Jasmine whispered through labored breathing, "I'm sorry."

The voices fell as if their distance grew dramatically. Jasmine couldn't hear them, she made out the voice of a woman crying over her. She saw dim lights on the ceiling, and heard the faintest, "God please don't take her from me." Then there was nothing. Nothing for her to see. Nothing for her to recollect on, taste, hear, pure nothingness.

Was this death? Was this how I would die? She thought. The idea of which didn't scare her anymore. She thought it would but it didn't. It was better than living, better than living as other people everyday. She was nothing and therefore there was nothing to be afraid of. It was all going to be okay, she thought for a moment. Like a bad dream it'd all be over. The darkness was interrupted with a loud bang on a table. Her eyes shot open, the blinding light made her squint and look away. The light faded and she was sitting across a table from various.. People. Staring at her. The man straight ahead had a shaved head, and a scar trailing down his face.

He grinned and began to clap, he scanned the room as he did so then said, "Well come on, what are you waiting for? Clap you damn idiots, welcome her. Clap!" everyone mimicked his pace in an uncomfortable fashion. Men, women, and a few children on either side of her. Was she somewhere between life and death? This didn't look right. Jasmine tried to stand. She couldn't. Her arms and legs were tied to the chair. She panicked. She spoke, choked up, "Wait, wait wait.. I was.. I was.. You people know what I was.." her words fumbled over one another, trying to get answers yet she couldn't even ask what was going on properly. The man with the shaved head clenched his fist, then stormed away out of need. Another man with a flat cap and overalls held up a painting of the one with the shaved head, now shaped like a tomato in the painting then said," In other news, Hate is still a primitive, uncontrollably angry tomato. Huzzah."

Everyone except jasmine laughed. She wondered why she was In a strange house with strange people, stuck here with them and tied to this chair. It was terrifying. What were they planning on doing to her, she thought. The people around the table began chatting as if nothing was out of the ordinary two kids were playing truth or dare. She shot a glare at the older woman next to her. The woman served her a plate, full of eggs bacon and toast. Food she couldn't even reach. The woman said, "Bon appétit, dear. Ooh my you look so famished. I bet it must be so stressful being the operator from morning til dawn."

The woman sat down beside Jasmine. Her red lips curl into a smile, something about the lady seemed familiar to jasmine. Something made jasmine hats her. The woman said, "My name is Jennifer Smith, or Dawnstar we aren't the sort to use the names you give us. But you already knew that. I do the cooking and parenting of diloquents around here, hmm you should eat dear." Jasmine snapped, "You're one crazy bitch, I can't even move in these restraints. Let. Me. Go." Jasmine pulled on the restraints and rocked back and forth, anything to get out but to no avail. "I swear to God if you don't untie me right now I'll get you and everyone in this hell home buried deep in some fucking-" jasmine caught herself. This rage was surreal. Almost as if it wasn't hers. Jasmine stared at the table, all that mattered now was answers. Answers to something.

But deep down she knew what it could be.

A woman with black hair and sunglasses tapped her lip with a pen, and approached jasmine. The room was silent, and Jennifer scoffed and crossed her arms muttering something under her breath. Everyone seemed quiet looking at one another as if the cat needed to be let out the bag. The one with the flat cap says, "Lady, you are literally the embodiment of Hate, me, and the other fellers. We were wonderin if-" the woman with sunglasses shushes the flat cap man. She says, "I've got this one Kenny." the woman takes out her note book and begins writing in it, Jasmine says, "Look someone needs to tell me what's going on. How did you get me here? I have people that are worried about me, I think. I hope. I need to go back home."

The woman with sunglasses looks at jasmine then smirks, she said, "My name's Catherine, don't know the rest of my name but there's the first part. I'm gonna pick your brain apart first." this lady was dressed in work attire. Jasmine wondered why this looked like such a circus. None of these people looked uniform. "I'm a reporter. I report things, and uncover truths that people don't want exposed. It's a given in what I do for a living. I just don't get to do it much because the others take the spot light."

Jasmine said, "A reporter in a room full of other strange people.."

She tried to just listen and not piece together everything yet. Catherine said, "I'm gonna cut to the chase here because this is already weird for you. Answer all of us this, what's the last thing you remember?"

The last thing she remembered, Jasmine thought about it. Nothing but faint voices, a numbing pain. "I remember nothing, really. That's all I was for a while Nothing. Now I'm here for some reason, you know why but you won't tell me."

Kenny looked Jasmine in the eye and crossed his arms, he said, "And we didn't put you there. You just.. were there. Look are you really gonna pretend you don't know who we are? Cmon I'm the guy that got you through art class. I even helped you met that one guy with the fro' you got all googly eyed over." Jasmine wasn't sure if she could begin to understand.

Catherine said," Think, Jasmine. Think. Who are we?"

Jasmine took in their mannerisms. Kenny's laid back attitude and arts. Catherine and her straight to the point, no sass interviewing. And the overly overbaring den mother that was Jennifer. It clicked. Jasmine said, "That's not possible. You guys can't be real."

Catherine said, "Well we are to you isn't that what matters?" she wrote in her note book. "And we're together for once, mostly. We need to figure out who's going to take your place when you're gone. Because you've crossed the line, and it's almost killed all of us in the process."

Jasmine said, "So I'm a prisoner."

Catherine said, "No. You're like a key. The way out our little shared prison."

((Might continue later not sure.))