Incident #1 - The Devoid Dormitory

"Oh… yes!" She thinks back on her search. "Please, come to me room. For all I’ve moved about, I never touched the hair band."

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In Jun’s room, there is a yearbook open on her unmade bed. The page shows herself and a redhead smiling at the camera, bodies pressed together in a slow dance. Their dresses are similar in style. Jun clad in turquoise, the redhead wearing emerald green like her eyes.

A Polaroid is tucked into the open book. There is a woman who looks to be a college girl. She’s at a beach clad in cut off jean shorts and a top that bares her midriff. Her wavy blonde hair flows to her knees. The photo is old, but she appears well-tanned and muscular.

Everything else is in order, and when Jun opens her drawer, the hair bands (and also the undergarments across the divider) form a sort of ‘rainbow order,’ one that somehow includes an off-white scale: white-beige-tan-brown-black, and a means to fit pastels, brights and bolds into the standard red-to-violet order. It’s not a completely obvious pattern, but clearly Jun either has a strong grasp on color theory with a Z-axis, or OCD.

"That’s the one… with the fake plastic diamonds. Second-to-last black before the candy-striper red."

Sia joins Jun and locks her door, before taking the short path down the hall to Jun's room. She takes in all of the details, as she listens to Jun and peaks in at the hair band amongst Jun's delicates in the drawer. "She's pretty...the redhead. Someone special, if my eyes don't deceive me."

Carefully Sia reaches in with her sleeved hand and plucks the hairband up. "How long had it been in your roommate's possession before she vanished? My chance to getting any vibes from her are only slight, as the item belonged to you longer."

"Me ex," Jun says of the redhead. "She’s quite special. Lovely. Perfect. She deserves someone to grow old with."

She stares at Jun’s hand…

"Oh right, I gave it to Concetta last night. It was still in me luggage—hadn’t gotten around to sorting me hair bands. If it helps, I’ve not worn it in forever, so she’s probably had more contact with it last night I’d in o’er a year.

"Wonderful. That helps." Sia slowly pulls up one sleeve and lets the hair band touch the flesh of her palm. She closes her eyes and sets her focus on the object and thoughts of a girl named Concetta.

There on the edge of her mind Sia can sense something fleeting, as she holds the item. She rubs it around in her sensitive palm and breathes deeply; holding up the hair band close to her face to catch the faint scent of the missing girl. She opens up her supernatural senses seeks a feeling..an emotion from the last to wear it.

Jun sits in suspense, and in awe. Sia seems to know what she’s doing, so Jun thinks the best way to help is to do nothing potentially distracting.

Fear

As the vision comes into focus, fear fills Sia. The vision solidifies on the jewels of the hairband sitting atop the soft glossy hair of Concetta. The vision is very focused on the plastic pieces sparkling dully in the lamplight. It is difficult to see details beyond her hair, but there are some. She stands on a sidewalk somewhere on campus. It's dark, and silent. Then she hears someone say her name.

She Ahead of Concetta on the sidewalk a man stands just outside the circle of light surrounding the girl. He's taller than her, but his face is hidden by darkness. He is wearing jeans and a Willowveil windbreaker. In his glove covered hands is a weird device. It looks homemade, exposed circuits and wiring with cellphone plugged into it all mounted on a short selfishly stick. He says her name again and she nods. The device flashes a blinding light.

Happy

Concetta is walking on the sidewalk feeling very happy with herself. She's inebriated, but not drunk. The lamplight passes from behind to in front of her. She's walking backwards? To her left and right people come into view. They are walking backwards as well. Couples holding hands, groups of students. One boy has a football. He jogs backwards and makes a seemingly impossible toss over his shoulder while leaping backwards. The ball travels through the air to a friend who catches it in one hand and pulls it in in a very strange arc, then slapping it twice as the first boy falls in beside him, still moving backwards.

Concetta walk backwards up some steps to a porch and into a house. All around her people are dancing in the most odd fashion. Their movements seem unnatural. A girl is there, she has strawberry blond curly hair. She takes Concetta's hand and squeezes it.

Relief

Concetta and the girl are talking, laughing, and drinking. They embrace momentarily. Their words are garbled? Is it the music? That's garbled too. It's loud but not that loud.

Regret.

The two are still talking. Concetta drinks, but her cup looks fuller as she puts it down? The get up and walk, backwards, to the dance floor. Concetta says something. The other girl looks concerned, then smiles. Concetta suddenly leans in and kisses her, and pulls away as quickly as she leaned in.

Desire

The girls dance very close, swaying to the strange beat of the music. They stare deeply into each other's eyes as their bodies move against one another. Hands travel down and up probing and seeking exposed, sweaty flesh. They walk, backwards still, off the dance floor. Concetta leans against a wall and hands the other girl her full red Solo cup, and she walks backwards toward the keg, somehow dodging other party goers without seeing them. The whole time she and Concetta have their eyes locked on each other, until the blonde vanishes in the crowd.

Concetta moves away from the wall and through the party, still backwards. She sees the strawberry blonde across the room two cups of beer in hand. Someone walks in reverse past Concetta and words are exchanged. A boy,

Awkward

The boy talks at Concetta, in that strange garbled fashion. She doesn't seem to get a word in very often. Over his shoulder Concetta makes eye contact with the stawberry-blonde. He leaves, walking backwards again, vanishing into the crowd after waving.

Nervous

Concetta walks backwards through the house taking in all the sights and sounds. She greets and waves at people as she makes her way too the door. The guy at the door checks her out. As she walks past him through the door he hands her a $10 bill and she puts it into her pocket.

Happy

She walks backwards from the house. The sun's faint orange glow behind the trees gets brighter as she walks backwards across campus. The dorm shortly comes into view behind her and she looks over her shoulder a few time as she approaches. Her gaze increasingly cast upward as she gets closer to the building. Without scanning her ID she walks through the front door, the lobby and into an elevator that opens without being called by a button. She presses L and settles against the wall. The elevator goes up to the 7th floor where Concetta turns around and walks backwards to her room. She opens the door and Jun is there packing her things. She pauses after closing the door to look at herself in the mirror. She takes the hairband out and ungathers her hair. Turning toward Jun she holds out the item and gives it to her roommate. Their fingers touch and there is an electric jolt between them.

The vision turns to a harsh blue light and shatters into static staring at the edges and fades into black as the static retreats to the "center" of Sia's vision, leaving her with a final emotion.

HOPE

Sia might notice an aroma in the room. A familiar one, if she’d ever walked in a light rain in the spring—particularly mid-April when the fresh blossoms are out and their scent is carried in the moisture.

This is the aroma of a nymph’s tear.

Jun’s eyes well, and the tears roll quickly down her perfectly smooth skin. It’s hard for a nymph not to be beautiful, but Jun seems to be putting in the effort. For what she just heard is filling her with ugly thoughts.

"If it can be reversed, that would save Concetta… and… all of them, would it?" She picks up the Polaroid photo of the muscular woman with blonde hair flowing down to her knees. Maybe it’s not so obvious to Sia, but she is an empath, so maybe she can see from the way that Jun looks at the photo, she’s gained a new understanding of the person.

"My grandmother killed men for coming too close to Artemis and the others in her retinue. But now I understand.

"Those men weren’t oglers. They were predators." She glances down at the hair band, and says without anger in her soft Irish brogue, "I want this fucker to die."

Sia nods and stands. "Yes. This person is extremely dangerous. I don't know why the missing were targeted, but if he can do this to them, then it could happen to anyone."

She glances toward the door to Jun's' room. "I need to get to my sketch pad and draw out the device and the people I saw in Concetta's night. It may help us find the one responsible and stop them."

Jun rises to get the door. "Thank you, Sia. While you’re sketching, I’ll move down to that meeting place and see what I can glean from an information exchange."