Noah had been pushed into the corner of the office by Finley, although he bore no resistance to the orderly. Noah just watched Doctor Evans' lolling corpse as Finley said words that he couldn't hear. Even when Banks and a few other orderlies came into the room, Noah did not look away from the doctor. He could feel the familiar guilt creeping up his shoulders, that devil on his shoulder that had been so prevalent after the Crosshatch Club, the feelings that had kept him locked shut inside for a year after failing to save anyone on that List, despite what the girl had said.

At some point Finley had dragged Noah out of the room, pulling him down the corridor. Other staff members were poking their heads in through doors and already the small whispers could be heard through the corridor. Noah was bundled into another room that was empty and pushed roughly into the chair. He looked up to Finley and saw the orderly was still looking pale and concerned.

"Why'd you do it?" Finley shook his head. Noah thought the question was rhetorical and even if it wasn't, he wouldn't have answered anyway. It was hard to keep that feeling from overtaking his mind like a virus. "Jesus Christ, why'd you do it?" Finley tied Noah's hands to the chair back with zip-ties he pulled from his pocket and swiftly left the room, leaving Noah alone with his thoughts.

It was the same old question that was running through Noah's head. Could he have done more? He knew Doctor Evans was first on the List, yet instead of explaining to the doctor about what he had seen, he had instead asked fruitless questions about the Crosshatch Club. Yet Noah felt guilty not only because he didn't save the man, no, he felt more guilty that now he wouldn't hear what it was Doctor Evans' was going to say. Visions shouldn't happen anymore? Lists shouldn't happen anymore? The fact that Doctor Evans was now sitting in a chair with a pen in his eye begged to differ that fact.

Stop it, stop thinking, stop thinking about it Noah.

Noah could see the people he had taken out from the Crosshatch Club in his mind eye as he stared at the blank wall. He could see Gabriel, choked by his own hosepipe, eyes bulging out of his skull. There was Mary, struck by a speeding truck leaving nothing more than a red streak across the street. Harvey and Warren, Elliot and Luna. Encouraged by the girl with dark skin, Noah had tried to save him, not really understanding what he was doing. And every death hit him harder and harder, these strangers losing their lives because of him. The girl had assured him that he was doing everything he could, but that didn't matter in the long run.

The guilt Noah had found back then multiplied with every death. The guilt of survival, of failure to save the others, of being the one people looked at. He was the visionary, the one who had seen it, and he couldn't do a thing. Was history doomed to repeat itself? Was Noah's mind doomed to spiral yet again into a sinkhole of despair. Was this it, was this what broke him permanently?

The only thing that stopped Noah from descending into his own hysteria was the door being opened so viciously it rattled in the frame. Imogen Banks stood in the doorway, her blood red lips like a beacon of disaster. Her thin eyes were filled with what Noah could only describe as hate. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, clicking a lock shut with her thumb without even looking away from Noah. She stepped forward and crossed her arms.

"Are you going to talk?" Noah could already tell that it wasn't a question she expected him to answer. It was full of venom and spite. No, Noah suspected that even if he did answer his words would fall on deaf ears. "A murderer. It doesn't surprise me. The quiet ones are always the ones to watch out for. Even now, look at you, quiet. Good." Banks slowly walked around the table until she stood behind Noah. He felt her grasp his shoulders tightly. "I cannot tell you how much I hate Hearthome. They think they can help people like you. Fix people like you. But when something is broken, no matter how much you try, it never becomes as useful." Noah felt Banks' hands move down to his own wrists, and then felt the tightness of the bindings disappear. His hands were free.

"But at the same time, I love Hearthome." Banks' voice hissed into Noah's ear like the snake of Eden. "Have you ever seen an ambulance here? Or a police car? No, you haven't. That's because Hearthome handles things internally. It is a fully private facility backed by some very rich people. People who care about what happens in the light but don't mind looking away from the dark. Do you know what that means? It means I get to do what I want, when I want. It means that I can punish you people the right way, not with fancy words and false promises of help. No, fear is what achieves results."

Noah expected the blow, but hadn't quite expected the force behind it. Banks' open palm caught him directly in the jaw, splitting his lip and sending him tumbling to the floor. On all fours, Noah silently watched the small drips of blood splash against the carpet, feeling the pulse in his split lip.

"We got around five minutes before the investigators get here. Five. Whole. Minutes." The toe of Banks' steel boot caught Noah's ribs, throwing him onto his back. Noah stared up at the woman silently, feeling the blood of his lip slipping down his chin, tasting it where it dripped into his mouth. "They'll lock you up while they investigate." The word was said with disdain. "I don't know why they bother. You killed the doctor. Killed a man. Just because you're crazy you people think you can get away with something like that." Banks crouched down over Noah. "So I'm going to show you what happens when you people get above your place." She grinned widely, leaning her face close to Noah's, the red of her lips highlighting the whiteness of her teeth. "So you like to stay quiet? Well I'll certainly change that."

Noah wasn't certain what made him do what he did next. He very rarely aggravated people, even back before everything changed. He disliked conflict and would admonish his friends who got a little too rowdy at the pubs and clubs. He was a pacifist at heart and this made him absolutely opposed to what Imogen Banks stood for. Noah was perfectly aware of what she was like, heard many stories, had seen it happen, but never had he felt like he should step in. When he was admitted to Hearthome, his pacifism corroded into simple apathy. Nevertheless, the way Banks not only spoke about him, but more particularly about the people at Hearthome, that dug into Noah. Perhaps he used that anger to replace his spiralling mind.

Noah spat blood into the face of Imogen Banks.

Banks looked surprised, the crimson spit spattering over her right eye. She stepped back and wiped it slowly away with her fingers. She turned away for a moment and Noah took the chance to slowly climb to his feet, pressing his back against the wall. He already knew that his act of defiance was going to cost him dearly.

"My words are wasted on you people," her voice was quiet. Banks turned around and her face was cast in abject fury. She took a step forward, swung her arm, and planted her fist so hard in Noah's stomach that he inadvertently gasped, the wind taken right out of him. He felt himself pushed to the floor and the blows started raining down on him, catching him in the shoulders, the top of his head, the cheek. Each blow stung more than the last and it was all he could do to try and cover with his arms.

Eventually, the blows stopped and Noah found himself curled up on the floor. His face was one big simmering pot of pain, he could feel newborn bruises and felt around some loose teeth with his tongue. He certainly wasn't going to be a pretty sight, that was for sure. Banks was panting, her pale face dripping with sweat, black hair stuck to her forehead.

"I don't understand…" She hissed, her shoulders heaving up and down from the exertion. "Why won't you scream for me? You think you can keep your cool? I'll make you scream…" Banks looked like she belonged in the slacks of the residents and not the uniform of the orderly as she stood there, fingers twitching. "You see, Doctor Evans was a popular man, Noah. Well respected in his craft. You've messed with a lot of people by doing what you did." Banks stepped over Noah and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him back up against the wall. "They don't have the balls to do what I do, so I do it for them. They know what needs to be done but I am the only one willing to do it. They know I can get away with it. My father is one of the richest men in England, Noah, and highly influential to Hearthome. I can get away with whatever I want as long as I don't kill anyone… and I just had an idea."

Banks threw Noah across to the table and pushed him down backfirst against it with her arm pinned against his chest to stop him from struggling, not that Noah had any plans to exacerbate the situation. Him spitting his blood had been the extent of his rebellion. The pain in his face and shoulders was enough to know that fighting would only make things worse. Banks raised her free hand above Noah's face, close enough for him to make out her nails, painted as red as her lips.

"Have you ever heard the phrase, an eye for an eye?"

Her thumb made its way towards Noah's right eye. He squeezed his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to resist what was going to happen next but it was a futile attempt.

Noah screamed.

Outside the administrative building, things were a hive of activity. The gathering crowd of intrigued residents were being kept back by orderlies, ignoring orders to disperse but not actively getting any closer. Robyn carefully prised her way through the crowd, holding her camcorder safely to her chest, until she managed to get to the front of the crowd. There were two large black vehicles in front of the entrance, completely unmarked and looking vaguely like pitch-black work vans. Standing around the vehicles, and around the entrance of the administrative building, were figures clad completely in black like riot-police; black boots, black gloves, black uniform, black helmets. They all wore patches on their shoulders that depicted a cross, with small circles at the tip of each end. Where the four lines intersected was a small diamond.

Note to self: Investigate that symbol, Robyn thought as she stood in front of an exhausted orderly trying to keep the crowd back. What the heck is going on?

It was then that she noticed the gurney next to one of the vehicles, surrounded by three black-clad figures. But the shape on top was covered in what looked suspiciously like a black body-bag. The figures looked like they were talking and then the gurney was carried into the back of one of the vehicles and with a rumble of engines, it drove off down one of the roadways leading up to Hearthome.

The murmurs of the crowd grew louder as the doors to the administrative building opened up and two orderlies emerged, carrying a third figure. The orderlies Robyn recognised immediately as Sullivan and Banks, the two most well-known in Hearthome, if on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. But Robyn's attention was immediately drawn to the figure they were holding, slacks drenched in blood, face nearly unrecognisable under new swelling and bruisings. "Noah!" Robyn couldn't stop herself, surging forward past the orderly in front of her and darting past two of the black-garbed men. "Oh my God, Noah!"

Robyn stopped in front of Noah and found one brown eye staring back. Just one. Noah's right eye was nothing but a small, shallow, shadowed hole. "Your eye… What… What happened?"

"…Rob…yn…" Noah's voice was barely audible over the hubbub of the crowd.

"Girl, get back with the crowd, now," Banks reached out with her free hand to Robyn but Sullivan immediately pushed it back.

"Enough, Imogen, just enough." Sullivan's usual friendly face was grim and foreboding. He turned to Robyn. "Please, head back to the crowd. We need to get Noah immediate medical attention."

"What did you do?!" Robyn's accusation was directly at Banks. "You've always been a corrupt bastard, is this what you do to us now?" She held her camcorder to her eye, training the lens directly at Banks. "One of these days I'm going to find a way to get you out of Hearthome!" She spun her attention back to Noah. "Noah, Noah, talk to me, what happened?"

"Let's go," Sullivan said as he and Banks started dragging Noah towards the other vehicle. "I'm sorry Robyn, but you will need to go. You can't follow us."

"Where are you taking him?! You don't need a vehicle to get him to medical, it's just over there." Robyn could feel desperation gripping her. "Don't take him anywhere, stop!" She reached forward and grabbed Banks' arm. "Get off of him, get off of him right now!"

"Can we get some help here?" Sullivan called out and another orderly came from behind Robyn, gently grabbing her shoulder.

"No, get off, get off of me! Don't take Noah away!"

"Robyn!" This time Noah's voice was louder, although it sounded as if he had been chewing on rocks. "…Help them, please…"

"It's alright, miss," one of the black-clad men got in front of Robyn, blocking her view of Noah. "Your friend will be absolutely fine. He has suffered some extreme injuries that the medical facility here doesn't have the tools to deal with. We are going to treat him off-site but he will be back by tomorrow evening at the latest, okay? He will be put in the infirmary and you will be able to visit him then, but you have to let us do our jobs."

"Who even are you people? I've never seen you before, I don't understand."

"I'm afraid I can't answer questions here, okay, there is already too much of a stir right now. You and the other residents ought to get back to the dorms, please?"

"It's that Banks… She did that to Noah, I know it! You can't just let her…"

"We know," the man flipped up the visor and Robyn found herself immediately comforted by the friendly amber eyes, despite the scar on the man's cheek stretching past his helmet. "Our priority is Noah's health and safety. We will be conducting an investigation on both situations that have happened this morning, and will treat both of them with the utmost care they rightly deserve. Can you trust us to take care of this situation?"

Robyn had no choice. She let the orderly drag her back to the crowd, which was now slowly dispersing now that it was clear nothing else was happening. Robyn watched, camcorder to her eye, as the kindly-eyed man climbed into the last black vehicle and then watched it drive away, past the open interior gates of Hearthome, carrying away Noah.

"This is no fuckin' good," Conner's voice surprised Robyn and she turned to see him standing next to her in the crowd. "They don't come out of the woodwork unless something really dire has happened."

"Do you know who they were?"

"Yes. And I don't like it. But it does mean that what you and that Noah were talking about was likely true… shit…" Conner ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "But I'll tell you one thing, girl. If they've got their claws on Noah, I wouldn't expect to see him back in Hearthome anytime soon. I'm sorry. But it sounds to me he left you with a job to do." Conner let out a long sigh. "Don't look at me like that. I could be wrong. That's not the logo I recognise. Maybe it's not them. Fat chance, though. Either way, I don't like this idea that it was my hands in this vision of his. I am not that person he saw and I want to prove it. Take it or leave it, but I want to help you."

Robyn stared at Conner. "You know that you are absolutely terrible at comforting someone. Are you telling me that Noah is not coming back?"

"I'm just sayin' that if they are the people who put me here, then they're interested in Noah for whatever reason. But I could be full of shit, you know? But hey, you know what?" Conner pointed past Robyn to where Sullivan was in the face of a very angry looking Banks. "Look at her hands. You and I know what she's done. I say while you wait for Noah to get back, let's help him with what he needs, and while we're doing that, let's finally bring the big bitch Banks herself down."

Robyn trained her camcorder on Banks' bloodied and bruised hands. Yes, she wanted to do something about Imogen Banks, she knew that. She wanted to help Noah, she knew that too. The only question was, was Conner right? Could she trust the man with the amber eyes? Would she ever see Noah again?