Lewis saw the flashing lights from several blocks away. A fire truck, police car, and several aid cars were sitting outside his home. He ran the final blocks back. His mom saw him first. She was hysterical. Sniffling and sobbing, she ran to Lewis and grabbed him in a deathly tight bear hug. His dad and Jenny were soon by his side as well, looking simultaneously pissed off and relieved. Jenny was holding Melon and everyone was in their pajamas.

"What happened?" Lewis asked, looking up at the charred side of their house.

"There was a fire, baby," his mother said.

"We thought you were dead," said Jenny, "burnt up." Their father smacked her on the shoulder. "What? It's true, we did."

Firemen were just finishing spraying down the house. A hose was running in through their front door. One of the fireman approached Lewis's father.

"Well this is an unusual one," he said, "it looks like this was a chemical fire, caused by the contents of a chemistry set spilling out onto the space heater in this room up here." The fireman pointed to Lewis's room.

His whole family turned to look at him. His face went completely white. Lewis had two simultaneous realizations. First, if he had run straight home like Mr. Gray told him to, he could have prevented the fire, and second, the fire could have been caused by Mr. Gray intentionally as a form of punishment.

"Why didn't any of the fire alarms go off?" Lewis's father asked.

The fireman frowned deeply. "There were no batteries in the one at the top of the stairs or in the room of origin."

Again, Lewis's family stared at him, this time demanding answers. "It wasn't me," he said. "I swear! I've never touched any of the smoke detectors."

"And the chemicals?" asked his father.

Lewis didn't know what to say. That part had been his fault. "I had a chemistry assignment... I forgot to put everything away after. I didn't know this could happen—"

"—Do you have any idea how close we all came to dying?!" his father yelled. "Do you have any idea how much all of this is going to cost? I don't even know if this type of fire is covered by our insurance!"

Lewis's mother put her hand on his dad's shoulder, pulling him back in an attempt to subdue his anger. Lewis was in complete shock. Mr. Gray was unraveling his life. Everyone he knew was potentially in danger if he angered the creature.

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"Where were you?" Jenny asked.

Lewis barely even heard the question. His mind was reeling with panic. He was in way over his head. He realized his sister was staring at him. "I was just out with some friends."

Jenny leaned in and smelled his breath. "Oh my god," she said in a whisper. "Were you at McDonald's rager?"

Lewis was glad his parents had stepped too far away to overhear them.

"I was out with Kenzie," he said.

A flash of a smile cracked Jenny's face. "I'm still pissed at you for burning half the house down," she said.

After the police and firemen gathered all the information they needed from Lewis's father, he drove them to a motel on the other side of town. Luckily the car was fine. Apparently the fire was contained to Lewis's room and the upstairs hallway, but the water damage from putting it out reached considerably farther.

Lewis ended up sleeping on the couch of the room his father rented. He laid his head down on his pillow but there was no rest to be had within the spinning funnel of concern that had taken over his mind. He pulled out the book Josie gave him and began to read under his blanket with only his phone to light the pages.

Flipping through, it appeared to read like historical non-fiction, except that it was full of fantastical deviations from standard history. The prologue described the Parcae (singular, Parca) as mischievous gremlins from another plane of existence. They possessed abilities far beyond what mankind was conventionally capable of comprehending. Parcae, when in their natural realm known as the Beyond, could see the future and travel through time. Some people, which the book referred to as the Chosen, had multiple potential fates, and the Parcae could see all of them at once. Guiding the Chosen seemed to be a favorite pastime of the Parcae. The Chosen could be nudged from one fate to another by a Parca's meddling. The whole book was full of examples of such meddling from all throughout human history.

As Lewis read on, he took special note in one passage in particular which said that major changes in a Chosen's fate were always up to the decisions of that individual, and not the Parcae. The Parcae could never make the decisions for them—only guide them towards a path.

Just as Josie described, the book mentioned that a person could only see the Parcae species if one revealed itself to them.

Lewis turned back to the cover and then through the opening pages again. There was no author or publisher information listed. The book felt old, but flipping through, he saw that the timeline of described events had sections about modern times and even times yet to come, reaching far into the future. Strangely, the sections were not in chronological order—at least not as humans experienced time.

There were passages on many major world events. Lewis pauses briefly on a section about World War II. Hitler was apparently one of the Chosen. A Parca guided him to kill many other Chosen at that time. The war marked a major shift in the ultimate path of humanity.

Continuing on, he found a section on the death of Christ to be of considerable interest. He recognized the name Longinus on the page—that's what Mr. Gray said his name was earlier that morning when they first met. According to the text, Longinus was responsible for directing a Roman soldier to stab Jesus with the Spear of Destiny. Jesus, interestingly, was not one of the Chosen. His destiny was set from the beginning, until one of the Chosen changed it for him by making him a martyr with a spear to the side.

If Lewis was to believe the book, small nudges here and there had led to history, as everyone knew it, coming to pass. It was mindboggling and somewhat terrifying to think about. The results of the various changes did not adhere to any particular pattern that Lewis could recognize. Some passages denoted terrible events and tragedies such as wars sparked by tiny shifts in fate, while others contained great human successes and triumphs. Morally speaking, the Parcae were all over the place. The most unsettling part was that he still had no idea what it all was leading up to.

He read on until exhaustion overtook him.