The longer deeper Zaharah got into the University's art programme, the more she wanted to escape to the mainland. Living in Denden meant taking all her classes online, since the University hadn't set up any lecture halls there yet. While going to class in her pyjamas was freeing, it didn't make the art programme any less brutal.

And she hated being home alone. When the apartment was quiet, her thoughts became loud. Jade was at school, or on her way from school at this hour, and Markus had gone out to run some errands. Her art history lecture had ended an hour ago and she'd laid the base for a watercolour assignment. One more semester, she reminded herself.

The latest Beradeaux album blared from her computer's speakers, but even the singers smooth jazzy voice and longing to drown in the fiery soul of the sun didn't chase away her anxious thoughts. Thoughts of a six legged shadow falling over her, red eyes burning a hole through her skull.

Get it together. Zaharah shook the image from her head. Exams were two weeks away, and she should've been studying like a good student. Instead, she laid sprawled out on her bunk, phone in hand, blank email opened and addressed to Cammi. The cursor blinked in the top left corner, and her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Zaharah didn't know what had possessed her to do this – a little demon called curiosity, perhaps. As if opening the email wasn't stupid enough. But she needed to know if that person in the video was her.

"What should I write?" she asked Skorpi. He'd gathered her braids into a nest and made himself comfy. The mechpet only offered a beep in return—a man of few words as always.

Who the fuck are you? She typed. You think this is some kind of game? I'll—

She erased it. If the email was bait, meant to get her all riled up. The angry approach would give Cammi what she wanted.

Maybe.

The music changed, the final chords tapering off into the next song. Beradeaux sung of building castles of moondust and twirling with her lover on floors of argent light. Zaharah thought back to her meeting with the Director, the shouting match with Doctor Cyan. Neither of them were childish enough to do something like this.

What if this person was trying to help her? The benefit of the doubt approach could get her more info. Maybe. If the Director wasn't her friend, if Dwight had lied to her, she wouldn't know what to do with that information. 

Why can't you send me the rest yourself? Zaharah typed. Her finger stopped over send. There'd be no going back once she pushed it. She wasn't good at making rash decisions.

Do it. Rip the bandaid off, Jade would tell her. Now that girl was brave to the point of almost being reckless. She had no problems jumping headlong into the deep end of the pool. Meanwhile, Zaharah had to stick her toes in, wade through the shallows for a while. Then again, she wasn't a strong swimmer, and it was easier to get out of the shallows if things went bad.

She could deal with Dwight if he found out. The Director, however. If she screamed the way she had at Doctor Cyan, Zaharah would fall apart, into bits and pieces, all over the floor. They'd be sweeping her up from the cracks between the tiles for weeks.

Sending this email would be the stupidest thing she'd ever done. Stupider than that time she went snooping around the Pigeon Run and some seedy guy offered her drugs. She hit send and tossed her phone aside like it was on fire. If this went bad, she'd blame Jade for inspiring her.

The front door clicked. Speak of the devil. Jade bounced in and dropped her bag at the door.

"How was—" Her words were cut off when Jade dive bombed on top of her, jumping up and down like a toddler hyped up on sugar. Skorpi latched onto her braids and held on, lest he got tossed behind the bed.

Zaharah shook her braids from her face. "What is your problem?"

We're going out tonight, she signed, the bangles around her wrists jingling. The Director invited us to the rush at the pocking pitch.

"Girl if you don't get off of me. I have homework, and exams to study for." She tried to squirm away, but Jade wouldn't budge.

I'm not moving until you agree to come with me.

"You realise if I fail my classes, I'll lose my scholarship. And this art programme is expensive. Secondly, if I lose my scholarship, the stipends I've saved won't cover the courses I have left. I'll have to drop out, and I won't be able to find any work, and we'll end up poor, living on the streets and eating out of the garbage."

Jade rolled her eyes so hard her irises nearly disappeared into her skull.

"Who is failing their classes?" Demarkus appeared in the doorway.

"Me, because Jade wants to go out and do drugs and commit crimes instead of staying home and studying." She grabbed a pillow and smacked her sister. With Jade incapacitated, she escaped the bunk with Skorpi on her head and scrambled to her desk.

"Excuse me? Drugs? In this house?" Markus leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. "If you're going to be a criminal at least aim higher than that. I hear vigilante work is quite lucrative these days."

Jade gave him a withering look. No one is doing crime. The Director invited us to the rush out.

"Huh..." Markus leaned against the door. "Well we haven't gone out together in a while. And I thought you liked Junkanoo."

Come on Zaharah, it'll be fun.

Zaharah huffed, betrayed and outnumbered. "Fine. But we won't stay long. I'm behind on my portfolio."

It starts at six so we need to start getting ready now. Jade jumped from Zaharah's bunk to her own. She pressed the wall above it and the whole thing slid aside to reveal her overstuffed closet. Clothes burst from drawers and shoes sat in heaps one slight movement away from collapsing. And Jade loved sparkly shit so every time she opened her closet a shower of loose glitter and sequins fell to the floor. If Markus saw it, he'd grow horns and start breathing fire.

Zaharah's wasn't much better. Half her clothes hung on hangers and the other half just hung however she'd thrown them in. Her skating trainers sat in mismatched piles, their laces tangled up in everything. But no glitter. Her preference was patterns, stripes, polka dots and the like.

Jade called dibs on the bathroom and while she hogged it for an hour, Zaharah listened to her art history audiobook. A few times her eyes drifted to her phone, peeking out from the sheets. Her leg shook. The book's narrator babbled on about how one long dead and dusted artist's blue period inspired another dead and dusted artist's obsession with blue tones and oceans.

Jade popped out of the bathroom wrapped up in a towel, face beat and skin glowing. All yours.

Zaharah left Skorpi on the desk and slogged through her dressing routine. The water beat against her skin. But didn't loosen the knots in her shoulders, the towel felt like sandpaper against her skin.

She rubbed the fog from the mirror. Get it together. If she came out of the bathroom with no makeup on, Jade would get suspicious, especially since she used to obsess over it. She slathered on some dark purple lipstick and left it at that.

The cool air outside the bathroom cleared the fog from her head. Jade was dressed and her hair up in two pigtails. She tied a purple polka dot bowtie around Skorpi's stinger and stepped back to admire her handiwork.

"Cute," Zaharah said. She tugged on her romper and tossed a necklace on.

No eye shadow? Jade asked. Not doing anything else with your hair?

She shrugged and sat down to slip on her shoes. "Don't feel like it. It's just a rush and we won't be there long anyway." The hairs on the back of her neck rose as Jade's gaze bore into the top of her head. She knew. She always knew.

"Girls are you ready?" Markus asked through the door.

"Just about." Zaharah swiped her phone from the bed and brought up the screen. No new messages or emails. That should've relieved her. Yet her heart shuddered and pins and needs pricked her fingertips. What if Dwight was monitoring her email, or block her outgoing emails altogether? Would he tell the Director about the message she sent? What if—

"You guys look so cute," Markus said as he poked his head in. "Come, come, let's get a picture."

She put her phone and her anxious thoughts away and scooted in next to Jade, hoping the fake smile and flash would brighten both her face and thoughts.