Humming echoed through the halls alongside the heavy squeaking from an untended wheelchair. The oddly light footsteps followed in a precise stride along the rhythm of the tune hummed. In the chair was a tightly bound teenager, her red hair grown out to see the brown roots stemming from her scalp. Her right arm was missing her hand so what was left was a meaty opening that would pulse every now and again. Her expression was dazed, the world around her was blurry and the force pushing her from behind was terrifying.

“You’re awake.” the voice taunted rolling her into a room with a flat metal table. “I’m so happy Renee.” His voice was hot on her ear, tears rolled down her face.

“We get to open up a little today.” He violently grabbed her open arm and she screamed.

Renee shot up in her cell. Her body was trembling and she grabbed at her scarred wrist as if he had grabbed at her just then. She took a few deep breaths before letting her own arm go and leaning down on her knees.

“I’m alive. I’m alive.” she repeated, trying to stop the trembles. “He didn’t get me I’m alive. I shouldn’t be, but I am.”

Within moments she laid herself back down only then noticing a sudden uncomfortable feeling under her. Once she sat back up again to examine it it seemed that the bed itself had aged two decades. It was strange, perhaps she’d been jipped out of a ‘good’ bed just because she was a murder suspect. Either way she clearly wasn’t going back to sleep and was definitely going to complain.

A couple hours had passed and her favorite Agent Mathew appeared before her cell. He looked a little confused as to why she was sitting on the ground instead of on her bed.

“Morning sunshine.” He greeted. She waved a little, “You’re in luck, my boss wants us to go visit that house of yours.”

An officer unlocked her cage and opened the doors. She held her arms out expected to be restrained again but Mathew only shook his head, “No need to restrain a victim, especially if you’re what you say you are.” He gave a little wink while motioning her to head towards the door.

Renee began to walk but she did take note of him talking to the officer before pointing to the bed. He soon departed from the uniformed man and met with the tired looking girl at the door. He politely held it open while she walked through meeting with Riley and another agent she hadn’t met before then.

“Morning, I’m Frank.” He extended a hand, Renee glanced at it for a moment before giving it a shake.

“Morning.” She cleared her throat before pulling away, “The house.”

“Ah yes.” Frank nodded, “We’re going shortly. Your father dropped off some clothes for you to change into, I assume you don’t want to wander around in those raggedy gym clothes.”

Renee looked down for a moment, when she walked into the diner most of her clothes had been burnt to a crisp and one of the owners was nice enough to give her something else to wear before feeding her. She’d been stuck in it the last few days while in custody. To be honest she was very glad her father dropped off some things for her.

“Oh...about my dad…” Renee started following the adults towards the front office area.

“In the car, what we have to talk about isn’t exactly public need to know how.” The older man smiled stopping by the restroom. Riley handed her a bag which she took without question then wandered into the bathroom. She had wipes, a brush and such in the bag to make her appear a little more put together.

Her father was nice enough to give her a thick purple sweater, one of her favorites, written across the chest was ‘oculo’ in bold letters. Her pants were just some loose blue jeans followed with some boots with no significant markings aside from some scuffs to show they were used. Once she was dressed she brushed out her tangled mop of a hair do and hoped she’d be able to give a good shower sooner rather than later.

After she was kept up she packed away the gym clothes to replace the now empty space in the bag. She laid the brush on top of the clothes and tossed the wipes in the trash, she only paused to look at herself in the mirror. Her pale grey eyes seemed so sunken in and tired. The paled skin only made her feel more like a zombie than anything else, it reminded her of how heavy and sleepy she was. The hair that was stained red rested on her shoulders fading into her oddly grayed out brown hair.

"You look horrible." She spoke to herself, "After this is done I'm getting a cut and some new dye." Her hands lightly touched the hair, it was gross. She had gone without a good shampoo or conditioner in so long it felt like oiled up straw. The feeling of it made her cringe a moment before picking up the bag and standing at the door. She took a deep breath before exiting.

Outside waited Riley, he was scrolling on his phone for whatever reason, she didn't care much but approached anyway. He noticed her and gave a small smile before walking towards the exit. She was still greeted by odd looks and confused officers. For a split second Renee wanted to see if that mind reading Hybreos was around. She contemplated how it would be for her to attempt to read the room.

The thoughts came to a prompt stop when she was assaulted by flashing lights and a near roar of questions coming at her and Riley from all sides. Cleanly dressed reporters and cameras flooded the walkway nearly making it impossible to move faster than a slow walk. Riley, of course, did all the talking. There was nothing for Renee to really say in this instance, she didn't know much of what they were asking nor did she really want to pleasure the people with the satisfaction of twisting her words.

After what felt like an eternity of wading through a sea of people Riley opened up a door to a black van and motioned her to get inside. She obliged. In the front seat sat a woman she had never seen before. There was no words for Renee, frankly she was happy about that. Her ears were still burning from the bustle of questions from outside. Within moments Riley joined the woman in the front. There was no one else in the car aside from those two and herself.

Renee--oddly enough--was relieved.

Renee buckled herself up and leaned on the door. She glanced outside for a moment, it made her heart skip a beat. Behind the flashes and cameras there stood someone-no-something standing by the station she had emerged from. It was tall, hunched over, eyes a piercing yellow through what seemed like strands of hair. He looked like he was absorbing the light as he stood there, it was as if he was a tall shadow. No one else seemed to notice him but Renee.

"You hear me Renee?" Riley looked back a little irritated.

"Huh?" Her attention turned to the man. Riley sighed, he had apparently been speaking to her the entire time but she had not been listening.

"I said we were going to go to the diner, from there you will have to help up retract your steps. Are you okay with that?" Riley's voice seemed oddly concerned.

Renee nodded in response. She glanced back out the window looking for the tall creature finding no evidence of him aside from oddly dark footprints where he was standing. Within moments the car revved up and took off behind two more of the same car type. The road was long and smooth, honestly it kept lulling Renee to sleep. With the terrible memories and the bad bed keeping her up made the soft plush seat from the car feel like heaven.

Within moments her eyes were heavier than she could fight. She drifted off while the van made its way down the road.