image [https://cdn.midjourney.com/940f088c-962b-45cc-901b-fb41c6a80046/0_3.webp]

Nana…

The world kept changing. She looked out over the water. If werebears were real and in the world, what other creatures also existed? Nana rested her forearms on top of the railing. In the distance, she saw the flash of a dolphin playing in the wake, then two. What would she do if she saw a mermaid? Would Kendie consider it a cousin?

Their guardian had shown her a picture of the community working together to fix Terry’s barn. The idea of all that was lost to the fire gave her a lingering sorrow. The feeling settled under her sternum. She felt the pressure build. Nana pressed her hand to her chest. She couldn’t catch her breath. Kendie had looked so happy in the photograph. The girl wasn’t big enough for strangers to know she was pregnant and not just thick in the middle, but her Nana could tell.

With the next grip of pressure, she grunted and closed her eyes tightly until the pain passed. Light as a whisper, she felt a touch on her elbow. A woman with a tangled braid and gigantic golden eyes stood next to her. Her lips parted and all Nana could hear was the wind and a rising thundering in her ears.

There was silence as she folded forward, trying to find her next breath. The agony in her chest reached its peak as a veil of blackness came over her as she slipped to the deck of the boat.

Nana felt the gentle rocking first, the slight sway of the great ship, and drew in a breath for her hungry lungs. Each inhale was sweeter than the next, and she felt strength flow back into her body. Euphoria rolled through her. When she caught her breath and opened her eyes, her husband stood there, next to her, handsome as when she first met him.

“Hello, beautiful.” The familiar warmth in his voice made her heart flutter. She had missed his sweet talk.

“What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think I’d let you go on a cruise alone, did you? Pretty girl like you? I’d lose you to some handsome fellow for certain.”

She reached out to touch his arm and her hand went right through him. Nana took a step backward.

“Shh, Bell, don’t you worry none.” He stepped closer. “I’m just here to keep you company.”

She gripped the railing with her hand. “Not yet, Jim. I’m not ready.”

“You may not be, but I’d sure enjoy one more dance with my girl.” He extended his hand. “Remember that blue dress you liked to wear, with the tiny stars on it?”

She grinned. “You always liked that one.”

“I still do. You look beautiful in it.”

Nana straightened up and looked down. The blue dress floated around her. On the deck of the boat, the body of an old woman lay.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Am I…?”

He took her hand. “Now don’t you bother about that.” He twirled her, and she moved light and ethereal as a feather. The freedom from her body made her laugh. She came to rest against his chest. “And what about heaven?”

“There is time for that, but let me have this dance first. I’ve waited a long time for this.” His arms were warm and strong around her as he pulled her close. Against her cheek, he whispered, “I’ve missed my girl.”

Beyond the music, their song, she dimly heard a warning cry and the distressed call for medical. That body, that life, felt very far away. She was light as a feather in her sweetheart's arms, almost twenty, and in love for the first time in her life… again.

*

Jeremiah…

Jeremiah sat hip to hip in the back of the shady black van. He felt like he was in a bad comic book novel. They had located a gathering of bad men and were tracking them down like dime store G men. The Wolves might be high-tech, but he found them reckless.

One of the younger members, a teenager, leaned forward. Her right heel vibrated against the floor of the van. “I’ve never culled before. Do you think we will?” She dampened her lips. “I haven’t heard of a mass slaughter in modern times.”

“That isn’t what is happening,” Ansel said.

Jeremiah had been surprised that the man chose to travel with them. Forty-two Wolves seemed overkill against a handful of human beings cos-playing medieval transformational lore. Jeremiah wasn’t David’s biggest fan, but news of his disappearance had him on edge. Surely, his ring brother had kept himself out of trouble this time. He wasn’t that reckless, was he?

Ansel looked Jeremiah directly in the face. “What is your man likely to do?”

Jeremiah flexed his jaw. These weren’t Bears and his first inclination was to go tight-lipped. “He is too trusting, a fair tracker, gentle.”

Ansel said, “He’s been keeping up pretty well with the scouting pack before they were scattered. There is only one missing besides him. A girl. He’d been paired with her.” The man furrowed his brow. “What are the odds that he is tailing them?”

“High.”

“Will he attack?”

Jeremiah thought about it. “He might, but only if he has to. He isn’t rash, even though he is young.”

A grizzled wolf with a scar seam along his cheek said, “The game is changing if they are training dogs to hunt us.”

The young Wolf laughed. “Killing dogs is easy.”

The old man slanted his gaze toward the youth. “It isn’t about how fragile their bodies are. It’s about the danger involved in Sheep being able to track us and find our communities.”

Jeremiah tapped his fingers on his knee. “And the Lost among them. What if they cull them first? The Lost won’t be able to protect themselves. It will be like drowning kittens.” His words rippled through the men and women seated around him.

*

Kennedy waited at the entrance to the barn, holding the little stuffed bear in her arms as Terry’s mother foraged through the building supplies. She didn’t really want to let the toy go. The two of them had been sharing their journey.

Ill at ease with the amount of superstition Terry’s mom was expressing, she hugged the stuffed animal tightly. Who believed in ghosts anyway? Foolish. She tucked her face into the bear as the older woman took another piece of wallboard to her truck. As she breathed in, Kennedy smelled the sweetness of spring roses. The scent intensified, and Kennedy furrowed her brow.

His mother froze when she returned to the barn, and she took a big sniff. The dark scowl that crossed her face made Kennedy’s skin prickle. “Do you smell that?”

“The sweet smell?”

“The roses.” Her voice went flat. “Have you smelled it before?”

Kennedy shook her head. “Not recently.” She sniffed the little bear’s head again. “I thought for a second it was the toy.”

The color drained from the old woman’s face. “Get in the truck. We don’t have much time.”

“It’s just a little stuffed bear.”

The woman scanned the barn as if she was looking for someone. “She’s found you. Get moving. Your pregnancy adds to our level of danger.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Hungry ghosts like children.”