[color=ff4500]"Anni Parkinson,"[/color] the young lady responded to Officer Keahi in kind.  Anni was simply relieved that Mike's wound hadn't accompanied him to Irriss.  Nor was his blood on her skirts--another, smaller relief.  The girl would have been quite happy to strike up a pleasant conversation with the introductions, but Kate--wonderful, caring Kate (she always made sure the Parkinsons had the best table right under the picture of the zoo with an associated, cut-out newspaper article beneath)--Kate thundered over to chastise the police officer for--well, for doing what he felt he was supposed to.  Looking back on the event, and trying to do so with the policeman's eyes, Anni could see the folly in her own actions.

As Kate turned away to berate her next victim, Anni leaned in close so Kate wouldn't hear her quietly say to Mike, [color=ff4500]"I am sorry about that.  I wasn't thinking that... I mean that I... It was my fault.  Sorry."[/color] Though she struggled to put it into words, Anni's remorse for scaring an officer like that was genuine.  Good girls didn't go around dragging other people in front of trains.  [color=ff4500]"But we're here, right?"[/color] Anni pointed out brightly, the small moment of remorse quickly giving way to her uncontainable enthusiasm.  For emphasis, she leaned backward and looked all around--at the trees, the sky, the distant horizon. They were here.  And now the Ghost Girl would tell them why.

Well, that was the hope, anyway.  Instead, the Ghost Girl drew everyone's attention to [I]Koda's[/I] (Anni tried to lock that name in her memory) current... metamorphosis.  Anni might have used other words, but she decided it would be safest to just use the same words the Ghost Girl was using.  Coming up with another way to describe the process that was forcing so much blood out of his body was almost as nauseating as watching it.  Then the girl that lead the way onto the tracks (the Ghost Girl called her Tabitha?) put on her mask; that metamorphosis looked less painful, but still unpleasant.  Ascot (Anni always remembered his name; he had always done the dissections so Anni wouldn't have to, and she was grateful for that) was the next to metamorphose, and he did so without all the blood and...[I]stuff[/I].  Then a man who didn't have such luck (Anni thought his was even worse than... Cody?  Koda!--even worse than Koda's, though she hadn't seen but the tail end of Koda's experience) had his--

Anni clenched her eyes shut, looked away, and grabbed ahold of her stomach.  Her face went deathly white.  [I]'Again,'[/I] she thought.  Again she had slipped into thinking of this as a whimsical fantasy, a fun adventure in another world.  It had taken all of four seconds.  But this wasn't C. S. Lewis; this was Edgar Allen Poe.  The small girl (and she did feel so very small) tried to force the image out of her mind's eye, but the only other thought that presented itself was asking, 'Was this right?'  Maybe Officer Keahi had been correct, that they shouldn't have come to this place.

Anni shook her head; she wouldn't back out, not just because things were more [I]violent[/I] than she had anticipated.  She came here to help, to do her part, and so she would do.  And as AnnMarie steeled herself for the trek ahead, the Semblance in her hand radiated a warm hum.   She had almost forgotten it was there--had it been there during all that chaos?--but now the thin mask was brought to the forefront of her attention.  She raised it to eye level so she could look it over once again:  narrow eyes, wide mouth, small ears.  In her hands it felt somewhat smooth, or soft, or... organic.  Putting it on would be as simple as turning it around and pressing it against her skin.  But what came after--she didn't want to think about it, let alone live it.

[color=ff4500]"Officer, do you think--"[/color] Anni started, opening her eyes to look at him.  She stopped herself, though, realizing that he didn't have any more answers than she did.  She took a deep breath in, stood carefully, and turned to look at the only one who had any answers.  In doing so, Anni tried desperately not to notice the abundance of red where green should have been.  [color=ff4500]"Miss Ghost,"[/color] Anni called, forcing her voice to remain clear, if slightly tremulous.  She still felt ill, and her pale face surely evidenced that, but her need to ask outweighed her horror.  [color=ff4500]"I have a question.  What is this... Semblance, for?  [I]Why[/I] do we have them?"[/color]