Give her some space

You went to get up in an attempt to follow her but realised there was no need, your perspective changing as you watched Sarah go down the hallway to hide herself in your room, shutting the door behind her and leaning her back against it.

You could see she was heavily breathing and without a second thought, you cancelled the connection between the two of you. Having you essentially looking over her shoulder while she was trying to have some time alone wasn’t going to solve anything. And the fact that that feeling was the cause in and of itself just meant you had even more of a reason to stop looking as soon as possible.

You shook your head a little and turned face Emma, seeing her look conflicted about whether she should go after Sarah.

“Last I saw, she was in my room” you said, giving Emma the last update you could give.

Emma nodded and with a sigh, came and sat down next to you to lean her head on your shoulder, the same tired feeling affecting her after everything that had just happened.

“It went so well the first time. It doesn’t feel like much changed. Your explanation was pretty similar” Emma reasoned, trying to piece together what had gone wrong.

You had been thinking along the same lines yourself, taking a moment to gather your thoughts before replying.

“...I don’t think she ever fully believed us the first time around. That’s what I’m thinking anyway. Maybe she was thinking about the memory wipe and if it failed, she would know we were joking, and if it succeeded… then it wouldn’t be her problem” you suggested, letting yourself laugh dryly at that logic.

The both of you sat in silence for a moment, knowing you were on a time crunch to get back to the party but all of that seemed irrelevant in the moment.

You took the fact that Sarah went to your room to be something positive at least. She didn’t run downstairs to find someone or even run completely out of the house. Instead, just finding a quiet place where nobody else would likely be.

“I am curious though” Emma stated, breaking you out of your thoughts to look in her direction.

“What does the beholder effect feel like when someone is aware? I haven’t tested that yet” Emma revealed, turning to the door where Sarah had left.

“No harm in checking I guess” you replied, reaching for your phone and navigating the KDK menus and onto Emma’s profile.

Would you like to activate ‘Eye of the Beholder’?

Yes

Due to the subject being already aware of the KDK, would you like them to be aware of the ‘Eye of the Beholder’ effect?

Yes

Again there was a feeling of being pulled towards her and while the effect wasn’t as jarring, what made you shut your eyes was the fact that both you and Emma had been looking in the same direction, a sense of double-vision hitting you and forcing you to look away.

“Woah… oh okay” Emma murmured, getting up off the bed to stand in a similar spot to where Sarah had been.

You happily moved back to your past position and risked opening your eyes, now feeling better about the mixed vision.

“What’s it like?” you asked, hearing your own voice from Emma which again, took a moment to wrap your head around.

“It’s… it’s like…” Emma started to say, the words not coming to her quick enough as she took another moment to think.

“It’s like my eyes are a camera. I can’t fully explain it but that’s the best description. As if you're the one holding a camera and filming from behind my eyes. I can tell you are there, even if I’m looking at you, but you're just out of sight at the same time.” Emma explained, gesturing to herself with her hands as she pondered.

You considered how you would explain what you were seeing to Emma and her description wasn’t that far off from your point of view either.You could imagine yourself watching through a camera lens just behind her eyes but there was something more to it that was hard to describe.

But if the feeling was similar, it at least gave you some reference you could compare to to understand what the subjects would be going through.

“It’s very weird seeing you in front of me and feeling you sort of behind me as well. I could get used to it, I think. It’d be comforting if it was just one of the two but both together… I could see why Sarah would get freaked out…” Emma revealed, sitting back down so the two of you were back to back.

You stayed together for a moment or two as you talked about what to do next, just enjoying the casual contact between the two of you.

You yourself didn’t know how you could talk to Sarah without it feeling like you were pressuring her so you both agreed that Emma should be the one to go talk to her. Then the next logical thought was to have you keep your beholder effect on Emma to have you listen in.

“I don’t think I should keep the effect on” you stated first, not wanting to consider the alternative.

“I… agree. I’d like you there for support but it just doesn’t sit right with me” Emma agreed, leaning her head back to press more firmly against you.

You looked down at your phone and cut the beholder effect early, feeling the closeness between the two of you slip away slightly. Part of you wanted to turn around to embrace Emma but you resisted the temptation, knowing it would take you a while before you could pull yourself back again if you had to.

You shuffled in your spot before standing up, reaching out a hand for Emma to get up as well before you both headed to the door, each giving one another a nod before you went your separate ways.

You saw the door to the bathroom was still shut and the sound of the shower could still be heard from inside. If you weren’t trying to put some distance between you and your room, you’d have been tempted to turn the beholder effect on for Lucy but for now you let that thought remain as just an idea.

Instead, you headed back downstairs and peered your head into the living room to see if anyone was around, finding that the room was empty and moving on further towards the back of the house to find out where everyone else was.