Revenge? (RP)

Circe is distraught. Benji’s is the first friendly face she’s seen since Henry left many hours ago. She goes to Benji and hugs him, despite barely knowing him, and says, "Benji, they don’t believe me! I swear to God she was here one second and then she was gone the next, like a magic trick! I was standing at the door and she didn’t walk past me! And look, that window doesn’t open and we’re on the ninth floor! There’s nowhere else to go here! She was gone and the restraints were like untouched! I don’t understand and I know I sound crazy, but please, you have to believe me!"

Circe looks up at Benji and then, realizing she has invaded his space, takes a few steps back. She nods in understanding as he speaks, and then looks back once more at the bed. She returns her attention to him and says, "Yeah, OK, a walk might do me some good." The nurse protests, saying, "Wait a minute, we have a missing psych patient here! She's been committed! We can't let you just walk out of here! You might have helped the patient escape!" Circe grows angry and steps toward the nurse. She points at the scattered papers on the table nearby and shouts, "I hadn't signed the stupid commitment papers yet, OK? So no, I didn't help her 'escape'. She probably just walked out, ok‽ I'll take care of her." She pushes past the nurse into the hallway.

Assuming Benji follows, Circe whispers to him when he joins her, "I definitely did NOT let her walk out... I swear. Benji, what is going on? She is really sick and I'm scared."

---

Meanwhile, somewhere else...

Persephone awakens to find herself staring up at a ceiling composed of concrete tiles, with cold indirect light illuminating it. She looks around and finds herself in a small, austere space, with polished concrete floors and high walls that glow with cold light. More significant, however, are the endless patterns of complex runes and sigils painted carefully on every square inch of wall; the paint is most likely blood. There is a single large black executive desk nearby, with a high-backed executive chair behind it, but the back is turned to her. She looks down and sees herself in a hospital gown, with red marks on her wrists and ankles, as if she had been struggling against restraints. Her head is foggy, as of she had been drugged, but she also feels as if she has been jolted awake somehow, possibly by the administration of a strong stimulant. She sits up, shivering, as the room can't be more than 50 degrees F (10 C).

The chair turns and Wentworth sits there, hands tented. He speaks, his voice recognizably his, but somehow deeper, more... feral? No, more dangerous; rather than drip with contempt, his every word is a threat. "Miss Zhang. Good. Our time is limited, so I shall be brief. Do pay attention. I have had you removed from your captivity at the behest of our patron, so that you might continue to serve Them. From now on, however, I shall be assigning you additional tasks, ones that might seem to ... undermine our Patron's goals. I had considered giving you these assignments as if from our Patron, but you are too clever and would have discerned the truth eventually. So instead, I shall make you complicit and force your cooperation. You shall be assisting me in, shall we say, going Independent. I have tired of serving our Patron and have made other arrangements, which I have taken great pains to hide. And now you are implicated in them as well, so our Patron shall believe you have been involved from the start of your time with us, and you shall suffer eternal torment alongside me, should my plan be discovered. All of which is to say, do not attempt to inform our Patron or fail in the tasks I give you, or... well. We need not dwell on the consequences. Take this phone and await my orders." He slides an old Nokia phone across his desk. It is black with byzantine carvings of sigils and runes all over it, with the faintest hint of blood in the bottoms of each deep groove.

He stands and says, "I can only stretch your millisecond of teleportation time so long--so I shall send you now to your condo, where our Patron expects you to appear. For They are Always Watching, my dear. You shall find that all records of your hospitalization and impending psychiatric commitment have been expunged, the nurses and doctors involved reassigned, and your neighbor, a witness to your collapse, given a story about an allergic reaction. Now, begone and await my orders, or suffer."

Suddenly, Wentworth's strange Nokia phone is in her hand. She looks back up and, for a moment, Wentworth's image flickers, revealing something...else. And suddenly she is wrenched out of this strange pocket of space and thrown back into the stream of things, only to find herself once again lying on a minimalist sofa and looking up at tasteful, indirect lighting -- but this time in her condo.

She sits up and vomits as her stomach churns from the experience.

The elevator doors close as Benji speaks. She turns to look at him, anger exploding across her face. "It was YOU! You're the one who put this in her head! You did this to her! How DARE you!" She feebly swings at Benji with wild fists and yells, "Leave my sister alone! AHHHH!!!" After a few more swings and another few screams, she collapses into him, sobbing.

Circe’s sobs subside and she looks up at Benji. She steps back from him, embarrassed, and says, "No, you didn’t do anything… I mean, this has all been a lot, and I’m really worried about my sister. Wait, what do you mean, evidence?"

Circe looks down at his arm and then up at Benji skeptically. She says, "Yeah? Ugh fine."

She takes his arm in her hands, holding it with one hand while her other hand glides down toward his wrist, settling two fingers onto the inside of his wrist where a pulse might be.

She furrows her brows, confused, and tries again. She mutters, "dammit…" and tries a third time.

She looks up at Benji, her eyes big with surprise, and she gets a stubborn look. She jabs her fingers up into the side of his neck, probing for the carotid artery, the surest way to feel a pulse.

She probes and searches and, finally, her mouth drops open and she looks up at him again, then steps quickly back, whispering, "What are you?‽!"

Just then the elevator doors open. Ding!

Circe laughs, but almost immediately her laugh dies away and she says, "wait, you’re serious." she shakes her head in disbelief. She crosses her arms and arches a skeptical eyebrow, saying, "Ok I see, so Pers is a demon, and Emma, let me guess… She’s a werewolf. And there’s another guy who’s an angel, and he’s clueless and wears a trenchcoat all the time, and you all drive around in an old muscle car hunting ghosts. Is that it?"