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I turned to run, but the weird, blurry man was in front of me when I turned, too.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m looking for Ember.”
Unwillingly, I calmed. I didn’t want to be calm, but something forced me to relax.
“Why?”
“Your friends say they miss you, but they can’t come visit anymore. You’re not to worry about them, however. And you’ll have a new friend soon. He’ll keep you safe until your friends can return. And you need not remember any of this until that time.”
“What?” Even as I questioned the strange man, I forgot what the question was. Then I forgot I’d been talking to anyone and frowned, wondering why I was standing out in the woods with my bathing suit. I wasn’t about to go swimming alone. Was I supposed to meet someone?
Wondering if this is what it was like to be old, like my parents who were positively ancient in their forties and occasionally forgetting things like why they came into the room, I hurried back toward our house. I certainly wasn’t ready to get old. Hopefully whatever had made my memory glitch, it was a one-time thing.
By the time I made it back to the house, I’d forgotten all about it. The blessed air conditioning chilled me. I tossed my swimsuit in my room.
“Honey, we have a new student enrolled and starting tomorrow,” Mom called excitedly from the other room. “I’ll put him in your beginning class to see how he likes it.”
“Great!” I clapped my hands, excited to meet a new friend.
Ember
“Don’t go.” Tears streamed down Mom’s face.
I tried not to cry, instead hugging her tight. “I’m sorry. I have to.”
“I know.” She let go and stepped back.
Dad gave me a quick hug and told me he’d see me later. Ash did the same.
We stood in front of an old-fashioned, silver-backed stand mirror my parents had bought after I’d vanished again. They’d put it in the living room, just in case. Well, now that I knew it was here, it would be way quicker than going out to the cabin.
“Ready?” Baz asked.
“No.”
He turned and glanced at me, arching an eyebrow. I shrugged. It was the truth. I wasn’t ready. Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to go through with this.
Before Baz could say anything else, I turned back to the mirror.
“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.”
Moments later the nightmare visage appeared in the mirror.
“Princess.”
“We need to go back to Dream,” I said.
Her expression saddened. “There is very little left.”
“Take us there, please.”
“As you wish, Princess.”
She built us an arch and I stepped through, not looking back at what I was leaving behind.
Baz swore softly when we stepped out onto the other side. Large swaths of gray were broken here and there by remnants of what had probably been a lovely green pasture or field. The sky was gray, and it looked like we’d walked into an incomplete computer program.
“Fuck me,” I breathed.
