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The way the dream unfolded before her, Amber knew that it wasn’t the first time she had lived through it. She was back in the house where she had grown up and she was fending off her relatives while her parents were outside in the burning car. This time, everything was different. She saw the whole thing from above instead of from behind her own eyes. She saw the monster—the amorphous cluster of smoke—and she saw how it was manipulating everyone with its invisible hands.
Then she was transported back to the fire pit from the night before. Again, she saw everything from above. The fight unfolded beneath her and at one point Ricky looked up and spotted her watching. He didn’t let it distract him. He kept reading until the gateway was open and the monsters were being sent down into the pit of purple light.
George was flying next to her, observing the battle as well.
He said, “Demons have to be called into a person. That’s how I know that these aren’t demons. They’re something else—some other kind of malevolent force. The bear is my fault. I chose that form. The smoke entity is different. You can tell that, right?”
Amber realized that the question was directed towards her.
“I don’t know,” she said.
The ground opened and swallowed the monsters. The gateway was sealed by their own vomit.
“It’s over,” George said.
“I don’t know,” Amber said again.
“Amber?” George asked. He spoke with his brother’s voice. Amber looked to him and he called her name again but his lips didn’t move. She looked down to Ricky on the ground, who was chanting the spell.
“Amber?”
She was pulled upwards, out of the dream. It faded as she blinked into the reality of Ricky’s living room.
Ricky was hovering over her.
“I’m going to work. Do you want to move up to the bedroom?”
She looked at the other end of the couch. George was already gone.
“No. I’m up. Thank you.”
She coughed into her elbow and began to extract herself from the blankets and the deep cushions.
“Mom put a towel on the bed upstairs if you want a shower or whatever.”
Amber smiled. “Thank you.”
“No sweat. Mom loves having company but we rarely get…”
“No, I mean thank you for last night. What your family did…”
“Do you think it worked? I’m pretty sure that it did, but I didn’t want to say because I figured you would know better than me. I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned it.” He shook his head as he blushed. “Sorry. What do you think?”
“I’m not sure, but it felt good to be doing something instead of just reacting, so thanks.”
Ricky nodded. He stepped back, looked like he was going to say something, and then simply waved. He knelt and said goodbye to Tucker before he walked out and she heard his car engine starting. Amber folded the blanket and tried to tidy everything before she went upstairs. George’s door was open a few inches and she saw him laying on top of the bedspread, still dressed. Amber moved as silently as she could, trying not to make a sound as she figured out how to work their shower and she changed into fresh clothes.
Mary was downstairs in the living room with Tucker when Amber came back down.
“Kitchen is fully stocked,” Mary said. “You can help yourself to whatever you’d like. I’m taking these boxes down to the Village Peddler, or I would offer to fix you something.”
“Oh, no, I can fend for myself.”
“Or,” Mary said, raising her eyebrows as a new thought occurred to her, “I think the Grill is open. You want to come with me and grab a bite?”
Amber started to shake her head. “Thank you, but I wouldn’t…”
“I can tell how this is going to go,” Mary said. “You want to come but you don’t want to intrude, blah, blah, blah. Grab a jacket and get that other box. The Grill only has a couple of good things on the menu, but I can steer you in the right direction.”
Amber laughed. There was something about Mary that reminded her of her cousin Evelyn. The woman didn’t have a filter and she seemed to think that she always knew what was best for everyone. In other circumstances, Amber would have been irritated. But the way she felt at the moment, it was nice to have someone else steer for a change.
“I’ll grab my coat,” Amber said, pointing towards the stairs.
“Meet you in the car.”
Amber climbed the stairs and heard Mary talking to the dog downstairs as she carried her boxes towards the door.
George was awake—they met in the hall as Amber was slipping on her coat.
“Where you off to?”
“The Grill?”
“Ugh. That place is terrible,” George said. “Wait up.”
He didn’t take long. He pulled a hat over his unruly hair and leaned under the sink the bathroom until he found a bottle of mouthwash. He gargled it as they went back downstairs. Amber grabbed the box that she was supposed to carry and she handed it to George so she could get the door. They found Mary outside in the car. Tucker was in back. George climbed in the back with the dog and let Amber have the passenger’s seat.
“Don’t you have class today, George?”
“Nope.”
Mary’s attention seemed to be completely focused on the rearview mirror, so she could interrogate her son. The car found its own way down the twisting road.
“Why is that, exactly?”
“Independent study,” he said. “I had to do all that research into magic ceremonies anyway, so I ended up writing a big research paper on it. I already turned in the first segment and got an A. The second one is written, but I haven’t turned it in yet. The professor thinks I’m still putting in two days a week on it.”
“And there’s nothing else that you could be doing instead of sleeping until noon?”
“I was a little busy last night,
