Monday

Talia was in her dorm room, trying to quiet her whirling thoughts. Earlier that day she had seen her friends brainwashed and kidnapped by Evan Boltchek, seemingly on a crusade against her closest friend. Nate had seemed utterly lost when they parted ways, there was no way he was alright after everything that had happened. She’d asked Mikayla and Sophie to check on him, but there wasn’t much else she could do right now, right?

Talia sat up. No, now wasn’t the time to despair. It was the time to think. If Evan was targeting Nate’s friends, she was absolutely at risk as well. From what Nate had told her, the devices attached to the back of the victim’s neck. She’d had a chance to play around with Evan’s models for a bit at the cafeteria, though not enough to get any solid grasp of the tech. Still, it was enough to understand it a bit better. The devices didn’t have any moving parts, so they likely had to be applied to a victim manually. The three pins on the back were slim, like designed to insert into the skin. There they could send signals up the spine, a direct pathway to the brain…

It was pure speculation of course, but not blind speculation. Talia had been fascinated with robotics for years. She had always loved playing around with machines as a kid, and that fascination only grew as she expanded her interests into coding and mechanics throughout her education. Tech like this was likely well beyond her level of expertise, but if she could examine it more closely she might be able to learn something. She had access to the university’s lab, she might be able to learn more if she could borrow a sample from Nate.

A sharp rapping at the door snapped her out of her hypothesizing. “TALIA!!” a shrill voice called out from the other side of the door. It was Abby! Talia rushed to the door.

“Abby, are you okay?!” She called out.

“Talia, oh my god! You need to get out of here, now! Evan did something to me and Denise, and I think he might be after you too! I called us a cab, let’s get out of here NOW!!”

Talia felt relief, reaching quickly for the doorknob. Abby must have broken free from Evan’s control somehow. But… how? Talia stayed her hand on the knob. “Abby, how did you get free?” She asked through the door.

There was a brief pause on the other side. “I-I don’t know! The device must have run out of batteries or something! We can talk about it later, for now we have to GO!!”

Talia remembered examining the device. It was small, too small to have serious power demands. Any battery in that device, assuming it was battery-powered at all, would likely run for a long time. It was a sleek device too, aesthetic and well-designed. Clearly more than a simple prototype. Something that far along in development wouldn’t be running into battery issues on the regular, not for its apparent purpose. Her story just didn’t add up.

“...Okay, Abby. I’m gonna grab some clothes, then I’ll be right out,” Talia reassured through the door.

“Okay! I’ll wait!” Abby exclaimed, relief flooding her voice. Talia stepped away from the door, peering over to the nearby window. She was on the third floor, a drop from that high would hurt, but she could walk away from it with good form. She frantically gathered up her essentials in a small bag: Water, spare clothes, medication. She considered bringing her phone, but decided to leave it behind. She needed to be off the grid if Evan was after her. It might end up being paranoia, but the stakes were too high to take that kind of risk.

“Talia? Are you still there?” Abby asked, panic in her voice.

“Yep, just a moment! I’m grabbing my things!” Talia shouted back, stealthily opening her window. With her bag secure and her shoes on, Talia prepared to jump.

“Hey Abby? I’ll come back for you, okay?” Talia reassured before leaping from the open window.

On the other side of the door, Abby waited. “Talia?” She called out again, but received no response. Abby peered under the slit at the bottom of the door, just enough to see that Talia was no longer in the room. Sighing, Abby walked away and returned to her own nearby dorm.

“I’m sorry, master. She got away.”