The next page of the journal was torn out. Whatever he’d originally wanted to show Josie to get her to trust him was gone forever. If Blue Pen was right, it wasn’t Josie who would be needing convincing—it was himself.

“Trust Josie.” The journal emphasized the point with several underlines written at different times with different pens. “I know you feel lied to, but it was just the way things had to be. Try not to hold it against Josie, or Gray for that matter.”

That was easier said than done. There was a delicate game being played out. Lewis felt like a pawn. It was difficult to even trust his own words. What if I was tricked again, or forced to write this? There was no certainty.

The journal told him to wait until meeting with Josie before reading on. He did as he was instructed. He waited until one hour before the start of school like the entry told him and then headed off to Josie’s house on foot. He could see his breath in the morning air. The sidewalk was slick with a pale frost crystallized across its surface. He wished he had a coat instead of just his old blue hoodie. He’d forgotten just how cold the morning of the first day of school had been.

In an attempt to stay warm, he walked as briskly as he dared down the slick sidewalk. His hands grew numb in his pockets by the time he reached Josie’s house. He pulled out a numb fist to knock on the front door, but Josie opened it before he had a chance. Her sad eyes, deep brown like espresso, glistened slightly as the cold air struck her face. Her forehead wrinkled as a smile appeared on her lips. Without words, she grabbed him in a tight hug and laid her head against his shoulder. She melted in his arms as he returned the hug, though he didn’t quite understand the warm greeting. Her soft hair brushed up against his chin. The earthy scent he remembered mingled with a mixture of lilac and rose in his nostrils.

“Sorry,” said Josie, pulling away abruptly.

“I guess you already know who I am… were you expecting me?” asked Lewis.

“Yes and no,” said Josie. “I knew you would come one day, but I didn’t know it would be today until I saw you walking up to the house as I glanced out the window.”

“Well, today’s the day you’ve been waiting for,” said Lewis, repeating the journal’s words.

The grin on Josie’s face grew even brighter. “Come in, come in,” she said. “It’s freezing out there!” She opened the door farther and stepped aside so Lewis could enter.

He shuffled inside, rubbing his hands together to try to restore some blood flow to his chilled limbs. “It’s way too cold. I’ve never felt a September morning quite this frosty,” he said.

Josie grimaced. “It’s the Agares,” she said. “When they steal energy from a timeline, everything gets cold. The whole universe will become frozen and sterile by the time they snip it entirely. Everything dead and still across all time.” Josie led him up the stairs to her bedroom.

It seemed a bit extreme of a conclusion to jump to from just a chilly morning, but Lewis needed to trust her, apparently. Still, he couldn’t help but question the logic. “If this was the Agares taking energy from across all time, wouldn’t our memories of every other day be just as cold?”

“Ever heard of the ice age?” asked Josie.

Lewis narrowed his eyes incredulously.

“Maybe it hadn’t always been so cold,” she said. “You’re new at understanding these things.”

Don’t question her.

“The Agares sustain themselves with our energy. In the end everything will freeze over, but an unusual day like today means they are here in our realm, right now, searching for us.”

Lewis remembered what Mr. Gray told him about the Agares. To snip a timeline, they had to first destroy all of the Chosen so that the timeline would become fixed. Killing the Chosen was the death of possibility. The death of hope.

As Lewis stepped into Josie’s room he quickly scanned his eyes across the wall beside the door where the message, “Fate is what you make it,” would eventually be scrawled in blood. Right now everything was in its place—a vanity with makeup brushes and pallets all lined up in a neat row; a bed made nicely with a pair of decorative pillows with pink frills at its head; a dresser decorated with an arrangement of candles, framed photographs, and other keepsakes. Everything would end up overturned and broken, blood smeared all over the place. Mr. Gray said Josie was just fine when Lewis left for the Beyond, but he couldn’t imagine Josie smashing her own possessions to the floor so callously.

Whose blood ends up on those sheets?

“You have something to show me?” asked Josie.

“Ah, yeah,” said Lewis, retrieving the leather-bound journal from his hoodie pocket. Technically the journal hadn’t said anything about having Josie read it with him, but he sat down on the edge of the bed beside her and opened it to the beginning.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Josie’s eyes shifted back and forth quickly across the words as she read the first entry. Soon she was caught up and they both read on in silence.

Blue pen wrote: “Have Josie prepare the note to give to you in chemistry about not trusting Mr. Gray.”

Josie pulled out a piece of notebook paper and wrote the note exactly as Lewis remembered. “Don’t trust it.”

They read on. In faded pencil: “Go to school. Avoid running into Prime….”

The entry laid out detailed instructions for the first half of the day. Lewis was to break into the janitor’s closet and steal the extra woodshop door key. He’d originally credited Mr. Gray for his quick escape from the woodshop, but Lewis turned out to be his own savior. He was to hide the key where Mr. Gray could retrieve it.

Josie and Lewis headed to school together, catching a metro bus at a stop several blocks to the east of the house. Josie paid for Lewis. He hadn’t brought any money with him to the Beyond. He wasn’t too worried about running into anybody he knew. Having experienced the day once before, he already knew how it went from his original perspective. Because of this, he felt a strange certainty that everything would work out alright. Although, the threat of the Agares did linger in his thoughts.

Avoiding himself wouldn’t be too hard. He just needed to steer clear of the gym while Prime was getting his schedule. The hard part would be avoiding any hall monitors when all the other students were in class. The journal didn’t hint at how he was supposed to complete his task.

I already used the key to get out of the woodshop, so I guess I can’t fail….

The whole thing was a bit paradoxical.

As Josie headed off to pick up her schedule, Lewis made a beeline to the nearest restroom to wait for classes to start. He stepped into a stall and knocked the seat into the down position with his foot. It looked clean. Lewis sat down and waited with his elbows resting on his knees. A few other boys stopped by the restroom, checking their hair in the mirror or using the urinals before class. Everyone else cleared out when the five minute bell rang. Lewis continued to wait. He figured he’d give it a good ten minutes after the final bell before venturing towards the janitor’s closet.

When the bell rang, Lewis was surprised to hear the restroom door open again. His ears focused in on the quiet tapping of feet across the tile floor as they approached the stalls. Lewis shifted back and forth, trying to see if it was a student or a teacher, but he couldn’t see anybody through the cracks. The stall door beside him creaked open and suddenly the pale face of a Parca popped into view, looking under the side of the divide at him.

It took Lewis a second to recognize Adeona staring up at him. Lewis was glad he wasn’t actually using the toilet. “Hello!” she squeaked, a grin appearing on her wide face that stretched from ear to ear. “Longinus sent me to help.” Bending low, Adeona stepped under the divide into Lewis’s stall.

“Hi,” said Lewis, grateful for the guidance. He’d been feeling his anxiety grow as the minutes went by.

Adeona climbed up Lewis’s leg without asking and sat on his knee like a small child.

“So, how long have you known Mr. Gray?” Lewis was a master at awkward small-talk.

Adeona glanced up at him through squinted eyes. “That’s a difficult question to answer. We mostly live outside of time.”

Lewis scrunched up his face.

“Longi and I have been on a fair number of adventures together,” she said. “I know him well.”

Adeona’s hair looked silky compared to Mr. Gray’s. The length was close to the same, though, not quite falling to her shoulders, like an overgrown bob. She suddenly perked up again and hopped down to the restroom floor. “Let’s move, now,” she said. “Less interruptions if you don’t delay.”

Lewis stood up and opened the stall door. Adeona walked ahead of him, leading the way out of the restroom and down towards the gym where the custodial closet resided. The hallway was empty. Lewis walked slowly behind the Parca.

The door to the closet was unlocked. Lewis glanced back and forth down the hall before slipping inside. “The key is over there in that cabinet,” said Adeona, pointing at an old wooden cabinet.

Lewis pulled on the handle, but the cabinet was locked.

“Just kick it,” said Adeona. “Really hard.”

Lewis took a breath, then kicked the cabinet door solidly. It jarred against its hinges, but held strong.

“Just keep kicking it,” said Adeona. “Quickly now.”

Lewis struck it again and again, each thud echoing throughout the large closet with a bang. Finally, the door broke free from its top hinge. The next blow broke the lower hinge. Lewis pried the door away.

“That one!” Adeona yelled. “Hurry! Put it in your shoe before he comes in!”

He?

Lewis slipped the key into the side of his shoe just as the door to the hallway swung open. Mr. Bradley, a particularly strict teacher who Lewis knew by reputation only, shouted at him. “Hey, you! What the hell do you think you’re doing in here?! You just vandalized school property!”

Lewis didn’t know what to say. Adeona looked calm, but that was par for the course when it came to the Parcae. “It’s not what it looks like,” said Lewis.

“Get over here right now. You’re going straight to the principal's office.”

“Go with him,” said Adeona.

Lewis glared at the Parca as he followed Mr. Bradley out of the closet.

“Empty your pockets,” Mr. Bradley ordered.

Lewis turned them out. All he had on him was the journal and the key, still hidden in his shoe.

“Alright, let’s go.”

He ushered Lewis down past the gym. They stepped outside into the courtyard and started towards the steps that led up to the main office. Adeona ran behind them as fast as her little feet would carry her. She slipped outside just before the door latched shut.

Without warning, Mr. Bradley stopped mid-stride with his leg extended forward. Lewis ran straight into his back and they both tumbled to the ground.

“Oh no!” screeched Adeona. “Run!”

Lewis looked over at Mr. Bradley. He was still locked in the same pose he’d been in while standing, only tipped over on his side. His leg was stretched awkwardly into the air. His eyes were stuck in a half-blink. Across the courtyard, the American flag was frozen in place as well, stretched out in the stopped wind. Everything was deathly silent, apart from the panicking Parca behind him.

Lewis got back up on his feet as he glanced around in confusion. A bird was floating high above in the air, its wings stretched out but not flapping. Time stood still.

A loud hiss sounded from across the courtyard.

“Run! Run!” Adeona pleaded as she heeded her own advice. She sprinted to the door to get back into the school but was too short to reach the handle to pull it open.

A streak of light flashed past Lewis’s face. Beside him, Mr. Bradley lit up in a blinding flash that seared his silhouette into Lewis’s retinas. Lewis scampered backwards away from the glow. When it cleared, Mr. Bradley was no longer there.