Chapter 1
Casey Carlyle is dead.
It was almost true. Too close for comfort, Casey thought, glancing at the picture of the two young teenagers. The girl standing beside her in the photo had dark, curly, brown hair, jade eyes and a shy smile. The girl was her cousin, Dawn Summers, who had been killed two years previously when the two girls had been the victims of a hit and run. Casey sighed, it didn't seem fair, Dawn had been killed while she'd escaped with little more than a few cuts, a bump on the head and a sprained wrist. The two girls had been fairly close when they got the time to see each other, which wasn't often, Dawn lived with only her older sister and didn't have a lot of time for hanging at the mall. Never mind the fact that she had lived in California. Dawn's sister, Buffy, had never gotten over the loss of her sister. She remembered waking up in the hospital the day after it happened, dizzy, disorientated and sick. She'd heard a girl crying the hall, probably Buffy, though she'd never asked. Her mom was crying, too, sitting beside the bed and holding her hand. She'd squeezed her hand lightly as she told her that Dawn hadn't made it through surgery. That was when Casey had thrown up. It hadn't really sunk in yet, what her mother had said, but the half heard words had disturbed her, causing this sort of hallow feeling in her chest.
"Casey!" The dark haired teen jumped as her mother hollered up the stairs, "What are you doing up there? You're going to be late for practice and you know that Tina's going to make you do suicides!"
Casey groaned as she thought of the torturous punishment for tardiness and grabbed her skates, "Coming!"
"What's with you today?" He mother frowned as she came down the stairs, "You're acting really sluggish."
"Just feeling a little off," Casey smiled as best she could, "I'm sure I'll feel better when I get on the ice."
"Well you better," Joan joked, "You've got physics class at four."
"Bye, Mom," Casey grinned and rolled her eyes as she headed out the door. Hopping on her bike, she peddled as hard as she could, speeding into town and towards the rink. She got to the rink with two minutes to spare, throwing on her skates and jumping onto the ice with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.
"Cutting it a little close, huh?" Jen teased from the bleachers where she and Anne had been watching.
"What are you talking about?" Casey scoffed playfully at her friends, "I'm thirty seconds early and your mom's not even here yet!"
"We got lucky," Anne shrugged, "You didn't get caught running late and I don't have to try and keep Jen's attention away from your suicides while teaching her basic algebra."
"It's not basic algebra!" Jen rolled her eyes, "It's collage math, besides, it we were studying, we wouldn't be at the rink. You know you wanted to see Casey's new routine."
"It's not that great," Casey rolled her eyes.
"Really?" Jen smirked, "Because I heard you're doing two triples."
"It's really no big deal," She leaned against the boards, stretching her legs, "I'm sure you've done more impressive."
"No, not really," She snorted.
"Alright!" Tina came out from the office, "Enough talk now, Casey get practicing. I want to see you do your triple lutz before you work on your routine, you were off balance yesterday."
"Kay," Casey pushed off, skating once around the rink before switching around to backwards crossovers and coming up the center. Half way up she dug her toe pick into the ice, springing herself upwards, turning three times in the air and landing on the toe of her left skate. She looked to Tina for approval, "Better?"
"I'm satisfied for now, but keep practicing." Tina nodded, "Let's see the routine."
Casey nodded, skating around and starting with a toe loop, she'd felt better since arriving at the rink, but now she felt short of breath and there was a buzzing in the back of her head. Pushing it to the back of her mind she concentrated as her toe loop moved into a salchow jump and on to a spiral around the rink. Suddenly it became clear that whatever was wrong with her, it was not to be ignored. Loosing her balance, she crumpled to the ice, sliding on her side into the sideboards. Pain shot through her head, causing her to cry out and grasp her head in her hands as long lost memories resurfaced in her mind.
"Casey!" She heard a voice she was sure belonged to Dawn, yell as she skated over to where her cousin had fallen on the ice. Dawn had never been a great skater, she had two left feet, but she enjoyed trying anyways.
Casey felt panic rising in her chest as the girl on the ice pulled herself up, something was wrong with this memory. The girl she identified as Dawn smiled cheerfully at her, "I'm okay, Dawnie."
"Ya sure?" This time she was positive it was Dawn's voice, but her cousin's lips hadn't moved. Dawn's voice was coming from her mouth! She started hyperventilating, but the memory version of her continued on, "Casey, it looked like you hit your head pretty hard."
Dawn, whom she'd just called Casey, shrugged, "I'll have a bump, but that's all."
"What?" Casey sobbed in confusion, realizing only seconds later that she'd said it out loud. Tina, Anne and Jen where all kneeling around her, worry playing across their faces. Jen reached out to brush the hair from her Casey's face, "Case? You okay?"
"I… I don't know…" Casey managed as her vision dimmed.
"Casey!" She faintly heard Tina yell as she slumped back down on the ice, her eyes sliding closed and then it was all quiet.
Sorry if this is a bit confusing, it's going somewhere eventually. ~ Tygger3389
