My reflection dissolved, and another face slowly came into focus. It was a face of a young girl. She was beautiful and had striking emerald green eyes. She looked listless, and her eyes were hollow—completely vacant of awareness and spirit. Her hair was so blond, it was nearly white. Loose strands fell over parts of her forehead and cheeks, framing her heart shaped face.

From under the strands, I caught a glimpse of a large, yellow gemstone at the center of her forehead, but slowly, the image of the girl faded and was replaced by my own face.

At the restaurant, Martin had asked if I was still seeing visions. He knew that my nightmares had become hallucinations during the day. He called them visions because of my amnesic condition, and he thought the things I was seeing could very well be memories. I wouldn’t have told him about them, but he’d caught me having an episode a couple weeks ago.

That day, during one of our slump hours, I was sitting in front of the large window that faced the main street. I saw a mother and her young daughter strolling hand in hand on the sidewalk and wondered about what my own childhood may have been like. After they passed, I became acutely aware of my reflection in the window.

That’s when the vision happened.

It was as if everything outside the window faded to black and I could no longer see what was outside. Soon, I was surrounded by darkness. The restaurant tables and chairs were gone. I couldn’t even feel the chair I’d been sitting on. Then, I was overcome by a feeling that I wasn’t alone in the darkness and the figure of a woman began to take shape. It was at that moment when Martin spotted me and shook me back to reality. Later on, he told me that he’d been trying to speak to me, but I was expressionless and unresponsive. Thankfully for me, Jenny was in the staff room when it happened.

I told Martin the truth and made him swear not to tell a soul. Even more fortunately was the fact that Martin wasn’t judgmental. Martin is intrigued by things like the supernatural and the paranormal—basically everything that you can’t put your finger on.

The doorbell rang.

“Just a minute!” I hollered.

I rushed downstairs and opened the door, revealing Martin’s smiling face and his sister, Katie.

Martin had changed into his usual getup: combat boots, jeans, and an underground indie rock t-shirt.

Katie wore jeans, a patterned tank top, and some pink Converse shoes. I noted that her socks were two different colors: one purple, and the other, blue.

You could tell they were related by taking one glance. They had the same dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. While some people might take one look at Martin and write him off as a delinquent, he sure was anything but. Sure, there was a wild, adventurous side to him, but when it came to care for Katie, he was solid.

When their parents passed away two years ago in a car accident, Martin dropped out of college in his sophomore year and became her legal guardian. He was barely twenty-one when he took on the responsibility.

It was a decision that couldn’t have been easy to make, especially when Katie took her parents’ deaths very hard and became selectively mute. After their parents’ death, Katie stopped speaking to strangers, and although I’ve known the Rosses for a while now, Katie was still very shy around me, though I felt she had warmed considerably.

“Hi Katie, how are you doing?” I asked with a smile. Katie returned the smile but avoided eye contact with me as she fidgeted with her fingers.

“Well, we just found out she’s top of her class in math, so that’s something to be proud of!” said Martin.

“Wow, really? Uh oh, that means your brother will have to follow through on his promise.” I winked at Katie.

“Yeah, looks like she’ll be getting that puppy I promised her,” Martin said. Katie’s eyes brightened at the mention of a puppy. “Come on, let’s go.” He motioned to his car with the nod of his head.

It was time for me to face my fears and head back to Hemley Park, where my life as I knew it began.

I swallowed hard before forcing an uneasy smile.