Chapter 1
The rain beating down on the windshield made it almost impossible to see. The top of the red convertible was still down – the storm had developed suddenly – but neither occupant minded the deluge. The two were on their way home from a festive gathering in the foothills of the Keystone Mountains. There was still about three hours of driving to do until they arrived at their destination. Hopefully they would return to a dining room table covered in a gourmet spread, but with the way his father had been acting lately, nobody was ever sure of what to expect when they walked in the manor door.
There were no other cars on the road. The rain was keeping most sane drivers off the road, but the two passengers in the red convertible were not typical, everyday people. Once the car's interior was thoroughly soaked, she decided it was time to put the top back on the car. She knew the car was his baby, but she couldn't stand the rain any longer; her hair looked like a rat's nest.
She leaned over and said in his ear, "I'm putting the top up."
"What?" came the puzzled reply as he kept switching his view from the road to his passenger.
She pointed up and then covered her head to show him what she meant so as not to have to shout at him. Luckily he understood what she meant.
"Okay," he nodded in agreement, snapping his attention back to the nearly flooded highway as he tried to read the exit signs. Visibility was still difficult because the rain had not yet let up and he was still racing the car in order to cut time off the return trip home.
He kept his eyes on the road as best as he could while she struggled to pull the top of the car up and secure it into place. The rain made her hair very stringy, but a fleeting moment in his mind forced him to think of how pretty she looked with her windblown, wet, ratty hair streaked across her face.
The daredevil driver was still pushing his luck in the weather, going no slower than seventy miles per hour. The road ahead was pin straight, and he set the cruise control at eighty-five, smiling at the girl next to him. She had just settled back in her seat, wiping the hair from off of her face and she caught his eye and matched his smile with one of her own. The girl was not sure what she had ever seen in him, but after their fifth year at school things had started to change. Through their last two years at school he had become friends with her close-knit group and something special had developed between the two travelers. Maybe it was the similarities in authority at the school or maybe the career selection – they were both working in childcare – that had drawn the two closer than ever, but whatever it was that brought them together seemed like magic. Before the spark was ignited the two were bitter enemies and were rarely seen together. Now that they were finally out of school, they were hardly ever apart for more than two days at a time.
Nobody was on the deserted road that rainy night. The strange party had broken up early, without much fun for the guests. All of the other revelers had either decided to spend the night where they were, or to apparate to their proper homes when they had felt the first drops of rain and seen the frightening gray skies looming in the distance. The driver was anxious to get home. He had not seen his parents in at least a week and was looking forward to some home cooking. As the other guests were bringing their belongings in from their cars, this stubborn boy and his girl bid farewell to the host and hostess and sped away, out of the foothills of the Keystone Mountains back toward the manor where he lived.
The skies had been crying for almost an hour without any sort of letup. Vision was worse than ever as the car maintained a steady racing speed. At least now the pair was out of the mountains. The road lay straight ahead until the exit for the manor. Far ahead in the distance, a pair of silvery dots was blurrily glowing through the rain. The driver was not sure what those dots were, or even if they were there at all. He leaned forward over the steering wheel to try to get a better view through the pelting drops of rain.
Luckily for the two, the driver of the car with the blurry headlights had noticed the fast car approaching and had slowed down on the two-lane highway to let the car pass. When the convertible's headlights suddenly disappeared from view, the driver began to worry. There was nothing the stranger could do if they indeed were in trouble; the rain made conditions very bad for any sort of rescue attempt. Moments later, what could have been described as a loud clap of thunder became reality as the boy's car careened into oblivion.
The crash was unimaginable. There was not much left of the sporty car; the frame was twisted in a metal knot around the giant tree. Both airbags had deployed and there were skid marks on the road where the driver had lost control of the wheel. The girl lay sprawled across the shoulder of the highway, unconscious. The driver managed to free himself from the wreckage but was forced to crawl to his companion's side. His right ankle had been shattered in the union of hard wood and cold steel. The boy carefully lifted her head into his lap, so as not to cause any more damage. He had no idea how badly she was hurt; he only knew that she was still alive. As he sat there, he watched the rivulets of rain trickle down her chin hoping this was not the last time he would be looking at her beautiful features. When he realized that nobody was coming to help them, he pulled his wand out of his sleeve and shot a fine stream of red sparks into the dreary night sky, hoping that someone would see the signal through the crying skies.