After entering Soporifick and collecting their things, rather than go home, the two sought out an all-night diner. It was clean enough, and the only other customer was a taxi driver waiting for a call. He was not in any particular mood to chat. As a result, the diner was a good, relatively private place to hang out at late night hours.

Geno had got himself a coffee, but Aubrie, feeling rather refreshed and alert, got herself a milkshake and chips instead.

“How are you not totally wrecked?” Geno complained, nursing his coffee with one hand, holding his head in the other.

“I don’t know,” Aubrie answered truthfully. She couldn’t yet place what she had done differently from Geno – and despite what she had joked on Soporifick’s Tower Three, she knew she should be affected by Soporifick. On her first night there, she had been worse off than Geno, a barely conscious mess much worse than even Mr Westend had been. “Are you going to keep the sledgehammer?” she asked, not in a mind to ponder the effects of Soporifick any longer.

“Heck yeah!” Geno replied enthusiastically, his own exhaustion temporarily forgotten. “I have never attacked an andaht before. That was awesome. And check out how freaky it looks,” he said eyes darting to where the sledgehammer was propped up against his seat. It certainly did look weird, surrounded by a shimmer of old video distortion. She wondered if that was what it looked like to everyone, or just those that had been in and out of Soporifick.

The taxi driver was certainly not making a fuss over it.

“Fighting probably wasn’t very smart,” Aubrie muttered. “In the end, we had to run away.”

“So? We actually held our ground against those monsters!” Geno argued. “Granted, maybe we should have planned things a little better, but we’ll work on it.”

“Yes, we’ll have to, if we decide to start fighting,” Aubrie agreed. “Now that I think about it, I should have grabbed you as a first reaction… We could have teleported away together. Without having to confront White Noise.” She paused, a smile spreading across her face. “I have to say, teleportation is a little overpowered.”

“Well, I am the hero,” Geno boasted, grinning toothily.

“It’s not much of an offensive skill against literal monsters though,” she continued. “Neither is making forcefields that look like bubbles…” She sighed. “We don’t have any real offensive skills.”

“Well, I have the sledgehammer now, so who needs those?” Geno asked seriously.

She just laughed in response. “I guess you’re right. You did absolutely wreck White Noise,” she agreed. “I doubt it’ll be hunting after having its screen smashed in like that.”

“Yeah… Wonder how long it’ll take to heal itself. If we’re lucky, a few days at least. Ooooh, that increases the chances of victims surviving!” Geno exclaimed.

“We’ll have to check regularly,” Aubrie muttered. “Test how long it takes for it to recover… By the way. I get why you need to be the Red Gent now. I had no idea we’d be popping in and out of Soporifick like that.”

She could only hope Mr Westend would write off everything he’d experienced as a bizarre dream. She didn’t particularly want to explain herself to him. Who would believe teenagers were using mirrors at workplaces to jump in and out of fantasy worlds?

Something crossed her mind, a dark thought. She leaned across the table, pushing her milkshake aside. “Hey Geno, you have the ability to go to any workplace if there is a mirror there. Which practically every workplace has, because you know, bathrooms. But you only use your ability to enter and exit out of Soporifick to save people?”

“Yeah? What else would I use it for?” Geno asked seriously.

“Yeah, I don’t know either,” Aubrie lied with a shrug. It was probably better not to tell the former bad boy what kind of crimes the two of them could be getting up to with that kind of access. She much preferred heroics and bravery over abrasiveness and disregard for law. “So, what are you going to tell your brother tonight?” she asked, remembering Detective Uri.

“You kidding? As far as he knows, I’m asleep at home,” Geno replied. “Unless he’s seen through my pillow-under-covers ruse, there’ll be nothing to talk about. What about you?”

“I live alone,” she reminded him.

“Right… So you don’t have to explain anything to no one. Gotta say, I think I’m kinda jealous.”

“In this specific situation, it’s helpful,” she agreed. “But I’d still prefer to live with one of my older siblings.”

“You have older siblings?” he asked, emphasizing the plural. “That you’d willingly live with?”

“And younger!”

“Man, how big is your family?” Geno asked, genuinely curious.

“Two older siblings, Al and Fay, four younger siblings, Avery, Luell, Leilani and Melody.”

“Wait, that means you have… Your parents have seven kids?!”

“It’s common where I live.”

“Holy crap. Wait, did you move out ‘cause of your family? Too much of a crowd?”

“Ah, no… It’s…” She smiled sadly. “It’s kind of a tradition in the Sanders family that… Once you’re old enough, you move out and get a job.” She paused. “Mum and Dad were hoping to be different from our grandparents and great grandparents, but… Then Dad was in an accident and… He can’t recover. Mum tries, but she doesn’t earn enough and, well, her family never approved of her marrying Dad, so…” She sighed.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Geno said.

“Thanks. It’s not a big deal, really. It’s not like I’m the only one having to grow up a little faster than others. And I mean, that’s why the night classes exist, right? To help people like me.”

“Right. And for the slackers. Like me,” Geno reluctantly admitted, leaning back against his seat.

“Are you a slacker? Though? You seem pretty hard-working to me. At least, you’re definitely working hard to save people,” Aubrie argued. Geno shrugged again.

“Uri thinks I’m a slacker and before Soporifick, I didn’t really care about my school performance,” Geno dismissed. She frowned but decided not to ask further. They weren’t that close. Yet.

“Want to go into Soporifick tomorrow?” Aubrie asked, also leaning back.

“Obviously. Every night, if possible,” Geno answered, as if it were obvious. Aubrie nodded.

“I want to test the mirrors,” she said. “You said it has to be a mirror at a workplace at night, but… Have you ever tested that?”

“I mean…” Geno started, then shrugged. “When I go to the men’s, the mirrors are normal mirrors. The mirrors at home seem normal too.”

“What I’m hearing is that you kinda tested it, but not thoroughly?”

“What are you, some kind of scientist?” Geno demanded defensively.

“No, but Soporifick is strange and we need to figure out its rules. If we want to do more than just wait around for people to go missing, that is. Like hurting White Noise! You said yourself that White Noise might not be hunting for a while. If that’s the case, then we’ve bought ourselves a few days for people not to get eaten by White Noise! That’s a few days people can survive in Soporifick!”

Geno looked at his coffee sullenly, and Aubrie realized he was feeling guilty.

“I’m under the impression you kind of react, rather than act,” Aubrie gently told him. “As a whole, I think only an idiot wouldn’t recognize the great work you’ve been doing as Red Gent. I’m so glad I’ve met you.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Geno coldly told her. “I’m older than you.”

“Aren’t you sixteen too?”

He didn’t answer.

“I’m not trying to patronize you, I’m-” Aubrie cut herself off. “I want you to see that I think you’re amazing and- and that I’m on your side. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“We are?”

“I thought it was a given at this point.”

He looked her over, consideringly. “We barely know each other.”

“So? We have to start somewhere and you’ve already risked your neck to save mine,” she reminded him. “I think that automatically makes you closer than any friend I’ve had before.”

He considered that.

“Yeah, I guess you saved mine too…” he muttered. “Just don’t patronize me, ‘kay? I get enough of that from Uri.”

She smiled. “I won’t do it on purpose, anyway. You know, my sister would never let my brother get away with patronizing us,” she told him. “Sounds like you’ve been sorely missing an older sister.”

“Whatever. I can’t imagine having more siblings. One’s bad enough,” Geno argued.

“It’s not for everyone, I guess,” Aubrie replied with a shrug. “I get along with all my siblings, which I hear is unusual.”

“What’s the most annoying thing they’ve ever done? Uri once wrote and recited really bad poetry to me, wanting to practice before trying to impress a girl he had a crush on.”

“That sounds sweet though?”

“Not when this dragged on for months! And he was really, really bad!” Geno insisted. Aubrie smiled mirthfully. “You don’t believe me?” he demanded. “Roses are red, violets are blue, I think you’re cute, ‘cause it’s totally true, I mean-” She laughed.

“Ok, I don’t know if it’s annoying, but I can definitely talk about how Al and Fay acted around their first crushes. Wanna hear?” she asked. Geno leaned forward, intrigued.

“Tell me more,” he said conspiratorially.

She did, exaggerating the absurdity of her siblings’ behaviour, enjoying the chance to bond over embarrassing older siblings with someone else.

In fact, the more the two talked, the closer they felt. They probably spent too much time chatting at the all-night diner, but by the end of it, the two had forged a solid friendship with their siblings’ embarrassing behaviour as the start of its foundation.