I woke up to fluorescent lights blaring in my face. They were so bright it made my stomach turn. Feeling groggy, I rubbed my eyes, blinked a few times, and tried to reorient myself.

I had been on guard duty and then someone drugged me. I felt sheets below me and I turned my head to look despite the pounding headache I had. I was on a hospital gurney. I glanced about. I was alone in an empty hospital room.

My right thigh felt odd. I was reminded of a memory from my childhood. Pressing my face, hands and knees up to the dryer and watching the linen spin. A constant vibration.

The beeper. Fumbling, I turned off the device and sat up far too quickly. My vision spun and I suppressed a gag. I had to get to work. Who knows how long that buzzer had been going off for? Suzuka and Mateo need me-

Suzuka. She was still here with Beck. Had they been drugged as well? I got my answer when I saw the hospital door open and a familiar face peep inside.

“Thank God. Beck, she’s awake!”

I watched as they both came inside, expressions of concern on their face.

“We were snooping around the head nurse’s office and these two came up to us.” Suzuka explained as Beck examined me. “We said we were looking for the record of a patient for the head nurse and they left us alone.”

“Was it a man and a woman?” I asked.

The rounder nodded. “A huge looking guy and a woman in a lab coat.”

“I think those were the people who drugged me.”

“We found you on the ground.” Beck added as she took my pulse. “They must have given you a sedative. We brought you in here until you came to.”

“Did you find anything?”

A triumphant grin grew on Suzuka’s face as she handed me a manilla folder. “They had records for every missing client so far. Bloods, urine, heartrates - someone here knows where they are!”

I could hardly process this information. Why would the hospital be involved with this? Were they the ones who had taken the clients? Why had I been drugged?

“Will someone notice they are missing?” I asked.

“Nope, they’re photocopies. We’re in the clear.”

Before I could ask anymore questions, I remembered the beeper.

“We need to go Suzuka, my beeper.”

The rounder swore and scratched the back of her head. “Must’ve only just happened. Sorry Beck, we need to go. Can you take these?”

Beck gave an apologetic head shake. “I have a shift in a few hours. If I’m caught with those, I’ll be fired, or worse.”

The gravity of the situation hit me as she said this, and I suppressed another gag. Suzuka bounced over to the nurse and gave her a tight hug.

Stay safe.” She said, kissing Beck on the cheek.

I was surprised how much seeing that did not affect me. What little petty jealousy I had left must have been washed away by the revelation that I was holding in my hands.

We returned to headquarters at breakneck speed, making only a brief stop to pick up our phones and hide the files under my mattress. Our planned excuse was that we had been working out and left out phones in our lockers by mistake. We would most likely get a small warning, but hopefully I wouldn’t receive any more black marks against my name.

Thankfully, everyone at the hangar seemed to be distracted by something. I turned to one of the monitors and understood why. The camera from the drone was focused on Central Ardour. A large section of the business precinct was glowing.

“It’s afterglow,” Dr Bourne murmured, a concerned frown on his face as he examined the footage, “yet despite our best efforts, we cannot find a client.”

“We can get a closer look.” I said.

I gave Suzuka and Mateo a nod before getting into my gear. As expected, Central Ardour had been mostly evacuated. Only one spot remained full of life – the street where the protesters were. That was also the street where the glow seemed to be emanating from. They were all sitting on the road and refusing to move.

“They’re putting themselves in danger.” Mateo growled.

Not even Suzuka could think of an argument to reply to that. Although they had every right to protest, they were putting themselves in danger by being in the vicinity of a client. I decided I needed to do something about it. Turning on my external speaker, I spoke to the crowd.

“Attention citizens, you need to evacuate the area in an orderly manner. There is a client nearby. This is for your own safety.”

I was met with boos and shouts of protest. A woman with a microphone stood on a car and shouted back at me, fury oozing from her every word.

“The Ardour Government has never given a shit about our safety until now! We won’t stop until they agree to our terms and let us evacuate Ardour! No more lies and no more woe! Cancel debts and let us go!”

The crowd began to repeat the chant, yelling so loudly that my own words were drowned out. As the chanting continued, I noticed something odd. The afterglow seemed to be growing bigger, radiating further around Central Ardour.

“I can’t see where the client is.” Suzuka hissed.

I couldn’t see one either. After staring at the creeping luminosity, a thought occurred to me. I’d read about theories in journal articles, but I had never witnessed this before with my own eyes.

“Maybe there is no client.”

“What?” Mateo asked, sounding confused.

I pointed to the mass of radiant people. “I’ve heard of something like this happening before. It might be MED.”

“MED? Do you think so?” Suzuka murmured in a tone that suggested awe and fear.

“What’s MED?" Mateo asked.

“Mass emotional distress. When enough people in emotional turmoil group together in Ardour, it can create an afterglow effect like a client. There’s never been any solid proof of this though.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The protector hissed. “So, there’s no client involved in this?”

“It’s been speculated that potential clients in the crowd are the main sources of the afterglow and the emotion around them amplifies it, like giving kindling to a fire.”

“Why aren’t they freaking out about it?”

“They don’t seem to notice it.”

The ethereal glow around the crowd was a haunting spectacle. The furious crowd continued their protesting as though they were angels of pure light coming forth to strike humanity down. After about an hour the glowing began to die down. I was starting to theorise that this was due to emotionally exhausted people leaving the protest. Eventually, the glow died out like a candle flame deprived of oxygen and we returned to base.

I postulated my theories on the phenomenon we all witnessed to Dr Bourne. He seemed satisfied with the conclusion that it was MED and he was even impressed by my hypothesis as to how the glowing ceased. When he mentioned that I could potentially write a journal article about this, I almost leapt with joy.

I returned to my apartment in good spirits only to see my bed and remember the information we had found. Anxiety crept back as I pulled out the folder. I sat on my bed and flipped through it.

The test results for all the clients were there, including River and Chloe. I saw the picture of the confused little girl and felt my breath hitch in my throat.

“Where are you?” I said out loud.

It was at that point that I wished I were a client. If I could just transform and let the kidnappers take me, I could find where they were and set them free. That was preposterous though. How would I escape or control my client form?

I searched through the papers until I came to a document that was different from the others. It was a client profile for a man with dark eyes.

Darting my eyes up, I saw the name and felt my heart stop in my chest.

“Mateo Larmore.”

What was his profile doing in here? The only explanation I could come up with was that Suzuka slipped it in.

Although it was classified information, I felt myself drawn to it. Inside this profile contained information on Mateo’s client form and his catalyst. I decided to only read the catalyst. After all, it was information I already knew.

Except it wasn’t. I read the paragraph repeatedly, wondering if my mind was still frazzled from the drugs. There was one key difference to the story Mateo told me and the official file I was holding.

Mateo didn’t transform because a client killed his parents. Mateo was the client who had killed his parents.

Had Mateo lied to me about his true catalyst? A small note below the paragraph gave me the answer I was looking for.

“To prevent a potential transformation, do not reveal this information to the client. This is under orders of the client’s legal guardian.”

He had no idea.

I glanced from Mateo’s profile to the client test results strewn out on my bed. When the idea came to me, it was like a jolt of electricity striking my brain.

It was a horrible concept. It sickened me to my stomach. Every fibre of my being was screaming at me not to do this. It went against my beliefs and my duties as a counsellor. Worst of all, he would never forgive me. I would not expect him to though, but I had to do it. I had to do it for River, Chloe and all of the other missing clients.

How did the ethical dilemma go? Pull the lever and let one person get hit by the train to save seven people? I was not going to kill him though and I would never let them.

I just hope he doesn’t kill anyone in the process.