Hey! Congratulations to the Roseneath Writers Circle on it’s 1- year anniversary. (At least since  the blog has been active.) Lots  of great stories and real development in the quality of the writing!

Adrian

 

 

In Dark Times

A Story Stack: The Separation Method

September 2 2025

6 words

Silently they waited for a sign

25 words

A black cat appeared on the porch.

“What is the meaning of this?” inquired the leader.

The cat groomed.

“Only one may enter,” he replied.

50 words

As darkness approached the coven gathered by the road. 

“It has been days since we last saw her,” stated Bronwyn.

“Maybe she needs our help,” replied Catherine.

A single bat flew from an open window.

“What does this mean?” inquired Catherine.

 

“An uncertain future. She has fled before us.”

100 words

George Parker peered out the window. “They’re here,” he said, indicating the group of pointed witch hats assembled at the road.

“They’re early!” intoned Martha. “I’m not ready.”

“Bridget’s with them,” George observed.

“Bridget! The nerve,” spat out Martha.

“There will be no fighting with fire tonight,” said George sternly. “No magic one off’s. No flaming competitions.” He looked at Martha. “No warty toad spells.”

“Spoil sport!” Martha shot back with a wicked glare as she stirred her special broth one last time.

Martha opened the door as Bridgit was about to knock. “Enter Bridgit, if you dare,” she barked.

150 words

The watching eyes saw through the immortal haze. As the sun set, spectral images began circling the house. The gathered coven took in the sights much like spectators at a drive in movie. 

With a silent signal they stepped into the melee, carefully pushing away the spectres, focusing their intent on the house.

“A word from your mother,” stated one spectre.

“My mother is alive, you fool.” With a wave of Alison’s hand she created a safe circle around the coven. 

The grass watering system came to life soaking each witch. 

“Ghouls,” said Alison angrily. “Movie tricks do not affect us.” 

“Maybe this does,” intoned a deep and dark voice. Lightning flared, the worst of nature's destructive forces hit them at once sending them flailing across the property line to safety.  

“Default. Default.” screamed the warning voice.  

“”A new plan tomorrow?” said Alison. All nodded as the lights went down. 

Sci-fi - Sisters Through Time

 Chapter 1 - Cindy

 

As soon as Cindy hit the ground she knew her experiment had been a success.  Instead of soft dirt she had fallen on hard concrete, and instead of the sweet smells of grass and wildflowers there was the smell of oil and grease.  She pulled herself to her feet, trying to get her bearings.  When it came to it, she had no idea how time travel really worked – had she simply been dropped wherever her twenty-year-old body had been fifteen years ago?  She looked around the deserted street, but didn’t recognize anything.  There was a mechanic shop and a fast-food place Cindy hadn’t heard of, but otherwise the street was residential.  She pulled out her phone, but it didn’t get any signal.  She hurriedly tucked it back out of sight lest someone see her advanced technology and become suspicious.

            Deciding nothing more was to be gleaned by standing around, Cindy picked a direction and started walking.  She was relieved when she came to an intersection and recognized the street name – at least she was still in Abingdon.  She checked the position of the sun, then headed east, towards where Ray and Lisa were living at the time.  She passed some upscale boutiques and rolled her eyes at the gaudy fashions – was that really what they were wearing in 2010?  During the long walk, Cindy noticed how quiet the city was, so different from the constant traffic sounds of 2025.  As she got closer to Ray and Lisa’s old apartment, things began to look familiar, but nothing was quite right.  The place that was a ‘50s diner in Cindy’s time apparently used to be a phone store.

            Cindy stopped abruptly and turned back to the window of the phone store.  A big sign announced, “ALL-NEW IPHONE 31 AVAILABLE NOW”.  Cindy stared at the sign for a long time, then shook her head.  The ‘1’ must have been a typo.  Anyway, she was here for Ray and to save her sister.  She couldn’t be distracted by the strangeness of a world she had left fifteen years ago.  She continued to the next intersection, then turned at last onto Cone Street South.  There was Ray and Lisa’s building, looking comfortingly like she remembered.  Cindy entered the lobby and ran a finger down the list of names and unit numbers.  Next to unit 17 was the name “Lozier,” neither Ray nor Lisa’s last names at the time.  Cindy checked the rest of the names, but neither Fulton nor Wilson were there.  Feeling discomfited again, Cindy went to punch in the number for unit 17 anyway.  However, two keys were missing from the number pad and the screen was dark.  Cindy hit a few numbers, but nothing happened.  Cindy smacked the keypad in frustration.

            “Lousy slumlord!” she yelled.  The sound of the door made her turn.  A woman had just entered the lobby and was watching Cindy uncertainly.

            “They haven’t used that thing in years,” the woman said.  “Are you trying to reach someone?”  Cindy took her eyes off the keypad somewhat reluctantly – she had definitely used it when she had visited Lisa in the past, now present.

            “Yeah, my sister,” Cindy replied.  The woman looked at her, puzzled.

            “Can’t you call her?” she asked.

            “My phone is, uh, dead,” Cindy explained.  The woman dug into her purse and pulled out her hilariously large phone.

            “What’s the number, I’ll call her for you,” the woman offered.  Relieved, Cindy gave her Lisa’s number.  The woman put it on speaker, and Cindy leaned in expectantly.  She felt a sudden rush of emotion as she realized she was about to hear her sister’s voice again, soft and kind, not defeated and lost as it was after fifteen years of Ray in her life.  She felt a slight pang of disappointment as it went to voicemail – who picked up an unknown number anyway?  But instead of Lisa’s voice, the voicemail greeting was for a man named Aiden.  Cindy looked at the woman in surprise.

            “That’s been her number forever, I know that’s it…”  The woman shrugged, clearly done trying to help the confused time traveler.  She went up to door into the building, which clicked unlock automatically as she approached.  Cindy watched her go.  Something was very wrong.

 

            Cindy felt claustrophobic as she hurried down the streets towards her old duplex.  Had the buildings always been this high in this part of town?  She skirted around a construction zone that declared the new building would be finished in the fall of 2041.  It was just a big hole in the ground now, but a thirty-one-year construction period seemed like a stretch.  Dread settling in her stomach, Cindy paused to watch the cars go by.  The traffic wasn’t any less than she was used to, but the cars were overwhelmingly electric.  Many of the cars had symbols that were unfamiliar and the styling was curves Cindy had never seen before.  Cindy wiped tears from her eyes.  Was she even farther from Lisa being alive than she had when she left her time?  She finished her route to her old duplex anyway, but now a tall glass condo stood in its place.

            Finally, the soreness in her legs from walking through half the city caught up to Cindy.  She sat on a bench outside the condo and tried to think.  Lisa had been dead for around fifteen years.  Lisa and Ray’s daughter Eden would be twenty now.  Cindy gave a shudder at the thought that Eden would never have existed if her plan had succeeded.  Not wanting to dwell on that discomfiting realization, Cindy turned her mind to someone with simpler emotions attached.  Ray.  Cindy dug her nails into her palms in fury.  Ray had got to live another fifteen years of his worthless life, another fifteen years that Lisa would never get.

            When Cindy was able to drag her mind back to the present – her future – she thought of the one person she might still be able to find.  Her oldest sister Natalie had loved her century home in Cindy’s past present.  Surely she still lived there.  Cindy rose from the bench and headed in the direction of the nearest subway station.  It was still where it had been, and Cindy hurried down the steps in relief.  The turnstiles didn’t accept coins – “Use our app!” the signs said, so instead Cindy searched for the ticket booth.  After a few futile minutes, all Cindy had found was three more signs entreating her to use the transit commission’s app.  Cursing under her breath, Cindy made her way slowly and painfully up the stairs.  Was it all the walking, the after-effects of time travel, or the fifty-year-old body she now inhabited?

            Cindy was relieved when she saw a taxi shortly after emerging from the subway station.  She frantically hailed it, and the driver stopped beside her.  Cindy clamored into the back seat and gave Natalie’s address.  The driver tapped away on his car’s touchscreen.

            “Enter this code into your MyTaxi app and it’ll charge you automatically,” the driver said, indicating an alphanumeric string on his screen.  Cindy groaned.

            “My phone isn’t working.  But I have cash,” she said, pulling out her wallet that she had stuffed with bills before taking her trip.  It took some pleading and agreeing to an extortionate fare, but the driver finally took Cindy’s outdated currency.  He laughed as he counted out the bills.

            “These have the old Queen on them!  She’s prettier than William, anyway.”  He tucked away the bills, then they were off to Natalie’s in the gathering darkness.

 

 

Chapter 2 - Natalie

 

            The decorative mailbox next to Natalie’s driveway still said ‘Wilson’ and there was a solitary light on in the house.  Cindy pressed the doorbell and could hear a soft tune playing through the house.  A shadow flickered in the room to the left of the door, then the door opened.  Cindy’s mother stood there, grey hair longer than Cindy had ever seen it.  The word “Mom” was almost out of Cindy’s mouth when she bit it back.  It wasn’t her mother, it was fifty-two-year-old Natalie.  Did Cindy look so old?  She hadn’t seen herself in a mirror yet, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

            “Cindy!  What…what are you doing here?”  Natalie looked so shocked Cindy wondered if she hadn’t retained her thirty-year-old looks.  “It’s awfully late,” she added.  It was late, even for younger Natalie who had always been early to bed and early to rise.  Cindy struggled to find an answer that would make sense in the future she barely knew.

            “It’s just…I’ve been thinking about Lisa a lot lately,” Cindy confessed, truthfully.  Natalie traded her shock for a sympathetic smile and opened the door wider.  Cindy went in, and soon she was sitting with her sister in the living room sipping a cup of tea just like very old times.  They shared their memories of Lisa, the look in Natalie’s eyes so far away for something that had only happened a month ago for Cindy.  Cindy delicately brought the conversation around to Eden, desperate for news of her niece that she had left motherless and with a father that was worse than being orphaned.

            “I was so worried, when Lisa died, how Eden would turn out.  She was only five then, and now…”  Cindy trailed off, hoping Natalie would finish her sentence.  Natalie’s hands rattled her cup and saucer.  For a moment she seemed to struggle to find her voice.

            “It hasn’t been easy for her, but she’ll get there.  She can be a wild one, you know.  I think it’s good she has some fight in her, though.  We won’t lose her like we did Lisa,” Natalie said, her voice thick with emotion.  She paused, then continued more casually.  “I’ve invited her up to Morse Lake for a few days.  She’s not very enthusiastic, but I hope she’ll come.  Maybe you can come too?”  Cindy agreed vaguely, now trying to think of how to subtly direct the conversation to Ray.  If he had been causing problems in Eden’s life, Cindy would happily carry out her original plan, even if it wouldn’t bring Lisa back.

            “It kills me that Ray is still out there after all he did to Lisa,” Cindy blurted out.  She hoped that Natalie would be confused and tell her that Ray was long dead, but instead she just nodded.

            “It drives me crazy sometimes, how great Eden thinks Ray is.  She was too young to understand why Lisa did what she did, and it’s not like Ray ever talks about it.  Honestly, it’s impressive that the same person can get along with both Ray and us.”  Natalie’s eyes lifted to a point behind Cindy.  Cindy turned to see a picture of Natalie, an older version of herself, and a teenage girl.  Eden had her arms flung around her aunts and was in the midst of an uproarious laugh.  Her pose was somehow both loving and aggressive.  Cindy thought of Ray’s cruel laugh, and of Lisa’s warm embrace.

“You know where he’s living nowadays?”  Cindy asked, her heart aching for the wasted life she could at best revenge but never save.  Natalie thought about it for a moment.

            “Still on Carrigan at this point, right?” she replied.  Carrigan was where Ray had been living when Lisa had died.  At least Cindy already knew the address.  Natalie set her empty cup down and rubbed her hand over her eyes.

            “Do you want to stay the night?  I know it’s a long drive for you,” Natalie offered.  Not knowing where she was supposed to be driving home to, Cindy accepted.

 

            Cindy felt her charade rapidly falling apart the next day.  She stumbled over her answers to every question Natalie asked, and couldn’t come up with any safe questions herself beyond “Some weather we’re having, eh?” which was always in style.  Natalie also seemed off, but whether it was her suspicions about Cindy or simply that Natalie had changed in fifteen years, Cindy didn’t know.  She was exceptionally worried about Eden, which only increased Cindy’s desire for revenge against Ray further.  Natalie didn’t have much more to say about Ray, instead fixated on getting Eden to join her at Morse Lake.  Cindy agreed to try to help her sway Eden, but inwardly was only concerned with getting to Ray.

            In a moment of foolish impatience, Cindy asked Natalie if she could borrow her car, leading to awkward explanations of where Cindy’s car was and how she had got to Natalie’s in the first place.  In the end, Natalie agreed, though with a look of great concern.  She made Cindy promise that she would be back by eleven so she could join Natalie and Eden for lunch.  Natalie walked Cindy out to her rather plastic-looking blue car and leaned inside to start it with her thumbprint.  She leaned back out then looked at Cindy expectantly.  The two sisters stared at each other for a moment before Natalie gestured Cindy closer.

            “Come on, put your thumb on the sensor so I can add you as a user,” she said.

            “Right,” Cindy mumbled, and did as she was told.

            Half an hour later, Cindy parked the car around the corner from Ray’s house.  This part of town hadn’t developed much other than a proliferation of payday lenders called BetIt Credit and a McDonald’s that inexplicably had three arches.  Cindy walked onto Carrigan Road, her heart pounding and the knife she had nicked from Natalie rubbing uncomfortably against her leg under her pants.  She wasn’t worried about her simple weapon – she had the element of surprise.  She saw number 201 and was pleased to see there was a car out front.  As she approached, she felt a jolt as she recognized the figure standing in the front room with his back to the street.

            Ray’s blond hair was grey now, but it still fell almost to his shoulders.  Even facing away from her with his hair a different colour, Cindy had no trouble recognizing Ray.  The way he stood, feet planted wide apart, the way he gestured when he talked – it all spoke to a confidence and arrogance that could only belong to Ray.  Cindy assumed he must have been talking on the phone as there was no one else in the room, so she started up the flagstone path leading to the front door.  Halfway there, she was stopped in her tracks when there was a shout from behind her.  She whirled around to see Natalie crossing the street.

            “What are you doing here?” both sisters asked in unison.

            “I saw you were over here and I wanted to know what’s going on.  Are you okay, Cindy?”  Natalie asked.  Cindy hurried to get her questions out instead of answering Natalie.

            “How did you get here so fast?  I have your car.  And how did you even know where I was going?”  Natalie raised both her eyebrows and the helmet she was holding.

            “I have a motorcycle, you know that.  I saw where you were going on my car’s app.  And I noticed you didn’t even take the tunnel bypass, it’s much faster.”  Natalie was looking at Cindy with such suspicion that Cindy’s hands jumped automatically to her hair, to satisfy her nervous habit of brushing it behind her ears.  However, the waistband of her jeans wasn’t tight enough to hold the knife without her hand on it, and with a guilty clatter it fell to the sidewalk.  Cindy froze.  Natalie stared, then rushed forward.  She grabbed the knife and Cindy’s arm.

            “Let’s go, where did you park the car?”

            Five minutes later, Cindy and Natalie were sitting together in Natalie’s car.

            “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”  Natalie asked.  Cindy didn’t know what to say.  “Were you going to try to kill Ray?”  Cindy took a deep breath and met her sister’s eyes, brown like Lisa’s.

            “Yes.  He good as killed Lisa and now he’s ruining Eden’s life too.  I’m done with him.”  Natalie considered her answer.  Cindy didn’t see why she would have any further questions – she had told the truth, after all.

            “But that’s not it, is it?  There’s something else going on with you.  Something’s not right.”  Natalie was looking at Cindy so intently she was squinting, as though trying to make out the far-away thoughts of Cindy’s mind.  Cindy leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.  Her whole body was still sore from yesterday’s walking.

            “Nat, if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” she said wearily.  Natalie was silent so long that Cindy opened her eyes.  Natalie was watching her with a very strange expression.

            “I think I’d believe anything after this past week,” she said quietly.  There was something so unsettling in Natalie’s voice that Cindy felt a shiver run through her.

            “What happened this past week?  In case you haven’t noticed, I have no idea what’s been going on,” Cindy admitted.  Natalie turned to look out the window, tapping a finger on the steering wheel.

            “You didn’t know that I had a motorcycle.  You were there when I bought it.  You made fun of me for it every time we talked.”  Natalie turned abruptly to face Cindy again.  “Tell me what’s going on, please.  I swear I’ll believe you.  I don’t really know what’s going on either, if that helps.”  The tears shining in Natalie’s usually stoic eyes were enough for Cindy to relent.

            “Lisa had just died.  Then I found, in this meadow, a…I don’t know what else to call it, a time machine.  I tried to go back fifteen years, to kill Ray so Lisa would be free and, and hopefully happy.  But I ended up here, without Lisa.”  Cindy was crying but it didn’t matter because Natalie certainly thought she was crazy anyway.  Natalie’s hand closed on Cindy’s, her eyes wide and bright.

            “Cindy!  Cindy…me too,” she gasped.  “I found the meadow too.  I tried to travel back in time fifteen years too.  But I did, it worked, because I’m here!”  Cindy stared at her, trying to put the pieces together.

            “Why here?  Why now?  Lisa’s already dead,” Cindy asked.  Natalie squeezed her hand so hard Cindy thought her fingers were going to pop out of joint.

            “But Eden’s not,” Natalie whispered.

 

 

Chapter 3 - Eden

 

            It was the highest stakes lunch of Cindy’s life.  Cindy and Natalie both tried to act naturally as they ate soup and sandwiches with Eden, but it was a tall order.  Cindy choked back a sob when she first saw Eden, aged fifteen years in a day.  Then came the delicate dance of pretending she knew what Eden was talking about, with only Natalie’s quick recap on the drive there to go off of.  Then there was Natalie herself, facing her long-dead niece and details of a life she no longer remembered.  Most importantly, there was the task they had to complete – convince Eden to come with them to Morse Lake.

            Natalie had explained it all once they got back to her house from Ray’s.  In only a few hours, Abingdon would be rocked by a cataclysmic explosion that would devastate the city and kill Eden.  Morse Lake was far enough away that they would be safe there, but convincing their wayward niece to accompany her aunts on an impromptu trip was another matter.

            “Dad took me up to Morse Lake last summer,” said Eden.  “He rented Sea-Doos, it was marv.”  She sipped her diet vegan caffeine-free Coke, her mother’s dark hair spilling over her shoulders.  Though her eyes, which looked at her aunts in their hidden distress with such indifference, were light like her father’s.

            “We can rent Sea-Doos, yeah, that sounds fun.  Right, Cindy?”  Even with their lives at stake, Natalie’s endorsement of fast watercraft sounded forced.  Cindy nodded, but Eden rolled her eyes and picked up her phone.

            “Come on, don’t you think it would be more relaxing hanging out with us than getting pushed around by Ray?”  Cindy asked in frustration.  Natalie kicked her under the table.  Eden’s eyes flicked up to meet Cindy’s.

            “Dad pushes me to do cool stuff.  That’s a lot better than sitting around and drinking tea and whatever else it is that you guys do.”  Eden went back to scrolling on her phone.  “No offense,” she added charitably.

            “Well then, why don’t you show Cindy and I how to have more interesting lives?  We’ll do whatever fun stuff you want.”  Natalie watched as Eden tapped on a picture.  “We’ll make sure to get some good pictures for your PictoPage,” Natalie wheedled, pointing to Eden’s phone.  Eden considered her offer as she typed a comment.

            “You two need better pictures for your PictoPages than I do,” she said at last, the start of a teasing smile on her face.  “I’ll need to go pack some stuff,” she finished.  Cindy let the tension fall from her shoulders at Eden’s capitulation, but beside her Natalie checked her watch with concern.

            “Don’t be too long, we have to, er, beat the traffic,” Natalie said with a frantic undertone that Cindy hoped was only audible to her.

 

            Cindy and Natalie didn’t bother the pretense of returning to Natalie’s house, instead going straight to Eden’s and parking around the corner in preparation for Eden’s summons.  While they waited, Natalie filled Cindy in on the disaster creeping ever closer.

            “There’ll be two smaller explosions uptown first.  Then half an hour later will be the big explosion downtown.  Everyone fled south from the first explosions, that’s why the death toll was so high.  No matter what, we have to keep heading north to get away from it.”  Cindy looked out the window at the pedestrians strolling past, unknowing.

            “Isn’t there anything we can do?  Can’t we warn them?  Can’t we save everyone?” she asked.  Natalie shook her head.

            “I tried.  I tried so hard.  I’ve already been back a week, you know.  At first they just thought I was crazy, but when I kept pushing they were starting to get suspicious.  And if I was arrested, I wouldn’t be able to get Eden out.  So I gave up.”  Cindy shuddered at the thought of all the people that wouldn’t make it through the afternoon.  She had only meant for one person to die when she travelled through time yesterday.

“What about Ray?  Does he live?” Cindy asked quietly.

“Yeah, yeah he does,” Natalie replied simply.  She checked her watch again.  “That’s it, I’m going in and dragging Eden out if I have to,” she said, putting the car in gear to pull around front.  Natalie left Cindy in the car, telling her that she was too uncool by 2040 standards to be of help.  Cindy sweated as she waited, despite the car automatically maintaining a pleasant temperature.

            With their time rapidly running out, Natalie and Eden at last burst out of the front door.  Natalie threw Eden’s bag in the backseat, then nearly shoved Eden in after it.

            “Easy, speedy Rodriguez,” Eden grumbled.  Natalie leapt into the driver’s seat and in an instant they were off as fast as Natalie’s made in China car would go.  Eden provided a colourful commentary, but both sisters ignored her.  Cindy navigated through the options on the car’s touchscreen until she found the clock.  She watched as the minutes slipped away and they hit red light after red light.  Would the universe not allow its pound of flesh to be taken away?

            Natalie gave a strangled cry of “No!” seconds before the first blast hit.  The car skidded to halt and Cindy reflexively threw her hands over her head, though anything that the car’s roof wasn’t strong enough to protect her from surely wouldn’t be stopped by her hands.  However, nothing landed on the car, though they could see the plume of dust and debris just ahead and to the left.  Eden was yelling, though her words were indistinct through the sounds of shattering glass, falling bricks, and creaking metal.  Natalie shot the car forward again, and Eden’s shouts became more frantic.

            “Where are you going?  Turn around!  Buildings are collapsing!”  Natalie wove through cars that were stopped or attempting to turn around, her eyes never leaving the northern horizon that was their salvation.

            The next explosion was directly in front of them.  Chunks of masonry scattered across the road, blocking the way.  Natalie jerked the wheel and jumped the curb onto the sidewalk, which was still clear and just wide enough for the car.

            “Stop, STOP!  TURN AROUND, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” Eden’s screams were getting hard to ignore. She then became impossible to ignore when she hurled herself out the door.  Natalie and Cindy followed out their own doors, chasing after their hysterical niece.

            “Eden, you have to trust me!  Come back, we have to go!” Natalie cried as she ran.  Natalie was in good shape for her age and easily outpaced Cindy, but Eden had a head start and youth on her side.  More of the building that had exploded in front of them was collapsing, sending clouds of dust that hit Cindy’s eyes with the force of a wall.  The sounds of shouting were muffled, and with every step Cindy was stumbling over more debris, and once, right into a stopped car.  With a deafening roar, whatever was left of the building came down.  For several minutes, Cindy couldn’t make sense of the scene with any of her senses.  When the sound of the world collapsing around her had been replaced with a ringing in her ears and she no longer felt unknown wreckage raining down on her, she ventured to lift her head.

            There was no one around, and nothing was recognizable.  Cindy couldn’t tell where the street had been, or if she was even on the same street she had started on.  Everything was so fully coated in dust that it was like seeing the world only through shadows.  Cindy staggered to her feet.

Natalie and Eden.  She needed to find them.  North.  They needed to go north.  Cindy started walking.

 

 

Chapter 4 - Ray

 

            Cindy slowly made her way north, only just being able to navigate by the faint glow of the sun through the dust that shrouded everything.  Pain and terror numbed her brain.  She tried to look for Natalie, Eden, or the car, but it was a constant battle with the haze in the street and the haze in her brain.  She thought she heard a whimper coming from an alley, but when she entered, she found only a confused and dusty pigeon.  She leaned against the wall, fighting against despair.  Then a voice from just outside the alley made Cindy jump.  The words were indistinct, but Cindy recognized the voice.

She pushed away from the wall and peeked around the corner.  Ray was making his way south down the destroyed street, alone and white with dust.  Cindy waited until he was past the alley, then quietly moved back out onto the street.  She stumbled over a stray block of concrete and paused.  She scooped it up – it was heavy but she could wield it with one hand.  She followed Ray, hardly daring to breathe as though Ray might hear her over the sounds of sirens and still-crumbling buildings.  Ray took a few turns, seemingly at random.  Finally, he paused to lean against an abandoned car.  Cindy was within steps of him, concrete clutched tightly in her hand.  Beyond Ray, a still-functioning billboard flashed the time.  Ten minutes until the final explosion.

            Natalie and Eden.  She needed to find them.  North.  They needed to go north.

            Ray had moved on, taking another road south.  Cindy felt the block of concrete fall from her hand.  She turned and took the road north.

 

            Ten minutes later, Cindy was knocked to the ground from the shockwave radiating from downtown.  She barely registered the pain and the fresh cloud of dust billowing through the streets.  As soon as she had caught her breath she was back on her feet, the thought of Natalie and Eden a constant mantra in her head.

Slowly, Cindy started to notice the buildings around her were intact and cars were driving on the road again.  She stopped at a gas station that was filled with unlucky motorists frantically filling their old-fashioned cars as they evacuated the city.  After a few tries, she found someone heading to Morse Lake who was willing to take her for a chance to reunite with her sister and niece.  The sun was getting low on the horizon when Cindy was dropped off at the road that led to the Three Ducks Cottage that Natalie had rented.  Cindy staggered down the road, the last rays of sun muted by the cloud of dust that stretched across the sky.  As she approached Three Ducks Cottage, she could see a grey car in the driveway.  Natalie’s car was blue.  Maybe they had found another car, she rationalized.  Cindy reached the driveway and realized the car was coated in the same dust that still clung to her hair and clothes.  Cindy ran her hand over the bumper and blue showed through.  Getting her final wind, Cindy rushed to the front door and burst into the cottage.

            “Cindy!” two voices cried, and the two sisters and Eden fell together.

 

            That evening, the three women sat together on the couch, exhausted, in pain, and shaken by the grim news coming out of Abingdon.  They watched the news reports together, listening as survivors recounted their bleak stories of loss.

            “I’m here now with a couple who have a more uplifting tale than most we’ve heard today.  Olivia and Jaxon, could you tell us what happened to you when the explosion occurred?”  The reporter turned her microphone to the young couple who were sitting together on a cot in one of the city’s newly designated emergency shelters.  The woman, Olivia, started their story.

            “We were with seven other people at the dog clothing store on Heritage Avenue when the downtown explosion happened.  The building was collapsing all around us, but thankfully a section of the roof held in the middle of the store.  Some of us were injured, but Jaxon and I were lucky.  We tried to move the rubble so we could get out, but we weren’t making any progress.  It was dark and we couldn’t even tell which direction we should be digging.  We were yelling for help, but we didn’t have much hope.  There must have been so many people trapped, waiting for help.”  Her voice broke.  While she paused to dab her eyes with a well-worn tissue, Jaxon picked up the story.

            “Eventually, we did hear someone yelling back.  We could hear them digging towards us, so we started digging in that spot too.  It took a while, it felt like a long time anyway, but he made it through.  He got all of us out, and he even treated those of us who were injured.  Turns out he was a paramedic.  How lucky was that?  He saved us, he absolutely saved all of our lives.”  Beside Jaxon, Olivia nodded fervently.

            “What an incredible story of survival and heroism,” the reporter gushed.  “Is there anything you’d want to say to your rescuer if he was listening?”

            “Yes, yes of course,” Olivia replied.  “Thank you, thank you so much.  I want everyone to know that Ray Fulton is a hero and deserves all the best in life.”  Natalie paused the video.  Beside her, Eden grabbed her arm.

            “He’s alive!  Dad’s alive!” she cried, beaming.  Natalie pulled her into a hug and they both laughed with relief, Eden’s eyes shining with tears.  Cindy watched them, unable to bring herself to join in.  Eden had Lisa’s softness.  But she also had Ray’s strength.