The insistent hum of her phone woke Kate from a deep turkey-induced slumber. The screen glared into the dark room, and it took a second to clear her head and read the name. It was 2AM, and Max was calling. Bracing herself, she slid a finger shakily across the screen to answer it.

The voice on the other end didn't even wait for a hello. "Kate! I'm sorry, I know it's two in the morning but I'm kind of freaking out." She certainly sounded like it.

Kate eyed the sleeping bags on her floor and spoke into the phone as softly as she could. "What's wrong?"

"I had a nightmare. I just..."

"You mean?"

"No, not a vision. Thank fucking god. Just- just a nightmare."

Kate cringed at the blasphemy but bit her tongue. "What was it of?"

"It was... it was him. I'm sorry, I shoudn't've called, I'm just gonna freak you out too."

"I can handle it. Please, talk to me." Even if she couldn't this was not the time to show the cracks in her foundation. Kate sat up and planned a route around slumbering relatives to the door. Her sister's Disney Princesses sleeping bag was right in the way, and she'd have to step over it. Maybe doing Thanksgiving in a bigger house won't be all bad.

"It's not your fault. I mean, maybe it's cause of what we talked about but I don't want you to blame yourself. I just, I don't want to scare you away..."

Stepping gingerly toward the hallway, careful not to wake her sister and cousins, Kate clutched the phone tightly and let herself out of her room as quietly as she could. "I'm not going anywhere. Please. Tell me what happened."

"I had a nightmare. It was like an hour ago but I can't get back to sleep and I don't have my pot with me and I'm still-"

"Wait, pot? Like drugs?" Outside her room there was less risk of waking others, but Kate kept her voice hushed.

"Just for when I'm freaking out like this."

"You have a prescription for that right?"

"...Not exactly. You can lecture me later but... Shit. It really helped me. I could really use some right now."

"You don't need it. Just talk to me."

"I was tied to a chair. Like I was in the dark room. I couldn't see anything but I could hear him... and I could feel him touching me. Like, grabbing my shoulder and running his hands through my hair and down..."

Kate could hear ragged breathing, and the irregular thumping of the phone shaking in Max's hands. From the way her voice trailed off Kate could tell she was being spared the worst of it. "Okay, Max. Listen to me. Can you go for a walk outside?"

"Yeah, I think so. Neighborhood's not that bad I guess."

"Okay. Do that. Don't hang up." Kate sat down in the breakfast nook. There was no carpet on the first floor, and her voice echoed through the still house, but the nook was hopefully far enough from the stairs that she wouldn't disturb anyone, and Kate left the lights off.

"Is that supposed to distract me?"

"Sort of. It's one of the things Miss Gibson told me about for handling panic attacks. Moving around helps get your mind in a different place."

"Sure. Okay. Just a sec."

Kate heard a clunk as the phone was placed on a hard surface, and without a voice to focus on her eyes wandered around the kitchen. The leftovers from dinner had overflowed the fridge, and pies sat on top; the only sign of how busy the room had been just hours ago.

"Gotta be quiet now. Dad sleeps like a rock but I don't want to wake up Mom."

More silence, punctuated by the occasional scuffling sound of the phone shifting in a jacket pocket.

"Okay. I'm walking to the park, it's like two blocks away. Jeez it's cold." The microphone picked up a stiff breeze along with the minced oath, and Kate could picture Max huddling to stay warm, her hoodie barely keeping out the chill.

"Now run."

"What?"

"Start jogging. Don't stop until you're tired."

After several minutes of jostling the connection dropped, leaving Kate sitting at the kitchen table in silent darkness. She quietly hoped that her advice would help, and opened Plants Vs. Zombies to distract herself while waiting for a return call.

Instead she was momentarily blinded by the kitchen lights, and looked up from her phone to see Lynn at the door, in purple nightgown and nearly-outgrown Dora the Explorer slippers that Kate could have sworn fit fine three months ago.

"Who were you talking to?"

"A friend of mine from school. Sorry if I woke you up."

"That's okay. I wasn't tired."

"Of course you weren't." Auntie Marsh had to yell at them three times to cut it out and go to sleep. Kate envied the boundless energy of a ten-year-old with relatives visiting for the holidays.

"You sounded worried. Is your friend okay?"

"She will be," Kate answered. Lynn's eyes suggested she was holding back questions. "How much did mom and dad tell you?"

"Dad said something bad happened to you and your friends but I shouldn't ask you about it so I didn't. Is it about the teacher in the news?"

"Yes." Kate paused and looked at her sister's face. "What do you want to ask me?"

"Do you remember any of it?"

"Just bits and pieces. Not really sure that I want to anyways." She did her best to put on a strong face, but her sister could still tell how painful the topic was. Kate wasn't sure if she was glad about that or not.

"Oh. Why did he do all that stuff?"

Kate struggled to give an answer that didn't invite more questions, ones unsuitable for her little sister. "He's not a good person. He just did whatever he wanted to, and he didn't care who he hurt."

"Does that mean he's going to hell?"

A question Kate had pondered herself a few times. Her conclusions were objectively supported by scripture and theology, but they still seemed to vary with her mood, and now with her audience too. "Probably."

"Did you know the girl who got shot?"

"No, I didn't. The girl I was talking to did though."

"Is she like how you were after Joshua?"

"Sort of. Grieving is... complicated. It's not just missing somebody. You have all these memories of that person connected to everything around you, and now they're all tinged with sadness."

"Should we pray for her?"

"I don't know. I do it anyways."

Lynn sat down awkwardly, folding her hands in prayer on the kitchen table across from Kate with none of the practiced grace of adults but everything else that mattered.

She looked to Kate for words, which didn't come as easily as usual. "Lord, please help my friends heal. Please help them grow, and flourish, and be happy. Please... please let them be okay. Please..." Kate tried to continue, but everything she could say about getting justice sounded wrong somehow; maybe it was because she was actually saying it to someone now. She decided that the rest of the prayer would be silent.

Kate's phone buzzed with a text alert, interrupting her reverie. She waited a second, took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes to answer it. It was from Max, and there was a photo attached.

The space needle was the only part Kate really recognized, but the skyline of Seattle was beautiful at night, and Max had captured the lights perfectly; the sky glowed with them and the water shone with their reflection.

Max: Thanks