After settling Anthony and Aurora in their new rooms and seeing that they both at least went to bed, Jessica went to her own room.
Tomorrow was going to be difficult, she tried to discourage the thought that most people would be under the impression that she, herself, had murdered Clarissa.  That could only mean that, as they probably, or rather, hopefully hadn’t enough evidence to arrest or convict her, they certainly had enough to expel her from the ship, and when the word got out, she knew she would automatically be bared from society.
This brought on many other uncomfortable thoughts to mind; what would happen to Anthony and Aurora, how long would they be able to survive on the money that should be left for them.  The most distressing thought was of how this would affect what she and David had, or would’ve had.
She knew that if he was everything she knew, then he would do all in his power to help her, no matter the cost to himself.
She knew that if she were to be taken back to earth, that he would try to offer for her.
She knew what she would have to do if such a situation ever arose.
And she knew, as sure as she knew that she loved David and he loved her, that there were two hearts that would be lying shattered on the floor.
She lay in her bed and in closing her eyes, she held no hope that she would sleep.
Within minutes her dreams had swallowed her.  Or rather someone’s dreams had entered her unconscious.
The dreams barely were, so quickly did they descend into far too vivid nightmares.
The evil from the eye seemed to rush into her.  Every feeling of anger and paranoia, of sadness and hatred that she had ever felt was squeezed, undiluted into every moment of sleep.
After reliving several imposingly painful memories of her own, more emotions seemed to begin to filter themselves into the mix, emotions that were tied to experiences, experiences that Jessica had never had.  Someone else’s emotions and feelings continued to penetrate her mind, slowly at first but gradually getting stronger and so clear that she could even see some of them.  They mostly consisted of torture or hideous death.  However there were the odd few that were much worse, rape, torture so foul that she’d never even heard of, hatred and paranoia so strong that it cause the possessor to loose their mind and massacre everyone they came across, men, women and children slaughtered for no reason by the ones they loved.
The evil feelings seemed to be building into a black cesspool that stained her very soul.  If only she could wake herself up, she would be able to escape the darkness.
She could feel the terror caught in her throat, suffocating her.
She choked, pulling herself out of sleep.
The room was nearly black, the only light coming from the clock at the other end.
Jessica found that when she had woken, she had sat straight upright.  It was a moment or two before the memories of her sleep began to tumble into her conscious state.
The strange thing was that, although the images and experiences were kept at bay by her wakened being, every feeling and emotion that she had thought had died with the dream, came rushing into her.
She could feel it all suffocating her, choking at her entire body, yet somehow she was still breathing.
Gasping, she threw back her bed covers and stumbled out of bed as though intoxicated, and hauled herself to the bathroom that connected her room to Aurora’s.
Snapping on the light, shielding her eyes from the sudden intrusion of brightness, she pulled herself up to the sink and turned the cold tap on full.
Plunging her hands under the cold jets of water, she splashed it over her face and around her neck.
Forcing herself to slow down, she held her head bowed, almost not daring to see her own reflection for fear of what it would reveal.
Reaching out one hand to turn off the tap, she stopped short.
She stood listening for a moment, what had she heard?  It had sounded like a voice, but above the roar of the jet of the water it was hard to discern.
Her hand quickly moved the short distance to the tap and with a sharp movement, she shut of the stream.
Nothing.
“Paranoia,” she thought to herself, “are you surprised?” she took a deep breath, “I will not let the darkness intimidate me.”
She drew in a deeper breath and was about to turn back to the bedroom…
“Jessica”
She froze.
It was real, a voice, barely above a whisper, had spoken to her.
Unable to allow her mind to think rationally, Jessica backed herself up against the nearest wall.
“Jessica”
“Who’s there?” she cried, her voice hoarse with fear.
“A friend” came the reply.
“Where are you?” she said, her voice growing harder, as a strangely welcome yet disconcerting anger presented itself from who knows where, “I like to see my friends faces when I talk to them.  I am not friends of those that hide themselves from the light.  Now tell me who you are and what you want!”
“I am a friend, I want to help”
Jessica glared straight ahead of her, “Well if you really are a friend, you should show yourself, show yourself, I don’t trust shadows.”
“You will, in time”
“That doesn’t mean anything, you’re doing nothing but confusing me, now show yourself!”
No reply.
She could feel herself getting more and more wound up.  The silence was steadily becoming deafening.
“No more games!” she cried, “I said show yourself coward!” her voice rising to a yell.
The door behind her flying open caused her to scream, causing Aurora to cry out in surprise, “Goodness Jessica, what on earth are you doing in here?  Have you completely lost your senses?”
“Maybe,” mumbled Jessica under her breath.  “What?”  Stop trying to confuse me Jessica.”  Her sister’s face looked rather distraught, she calmed her voice, “What were you shouting about?”
Jessica did her best to look confused, “Shouting?  What are you talking about?  I just woke up in here, just now, I must’ve been sleep walking or something.”
She looked at her sister with a sheepish glance.  Aurora’s face showed a new variance of disbelief, “come on Jessy,” she said with a gentle voice, “I can tell when you’re lying, you do it so seldom these days that it’s really very obvious when you do.”
She perched on the edge of the bathtub, patting the chair next to it.  Jessica gave a sigh of resignation and more or less flopped into it.
“I thought that I heard a voice calling my name, it scared me, I thought it that it might have been…  Something happened inside of me, I think it was anger, it rose up and fought off my fear until all I could feel was rage.”
Her sister had adopted a concerned look on her face that seemed to be growing worse, “I think you must be so tired from last night Jessy.  You’ve probably been traumatised a bit, it’s bound to bring on several new unexpected emotions.”
“I know you’re right,” sighed Jessica, “but the voice, I heard it, it wasn’t some stress induced hallucinations, I heard someone talking to me, and it was a voice that I recognise but can’t quite place.”
Aurora’s brow crinkled, “Perhaps it was someone in one of the other rooms or in the corridor, all these rooms share the air-conditioning ducts.”  Jessica’s eyes were brimming with tears, before she could stop it, one had spilled out.
“Oh Jessy, don’t worry,” her sister tried to assure her, “we’re perfectly safe, and I’m sure that when you see your Mr Jacobs in a couple of hours time, you’ll feel much better.”
Jessica, smiled at her sister’s attempt at cheering her big sister up, stood up and gave her a hug.  “Of course everything will be fine.”  Then as though just realising, she pulled back suddenly, “a few hours?”
“Well, yes, less than that now, it’s past seven-thirty.”
Jessica darted back to her room and sure enough the clock display showed 07:34am.
“Oh bol…” stopping herself, “bother!”
Her sister gave her an affectionate yet knowing look and disappeared back into her room.
Jessica would have to investigate the voice later, now there were matters to attend to.

David had been wrestling with too many decisions throughout the remainder of the night.
He would be more than willing to throw in his reputation by marrying her, but he was sure that Jennifer would be far from thrilled, she would be far to concerned for his reputation, Ella, whilst being very concerned for her friend would probably do all she could to find another way, and Jessica herself… she would refuse him if she knew what the cost were.
So there came another question, should he ask her before she found out that she was to be expelled, or should he wait until after she had been told.  Either way she would know why he was asking, and that on top of not wanting to destroy his reputation she would not accept him from circumstance, despite how much they loved one another.
Still, when it came to the time that he had to leave his rooms he still had not made up his mind.
On his walk to the Faileas’s new rooms, he came across Ella, who was also on her way to see her friend.
For a while they walked in silence together.  Finally Ella spoke up.
“I take it you have spoken with the senior officer, about what’s happening to the family now?”
“I spoke with him and the captain last night.”
They fell silent.
It was a few more minutes before Ella spoke up again, “I don’t really believe that this is happening.  It just all feels like an incredibly bad dream that none of us can wake from.”
David gave her a wry smile, “I know it seems like that now, but I’m positive that all will turn out for the good, you’ll see.”  He said the last as though it were himself that he was trying to convince.
Ella gave him an annoyed look, “It’s all very well thinking that,” she half scolded, “We must do something to help Jessi… I mean Miss Faileas, we can’t let this just happen!”
“You’re absolutely right,” calmly replied David, “and we will help her.”
“But how?” asked his friend, as though thinking out loud, “short of one of us adopting her, I don’t see a way.”
“There’s no need to adopt her,” commented David, “I plan on making her a part of my family, but I was thinking of a less confusing method of going about it.”
“You mean you’ll ask her to marry you?” mused Ella, “Well it would work in the sense that she’d be provided for.”
“However…” said David.
“However what?” said Ella with an affected air of innocence.
“You have something else to say and you are hiding it rather ill.”
She cast him a sympathetic look, “There’s no however, you two would make a good married couple and if that’s what you decide, you have my full support.”
David cast her a rueful smile, “However…”
“However,” she spoke reluctantly, “her new found social status will never allow you peace.  Not just from her loss of assets, but society will blame her for mother’s death, even if there’s no proof.  She will be shunned, the both of you will be.  You’ll loose the respect of your village, and in all likeliness be revoked of your duties there.  Eventually I’ll wager all of your acquaintances will disappear.  And no matter how you deny it you will probably both become miserable and bitter and the truth that her misfortune brought it upon you will torment her.”
She stopped and drew in breath. 
He was staring at her in disbelief, “I did not know you had a cruel side Miss Cox, to speak of your own friends in such a manner… I never would have thought of it from you.”
“Please don’t be angry,” she pleaded, “I speak only of what I know.  I still stand by my earlier statement that if you do choose to marry you’ll have my support, I just don’t want to see you both to end up unhappy.” 
She gave his shoulder a comforting pat, one of his hands had risen to his forehead in an attempt to smooth away an oncoming headache.
He tried to smile a little, “thank you, I know you’re only trying to help, but my mind is made up.”
They started walking again, Ella trying to figure out at what point they had stopped, David keeping in step beside her, eventually he told her, “I’m quite sure she will refuse me.  She knows what’s bound to happen as you said, and won’t let me help her, or us for that matter, her heart is too good to let us get dragged to far into this.”
Ella turned to face him as they came to the door, “You really do love her don’t you?” she said it as more of a statement than a question.
He gave a nod of his head, “yes, I do.” And he knocked.