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“I don’t know. I really don’t. It wouldn’t even cross my mind, but Willow is gone. I’m worried. I don’t know what is happening, but I know it isn’t good. I can feel it.”
Sam can feel an old, familiar fear taking root inside her, “Have you called the others?”
“No, I wanted to talk to you first,” Raven admits, shyly, “I know it will be especially hard for them and I just wanted to…”
“I get it. I’ll help. Who are you calling next? I’ll call the other.”
There is an awkward pause on the other side of the line and they both know why, but Sam leaves it alone.
“I’ll call Emily if you can please call Callie,” Raven breathes shakily into the phone.
“Got it. I’ll text you after I get a hold of her and we’ll get together with a plan.”
“Thank you, Sam. It means the world to me,” Raven says with what sounds like tears clogging her throat.
Sam’s heart breaks hearing her like this, “It’s going to be okay, Ray. It has to be.”
They say their goodbyes and the line goes dead. Sam looks up and watches the corporate chaos going on all around her. Just minutes ago, she had been an active part of it. It had been the most important thing in her day-to-day life. Making the right moves and saying the right things felt like the most important mission she had ever been tasked with. Not climbing that ladder would ruin her and everything she had built for herself. Now it all looks foreign and so very inconsequential.
Sam knows the weight of real consequence. She had just somehow forgotten it in creating this new grown-up life in the big city. She remembers, now, the true depth of devastation that can fall on you in a different kind of world. In the world she grew up in.
Her small town holds the real things to fear. The real evil just waiting to take you out at any given moment. The secrets big enough to bury you alive.
Gulping down her hesitation and doing what she knows has to be done, Sam selects Callie’s name from her contacts list and sets into motion all her own nightmares coming true.
Emily has had a bad feeling in her gut all day today. She doesn’t know why, but since about 3 am last night, she just knew. She works the overnight shift at the local hospital emergency room so she should be sleeping right now, but some kind of psychic intuition won’t allow her to close those eyes for even a second. She just knows she has to stay awake. Her frantic tossing and turning has kept her husband, Garrett, awake for hours. When her phone finally rings, as she somehow just knew it would, Emily nearly jumps out of her skin as she leaps on top of it to answer before the shrill ring wakes him again. She scuttles away into the master bathroom and gently shuts the door. She presses her back to the door and hits the accept call button.
“Hello?” she breathes anxiously into the phone just waiting for the bomb to drop. Who is dead? Or worse yet, who isn’t dead?
The voice coming through the phone is soft and trembling, “Hey, Em. It’s Raven.”
She smiles despite the dread she has blooming inside her. She would recognize that voice anywhere. Emily lets out a soft sigh as the love she feels for her friend spreads through her and then carries on with the reason she knows Raven is calling; the reason she can feel in her bones now.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” she asks timidly, not wanting to hear the answer.
Raven sighs now, too, “Yes, I think so. I haven’t seen him, but… well, he left me a sign.”
Emily’s heart clinches tight in her chest and she slides her back down the door to rest on the cold tile floor, “What kind of sign?”
“My coffee cup from Mudhouse said ‘Hello again, Little Bird’.”
“Shit,” is Emily’s only response as she cradles her head in her shaky hand. Yes, that would be him. “What does Willow think?”
Willow has always been the one to keep tabs on him. She makes sure they are safe and, for that, they are all eternally grateful.
“Willow hasn’t been home in three days,” Raven answers, with her words cracking as tears clog her throat, “I haven’t heard from her either. I think she’s really gone.” A true sob breaks through by the time she’s finished.
Emily’s heart is now pounding in her ears. Willow is missing and now he’s back, “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad and I’m just really scared. I don’t know where she is and I don’t know how to stop him without her.” Real terror shines through her friend’s words.
“Right. Well, we’ll all just have to come help you then, won’t we?” It isn’t even a question. It is a foregone conclusion before she even knew what was going on. Somehow Emily had known today would end with going home. Raven was alone without her sister and he might be back. It was time for them to all be together again. It is time to face what happened back then head-on. Emily is tired of always looking over her shoulder anyway. They need to be rid of him forever.
“I don’t want to impose… Garrett won’t mind?” Raven speaks tenderly on the other side of the phone.
“Raven, you know as well as I do that this isn’t just yours or Willow’s problem because you still live there. This was my problem before I got all of you into it and you’re fucking crazy if you think I won’t hop in my car right here and now to be with you today. Garrett will understand. He’ll want to help and he’ll be mad when I say no, but he’ll get it.”
Raven lets out a burst of sobs tinged with laughter, “Thank you, Em. Really. I’m so scared.”
