"Mama? Papa?"

They were having another fight. I knew the difference between a fight and a debated conversation. They should've been divorced from the start, but they knew the press would eat it up. Rich people just can't do it without being seen.

I hadn't been tucked in yet; I had been waiting for hours. It was now somewhere around eleven, and If I wasn't tucked in, I wasn't sleeping.

"Coming, pumpkin!"

Of course it would be father. He was always my favorite. I think it was my name that set my mother and I apart, she had always wanted me to be girlier than i was, and while she was pregnant she would call me "Annabella," or "Victoria."

But my father, who had just got back from another digging in Peru for his very popular television show, brought a beautiful, gleaming sliver of jade he found imbedded into rocks in the ground. He said when he saw it, he immediately thought of my mother and me.

"Are you crazy?" My mother says. "You looked at some dirty rocks and thought of me and my unborn child?" She places her hands over her stomach.

"It's not like that," he reassures, gazing at the gem. "It's beautiful. Just like she will be. Let's name her Jade."

"I refuse to call her something so vulgar," My mother says with a defiant huff, walking out of the entrance hall and up the spiral staircase.

"Oh, Caroline?" My father stops her with the familiar patronizing tone, which means, I know what you did.

"You and the gardener are really getting along, aren't you? Maybe the Karkrhum Gazette would want to learn about your fabulous relationship." He says with a faux smile.

Mother is stopped in her tracks, unable to say anything. Finally, my father responds to the silence.

"No? Well then, I guess we'll name the baby Jade."

He was tucking me into my bed, smiling his usual trying-to-be-happy but actually-really-stressed smile, drawing the curtains, brushing through my hair and pinching my cheek.

"Good night, J."

"E-EMMET! COME HERE, NOW!" Mother hysterically screams. I hoist myself up, scared, but father pushes me back into bed.

"It's probably nothing. You know mom, dramatic," He laughs unsteadily, kissing my forehead quickly and closing the door. I heard him lock it.

Emmet, there are people out there, but they aren't people, it's like, i don't know, it's--

CAROLINE! Stop rushing and actually tell me what's happening.

I don't know what the fuck is happening, Emmet, I don't know what to tell you. Look for yourself.

Silence. Finally, he speaks.

Shit. The virus, it wasn't contained, it, it-- it must be everywhere by now. We have to get Jade.

Banging. Loud banging, long moans of desperate pain, screeches. I ducked my head under the covers and let myself cry. That was the first time I felt it. Fear.