Book 3, Prologue & Chapter 1
Prologue
​
Screams shatter the early evening quiet, startling every creature within hearing, whether on two or four feet. Footsteps echo down the hall. The little girl’s door is thrown open and light floods the room.
Grace Gael (LASTNAME), sits up in bed, hugging herself. She whimpers and a tear streaks down her face. Her screams woke her from a nightmare she can’t stop seeing. Because it wasn’t really a nightmare. It’s rare for seven-year-old Gracie to have actual nightmares. She wishes she did have nightmares, instead of what she experiences. She wishes she could control it. That it didn’t happen tonight, here in the home of her Daddy’s best friend and his big family. They’re supposed to be on vacation while Daddy’s on leave, skiing and having fun in Colorado. Not worrying about her and her stupid dreams that aren’t even dreams.
Gracie sniffles. “Sorry Mommy. Sorry Daddy. Sorry Aunt Sal. I didn’t mean to wake everybody up.”
Gracie’s father sits on the side of the bed. Keeping his voice low, he reassures her. “I know, Buttercup. It’s not your fault.”
Her mother leans over and smooths back Gracie’s hair. She plants a kiss on her forehead. “We’re here now, Gracie. We’re right here.”
Sal settles at the foot of the bed, concern for her niece wrinkling her brow and her heart breaking for the lighthearted, playful little girl she used to be. Before the dreams started on the child’s 6th birthday.
“Tell us about it, Gracie,” her mother whispers in her daughter’s little ear.
“I don’t want to,” Gracie whimpers. She covers her face with her hands. Those ladies were so scared and Gracie felt it right along with them. She doesn’t like being a scaredy-cat. And she’s had these visions often enough to know that if she doesn’t tell, she’ll just keep dreaming it. And if she doesn’t tell, Mommy and Daddy can’t help the people. Still, she’d much rather pretend it was just a bad dream.
Her father lays his big hand on her bony shoulder. “We’re in it together, Buttercup, just like always. You give us the intel and we’ll handle it.”
​
Gracie nods and wipes her nose with the tissue he hands her. “Sir, yes Sir,” she mumbles.
Her father nods curtly. In a stage whisper he says, “Good. Now, sound off, soldier!”
Seeing it play out again in her mind’s eye, Gracie tells her little family about the vision she had. She tells them every graphic, horrible detail she can. Daddy always said to tell everything, because you never knew if that one detail you left out would be the one that made a difference.
The only questions Gracie can’t ever answer are exactly where or when the awful events take place.
Chapter 1
​
Have you ever heard a nearby transformer get hit by lightning during a violent thunderstorm and blow? If you have, then you know about the explosive BOOM! outside my window followed by a burst of flames jumping in the wind. The noise, and resultant lurch of the plane, has the vampire on their feet, the co-pilot disappearing back through the cockpit door. Kate and Emma startle awake and all three of us scream.
​
The plane quickly levels out, though red and orange flames continue to taste the wind from inside the engine compartment.
​
“What was that?” “What happened?” Kate and Emma shout over one another.
​
Adrenaline makes the hair stand up all over my body as goosebumps erupt and my heart stutters. “What the hell?”
​
“Stay in your seats,” Dex cautions us. He and Janelle run back to our area and stand in the space between our seats. “As soon as we know something, you will, too.” He nods toward the front of the plane.
​
Nicolette flings open the cockpit door. For a second, I get a view of the pilots, flashing lights on the panel, and we all hear the alarms going off and yelling, which I assume is about being down an engine, though I can’t make out what they’re saying. None of it puts my mind at ease. Then Nicolette steps into the fray and closes the door behind her.
​
“Wait, are the pilots fighting? What’s going on?” Kate demands.
​
Panic squeezes my chest and I’m gripped with a certainty that we’re going to crash. “Ohmygod. Dex, Janelle, y’all have to sit down! Get seat belts on!”
​
“We’re fine Miss Libby. Don’t worry about us. You three stay where you are. Janelle—”
​
Whatever Dex was going to say to her is cut off when the plane lurches, and the nose dips into a dive.
​
“Oh shit!” My words are lost in the chaos that erupts when a pilot is thrown through the cockpit door, sending shards of it in every direction. At least, I think it was one of the pilots. Someone ripped off his or her head and the body quickly turns to ash, leaving just an empty uniform where the body once lay.
​
Nicolette yells, “Sabotage! Brace for impact!”
​
With that, she dives into the now vacant seat and Dex and Janelle share a pregnant look.
​
“Can she even fly this thing?” Kate asks.
​
“How are they going to land with only one engine?” Emma asks.
​
I blink away tears. Both of my friends look frantic, their faces pale and tear streaked, the whites of their eyes showing. I’m sure I mirror them. “Nicolette can do anything, right Dex?”
​
He turns to me, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the large man look stressed. “She’ll get us on the ground as safe as she can manage.”
​
I look through the window, but all I see are clouds. Great, billowing black and grey clouds. Or is that smoke? Oh, please let it just be clouds. Though the nose of the plane isn’t pointing straight down any longer, we’re still losing altitude fast. My ears pop and my stomach lurches as though I’m on a roller coaster after cresting the top of the worst hill.
​
Dex and Janelle move around the cabin quickly, checking our seat belts and shoving lose items into closed compartments. I beg the both of them to get seated, and put their own seat belts on, but I might as well be shouting into the wind. They don’t listen. They just throw blankets and pillows to each of us, admonishing us to pack them around ourselves and to be sure to cover our heads. We do, and I’m sure my hands aren’t the only ones shaking.
​
Jo. I wonder how she’ll hear about the crash. I imagine how frantic she’ll be. I wish fervently that Jo were here. I hope I get the chance to tell her one more time that I love her. I hope we get our wedding day. I hope—
​
“I’m going to try to land on a mountain top meadow I know about. It’s going to be rough getting there. Tree tops might tear us apart before we make it. It’s been an honor to know all of you.” My brain gets stuck on how normal Nicolette’s voice sounds. No stress, no emotions, color her tone. She delivers this horrifying news in as matter of fact a voice as ever.
​
Moments later, something screeches against the bottom of the plane and diverts my attention. I have no more coherent thoughts until we’re on the ground.