Chapter 1

A cold breeze was coming through the bedroom window when Kail Stevens opened her eyes to the shrieking alarm on the nightstand near her bed. She lay there under the comforter for a moment, staring at the ceiling, willing herself not to fall back asleep in the comfort of her warm bed. The chill in the air was unpleasant. Kail cursed herself for leaving the window open last night as she kicked off her blanket and sat up, rubbing her eyes wearily. Outside the glass, clouds were dark in the sky, threatening a storm. Although she loved the rain, she found herself wishing the cold would let up for a day.

A second alarm sounded and Kail crossed the room again to shut it off. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she slipped out of her pajamas, flinching as the cold fabric of her jeans chilled her skin. She ran a brush through her hair and pulled it back, per usual, before gathering her school bag and heading downstairs. She didn't have the energy for makeup this morning.

Kail set her bag at the door and wandered into the kitchen, smiling at her roommate and best friend, Michelle Kayer.

“What's wrong?” asked Michelle. “You look like crap.”

Kail poured herself a cup of coffee, stirring numbly as she added some creamer and took a small sip. It was hot, scalding her tongue. She winced and put the mug down.

“I had that dream again.”

“The one with the little girl?”

“Yes.”

“Was the boy there?”

“Yes.”

Michelle poured herself some coffee and grabbed an apple. Taking a seat next to Kail, she bit into the fruit, chewing slowly. As usual, Michelle looked flawlessly gorgeous with her wavy blonde hair in a bun and her intense ice blue eyes. Her face, skin flawless, was perfectly made up today, just like every day. Kail felt like a bum sitting next to her.

“What is this; four nights in a row now?” asked Michelle.

“Yes.”

Outside, thunder cracked in the distance. Kail shivered. Today it didn't sooth her like usual. She hated having nightmares, and she hated that one in particular. Her dreams were rarely so vivid, but that one always was. On occasion it changed, but never too much . . . like a movie that you've watched over and over, and yet somehow each time you notice something you never noticed before.

“Are you going to class?” Michelle asked.

Kail nodded as skimmed through her phone, checking her text messages. She made a mental note to call her mom back before it got too late in the day; Diane had a tendency to overreact, and she had already called twice since Kail had been awake.

There was a knock on the door as Kail was rinsing her coffee mug out, and before she could call for them to come in, the door opened and their visitor appeared in the kitchen moments later, damp from the rain.

“Good morning, ladies,” Cole said. Kail's other best friend shook himself off like a dog, winking, before welcoming himself to a cup of black coffee.

“That would be my cue to leave,” muttered Michelle. She sneered at Cole before gathering her things and heading out the door with a quick wave to Kail over her shoulder. She slammed it hard behind her, clearly displeased.

“Where did she find that stick up her a*s?” asked Cole. “And can I borrow it to whack her with it?”

“Charming, per usual,” said Kail. “You know very well the reason she hates you.”

“Oh? And why is that?” Cole ran a hand through tousled black hair, looking charming as ever as he leaned back in the chair, eyebrows raised. He was dressed in his normal attire: jeans and a t-shirt, covered by a black leather jacket. Simple, yet attractive.

“Oh, gee, I don't know. Maybe sleeping with her after one date and then not calling for three weeks sufficed,” said Kail. She smiled at her friend and then loaded the dirty mugs in the dishwasher.

“That's life of a playa, babe. They can take it or leave it.”

Kail looked down at her cell phone as it began to ring again. Her mother's picture popped up on the screen, pretty and smiling, which was probably not what she was doing now. Sighing, Kail hit silent and dropped it into her purse, ignoring Cole's pointed stare.

“You know she'll just keep calling. And if she can't get through to you she's just going to call---” The shrill ring of a second phone call interrupted him. Cole pulled out his own phone, glanced at it, and hit answer.

“Hi, Mrs. Stevens! How are you?” Cole was silent as he listened to the woman on the other line. “Yes, I was with Kail this morning, but I already dropped her off at class. Yes, she was fine. Stressed, maybe, but fine. I would try her again in, oh, about fifteen minutes.”

Kail balled up her fists, tempted to sock her friend in the jaw. Noticing her look of rage, Cole held up on finger and smiled at her.

“Have a good day, Mrs. Stevens.” He snapped shut the phone. “Problem solved.”

“Problem solved?” Kail repeated. “She's going to call me again in fifteen minutes.”

Kail shrugged on her jacket and gathered her bag, making sure to turn off the coffee pot and the lights on their way out the door. Cole opened the car door for her, and she slid in, watching the rain fall on the windshield. Starting the engine, Cole glanced in his side view mirror as he backed out, turning up the heater as the chill from outside started to hit them.

“Why are you avoiding her anyway?” he asked as they headed towards Seattle University main campus. “She just wants to talk to her daughter.”

“No, she doesn't just want to talk. She wants to flip the freak out.”

Cole smiled. “Flip out over what?”

“Me not calling her.”

Cole glanced at Kail from the corner of his eye. “Seriously. What's the drama?”

Kail sighed warily and rested her forehead against the window pane. The rain was coming down hard, crashing down on the roof of Cole's blue '98 Mustang. The wet was so thick it was hard to see in front of them. Despite all of her years in Seattle, Kail was always glad that Cole opted to drive.

“I had that dream again last night,” she said finally.

“The one with the girl and the boy?”

“Yes. But this time it was different.”

“How so?”

“I knew their names.”

Cole eased the car into the student parking lot, putting it in park and turning off the engine. Silence greeted them as Kail gathered her things and reached for the door handle.

“Well?” prodded Cole. “What were their names?”

“Anna and Jackson.”

“Does that mean anything to you?”

Kail hesitated, her fingers itching for the handle. “Nothing.”

She was ten minutes late when she walked into her history lecture, sopping wet and shivering from the weather outside.

“Glad you could join us, Miss Stevens. Does the saying, 'better late than never' really ring true when you have already missed the first half of the class?”

“Sorry, professor,” said Kail, hurrying to an empty seat next to a familiar face. “It's raining cats and dogs out there, the roads are bad.”

“Your excuses are of no essence to me, darling. Sit.”

Kail sat down in the seat, ignoring the stares of her classmates. She could feel her face flushing red, so she tried to focus on something else as Professor Morgan continued his lecture.

“Someone's on a rampage,” whispered Michelle as she nibbled at the end of her pen. “He's been snooty since we started. Don't take it personally.”

Kail removed a binder and pen from her backpack, propping it up on her knee as she folded her legs. Her moment of humiliation had only lasted a second. No one seemed to care anymore, and for that she was relieved.

“Did your mom get a hold of you? She called me, but I missed it.”

“She called Cole, too.”

Michelle smiled. “It's almost as if she can sense when you're in distress. You should call her back. Before she has a heart attack.”

“If I tell her about the dream, she'll flip out. If she flips out, she'll most likely call Dr. Hale to have another psych evaluation done.”

“Therapy is not a psych evaluation,” Michelle murmured. “And you said it was helping.”

“It was. It's just not any---”

Someone kicked the back of her seat, hard, and Kail turned in her chair to scowl.

“Eyes to the front, ladies,” hissed Julia Parsons. The snooty red-head was glaring at the both of them, two hands clasped in front of her and a look of annoyance on her face.

“Julia,” whispered Michelle. “Don't make me come back there and shove my boot up your---”

“Girls, am I interrupting something?” Professor Morgan demanded. Kail and Michelle whipped around to face the front. Yet again, Kail's face was burning red. Julia snickered.

“Not at all professor,” said Kail. “Sorry.”

They stayed silent for the rest of the class, but Kail found it difficult to focus on what her professor was saying. Her mind was reeling, refusing to rest. She thought of the girl in her dream; a stranger to her, and yet so familiar. She could see the boy more clearly now, a boy of maybe twelve or thirteen, and she could almost feel his fear. The snow, so white, she could see the blood pooling on the ground, tainting it. The screams, the cries, the terror.

Kail put her head in her hands and closed her eyes, feeling sick to her stomach, willing the day to be over.

When the clock finally struck one, Kail was out of her seat and out the door moments after waving goodbye to Michelle, who was onto her next class. As usual, Cole was parked outside the building waiting for her. As she approached the car, her phone went off again.

“I've been calling you all morning,” Diane said as Kail flipped open her phone. Her mother's voice was strained. “Are you avoiding me?”

“Of course not, mom.” Kail tossed her book bag into the back of Cole's car and climbed into the passenger's seat. Even though the rain had let up briefly, the clouds had not departed. More rain was on the way. “It was a busy morning. I've been tired.”

“Tired? Why?”

“Nightmares.”

The silence on the other end of the line made Kail brace herself for what was to come.

“Kail, are you having that dream again?”

“I did last night, yes.” Kail nodded to Cole, and they eased out of the lot and towards home. She was already counting down the moments that the conversation would be over.

“Just last night?” asked Diane.

“And the night before.”

“Kail!”

“What, mother?”

“Maybe it's time to see Dr. Hale again. Therapy was helping, wasn't it?”

Kail sighed, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She could feel a tension headache coming on. Cole, noticing her tensing, reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

“It was only helping to an extent,” she said.

“I think you need to go back,” said Diane. “It would make me feel better, honey.”

“Listen, mom, I have to go. Someone's on the other line. I miss you guys. Tell dad I love him.”

“Kail, don't you hang up this ph---”

Kail snapped the cell phone shut, dropping it back into her purse. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She loved her mother to the end of the world and back, but Diane Stevens knew how to push buttons, Kail's especially.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked her. She looked over at him, seeing his concerned face, and she couldn't resist a smile.

“I am now. You know how she persists.”

“I know. I grew up with her, too.”

The best part was, Cole did know. Their mothers had been childhood friends, and were still close as adults. They had been neighbors growing up; Kail and Cole playing together in the sandbox, fishing in the creek with wooden poles, graduating elementary school, and then later high school. They had been inseparable at times, been away from each other at other moments, but had always rekindled in the end. Cole was her best friend. He was a player at times . . . cocky, arrogant, and obnoxious when he wanted to be; but Kail wouldn't have it any other way.

“What time does Michelle get out of her last class?” Cole asked.

“About five.”

“Do you want me to stay?”

Kail smiled at him again. “Movie night?”

“Only if we're doing scary.”

“We did scary last time!”

Cole laughed as the pulled into the driveway. “Take it or leave it, girl.”

It was five fifteen when Michelle got home, and her friend seemed too tired to argue about Cole's being there as she made herself a drink and settled onto the couch next to her. Kail pulled the throw over their legs, chilled but content. Michelle flipped on the news, running her hands through her hair subconsciously. Cole was rattling around somewhere in the kitchen, and Kail could smell popcorn cooking in the microwave. She turned her attention to the TV, feeling her stomach rumble with hunger.

“As flu season approaches, citizens young and old are opting for the flu shot in hopes of preventing the miserable sickness,” the blond anchorwoman, Wendy Hail, was saying. “It is being made readily available in most locations, those of which include most physicians offices, the Emergency Room, as well as a handful of public schools and places of employment.”

Kail glanced up as Cole came into the living room juggling a bowl of popcorn and two cans of soda. He handed a soda to Kail and flopped down on the other side of her, shaking the couch in the process.

“Hey!” cried Michelle as her hot mug of cocoa spilled over the sides, splashing onto the throw and soaking into the fabric.

“Oops.” Cole shoveled a handful of popcorn into his mouth and reached for the remote, flipping the channel away from the news. “The booze you put in that is bad for you, anyway.”

“I was watching that,” said Michelle through clenched teeth.

“Why?” asked Cole distastefully. “Like the population of the world needs more reasons to be even more paranoid and neurotic than they already are?”

“For your information, the flu virus is a serious thing. Every season it has managed to kill a good chunk of infants and the elderly.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” confirmed Michelle. “Too bad you're neither.”

“Enough,” Kail said finally. “Just settle on something to watch, will you? You're both giving me a headache.”

Cole tossed some popcorn in the air and caught it in his mouth. Michelle scowled, but Kail knew that after another mug of her special hot chocolate she'd start to relax.

“How about this one?” Cole asked, stopping on a horror movie.

“Zombies? Why zombies?” Michelle took another swallow of her drink.

“Because zombies are awesome.”

Kail grabbed some popcorn, letting their bickering fade out. Despite their arguing and childish ways, she loved them, and she was glad to have them in her life.