Chapter 2

• Was she floating? See seemed weightless enough to be. Squeezing her eyes shut, she counted to ten before opening them again.
• Hovering above a lake, she could see her own shadow cast on the water from the moon above her.
• A dream, it had to be a dream. The last time she checked none of her life skills involved floating.
• Glancing around, she didn’t recognize the area below her. People were walking through trees, or maybe those were just children...
• Where was she?
• A void feeling came over her like she was fading...
• What was that ringing noise?
• Bolting up, Teegan looked around to realize she was in her own living room.
• Dropping her head down, she heaved out a loud breath. The dreams were just getting weirder and weirder. She froze—why was she sleeping on her couch? She remembered climbing into bed the night before, didn’t she? Her pills were the only solution her groggy mind gave her. She must have forgotten to take one sometime yesterday. It had happened before, one day blurred with another and she lost track.
• Sighing, she reached for the bottle of water. It fell to the floor. Either she was still half asleep or she had just managed to knock a bottle to the floor without even touching it. It was going to be one of those days...
• The phone ringing jolted her back to reality. Scrambling across the room, she grabbed it.
• “Took you long enough to answer. Come on, we’re going to be late!”
• Turning to the clock she gasped. “Cripes! Give me five minutes, Kat.” Hanging up the phone she spun around trying to decide what she needed. “I can’t believe this is happening again!” Running into the bathroom, she quickly brushed her teeth and hair.
• Surveying her reflection in the mirror, she stopped and held her breath. When exactly had she put on her long sundress? Turning, she peeked into the bedroom to see the clothes she had taken off the night before sitting on the chair. On the floor beside the bed were the pj’s. What was going on? Was she blacking out now as well as having messed up dreams? Shaking her head, she spun back to the mirror and made the call that the dress stayed, she didn’t have time to find something else to wear. What day was it? Please don’t be Wednesday, she couldn’t handle a meeting today. Tossing the brush onto the counter, she grabbed her makeup bag and the bottle of pills and shook them as she bolted out of the room. “Why aren’t you working?”
• Black shoes or white? Hitting the hallway at a jog, she grabbed folders off the table and stuffed them into her bag along with her cell phone. Keys, where are they this time? Shoving a foot into her black pumps as she looked around the room for the ever-elusive keys, spotting them, on the counter, she quickly put on the other shoe and darted over to get them.
• Tossing her bag over the seat, she climbed in and slammed the door.
• “Four minutes and fifty-two seconds. That’s a record for you, Teeg.”
• Huffing out a breath she turned to look at Kat. “I slept in.” Kat made a strangled noise that could have been a snort, possibly a laugh.
• “I gathered.” With her usual heavy foot, Kat shot the car into traffic.
• Teegan dug through her make-up bag and then flipped down the mirror. “Cripes, I look like a corpse.”
• “I’d ask if you had one of your wild dreams again, but I think I know the answer.”
• “This is the fourth one in the last two weeks. I don’t think the doctor’s wonderful pills are doing their job.” She attempted to cover the dark circles under her eyes. “I took one at lunch yesterday, didn’t I?”
• Kat swerved the car around a cyclist. “They need their own damn lane. Uh, yeah, I’m pretty sure you did take one. Why?”
• Checking their path to make sure there were no obstacles before she raised the mascara to her eye, Teegan sighed. “I wasn’t sure if I did. I must not be taking them regularly enough lately or something…”
• “Or the doctor’s a quack, I’ve been telling you that all along.”
• Teegan dropped her makeup bag into the back seat. “Will I pass as alive?”
• A quick glance from Kat made her smile. “You look sexy and exotic no matter what you do. I really hate that you have six miles of perfectly straight undyed black hair you know.”
• “Your hair is lovely.”
• Kat snorted, “My hair is mud-colored fuzz and we both know it.”
• Shaking her head, Teegan leaned back against the seat, it was safer to be braced for anything with her crazy friends driving. “You fit into the cute category and that is a far better thing.”
• “Whatever…” Her cell phone buzzed from the dashboard. Grinning, Kat hit speaker. “Hey, Ann. Are you there yet?”
• “Early as planned.”
• Teegan sat up straight. “New girl there yet?”
• “Yep.”
• Kat smacked her hands off the steering wheel. “And?”
• “I don’t like her.”
• “You don’t like anyone.” Rolling her eyes at Kat, she smirked.
• “Wrong, well, okay possibly true. She’s snotty and I get bad vibes crawling all over my skin when I look at her.”
• Kat tapped her fingers on the wheel as she waited for the light to change. “Last time you had your bad vibes, I ended up having to work for that mutant Ernest.” She accelerated through the light before most other drivers had a chance to even realize it was green.
• “We’ll be there in five minutes, Ann. I’m going to hang up before Kat gets us killed.” Reaching over she hung up the phone.
• “Hey. I wanted more intel.”
• Teegan smiled at her. “We’ll get it firsthand shortly.”