Far-Off Things

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Beams of sunlight cascaded into the carpeted living room windows of a small house in a western Missouri town. The morning light was a reminder to everyone present in the house that a new day was here, for new opportunities. The only person in the house, however, was a forty year-old brunette woman who was still laying passed out on the living room couch face down. An open laptop sat next to her on the coffee table as it auto played low-volume videos from streaming website ViewMe.

Annabeth Paige, or “Anna” as she preferred, opened her eyes and brushed her hair back as she looked at the time on her laptop. To her, the rays of sun brushing past the curtains were indicative of a bright, blissful morning, but reality hit her when she realized they were coming from the opposite side of the room as normal. It was 5:07 in the evening.

“Great,” Anna muttered to herself. She reached over and turned the ViewMe playlist off. Then, with a the to as she stood up and walked over to the nearby kitchen. She took a glass out of her cupboard and filled it with water from the sink, downing it alongside two acetaminophen pills to curb the pulsing body aches she normally had. Anna opened her smartphone to glance at the calendar to see if she had any events planned for that day.

Luckily, that was a “no”, a major perk of being a work from home journalist. Still, Anna didn't want the day to be a complete waste. She opened her phone's limited contact list as she sat back down on the couch.

“Got any news for me to report on, Kiki?"

She waited a few moments while checking other news articles and loading up her practically empty SocialNet page. Anna had spent her whole life avoiding as many people as she could. This was in part due to her social anxiety, the love of being completely alone, and partly because she wanted to keep the ever-so-present scars across her entire body from as many prying eyes as possible. It didn't bother her when people asked about them, but she figured if she could keep them hidden as possible, it wouldn't be the first subject she was asked about.

“Not much to do an article on tonight, Kitcat. I will keep you posted.”

Anna looked at the text message and then gave it a second glance as she re-read the name sent to her. “Kitcat?” She was about to reply to the message when she noticed the original message again.

“Not much to do an article on tonight, Anna. I will keep you posted.”

Anna shook her head and rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was either going crazy or was already at the destination.

"Well you know every little bit helps."

With no news to write on, she had free reign in the evening. She could go out, have fun, visit people, maybe even see a movie, or go to the bar!

Forty minutes later, her Hawaiian pizza arrived. She opened the door and grabbed the food, handing her cash to the delivery woman and giving her a few extra dollars as a tip. Anna walked over and put the food next to the laptop, loading up some videos on it through ViewMe.

Her favorite channel had just released a new video, talking about the strange conspiracies in the government, alien ships spotted in the sky, and unearthing mysterious bunkers in Ireland. She stayed on the couch for a few hours, eating pizza and watching videos, before turning on the television to watch the evening news before drifting off to sleep again.

The next morning, and this time she did check to see if it was morning, Anna made herself some breakfast before sitting down on the couch to check the police blotter on her laptop. The blotter was barren aside from some fender bender downtown, a tractor breaking down on the side of the road, some DUI arrest reports, and nothing of note that would give her a big paycheck if she did a story.

The only thing that piqued her interest was a report of a jewelry store theft in a nearby town. By the time she would get there, however, it would have been picked clean by the vultures of local media journalism.

Anna worked for a small-town newspaper, one that was slowly and slowly having its life choked out by the very internet she was using and the vultures she despised. Still, the Town Review did have its dedicated fans, some of which were very well-off farmers in the area and local businesses that sponsored them, so she was not in danger of losing her job. Anna WAS, however, in danger of losing her pay for the week because of the lack of stories she could get to in any possible amount of time. She sent another message to her boss Kiki.

“Please tell me something happened today. Anything. A CRUMB! Miss Paige is DYING here, haha.”

Kiki responded, “I do have a story on a local pumpkin carving contest I need a reporter for, maybe you can go there? It's on Main Street next to the kart shop at 3:00 PM today.”

Anna squealed with joy, then responded with a few emojis of smiling faces and thumbs up. She stood up and walked to the closet in her bedroom, a room that was barely used, and put on a black turtleneck sweater and long dark blue pants. While changing her outfit, Anna took a look at herself; the bright brown scars across her body were present on her face as well, especially when compared to her light brown skin. After changing, Anna walked into the adjacent bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Even past the scars, the bags under her chestnut eyes were a prominent indicator that her sleep schedule was as screwed up as her love of creepy conspiracy videos.

“I need an energy drink,” she muttered to herself, resigning to herself the need to go to the grocery store to get said drink and a few essentials as well. Turning off the bathroom light, Anna grabbed her jacket, and her keys, and left the house for her car. She unlocked the silver car with her key fob and climbed into the passenger seat, inspecting herself in the mirror before going out to, unfortunately, “adult”. Before reaching to put her key in, however, she froze. A sudden realization dawned on her regarding how many people were probably going to be at a grocery store this close to Halloween.

Thoughts flew through her head. “It’s just people. It is just people. It is just people. I can do this. In and out.” With her internal pep talk flowing through her brain, Anna started the car and drove down the road and across the street to the corner market. As expected, the parking lot was full, so she had to park at the open fast-food restaurant next door. Taking advantage of this unexpected opportunity, she ordered a malt and walked over to the side yard to look at the store’s parking lot.

As the workers made her malt, the parking lot across the way slowly emptied. Anna smiled, knowing this meant fewer people in the store, meaning fewer probable instances of anxiety or embarrassment. Steeling herself for the trip, she quickly downed her malt and walked forward down the sidewalk towards the corner store.

The automatic doors creaked open as she approached the building, the sounds of retail screaming in her ears. As she passed the cash registers, a man standing in line caught her eye. No matter what Anna did, she could not escape the belief that she had seen this man before. Her familiarity with him, despite having never once seen him before, started to gnaw at her brain.

Shaking off the feeling of unaccustomed familiarity, Anna decided to go into the back of the store where she had not seen many people while walking in. Most of the group had moved their way to the registers, giving her ample opportunity to go to a back corner and internally scream.

To her dismay, she found herself staring at another man in the back of the store with a lighter in his hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other. The man had a very weird look about him, and Anna could tell he was up to something nefarious. Quickly darting out of the suspicious man's line of sight, she hid behind the store shelf next to her.

Soon Anna heard the distinct sound of a lighter flicking and the sound of footsteps running up to the front. A loud, gravely yell was heard, followed by the screams and gasps of other customers. Just as Anna was about to take out her phone and call 911, she heard a shrill, raspy voice from the other end of the store.

“Open the safe, give me the money!” the voice said, a mix of anger and desperation in his voice. “Give me all the money out of the till or so help me, I will burn this place to the damn ground!”

Anna snuck around to the side of the aisle and caught a short glimpse of the man. It was indeed the suspicious gentleman she had seen in the back of the store. He was waving around what looked to be the still-lit lighter in one hand while still holding the Molotov in the other. Anna turned back to stay clear of the criminal's view and crouched to the ground, trying her best to not hyperventilate in the process.

‘At least I have a good story now if I survive to tell it,’ she thought to herself. Using the reflective part of her phone screen, Anna watched as the cashiers opened the drawers and started putting the money into a plastic storage bag. The criminal was so preoccupied with his take, however, that he had not noticed the other man Anna had seen earlier emerge from behind a grocery stack.

Within seconds, the man in the leather jacket knocked the lighter away before wrestling the unlit Molotov out of the criminal’s other hand, shattering the bottle against the counter. The liquid spilled all over the floor, and taking this opportunity, the hero of the hour tripped up the criminal with a powerful leg sweep, knocking him to the ground with the finesse of a trained soldier. The arsonist tried to get back up but the slipperiness of the alcohol on the floor overtook him and he fell headfirst against the counter of the register, knocking himself out.

Within seconds of the criminal demanding the cashiers do his bidding, he was lying on the ground completely unconscious. The man in the leather jacket pushed his hair back and looked at the startled cashiers for a few moments before dropping his intended items on the register’s conveyor belt.

“I’ll just take this, please,” the man said as though taking down a deranged, armed arsonist was just another day at the job for him. Then again that also could have been the adrenaline. Anna, in half-shock from the situation, had to stifle a chuckle to avoid attention from a potentially embarrassing situation. Anna figured his display of confidence was merely an act, as he simply left his items on the counter before quickly leaving the store.

The would-be robber lay sprawled across the floor in front of one of the cash registers, as the other customers quickly approached the door to get out of the situation before it escalated more than it already had. One of the cashiers, wearing a white button-up shirt, stayed inside and directed everyone else to the exit, reassuring everyone the situation was under control.

Anna finally freed from her frozen shock, stepped out from her hiding place, and walked towards the door to follow everyone else. Outside, one of the patrons of the store was already on the phone with the local sheriff’s office, relaying the events of what had happened to the deputy on the other end. Still somewhat dazed from what had just happened, Anna walked over to her car and sat in the driver’s seat, her legs immediately buckling under the weight as she climbed in. She did not quite know how long she’d sat in the car, but eventually, she was startled out of her mental daze by a policeman’s flashlight.

“You alright ma’am?” the policeman asked. Anna looked at her smartphone and determined that she was dazed for quite some time, seeing as it was already four in the afternoon. Looking over at the policeman, she smiled and nodded her head, turning the car on and rolling down the power window.

“I am, yeah.” Anna looked at him as he turned off the flashlight. The sky overhead warranted the use of the flashlight as it was growing dark with both the slowly setting sun as well as the rampant cloud cover that signified incoming rain.

“I was just sitting here after… um, what happened in the grocery store over there. Do I have to give a witness statement?”

“I think we have enough witness statements, if you’re willing I can take down your address so the court can notify you later.”

“That sounds great officer, I live on Phelps, it’s just down the road from here. Wait, never mind, I live on Washington Street.” Anna shook her head to clear her head from the daze and shock. With shaky hands, she jotted down her address on a tiny piece of paper and handed it to the officer. “Washington. I don’t know why I said Phelps. My brain is all out there tonight.”

“Understandable, considering the circumstances.” The officer nodded to Anna and started to turn back towards the grocery store, but not before stopping to look back at Anna. “Have a good evening, ma’am.”

Anna nodded politely and turned her key all the way over to the start position. With no more words, she pulled out of the parking lot and drove over to her house. She climbed out of the car and walked towards the building itself, every step feeling like gravity was altering itself around her in a variety of ways. One step was an eternal struggle to stay up, the next was a lightheaded stumble forward.

Eventually, to her own admitted surprise, she got into the house and closed the door behind her. Finally, in her comfort zone, Anna sauntered over to the couch and face-planted into the cushions without even taking off her jacket or shoes.

Weakened eyes opened to the sight of a clock on the end table, the digital numbers and letters saying “5:00 AM” on its face. Anna moved on the couch to lay on her back, taking the jacket off and dropping it on the floor next to her. She checked her phone, reading a line of text messages from Kiki ranging from dismay over her lack of appearance at the pumpkin carving contest to worrying when she found out about the attempted robbery at the grocery store.

The last photo message made her chuckle, however, when she opened it and locked her eyes on a picture of her car from the night before; the attached message made her chuckle.

“Hey girl, I saw you planking on your couch like a wooden board and, evidently, you were safe. Text me back when you wake up.”

Anna opened the text and replied. “I am safe, yeah, just a bit rattled. Thanks for friend-stalking me, I know it was done with love.”

She set the phone on the table and opened her laptop, typing in the name of her town on a news web page. She checked if anyone had reported on the attempted robbery the afternoon before. It was on the first page.

“ATTEMPTED ARSON AND BURGLARY REPORTED AT LOCAL GROCER.”

Opening the page and scanning the text, she was mildly disappointed when she read there was no information about the man who’d stopped the crime, simply saying he was “unnamed”.

“Unnamed?” Anna asked aloud, "That man took down an armed criminal in thirty seconds, but he doesn't want...?” The confusion grew in her as she read the text saying no one wanted to talk about the unnamed hero. More importantly, he did not want to be identified. Why wouldn’t a man want to be identified when he was a hero to everyone in that store?

Anna walked outside her home and got into her car. She started her car and drove back to the grocery store, which had a town Sheriff’s deputy standing outside. She nodded to the deputy and walked into the store. The same cashier from the night before was talking to her manager about the situation, bringing up how the man who stopped the crime acted so calm and collected even after wrangling the arsonist.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I have a word real quick?" Anna asked the cashier, who turned around after she was done with her conversation with the manager.

"What do you need, ma'am?"

"Hey! Remember the man who stopped the criminal last night? I was wondering if he'd come into the store before that, and if you happen to know his name?"

"Oh, I think he said his name was Jacob? He's a regular here, but he likes to keep to himself. Who’d ever think he could do that?”

"Yeah. My name is Annabeth Paige and I work for the Town Review, and I'm trying to get some sort of interview with him. If I leave my number here could you have him call me the next time he comes in"

The cashier shrugged, "I'll try, but like I said he likes to keep to himself."

Anna wrote down her number on a small piece of paper and handed it to the cashier, thanking her before stepping back outside into the parking lot. For a brief second, she heard a voice and thought a man was talking to her, but it seemed she was alone in the lot. Owing the thought to paranoia, Anna walked back to her car and sat in the front seat. Before she could start the engine, however, she watched through her rear-view mirror and watched as Mr. Jacob himself walked into the store. Anna got back out of the car and walked up to him.

"Hey! I'm a reporter for the Town Review and-"

"I don't want to talk about what happened last night," Jacob sternly said as he stepped into the store. "I just did what I had to do, let's leave it at that."

"Yeah but it's not every day you see someone do what y-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it. Can't you respect that?"

Anna responded sheepishly, putting away her phone. "Okay, I'm sorry. I won't ask again." Jacob shrugged as he walked into the store, leaving Anna defeated as she slowly stepped back towards her car to head home.

Jacob never looked at Anna, not directly anyway. Normally, she was exceedingly used to people averting their eyes from her face. The face with jagged textures and signs of stitching. The face of someone who fell into glass when she was younger. However it didn’t seem that way for Mr. “Jacob”. He seemed more worried about keeping his own face away from Anna, a clear sign of personal shame. She didn’t understand why.

The next few days were a blur as Anna spent hour after hour trying to find information for stories she could write about. There was an online post from St. Louis about a group of vigilantes, or strange lights in the sky. However, there seemed to be nothing local or statewide she could find to post about for the local newspaper.

It was the next Monday morning, the 28th of October when Anna woke up to a phone call from an unknown number. At first she didn’t want to answer because she usually avoided unknown calls, but this time she felt compelled to do so. She pressed the green call button and held the phone against her head.

“Hello?”

“Hey, is this the reporter from the grocery store? My name is Jacob Riley.”

“Oh! Yeah my name is Annabeth Paige. I take the cashier at the store passed along my message?”

“Yeah. Look, I wanted to apologize for what I said when we first met. I just didn’t feel comfortable talking to a journalist so soon after what happened.”

“Are you okay with talking about it now? We can conduct a phone interview if you want.”

“Well, maybe we could meet each other for coffee or something. I would like to get to know you a bit before committing to a full interview. It’s just my personal policy.”

“I respect that, and understand where you’re coming from,” Anna responded. “ My personal policy is ‘be introverted’. Probably a bad policy for a journalist.”

Jacob laughed a bit, then replied “I understand that. So, meet me at that restaurant near the high school, today at 11?”

“Sure! I love that place!" Anna smiled as the pair said their goodbyes and ended the call. She then grabbed some moderately decent clothes, quickly washed up, and stepped outside her house at 10:30 AM.

A short drive took her to a small, train-themed restaurant close to the outskirts of town, where she waited in her car listening to music before going inside around 11 AM. After spotting Jacob across the restaurant, she walked over to him, avoiding any bumps with other customers or wait staff along the way. She finally sat down at his booth, across from him.

“Soo…” Anna tried to say something to break the ice, but the overall awkwardness became apparent as she knocked over a pepper shaker while trying to grab her menu. However, it was Jacob who actually spoke first.

“I wanted to apologize again for being so rude the other day, and I figured paying for breakfast would be appropriate.”

"I understand where you're coming from though," Anna replied, "I kinda ambushed you outside that store…"

Jacob shrugged. "Yeah, but that doesn't excuse my rudeness. Look, I tend to keep to myself these days. The last thing I want is for my name to be plastered all over the papers."

"I get that. If you are willing to share your story I'll make sure it's kept anonymous. I've just never in my life seen someone do what you did! It was amazing!"

"I feel like there's more to this than just wanting to tell my story."

Anna nervously scratched her head. "Yeah, I've been looking for a story to write for weeks and I haven't had any leads. Considering I was an eyewitness to what happened, I figured it would make for a great story and I could actually get some money and not have to rely on SNAP benefits. Again, I'll keep your name out of it."

Jacob chuckled a bit and shrugged again. "Well, if it would make you happy to know, I am a former police officer. I left that life behind when I moved out here. However, when I saw that man with the Molotov in the store the other day, I knew I had to do something so I put my training to good use.”

Anna nodded, “Yeah I know. I was hiding in the corner, so I saw the whole thing. I gotta ask, though, what happened to you being a cop? Did you quit?”

Jacob immediately looked nervous upon hearing her question, and was seemingly saved by the sudden appearance of the waitress who approached the table.

“Hey guys, what will you have today?”

Jacob smiled at the waitress and ordered just a simple coffee. At the same time, Anna grabbed the menu and pointed at the breakfast burrito entry on the front page . “That.”

When the waitress left to get their order, Anna took the opportunity to break the silence. “I’ve lived here for a while now after I left college. It's a nice little town… when people don’t try to burn down grocery stores, that is.”

Jacob replied, having seemingly regained his composure. "I like it here, yeah. It's quiet, for the most part, which is a stark contrast from where I used to live."

"Where's that?"

"St. Louis."

Anna smiled. "Hey I've been there a few times! What was your favorite thing about living there?"

Jacob sat back in his chair. "I gotta say the Gateway Arch. On quiet mornings, I would drive my cruiser over to the Arch and park in just a way where I could see the sun rise through it across the river. When the fog rose just right, the whole thing looked like a doorway to another world."

Anna imagined how something like that would look, letting an awed expression cross her face. "That sounds amazing. I might have to do that myself some time."

"Well I would definitely recommend doing it in the winter, when everything is covered in snow."

Anna smiled at Jacob just as the waitress returned to the table with their order. Anna dug into her burrito while Jacob quietly drank his coffee, and the conversation continued when her plate and his mug were empty.

"So what's your story?" Jacob asked, "Like, what made you want to be a reporter?"

"Well, when I was a kid, I would read these books about a tough, no-nonsense reporter named Paige Turner who got into these incredible situations and wild adventures. I'm guessing I wanted to do that."

"Well with that wild adventure the other night, I would say you finally completed that goal!" Jacob laughed a bit.

Anna burst out in a quiet laugh in response. "I didn't think about it that way. My life goal is complete and I'm only forty! Do you think I have time to become an astronaut?"

"You're forty??" Jacob's eyes nearly burst out of his head. You look so young!" This comment brought up a small blush from the woman sitting across from him. "I'm forty as well. I, however, probably look my age at this point."

"I don't see it."

"Oh, thanks. But honestly, I'm sure if you want to be an astronaut, you can." Anna chuckled, and Jacob smiled back. "I don't know why, but I feel like I already know you and I can tell you're someone who goes for the gold. You can do anything you want, Anna." He smiled again, prompting Anna to smile back while brushing some hair out of her face.

While touching her face, Anna's fingertips brushed across the raised scars on her skin. Her smile briefly faded, "Well, not anything. I think my modeling career was over before it began." Anna smiled again in an attempt to pass her comment off as a joke, but Jacob could tell it still stung her mood a bit.

The crowd in the store had died down at this point. The less people around her, the more Anna felt comfortable with herself, and with Jacob. Even still, a few more moments passed before Anna quietly sighed.

"I don't know much about the details, but when I was a kid, I was playing with my siblings, running around the house like kids do. Well we had a glass coffee table in the living room. Apparently I tripped and fell into that table. My mom said I almost died, but that I was just too resilient to stay gone."

"Oh, wow. To be honest I didn't want to ask about those scars. I don't want to come across as rude."

Anna shrugged, "Oh that's okay! It's not like a taboo subject for me, ya know? I've had them as long as I can remember, so I'm used to people asking about them."

Just as Jacob was about to reply, he looked at his watch. "Oh damn, I have an appointment I have to get to. You got my number, we could probably catch up a bit later?"

"Sure!" Anna's face lit up as she stood up and extended her hand to shake Jacob's. Jacob happily returned the gesture and got up to leave when Anna spoke up again. "Do I have permission to write your story? Again, I'll keep your name out of it."

Jacob smiled back, "Yes, as long as it is anonymous. I would really rather not have my name on the papers. It's a privacy thing, you know? But I do hope you have a nice rest of your day!"

"Thanks! You too!"

Anna stood up from their table and started for the door, while Jacob flagged down a waitress to pay for their meal. As Anna walked outside, a dark-haired woman walking towards the restaurant turned and looked at her with a strange look on her face. Anna interpreted the look as a response to her scars, but something about the woman seemed familiar. The lady turned and watched Anna with a shocked expression as she got into her car and drove off.

That evening, Anna finished her article on Jacob, leaving his name out of it as promised. She wrote how she was a witness to the attempted robbery at the store, how an ex policeman prevented a tragedy, and what he said was his favorite thing about living in St. Louis. When she was finished, Anna submitted the article to Kiki's email. With a relieved sigh, she laid down on her couch and closed her eyes to hopefully take a short nap.

"I love you."

Anna woke up the next morning with tears in her eyes. She didn't understand why she'd cried in her sleep, or know whose voice she heard seconds before waking up, chalking it up to being nothing more than a dream that was simply hard to remember. She checked her phone upon sitting up and saw she had a message from Kiki.

"Hey, I got your email last night and was able to get your article into the paper this morning! Everyone here loved it! Btw check your bank account :) "

Anna checked her account as instructed and gleefully yelped as she saw she had three hundred more dollars than she did the day before. Standing up, she did a small happy dance and quickly sat back down to message Kiki back.

"Thank you!!"

While still holding her phone, she looked up her recent calls and quickly found Jacob's cell number. She pressed the green call button and held her breath.

"Hey! My boss sent me 3 Benjamins for the article I wrote! I am so floored! Do you want to meet at the restaurant again for lunch? My treat!"

"Hey Anna, I would, but I'm not in town right now. Rain check? Congrats on the pay tho! I read your article in the paper this morning, you deserve it!"

"Aww!" Anna audibly whined, then shrugged. "Okay! Have a great day! I'm going to celebrate! I know exactly what I'm going to do."

"Alright! You too!"

Anna put her phone in her pants pocket and stood up to walk outside. The air was cooler than expected and the sky had some clouds, but otherwise it was perfect weather this morning for her to go back to the restaurant to have another breakfast burrito, this time her own treat.

With this in mind, Anna walked to her car, got in, and drove to the restaurant she'd met Jacob in the day prior. When she arrived, her favorite waitress, Julie, was standing near the entrance. Anna had visited this particular restaurant before multiple times, and had been helped by Julie multiple times, so she was the most familiar person in town to the introverted woman.

When Julie saw Anna, she walked over and handed her a sticky note with a phone number and the name "Alex" written on it.

"What's this?" Anna asked. Reading the number and name off the paper sparked a sense of familiarity, but just at the back of her mind. "Who gave this to you?"

"Some lady came in yesterday and asked me to hand that to you the next time I saw you," Julie smiled, "but she didn't say anything else."

"Oh? Okay. Thanks?" Anna shrugged, but her thoughts couldn't escape the irony of someone leaving her a message exactly like she had for Jacob not too long ago. She briefly smiled, and soon after Julie helped her pass through the small crowd of people all over the restaurant and over to the corner booth she liked. Anna picked up a menu and pointed at the breakfast burrito on the front page before smiling and nodding. Julie had run many of these out to her before, so she didn't even need to hear what Anna ordered.

Anna took out her phone to look up local news. There was the usual police blotter from the larger three towns surrounding her, but nothing much locally. She then switched tabs to a different site full of articles detailing accounts of a mysterious nature around the country. Anna loved reading weird stories and listening to conspiracy theory podcasts on ViewMe. One of the most interesting mysteries on the front page involved a "New Roswell", in Washington state and a government cover-up.

Anna tapped on the link and skimmed through the article. She stopped skimming when she spotted a picture of a man in his early sixties with a goatee and dark brown hair. This man was Ellis Kane: the current President of the United States. Anna wasn't sure what to think of Mr. Kane, mostly due to his tendency to keep what could be important information away from the public. She followed all the usual conspiracy theories regarding politics, and as a result she was not exactly fond of that particular behavior. For all Anna knew, lizard people were actually in control of everything: it would make sense at the very least.

Julie arrived at Anna's table, bringing the latter's usual order of a breakfast burrito and a glass of orange juice. Anna smiled at the waitress and sat her phone down face-first before digging into the food in front of her. After finishing part of her breakfast, Anna picked her phone back up to continue reading the article, and was surprised to see the picture of President Ellis Kane had changed somehow: while the man in the picture still wore the same suit as the President, his face had changed to someone in his late thirties with no goatee and shorter, slightly lighter hair.

Anna scrolled up to see if she'd accidentally moved the screen while putting the phone on the table, but the same text had been present above the photo as before. After scrolling back down, she noticed the man's face in the picture had returned to that of President Kane. She shook her head while thinking she'd been seeing things, then put her phone back down to finish her breakfast. When she was done eating, Anna grabbed her card and waved down Julie from across the restaurant. She paid her ticket, leaving a fairly generous tip in the process, then stood up and left the restaurant.

After a short drive home, Anna walked into her house and sat her phone down on the coffee table in front of her couch next to her laptop. She then sat down on the couch and started typing things into the search engine on said laptop, starting with the phone number from the piece of paper Julie had handed her. The search results brought up nothing much aside from the name Alexandria Matthews.

"That must be the mysterious 'Alex' from the note," Anna said out-loud, "I wonder what she wants from me. I guess I should contact her." A few moments of silent contemplation went by before Anna switched tabs on her laptop back to ViewMe. She started playing music from the site, then grabbed her phone and laid back on the couch, browsing the internet. Anna spent a bit of time scrolling through multiple different sites before her eyelids began growing heavy, so much so that she couldn't keep them open.

The next thing Anna knew, she was thrown out of her daze with a loud scream and a twisting jolt, having experienced the feeling of falling in her sleep. The phone, previously nestled gently on her lap, flew upwards and landed with a thud nearby, but Anna had somehow kept her eyes closed so she had no real way of knowing where it was. She opened her eyes and took note of her surroundings, grounding herself back into reality. By now, a completely different ViewMe video was playing, and the sun had moved from one side of the sky to the other. Anna had many dreams in her life: there were happy ones such as being on a beautiful lake with dreamy, faceless imaginary man, or playing with an adorable toddler whose face she also never saw. However, she hated the recurring nightmare she usually had: falling from the sky.

She’d always fallen from a great height over a huge, endless city. Sometimes the city was on Earth, sometimes on a strange planet with six moons, sometimes she’d see a multicolored flash of light and end up over both in the same dream. But this time, she knew exactly where she was. She’d seen the Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River, and it was the first time she’d seen these two landmarks in any of these dreams. And then, the dream ended when the flash of light returned this time with an emphasis on the green, and the city below her began to burn. She also noticed that, for the first time in these dreams as well, she almost hit the ground.

After her heart rate stopped beating nearly four digits, Anna turned on the couch towards the coffee table, where she thankfully found her phone had merely landed face down on the table and not embedded into the ceiling above her. To her surprise, the phone was lit up and vibrating. She reached over and grabbed it, turning the brightness down so she didn’t see another flash of light. As the phone vibrated, Anna noticed two things regarding the display on the phone: four hours had indeed passed since she fell asleep on the couch, and she was getting a phone call from Jacob Riley.

The latter caught her off-guard, as she was not expecting any sort of phone calls from anyone, much less him. Shrugging, she answered the phone and put it on speaker, sitting it on the table so she could talk to Jacob while still recovering from her nightmare.

“Hey, Annabeth?”

“Hey Mr. Riley, what’s up?”

“I’m at the park, and I was wondering if you could join me. Remember I said we could have a rain check, when you called me this morning?”

“Oh right! Sure, I can be there momentarily.” Anna yawned, still shaking from the nightmare. “I, uh… I just woke up from a nap, so I just gotta get my bearings. Which park? The one by the giant pond?”

“Yup!” Jacob replied with what sounded like a cheerful tone, “So I'll meet you in an hour? I’m gonna be sitting in one of the shelters at the back. I’ll see you when you get here.”

The pair said their goodbyes and Anna hung up the phone, continuing to sit where she was for a good few minutes before she finally mustered up the nerve to stand properly, doing so on shaky legs at first. Eventually, she started walking towards her front door, every step harder than the last. Her body ached even more than usual, presumably from the sudden jolt when she woke up.

Anna gave up on leaving at the moment and slowly walked towards the bathroom instead to grab her pain killers. While she waited for those to take effect, she sat back on her couch and started to browse the internet again, this time reading about hallucinating, as she'd been thinking about seeing that man's face over Ellis Kane's back at the diner. She couldn't find anything that seemed to match, and simply just chalked it up to the picture glitching out and showing someone else. Eventually, her back and legs started to feel a sense of relief and she was able to walk properly again.

By the time Anna had gotten to her car, the sun in the sky had lowered a little bit more, and a thin sheet of wispy cirrus clouds drifted off in the distant evening sky. As she started the car, the clock on the dashboard said 6:34 PM, meaning there were just a few minutes away from when she said she'd meet Jacob. With this in mind, she was glad she didn't live too far from the park.

The quick drive was over before she knew it, and she found herself standing at the chain-link fence that surrounded the park. Walking through the open gate, she paced over to the open shelters at the back, seeing Jacob sitting on the benches inside looking out to a very large pond. As the sky turned various shades of pinks, purples, and blues, and birds began chirping their nightly chirps, Anna sat down on the bench across the table from Jacob.

A few seconds passed before Jacob broke the silence. "I love coming here around this time at night. People rarely show up here during the cooler fall evenings. I don't do much in the way of crowds."

"Neither do I, for hopefully obvious reasons." Anna brushed her hair out of her face, "I have to muster up the courage to go to the store. You have to muster up the courage to go to the store and fight criminals at said store!"

"What can I say, I'm good at multitasking."

Anna and Jacob briefly laughed at the latter's comment, and Jacob resumed speaking afterward. "Having too many people around me reminds me of some of the darkest times in my life. So many people were watching me, their eyes staring daggers, just at me."

"Does this have to do with what happened when you were a police officer?"

Jacob nodded, then took a deep breath. "My therapist told me that I should open up to more people, and you were the only one who's even tried to talk to me. All I ask is, whatever I tell you tonight, it won't be in your paper?"

"I promise," Anna replied in the most sincere tone she could.

Jacob took another breath and continued. "Two years ago, on a late evening during a thunderstorm, I got a request for backup. A man who had robbed a bank was spotted driving his down a highway just outside of St. Louis. I was the closest available officer."

"I caught up with the car, some tricked-out sports car, and when the robber spotted me, he began firing his weapon. I did what I had to do. I tried to disable his car with a pit maneuver, but that failed. I then aimed my weapon, I was aiming for his rear tire but… something happened."

"What?"

"I saw something. It was a flash of light, bright as the sun but almost as close as the car in front of me, but significantly higher. I fired a bullet, and it hit the rear window directly behind the driver's seat. The vehicle quickly veered off into oncoming traffic, where a minivan was driving along."

"Oh no." Anna gasped.

"The moment the two vehicles hit each other, the sports car exploded. There were two people in the minivan. A father and son, they lost their lives. I got out and tried to administer whatever aid I could to the father but he was dead on impact. I then held the child as he…"

Oh my goodness." Anna was floored, but kept her composure. "What happened to the criminal? Did you find his body?"

"I don't know. I checked everywhere around what was left of the sports car… but whoever was driving that vehicle had gone completely missing. No trace of him anywhere. Before the dash cam footage came out, everyone blamed me. I was investigated for their deaths, inquiries were opened, testimonies given. Forensics took weeks to come back and what they said closed the book on my innocence."

"What do you mean?" Anna was bewildered, and her mad sense of curiosity overwhelmed her.

"The bullet that penetrated the back window didn't hit anything except the front windshield. The reason the car veered off into oncoming traffic was because there was no one in it."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. But the released dash cam footage shows the same thing I saw. A bright light and a change of shadows in the sports car. For that few seconds between the blinding flash and the vehicular impact, the car was empty."

Anna shrugged, compelled by Jacob's story "I'd say that's the weirdest thing I've heard, but I've also read stories about giant chickens attacking people in California. I gotta ask something though."

"Go ahead." Jacob kept his tear-filled eyes closed, clearly emotional about remembering that night.

"What did the family members of the man and son say after it was revealed you were innocent?" Anna asked her question not as a journalist, but as a concerned friendly figure. She thought she could be a friend to him, even though she knew little of this man other than what he's told her. Still, the more Jacob told his story, the more drawn-in she felt.

"There wasn't much to tell. The wife and mother disappeared that night. No one knew what happened to her. After the investigation was over and my innocence secured, I still left the force. For weeks I felt so guilty that I shot someone on the head accidentally and their body burned up in their car. Even my therapist told me it wasn't my fault, but I don't want to even attempt to do anything like that again.

"Would you be comfortable with telling me the names of the father and son?"

Jacob shook his head while tears streamed down his face. "I can't. It's usually too difficult for me to talk about them as it is, but saying their names hurts too much. If you really need to know, you can go online. It's right there. Just please don't write any story about it. I'm begging you-"

Anna interjected. "I promised. I'll take it to my grave before I tell anyone what happened, much less publish a story about it. Your story is safe with me."

Jacob stood up and turned towards his car, looking back. "Thank you. And thank you for listening to me. I really needed to get that off my chest. Hey, Maybe we can hang out in the future if I can finagle a day around my therapy sessions." By the time he was done talking, he was already all the way back

Anna smiled and nodded as he left, yelling out "You got my number!" Outwardly she was smiling and cheerful, but internally she was at war. She was trying and failing to get past the notion of the man she was talking to just then having witnessed such horrors in his life. And to think: the most traumatizing thing she'd ever encountered was falling into a glass table as a kid.

But to hold someone as they pass away in your arms, and a child no less, that was something she didn't even want to imagine. Even more, Anna understood Jacob Riley's apprehensive attitude when confronted by a journalist. But she was glad Jacob felt like he could talk to her about important things, just as she could with him.

After a few more moments of sitting at the park table, Anna stood up and walked over to her car, still trying to mentally process everything she heard just then. She started walking towards her car when a cold breeze brushed past her. The leaves falling from the trees started dancing in the wind, and suddenly the sound of laughter echoed in the wind. A child's laughter.

Anna closed her eyes in the same manner as she did after her nightmare earlier in the night. After looking around to see no one else in the park, she closed her jacket across her body even more and started walking back towards her car. She realizes she was probably just hearing things, and the reason it was a kid's voice was because of Jacob's retelling of his life events. Still, she was unnerved in multiple ways this evening. Thankfully, however, she had a short yet uneventful ride back home.

After walking inside her house, Anna sat her cell phone back down on the coffee table next to the laptop. Remembering what Jacob said about looking up information regarding the car accident, she felt tempted to type his name into the search engine on her laptop's browser.

However, she stopped herself just as she noticed the piece of paper with Alex's number on it. Who exactly this Alex person was, Anna had no idea, but she still felt compelled to contact her. However, the events of the park and the nightmare before it wiped Anna out physically, socially, and mentally, so she would have to take a bit of time to herself to recharge.

So with a TV dinner in the microwave and a comfy blanket beside her, Anna sat down on her couch to get ready and watch a movie. She skimmed through a variety of ViewMe options before scrolling to a different, movie-oriented website, with the first movie (a romantic comedy) the best choice to mindlessly listen to as she scrolled on her phone.

The cardboard tray with the TV dinner soon ended up empty and in the kitchen trash can as Anna sat back down on the couch to finish watching her movie. After nestling back into the couch, she started drifting in and out of sleep, but didn't have to worry about falling asleep on the film: she'd seen it so many times before.

She even loved the ending where the plucky hopeless romantic lead and his adorable love interest were driving back to the former's home. In the backseat of the car was… a child? She didn't remember a child at the end of this movie. Was this a sequel to her favorite movie?

Just as she began to question whether or not this was a director's cut or not, the family in the movie suddenly lurched forward as if their vehicle hit something. The parents went one way off-camera, but the child flew directly towards the camera and through the laptop's screen in some strange three dimensional effect. The child's horrific, bloodcurdling scream echoed in Anna's ears as she screamed herself while the child's body fell onto her lap covered in blood, just before a bright flash of green light enveloped her.

Anna screamed again as she opened her eyes again and realized she simply had another nightmare. This one, however, really stuck with her. She'd seen that child before in her recurring dreams multiple times but this was far from the pleasantness of those past ones. Perhaps, she realized, Jacob's story about the father and son must have clawed its way into her subconscious as she fell back asleep.

After looking at the clock and noticing it was half past midnight, Anna decided not to go back to sleep again, if only to avoid yet another nightmare. She rubbed her temples as she stood up and paced around, trying to get rid of the headache she'd given herself from screaming so loudly. After grabbing some water, Anna stepped back into the living room and sat down on the couch again, changing the site on the laptop back to ViewMe.

Looking down at the sticky note again, Anna finally got the nerve to contact the lady whose number was etched onto it. She took her phone and typed the number into a messaging app, before writing the body text. "Hello, my name is Annabeth Paige. You left a sticky note with your name on it for me at the restaurant."

After pressing send, Anna looked at the clock again, which read a quarter till 1:00 AM. No way would this "Alex" would respond to her text this late-

*Beep*, her phone dinged with a new message. "You said your name is Annabeth? Are you the lady with the scars?"

"Yes?? May I ask who you are?"

"My name is Alexandria, I saw you at the restaurant yesterday. You look so much like my late friend, I just had to ask if you're related."

Anna shrugged, but noticed one word in that last text. "Oh, you said 'late' friend? Is she…"

A few moments passed before the next message popped up. It didn’t take an investigative journalist to figure out this was a tough subject for the stranger on the other end. "She was declared legally dead a year ago. But you *have* to be related. Does the name Katelyn Parker mean anything to you?"

Anna shook her head quickly, before looking down to reply via a new message. "No, can't say it does. I'm sorry, but If I am related to your friend, I'm afraid I wouldn't know."

“Oh, well maybe you’re related by cousins or something. I swear you look so much like her. If you want to talk in person. I’m in town for a couple days.”

Anna chuckled to herself for a bit. A week ago, she had only communicated with Kiki, her boss at the newspaper, and Julie, her regular waitress at the restaurant. Now, more and more people were trying to get to know her. This situation didn’t exactly mesh well with her introverted nature, so she had to enjoy the irony. She typed up her next text and sent it.

"Well I noticed you've been to that restaurant, maybe we could meet there tomorrow? 11 AM?"

"Sure! I'll see you then."

Yawning, Anna put her phone on the coffee table again and laid back on the couch, hoping against all hope that if she were to fall asleep again, she would at least have a pleasant dream.

The next morning, Anna opened her eyes, filled with tears again. As with the last time this happened, she didn’t remember dreaming anything. However, she must have because she woke up practically crying and didn’t understand why. She looked over at her open laptop and noticed the clock read 10:23 AM, meaning she had time before she met with Alex.

“Oh neat,” Anna thought to herself, “I guess it’s back to the old conspiracy theory sites about aliens and robots.” This time she watched a short video about green flashes of light in the sky, including over the so-called “New Roswell”. By the time that was over, she was ready to get up and go to the diner after a quick change of clothes.

As she passed by her bedroom mirror, Anna could have sworn she saw herself without her scars in the reflection, but chalked it up to spending a little too much time browsing weird videos on ViewMe. A short double-take later, and she was staring at her normal self with jagged scars. Shrugging off her latest hallucination, Anna left her house and climbed into her car, once again driving back to her favorite restaurant in town.

When she got to the restaurant, Anna got out of her car and walked into the building. Julie, her usual waitress, was standing next to the back door to the kitchen, and she smiled when she saw Anna across the room. Julie walked up to her and smiled again, pointing over to a table with a young Caucasian woman with a medium black haircut and a red jacket. This looked like the same woman Anna had bumped into leaving the restaurant the other morning. The mysterious Alex.

"That's the lady who asked about you the other day," Julie said, "she said she was waiting for someone, so I'm guessing you're here to meet her!"

"That's a good guess!" Anna replied with a cheerful tone and a smile. The pair walked over to the table and Anna sat down, prompting Julie to take their orders. Alex ordered just a coffee and Anna smiled while looking back up to Julie.

"Oh sweetie, I know what you want to eat." Julie laughed a bit as she walked back towards the kitchen to drop the orders off. Anna looked over to Alex, who was looking closely at her.

"You do look an awful lot like Kate." Alex took out her phone out of her purse to browse through pictures, stopping on a selfie with herself and someone else. She turned the phone and showed Anna the picture. From what Alex had said, Anna could tell this young woman was this "Kate Parker."

It was like looking in a mirror, if only a shattered one. "Yeah, she does look like me, but one teensy difference…" Anna brushed her hair back a bit to emphasize the jagged scars on her face. "I've had these since I was a child. That and I've never met you. Would you mind telling me what happened to her?"

"Well, Kate died a couple years back. Her car was found inside a parking garage and there was a lot of blood outside the adjacent building, but the cops say her body was probably carried off by whoever pushed her."

"Someone pushed her off a building??" Anna was floored at this point. She thought Jacob's story was rough to listen to.

"Yeah, that's what the police think. But I think it's because…"

"Because what?"

Alex fought back tears. "I can't talk about it. All I can say is I've kept hoping she's still alive out there." She reached into her purse and grabbed another phone, holding it in her hand for a second. "In fact, I found her phone at her home and I've kept it safe and charged. You wanna see it?"

"Sure!" Anna grabbed the phone from across the table just as Julie came back with their order. Anna played with the phone for a bit. The lock screen was just an image of a wine glass. She didn't notice anything else about the phone aside from admiring the sparkly blue and black phone case.

Alex continued. "I'm also keeping up the payments on her house and bills so she'll have a place to go back to when she does return."

Anna smiled. "You sound like a great friend," she reached over and handed her the phone back, but while doing so felt a tiny vibration on the back. The screen lit up with a "ding" and the home screen lit up brightly, showing the image of a fall tree against a cloudy sky. Alex took the phone and looked at the home screen for a bit, before turning the screen off again and sitting it back in her purse.

The rest of the breakfast involved similar conversation topics to Anna's meeting with Jacob, such as when Anna fell onto a glass table when she was a child. Another where they work, and it turned out Alex was the lead software designer at a programming company. Anna felt humbled when she responded with her occupation as a freelance journalist. She didn't tell Alex, but Anna often felt her boss Kiki had overpaid her for her stories, but was thankful she'd been able to keep afloat through the years.

With the empty plates taken away by Julie, Anna and Alex realized they needed to end their conversation as it was almost time for lunch rush. Anna stood up and walked away, paying the tab for both herself and Alex, who stayed where she was for a second. As she watched Anna leave, something hit her.

Alex felt something weird had happened during their conversation, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. After walking outside and seeing Anna drive away, something clicked and she took Kate's old phone out of her purse. She turned it around to look on the back where a small, gray circle stood out against the rest of the shimmering blue and black phone case.

Anna drove back home and walked inside, sitting on her couch again as she opened her laptop. While getting ready to type up her usual ViewMe, she looked at the sticky note from Alex. She realized, at that moment, that she had forgotten to look up the story Jacob told her about the night before. He had given her permission to do so, after all. So with a quick search on the front page of her web browser, she found a story matching his description. She found a good news site and read the headline out loud while she clicked on it.

"Dash cam footage shows driver vanishing before impact."

When the page fully loaded, Anna was able to ascertain a few more details, including the names of the father and son lost in the crash.

"Andrew Parker, 39, and Elias Parker, 4, were the victims of a two-vehicle crash in Eastern Missouri last month. The following evening, Katelyn Parker vanished and is still missing as of time of this writing. Wait a second… Katelyn Parker?"

Anna picked up her phone and checked her messages, particularly the one from Alex the night before. The name "Katelyn Parker" also showed up in her texts. While searching through the texts themselves, a new message popped up.

"I know we just met up, but can we meet again?"

"When?" Anna replied.

"ASAP"

Anna furled her brow. Why did Alex want to meet her again so soon? Not to mention that, apparently, the family that Jacob Riley was talking about related to the story of Katelyn Parker. Wanting to get to the bottom of this weird situation, she typed out another text.

"Okay. Let's meet at the large park in about an hour. I might not be alone when I show up though." With that done, Anna searched through her tiny list of contacts, pressing one name and hitting the call button. The phone rang for a couple seconds until Jacob's voice was heard on the other end.

"Hey, can you meet me at the park? I need to meet with someone and I can't do it alone."

"Alright. Who is it?"

"Her name is Alex. She said she's a friend of someone named Kate Parker."

Jacob started to stammer a bit, but he seemingly regained his composure. "Okay, I'll meet you at the park." Anna put her phone back in her pocket and stood up to walk outside, grabbing her jacket and a pair of winter gloves to wear as it was starting to get cold out.

A short time later, Anna was sitting in the park at the same table she'd met Jacob the night before. She had her phone open with a video file playing on repeat. The sky outside had grown darker, grayer, and the sun started to hang low on the horizon past the sheet of clouds, shining across the ground with a dark purple sheet of clouds above the light. Another few minutes had passed and Anna saw Jacob's car drive by and pull into one of the parking spaces. He got out and walked up to Anna with a worried look on his face.

"Hey, Ms. Paige," Jacob said, speaking as quickly as he walked, "You met someone who knew Kate Parker?"

Anna nodded, "Yes. She said her name was Alex. I looked up her number and apparently her name is Alexandria Matthews. Does that name mean anything to you?"

"Yes. She was the only person who believed me when I told everyone about the flash of light. Everyone else blamed me for the deaths of…"

"Andrew and Elias Parker?"

Jacob closed his eyes, clearly still torn up over what happened to the father and son years before. "Yes."

"I read about them. I was actually just sitting here watching the dash cam footage too. Just by watching it, I can easily tell it wasn't your fault."

"Well if I wasn't chasing down that bank robber, I wouldn't have-"

"Jacob," Anna sternly said while looking into his eyes. "It wasn't your fault."

Jacob was close to crying as Anna walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. He reached over and gave her a friendly hug, something both of them seemingly needed at the time. When they broke the hug, Anna heard footsteps crunching the leaves on the ground nearby, and turned to look at Alex as she walked closer to the pair. Alex looked at Jacob Riley, then back to Anna, then walked forward while taking her phone out of her purse.

"Alexandria?" Jacob looked at her with a bewildered expression, what are you doing in town?"

"Startup company needed my help, so I came by to offer my friendly advice. And then I found this woman." Alex pointed to Anna, "She looked so much like my friend Kate, I just couldn't let it go. And then something happened today."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked, stepping a bit closer to her.

Alex pulled out Kate's old phone and showed the back of it to Anna. "When you handed this phone back to me, the screen lit up. Do you remember that?"

Anna shrugged. "Yeah, I thought that was weird to be honest. Kate should have gone with some better security options."

"She did, Anna… the thing is, your fingerprint unlocked Kate's phone."

"Come again?"

"You unlocked Kate Parker's phone with your fingerprint. That couldn't be possible unless…"

Anna stared at Alex like her head had just fallen off. "What?"

Alex, with a shaky voice, continued talking. "What happened to you, Kate?"

Anna shook her head and stepped back towards the table. "What do you mean? I'm Annabeth Paige."

Jacob finally let the reality of the situation catch up to him as he turned towards Alex. "What are you saying? This woman isn't who she says she is?"

"My name is Annabeth Paige. I was born… My parents are… No, no. My name is Annabeth Paige!" Anna fell back towards the table seat and, somehow, was able to sit properly without tripping and falling. "My name is…"

"Look, Kitcat," Alex replied with an endearing nickname while stepping closer to her. "I don't know what happened to you, but I promise I'll help you find out."

"How can I be your friend? I remember my life! I remember falling into a glass table as a kid. That's where these scars came from!"

Alex shook her head. "I don't understand it either. But I need to take you somewhere. I need to take you to your home."

"I live on Washington Street."

"No. Your home."

Jacob walked up and stood next to Alex. He was confused as to what exactly was going on with Anna, but felt he had to do something. "Where did Kate Parker live?"

Alex looked over at him, "Just an hour or so from here. Can you drive us all? I can show us how to get there, if that's okay with you, Kate."

With a blank expression, Anna looked back up at Alex, her eyes reddened from the tears stinging them. "My name is Annabeth."

Alex sighed, and then continued. "Alright. Well, 'Annabeth', at the very least can I show you where she lived. Maybe there, we can both find some answers."

Anna nodded shakily, and stood up. She almost fell over again, completely overwhelmed by the possible sudden change of her known reality. How could she have possibly lived her life as someone else? Was she actually this Kate Parker? Or was Ms. Parker's phone just glitching? If she was Kate Parker, does that mean she's connected to Andrew and Elias Parker? What exactly was going on?

Finally after a short internal confrontation, Annabeth Paige turned towards Alex and nodded her head again, before pointing over at Jacob.

"Okay," Anna said through tears, "Let's go."

Alex and Jacob nodded their heads and the three started towards Jacob's car. While Jacob sat in the driver's seat, Anna got into the passenger seat and Alex climbed into the backseat behind Jacob. The trip to their destination took an hour, with a lot of random small talk, directions, and internet research. Just as Alex had finished looking at something on her phone, she turned her head and pointed at a large house in the middle of a forested area.

“This is it, this is where Kate lived with her family.”

The car turned and pulled into a long driveway off of Phelps Road, and then up to a two-story house in a clearing surrounded by rolling hills and trees. By now, the sun had set off in the distance and the clouds overhead began clearing away to reveal the bright purples and pinks of a sunset sky. This ended up giving the trio a dark, yet alluring look at the home in front of them. The sounds of ambient nature filled the air as Anna got out of the car and looked up at the home. It was a bit familiar to her, yes, but she could have sworn she’d never seen the place before. However, the closer she got to the door, the more she started to hear things. They started off as echoes, then got louder and louder, a cacophony of noises screaming in her head.

Eventually she made it up a short flight of stairs, reached over, and opened the door. The inside of the house was barely lit, and to Anna, it seemed completely gray and cold, like it had been outside practically all day long. For a second, Anna could swear she still heard the echoes, but they were louder. The voice of a youthful child rang through her ears, and off the corner of her eye she saw what could only be described as another hallucination: a child no older than four years old, in grayscale, was running around the house singing at the top of his lungs.

The grayscale image of Kate Parker, looking just like Anna without her scars, showed up in a nearby doorway and laughed at the child's antics. Then, ghostly hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her slightly back. Anna looked over at a picture on the mantle over the fireplace, one of Kate, Andrew, and Elias Parker. And the realization hit her: It was Andrew's face Anna had seen replacing the President's on that site a few days prior. Anna turned back to the image of Kate and noticed it was Andrew who grabbed her and pulled her closer to him.

The room started changing. Anna was the one in grayscale now, watching ghosts of the past run around laughing and playing in full color and in a bright room. At one moment they were sitting on a couch, and when Anna turned around, the three were playing a board game at a table, one that Kate was clearly losing. Anna's eyes stung with tears as she watched this once happy family have the time of their lives.

Then, it all came back to her.

That horrible night.

Anna turned and watched as Kate Parker was sitting on the couch, video chatting with her son on her phone. The conversation was unclear, and the voices echoed out, but suddenly a green flash of light appeared on the other end of the phone, and the signal dropped immediately. Kate started panicking, clearly worried about her family. The scene changed and Kate was sitting at her family table when a knock on the door was heard. She stood up and walked over to open the door, revealing a police officer behind it. Again the conversation was illegible, but Anna knew something awful had happened because Kate immediately started bawling and fell to the floor with a clear scream.

Anna closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was in a completely different place and time. The moon overhead shone brightly on the city of St. Louis as Kate stood on the roof of a tall building. Tears were streaming down her face as she closed her eyes, and then climbed up to the ledge overlooking the entire metropolitan area. Suddenly, after the same feeling of falling from her nightmares. Anna found herself on the ground in front of the building, watching a shadowy figure fall from sky and crash through a thin glass awning before slamming into the ground. The shadowy figure morphed and shaped into a blood-covered Kate Parker, who after some time, stood up and walked forward despite being covered in deep cuts and shards of glass. Kate looked directly at Anna and walked towards her, and when the two bumped into each other, Kate Parker found herself back in her house.

Kate fell to her knees and cried hysterically. Alex and Jacob walked inside and comforted the crying, poor, emotionally-and-physically scarred woman, trying to calm her shaky motions and anxiety attack. Kate hugged Alex while keeping her eyes closed.

"I'm so sorry, Kate." Alex said through her own tears. Jacob sat on a chair, bewildered over what was unfolding in front of him.

Kate opened her eyes and hugged her friend some more. "I… couldn't live without them. Andy and Eli… my love… my son. How do I go on now?"

"You're strong, Kate." Alex slowly took off one of Kate's gloves and traced the scars on her hand. "You obviously survived something not many people could have."

Jacob walked over and knelt next to the pair, looking over at Kate. "I am so… so sorry for what happened to you, and your family. I am so sorry-"

Kate shook her head and wiped tears from her face. "I already told you, it wasn't your fault." She tried to give him the same stern expression she gave him earlier while saying the same thing, but couldn't. The events of the evening before the car trip felt like a literal lifetime ago, and back then things made just a little bit more sense to her.

Kate Parker, for all she knew, was someone else for the better part of two years. Part of her wanted to go back into that life: to be introverted again, to escape from the pain of losing people so close to her, but she knew she had to go on. She had to keep fighting.

When things had subsided, Alex told Kate and Jacob that on the way to the house, she had been looking things up regarding Dissociative Fugue States. After describing the symptoms, the three eventually agreed that was the reason Kate Parker thought she was Annabeth Paige. Such a traumatic series of events broke her, and Kate knew it would be a long time before she felt complete.

After Kate finally calmed down enough to stop crying, the three moved to the living room couch.

"I remember everything now," Kate said through heavy breaths as she looked around the living room. "My life before Annabeth. I remember my first date with Andy."

"Didn't you end up in the hospital?" Alex asked with a small chuckle.

"Emergency room, but yes."

"Oh you gotta tell me about that." Jacob said, also chuckling. "So… Kate Parker?"

"Yeah. I guess I took the name Annabeth from one of my favorite stories as a kid."

Jacob sighed. "Well, I'm glad you're okay. When I found out you had disappeared after what happened… I felt so guilty."

"Well, she's strong, she's tough. I've actually known Kate here since middle school."

Kate nodded. "She set me up with Andy to begin with." She sighed for a few seconds, then turned to Jacob. "Hey, Can you do me a favor?"

Jacob looked puzzled for a brief second, "What's that?"

"Please consider going back to St. Louis. Go back to what you did. I know you left your job as a police officer because of what happened to Andy and Eli, but I've seen what you can do. And on top of that, you are such a kind and genuine person. That city needs you."

Jacob sat silent for a few seconds, then nodded his head. "I'll consider it."

Alex interjected. "I'll stay with you as long as you need me to. I'll even move my job here if I have to."

"I appreciate that." Kate replied, "I know I'll need some help readjusting to…" She made a wild gesture to everything around her, "THIIIIS. Also I should probably inform my boss Kiki about this situation."

The three continued their conversation for a few more hours, before one by one they fell asleep. The next morning, Kate was the one to wake up first. She walked into the kitchen and looked out the rear window into the world outside. The sun was just beginning to peek over the tree line off in the distance, and from what she could tell, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Kate looked around at the home, the one she shared with her family, where she wanted to live with the love of her life. Now she felt even more alone than she did when she lived another life, by herself.

However, when she walked into the living room again, Kate saw Alex and Jacob sleeping on the couch. It was at this moment, she realized she wasn't alone after all. She still had people who cared about her, even though one of whom she had just met recently. Kate sighed, then sat down between the two of them and closed her eyes again to fall back asleep. This time, in her dream, Kate stood on a beach. She saw Andrew and Elias off in the distance, walking off into a shimmering, golden, heavenly horizon. Later on, when the sun shone into the house, she woke up first again.

Kate Parker wiped her eyes as she sat up. Obviously, she was crying in her sleep again. But this time, she just knew, they were tears of happiness.

About the Author:

N.J. Folsom is an introverted writer based in Missouri. In his free time, he likes to play video games and draw. If you like the story and felt it was worth your time, please consider donating to his PayPal so he can write more!

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