The face was so close she could taste the day's worth of sweat and grime beading across her top lip. Sarah scrunched her eyes together, willing the monster to disappear but every time she looked up, the dark, red-ringed eyes seared into her own. She was humming to Sarah now, slightly off key. The way they made children's lullabies sound like they belonged in horror films. There was a broken pipe somewhere in the distance and every few seconds, its contents drip, drip, dripped onto the wet floor. Sarah looked down at her body but it wasn't there. And then the beast spoke.

"Dirty little copy-cop." The words oozed from the back of her throat.

Sarah was silent. She watched as the monster's eyes turned desperate.

"Who are you?" Helena spoke again.

Sarah shut her eyes. No, no, no, no.

When she looked again, Helena was crying, yelling in agony. "Can you feel it?"

Sarah's mouthed couldn't open. She tried to reply. Tried to scream for help but no sound came out.

"Can you feel it?" Helena raised a knife above her head and shattered the blade into a million pieces. Each pin prick landing in Sarah's arm. "CAN YOU FEEL IT?!"

Sarah woke with a shudder. She glanced to her side and saw Paul laying on the other side of Beth's bed. "Jesus." Sarah whispered as she crept towards the bathroom for a better light. She could still feel the prick of the blade hanging on her skin but there was nothing in her arm. Except a new freckle.

Brushing her teeth, she inspected the new discovery but before she could get a better look, the brush caught on something at the back of Sarah's throat. Amongst the toothpaste in the sink, Sarah coughed up a tiny piece of plastic resembling something you would find in a hospital.

"What the fuck?"

. . .

"Okay, it's an electrode. From an electroencephalogram array". Cosima's face was pixelated on the screen as she peered at the device Sarah held between her fingertips.

"A what?" The Londoner inspects the small piece.

"An EEG Helmet. It monitors electrical activity in the brain."

"So it wasn't a bloody dream then, was it?". Well, not all of it anyways. Sarah neglected to tell anyone about her nightmare featuring the new killer clone.

Cosima reckoned the tiny needle mark on her arm was from a blood sample and that this EEG was another test administered whilst she slept. The scientist had begun speculating and she mumbled on about 'monitors' – spies. Or as she put it, "observers close to the experiment".

"Oh my God! I knew it. We're all lab rats in an illegal experiment!" Alison stood, panicking next to Felix.

"Sarah, where was Paul during all this?" Cosima's question drowned out the soccer mom's hysteria.

Was Paul in on this too? Did he set it up? "Cosima, what'd they do to me?".

"I think you'd know if they'd done anything really invasive."

"Oh my God!" Felix grimaced in shock.

"An EEG is like a neurological test and that mark on your arm looks like a blood sample. It sounds diagnostic." The way that Cosima's educated mind worked made her sound so rational but, to Sarah, there was nothing rational about any of this.

"With Paul in on it… I dunno." One thing she was pretty certain of, however, was her ability to suss out a mark.

"Why? Just because he slept with you?" Felix seemed to forget where he was for a moment as he twiddled his sister's dark hair and attempted to entice gossip from her,

Sarah batted his hand away in exasperation, "Fe!". There was a pregnant pause. "Yeah, we sort of ended up shagging." Sarah sighed, defeated.

Cosima puffed on her joint, "Dude, that's complex…"

. . .

"Beth's boyfriend is her monitor?" Em whispered down the phone, leaning back into the chair. Felix and Sarah had found surveillance equipment in the cop clone's car, evidence to suggest that the hunky boy-toy was a little more interested in Beth's life than they had originally thought. But if Beth had a monitor, someone watching her every move and reporting back to the puppeteer of this whole fucked up experiment, then surely it was naïve to think that she wasn't the only clone being spied on.

"What about Sarah, Fe? Could she have a… a monitor?" The teen lowered her voice, glancing cautiously around the school library.

Em wondered if Mrs S' scepticism towards Alison's portrayal of Sarah went further than just a hunch. An international human cloning experiment was a long shot but S knew something was up, the question was: how much did she know?

Felix guffawed into the phone, "Ha! Well, let's see. Mrs S hates her and she hasn't seen her in a year and … I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"Maybe that's why I'd be so good, no one would suspect it! What makes you so sure it isn't me?" A wry smile crept across Em's face.

"Alright, little Miss Speculative. Sounds like you'd be better suited as Cosima's monitor."

The mention of the scientist brought Em back to her research. As much as she was concerned about the rogue killer and keeping S and Kira away from everything clone related, she couldn't help but keep repeating Cosima's words over and over again.

What I really want to know is where you stand in all of this… You're not just a coincidence.

It had never been officially proven that Sarah and Em were biological sisters but the teen wasn't too bothered about her familial origins, having grown up in Siobhan Sadler's patchwork family of misplaced youth. Being an orphan, a ward of the state was one thing that really bonded the siblings together so the introduction of these genetic 'sisters' felt somewhat threatening. On the other it was a big, loud question reminder of her genetically-questionable existence. She needed to get in touch with the scientist somehow and talk through the genetics of them both.

Em suspected from her first meeting with Cosima that the scientist was eager to figure out who Emma really was and she was involved. However, something told her that Felix and Sarah, especially, wouldn't be as enthusiastic as their younger sister, so Em would have to tread carefully. "Speaking of our new friends, when's our next meeting?"

"Do you think we have regularly scheduled Clone Club meetings or something? Alison brings the baked goods and Cosima provides the petri dish?" Felix chuckled at his own joke and Em rolled her eyes, pressing the subject.

"Well, don't you think we should be a little more invested in this, Fe? I know Sarah is only concerned about the bare minimum but this isn't just a weird, estranged cousin that's popped into our lives – this is a big deal!"

"I know, I know!"

Em surveyed the room again, checking to make sure nobody was listening, "Listen, I've been doing some research of my own since finding out about all of this. Human cloning… well, it's technically possible so it only makes sense that this is actually happening but… how come it isn't public knowledge?"

"Oh so now you're tangling yourself up in conspiracy theories? Be careful, my love, they're just like Pringles, once you pop you just can't stop." He emphasised the last three words with his lyrical timbre.

"Fe, listen!" Em snapped under breath, "This is like playing God; the only way someone could have covered up the biggest scientific breakthrough of this century is with money. A fuck ton of it, yeah? Paying people to keep their mouths shut or having enough means to get rid off any whistle-blowers. An organisation that powerful? We shouldn't just shrug this off."

Felix was quiet for a moment and then let out a sigh, "Christ, as messed up as that sounds, you have a point. But Em, you can't let yourself get so wrapped up in all of this. I'm only calling to fill you in on this morning's news so you're kept in the loop. We probably shouldn't even be talking about this over the phone. If Sarah knew how worked up you –"

"Give it a rest, Fe. I'm fine!" Em groaned in frustration. Her brother was right though - it was one thing to find out about your sister's clone ancestry but it was a completely different level to find out that they were all being hunted down and by a psycho-killer clone nonetheless. Truthfully, it had worked Em up and she couldn't stop thinking about it so much so it kept her up constantly and she was exhausted. But of course, she would never admit that. "I just think if these monitors are supposedly close friends and family, we need to focus on how deep they go and who they're reporting to."

Felix's brow furrowed in worry. His younger sister had grown up way too much in the past week. He knew she was right about all of this; they should be more worried about who had created the clones and why they were now 'cleaning' up their mess. But like everything else concerning his older sister, Felix let Sarah take control of the situation and he was happier to follow her lead.

Em looked up at the clock just as the school bell rang, and students started to trickle out of the library building, "I have to go now".

"Please promise me you'll stop heading down this rabbit hole until we know more?"

"Okay, okay. And you'll keep me updated with anything new?"

"Of course, darling. Now, get back to class, you're late!"

. . .

Sarah stood outside the school, wrapped in Beth's coat and gloves but that still didn't stop her from shaking. This was the first time she could actually be Kira's mum after ten months and it was scaring the shit out of her. How would her little girl react? Would Kira even consider Sarah a mother figure anymore? All Sarah knew was that because of her actions, she had missed out on a year of being Kira's mother, on watching her grow up, on sharing her secrets. The list was endless but Sarah was back now, back for good and that was what she needed to prove to her little girl.

"Hey." Sarah absentmindedly picked up her phone.

"How did Paul-gate go? Does his job exist?" Felix's melodic voice resonated through the line.

Sarah sighed, "He's a bastard. Paul. Beth loved him but he wouldn't love her back and he wouldn't leave her."

"Hmm. Well he's certainly changed his tune now, hasn't he?" Felix thought back to a few days ago when he had scurried to hide away as soon as Paul had unexpectedly returned home only to overhear the two of them getting all hot and bothered. And earlier today, Sarah had told him and the clones that she had slept with him. Again. "Sarah he's falling for you."

"God, what a mess." Sarah shook her head, conflicted about how she felt. Paul was a cold-hearted arsehole to Beth but to someone as fucked up as Sarah, he provided some kind of stability in their fake little relationship. Sarah would never admit that she kind of liked playing house with the Ken doll. "Doesn't matter now. We just have to keep checking on the surveillance."

The school bell rang and soon after, children burst out through the doors, running towards their guardians. Sarah took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'm outside Kira's school. Of all the things that scare me right now, Fe, this one's the heaviest."

"You know she can't wait to see you."

"Yeah, thanks. She's the only thing that really matters, you know." More and more children poured out of the doors.

There was a knock at Fe's door, "I know, um, give her my love okay", he said, distractedly, and hung up.

Now Sarah was truly alone, no one to take her away from this moment. This was purely mother and daughter and it made her queasy. She stared at the doors as the trickle of students began to slow and then, finally, the littlest of them wandered out.

Sarah took a few small steps towards her as Kira was still scanning the playground, looking for her carer. Then her gaze drifted towards her mother's and she eyed her suspiciously.

Sarah smiled, tears starting to build up and burn her eyes, "Hey,". She let out a small voice and slowly knelt down in front of the young girl. "It's me this time."

Kira continued to walk cautiously towards Sarah, looking her up and down before a smile broke out across her face and she reached towards her mother, closing the distance between them, "I know."

Sarah let out a small laugh in between tears as she wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter. Her daughter. Her baby. After a moment, she leant away from the embrace and held onto Kira's little hands, looking into her beautiful, deep brown eyes.

"God, I missed you so much." She managed to get out through her quivering breaths.

"I missed you too." Kira's voice was soft and warm. It felt like home.

Sarah was so young when she had Kira. She hadn't grown up since the strip turned pink, all the while Kira had grown into a beautifully smart and curious child. Sarah felt a twang of guilt, knowing she was not responsible for a lot of that goodness.

"Why are you wearing such fancy clothes?" Kira asked inquisitively.

Sarah chuckled, "You don't miss a thing, do you?" She didn't want to lie to her kid, having already put Kira through so much crap in her short life. Sarah thought it best not to have to bring up the whole stealing her dead clone's identity thing until she was a lot older. She reached her hand towards Kira's face and caressed her baby-soft cheek with her thumb.

Kira was an incredibly bright child and her emotional intelligence still proved to be profound as she searched her mother's face for further answers, "Are you okay, Mummy?"

Sarah leant over and kissed the girl's cheek. "I am now."

. . .

Mrs S sat at the kitchen table, today's newspaper neatly laid out in front of her and eyes fixed on the clock above the counter, she anxiously nibbled away at her thumbnail.

"Hey." Em returned home first. S didn't even bother to give the teen her normal lecture on slamming the front door as she sauntered into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. She grabbed a can of cola and it opened with a crack. "S?" Em questioned, turning towards her foster mum.

The sound pulled S out of her gaze and towards the girl, "Sorry, Chicken. I'm a bit distracted."

"Just a tad!" Em stated the obvious.

"How was school?" S asked, straightening out the newspaper in front of her and finally taking a sip from her untouched mug. She winced at its lukewarm touch and got up to pour the drink away. "Cuppa?"

"Nah, I'm good." Em said, holding up her can. S was nervous about Sarah's meeting with Kira, that much was obvious so the teen thought now probably wasn't the best time to start asking her mother questions about her history before they met. She tried to calm Siobhan's nerves, "They'll be back any minute."

S was standing against the counter now, drumming her fingertips impatiently. She glanced back at the clock again. "Well, school finished ten minutes ago. Where could they be? It's just across the road."

"Mum! Calm down. They haven't seen each other in ten months! Give it a minute."

S ignored her foster daughter and hurried towards the front door, yanking it open to spot the mother-daughter duo meandering down the road, hand in hand.

"See." Siobhan felt Em's breath close to her ear and she finally exhaled.

After watching them for a few moments, she called out, "You coming in?"

After half an hour of catching up and tea drinking, Em had gone upstairs and S was finishing some work in the kitchen. Sarah couldn't believe how big Kira had grown, but of course, the little girl had to correct her and note that she was in fact "the smallest kid in the class."

Sarah would never be able to forgive herself for leaving but had promised that she'd never do it again. That wasn't her anymore. In fact, she now knew that her biological potential was far greater than anyone had thought and that was somewhat comforting for Kira's future.

"You're so independent, aren't you?" Sarah placed the vinyl records she was looking through back in their slots and leant over to pick Kira up. "Hm? Monkey? Little Monkey."

Siobhan was sat at the table filling out some paperwork for the books. She looked over at Kira and smiled, "Remind you of anyone?"

"Yeah, but I was much angrier, wasn't I – even small. You were the one who introduced me to punk rock, though."

S smiled, "Yeah. You took all of the attitude, none of the politics."

Sarah was watching Kira read to herself and smiled. "I'm just happy she doesn't have to bounce around like I did. How old was I when I came to live with you in London?"

"Around twelve." S was focused on her writing until Sarah reached over and rested her hand over Siobhan's.

"Well, you got me this far. I know that. I still need your help though."

"Ah," S smirked, she had been suspicious of this new nostalgic temperament Sarah had adopted but it made sense now. She needed something. Of course she needed something.

"I need you to tell me uh… what you really know about me. Where I came from." Sarah leant into the table.

"Why now?"

"I'm trying to square things away. For Kira, you know." Sarah glanced back at the little girl.

"You were part of the foster system. I took in kids. You know I don't know who your parents were". Siobhan was always sensitive about this subject. She had taken in over a dozen kids before Sarah and baby Emma landed in her care and their former life was so shrouded in mystery it had always been worrying. Em was barely even a year old so S knew she would have no memories of whatever life she had come from. But Sarah was a different story. The eldest of the sisters was old enough to remember every bed she slept in, twelve years of loneliness and instability. A life of distrust and it showed.

"Yeah, I talked to family services in Brixton already but I just wondered if there was anything else."

Siobhan eyed her up suspiciously. Sarah was hiding something. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." Sarah twitched. And just like that, the warm and sentimental daughter had vanished replaced with a defensive orphan, "Yeah I'm fine."

. . .

Evolutionary development biology. That was what Cosima said she studied. Em thought about how handy it was that a clone was studying everything there was to know about natural selection through developmental thinking. Or was this something that had been instilled within her biological matter? Cosima's insight meant she had an advantage, she knew how businesses and philosophy could get a hold of science and manipulate the natural process - and in this case, replicate.

Em's recent Google search had brought her to the developmental thinking of certain scientific theories around North America and another few clicks brought her to a promotion for a 'Forward Thinker Lecture Series' hosted at the University of Minnesota – Cosima's new university. There was a picture of a bald, skeletal-looking man looking towards the camera and hold up a book entitled, 'Neolution: The New Science of Self-Directed Evolution'. His name was Dr. Aldous Leekie and it was clear that he was a big name in the biologist world.

'Self-directed evolution?' Em whispered into the empty room. "Nothing says playing God quite like this, hey, Fe."

At that moment, her bedroom door swings open and Em jumps out of her seat. "Shit! Sarah! Ever heard of knocking?"

Sarah snickers and leans against the doorframe, noticing her younger sister quickly close the laptop. She nods her head towards the device, "You watching porn or something?"

Em rolls her eyes and considers how Sarah would feel about her younger sister getting more and more involved with the science of cloning. "Yeah, of course… on S' laptop." Em replied sarcastically. She would tell Sarah about her research when she understood more about what she had learnt, until then, there was no point in worrying her sister.

"Never stopped Fe." Sarah walked over to the edge of Em's bed and sat down. "Alison just called." She lowered her voice slightly.

"Oh?"

"Vic just spotted her and thought it was me. He went after her and she attacked him."

"Shit!" Em couldn't help let out a little grin as she imagined the soccer-mom beating the pitiful thug. "Is she okay?"

Sarah waved her hand, "Yeah, she's fine."

"So do you think Vic will come after you now?"

Sarah heaved herself up from the bed, "Don't know. Who knows what's going on in his head. He's the last of my worries right now."

"God, Sarah, what I mess." Em sighed. "Well if you need me to do anything, just let me know, yeah?"

"No, no. Em, you stay out of this. Please." Sarah drew her younger sister into an embrace.

"I know, I know. Don't get involved." Em mocked her sister's deep voice. "But, if you're desperate, your vulnerable and oh-so-little sister could do something."

Sarah hit the back of Em's head lightly. "Shut up." She smiled and stood back with her hands on Em's shoulders. "I just don't want you getting hurt. I kind of want to keep you around."

Little footsteps hurried up the stairs and Kira was suddenly in the doorway.

"Hey, Monkey. Just saying goodbye to Em." Sarah walked over to her daughter and picked her up.

"Bye." Em called after them.

. . .

"I think I seriously underestimated the Suburban Goddess!" Fe shook his head, eyes wide. Sarah had just filled him in about Alison's run in with Vic and his subsequent demise.

"What are you gonna do?" Fe was worried.

"I'll figure it out. I'll…" Sarah took a swig of her bourbon. She had no idea what she was going to do about Vic but she couldn't think about that right now. "I need to know what happened at Paul's office."

"Sorry," Fe said guiltily but with some attitude. "I've been a bit busy, haven't I?" He gestured towards the door where the mortician who identified Beth's body as Sarah's had just walked out, still buttoning his shirt up.

"Where do you think this is going to go, eh?" Sarah questioned.

Fe's hands flew up in mock surrender, "Oh, I'm so sorry – I completely forgot, rule number one that your life is always more important than mine."

"No, it's just way more difficult."

Felix held his sister's glare for a few moments before turning to the laptop where the surveillance was recorded. "Well it did record something."

Sarah stood up and moved to sit next to her brother, flinging her coat on the floor. Felix hit play.

Paul's voice could be heard talking to another man. Both tones were low and it was clear that these men weren't friends.

What are you doing here? Is something wrong?

We need to talk about Beth. How was she this morning?

The second voice was grittier.

Fine. Everything's fine.

You still concerned about her mental health?

No. She's better.

Suddenly better? You understand your role as monitor is not to interfere. But if there's anything pertinent I should know, anything at all…

If there were I would tell you.

Felix stopped the recording. Sarah put her head in her hands.

"So he is Beth's monitor? He was spying on her this whole time?" Felix was shocked, Sarah could be being spied on too, right under his nose.

Beth's phone started ringing. Sarah glanced at the screen. "Oh shit, it's him."

"No, don't answer that." Felix's sister started to stand up. "No!"

"Hello?" Sarah answered in Beth's voice.

"Beth. Where are you?" Paul's voice was just as hostile as in the recording.

"Out where are you?"

"We have to talk."

"About what?"

"I need you to come home."

Sarah look towards Fe who was shaking his head. "Yeah, I don't think so." She hung up.

"He knows something."

"Well, you can't go back there. You know that." Fe stipulated.

Sarah flopped into the wicker chair, "No, I can't." She agreed until Beth's phone vibrated with a new message from Paul. Sarah opened the link he'd sent. And there she was hand in hand with Kira, walking home from school today. The hairs stood up on Sarah's arms. She stood up silently, still staring at the screen, and gently sat beside Felix. "Oh, shit."

Fe followed her line of sight. "Oh, my God."

"Paul followed me straight to Kira." Sarah felt deflated as her hand came up to cover her mouth in horror. "Right." She huffed out, pulling her coat on.

"Is everyone man in your life a complete wanker, except me?!" Felix watched her scurry around collecting Beth's things.

Sarah ignored him. "I need you to call Em, make sure Kira's okay, yeah?"

"You're not going back to Paul's." Felix stated matter-of-factly.

"I will not let him threaten my daughter."

"Sarah, you're not going back to Paul's! Sarah!" Fe shouted after her, but she was already heaving the door open. "Sarah!"

Hope you enjoyed this very overdue chapter. With so much time on our hands now, I've been writing lots more. If you're still here, thanks for sticking around!

Stay safe and healthy.

tryautumn x