<div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/74/Siren2.jpg)</div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><strong>Aline Myobi -</strong> <em>Numb...</em></span></div><br/>As her eyes strained to search through the crowd, India found her before she spotted the security guard herself. She let the blanket be draped across her shoulders and automatically her hands went up to tug it tighter around her. It was then that she realized her robe had ripped in places during her hurry, and as she was led over to the small group from the gallery she noted that one of her slippers were missing.<br/><br/>Relief washed over her upon seeing the others, yet it was strange. Almost as if she weren't actually<em>there</em>. With a dull start, she realized what it was that had been bothering her. Everything seemed dreamlike, unreal. The entire situation was surreal. It couldn't possibly have happened, couldn't possibly be happen<em>ing</em>. This was just a bad joke, a nightmare, and she'd wake up soon. Right?...Right?<br/><br/>Aline felt as if she were watching the events play out on a screen, not actually a part of the scene but a mere spectator on the side. Detached. Staring up at the building, she watched as the flames licked greedily at the structure. Tearing and eating away at the only thing she'd managed to make for herself. The only place she had eventually been able to proudly call 'home'. The image burned itself into her eyes, the brightness leaving behind afterimages of the furious inferno belching smoke and spewing ashes.<br/><br/>With a start, she felt a tear trickle down her cheek. At the same moment she heard a familiar voice calling her name through the wail of sirens.<em>"ALINE!"</em>Ingrid. It was Ingrid. Ingrid! Where was she? Looking in the direction where she thought she'd heard her friend, she eventually spotted the other woman. "Ingrid." The name came out as a cracked whisper past dry lips, but something in her stirred and reanimated her for a moment. Jumping up, the blanket fell to the ground as she waved her arms frantically to catch their eye. She noticed that Morgan was right behind Ingrid and relief poured through her chest, filled with a happiness that she had been lacking just seconds before at seeing the two alright. "INGRIDDddd!"<br/><br/>Even as she waved, her smile shrank a fraction as a nagging thought picked at the back of her mind. Bastiaan. Where was he?