The elevator slid to a soft halt. A small chime echoed, and the doors opened. None of them moved at first, just watching as Ms. Michelle stepped out like nothing had happened.
Jane squinted at her back. "You're just gonna stay quiet after dropping that cryptic-ass line?" she called out as they followed her onto the hallway carpet.
Ms. Michelle turned slowly on her heel, giving a simple, mysterious smile. "Language. Anyways, knock on the door tomorrow. Room 29-B," she said and just like that, turned left and disappeared into her room.
Jane stared at the now-closed door. "The hell?"
Carl shrugged. "That was a straight up 'Batman-exit'."
Jane turned to respond, but froze. "Where's Jake?"
Carl and Carly looked around.
"Are you kidding me?" Jane muttered.
Then Carl spotted him, far down the hallway on the opposite end, already sliding a keycard into a door.
"Really?" Jane called out, voice laced with irritation.
Jake glanced over his shoulder. "What? We're not actually sharing a room, are we?" he replied, deadpan as ever, and slipped inside.
"Wait, wait. Don't lock the door, don't…" Carl broke into a jog.
Slam.
"…lock the door," Carl finished flatly, coming to a stop and resting his back against the door, defeated.
Jane rolled her eyes. "Come on." She and Carly opened the opposite door, stepping into what would be the girls' room.
"Oh, so I'm just gonna be left out here like an abandoned slip—" Carl started, but before he could finish, the door opened and he fell backwards onto the carpet.
"Ow," He muttered.
Jake stood over him expressionless, then turned and walked deeper into the room like nothing had happened.
The girls shut their door behind them.
Meanwhile, outside the hotel, a lone figure stood directly in the center of the road, facing the building. Still. Too still.
A car horn blared beside him. The man turned his head slowly, revealing a white mask, wide smile carved, and marked with black Xs for eyes.
Then, in a glitch, he vanished.
Morning crept in, and by 8 a.m., sunlight had painted the walls in soft gold.
Carl lay sprawled across the bed, snoring. Jake, came out of the shower, dressed up and sat silently on the bed's edge.
A knock broke the silence.
Jake walked over, checked the hallway cam, and groaned.
He opened the door just in time for Jane to storm in like she owned the building, with Carly behind her, now dressed in a clean hotel-provided gown. Her trash-covered clothes, gone.
Jake scoffed. "Oh great. Just what I needed. A headache."
He shut the door behind them.
"We need to go back home," Jane said immediately, planting herself on the couch. "We left everything behind. School IDs. Clothes. Devices. Our lives are in that house."
Jake leaned against the wall, arms folded. "And you're telling me… why?"
"Sometimes," she added, "I wish you'd act a little less like an animal and more like a human being."
Jake's eyes remained deadpanned, "Humans are animals. Apes. Just really annoying ones."
"Ugh," Jane hissed, slumping.
Carly stepped in. "Can we not fight first thing in the morning? Let's go meet Ms. Michelle before you two claw each other's eyes out."
"She's a reptile, right?" Jake muttered under his breath.
"Excuse you?" Jane snapped.
Carl stumbled in, eyes half-open, one sock off. "Morning… What's going on? Why are you two here?" he mumbled, pointing loosely at Jane and Carly before rubbing his eye.
"Morning," Carly replied. She was the only one polite enough to.
"I'm kinda starving though…"
"Then call for food. You're in a hotel, for crying out loud," Jake said, rolling his eyes. He turned to walk away. "Do you all have to be idiots?" he muttered, deliberately loud enough for everyone to hear.
Seconds later, he returned and tossed his phone to Carly.
"Here. Use mine. Maybe it'll make you feel useful."
Carly caught it effortlessly. She narrowed her eyes. "Your phone better not be like your personality. Unresponsive."
Jake laughed a low, dry chuckle and walked over to the window, drawing the curtains slightly. The early light of the city filtered in. But he wasn't admiring it. He was scanning. Watching.
Jane crossed her arms, still seated. "Jake. You know we can't just pretend none of this happened, right?"
"You think I'm pretending?" he said, voice quieter but sharper. "That's nice."
"No," Jane said, leaning forward. "I think you'd rather sulk and throw insults, than face this,"
Jake's jaw tightened. He still didn't turn around.
And for a moment… no one spoke.
Not because they had nothing to say.
But because whatever came next wasn't going to be simple.
Carl, now wide awake, clapped once—loud and awkward. "Okay! Nope. We're not doing this drama at 8 AM, alright? I just escaped people trying to taser me into a seizure. Let's not fry each other next."
Carly nodded without looking up, already tapping into the hotel's room service app. "Agreed. I need breakfast before I start judging people's life decisions."
Jake let go of the curtain and turned. "Let's go see Ms. Michelle. But if she says anything cryptic again, I'm walking out."
"We all walk out. Together," Jane said firmly, standing up. "Whatever it is—we're stuck in it now. Might as well be stuck together."
Jake glanced at her, then to Carl and Carly. He sighed through his nose and gave a small nod.
"Fine. Twenty minutes. Get ready."
Ten minutes later...
All four of them stood in the hallway, outside Room 29-B.
"Knock already," Carly whispered, arms crossed.
Jane rolled her eyes and knocked.
A few seconds passed. Then the lock clicked, and the door creaked open slowly.
Ms. Michelle stood there, fully dressed in a sharp, dark teal suit like she hadn't slept at all. Her hair was pinned back.
"You're early," she said simply, stepping aside. "Good. You would've missed me."
They shuffled in, cautiously. The room was coldly elegant—lavender scent lingering, a black handbag and sleek tablet sitting on the desk. Ms Michelle shut the door and turned the lock.
"No one says a word," she said, her voice cool and calm. "I'll do the talking."
She moved to the desk and leaned against it, arms folded.
"I was contacted last night," she began, "by someone who shouldn't even know I'm in this city. And you four…are in quite a mess."
Jane shifted, her suspicion still simmering. "Who contacted you?"
Michelle's eyes didn't blink. "The same agency that tried to pull me out of retirement six years ago."
Jake let out a dry chuckle. "Resurrection. I see."
Michelle's expression didn't change. "Retired, not dead. And I wasn't just your school teacher, kids. I was watching you. Assigned to Jake specifically. Or rather… the male version of me was. This version…" she gestured at herself, "was assigned to Jane."
The room fell into a stunned silence.
Everyone turned slowly to look at Jane then at Jake, who looked less shocked and more... irritated.
"Seriously?" he asked flatly. "You were a glorified babysitter?"
Michelle took one step forward. "I was your handler."
Carly blinked. "What does that mean?"
"It means Jake isn't just some random smart-mouthed kid with a talent for sarcasm. And Jane isn't just brains, sass and a snappy attitude." Michelle said, voice cutting sharp. "They were part of a program. Or used to be. Until it was shut down after the incident with your… parents."
She paused, voice softening ever so slightly. "Sorry about that."
She cleared her throat and straightened again. "The Merge has done something extraordinary. It's granted certain people powers. Abilities. Well…one that we know of."
Jane shook her head. "This makes no sense."
Michelle reached back and tapped her tablet. The screen lit up with a grainy surveillance video. A man in a coat, face obscured by a white mask with crude Xs for eyes, stood in the middle of a city street.
"This man," she said slowly, "is being hunted by the FBI. He glitched out. Disappeared. But he's not just teleporting. He's erasing people. Wiping them clean out of existence. And based on recent activity, he's targeting anomalies. Like me. Like you."
Jake's questioned. "And how do you know all this?"
Michelle met his gaze evenly. "Because I was part of the original team that started Project Parallel—the very project that opened the door to all of this."
Jane shook her head again, arms folded, walls going back up. "I don't even wanna ask what that means anymore."
Carl's tone dropped. "So… how does that guy know who to target? I mean, how can he tell who's merged and who isn't? He's not just walking around with a checklist, is he?"
"Evil Santa," Carly giggled.
Michelle's expression hardened. "The world now has three kinds of people. Merged: people who are now one version of themselves from both timelines and have their memories rewritten. Duals: like you four, who stayed separate, with memories of both timelines. And then… Anchors."
"Like…?" Carly asked cautiously.
Ms Michelle didn't answer.
She glitched.
One second she was standing there in her fitted suit. The next—Mr. Michael was in her place, same posture, same stance, but a deeper voice and stronger frame.
"…Me," he finished.