Choose Your Own Adventure

Clara blinked, the bright light blinding her. Somebody grabbed her arm, hauling her forwards, screaming at her to come on! Feeling like she was in one of those books where you chose your own adventure, Clara yanked herself free, only to find herself face to face with Kate, surrounded by trees and sunlight. For a moment, they just stared at each other, Clara becoming struck by the strange feeling this wasn't supposed to happen, that she wasn't meant to be here.

"We have to go!" Kate screamed, nearly deafening Clara.

"Where are Eve and Cassandra?" Clara demanded, grabbing Kate by the shoulders, forcing her to focus.

"The - the shadow man," Kate stuttered, glancing with terror at the house behind them. As she spoke, two gunshots rung out, making Clara start violently. "We have to go!" Kate screamed again, shaking from head to foot now.

Clara hesitated, debating with herself. The house wanted Kate, and Clara's first duty, as Eve had told Cassandra, was to protect the innocent, and that involved Clara taking Kate to the Annex as Eve had instructed. But then she thought of Jacob and Ezekiel trapped in the dolls house, of Eve and Cassandra fighting for their lives, and she realised then and there she couldn't leave, Kate or not. "I have to help my friends," Clara said, backing away from Kate. "You go, just get out. Stick to the road - it'll lead you to the next town, you'll be safe there."

"No, we can both go," Kate almost sobbed, "the car's right there! We can make it to Tex Arkana, the fort's there and soldiers" -

– "The Jeep's wrecked," Clara corrected, cutting across her, "and Tex Arkana? This is Slovakia."

Kate frowned, confused. "But Jessie, this is Nevada," she said, turning wildly on the spot.

"Who is Jessie?" Clara said, advancing on Kate, all her misgivings rising to the surface once and for all.

"Jessie was Scotland," Kate said, turning around, "and you're Clara, Little Miss. Suspicious, who should be kicking up daisies by now. Did you not get the hint with the knife or was it too subtle for you?"

"The knife missed, as you can see," Clara said, choking down her fear.

"A lot of things missed you," Kate smiled. "But I won't."

Clara swallowed hard, remembering as though from far away, we've got the whole house wrong. "This is all you, isn't it?" she said quietly, finally justified.

"And they said you were away with the fairies," Kate tsk-tsked. "You knew right from the beginning something wasn't right, whilst they blundered in where angels literally fear to tread."

"What part comes next then?" Clara snapped. "The crying or the begging?"

Kate just shrugged her shoulders. "Your choice," she said, not really caring.

"We choose," Clara said almost in a monotone.

"What?" Kate said, genuinely startled.

Clara shook her head, feeling dazed.

"I think this is the part where you run," Kate prompted, recovering herself. As her eyes turned white, Clara turned and ran, hell on her heels.

I know this world is turning but I can't keep my feet on the floor
Sometimes the air is burning and I hear a knock on someone else's door...