Mr Hook's Big Black Box

«Empiria»

"We missed all that?" Ferrari boggled, "I really wish I'd been awake to hear."

"Things worked out well, though. If anything had happened differently, can you be sure things would turn out with us all alive?"

"Would have been nice to know about those..." Dwayne started, and then hesitated, "What did you call them? Empirias?"

"Empiria," Destinee corrected, "Instruments of divine will. Kind of like the emanations in some mystical traditions."

"Empiria," Kris turned the word over, saying it to himself another time or two, "Do you still see those, Dee? I hadn't heard about them before, but it kind of would explain... I mean, are they a thing?"

"Yes, I can still see them. If you have the gift to be able to see them, you don't lose it easily. They don't hang around so much now, they've got other jobs to do. I can't imagine they'd like spending time with a girl who almost lost everything by trying to go it alone, so maybe they avoid me now. But I can still feel it when one comes close, I can tell they're there at least, and hear their intentions and analysis."

"They're real?" He knew what the answer was going to be without asking, and he didn't really want to be so direct about it. But with so much confusion between their stories, he felt it was necessary to know.

"There were four of them with Zach on the rooftop," she said, "Clear as anything. How can you doubt the evidence of your own eyes? Monty could be sceptical because that helped her to fit in with normal people, but the fact is that they're probably more real than any of you."

"Anyway," Dwayne quickly changed the subject, "Who else has mysterious midnight secrets to share? Or shall we carry on with the morning's events?"

"I think we should probably pick up when we got to university," Kris guessed, "Unless there's anything I wasn't privy to?" He looked around at the audience. Four friends gently shook their heads, indicating he could continue, while the girl in the bed remained perfectly still. She was beautiful just like her sister, but in the perfect emotionless manner of a doll. They could only hope that she was listening and smiling behind the mask as Kris continued the story.