"I hope this doesn't get weird," Reese said as she and Travis came up to the house.

"I can't promise that, but I appreciate you both coming anyway," I told her honestly.

She groaned a little, "I may need a drink for this."

Travis was radiating anxiety; it was evident in his fidgety movements, his darting and worried eyes, and the little sigh he was letting out every few seconds. I turned to Wyatt, "Can you give us a sec?" I asked him quietly.

He watched my face for a sec; he was debating whether or not to ask why before nodding. "Let's see if we can get you a drink, Reese," he said, pulling the back door open for her. She walked in front of him, asking him something about where Kaya came from and why she's so smiley.

Travis was wringing his hands nervously. "I've been nervous all day," he admitted.

"Look, whatever happens in there, I will be right there beside you," I said.

I watched as he nodded, taking a deep breath. "I saw her in a dream," he told me. "What's her name? Kaya? She was in my dream before we came here. She's…she's the one that told me about you and your family. She showed me how strong your pack was, especially you. And I just knew we needed to find you."

"Did you have those kinds of dreams before?" I asked, curiously. I tugged on his hand so he would sit in the chair next to me as I sat.

He shook his head as he shifted his weight in the seat. "I think I have them more now than I did before. At least, from what I can remember. That one was just so clear to me, more than any other dream I'd ever had. I just want to know…why me?"

I definitely understood what that felt like. That question always felt so lonely to me. I thought I was the only one who asked that question almost every day. And I still don't know sometimes. "Do you want some good news?" I asked.

"Always," he smiled softly at me.

"My ancestors are really active in our lives. Like almost embarrassingly so," I laughed a little. "They're always at least 10 steps ahead of us, and I know for a fact that if you're here with us, it's for a purpose so divine, it makes our tiny problems feel like nothing."

Travis was quiet for a beat. I watched as he took in my words and everything they could mean. Purpose. That's why we're all here, right? To find our purpose? To do right by what it's supposed to be? It's what people spend their entire lives looking for and I am—we are—so lucky to just have it explained to us by the people who came before us. He let out a small humming sound as he put his hand on top of mine. He squeezed it once and said, "You have a way with words, Black."

"Eh, not all the time," I admitted. "Sometimes I just get lucky."

I finally convinced him that it was time to go inside. The sooner we got started, the sooner he would feel some relief. We slipped into the house quietly, both of us shocked at the sound of Reese's laughter. She nodded coolly at something Kaya was saying, a glass in her hand. If Kaya could even make the ever-elusive Reese laugh freely, I knew we were in good hands. Kaya looked up at us as we came in, "Ah, yes, finally!" she beamed. "I've been looking forward to this all day."

"So this is our old Alpha house," I explained as Travis looked around. "My great-great-grandfather built it with his own hands for Kaya way back when. And then Mama and the pack renovated it before it became the office for the Quileute foundation. All of our history is here in these walls."

"Wow…" he breathed. "It's so cool that you guys can preserve your history like this."

"Yeah, we're pretty lucky," I said.

"And we're happy to help you find out anything about yours," Mom added as everyone joined together again.

Kaya saged the room again as we all settled in the living room. "Now, fair warning," she said as she reached on her tip toes into the top corners of the room, "this information could be, at worst, potentially really upsetting and, at best, incredibly enlightening. However, I want everyone—" she cut her eyes at Reese and Nate "—to keep an open mind. Because, as you know, skepticism can muddle with the effectiveness of the projection."

Just as she had before, she instructed us to take a deep breath to release any anxiety before she dove into her story.

"There's this theory—this rumor if you will—that's been floating around the world for decades. Hundreds of years, really. But no one has ever been able to prove it…until now," she started. She reached down to take my hand to enhance the projection. "There are these things called mirrors. It's the idea that the strength of supernatural beings is split up between two people to ensure that there's no imbalance of power. Now, whether or not, a supernatural being harnesses more power is another matter. People are able to use their strength as much or as little as they please."

"What does this have to do with us…?" Reese asked.

Instead of being annoyed with the interruption, Kaya kindly regarded Reese's question, "That is a great question, little Reese's Pieces," she said. "You see, as I said, it's always just been a theory because there was no way to prove it. But…"

The room started to shift around us suddenly. The walls, the bookcases, the photos all started to blur. I gripped Kaya's hand tighter as my gaze darted all around the room. Mom gasped as she and Dad braced themselves. All of the boys wore panic on their face but didn't say anything. And Reese looked a little weirded out, but not afraid. And then, almost like a movie split screen, we saw my pregnant mom in a car, breathing heavy as she worked through another contraction, and a pregnant woman pacing in a small kitchen as she also worked with a contraction. Travis let out a shocked breath, "That's my mom…" he whispered.

She was beautiful. Her warm olive skin looked especially glowing against her mass amount of curly dark brown hair. Travis's curly dark brown hair. Her belly hung low on her petite frame. And we watched as she leaned on the counter and groaned at the pain.

Kaya spoke as we watched the scenes in front of us. "17 years ago, on May 25th, two little babies were brought into the world at the exact same time. One in Forks, Washington at 5:25 am Pacific time, and one in Savannah, Georgia at 8:25 am Eastern time. Hadley is still technically the first child to be born of two active shapeshifters, but since Brielle and Aaron were also shifters by nature, there were two children born of two shapeshifters that day. A little boy, Travis Aaron Calloway and a little girl, Hadley Sarah-Violet Black."

You know how they say things come in threes? Well, that makes the third fucking thing in less than 24 hours that has completely rocked my world.

"Travis and Reese come from a small community of shifters just like us. And also like us, females carry the gene, but aren't typically activated to become shifters. Except for Brielle, who phased when she was 19 like our Leah."

"So…" Mom interrupted, completely dumbfounded, "you're saying that there are people out there who are experiencing the exact same things as us and we had no idea?"

"Well, just one other person, yes, but there's a significant difference between us and them," Kaya answered. Mama made a motion with her hand as if to say well? "The universe can only do so much to divvy up power. It's up to whoever it's given to use it the way they want to. And some choose not to."

I felt a pang of irritation. "Can you just tell us instead of giving us riddles?" I asked as politely as I could.

Kaya nodded as the image changed again, only showing Travis's family. Their little community was so small, like they had just found a space and built it with their own hands. They were growing crops and hanging their clothes on a line and chopping wood. And then we watched as Travis's father, who we learned was named Aaron, phased into a wolf only to hunt animals. He dragged dead deer from the nearby woods into the shed and sectioned it into parts to put in the freezer. There was no instance where they phased to kill what we are meant to kill. Vampires. "They're pacifists," I heard myself say out loud.

Kaya tapped a finger to her nose to say I was spot on. "They only used their supernatural abilities to hunt deer because violence isn't in their ideology. Since deer are overpopulated anyway, they are able to justify killing them for food. And, of course, chickens and pigs. They live a very peaceful life."

"'Live'?" Travis repeated, his voice shaking. "People survived the fire?"

"Oh my god…" Reese breathed.

Kaya placed a gentle hand on his arm. "You both were so young when it happened, but yes, there were a large handful of people who survived the fire that day. Matthew was never meant to take you away from your home; you two were always supposed to stay in Meridian with your family. He had been formulating that plan to see if he could co-breed different shifters longer than we thought. And I think it'll help you feel better to know that your family looked for you two for years, but the further you two got and the less in tune you were with your phasing, it was nearly impossible to find you. Nearly."

The projection changed again to some small rundown town on the edge of Georgia and Tennessee. A large, burly man drunkenly stumbled his way into the house with a bottle of rum in his hands. This must have been the night Travis was telling me about at movie night. Kaya didn't show us the inside of the house, thankfully. But we did spot the headlights of a parked car on the road. And then there was yelling, the sound of glass breaking, and a woman crying. Travis was yelling, "Get away from her!"

Travis and his foster father burst through the door, tumbling onto the brown lawn. They struggled to overpower each other as his foster mother shouted for them to stop. Travis looked away right as he phased in the projection. "Trav," Reese called quietly as she followed him away from the group.

Kaya waved a hand, and everything froze. She sighed sadly and said out loud, "Take as much time as you need. I know this is a lot."

It seemed like everyone in the room was white as a ghost. I took my hand out of Kaya's and ran it over my face in disbelief. My feet carried me until I was in front of Travis who was speaking in hushed tones to her sister. "Are you alright?" I asked.

"This is too damn much," he shook his head fervently. He rubbed the back of his neck as he started to pace.

"Trav, it's ok. Take a breath," Reese tried to calm him down.

"Are you not seeing the same shit I'm seeing?" he asked her harshly.

She sighed before pursing her lips. "Yes, I am," she told him, "but this is more information than we've ever been able to get by ourselves in years."

I could feel his unyielding anxiety filling the room. "He took us from our home, Reese. He took us from our family. And for what? Our lives were supposed to be different! This is bullshit!"

"We can stop, if you really need to," I told him. "Kaya's only here for another 6 hours, but, if you need to stop, just say the word."

Reese grabbed his face with one hand to stop him from pacing. "You need to get a fucking grip," she hissed. "We've talked about this a million times. We knew things could have been different. But they're not. Do not blow the one shot we have to get the answers we need."

They stared each other down for a heated minute. I'd never seen Travis be anything other than a happy-go-lucky guy; it was strange to see him like this. He finally let out a hard breath before shaking his head. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked over at me and his shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to…"

"It's ok," I put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you want to stop?"

He shook his head again. "No," he answered. "I…I need to know."

Kaya, Wyatt, Nate, and my parents waited patiently, understandably concerned, as we came back to the group. I couldn't even bring myself to ask the hundreds of questions that I had about this mirror thing; I just wanted for Travis and Reese to have some kind of closure. Any kind of closure. I reached down and clasped his hand and Kaya's. "Are we ready?" Kaya asked cautiously. She was only looking at Travis who hesitated before nodding his head. Kaya waved her hand and the projection started again. "Travis's first and only time phasing as a natural born shifter was on this day. And once he phased, it signaled to his Elders that he was alive. But, as you can see, Matthew was able to get Anna and her son in a car to get away from her husband, threaten him into leaving town, and then sedate Travis enough to get him to phase back before convincing him that leaving Georgia would be the best thing for him."

Kaya showed us everything Matthew did to them. Sedating Travis, going to see Reese in the hospital after she was in an accident high on pills, moving them to the middle of nowhere outside of Memphis. Keeping them isolated. I squeezed Travis's hand in hopes that it would comfort him in some way. He squeezed mine back quickly, but never took his eyes off of the dumpster fire of a movie that was in front of us.

Kaya waved the image away and just started speaking directly to both of us. "It took years to find you, Travis. And then it took months for us to even confirm that you were, in fact, Hadley's mirror. But the day that you two met and that electric energy passed between you, that was the only way we knew for sure that it was true. We took a chance," she explained. "And if we were wrong, that would have been alright because the most important part of you being here is to keep you safe."

"What does this mirror thing mean?" I finally asked.

"When two sides of a mirror come together, they are able to reach full strength capacity. It's kind of like the universe's insurance policy that natural born supers can come together and protect the state, the country, the world, whatever, from our enemy. I know this is a lot to take in, but you two deserve to know what you are. You're powerful. Unstoppable. You two can help bring together supers from every corner so that we can all coexist peacefully."

"That's a lot of pressure to put on a couple of 17-year-olds, Kaya," Dad commented.

"Oh my god, no! Not right now!" Kaya corrected. "When the time comes, of course. And you'll know when it's time—if it even comes. This isn't The Hunger Games or anything like that. I'm not putting the world's fate in your hands right this second. You're still babies. But, Hadley, you've always been aware of how different things are for you. Travis deserves to know the same."

It was the most tension I'd ever felt in a room in my entire life. Travis's head was spiraling out of control at all of this information, Reese was chewing her thumbnail completely raw, Wyatt and Nate were trying to figure out what all of this meant, and my parents were working so hard to appear levelheaded but were projecting back and forth on where to go from here.

Travis finally spoke after a while in silence, "I want to know more about our home."

Kaya's face slid into an easy smile. "What would you like to know?"

Travis looked at Reese who nodded at him to go on. "Who survived?" he asked tentatively.

She waved again and an image popped up of the same little village, just newer. "10 people died in the fire that day," she explained. "They rebuilt everything from the ground up, made it even better than it was before. There was one other little one that was put in the system that day, but she found her way back eventually. All of the Elders survived the fire, but then passed away of regular human things like disease and old age. Teachers, farmers, merchants all survived. Travis, honey, you have a grandfather there, an aunt and uncle, a brood of cousins."

"What about me?" Reese asked. Her voice sounded so small, so unlike her.

Kaya walked up to Reese and gently pushed the hair out of her face. "You, little one, have suffered a great deal and, for that, I am so sorry," she said. "Losing your mom at such a young age is horrible. But the little girl who found her way back to Meridian has a special connection to you."

"How?"

"She's your sister," Kaya told Reese. "Your half-sister. Your father survived the fire and is still living there with his own brothers and their wives and children."

"My father…? I…" she trailed off. "No one's ever mentioned anything about my father. And a sister? I…wow…"

"It's a lot to take in," Kaya concluded. "You've always had more and been more than Matthew wanted you to believe. And now that he's gone, you have a choice to either stay with us or start fresh with the family you were taken away from."

XXXXXXXXX

There were lots of tears. And laughter. And more questions. The tension never eased, but I didn't expect it to. As overwhelming as all of this information was, I think the main takeaway was that Travis and Reese weren't alone in this world. Not here or where they came from.

They left to go home after hours of talking; I only hoped they felt more at ease than they did when they got here. So then, it was just me, Kaya, the boys, and my parents. Kaya made us all "try" s'mores for the first time because she'd always been curious about them. "They look so good in the movies, you know?" she said as she set her marshmallow on fire.

Kaya's 24 hours was nearly up and she had that somber look on her face that said she didn't want to leave. She kept leaning her head on Mama's shoulder and sighing. "I wish this visit was more fun," she pouted. "I miss hanging out with you guys."

"We miss you too, Kaya," Mom said sadly. "But thank you for coming down and doing the hard work."

"That's my job, little wolf," she reminded us before she stood up. She checked the time and sighed dramatically. "Maybe if I run away, I can stay."

"They can see you," Dad chuckled. "Isn't that what you used to tell us? You're always watching?"

She rolled her eyes and groaned, "But I was just getting the good gossip about the new pack. It's not the same just watching it happen up there. You know Taha Aki drops spoilers all the time."

"It's like we're a Marvel movie," Wyatt joked. "I'll be Captain America. Dibs."

"You can't just dibs Captain America," Nate argued. "What if I wanted to be Captain America?"

"You're like Dr. Strange," I told him. "Or Iron Man."

"Because I'm so smart," he smirked.

"Because you're a know-it-all," Wyatt snorted.

Nate punched Wyatt in the arm as we all laughed. I watched Kaya look up at the ceiling before making a small hum of dissatisfaction. "We'll come visit more," I said. "How does that sound?"

She met my eye and beamed at me. "I'd love nothing more, little wolf."

We walked her outside. She hugged every single one of us and pressed her forehead to give us a little parting gift. Some words of wisdom. I was the last she approached. I had tears in my eyes. "Oh, don't cry, little miss." She wiped under my eyes as her own tears started.

I threw my arms around her; it was like saying goodbye to a mother figure. Which is crazy. That's crazy, right? How can someone have this much affect on you in so little time? Over her shoulder, I saw the ghost of a man in the trees. He looked exactly like my father, but with really long hair. He waved to me once he noticed I'd spotted him. You're the only one who can see him, Kaya whispered a projection to me. Then she pressed her forehead to mine, sending me endless and boundless love. You are so brave and strong, my love. But you don't have to be those things by yourself. Trust yourself, and trust the people who have always just wanted to help you.

When she stepped away from me, she looked down the line of us with pride. "I can't even tell you how impressed I am by all of you. I wish I didn't have to go, but I can see so clearly that you all don't need me. You're already doing fantastic things in the world," she said.

"We love you," Mom sniffled.

"It's never goodbye, remember? I'll see you all soon."

Kaya turned to walk toward the trees, toward Ephraim. The further she got from us, the more she disappeared. Then she was a ghost, just like him. She jumped into his arms and kissed him. He spun her around affectionately before setting her two feet on the ground. Mom and Dad and the boys were already starting to go back into the house. Mom stopped when she realized I wasn't walking with them. She put her hands on my shoulders as I kept watching Kaya and Ephraim. "You can see them?" Mom asked simply.

I nodded, "Yes." They both looked over at me and Mom and waved. I lifted my hand to wave back. "They're saying goodbye," I told her. Kaya blew us a kiss before she entwined her hand with Ephraim. Then they both disappeared.

Mom rested her chin on top of my head. "Let's get you inside, bug," she said as she rubbed my shoulders.

"Actually," I turned to her, "I think I'm going to go check on Travis and Reese, if that's ok."

"Of course, honey," she kissed my forehead before we went out separate ways.

I went down the hill by myself, relishing in the peace and quiet. Reese was sitting outside when I finally got to the house. She had a lit cigarette and beer in one hand and a book in the other. But her eyes weren't moving, they were planted right in the middle of it. "He's not here, Princess," she said without looking up.

Instead of answering her, I sat next to her. She was looking at a picture of a really young woman holding a baby up to her cheek as she laughed. The woman and the little baby both had strawberry blonde curls and button noses. "Is that your mom?" I asked her.

Reese was chewing on her bottom lip before she took a drag from her cigarette. She side eyed me before blowing the smoke in the opposite direction. "I think so," she answered. She shrugged before moving the photo out of the book and closing it. "I found it in Matthew's stuff. There was a box of stuff with my name on it."

"She's really pretty," I said as I bumped her shoulder. She cracked a little bit of a smile. "You look like her."

Her head dropped into her hands and groaned, frustratedly. She took a long swig from her beer, shook her head, and said, "I've wanted to know her my entire life. I wanted to know what her voice sounded like…if she liked to stay up late like I do…if she loved me."

"She did love you," I told her. I pointed to the photo. "Look at that smile. That is pure love on her face."

She wiped a tear from her face so quickly, you could almost miss it. "I hate him."

Matthew. My jaw clenched a little. "Me too…"

You'll never believe what happened next. Reese reached over and hugged me. Yeah, you heard that right. She hugged me. She hugged me. She hugged me. "Don't make it a big thing," she warned. I tried not to smile as I wrapped my arms around her to hug her back. When we broke away, she pretended that it didn't happen. She just chugged the rest of her beer and lit another cigarette. "Trav is having a hard time with all of this," she told me.

"Where is he?"

She shrugged. "Hell if I know. He said he needed to drive, to think. Turned his phone off."

Hmm…I think I know where he may have gone.

XXXXXXXXX

The pool hall was just as crowded as the first time I was there with Travis. Just big burly men with long beards drinking beer and guffawing to their heart's content. I walked through clouds of smoke and brick solid bodies until I spotted him at the very back of the hall, pool cue in hand, by himself. He leaned down and shot the solid 3 into the side pocket.

I slid in next to him and leaned on the edge of the table. "How did I know I'd find you here?" I mused. He looked up at me and his eyes were bloodshot red as if he'd been crying. "Oh, Trav…" I sighed as I put a hand on his shoulder.

But he smiled anyway as if his distress wasn't wearing so obviously on his face. "Hey, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" he tried to joke. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," I told him before pushing myself off of the table. I grabbed my own cue and chalked it. "Reese said you weren't doing too well after…you know."

He stood at full height and went around to the other side of the table for another shot. His jaw was ticking, his hands were a little unsteady, and he was sniffling. "Well, it's not every day you find out that you're part of some fucked up master plan of the universe and that the man who helped raise you completely uprooted your life," he said wryly. "C'est la vie," he shrugged, but his accent was so thick, it sounded like, "say lah vee."

"La vie," I cracked, lightly.

"Ha," he fake laughed, "ha ha ha, that's funny."

I watched him for a few minutes and just let the silence overtake us. It needed to. There was so much to say and I didn't want to make it worse for him. He shot in the 8 ball after a couple of tries and then started pulling the pool balls out of the pockets. So instead of asking him to talk about it, I just said, "Loser buys food?"

He smirked as he nodded, "You're on."

"You better not let me win this time," I warned as I lined up the break.

"I would never," he chuckled.

To say things got a little competitive would be the nice way of putting it. In the fun way though. We played until the place started clearing out. And the best part about it is that we didn't even notice that the time was flying that quickly. Travis wanted to let me win the first couple of rounds, but once he noticed I was playing to win, he really started to play.

We laughed, we joked around. We did that thing where we tried to mess with each other's shots. I was about to sink the 8 ball when Travis leaned down at my level and just looked at me with a boyish grin on his face. "Stop it," I laughed.

"Don't mess this up now," he joked. He smelled like Dove soap and shampoo. It was a little distracting. I pushed his shoulder away from me and this made him laugh. Like that real genuine laugh that makes you forget that you were having a bad day. I liked seeing him like this. So full of life, so carefree.

I missed the shot. It bounced right off the two corners and rolled away. "Ugh, nooo," I groaned as I stood up.

"Thank you for your service, darlin'," Travis smirked before sinking it with ease. "Don't worry, I'll still buy you something to eat. Come on."

The kitchen had already closed, but Travis and I somehow convinced them to make us some fresh French fries before last call. When we sat down on the same side of the booth, I still wanted to talk about what happened today. But Travis always respected when I didn't want to talk about things, so the least I could do was extend to him that same courtesy, right? Right. "I'm really sorry for losing my cool earlier tonight," he said.

My eyebrow flew up. "You're apologizing for being upset about something really upsetting?" I challenged.

He opened his mouth to reply before shutting it as he realized how that sounded. Then he said, "I'm just not the type to freak out like that."

"No one is mad at you for it though," I told him. "I wish there was any kind of way for us to find out about all of this, but it would have been overwhelming either way. Trust me…this whole day has been one bomb drop after another."

He sighed as he scratched at the back of his neck. "I'd rather know than keep wondering forever," he was nodding his head as if he was agreeing with himself. "I thought I had nothing for so many years and now…" he paused, "I have family back in Georgia that have no idea that I'm still alive and a greater purpose…for the sake of the world…?"

"Yeah," I replied lamely.

"It's a lot to think about," he admitted. "So we are connected. I thought I was crazy for thinking it, but it's true. Ever since I saw you on that highway, I just had this feeling that knowing you was going to change my life."

"No pressure," I joked.

"That does sound intense, doesn't it?" he chuckled. "It's true though. That mysterious Sarah girl who knew cars and looked like she was seconds away from reading my mind, I just knew. And then when our hands touched and that energy was just so powerful, I was even more convinced. Without a doubt."

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't know what I was looking for; all I knew was that I was looking for you."

"And now we've been hit with this mirror thing and my very dead ancestor going all 'the fate of the world is in your hands.' That's probably not what you signed up for," I shook my head. I leaned forward closer to him. "You know you have a choice, right? If the Volturi even come, you don't have to fulfill whatever weird prophecy thing that's been sprung on you."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You don't have to either."

"Fate has always had a different plan for me, Trav" I told him.

"Fate just told us that we're two sides of the same coin," he retorted. "Literally."

"And if it comes down to it, you have a choice. You don't have to decide right now; that's my point," I said, silently putting my foot down. "Who knows? Maybe we will save the world together some day," I grinned. This made him laugh which made me do the same; I understood how ridiculous it sounded.

How very Divergent or one of the other hundreds of stories where a kid saves the world.

Our laughter died down as the reality set in. I couldn't help but notice the sadness in Travis' eyes and it made my heart squeeze for him. I didn't want to say it. If I said it, then it would be true. Thinking about the first time we came to the pool hall and out for ice cream, I felt that longing for that uncomplicated friend. The one that understood supernatural life, but still wanted to be normal all the same. If you say it, he'll leave, I thought. But I needed to anyway. "You're leaving…aren't you?"

He nodded, the ghost of a sad smile forming on his lips. "I have to, Hadley," he confessed. He blew out a frustrated breath. "I feel more confused now than I did before. And maybe…" he trailed off as he thought about it, "maybe if I get back to my roots, I can figure that out."

"That's fair," I whispered, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "I can't argue with that."

Travis pulled me into a tight hug and I tried not to let myself cry again for god knows how many times that day. I felt like I'd failed him somehow. I wanted so badly for him to be happy, but I struggled with the idea that he could possibly be happy somewhere else. "Thank you for everything," he whispered.

They left at first light, no goodbye or anything. The house was completely empty as if no one had ever been there. Not a hint of human life. If I hadn't known them for this long, it would be easy to think they were never here. But that's the point, right? They were never anywhere long enough to call it home.

I walked around to the back and tested the shed door to see if it was locked. It wasn't. The shiny red of the trunk came into sight almost immediately. I walked into the shed and ran my fingers along the paint with this strange dull pain inside. Opening the driver's side, I sighed sadly. I understood why they needed to leave, but it didn't feel any easier knowing they were gone.

The keys were sitting on the other side of the bucket seat and there was a small note.

For Hadley,

Finish her up for me.

Trav

He'd left his car here.

XXXXXXXXX

Part 2 coming soon!