She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs. “My name is Carolyne Yuan, I used to work as a botanist and I’m literally the coolest person in this room.”

“That’s debatable-“ Sam started but she cut him off.

“Nice try but no. Can anyone else here do this?” With that she lazily lifted her index finger, not bothering to move the rest of her hand. Immediately everyone’s right arm shot up, without control from its actual owner. Alex looked like he had been through this before, glowering at Carolyne under furrowed eyebrows.

“Can you please not do this?” He asked. “You can just tell people.”

Carolyne considered that, her finger tapping her chin in thought. She looked to the ceiling, not letting up the control on everyone’s arms. Nisha wished she would let up soon, her arm was starting to get sore. Finally Carolyne looked back to Alex, who’s glare had gone from unimpressed to absolutely murderous.

“Hmm, no. This is way more fun.” She yawned, making an extended show of it, her mouth going wide and her hand daintily covering it. Finally she flicked her index finger down, all the arms falling down with it. Nisha joined Alex in glaring at Carolyne, rubbing her sore arm as she glared.

“Are you taking over our brains?” Finley asked, slightly worrying on her bottom lip. She was definitely eyeing Carolyne with much more suspicion than before, everyone was. Mind readers were not to be trusted, pretty much every person on the planet knew that. “Or are you c-controlling our muscle mass or something?”

“Neither.” Carolyne replied. “My current hypothesis is that I’m connecting with and manipulating your life force, if you will. There’s been superhumans reported to do this before, although it’s generally uncommon.”

“You seem to know a lot about this” Alex said, almost impressed. Carolyne scoffed at him.

“My thesis was in the superhuman virus and its effect on the Pacific Northwest and it’s natural species. I should know a thing or too. Anyway as I was saying, every living organism in the cognitive world radiates off a sort of…...aura I guess.”

“Wow that’s my favorite open mic night poem” Sam quipped and Carolyne rolled her eyes at him.

“Oh haha very funny, next Groucho Marx over here folks.”

Sam took a little bow. “Thank you, thank you. I’m here all night.”

“I can feel this aura/sense/whatever, and manipulate it to do as I wish” Carolyne continued, ignoring him. “I can feel it coming off of all of you. Everyone that is, except for-“ She looked around and pointed directly at Nisha. “-Her.”

Nisha frowned, still rubbing her arm. That strange feeling from earlier, like Carolyne was sending out arms to poke and prod her, was back not only in full force, but stronger than ever. This time it felt like the little arms were physically ripping Nisha apart. She winced as she felt the sensation of—something— peeling away at her skin and muscle and entering her body. It didn’t hurt, as physical as it felt. Instead it felt invasive like her entire sense of being was being examined and torn a part. Like how you fling the contents of a dresser apart with reckless abandon when you can’t find something and you’re running late.

If Carolyne noticed how Nisha was squirming, she made no notice of it, staring straight at Nisha with narrowed eyes, her gaze as pervasive as the strange sensation she was sending off. Her arm was still outstretched, pointing at Nisha as they looked each other in the eyes, an inescapable stalemate. 

Alex was the first person to break their contact.

“Uh, are you alright over there?”

Carolyne quickly snapped back into the real world, her arm dropping with graceful ease. “Hm? Oh yeah, of course. I’m perfectly fine, don’t know about this girl though-“

“Yes well I’m sure she appreciates your concern. “ Alex said quickly, effectively cutting her off. Despite being pretty annoyed by his constructed personality that seemed to just be about saving face, Nisha was grateful for him ending Carolyne’s sentence. She was pretty sure that wasn’t going to end well.

“I was going to say” Carolyne grumped. “That she’s the only person here that doesn’t give off a sense of being alive, it’s actually the opposite. Everything radiating from her tells me she’s dead. But yet I can still manipulate her being, and she’s still breathing and walking around.”

Everyone was analyzing Nisha now, even James from his little corner (who she had nearly forgotten was there) and she didn’t like the attention. She squirmed more, moving the ends of her hoodie sleeves so that they covered her hands, also looking down and away. She was about to cover her face with her actual hood when she felt a hand softly touch her arm.

“It’s okay.” Sam said. We’re all trying to understand this together.”

Nisha took a deep breath, looking back into Carolyne’s eyes.

“My name is Nisha Kakkar, not her, not in that tone of voice. My hands glow green and I don’t know why, I felt myself die yet still I’m here, I don’t know why that that is either. Leave me alone.” Every word she said was careful and measured, her voice low and gritty. 

“Maybe we’re in purgatory?” Sam offered.

“I don’t believe in that.” Both Nisha and Finley replied at the exact same time. They looked each other in the eye with surprise and Finley blushed, looking down.

“We don’t understand any more than you do” Alec said, his voice calm and kind. “You know that right?”