Kara sat, curled up and shivering, on her windowsill, lost in thought.

How in the world had matches gotten in her pocket?

There were plenty of reasonable explanations. She could have been using them for the candles in the living room, which she often lit for the smell and relaxing light. But she always kept the box in the drawer of the cabinet. Had she been in a hurry? It made sense.

But something told her it wasn't true.

Kara bit her lip. Had she actually set Alice's house on fire? After all, Alice's description of Kara had sounded forcefully like Bethane when she had attacked the Officer. Then, she had remembered nothing about it. So, perhaps Kara had gone through a similar experience.

But how? Why?

Kara couldn't fathom why she and Bethane would both suffer the same kind of attack. What caused such a thing to happen?

Suddenly sparked with an intense curiosity, Kara leaped out of bed and rushed to her computer. It was rarely turned on, since she had little time for it, but she was alone now, and she had research to do.

She got on the internet, and went to a search engine. "Let's see," she said, trying to figure out what to type. "Hmm...possessed," she thought out of nowhere. She'd heard stories of people being possessed before, and the very thought frightened Kara. Still, being possessed was just imaginary, and a website might tell about where the stories came from, thereby giving Kara something to work with.

20 links to various webpages popped up on Kara's screen, each with a brief description below it. Kara scrolled down, weeding out sites that wouldn't help her, until she came to 'symptoms of possession.' Snorting, Kara double-clicked the link, and the page opened in a new window.

Kara whistled softly to herself as she waited for the page to load. A white skull with a green snake wrapped around it appeared up in the corner, against a black background. "Gross," Kara said flatly, watching as the header 'Symptoms of Possession' appeared at the top of the page.

"Let's see," Kara said again, scrolling down the webpage. There didn't seem to be much written on there, and what was written was short and to the point.

"When a person is possessed," Kara read, "they are being controlled by a spirit other than the one that resides in their own body. The spirit possessing the victim controls the victim's every move and action, which can lead to disasterous consequences. Though some spirits are kind and have good intentions, most spirits that choose to possess don't have their victim's best interest in mind. Signs that you are or have been possessed include unconciousness, lack of memory, eyes rolled into the back of the head, and an altered voice, among other things."

There was more, but Kara stopped. She re-read the symptoms, and gave a small shudder. Was it coincidence that this webpage listed the very same things that happened to her and Bethane?

((Author's Note: ...*blinkblink* Did I actually /write/ that? <_< Oh, wow....))

Suddenly feeling very tense and afraid, Kara turned off her computer and crawled back into bed. Something very weird was going on, and she had no idea what it was.

But, she assured herself, there was a reasonable explanation for everything.



Kara was feeling better the next morning, and she got up thinking about her mother. Was she back? The house didn't seem the way it had been before Kara went to bed.

"Hello?" she called questioningly. "Um...is anyone there?"

Suddenly, Kara heard footsteps, but no voice. Tensing, Kara ducked back into her room, and watched as a dark shape emerged at the end of the hallway. She backed slowly up, and hid behind her dresser as the figure of a man slowly approached her room.

"Anira?" he called wryly. "Anira, I know what you're up to. The jig is up."

Briefly wondering why the man was calling her mother's name, Kara pulled even farther back. Please don't hurt me, Kara begged in her mind. Please, please, please....

The man made a lunge for Kara's doorway, and she felt herself rise on legs that were no longer her own. The whole world seemed to go into a frozen blur, as the man halted his flight in mid-air, landing again in the shadows. Slowly, the world began to grow dark around Kara, and then everything was black.

And, suddenly, it was light again. Kara was on the ground, and dozens of Officers were standing around her. She felt something around her neck, and she reached trembling fingers up to feel it. It was her emerald necklace.

She looked up again at the Officers, and swallowed hard. "What...I...what happened to me?" she gasped, trying to stand up. One of the officers whammed something hard against her shoulders, and she dropped back to the ground, silent as she could be while gasping with fright.

"She seems different," one of the Officers commented. "The knock to the head must have done something to her."

"Where am I?" Kara whimpered, wrapping her arms around her legs and making herself as small as possible. "The last thing I remember was the man coming into my room, and then...."

"Then," an Officer said flatly, "you tried to kill him."

"I what?" she gasped. "No, I...you've got the wrong person! It wasn't me! I swear! I don't remember anything...!" Kara quieted. She sounded just like Bethane when she had attacked the Officers.

The Officer that had just spoken snorted. "Sure you don't," he replied skeptically. "You don't remember this?" He tossed her a sharp knife, and Kara drew away from it. It was her mother's old kitchen knife.

"You went at him with it," another Officer said. "You were pretty involved in it when we got there."

Kara swallowed hard. "There's no blood on it," she said.

"That's because he was a trained government official," an Officer explained. "He was after you for another crime. Two, in fact."

Kara raised an eyebrow. They definately had the wrong person. "What crimes are these?" she asked.

"What crimes!" an officer laughed. "You have some nerve. You lit the Anderson household on fire, and murdered a government official!"

Kara's jaw dropped. She was familiar with the first charge, but what was this about murdering someone?

"We found this on the scene of the murder," one of the Officers said, pointing to the knife. Indeed, as Kara looked closer, she could see flecks of dried blood near the handle. Gagging, Kara threw the knife away from her. It landed with a clatter on the sidewalk. The Officers all sneered.

"It wasn't me," Kara said fiercely. "You have the wrong person."

"Maybe so," an Officer said, as two others grabbed her by her arms, "but we know you did this. And that's enough to get you Ejected."

It dawned on Kara just what was about to happen, and she let out a wail of terror.

She was to be sent out of the dome to die.



The courthouse was nearly empty. The only people in it were a Judge, several Officers, a grim jury, and one weeping girl.

"Kara Matherson," the Judge said firmly, "your crimes are heinous, your future in this dome bleak. You are convicted of arson, first degree murder, and assault on a government official. You are sentenced to Ejection immediately."

"Please!" Kara screamed, as two Officers grabbed her arms. "You don't understand! It wasn't me, I swear it! I didn't do it, I didn't do it!"

The Judge just shook his head. He was hardened to the cries of the girl; he'd seen a million cases worse than hers.

As the girl was dragged away, he turned, and typed his message to them. #4285 is out. Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, Kara and the Officers reached the Door. Kara struggled against the strong grips, screaming at the top of her lungs. The Officers ignored her, putting on Oxygen masks and preparing for the swift, practiced action of Ejection.

Kara wailed one last time as the Door was flung open, and she was hurled out into the world Beyond.



Ben heard the scream not with his ears, but with his mind.

"Kara," he breathed. Never before had he felt so very helpless and alone. Not when he and his mother had fled, not when his mother had died, not when Ci had come into the picture as a fellow renegade halfling that insisted on caring for Ben. He was confused, and frightened at how he wanted so desperately to leap from his hospital bed and follow Kara straight out of the dome.

Ben'shiral'ka laid his head back, and whispered one word before he fell into a fitful sleep.

"Kara...."



Miles and miles away, a man was paying for his inferior's mistakes. The inferiors paid as their master paid, and they trembled in their beds, feeling the Pain that their master felt. The Pain that only one of Them had the Power to Inflict. The Pain that was not described with words, only thoughts and feeligns. It was the Pain that had kept them in line this long.

The horrible, unimaginable Pain of Their wrath.

The Necklace had slipped out from between their fingers yet again, and it looked as though, this time, they were not going to get it back with ease.



"Kara," a voice whispered in the dark of night. "Kara...."