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Chapter 13: The Longest Carriage Ride Pt. 2

"Coming. One minute, dear." Somehow Gina's dream self knew that they were married in this vision.

But as he rounded the corner his face blurred and shifted until it looked like Amryn.

"Gina sweetest, I'm coming."

"You're not Quill," she said, stumbling back.

"What are you talking about? Of course, I am." Amryn's face looked confused, as he drew closer.

"Stay away from me."

Not-Quill's face morphed into a scowl, and he grabbed her arm. "You aren't acting like yourself. What's gotten into you?"

"Let go of me!" She shook her arm and tried to back away. Whatever was happening was scaring her. The voice was Quill's but the face was Amryn's.

The face morphed again. This time it was Ro.

"Ah, but the eye is so easily deceived. How can you be sure that anyone is as they seem, Gina? Perhaps the people you know are not what they appear to be either."

"Why are you doing this?" Gina trembled. "What's happening?"

She woke up with a lurch, a frightened scream appearing in the darkness that she realized was hers. She shook all over. What did the dream mean?

Was her subconscious trying to tell her something?

"Gina? You ok in there?" A loud knock echoed on her door as she searched her mind for the source of the dream. She avoided the hall of horror deciding it couldn't be there although she was just avoiding it in actuality.

"I'm fine, just a nightmare."

"Alright. Try and get some rest. Another long day tomorrow."

The person walked away, but Gina couldn't sleep. Her mind teased her with hints of information floating into view and then flying away before she could see the whole thing, making her wonder if it had any meaning at all. Surely no one was going to literally change faces any time soon. What did that even mean?

She tossed and turned on her itchy bed, the sheets tangling in a massive web beneath her. Still, she couldn't sleep. Her troubled thoughts lingered until well past midnight when she finally drifted off into an exhausted and troubled sleep.

Ro's startled cry awakened her from her slumber. "What in the name of all that is holy is going on here?! Amryn!"

"I don't know either!" She heard Amryn yell back. "It's not like I just magically do everything evil around here, although you seem to think so."

"Then why are you standing in front of me?" Then she heard a shriek. "Amryn cut it out. How are you projecting your voice without moving your mouth?"

"I'm not, blast it! What are you on about?"

Gina hurried down the hall towards the noise with her chocolate hair flowing in all its unbrushed glory behind her. Her clothes were rumpled and dirty but she didn't have time to clean up.

What's going on?

Ro stood before Amryn who was holding one of Vienn's strange music devices. He called them 'PUMP's, which he explained were a popular way to listen to music on Lia'unn and around their system. She had asked him about the strange name and he had told her that PUMP stood for a 'Personal Use Music Player'.

"Amryn?" Gina said. "What in the name of holy-" Ro grimaced again, shaking her head. Gina sighed, deciding not to say it. "What are you doing with those? Are you the thief that's been taking other people's things?"