'Stay here,' Nick said, creeping forward. Stephen matching his paces and lifted the rifle to aim. I braced myself even though I knew it was only a tranquilizer gun; I was still unsure what it would actually sound like after all this time away from weapons fire. I tried to keep my breathing steady.

The noise got louder, closer, and I frowned, straining again because now it didn't seem right. And it was already too late when I'd worked out what it was.

The cleaner threw his hands up just as I rounded the corner to tell the others it wasn't the sound of a predator. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't shoot!' he cut his engine.

Nick lowered his gun. 'Connor. Get this guy out of here.'

'... on my own?'

His question made us all turn around to look at him.

I sighed. 'Go with you,' I said, 'don't want you wandering alone.'

Reluctantly Nick nodded.

'Oh,' Connor continued, 'can I please have a gun then?' Nick frowned. 'You know... to keep us all safe.' Then Nick quirked an eyebrow. 'Come on, you can't exactly give it to Anna, can you?'

I raised my hands, 'don't want it.'

'Alright, fine, okay.' I watched Connor fist pump before he could recognise it was bad idea and Nick pulled the gun back, biting his lip. Then, begrudgingly, he held it out to Connor again. 'But this is for emergencies only, do you understand?'

'Yes.'

'I mean like you're about to become dinner sort of emergency.'

'Okay.'

'And don't shoot unless you're sure it's going to hit.'

'You mean,' he cleared his throat, 'wait till I can see the whites of its eyes.'

I decided to walk away quickly to avoid having to roll my eyes, knowing he'd have to follow after me. The stare I gave the cleaner told him to follow me too. Connor caught up, falling into step beside me but just before we turned the corner I looked back at Nick. And I didn't turn my head again until he had walked out of sight.

'What was that?' I asked as Connor lead the way through the mall towards the main exit. 'Nick and Stephen?'

'Stephen shagged Helen Cutter,' Connor replied– perhaps a little too enthusiastically considering he wasn't a 14 years old school girl. I gapped.

'What?'

'When they were still together.'

'... fuck...'

'Stephen was defensive, said it wasn't true but Helen kept his picture in her locket. The one she was wearing this whole time, right under Cutter's nose. He was so confused.'

'Nick?'

'No, Stephen,' Connor clarified, 'but everything was a bit overshadowed when Nick realised you weren't there. Had a complete breakdown, I mean... like seriously... I thought he was gonna throw himself back through the anomaly. We had to stop him. Course we had no idea what he was talking about which seems super weird now, because I know what he was talking about, but at the time I genuinely had no idea who Anna Havisham was. He's still acting strange. He doesn't remember all sorts of stuff, like Leek and the A.R.C...'

I cocked my head. 'What?'

'The A.R.C,' Connor repeated, leaning into my ear to keep his voice quiet enough that the cleaner couldn't overhear us. 'The Anomaly Research Centre.'

'Home office,' I replied in confusion.

'So you don't know either?' he studied my reaction and I tried to make my eyes a little less soulless.

'Don't know what the fuck you're talking.'

It was at that moment we came out the other end of the hallway, out into atrium of the shopping centre and Connor walked over to the–

What was that called again?

Connor gestured and the cleaner stepped on first.

Escalator.

Fuck.

Connor stepped on after him and I made as if to follow when I looked down, and it actually all looked rather scary. Connor almost didn't notice. He had his back to me as the steps started to descend and he was probably still talking, looking around only when I didn't answer. 'Anna!' he called as he saw I was still at the top. I made a noise as I stepped on, forgetting I was supposed to move the other leg as well and quickly started to get stretched by the moving steps. 'What are you doing?'

I tried to pull my legs together before I chased after him. 'Um... escalator. Forgot.'

'Right,' he returned. 'Anyway...'

The cleaner looked back at us. 'I need to get my jacket,' he said.

'You can get it later,' Connor returned.

'But it's got my wallet and keys...'

It didn't take too long to reach the locker room. In truth I had no idea where we were going and though Connor claimed to be the map– okay Mr O'Connell – he was just as clueless as me. The cleaner kept us on track.

And as we came to the door and stepped inside, I reached for the light switch. Connor flattened himself to the wall, gun up like Bond before he peaked around into the room.

'You doing?'

'Shhh,' he replied.

'Connor.'

'Do you wanna go first?'

I shrugged and made as though to step into the locker room when Connor arm caught me by the waist and pulled me back.

'Are you crazy? There could be a raptor in there!'

'Could be one out here.' There would be in a minute if we didn't hurry up.

'Alright, just.' He held up a hand. 'Let me go first. One second.'

I watched him move down the line of lockers, half taken aback by the heroics and half cringing with the second-hand embarrassment of it all. He hadn't changed a bit. And funnily enough he was exactly how I had remembered him whilst I'd been gone, and sometimes memories could be tainted, edited by nostalgia and transformed in a mind until the theoretical version of a person was incongruent to its counterpart.

Not for Connor.

As he reached the end of the room he lifted his gun and gave me a thumbs up. 'Clear. Clear guys.'

I frowned. 'Ridiculous.'

'What?'

'You're ridiculous.'

'What do you mean I'm ridiculous I'm just doing my job–'

The sound of the locker slamming open made him jump and I reeled around just in time to see the infantile raptor leap out of the cleaner's locker and clamp its teeth down around the man's neck.

The cleaner cried out, falling back first onto the bench before he rebounded and thumped down onto the ground.

I swore, immediately dropping down beside the man and slamming my hands down around his neck to quell the blood flow.

'Where'd it go?' Connor asked.

The cleaner grunted, a squirt of blood came up from his neck and hit my cheek. I nodded in the direction the infantile had fled and as Connor ran off after it, I adjusted my hands tighter. At this point I was probably doing almost as much damage as the gash– 9 inches across and at least 2 deep– and he could have suffocated just as easily but that would take minutes. He didn't have that long if I couldn't stop the blood.

The raptor chirped.

'Connor?' I prompted.

'It's under the bench.'

'Shoot.' Out the corner of my eye I saw him duck to get a better angle beneath the bench. I pressed down harder, feeling the blood bubble up through my hands. This man wasn't going to make it. 'Connor...' I said again, because he was my last hope. Maybe if he could get some bandages, find a medical kit in here somewhere the cleaner could stand a chance.

'The damn things' hardly gonna stand still for me is it?'

'Connor!'

A shot went off. A moment later I felt a sharp prick in my leg. I looked down. 'Ah!'

Connor gasped. 'Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!'

I put a bloody fist around the dart in my leg and pulled, grip slipping from the slickness of my hands but the dart still came free. My head suddenly felt so heavy I overbalanced, falling back towards the floor, and just in time Connor caught me. 'Anna I'm just gonna have to go do this I'll be back with you in a minute.'

I tried to keep him in focus, to fight the drug, but I couldn't. My vision went blurry and he started moulding into all sorts of funny shapes. 'Ford? You're turning into a penguin, stop it.'

I shut my eyes.