Sometimes, it is what you do that matters. Sometimes, it is who you are. Usually it is just being in the proper place at the proper moment in time with the will to act.

I pulled away from Pedant suddenly. I had no idea who was the killer. He was also the first here. He began signing at me.

"I don't understand you." My voice was hoarse and I hated it. He reached his hand toward me and I shied away. He touched his forehead, and I remembered last night. I let him touch my forehead. He gave me two things. I could now use sign language, like him, and I knew where he was last night. I had his memories from when we had separated to go to bed until the moment he touched me.

"Sorry that I pulled away from you, Pedant"

"Don't worry about it. I would fear you myself if I hadn't seen your reaction to the corpse."

He motioned for us to leave the bathroom. I followed him out, hugging my arms to my chest. in the hallway, looking at the beige carpeting and the gray paint on the walls I could almost believe that the body of that little child was not still twenty feet away. I began to cry again.

"It's ok, Journey."

"The others are at the table. Care to let me escort you there? You really don't want to see how they treat a body."

I followed him to the common room. I walked over to my space on the near side and sat down. The others were already there. I looked carefully at the people around the table. Could I really trust them? Pedant I knew I could trust. What about rat faced Walker and the stolid Underseer. What about the girls? I didn't even know their names.

'What do I call you two?'

The taller blond one picked up her pieces and began: 'I'm Lacey, and the other one is Keeper.'

'Why are you called Lacey?'

'Because I have the ability to interlace. I know, you're confused. Just watch. She put her hand through the top of the table. It wasn't like she broke the table. Just that she put it through the substance as if it wasn't there.

'Oh, so that's what I did when I went through the pebbled barrier, oh and when I was floating to this dimension.' She looked a bit confused and a little surprised to me, so I explained to her about floating through everything when I was between dimensions. I also told her about passing through the wall to get to the ribbon world.

Walker looked at me appraisingly: 'That's the astral plane. I go there, which is why I'm called Walker. I go for astral walks, you see? Ok, so it's not really funny. Anywho, I always need an opening in the wall to pass through. You're saying you passed directly through the wall? Wow.

Again I realized there was a bit of awe in the way he moved his pieces. I really liked this language. I wondered who had come up with it, and when. And then how had they taught Pedant's predecessor. I looked at the six of us around this table and wondered something: 'Are these the only six rare talents?'

Pedant picked up this one: 'Our lords and masters have a number of facilities like this one. They only ever have six of the more powerful abilities in any of them. I think they are afraid that if enough of them got together, they could escape.' He really didn't like the people in charge.

'There's nothing keeping me here, guys. I'm sure that I'm not the only one here ether.' I looked pointedly at Lacey.

She blushed bright red. I knew then that there was something keeping her here. Or I should say someone. She nodded at my expression of comprehension. She tilted her head at Walker and smiled. My shock must have showed. I would never have picked Walker.

"What. . ." he started to say, and then reached for his pieces: 'What's going on? Is this some secret girl language?

I reached for my pieces only to see Lacy shake her head. Well, it was for her to let the guy know. . .that's when I noticed that Keeper and Walker were holding hands. Lacy gave me a weak smile when I noticed, but Keeper grinned. I looked sharply at Keeper and she shrank away from my glare.

'What's your power, Keeper.' It was her turn to blush. 'What did I say?'

Lacey grinned in evil delight: 'She is a preserver. She keeps things in their present state.'

I was even more confused than before her second explanation. Lacey looked over Walker's head at Keeper, saw her nod, and then moved her pieces: 'Sorry Walker.'

His eyes widened, "Shit, not ag. . ." He stopped speaking. He stopped moving. He did not breathe, or blink. As she continued to touch him, Keeper's eyes bled from light brown to almost black. Just before all of the light brown disappeared from the outside ring, she let go. ". . .gain."

Walker jumped up from the table. "Damn it, Wendy, you promised." He walked to the other side of the room. I went over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "You ok?"

"I'll be ok as soon as I thaw out."

"She froze you?"

"She takes you out of time. You don't freeze, but all of your molecules stop moving. They start moving again immediately, but it essentially drops you to room temperature. Really freaky feeling. She accidentally did it the first time. . .sorry, you didn't want to know that."

I blushed bright red and went back to the table. I trusted these people so easily. One of them could have killed that beautiful little girl. That reminded me of my plan, which suddenly felt out of my reach. How would I get all of these people out now. There must be almost a hundred people here. I couldn't be responsible for them, could I.

I decided to share my idea with the rest of them and see what they suggested. When I put my pieces down, they all reached for their pieces simultaneously, and then deferred to Pedant.

'Now that you're here, Jamie's body has likely already been rendered.'

I needed the body here now, I needed to check it to see there was nothing wrong with it. Without thinking I reached out and pulled, hard.

The body appeared a few inches above the table. It appeared to hover there for a moment and then collapsed down, scattering pieces all over the place. The others looked astonished. Walker even rushed over to see what had happened and stopped dead in his tracks.

The body was still breathing, and the heart was still beating, but I needed to figure something out fast. I felt Jams quiet form in my head. I pushed it toward the body on the table. I felt a tearing in my head and began to scream silently. I had no vice left to do anything else. I continued to push, focusing on the body on the table, even as I curled in on myself and held my hands to my head. I'm not sure at that moment if I was just holding it cause it hurt, or to try to hold it together. I felt as though my head were exploding in slow motion.

I felt something give, and then more, and Jams began to move. "GO!!!!!!" I yelled with my entire being. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and something guiding my efforts. I don't know how long I sat there, curled into myself. The pain continued to increase. I felt the molten magma being poured into the eyes and siphoned out my ears. I felt cooked clean through. The pain got worse from there. It got to a point where it no longer felt painful. Pain itself became an abstract concept. I was watching the pain and examining its flavor as if I were an epicurean.

I began to realize that when it was sweet, I was doing what needed to be done, and no more. When it began to sour, other damage was being done. I would back up a bit and redirect my efforts.

Forever I worked in this sweet and sour world. It was over in a moment and the pain began to recede. I knew that the greater portion of Jams was out of my head. The pain went down to a nuclear explosion, and then a car accident.

I was dimply aware of my surroundings again, and heard someone screaming in agony. It wasn't me. The body was screaming as a glowing energy flowed from me into in. I commanded the remnant in my head, 'Jams, go home!' and felt a sudden loss of pain. The body giggled a bit and then went silent. The breathing became deeper, and I knew that she had fallen asleep.
That's good, because so did I.
---
I was running from room to room. There was something missing. I couldn't find it. There were signs of damage everywhere. Holes had been torn in the walls. People were in pieces as well. The survivors looked around with haunted eyes, or cried over friends and lovers. The beige carpeting and gray walls did nothing to soothe me now.

Smoke billowed all over the place, and then I caught a glimpse through one of the holes at a castle throne room, also in shambles.

I rushed through into the throne room. I knew where I was, but didn't feel like being Guinevere for the moment. Even here it was destroyed. I sat down and cried.
---
I woke up still crying. All of my dreams were destroyed. I felt someone holding me. I heard someone else crying and looked to see Pedant holding me as I cried, but I wasn't looking at me.

The long hair should have given it away. I got up and went to Jams and held her. "Why did you send me away?"

I held her and we cried together. I felt as if I had lost a part of myself. I knew from the way that she sounded that this place was still affecting her, and it didn't seem to be affecting me.

Then I remembered the little dead girl. I was being affected, but differently from most people here. I could not focus on any one thing for too long. I kept forgetting my train of thought as if it had never existed and moving to another thought.

I held Jams until she quieted. "Don't you love me anymore, Sis?"

"I always love you, Jams."

"But you pushed me out!"

"You're a girl!" I taunted back.

"I've always. . ."

I giggled at her and pulled her gown over her head. "Oh. . ." I heard her muffled voice. She pulled her gown back into place and threw her arms back around me. "I'm a girl!"

I looked over at Pedant and Underseer looking embarrassed. I looked around us. "Did you take me back to my room?"

"No, we're in our room. The rest of us moved people around so that we were all in the same room. We moved two other people into your old room, since we didn't feel safe with you out of our sight."

"Is he safe?"

"About as safe as anyone who isn't the two of us. We need to figure out a better way to determine who is, and isn't, the killer."

Something started to come to me. Flashed glances. Out of place movement.

"Where's Tory. . ."

I rushed out of the room, toward the room where we had started. Tory wasn't there, but his journal was. I opened the book and read the first little bit.

Tory was the Beast.

I ran back to Pedant's room. Jams was gone. I was losing control of the situation. Where could they be? Without a clock I wasn't able to determine where they should be on the daily schedule. My stomach grumbled at me, complaining about poor living conditions.

Food. Cafeteria. I rushed to the cafeteria, but neither Tory nor Jams were there. I turned to run again and collided with a brick wall. Underseer reached out a hand to help me up.

"Tory is the killer. Jams is missing, and likely wandered here, since she is still under the control of our masters. I think Tory has Jams."

"Pedant will go to your bathroom, I will go to ours. Follow this corridor around. The first door on your left will be another bathroom."

I ran then. I had read enough of the journal to know that Tory's mind was dead, and that the Beast had been operating it the whole time we had been here. The glances and smirks began to make sense. He considered himself to be better than the rest of us.

I got to the bathroom, but the door was locked. I was about to run on, but then something occurred to me. I pounded on the door a few times and then taunted through the door, "Can little Jamie-wamey come out to play?"

"My name is JAMES!!"

"Oh, good. Jamie. I'd hoped you were there."

I reached for Tory and pulled. I let go after an instant and heard a metallic crunch. The door unlocked and Jams walked out in a daze. She wandered off toward the cafeteria, and I slipped into the room. The Beast was picking himself off the ground next to one of the stalls. There was a big dent in it, and his arm was hanging dead at his side.

"Nice trick, bitch. I dare you to try that again."

I smirked at him. "Ok, I'll even tell you when I'm about to act. You ready?" I paused for a couple of heartbeats. "NOW!" and pushed at him will all of my force. His feet flew out from under him and he flew into the half wall around the showers. The tiles shattered with a sound like shattering glass. His legs twitched a bit under him, and then stopped.

"You'll pay for that, you little cunt." I tried to get up, but his legs wouldn't move. "What in the hell did you do to me?"

"Can you feel this?" I said as I kicked him in the balls as hard as I could.

He began to laugh. I took that as a no. I felt a desire to start cutting him the way he had cut up that little girl. In the shower area there was a really short katana. I walked over to it and picked it up. I removed the sheath and walked back over to the Beast. He laughed some more at me, but I could feel him taunting me now.

"You're no better than me. It seems some things are just common to the type. We are killers, Jamie. All of us. I just started before any of the others. You will all join me if given enough time."

The thought sickened me. I dropped the knife and ran over to one of the stalls in enough time to vomit. How had I ever even considered that. This place made it so hard to think. I needed to get all of us out of here. I became dimly aware of a siren going off in the hall. I turned my head to hear it better, and saw the Beast puling himself toward me, the knife in the other hand.

With a lot less force than last time, I pushed him back to the wall. The lighting in the bathroom went red.

"You've done it now, you fucking bitch. When I eat a person's soul, I get a lot of their memories, especially when I take my time. Two people from this world gives me a pretty good picture. There is something that even Psi fear, and You're it. I'm not waiting around for the repercussions." He slid the knife along his throat and slumped down into his own blood.

I rushed out into the hall. The siren was almost deafening. "TK has left north east bathroom." I wasn't sure where they'd gotten the panicking female voice from, but I wasn't standing around to find out. I ran off toward the cafeteria.

"TK is on the move and heading in the general area of the cafeteria. All residents move to your assigned quarters for lockdown. TK is considered unstable and highly dangerous."

Better late than never, but they were talking about me. I needed to go somewhere else, now. I had no time to pick or choose. I needed somewhere to crash. But, how could I leave without saying goodbye. . .I felt Jams mind. When I closed my eyes for an instant, I could almost see the yellow ribbon connecting us. I sent a thought over and over along that ribbon, 'Pedant, I am safe and will return. Pedant, I am safe and will return.'

I reached to the safest feeling mind that I could find, and let go of the world.
---
I was never able to tell the exact moment that Sis left the sanitarium. I think it took the guards a few minutes to guarantee that the dreaded telekinetic had left the building. I only knew that there was something bubbling around in my head that had to get out. I turned to the guy with the strange hair (it was short in back, but he had bangs to his chin) and said, "Pedant, I am safe and will return. Why did I just say that?"

Jams thought passing through my new mind woke me up. I knew that she was gone. Somehow, the guards realized this in the same moment. The lighting returned to normal. I however did not, or should I say I did remain normal.

For the first time in days, I was awake and aware. I was suddenly very self-conscious. I was in a fully female teenage body, breasts and all, and I was only wearing a hospital gown. I shrieked and tried to cover myself better. The tall silent one led me over to one of the drawers in the wall and handed me some clothing. "You'll need to get dressed here. There's no privacy in this place."

His voice was even better than his body, and that was something to behold. At least I really wanted to be held, you know to him. I blushed scarlet and felt like my skin would combust from the heat of it.

"Turn around at least." I said.

I quickly slipped into the clothing he had given me. "It's too big."

"Let me help you with that." He pulled some drawstrings on the sides of both the tops and bottoms and they were quickly adjusted to fit.

Not the most fashionable things, but at least they covered everything. "Thank you," I said and kissed him on the cheek. It was his turn to blush, and he stammered out something like, "You're welcome."

I felt a finger on my forehead and then I was turned forcibly around. "What happened to Jamie?"

"Look, buddy, I don't know who you are, or why you're so insistent, but I'm Jamie."

"She has a point there, Pedant."

Pedant, the guy with weird hair glared at his royal hotness. I blushed at even thinking that. "I meant the other Jamie, oh bother, this will get confusing."

I sighed. I understood that he was worried about her, so I cut him some slack, "Call me Jams. It is easier that way, and it's what the other Jamie calls me. Until she gets back and decides, we just call her Jamie."

"She isn't here. All I know is that she is really far away. I'm not sure how I can tell, but I feel it. And she's ok, at least for now."

This Pedant guy seemed to come to a decision. "Underseer, the time for skulking is over. Get the others together. We need to convene a council of war."

I really didn't like the sound of this. Underseer took a step to leave the room. I went to follow him and collapsed. . .into his arms.

"You need to be careful, Jams. This body has spent a few months in a coma. You need some time to get your strength back."

He carried me to another room that had some ping pong tables and chess tables. There was also a TV. Underseer lowered me gently into one of the seats in front of the chess tables.

"Will you be ok for a little bit?"

I nodded to him and sat there limply. I started moaning my pieces. I stopped in astonishment. I could speak with chess pieces. What else had that touch of Pedants done for me?

I was still looking at the black queen in wonder as the others filtered into the room and took places at the table. Underseer came and sat down next to me. My stomach fluttered a bit, and I told it firmly to get itself under control.

Pedant sat down last: 'We need a new call sign for you, Jams. Jamie went by Journey, but I doubt that is one that you would like to take up?'

He seemed a little insistent about it, but it didn't feel right taking Jamie's nickname. I looked again at the piece in my hand: 'I am Queen.'

Pedant rapped his king against the board, and in my mind it struck like a gavel: 'I call this council of war to order.'