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Wrenching her upright, he pulled her hands behind her back and wrapped her wrists together with a piece of rope, pulling it taut. She lurched forward. He held her against the seat and fastened the belt.
    “Let me go!” she screamed.
    The car door slammed. Another opened and the vehicle rocked as the man got in. Keys jangled. The engine turned over. Caddy screamed louder, thrashing and bucking against the seatbelt. A damp rag covered her nose and mouth, the cold rush of solvent filling her lungs. It numbed her lips and made her neck loose. The car rolled forward, her head lolling from side to side, the movement of the vehicle sloshing her brain back and forth. Back and forth. Sounds blared and receded around her. The dark rose up and she surrendered, drifting into the void.

THE FREQUENCIES
    M eg glided alongside the silver being. The cloudy walls of the white room dissolved, revealing a great and magical city that stretched uninterrupted as far as the eye could see.
    “The City of Light,” the being announced.
    Meg had never seen or dreamed of anything like it. Had the city been here the whole time she’d felt so alone? She hardly knew what to explore first. Every building gleamed with the brilliance of white marble, crystal and glass. The skyline was studded with domes of gold. There were rivers that gushed with no traceable source into ornate fountains, and pools of water so still it was nearly impossible to determine where the water stopped and the sky began. Meg wanted to see everything. She trailed her fingers in the spray of a huge fountain, and marvelled at the majestic trees lining the streets, and wondered at the impossible flower baskets that hung by magic, their blossoms tumbling in a riot of colour to the ground. Everywhere there were other beings—countless numbers—moving through the streets, their collective voices a roar in her ears. It was all so blindingly beautiful and strange and … completely overwhelming.
    “Where’s everyone going?” she asked.
    “To the Great Hall for the initiation ceremony,” the silver being said. “It is a very important day. These events don’t happen often.”
    Meg gawked at the crowd. “These are all recruits?”
    “Yes.”
    Now she understood why the being had been so confused by her appearance. The recruits were entirely white and genderless, as the being had said they should be. And they were tall. She was suddenly self-conscious. All the other recruits were gliding purposefully along, chatting telepathically with their silver beings. They all seemed to know who they were and what they were doing and where they were going. She thought about her bad arm and her female form. She’d fought so hard to retain her past, to prevent her transformation from happening. Now she felt horribly out of place. She couldn’t fit in if she tried. The city and all its glittering wonders—they weren’t meant for her. They were meant for everyone else. Her soul sank. This wasn’t home. She couldn’t say exactly what home was like, but she was confident it was nothing like this. She tried to catch bits of conversation, to feel like part of the action. The voices rushed in a garbled stream through her head. She held her hands over her ears.
    “It’s too much. I can’t hear myself think.”
    “Tune it out,” the being said. “Adjust the dials in your mind.”
    Meg winced. “It’s like standing under a waterfall.”
    “Concentrate. Diminish the sound.”
    Meg focused on the noise. It was a fluid rainbow of colour. She imagined two strong hands pushing the rainbow of sound into a narrow band of white light. The voices crackled and receded like a distant radio transmission.
    “Good,” the being encouraged her. “Now, see if you can control the input.”
    The voices flared and withdrew. Meg found herself looking at a tapestry of light, a multidimensional fabric of colourful threads,all woven and intermingling. She reached to touch a single sparkling strand and