There was something on her forehead. A cool, trickling sensation dripping down her forehead was bothering her, and forcing her out of the state of sleep that she was in. A blank state of mind, for once in her life, no thoughts, no voices, no sights floating around inside her mind, to disturb her sleep.

She opened her eyes carefully, protecting them against the light. There was a pair of blue eyes staring into hers. It startled her for a moment, and she threw up the wall around her mind, as was her usual practice, to try to ward off any intruding connections that may be lurking within those eyes. After a few moments of breathless anticipation and a quick hope that there would be nothing to see, she relaxed when nothing happened.

"I'm sorry I didn't think that you might be hurt," Brian said. With these words, she sat up, and up a hand up to her forehead. The gash that had come due to the woman throwing her into the wall as she made her escape was covered with a bandage. The deep scratch that ran down most of her left arm had also been looked after. Her white, soaked T-shirt had bloodstains all over it, most her own.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry I passed out. It's been a hard day," she said. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, he laughed.

"That's an understatement, Beth," he said, grinning. She frowned slightly, perplexed that laughter could come so easily to someone who had been through so much in just one night.

"I need to put on drier clothing," she said, standing up. Quickly, she grabbed clean clothes from her dresser and ducked into her tiny bathroom. Left alone in one room apartment, Brian observed carefully his surroundings.

The apartment wasn't pretty. It was pretty old, and very run down. But it was very clean, and he could tell that Beth did what she could. The part that he found odd was that there was almost no personal objects. No pictures, no knick-knacks lying around, nothing that would show that someone lived there. It was almost as if this girl did not have a past.

She reappeared from the bathroom, her hair still wet but no longer hiding her face. She had pulled it into a ponytail. She watched Brian look around her home, knowing that to him, it seemed impersonal, and as if no one truly lived there.

"Beth, I asked you before who you are. And all you do is tell me your name. So, now I have a different question for you. What are you?"

* * * *

Brian expected her to smile at his question, but her face remained neutral. She didn't really show much emotion, he had noticed. She motioned for him to sit down, and it was clear that she was contemplating how to answer his question.

Outwardly, he was calm and collected. Inside, he was screaming. His entire world had been completely turned inside out. He had seen his cousin hanging precariously near death, his home destroyed by a woman that had nothing but pure hate for him, and now he was on the run with a strange girl who seemed to be at the centre of the entire thing. He hardly knew if it was real or not, and found himself wishing that he could return to reality. He wanted more than anything else to break free of the dream that he seemed to be trapped in.

"Have you ever walked a mile in someone else's shoes?" Beth asked.

"I can't say I have."

"That's what I am. I walk in someone else's footsteps, I see things through their eyes," she started to explain.

"What do you mean?"

"There is only one other person in the world that knows about this, so please be patient. I'm not used to talking to someone like this… When something bad is going to happen to someone, I see it. I connect with that person, and I see and feel and hear and smell everything that they are going to experience. I feel it all."

"Is that where I come in?"

"This had been happening to me my whole life. But you… you were different."

"How so?"

"Time and time again, I've seen you and felt you, all my life. But it's different with you, because nothing bad ever happened. There was only good. Until a few days ago."

"You saw the attack on Kevin."

"Oh god, I didn't just see it. I felt it, more than anything I've ever connected to. And… I had to do something."

"The wallet?"

"Lucky coincidence. I didn't know then that it was you. I didn't piece it all together until the other night. When I saw something else," she paused, her eyes wide, as if remembering something in horror. In the few seconds before she started to talk again, Brian tried to collect his thoughts and decide whether or not he believed her.

"So I warned you when I gave it back to you. I thought that I had been enough to change things...but it wasn't. I saw something else. And so I came."

"This is crazy," Brian muttured.

"I couldn't let you go. I've seen you with your family and your friends, and it was like a compensation. In return for seeing all the bad in the world, I could get some glimpse, a tiny piece of what was right. And I couldn't let that go. So I had to interfere."

"Do you know who that woman was?" Brian asked, a little shocked, but still trying to solve the mystery of his deranged attacker.

"No."

"How did you know that she would come to my home?"

"I… I connected with her when we were in the room together."

"What happens now, Beth? How long am I going to have to keep running from her?" Brian asked quietly, calmly.

"I don't know. I don't have all the answers."

"So what you are telling me is that you can see the future, through the minds of other people while they are experiencing that future, but only if it's bad? Except for me, I'm all good and happy, until some crazy woman decides she wants to kill my cousin. And now I have no home, I've abandoned my injured cousin and my girlfriend to hide from this crazy person, and you have no idea what happens next. That's the sort of thing that would only happen to me. I guess it's not good then, otherwise you would have…what was that word?…. "connected" with me over it," he said quickly, standing and pacing.

"I can't choose what and when I will see things. It just happens," she said.
"What the hell am I going to do? You said she'll never stop. And apparently, you've been inside her head, so I can take your word for it."

"I'm going to help you wherever I can," Beth promised.

"Why are you doing this for me?" he asked, looking at her strangely.

"Retribution," she answered simply. He sighed.

"You wouldn't happen to have a game plan, now would you?" he asked hopefully.

"Actually… I think I know what we can do…"

* * * *

"What do you mean, you don't know where he is?" the voice exploded in anger.

"I told you. He woke me up, and told me to get out of the house, as quietly as possible. He came out later, with some girl, and then he left me. That's all I know!" Justine answered defensively. It had been an emotionally exhausting night for her. First Kevin, quite possibly her best friend in the world, was in the hospital, and her boyfriend had witnessed it all. She couldn't forget the fear she'd felt when she had arrived at Kevin's home, and found her love covered in blood. She thought her world would end. And now, to know that there is more danger hiding in the world, waiting for him… it terrified her.

The people in the room all around her were worried for him, also. And that was why they were so emotional. Not because she had done something wrong…

"How could you let him leave? Just like that?" the voice yelled right beside her. She jumped nervously.

"I was in shock. My home was burning to the ground in front of my eyes! One minute I was asleep, safe in my bed, and the next, I'm watching the only place I ever feel safe…burn…" she said, closing her eyes against the horrible sight.

"You said he called, Justine. What did he say?" a calmer voice asked, trying to lure her into submission.

"He just said that he had to get away for awhile, and that he was safe. And when the time came, he'd let us know what was happening, but he couldn't right now. He said it could put us in danger," she whispered.

"Where did he call from?"

"Cell phone."

"Did you try calling back?"

"It's off."

"Christ, AJ, what the hell are we going to do?" Howie asked, laying his head down on the table in frustration.

"We got one of our Boys in the hospital, one on the run from something, and the other isn't in the country. We are falling apart," AJ sighed, full of despair.

"Brian will be fine. He had that girl with him."

"What girl?" AJ's head snapped up.

"The one that was here earlier in the week, the reason he was at Kevin's tonight, the reason he saved his life," Justine said, defensively.

"You let him go…with her?" Howie hollered.

"I couldn't stop him. It didn't register that he was even leaving."

"Don't you think it's weird that she gives him some cryptic warning, and then shows up on the day what that shit is supposed to go down?" AJ demanded.

"You think that she….Oh my god," Justine cried, dissolving into tears of panic.