“Aether,” Raylen has this way of saying a whole sentence by just using my name. This time she’s saying, ‘listen to me.’ I pause from staring out the door as Sir Flies A lot leaves and turn to her.

“Look I know, alright. I know. I’m sorry Ray.” I say and she looks up at me with wide eyes.

I know I never use her nickname; I’ve got a thing about that. Maybe because my own name can’t be shortened or I guess it’s just a habit. To this day I’m still the only one that calls my brother Colton instead of Cole. Besides who wants to be called Cole? It sounds too close to what Santa gives naughty kids.

“If you know then why would you…just….will you please be normal for five minutes!” She says throwing her hands up in the air. She moves away from the door and begins to pace slowly around the shed, kicking some of the smaller stones every now and then. I wait for her to calm down, shutting the door gently behind me. I won’t lie and say I’m not scared but the part of me that is scared is a whole lot smaller than the curious part. And the curious part wants to explore this new territory but I can tell from the way Raylen is acting that she’s still in denial mode.

“Aether I don’t want to go out there…I can’t. Not yet.” She says finally. I was beginning to worry since she’d been muttering to herself about something. Her eyes are sparkling with unshed tears. She turns and paces again, tries to hide the fact that she’s furiously scrubbing at her eyes. She must be one of those that think if you apply enough pressure it’ll stop the tears from leaking. Call me a softy but when a girl cries in front of you it does something. Perhaps it calls to some ancient male instinct to be protective but before I even realize I’m doing it I’ve crossed the distance between us and wrap her in a hug.

A girl like Raylen shouldn’t cry. She’s too tough. It just doesn’t fit her. Her reaction, though, is what I would have presumed even if she’s upset, she steps hard on my instep and turns to me with a look of murder…made even more frightening by the puffy red around her eyes.

“I thought…maybe…”

“I don’t need comforting. Just stand there and don’t move. And pretend you didn’t see any crying.” She says rubbing at her eyes again, but one of her hands is clutching at the edge of my sweater, her knuckles turning white. And I’m not entirely sure why but I start laughing, possibly hysterically and Raylen’s giving me a look like she thinks I’ve lost my mind.

“This whole situation is just…”

“Ridiculous.” Raylen finishes with a sigh. I nod and find that Raylen is suddenly laughing with me. I’m not sure how it happened but we’re sitting and laughing and then I finally nod. I already know how to compromise.

“How about we spend the night here. And if the door still opens onto- “

“A crackpots dream?” Raylen interjects.

“Yes. Then we can explore… but we’ll stay in tonight…and I know just what we can do!” I add picking up my pack. Raylen’s giving me a skeptical stare.

“Ta-da!!!!” I say pulling out a deck of cards and three different travel games.

Raylen let’s loose another bark of laughter.

“Only you would have thought to have games in your bag,” she sighs, “but alright. Let’s play war. I’m going to own you.” And the rest of the day was spent like that, snacking on granola bars, the last of the banana chips and Raylen finished off the fruit gummies, and playing various card games. We didn’t talk about what was outside the shed door and we didn’t talk about the fact that we’d had to make a makeshift bedpan in the corner of the shed, let’s just say that was an embarrassing moment waiting to happen. We didn’t even explore the cabinets of the shed or the shelves which were holding an assortment of colored glass bottles and other miscellaneous thing. We didn’t talk about the Celtic knots drawn on the floor, or the curling form off the dragon, or even the stones.

And Raylen was right about the game of war, she won. Every. Time.

And as the sun or rather the giant white hole in the sky must have descended, as the sky went from the blood red to a purple that was far too luminescent to really be night, I couldn’t see stars through the tin window, and I didn’t dare try to open the door. Amidst all this I made a decision. I’d make sure Raylen got back home.

After all…this was my fault.