Unchanged by Jessica Brody

off guard.”
    She nods understandingly. “It gets me every time, too. It’s nothing like watching it on the Feed, huh?”
    The streamworks have tried to emulate the fourth sense. The screens will sometimes emit the delectable scent of baking bread when a character is in the kitchen, or the perfume of flowers when someone is running through a meadow, but it’s never quite real. The sweet smells are too sugary, the scent of rain too sharp. Whatever they do, they can’t seem to match the real thing.
    Each capsule holds six people so our group is split into five parties. Kaelen and I are separated. Dr. A, Dane, Director Raze, and two other agents are assigned to the first capsule with Kaelen and I’m assigned to the last one along with Crest, Killy, and Agent Thatch, Raze’s second-in-command.
    Before Kaelen boards the capsule, he stands before me, studying my disguised face. For the first time, I take a moment to study his, too. His straight nose is now slightly crooked, his vibrant aquamarine eyes have dampened to a dull, Normate green. There are tiers of wrinkles under his eyes like he hasn’t slept in days. His high cheekbones have sagged down his face, and his strong, squared chin is now cone shaped and tilted upward. Even his lustrous dark blond hair seems like it was washed with filthy water.
    But I can still see him behind the disguise.
    He’s still there. My beautiful Kaelen.
    He traces the outline of my temporary cheek with his fingertip, as though he’s trying to memorize it.
    â€œNot so perfect now,” I joke.
    Kaelen’s lips crack into a smile. “So that’s how you’d look as a Normate.”
    I strike a pose similar to those I’ve seen countless times on the fashion streams. “What do you think?”
    Despite how Kaelen responds, I know exactly what I think. Even though I haven’t seen my own reflection, I finally look how I feel.
    Flawed. Crooked. Blemished.
    Without answering, he bends down to kiss me. His misshapen mouth feels foreign against mine. We are two strangers kissing for the thousandth time. But the tingle of warmth he leaves on my lips is one hundred percent Kaelen.
    â€œI’ll see you in less than thirty minutes,” he murmurs. Then he climbs into the capsule, taking the third seat of the six-row passenger arrangement. As soon as his weight is registered on the seat, the triple-crossing metal restraints secure around his upper body, prohibiting him from even waving goodbye to me.
    I watch the door seal shut and the surface darken. It’s for the passengers’ own safety. And sanity. Evidently, if you were able to see how fast you were traveling, you might warp out and try to break free, which would surely kill you.
    Moving around too much while you’re in the loop, especially going around the turns, can also be dangerous. The restraints are there not only to keep you from getting jostled, but also to keep you from injuring yourself by trying to rotate your body.
    I can see why some people opt for the alcohol.
    I watch Kaelen’s capsule glide slowly toward the tube entrance, stopping to await its departure window.
    The next part happens almost too fast for even me to register.
    The tube opening unseals, the vacuum takes hold, and the capsule blasts inside, shooting off like a bullet before the tube is shut again, a mist of gas swirling behind it.
    If you blink, you’ll surely miss it.
    I watch in a panicked daze as three more capsules shoot off into the loop before a tap on my shoulder jolts me back to the present. I turn to see Killy pointing toward the next capsule, which has just appeared on the loading track. “We’re up.”
    Bracing myself with a deep breath, I step into the vehicle, taking the third row just as Kaelen did. Crest bounces into the seat behind me. “How thermal is this? I have the best job in the world!”
    The restraints extend from both sides, pinning me to the