fandomtownies | Along Loon Drive, Thursday Afternoon

Jesse should have spent the past few days getting a team together, figuring out a plan. But whatever had settled in her bones, the absence of Polaris, it... made her feel like she had again, on the run, alone. Trust no one. They're after you.

It had taken her until now to drag herself out of her office, where she'd piled reports and radio read-outs tall around herself. The reason was simple: she had stared at the piles on her desk and the thought had come to her unbidden-- Is this what Trench did?

So she'd spent some time walking along the shoreline, putting up warning signs for tentacle beasts. And then she'd drifted ever slowly towards the school. Something was coming out of the windows, wrapping around the tower. It had to be related, didn't it?

She didn't notice the mirror until she was standing right in front of it, bare steps from the school gates.

She didn't notice the mirror until she watched something red-headed and mute walk into view, deliberate. Challenging. Eerie, her brow dark. (Shadows of Trench.)

Jesse stared back at her.

"Haven't we done this before?" she asked, reaching out to run her fingers gingerly along her double's features.

Essej lunged at her. As the adrenaline shot through her, as she dashed to the side, something inside of her came free.

Right. I'm the one who handles things.

She fired a shot at Essej, who darted to the left, but look, there was another shot, straight through her shoulder--

"I am in control," Jesse muttered to herself. And kept shooting.

[[ open, if sp! ]]