“Maybe we can speed between goal posts?” I point out, meaning from perch to perch where the crows are, we could hyper speed then wait on them to move, and go again. Which is exactly what we do the second we see them land further on and move to go. Racing to the next set of trees in the blink of an eye and the birds move again, in a game of follow me.“I hope to god this is not some crazy idea and we’re not just following some random flock of ravens who are just trying to get away. I mean we’re kinda just assuming.” Meadow quips in and I giggle out of pure nervousness and frustration and also doubt. Maybe she’s right and were insanely following birds that have nothing to do with this. We just assumed, given Sierra’s text and then their freakish behavior that we should, and who knows, maybe their curiosity has them come to us, but mistrust pushes them to move further away when we get too close.We hyper speed to the next se

It’s a strange night, to say the least. Long, and almost sleepless, strained with three minds brewing crazily, and not exactly restful. Conversation is quiet, and sparse, as Carmen asked us never to bring up our newfound fact again and it seems none of us know what else to talk about. It all circles back around the two things – the fact I’m pregnant, with twins, and the fact Carmen lost her child that we never knew existed and mentioning either is obviously a sensitive topic. For both of us.Me, I lay in bewildered and silent shock, staring at the sky, trying to get my chaotic feelings under control and absorb the reality of this, while Meadow keeps watch. She’s alert, on guard and sits staring out into the darkness, spinning to every new sound and can’t seem to switch off at all. In Colton’s absence she’s become my ever-attentive protector and it soothes me a little, while my heart still yearns for him to come to me and hug me tight.

I don't know how to react, what to think or feel. I stare at him, gawping, somehow rooted to my spot, anger consuming me, mixed emotions swirling around me like a dense fog. Pain, then relief, some inkling of joy and hope, but it all swirls back around to agonizing shards of biting fear as I try and absorb that this is real.I open my mouth to speak again, but only noise comes out, a whimper of desperate sobbing that breaks me down and in a second I'm crushed against a strong warm chest, surrounded by arms that used to be as familiar as my own skin. I'm hugged tightly by the one person who used to make my day brighter, before Colton did, before our world fell apart. I can only slump into him, so caught in past memories and how this feels so familiar, so necessary and yet I cannot stop crying against his soft clothes like a wounded child."If I had known.... I would have found a way to take you. I would never have left you or abandoned you. I truly, truly believed I was

I missed the journey home, thankfully. Not by intention, but because my body just passed out on me without my having a say on the matter. I intended to lay on the bed near Carmen for a while, in case she needed to talk to someone, give her some support for something I’ve experienced too. Somehow sleep took over and the last memory I had was gazing at her lonely figure across from me. Last night’s tension, the camping out in the open air, and no real shut eye, all the emotional heaviness of the past few days just kicked my ass, and my maybe the growing lives inside of me too.  The next thing I know I’m waking to subtle thuds on the truck walls and jump awake, startled by the rattle as though something is caving in through the roof over my head.Carmen is sat up on the other bed, her knees pulled into her chest, looking like she too slept the whole time and didn’t switch places with Meadow to drive at any point. She seems to be staring blankly at th

It’s been four days since Leyanne got here and I still cannot get any kind of read on her. She’s annoyingly distant, still likes to play vague and although she gives us zero indication that we can’t trust her, it’s always there swirling around like an underlying coldness. I don’t know if it’s like Carmen, with her wall of explainable hostile to keep people at bay. Or if her magic somehow gives her this aura of power and distance, but I get severe lonely and empty vibes from her that I can’t quite decipher.Not much has happened while we go through the motions of current daily life and plod along. Carmen isn’t really showing face often, only in brief passing, and seems to stick to her room which is understandable. Given how much she now has to process while we have downtime. She asked for time, to grieve, to absorb, to be alone with the pangs of missing her newfound mate and the loss of her family and I let her alone. She needs t