There’s something about hot chocolate that always calms me down. I don’t know what it is. Maybe the warmth, or the chocolatey goodness, or the fluffy marshmallows I heap on top until they overflow. Whatever it is, it always helps.

My mind is in turmoil, debating if I should really go through with my plans or not. I’m standing on a ledge, contemplating how I can proceed. If I steal the rabbit from the lab and leave town, I will no doubt be blacklisted by every lab in California. The science community is large, and it talks. If Star Corp put out a notice that I’m not to be hired, no one would hire me.

That would leave me with only two options: Go back to Embry-Jones, where I know I’m guaranteed a job, or find a job in another state. I’m not sure my bank account can handle searching for another state. I could do a long road trip to Massachusetts if need be. My savings will be gone probably after two consecutive moves. I can’t stay here, though. More and more I feel like I need to act, to move, like some great destiny is calling me.

I snort.

Right. Like some great destiny is pulling me in the right direction. Destiny is an asshole, especially going by how it treated my sister. I sigh and lean my head back on the couch. The TV is playing, but it’s late, and there doesn’t seem to be any good shows on. Right now, the channel is stuck on infomercials; the one playing now is talking about phone line psychics. I tune the costume jewelry-covered woman out. The ceiling above me is stained from water damage. I frown. I paid way too much rent for that, but California is no joke when it comes to apartment pricing.

I’m so conflicted about what to do, how to go about saving the rabbit or if I even should. I’m certain that I can no longer work for Star Corp. That much is glaringly clear. I just wish that it was so much easier, that there was someone I could go to and plead the case, but if Dr. Devereux and the board are okay with it, there aren’t many other people within the company that could do anything about it.

I look over at the picture I have hanging on the wall, one of the few things I had unpacked, and smile. It’s a picture of Neptune and I, giggling at the camera, no older than seventeen. It was before she had tried one of the drugs her boyfriend offered her, before she became addicted. It had all gone downhill from there. Smoking a joint had led to pills and finally to heroin. She had never stood a chance.

But that picture was before any of that, back in the time we were happy and best friends, back when drugs didn’t come before me. That’s how I choose to remember her. Not the frail woman that I had left in that apartment in Massachusetts.

“Sis,” I say, speaking to the frame. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t live with the cruelty in the lab. I can’t work like that. I came out here for adventure, just like you said. But I think I messed up. I don’t think the adventure I want is here. This isn’t where I’m meant to be.”

Even as I say it, I feel the lie. For some reason, I feel like I should be at that lab, at least temporarily. Maybe I have a purpose here. It would be nice if a wise old wizard popped from thin air to give me a cryptic message. That would at least be a starting point.

I almost wait for a response, from whom I don’t know. Maybe I’m hoping my sister will give me a sign from where she is. Whether she’s an angel, demon, or ghost, she’s still my sister. She wouldn’t steer me wrong.

“And now I’m talking to phantoms,” I sigh, closing my eyes for a moment. I don’t receive an answer. Of course, I don’t. I’m losing my mind.

The TV flashes, shining through my eyelids, and I jerk my head up at the interruption in psychic nonsense. The channel skips around, like the antenna is being moved. It stops on a channel with a man, standing up and giving a speech. I have no idea who he is, his face as unfamiliar to me as any stranger, but it’s his words that register and bring me sitting straight up.

“We must never lose our humanity because, as humans, that’s who we are,” he speaks, his voice booming into the microphone. He has a good speaking voice. “The moment we lose sight of that is when great tragedies begin. Think of the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the massacres that happen every day. All of it is because someone lost their humanity and didn’t step up when they could have. Don’t ignore those feelings. When everyone else is wrong, you stand up and do what is right. You may be standing alone, it may be difficult, but if you feel it, there’s no other way.”

The channel fizzles out again, and I stare at the static in confusion. I’m not sure I believe in coincidences, but that was too big of one to pass off. I look at my sister again in the photo and smile. I raise my mug of hot chocolate in a toast.

“Thanks, sis. I needed that.” My eyes mist the tiniest amount, and I blink away the emotion. No time for that.

I figure I will need at least a week or two to gather more information, to find a way to free the rabbit.

It’s time for me to stand, even if I’m standing alone.