Chapter 8: “Alice!? What Are You Doing Here!?”

Alice was tired. She had woken up at 8:00 AM this morning because she had planned a long study session with her friend Beatrice later that day and she had wanted to get a few errands done that morning. But it was now nearly noon, and she had not heard a word from her friend. She was supposed to call her at 11, but her phone had been completely silent. Alice sent a few texts to Beatrice before finally attempting to call her a couple of times, but the texts just went unanswered and the calls were no different.

 Alice was upset because she and Beatrice had planned this in advance and with the date of the bar exam approaching in a couple of months, they both needed to study as much as possible. They had rescheduled several times already, and Alice didn't appreciate Beatrice ghosting her on the day of their long belated practice exam session. She figured Bea was trying to catch up on her notoriously awful sleep, but in Alice's eyes this wasn't an excuse. One way or another, they were doing this today.

 So she called a taxi and went to Bea's apartment complex. After paying the cab fare, she approached the large metal gate at the building's entrance and entered the gate code – 0250 - that she had obtained from Bea when she helped her move in. She walked up the stairs and finally arrived at room number 241 – Beatrice's room. Taking her hands out of the pockets of her red cardigan, she made a fist and moved to knock on the door before her fist stopped just centimeters away from the hard oak door. Listening carefully, she heard Bea's voice behind the door. It sounded like she was talking to someone.

 "Motherfu- did she seriously ignore my calls?" Alice thought.

 Beatrice was definitely in there and she was certainly talking to someone. From the tone of her voice, Alice could tell that she was quite stressed. Realizing that maybe her friend might be going through something, Alice decided to listen through the door first to see if maybe she should talk to Beatrice some other time rather than make Beatrice feel worse by reminding her about the missed study session.

 "…so all I need to do… right?"

 Nothing.

 "But they shouldn't be a problem at… right?"

 It seemed that Beatrice must be on the phone as Alice couldn't hear who she was talking to at all. Either way, Beatrice being on her phone definitely meant that she was aware of Alice's calls

 Suddenly, Beatrice got louder and her voice became shakier.

 "Of course I don't want to fight them! How am I supposed to fight something like that!?"

 Wait, fight!? Is she in trouble? What has she gotten herself into? She surely hadn't done something stupid like take out a loan from a loan shark or buy drugs, right!? 

 "But I don't even know where I need to go or how I'm going to outrun them! Not to mention that I look like a freak!"

 Beatrice's voice was even louder and shakier. Clearly, Alice had been right on the money. She looked like a freak? She was going to try to run from them? Obviously, Beatrice needed help. Had they cut her up? What had they done to her?

Alice was now fully convinced of her theory. The images racing through her head about what might have happened to her former roommate were causing her to shudder and she nearly gagged just imagining a group of men mercilessly hurting her poor friend Bea. Okay, that's that. Alice was going to help her no matter what because that's what friends are for. It must have been fate that sent her here on this day at this time to overhear Beatrice's conversation with whomever was on the other side of her phone call. Still, why hadn't she called Alice first. Who was she calling? Was it her parents? Well, it didn't matter. Alice was here now and since she knew what was going on, she would help however she could. Alice had been Beatrice's former roommate while they were in their respective undergraduate programs, and they had both hit it off so well that they had decided to go to the same law school. Alice was Beatrice's best friend and they had been there for each other through many hardships, so she wanted to help Beatrice in any way possible.

Thus, she raised her knuckles and loudly knocked on the door.

 Knock, knock, knock!

 "Bea? Bea, are you in there? Are you alright? You didn't answer my calls or texts and I got pretty worried," Alice shouted.

 No response, aside from some shuffling she heard from behind the door. Clearly she didn't want Alice to see the state she was in. No matter. Alice knew that Beatrice probably was treating her wounds herself after what those gangsters she was certainly talking about had probably done to her, as she didn't want to go to the hospital and alert the authorities to what had happened – probably for fear of retaliation. Alice knew that this was a stupid idea. They had both gone to law school together. If Beatrice wasn't going to seek professional help, then Alice would.

 "…Beatrice, I know you're in there. I heard you talking on the phone. Look, I know it's not nice to eavesdrop, but it sounds like you really need some help. I don't know what those people did to you and if you don't want me to see you, I understand, but if you don't open this door right now and let me take you to the hospital and then the police station I will call an ambulance," Alice said.

 "NO! DON'T DO THAT!" Alice heard a panicked voice shout from behind the door almost immediately. She sounded much more distressed than before. Clearly she was in a lot more trouble than Alice had initially expected.

 "Look, Bea, I promise that however bad it is, you've got people who-" Alice tried to say before being quickly interrupted.

 "I don't know what you heard or what you think is going on, but please leave! I can't study today so… so just… just leave me alone!" Bea shouted.

 Alice paused for a moment, but then decided that firm action needed to be taken. Her friend needed help and if she wasn't going to seek it herself, then Alice was going to find out what was going on and handle it for her because that is what friends do.

 "Alright, Bea, you've forced my hand," she said, pulling out her phone. She was going to call the police to conduct a wellness check, as she couldn't call 911 or an ambulance without first seeing concrete proof that an emergency was taking place. Alice may have been a hypochondriac, but even she knew well enough not to mess with emergency services if there wasn't proof of an emergency.

 Suddenly, she heard loud footsteps approaching the door. Bea must've been running for the door and suddenly, something occurred to Alice – Beatrice always forgot to lock the door when they were still roommates. She must've forgotten to lock the door and she was running to lock it before Alice could open it. "Oh, not a chance in Hell!" Alice thought.

 Just before the footsteps reached the door, Alice put her free hand on the doorknob and turned it before pressing all her weight against it to slam it open. She was expecting to see a grizzly scene on the other side of that door, but what she saw next was something that she could never have imagined in all her wildest dreams.

 She saw a very panicked-looking child, probably about 14 or 15 years old, wearing Beatrice's signature pair of sunglasses and what had to be the most realistic and detailed costume Alice had ever seen. What creature even was that? Was it some kind of insect? It clearly had antennae… but what were those weird things on her arms? They looked sharp!

 When the child saw her, Alice could see her eyes widen from behind the sunglasses before she took a couple of steps back. They both stood there for several seconds, neither moving from their respective positions.

 Come to think of it, that child looked a lot like Bea in those sunglasses. Was she her younger sister? Alice didn't know Bea had a sister. Why had Bea never told her that she had a sister? Bea knew about Alice's siblings. So why didn't she tell Alice about her sister?

 Alice decided to speak first. Beatrice was definitely in this apartment and she was in trouble, and this kid was trying to help her hide from Alice by trying to lock the door. Thus, talking to her was necessary. Alice crouched down a bit to reach the girl's eye level before she opened her mouth.

 "Um, hi… I'm Bea's friend, Alice, and I'm pretty concerned for her wellbeing. Can you show me where she is? I just want to help her however I can," Alice said, trying to sound as soft and reassuring as possible before smiling sweetly at the costume-wearing girl in front of her.

 The girl blinked. "I... er… um…" and then quickly turned around and ran into the apartment.

 "Hey, wait!" Alice shouted before closing the door behind her and giving chase. The girl ran into Bea's bedroom and tried to close the door, but Alice, being at least half a foot taller than her, was right on her tail – er, wings. They protruded out of her furry upper back and extended all the way down to her feet. Alice couldn't help but admire their craftsmanship. They were clearly insect wings, and whoever made them must have spent a fortune on them. They even seemed to vibrate a bit on their own as their wearer ran! Anyways, Alice was able to jam her foot between the door and the wall before it closed around her foot.

 "OW!!!" she shouted. That hurt way worse than it should have! Was that girl some kind of power lifter? That door hit her foot like a semi-truck!

 Biting her lip to cope with the pain, Alice hesitated before trying to talk to the girl who she could tell was still pushing up against the door.

 "Hey, look, you don't need to be embarrassed. I just want to talk to Beatrice. Can I come in?" she asked softly.

 "Go away!" she heard Beatrice's voice shout from right behind the door. Her voice sounded very close, as though she was right behind the door herself instead of whoever Alice had just seen earlier. Suddenly, something occurred to Alice.

 "Come to think of it, that young girl looked somewhat like Bea and her stammering sounded like Bea's voice… wait a minute!"

 And then, suddenly, she remembered something she thought she'd never use at the time.

 A lecture on Altered law.

 In the middle of a small lecture hall, a rotund man in his late 40's stood dressed in a suit and tie before a blackboard.

 "As you might already be aware, around one in every 1,500,000 individuals has some kind of altered anatomy or supernatural ability," her professor had said. "These people are either born with it or they inherit it through one way or another at some point during their natural lives. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, another act was shortly passed known colloquially, though not officially, as the, 'Fair Treatment of Altered Act.' Under this act, such individuals are…"

 And that was the extent of this memory. She knew about Altered. Everybody and their grandmother knew about them. Some were even lucky enough to have met one. Heck, one of the most famous streamers on TikTok was a half-spider Altered who called herself "Arach-NII <3" 240 and wove beautiful handicrafts out of silk she produced from her own body. But Alice never intended to branch into any field law involving Altered. It was such a niche anyway that doubted knowledge Altered would ever be useful in career. There were only an estimated them the United States begin with, although some conspiracy theorists thought this number far higher. While somewhat obsessed with herself, it perhaps detriment. She had stayed up all night before lecture reading textbook's entire chapter on doing internet research. been so tired next day actually fell asleep during lecture.< p>

 But now, a thought was beginning to form in her head. A thought that would explain everything – Beatrice's shyness, the strange girl she saw earlier, the detailedness of the girl's "costume," the strength with which the girl had closed the door on her foot, the girl's strange resemblance to Beatrice herself, the closeness of Beatrice's voice behind the door…

 "B-Bea…" Alice started, her voice shaking a little. "That- that little girl I just saw… that's- that's you, isn't it? You became some kind of Altered, didn't you?" Alice asked, her voice quavering. It was just too surreal… and yet, it was the only logical explanation. Nothing else could possibly explain everything that had happened so far. Oh, this was so exciting! Her friend was an Altered!

 Suddenly, the pressure against her foot stopped.

 "Sigh. Dammit, Alice," was all she could hear her friend say before she opened the door.