Empire was miserable. She had spent so long away from civilization that she had all but forgotten how loud it could be, inside her head and out. She felt as though she'd lost all ability to tune even the slightest bit of it out. While the headache she'd gotten on the plane was severe, it was nothing compared to the raging in her head now. The discomfort must have shown on her face.

"Something wrong, Emmy?" her mother asked as they all sat around the dinner table.

December forced a smile. "Just jet lagged I think. I couldn't sleep a wink on the plane."

Her father did his best to not sound like her long absence wounded him, but of course, she knew. "I hear if you travel frequently it doesn't affect you so badly. Maybe you should drop in more often."

"Oh, Jim, don't start," her mother chided, passing the plate of dinner rolls around the table. "We're very glad you're here honey, and we know that you couldn't afford to travel much on your stipend."

She nodded and had a bite of mashed potatoes before responding. "Sitting out in the middle of nowhere monitoring seismic equipment doesn't pay a lot, yeah. It's even harder to find someone to come out and take over though, that's the real problem. Someone has to be there. Until they found a replacement I couldn't go. I wanted to come home sooner, I promise, Dad." She didn't realize she was drinking quite so deeply from her glass of wine until she saw both of her parents staring at her.

"Rough flight?" her father asked with a bushy arched eyebrow.

She nodded and kept up the façade. "Two obnoxious toddlers behind me the whole way. You know how it is, parents that just ignore the fact their children are bothering everyone else on the planet."

She felt a strange little prickle on the back of her neck, as though she were being watched. Of course, she wasn't alone in the room, but it was more than that. Momentary glimpses like she was observing herself and the room from a distance. She just tried to shake it off. It wasn't as though it were the strangest thing that had happened so far to her now that she was in the city once more.