasses.
"Going around zee back," Katja informed her.
Aila and Leigh stared after her, stunned. "Katja – you can't just- Katja!" Aila called. The doctor ran a hand through her hair, and sighed with exasperation before looking at Leigh. "She can't just break into someone's back garden…oh my God."
Leigh sighed and jogged after Katja, and Aila stared after her for a moment before following as well. There was no way this was shaping up to end well.
The doctor turned the corner and stopped quickly as she nearly bumped into Leigh, who was staring at something. Aila looked over the hairdresser's shoulder, raising an eyebrow at the sight before her.
The back yard was massive, and just as weird and desolate as the front yard. The figure of a woman with dark blue, pinned up hair ran around the garden with a large net.
"What the…" Aila muttered, not quite sure what to think of the scene. Leigh just stared. She continued to stare when Katja bounced towards the blue-haired clone without a care in the world. "Christ!" Aila hissed to herself, catching up to Katja and seizing her by the arm. "Katja, you can't-"
But Katja simply shook her arm to get Aila off of her and sped up. She held her head high as she approached Janika, and cleared her throat. "Entschuldigen sie mich," were the words she spoke loudly and clearly.
Aila flailed behind her, trying to decide if she should run for cover or join Katja, while Leigh took a few fearful steps back and hid behind the wall of the house. "Fuck's sake," she muttered.
Aila decided to stay back as well and watch events unfold as they would. The blue-haired woman paused, glancing at Katja with wide eyes.
Her eyes were odd. Upon closer inspection, Katja realised she must be wearing colored contacts, making her eyes bright silver rather than brown.
"Wie bitte? Wer bist du? Ich habe fliegen zu jaged," Janika said, looking more curious than freaked out over the appearance of a woman who shared her face.
"Katja; Katja Obinger," Katja responded coolly. She lowered her glasses so she could see Janika more clearly, who took a few curious steps towards her. "Sprich Englisch?"
"Ja," Janika responded, still staring at Katja with wide eyes.
"Good," Katja breathed. "You are Janika Zingler, ja?"
"Ja," Janika told her, nodding. "And you are Katja Obinger…ja?"
"Ja."
"This is going nowhere," Leigh complained. She had walked up behind Aila so she could listen in. "Honestly…just…what the fu-"
Janika spotted the two of them. She fixed the doctor and hairdresser with a frightening gaze. Her silver eyes made Leigh take another step back. "Shit."
Aila blinked and gave an awkward wave. "Uh…hi."
Janika bounded over to them and paused, looking them over with huge eyes. Aila blinked and gave an awkward smile, trying not to look too freaked out by the other clone. Her eyes gave off such an eerie feeling that the doctor couldn't hold her gaze for long. Janika looked at the two for a long moment before lightly poking each of them in the shoulder.
"Oi! What the friggin' hell was that for?!" Leigh shrieked.
Janika pulled her lips back in a wide grin before tossing her head back and laughing. "I knew it, I KNEW it! They said I was crazy, but HA!"
Aila took a step back, staying close to Leigh as she felt the hairdresser do the same. "K-knew what?" she stammered.
"YOU! US! YOU REALLY EXIST!" Janika exclaimed with a grin. "They said I was crazy! See, about a year back I 'accidentally' came across some emails on me mate's computer after catchin' 'em writin' weirdass notes down 'bout me. Sendin' reports off ta some Dr…somethinorother…anyways, didn't say much, but said enough to know they were spyin' on me! Now, I don't take kindly to spyin', and they kept callin' me a 'clone', so I made 'em tell me what were goin' on along with some…ehehe…colorful promises...men, pah! They crack so easy. Anyways, he didn't say much but had me meet Dr. whatshisname, who tried to throw it off as some kinda weirdass social study thing, and that a 'clone' was just a keyword, but maaaaan he was bad at lyin'! After mullin' it over for a while, it started ta make sense. Y'see, all them tests they kept putting off as 'for me own health'...BULL! I were always healthy. Called up me mum, and she 'splained that whole IVF…thing…and said the docs wouldn't say where they got the baby from, and things just kinda…fit. Holy shit! I tried getting them docs to confirm it, but they said I were crazy! HAH! Shove that up your ass Selena!"
The blue-haired clone walked circles around the other three, who all stared at her in silence. Janika finally stopped walking and faced them, still grinning like a maniac, before clapping her hands together. "SO, what can I do ya for?"
Leigh was about to open her mouth to talk before she realised it was already hanging open in utter shock. A strange raspy sound came out when she couldn't find the words.
"Uh…uh…OK…uh," Aila stuttered.
Katja, who had wandered over during Janika's outburst, held her hand up to silence the doctor, put her sunglasses back on, and stepped between the women. "Ve are in danger. Someone is killing us off. Ve have come to varn you."
Janika tilted her head. "Eh? Why'd someone wanna go and do that for?" she asked, looking marginally more serious than she had a minute ago.
"May ve talk inside?" Katja asked. "It ez not safe to stand around outside."
Janika frowned and looked into her net. "Eh…guess that'll do. Not as many flies as I woulda liked," she grumbled, tilting her head at the flies she'd collected. Aila just stared and didn't want to ask why on earth Janika was collecting flies. It was just beyond unsanitary.
Janika walked up to the back door and opened it, leaving it open for the others as she entered the house. The inside of the house was like walking into a different dimension. It was perfectly clean and done up in an extremely fancy and decorative way, with bright orange carpet, wooden walls, and various types of decorations of all sorts everywhere the eye could see, all similar in the theme of pumpkins, cobwebs, and bats. The house was fairly dark, and illuminated largely by candles and small orange lights that seemed to make everything glow.
"Holy shite…" Aila muttered, looking around.
Janika led the group into a room where a woman with long black hair lay across an orange and black sofa. She heard the footsteps and looked over, both eyebrows shooting up in stunned shock.
"Selena! I AIN'T crazy, SEE?! So you can go and shove that therapy bullshit up your ass," Janika said, plopping down onto a chair with her arms crossed. She looked extraordinarily smug and pleased with herself.
While Leigh and Aila hung back, nervous and unsure of what was to happen next, Katja calmly walked to stand next to Janika. She peered at the stranger through her sunglasses and shoved her hands in her pockets, making herself appear rather intimidating and unfazed with her blank expression.
Meanwhile, Leigh found herself both fascinated and concerned by the decorations and objects Janika had chosen to include in her home. She nudged Aila, gave her a triumphant glance, and muttered, "Told you."
The woman known as Selena sat up straight and simply stared at Katja in shock, struggling to read her features which were mostly blocked by the glasses. Still, Katja did not remove them.
"This was a bad idea," Leigh whispered to Aila. "Let's go-"
Aila grabbed Leigh's upper arm as she turned on her heel to march out of the house. Aila held Leigh firmly in place and watched and waited anxiously for somebody, anybody to say something.
Selena stared at Katja in silence, before shifting her gaze from her, to Aila, and then to Leigh. "Heilige Scheiße…" she managed, not quite believing what she was seeing.
"Sprich Englisch?" Katja asked as she casually sat down on a nearby chair.
"Ja…y-yeah yes," Selena managed awkwardly, her green gaze continuously shifting between the four clones suddenly surrounding her.
Janika smirked and stood again, bringing her net full of flies she'd been holding over to a small cage sitting on a table in the corner. She cooed at something as she emptied the insects into the cage.
Selena took a breath and cleared her throat. "I-I never…would have believed it," she said, shaking her head. "Are you all really…h-human clones?"
"Ja," Katja said. "You are monitor, yes?"
"I'm a…what?" Selena asked, tilting her head, not familiar with the word.
"Uberwachen," Katja clarified, to which Selena shook her head.
"No?" she said, looking over at Janika, who was still at the cage humming cheerfully.
Panic hit Leigh when Katja mentioned Selena being a monitor, and her mouth fell open as she turned around to face away from everyone. She tried discretely to pull Janika's file out of her bag while Katja continued to talk with Selena and Janika (they had somehow ended up chatting very quickly, and in Leigh's opinion, angrily, in German), but Aila noticed what the hairdresser was doing.
"Is it true?" she whispered to Leigh, peering over her shoulder at the document.
Leigh scanned through the information quickly. She eventually found the notes on Janika's monitor. "Shit."
"Double shit," Aila added.
They both slowly looked around, and then slowly turned their heads to stare at each other in blind panic. What was Janika thinking? How could she bring three other clones into her house and introduce them to this woman, whether she knew she was her monitor or not?
Leigh struggled to speak, but she wondered if Aila was thinking the same as her. If Selena was a monitor, she was under DYAD's control.
This could only end badly for them.
Aila read over the documents again and frowned, glancing over at the trio who were all still bickering in German.
"What should we do?" Aila asked with a sigh. "We still have to warn them, but if that woman's with DYAD, we're already in danger. Should we explain what's going on and then just leave and go…I don't know…just go elsewhere?"
Leigh drew in a deep breath and nodded. "Y-yeah. The longer we stay here, the more likely we'll get caught."
It was time to get tough.
"Oi, Selena," Leigh spoke loudly and confidently. The woman turned her attention to Leigh with wide, nervous eyes. "It's down here in black and white you're monitoring Janika, so don't even try to lie about it. We know things. We know things, and if you know what's good for you, you won't try to stop us or get in our way."
Everyone was quiet and still now, apart from Janika, who, every so often, ran her fingers over the bars of the cage as if to catch the attention of whatever beast lived inside.
"Yes, we are clones," Leigh continued. "Several others have been killed already. Aila and I," she gestured to the doctor as she spoke, "just about managed to escape the killer before coming to find Katja. If you need proof, we can give you proof, but we had to at least warn you." Leigh stepped back and looked directly at Aila. "I dunno where we go from here," she said quietly so only Aila could hear.
"Ve speak to Rat now," Katja spoke up. She stood and began looking around Janika's room for something. Leigh swore under her breath when she realised Katja had spotted what she was looking for. The German lowered her sunglasses and eyed a laptop lying on a cluttered desk near the sofa. She hesitated, then darted towards it, picking it up.
"Oh no," Leigh snapped. "Katja-"
"I told Rat I vould update her," Katja said matter-of-factly. "My laptop is packed away. Too much faffing. This is quicker."
At some point during this conversation, Janika pulled her focus from the mysterious creature in the cage, and fully turned her attention back to Selena, who was looking even paler than usual. The blue-haired clone frowned. "Ya were spyin' too? That true?" she asked quietly.
Selena sighed and buried her face in her hands, and Aila recognized the look of wishing it was all a bad dream. She felt somewhat bad for Selena. The doctor recalled Leigh's theory that the monitors might be victims themselves.
"Jan…I…they gave me no choice," Selena began quietly. "Look, you remember my boy? Karl?"
Janika frowned and nodded. "Yeah? He's got some kinda…somethinorother up with 'em, right? Ya sent 'em off for treatments? What 'bout 'em?"
Selena frowned at her hands. "The treatments were offered for free…from DYAD, in exchange for weekly updates about how you're fairing. It was odd to me, but there was no other way. I couldn't afford them…I swear I didn't know about…" She waved a hand around at the others. "About this, but that doctor, Dr. Leekie…he's made it more than clear now that if I don't do as he says, he'll stop Karl's medicine…"
Leigh felt her hands ball tight into fists. Her teeth clenched together painfully as anger welled up in her heart. How could Leekie do something like that? It was bad enough knowing DYAD were controlling a junkie that way, but this…this was a whole new low completely. "Bastards!" Leigh hissed under her breath, biting back the sudden urge to punch something.
"YOU DID WHAT?!" a new voice came through, slightly distorted.
Janika and Selena both jumped and looked over to see Katja calmly kneeling on the floor in front of a laptop. The face of another, very angry clone was displayed on the screen.
"OI! Who the friggin' 'ell said ya could go and use that?!" Janika snapped. Selena just stared.
Leigh groaned and put a hand over her head to try to ward off her growing headache. While she made a point to put distance between herself and the laptop, Aila slowly inched nearer and carefully sat down on the sofa.
"You vanted me to update you, ja?" Katja told Rat coolly. "Janika knows. Ve have her monitor here also." Katja turned the laptop so the camera could show Rat Janika and Selena, who both flinched a little in response.
"You can't just take my laptop-"
"Hush," Katja interrupted. "This ez important. Shut up and listen."
"Katja, what the HELL ARE YOU ON?!" Rat's voice shrieked from the laptop. "YOU'RE THERE WITH A MONITOR? Holy hell; this is a WHOLE new level of stupid…I can't even…I just…" Rat trailed off. Katja eyed the screen as Rat rose from her seat and disappeared off camera, apparently to calm herself down.
"She ever not mad?" Leigh shot coolly.
"Everyone just…calm down," Aila spoke up. She rubbed her forehead for a second before looking around at everyone. "Getting angry won't solve anything. The most important thing to remember is there's a killer after us, and we need to make sure we're safe."
"You need to get the hell away from Janika's house first!" Rat could be heard from the laptop. "And you need to find a way to keep that monitor quiet, because you're screwed if you don't!"
Selena shrunk back and sat back down. Leigh wondered if she might cry. Janika stood and wandered back over to the cage, seemingly distracting herself from everything by focusing on whatever lived in it.
Things in the room became silent, and very tense. Aila sighed and ran a hand through her hair, glancing around at everyone before quietly walking over to a chair to sit down. Although this meeting wasn't quite as disastrous as when she met Leigh, it was far from ideal. She quietly reflected on what Selena said. It was absolutely disgusting to think that the ones who effectively created the clones would sink to such levels.
Finally, after several minutes, Rat reappeared in her chair, rubbing her head. She shook her head and typed again, passing another few several minutes without a word before addressing the other clones. "Whoever your mystery killer is, they've left Scotland," Rat explained slowly and clearly. "Yesterday morning, a clone was found dead in Wales, and another this morning in Belgium. Both were gunshot victims. Same caliber rounds as what was recovered from the other corpses. Whoever they are, they're moving fast and effectively. DYAD are aware of it, and seem to be informing monitors to keep an extra eye out. If you lot leave now and that one keeps her trap shut, it'll be like you were never there. Just wait for them to contact you about this and act surprised."
Selena nodded quietly, still looking at her hands and not daring to look at Janika. She had no idea what this would mean for their friendship, which had been genuine, and which had existed before she'd been dragged into the conspiracy.
Leigh couldn't help glancing at Aila, who watched her right back. They knew they were thinking the same as each other. The killer had killed a monitor before, so who was to say Selena would be safe from them if she remained here? Or any of the clones' monitors, friends or family, for that matter?
"Shit," Leigh whispered. This was proving to be harder than she ever imagined. She couldn't save everyone DYAD had used, created and corrupted…could she?
"You need to establish a base," Rat spoke up again, still typing away rapidly. "You need somewhere safe to disappear to for a while. I would suggest doing that sooner rather than later. That way you can stay off the grid instead of traveling around and risking running into the killer, or even DYAD for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised if they come looking for you lot; especially that one."
Leigh didn't have to see who Rat was trying to gesture at to know she meant her. She couldn't help glaring…but Rat was right. It only made sense.
"So, ve come to you?" Katja suggested.
Rat grumbled. "Like hell you lot are coming here. You find your own place."
"Well do you have any suggestions, then?" Leigh snapped.
Rat was silent for several minutes as her typing filled the air again. It was a sound Leigh was quickly growing to hate.
"Where are the rest of the ones you're looking for exactly? What countries?" Rat asked.
"There's one in France, and one in Italy," Leigh muttered with a sigh. "And also one in Canada, but I'm pretty sure she'll be safe for a while."
The hacker nodded to herself and turned back to the screen. "My suggestion, not that any of you ever listen, would be to buy a property somewhere in Switzerland under a false name and stay there for a while. It borders Germany, Austria, France, and Italy, and therefore gives you room to go where you need to go."
"I ain't friggin' leavin' home to come live with a bunch of weirdos in a random place," Janika spoke up. She looked around at everyone when she realized they were staring at her. "No offence or nothin'."
"Yeah, cause we're the weirdoes," Leigh muttered under her breath.
"Zank you for your expertise, Rat," Katja said. "Ve vill let you go now."
"If ANY of this backfires on me, you will all have hell to pay," Rat warned them before Katja ended the call. "Just…for God's sake, use some common sense."
The call ended. Everyone was silent until Katja turned off the laptop and shut the lid. "So, ve must look for a property. Zis ez turning out to be quite an adventure, ja?"
"Fuck's sake," Leigh sighed to herself. "What about her?" She nodded at Selena. "We gonna take her into hiding as well? All the other monitors and people involved we'll meet in future? How're we supposed to hide and protect everyone under one roof? I hate to admit it, but Rat's right. If DYAD finds us, what then?"
"Do we even have enough money to get a place?" Aila questioned.
Leigh shrugged. "I have a lot more in my bank, but I don't wanna risk withdrawing it. Not unless Rat'll hack my account for us or something, but I can't see her doing that."
Katja stood up. She looked around at everyone and readjusted her sunglasses. "I can help vith zis. I have money."
Aila nodded. "I do too, but I don't think mine's safe to touch right now with everything going on back in Scotland." She frowned, but she didn't want to say what exactly was happening in Scotland for fear of spooking Janika and Selena. The doctor sighed to herself. She wondered if the other doctors she'd befriended thought she was a murderer too.
Looking around the room, Aila rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't suppose anyone here knows anything about the Swiss housing market?" she asked nervously.
Meeting with Janika had possibly been the most stressful task yet (besides narrowly avoiding being shot in the head and discovering the dead body of Aila's monitor, that is). After some debate, Aila, Leigh and Katja agreed to leave Janika's house so she could discuss the situation with Selena. Leigh had been reluctant; she was concerned about leaving them to fend for themselves, but Aila convinced her that the two of them needed space and time to get their heads around what had just happened.
After giving Janika the numbers for their pink clone phones, they left the eccentric house, and found a hotel.
"So ve need to come up with a plan of action," Katja said that evening.
The three of them were sitting in their hotel room, having showered, eaten, and prepared for bed. Leigh was lying flat on her back on one of the beds, staring at the ceiling, while Katja and Aila sat on two chairs to look through their documents and come up with a plan.
"We need a false name, according to Rat," Leigh yawned. "Any ideas?"
"I think we should look into locations and properties first so we know how much we need to spend," Aila suggested.
Suddenly, one of the clone phones rang. Checking around, they discovered it was Aila's, though the display didn't show a name. The doctor blinked slowly, slightly alarmed. "Uh guys, should I answer this? It's not showing any name or number," she told the others.
Without hesitation, Katja took the phone and answered it. "Hallo?" Aila stared at the other woman, having no idea how she could just do things without a care in the world. After a few minutes, the German woman put the phone on loud-speaker. "Go on."
"Fly to Zurich International Airport and find public transportation to a town called Appenzell," spoke the voice on the other end of the phone. From its matter-of-fact tone, Aila and Leigh knew exactly who they were talking to. "It's small, rural, and as far as I can tell, completely DYAD-free. There's a property there that's large but reasonably isolated. It'd make a good starting point."
"And just how the hell do you know about places in Switzerland?" Leigh asked dryly.
"If you want help, shut up and accept it," Rat snapped, and Leigh rolled her eyes.
"No one asked you for your help in the first place," Leigh grumbled.
"Ya know what? You're absolutely right. Fine, have fun bumbling over yourselves. I have better things to do anyway," Rat said sharply before the line went dead.
Aila sighed and shook her head, but chose not to comment. She instead looked over a map she'd found in a book in the hotel.
Katja lazily handed the phone back to Aila. "Rat…she does mean vell." She stared intently at Leigh as she spoke. "Ve are going to need her. Don't make zis more difficult zan it already ez."
Leigh pulled at her own hair irritably and rolled over onto her stomach. "Yeah, I know. I know. Just something about her rubs me the wrong way, that's all."
"You vill get used to her. She ez not all bad. Moody, yes, but she has our best interests at heart."
"What's the deal with her, anyway?" Leigh asked before she could stop herself. "I get we can't trust DYAD, but she has real beef with them. It's obvious it's personal or she wouldn't be so hateful."
"Not my place to discuss zis," Katja stated simply and firmly.
Leigh stared at her. She wasn't sure if Katja knew or not, but either way, she was probably right. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know anyway.
"I think we should just take Rat's advice," Aila said with a shrug. She placed the phone down on the table and simply looked at it for a while. "She seems to know what she's on about. I trust her."
"As do I," Katja agreed. They both looked at Leigh.
Leigh sighed impatiently. "Fine. We'll ask her more about this property in the morning and then make plans to go there. Dunno about you two, but I'm knackered."
"Yeah…" Aila said, rubbing her head, though she started to look vaguely apprehensive as she looked around the room.
They'd agreed to only get one room to save on costs, and also they agreed it would be best to stay together in case Selena gave them up. They'd stand a better chance of fending DYAD off if they stayed as a group.
Aila climbed into the nearest bed to her, and Katja yawned widely. While Leigh shuffled around trying to get comfortable under the quilt, the German clone scooted closer and climbed onto the same bed.
"Pass me those pillows," she instructed Leigh. "I vill sleep at zee other end."
"Yeah, whatever. Just don't kick me in the face," Leigh warned her. She grabbed two pillows and tossed them in Katja's direction.
"I vill if you snore," Katja warned right back.
Leigh watched her settle down, smirked, and then lay down herself. Rachel once told her she snored horribly when her parents convinced her to have a sleepover with the clone in their youth. It ended with the girls attempting to sleep in the garden after daring each other to test their bravery in the cold autumn night, and Leigh vividly recalled Rachel screaming loudly when a fox scurried past from a hole in the fence. Leigh spent the entire night mocking her, and neither of them slept. How Rachel could accuse of her snoring was still beyond Leigh.
Aila remained sitting up for a while. She wondered if the other women had fallen asleep, or if they were still awake, silently thinking and wondering and worrying, just as she was. It took a few minutes to realise she was sitting bolt upright, rather rigidly. She had to relax.
Biting her lip, and suppressing a sigh, Aila lay down, held the blankets close to her, and waited to fall asleep. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she should have pressed for her own room, even though she was aware of the very real danger of DYAD picking them up in the night.
Aila sighed heavily and lay awake for a bit, just listening to the deep breathing and slight snoring of the other two women in the room. She noted that both of them snored, though not very loudly. She couldn't help smirking.
The last few times Aila slept, she hadn't received any questions or noise complaints, so she hoped this would be an easy night as well. Eventually, Aila couldn't fight the urge to sleep. The complete exhaustion of the past few days caught up with her, overriding her anxiety by force.
For several hours, things were peaceful in the dark room...but then that silence was shattered by a series of whimpers, followed by a short, but loud screech. Aila flailed about in the bed as if trying to fight something off, her eyes closed tightly.
It took a few moments for Leigh to react. She vaguely heard the screaming in her sleep; she rolled over onto her side before feeling as though she was falling hard back into reality. Leigh sat bolt upright, swore loudly, and heard a loud thud and an irritable groan somewhere below her. The dark figure on the floor told her Katja had jumped awake and tumbled off of the bed in sheer panic.
"Shit," Leigh barely whispered. She felt around absently for a light switch before clumsily finding a lampshade and pulling on the string. Dim light flooded the room. "Aila…what…"
Katja stood up sleepily. Leigh watched, confused, as the German shuffled over to Aila's bed, her eyes still half shut and her hair a mess. Katja sat down and placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder to lightly shake her.
"Aila," she managed in a croaky voice. Aila rolled over, gasped in fright, and sat up straight, eyes wide, breathing heavily. It took a few moments for her to realise where she was and remember there were two other clones in the room.
Leigh watched her from her own bed, too nervous to move. The doctor inhaled sharp breaths, her hand instinctively going to her throat as she slowly came back to reality. She looked at Katja with wide and frightened eyes before her gaze slowly shifted over to Leigh, and her face burned as she met their concerned stares.
"S-Sorry…" she said quietly, quickly getting out of bed and making her way to the bathroom. "I-I just…sorry, go back to sleep." The doctor closed the door quickly behind her, leaning up against it as she buried her face in her hands, trying hard to calm down.
Katja froze for a while. She stared sleepily at the spot Aila had been lying, apparently unsure about what to do. Leigh, however, kicked back the quilt and stood up from the bed. Katja did not stop her when she realised Leigh was heading for the bathroom.
If Leigh was fully awake, she might have been more anxious about interrupting Aila, but her sleepy state seemed to give her a little more confidence to knock gently on the door, and risk pushing it open.
Aila was now standing in front of the mirror with her hands gripping the bathroom sink tightly. Leigh invited herself in, pushed the door to, and reached out to touch Aila's shoulder.
"Aila…"
Aila jumped slightly at the contact and glanced over briefly, before her gaze returned to the sink before her. "It's still early…go back to sleep, Leigh. I'll be fine, just…just need a minute."
Leigh couldn't help feeling slightly taken aback by Aila's reaction, but she knew it only made sense the doctor needed some space. Perhaps it had just been a bad dream…everyone had bad dreams from time to time…
Leigh withdrew her hand slowly. She watched Aila for a moment or two and briefly considered speaking, but she didn't know what else she could say. Instead, the English clone nodded, backed out of the door, and made her way back to the bed, where Katja sat hugging her knees, looking both curious and concerned at what had just happened.
After twenty minutes, the doctor reappeared from the bathroom and sighed, climbing into bed as she felt the curious stares of the other two. She gave them a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, I promise," she tried to reassure them as she settled in with her back against the headboard. She reached for a random book on the bedside table.
"If you are sure…" Katja said, though she looked unconvinced.
Aila nodded. "Yeah. I'll…explain in the morning. You guys need to sleep now. We don't have to be up for another few hours," she murmured quietly, nodding to the clock that told them it was only four in the morning.