Chapter 1
Elijah
“This is where it ends.” The voice in my head was clear, just like it always was when whatever it was chose to use a voice. So far, its track record was on point. In fact, though I’d heard it at various times for as long as I could remember, it had never been wrong. That didn’t fare well for me anymore.
I looked around desperately for an escape, but my pursuer was closing in. I could feel them gaining on me but didn’t dare turn my head. I kept going, narrowly missing the gnarled old branch of a misshapen tree as I ran blindly through the woods.
I tripped on a tree root but caught myself and didn’t slow down. I heard water somewhere off to my right but didn’t see it. There was a ridge up ahead, a rocky ledge. Somewhere in the trees beyond I could make out stone walls but couldn’t tell what the building was. The scene filled me with dread, because I’d been there before. I couldn’t see or hear the person behind me, but I knew they were still there, closing in. More than one. Gaining on me. The smell of flowers was everywhere. Like flowers at a funeral.
The voice was right. It was the end. There was no way toescape. It had been shown to me more than once, and I’d tried running in different directions, hiding, fighting back, but no matter what I did, every scenario finished with my own end.
???
I sat up in my bed, gasping for air, and I tried to ground myself by looking around my room, dim now in the first rays of the morning light.This was home. I was safe. It was my favorite place in the world. I was okay.
I wasn’t okay, though, because I knew it wasn’t just a dream. It was a warning or a premonition, whatever you wanted to call it. It was happening more often and I knew it was getting closer, but I couldn’t tell anyone because they’d tell me it was just stress. They’d tell me it was my subconscious relaying my distress over everything that had happened lately. But that wasn’t it. It was getting more insistent instead of better. The dream was the same every time, even though it played out in a slightly different way depending on how I reacted. It never mattered, though, because in the end I was always outnumbered, overpowered... doomed.
I glanced over to see that my cat, Enyo, was in my bed, watching me. She was looking at me wisely, like she’d seen everything I’d just seen even though it was a dream in my mind and she only had one eye. Her presence comforted me, though, even more than the home I loved so much, and I reached over to rub her head. She closed her eye and leaned into my hand, starting to purr.
I finally smiled and let out a breath. It was true that people who worked in the veterinary field often ended up with “broken animals,” but my three-legged dog who’d recently passed away had been my best friend, and it had shattered my heart when he died, even though he was old and had had a good long life. It was when I was mourning his loss that a scrawny black cat showed up on my doorstep. She’d come to me with one eye all jacked up from a cat fight, and I’d taken her to work with me so thedoctor could fix it and I could get her healthy again. We’d needed each other badly when she found me. It seemed like things often worked that way.
Enyo stood up from her warm spot on the covers and stretched, then walked over to me to rub her head against my arm. Her purr got louder, as though she was trying to heal me with her own happiness. I scratched her head, trying not to think about the inevitable. I didn’t know exactly when my dream would become reality, only that it would. I hoped my best friend would take care of Enyo well when it did. I knew I could count on Rory, but I hoped Enyo would understand that I didn’t mean to leave her.
“Sorry I woke you, girl,” I whispered, then glanced at my clock. I could still sleep for another hour, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to drift off again. It was hard to sleep when your imminent death was played out repeatedly like a game you couldn’t win.
I sighed and swung my legs over the side of the bed, and Enyo hopped down and ran ahead of me. She was no doubt going to wait by her food dish, excited for an early breakfast.
I stumbled out to my kitchen and started the coffee maker. Enyo was walking between my legs, rubbing them and head-butting me while still purring loudly. With a yawn I grabbed her cat food and put some in her dish, giving her another scratch behind the ears. As I stood, I glanced out the window over the sink to see the sunrise. The world was painted in pink and red, and it really was beautiful. I tried to just appreciate it, because the only thing left to do was enjoy the time I still had.
I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out to the porch to get a better view. I thought about sitting in the swing I’d made myself, but chose the steps instead. I heard the crunch of gravel, but no internal warning bells had gone off, so I turned slowly in the direction of my driveway to see the buck coming toward me. He was tall and quite majestic, and I recognized him from the white teardrop-shaped mark on his forehead. I smiled.
He gave a little sniff and walked right up to me. “Hey,buddy,” I said, holding out my hand. He sniffed it, then nuzzled his nose into it, giving a happy little huff. I was glad it wasn’t hunting season, even though that was how we’d met. I’d let him into my house once, when he was being tracked by a hunter. He was young then, fully grown but barely. He’d run right to me like he knew I was safe, even though another human was chasing him with a bow. So I’d opened my door and let him come inside with me. Enyo looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I let him stay in the house until I was sure the hunter was far away from my property. I knew most of the people around here hunted for food, not sport, but they weren’t getting one that specifically came to me for help. They could go somewhere else.
The buck hadn’t hurt anything in my house. He’d just laid himself down near my fireplace like he’d been looking for a safe place to rest all day. I’d given him some water and a carrot, and when I let him out, he looked at me once then calmly walked off into the woods. Even Rory didn’t believe me when I told her, but he still came to visit me sometimes. Maybe he somehow knew I needed encouragement that morning, because I hadn’t seen him in a while. I smiled and rubbed his nose, and he made another little sound then wandered on his way.
I sighed and looked around, wishing I hadn’t had the dream that morning, because it put a damper on what was going to be a beautiful day. It was clear and warm enough that I was comfortable sitting shirtless on my porch in a pair of pajama pants. The birds were singing all around me, and there were no sounds besides those from nature, just how I liked it. Even the small town nearby that I’d grown up in was just too much for me. I needed to be in the woods, at peace, and I always had. I’d been out here more than I’d been at home growing up, and I’d never wanted to live any other way.
Now I had the home in the woods I’d always dreamed of, even though I was still close to town and work. People usually laughed in surprise when I called it my dream home, because it was small and unimpressive by most people’s standards, but it was whatIwanted. The dreams I’d finally achieved were startingto crumble, though. That small town had always been so safe, and though to all outward appearances it was still pretty and charming, the foundations seemed to be cracking. Things were getting weird and it all seemed to be getting worse.
It would be nice to have someone to hold, though. My dream had never been to live in a cottage in the woodsalone, but here I was. I’d never managed to choose anyone who wasn’t terrible for me. I was aware I always looked for the right things in the wrong places, but my heart never seemed to get the memo from my brain. It was a pattern that had started in high school and had never ended.
But it seemed I was destined to be alone, because the end was coming quickly and I didn’t have time to fall in love. I didn’t have time for anything. All I could do was make the best of it and hope it wasn’t too bad when it came. I tried not to think of everything I hadn’t done; falling in love was probably at the top of the list. Or maybe it was right after skydiving.
Technically, Ihadfallen in love once, but that one bit me in the ass even harder than all the other relationship fails. It hurt the worst because of who I’d lost. It was hard to grasp that you’d truly lost the person who’d been your best friend in the whole world. It hurt so badly to realize that they thought you were sick, disgusting, afreak, because of who you were. It gutted you when they were willing to humiliate you in front of everyone because you fell in love with them. That they forgot so easily all the good times, running in the woods, sharing secrets, laughing together, promising to always be friends. It was heartbreaking when someone could turn on you so quickly, seemingly for no reason. That someone you cared so much for could hurt you with no thought at all. I was pretty sure that was where most of my trust issues had come from.
I stood up with my empty coffee cup and headed back inside. Might as well lift some weights before my shower, since I had extra time. I headed into the little sunroom I’d made into my personal gym. At least I’d worked out enough over the years to be able to defend myself a bit. I might be going down, but I wouldn’tbe going without a fight.
Enyo followed me into the room and hopped up onto her little window bed to wash herself in the sunlight. I sighed as I grabbed some hand weights. Fuck the town that tried to act so perfect but wasn’t. Fuck the lot I’d been handed in life, and that my life was going to end so soon.Fuck it all.
Chapter 2
Mason
Icouldn’t help but cringe in the afternoon light as I passed the worn old sign that said “Brooks Glen,” with the carving of the townscape and the population that I was pretty sure was almost the same as when I’d left. I’d never planned on coming back, not even for a visit. My parents had visited me in the city; I didn’t need to return. I’d kept in touch with a couple of friends, a little bit, but all I’d wanted to do since middle school was get away. I’d done it. I’d made it out—I’d been one of the few who did—but here I was, rolling back into town with my tail tucked between my legs, back to the place that haunted my memories and no one ever truly escaped.
I stopped at one of the town’s three stop lights and glanced around. Most of the people I’d known in Chicago who’d gone back to their hometowns after a long time talked about how much everything had changed and how different everything was. Not Brooks Glen, Indiana. It looked the same as it had when I’d taken off seven years earlier. The hardware store did have a new sign, and there was a bookstore where the fabric store usedto be, but other than that, I couldn’t find a difference.
I glanced at the family-owned grocery store that had been there longer than I’d been alive, the diner I’d spent countless hours in, and the one gas station. The roads hadn’t even been fixed since I left, because there was the same pothole that had thrown my car out of alignment when I was seventeen. It seemed youcouldgo home again, even if you didn’t want to.
