That night, Liam didn’t sleep very well. He tossed and turned with fever dreams, strewn with glimpses of a fight. He was a woman, or at least, in the body of a woman. She was panicked and outnumbered, four against herself. She sprinted through the woods as fast as her thin legs could carry her. Liam knew these woods. These were his woods. She was navigating at a quicker pace than he ever had. Jumping over logs with ease, ducking and swinging past the branches. Suddenly they were at the old abandoned house, only it looked how it had that night.  

The lady knelt down and placed her hand on a sigil. She focused all of the energy in her body to her hand. Liam could feel the swell of power going through his veins like it was his own. The sense of fear and anger and sadness was overwhelming. She was going through so many emotions and all he could do was endure them and feel it with her. They were sharing a body yet he had no control. 

Next thing he knew he was in the house again. There was a little girl, maybe twelve at the most. She was in her room, crying. The lady hugged the child tightly to her chest and told her not to worry, that everything was going to be okay. 

“I love you so much. You know that, don’t you? Mommy loves you with her whole heart,” she cooed as she petted the young girl's hair. “Do you remember what we talked about?”

The little girl nodded her head. “I do.”

“Good girl, baby, good girl. And can you tell mommy so she knows that you know?” she asked, starting to cry herself.

“If the bad men come, mommy has to take them far away,” she said between sobs.

“Yes, and what is your job?”

“I have to stay hidden in my room and wait for mommy to come back. Don’t let anyone in the house, don’t come out, no matter what I hear,” the little girl replied. 

“And, if mommy doesn’t come back?” the lady asked, doing her best to keep her composure.

“If mommy doesn't come back after three days, I go to Uncle’s house,” she choked out.

“Good. Very good,” the lady cried as she held the small girl's face in her hands. “I love you more than anything in the universe.” She kissed her forehead before holding her tightly once again. “No matter what happens, please never forget how much mommy loves you. You have to be a good girl for me, okay? You have to be happy and have a good life.” 

The little girl was sobbing even harder now, hardly able to respond. “Okay, but you have to come back. Promise me you’re gonna come back,” she demanded, rubbing the tears from her eyes.

“I’m going to try, okay? I’ll do my best, so you have to do your best too, okay?” 

The little girl nodded again.

The lady handed her a book she pulled from a nearby table. “You have to keep this safe. This book is very important. Only our family is allowed to see this okay? Never let anyone else read this ever. Promise me.”

“I promise,” the little girl repeated, hugging the book tightly to her chest. 

“Good job,” the mother comforted warmly, kissing her one last time. “I’m going to go now. Remember what we talked about. I love you so, so much.”

Liam was outside again. This time, in woods he no longer recognized. The four men were back and they had him surrounded. They were yelling and stepping closer, hands raised to fight but not with their fists.

“Give up Cheryl, we aren’t going to let you go. It’s time to stop running,” one of the men coaxed as he took another step.

“If you hand yourself over nicely, we might even make it quick and painless,” another man chimed in.

“I’ll never go down without a fight you bastards. My family didn’t do anything wrong. Why are you doing this to us? We have been nothing but kind to everyone,” Cheryl retaliated. 

The third man scoffed, “Kind? Your family has been acting all high and mighty just because you can do some special magic and have fancy eyes. We are tired of you all acting so much better than us! All you had to do was share with the rest of us but that was just too much to ask for.”

“Yeah! We’ll show you who’s better! Not looking so tough now that we have you cornered like a dog! Your little magic’s no good now.” The biggest man laughed as a ball of fire shot from his hand towards the lady, nearly frying her beautiful long back hair. 

“Ha! Is that so? Then why do you have to fight four on one, if I'm not so tough? It’s no matter. I can take on all four of you. Show me what you got.” As she finished her last sentence, she spun around and leapt into the air, leaving a roaring wave of fire in her wake. 

The men stumbled back, caught off guard by her sudden attack. The one closest to her was thrown onto the ground, struggling to replace the air that was knocked out of him. “You’re asking for it now,” he spat between gasps. 

Then, all hell broke loose. There were streams of fire and ice, lightning and water. The five moved quickly, casting sheer power at one another at a defenting pace. Although she was being bombarded from all directions, Cheryl still held her own. Her feet moved swiftly, gliding along the ground as if she were dancing. Blocking and casting like every movement came with ease. Her timing, impeccable, her precision, dead on. But a person only has so much stamina, and four against one is still an unfair battle. 

Cheryl shrieked when she felt the hot lightning strike her chest from behind. Bolts of electricity shot through her body, dropping her to her knees. “Oh, no,” she muttered as she lost control of her body. The earth felt cool beneath her knees as she knelt there, motionless. I really thought I could have taken one out before they got me. At least I was able to hide the house first. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be making it back.

The biggest man walked up slowly, laughing hysterically. “Well, now. Was that all you could take? I was really hoping to play with you a little more.” He grabbed her by the hair, pulling her head back to look him in the eyes. “You’re supposed to look at someone when they are talking to you. You damn Golden Eyes have no respect for anyone else. I’m not going to feel a damn thing when I take your life, the whole lot of you had this coming,” he averred, lifting his other hand before sending another, even more powerful bolt through her chest.

Liam shot up in bed from the shock, covered in sweat, tears pouring down his face. What the fuck?! He grabbed his chest from the reminisce of pain still flowing through him. That felt so real. Who were all those people? The house. That was the same house. I need to go back right now. 

Liam threw off the covers in a panic, grabbed his hoodie and skipped down the stairs, fixing the back of his low top skate shoes as he went. Liam never stopped moving. He ran like he had in the dream, ran until his lungs burned, ran until he could see the familiar house. But the problem was that it was too familiar. 

The car was still rusted and sunk in. The house had no windows, and the roof had caved. 

“No…no no no… It was here! I know it was here! The dream and last night, they were the same!” Liam ran through the front door, as it had fallen like it was before. He walked into the living room without a fireplace, to the kitchen with no cabinets, down the hall to the room with the moss under the broken window.

“The flower is still here! It’s here.” He walked up to take a closer look at the patch. There was a little spot on the edge that looked like a piece was missing. “It wasn’t a dream. We really did come here last night. That means what I saw had to be real, that he’s real.” He whipped his head around to look for the table from his dream. It was worn but the flowers and vines carved into the side of the wood were still the same. He ran his finger over the carvings before looking around again.

“That book. I wonder if it’s still here,” he muttered as he started looking through drawers and under furniture frantically, coming up with nothing. I need to go see Arthur. Maybe he knows what’s happening to me. He closed the drawer he was peering in and headed back out the front door.

It didn’t seem to take as long to get to Arthur’s this time. Liam always had a good sense of direction, especially in these woods, so twice was enough for him to have it memorized. He quickly cut through the hanging branches and under the tree, landing softly in the dirt below. He was getting better at that too. He walked towards the end of the hall and called out, “Arthur, I’m here. Are you home?” He paused listening for a reply.

“In here,” the deep voice called back to him from a room he hadn’t been in yet.

Liam turned at the end of the hall, finding Arthur sitting on the floor in a pile of blankets and pillows, surrounded by books. Most were stacked in haphazard piles at the edge of what he assumed was his bed. Little bits of paper stuck out from them here and there to mark the pages within. Arthur sat near a small fireplace, reading glasses at the end of his nose, as he thumbed through a book.

“Here, come sit,” he said, patting the blankets next to him. “Oh, take your shoes off please. Don’t want to get the blanket dirty.”

Liam stood in the doorway, awe struck at such a cozy living space so far under ground. It was lit up warmly by a fire, neatly tucked into the wall. Light bounced off the many books scattered about. Across from the fireplace were many bookshelves. They seemed to be hand made from stone and wood, fitting the curve of the wall, filled to the brim with even more books. Little nick nacks were sprinkled amongst the books, along with a few plants. A potho’s vines seemed to take over one half of the shelves on the side furthest from him but they didn’t seem to harm any of the books themselves. The floor in front of the shelves was littered with several more piles of books. It looked like it had run out of space long ago. 

Kicking off his shoes at the blanket's edge, Liam crawled over, sitting next to Arthur. “I’m so glad you’re really here,” he sighed, getting comfortable. The fire on his back was quite relaxing. It was peaceful down here, you could hardly tell this room was underground, save the lack of windows. 

“Of course I’m here. It’s not like I go anywhere else really.” He closed the book to think, “well, I guess I do go out into the woods to forage, but not often.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant like whether or not you exist,” Liam upbraided. 

“Here I am, confirmed in real life. You weren’t dreaming last night,” Arthur toyed.