There was a soft pattering sound that slowly lulled Erin from her sleep. She turned her head on her pillow and opened an eye to the window opposite her. Gentle raindrops tapped against the glass rivulets forming and running down the pane. Erin buried her face into her pillow while slowly stretching. Waking up to rain was one of her favorite things. She glanced at her bedside alarm clock and saw that it was almost about 10:00 A.M. Time to get up. No rushing though. She was going to make coffee and open the windows downstairs so a cool breeze would waft through the house making it smell like fresh wet earth. Erin stopped in the bathroom to splash water on her face when she noticed three small scratches on her cheek. She touched them curiously. They hadn't been there yesterday. She must have scratched herself in her sleep. She continued to look at them. It was odd though that they were each the exact same length as if done with precision and care. It must have happened in her sleep. Extra concealer would take care of them and that was the end of the matter.

Erin went down the hall to peek into Brigid's room. Dirty dishes, check. Brigid sprawled with twisted blankets everywhere sleeping deeply, check. Erin quietly closed the door and headed downstairs. She turned the coffee pot on and stretched once more. She would do a load of laundry before the evening came rolling around. Pouring herself a cup of coffee she looked at the flyer on the fridge. Despite the shady circumstances of how Brigid got the flyer, Erin was actually interested in going. Even though she knew exactly what the "freaks" would be "performing" it would be fun to go, sit back, and enjoy. There was no terror involved in Erin's mind even though the flyer stated "not for the faint of heart." Please. It was all so obvious. She knew Brigid and Ellie weren't afraid to see the show either. They just wanted to experience the spectacle of seeing a real-life freak show since they were considered relics of the past.

Brigid came walking into the kitchen sluggishly, far earlier than Erin had anticipated, grabbing a box of cereal and thrusting her hand into the box eating it plain.

"Don't you want a bowl and milk?"

"Mmmr-mmm." Brigid mumbled her decline and headed straight for the couch falling onto it with a boomf.

Erin washed her coffee mug and went upstairs to take a shower. It would still be a couple of hours before Brigid was even coherent to do anything. After her shower Erin wrapped a towl around her chest and one for her hair grabbing her dirty clothes bin and taking it downstairs into the laundry room. She started the load and walked out seeing Brigid still munching dry cereal lying on the couch. She went back upstairs to slip on some underwear and blow-dry her hair. She got it to style easily enough so before leaving for the evening she could fluff it up once more and it would be set all over again. Erin threw on sweatpants and a t-shirt and went downstairs to sit in the chair next to the couch. Brigid was watching her favorite show on Netflix and seemed to be more awake now. She was actually sitting up with her feet on the coffee table.

"Is that how you're going to do your hair tonight?" She asked crunching cereal in her mouth.

"Yeah. It'll be quick and easy to touch-up." Erin replied now setting her feet onto the coffee table.

"Looks good. All volumed and wavy. Very sexy." Brigid flipped her hair making a pouty face.

"Oh quit, good Lord. You don't even need to do anything with your hair except flip it like that and you're ready to go. Hate you." Erin pushed Brigid's feet with her feet.

"Bet those freaks will want a tase of you, cupcake. You better work it tonight. Step it up, girl." Brigid continued to tease doing poses.

Erin looked at her deadpan and stuck her tongue out.

Brigid laughed and ran her hand through her hair turning a little more serious. "Okay, but for real now, you haven't had any flashes, have you? Nothing last night?" Brigid cocked her head slighty. "Where did you get those scratches"

Erin shook her head. "I must have scratched myself in my sleep. No other way to explain it. and I haven't had a true real flash since the one, what, two and a half weeks ago? The guy stalking the one girl from your highschool that we took care of. That's been it so far. Well, no, wait, I did have one at work this week but it was psychometric. It was a patient in ICU with acute kidney failure. I touched him to administer his meds and check his IV and that's when I saw inside his head. He was younger. Working on his farm. He was rebuilding a fence and he looked up at me and gave me a wave. I knew he was going to pass within the hour thinking he was on the farm that he loved." Erin wiped her eyes. After seeing things and feeling them sometimes Erin would display a sudden shift in emotions which tended to catch people off guard since she was always so even-keeled and pragmatic.

"That's nice you got to share that with him though." Brigid said quietly.

"Yeah, I guess so." Erin shook her head ridding herself of the feeling. "What about you? Any new sequences reveal themselves?"

Brigid grew quiet furrowing her brow. Erin looked at her silently.

"What did you see, Brigid?"

Brigid fidgeted on the couch. "It's a harder one to explain. Like, the whole sequence isn't there, I only have parts of it but even fewer parts than usual. There's...an alley, a web, purple, wet pavement, a busted screened in patio...and I can't make out the rest of them. They're shrouded more than usual. The x's, y's, and z's are hazy so I can't even give a general area of what..." Brigid ran her hand through her hair in frustration. "There's no central axis and not enough points in space to...you know what I mean." Brigid huffed. Erin knew it really bothered Brigid when the "equations", as they had come to call them, lacked enough variables to at least make an educated guess of what the end product could most likely be, even if there were a few possibilities available. Brigid did not like chaos. She liked numbers and orders and conclusions and that was her gift. She sometimes said she envied Erin's ability. There was nothing to figure out, the truth was all right there, even if it was not a truth of an organized outcome. Erin would joke back with her but honestly she wouldn't want Brigid to have her ability. Small flashes of the future and uncontrollable empathy drained Erin's spirit and psyche. It was often like sinking into the ocean and feeling the ocean's ever increasing pressure as she sank deeper and deeper and deeper. Yet Brigid's could be just as difficult and draining. Constantly having new variables pop into her head, trying to figure out the pattern and reasoning, which variables go where to which equations to which ultimate conclusions. It was like she was constantly doing differential equations from the entire spectrum of modalities that used differential functions and systems. Brigid had notebooks upon notebooks of all the bits and parts that come to her that she has to put together to figure the overall outcome and why. It was like being psychic but via math. That was the simplest, less stressful way of putting it. They both knew what they meant and what they went through.

Erin quietly watched Brigid start thinking about the small facts she had come to her but Erin was not going to sit by and watch her younger sister start to obsess and forget she was a teenager going out for a fun night.

"Hey!" Erin kicked the side of Brigid's legs bringing her out of her head.

"Ow! The hell, man?" Brigid exclaimed.

"It's getting close to starting our freaky adventure! I'm going to fold my laundry while you take a shower and get ready. What are you and Ellie planning on wearing tonight?"

"We talked about it last night and we figured we'd do dressy casual like if we were just going to a nice restaurant or out with friends, y'know? No reason to get too dolled up. It's a freak show, not a fashion show. Like, what, we're going to get hit on? No. So that's what we've decided. I have a couple outfit ideas that I need to run by you and I'll help you choose something, too."

"What? You don't have to help me choose something. If it's dressy casual I fit that category perfectly."

"And I am just looking out for you so that no one thinks that you're my literal mother." Brigid said innocently.

"Ha, ha. Cute." Erin stood up heading to the laundry room and yelled behind her. "Go get started. You know it takes you forever and we don't want to run behind and be late for the show!"