"So, what's wrong?" Olivia asked Lukas as the waitress walked away from their table.

They were sitting outside a small wooden café, each with a tall glass of ice tea. Thanks to heat, most people preferred to sit inside the building, meaning Lukas and Olivia were alone outside.

"First of all, have you noticed any odd new plants growing around?" Lukas asked. "Round shaped, dark purple leaves."

"I've seen quite a few, yes." Olivia said, thoughtfully tapping her fingers against the surface of the table. "I don't know what they are though, but a lot of scientists back at the lab used to meddle with them. They grow a lot easier out there than in town as well, for some reason."

"There's one in our garden, back home." Lukas explained, taking a deep breath. "And Jesse ate one of the fruit it carried."

Olivia raised her eyebrows, her eyes widening. "Oh my, really? Please tell me it didn't end up being poisonous?"

"I'm not sure what it was, but I'm starting to doubt poison is the right word." Lukas said with a sigh. "It's doing something... unusual to her."

He hesitated slightly, looking at Olivia seriously. "You trust me, right?" The young scientist nodded quickly. "Then please don't lock me up in an asylum for what I'm about to tell you next."

Olivia's frown deepened, confusion clouding her face. She nodded for Lukas to go on, anxiously fiddling with her fingers.

"It's like something – or someone – takes over Jesse's mind for short periods of time." Lukas began to explain. "Her eyes get wide, she has this bizarre grin on her face and would say the strangest things. Uh..." he scratched his head, trying to remember the things she said. "Consume the fruit of the mother and know peace. Accept her gifts and all will be well. Something about her eyes being open? I can't remember it all."

"That's... unsettling." Olivia said in a small voice, taking in a deep, shaky breath.

"The first time it happened, Petra had straight up slapped her." Lukas explained. "And it worked, she was back to normal instantly. But on the second time, she proved that she can just come out of it on her own after a while."

"How do you think I can help you with this?" Olivia asked Lukas worriedly, biting the inside of her lip. "I'm as clueless about this as you are."

"Yesterday night, or really early this morning to be exact, it happened." Lukas explained. "Jesse broke out of the house and went running. Petra and I had to really sprint to keep up with her, and followed her all the way out of town. Straight to the crater."

Olivia's eyes widened at his words.

"We of course didn't know what the place there was." Lukas went on, thoughtfully tracing the patterns in the wood on the table as he spoke. "Jesse began talking to some of the plants growing there, nurturing them like they were alive."

"That's really frightening." Olivia said with a shudder. "She really made a beeline straight for the lab?"

"Yeah, and I can't help but wonder if the loose ends are somehow tying up there." Lukas said. "You said you had a bad feeling about the place from the first time you got there. And some incident had it shut down?"

"Yes." Olivia responded. "Everybody there were incredibly secretive. Newer people, like myself, were never allowed down to lower levels of the lab. You should see the security doors you had to go through to go down a level, they required key cards and everything."

Lukas quickly fished a notebook and pen out of his pocket, that he always had on him. Ideas for stories always struck at the most unexpected times, so he had learned to keep something with him to quickly jot his inspiration down in if he needed to. Flipping open the notebook, he wrote down key points of what Olivia was telling him.

"I never fully believed them, but we were told that the reasoning for the security was because full protection was needed to go down to the lower levels." Olivia explained. "Most people of course fell for it, because it's a lab – it's normal. And sometimes scientists that's been down there would come back coughing." She frowned slightly. "I believed them at first, but the longer I worked there, the clearer it became that it was just an excuse to keep the newcomers out. Whatever went on down there was a lot bigger, maybe even illegal."

Lukas nodded thoughtfully as he wrote the information down. The situation was shaping out to be a lot more complicated than he had ever expected.

"I was on the verge of quitting." Olivia admitted. "I didn't want to get caught up in whatever was going on at that place. That was until the lab all of a sudden got shut down, all of us loosing our titles in a heartbeat. Whatever they were doing down there, it went badly wrong. Scientists were found dead throughout the place, and those who didn't die on the sight, passed away in the hospitals. I was told to be thankful for not having been at the lab when it all went down."

"I don't like the sound of that." Lukas said worriedly. "Petra and I will have to keep an extra close eye on Jesse... better she never heads back there."

"I wish I could be of more help." Olivia admitted. "I could do some more digging into what happened at the lab if you want me to?"

"That would be fantastic, but be safe about it, okay?" Lukas said to Olivia seriously. She nodded quickly.

Lukas sighed softly, sinking back into his chair. "I just wish I knew more about what we could do for Jesse." He said thoughtfully. "History of the lab aside, she's still suffering from this."

"Don't give up hope yet." Olivia said, reaching over the table and giving one of Lukas's hands a squeeze. "I know you'll find a way."

Lukas gave Olivia a grateful smile, nodding to show that he appreciated her support.

"Look, I'm going to have a few words with somebody else who used to work at the lab." Olivia said. "Ellegaard, she's been there for much longer than me, but I actually trust her. She's bound to know something."

"Thank you, really." Lukas said. "I owe you."

"Oh, I'm a sure a signed copy of your next book will do." Olivia replied, winking at him.

Lukas laughed. "Deal."

"Why don't you head home, maybe get some sleep so you don't look like a zombie that rose from the grave?" Olivia suggested as the two of them got up. "I'll go pay Ellegaard a visit and have a chat without giving too much away about what is happening. By the end of the day, you'll have all the information I'm able to sniff out."

"Sound perfect." Lukas said, smiling at Olivia. "And thank you again."

The two gave each other another quick hug goodbye, before going their separate ways. Olivia waved at Lukas, before she began to jog down the dirt road, disappearing around the block. Lukas turned back up the long road that lead up the hill to their house. He smiled as he began to walk, feeling rather satisfied with what he was able to accomplish. Here he thought he was going to spend his entire morning in the library and still head home empty handed. Instead he was out for less than two hours, heading home with quite the page of information for Jesse and Petra.

Finally Lukas reached their yard again, sweat once more dripping down his face. He couldn't wait to get inside where the air conditioning was running. Walking up to the front door, Lukas unlocked it and stepped inside.

Jesse was still asleep on the couch, her back facing him as she slept on her side. Petra wasn't there, but Lukas could hear her moving about inside their little kitchen. Carefully creeping through the living room so he didn't accidentally wake Jesse, Lukas went to talk to Petra.

When he walked into the kitchen, Petra was indeed there, busy filling a mug of coffee up for herself from the coffee machine. Her eyes were tired, and she was stifling a yawn every few seconds.

"Coffee? In this heat?" Lukas asked, leaning with one shoulder against the wall.

"I need the caffeine." Petra simple muttered in response, turning to face him.

Lukas felt a bit bad, seeing how drained his friend looked. Petra was usually the awake, lively one out of them and it felt rather strange to see her looking tired and sleep deprived.

"If you want to go get some sleep, I'll look after Jesse?" Lukas suggested.

Petra snorted, just waving a hand at him as she took her coffee. "I'll live. Now what did you find? It better be something since you're back already."

"Right, yeah, about that." Lukas said, taking a deep breath. "It's quite the tale..."

Petra listened with a frown on her face as Lukas told her about his talk with Olivia. Occasionally raising her eyebrows or narrowing her eyes at parts of the story, silently drinking her mug of coffee as Lukas went on. By the time he reached the end of his explanation, there was a wary look in Petra eyes, her uncertainty fuelling frustration and anger.

"Olivia said she would let me know of any new developments once she talked to another scientist." Lukas finished with.

Petra was silent for a few more seconds, before her expression suddenly twisted into a scowl and she hurtled her empty mug across the kitchen.

"Petra!" Lukas exclaimed, groaning as he stared down at the shattered bits of glass.

"I'm not going to just sit here and wait for answers to come knocking on our front door!" Rascal whimpered slightly at hearing his owner's angry voice.

"Petra, come on." Lukas tried calming the redhead, putting a hand on her shoulder. "At least we have somebody helping us, that's better than nothing."

Petra turned her head towards Lukas, narrowing her eyes in a raged glare. If looks could kill.

"What's going on in here?"

Both Lukas and Petra's heads snapped in the direction of the sleepy voice. Jesse was standing there, still looking half asleep as she glanced between Lukas and Petra with confusion written across her face. Then she looked over at the shattered mug, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"Have Lukas fill you in." Petra muttered, walking past Jesse out of the kitchen. "I'm going to bed."

"Geez, what bad news did you bring in to make her snap like that?" Jesse asked Lukas, turning back towards him.

Rascal whined softly, looking up at Jesse and Lukas. His tail gave a few short wags before he trotted out after his owner.

"No bad news actually." Lukas said with a sigh. "I think Petra's exhaustion, frustration and fear has just built up too much at this point. A few hours of sleep will do her good."

"So what did you find?" Jesse asked curiously. Lukas was glad to see that she looked a lot more awake than earlier that morning when they had returned from the lab.

"Ran into an old friend of ours, Olivia." Lukas said as he and Jesse walked out of the kitchen, back to the living room. "She had quite the story to tell me."

Jesse listened with wide eyes as Lukas told her of his talk with Olivia, the story about the incident at the lab. By the end of the story, there was a frown resting on her face, a thoughtful look in her brown eyes.

"Woah." Jesse whispered, leaning back on the couch. "Now that's creepy."

"You're telling me." Lukas responded with a sigh. "What amazes me the most, is how we never knew of this. The town in itself doesn't know much about this. Olivia only knows because she worked there."

"I really want to know more now." Jesse said, biting her lip. "When do you think Olivia will get back to us?"

"Probably not for a while." Lukas replied, giving Jesse a reassuring pat on her shoulder. "Let's take things slow while we have to wait, get some rest back and calm down a bit."

"I can't take things slow knowing that can happen to me at any moment." Jesse said softly. "Who knows what I could do while I'm in that state?"

"The worst you've done was run out to the lab and talk to some plants, you don't have to worry." Lukas said to Jesse, wrapping one of his arms behind her back. "It'll be okay. Besides, we'll be here with you the entire time."

"I... Hope your right." Jesse said with a sigh, leaning her head over onto Lukas's chest. "All of this has just made me really scared. I can't even trust myself at this point."

"Don't be scared, okay?" She heard Lukas say softly. "Petra and I won't let anything happen to you."

Feeling comfort and reassurance from Lukas's words, Jesse nestled up closer to him. She took in a deep, shaky breath, letting her eyes close. One of Lukas's hands were moving up and down her back in a comforting matter, the fingers on his other hand intertwined with hers.

Feeling secure enough in her friend's arms, Jesse's mind once more began getting hazy as she was slowly pulled into the clutches of sleep. Too tired from her wild night to try and fight it, Jesse just gave into the temptation and sunk into darkness.

Jesse didn't now for how long she slept, but it had to have been a while. She woke up to find herself still resting against Lukas, the side of her face nestled into his T-shirt. Lifting her head, she sleepily blinked in an attempt to clear her vision.

The light in the living room had dimmed, the sun outside hidden behind some clouds. She's clearly slept for a few hours. Jesse glanced over at Lukas. His head was leaned back against the backrest, blue eyes shut tightly. Sound asleep.

A faint smile formed on Jesse's face. After what had happened the previous night, her friends had to be just as drained and exhausted as she was. Yet, they had been making an effort to look after her.

A part of Jesse wanted to lie back down, nuzzle up to Lukas again and continue sleeping. But she's finally had her fill of rest, and her body was ready to get up at that point. Maybe make herself a sandwich or something. Had she eaten anything that day?

Rubbing her tired eyes, Jesse carefully got up from the couch. Trying her best to not wake Lukas, she silently crept out of the living room and in the direction of the kitchen. As she passed Petra's room, Jesse carefully peeked in to make sure her other friend was still there and fine. Like Jesse had predicted, Petra was still fast asleep as well, lying on her bed with her back facing Jesse. Rascal was lying beside his owner, Petra's one arm draped over his back.

Closing her friend's bedroom door again, Jesse proceeded in the direction of the kitchen. She silently got out two slices of bread for herself, as well as some sliced vegetables that was left over from the previous evening's dinner,to put on. As Jesse worked, she couldn't help but pick up on the fact that something was different. It took her a moment to figure out exactly what was out of place.

The wind was howling outside, the sky clouded over. It almost looked like a storm was approaching, which was quite the uncommon occurrence. Jesse frowned to herself as she leaned back against the wall, eating her vegetable sandwich. They usually got the most of their rain during the spring and early weeks of summer, never that late into the season. She couldn't remember any weather forecasts saying something about a storm.

Simply shrugging, Jesse pushed herself off the wall and walked to the back door. Stepping outside, she leaned down with her elbows on the back porch's railing, continuing to eat her sandwich. It was definitely cooler than usual, even if it was barely by a few degrees.

Jesse closed her eyes, liking the feeling of the wind playing with her long brown hair. Somewhere a bird was singing, and she could hear a pack of coyotes getting into a scuffle somewhere. A smile played on Jesse's face, absolutely loving the sounds of nature all around her. It was one of the reasons she loved their little house so much. The town itself was small and quiet, but living up there on the hill was so incredibly peaceful.

Popping the last piece of sandwich into her mouth, Jesse leaned her head down on her elbows. Her gaze rested on the view ahead of her, the small rural town to the left and the open stretch of red sand to the right.

A frown found its place on Jesse's forehead as she lifted her head off her arms again. It was only barely visible from where she was standing, but she could just about make out the large crater in the distance. With the battered down lab resting smack in the middle of it. Jesse thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip, thinking over what her friends had told her about the place. She wished she could fast forward time until Olivia got back to them.

Frowning, Jesse tapped her fingers against the wooden railing. What if Olivia didn't end up sniffing out a lot of information at all? It was bugging her a lot that she didn't know what was going on the place that she had been drawn to.

Jesse glanced over her shoulder at the house. An idea was swirling around her head, one she recognised as terrible from a distance. But she was Jesse, and going along with terrible ideas was something she was known for.

I'll play it safe. Jesse thought to herself as she placed her hands on the railing, promptly hopping over it and landing square on her feet. She glanced back at the house one more time, before beginning to swiftly walk in the direction of the dirt road that lead up to their house. All she wanted to do was get a peek inside the lab, maybe have a look around the outside of the place. She wouldn't go in too deep, or do anything stupid in general.

As Jesse walked down the dirt road, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit guilty. She didn't like doing things behind her friends' back. She, Petra and Lukas were almost like family to each other, and they never lie or keep secrets. But Jesse knew if she told her friends of her plan first, they definitely wouldn't let her go along with it. So, ignoring how guilty it made her feel, Jesse just focussed on the road ahead of her and continued on.

Walking to the lab was quite the ordeal. Jesse wished she had at least brought herself a bottle of water, because she was parched by the time she walked out of town. But she held through, continuing on. Minutes were rapidly ticking by as she walked, the sun setting lower and lower.

Jesse frowned as she looked around her. In the distance she could see hundreds of faint purple glows, all belonging to the bizarre plants. It was nuts... she couldn't remember seeing so many of them on the way back from the lab the first time. Then again, she was barely awake on Lukas's back, she wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to her surroundings. But Jesse was still sure the plants had gone up in numbers since.

"Finally." Jesse breathed as she reached the giant crater.

It was a lot more terrifying up close, and Jesse almost just wanted to turn around and head home. But having come that far, she simply took a deep breath and began the climb down. The walls of the crater were buried beneath a thick layer of sand, meaning Jesse was slipping and sliding all the way down. She held her breath, terrified of loosing her footing and falling.

Finally Jesse was able to jump over onto even terrain again, taking a few deep breaths. She glanced back up, shuddering when she saw just how far down she had gone.

Turning back to the lab, Jesse began jogging up to the large building. The windows and doors were all boarded up, paint peeling off of the walls. Jesse walked up to the nearest window, peering through the crack between two of the planks. She could make out a dark room, a dust covered desk with a tipped over chair inside. Curling around the legs of the desk were dark purple and bright pink vines. Very similar to the colours of the plants that grew throughout their town, bearing the strange magenta fruit.

Pulling away from the window, Jesse began looking for a place to get in. She tested all the planks on the windows and doors, seeing if any of them were weak enough to be pried off. She was on the verge of giving up when she found her entrance.

A window at the back had some of the odd purple veins growing out of it. The plants had properly pushed apart the planks, bending and damaging the wood. All Jesse had to do was grab a hold of a plank and pull. It snapped off easily.

Once she had a decently sized hole, Jesse glanced back over her shoulder one last time and begun climbing in through the window. The lab inside was filled with a mossy, humid, plant-like smell, that Jesse found strangely inviting. Usually she would have expected a scent like that to be very off-putting, but instead a part of her felt at home with it.

Shrugging, Jesse glanced around the dark building. She walked along the wall, following the pinkish purple veins that were growing across it's surface. They lead all the way to a rusty sink, revealing to be growing out of the drain. Jesse shuddered slightly in disgust.

Jesse silently scolded herself for not bringing a flash light. She hadn't even thought about the fact that the building would be dark inside. Stepping out of a door into the main area of the lab, Jesse was provided with a little more light, thanks to a hole in the roof. Her eyes came to rest on a large metal door, a key card slot at the side of it.

Frowning, Jesse walked over. She ran her hand across the slot, wondering what was so valuable behind the door that it required a key card to get to.

I wonder if a key card was perhaps left somewhere in here, when the place got shut down. Jesse thought to herself, glancing around.

She began pulling open desk drawers, searching through stacks of paper and checking old boxes. Her curiosity for knowing what was going on behind the large metal door being stronger than her common sense about playing things safe.

Moments before Jesse could give up and accept defeat, she yanked open a drawer to see a shiny golden key card resting on top of a thick book. Slowly she took it out, grinning to herself. What were the odds, she actually found one!

But before Jesse could do anything with the key card she held in her hands, she dropped it and staggered backwards. Dizziness crashed over her like a wave, a pain beginning to hammer against the side of her skull. The whole world was spinning around her. Collapsing against the desk she had been searching, Jesse panted breathlessly.

"Crap." She gasped, as realisation of what exactly was happening struck her.

___

Ah, nearly forgot to post this! But here's chapter 3, and I'm finally back on schedule. Plus, it's nearly 4000 words and ends on a cliffhanger?? This is definitely a favourite chapter 😂

So! We got a little history on the lab from Olivia, some much needed friendships scenes and Jesse advancing the plot by being stupid.
What is this going to lead to?

Be sure to leave any theories, I love hearing them!

Anyways, long chapter, let's not give it a long A/N. I've been getting up at 5 am the past few days, I'm way too tired to be writing this XD

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you in five days with Chapter 4!