Changed by Time ✔

thirteen.

Wendy could hear voices, a distant echo surrounding her. It was if she were in a pitch-black cave, separated from her group. The only way she'd be able to find them was through listening to their voices. The thought alone was a terrifying one, it felt worse when she could only recognize two of the voices.

Two voices? she thought as her mind began to piece itself back together, broken memories from before her unconsciousness appearing to her. I know Nolan's here... somewhere...

"Even if I knew, why the hell would I tell you?" Nolan said – the first few words Wendy was able to hear clearly. "You've given me no damn reason to tell you."

"Not even to save your life?" another voice spoke. This was a deep, gruff voice that she didn't recognize. "What about—"

"Enough. We're not here to threaten, we're here to get what we need and go." Wendy recognized this voice – one that was serious yet soft. She knew she heard it before, but where and when was the bigger question.

Wendy slowly opened her eyes, squinting as the lights nearly blinded her. She blinked a couple times, her vision focusing as she realized she was facing towards a window. In the quick glance she got, she could see there were two beds beside her and she was sitting – no, tied – to a chair parallel with a nightstand.

The room looked familiar. She stared at the curtains, managing to get a quick glimpse outside as one of the assailants readjusted themselves across the room and the breeze blew the curtain aside. She spotted the town outside – the nearly exact same view as she had from her and Nolan's hotel room.

"Man, how hard did you hit her, Commander?" one of the assailants asked. They reached over from their seat on the bed and grabbed Wendy's face, squeezing her cheeks slightly as they turned her head.

Wendy could feel the aching pain from where she had been hit. There was no doubt that there would be at least a bruise, possibly a black eye as well.

"Hard enough." The Commander walked over and stood in front of Wendy, leaning forward as the assailant let go of her face. "This certainly was a twist of events, now wasn't it?"

The Commander turned to the rest of the group. "There's no need to keep these on anymore, it wouldn't be productive."

They each reached to their faces, grabbing the mask and pulling it off. They tore off their hoods or whatever else they wore to cover their heads. The Commander took theirs off last, pulling off the hood of their jacket to reveal two big pigtails.

Wendy didn't need to see their face to know who stood in front of her.

"Why'd you do it, Abigail?" she asked as Abigail took off her mask and threw it on the bed beside her.

"I should be the one asking the questions," she replied, her tone not shifting once. "I knew there was something off about you the second we met."

"What gave it away? My sparkling personality?" Wendy said with a scoff.

"Your face."

"Hmph. Close enough."

Abigail leaned forward, mere inches from Wendy's face. She could see the slight silver sparkle of eyeshadow above Abigail's hazel eyes. It would be a lie to say that Abigail wasn't very pretty.

"Your eyes, your nose, your mouth—"

"What? Are we playing the hokey pokey?"

"All features that I can't help but notice. Not just because your nice to look at, but because I've seen you before. But not as one person."

Abigail walked over to the nightstand, pulling out a file from the drawer. She opened it and pulled out two papers and held them out to the two. Nolan took a moment to realize what they were looking at. Wendy took seconds.