Escape yourself, leave Jessica

"Shit, shit, shit." There's no going back now. As much as you'd like to take Jessica with you, something tells you this road isn't one that you want to drag someone else on. You're never going to be able to go back to your old life. You're never going to see your parents or friends again - at least not with your own face. Throwing Jessica into the same type of life just seems cruel.

You quickly throw Elena's skin into the boot of the car and hop in, taking off. Your instinct is to swap with someone else, and quickly: swap with someone that isn't linked to anyone. Right now you're wearing Lucy, but she's too traceable. So is the car you're driving in: you'll need a better form of transportation. Jessica and her Mom's car is still at the mall, but that's not suitable either. And you still need to return them to life. Hopefully when you return them to life, they'll chalk it up to some joyriding kid and forget about the whole strange circumstance.

Your first stop is to return Jessica and her mom, and that means parking in a street a whole two blocks away from your own. You pull up, slip all five pens into your pockets, grab the bag containing Jessica and her mom, and head for a nearby broken fence.

Quickly, with a little difficulty, you duck through, forcing a way through an overgrown, long-ignored garden. You know exactly where you're going. A sidestep down an alley, an awkward climb up a sheltered porch roof, and Lucy's chubby form has slipped into Jessica's room: it's an old route you've used to visit her without her parents knowing.

You creep into the room. Downstairs you can hear the TV, and what sounds like Katie talking on the phone. Great. First, you take out Jessica, dumping her on her bed. Then, tiptoeing across the hallway, you return Denise. You shoot her with the black pen, watch as she returns to life, and bring the door to a close.Then it's Jessica's turn. You climb halfway out of the window, Lucy's form struggling where you would have made an exit with ease, and point the pen again.

"Bye, Jess," you say solemnly. For her own safety, you're never going to be able to see her again. You level the black pen and fire. Then you're slipping back down, across the porch, and along your secret path.

As you approach the hole in the fence, you stop dead in your tracks.

Elena's car, 'Elena' still in the boot, is gone.

You have no idea who took it. Maybe it's them. Maybe it's some opportunist car thief about to have the shock of his life. Either option is terrifying. Your blood runs cold. Lucy's arms well up to gooseflesh. Your eyes dart around, looking at every corner, window, shadow. Is this a trap? You press yourself up against the fence and look through the cracks. There are a few people in the street. An old man is watering his plants. A businessman is speaking on his phone. A phone engineer is fixing a junction box. They could be anyone. Anyone. The thought haunts you. It probably will keep haunting you for the rest of your life.

You do the only thing you can. You run.

*****

You're in the middle of town, drinking a coffee, shaking like a leaf. Somehow you managed to slip away without anyone noticing, but you can't stay as Lucy forever: you're going to have to swap skins. The only question is who with. There's literally hundreds of choices. You could zap any one of the coffee bar's patrons, from the barista himself, to the athletic blonde in the corner, dressed in a polo shirt emblazoned with the local gym's logo. You could cross the street, enter any of the shops and become the owner for a little while. There's even Officer O'Sullivan, looking bored as ever in her police car parked outside. You could easily draw her somewhere and zap her too.

But all of those options involve staying in town, taking on someone's life. And what if they can detect you, somehow? There's too many flaws in the plan.

You need to make a clean break. There are options for that, of course. You know there's a concert tonight: some pop-rock singer and her group. There's bound to be someone there you could become - maybe even someone in the band. They're touring, so you've got the perfect escape route. Alternatively, there's the local museum - some famous art collection. At weekends it's always drawing a crowd; people even come from overseas to visit it. It might be the ideal place to start.

And if you were to become someone else, what pen do you use? Black turns a person into a costume, Brown scans their personal details so you can impersonate them more easily. But what about red, blue and white? Maybe one of them turns someone into a suit that lets you access the person's memories. Maybe one of them is a cloning device, meaning you don't have to steal someone's life - just their appearance. Or maybe they do something even stranger...

All you have is questions. One thing is for sure, though: you can't stay as Lucy a minute longer.