Mike sat leaning against the window, playing a soft tune on Peter’s acoustic guitar. He missed him badly. It would ease him somewhat if only he knew where his lost friend was and what danger he was in.

“Yeah, I know where he is,” Mike said in dismay, his fingers ceasing at the strings. “I don’t want to think about where he is.” He bowed his head, holding back tears and letting a sob escape his lips.

“You’ve never been much of a crier.” Micky placed his elbows on the banister, speaking loudly to Mike. “I’m seeing a side of you I’ve never seen before.”

”I don’t know what to do anymore, Mick. Peter’s missing and Davy’s…strange.” Mike waved his hand in defeat of describing Davy’s condition. Micky grinned, sliding down the banister to join Mike by the window. “It’s late, you shouldn’t make so much noise.”

”Who really cares? Besides, you woke me up. You shouldn’t be so noisy.”

Mike turned to look at Micky incredulously. “I’m just scared.”

“You worry too much.”

”Excuse me?”

”You do. Seriously, Mike. This is us we’re talking about here. We’ve gotten through lots of weird things before and I don’t doubt we’ll get through this.” Micky said.

“You’re crazy. Where’s this coming from?” Mike asked. Micky ignored his comment.

”Besides, man. Can you honestly say you miss Peter?” Mike’s jaw dropped after Micky said this. “Don’t get me wrong. Peter’s a great friend and he can be really smart once and a while, but I tell you, if he never came back, I think I could get on without him.”

”Micky! How can you say that?”

“Look, I’m tellin’ you. If you try and imagine life without Peter, you’ll see it’s not that bad. You’re sitting here near tears because you think you should be. Peter’s your friend and you feel obligated to worry about him.” Mike shook his head at this. “All right, but don’t say I didn’t try. You’d be sleeping like a little baby if you’d take advice from Micky.”

Micky walked back towards the staircase as he spoke, disappearing back up into the upstairs bedroom.

Mike sighed. “Why do I get the feeling things just got worse?”

“We were at home, you know, and Mike and Micky were in an argument.” Peter began. Samson nodded, taking glances back and forth from the door to Peter.

“Do you know what it was about?”

Peter shook his head. “No, not really. Micky was just yelling about how he was sick of Mike being the ‘do-gooder’. I have no idea how that got started. The weird thing was, Mike wasn’t even responding much to all of this. Normally, when he’s mad, he yells and screams, and gets his point across. But he just stood there, taking it.”

”This seems more about Mike than Micky.” Samson pointed out.

“No, the yelling is different for Micky. It’s like they were acting like each other. Like their minds are switched or something. Is that possible?”

”Honestly, I don’t think so. We don’t have anything like that. No one’s even touched your other friend, Mike.”

”That doesn’t mean they won’t, though. This is a vision. It’s about the future, am I right?”

“You’re right, but I don’t think they switched minds. No, whatever is weird with Micky was in the drug he was administered with earlier. When they came after you.”

“Well, what was it?”

“I don’t know.” Samson shrugged, not expecting the outburst he received in return.

“You don’t know! After all this, you don’t know?”

”Calm down, I can find out. I think I might have an idea of what it is. Was there anything else in your vision?”

Peter nodded. “Oh, yeah. This was the part that freaked me out. When Mike didn’t answer to all of Micky’s insults, he just kept getting madder and madder. Finally, he just snapped,” Peter paused. “He hit him.”

“What?”

”Micky. He hit Mike.”

“Like how?”

”What do you mean, like how? He brought his arm back and punched him. Then the image left and I woke up.”

“And you’re telling me that Micky would never do this? Ever?”

”No, never. If he were to ever hit someone, it wouldn’t be one of us. No matter how angry he was at Mike, he would never hit him.”

“Hold that thought. I think I might know.” Samson arose from his seat and briskly walked to the other end of the room, running his finger over different bottles. He shook his head as he passed each one. He turned to another rack, looking some more and snapped his fingers as he found what he was searching for. Upon hearing his snap, Peter hopped off the table to join him.

“Well?”

”X715. It’s another one of our concoctions.”

Peter let out a sigh of discouragement. “What kind of potion is this one?”

Samson laughed at the fact he had called them potions. In a way, they kind of were. His giggles instantly stopped when Peter glared at him.

“Sorry, X715 enhances something in a person that is opposite of what they are.”

”Right, so Micky’s normally very easy going and nice and now-“

”Now, plain and simple, he’s mean. What’s ultimately going to happen is that each relationship he has with the three of you is gonna falter and die. It may start out with a snide remark or a casual insult, but eventually it will turn to hate. And your vision proves that in a nutshell. He hates Mike.”

“Ms. Bates is out to kill us all.” Peter shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t stop her from doing something to Mike. I can protect him.”

”I don’t know. Your vision doesn’t show you what could happen; it shows you what will happen. You can’t change the future.”

”Like hell I can’t. She’s gone too far. I’m going to keep an eye on Mike and you’ll work on creating counter potions to all this stuff. Right?”

“Peter,” Samson gestured towards the door. “Ms. Bates.”

”Screw Ms. Bates. You can say I broke out and you couldn’t stop me. Just let me go. You’ve helped me so much tonight. You can’t turn on me now.”

Samson sighed. “All right. Go. I’ll think of something to tell her.”

”Thank you so much!” Peter hugged the man on instinct. “Don’t worry, one day you can use your knowledge of all this stuff for good. I’m sure of it. Thanks again.”

Peter headed to the door, hearing Samson utter a few last words.

“You’ll be hearing from me.”