I felt a little bad as we walked into the house. I didn't know if I should, but I asked the guard to take his boots off at the door anyway. He did, undoing a rather complicated seal on each side and not saying a word as he followed me to the kitchen. I didn't have to ask him to be quiet. He was amazing at that. He was an agent designed for stealth and capture, I assumed.

"Um. Sorry if they told you anything terrifying about me. I just need a job, so I'll probably be working with you guys." I murmured to him under my breath quietly as I put the plate in the sink.

His voice came from the helmet's vents a bit hollow. "No, no problem, it's... That's... nevermind."

He still sounded shaken. Guess I hadn't broken the ice enough. I looked up at him. "Oh. I'm Kasey, you?"

"I- I'm not allowed to give my name out. Could we go back out now..?" He averted his eyes elsewhere, nervous.

I went silent, realizing I wasn't getting anywhere with this guy. Why was he worried? I stopped thinking about it as we went back outside. I looked up just in time to see a few... raised weapons lower.

I was beginning to feel ostracized, and a little angry. I stuffed it, though, knowing that wouldn't get me anywhere.

Upon seeing everything was alright, the female in charge nodded to us and instructed us to follow. My trust in these people became lower and lower, the more I noticed that this felt like a kidnapping.

It became more and more apparent to me as I was led through the trees. The only thing that held my interest was how the twelve-some guards behaved around me. They were skittish, either overly-pushy or very withdrawn. They stank of fear. Everything about them. And it wasn't directed at anyone but me.

We approached two vans with an interesting logo plastered on the side. They were dark grey with orange lettering inside a square of the same color. "N" and "P" were pushed together, leaking into the "C" and "A" underneath them. The lines crisscrossed, sealing all four letters together.

I was loaded into the back of one vehicle. There were about six seats in here, lining the sides, and I expected the group to split into two. Six and six- well, seven, counting me, between two vans. It'd be mildly packed, but that was alright.

I was wrong. Somehow, there were only two who sat in the seats near me. That meant there were... ten others, lodged into the seats in the other van. As they closed the doors, I asked about it.

"Where's everyone else?" I'd made sure to get a seat right in the center of the three on the right, trying for another shot at being social.

"Other vehicle," one muttered. I hadn't heard his voice yet. It was deep, and a little... grouchy? Annoyed? He wasn't too tall, maybe 5'6.

I laughed a little, uneasy. "Um... That's a lot of people to fit into a van. Something wrong?" This was directed at the other one. I recognized him. He was the guy I'd met earlier, the one who took his boots off at the door when I asked. "Oh, hey dude."

He still didn't want to make eye contact. "No... There wasn't any room left for me and Mike."

The other guard, Mike, sighed. "Nice keeping my name a secret, Daniel." 

Daniel realized his mistake and stiffened in his seat, eyes wide.

I actually couldn't help but chuckle at this- It was honestly funny. "Nice name, dude."

Dan seemed flustered, angry at himself. I felt that he slipped like this often.

"Why the heck is everyone so scared of me, did I do something?" I was still grinning at Dan and Mike's expressions, but trying to cut to the point. From within my fifteen-year-old mind, curiosity was overtaking me.

Mike answered, raising his voice to a normal volume. The both of them still had their helmets on, so I assumed the vents they used for speaking were opened. "Really, we were told you were an anomaly. Said you could change reality in some way, kill us all in an instant. But here you are, you're a little kid, full of giggles. I don't get it."

Daniel followed up, hesitating. "Y-- Yeah, I don't get it either. If you're messing with us, you're pretty good at it."

I blinked. "'Anomaly'? 'Change reality'?" Looking down at my hands, a thought crossed my mind. My eyes widened with shock at the implication. I remembered the worlds I've visited-- They felt like dreams. They were my happy places.

Glancing up at both of them as the van began to move, eyes still wide with wonder, I muttered, "Wait. You're telling me, not everyone can. . . do that?"