“Five years?” asked Luna, gawking incredulously at Harvey from the passenger seat.

Harvey grimaced slightly. He kept his eyes on the road as he chose a careful response. “I mean… yeah… we still have the debt from the new furnace to pay off, and then the roof is going to need replacing within the next couple of years… it’s not cheap.”

“It’s not a ten year anniversary vacation if you take it thirteen years into the marriage!”

Harvey’s eyes flicked over to Luna for a moment, judging the level of irritation visible on her face before returning to the road. “It’s not like I don’t want to take you places,” he said. “I just don’t see how we can save up enough for a decent trip when we’re living paycheck to paycheck still and have all these big expenses coming up. Airfare alone costs a fortune….”

“You do realize Jo will be fourteen in five years? A teenager already, Harvey. She needs to experience things—go on trips—become more cultured! We always said we didn’t want to go to Europe when she was younger because she wouldn’t really remember it, but now it’s a different excuse. We need to make memories!”

Harvey glanced back at their nine-year-old daughter through the rearview mirror. Her high Native American cheekbones were becoming more and more prominent as she lost her baby fat. She was the spitting image of her beautiful mother. Josie was sitting quietly, staring out the window with an absent expression on her face—just watching the snowflakes as they streamed by sideways through the darkness outside the car.

“I don’t want to talk about this in front of her,” said Harvey. He sighed. “I’m already putting in these extra hours at work. You know that. What would you have me do? Let the roof rot off and blow away before I get it fixed? I want to make memories too, but my first job is literally to keep a roof over our heads.”

Luna turned in her seat and placed a hand on Josie’s knee. “Josie, Honey, could you put your headphones in for a little bit? Mommy and Daddy need to talk about boring adult stuff.”

Josie turned towards her mother, and then slowly shifted her head to stare questioningly at the empty seat beside her. It was odd behavior—she couldn’t have missed the headphones hanging out of the seat pocket directly in front of her, clearly visible.

Luna reached around awkwardly and retrieved them for Josie. She dangled them out in front of her. “Right here, Honey.”

Josie smiled briefly at the empty car seat before turning back towards her mother and accepting the headphones with an outstretched hand. “Adeona says not to fight.”

Harvey swerved the car slightly as he glanced back again. “Adeona?” he asked.

“It’s her imaginary friend,” said Luna. “She’s been talking about her for a few weeks now. You’d know that if you ever paid any attention.”

The car skidded slightly as Harvey jerked the wheel with a tightened grip. “Which is it? Do you want me to work harder or work less? I can’t do both at the same time. You know how work drains me.”

“Adeona says—”

“—You act like I’m not working hard every day on my feet, too,” said Luna. “I’m asking you to be present with Josie. I manage it.”

“Adeona says you guys—”

“That’s not a fair comparison—”

“ADEONA SAYS you guys shouldn’t fight tonight!” Josie yelled over them, finally getting their attention. “She says to remember why you love each other, because each day is a gift and you shouldn’t take it for granted.”

Harvey looked at her through the rearview mirror again. Luna craned her head back around too, locking sad eyes upon her daughter for a moment. She gazed over at Harvey next, studying the side of his head. His jaw was clenched tight, fighting back more biting words. His focus remained on the winding road ahead, but his eyes soon softened.

They both knew the bickering needed to stop. Josie was sensitive, always reflecting the mood of the room back with a bleeding heart. They usually did better about hiding their occasional fights.

Harvey sighed. “She’s right,” he admitted. “You girls are my whole world. We’re both fighting for the exact same thing—to make our lives better—for our future.”

Luna’s mouth twitched up into a half-smile. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just sick of living for tomorrow. I want it to start now.”

“Kiss him,” Josie ordered, eyes wide open, staring up at them with the most serious expression a nine-year-old could command.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Luna couldn’t squash her smile any longer; their love was too strong. She leaned in slowly and planted a loud, wet kiss on Harvey’s cheek, complete with audible kissing sound effect.

Harvey laughed. “One more,” he said, shifting his head sideways to present his cheek again. As Luna moved towards him, he quickly turned to face her, forcing their lips to meet in a brief, stolen kiss. Luna wiped her mouth with the back of her hand in feigned disgust.

They were still thirty minutes out from the main highway, heading home from a skiing trip that was intended to refresh their overworked bodies and minds. The weekend had ended up feeling more like a workout than a vacation.

Harvey powered on the radio and flipped through the stations until he found one playing Christmas music. They were supposed to be having fun, after all. The Carpenters’ version of Sleigh Ride played out through the speakers, interrupted by brief bits of static from the spotty mountain reception. Luna leaned her head over onto Harvey’s shoulder, enjoying the dance of the snowdrifts outside. Poofs of white swirled back and forth across the roadway, blustering up through their headlight beams like tiny tornados of snow.

As they rounded a gradual curve into the final downgrade stretch before the lowlands, Josie quietly unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up, hunched awkwardly in the middle of the backseat.

Neither Harvey nor Luna noticed her at first. Josie stood silently with her eyes closed and her arms spread wide, as if she could feel the cold air on the outside of the car rushing over her. Luna was the first to realize that something was amiss. She glanced in the passenger-side mirror and saw an empty seat where Josie should have been. She spun around immediately to see what was going on.

“Josie!” she cried out, shocked by the strange pose. “What are you doing? Sit down!”

Harvey turned his head back as well, unamused by Josie’s antics. “That’s dangerous!” he cried out. The car swerved again. He whipped back around to face the road, but it was too late. The tires began to skid as the icy shoulder took ahold of the vehicle. Trying to regain control of the slide, Harvey turned the wheel back in the opposite direction, but the car continued to drift slightly off-kilter.

Harvey’s knuckles grew white as he clutched the steering wheel with all his might.

Luna screamed.

A bright light filled Josie’s vision. The low horn of a semi-truck blared. A moment later, her feet lifted off the seat. She was weightless, floating through the air with an effortless spin. Bits of glass stung like hot oil as they collided with her face. Grinding metal roared behind her in a thundering rumble as the frozen wind blew her hair back wildly. One second she was soaring head over heels, and then the next, the crystalline snowbank had consumed her whole. A plume of fresh powder rose up in a cloud like a trailing wake as she tumbled free of the carnage on the narrow pass.

***

Josie Mays sat up in bed, waking with a start. Her whole body was drenched in sweat.

The same damn dream again….

It had repeated often over the last five years.

She knew that night would be with her forever. She would never forget what she had done, nor forgive herself for it. Parts of her wished she could forget the whole night—just erase it from her memory—but she clutched to it all the same. It was her last and most vivid memory of her parents.

Josie rubbed her face, pushing her dampened hair off her forehead. The sounds of the other campers sleeping in the surrounding bunks was disconcerting for a moment before she remembered where she was—Camp Orkila, doing an extended teen summer camp program. The other girls were all mostly fast asleep, faces turned towards the walls as the first gray light of morning came pouring in through the cabin’s singular window.

Channie Davis was the exception—she looked like a dark silhouette as she leaned against the windowsill, staring out into the early morning gloom. She turned her head to look back at Josie, but didn’t say anything before returning her gaze to the window.

Josie wafted her night-shirt up and down, trying to bring cooler air to her overheated skin. The un-air-conditioned cabin was making her nightmares flair up worse than usual. She could still hear the wind howling in her dark, icy world. The grinding of metal and the crinkling of glass—to her, it was akin to the sound of snapping bones.

That night, her world had changed irreparably.

Today, it would change again.

“There’s someone watching our cabin from within the woods,” said Channie, her eyes still locked on the window. “He’s been standing there since before I woke up.”

Josie wasn’t sure Channie was speaking to her at first, but after glancing around more thoroughly she realized she was the only other girl awake.

“He’s so tall…” said Channie.

Josie blinked several times and rubbed the sleep from her eyes before standing up and joining her at the window. The girl pointed quietly into the dark woods about one-hundred yards out, beyond the cabin’s clearing. Josie squinted, searching for a human shape. “I don’t see anything,” she said.

Channie glanced at her again to check where she was looking, then pointed a little farther to the left. “Right there.”

Josie shifted her gaze accordingly across the shadows of the tree trunks. A skinny tree, shorter than the rest, leaning slightly against the wind, caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes. It was too tall to be anything but a tree, but it did have an eerie silhouette—it almost looked like it had shoulders and a head…. She scanned her eyes across the region several more times without seeing anything else before her focus returned to the odd shape once again.

Josie continued to watch the shadow in silence with Channie for some time, certain that it was no more than their wild imaginations playing tricks on their eyes… that is… until Channie whimpered a fearful gasp and the too-tall form slowly receded into the forest.

Hello everyone, Mr. Gray here. Poor Josie… she really was unjustly traumatized as a child wasn’t she? It’s a wide, cruel multi-verse out there… Josie’s path is important, though it does feel like she keeps moving between a rock and a hard place. The Agares are to blame ultimately, so don’t take it out on us Parcae! They want to eliminate Josie and everyone else that becomes important to the future of humanity. There’s only one path forward that doesn’t lead to disaster, so wish her luck and stay tuned!

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray