

Published By

Rik Johnston

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017

Dark Perceptions Publishing

ISBN: 9781370361120

Digital Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to a third party. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the publisher and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Please note that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places or events are purely coincidental. The religious or political views expressed in this work are fictional and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author, and should not be interpreted as such.

## C H A P T E R S E L E C T I O N

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE – SUMMER, 1980

I – THE VOICE BELOW

II – THE DESCENT

III – A GRIM ASSESSMENT

IV – ASCENDING TO SALVATION

V – TREATMENT

ACT I – LIVING IN FEAR

CHAPTER ONE

I – MORNING IN CADENCE FALLS

II – THAT FEELING IN HER STOMACH

III – WITNESSING THE HORROR

CHAPTER TWO

I – NOT JUST A BAD DREAM

II – A CRISIS OF FAITH

III – FROM ONE BAD DREAM TO ANOTHER

CHAPTER THREE

I – TUESDAY'S MORNING

II – GETTING MOTIVATED

CHAPTER FOUR

I – THE TORMENTORS

II – AN UNEVEN FIGHT

CHAPTER FIVE

I – FRIEND OR FOE?

II – NO MATTER WHAT

III – DREAMS BECOME REALITY

CHAPTER SIX

I – WAITING FOR JUDGEMENT

II – JUSTICE UNBALANCED

III – SKIPPING FOR SANITY

CHAPTER SEVEN

I – ANOTHER NIGHTMARE

II – THE INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT

III – A RARE SERENITY

CHAPTER EIGHT

I – AN AWAKENING BEGINS

II – A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

III – MEGAN'S JOURNEY

CHAPTER NINE

I – A DEAL WITH A POLICE OFFICER

II – WAITING ROOM WORRIES

III – BOTH POWERLESS

CHAPTER TEN

I – NEW ANXIETIES SURFACE

II – DOCTOR ANTHONY FREDERIKSEN

III – DECODING THE SIGNS

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I – DEBATING DECISIONS

II – WAKE UP SCREAMING

ACT II – LESSONS FOR LIFE

CHAPTER TWELVE

I – NERVOUS PREPARATIONS

II – AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

III – FOOD, FOOTBALL AND FRIENDS

IV – BUSTED

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I – THE BEGINNING OF THE PATH

II – LEARNING CONTROL

III – A SUCCESSFUL SESSION

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I – BONDING WITH MOM

II – HARD QUESTIONS AND UNEASY ANSWERS

III – TUCKING TUESDAY IN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I – BACK TO SCHOOL

II – SLIPPING

III – DARK WHISPERINGS

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I – THE MORNING EDITION

II – QUESTIONS AT THE NEXT SESSION

III – GUIDANCE

IV – TESTING THE THEORY

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I – THE APPARTITION

II – THE NIGHTMARE'S CONTROL

III – SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT

IV – A VISIT FROM A FRIEND

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I – AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

II – SECRETS REVEALED

III – A CONSCIOUS RIPPLE

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I – A DEFENSIVE SHOW OF POWER

II – BLACKBIRDS IN A TREE

III – THE ARRIVAL OF CADENCE FALLS' FINEST

ACT III – CONQUERING THE FEAR

CHAPTER TWENTY

I – A WELL DESERVED BEATING

II – LAST CHANCE SQUANDERED

III – WHITE FLAG

IV – VENGEANCE

V – FEELINGS OF DREAD

VI – COPING WITH GUILT

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I – A LEAP OF FAITH

II – A MOTHER'S LOVE

III – THE FINAL SESSION?

IV – THE UNTIMELY END OF MEGAN MOXLEY

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I – A DRIVE WITH DOUGLAS DOWNE

II – HOME FOR THE LAST TIME

III – THE ALKALI HOUSE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I – AN OVERDUE EXPLANATION

II – A THEORY FROM A FIRST LOVE

III – TEARS IN THE DARK

IV – A TOKEN FOR THE FUTURE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I – AN UNSCHEDULED APPOINTMENT

II – THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY

III – AN ENEMY REVEALED

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I – SHOWDOWN WITH A SUPERIOR MIND

II – A PLEA FOR MERCY

III – DOWN CADENCE FALLS

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I – FAITH RESTORED

II – A RACE AGAINST TIME

III – A DAUGHTER'S LOVE

IV – ANOTHER TOKEN FOR THE FUTURE

EPILOGUE – A NEW DAY DAWNS

SIXTEEN YEARS LATER

GALLERY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

OTHER STORIES BY RIK JOHNSTON

INTRODUCTION

_Dreaming god_ was born from a nightmare I once had. At the time that I had this nightmare, I was very interested in independent film, particularly films that told a very personal and small story. Sure, I'm a huge fan of special effects blockbuster films, but I wanted to make an independent film that was about broken relationships between people, and how those relationships were healed. I was inspired in 2002 by a film by M. Night Shyamalan called _Unbreakable_ , which was about a guy who is a superhero, who doesn't know he's a superhero until he was the sole-survivor of an accident, and somebody makes him begin to question why he survived without a scratch. I bought the DVD and watched it hundreds of times because I was addicted to the way the story unfolded, and how it was such a personal tale. That was the kind of story I wanted to tell in my own independent film.

One night, I had this nightmare about a car accident, which is identical to the accident in chapter one of this book, except for the character of Tuesday herself. I awoke from that nightmare and felt compelled to write about it, and was up for hours creating the basis for the idea. And that's where _Dreaming god_ began. Over the next few weeks, I began to work on a story about a boy named Jason Braddock who would have nightmares about the future. But the story would need other characters to help propel Jason on his journey. At first, Jason was in a regular family, who was well off and his parents were influential in the community in which they lived. I had the idea about a therapist, and how he would interact with Jason.

None of that worked for me. When I decided that the character needed to have vulnerabilities, I switched Jason over to a new girl character I had, and decided that she needed to be a part of a broken family where her mother was a drug addict who slept with men for money. This gave a whole new level of depth to the story, and felt like it was the right way to go, and thus Tuesday Moxley was born.

The story you're about to read is a very personal story for me, and has been through many years of refinements, and while the original nightmare is presented in its purest form, the story that surrounds it has grown beyond my wildest aspirations. This began as a screenplay for an independent film, which had to be shelved for a few years.

When I pulled it back off the shelf and read it, I realized that I had written an overlong script that was fat and very dialogue driven that would have clocked in at over three hours as a film. In 2005, I got serious about the screenplay and trimmed it down from 183 pages to a streamlined and healthier 132 pages, knocking nearly an hour off the final run time, had the film been made.

I began working with an artist named Jerry Clement, who drew some of the coolest drawings on the back of the news briefs that would sit at the table of our local coffee shop where my friends and I would hang out. Back in the day, he took those ideas and brought them to life in a way that inspired me. I began to think of ways to storyboard the script and started to create a shooting schedule for it, looking for places in the town of Longview (which was the basis for The Devil's City) and Kelso (which was the basis for Cadence Falls) Washington to use as locations for the film. In fact, The Merc in Longview served as the inspiration for The Millwork Tavern. I even began to audition a few Tuesdays, and this young girl Megan Jones, absolutely blew me away in her ability to emote for the part at 12 years old. If Megan Jones ever reads this, she needs to know that if the project had gone forward, she was unequivocally my only choice for the role out of all the young girls I met.

Ultimately, the funding for the project fell through, and I was unable to make the independent film that I wanted to make, so _Dreaming god_ got shelved for about five years. In 2009, I reformed a band that some friends and I had made called _Cerebral Eulogy_ , and there was some talk about doing a concept album to set ourselves apart from what the other bands in the area were doing at the time. I pulled out _Dreaming god_ and the band read it over and loved it, but after a few weeks of working on ideas for the project, it seemed to great of a task to accomplish with our limited means, and it was scrapped, back on the shelf again.

I've had all these ideas for stories in my head for years, so after the band folded again, I took a stab at turning it into a novel, which I had gotten about a hundred and twenty something pages into before my PC crashed and the file was corrupted beyond any hope of retrieval. I was too crushed to start from scratch again, so once again, it ended up on the shelf.

In 2012, I began talking with a guy online who said he knew a Hollywood producer who was looking for a good original story to turn into a film, and I told him about Dreaming god, and he thought it sounded interesting enough to pursue. He acted as a middle man and I sent story treatments and breakdowns of the thing, and would get notes back telling me to tweak this, or change that, and so I made a version of the screenplay that gave them what they were looking for, much of what ended up in the novel you're about to read. Somewhere along the way, the producer found another project, and _Dreaming god_ was shelved yet again.

Fast forward to 2013, I decided that I need to write a trilogy of science fiction books that have been pounding around in my head since I was a teenager called _The Chronicles of John Alkali_. I began putting story ideas together for that series, one night I had an epiphany that all the stories I would write would live in the same universe. I knew that _Dreaming god_ was a novel I was going to write after _The Chronicles of John Alkali_ , but quickly got bumped ahead as I began to work on it right from the screenplay. What's been really fun since I made that connection, was understanding how the characters from one story relate to the other story, and I can't wait for you to discover this for yourself.

Now that _Dreaming god_ is nearing completion, I am very proud of what I have accomplished in this journey. I'm emotionally attached to these characters, and the novel has forced me to flesh out details that the original screenplay never covered. This story is much greater now than I ever imagined that it could be, and I'm proud of the hours that I've spent on it. But more than that, I'm happy to finally release it, and share it with you. I hope that you enjoy what I have taken the time to create for you.

The next full-length novel I write will be the first in my science fiction trilogy called _The Chronicles of John Alkali: The Key of Immortality_. I hope to have the first novel in the trilogy completed by this time next year, in time to release by the new year in 2018. Thank you all for your support, and I can't wait to share my future works with you.

Peace and prosperity.

Rik Johnston

Mobile Alabama

P R O L O G U E

### SUMMER, 1980

## P R O L O G U E

## I

### THE VOICE BELOW

TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1980

It was a very unseasonably hot summer day in the Pacific Northwest, well hotter than most really. Rarely did the temperature ever reach up into triple digits, but this was the third straight day in a row where the heat would become the main topic of the evening news. One person who knew this very well was Tom Pennington, who was on his way from the town he lived in to a more urban area for a job interview. Not just any interview for any job, _the_ interview for _the_ job. He spent his time in college training and studying to program video games. After he had attended many months of classes, learning the ins and outs of computer programming, learning how to manipulate pixels to do his bidding, and learning how to animate them and to create actual games, he felt his moment in the spotlight had arrived. He had spent an equal amount of time on his internship, working below others with lesser creativity and imagination than he had. And finally, he had graduated a year prior only to discover there were few jobs in the field to be had at the time.

And so, Tom did what any broke college graduate would do, he and his wife moved into his parent's basement, and continued to look for work, with the reminder notes gnawing at his mailbox and his mind that his student loans were coming due, and he would eventually need to pay them. Living with his parents wasn't too big of a deal to him, but his wife absolutely hated the idea that they were living in the basement with a toddler, even though it was the coolest part of the house during the days of this very hot summer. He had applied many times now to Geo F/X, a software company in the Seattle area, and all he had gotten in return was a collection of some very nice "Thank you for your interest in our company" letters; thirteen of them, to be exact, which he kept in a manila file in his desk drawer. With that in mind, he took the time to make certain that everything was perfect for this upcoming interview, that there was nothing he had been forgotten. He had his spare resume, his references, enough fuel, enough time, and even a spare change of clothing should he need them for any reason. He had spent the last day practicing what he would say, and brushing up on his skills, so he could demonstrate that without a doubt, he was the best person that their company was looking for. He had never gotten this far before, and it was apparent to him that more than anything it was his persistence that had paid off. And for that reason alone, there wasn't anything he wasn't prepared for, at least that's what he thought.

The only thing that Tom wished were different was that the air conditioning was working properly in the car. But he was driving on the Interstate, at speeds higher than 70 miles an hour, and normally he would have the window down, but didn't want to risk messing up his hair before the interview. Other than the heat, it was a perfect day. Tom began humming along with the radio and kind of dancing in his seat as he did so.

Suddenly there was some turbulence in the car, and the steering became sluggish, which caused Tom to stop humming altogether. He reached over and turned the radio off, and heard the familiar thumping sound of what he suspected was a flat tire. Tom slowed his vehicle and pulled onto the shoulder, stopping the car, and cursing under his breath as he did so.

As the car slowed and then stopped altogether, Tom took a moment to gather his wits, so he could deal with this situation and then get to his interview. " _This is why you leave early for these things, right_?" He thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, he got out of the car as the blast of the hot summer day impacted against him, causing him to almost instantly sweat. He stepped out of the car and walked quickly to the back of the car, popping the trunk with hope still in his heart that he might still make it in time.

Upon looking inside of the trunk of the car, Tom's face drooped almost instantly. Instead of the spare tire that should have been there, there was a length of rope, a baby stroller, a baby swing, and a box of well-used baby clothes that his wife had been procrastinating taking to the trade-in store. More infuriating yet, he could visualize the spare leaning against his dad's motorcycle in the garage, causing him an increased amout of irritation with each passing moment. He could feel the rage and the frustration building inside of him, and before he knew what he had done, he had slammed the trunk shut, and was screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs. The physical activity caused him to sweat excessively and the heat sapped his energy out of him quickly, as he plopped down on the guardrail at the side of the road to catch his breath.

Thankfully, there was a slight breeze that was beginning to pick up, as Tom sat there for a moment, panting and thinking about that tire and trying to figure out how he could have possibly overlooked something as important as that. He voiced another scream again, just to make himself feel better about the situation, and that was when he thought he heard something, a voice, and it was calling for help. It was weak, barely audible over the breeze, his heavy breathing, and the whoosh of the passing traffic. Tom had dismissed it the first time he heard it, thinking that the heat was playing tricks on his mind, and sat back down again. The voice called out again.

"Help me!!" The voice cried. "I know you're up there, help me!!"

Tom's head cocked at the sound and he looked around, up the road and down the road, and saw nothing. But this was the second time he had heard the voice, so it had to be coming from someplace. He looked out over the treetops, out past the guardrail into the vast expanse of evergreens that lay beyond, and then realized that the voice must have come from below, deep down in the ravine. Again, the voice called out to him, but somewhat weaker than before. "Help Me!!"

Tom carefully climbed out over the guardrail and looked down into the ravine and saw what he thought was an unclothed body laying far below next to the creek, and furthermore, the body looked as if it had been beaten pretty badly, but he couldn't tell for sure from where he was at. It was a sheer thirty-five feet straight down from the road to the bottom of the ravine where the body laid. He wouldn't have known it from the voice that called out to him, but as he looked a little harder, he realized that it was the body of a woman.

" _This is going to be a very long day._ " Tom thought to himself.

## II

### THE DESCENT

When the realization hit Tom of what it was he was beholding, he jumped back in surprise, covering his eyes, as she was wearing no clothing but seemed to be covered in a brownish substance. In his mind, he knew what the substance was but held out some hope that it was mud or something else. Anything else but what his mind feared that it was. Tom took a moment to steady himself and to gather some courage before calling down to her.

"I'm going to get some help!!" Tom yelled in a panic. "I'll be right back!"

The woman clearly didn't like this idea.

"No!! Don't leave me!!" She screamed, grabbing handfuls of dirt and rocks and tossing them toward the wall beside her. "Don't leave me here to die!!"

But Tom's mind was already on the task at hand and he was back over the guardrail trying to flag down someone to help him. Several cars just flew by him, not even slowing down, and one came dangerously close to hitting him. After a few moments, he was able to flag down a truck, and the driver seem less than amused. He rushed over to the passenger side of the truck and frantically banged on the door, screaming incomprehensibly about needing help. Less than amused, or enthusiastic, the truck driver flung open the door and spoke to him in a gruff and threatening tone.

"You had better have a good reason why you're pounding on my truck." The rugged looking truck driver said in a tone that made no mistake about his meaning.

Tom could only respond with a barrage of words that made little sense, as he was panting again from the heat taking everything out of him. The truck driver did manage to decipher the words 'woman', 'help', and 'ravine' out of everything that he said. The truck driver rolled his eyes for a moment and pulled the truck door closed, giving Tom the impression that he was leaving, causing him to lose his nerve even more, as he slapped the side of the rig again. The driver's side door opened, and a very large, burly and gruff man lumbered out of the vehicle, walking around the front of the truck with his heavy footfalls. Tom was very intimidated by the truck driver, who he had a look on his face that meant trouble. As the trucker rounded the front of the truck and Tom could see the full view of him, he could see the driver's fists were doubled up.

Expecting the worst, Tom ran back toward where his car was parked and tried to get the driver to follow, which he did, yelling about his truck. But it was only a moment that the heat began to slow the truck driver down as he chased Tom around his car a couple times, yelling some very angry sounding, but unintelligible threats. Tom finally caught his breath enough to tell him about the woman in the ravine, but the truck driver was skeptical of Tom's claims.

"You'd better not be messing with me, boy!" The trucker said brusquely, as he walked over to the guardrail and began climbing over. He looked down into the ravine and saw the body of the woman, who had momentarily gone silent.

Fearing the worst, as Tom often did, he offered some advice.

"You should get on your CB radio and see if you can't get someone to come." Tom said, his voice wavering from the heat and fatigue. "We need a rescue crew and an ambulance."

The trucker nodded in agreement, not saying a word. Tom continued with his ramblings, going on about rescue techniques and the best way to approach

"I have some rope in the trunk; I'm going to go down." Tom stated. "When you get someone on the radio, come back and give me some help, OK?"

Again, the trucker simply nodded in response.

Tom went to the back of the car and opened the trunk again, grabbing the rope and trying to untangle it from the stroller and the swing as he did so. " _I am going to have a very long talk with my wife about this when I get home._ " He thought to himself, clearly showing his frustration over the used baby items. After freeing the rope from the trunk, he examined it and tried to calculate the length of it in his head, hoping there was enough to do the job. He thought that the length looked as if it might work, as he tried to recall some of the knot tying that earned him his merit badge back when he was a boy scout.

As Tom dragged the rope over to the guardrail, he glanced over and seen the trucker in the cab of his truck trying to reach somebody on the radio. He cursed the heat under his breath as he desperately tried to tie the rope around one of the supports that held up the guardrail, until he came up with a knot that he felt comfortable with, well enough so that he could climb down anyway.

Tom hopped over the guardrail and gripped the rope, as he looked down the sheer rock face that the ravine provided, planning in his head the best possible route for his descent. He knew that he should avoid the mossy areas on the cliff, as they would be dried out and would probably easily crumble under the weight of his feet. As he weighed his options, the woman below began calling to him for help again, and he knew that he had precious little time to lose, and just decided to go for it.

Tom tightened his grip on the rope and began walking himself down the rock face, slowly and steadily until after about ten feet down, a frightening thought occurred to him. " _What if this rope doesn't support my weight_?" He thought to himself, as a certain degree of panic began to set itself into his mind, causing his hands and legs to shake somewhat. The heat was causing his hands to sweat, making it difficult to keep a good grip on the rope, which added greatly to his panic factor. It was also not a great moment for him to remember that he wasn't overly fond of heights anyway. About half way down the face of the ravine, his foot slipped on some of the dried moss, causing him to slam into the rocks and this caused him to fear his possible demise even more. A second later he regained his footing and continued his trek down the side of the rock face until he reached the floor without further incident.

Tom knew that what he was about to see would be unpleasant, but even his mind couldn't imagine the full extent of the injuries that the young woman had endured, as he turned slowly and gazed fully on her for the first time.

"My name is Tom Pennington," he said in the calmest and most reassuring voice he could muster in his present situation. "I'm here to help you."

## III

### A GRIM ASSESSMENT

As Tom looked on the woman's naked body for the first time, he was sickened by what he saw. He wasn't sure what had happened to her, and he was fairly certain that he didn't want to. But one thing he was sure of, he knew that he had to help her. There was a reason that tire had blown when and where it did, and that reason revealed itself in the form of a helpless girl in the bottom of a ravine. He took a few steps closer to her and seen that the reddish-brown substance that covered her was a mixture of dirt and blood, or that's what he surmised it to be at any rate. The patches of skin that weren't covered in this substance were sunburned very badly, as if she had been laying here for a day or two. He tried to remember back to health class and remember what a third-degree burn looked like, and it seemed to him that this was by far the worst sunburn he had ever seen.

The girl's left leg was bent in an extremely unnatural position, indicating that it was severely broken and the bone in that leg was protruding through the skin, but not exposed. Her right leg appeared to have a large stick impaling it, and Tom wasn't certain if it had gone completely through or not. Her left arm appeared to be broken as well, as it was lying limp over a boulder, her hand dangling off the far side of it. Her right arm seemed only nominally functional, and was gripping a discarded beer can that somebody had discarded from the window of their vehicle as they passed by that spot. She seemed to be using it to gather small amounts of water from a creek that was just within arm's reach so she could dip the can into it, providing her with some fluid. This, more than anything else, is most likely what had sustained her and kept her alive.

As Tom stepped closer, he seen that the girl's flesh was very much burned, and that it had begun to rot in some places, causing a terrible odor unlike any he had ever smelled before. At the place on her leg where the branch had stabbed through, he could see maggots eating away at the meat on her useless appendage. Her face and body was covered in bruises, as if she had been beaten very badly by someone, or possibly more than one person. In various places on her body the sunburn physically covered some of the bruised areas, intensifying her pain, or so it seemed to him. Patches of her hair looked as if it were substantially ripped out, as there were areas on her exposed scalp that were scabbed over. As he lost himself in a trance of examining her injuries, or as close as he could approximate based on his limited medical experience, he was jarred back to the now by a voice from above.

"Hey, down there," The truck driver called out. "I have some help on the way, should be about 15 minutes or so."

"OK, that's good." Tom responded, still shaken by the sight of the woman. Upon hearing his voice, the girl began bawling and yelling at him, and throwing handfuls of dirt at him with her good arm. She screamed expletives at him and demanded that he not touch her, making threats upon his person if he dared to come any closer. Her use of foul language was actually so great that Tom found himself somewhat embarrassed by the things she was saying, and he had heard plenty of nasty things in his days upon the Earth.

Tom's eyes widened upon this turn of events, not knowing how to react to her at this point. It was obvious that somebody did this to her, and he was sure that even she didn't know exactly who. Whoever did this; it must have been a male, or a group of males, as she seemed particularly hostile toward him, or at least the thought of him. All he could do was try to talk to her in a calm voice, and hoped she would calm down enough for him to help her.

"Please, you have to calm down." Tom stated in a cool tone of voice. "I didn't do this to you; I am here to help you."

Tom continued talking to her for the next half a minute or so, when she seemed to calm down of her own accord, most likely having expending the last of her energy reserves. She seemed to come to her senses for the moment, and it almost seemed as if she smiled at him, but only very slightly.

Tom quickly tried to evaluate the best possible way of getting her back up the rock face so the EMT crew could help her when they arrived. Looking at what he had available to him; he knew that he didn't have the items he needed to haul her back up the cliff. He knew he wasn't strong enough to do it, and in this god-awful heat, he wasn't sure he could even if he had the physical strength.

"Hey!!" Tom called up to the truck driver. "I need a blanket from your truck, and your belt too."

The trucker looked down at him and nodded, pulling his belt off as he did so. Tom also pulled his belt off and his necktie as well. A moment later, the trucker reappeared at the top of the cliff tossing down a folded blanket, his belt, and a few bungee cords as well.

Tom grabbed the blanket and spread it out on the ground near the woman, and then looked around the area for another stick. He found one not too far away and carried it over to her. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small pocketknife, one that had been given to him by his late grandfather. He cut the tie into two pieces, and tied them around her left leg and the broken branch both above and below the knee, making a splint for the leg. She groaned in pain as he tightened the strips of fabric around her leg.

"I know that don't feel too good." Tom said, trying to keep her focus more on his voice and less on the pain. "I'm going to have to move you onto that blanket. I can't promise that it won't hurt, in fact it probably will. A lot." She nodded slightly as if she understood what he was saying and then braced herself for the pain to come

"We'll go on three, OK?" Tom asked, trying to sound as enthusiastic as he could. "One . . .Two . . .Three!!"

Tom picked her body up and set her as gently as he could on the center of the blanket as she sent out a blood-curdling cry, one that sent a shiver straight into Tom's soul. He then used the wrapped the ends of the blanket around her to roll her up in it, and then fastened the belts and the bungee cords around the outside so she would be protected on the way up from scraping her wounds against any of the rocks.

## IV

### ASCENDING TO SALVATION

Tom knew the easy part was over. He knew that thirty-five feet up that cliff would be the longest distance he ever traveled in the entirety of his whole life. He knew that it wouldn't be pleasant. The heat was already taking a toll on him, and he knew that he needed some help. He wondered for the moment if he should wait for the rescue crew to arrive, but quickly decided against it. He walked over to the creek for a moment and leaned down in front of it, cupping some water into his hands and drinking several handfuls. He dipped his head in to cool himself off, and then gathered his wits about him. He also brought the injured young woman something to drink as well, for which she seemed exceedingly thankful.

He walked over to the rope at the bottom of the rock face and tied the end of it in a loop that he could put around their bodies, which hopefully would support their combined weight. He looked up to the top of the rock face briefly and noticed that the truck driver and a few others people were there now as well. He could hear the murmuring from the small crowd that was gathering above, although most of what was said was incomprehensible to him. Tom walked back over to her, looking down at her, directly in the eyes as if he were trying to give her some of his strength. He let out a breath of air, and then bent down and picked up her body, slumping her over his shoulder, and carried her over to the sheer rock wall where the rope awaited.

Each step was more difficult than the previous one as the hot air seared into his lungs, making his breathing more and more difficult with each passing step. She didn't weigh that much, only about 105 pounds by his reckoning, but the heat just drained him of energy as quickly as he could gather it. After only five or six steps, sweat began to form on his brow, and in another couple of steps, it began to drip from his head. The cacophony of her screams pierced his head like nails from a nail gun and she showed no signs of letting up. The twenty-five feet from the creek to the rock wall seemed like miles to him as his legs began to shake slightly. After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the shade provided by the rock face, which only cooled him slightly. Another couple of steps brought him to the rope. He leaned her body against the rock face and brought the loop down over the top of both of them before tightening it around them.

The young girl's shrieking continued, and although it was very loud, Tom did his best to tune it out. He began to think of a story from his childhood about a train, _The Little Engine that Could_. He began chanting to himself over and over and over " _I think I can, I think I can, I think I can._ " He paused only long enough to call up to the truck driver.

"I'm ready!!" He called out. "Pull us up!!"

The trucker climbed over the rail and took hold of the rope, pulling on it, but made very little progress. Another few seconds later, another guy was over the railing, helping the truck driver tug the rope up to the top. As soon as there was a little slack in the rope, a woman grabbed it too, helping the truck driver as best as she could.

There seemed to be about twenty people gathered at the top of the ravine and each one of them was eager to help pull that rope.

Meanwhile, Tom and the young woman were slowly inching their way up the rock face. He was doing his best to gain a foothold, but couldn't see his feet because she was in the way. He had to remember as he passed each area of the rock where the moss was and extrapolate where he would place his feet. His muscles were burning, crying out for relief from this hideous workout they had been receiving today. Even with four people pulling on the rope now, it was still going very slowly, as he didn't want to drop her, or didn't want to lose his footing again. Again, he began to panic about the quality and durability of the rope. In the distance Tom could hear the song of the ambulance siren approaching. He figured that it must be close if he could hear it over her screaming. She was hyperventilating, and her screams were slowing down. He knew that meant that she may be going into shock, so he tried as best as he could to step up the pace. He called up to the trucker, apprising him of the situation and stressing the urgency of her condition to him.

As more slack became available on the rope, more and more people took hold of it and helped to pull them up. With additional people on the rope, the velocity of their ascent increased. Soon they were within feet of the top, a little more than an arm's length away when Tom noticed that the rope had begun to fray, and wouldn't last much longer. The trucker noticed it too.

"Hurry!!" Tom cried. "The rope is going to break!!"

Sensing the desperation in Tom's voice, the trucker heaved even harder on the rope, jerking them violently upward while the rope continued to fray just inches from where Tom and the woman were tied in the loop. Everyone pulled the rope harder; Tom's head was level with the top of the road. A few of the onlookers jumped over the guardrail and grabbed the woman, and grabbed Tom's arms, pulling him up to safety. The woman's screams died out completely as the emergency crew arrived. Tom looked over at her, nearly out of breath to see her smile only slightly just before she lost consciousness completely.

## V

### TREATMENT

Jane Doe awoke nearly six weeks later in a hospital in Seattle Washington. Disoriented, she looked around the room as a nurse entered, surprised to see her awake. The nurse took some vitals, and asked her if she knew her name. She tried to speak, but the words did not come easily, in fact she had great difficulty forming them. It was painful for her to move. She rested awake on her bed for a couple of hours before trying to comprehend what it was that happened to her.

It was another two weeks before the young woman's speech returned fully to her, and she was very glad when it did. Each day her condition improved more and more and she felt strength return to her body.

It was the third week after her re-awakening that a doctor came to her to fully discuss what happened to her. The doctor was a middle-aged woman named Chelsea Batten. She seemed very kind, but still professional. Sitting in the corner of the room in a chair with a pad of paper was a man dressed in a suit, taking notes.

"I'm Doctor Batten." She began. "Do you know what your name is?"

"My name is . . ." She began, seemingly frightened to tell them her name. "Megan Moxley."

The doctor wrote her name down in her file, as did the detective sitting in the corner. He was watching her as he was writing, taking notes on her what she was saying as well. Doctor Batten continued to ask her questions.

"Do you know how you ended up in that ravine?" Chelsea asked, hoping to solve the mystery.

Megan looked at her with a blank expression for a moment, and then replied with some hesitation. "I don't want to talk about it."

Megan went silent after this, and the doctor waited for her to say something, anything at all. After a few moments, the doctor spoke to her again.

"Megan, we only want to help you." She said in a reassuring voice.

Tears began to well up in Megan's eyes and she forced them back, not allowing them to fall. She looked at the doctor, wishing she could tell her, but couldn't find the words. Doctor Batten continued to talk to her, filling her in on some details.

"We took samples of your blood, and sent them to our toxicology lab for testing. You had traces of heroin, marijuana, and various hallucinogens in your blood. There was also another drug in your system, one that didn't match up to any of our tests." Doctor Batten said, looking Megan straight in the face as she did so. "If we are going to treat you, we need to know what this substance is."

"It's a drug that I was testing for a pharmaceutical company." Megan replied. "I don't know what it is, or what it does, but they paid me well to take it."

Doctor Batten nodded and took note of it, as did the detective in the suit.

"Megan . . ." Doctor Batten continued. "Please try and tell me what happened."

It was very difficult and very painful to her to relay the details of the story to Doctor Batten, especially with the detective present. Chelsea Batten could see that his presence in the room was unnerving to her patient, so she filled Megan in on the details. "It's okay to talk, he is a detective, and he's here to take a statement on your behalf."

After several hours of recalling all the grueling details, Doctor Batten informed her regarding the extent of her injuries, about their continued treatment and what the hospital would be doing for her in the coming months of her physical rehabilitation. It all seemed so clinical to Megan, who was already longing to leave the hospital, but that day wouldn't come for months. Just as Doctor Batten was wrapping up, another nurse came into the room and handed off some paperwork to her. Her eyes scanned over it and then she looked at the nurse.

"Are you sure?" Doctor Batten asked

"We ran it twice, just to be completely certain." The nurse responded.

Doctor Batten sat back down in her chair and looked at Megan directly in the eyes.

"We've just gotten back the results of another lab test." Doctor Batten said. "It appears that you are pregnant."

## ACT I

### LIVING IN FEAR

## CHAPTER ONE

I

### MORNING IN CADENCE FALLS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1995

It was a beautiful early autumn morning in the small town of Cadence Falls Washington and the residents of the sleepy village were waking up to face another day. People were going about doing their early business, getting their espressos, laughing and going about their business. Men, women, and children were coming and going on their way to their places of employment, to school, to appointments and other various engagements. The sun was showing brightly through the half barren branches on the trees and the air was crisp and fresh. It was a beautiful morning all in all; it was cool and breezy, but not too windy. The trees were sparsely loaded with leaves that were near their surrender for another year and the ones that had fallen to the ground were raked into random piles in the front yards of the local citizenry. It is the end of a cycle, one that will begin again soon, renewing life all around. It was a great day to be alive, unless of course fate had something else planned.

Jennifer Cox, a proud young mother was struggling to push her baby carriage up the side of the hill toward the intersection, anxious to meet with the other young mothers in the community, and hoping to compare baby stories with them. A lot can happen with a baby in a week's time, and she had news to share, that little Andrea had finally slept her first full night, much to her mother's relief.

At the drive through espresso stand at the top of the hill, people are getting their ritualistic morning coffee fix. Second in line, waiting in his car, Jake Miller is getting his morning coffee and talking through his car phone with his fiancée, discussing patterns for the dishes in the kitchen, of which he hardly seems too interested. The car before him pulls away and he pulls up to the window and upon seeing him, Cassie Davis the spunky young barista begins working on his usual drink. Having had a late night with his fiancée, he realizes that he needs a stronger dosage today.

"Excuse me honey, can you hold on a minute?" Jake said in his most loving tone, before addressing the coffee girl. "Can you make that a triple today, please?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Miller." Cassie said with a smile. "How's Brooke today?"

"She's doing well, she says to tell you hi." Jake responded and then returned to his conversation with Brooke.

A few moments later Cassie handed Jake his tall and steaming hot cup of coffee. Jake twisted around to try to reach his wallet, but his movement was restricted by his seat belt. He rolled his eyes and unlatched the seatbelt, arching his back, reaching around and fishing his wallet from his back pocket. He rummaged around in his wallet for about ten seconds for producing a five-dollar bill and handing it to Cassie.

"Keep the change.", Jake stated, with Cassie nodding in approval, a warm and pleasant smile on her face.

About two blocks down the road, Jennifer finally had reached the intersection and saw a friend of hers across the street who she hasn't seen since high school. Excited, she called out to her and her friend and waved her over. Her friend got an exceptionally excited look on her face and ran across the street and the two began to converse with one another. Jennifer turned from her baby carriage and gave her friend the biggest hug she could, and telling her that she missed her. Laura, her friend, indicated that she too missed Jennifer, and then they discussed the many changes that college had brought about in Laura's life, and the many changes that marriage and motherhood had brought about in Jennifer's life. The two of them were very excited to see one another again. But neither of them was paying attention to anything but each other at that very moment.

Perhaps the strangest of things on this particularly fine autumn morning was young Tuesday Moxley standing across the street from them, still wearing her nightgown and clutching her teddy bear, Winston. Some might think that it's unusual for a fourteen-old girl to be standing on a street corner holding a teddy bear, and they might have, if anyone had seen her at all. Stranger yet, she seemed invisible to everyone around her, as people were walking past her, taking no notice of any kind. And stranger still, it seemed as if Tuesday, on this very bright and colorful autumn morning seemed to lack any color of any kind, as if she had just escaped from an old black and white movie. Finding oneself in black and white on a morning that was as vibrantly colored as that autumn morning was, most certainly was not a good thing.

Then that queasy thing that always happened in Tuesday's stomach began to build, as if somebody had flicked a switch on. She was suddenly in touch with the sentiments of everybody around her, connected to what they were thinking and how they were feeling. She could feel Jake's amorous feelings toward Brooke, and could hear when they disagreed about the traditional china plates with the floral patterns he favored as opposed to the modern designs she preferred. She could sense the happiness that Cassie felt for the two of them, a genuine happiness wishing the best for them, and sadness as well, wishing she could attain a love like Jake and Brooke's. She could feel the ecstatic elation between Laura and Jennifer, as the two frantically shared important thoughts with each other trying to catch up the last three years in only a few moments. She could easily sense the feelings of little Andrea, as a calm overtook her.

Tuesday then had an uneasy feeling, as she often did, that something appalling was about to happen. Promptly, she reached out into the thoughts and the feelings of those around her, as she had done so many times before and it wasn't long before she figured out what was happening. Little Andrea's baby carriage began to roll backward down the hill, slowly at first. Neither Jennifer nor Laura instantly took notice of it, but Tuesday was instantly aware of it. She has experienced things like this many times and knows that it will end badly, as that feeling turns into a nauseous uneasiness that creeps into her gut and does not let go.

## II

### THAT FEELING IN HER STOMACH

Tuesday's mood instantaneously changed, seeing that the infant was in dire peril. As a man approached her on the street, she screamed out to him, hoping to alert him to the danger the child was in though she knew it would do her no good.

"Not again!" Tuesday cried out in a panicked voice. "Please don't make me go through this again!"

She said it loudly enough that everyone around should have heard her, but nobody took any kind of notice whatsoever. The man just walked on by her as if she weren't even there, which was annoying to Tuesday.

Jake Miller tossed his wallet over on the passenger seat after several unsuccessful attempts at trying to get it back into his back pocket, muttering something to himself about small economy cars. He reached over and pulled his seatbelt over and clipped it, but it didn't latch completely. He held his coffee in his hand, and took a sip before pulling out of the drive-thru, and turning onto the main road, facing down the hill.

Tuesday sensed this at once, that somehow Jake was connected to the fate of this child, and that it wouldn't end well.

Tuesday screamed again, this time even louder. Once again, nobody even looked in her direction, nobody even cocked an ear, nobody responded at all. Tuesday's attention was suddenly ripped from Jake's car and back to the baby carriage, which was rolling faster now, down the hill and heading off the side of the sidewalk and toward a tree.

It was at this moment that Jennifer wanted to show a little pride and was beaming about her daughter, and wanted her friend to meet the child. But when she turned around to show Andrea to Laura, the carriage wasn't there, in fact it had traveled a good forty feet down the hill. Instantly, Jennifer's elation transformed to panic, as she turned and gave chase to the runaway baby, calling for somebody, anybody to help her.

Instantaneously, Tuesday felt the sudden change in the emotions of the young mother, and tried her best to follow the action, but was compelled to look back up the hill at Jake's car, which had begun to pick up some speed, and had covered the distance of a block in the few seconds that Tuesday had been watching the stroller. Again her attention shifts back to the drama with the child. Jennifer is chasing the carriage, screaming, with Laura hot on her heels.

"My Baby!!" Jennifer shrieked, which seemed to get the attention of everybody on the block, but nobody seemed close enough to help her.

Tuesday continued to scream herself, but her cries fell on deaf ears. The onlookers at the top of the hill saw what was happening and became focused on the direction the stroller was rolling, too far away to cease its momentum or to affect it in any way at all. Things began to move in slow motion now, at least that's how they seemed to Tuesday and all that she can hear is the steady sound of a heartbeat, growing faster and faster, as the scene around her moving slower and slower. Bystanders from the other side of the street were beginning to take notice, with looks of great concern upon their faces, knowing they were helpless to resolve the outcome. Again, Tuesday's attention was yanked from the child and back onto Jake's point of view in his car.

She could see Jake very clearly, as if she were in the car with him, going along for the ride, wherever that ride may be taking her. Jake reached for his coffee from the cup holder, gripping the paper cup by the plastic lid from above. As Jake did so, the car enters the intersection, and the driver's side tires hit deep rut, causing the car to lurch, which separated the lid from the cup, spilling the hot coffee all over him.

"Owww!!" Jake screamed out in pain, flinging the cup aside and scrambling for some napkins in the console to soak up the hot liquid in his lap. "Crap, that's hot!!"

Tuesday could feel the pain of the hot coffee searing into Jake's skin, and could feel the concern coming from Brooke, who was still on the phone with him. Jake's attention wasn't focused driving, but alleviating the pain from the hot coffee, burning his lap.

Tuesday disappeared from the car and found herself on the street again, seeing the baby carriage, still in slow motion, as if she never missed a second of the action going on around her. Although it had picked up some serious speed, the baby carriage worked itself over to the side of the sidewalk and its wheels were now riding in the grass. A moment later, it was completely off the sidewalk and had moved onto the lawn, slowing it dramatically. A few seconds later the baby carriage came to a complete rest gently against a tree, much to the relief of everyone witnessing this. Jennifer and Laura, who were a good distance behind the infant, were still in hot pursuit, hoping to catch the runaway stroller. Tuesday stopped screaming for the moment, and a calm washed over her. She smiled, thinking that everything was going to be fine with the baby, as she could no longer sense the danger surrounding the child.

With a sigh of relief, she could sense the emotions of the onlookers returning to normal, some even began to clap and cheer for the positive outcome they were witnessing. Tuesday smiled a little to herself, and secretly hoped to herself that this would be the one time that everything turned out fine. This had to be it; this had to signal the end of the curse.

If that was indeed the case, why did that feeling in her stomach still exist?

## III

### WITNESSING THE HORROR

Suddenly her attention shifted back to Jake in his car again and she realized that everything wasn't going to be resolved peacefully. While his attention was momentarily focused on the hot coffee that was spilled all over him, he failed to realize that he had completely crossed the intersection, but more importantly, he had drifted into the other lane, with oncoming traffic rapidly approaching him. He had also picked up some considerable speed, which he was also unaware of, and he was traveling at least forty miles an hour.

The sound of a horn blaring caused Jake to look up and out his front window and at the last possible moment he saw a pickup truck headed directly for him. Tuesday could sense his panic as he pulled his steering wheel hard to the right to get the car back into his own lane, causing his tires to squeal quite loudly. In a moment of great confusion, the people around who were just cheering on the mother's dramatic rescue of the child were about to become witness to another accident. Tuesday could feel their confusion but was able to somehow remain focused on what was happening.

At that very moment, Jennifer was only a few short feet from rescuing her baby, when her head turned at the sound of the tires on the pavement and realized that the danger had not passed. Tuesday could feel the tension of situation and suddenly everything moved more slowly than it ever had. She screamed from the depths of her soul and yet again, nobody took any kind of notice of her whatsoever.

"No, Stop!!" Tuesday cried out, hoping anybody could hear her, could make a change in what was coming. "Make it stop!!"

In his attempt to avoid an accident, Jake over-compensated his steering and veered across his lane and into the front yard, on a direct course toward a tree, where a baby carriage appeared to be resting. In a moment of clarity and adrenaline, Jennifer dived toward the stroller, shoving it clear of the tree, just a second before Jake's car impacted it.

Jennifer however, was not so lucky.

Neither was Jake.

Jennifer was caught fully between the tree and the vehicle, while in a mid-air dive, which wrapped her back around the trunk backward as the front end of the car conformed to the shape, pinning her fully to the tree. Tuesday could physically feel the pain that Jennifer experienced in her dying moment, an excruciating pain, but not the worst pain than she had ever felt. She experienced it all in the fraction of a second, but it was a second that lingered on as the moment Jennifer died seemed to stretch on for what had seemed like hours to Tuesday. She could feel the horror that Laura experienced, watching the death of her childhood friend right before her eyes, and the pain of her loss. She could even feel the shock and the amazement of the onlookers, who had felt comforted and elation only a moment before.

Worst of all, Tuesday could physically feel the pain of Jake, who wasn't quite as fortunate as Jennifer. His seatbelt, which hadn't been fully connected, failed, and he went through the windshield and slammed against the tree. Jake held on for a while, and Tuesday could feel the pain he was suffering, she could feel his broken bones, she could feel the lacerations on his face, she could feel the blood filling his lungs, his heart pumping desperately. She could also sense the worry that had filled Brooke at that moment, who was still on the phone, and had to hear the gasps and groans of her true love dying. Tuesday felt Brooke's heart breaking, the loneliness of her loss consuming her, and a small part of her wished that she could have what Jake and Brooke had.

Anxiety began to fill Tuesday as the dread and the grief had overtaken her. The world began to spin around her, her attention turned to the bottom of the hill a half a block further, and could see traffic stopping, including a bus full of school children that were about to witness something that she wished they would never have to see.

Tears began to fall from her eyes, as she could no longer endure the pain she was feeling. In the dark recesses of her mind, she found herself wishing that Jake would just die so she would stop feeling this agonizing pain, although it was not nearly as bad as she experienced from Jennifer. The stress was more than she could take for very long, as Tuesday began to scream louder and louder, and the tears became more and more. In her head, she heard a cacophony of voices, some concerned, some sad, some crying. The voices and the emotions became greater and greater with each vehicle passing by the accident, and she could feel all these emotions all at once. She was fairly able to cope with it right up to the moment the school bus pulled up alongside the accident and the emotions of the children overwhelmed her. She looked up to the bus and saw several of her familiar classmates looking at the scene of the accident, and a boy was there, a boy she didn't know.

And why couldn't Jake just die? It was selfish of her to think of, but the closer he came to it, the more painful it became. The pain was so great it dropped her to her knees, and she began screaming like a madwoman. She looked up again at the school bus, and saw herself on board, and the paradox of feeling her own emotions was more than she could take. She started pounding the ground with her fists, screaming and yelling, crying. After a few moments, it became difficult to move, as if somebody, somewhere were holding her back. She didn't realize the truth of this until she fully awoke from this nightmare to find her mother restraining her on the bed.

## CHAPTER TWO

I

### NOT JUST A BAD DREAM

Tuesday Moxley sat straight up in her bed and released a guttural scream that would put a banshee to shame. Although she was being held down, she was shrieking, and far from awake, still existing in her mind where the thought of the nightmare she having had plagued her. After another few seconds, Tuesday's eyes opened and her mother was there, looking at her with impatient eyes, as if she were being disturbed from another activity she might have been involved in. Her mother was hoping to a quick resolution to this situation so she could return to her own life.

Megan Moxley was clearly not the candidate for mother of the year. In her mid-thirties, it was obvious that she had been through some difficult experiences, the result of which had made her a self-serving person with a child. Her slightly scarred face and baggy eyes demonstrated her impatience and frustration with her daughter, trying desperately to calm her, possibly to avoid any embarrassment. Megan never wanted this child, and she had made every effort in the last fifteen years to teach her the importance of self-reliance by never being present in Tuesday's life. She never wanted to make giant leaps and bounds of effort with her daughter; in fact, Tuesday's existence was something that she had hoped to cover up with alcohol and heroin abuse. Her emotions were buried deep under mountains of pain and suffering that would rival the highest peaks of the Cascades, dangerous volcanic activity lying deep beneath threatening to erupt under the correct set of circumstances. It wasn't that she didn't care about her daughter; she cared just enough, and no more. She made sure Tuesday had been taught to clean herself, feed herself, cloth herself, and provided a house for her to live in so Tuesday could look after herself. If she didn't have food for her, she would give her the money for food so she could buy herself something to eat, but mostly Tuesday would buy foods she could prepare for herself, so the little bit of money she was offered would last.

Tuesday spent many lonely nights at home alone, with the door locked and dead bolted. Meanwhile, Megan worked her job at Tuck's Diner, and would make income on the side engaging in a variety of questionable activities, including, but not limited to selling illegal substances and entertaining men well into the night. Sometimes the lines between those categories would blur across each other, but a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do to make ends meet, right? It was especially difficult because Megan had child to care for; a child who in her eyes was often an inconvenience to her and her way of life. This was one of those times.

Megan stood above Tuesday's bed staring at her for about ten seconds before casually sitting down, plopping carelessly onto the bed with a near dead weight, the scent of liquor emanating from her pores. She pulled her best concerned expression out and placed it on her face for Tuesday to see, trying to calm her so she could go back to her bedroom and what she was doing. She reaches out to hold her daughter and suddenly Tuesday was kicking and flailing frantically, trying to escape her mother. It intensified when Megan fully put her arms around her to restrain and it became clear that Tuesday wasn't fully awake or in control of her body quite yet. Tuesday's powerful thrusts force the two of them from the bed and onto the floor, where she breaks free from her mother's grip momentarily. Megan has had enough of her actions at this point and dove into her, using her weight to pin Tuesday to the floor, attempting to use some words of discouragement to ease the situation.

"Shhh, baby." Megan began, trying to hide her edginess with the situation, speaking softly to calm her daughter. "Shhh, you're having another nightmare. C'mon, get over it already, would you?"

Megan's words clearly weren't reaching Tuesday, as the thrashing about began to worsen, a knee catching her in the side shooting pain through her kidney, and briefly knocking the wind from her. Realizing that her teenage daughter had just bested her, Megan regained her focus and launched her counterattack on Tuesday, diving back into the fray on her knees, but Tuesday's foot impacted her jaw with enough force that sent her uncontrollably flying back onto her back. The child was now sitting straight up, staring blankly into the face of her mother, screaming, her hands slamming the floor hard with each exhaling shriek.

Her patience exhausted, Megan got to her feet and rubbed her jaw, hoping that it wouldn't bruise too badly and walked a semi-circle around where Tuesday was having her tantrum on the floor. Megan then grabbed her daughter from behind and bear hugged her with both arms. Again, Tuesday began thrusting her head backward, trying to hit her mother with it, pushing off the floor with her feet as she did so. Megan tried again to talk her down.

"C'mon baby, calm down." Megan attempted as her consolation turned to frustration. "Knock it off, RIGHT NOW!"

The thrashing had ceased somewhat, due either in part of Tuesday coming to her senses, or because she had depleted her energy for this fight, or perhaps it was a combination of both. Megan had realized that Tuesday's thrusts had backed them all the way up to the corner of the wall in her bedroom, and they were both breathing very hard, out of breath. Tuesday, gave a weak and fearful response to her mother's attempt at calming her.

"Everything is not going to be fine." Tuesday replied in an exceptionally raspy voice. "Someone is going to die."

Upon hearing her own words Tuesday's energy became renewed as she returned to her previous violent actions. It was as if she were trying to escape, trying to get wherever it was where these people were going to be harmed and somehow prevent it from happening. But she couldn't. After another few seconds, she fully awakened and the change was instant in her. She completely relaxed, and her mother loosened her grip on her, barely holding on to her, but attempting to with compassion and gentility, neither of which felt genuine. Tuesday continued relaying her concern to her mother.

"It's just like every other time, momma." Tuesday said, while still breathing very hard. "People are going to get hurt and are going to die."

Tuesday turned around and hugged her mother, holding on tightly as if she were trying not to be blown away by a tornado. Megan made a half-hearted attempt at hugging Tuesday back and tried to offer more words to talk her off the ledge, knowing they will be of little use.

## II

### A CRISIS OF FAITH

"I", Megan paused. "I don't know what to say." She could see the tears streaming down Tuesday's face in the moonlight that was dancing into the room through the window. "I wish I had a magic pill to take away all this pain from you, but I don't."

Whenever Tuesday had these nightmares, it made her feel like an outcast, like a freak, something that was a joke to everyone around her. It had already caused many problems in her life up to this point. All she wanted were three things. The first was to be normal, the second to have friends, and maybe even a boyfriend one day, and the third for her mother to clean up her life. That were the things she wanted most in her life, though she knew that a fourteen-year-old girl should greater goals than these. She should want to have her first kiss soon, but the nightmares deprived her of any ideas she had about that. She should want to go to slumber parties with other girls and tell secrets that would only last a few days before somebody let the cat out of the bag, but her disorder made that out of the question without any embarrassment. She had tried it once, with disastrous results and had become an outcast among the other girls her age. She wanted to have dreams and plans like any other kid, but between her problems and her mother's problems, it all had to be put on hold. Tuesday stared into her mother's eyes for an instant and asked the same rhetorical question she had always asked.

"Why Mommy?" Tuesday sobbed, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Why do I have this problem?"

Megan looked up to the ceiling in the room, hoping to magically pull an answer out of the air for her. Her eyes flicked between the ceiling and her daughter, trying to find the right thing to say, but her mind wasn't working too clearly with as much alcohol swishing around in it as she had consumed previously that evening. Finally, she gave up and told her the plain truth, as she had always done.

"I don't know." Megan began, fighting her natural proclivity toward impatience. "Maybe somebody knows, but I don't have those answers."

"Do you think anyone knows?" Tuesday asked despondently, looking for a glimmer of hope.

Megan said the first thing that came to her mind, she was anxious for a quick resolution for the night's problems.

"Well, I'm sure _somebody_ knows." Megan hesitated and then replied in a bit of a rush, "We just haven't found that person yet."

Tuesday wasn't sure she liked the emphasis her mother placed upon the word "Somebody", but didn't feel like challenging her at that very moment. She just wanted her answers, and then to try to get some sleep. With any luck, her mother would let her stay home from school in the morning, but it wouldn't help, she was going to witness this accident whether she went to school tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. The fact that she had seen herself on the school bus was living proof that it would happen and she would be there to witness it, and that thought gnawed at her mind with a persistent bite. Megan then fully released her grip on Tuesday, and picked her up putting her back into bed, handing her Winston as she tucked her in.

"What if we never find somebody who knows?" Tuesday asked between sobs, almost giving up the belief that there would be somebody in the world who could help her with her problems.

Megan squeezed her eyes closed momentarily, trying to be patient with her unrelenting daughter. She then spoke some words, though the next day she wouldn't remember those words, but what Megan said was something that stuck with Tuesday and gave her peace.

"There are just some things you have to take on faith." Megan said. "This is one of those things."

Hearing these words brought Tuesday back down to Earth in a way that she never thought possible, and even Megan herself was surprised what she had said and the effect it had on her little girl. Tuesday had read plenty of books on religion, and knew what a powerful thing faith could be.

Just then there was a voice sounding out, coming across the hall from Megan's room. It was a man's voice, and the voice sounded irritated and impatient.

## III

### FROM ONE BAD DREAM TO ANOTHER

"Hurry up an' get in here!" The voice yelled, cranky, old and impatient. "I'm paying for your time here." Tuesday's eyes went wide and she got an irate look on her face.

"Don't worry!" Megan cried out, trying to quell the impatience the man in the next room was feeling. "You'll get what you're paying for!" _"Dirtbag."_ She whispered under her breath, putting her disdain for her client on display. Megan didn't mind sleeping with men for money, but hated their attitude toward the whole thing. She felt as if she were treated less than human when she had clients such as this one, who only cared about themselves, and not about anything else. The voice in the other room changed Tuesday's demeanor, as she felt the anger rise inside of her.

"You had better go, something's obviously more important than I am." Tuesday spat the words from her mouth as she turned away, facing the wall.

Megan reluctantly stood up and turned away, rather dejectedly and walked slowly toward the door, with her face turned to the floor. As she reached the door, Tuesday spoke, but didn't turn toward her.

"It isn't just a bad dream." Tuesday spoke softly, with regret in her voice. "It will happen."

Her mother stopped and turned toward her. "Whether it's going to happen or not, try to relax and get some sleep." She returned. "I'm going to get this done, and then I have to work a double in the morning."

Megan began to close the door when she heard her daughter speak again.

"I love you, Mommy." Tuesday said in a panic, wishing her mom was the kind of mom that would be happy to stay and take care of her.

"I love you too, baby." Megan answered in a tone that sounded overly rehearsed as she closed the door for the night.

Tuesday and her teddy bear Winston were left alone in the dark bedroom, with only Tuesday's thoughts and the sounds of her mother and her guest filling her head. _Try and relax and get some sleep._ That's what her mother said. _Yeah, right. Maybe when they get done._

Tuesday had heard enough about sex from the other kids at school to know what was going on, although she had never experienced it herself. She knew other girls her age that had, one had even gotten pregnant, and another had gotten some disease that she couldn't pronounce, or so she had heard in the halls. But she hadn't even kissed a boy. She wondered, and not for the first time, if she ever would.

She wasn't exactly the kind of girl that boys were attracted to anyway. Her kinky, shoulder length hair style wasn't the current thing, and her variety of mismatched thrift store clothes or hand me downs weren't exactly on the cutting edge of style. And then there was the matter of Winston, she couldn't just abandon him so that she could attract some boy. She wasn't ready to imagine a world without Winston.

Winston came into Tuesday's life when she was only four years old, but she could remember it as if it were only moments ago. Her mother had taken a job which required her to drive to another town in another state, and couldn't get a sitter, so she had to bring her along for the ride. It seemed like it was very far away, but such are the perceptions of young children forced to sit in a car for a few very hot days when she would much rather be outside playing. She was whining about being bored, being thirsty, and being generally irritable about pretty much the whole situation. For some reason, her mother stopped at a truck stop on the side of the Interstate, a kind of a run-down joint. Upon bringing the car to a complete stop, Megan told Tuesday to use the potty if she had to while she picked up a few things in the convenience store. What seemed like a great amount of time to Tuesday, Megan returned to the car and found Tuesday there, with the windows rolled down, and she was fastened back in her seat. She had learned to do many things such as this at a very young age, as her mother wasn't too consistent. Consistency was something that fit Tuesday's personality profile even at a very young age. Her mother would do things for her from time to time that pleased her greatly, and then would slack off on them after only a few times, thus, she learned to take mental notes of everything her mother would do and learn to do them for herself. This would often frustrate Megan throughout the years, but Tuesday had come to expect disappointment from her mother often, and learned to deal with that adversity in a creative way.

When Tuesday had finally gotten herself settled back into the car seat, Megan gave her a bottle of crème soda, and a teddy bear that she had found as well. Upon receiving the bear, Tuesday squealed with delight and she revealed a smile that slowly grew from ear to ear. Deciding immediately that she needed a name for the bear, she asked her mother what she had gotten from the store. She told her that she had gotten a Coke and a pack of Winstons. It was then and there she decided that the bear's name would be Winston, because she wanted to always remember that one incredibly perfect moment she had with her mother. Over the years, it was the bright spot in her memory, the one that never faded with time.

Tuesday and Winston had been pals through thick and thin. When there was nobody else to turn to, Winston was always there, unwavering in his loyalty and love for her, not her teachers, not her mother, and especially not friends. Winston was the cool center in Tuesday's chaotic world, the star that she found herself steering by. Besides, what boy could every possibly live up to Winston? He was literally, her everything.

When at last it occurred to her that the sounds her mother and guest would never cease, Tuesday pulled her spare pillow over her and Winston's heads and soon found herself falling into a restless sleep, where she slept uneasy until her alarm woke her in the morning.

## CHAPTER THREE

I

### TUESDAY'S MORNING

The alarm clock unkindly blared out its repetitive, one-note wake-up call as Tuesday jerked awake from her light sleep. There were dark lines under her eyes, which was a telltale sign that she had rough night. Her thoughts were on her mother's make-up on the dresser, and she had hoped she could sneak enough to cover up the blemishes. She got out of her bed and found some clothes folded, although not too neatly, on her dresser for her. She slipped on her slippers and put on her bathrobe, heading to the shower, leaving her trusty bear Winston to guard the room for her.

A few minutes later Tuesday returned, with a towel wrapped around her head, drying her hair. She looked briefly at the ensemble that her mother had picked for her to wear and remembered how terribly out of synch Megan was with her personal sense of teenage fashion, as most moms tend to be. The real problem instead was that her mother actually was in touch with the fashions, but fashion was something that Tuesday tended to buck every chance she got. She grabbed her brown shirt from the closet, her baggy black cargo pants, and her pink hoody. The collection was pleasing to her eye, knowing that nobody else would be dressed like this today.

That day marked spirit day at her school, and everyone who was anyone in her school would be wearing school colors, blue and gold. The thought of those colors together was something that turned her stomach somewhat. She hated Cadence Falls High School, and most days she hated everyone in it, from the students to the faculty. The students were always teasing her about her problems, calling her a witch, or other similar things. The one title that got on her nerves the most was "freak-girl". Tuesday hated that. As if the students picking on her weren't bad enough, the teachers always seemed to take up for her tormentors when something happened, which was happening with more frequency as the months went on. She had only been in high school a few months now, but it seemed as if her reputation from middle school had carried over to her new school, as did one of the primary threats to her existence, Principal Patrick McCauley.

Patrick McCauley had worked his way up through the school system from the time she was a young girl. She had first met him when she was in elementary school, and he had made it a point to show preferential treatment to the children whose parents were more wealthy than the children whose parents were poor. When Tuesday had first began having her nightmares, Principal McCauley was the among the first who doubted her, and began turning a blind eye to other students who would bully her. Each time there was an incident with the students, she would get called to the office and be punished, while the other students who had bullied her got off without even so much as a warning. When Tuesday began her first year at Cadence Falls Middle School, she was glad to be rid of him, and things seemed to be going well until she came back from winter break and found that Principal McCauley had been reassigned to her school, where the pattern began yet again. With each consecutive year passing, his method of singling her out become more vicious. He had treated some of the other students in the same way, but for Tuesday, it felt very personal. And when she had finally left the middle school, she thought it would be the last she would see of him, yet there he was again, there on her first day of high school, ready to plague her some more, as budget cuts gave him the job of both the middle and high schools. Principal McCauley was one of the reasons that she hated school, and couldn't wait to move out of Cadence Falls.

"Stuff spirit day." Tuesday told Winston, who gazed at her in silence, agreeing with every word she said. "They don't like me, and I don't like them."

Tuesday removed the towel from her head revealing her curly brown neck length hair, which she picked up her brush and began to fix. She gazed into the mirror as she fixed her hair, and applied some light makeup to cover up the lines under her big brown eyes. When she finished, she inspected it to make sure that she looked all right. She knew that nobody would notice either way, but there was no harm in looking nice. She put on the clothes she picked out and then put on some socks and shoes. Just for extra measure, she put on some of the body spray she had gotten from her mother last Christmas. Megan had always tried to pick out things like this for her, as she knew that Tuesday liked things from the local bath store. She took a last look in the mirror, inspecting herself top to bottom, and gave herself two-thumbs up.

Tuesday then went over to the desk in her room and gathered her books and her papers, stuffing them all into her backpack as if it were a Thanksgiving turkey. It didn't matter to her, she knew that her homework was complete; there was no rule for how neatly the paper was when she turned it in. She once had an IQ test and scored really high. She didn't know the exact score, but she overheard the councilor telling her mother that she had the highest IQ score he had ever seen from a girl of her age. She scored higher than anyone else in the school. Tuesday knew that she was also very motivated to boot. The councilor told her Megan that if this trend continued, her daughter could have any career she wanted so long as she was willing to put in the time in college.

College. She couldn't wait. Only four more years in Cadence Falls and she could leave forever. If by some chance her mother wanted anything to do with her, she could come and see her. Once she left Cadence Falls, she told herself there would be no looking back. Ever. Period. She relished the thought in her mind of the invitations to class reunions, which she would send back, and would use as many adult words as necessary to convey the message that she wouldn't be attending without fear of retribution.

She had repeatedly begged her mother to move from Cadence Falls, but her mother wouldn't hear of it. Megan owned the house in Cadence Falls, and had worked hard to make the mortgage payments on it. If Megan had one thing to be proud of in her life, it was that she had done well in making a home for her and Tuesday to live in. She purchased it from an elderly couple who were looking to move to Florida to escape the cold winters, and had left it furnished with the antique furniture they had purchased over the years. Tuesday often wondered how much some of it would be worth if she took it to be appraised, and if the sum was enough, if she could convince her mom to sell the house and leave Cadence Falls. It didn't really matter though, she was only a kid and no proper appraiser would never come anywhere near a hole like Cadence Falls. Even if they did show up, and something was worth a lot of money, her mother would probably sell it off to pay for her next high. She simply couldn't understand why her mother didn't sell the house and get a fresh start someplace else.

When Tuesday had finished loading her backpack full of her school paraphernalia, she grabbed Winston and stuffed him into a pouch that she had sewn on the outside specifically for him. It seemed that Winston was the best friend a fourteen-year old girl could have most days. He certainly was easy to talk to. She always made him feel better. And most importantly, he would never leave her. Inside she knew that he was inanimate object and nearly grew out of taking him everywhere a few years ago. She once saw a television program where a man lived a very happy, solitary life with his only friend being a houseplant. It was all the justification she ever needed to continue on with her relationship with Winston. Ever since that day, she never questioned Winston's loyalty, in fact, it had become a lot of fun to try and use Winston to throw the shrinks off when they became too inept or unnecessary. She and Winston were going to be friends for life.

After checking to see that Winston was secure, she picked up the pack and slung it over her shoulder, and headed downstairs to see what the day has in store for her.

As she reached the edge of the stairs, the memory of last night's dream sprung into her mind, and she froze. The numbing fear overtook her and she was unable to take another step forward, and she found that she was visibly shaking. Going down those stairs was the last thing she wanted to do, but knew that she had to continue on.

Bravery takes on many forms. Sometimes it's the guy who runs into a burning building to save an infant from a fiery death. Sometimes it's the police officer who puts his life on the line to save others. But sometimes bravery takes the form of gathering every ounce of courage you have to go down a flight of stairs so you won't be late for school, regardless of what the day might have in store for you.

" _Maybe it won't even happen today."_ Tuesday had to remind herself that sometimes she would dream these things and they wouldn't happen until weeks later. Still, she wasn't one to throw caution to the wind.

With that in mind, Tuesday swallowed that lump in her throat and began that journey down the stairs as one would begin any journey, with the first step. She forced the right foot forward, and then the left, and repeated the process until the feeling had passed. About half way down, she became comfortable enough to take the rest of the staircase with confidence.

## II

### GETTING MOTIVATED

When Tuesday had reached the bottom of the stairs, she realized that she was in a much more cheerful mood than she had expected to be in now that the feeling of dread had passed. She looked around for her mother and when she didn't see her, figured she had already gone to work. She headed into the kitchen and set her backpack onto the table, where on the other side there was a note with some money sitting on it. Tuesday scrunched her face up in a sour look on and walked around to the other side of the table, picking up the note and read it aloud.

Here is some munny for your lunch. Sorry I slept a littel late and didn't have time to make a lunch for you so your gonna hafta buy something for you to eat. I hafta work late tonight, so get yourself something for dinner as well. Try to get thru the day as best as you can. – Love Mom. P.S. – No skipping school today or else your grounded for a month and a half.

Tuesday was tempted to make proofreading marks on her mother's note, but instead just grabbed the money from the table. To her amazement, she looked at it and realized that it was not one, but two twenty dollar bills sitting on the note. " _She must have worked really hard last night."_ Tuesday thought to herself, still clearly still disgusted about the way events had gone down just hours ago. It didn't bother her so much on the outside that her mother was sleeping with people for money; it just bothered her that she did it at home. Why couldn't she go to her client's house? Why did she have to have a stupid drug habit anyway? If it weren't for the drugs, she wouldn't have to have the extra money and wouldn't have to sleep around. On top of her own problems, she had to deal with the fact that her mother was engaged in this sort of behavior. Worse yet, everyone knew it. It wasn't as if she was being discreet about any of it. She put it all out there on the table for the whole world to see. Megan probably would have been arrested by now if she hadn't kept clientele with half the Cadence Falls Police Force. Considering there were twelve cops in town, she had three on her side, turning a blind eye. The others were working on more substantial things, undercover work, doughnuts and coffee, whatever. Pushing the thought from her mind, she stuffed the bills into her pocket taking advantage of her mother's generous lack of economical skills.

Tuesday turned to the cabinet and poured a large amount of generic, sugar-coated cereal into a bowl. She then went to the refrigerator and opened the door, reaching for the milk. She put the milk out onto the table and opened it up, and smelled a sharp, sour smell as she did so. In a flash, she moved the milk over to the sink and poured it down the drain, making every effort she could not to throw up on the kitchen floor. She turned and tossed the carton toward the general direction of the trash, missing it completely and landing the discarded container somewhere on the floor.

She then spied the half of pot of coffee sitting on the coffee maker, having gone lukewarm from the automatic shutoff feature which seemingly had clicked off an hour or so ago. _"That'll do."_ She thought as she reached for a cup. She gently poured the caffeinated beverage into the mug and added some sugar to it. Black and sweet, just the way she liked it. Tuesday carefully picked up the coffee from the counter and moved it over to the table where it would be joined by food.

She reached up into the cabinet and pulled down the bread, removing two slices from the bag. She gave it the once over for green moldy spots. Seeing none, she then proceeded to place them gently inside the toaster. She checked the toaster's temperature setting and turned it down as not to burn her toast, thinking about the forthcoming day. She jiggled the handle of the old toaster, as it would sometimes stick and then pressed it down. So far, none of the morning seemed memorable to her, so with any luck, today wouldn't be the day that the accident would happen. She would have definitely remembered the smell of the milk. And she also wouldn't have been surprised by her mother's generosity with the money thing if this had been the day that she had foreseen.

She really went into her mind and tried to think about what it was that was happening to her in that dream, and felt as if she really needed to know, for if nothing else, her own peace of mind. She couldn't recall any of the details from before standing out on the street in her nightgown. She really wished she were sick today, so she could stay home and not find out one way or the other, and then the thought of skipping crossed her mind until she remembered what the note her mother left her said. And the money, what was that all about? Was it some bribe to get her to go to school? Did her mother feel guilty about having a client at the house last night? What was it about that exact amount of money that made her feel uneasy, other than her mother was never this giving?

The clicking sound of the toaster finishing its task interrupted her from her thought, as she automatically walked over to the cabinet and got out a plate, placing it on the counter, and putting her toast on it.

She pulled the hot slices from the appliance and put them on the plate, then skipped over to the refrigerator, swinging the door wide open, trying to decide between butter, jelly, or peanut butter. In the end she decided on strawberry preserves, being the most filling of the three. For a moment, she struggled with the lid of the jar, which had been sealed, mostly due to the stickiness of the sugary substance contained within. Finally, the lid popped open and she plunged a knife deep within the jar, trying to maximize the amount she could balance on it in transit to the rapidly cooling slices of toast. After a few attempts, she fully covered the heated bread with the strawberry goodness, and took it to the table where she sat, eating alone before leaving for school with only Winston there to look after her.

## CHAPTER FOUR

I

### THE TORMENTORS

By the time that Tuesday had finished up with her toast she realized that it was nearly time for the bus to arrive outside to take her to school. She remembered seeing herself on the school bus as it passed by the scene of the accident, and tried really hard to recall what she was wearing. And who was that boy who was with her? She didn't know him, and she only got a really quick look at him, all she could really remember about him was what he was feeling, which was concern and confusion. She didn't know, but she was certain that she would find out. Sooner or later, she would find out.

But this was not the time to dwell on the identity of a boy, it was time to walk outside to the bus stop. She picked up her backpack from the table and slung it over one shoulder, walking quickly from the kitchen, through the living room and to the front door. She pulled the curtain aside and peeked outside to see if the bus was out there yet, but all she saw were other kids waiting as well. Tuesday made a sour face as she realized that the Jackson twins were out there, ready to give her another verbal lashing for the day. Upon seeing them she realized that she really didn't want to have to face them on this particular morning, especially after witnessing the events her nightmare.

The Jackson Twins, Serina and Jessica, were Tuesday's archenemies. It seemed that these two little psychopaths were the architects of most of the problems she had with everyone in Cadence Falls. When they were all very young, they attended a slumber party for a mutual friend, one that had met with disastrous results. The true nature of these events was a secret that Tuesday kept closely guarded and didn't talk to anyone about, not even the collection of therapists she had visited over the years. However, it was the point of view of the Jackson Twins that earned most of the ears of the local area. Their family was rich and influential, so they could say whatever they wanted about Tuesday, or anyone else for that matter. Their father owned the casino, hotel and ski lodge in Cadence Falls. Somewhere down the family line, a relative who was a retired Civil War colonel founded Cadence Falls as a retreat from his experiences in the war.

During the Civil War, Lance Jackson served under the banner of the North, and its President, Abraham Lincoln. After a few years of witnessing the horror and the bloodshed of the war, he planned and plotted his escape, eventually taking a few other men and going AWOL. He traveled to the north, but was soon recaptured and sent back to the frontlines of the very terror he was trying to leave behind. Again, he tried to flee, and again was captured, and this time they imprisoned him in a Union military camp. While he was imprisoned, he began to hear about the expansion to the West, which intrigued him. After a few months, the war ended and the prisoners were released and pardoned by President Grant. For a time, he found some work with the railroad, which carried him as far south as St. Louis. It was here that Lance met with some like-minded people whose minds had been scarred by the horrors and atrocities of the war. They decided that in order to recover they would need to find a place that was untouched by war and politics. With the expansion to the West, Jackson decided that it would be the perfect time to reach out and find something completely new. A new world.

After some misadventures along the way, chief among them a bank robbery and a jewel heist in which one of his companions lost his life, they eventually found their way north and into the Oregon Territories. He crossed the Columbia River and continued north until he came upon a beautiful site. It was a peak in the large range of mountains, with a hidden valley with a waterfall nestled into it. It was here that what was left of his ragtag troop set down roots, and formed the community known as Cadence Falls. The valley opened out into a plain, which had a lake and some very lush woodland around. The money they had stolen was buried under the foundation of Lance's home, left for his heirs, and never spoken of for years.

Many years later, on his deathbed, Lance Jackson did in fact bequeath the secret of the hidden treasure to his favorite great grandson as a child. For many years after Lance's death, this information as kept secret until he could recover the wealth on his own. Lance Jackson's great grandson tore up the original Jackson house and found the fortune, which had veiled below the residence for so long. Being that the money was no longer in use and was from the Civil War era made it instantly worth much more than its face value. The jewels were sold off at an auction, and this is how twenty-five-year-old Thomas Jackson earned his fortune and became the favored son of Cadence Falls. His son, Thomas Jackson Jr., having been born into wealth and privilege, invested in the natural surroundings and realized that tourism would do well, thus building Cadence Falls into its current state. Cadence Falls became a center for tourism year around, with its abundance of hiking trails and outdoor activities in the summer, and a nearby premiere ski location in the winter.

Thomas Jackson Jr. also created an international import/export corporation called The Jackson Consortium, which he operated from The Devil's City, the city that neighbored Cadence Falls. The business had made the Jackson family obscenely wealthy, and The Jackson Consortium had repeatedly landed in the Forbes Top 100 for many consecutive years. Certainly, Thomas Jackson had the power to accomplish anything that he would ever desire to, and few in the area had the power or courage to oppose him. In 1977, Thomas Jackson married Alicia Scott, and began planning a family, the first being their twin girls, who were born in 1981.

Needless to say, Serina and Jessica Jackson had everything handed to them. They were the girls that the spoiled kids called spoiled, and when the two of them said something, everyone listened. They created the trends for the kids in school. If the Jackson Twins didn't do it or didn't like it, then it wasn't cool. For example, when the two of them told jokes that weren't that funny, everyone laughed anyway, trying to gain favor with them. It seemed to Tuesday that this was a kind of an old west mentality. The Jackson girls weren't nearly as bright, or clever, or as funny as they thought they were. Tuesday liked to think that everyone knew that, but nobody, save her, was brave enough say it.

"If I had known they were riding the bus today," Tuesday said to Winston, the disdain in her voice as obvious as print on a newspaper, "I wouldn't have eaten. No point in throwing up perfectly good coffee and toast." If Winston could have laughed, he would have done so, uproariously.

Tuesday paused for a moment, resting her head against the door almost as if she were saying a silent prayer to herself. She then exhaled sharply "Okay, Faith." She whispered to herself and turned the knob and let the door swing wide open before her.

She stepped out into the cool autumn morning, the cold rush of air waking her fully from her morning routine. She turned and locked the locks on the door and placed the keys back into her pocket, then began her trek to the bus stop, and to inevitable confrontation with Serina and Jessica Jackson.

## II

### AN UNEVEN FIGHT

Tuesday seemed to be making good progress at first toward the bus stop, but each step seemed to become more and more laborious. Each step brought a more heightened sense of fear, not of the spoiled twins, but of the nightmare itself. Soon she had slowed to a complete stop and it felt to her that her feet had become rooted into the ground. Each step resounded the question louder into her head. _"What if today is the day?"_ Finally, she just couldn't go on; she was completely paralyzed with fear.

Serina Jackson, who was standing at the bus stop, only twenty feet away noticed her first and immediately began taunting her.

"Yeah, you can wait for the next ride." Serina called out to Tuesday, who was trying to talk herself out of looking stupid in front of the other kids. Then Jessica turned around to see whom her sister was talking to. Tuesday was too busy trying to snap herself out of the trance to notice them at first.

"C'mon feet, move." Tuesday whispered under her breath. "Don't want to get grounded after all." But still her feet refused to move.

"Yeah freak-girl." Jessica teased with a sneer on her face, "We don't want you on our bus anyway."

" _Freak-girl?"_ That snapped Tuesday back to reality quicker than anything she could have come up with on her own. She hated being called that, and the Jackson girls knew it. She wasn't overly fond of the name her mother had chosen for her, and she had gotten teased badly enough for it, let alone for other things. Tuesday had assumed that her name was given to her because she had been born on a Tuesday and her middle name was May, which just happened to coincide with the month she had been born in. She had always wished that her mother had put more thought and effort into her name, but in true Megan Moxley fashion, she had committed to the minimal effort, per her usual pattern of doing things. But she preferred her real name far more than she did "Freak-Girl". Her attention instantaneously focused from her feet to the two little snobs waiting for her as she began to plot verbal comebacks in her mind. " _I didn't think that this day could get any worse."_

Having regained control over her feet, Tuesday briskly continued onward to the bus stop, where the other girls were pointing and laughing at her lack of school spirit displayed by her clothing. They said nothing, but kept pointing and giggling, which was making Tuesday angry, but she decided to ignore it and turned away from them. A moment later, Jessica snatched Winston from Tuesday's backpack and tossed him over into a pile of raked up leaves. Wide-eyed, Tuesday turned around and looked at Jessica and then at Winston, whose legs were all that was sticking out of the pile of colorful, dried up foliage. Then she clenched her fists up and yelled in directly in Jessica's face.

"You got a problem?" growled Tuesday in an unexpectedly loud tone that sent Serina and Jessica both stepping back and into defensive positions. The two of them began cackling like witches on Halloween night at a bonfire, as Tuesday went to rescue Winston from his would-be leafy fate.

"Yeah, you." Jessica responded not too kindly, snickering to herself. "Just stay away from me freak-girl, or else." She said letting her voice trail off as the "or else" part came out, insinuating a veiled threat. It was a threat that Tuesday considered to be a challenge. She scooped Winston up and brushed the debris from him, placing him back into his pouch. Tuesday set the backpack down, narrowing her eyes into slits and positioning herself into an offensive position, ready to defend the honor of her teddy bear.

"Or else what?" Tuesday returned the challenge, as if she were spiking the ball over the net in a heated verbal volleyball match. Then Serina walked up next to Jessica to back her sister up.

"Or else we'll give you a nightmare you won't wake up from." Returned Serina, full of fire in her voice.

"Oh yeah?" Tuesday shot back, taunting the would-be tormentors. "You want to put the skills you learned in your ballet class against the skills I've learned in my taekwondo class?"

"Don't you mean your taekwondon't?" Jessica offered, trailing off the word but emphasizing the T sound at the end of the pseudo-word. She tried to continue her teasing but was cut off by Tuesday.

"You don't scare me, and next time you touch my bear, I'll rip that hand off and feed it to the wolves! Got it?" Tuesday threatened. "You'll need your sister's hand to do all your favorite activities from now on, but I can't imagine how that would change things from the way you're already doing them."

The two girls stopped in their tracks for a moment, trying to fully comprehend what it was that was just thrown at them. Then they realized that the comment was incestuous in nature, triggering their rage even further. They realized that Tuesday wasn't about to play in the same boundaries that they were in. The argument rapidly escalated, taking a turn for the worse.

"What?" Serina screamed, trying to drop herself to a new low. "Did you learn that talk from your hooker of a mother?"

Tuesday had her defenses fully up by this time. She was ready to fight back and was in fine form. "No." Tuesday returned, snarling her anger at Serina. "I learned it from yours."

"Ha!" Jessica laughed, going for the most obvious insult she could think of. "That really hurts my feelings coming from a freak-girl!"

"Yeah!" Was all that Serina had to back up her sister's words.

"I'm not trying to hurt your feelings!" Tuesday yelled, coming right for Jessica. "I'm trying to hurt your face!"

Tuesday swung her arm straight out in front of her, catching Jessica off fully guard, impacting the left side of her mouth with a force that knocked the snooty twin to the ground with a low, dull thump. Tuesday's blow had connected cleanly causing Jessica's lip to split wide open and began bleeding onto the yellow-gold color of her "spirit jacket". Serina looked down at the ground where Jessica sat dazed, and moved herself into an attack position. Before she could fully prepare, Tuesday's foot caught her under her jaw, knocking Serina to the ground, on top of her sister. The two girls, both sitting on the ground at this point, looked at each other and then at Tuesday, with furious and looks in their eyes, and an intention to cause harm to her.

This was the way of things, especially on Monday and Friday mornings. Almost every week, the Jackson girls rode the bus to school on those days, and every week they tried to start something with Tuesday. Often the two of them would come out on top, outnumbering her two, sometimes three to one. Sometimes their friend Lisa would show up and ride the bus with them and that was the crux of Tuesday's Thursday mornings. The three of them would often beat her pretty badly. Sometimes Tuesday was often in so much pain that it made trying to do anything intolerable, and there was nothing she could do about it, except fight back she learned. The two, sometimes three of them would beat her and she would suffer the next couple of days, or she would jump the gun and take them by surprise. It didn't do any good to tell anyone when she got to school; they all appeared to be on their side. So she learned to strike first and hard, contrary to the teachings of her sensei. She tried to reason with him that her only form of self-defense was to attack before they inevitably got the chance to, and she was becoming increasingly more proficient at it. Usually they would regain the upper hand, and Tuesday would always end up the victim, with nobody to talk to, nobody to sympathize with her. She could have just waited inside her house until the bus arrived, but she didn't want to appear to be a coward in anybody's eyes. In her mind, it was better to take the physical beating than to take the emotional one.

In a flash, the Jackson Twins were back on their feet and circling Tuesday trying to figure out how to get inside her defense, knowing that it would only take one blow to destroy her concentration. Meanwhile, Tuesday was doing an exceptional job of repelling Serina and Jessica's uncoordinated attacks with simple maneuvers.

"We're gonna beat you down, crybaby!" Jessica shrieked, throwing an uncoordinated and uncontrolled punch in the direction of Tuesday's face, which she easily sidestepped.

"Yeah, did you dream about this?" Serina taunted, and then attempted to sweep Tuesday's leg out from underneath her, again easily sidestepped.

"I didn't need a dream to help me to foresee what morons you two are." Tuesday responded, remaining calm, focusing and opening her senses to prepare for the next wave of attacks.

The next wave seemed more focused as they continued to circle around Tuesday, throwing in punch after punch, which were all simply easily blocked or sidestepped. But then fate handed victory to the Jackson girls, as Tuesday's leg was swept out from under her and she fell down on her back, taking her wind from her. Instantly the twins were on her, cuffing her viciously, laughing and teasing as they did so. Although they were hitting her, their attacks were weak, just strong enough to hurt for the better part of the day, but it was unpleasant nonetheless. Suddenly there was an unfamiliar voice coming from a direction that Tuesday couldn't see.

"Get off her you two!" The voice commanded, directing the Twins to cease their actions. "Leave her alone, or you'll deal with me!"

The pounding momentarily subsided as Serina and Jessica looked to see who was disturbing their ritualistic beating of the freak-girl. The two of them could tell by the sound of the voice that it was a boy, but couldn't see him as he was backlit by the morning sunlight streaming through the leafless trees behind him. He began to circle around the trio, out of the light and became more visible to them. He was perhaps a year older than Tuesday, with sandy blond hair, which was disorganized on his head in an unkempt mop. In one hand, he clutched the strap of his backpack, which was slung over his shoulder, and in the other a beat up, sticker-covered skateboard. He was dressed in green shorts and a black hooded sweatshirt that was adorned with the names and logos of bands that Tuesday hadn't heard of. He stared at the twins with his blue eyes, narrow and slitted, peering in accusation with justice on his mind. His presence was such an out of place event that at first neither Serina nor Jessica could believe he was there, much less opposing them. They were the most popular kids in school, and they thought that they knew everyone, whether they liked them or not, but they did not recognize this boy. It took the better part of ten seconds to realize that he must be new to Cadence Falls.

"You heard me!" The new boy re-asserted, stating his terms loudly. "Get off her or you'll deal with me!"

Slowly the twins picked themselves up and turned to face Tuesday's rescuer, kicking Tuesday back onto the ground as she tried to get up. Her head hit the soft, wet lawn as she crawled backward and away from them before trying to stand again. After backing about three feet from the girls, Tuesday slowly got to her feet as well, a little sore, but better off than she normally was following a confrontation with the Jackson Twins. Meanwhile, the twins were questioning the newcomer, trying to satisfy their curiosity and making vain attempts to turn him to their cause. It was a scene that reminded Tuesday of an old western movie, where the gunfighter had come to town to liberate those under the yoke of oppression. She didn't know who the new boy was, but she was certainly relieved to have an ally, if only for a few moments.

Then it hit her, " _This is the boy from my dream."_ And if that was the case, she was thinking that a little bullying wouldn't be the worst thing to happen today.

Suddenly, she wasn't sure this was going to be such a great day.

## CHAPTER FIVE

I

### FRIEND OR FOE?

The Jackson Twins were more than willing to make a scene if the new boy wasn't willing to mind his own business. They began circling him in their defensive postures, wondering what this newcomer might do if they continued to beat on Tuesday.

"Who do you think you are?" Serina asked in a rude and condescending tone of voice.

"I'm the guy that doesn't like the odds the way they are." The newcomer announced; clearly not impressing the twin girls with his cocky response.

"What are you going to do about it?" Jessica asked in a offensive manner, stepping closer to the boy, deciding whether to swing at him or not.

"I intend to even the odds." He stated in an icy fashion, his blue eyes unblinking, gaze shifting back and forth between the two of them.

Serina and Jessica were clearly not pleased with the way their morning turning out, and they weren't shy about voicing their opinions. If there was one thing the Jackson Twins were not used to, it was somebody standing up to them. Even more troubling to them, was that this infidel was standing up for the freak-girl.

"You should just turn and walk away." Serina said in an equally cold tone. "Our business with her isn't finished . . ."

"Leave her alone." He interrupted, doubling up his fists and anticipating their attacks. "Leave her alone or you're going to get more than a few bumps and bruises." His personal philosophy wouldn't normally allow him to hit a girl, but in the protection of an innocent person, he was more than willing to let his rule slide.

The Jackson Twins stared coolly at the new boy for a moment and then turned and slowly retreated toward the next bus stop up the hill, keeping their attention divided between where they were going, and making certain they weren't being followed. The newcomer watched them leave and listened closely while they made veiled threats under their breath.

"Yeah, it looks like Freak Girl found someone to fight her battles for her." Serina taunted, trying to get a rise out of Tuesday, provoking her for another attack.

The stranger then turned around to see Tuesday standing next to a tree with her head buried in her hands, in what may have been a combination of both embarrassment and injury.

"It's OK now." The body told Tuesday upon his approach. "They won't bug you again for a while, are you alright?" He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort, but she sensed it coming near and swatted his arm away.

"I'm fine." Tuesday returned in an isolated tone. "I don't need help."

"From where I was standing, it sure looked like you did." The boy countered, still trying to be helpful.

Tuesday looked up and made eye contact with him for the first time, and between them an eternity seemed to pass, exchanging a universe of expression. She certainly didn't foresee, or even anticipate this moment. In her heart, she didn't mean to be ungrateful to him, she was feeling humiliated that her first encounter with this boy demonstrated weakness, and it need to be corrected. After their personal eternity had passed, the boy turned to leave. That feeling in her gut told Tuesday that it would be a mistake to let the boy leave without making a proper introduction.

"I . . .I'm sorry." Tuesday began, trying to make amends for her flash of annoyance. "I don't know what I was thinking, thank you."

The boy turned back around to look at her and a slow smile crossed his face as his gaze returned to her. He just stood there for a moment evaluating the girl, and perhaps making a few judgments about her as he did so. Nervously, Tuesday introduced herself to him.

"I'm Tuesday, what's your name?" she said, half stuttering with anxiety, extending her hand to him after she wiped it on her cargo pants to make sure it was clean.

"Jason Alkali" he replied, reaching out his hand and shaking hers, happy to meet somebody in the new town in which he was living.

## II

### NO MATTER WHAT

It was at that next moment that the school bus came into view, and began to slow down to pick up its quarry. The air brakes hissed their solitary note as the vehicle came to a full stop in front of the children, the double doors parting and allowing them to board. A powerful feeling of anxiety instantly began to overtake Tuesday as the other kids moved toward the vehicle.

Serina and Jessica were already on board and were occupying the same seats they did every other time they rode the bus. And even before Jason and Tuesday could get onto the bus, they had begun to fill in other students of their twisted version of the events of the morning, and it wasn't long before everybody knew that Jason had stood up for Tuesday and opposed the Jackson Twins.

Jason entered the bus, and then stopped at the top of the stairs looking back in anticipation for Tuesday to enter, who still stood outside, staring up at the entrance, the color drained from her face, frozen in her tracks. It was that moment when Jason noticed that the other kids were staring at Tuesday, whispering things that he imagined were not pleasant amongst themselves. The shrill voice of the bus driver broke the symphony of whispers.

"Hurry up, Moxley!" The bus driver commanded sharply, impressing upon Tuesday the need to save time. "We don't have all day."

Tuesday took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it, putting her foot on the first step of the entrance, and the next foot on the next step, with her fears increasing with each footfall, bringing her closer to a destiny she did not wish to dance with. Suddenly, without realizing it, her hand was being held by Jason's as he guided her down the center aisle to a seat near the back, passing the onlookers who continued to taunt her with whispers and laughs. In Tuesday's mind, each row of seats they passed, the volume of the taunting grew in her mind, drowning out any feeling of positivity she may have actually been experiencing at that moment. Just then, a wadded-up piece of paper bounced off her head, causing her to jerk nervously and release Jason's hand. She refocused her attention on the rear window of the bus, and walked to the seat at the back of the bus with great haste, Jason following behind. When Tuesday reached the back of the bus, she plopped herself down in the seat and pulled her knees up to her face to hide herself from everybody else on board.

"Would you care for some company?" Jason asked enthusiastically, trying to get Tuesday to relax.

Tuesday was feeling conflicted about this idea, while she wanted the company of this boy who had shown her such kindness as she had never known, she didn't want to have him witness what would inevitably be coming in the next few minutes. In the end, she reasoned that he was already on the bus, so he was going to see it one way or another, so she might as well gamble and hope that he wouldn't treat her the same way as all the rest of the kids do. Still though, the fear was growing inside of her, and she knew that she wasn't going to be herself. _"But what if this boy truly is different?"_ she thought to herself. _"What if I don't have to deal with this alone?"_ This filled Tuesday with a small glimmer of hope, that maybe somebody might actually listen to her and make an attempt to understand her point of view for once. At least she hoped he would, and that made the invitation all the more tempting to her. Without thinking too much more on the subject, she gave him an answer.

"Yeah, sure." Tuesday replied, her voice trailing off, "I guess so."

Jason put his backpack on the floor and scooted into the seat close, but not too close to her, attempting to strike up some small talk with her.

"So, have you lived here long?" Jason asked inquisitively, probing for information that he could use to strike up a much longer conversation with her.

Tuesday paused a few seconds before answering, staring out the window, despondent in her tone of voice.

"Yeah." Tuesday paused, her lip quivering as she spoke. "All my life."

Jason could tell that something was definitely bothering Tuesday and as near as he could figure, it must be the incessant bullying of the other kids, so he persisted on demonstrating to her that he wasn't going to be like them, and so the small talk continued.

"My family just moved here from Phoenix." Jason began, trying to make his voice the only thing that Tuesday could focus on. "My Dad is a big shot lawyer there, and we moved up here so my Mom could work looking after Foster children. My Mom and Dad aren't split up or anything, he comes home on the weekends to stay with us. In fact, he hopes to close up shop there in the next few months and open his practice in here in Cadence Falls after he passes the Washington State Bar Exam."

Tuesday perked up a little bit hearing about Jason's home life and began listening more actively to what he was saying. He spent the next few minutes talking about how his parents work as a team in family law, and do what is best for displaced children or kids in bad situations. Jason's Dad, Jim would go to court to represent the best needs of the child, and if that included Foster care, he would recommend his wife's services. His Mom moved to Cadence Falls because there seemed to be a large number of children who required Foster care from children who had lost parents to various accidents in the area. Clearly, these accidents had not gone unnoticed by the State, so Lauren Alkali was the first to stand up and volunteer to open a top-notch care facility for children who had lost their parents, or for troubled children. Tuesday listened intently to this information, and it almost took her mind off of the events she knew were coming. Tuesday felt as if she should add something to the conversation, so she piped up.

"That must make life pretty interesting." Tuesday mentioned casually, daydreaming about what it must be like to have a family.

"Yup, it sure does!" Jason replied, "We have all these kids coming and going and going and coming, it's almost like I have a hundred siblings out there somewhere. The only real siblings I have are my younger brother John, and my adopted brother James."

It is at that moment that Jason chooses to turn the conversation back to her, and begins to ask questions.

"So, can I ask you something?" Jason asked, hoping to find out something about the girl who had occupied his attention since he first spotted her earlier that morning.

"You just did." Tuesday shot back, trying to be funny and hoping to divert any real attention away from her. In times of extreme nervousness, Tuesday often used sarcastic responses to deflect questions she didn't want to answer. This was one of those times.

"Seriously." Jason continued, hoping to get to the heart of the matter. "Why were those girls teasing you? Why don't they like you? What's their problem?"

"That's three questions, actually." Tuesday deflected, not wanting to talk about the Jackson Twins. The two of them laugh briefly, but Jason would have none of this from her, and he made a point to let her know it.

"Look, you can trust me." He said in a reassuring manner. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Tuesday wasn't used to anybody trying to be on her side, and she certainly wasn't used to a boy taking any kind of interest in her, much less being direct with her. The feeling was completely alien to her, and she didn't quite know how to deal with it. But she felt there was something about this boy that she was certain she could trust. There was truth behind his eyes, compassion in his voice, and integrity in his words. These things, above all else, were the things that Tuesday longed for, but rarely ever witnessed from the people of Cadence Falls. She decided it would be best to take a chance and trust this strange boy, and felt that he was trustworthy enough to hesitantly surrender some answers to.

"I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to be scared" Tuesday began, her eyes widened, and darting back and forth, as if she were expecting some sort of trouble. "And you must promise me not to tease me about it, or treat me like I'm some kind of freak."

Jason is trying to figure out how to process this change in the tone of the conversation, but simply answers her with "What is it, Tuesday?"

But Tuesday is adamant about this vow and will not divulge information to Jason unless he makes this promise. Too many times in the past had people not lived up to the expectations that Tuesday had set in her mind for them. Too many had failed her in more ways than she could count, and she was tired of telling her story again and again, only to be abandoned by the people she had reached out to. Her mother was a primary example of somebody who didn't have her back. She of all people should have been there for her, but was far more interested in her own activities than those of her daughter. Now this boy was seeking a friendship with her, but how could she trust him after being cast aside by so many others? Trust did not come easily to Tuesday, and after her experiences, there was no reason for it to, so she had to know if Jason was on board with her from the beginning, because if she was going to open herself up to him, and he was going to run away, she honestly wasn't sure how she would handle such a blow to her self-esteem.

"Jason," Tuesday continued, intensely staring into his blue eyes. "You have to promise me that if I tell you what's wrong, that you'll still be my friend, no matter what."

"Lighten up, Tues!" returned Jason, trying to show her that he's different from the other kids. "You're the only person I've met here that I would even consider having as a friend so far!"

But still, Tuesday pressed on until she heard the exact response she was looking for, a very specific set of words, strung together to make a solid promise to her that he wouldn't leave or abandon her, no matter what.

"Jason, just promise me that we can remain friends, no matter what!" Tuesday relented, "Because you're the only friend I've got, and I don't want to lose you."

Finally, Jason gives in.

"Okay, okay!!" Jason said reassuringly, "You know, I wasn't raised to treat people the way these kids are treating you. I know what it's like to not have friends, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I promise that no matter what is wrong, we will always be friends."

"No matter what?" Tuesday pressed, her mouth beginning to form a slight smile, as she asked him again.

"No matter what." Jason promised, smiling back at her, sealing his words with a handshake.

And while Jason hadn't managed to speak the very words Tuesday was looking for, his words and actions were trustworthy enough for her to believe in him, forming a friendship.

## III

### DREAMS BECOME REALITY

The school bus stopped at a traffic light, and Tuesday knew they were very near the school, and her anxiety had nearly reached fever pitch. She knew that they would soon happen upon the accident from her dreams the night before, and that it would be very unpleasant. She paused for a moment, and took a deep breath, and then closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them, she looked Jason fully into his eyes for the first time since they met. She did not look away from him, or wasn't evasive with him in any manner. Jason did look down briefly and noticed that her hands were trembling and felt that he should address this.

"What is it, Tuesday?" Jason asked with utmost concern, trying to understand what was happening. "Are you cold?"

"I'm scared." Tuesday managed in a barely audible whisper.

"I already told you that we would be friends, no matter what." Jason said, placing his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"That's not what I'm scared of." Tuesday said in a shaky, but barely audible voice.

"What is it, then?" asked Jason, his curiosity piqued to its maximum levels. "What's wrong?"

The bus had turned onto the road that led to the intersection, a straight approach right past where the accident would be happening very soon. Tuesday closed her eyes and exhaled a deep breath, continuing to relay her story to him, wondering how much of it he would believe when she relayed it to him.

"Two blocks ahead, there is going to be a horrible accident." Tuesday began, her voice quivering, trying to get a grip on what she knew was inevitably going to happen. "A woman is going to be pinned to a tree by a moving vehicle while trying to save her baby."

Jason's eyes widen a little bit, waiting for Tuesday to continue her story. Her eyes snap open and lock onto his with a frightening intensity. "The driver of the car will be thrown through the windshield and killed on impact." Tuesday said in a somber voice.

Jason doesn't fully understand what she is saying at first, and so he took a second to process this information. _"How does she know there will be an accident?"_ He thought to himself, rolling the possibilities over in his mind, trying to come to a consensus of how she might know such a thing.

"Whoa, Tuesday!" Jason answered, trying his best to believe what she is telling him. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that people are dead." Tuesday said, as tears began to fall from her eyes. "People are dead, and when they see it, those girls are going to blame me for it."

"Tuesday, that's crazy!" Jason said, trying to sound convinced of her words. "Why would they blame you for an automobile accident?"

"Because I dreamed this would happen last night." Tuesday cried, turning her head away from Jason in an attempt to conceal her emotional state. "I knew this was going to happen."

"Tuesday, you had a nightmare!" Jason told her, trying his best to comfort her, reaching out and wiping tears from her eyes. "It was only a bad dream."

"Can't you hear them coming? It has happened." Tuesday stated, turning back to Jason, alerting him to the sound of sirens in the distance.

The strained cries of rescue vehicles screamed their warnings and could be heard approaching their location. The students in the bus got up in their seats for a better look as the bus pulled to the side of the road so an ambulance could safely roar past them. The kids anxiously looked out the front window of the bus and saw the ambulance turn right about a block and half from where they were sitting. A moment later, the bus was underway again, moving toward that intersection where Tuesday had seen herself in her dream only hours ago.

The distance to the stop sign was closed rather quickly, and the bus was the first vehicle to be stopped at the scene of a horrible accident. The children had an incredible vantage point from their bus and could see the onlookers on scene, gawking at a car that had crashed into a tree, and pinned a woman to it, killing her. Another body lay on the ground a few feet on the other side of the tree, up near a brick wall, and was covered in blood. The entire scene looked like something from a horror film.

The children on the bus began pointing and chattering, speculating about what could be happening up the block, all of them but Tuesday, who's sobbing had become full-fledged crying by this time. The bus driver did her best to herd the children back to their seats.

"Calm down! Okay, calm down!" The bus driver said in her sandpapery voice, trying to get the kids under control. "There's nothing to see here! Everyone get back into your seats so we can continue on to school."

Most of the kids did as they were instructed to do, but Serina and Jessica saw the opportunity to inflict some further damage on Tuesday and began teasing her, just as Tuesday said they would.

"Look at that!!" Jessica taunted, pouring salt in Tuesday's open wounds. "The wicked little witch killed more people!!"

"Murderer!! Murderer!!" Serina screamed, drawing the attention of the other children on the bus, who joined in the chorus of their taunts and jeers.

It wasn't long before most of the children on the bus began teasing Tuesday Moxley as well. The entire bus erupted in a heated verbal assault, and it was all aimed at one person, Tuesday, who had buried her head in her hands and began bawling uncontrollably. A few seconds later, Tuesday has had enough began screaming back at them, as Jason sat there wide-eyed, in complete disbelief of what he was seeing transpire around him. Tuesday turned her attack to Jessica and Serina.

"Shut up, I hate you!! I hate you both!!" Tuesday yelled at the top of her lungs. "I wish it had been you in that accident instead of that lady!! I wish you were dead!! I hate both of you!!"

Hearing Tuesday's remarks, the bus driver radioed ahead to the school, trying to get some help to contain the situation. "We have a student threatening other students." She shouted over the discordance of the aggressive ruckus.

There was some inaudible dialogue coming from the other end of the radio which couldn't be heard over the shouts, hecklings, and cackles of the packed school bus. The entire morning had exploded into absolute anarchy, and Jason saw how quickly this situation had escalated, and knew that he had to stand up for Tuesday.

"Leave her alone!!" Jason squawked, trying to raise his voice over the noise of disharmony of the other students. "None of this is her fault!! Leave her alone, you bullies!!"

At that moment, the entirety of the bus began throwing things at Tuesday, which enraged Jason even further, as he continued blaring out words of support in her defense. The bus driver was still trying to communicate with the office to get some assistance for when the bus arrived.

"Yeah, it's Moxley again!" The bus driver shouted into the microphone. "I'll try and detain her when we arrive at the school!"

Jason did his best to shield Tuesday from the incoming wave of thrown objects, but somehow a full bottle of soda flew by him, pegging her right in the eye, leaving an instant welt. This was more abuse than Jason could stand to watch, as he leapt across the aisle and began to pummel the boy who had thrown the soda until he begged Jason to stop. And then Jason hit another kid, and another, and another. He was so busy defending Tuesday from her attackers that he hadn't noticed that the bus had arrived at the school. As the bus came to a stop, two staff members from the office barreled on board with nightsticks in their hands as the bus driver pointed them in Tuesday and Jason's direction. They plowed through the aisle and grabbed Tuesday and Jason, ripping them from the bus while the other students just laughed and continued taunting Tuesday, with the driver ratting them out for being the troublemakers. "Yeah, Moxley again, and the new kid is in on this too!!" She informed the staff members. Jason was in complete disbelief. Apparently what Tuesday told him was true, and even more unbelievable, not only did the students hate her; it was obvious that the adults did as well.

Tuesday Moxley and Jason Alkali were dragged to the office, kicking and screaming to spend their morning in ISS until their parents could be notified of what had transpired. It was about to be a very long day.

## CHAPTER SIX

I

### WAITING FOR JUDGMENT

The staff members, with a very firm grip and a much greater strength than their own, dragged Tuesday and Jason kicking, thrashing and screaming about injustice to the office to await whatever punishment they would find there. When they reached the office's waiting area, they were forcefully placed into chairs, despite Jason's protests for having even been brought to that location in the first place. But more than that, he was very verbal in his defense of Tuesday and her actions.

"What kind of screwed up school is this?" Jason shouted in protest, trying his best to point out the injustice that was happening to her. "It isn't her fault, the other kids started it!!"

"Sit down and be quiet, kid." Stated the first staff member in a threatening manner, a physical education aide named Jimmy Waite, "You will, if you know what's good for you."

"You two are in a lot of trouble." The second staff member, Joey Donaldson added in that annoying tone that a smaller kid in a pack of bullies would use to back up the leader of the pack.

Jason then took a defiant tone, standing to his feet and looking the second staff member right in eyes. "But we didn't do _anything_!! Those other girls started this!! I was defending this girl from a pack of bullies!!"

Joey moved back behind Jimmy, clearly nervous about Jason and what he might do. It was at that moment that Jimmy Waite jumped forward and placed his large hands upon Jason's shoulders, shoving him back down into a seat on the other side of the room with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

"I don't care who started it, I just finished it!!" Jimmy shouted. "Now sit down and shut up!" His fists were clearly clenched, but he slowly released them as he trailed off with his words. "The Principal will see you each separately when your parents arrive. No talking, I don't even want to see you two look at each other."

While Jason was trying to catch his breath, Tuesday sat with her head down, staring and the floor, shaking nervously. Though he didn't understand why she was behaving like that, he knew it certainly wasn't out of fear. Tuesday knew what was coming, that she would have to go into the office, and face the ignorance of the staff members there, and put up with the same insurmountable mountain of theory, hypothesis and conjecture that she had been dealing with on and off for many years now.

No, that shaking wasn't fear, it was anger.

Tuesday knew she would have to be paraded into that room, in front of the same authority figures that she hated, and who in all likelihood returned that hatred to her, and she would have to answer for a crime she fully did not commit. Would her mother show up to rescue her this time? It was the best thing that she could hope for, but it was only on very rare occasion that she did. And when she would show up, it was something of a large embarrassment for everybody involved, so much so that it had gotten to the point that the school staff would rarely call her mother in for anything. This caused the anger to solidify inside of her, that she knew that she would have to fight the battle by herself.

The two staff members walked away, snickering and making inappropriate jokes about Tuesday as they did so. And over the next couple of seconds, her shaking transformed into a silent, steady stream of tears cascading down her cheeks.

Jason was sitting in his chair, cursing Jimmy Waite under his breath and swearing that he was going to have him fired if it was the last thing he ever does when he noticed the tears falling from Tuesday's eyes. Suddenly he didn't care about the mistreatment that was dealt to him; his only concern was for Tuesday.

Jimmy Waite would get his comeuppance that much was certain.

"Hey, Tuesday!" Jason whispered in a way that anything but subtle. "Are you okay?"

Tuesday didn't answer him straightaway. Jason whispered again, only louder.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jason asked again, even more insistently.

Her lower lip began to quiver slightly as she searched for the words to say to Jason. Here was somebody who could be a friend, who would be a soothing balm against the onslaught of verbal assaults, who could be a warm blanket against their cold stares, who should think of her as a sane and normal person, but for some reason she found herself ready to push him away. Even she didn't fully understand the reasons for it.

"Yes, Jason." Tuesday replied as her head bowed down to the floor and the tears began to slowly fall down her cheeks. "I'll be fine and I can understand if you don't want to be friends anymore. I've caused you so much trouble today."

"Are you crazy??!!" Jason exclaimed, almost in complete disbelief of what Tuesday had just told him. "This is the most interesting thing to happen to me since I moved here."

Almost instinctively, he put his arm around her and pulled her close, then reached up and gently wiped a tear from her eye with his finger, and her eyes flicked up to meet his. "I said we would be friends, no matter what, and that's a promise."

"It's just that, you know, this happens every couple of weeks, and I end up here in this office every single time." Tuesday protested, trying to spare Jason a future of misfortune. "And I don't want to get you into any more trouble."

A slow, cocky smile crossed Jason's face, "I live for trouble."

Tuesday caught herself giggling just a little at Jason's claim.

"That and you happen to be the most real person I've met here so far." Jason commented, trying to encourage Tuesday in a way that nobody had in quite some time. "You're a better person than these other dung beetles are."

Tuesday brightened up at that, but felt the need to further explain herself; "That's kind of you to say. I've been alone for so long that don't easily trust people when they show kindness to me."

"Tuesday, I'm not like them." Jason countered, trying his hardest to convince this girl that he was going to hold to his promise and stay with her through anything these people could throw at her. "I'm not those people, nor will I ever be."

Tuesday fully raised her head and looked deep into his eyes, trying to have faith in the things he was telling her. "I want to believe that Jason, I really do."

Jason smiled at her as his curiosity was reaching its breaking point, getting the better of him. Jason was always the kind of kid who wanted to explore people and what they were about, and this girl was somebody who was in real pain and different than most people he had encountered.

"Tuesday?" Jason asked, puzzled over the whole matter. "Why do these people hate you so much?"

Tuesday gazed directly into his eyes and for the first time, her trepidation had melted away. She took a deep breath as she felt the vulnerability overtake her, and was ready to tell him everything at that very moment. She bit her lip nervously as it began to quiver, the words at the very border of her speech, ready to cross over at any given moment. With a small amount of confidence, she exhaled and tried to speak, but as she moved her mouth, the voice of Jimmy Waite became audible.

"Come with me, Mr. Alkali." Jimmy Waite commanded in a militaristically authoritative tone that Jason didn't like.

Jason resisted at first, flinching away from the obnoxious staff member. "What about Tuesday?"

Jimmy Waite rolled his eyes and doubled his efforts, gripping Jason's arm tightly and yanking him to his feet. "We will be talking to her later, but for now you need to come with us." Jason winced in pain at the level of strength Jimmy was applying to his grip.

"That's going to leave a bruise, I have witnesses, and my dad is an attorney." Jason muttered as he addressed Jimmy Waite, hoping to strike a sense of fear into the ape. "Why don't you think about that for a while?"

For the first time in his career, Jimmy Waite realized that he might have gone too far in his methods of authority.

Jason then turned to address Tuesday as Jimmy began dragging him toward the office. "I'll see you later, Tuesday."

Tuesday nodded her head, but still wondered if this would be the last she would ever see of Jason Alkali.

## II

### JUSTICE UNBALANCED

After what seemed like hours, Tuesday was finally called back to the office. She was fortunate that the gargoyle Jimmy Waite hadn't come to collect her, but she hadn't seen Jason come out of the office and wondered where he may have gone.

The walk down that corridor always felt like the longest twenty seconds of her life. What would they make her feel guilty for today? What would they say to her to keep her in check? What kind of crazy new psychology would they offer her this time? Over the years, they had sent her to many different councilors that attempted many different techniques on her, and it always ended in the same inconclusive findings, that these nightmares were a figment of her imagination, and that she needed to quit causing a scene each time that she witnessed some tragically horrible event. In other words, they told her it was all in her head. They told her that she was so traumatized by the events she had witnessed that it caused her unparalleled levels of anxiety, and that she would act out on them. She had spent much of her childhood having been put on a variety of mood stabilizing drugs, none that made the nightmares go away, but would make her feel listless and tired. She never felt like herself on the drugs, so she refused to take them. One psychologist even told her that she lived in a fantasy world, and he tried to part her from Winston, naming him the root of her problems. The techniques would have been laughable to her, if indeed she had found them to be funny.

Tuesday approached the door to the office and entered slowly behind the staff member who made a hand gesture toward a chair, offering for her to take a seat. Behind his desk, Principal Patrick McCauley sat with his arms crossed, the same stern look on his face that he always used to intimidate students who had gotten in any degree of trouble.

Tuesday Moxley and Principal McCauley had many run-ins with one another over the years. Patrick McCauley currently served as the Principal for both Cadence Falls Middle and High Schools, and treated the position as a dictatorship in the eyes of the students. Almost as soon as Tuesday had entered third grade, Principal McCauley had been on her case, and had always jumped to conclusions whenever there was any kind of trouble at the school at all. Whether or not Tuesday was involved in what was happening, he was convinced that she had to be a part of it. Principal McCauley had a large stack of write-ups and suspensions on Tuesday Moxley, many of them were over petty issues. This would be her ninth year of dealing with this kind of abuse from Principal McCauley, so for Tuesday, today would be just another write-up, another paper in the file. No big deal.

The next thing that Tuesday noticed was that her mother was not present at this meeting, but sitting to the left of the desk was a new face, one that Tuesday hadn't seen before. She could only assume that this was the new psychologist that they had called in to refer her to. After looking around the room for a few seconds, Principal McCauley's voice broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Miss Moxley, here you are again." Principal McCauley began with a tone that felt like spiders crawling over her skin. "I might have known you would be the cause of all this trouble. What's your story this time?"

She absolutely hated to be called Miss Moxley by Principal McCauley, and he knew it.

The only reason he would open conversation in such a way was to be as hostile as he could be. He seemed to always sneer in that condescending way that he usually did, which used to make her feel uncomfortable, but now all she could feel for him was bitter anger. His intimidation techniques no longer worked on her because she reconciled in her mind that no matter what kind of interaction the two of them would ever have would be nothing but icy and frigid. She knew the staff had already passed judgment in their minds on her, and since she knew this was a battle that she was not going to win, she was ready to put up the dirtiest fight she possibly could. Feelings were going to be hurt.

"Cause of all the trouble?" Tuesday began in a professionally calm tone. "This is not my fault. Those Jackson girls were picking at me before I ever got on that bus. If Jason hadn't come along, I would have gotten another beating from..."

"Are you finished?" The Principal cut her off. "The Jackson girls are nice kids and their family is a pillar of this community. They don't go about picking fights. Now, your mother couldn't be here because she couldn't get away from work so we are going to place this in the hands of the school counselor..."

"We both know that's a lie!", Tuesday half laughed and half shouted. She was good at playing the cut off game too. She knew Principal McCauley's playbook very well and had become adept at mocking him with his own techniques. "I'll bet you your job that you never even called her!" He stared coldly at her, locking eyes, and then looking down at a paper on his desk, nonverbally admitting his guilt. "And I don't need a school counselor." Tuesday continued, spitting her vitriol in Principal McCauley's direction. "I don't need you or anybody else here because none of you either understand or care."

The newcomer was beside himself with confusion. He couldn't understand how the head of the school would allow himself to be treated like this by a teenage girl. He shot a look at the Principal that indicated he needed to rein in this situation as soon as possible.

"Oh, Miss Moxley," Principal McCauley began. "We do care. We care a great deal about you and the negative effect that you have on this student body. It's only Mr. Alkali's first day and just look at the trouble you've caused him."

This put Tuesday clearly on the defensive, as this comment about Jason shook her right to her core. But she decided she wasn't going to show her hand as she refused to give Principal McCauley the satisfaction of the wound he had just offended with. In all fairness, she had brought up Jason first, and she knew Principal McCauley well enough to know that she shouldn't have given him that particular piece of ammunition. Normally, she felt that she knew his tactics well enough that she was bulletproof against his volleys, but the mention of Jason deeply affected her, but she did her best not to show it.

"That's not true, you weren't there!" She said with her voice raised. "Jason was only standing up for me because nobody else will!

The raised voice gave too much away, and Principal McCauley continued to twist the knife. "He doesn't even like you, he just feels sorry for you." He said with a faint smile on his face. He knew that he would stab deep with his comments, so he continued. "His parents feel that the two of you should have no further contact. His studies and academic performance are very important to his family, and we can't have you messing that up, can we?"

Tuesday's eyes began to well up with tears upon hearing this. Her anxiety levels rose to new heights as she is sure that she has been betrayed, a feeling that she should be used to by now, but this felt completely alien to her. Did Jason really just feel sorry for her? Did he lie to her? This is a whole new level of dirty for Principal McCauley, using this against her in this way. But perhaps he never was able to fight this way because she never had a friend to use against her before. " _Surely, he must be lying"_ , half of her thoughts said while the other half echoed his words _"I'll be your friend no matter what."_

Beyond having the ability to dream of future events, her other great weakness was her habit of overthinking every scenario. A myriad of possibilities flew through her mind in a thousand different trajectories and at various speeds. Her mind became a jumbled mess, so she simply grabbed at a random thread, pulled it out and followed it to its logical conclusion.

"I'm not the one messing anything up, you people are!" Tuesday defended, trying to get past the pile of manure that Principal McCauley was spewing. "Why can't you try to see my point of view for a change and try to help me?!"

But it seemed that Principal McCauley had studied her playbook too, and was ready for this particular outburst. "We are trying to help you." He said calmly. "We are referring you to our new school counselor for a complete psychological examination. Meet Doctor Samuel Thornton."

Samuel Thornton seemed like an eager beaver and jumped right in as if this moment had been scripted. "Yes Tuesday, let me help you."

The sound of Thornton's voice shot her defenses right up as she knew that there wasn't a soul in that room who really had her best interests at heart. In her mind and her body, but even more in her heart, she wearied of this verbal sparring. It always came to a dead end. Inconclusive, they would always say. It always ended with laughing and teasing, with ridicule and regret. Did she have the time and energy to waste on another person who wasn't really listening to her? Did she have the heart to get her hopes up for a solution to her problems only to hear that her case was inconclusive? It wasn't worth the risk five psychologists ago, and certainly wasn't worth it now. She felt that continued retaliation was the only way to proceed. She shot Samuel Thornton a look that was half confused, and half dismissive.

"I don't want your help." Tuesday retaliated, displaying her disregard for the psychologist. "I want to go to class and be left alone and get good grades so I can leave this town and never come back."

Doctor Thornton put on his most compassionate sounding voice in an effort to reel her in, "You can't mean that, Tuesday." He said. "You shouldn't be having all these feelings of persecution all the time; nobody is out to get you. Especially not those Jackson girls, who you really need to apologize to at your earliest convenience and set aside all the hard feelings."

That was more than Tuesday wanted to hear. She knew that he was right, and that she should apologize and make peace with them. But there is no making peace with those who don't want to live in peace. In her mind, it was better to leave them alone altogether, live and let live. But the mere suggestion of making peace with them angered her beyond all comprehension.

"I hate all of you!!" Tuesday yelled, trying to make her meaning clear that she wanted nothing to do with them. "I just want to leave, NOW!!"

"You don't hate anybody, Tuesday." Principal McCauley chimed in. "You just need some professional help."

"Then let me know when a professional arrives, okay?" Tuesday retorted, firing back at Principal McCauley in a way that best represented her true feelings for him.

"Your problem isn't that uncommon, Tuesday." Counselor Thornton broke in, ready to interject yet another theory for Tuesday's condition. "I have heard of this before; I've just never seen an actual case."

This grabbed Tuesday's attention enough to calm her down, her curiosity piqued to a new level. She looked over at him with doubt written all over her face, knowing full well he was baiting her. She decided to call him out on it.

"Heard of what?" Tuesday accused, trying her best to maintain her composure. "You have no idea what I'm going through, and I have no desire to share the details with you. Just for laughs, hit me with your theory, hotshot."

"When you see terrible, everyday things." Thornton began, speaking slowly and deliberately, hoping to keep from setting Tuesday off again. "Such as the automobile accident on the way to school this morning you get a feeling of déjà vu, like you've been there before and have witnessed the whole thing before, right?

Tuesday laughed. "Wrong!" She said as she snorted out another round of laughter. "Take your meager salary and go buy yourself a clue."

This disrespect was more than Principal McCauley was ready to take. He began to get a cold, serious and odious look in his eye. "I strongly suggest you let him help you." He said in a direct way, not pulling any punches. "We are tired of putting up with your antics and this will be the last time, I promise you."

"Whatever." Tuesday said, as she stood up from her chair, turning to leave.

Principal McCauley continued, pressing his advantage. "I mean it, if you don't talk to him, you can't come to school here anymore." His cold, loathing glare was focused intently upon Tuesday.

"You'd be doing me a favor." Tuesday shot back. "I could homeschool myself and deal with less trouble than I have here every day."

Principal McCauley was ready for this. "I can block that from happening." He stated, abusing his power to an extent he previously never had. "Either talk to Counselor Thornton daily, or don't come to school here, it's as simple as that."

"Oh, so now it's like that?" Tuesday replied, her ire raised to a point where she found it difficult to control how she was feeling toward the man in charge. "I'm being expelled?!"

The look on Principal McCauley's face said checkmate.

Samuel Thornton couldn't believe that Tuesday was being expelled over this. A thought popped quickly into his mind, a suggestion for her that may help her. He reached for his wallet and pulled out a business card and placed it on the desk, slowly sliding it toward the young girl. "I have a friend who specializes in this kind of therapy; perhaps you should go see him." Counselor Thornton offered, seemingly genuine in his concern for her, if only for a brief second. "Please, think about it."

Tuesday takes a moment and looks back and forth between the two of them, thinking about her options. Since her mother wasn't here to protest or fix the situation, Tuesday chose the only path that made any kind of sense to her. Her hand moved toward the desk and her fingers nimbly picked up the worn business card, and placed it in her pocket.

"Hmmm, let me think?" She said. "Expulsion or clueless school counselor? I plead no contest." She hung on that word, leaving the Principal and the Counselor waiting on her next word in a moment that hung freely in time.

"I guess I'm going home." Tuesday announced, making a grand sweeping gesture with her arm like a sarcastic wave good-bye.

She turned her back and walked out of the office to gather her things from her locker, secretly relieved that she would never again grace the halls of this particular hell ever again.

## III

### SKIPPING FOR SANITY

The walk to her locker took no time at all, she was furious that she had been maneuvered into such a situation with no defense whatsoever. Tuesday flung open her locker door causing a racket in the cavern of the school hall and decided it would be best to take the things with her that meant anything to her, and that she could fit in her backpack. Tuesday was so worked up in a fit of anger and frustration that she kicked the locker as hard as she could, and flung a textbook down the hallway. As she began removing the rest of her textbooks from her backpack when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Apparently, she was so focused on being angry at being expelled, that she hadn't taken notice of her surroundings and who might be following her. She expected it to be Principal McCauley, overseeing her evacuation of Cadence Falls High School, but when she turned around; it turned out to be a much more pleasant surprise.

It was Jason.

"Shhh, could you keep it down?" Jason whispered, looking around the hallway for any sign of a school staff member. "You're going to get us both busted!!"

Part of Tuesday was thrilled and excited to see Jason standing before her, another part was somewhat suspicious toward him, and yet another part was protective and didn't want him to get into any kind of trouble whatsoever.

"What are you doing here?!" Tuesday whisper shouted as not to raise any alarm. "You should get going before they catch you and give you detention!"

Jason grinned at her with that car salesman smile of his, "I had to know how you are doing." He said. "I couldn't just leave you there like that!"

Tuesday blushed a little hearing this, but was also fully in caution mode. Principal McCauley's words resonated in her mind, about how Jason wasn't supposed to have anything to do with her. She had to admit to herself that those words really left a sting.

"They told me that your parents wouldn't let you see me anymore.", Tuesday said, her lip quivering while managing to get the words out without crying. "They think I am a bad influence on you and on everyone else."

Jason's expression was a mixture of surprise and anger. "They said that?! My parents never said any such thing! They have always given me the freedom to choose my own friends." He trailed off with comments under his breath about that Principal being a liar, and what a messed-up school he's in.

"They also said you don't like me." Tuesday said, finding it difficult to maintain constant eye contact with him. "They say you only feel sorry for me."

"I never said that!" Jason roared. He did not appreciate the misrepresentation he was getting from the school staff. He put the side of his finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to his. "I said that we would be friends, no matter what, and I meant it."

"They also said that you're an honor student." Tuesday continued. "They said I'd mess up your studies."

Jason began to laugh. "Me? An honor student?" Jason just kept snickering. "Honor students don't skip classes!" This just keeps getting better and better!! Tell me another one!!"

"They expelled me." Tuesday stated in a somber tone.

The laughing melted away almost instantly.

"Expelled you?!" Jason asked, almost angry enough to go and confront the Principal all over again. "Why?"

Tuesday paused for a moment, turning away from Jason. After a moment, she spoke. "Because I chose to be expelled from this awful school. I didn't want to have to listen to some inexperienced, fresh out of med school shrink telling me what is wrong with me before he even tried to ask me any questions."

Tuesday felt her anger rising again, as the thoughts of her confrontation with Principal McCauley rolled around in her head.

Jason did his very best to offer consolation, placing his hand on her shoulders and turning her back around, and working those beautiful blue eyes again. "I don't think there's anything wrong with you." Jason said in the most empathetic way he could. "I like you just the way you are."

"You like me?" Tuesday cut him off, trying to gain clarification for his comments. "You barely even know me!"

But Jason was serious about her, and about making sure she felt wanted in his life. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her, embracing her in a hug. This took Tuesday by complete surprise, this was something she had hoped for, and now that it had come, it had snuck up on her without her realizing it was about to happen. She felt a tingling in her arms and her legs and in the rest of her body that she never felt before, and it wasn't long until the lightness reached her head. He held her in his arms for what seemed like the rest of the afternoon, but was in reality a few seconds.

When he did let go of the embrace, he pulled her out slowly and she could see that the longing for more was there. She wanted desperately wanted to take another hug from him and hold him for the rest of the day. Her eyes were alight with joy for the first time in a very long time.

Jason's voice broke in, changing the dynamic of the moment, "Well, I definitely think there's some potential here, something to build on, you know, if you're ever tired of dealing with this thing alone."

Tuesday could see that Jason's face was a little flush from what had just happened, and she could feel the heat on her face, and indication to her that she was indeed blushing. She locked her brown eyes with his blue eyes, and knew at that moment that she wouldn't have to face this thing by herself anymore. Jason reached down and placed her hand in his, interlocking their fingers sending Tuesday's heart into a wild flutter.

"I was tired of dealing with this a long time ago." Tuesday said, still gazing into his eyes. "I haven't had a real friend for a long time, not since, uh, since... oh never mind."

Jason suddenly became more serious. "What is it?" he asked.

Tuesday breaks eye contact, looking down and becoming hesitant, looking for the faith, the trust and the words to speak to him, but she knows that this isn't the time or the place for that particular discussion.

"No matter what it is, I swear that you can trust me with it." Jason proclaimed, squeezing her hands a little more tightly in a gesture of reassurance. "When you're ready to talk to me, I'll be ready to listen."

"Thank you." Tuesday whispered, grateful for Jason's patience. "I'm not ready to talk about it just yet."

Perhaps what impressed Tuesday the most about Jason was that he was persistent, but not pushy. That he was patient with her in a way that others were not. That he treated her as an equal and not a freak. And that he had these eyes that were so full of time, space, thoughts, ideas, and actions. And for some reason, he hugged her. That had to mean something, didn't it? She felt that she could trust him, but the tale she had to tell was long and she didn't have the time to tell it properly.

"I really do like you, Tuesday." Jason admitted awkwardly, fumbling for his words in nervousness.

"I know you do." Tuesday replied with a truly legitimate smile on her face. For the first time in a long time, she felt a sense of happiness, but knew they had to go their separate ways for the time being. She reached over and stole another hug from him, but only just a quick one. "You're so... different from all the others. You seem to understand me better than anyone else around here does."

A slow smile spread across Jason's face as he began to speak, "I'm sorry that the world has treated you the way they have. You have a special gift, one that I don't fully understand, and I'm sure you have your reasons for not easily trusting others."

She blushed again as she broke away from him, continuing the cleaning and emptying of her locker. But Jason wasn't finished yet; he had more to say on the subject. She loaded her textbooks into the locker, as he continued to speak. "Tuesday, I wish the rest of these people could see you the way that I see you. You have an inner strength that is stunning. You could be such a beautiful flower if only the world would quit stomping you into the ground."

Tuesday's heart melted at the sound of his words. Confidence and compassion were two things that Jason clearly didn't lack in, and he was quite adept at the demonstration of both. "Do you really mean that, Jason?" She asked shyly, almost afraid to ask the question for fear that his answer wouldn't be as truly sincere as she hoped it had been.

"I meant every single word, from one friend to another." Jason replied earnestly and honestly.

Tuesday slowly turns back around, tears on the edge of her eyes, threatening to torrent down her cheeks. But unlike the tears of fear, or tears of anger, or tears of pain, these were tears of pure, unadulterated happiness. These were the kind of tears she had never felt before. Without thinking, she tore a piece of paper from her notebook and wrote her name and phone number upon it, offering him the page for him to keep. He gestured for the pen and tore off the bottom half of the page, and mimicked her action. She made him a promise, one that she hoped she would get the chance to fulfill very soon.

"I promise, Jason, that I'll tell you everything when the time is right." Tuesday told him, "I just need time to get it put together in my head." Did she dare to go for another hug? Would he think she's being too straight forward? Or was she too clingy? But boy, did those hugs feel wonderful. And it was pleasing to have that kind of a connection with another person. Her dream hadn't warned her of this, and she was glad that it hadn't. Jason was the unknown quantity in an unquantifiable situation. Did he sense her hesitation? There were so many variables to consider, too many actually. She allowed instinct to take over for her, surrendered to the moment, and next thing she knew her arms were around him again, and his were around her as well. Her head was resting against his shoulder in a moment of complete, blissful comfort. This is what contact with another human being was supposed to be about. Finding acceptance, friendship, and possibly much more was the path she preferred, not the cruel, hateful and awful words and actions of her peers. They held each other for at least a full minute before they pulled back, gazing into each other's eyes, hands locked together, and wondering when the next time they would see each other would be.

Jason choked up a response, "When you're ready to talk about it, I'll be there for you, I promise."

The moment was shattered by the sound of the nearby voice of Principal McCauley, who was looking for Tuesday, and he was accompanied by what may have been a police officer. They gave each other a quick look, allowing their hands to slowly slide apart, both of them plotting a quick escape route in their minds. At that moment, the lunch bell rang, and other students flooded into the halls, covering Jason's presence in the hall, and providing cover for Tuesday's escape. In spite of herself, she took a look back at Jason, and smiled. For once, she felt happiness.

## CHAPTER SEVEN

I

### ANOTHER NIGHTMARE

Tuesday made her way home, ducking and covering behind various obstacles when she thought that Principal McCauley was close to discovering her. She didn't know if in fact he had been tailing her, but she didn't want to take any chances of having another confrontation with him. Tuesday took her time and made a game of it. If he did find her, and wanted another round, she couldn't wait to rub into his face what a liar he was.

It had really steamed her to think that he could use Jason against her the way he did, and she was disappointed in herself for having fallen so easily for the ruse. She couldn't believe she had given him the pleasure of that victory. He definitely wouldn't get that chance again, as she and Jason were on the same page now.

Jason. He said they were friends, but she felt like she wanted him to be so much more. How did this escalate so quickly? She'd only met him hours ago. How had he tapped into her emotions so easily? She was usually much more guarded than that. But he seemed so trustworthy, and trusting in her. Her thoughts raced with ideas, with dreams, and with doubts. It wasn't Jason she doubted, it was herself. She had never been friends with a boy before; much less have feelings for one. She kept herself guarded for this reason, because she couldn't bear to be close to anybody for fear of losing them. Either by reason of dismissal or due to natural causes, everybody except her mother and Winston had been taken from her life. She sincerely hoped that Jason would be the exception.

Tuesday's stomach gave her a stern growl, reminding her that all she had eaten all day was a few pieces of toast. She knew there was a burger shop nearby, so it was time to make use of some of the money her mother had given her.

She snuck into the burger joint, and ordered herself a western bacon cheeseburger and a strawberry milkshake. She sat alone in a darkened booth in the back, out of sight of the street, waiting for her order. But her thoughts weren't really on food; they were on that boy, Jason. If he had been here, she would have bought him a burger and spilled every single secret she had to him. She loved the sound in his voice, the intensity in his eyes, and the compassion he had for her.

Her food was soon delivered, and she gobbled it down, paid her check and snuck on home, without incident.

She spent part of the day thinking about homeschooling, and trying to figure out how to get signed up for it without Principal McCauley's signature. She decided that her room needed some maintenance, so she put on a CD of her favorite band, Cerebral Eulogy, to listen to while she worked on it. Since her mother was working a double, she spent her evening playing _Mike Tyson's Punch Out_ on her old Nintendo, and of course poring over her thoughts on Jason Alkali, who she debated giving a call, but didn't because her shyness got the better of her. She decided to go to bed early because she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of her nightmares.

Tuesday got herself changed and ready for bed, saying her prayers before going to sleep as she often did. She always prayed for the same thing, for pleasant dreams, for salvation for her mother, and for protection for Winston. For the first time in years, she added somebody to her prayers. She prayed for Jason to be safe and happy, and for him to feel her hugs wherever he went.

Tuesday got up from the bed and went over to the wall to turn out the light. When she got herself into bed, she adjusted all of her pillows the way she liked them, pulled up her blanket, and snuggled up to Winston. Thoughts of the day's events, particularly those of that boy Jason flashed through her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

## II

### THE INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT

Tuesday was there once again, in glorious black and white, standing in a location she didn't recognize, but knew what was coming. Instinctively, she rolled her eyes, knowing that tonight was going to be another nightmare. Where was she tonight?

The sign on the wall read Webster Steel Construction. This had to be in the next town away, Webster. Webster was twenty-one miles from Cadence Falls, and was a minor port on the Columbia River. Tuesday could read it through the flashes of lightning illuminating the room through a dingy old window. It was the graveyard shift, and workers were carrying large pieces of steel, cutting and welding them to create solid structural pieces of metal used in building ships, erecting buildings, and for various other things.

Tuesday stood in the middle of the workplace, cutting torches sparking up and arc welders crackling their electric songs. Amongst the electricity of the workplace, the lightning outside was competing with the storm inside. The rains began, happening softly at first, but moving toward becoming a torrential downpour. The workers, safe inside, paid no mind to the elements outside, and went about their work.

Tuesday wondered why she would be dreaming this. She couldn't understand how there could be some sort of tragedy here, unless there was some major malfunction of a power tool, or if something inside the building exploded. She didn't want to think about it. The day had ended so well, that she couldn't understand why her night had to end up like this.

The theoretical danger manifested itself as the wind outside loosened the upper edge of the tin roof above and rain water had been collecting in a darkened area of the floor. Nobody noticed this happening and kept working as if nothing was going on, oblivious to the danger. Tuesday could see it though, she knew it was there and knew that had to be the cause of the tragedy. Near where the water collected on the floor, there was a generator that was being used to power a couple of the arc welders the workers were using. The rain water continued to rise, spreading over the surface of the floor, inching ever closer to the generator.

The water reached the generator, and nothing happened. The insulated cord kept the water from electrocuting the workers. But the water kept flowing in, covering more and more of the floor, until at last it reached the two workers who were fusing large pieces of metal together. The two of them were standing in an ever-deepening puddle of water, and didn't even realize it.

A large, bright flash immediately followed by an extremely loud boom shook the entire building, flickering the power momentarily. Everybody was shaken, but the big surprise was the large tree that came crashing through the wall, sending tools and bits of metal flying and knocking the two workers flat to their bellies. At the same moment, one of the fallen circular saw blades severed the power cable to the generator.

Unaware of the dissonance of the situation, the two men were electrocuted before Tuesday could take inventory of what had fully happened. She felt the pain of electricity coursing through the bodies of the two men, and felt that she would pass out from the levels of pain she was experiencing. But she didn't pass out. The pain didn't stop until somebody killed the breaker at the other end of the work floor. She was horrified at what she saw, two men on the floor, dead. They had no idea what hit them. She was still feeling the after effects of the pain of the electrocution, and didn't have full control over her movements for a few moments. She just moaned from the pain, and kept screaming and shrieking until she found herself sitting back in her bead, awake for the world to hear.

## III

### A RARE SERENITY

Tuesday was able to calm herself much more quickly and efficiently than she did the night before. As soon as she woke, she no longer felt the pain of electrocution, and could disconnect from the nightmare because she knew that there would be no way she would ever witness this one in person. She probably wouldn't even know when it happened if she didn't see the newspaper for it. She had many of these dreams, where they happened, but wouldn't witness them. These were the ones she called "close encounters", because she had dreams about them, but wouldn't have to be in the real world, involved in them. And while she felt their pain and emotions during the dream, she wouldn't have to relive it on a real-world stage. She almost always knew when she was going to see them in real life, because she could see herself as an onlooker in her own dream.

The matter of the machine shop in Webster was reconciled as being over and done with in Tuesday's mind, though she inexplicably felt sadness for the men who would perish in that accident that she would never even know. Tuesday felt a bit parched after her dream as she always felt as if her throat was dry after having experienced another nightmare. This probably was in large part, due to the actual screaming she was doing in the real world, while dreaming out these fatal tragedies. She placed her feet on her carpeted floor and squished her toes together in the fibers for a few seconds before getting up.

Surely her mother had to be home by now. Tuesday hadn't heard a peep from her, so she thought it wise to make a check to see if she had indeed made it home. She stepped out into the hallway, onto the cold hardwood floor, a reminder that the chill of autumn had begun to set in. She peered into her mother's room and sure enough, there she was, passed out on the bed, probably impossible to wake at this point.

It wasn't unusual for her mother to disappear for a few days at a time now that Tuesday had gotten older. Megan once told Tuesday, if I'm gone more than four days, then go ahead and call the police. Tuesday kind of hoped that this would be one of those times she would be gone for a day or two, as it would give her time to rehearse her side of the story regarding her expulsion from school. It wouldn't be a story she could tell her on the fly, as it sounded too unbelievable for even somebody as out there as Megan Moxley to believe. She decided to head downstairs for her water, her mind still a little foggy from the Webster ordeal. She took the stairs carefully, holding the handrail all the way down.

Tuesday soon reached the bottom of the stairs, and cranked the squeaky faucet on, letting it run for a minute to let the water get nice and cold. She reached up to the cupboard and grabbed a glass for herself, pouring water into it for her to consume. She placed the cup to her lips and guzzled it down, feeling quenched. She carefully placed the glass into the sink and headed back upstairs to try and get some more sleep.

After reaching the top of the stairs, Tuesday looked again into her Mom's room and wished that she was a normal girl with a normal mother. _"Why does she have to be so cracked out all the time?"_ Tuesday thought to herself in a moment of deep regret. The second most desire of her heart after being cured from her dream disorder was to have a healthy relationship with her mother. She closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh. _"Maybe someday."_ Tuesday had hoped that day would come before it was too late.

She stealthily returned to her room and crawled back into bed, covering herself up, and putting her arm around Winston. It wasn't long before she fell back asleep and was snoozing like a baby.

It also wasn't long before Tuesday found herself in black and white again, as it was becoming more and more common for her to have multiple dreams in one night, and some of the dreams were simple warnings with occurrences happening in places she didn't know to people she didn't know. This time she was on a passenger airliner on a bright and sunny morning. There seemed to be fear and confusion amongst the passengers. As she frantically looked around, she tried to shake herself out of the dream.

Tuesday ran down the aisle to ascertain what was going on, and it seemed that the cause of the problem appeared to be a man of Middle-Eastern descent who was armed with a knife. He was angry and threatening passengers. Every passenger was too paralyzed with fear to do anything to contain the situation, so they sat in their seats sobbing, praying and trying to understand the situation going on around them. Strangely, Tuesday felt no fear from this; she felt a calm wash over her and a peace that she had never felt from one of her dreams before. Everything shifted into slow motion and she began to see the faces of the passengers, and to feel their fear and their confusion.

Tuesday was suddenly completely unaffected the emotions of the passengers, and realized that her focus had now been centered entirely on one single passenger in the compartment. This may have been the reason she had been able to disregard the rest of the passenger's feelings. She felt as if she needed to investigate the cause of this, as it could be a breakthrough toward her recovery. As she scanned the faces one by one, she felt the plane veer sharply in a downward direction, and the panic of the passengers increased to a new level of anxiety and fear.

Tuesday continued to scan the cabin for the person who had anchored her emotionally. _"Woman with screaming baby, nope."_ She kept looking. _"Man who was worried about his stock market transactions, not him either."_ She kept looking and about three quarters of the way down the cabin she spied the anchor. People were screaming, moving around, and flailing their hands in the air as she desperately tried to get a good look at the person who was the calm center of the storm. She moved herself down the aisle closer to where the person was, she finally got a split-second look.

" _No, it couldn't be."_ Tuesday thought to herself. _"It's not possible."_ She tried to take another look just to be sure, but her visual image of the person was lost in what appeared to be bright, hot flames coming to life, consuming everything around them.

Tuesday woke and sat up slowly, feeling calm. _"It was me!"_

## CHAPTER EIGHT

I

### AN AWAKENING BEGINS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1995

Megan Moxley awoke first that Saturday morning, and found that her daughter was still in bed, snoring like crazy, with a peaceful smile on her face. While Tuesday was knocked out, Megan was able to start breakfast and do a few cleanup chores in the kitchen without waking her. Chores take a lot of energy, so Megan pulled a baggie out from her purse, and set herself up a small line on the mirror of her makeup compact to give her the kick she needed to get the job done. Megan felt a twinge of satisfaction as the cocaine coursed through her system, making her feel a momentary invincibility. Now she was truly ready to work on the house.

With her newly found burst of energy, Megan decided that she needed to do some laundry so she could have clean clothing for work at the diner that coming evening. She knew that she would have to take a look around Tuesday's room and gather a few pieces of laundry to fill the load up with. She climbed the stairs and entered Tuesday's room, and looked at the bed which was still in shambles from her nightmare. She shook her head and looked around the floor for some spare pieces of clothing to throw in the washing machine, spying a shirt, some mismatched socks, a pair or two of pants, and a hoodie. It was enough to make a load of laundry, so she headed back down the stairs and into the laundry room.

Megan began going through the pockets and the first thing she found was a business card on it. She looked at it for a moment and it read:

Doctor Anthony Frederiksen

Psychiatric Medicine / Psychologist

If I can't help you, your treatment is free.

" _A little arrogant."_ Megan thought to herself, as she placed the laundry in the washer and added some detergent, and then started it up. She went out to the living room where she saw Tuesday had just begun to stir for the morning having come down from her room. As soon as Megan saw her she put on her best mother impression, and invited her into the kitchen to talk while she finished cooking breakfast. Tuesday followed her into the kitchen and sat at the table.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Megan said, sounding as chipper as she could manage. "Did you sleep well?" Of course, Megan already knew the answer to this question by having seen the state of her thrashed bedding, but for the sake of conversation, she thought she would ask anyway.

"No, I had a couple more nightmares last night." Tuesday replied, sleepily, trying to remember the details of the two occurrences. "One of them was pretty scary, but the other one should have been, but wasn't."

Megan put on her best tone of voice and if Tuesday hadn't known better, she might have thought that her mother actually cared about her nightmare. "Oh sweetie, I'm sorry! I didn't get home until after you got to bed last night. I had to work another double."

Tuesday knows she is full of it, "Yeah, you worked a double, but you didn't come right home afterward, did you?"

Megan paused and suddenly became defensive, "No, I didn't. You know that I have to go and wind down after working a long day, alright? Her whole tone of voice and countenance changed at that moment. Megan isn't used to this kind of interrogation from Tuesday, but as she's gotten older, the confrontations seemed to be happening with more frequency.

Tuesday had decided to cut to the chase and just called her out, "Let me guess, you went to another party at some place you've never been, with some guy you've never even met, and did God knows what until you came home and passed out, am I right?"

The guilty look on Megan's face was all the confirmation that Tuesday needed. After a short silence, Megan spoke up to defend herself. "Tuesday, honey. It's not really like that." Megan stated in her own defense.

Tuesday chose to press her advantage while she had the upper hand, "Mom, I am getting old enough to know how the world works, you don't have to lie to me about this."

Megan hung her head in shame but said nothing, hoping to avoid this discussion altogether. Tuesday wondered if she was breaking through to her, so she continued her barrage of brutal honesty, "I know you've been using. I know that you're selling yourself to men. They all talk about you; about the things you do. Am I just supposed to ignore these rumors?"

Megan began to weep a little bit and become defensive, but only very slightly. "They don't talk about..."

"Yeah Mom, they do!!" Tuesday shot back, her sense of purpose renewed. "You're the only Mom I have and if something happens to you, I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you, Mom."

Megan's weeping escalated into full on bawling by this point, and Tuesday went around the table and put her arms around her, trying her best to comfort her, but Megan brushed her off her. When Megan's crying finally slowed down, she took a deep breath and admitted something she had never admitted before, "Yeah, I know. I have a problem, but I'm not ready to quit."

Tuesday replied, "You having a problem isn't the problem. I have a problem too. Everybody has problems. Right now, I need my Mom, not some party girl."

A shocked and hurt look crossed Megan's face, "Is that what you think of me? I'm just some party girl?"

"Are you feeling guilty about something?" Tuesday asked, trying to push Megan to a point of realization about her habits. "Right now, I need you more than ever and you're never here for me."

"Really? I had no idea." Megan said in an attempt to deflect the seriousness of Tuesday's accusations with sarcasm. "Look, I know I haven't really been a great role model for you, but I swear I will try harder from now on. I don't know, it's all just so crazy." Megan wasn't even sure she meant what she said at the time, but facing reality was much simpler when she was high. People say things in the heat of the moment.

Tuesday and Megan shared a moment of acknowledgement, and then Tuesday made a joke in the moment, "Yeah well, get un-crazy, otherwise you'll be seeing psychologists too."

The two of them laugh, but then it's Megan's turn to get serious with her daughter as she remembered the business card she found. She didn't want to lose the moment, but felt it was an opportune time to bring it up, "Speaking of psychologists, you didn't tell me that you were considering another shrink."

"I'm not, actually." Tuesday said plain and simply.

"When I was gathering your laundry, I found a card for a new shrink in your pocket." Megan pressed, looking for answers regarding how her daughter had come into possession of the business card.

Tuesday suddenly remembered the card that Samuel Thornton had given her the previous day and made a point to be dismissive of it. "Oh, _that_." She said, rolling her eyes, trying to blow off the entire conversation.

Megan poured herself a cup of coffee, cradling it in both hands, and then continued with her line of questioning, "What do you mean _that?_ " She asked, knowing full well that there had to be a story behind the business card, and it was a story that she was dying to hear.

There was no point in denying it any longer and Tuesday decided it was time to come clean, "Well, I guess it's my turn to be honest with you now, isn't it?"

The possibilities began to race through Megan's mind as she began to become very serious again. Did somebody hurt Tuesday? Was she in trouble? Pregnant? What could it be? Whatever it was, Megan wanted to get to the core of this problem, and quickly. "Why? What happened?", Megan asked with a very direct tone.

Tuesday exhaled and the words just slipped out as if they were greased. "I was expelled from school."

Megan's eyes went wide and she nearly dropped her cup of coffee, "What?!" She snarled, thinking that Principal McCauley was singling out Tuesday again. "When?!"

It was Tuesday's turn to not be able to look her mother in the face, feeling embarrassed by her expulsion. She tried using her advanced fourteen-year-old evasion technique as fourteen-year-old girls often tend to do. "During the course of yesterday, sometime." She said, being about as vague as she could be.

"And you were planning on telling me this, when?" Megan said, acting like a real mother would, preparing to dole out some punishment.

"Oh, at least before the notice came in the mail." Tuesday said in an attempt to lighten the blow with humor. "And besides, you were making such a great breakfast, and I didn't want to spoil the mood."

"Why?" Megan asked, her tone turning deadly serious.

"Because I'm hungry, that's why." Tuesday responded, trying to make light of the heaviness of the discussion they were having.

Megan didn't think she was at all funny, and continues staring at her and delivering the inquisition, "No, smarty pants, why were you expelled from school?"

One benefit of having seen so many psychologists over the years is having the ability to manipulate situations such as this one. "Because Principal McCauley hates me." Tuesday said in accusatory manner.

The downside of all that therapy is having your mother attend many of those sessions with you and not being able to pull off a single drop of the psychobabble on her. "Tuesday, not everybody hates you." Megan began, attempting to instill in her the same things Tuesday has heard repeatedly from teachers, counselors, and a plethora of other people. "You have to stop feeling like the whole world is against you."

Tuesday's defenses shot up, and she was able to refute the claim with a fact, "Oh yeah, is that why that liar McCauley said he tried all morning to reach you at work on the phone? I'll bet you never even got a call from the school."

"You know that I didn't, otherwise I would have already known about this." Megan admitted, feeling a little stupid for having tried to convince Tuesday that everything was normal. "Well, never mind, the whole world _is_ against you, but that's beside the point."

"Actually the whole world isn't against me." Tuesday piped up! "I met a boy at the bus stop yesterday! He and I are _friends_." Tuesday made sure to place the emphasis on the word "friends' as not to give her mom any ammunition to tease her with. Suddenly, she wasn't sure she should have said anything at all about Jason.

Not immediately affected by Tuesday's revelation about a boy, Megan is staring at her daughter intently, and takes a strong drink from her cup of coffee. "Let's stay on subject, shall we?" She said pointedly. "Why were you expelled from school?"

Megan might not have been candidate for mother of the year, but she worked hard to make sure that Tuesday was provided for. She held down a job at Tuck's Diner at the truck stop where she would often work a lot of overtime to help make ends meet. Putting that kind of time in required a lot of energy, and she would get that energy from coffee, sugary soda drinks, cocaine and other stimulants. She would have to go out late after work to do the jobs that were required of her in order to pay off the substances she was fronted. She rarely ever had a day off. When she wasn't working at the diner, she was out making money in various other ways.

Megan was not known for her patience; in fact, it was her lack of patience that had become famous around Cadence Falls. She had developed a reputation around town as being one who would do what it took to get whatever it was she wanted. In a lot of people, this would have been considered a positive trait, but not for Megan Moxley. For her this usually involved sex, petty crimes and the occasional random act of violence against people who were long overdue on certain debts. Megan had gotten herself in deep with the wrong kind of people, and she was happy that her daughter had only seen as little as she had seen. Yeah, it bothered her that she had to bring her prostitution into the same house as her daughter, but if being a hooker was the worst thing her daughter thought of her, then it was worth it to her. She didn't want Tuesday to know that she had to sleep with her fence to earn a better percentage from the stolen goods she was trying to unload. She didn't want her daughter to know about the burglaries she had been involved in, about the drug deals that ended in close calls with the police, about the people she had beaten within an inch of their lives to collect debts. It was bad enough that Tuesday had lied to the police for her mother on several occasions to provide an alibi for her whereabouts, and that telling those lies had been happening with greater frequency as of late.

Megan had wondered how she had gotten in so deep paying off product they fronted her, but that's how the criminal underworld worked. Her employers kept her high and in debt so she would always have to pay them off doing odd jobs. She was somewhat valuable to their organization, though they never gave her any sort of promotion or anything. She was good at doing the penny ante stuff, but they just couldn't trust her to do anything important for them. And so, they kept her addicted and in just enough debt to them that she couldn't quit, and they kept her just scared enough that she wouldn't talk.

The truth was, in Megan's mind, she did what she had to do to numb herself to the point that she could take care of her daughter. Her past was such a painful reminder to her that allowing herself to feel anything or to care at all was a tragic mistake. The point is, she'd never made any real effort to try and find somebody to settle down with, to find a good step father for Tuesday, and she wasn't interested in opening herself up for that kind of hurt again, as she had done when she was younger. It was easier to be numb than to risk killing another piece of her soul. A few men she had been with wanted more from her than to be a one-night stand, but she never allowed that to work in her favor. If anybody was good at sabotaging herself, it was Megan Moxley.

But for the moment, the only thing Megan Moxley needed to sabotage was her daughter's excuses for having been expelled from school. And she was waiting for an answer from Tuesday regarding this very subject.

Tuesday squirmed a little and looked up to the ceiling, tapping her index finger repeatedly on her chin in an effort to recall the precise events of what transpired the morning of her expulsion. "The Jackson girls were up to their usual bullying and this boy stuck up for me, and then there was a fight on the bus, which I really wasn't a part of. He and I ended up in the office and they wanted me to talk to some brain-dead school psychologist, and of course I refused to deal with that again, so that liar McCauley expelled me." Tuesday managed to get that entire exchange out in one breath. She inhaled loudly as if to continue but it trailed off into a loud sigh.

Megan seemed to be losing her patience. "Oh Jeez, Tuesday!! Why couldn't you just talk to the psychologist and give the guy a chance?" She asked, clearly not having any appreciation for where the story was going.

Tuesday's tone had softened significantly as she continued. She didn't like it when her mother got impatient with her; it usually meant punishment was imminent. "I refused to talk to him because he was going off on some wild déjà vu theory without first even trying to get to know me or figure out what the problem is."

"Do you have anything to add to this great tale of yours?" Megan asked in a huff, unrelentingly continuing her inquisition.

She knew she ought not to push her mother any further than she already had. Tuesday could tell that the bottle was getting full and was ready to burst, and she had pretty much relayed the entire story already. "No, ma'am" was all she could muster.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Megan answered, as her mood visibly seemed to simmer down. "So the mystery boy's name is Jason, huh?

At the mention of his name, Tuesday's eyes shot to the floor and her face became a brilliant shade of red. "Yeah." Tuesday said and added a long pause, trying to figure out what to offer her mother and what to keep for herself. "His family just moved here from Phoenix, his dad is a lawyer, and he's the only one who doesn't look at me like a freak."

"Hey, that's cool!!" Megan said excitedly, her mood subtly shifting from angry to elated. "Sounds like you found yourself a boyfriend!"

This was an prompt escalation of Tuesday's embarrassment to the point where she frantically scanned the kitchen for something, anything to hide behind. The closest object was a red dishtowel sitting at the edge of the table which she quickly grabbed to conceal her face. "Mom, Stop!" She said in a meek voice. "Don't tease me!"

Megan began to brighten up and let down her guard enough to laugh a little bit, "But it's so cute!" She teased, laughing as she addressed her daughter, "My little girl is growing up!! And that dishtowel is a spot-on match for your face right now."

"MOM!!" was all Tuesday could manage to say in a defensive tone of voice. She began swinging the dishtowel, hitting her mother with it three or four times. The two were laughing and having a great time. After a moment, Megan backed off and got serious with her daughter again.

"Okay, okay." Megan said, changing the tone of the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Seriously honey, what are we going to do about you not being in school?"

But Tuesday is still in the mood to make jokes and doesn't want to be serious, "We could put me in a school in another state on the east coast." She offered as a suggestion, praying that it might actually be within the realm of possibility.

Megan, however, was quick to shoot it down. "Nope. Guess again."

Tuesday sat for a moment pondering other ideas, and when one had finally occurred to her, her face brightened up. "We could write a letter to the Governor and get that liar McCauley fired!" Tuesday said excitedly.

Megan was quick to reply to her, "As much as I wish we could, I don't see how that's going to solve anything, so no." She stares at her daughter for a moment, and suddenly Tuesday figures out what her mom is going to propose.

"Oh no, not that!!" Tuesday protested, shaking her head back and forth. "You can't be serious?!"

"Yes, that." And that was Megan's final word on the subject.

"No, no, no, no, no." Tuesday repeated over and over in a whiney voice. "Oh Mom, gosh no! Not that, anything but that! Why do I have to go to another shrink?"

Megan felt like it was time to reason with her, and to lay down the law if needs be. "You don't want to be like this all of your life, do you?"

Tuesday felt the sting of reason in her mother's words, but still felt like protesting. "No, but I don't want to have my head examined anymore, it's shrink wrapped as it is!"

Megan cut her off abruptly, "Tuesday, we need to solve this problem, once and for all." She looked her directly in the eyes, and with a sense of urgency, she said, "It's important."

"But Mom..." Tuesday complained, but Megan wasn't having it.

"No, but Mom." Megan said, making her point clear. "You're going to the shrink, end of discussion."

Tuesday fired a form of a dictatorial salute to her mother as if to indicate that she felt her mother was being a fascist toward her. She couldn't understand why her mother was being so direct about all of this when she was regularly so disconnected about everything. Why the sudden involvement? Why now? Never mind, it didn't really matter. _"Now she develops parenting skills_." thought Tuesday, frustrated with the morning's events.

With her head down, and her spirit crushed, Tuesday walked back to the living room and went out the front door to the porch for some fresh air and to have some time to think. It was then that she spied Jason out on the sidewalk, hoping to get her attention, which elevated her mood considerably.

" _Oh my gosh, there he is."_ Tuesday thought to herself, with anxiety gnawing at her. It was right then when he saw her, and he came walking toward her with that intoxicating smile spread across his face.

## II

### A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

As soon as Jason began moving toward Tuesday, she jumped up to greet him, but what should have taken a few seconds to get together felt like many minutes as the thoughts swirled in her mind. _"What if this goes somewhere?"_ Tuesday thought to herself, engaging in her unfailing ability to overthink everything. _"What if this becomes a long-term relationship?"_

Tuesday knew that her problems challenged and plagued her on a daily basis, and she suspected that Jason wouldn't want to deal with those issues for any extended period of time. And she couldn't allow herself to hold him back from his future, from his dreams, from his goals. Granted, he was only fifteen and he most likely he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life yet. Maybe he had an idea of what he was going to do, but probably not a concrete plan, and she couldn't see herself being a part of that plan, whatever it was. This was a conversation she was going to shelve for another time as today wasn't the day to imagine what her future with him would be. She allowed doubt to creep back into her mind, numbing her to the possibilities of what could happen. The what-ifs seemed to always bring the world into slow motion for Tuesday. Her thoughts were sometimes her own worst enemy, and she knew it.

When Tuesday and Jason had reached each other, they found themselves in a long hug in the middle of the front yard. Instantly, the anxiety melted away and she found herself caught somewhere in time, in a moment she wished would never end. She wished that the two of them could spend the day talking and hanging out. She longed to hear his voice and peer into those deep blue eyes of his, and hear every single story he had to tell. Tuesday certainly had the time on her hands for it, but it was most unfortunate that he didn't have that time mutually with her.

No words were spoken until they parted from their embrace. As they moved apart, they connected their hands, and sat down on the lawn, still gazing into each other's eyes. Jason took the opportunity to break the silence. "Hey there, I wasn't sure I was going to see you again so soon, but I was hoping to. I can't stay long, my Mom and I have to go to Portland today to get some supplies, so she's going to meet me here."

"I'm glad you did." Tuesday managed to nervously say as she fidgeted with her toe on the wet morning grass. "I guess that's the benefit of living so close to each other." It was then that she realized that he must live within a short walking distance to her.

"I live two blocks down and around the corner on Cedar Court, in the bright blue house." Jason confirmed, waving his arm off into the general direction of his home. "The really big one, two houses in on the left."

"I've seen that house." Tuesday was fumbling for her words, "I know where it's at." She was thrilled at the fact he lived so close, but did her best to downplay her enthusiasm.

"Right." Jason replied, trying to maintain his cool.

"It's great to see you, I was thinking of you all day after I left the school yesterday." Tuesday admitted, a little unsure of whether she should have said that or not.

"I have to confess." Jason began struggling for words that would convey his actions in the correct light, "I came to the bus stop early hoping that I'd see you. How are things going for you?"

Tuesday felt a little flushed at this revelation. Nobody had ever come to see her before, and it was a feeling that took her by surprise, and she had to admit to herself that it was quite pleasant. She looked at those striking eyes on that tanned face of his, "They're alright, I guess." Tuesday replied thinking back to the discussion she and her mother had just finished. "Other than my Mom is making me go to see another shrink, which I don't want to do."

"Well, that stinks." Jason responded. "You shouldn't have to go if you don't want to."

"Well, I don't _want_ to do it." Tuesday stated, facing the truth about what it was her mother was forcing her to do. "But I _need_ to do it. I can't live like this anymore, and if this guy can help, I can't afford to miss the opportunity."

"Sounds like you've got it sorted then?" Jason said, that smile of his spreading across his face.

"You know; she has problems too!" Tuesday noted in a moment of thoughtfulness. "It's not like she couldn't benefit from some rehabilitation."

Suddenly it hit Tuesday what a hypocrite her mother was. Her mother was in serious need of rehab, but wouldn't do it no matter what Tuesday had tried to tell her. And yet, here she was, forcing another psychologist on Tuesday; it certainly didn't make any sense to her. Over the years, Tuesday had tried to clean her mother up more than a time or two. She tried to have an intervention but couldn't get anybody to help her confront her mother for her actions. And then she had threatened to call the police on her mother, but in the end, had only enabled her actions by lying for her. Calling the police wasn't really an option for her anyway because as terrible as her mother could be, she would rather live with who and what she was, than to live without her. Megan knew this was a ruse, so each time the subject was brought up, she would call Tuesday's bluff. Tuesday was at her wits end with how to help her mother.

"It's simple." Jason offered, reaching into his pocket, revealing a pack of gum, offering Tuesday a piece. "You recognize that you need help with your problem, and she won't get help for her problem. Tell her that you won't go to counseling if she doesn't go to rehab. Make an ultimatum to her and stick with it."

Tuesday brightened up at this idea, reaching out to take the gum Jason was offering her. "I'm definitely bringing that to the table when she and I talk about it again. Probably in like, the next half hour or so, I'm betting. If that long."

The two of them shared a laugh, unwrapping the sweet and chewy goodness, placing it into their mouths.

Tuesday was still thinking about the second of her nightmares from that night, and really wanted to share it with Jason, to perhaps get his perspective on the dream. It was also a way of showing that she could confide in him about personal things.

"Have you got a minute?" Tuesday asked cautiously, hoping that Jason could talk for a moment longer. "I really want to share something about a dream I had last night with you"

Jason looked at her and simply shook his head in the affirmative, blowing and popping a bubble as she did so. Tuesday sat him down on the lawn and began to recount the event of the dream to him where she was on the airplane.

"I was in a passenger airliner." Tuesday began, trying to remember the vivid details of the dream. "And there was a man with a knife. Everybody was afraid of him, and I could feel their fears and anxieties, but I wasn't personally afraid. There was a single passenger on the plane who I had a connection to, so I searched the plane for this person, and I caught a glimpse of her right before the plane exploded."

"Man, you have the most wicked dreams!!" Jason interrupted, blowing another bubble. "All I ever have are dreams about dogs chasing me, or skateboarding or things like that."

"Jason!" Tuesday continued, trying to relay the meaning of her dream to him. "The passenger was me, I'm almost certain of it. What do you think that means?"

"Well, I'm no shrink." Jason replied as he shrugged his shoulders, "But I think you may not have been dreaming the future this time. It sounds like one of those deep dreams you have when you'd have that would reveal something about yourself."

Tuesday got a puzzled look on her face and thought about what Jason had just told her as he continued to theorize about what had transpired in her dream. "I think you might have been telling yourself that you're going to be at peace with yourself when your end finally comes."

Jason was particularly proud of himself for coming up with this definition to her obviously complex dream. And honestly, Jason thought he was built to be smarter than most kids. His parents always encouraged him to think outside the box, to be independent and to be self-sufficient. Truthfully, Jason wasn't any smarter than any of the other kids; he was simply taught to think differently than other kids do, which often resulted in different outcomes of the dilemmas that were placed before him.

He certainly was a more abstract thinker than even a lot of the adults he encountered. It was for this reason that school often bored him and he had a hard time making friends. His thought process worked differently, so he couldn't appreciate interests in the same way as the other kids. While other boys wanted to play football, he was always the boy who wanted to come up with the plays on paper, and anticipate what the opposing team would do, and counteract that. When Jason had attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix, the Army recruiters were very interested in offering Jason a career, seeing his potential for military applications, combat and strategy. As smart as he was, he had no respect for that kind of discipline, so he often turned down their offers, even though they had fished him with generous scholarships for college. None of their offers meant anything to him, because his heart wasn't in it.

The truth was, Jason didn't truly know what he wanted to do, or how he wanted to apply his talents. He knew that there was nothing that was unattainable for him, but he was careful to think about how he wanted to use those talents. Each decision for Jason was a process where he would have to look at the options from all angles, and then weigh the pros and cons of each decision. He wasn't one to come to decisions lightly, except for matters of the heart.

Perhaps this is the reason Jason felt he was so intrigued by Tuesday. Not only was she a riddle wrapped in an enigma, but she was pretty and funny as well. She had an intensity that was attractive to him, and he could feel that she was a real person. Much more so than ninety-nine-point eight percent of the other people he had met in his life. Any girl who still had the guts to carry her teddy bear around at the age of fourteen must be alright in his book. She had a fragile innocence that was close to having been shattered by the experience of the things she had seen, both in her dreams and in real life. The moment he stepped up to the plate for her, scaring the Jackson girls away, he knew that he had to know more about her. Meeting her was like being hit by lightning and nobody was going to keep him from her. In his heart, he knew that she was the one he had been waiting for.

Jason had dated one or two girls back in Phoenix, but they just weren't right for him. They were shallow and were more concerned with how their boyfriend looked, or what his social stature was than the actual relationship. He knew the next time he chose a girl; she was going to have to be very special.

He was very much hoping that a solid relationship could come out of this thing with Tuesday, but the last thing he wanted to do was push her. He was never very good at reading girls to know whether they were truly interested or not, but he had a good feeling about Tuesday. He just wanted to make sure the time was right before asking her out, as not to go too fast for her. Jason was, if nothing else, a gentleman. This was a trait unheard of in the vast majority of boys his age.

"Let me clarify." Tuesday asked, somewhat bewildered at Jason's revelation. "I'm going to be at peace with myself when I die?"

"That's what I'm thinking it means." Jason responded, and then got a mischievous grin on his face. "If I were you, I'd ask the shrink your Mom is making you see to be sure."

Tuesday playfully slugged him and rolled her eyes, and the two laughed again. _"It feels good to laugh with somebody_." Tuesday thought to herself, feeling a relief wash over her. She was thinking about how she wished she could spend more time with him, so much so in fact, that she had vocalized that thought without realizing it. "I really wish we could spend more time together like this."

"I certainly wouldn't mind that." Jason replied, with that smirk on his face. "I'm going to the football game next Friday; would you like to go with me?"

Tuesday brightened up at the invitation, even though she wasn't a fan of the sport and certainly didn't want any part of the whole school spirit thing. "Yes!" Tuesday blurted out without giving it a second thought. "I'd love to go to the game with you!"

"Alright." Jason said, smiling graciously at Tuesday. "It's a date."

" _A date?"_ Tuesday hadn't quite thought about it in those terms, but in essence, that's what it well and truly was. She never would have imagined that her first date would be a high school football game. In fact, she never thought she would ever go on a date with somebody in Cadence Falls. The perception that the people in the town had of her, largely due to the endless amount of gossip spread by the Jackson girls, was not a favorable impression. They had tarnished her reputation beyond any hope of repair, so meeting a friend, much less a boy, was completely out of the realm of probability for Tuesday. Yet, against all odds, here was this new boy, completely unaffected by the lip service of the Jackson Twins, and she was beginning to feel like a normal teenage girl for the first time in her life. She dared to hope that this would be real and lasting, and that even if nothing romantically ever came of it, Jason would hold true to his promise, and that they would remain friends, no matter what.

It was at that moment that a car pulled up in front of Tuesday's house and sounded its horn. It was Jason's mother, swinging by to pick him up for their trip to Portland. Jason jumped to his feet, and offered her his hand, and helped her to her feet. He gave her a quick hug, that didn't feel like nearly enough to hold her over, and then ran over and hopped in the car. He took a seat and kept looking at her until their car moved out of sight.

Tuesday stood on her lawn, living in the moment and wishing that she and Jason could have many more like the one they had just shared. The rain began to fall, and Tuesday decided it was time to go back into the house and deal with the issue of seeing the therapist. She was not looking forward to continuing that conversation.

## III

### MEGAN'S JOURNEY

Tuesday stood on the lawn for another fifteen minutes after the school bus left. She replayed the entire conversation with Jason over and over again in her mind, wondering what she could have done or said differently. In the end, she decided that the situation was acceptable as it was, and was a perfect slice of her day. But it was time to get back down to business. She was particularly interested in playing the ultimatum card with her mother. It was time that her mother laid her demons to rest too, in fact, it was long overdue. She turned and slowly walked back to the house, twice looking back at the spot where she and Jason had been sitting together on the lawn and smiled a little wider each time.

She opened the door, expecting some kind teasing from her mother, who surely had to have seen her and Jason together. At the moment, she didn't even care what her mother was going to say. She closed the front door behind her gently, and almost danced herself back into the kitchen, but Megan wasn't there. Tuesday went into the laundry room to check and see if her she had been working on the laundry, but she wasn't there either. She was used to her mom leaving the house without telling her, but surely this couldn't have been one of those times since they were still in the process of figuring out what to do about Tuesday's recent expulsion from school.

Tuesday decided to go into the darkened living room to watch some morning television, and that was when she saw her mother. She was unconscious on the floor, with a band of rubber loose on the floor and a syringe still sticking into her track marked arm. The spoon and the butane lighter rested a few feet from her mother's body, the acrid residue still clinging to the air.

Tuesday's eyes went wide with fright. She ran across the room and knelt down in front of her mother. _"Please don't have overdosed!"_ She thought to herself in a panic, placing her hand on her mother's chest. At first, she didn't detect any rise or fall in her chest, which threw Tuesday into full blown panic mode. She placed the side of her hand up under her nose and felt very faint and shallow breathing. She then placed her fingers on the side of her neck and found an irregular pulse, so she decided the best course of action was to call 911. She fumbled in the dim light of the living room for the phone, removing it from its cradle and pushed the three digits. It rang through and was answered immediately.

"911 dispatch, what is your emergency?" The female voice on the other end asked.

Tuesday thought for a moment, and then said "Medical, I think my Mom overdosed!" At the sound of hearing the actual words coming out of her mouth, Tuesday broke down and began crying, but she managed to give the dispatcher her address and phone number while she stayed on the line.

The dispatcher was asking for details about what her mother could have overdosed on, and she played the part of the innocent daughter, claiming not to know anything about the substances because she didn't want to give them enough information to have her Mom arrested. While on the phone, Tuesday carefully removed the syringe from her mother's arm, bent the needle on the floor and then placed it into a bottle of soda that been sitting next to the couch. The dark color of the soda hid the syringe from sight. She picked up the rubber band, lighter and spoon and took them into the kitchen, furiously trying to scrub the dark, syrupy heroin residue from the spoon with hot, soapy water. She began to hear sirens in the distance, so she grabbed a zip lock bag and shoved the spoon, the lighter, and the rubber band into it, and hid the bag in the can of coffee grounds, covering it up and placing the lid back on it. The sirens continued to grow louder and soon the EMTs arrived, pounding feverishly at the door.

Tuesday answered the door, and the medical crew came in swiftly, bringing their gear, a gurney, and various other things that Tuesday couldn't describe. It wasn't long before they decided they needed to transport her to the hospital for intensive care. As soon as they picked Megan up, Tuesday began asking questions.

"Where are you taking her?" Tuesday asked in a panic. "Is she going to be alright?"

"We are taking her to the hospital, she's going to be fine. You're going to need to come with us, and we'll have some questions for you." The EMT said in a calm manner.

The entire event was a whirlwind, and hit had happened so fast. One minute her mother was lecturing her about seeing a shrink, and a little later she was laid out on the floor, incapacitated. _"How had this happened?"_

It wasn't long before they had Megan on the gurney and was wheeling her outside to the ambulance. Tuesday was curious how she was going to get to the hospital. It was only a second later that she got her answer.

"You're going to ride with me, Tuesday." Officer Douglas Downe said. "I'll take you to the hospital, and I'm going to have some questions as well."

Tuesday wondered what else was about to go wrong for the day. She glanced over and saw the EMT crew place the gurney inside of the ambulance and closed the door as the rain intensified outside. Tuesday went inside and grabbed Winston, locked the house up, and then turned and followed the police officer to his car.

## CHAPTER NINE

I

### A DEAL WITH A POLICE OFFICER

The law enforcement officer escorted Tuesday to his car and opened the passenger seat door for her. She climbed into the car and he closed the door, reminding her to wear her seatbelt. He came around and got into the driver's seat, starting the car and switching on his emergency lights to follow the ambulance through the wet streets of Cadence Falls and down to The Devil's City at Mercy Hospital. He began to explain his position to Tuesday who was listening intently, and taking mental notes of everything he had to say.

"Listen to me carefully, Tuesday." The police officer began. "I know your Mom; I know her very well." The first thing that came to Tuesday's mind was whether this cop was a client of hers or not, but she felt it better not to ask to protect her mother's privacy. She knew she would have to tiptoe carefully with her answers.

"A lot of people know my Mom." Tuesday said, trying her best to be evasive. "What does that have to do with anything?" She wanted to come off as innocent as possible, and denied anything to do with her mother being a criminal of any kind.

The cop went on the defensive. "Look, I'm not out to get your Mom, I'm trying to help her." He said in a way that sounded very honest to Tuesday. "I just need to know what is going on with her, what happened?"

"I..." Tuesday stuttered, "I honestly don't know." I was outside talking to a friend and came back inside to find her on the floor."

"The EMTs were at a loss as to what substance your mother had OD'd on." The Police Officer said. "There were no signs of drug paraphernalia around, and you called it in, so it stands to reason that you moved them. I need to know what they are and where you put them."

Tuesday had tried to keep herself as expressionless as possible, feigning ignorance as to what he might have been talking about. "I didn't see anything." She replied, in an attempt to not give away any details that might incriminate her mother.

The Police Officer wasn't buying it though. He was experienced enough to know when somebody wasn't telling the truth, so he asked again and elaborated upon his motives. "Look, your Mom is in a lot of trouble, and I can't help her if I don't know all of the details." He said to Tuesday as he rounded a corner at a high rate of speed, splashing through a puddle of water.

Tuesday seemed curious and asked, "What is she in trouble for? What has she done?"

The Police Officer shook his head and told her, "I can't tell you what she's in trouble for, but the department is onto her and her activities, and it won't be long before they take some action. She will be arrested and you'll be sent to foster care, and I don't want that to happen. Your Mom is a good person in a bad situation, and I want to help her get out of this mess. I need to know where the evidence is so I can get rid of it before they get the search warrant."

Tuesday shook her head as if she understood, tears at the edges of her eyes, threatening to careen down the sides of her face, but still clinging for dear life. Tuesday knew that she kept her stash in a waterproof container in the toilet tank, and then there was the needle and paraphernalia that she had hidden. Lord knows what else was in the house. She relayed this information to the Police Officer, and got up the courage to ask a question. "If I can get her into rehab, would that help solve anything?" Tuesday asked, hoping that she could turn the tide that was rising against her mother.

"It couldn't hurt." The Police Officer said. "If you can get me regular reports on her outpatient rehabilitation, and show that it's working, that would be enough to keep the department from going after her. Do you think you can get her to do it?

"I know that I can." Tuesday said, making what might very well be a hollow promise to the cop. "If you can drop me off and get back to the house and take care of the evidence, I'll work on my Mom when she comes to." Tuesday paused for a second and then handed him a house key to gain entry into the house. "Please put it on the ledge above the window next to the door when you leave."

"Thank you for trusting me, Tuesday." Douglas Downe said, a hint of gratitude in his voice. "I'll do my best to see that your Mom is taken care of."

The police car pulled up to the hospital emergency room area, and Tuesday thanked the Officer for the ride. "Thanks for bringing me here." She said. "I'll do my best with my mother."

She opened the door to the car, and got out, closing it gently. She turned and walked toward the emergency department with Winston in hand, not sure of what she was going to see from her mother, but she now had a mission, and failure meant the end of life as she knew it.

## II

### WAITING ROOM WORRIES

Tuesday entered through the main entrance of the emergency hospital at Mercy Hospital in The Devil's City, clutching Winston tightly, fearful of the sight she may soon be witnessing. She walked right up to the desk and explained who she was, and that she needed to see her mother as soon as she could. Unfortunately, they hadn't yet stabilized her, and Tuesday would need to wait in the waiting room to see her mother.

Tuesday had wondered why there had always been televisions in hospital waiting areas, because they never really seemed take anybody's mind off the reason they were really there. It did pass the time, but it definitely hadn't taken her mind off of the reason why she was there.

The reason Tuesday was there. How was she going to approach her mother about this? How would she convince her to clean up her life? This was something which she had hoped for a long time, but dared not ask about it. There were consequences to meddling in her mother's business, and so she learned a long time ago not to involve herself in anything that wasn't her business. There was once time where she had taken her mother's stash and buried it deep in the back yard where it would never be found. When Megan had discovered it was missing, she was furious and Tuesday got the first-hand opportunity to feel her mother's wrath. The beating she received from her mother was one she wouldn't likely forget. Her injuries were so severe that Megan kept her home from school for a week until she appeared to be some semblance of normal looking. The physical wounds healed, but the marks that were left on her emotionally were still fresh and painful. Each time Tuesday had thought of that day, she remembered never to involve herself in her mother's business.

And now she had to involve herself in her mother's business in order to save her from herself, and Tuesday wasn't quite sure how her mother was going to take it. Even the reruns of _The Dukes of Hazzard_ on the waiting room television weren't enough of a distraction to take her mind of what she was going to have to face when her mother woke up. Jason had made it sound so easy, and she felt like it was going to be easy when her confidence was boosted to a whole new level. But then she came back inside the house and found her mother in bad shape, and it brought her back down to reality. In a way, it was good that she was knocked down a few pegs, but she would have preferred that to happen in a way that didn't involve her mother being transported to the emergency department by ambulance. Better probably that she didn't get the chance to find out; after all, she could have faced the wrath of her mother for getting into her business again. But now, she had ammunition, information and leverage that she didn't have before. When her mother woke up, Tuesday would be ready for anything that her she threw at her.

After many hours, the day wore on into the evening time and the storm outside howled furiously, bringing thunder and lightning. Around seven-thirty in the evening, ambulances arrived with two victims who appeared to have been electrocuted in an accident. Tuesday looked away as they were brought in, weeping gently to herself and cursing herself under her breath for thinking that she would escape witnessing that event in any capacity whatsoever. "At least I didn't have to see the accident." Tuesday thought to herself, disgusted with the outcome of her dream nonetheless. She returned reached for Winston and did her best to focus on the television again.

Tuesday sat there for a while longer, watching the television and hugging Winston tightly. For several more minutes, which felt like hours to her, nervously biting her nails as the time to see her mother drew ever nearer. When the sound of her name was being called from the counter, Tuesday hadn't expected it and was surprised that she could finally see her mother.

"Tuesday Moxley." The nurse called out in a loud and clinically detached voice. "Your mother is awake if you want to see her now."

Tuesday stood up from her seat and grabbed Winston, following the nurse through a door to the back of the emergency department and to an elevator. "She is in a room on the fourth floor for observation, just check in at the desk through the doors to the left of the elevator."

Tuesday nodded as the elevator doors parted. She stepped inside, and hoped that what she was going to see wasn't too awful. She apprehensively moved her finger forward and pressed the button for the fourth floor. Even feeling the pressure of the button was enough to cause her some anxiety, but not as much as the elevator doors closing did. The elevator began its ascent to the fourth floor, where Megan Moxley would be waiting in a hospital bed. Tuesday tried her best to mentally prepare herself for what she might see.

## III

### BOTH POWERLESS

Tuesday had always thought of time as a funny thing. There were moments for her where time felt like it lasted forever but when the moment passed it virtually took no time at all. There were moments for her that never lasted long enough, and there were moments that dragged on for an eternity. This was one of the latter.

The ascent in the elevator was a swirl of emotion, of anxiety and nervousness for Tuesday. Neither Tuesday, nor Winston, were overly fond of elevators, because confined spaces always caused Tuesday some paranoia of what might happen. She knew that failure would not be an option here, and no matter how many excuses, threats, objections or denials her mother would make, Tuesday needed to push her mother to see the reality of her situation, it was rehabilitation or incarceration. Simple as that.

When the doors parted, she found herself on the fourth floor, and turned left from the elevator, and came to the double doors. There was a button there for her to push to ring herself in, and so she reached out and pushed it. A pleasant voice crackled over the intercom. "Good afternoon, how can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Megan Moxley." Tuesday said, gathering up her wits and trying to remember some of the confidence that Jason had given her earlier that morning. "I'm her daughter."

A few seconds later the door clicked and she was able to pull it open. As Tuesday entered the doors, the girl at the desk said "She's in Room 418." She nodded her head and thanked the nurse, and walked down the corridor, looking for her mother's room. When she found Room 418, she had mixed feelings about entering, but gathered up her courage and gently knocked upon the door, waited for a second and then walked inside.

She walked in past the curtain that was there, and caught her first glimpse of her mother, hooked up on an IV and had various monitors taped to her body. Her hands were strapped down to the sides of her bed to keep her from fighting with anybody. Tuesday had to admit that this was somewhat of a comfort to her, there would be no violence out of her mother on this day.

Megan was awake, but not fully alert. She seemed to brighten up when she saw Tuesday, as if she were thankful to see her. Tuesday walked around the edge of the bed and sat on it, putting her arms around her mother. The two of them shared a long embrace, and it wasn't long before Tuesday broke into tears, soaking her mother's shoulder. After Tuesday's sobbing had subsided, she pulled back away from the bed and looked at her mother for a good long while before mustering up the courage to speak. Megan could sense there was something on her daughter's mind with that instinct that a parent has when they know something is bothering their child. Not only was Megan aware of it for the first time in a long time, she embraced the feeling of nurturing she was experiencing at that moment.

"Honey, what's bothering you?" Megan said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Do you want the truth, or do you want me to lie to you?" Was the only thing Tuesday could manage to think to say.

"Baby girl, it doesn't have to be like that..." Megan began, but was instantly cut off by her daughter.

Tuesday was allowing her anger to do the talking for her, "It does have to be like that. Do you know what you did to yourself? Do you know what could have happened to you?"

Megan began to get the "don't get into my business" look on her face, but by this point, Tuesday wasn't having it. "You could have been killed. You could have been arrested. Or you could have been in a coma or brain dead." Tuesday continued, refusing to let up on the gigantic truth bomb she was laying on her mother. "You just don't think about anybody but yourself and your stupid habits. I love you Mom, and you're the only Mom I've got."

The fountains in Megan's eyes began to well up, and she tried to speak, but Tuesday wasn't giving her a word edgewise. "You have a friend who cares about you, and he brought me here, we followed the ambulance. No kid should have to follow their Mom to the hospital in a police car."

Megan knew exactly who she was talking about, "It was Douglas Downe, wasn't it?" She said as the tears began to fall down her cheeks.

"You bet it was." Tuesday snapped, not even knowing that she had a friend who was a cop. "And he told me in confidence that the department is building a case against you. They want to lock you up for a long time."

"He told you that?" Megan asked incredulously, doubting the words coming from her daughter's mouth. "Why would he tell you that?"

"He said he didn't want you to go to prison." Tuesday replied. "So I gave him the house key and told him where your stash is. He's going to collect it and destroy it."

"You did what??!!" Megan shouted, raising her voice to a level that Tuesday was concerned the staff might come in and end her intervention. "You had no right..."

"I had every right!" Tuesday screamed back, defending her point of view. "Your lack of self-control brought this mess upon us!! If I had been in school, chances are very good I would have come home and found you dead!"

Megan sat on her bed, glaring at Tuesday. "Don't be so dramatic."

"You put me in a dramatic situation, how can I not be dramatic?" Tuesday countered, visibly angry. "The ironic thing is, I never even had a dream about this! This came completely out of the blue for me! Do you know how hard it is for me to not dream about a future event, especially one that I would undoubtedly witness?"

"Oh, here we go!" Megan said in a loud, sarcastic tone, attempting to dismiss the gravity of her situation. "It's got to be all about you now, doesn't it?"

"As a matter of fact, it does!" Tuesday argued back, pressing her point. "I'm supposed to be the teenager, and you're supposed to be the adult, you're supposed to take care of me. So, you need to grow up and be the parent for a change!"

Megan was speechless.

"I've come to a decision." Tuesday said, lowering the volume of her voice, but still aggressively stating her position. "I will go and see the whacked out shrink on one condition."

"I wasn't aware I gave you a choice." Megan replied, trying to regain dominance over the situation. "You're going to the shrink."

"I will go and see the shrink." Tuesday spoke quietly, her confidence beginning to waver slightly. "If you go to rehab."

Megan begin to laugh. "You think you're so smart, don't you? What makes you think I'd agree to that?

"Officer Downe told me that if their search warrant didn't turn up any drugs in the house, and you went to rehab, the department wouldn't have a case against you." Tuesday offered, hoping that would be enough to convince her mother to agree to the terms.

Megan's sat quietly on her bed for a while, thinking about what Tuesday was asking of her. Eventually, her lower lip began to quiver as fully formed tears fell from her face. She ran every scenario she could think of through her mind, but the only word that kept resonating in her mind was "checkmate". She knew her daughter was right, she knew she had a problem, and she knew she needed to clean up her life. It was much easier to live when you didn't have to deal with the day to day pain, when you didn't have to think about the past. She spent years building up her shell, and then built her walls around that shell, and put a force field around that. She designed herself so that nobody could get in, and had become increasingly proficient at keeping everybody out, including her own daughter.

"Tuesday, honey." Megan pleaded, making a last-ditch effort at placing herself into a position where she would have to battle her inner demons. "You don't know how it is. My problem isn't the same as your problem. I have a disease and it can't be cured."

Tuesday refused to budge on the situation, and continued to push the issue even further, despite Megan's visible sense of discomfort. "If you don't go, I don't go. End of discussion."

For the first time, the mother and daughter found themselves at an impasse. Tuesday knew she needed to offer an emotional response to push her mother over the boundary. If there's one thing Tuesday had become good at, it was creating an emotional response. And because she had so much experience with emotions, both hers, and the emotions of others that she often felt during her nightmares, she understood the power of it more than most people did. She slowly sniffled and began to turn on the waterworks.

"I know I can't live like this anymore." Tuesday began, gently sobbing, forcing mock tears from her eyes. "I know that you can't either. As mean and as terrible as you can be as a mother, you are equally as good and kind when you're not messed up. Having you as my mother would be better than having no mother at all." She opened up the valve and let the tears flow fully free. She walked slowly toward the bed, careful to gauge her mother's response with each step closer. Knowing that it could go either way, she knew she was taking a risk by approaching her mother, she was strapped down, but she could still be dangerous. She slowly approached, and increased the sobbing with each step until she finally reached the bed, embracing her fully.

Suddenly, Megan broke. She began quietly sobbing, which quickly escalated into full blown wailing. The two held each other for quite a while, crying, their emotions expressing their love for each other and it was refreshing as the first rain at the end of summer. When Megan was finally able to speak, she said, "Thank you, thank you so much! I love you."

A few moments had passed and the two sat in silence holding one another, the lightning flashes outside subsiding into the distance. When the two of them broke their embrace, Megan looked her daughter in the eyes, and made a promise. "Okay sweetheart, I promise I'll do it. I'll do it for you, but not for anyone else, and neither of us will feel powerless anymore.

"You need to do it for yourself, Mom." Tuesday told her. "Do it for yourself and everything else will fall into place."

The two were then interrupted by a nurse who came in to check on Megan's vitals. "Is everything alright in here?"

"Yeah." Megan sniffled, grinning at the nurse in an effort to convince her that everything was going to be alright. "Everything is great! Will I be going home today?"

"No, I'm sorry, I'm afraid not." The nurse began, looking back and forth between her patient and the charts in her hand. "We are keeping you for observation tonight, and then you'll have to stay in the detox ward for three days." The nurse finished checking Megan, and logged the information, and left the room.

"Looks like you're on your own for a few days, Tuesday." Megan said.

The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon together, catching up on years of each other's lives. It was the most earnest and honest time they had ever spent together, and at the end of the day, both felt better than they had in a long time.

## CHAPTER TEN

I

### NEW ANXIETIES SURFACE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1995

Megan had been released from the hospital that morning, after having spent three days in the detox and addiction ward, and she couldn't be happier that she had been freed at last. While Megan spent her time detoxing, she begrudgingly got herself signed up with an outpatient rehabilitation program, one that she had already taken the time to work on. When Tuesday had met her at the hospital that morning, the two of them went and had breakfast at The Pancake Palace, a local diner that served legendary breakfast fare. After breakfast, the two of them went to visit the office of the psychiatrist on the card that Samuel Thornton had given Tuesday the previous week.

It wasn't long before Megan and Tuesday Moxley had arrived at the building where Doctor Anthony Frederiksen's office was located, The Millwork Tavern, as it was known to the locals. It was an old building, likely one of the oldest in Cadence Falls, which served as a mini-mall for local businesses. The shops were all centered around walkways on each level that opened up where you could look up and down this middle section where various pieces of art were hanging. The building was placed on the main street area of Cadence Falls, high on the hill where it had large windows that looked out over directly over the waterfall that flowed from underneath it, into the tributary river that flowed through The Devil's City and into the Columbia River.

Cadence Falls, partly a mill town and partly a tourist town, was once a jewel of the Pacific Northwest. Back in its heyday, Cadence Falls boasted more sawmills and paper mills than any other town in the in its area due to its location on the Columbia River, but when The Devil's City was established, it took more of the seaport duties from Cadence Falls. Having a major waterway at their disposal, The Devil's City had become a high-profile port city for the region and a hub of distribution, and over the years it had become a full-fledged international shipping center. Because the river channel was deep and wide enough, it could support up to four lanes of shipping traffic as far up the river as The Devil's City, an advantage that wasn't shared by the cities further up the river as the narrowing of the shallower channel.

Between the loggers, mill workers and longshoremen, business was booming in Cadence Falls. It was in 1911 that The Millwork Tavern was founded in what used to be an old saloon back when Cadence Falls was just a fledgling settlement. The saloon had evolved into a popular jazz and blues club where millworkers could come after their shift and unwind following a long day of work. It was originally a two-story building with the bar seating on the floor and on the balcony with a full view of the stage. As the club became more and more popular, the building expanded and added a brothel to it where workers from all over the region would come to sample the goods. During the Prohibition Era, The Millwork Tavern put on the front of being a dry bar with live music, but also had a hidden speakeasy for some of its more exclusive clientele where alcohol was still being served seven days a week. The building was eventually expanded so the various Labor Unions could headquarter on different floors there, and the upper floors became luxurious dens where the Union heads could entertain visiting mob bosses coming to collect their piece of the action. The penthouse of the building continued to host a VIP club, where city leaders could go and have a drink after a long day at city hall.

In that middle section of the building, where those executive offices for the Labor Unions had once existed, had become prime real estate for business professionals. These were now the offices for accountants, attorneys, and medical professionals. It was on the sixth floor of The Millwork Tavern where Doctor Anthony Frederiksen claimed a luxurious workspace for his office. Though there was only one receptionist, he shared this office space with two other psychiatrists, but his office was the largest space of the three.

Upon entering the reception area, the light dimmed dramatically from the sky lit windows of the retail levels. The walls were covered in a warm cherry hardwood that absorbed the light and gave off an ambiance of calmness. There were two very fine black leather sofas in the waiting area that met each other in the corner with a cedar end table between the two, some magazines scattered about it. At the other end of the room was a large, polished oak desk where the receptionist was seated. A plaque with her name on it sat in front of the computer monitor where she was ticking away at her keyboard, transcribing appointment notes.

Michelle Simmons worked the desk, taking appointments, answering phones, doing transcription and filing. If ever a doctor had an exceptionally good assistant, she was it. Doctor Frederiksen was very appreciative of Michelle and often told her that he didn't know how his practice would survive without her, and he made certain she was compensated with great pay, good health and dental benefits, and plenty of vacation time every year. She worked hard, was attentive to detail, and wasn't afraid to correct any mistakes, financial or otherwise, that came across her sight. As soon as the door opened, Michelle finished the item she was working on, and then addressed the new clients. "Good morning, how can I help you?"

Tuesday pulled out the business card from her pocket and reluctantly and placed it on the desk in front of Michelle, "I got this from Councilor Thornton at school, and he referred me here for treatment." Tuesday said nervously, tapping her finger on Doctor Frederiksen's name on the card. "He said that I should see this guy."

Michelle could sense Tuesday's trepidation, but was warm and accommodating, "It's OK, you don't need to be scared." She said with a smile. "You're in luck; he's actually had a cancellation this morning, so he's available to do an intake session with you."

Michelle opened a drawer on her desk and flipped through a few files, producing some forms that she placed on a clipboard and handed to Megan. "I'll need you to fill these out, please."

Michelle stood up from the desk and went back into the office area while the mother and daughter went to take a seat in the waiting area on one of those awesome leather couches. Megan began to fill out the paperwork to the best of her ability while Tuesday fidgeted in her seat. Tuesday wasn't happy about being there and had serious doubts that this wouldn't end any differently than her previous attempts at seeing a psychologist did.

"Mom, do you think this guy will be any better than any of the others?" Tuesday asked with the doubts creeping into her voice. "Do you think that he can help me?"

Megan stopped what she was doing and looked at her daughter, "It says he takes and original approach to child psychology, so maybe." Megan tried to answer as optimistically as she could. "I don't know; all you can do is give it your best shot."

"I hope so." Tuesday whispered, though she had protested the counseling sessions, she began to hope beyond reason that this might be the one who would really help her. "I really do."

When Michelle came back she held the door open for Tuesday. "Doctor Frederiksen will see you now." Michelle announced. "This way."

Tuesday got up from the couch, with Megan hot on her heels, but Michelle stopped her at the door. "I'm sorry, but the doctor specifically requests that all parents are to remain in the waiting area for the duration of the session." Michelle demanded in a slightly snooty tone.

Megan's defenses shot up like a bottle rocket on the Fourth of July. "But I'm her mother!" Megan protested, putting on her aggressive stance. "She can't go in there without me!"

"I'm sorry." Michelle responded sincerely, trying to calm Megan down. "I really am, but it's the doctor's policy to work one on one with the patient without third party interruption." Megan didn't like the policy, but she unwillingly accepted it. Tuesday was not so accepting.

"Mom, I don't want to go without you!" Tuesday said, slightly elevated and panicked, "I need you!" Of all the psychologists that Tuesday had seen, this was the only time that she hadn't had to have her mother by her side. For Tuesday, it wasn't also that she wanted her mother there for her own peace of mind, but after her mother's overdose, she didn't want to leave Megan to her own devices for too long. Tuesday felt as if she were her mother's keeper, and decided that the burden of Megan's sobriety was as much hers to bear as it was her mothers.

"It's okay sweetheart." Megan surrendered, trying to reassure her daughter as best as she could. "I'll be right here when you're done." She reached out for her daughter and gave her a quick hug, letting her know that she would be there for her. "You'll be alright; do you understand?"

Tuesday nodded her head, but was still very nervous about it. She was somewhat spooked about having to go into the office without her mother present, after all, her mother had been there for every counseling session she had ever had. Her mother being absent was the unknown quantity. She turned to walk down the corridor and forward to her meeting with Doctor Frederiksen.

"His office is the last door on the right." Michelle said in an informational tone. "You don't have anything to worry about, you'll be just fine.

If only Tuesday were as optimistic as Michelle and her mother were. The click and the thud of the door closing behind her wasn't as reassuring as Tuesday had hoped.

## II

### DOCTOR ANTHONY FREDERIKSEN

The sound of the door closing reverberated down the white tiled hallway and Tuesday had to take a couple of seconds to adjust to the clinical bright, white light that filled the area. She began her journey down the corridor as any journey began, with one step, and then another. The walls of the bright corridor were adorned with oil paintings with scenes from tropical islands, which was the only color in the otherwise colorless hallway. Upon closer inspection of the paintings, the lower right hand corners were marked with a "AF", indicating that Doctor Frederiksen had painted them himself. To Tuesday, that had made a statement. The otherwise clinical look of the white hallway had been interrupted with swatches of color painted by the very doctor she was going to see. It meant to her that he went against the grain, and that he was rebellious in his nature, that he imposed his will over what had been established. While Tuesday walked down that corridor, she tried to weigh in her mind whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing and what consequences it might have on her therapy.

Tuesday had finally reached the door to Anthony Frederiksen's office. She reached her hand out slowly for the shiny brass knob that represented a choice in her mind, to turn this knob would signal making a commitment to battle her inner demons, and she wasn't sure if she had the strength or presence of mind to do it or not. To walk away from the knob meant that she would continue to suffer this lifestyle, but keep herself from becoming mentally scarred any further.

Suddenly her thoughts turned to Jason, and how much she really wanted to get to know him. A thousand thoughts flew through her mind at the speed of light, and came to one conclusive thought. _"I need to defeat this curse once and for all."_ How could she have a normal life like this? How could she be everything she hoped to be for Jason with this hanging over her head? Without another thought, she turned the knob and stepped into the office.

Anthony Frederiksen's office was much like his waiting room was, warm polished hardwoods, but with a personal flair. The room had a pair of display cases containing items he had accumulated on his travels, trinkets and collectibles from six different continents. At the end of the room, there was a large floor to ceiling window with the rain beading off the outside of it. The window looked out over the waterfall and onto the valley and the Columbia River beyond, a magnificent view of lower Cadence Falls and The Devil's City. Flanking either side of the window was a large vase, one that seemed to be African in origin, and the other Asian, most likely Middle-Eastern, each filled with tall stalks of dried grass that with fluffy white plumes on the tops of them. The walls were covered in photos of the places Doctor Frederiksen had been, Japan, Australia, China, Russia, France, Rome and London, at least those were the places Tuesday had recognized from the landmarks in the photos the doctor had been mugging with. At the end of the room opposite of the large window, there was a doorway that led to another chamber. On each side of the chamber door, there were large bookshelves, filled with reference volumes, and various books on psychology. In the middle of the room there was a nice mahogany desk, and on that desk was a decent pile of paperwork, some files, and a framed picture of what Tuesday could only assume was Doctor Frederiksen's wife and son with him in front of The Great Wall of China. But Doctor Frederiksen was not sitting behind his desk on this day, he was standing in front of it waiting to welcome Tuesday.

"Hello there." He said with a gentle smile and a clipboard in his hand, "I assume you're Tuesday Moxley, I'm happy to meet you." He motioned his left hand toward the other chamber, "Let's get started, shall we?"

Tuesday turned her head toward the other chamber where Doctor Frederiksen had begun to walk to. Cautiously, she followed him into the dimly lit room where a comfortable looking chair, a metronome, a sofa, a plant on a small table, and a day bed were the only items in the room. Instead of the warm, natural hardwood look, this room was decked out in a soft, pastel blue, which felt very calming when she entered it.

"Please, take a seat on the sofa." Doctor Frederiksen said. "Let's take a few moments to get to know one another." As he sat down in the comfortable chair, Tuesday noticed there was a panel on one of the armrests, which Doctor Frederiksen used to adjust the lighting in the room, bringing it up to a normal, conversational level. Tuesday moved over to the sofa and took a seat, sinking into it and feeling its comfort enveloping her.

For the first time, Tuesday could take a look at Doctor Frederiksen. What surprised her the most was that he had very kindly features, and he was thoughtful and gentle in his speech and his manner. His thin frame hosted a somewhat obese belly, typical of a man in his fifties, but he seemed as if he was in fairly good shape overall. His head hosted a dignified receding hairline but still full of short dark brown hair, with some graying on the sides and in his well-trimmed beard. On his face, he wore an expensive looking pair of silver wire frame glasses with bifocal lenses in them. All in all, he seemed like all the rest of the psychologists she had been to see. Doctor Frederiksen was silent for a few moments while he flipped through a file of paperwork that he had on his clipboard, nodding a few times as he studied the notes in the text.

"I have your transcripts from Doctors Parsons, Wilson and Smith." Doctor Frederiksen said deep in thought, almost as if he were speaking to himself. "It says they have made little to no progress with your case." The only reaction that Doctor Frederiksen gets from Tuesday is a blank stare and a blink of her eyes. "It also says that you have been expelled from school because you would not cooperate with Samuel Thornton, the school counselor. And that on your last day of school you threatened to kill the Jackson girls on the school bus."

Tuesday began to feel the anger well up in her and became defensive hearing this. She didn't come to see Doctor Frederiksen to be reminded of the way she had been treated at Cadence Falls High School. She had come for help, but now it seemed as if Doctor Frederiksen was as useless as Doctors Parsons, Wilson, Smith and Thornton were. She found herself blurting out defensively, in spite of herself.

"Those girls are always starting fights with me!!" Tuesday said in plain and clear defense of herself. "They don't like me, and I definitely do not like them. And in my defense, I didn't threaten to kill them. What I said was I wished they were dead. There's a difference."

"That is a difference. And that's not so uncommon, kids not getting along." Doctor Frederiksen said, almost as if he were agreeing with her. "And what of Doctor Thornton? What's your problem with him?"

"Doctor Thornton, I'd only met him in the office that one time." Tuesday answered. "And I didn't want to talk to him because he was a total moron. He was theorizing about my problems without even trying to communicate with me. He is just one of Principal McCauley's flunkies, he doesn't care about my problems, and he doesn't care about me."

"The transcript also says you have an enormous amount of disdain for Principal McCauley." Doctor Frederiksen added.

"The man doesn't give me many reasons to like him." Tuesday replied, confident and self-assured. She sat in silence for another moment while Doctor Frederiksen finished looking over the transcript. When he was done, he closed the file, and opened his notebook and made sure his pen was ready to write the things she would be willing to talk about.

"I suppose while it is true that Samuel Thornton is a colleague of mine, I too, consider him to be somewhat of an idiot." Doctor Frederikson said, breaking the tension in the room. This is the last thing Tuesday expected to hear from this psychologist, especially since Thornton claimed to be a friend of his. "I attended school with him, Doctor Thornton's grades were the lowest in our class. He may not know his stuff, and he's fairly pompous, but he's a heck of a nice guy."

Tuesday needed confirmation of Thornton's claims of friendship. She'd wondered if it was another one of Principal McCauley's lies. "Samuel Thornton said you are his friend, is that true?" Tuesday chimed in, studying Doctor Frederiksen's reactions in hopes that they might betray something about him. No such luck.

"Yes, he and I are friends." Doctor Frederiksen explained. "He was considered to be a joke in our college graduating class. He was having a lot of difficulty with the course, so I would help him out; tutor him from time to time. A lot of the other students were cruel to him, yet I couldn't treat him like that. It meant a lot to him to become a psychologist. It was a promise he had made to his late father, and I couldn't stand by and let him fail at that promise, not when it all came so easily for me. We also worked together briefly for a company in Bellingham many years ago. Sam didn't mean to misjudge you; he's just not good at what he does. I'm not sure in reality if he could even help himself with his own problems."

Tuesday's assumptions about Doctor Frederiksen rapidly melted away. She thought he would be just like everybody else who had ever attempted to examine her but the truth of the matter was that he was a person who truly wished to help others. She wanted to know more about this new doctor, and what he could possibly do for her. Tuesday felt some remorse for having treated Samuel Thornton so disrespectfully. However, she did not feel anything at all for "That Liar McCauley", as Tuesday had affectionately begun to call him.

"If you talk to Doctor Thornton anytime soon, could you please tell him that I'm sorry for the things I said to him? Tuesday asked politely, "I had no idea."

"I'm sure you'll get the opportunity to tell him yourself soon." Doctor Frederiksen replied. "I should be able to get you back into school in no time at all." He seemed to relax in his chair a little bit, and continued talking to her. "My eye has been on you for some time now, Miss Moxley. Despite my sincerest efforts at procuring your case, my efforts have gone mostly unnoticed up to this point."

_Miss Moxley_? Tuesday had hated when Principal McCauley addressed her as "Miss Moxley", but coming from Doctor Frederiksen, it didn't sound so bad, in fact she kind of liked it. "You...know who I am?" Tuesday asked shyly, a look of misperception upon her face.

"I know a lot about you, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen responded, focusing on Tuesday and her reactions to his words. "I know about your problems, and I may have solutions that you haven't yet attempted, or even thought about."

Tuesday scoffed at the thought, "A solution? The others couldn't help me, what makes you think that you can?" Tuesday wanted to treat this visit as just as much of an intake interview for Doctor Frederiksen as it was for her. She needed to know that he was a good fit for her, and that she was a good fit for him.

"I can help you because I am willing to take certain risks for you." Doctor Frederiksen stated in a reassuring manner. "I'm willing to take risks that the others wouldn't. I'm willing to go the distance for you because your recovery is what's most important."

No matter how confident or reassuring his words were, Tuesday needed to push him until she heard a specific answer, one she was waiting to hear for a long time. "Yeah, all the others said that too." Tuesday stated defensively, realizing she was sounding a lot like her mother. "Why are you shrinks all so arrogant? Why do each of you think that you're the only one that can solve my problems?"

Doctor Frederiksen set down his pen and leaned forward slightly in his chair, locking his fingers together, his sad piercing eyes staring into hers. "Miss Moxley, I'm not asking for your trust today, and I'm not offering any solutions today. There's nothing special about me, but I may have suggestions to offer you to help alleviate your unique challenge, and I can only offer them to you. It would be up to you to implement those suggestions. I want to help you live a normal and fulfilling life, and I've been theorizing about this particular scenario for a long time. I've been involved in this longer than you realize. Now, are you ready to listen to what I have to say?"

This was pretty close to what Tuesday was hoping to hear, and it made her heart glad. Perhaps there was light at the end of the tunnel for her and for the first time she realized that she is ready to open her ears, her eyes and her mind to what Doctor Frederiksen has to say. She didn't trust him any more or less than the previous doctors, but was willing to give him a chance.

"Okay." Tuesday responded, feeling her nervousness melt away like sheets of ice in the springtime. "What is it you want me to do?

## III

### DECODING THE SIGNS

Doctor Frederiksen sat back in his chair again, getting comfortable and clicked his pen open again. "I have been interested in the practice of dream therapy since my college days." He began to speak in that silky-smooth monotone voice of his. "I believe that our dreams tell us things about ourselves that we don't or can't see in the world of the conscious. We don't see these things because we either choose not to or because the signs are beyond our comprehension or are too obvious to pick up on?"

Tuesday was suddenly confused by what Doctor Frederiksen was telling her, but it was certainly something that none of the other shrinks had hit her with. But she couldn't understand what he meant by all of this.

"Signs?" Tuesday asked, scratching her head. "What kind of signs?"

This line of questioning was not completely surprising to Doctor Frederiksen as he continued to explain. "The signs are things that are linked to your subconscious. They are the things that tell you the complete meaning of your dreams." He stated, sounding knowledgeable on the subject. "For example, if you went down two floors to Molly's Book Emporium and found a book on dream interpretation, it would tell you many things. Say you had a dream, and in that dream you lost one of your teeth. The interpretation in the book would tell you that sometime in the future you would be parted with a significant amount of money, or at the very least, are worried about losing some money."

Tuesday thinks that she is following what the Doctor is saying, and found herself moving her tongue around the inside of her mouth in an effort to check if any teeth were missing. Much to her relief, they were all still there. It was a good as time as any for Tuesday to defend her point of view on the subject, she knew that everything that happens in her dreams is completely obvious to her, and will inevitably happen. Worse yet, she would experience the emotions and the pain of the people around her.

"No, my dreams aren't like that." Tuesday said, attempting to put the experience into words. "My dreams are more real than that. I dream it, and I see what will happen. And then I feel the pain of the victims, and the emotions of the bystanders. I feel the sadness of their families, and am burdened with the same sense of loss and grief."

Doctor Frederiksen continued, trying to take Tuesday's train of thought to the next station. "Where other people have dreams and there are signs that may show them what happens, your dreams are more literal. There are no signs for you and everything that happens in your dream; you are completely powerless to stop it from happening."

Tuesday simply nods in agreement. "Yeah, that's right." She said, completely in awe that somebody else understands her dreaming process. "I dream it and it happens."

"Everybody has the ability to tap into the future by decoding their dreams." Doctor Frederiksen said, trying to evoke understanding in his patient. "They only need to recognize the signs. Some people are very good at it, and others are oblivious to it. Where you differ is that the signs automatically decode themselves and manifest in a literal interpretation. Your mind translates all of that data without you having to do it manually."

"What you're telling me is that my brain does all the work for me?" Tuesday asked with a befuddled look on her face. "That my brain figures all of it out, and I just see it like I'm watching a movie?"

"Correct." Doctor Frederiksen replied, a slight smile forming on his face from the satisfaction of Tuesday's revelation.

"What are we going to do about it then?" Tuesday asked, feeling more hopeful about things than she had in years. "How can we blind me to the signs?"

Doctor Frederiksen got a look of shock on his face, "Child, why on Earth would you ever want to be blinded to the signs?" He asked in a state of confusion, not understanding what it was that the girl in front of him was seeking.

Tuesday felt her sense of outrage rising, she felt as if she's suffered with these nightmares long enough and it was something she never wanted, something she never asked for. She just wanted to be a normal girl, to have the same opportunities and social interactions that other girls of her age would have. Was that too much to ask? Her voice became louder, though only slightly.

"I am tired of having these nightmares, and I hate being scared all the time." Tuesday stated defiantly, trying to make the meaning of the agony she had endured for so long clear to him. "I'm fearful of having to relive these dreams shortly after I have them, and I more than anything I hate that people blame me for all of the accidents. All of the deaths."

"And it's completely alright to feel that way." Doctor Frederiksen calmly stated, trying to reel Tuesday back in to a comfortable place to express her story. "Your emotions are validated, but I think that what you're looking at as a curse, could really be a gift."

Tuesday's anger was escalating and she felt herself stand up to walk out the door and cut the appointment short. It appeared to Tuesday that Doctor Frederiksen was as clueless as his colleagues were. She didn't want to think of her problem as anything but evil. It was no gift, not when it caused so many injuries and deaths. Tuesday always thought that the people she dreamed about who were killed were, in a way, the lucky ones. There have been many who survived the things she had foreseen, and they were crippled or disfigured, or living out their days on life support. One time, many months after one of her dreams, she encountered one of the victims who had not passed away, and seeing him suffer, being pushed by his wife in a wheelchair, that he was simply a human in a vegetative state, that was worse than any death she could imagine.

"This is no gift!" Tuesday practically screamed, trying to get her point across. "Not when it brings the deaths or injuries of so many people. It makes me feel responsible for all of it. You have no idea how it feels to experience so much discomfort and death. I just want it all to go away! I thought you might have an answer; it seems I was mistaken."

Tuesday found herself moving ever closer to the door when Doctor Frederiksen spoke again, "Why should you want it to go away, when you could learn to control it?" There it was again, that silky, seductive voice, the one that brought her attention back to the topic at hand. "Have you ever heard of dream control, Miss Moxley?"

Just as Tuesday was about to turn and walk out the door, his words stopped her dead in her tracks, and she returned to the couch and sat back down, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Dream control?" Tuesday asked inquisitively. She's never heard of this, and was suddenly confused again. It occurred to Doctor Frederiksen that the best way to keep Tuesday's anger in check was to present a mystery, and slowly unravel it for her to keep her engaged in what he was hoping to accomplish. As long as she was curious, he could use her hunger to move her in a positive direction.

"Dream control is a technique where you realize that you are awake inside your dream." Doctor Frederiksen casually explained. "The first step to achieving dream control is to recognize that you are dreaming while you are dreaming. That's when you awaken in your dream."

"That's not a problem." Tuesday confidently replied, thinking back on the countless times that she felt awake, but as an inactive participant in what she was dreaming. "I do that often enough as it is. While I am having one of those nightmares, whenever I see my reflection, either in the water, or a window, or a mirror, I appear colorless, in black and white. Everything else is in color."

"That is an excellent observation!" Doctor Frederiksen said with a degree of excitement in his usually monotonous voice. "You are already very wide awake inside your dream. Do you instantly recognize the difference between a normal dream and one of these dreams where you see the future, Miss Moxley?"

Tuesday nodded reluctantly, trying to blot out the memory of some of the dreams she had witnessed. "My normal dreams are very strange." Tuesday said, attempting to find a way to create an explanation that would differentiate between the two. "In my normal dreams, I dream of celestial beings and tribes of humans who are spread throughout the universe. I have dreams about a post-apocalyptic wasteland where people are rebuilding from a great holocaust. I have dreams about a persecuted man who doesn't speak, but eventually destroys the world. And I have dreams about a detective who solves supernatural mysteries. And then there's the dreams about the man on the mountain."

"Very interesting." Doctor Frederiksen said, furiously scribbling notes in his notebook, trying to keep up with everything that Tuesday was telling him about her "normal dreams".

"The most recent dream I had was about a plane crash." Tuesday began. "I was standing in the aisle of the plane and it was pandemonium. Normally when I have a dream like this, I feel everything that all the victims would be feeling. So, if they're all scared, I feel that. If they're in physical pain, I feel that too." Tuesday looked at the floor in shame. "Sometimes when they don't die right away, I feel that prolonged agony that they're going through and I wish that they'd just get it over with because the pain is so intense. So, about the plane crash, normally I would be feeling and experiencing everything that the passengers in the cabin would feel, all of them, but for some reason, I was focused and calm."

Doctor Frederiksen sat quietly in his comfortable chair, taking notes of the things Tuesday was telling him. He took a moment to interject, "Why do you think that was? What was different about it?" He asked Tuesday with a keen interest, experiencing something new to write about.

"I'm not sure what was different." Tuesday explained, still trying to pull the entire dream into focus. "I felt as if I was centered on one passenger. There was so much chaos in the cabin at the time, and I kept looking down the aisle for that one person who kept me grounded. I spotted her at the last split second, and it looked like the passenger was me. I couldn't be sure; it was only that second before the cabin erupted in flames."

"It appears that we have established that you are wide-awake in your dreams." Doctor Frederiksen acknowledged, "Now you just need to assert some power over your situation."

Tuesday doesn't understand what Doctor Frederiksen was asking of her, and expressed her frustration. "And how do you propose that I do that?" Tuesday asked in an exasperated tone. "It's not like I haven't tried."

"How have you interacted with the situation?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, still scrawling words into that notebook of his.

"I see these things happen, and they're not just freak occurrences. They are very real to me." Tuesday said, trying to properly put the events into words. "I yell for them to move, to get out of the way, and to look behind them. I try to warn them, but they never hear me, and they all die anyway."

Tears began welling up in Tuesday's eyes as she takes a moment of silence to articulate what she is feeling. It was difficult for her to form words as she recounted the tale of her most recent fatal tragedy.

"Last week I had a dream that a woman was killed by a car." Tuesday said, struggling to get the words out. "I watched it, and I screamed for somebody to help that child when the stroller began rolling, but nobody could hear me. The baby carriage... it rolled down the hill and the mother, well she didn't see it at first. Before the driver even pulled out onto that street, I knew that he was a man, I knew that he was engaged to be married, and that he was going to spill his coffee all over his lap. I... I could sense the car... it was ... out of control. I knew he had to steer back the other direction...to you know, avoid an oncoming vehicle. And I could see him yanking the steering wheel, hard to the right, and too far... he sailed across the other lane and into the tree. I could hear the split-second cry of the mother amidst the terrible screeching of metal... being twisted and deformed around the tree. I can still hear it, you don't forget a sound like that. I can still hear the mother's cries of agony as life leaked from her body. I screamed as hard as I could for them to move, and it was like nobody heard me. My efforts were completely useless."

Tears began flowing freely, streaming down her cheeks and dripping off her jaw and into her lap. Doctor Frederiksen reached over and plucked a tissue from the box, and offered it to her. She extended her hand, taking the tissue and dabbing her eyes with it.

"Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen addressed her, sensitive to her emotional state. "Are you ready to learn to take control over your nightmares?

Tuesday, sobbed quietly to herself said, "Please, just make it stop. I can't do this anymore."

Another moment of silence passed between them as Doctor Frederiksen nodded his head slowly. "Tuesday, I can't make it stop. The ability to see these things is hardwired into your brain." Doctor Frederiksen said remorsefully and with a degree of compassion Tuesday hadn't experienced from her previous psychologists. "But I can teach you how to control it so when it happens, you don't have to feel like it's your fault. You can change the outcome of your dream so that the real tragedy can be masked behind a veil of secrecy. How could you be responsible for it, if you don't have the same dream?"

Tuesday was still visibly upset, but she was listening to the words that Doctor Frederiksen was saying as she nodded skeptically, acknowledging what he had been saying to her in a moment of understanding. This was the breakthrough that Doctor Frederiksen had been waiting for.

"I will guide you; teach you how to control your dreams." Doctor Frederiksen said optimistically. "You will be put under a state of deep hypnosis where I can enter your dreams and guide you through them."

Tuesday was suddenly frightened by the proposition of hypnosis, as she hadn't heard good things about it. Even the previous psychologists she had visited hadn't dared to suggest such an idea.

"Hypnosis?" Tuesday asked skeptically. "Couldn't that be... dangerous?"

"No, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen laughed, "Not at all. The public is widely misinformed on the uses of hypnosis. The perception they have on it is formed by what they see on television and in the movies. You should know that I specialize in dream therapy, and that this is a very common technique in my practice. I can solve many dream related problems by the simple use of hypnosis. This problem is no different."

Doctor Frederiksen stood up and walked back out to his desk, bringing back a packet of consent forms and credentials, complete with comments from former patients who had nothing but praise for Doctor Frederiksen and his work. "You can take this home and let your mother look over it." He stated. "You are a minor in this State, so you should pay special attention to the last page of this packet. This is an authorization form that I need your mother to sign before we can continue any further therapy of this kind."

Doctor Frederiksen handed the packet to Tuesday who extended her arm and accepted it, but she was somewhat cautious about it.

"That will be all the time we have for today, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen said. "I'll have Michelle set you up for another appointment next Tuesday provided that your mother signs the forms and you continue to be cooperative. Once she signs the forms, I should be able to get you back into school." Doctor Frederiksen walked out of the treatment room and sat down behind his desk, looking over his notes from his encounter with his new patient. Tuesday followed him out of the treatment room and to the office door where she turned to look at Doctor Frederiksen.

"Thank you, Doctor." Tuesday gratefully and optimistically said. "I hope that you are the one who can help me."

"You're welcome, Miss Moxley." He said with a smile on his face, feeling as if he had accomplished a great feat with Tuesday. "See you next time."

Tuesday turned and walked out the door and down the brightly lit corridor to the waiting area where her mother was waiting for her. She ran up to Megan and gave her a huge hug with a very serious look on her face.

"I'm alright Mom." Tuesday stated, almost wore out from her encounter with Doctor Frederiksen. "But we need to talk."

Tuesday knew that she had a new battle to fight with her mother.

## CHAPTER ELEVEN

I

### DEBATING DECISIONS

The cold drizzle of the rain splattered on the windshield of the 1981 Dodge Aries that belonged to Megan Moxley. The occupants of that particular vehicle were engaged in a fairly heated debate regarding the ethics of the use of hypnosis in child psychology. The argument didn't appear to work in favor of the person seeking the hypnosis.

"But Mom!" Tuesday protested, trying to recall the exact wording that Doctor Frederiksen had so eloquently put it into. "Television and movies have given hypnosis a bad name, it's perfectly safe!"

"Where did you hear that garbage?" Megan asked, annoyed at the length of the conversation that had already gone on for far too long.

"Doctor Frederiksen says..." Tuesday said optimistically, but was cut off by her mother.

"I don't trust Doctor Freddlefaddle!" Megan shot back, thinking about what could happen if he messed up her only daughter. "What if this guy butchers your brain and makes things worse?" Tuesday couldn't deny that she didn't yet fully trust Doctor Frederiksen either, but she wasn't in any position to tell her mother otherwise.

Tuesday groaned and rolled her eyes as far back into her head as far as membranes or muscles would allow. Megan gave her a very stern and serious look, the one that said she was the alpha dog. Really, all Tuesday wanted was her mother to understand what an anchor her problem was, dragging her entire quality of life down to the murky depths of an icy, cold sea of despair. Tuesday put her best confident smile on, hoping to get her mother to agree with her.

"Mom, he's a pro!" Tuesday stressed, "He knows what he's doing, okay? Geez, just chill out for a while, won't you?"

"Some guy wants to scramble my child's brain and you're asking me to be rational?" Megan countered, refusing to budge on the issue. "I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into."

Tuesday had nothing to say to this. She started thinking about Jason, and what ideas he would come up with. He seemed to have a way out of everything, and she wished that just a little of that would rub off on her. Scratching her head, thousands of ideas and possibilities raced through her mind. Then it hit her.

"You were the one who told me that I had to see this guy!" Tuesday began. "I didn't want to do this, and you made me do it. Have you changed your mind?"

"No, I haven't changed my mind." Megan replied. "I said that before I knew that this guy was going to destroy my daughter's mind. Big difference."

Tuesday groaned again. "Mom, it's going to be alright." She begged, imploring her to change her mind on the subject. "Would you please just trust me for once and please sign the papers?

Megan was speechless; she refused to give an answer straightaway, shifting her focus between the road and her daughter, back and forth. Tuesday had always been a very persistent child when she was in search of an answer. Always inquisitive, Megan knew that Tuesday was going to grow up to be much more intelligent than she ever was. She would continuously pester her mother about the how's and why's of the inner workings of everything. There were times Megan had recalled that Tuesday was a real buzzkill, kids have a way of messing up even the best laid plans.

"Please?" Tuesday pleaded, and tried to put on her best cute face in a last-ditch effort to persuade her mother to sign the papers. "Please, please, please, please, PLEASE!

Megan knew if she didn't at least allude to an agreement, her daughter would never shut up. "Okay, okay. We'll see." Megan conceded. "I just don't want to make this any worse than it already is."

"Mom, I _believe_ this guy can solve my problem." Tuesday said, looking her mother in the eye, and placing special emphasis on the word believe. "He isn't taking it away; he's just going to show me a different way to deal with it. You've got to let me try this!"

"We'll see, honey." Megan said. "We'll see."

This elicited yet another groan from Tuesday, as the car moved down the rainy roads, toward their home.

## II

### WAKE UP SCREAMING

The silence of the darkened night was shattered by Tuesday, who awoke from another nightmare, thrashing around so violently in her sleep that he had fallen from her bed to the floor. Her feet were flailing so out of control that she had backhanded the side of her dresser.

In a flash, Megan had flown into the room, flicking on the light switch, and wrapping herself around her daughter in an effort to fully wake and calm her. Tuesday was hyperventilating and found it difficult to slow down her breathing, the only thing between breaths was screams. Megan suddenly experienced something she hadn't felt before, a genuine concern for her daughter's wellbeing, and a deep confusion settled over her about what she should be doing to comfort Tuesday. All she could think to do was to continue to hold her. Thinking back to the previous week, her thoughts of holding her were of restraint, not of comfort. Before, Megan could only think of herself, get her daughter back to sleep so she could continue with her own activities. Something had awoken inside of her, a fire and a passion that she hadn't previously known. Had she truly been missing out on this for fourteen years of Tuesday's life? How could she have been so blind? Without realizing it, tears began streaming down her face, tears filled with years of regret. She was so busy burying her pain that she was causing her own daughter pain. All the highs she was looking for weren't nearly as joyful as what she had experienced in that moment. She had promised Tuesday she would clean up her life back at the hospital, now it seemed like she really wanted to fulfill that promise and have something of true meaning in her life.

Tuesday's breathing and movement had begun to slow down, giving Megan an opportunity to reach up onto the bed to grab Winston for her.

Megan had remembered the day she bought that raggedy bear for her. Tuesday hadn't known the truth of the matter at the time; she would have been too young to understand it anyway. She was hopeful that Tuesday would never discover the true nature of that journey. Megan had taken a job smuggling drugs hidden in a spare tire from Southern California back to Washington State. It was a very hot summer, which made the trip feel much longer than it really was. The people she was working for chose her because she was a fresh face with a fresh vehicle, and had a good chance of success. Megan hadn't known it at the time, but the street value of the drugs was worth much more than the value of all the houses on the block she lived on.

Megan couldn't get a sitter for Tuesday for a few days, not that she could have afforded to pay for one anyway. So she brought Tuesday along, and they had a little adventure. Megan had always assumed that Tuesday was too young to remember most of the journey, and it was usually addressed by Tuesday as "Remember that time we got Winston?"

Megan practically despised Winston. She didn't hate the bear itself, just what it represented. While on their journey, Tuesday was complaining about being thirsty so they stopped at a truck stop. She didn't have enough money for everything she was getting, and so she had sold herself to a truck driver at the stop, who paid her more than enough for her services. All that she could think about was how awful that truck driver was, but how much he paid her made up for the disappointing performance he had provided. When Megan had finished with that, she went to the public restroom to get herself back in some semblance of order. On her way out of the store, Megan spotted a teddy bear, and thought that the bear would occupy her daughter's time for the remaining duration of the trip. She also purchased some snacks, some sodas and a pack of cigarettes. For the first time in her life, Megan considered how reckless that behavior was. She had left her daughter in the car, with the windows down for about an hour. She had parked the car next to the truck driver's rig, but it was still incredibly careless of her. She was certain that if she thought back over the years, that there were likely to be hundreds of careless incidents during her days and nights of drug fueled prostitution.

Selling herself to men wasn't particularly a big deal to Megan, not so long as she was high. She felt that she had already experienced the worst that men could do to her short of killing her. Men had in fact tried to kill her, throwing her in a ravine to die. And they had failed at that, so beyond the painful memory of it, there wasn't much else men could do to her. Her personal philosophy was she might as well make some money doing something she loved to do, and had become spectacularly good at it. Men didn't seem too turned off by her scarred appearance, and they didn't mind giving her money to receive her pleasures. She met much of her clientele while working at Tuck's Diner, many of them were truck drivers doing long haul and out on the road constantly. She hadn't cared if they were single, or if they were married or whatever, if they were willing to pay her, and use protection, she was down for it. The money she earned helped to feed her habits, pay the bills, and put food in Tuesday's belly. As mothers go, Megan thought she wasn't the worst out there; she did what it took to keep a roof over her daughter's head. She wasn't usually abusive to her daughter unless punishment had called for it; she had always done what it took to care for her.

The thought that had just occurred to her was that she hadn't cared. She had become so disconnected from her daughter that she hadn't really built a relationship with her, and that had bothered Megan in a way that it never had before. It was the first time she had realized there was a difference in caring for somebody and caring about somebody, and she wanted to do whatever it took to change that. While she had cared for Tuesday's needs, she hadn't really nurtured her the way she should have. Tuesday had still come up in an impressive manner, she was smarter than most kids of her age, but her situation made her much more independent than other kids. Megan had wondered if she had been more hands on with her daughter, would Tuesday still have been the person that she was. Megan knew she couldn't change the past with Tuesday, but all she could do was to create a better future for her.

Megan had to work hard to pay for her bills and her habits. On top of working at Tuck's Diner at the truck stop on the freeway, she had taken a variety of questionable jobs from the local drug dealers, including thefts, assaults, and smuggling to finance her drug habits from a local drug cartel who had called themselves The Blackbirds. How would she settle her balance with them? She knew they wouldn't accept a resignation from her so easily, that she still owed them plenty of work that they would require of her. And one couldn't walk away so easily, as The Blackbirds were constantly paranoid of somebody spilling their secrets. She thought about it, and knew that she and Tuesday would need protection of some kind. Her thoughts briefly shifted to Douglas Downe, could she go down that road again? They had been on and off for a few years, though she couldn't bring herself to force a relationship with him for protection. It would always end the same way between them, but perhaps now that she was sober, that could change things dramatically. It was something to keep in the back of her mind.

Megan's attention turned back to Tuesday, as she had calmed much more, and had turned around in her mother's arms, and was hugging her tightly. "Mommy..." Tuesday sobbed, "I just can't do this anymore... I just can't."

Megan felt her awakening becoming complete as she held her daughter, her tears soaking Megan's nightshirt. Tuesday's happiness was suddenly more important to her than anything else in the world and for Megan; it was like seeing the sun rise for the first time, feeling the tingle of its warmth on her skin. Megan felt as if she had stepped out of the darkness for the first time in many years. She knew there was only one way to get Tuesday out of this, she had to sign the forms and let her do the hypnosis therapy. She had come to realize her daughter's point of view, and so she took a deep breath and made her proclamation.

"Okay, honey." Megan said with a deep compassion she hadn't felt before. "I'll sign the forms. You can do the therapy."

Tuesday wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at her mother, still choking back the tears, "Really?" she asked, "Do you mean it?"

Megan nodded her head in approval, "Yes, baby." She answered. "But if things start going wrong, I'm pulling the plug."

Megan stood up and helped her daughter back into bed, and then laid there next to her until the both passed back out, holding one another for the rest of the night.

## ACT II

### LESSONS FOR LIFE

## CHAPTER TWELVE

I

### NERVOUS PREPARATIONS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1995

It had seemed that the remainder of the week had flown by. Tuesday had spent a lot of time by herself at home during the week and had taken it upon herself to do some cleaning, re-arranging, and cooking, having dinner ready when Megan had come home from her shifts at Tuck's Diner.

Megan was still working long shifts at the diner, but Tuesday knew that without her mother's drug habit to pay for, money and bills were going to come much easier. She enjoyed the days at home, and didn't really want to go back to school, but she was much too young to get her GED, so she was just going to have to deal with that liar McCauley for a few more years.

In fact, the week had raced by so quickly that when Friday had come, Tuesday hadn't quite realized it and was ill prepared for her date with Jason. She had looked forward to it all week long, but now that the day had arrived, she was a nervous wreck. One would think that a girl who has nightmares about the future wouldn't be superstitious about football game on a Friday in October, yet here she was, anxious as she had ever been.

Tuesday wasn't really a fan of football, especially the Cadence Falls Cougars. To be a fan of them, she would have to have school spirit, and for that to happen, she would have had to have at least some sense of pride in her school, which she didn't. It was hard for her to support a school where everybody, students and faculty, went out of their way to bully her. Tuesday might have cared about it had she been treated like the rest of the students, if they had allowed her to fit in. But she had been an outcast for years, and it was largely due in part to those Jackson girls. She should have just ignored them and never given them cause to talk, and Tuesday accepted her share of responsibility for that, but she never would have taken the bait if they hadn't been so vile to her. But times were changing for Tuesday; just the fact that she was going on a date to a football game with a boy spoke volumes about her fortunes turning. And if Doctor Frederiksen was everything he promised to be, then between him and Jason, she may as well have hit the jackpot.

Never having been asked out by a boy before, Tuesday wasn't sure what the protocol for getting ready for such an event was. Was she supposed to wear her hair up or down? What should she dress in? These questions ran through her mind. She tried to think about what her mother would do, and decided that the best course of action would be to do whatever was opposite of what Megan would have done. In the end, she decided that it would be best to wear cargo pants and a hoody, to simply be herself. The ensemble sounded good to her as well because they were going to be at an outdoor event. She also had decided to wear her hair down, with her loose curls sitting comfortably upon her shoulders. She applied her makeup very sparingly as not to give the wrong impression to Jason.

After getting her outfit together, Tuesday turned toward her bed where Winston was sitting, and looked to him for his approval. Tuesday knew that if Winston had thumbs and was able to move of his own volition, he would have most definitely given her two thumbs up. She really approved of the thumbs up/thumbs down method of judging most things as she was a fan of _Siskel & Ebert & The Movies_, and if the system was good enough for them, it was good enough for her.

No sooner than Tuesday had sought Winston's approval, there was a knock at the door, and that nervous thing manifested itself in her stomach and did not easily let go. She wanted both to bounce down the stairs to answer the door and run and hide in the closet. How could one feel both at the same time? As experienced as Tuesday was in human emotion, there were still sensations that surprised her from time to time.

This was one of those times.

Tuesday knew it was Jason at the door, and couldn't wait to begin her date with him, but was so nervous that she didn't want to make a fool of herself. But before she knew what was going on, she found herself gliding out of her room and almost floating down the stairs. Taking a deep breath, she flung the door open, but it wasn't the face she had expected to see. It was Douglas Downe, and he was in uniform.

## II

### AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

"Tuesday." He said, his stern eyes looking at her, as if they were piercing her soul. "How's everything going?"

Tuesday was taken by surprise by his appearance at the door, and didn't know how to answer, so she answered as simply as she could. "Everything is going well as it can be." She answered, caught unaware by his visit.

Her last interaction with Douglas Downe hadn't been under such great circumstances, so there was an awkward, silent nervousness between them that wasn't getting any better as the seconds passed. There was an unanswered question of whether her mother would be going to prison or not, and this weighed heavily on Tuesday's mind since the last time the two of them had spoken.

"How are things going with your mom?" The Police Officer asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Have you made any progress with her?"

"I've convinced her to clean herself up." Tuesday stated, not really knowing how much trust she should place in the officer. After having several days to think about what had happened and how the conversation between the two of them had gone down, she wasn't sure that she fully trusted him or not, or even if she should.

"I came over here while you were at the hospital." Douglas Downe confessed, trying his best to explain his actions. "I cleaned up everything I could find and disposed of it as best I could. But I have to tell you, there was a lot of substance in this house, more than I thought she could afford to have. I'm beginning to think that she might have been using this house as a junction for large drops for her to hand off between various parties. Do you know anything about any of the people she bought from?"

"No." Tuesday said hesitantly, remembering the last time she had gotten involved in her mother's business and the sting that had left. "My mom doesn't exactly have friends. She doesn't really talk much about anybody, except Marie, who she works with at the diner. They used to go out and party together a lot."

"We know about Marie." The cop said. "I've got somebody tailing her. I need to find out who your mom has been buying through, so I can bring them down. If they find out your mom walked away, it could be bad for her."

This piqued Tuesday's interest just slightly, but she did her best to downplay her fear, focusing on the information that the Police Officer was telling her. "What do you mean by bad?"

"If I destroyed a pickup, they're going to assume that your mom had something to do with that, and they're going to want payment." Douglas admitted, regretting what he had done and thinking of the danger that his actions had placed Tuesday and Megan in. "I need you to ask your mom who might be coming here to make a pick up."

Tuesday had no idea how to proceed with this. Any mention she might make to her mother about it would shoot Megan's defenses up and could undo any progress she had made. "I don't know about that." Tuesday said, defensively, trying to explain the delicacy of the situation. "She never talked about it when she was getting high."

"It's up to you to convince her." Douglas said. "I need to know who to protect her from, because whoever it is, they'll likely be coming to kill her."

For the first time, Tuesday realized that her mother's sins could come back to haunt her in the worst way imaginable, and the reality of those sins were starkly more chilling than any of her nightmares could have been?

"I'll talk to her, but she won't give it up easily." Tuesday said in a low, hushed tone of voice, her hands trembling slightly.

Douglas Downe expressed his concern on the matter, "No, just get her to come and talk to me about it. I don't want to put you into the line of fire." He said as he turned to leave, taking a few steps down the driveway toward his squad car.

Tuesday interrupted his stride, questioning him for reassurance. "Will she be alright?"

"Just get her to talk to me." The police officer reasserted, as he got into his cruiser. Tuesday could only watch with a feeling of dread, as Douglas Downe pulled out of the driveway and onto the street, disappearing altogether. _"Why did he have to show up at this moment?"_ Tuesday wondered, questioning whether she might ever catch a break or not. Now she's going to be thinking about her mother's well-being during her date instead of focusing on Jason.

## III

### FOOD, FOOTBALL, AND FRIENDS

Tuesday hadn't realized that she was spacing out, still staring in the direction of that Douglas Downe's police cruiser went. After what felt like minutes of gazing, she finally blinked her eyes and turned her head, and saw that Jason was walking up to meet her with a colored variety of flowers wrapped in a large piece of parchment in his hand. Jason had a bounce in his step, and a mischievous look in his eye, and had an air of confidence that Tuesday hadn't encountered from many boys of his age. A broad smile slowly stretched across her face as she realized that he had arrived to pick her up, and that she was actually going on a date with a boy.

"Hey ya, Tues!", Jason called out, seeming as cool and collected as he always was. "Are you ready to go?"

Embarrassed just a bit, she realized Tuesday didn't know if she was as fully prepared for tonight as she hoped she would have been. Being that this was the first time she had ever been on a date, she just decided to go with it, and claim her readiness as not to lose face in front of Jason.

Jason stopped just short of Tuesday and stretched out her hand, offering her the flowers, "These are for you." He said, as he placed them gently into her hands.

Tuesday shyly accepted them, her eyes flicking back and forth between him and the flowers, her cheeks flush with the nervous rush of having been flattered with this gesture. "Thank you.", Tuesday managed to somehow say in a low, but grateful voice, "They're beautiful. Let me take these inside and put them in some water."

Tuesday turned abruptly and closed her eyes for just a split second, allowing the feeling to wash over her like the waves of water breaking on a warm, tropical beach. Her eyes snapped open and she twisted the doorknob, entering the house, gently closing the door behind her. She rushed into the kitchen and got an old vase from under the sink, inspecting the size of it as she did so. She rinsed the dust off the green glass, and then gently placed the flowers inside of it, cherishing the moment. She carried the vase upstairs to her room, the sweet smell of the flowers intoxicating her with joy, and set it up in her window where it would get a good amount of sunlight. She looked out her window briefly and saw Jason on her lawn below, walking in a circle, his hands behind his back. Tuesday knew that she needed to not delay any further and headed toward her bedroom door. In spite of herself, she had to take one last look at those beautiful flowers, smiling and exhaling a sigh of happiness.

Tuesday took the stairs in her usual fashion, bounding down them in a few steps, and gathered herself as she headed back out the door. As soon as the sound of the door opening was heard, Jason stopped his circular trek and refocused his attention on Tuesday. She trotted right up to him, smiling, and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a big bear hug.

The hug lasted for a moment, but when they parted Jason offered Tuesday his hand. She looked at his hand for a split second, not sure whether she should take it or not, but her intuition got the better of her, and soon found her fingers interlocking with his. The two of them began to walk toward the street, then down the sidewalk, just enjoying being in the presence of one another.

It wasn't long before the two of them reached their first destination, The Captain's Table, a seafood joint where their specialty was salmon caught in the rivers of the local area. Jason had confessed that he didn't really know much about the area and had to ask some of the residents in the area where a good place to take a girl for dinner would be, and made a joke that it was The Captain's Table or Tuck's Diner, which made Tuesday laugh uproariously.

As Jason and Tuesday sat across from one another, they shared stories, joked, laughed, and ate the finest meal that Tuesday could ever have remembered. If this had been everything the night would have consisted of, it would have been the best night of Tuesday's life, but there was much more to come. After their meal had ended, Jason paid the check and tipped the waitress generously. The two departed, under some amount of protest from Tuesday, to the football game.

When they arrived at the Lance Jackson Field, Jason purchased their tickets to get into the game. It suddenly occurred to Tuesday that under the terms of her expulsion, she shouldn't even be here, and became concerned that if she were caught by that liar McCauley, he might very well have her arrested. Jason did his best to quiet her nerves and reassure her that wouldn't happen.

The two entered the gates and lost themselves in the crowd. Tuesday and Jason found a nice seat at the top of the bleachers where they could just be themselves, and enjoy each other's time and company, and of course some football. Tuesday found that no matter how hard she tried, she just could not take her eyes off Jason and her cheeks were becoming a little sore from the amount of smiling she was doing, unaccustomed to such a thing. She tried to pretend that she was interested in the game, but her focus always shifted back to him. What's worse, he knew it too. She couldn't stop thinking about those flowers, that dinner, and now being here, in a very public place together, it was more than Tuesday could have dared to hope or dream for.

She tried to look away from him again, and caught the sight of Principal McCauley ascending the stairs near where they were sitting and immediately became a nervous wreck. She put her hood up and turned her head away from the stairs, hoping that he would simply pass by and fail to notice her. Jason sensed her tension almost immediately, and saw Principal McCauley finishing his climb and turning their direction on the walkway toward them.

"Just keep calm." Jason whispered, putting his arm and jacket around Tuesday. "Just look like you're watching the game." Tuesday offered a nod in response, as Principal McCauley's footfalls sounded on the aluminum deck, ever louder as they moved closer, each one raising the tension in Tuesday's mind. Each footfall screamed insider her mind, with more intensity, racing toward the inevitable conclusion that she would be sitting in juvenile detention very shortly. When the crescendo of the footsteps reached their climactic opus, they suddenly stopped, seemingly right behind where she was sitting. _"He knows I'm here_." Was all that Tuesday could think. _"This will not end well."_ The cool autumn night air seemed to freeze in time, lingering much longer than it should and her breath was on pause waiting for the judgment to come. There were moments lately that Tuesday wished would never end, but this was not one of them.

And then, almost miraculously, the footsteps began again, diminishing in sound as they distanced themselves from the pair of young friends. A gasp of fresh air was had and Tuesday had never been so relieved in all her life. The last thing she wanted was for that liar McCauley to spoil her perfect night with Jason.

"Oh my gosh!" Tuesday squealed, somewhat out of breath with relief and excitement, "That was so freaking close! I can't believe we just got away with that!!"

"Tell me about it!" Replied Jason, who kept looking from left to right to see if he would be coming back in their direction. "Talk about an adrenaline rush!"

Jason and Tuesday were giddy about the entire episode for the next several minutes, half relieved, half keeping an eye out for him to come back, but he never did. They were able to enjoy the game and each other's company much more easily. When at last half-time came around, Tuesday and Jason decided to venture to the concession stand to procure something to drink.

Jason took Tuesday by the hand and led her down the stairs and around to the concession area, where the two of them got a large Coca-Cola Classic to share. Jason pulled out his wallet and paid for the refreshment, and as they were turning to leave, a voice called out to Jason.

"Jason!" The younger boy called out, trying to get his attention. "Over here!"

Jason looked around through the groups of people walking by, and over by one of the support struts for the back of the bleachers, he spied his younger brothers, John and James.

John was Jason's full brother; they were the only two natural siblings of their generation in the Alkali family. James was their new brother, and he was closer to Jason and John than any of the other foster children were. Just months before, they had met James while they were camping. While the three boys had been out hiking, James' parents had been killed in a climbing accident, as the rope they had used was old and not able to support them properly, and so the Alkalis had been quick to adopt James. There was no question that they felt a kinship to the boy. James' wounds were still fresh from having lost his parents only a few months prior, but he was doing his best to move forward with his life and to fit in. It was a new life in Cadence Falls for all of them, so they did their very best to make new friends in this town.

John and James were very scrappy boys; they were always getting themselves dirty, always tearing things apart and putting them back together. John in particular was exceptionally intelligent for a boy of his age. He had a keen interest in science and held an unnatural curiosity for how things worked and why they worked the way they did. For John, it wasn't always enough for him to know why something functioned, he needed to know the details. He was a bright and detail oriented boy, not much got past him.

James was quiet and reserved, he did much less talking than John did. It seems the two of them held a closeness to each other from the moment they met, but James had always followed John's lead. If this was his personality trait, or residual pain from the death of his parents, who could say? But it was clear that James and John were going to one day be a pair to be reckoned with, should anybody actually be stupid enough to cross them. It seemed that there wasn't much the two couldn't accomplish if they put their minds together.

Jason and Tuesday walked over to where the boys were hanging out so he could introduce his brothers to her. Tuesday followed Jason, holding her large, Styrofoam cup with both hands, taking repeated sips from it as she walked toward the two boys. When they reached the spot where James and John were standing, Jason struck up conversation with them almost immediately.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Jason asked, hoping that they weren't here to pry into his social life. It turned out that this is exactly what they were there to do.

"We heard you had a date with a girl." John replied in an almost sarcastic tone. "We had to come and see this mighty miracle for ourselves."

Jason cut them off before they could take it into the territory of taunting, "This is Tuesday Moxley." Jason said proudly, "Tuesday, these are my brothers, John and Jason."

Tuesday cradled the cup in her left arm and extended her hand, shaking both John and Jason's hands. "Pleased to meet you, guys!"

"She's a cutie, Jas!" James remarked, impressed by Jason's taste in women.

Tuesday blushed almost instantly and accepted the compliment with as much graciousness as she could muster up, "Thank you." The next several minutes were spent talking about brother stuff, followed by horseplay and then more serious brother discussion. Seeing the comradery between Jason's brothers was something that she couldn't fully comprehend as she was an only child. She had wondered what it would have been like to have had a sibling or two, though with the way her childhood had gone, she didn't know if she could wish her mother on other kids. While things had been improving with her relationship with her mother, they still had a long way to go. Tuesday had questions that were burning in her heart, questions that she desperately wanted the answers to, questions that only her mom would know the answers to. And it would be no simple task to get those answers from her mother, as Megan tended to be very guarded about her past, and never wanted to discuss it with anybody.

This was, first and foremost, the reason that Megan Moxley didn't have a boyfriend or never had gotten herself into a committed relationship of any kind. She didn't feel the need to dredge up the murky depths of her past and make explanations or justifications for the events that happened in her life. She didn't want to relive those things, and then possibly have them used against her. In Megan's mind, it was better to have uncommitted relationships with paying customers. Customers that don't ask questions, not beyond questions about how much money to give her for "X" hours of service.

But it had bothered Tuesday having been an only child. She never would understand horseplay, or sibling jokes, or having a sister's shoulder to cry on when needed. But she did have a strength that many other girls didn't have. She could take care of herself much better than many kids her age could. She only came by this skill from looking after her mother after the intense hangovers of her binge drinking or near overdoses, or when her mother had disappeared for many days at a time doing who knows what. Tuesday was particularly proud of her independence and ability to look after herself, but not how she came about that particular skill set. If she had any friends at school, she imagined how that conversation might play out over and over in her head, and it always ended in a confessional about how her mother was a drug addicted prostitute who loves to party more than she loves her daughter. Hopefully, she was on the path to repairing that rift.

It was somehow decided by the Alkali siblings that the four of them were going to leave the football game and go to the city park just down the road. When they had arrived there, they played like small children on the playground equipment, climbing, sliding and swinging. When it began to get very late, it was decided by Jason that they needed to call it a night, and he sent his siblings home.

Jason walked Tuesday to her house to make sure she got there alright. But mostly it was his way of staying out beyond curfew and spending just a little more time with her. When they reached the house, Tuesday noticed that the lights were on, which meant that her mother was home from work. This was an unprecedented event. Her mom, home on a Friday night? This was completely unheard of.

Jason walked Tuesday right up to the front door, and Tuesday's mind began racing with the possibilities. _"Is he going to kiss me?_ _Will he make the move, or should I?_ _Will we have another date?_ _Am I his girlfriend?"_

It was all too much to soak up, so Tuesday tried to push all the thoughts out of her mind and just live in the moment. He put his arms around her and held her tightly against his chest for several long seconds. Once again, Tuesday found herself in another moment she never wished would end. Jason pulled back from her just slightly, so he could look her in the eyes, with a sweet smile on his face.

" _This is it! He's going to do it!"_ Tuesday thought, taking note that his face was slowly moving closer to hers. She could feel his breath on her cheek, and closed her eyes expectantly, waiting for the moment. Jason was moving in for the kiss when a creaking sound interrupted him and pulled him back. Both Jason and Tuesday turned their heads to see Megan Moxley standing in the doorway. They both stood there looking at her, slowly pulling apart, not knowing what to do or say.

" _Could her timing be any worse?"_ Tuesday thought to herself, a swirling mixture of embarrassment and anger overtaking her.

## IV

### BUSTED

Having as much experience with men that Megan had, she knew clearly what was happening on her doorstep. "Excuse Me?" She asked in a tone that dripped sarcasm. "What are the two of you up to out here?"

Tuesday rolled her eyes and shot back at her mom "Nothing apparently!"

It wasn't that Megan had intentionally interrupted them, in fact, she hadn't known what they were up to, but came to check on them to make sure everything was alright. When she saw them, she knew exactly what they were up to. And she felt a little sorry for having stolen that moment from the two of them. But she was also feeling protective of her daughter in a way that she didn't know that she could. She couldn't allow some boy she hadn't even met to steal her daughter's first kiss. She didn't want this to be her first impression of the boy her daughter had spoken so highly of, just some kid who wanted to squirm his way into Tuesday in one way or another. At least an introduction was in order.

"Well, are you going to introduce me to your dream boy, or not?" Megan asked inquisitively?

Tuesday's face transformed through about thirteen shades of red before settling upon a hue that Megan liked to call "Crimson Embarrassment". "MOM!!", Tuesday shouted, protesting her mother's choice of dialogue. "Stop!" Jason quietly chuckled in spite of himself, hoping that Tuesday didn't hear him.

"What?" Megan said, defending her request. "I can't let this boy kiss you until I get to know him a little bit first."

Up went the hood again, trying to use as much of it as she could to cover Tuesday's glowing red face. Seeing that Tuesday might be facing more embarrassment than she could take, Jason intervened and extended his hand toward Megan in a gesture both meant to make an introduction, and to take the focus off of his girl.

"Hi, my name's Jason!" He said, his voice intentionally raised to draw attention to himself. "Nice to meet you!"

Megan gave him a look of semi-acknowledgment, just enough to show that she approved of the introduction, but the remainder was clearly a dismissal. After teasing Tuesday for another moment or so, she looked back over Jason and addressed him directly. "Thank you for looking after my daughter." She stated, offering it as a level of approval of his positive interaction with her. "It's nice to see Tuesday is making some friends."

Jason could really only manage to respond with "No problem." With that, Megan went back inside the house and the two were left alone on the porch.

"Gah, my Mom really knows how to spoil the mood!!" Tuesday groaned. Jason just nodded in agreement, gazing into her eyes. The two of them realized it was time to call it a night, so they wrapped their arms around each other and shared a hug for a moment. When the two of them parted from their embrace, they were still holding hands with one another, staring into each other's eyes.

"I want to take you out again, Tuesday." Jason said, breaking the silence.

"If you're asking, I can't wait for you to." Tuesday responded, feeling a little giddy. "This has been the best night of my life!"

"I've had a lot of fun.", Jason said nervously, struggling to find the right words to say to her. "I really like you and want to see you again."

"You will.", replied Tuesday with some hope in her voice. It had been a long time since her voice had any hope, but she knew this was a new beginning. "I'm seeing a new therapist and he's trying to get me back in school. As much as I hate that place, I know it will be better with you there."

Hope had long been absent in Tuesday's life. It's hard to look forward to anything when everyone around treats you like you are the root of all evil. All she had seemed to receive from her peers was nothing but contempt, scorn from her authority figures, and neglect from her mother. But it seemed as if her fortunes were finally changing for the better. Her mom was making an honest effort to turn her life around, a member of the local police force didn't seem to hate her at all, and now there was this boy. It had been so long since she had friends that she couldn't fully remember what that experience was like, and now, here was Jason. This guy wanted to be her friend, and by all accounts, more than that, but she had some very heavy baggage to carry, and wasn't sure if she could share it with him.

Sharing secrets had not gone so well with her in the past, with friends or with therapists. It seemed like the more she talked, the crazier they made her sound, and did not enjoy being treated like a pariah amongst everybody in town. Yet somehow Jason was different. Having come from another place made him somehow impervious to the influence of the affluent citizenry of Cadence Falls. He could apparently set and make his own rules regarding who he could accept and who he couldn't. She found this very attractive and though she desired him with every cell in her body, she could not allow their relationship to progress too quickly because of her secrets. Maybe after several months, she could share with him the things that were chaining her to the bottom of the sea of her personal madness. But all she wanted to do was to live in this very moment with him, and not think about what the future might bring.

Jason leaned in and gave her another hug, before parting and saying his goodnight to her. He stepped off the porch, a broad smile spread across his lovely face as he turned to walk away. Tuesday felt a twinge of anxiety watching him disappear into the night.

After Tuesday had lost sight of Jason, she went inside and straight up to her room to get ready for bed with a smile and a feeling that she didn't want to leave her any time soon. After changing into her pajamas, she laid down on her bed, thinking of the near kiss she had shared. While Tuesday was upset that her mother had stolen that moment from her, she decided it was probably for the best. She needed to be sure that Jason was going to continue being genuinely everything he claimed to be before she could commit fully to him like that. But she knew that moment was worth getting lost inside of, and couldn't wait for another chance at it.

## CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I

### THE BEGINNING OF THE PATH

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1995

The weekend had unceremoniously come and gone without incident, for which Tuesday was thankful. Nights without nightmares were treasured gifts to her, gifts which yielded good sleep. Tuesday had not known good sleep; they were literally strangers in the night. When those rare occasions occurred, and they were few and far between, Tuesday found herself most thankful for them.

Tuesday had managed to secure a slot with Doctor Frederiksen that Monday morning. More than anything, she wanted to kick this disorder of hers and live a normal life. But a secondary goal had grown in her heart like a beautiful potted flower; she was also very excited the prospect of getting back into school so she could see Jason regularly. And with that in mind, she was going to work hard and become everything she needed to become.

Tuesday entered the kitchen and saw her mom preparing some food for breakfast. She was excited to tell her mother that she was planning a visit with Doctor Frederiksen later that day, and that she was going to get herself back into school. The two of them had a conversation about it, and Megan found herself amicable to the taking Tuesday to see Doctor Frederiksen later that afternoon. She hadn't yet signed the forms for Tuesday and was still uneasy about the process of hypnosis on her daughter even though she thoroughly read the literature included in the packet five or six times.

When the afternoon had come at last, Tuesday and Megan drove to The Millwork Tavern for her appointment with Doctor Frederiksen. They parked the car and Megan attempted to make a final plea to her daughter.

"Are you certain you want to go through with this?" Megan asked as compassionately as she could, hoping that Tuesday might look for another avenue to wellness. "We can try and find another way if you're not comfortable with the hypnosis."

"Mom, we've been over this." Tuesday cut her off, feeling confident in her decision to seek treatment with Doctor Frederiksen. "I've got to try this, and this is the best hope I have right now. There's nothing to worry about, this guy is a professional."

"I had to try." Megan said, lowering her head. "I wouldn't be your mother if I didn't."

Megan had spent so many years of her life distrustful of people that she had now become distrustful of professionals such as Doctor Frederiksen. As a drug addict, her mind had become so twisted that even somebody with the sincerest of motives would raise suspicion in her fragile state. Now that she was forming the beginnings of a bond with her daughter she felt she had something to truly protect so her old failings had become her new defensive mentality.

"I understand Mom." Tuesday nodded in acknowledgement. "I really do."

The two of them got out of the car and found themselves in the reception area of Doctor Frederiksen's office, which seemed reasonably warm and inviting on that cool October afternoon. Megan grabbed a clipboard and finished filling out the forms, frantically scribbling information in the spaces provided on the paper. When she had finished, she walked up to the counter and handed the clipboard to Michelle.

"Here you go." Megan said, cautiously handing the forms to the receptionist. "I think I have everything you need on there."

"Thank you." Michelle replied over the dull thud of the big rubber stamp she was using to make Doctor Frederiksen's seal on the forms. "I'll let you know if you missed anything." Michelle handed Megan some information about the sessions, including a page that listed pricing and payment options for Tuesday's appointments. The fees seemed a little steeper than Megan felt as if she could handle. She sat there looking over the information as best as she could, but the costs kept creeping into her mind.

When Doctor Frederiksen finally came out to collect Tuesday, he spotted them and then smiled warmly at them as he approached. Megan stepped in to ask a few questions. "How am I going to pay for all these sessions?" Megan asked in a concerned tone. "Twice a week seems pretty steep to me."

Doctor Frederiksen spoke to Megan in a calm and collected manner, "I'll take her case for free, you have nothing to worry about." Megan's suspicions became suddenly aroused, as she had learned in her lifetime that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

"Nothing is free in this world, Doctor." Megan countered, snapping at him with a harsh sound in her voice. "What's the catch? What's in it for you?"

Doctor Frederiksen was well prepared for this line of questioning, and knew the best way to counter Megan's suspicions. "I've been doing this for a long time, and I have a good success rate." The Doctor stated. "I would be lying if I said there wasn't anything in this for me. This is a chance to study and observe a unique case, one that nobody's ever fully studied. This is uncharted territory in the field of dream therapy, this is a chance for me to..."

"A chance for you to what?" Megan cut him off sharply, realizing what he was all about. "A chance to get rich off my daughter? You science junkies are all the same."

"Megan." Doctor Frederiksen began in a cool and calm voice, "Where's the harm in writing a paper on Tuesday's condition? Or a book, perhaps? All the names and locations would be changed to protect her identity. I don't understand why this is such a problem for you, as I will still be providing her treatment."

Megan Moxley softened at hearing this explanation. This man was being up front and honest with her, telling her that he will document her condition, and that he will profit from it. But there is a gentility to his words that she succumbs to, one that makes her realize that he means her daughter no harm. "I suppose you're right." Megan agrees. "There's no harm in that."

"No." Doctor Frederiksen said soothingly, "No harm at all."

"If I sense that one thing is going wrong", Megan threatened, only caring about the safety of her daughter. "I will pull her out of these sessions, that's a promise."

"That is, of course, your prerogative." Replied the Doctor. "But this might be Tuesday's last shot at getting back into school and getting herself back on track. If I can get Miss Moxley back into school, and Principal McCauley finds out she's no longer attending therapy, he will most likely expel her for good. Like you, I just want what's best for Tuesday, I want to help her solve her problems and get her back to school. Please, just trust me, I'll treat your daughter very professionally."

Megan finally gives in to what Doctor Frederiksen is saying, and reluctantly agrees to everything that he is willing to do for Tuesday. Doctor Frederiksen looks over at Tuesday sitting in her chair, and motions her to come to his office.

"Are you ready, Tuesday?" Doctor Frederiksen asked reassuringly.

Tuesday nodded her head as she stood up from her chair, walking toward the door to the corridor that leads to Doctor Frederiksen's office. Before entering the door, she took a look at her mother, who didn't know if she had just been shrinked herself. Doctor Frederiksen opened the door for Tuesday and they disappeared into the hallway beyond.

When they reached his office, Doctor Frederiksen opened the door for her and motioned to the door on the right-hand side of his office to the room she had done her intake meeting with him just the previous week before, the hypnosis chamber. Instead of the sofa, Doctor Frederiksen instructed her to lay comfortably on the day bed with her hands folded together on her stomach. Doctor Frederiksen strapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm and affixed some EKG leads to her to monitor her vital signs, assuring her all the time that everything was going to be alright. While she did as she was asked, Doctor Frederiksen was doing his very best to reassure Tuesday that the actual risk involved in the process was minimal.

"You know, Tuesday." Doctor Frederiksen spoke, calmly and confidently, doing his best to calm her inhibitions. "I've never lost a single person in this process. The entire fear of that is completely unfounded."

As Tuesday relaxed herself she listened to the psychologist go on about the intricate details of hypnosis, and was found that her level of trust was growing with each passing moment. What before seemed somewhat frightening to Tuesday now seemed like an everyday practice to her. She also felt herself making a personal breakthrough, the more that Doctor Frederiksen explained the process to her, the more interested in it she became and couldn't wait to begin. But more than just trust in the process, she was beginning to feel as if she could trust him. This was a door she hadn't opened to other psychologists before. She attended sessions with other professionals before, but felt that they were leading her on and weren't really paying attention to her. It seemed to her that many of the doctors she had been to see were just listening to her to make easy money, not to help her with her problems. One of them had even fallen asleep listening to her, and told her dismissively that the entire episode had been all in her head. Nothing made Tuesday angrier that being ignored. But listening to Doctor Frederiksen was different. He seemed to care about her problem, and seemed to know his craft and his skills. "I trust you." Tuesday whispered, barely audible even to herself.

"Okay, I'm ready." Doctor Frederiksen boldly stated. "I will be putting you into a condition of deep hypnosis where I can project myself into your dreams."

"Project yourself into my dreams?" Tuesday asked, seeking clarification as to what exactly that meant. "How do you do that, Professor Xavier?"

"Through hypnotic suggestion, I can communicate with you in your dream, to lead you, guide you and teach you how to overcome obstacles." Doctor Frederiksen replied, cool and collected, explaining the process to her. "While I am not physically there in your dreams, your mind will make it appear that I am standing right there next to you, and I will show you what you need to do to control them. And since you will be dreaming in hypnosis, everything you say to me in your dream, you'll audibly be saying here in the room. This is how we will communicate. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Tuesday said nervously, but focused on the task at hand. "I want to make this go away."

"Miss Moxley." He said, his tone darkening just slightly, "There could be a possible side effect to this. This could awaken some very sinister things in your sub-conscious mind. Some of these things have been festering for a long time, and can appear quite frightening, but I assure you, none of them can harm you. Do you think you can handle it?

The briefest moment of apprehension flickered across Tuesday's face, unprepared for this newest revelation. She knew that she had a lot of darkness pent up inside of her, and wasn't sure if she were ready to release it or not. She took a moment to think, her eyes darting back and forth, looking for an answer. It was then that she noticed a piece of art on the wall. It had clouds illuminated by a crescent moon at night and a simple phrase was written up on it:

"Trust the Dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity." – Kahlil Gibran

This was all the confirmation Tuesday had needed. She suddenly understood that she needed to let go of the dark things in her mind so that she could have a fulfilling future. She couldn't do what she needed to do unless she could find the strength to let go of the things that had haunted her for so long. It wasn't going to be easy. She began to tremble slightly, but bit her lip and addressed the Doctor. "I'm ready."

Doctor Frederiksen reached over and started the metronome, which immediately began ticking in its rhythmical fashion. Click, click, click, each timed with meticulous precision, constant and accurate. Tuesday let the sound take her to a place where she found herself easily relaxed. Doctor Frederiksen reached over and grabbed a remote control that allowed him to turn off the main light in the room and replace it with a blue tinted light. He began to speak to her, slowly and deliberately, "Miss Moxley, I want you to relax and soak in the atmosphere of this light. I want you to hear the clicking sound and try to time your breathing and heartbeat with it. Can you do that?"

"Yes." Tuesday answered, her voice sounding relaxed.

"Good." Anthony Frederiksen continued. "I want you to hear the sound of my voice as I talk to you as you feel yourself slipping into a state of complete and total relaxation."

After a few more minutes of Doctor Frederiksen's monotone, Tuesday's eyes felt quite tired, and her eyelids became too heavy to keep open. As the Doctor continued to speak to her in quiet, cool monosyllabic tones, she found herself succumbing to sleep completely.

"When I count down to zero, Miss Moxley," Doctor Frederiksen began, "You will be under complete and total power of suggestion. Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Yes." Tuesday managed with a whisper, feeling her body relax in a way she hadn't felt in many years.

"Ten. . . Nine. . . Eight. . ." The Doctor continued. "You are sliding into a deep slumber. . ."

Tuesday could begin to feel another state of consciousness take hold, as one reality started to slip away and another moved it to take its place. It seemed to Tuesday as if she had stepped into a tunnel between the two worlds and was walking slowly toward somewhere new.

"Seven. . . Six. . . Five. . ." Said the intoxicating voice of the Doctor. "You can only feel the sound of my voice. . ."

Without realizing it, Tuesday's legs were moving, and she was walking further down the tunnel, toward a distant light, leaving behind everything she had previously known. She couldn't turn around even if she had wanted to, nothing in her body would obey the commands of her mind and her legs kept propelling her forward toward the light, which was growing as she got closer to it.

"Four. . . Three. . .Two. . ." Said the voice of the Doctor, silky and smooth. "You should be arriving in your subconscious any moment now.

Her legs kept walking forward, further and further into the light. A moment later, the brilliance of the light surrounded her and her eyes had to adjust to the magnitude of its brightness. She could feel a coolness coming from the light, one she hadn't felt before. Just a few more steps. The light seemed as if it were inviting Tuesday inside of it, drawing her in. For what purpose, she did not know. At that moment, nothing else existed for Tuesday except the light and the coolness.

"One. . . Zero." The Doctor finished counting down, observing her vital signs to make sure his patient wasn't in any real physical danger. Doctor Frederiksen continued to monitor her for some time, scrawling his observations in a leather-bound notebook. After a while, the EKG monitor blipped and Tuesday's heart rate had increased. He looked over at her face and could see her eyes darting back and forth behind her eyelids, and indication that she had achieved REM sleep while in a state of hypnosis. It was time to join her in her dreams.

Tuesday had taken her final steps into the light, which gave way to a beautifully reimagined version of the Municipal Park in Cadence Falls, as if the light had been a curtain that had been pulled back. All the greens were greener, the blues were bluer, and the whites were whiter. There was a layer of morning fog that hung in the air, and the sunlight streaming through the barren branches left trails of shadows that playfully danced upon the mist. A thin veil of fog hovered over the surface of the lake, swirling in the gentle breeze, not completely concealing the water beneath. Tuesday could hear the joyous sound of small children playing nearby, their laughter was music to her ears. It was then that she heard a familiar voice.

"Are you dreaming, Miss Moxley?" Asked the voice of Doctor Frederiksen, hoping to reach her in her newly discovered plane of existence.

"Yes." Tuesday's voice responded monosyllabically back in the office.

"Am I invited to enter your dreams?" Doctor Frederiksen asked her in a permissive tone.

"Yes, Doctor Frederiksen." Tuesday replied without a hint of anxiety. "You are invited."

A rare smile spread across the face of Doctor Frederiksen. "Very well, I am coming in now."

## II

### LEARNING CONTROL

Almost instantaneously, Doctor Frederiksen appeared next to Tuesday in the park. While not physically there with her, by granting her permission to enter her dream, a mental projection stayed by her side, instructing her through his voice in the real world by speaking to her through hypnotic suggestion. Doctor Frederiksen had been pioneering this sort of dream therapy for years, and had hoped that one day he could use his techniques to solve a case such as Tuesday's. For a period, he had attempted to solve his client's problems with a variety of prescription drugs, but could not achieve the results he was looking for as he couldn't target the specific parts of the brain he needed to. The drug also tended to lock him out of the subconscious mind of his test subjects, so he finally accepted the medication as a failure, and moved on to other techniques. He tried simply therapeutic techniques with his patients, and each failure lead him to another bold step forward until he had become a leading expert on dream psychology. All of his research had led him to this moment, helping a patient with nightmares so severe that they hindered the patient's development in their environment. He was now in uncharted territory in his research, and couldn't wait to find out what his next failure would be so he could learn to move past it to the next step further.

Tuesday was pleasantly surprised to see Doctor Frederiksen in her dream with her, and began to speak to him as if he were actually there with him. It was at this point where the hypnotic technique melded into a state of complete transparency, and it seemed as if the two of them were just in the park having a conversation. The moment of seamless interaction between the two of them became a moment of joy for Tuesday.

"Are you ready to open your mind?" Doctor Frederiksen spoke with much less authority and more emotion in his voice than she had previously experienced. "Are you ready to take control of this gift of yours?"

Tuesday excitedly nodded her head in approval, "I am beyond ready!"

"Do you recognize your surroundings, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen asked inquisitively, taking notes of what Tuesday was doing. "Tell me about what you're seeing."

"I am at the Municipal Park on the edge of town, out near the freeway." Tuesday responded, trying to understand the differences between the material world and the immaterial world. "Though it doesn't seem like I'm really there. This feels like a dream."

"How can you tell you're dreaming?" Asked the Doctor, looking for details as to what Tuesday was experiencing.

"I'm in black and white, and everything else is in color." Countered Tuesday, observing both herself and Doctor Frederiksen. "Except you're in black and white also."

"That is how you perceive me. You invited me in, so I am a reflection of your own perception." Doctor Frederiksen reasoned, explaining why the two of them were different than the environment around them. "These are important observations, and this is knowledge you will need to become awake inside your dream."

"Awake inside my dream?" Tuesday asked, scratching her head, wading through the confusion of what the Doctor had just told her. "Am I not already awake inside my dream?"

"You are awake in the sense that you can see what is going on around you." Doctor Frederiksen patiently explained. "But there is a difference between being awake in your dream and being conscious in your dream."

"What's the difference?" Tuesday continued in her line of questioning.

"The difference is that in your sense of awake you are only able to see the information going on around you." Doctor Frederiksen continued. "Being fully awake in your dream will give you the ability to interact with your dream in whatever way you see fit."

Tuesday had to stop and think about this for a moment, wondering if she had been awake in her dream every time and hadn't known it. Surely, she hadn't been, and if she had, then she could have exerted some influence over her dream and interacted with it as the Doctor said she could. _"But how do I do that?"_ Tuesday wondered. _"How do I interact with something my mind has pre-determined?"_

"I know that I am dreaming Doctor." Tuesday tried to explain, thinking hard to try and differentiate between the two. "I know it each time I'm dreaming, especially if it's going to be a nightmare. There's a difference. I guess there's a difference between the way the two feel."

"Good." Doctor Frederiksen answered, nodding his head in the affirmative, writing Tuesday's words in his notebook. "Knowing that you are dreaming is an excellent first step. Do you recognize any of the signs that we discussed the other day?"

"Yeah, we are both in black and white." Tuesday said, her anxiety rising a little bit. "I just know that something is going to happen, but I don't know what just yet."

Doctor Frederiksen knows that it is time for Tuesday to wake up in her dream. "Now that you know you're dreaming; and you have a full awareness of it, it is time that you fully emerge from you dream slumber. Become aware of your surroundings, look at it as you would see the park when you are actually there."

Tuesday concentrated on the environment around her and suddenly the color shifted from its brilliant shade to a more normal looking world around her. While she and Doctor Frederiksen appeared in black and white, the world around them seemed much more realistic, as Tuesday could feel the shift in her awareness sharpen up, and the world around her connected itself to her.

"Okay, what am I looking for?" Asked Tuesday, searching for the answers to questions she hadn't yet asked.

"Only you can know that." Doctor Frederiksen encouraged her, hoping that she might experiment with a few things on her own. "What's going on around you?"

Tuesday looked around the area of the park, and soon found that she could step outside of herself and view the park from any position she chose to. It was like seeing the world around her through the eyes of an osprey, flying and searching for the exact thing happening around her. One moment she is seeing Doctor Frederiksen and herself, conversing near a light pole, both in black and white. The next moment she was skimming through the fog over the lake, surveying the steep, grassy shores. And it wasn't long before she was seeing the playground. One particular detail gripped her attention right away.

There was a man near the playground who was watching the children. Something didn't feel quite right about him. While the children were gleefully laughing and playing, a three-year-old girl wandered off from the playground, through the hedgerow and toward the steep grassy slopes leading to the water of the lake. Tuesday circled her vision high and above to get a better look at the entire situation. Seeing the child, the creepy bystander got up from his spot on the grass and began to walk toward the child. It was at this moment that the young mother had realized that her child was no longer on the playground.

Frantic, the young mother began to search and headed out from the playground in the wrong direction. Meanwhile the man crept toward the child and revealed a sharp kitchen knife from the inside of his jacket. It had become all too clear to Tuesday what was about to happen.

Tuesday began to scream for somebody to help the child, but per usual, nobody could hear or see her. Doctor Frederiksen was wholly unimpressed with the action Tuesday was taking.

"That man is going to murder that girl!" Tuesday screamed at the top of her lungs, imploring Doctor Frederiksen for an answer. "What are we going to do?"

"You've already learned that screaming about it won't help." Doctor Frederiksen asserted, coaching her to attempt another action. "You need to take direct action; you need to try something else."

"Like what? What do you want from me?" Tuesday begins to panic, desperately hoping to avoid witnessing another murder. "I didn't come to this session to watch somebody else die!!"

"You need to find an alternate form of intervention; wouldn't you agree?" The Doctor pressed, hoping that Tuesday would arrive at the answer herself.

Tuesday is seeing the whole grotesque encounter play out in her newly acquired Osprey Vision as the child murderer is closing in on the girl, his pace quickening as his wicked desire to end the child's life burns in his mind. The young mother is still heading off in the wrong direction with no way of finding or reaching her child in time. Tuesday is desperate for an answer; however, it isn't an answer that Doctor Frederiksen is willing to give her without some cryptic dialogue. _"Nothing ever comes easy with Doctor Frederiksen."_ Tuesday thought to herself, panicking, fearing this would end in another failure.

"What would you have me do?!" Tuesday screamed, desperately pleading for an answer to the dilemma before her.

"Calm yourself." Doctor Frederiksen commanded in a stern voice, trying to give her an explanation. "Exert some control over your environment. The situation is yours to control."

Tuesday closes her eyes and a myriad of options flood into her mind. Doctor Frederiksen's voice fades into the background, still coaching her on how to handle the situation at hand. Everything Tuesday is thinking of seems impossible to her, nothing is feasibly reasonable to her in this crucial moment. Doctor Frederiksen is impressing upon her the sense of urgency in the matter as his voice snaps back to the forefront.

"Relax. Think!!" Doctor Frederiksen stressed, trying to set Tuesday on the path to correcting this injustice from occurring. "What will slow the killer down until help arrives?"

In Tuesday's vision, the killer is only about twenty feet from the child, raising his knife to slash the girl to ribbons. Tuesday is getting even more panicked, again looking to Doctor Frederiksen for the answer, which he doesn't seem willing to give.

"I. . . I don't know. . .", Tuesday cried, fearing that this would end in tragedy. "What should I do?"

"Miss Moxley." The Doctor spoke in a calming tone, "You are the master of all here in the dream world. If a real-world solution can't be used, think of something unreal. You have the power to make the impossible, possible."

The child killer is about three feet from his target, and is getting ready to swing the knife, ending the life of the young girl. Tuesday sees that the moment is at hand, its either do, or die.

"Okay!!" Tuesday screamed, a new-found confidence cemented itself in her voice. "I got it!!"

Tuesday closed her eyes and began to imagine a scenario that would save the life of the little girl. No sooner than the thought came to her mind, the knife begins its motion toward the girl. As he does so, he fails to notice that large amounts of water began seeping up from the ground, causing the grassy slope to become slippery. The child killer loses his balance, falling to the ground where his own knife plunges deep into his own stomach. The man coughed up his own blood, choking on it, spilling it out onto the grass.

Snapping back into Osprey Vision, Tuesday realized that the child was not yet out of danger, as the moisture on the grass created a slipping hazard on the steep slope. And slip the child did, sliding down toward the water. Tuesday closed her eyes and thought of a thick sheet of ice over the top of the lake, and it instantly froze. The child slid off the wet grass and onto the ice where she was safe. A few minutes later, the young mother came rushing up to the side of the lake, scanning down the slope for her daughter and spied her laying upon the ice, having the time of her life.

Frantic, the young mother worked her way down the slope, but also lost her grip on the grass and slid down to the ice where she was reunited with her daughter. She desperately called for help and a few other people in the park, a jogger, a city worker and two of the other parents came to their aid. When they arrived, nobody would have imagined what they saw, the lake had frozen over in October. The city worker had discovered the body of the child killer and radioed it to dispatch, who called the police to come and ascertain what the story was. All the while, Tuesday was observing the whole aftermath in Osprey Vision.

"I did it, Doctor Frederiksen!!" Tuesday exclaimed, congratulating herself for having changed the outcome of the situation. "Oh yeah!! I did it!!"

Pleased with the results, Doctor Frederiksen was not above giving credit where credit is due. "Yes, Miss Moxley." He replied, a slight smile of satisfaction pasted upon his face. "You certainly did. Very good job!"

"I saved that girl from that lunatic who would have killed her!" Tuesday rejoiced, proud of her accomplishment.

"The next step is to lock away the previous outcome in your subconscious." Doctor Frederiksen said. "This is easy, all you have to do is focus on the outcome you created, and your mind will discard the previous outcome."

"You're saying that I won't remember the child being killed when it actually happens then?" Tuesday asked somewhat skeptically.

"Not if you choose not to." Doctor Frederiksen replied. "These are the first steps to the cure you've been seeking. We will learn that technique later in our sessions."

"You mean I won't dream about the real future anymore?" Tuesday queried optimistically, a sense of hope in her voice that she might be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Nothing is certain yet." Doctor Frederiksen exclaimed, assuming that Tuesday's progress would increase in the weeks to come. "We still have much to accomplish on our journey. Are you ready to wake up and celebrate today's success?"

Tuesday took one more sweeping look with the Osprey Vision, which was rapidly becoming her favorite thing about the entire process. She swelled with pride as she reviewed the aftermath from a variety of angles. The ability to see things from every viewpoint was both wonderful and invaluably useful to her. She couldn't wait to explore this further. But that would have to wait for another day.

"Let's do it!!" Tuesday agreed excitedly. "I can't wait to tell mom about this!!"

## III

### A SUCCESSFUL SESSION

The door to the corridor leading back to the office area burst open unexpectedly. Megan had remained in the waiting area for what seemed like many hours, when in reality, it had only been an hour and fifteen minutes. Patience was not one of Megan Moxley's strong suits as she had built her lifestyle around instant gratification. Tuesday had exploded from the back corridor and bounded across the room and into the chair next to her mother.

"Are you okay?" Megan asked, clearly concerned about the well-being of her daughter. "How did it go?"

Tuesday was chattering so quickly that she wasn't making a lot of sense. Megan could pick out words like "child killer", "ice" and "osprey vision", none of which had any meaning to her until she could get her daughter to slow down long enough to explain the entire circumstances of the appointment in depth.

"Omigosh, Mom!" Tuesday blurted out, her words in one long, continuous stream. "It was so cool!! You should have seen it, this guy was going to kill this kid and I made the water come up from the ground and he slipped and fell to the ground and saved the kid! You shoulda seen it!!"

Megan interrupted her daughter before Tuesday could get out another barrage of overpowering vocal histrionics. "Whoa, slow down there, turbo." Megan stated authoritatively. "What on Earth are you talking about?"

Doctor Frederiksen emerged from the back corridor into the waiting area to speak to Megan about her daughter's progress. He had already sized up Megan, and knew that she would be the most difficult part of the entire process of bringing Tuesday back to emotional well-being. It took him the better part of ten seconds to figure out that Megan had substance abuse problems, had neglected her daughter, and had made herself available to a multitude of men. It wasn't that he was judgmental, she was just easy to read, wearing it all on her body language. And he could tell she was making great strides toward recovery, the signs were obvious, even if addiction wasn't his field of specialty. Doctor Frederiksen knew that he would have to set Megan Moxley straight on the truth of the situation from time to time.

"Already your daughter has shown great progress." Doctor Frederiksen told Megan in his most professional manner. "But I need to have more sessions with her to continue her journey to complete wellness."

Megan's attitude changed for the worse upon hearing the thought of more sessions with Doctor Frederiksen and didn't know how she would swing the cost. Sure, he had told her that he would waive the costs of the therapy, but until she got that in writing, she didn't trust a word he said on the matter. He probably needed the book he was planning to write to sell well so he could pay off the exorbitant amount of student loans she suspected he took to become the professional he is.

"More sessions?!" Megan exclaimed with some urgency! "I can't afford more sessions. I can barely afford this one as it is."

Doctor Frederiksen was already way ahead of her, "I've already explained to you that I'll waive the fees. Her case intrigues me and it would be my pleasure to continue to work with her, if that's alright with you?"

Megan's suspicions always got the better of her. "Can I get that in writing?"

If Doctor Frederiksen hadn't expected that very question from Megan, he would have rolled his eyes. "I'll have Michelle draw up the contract and have it ready by the time we have the next session."

This shut Megan down quickly. Between Tuesday's excitement over the situation, and Doctor Frederiksen's generosity, how could she refuse? "Alright, I guess it's not a problem, since we're not paying for these sessions." Megan caved, feeling somewhat defeated by the logic of the issue at hand.

Doctor Frederiksen extended his hand to Megan, shaking hers, giving his word that his services won't cost her a dime. "Good, it's settled then." the Doctor assertively stated. "Please see Michelle at the desk before you leave to set your next appointment. I look forward to seeing you soon. I'll fax the forms to the school to get Tuesday back in classes." Megan felt as if she had just made a deal with the devil.

Doctor Frederiksen turned his attention to Tuesday, who was still grinning about the progress she had made. "See you next time, Miss Moxley."

Doctor Frederiksen had a slight smile on his face, which Megan felt was suspicious. She watched him carefully as he disappeared into the corridor back to his office, the door obscuring her sight of him.

## CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I

### BONDING WITH MOM

Megan and Tuesday made their next appointment with Michelle to see Doctor Frederiksen, which turned out to be that coming Wednesday, just two days out. Megan couldn't wait to get out of the Millwork Tavern for a couple of days, and certainly away Doctor Frederiksen's smug attitude. No sooner did they set the appointment, Megan wasted no time in getting out of the office grabbing her purse with one hand and Tuesday's hand with the other, leading her out of the office.

"I just don't like him very much!" Megan said, clearly frustrated by her encounter with Doctor Frederiksen, her pace quickening. "I feel like he is psychoanalyzing me!"

Tuesday was doing her best to keep up with her mother and her long strides. Fortunately, the two of them had to stop to wait for the elevator to reach their floor. "I don't know why you let him upset you so much." Tuesday queried. "I think he's nice."

"I just don't trust people." Megan shot back. "Nobody does anything for free. I want to know what we are giving up so he can write his bestseller?

Tuesday was shocked by what her mother was saying. "If he can help me, what does it matter?"

"It matters." Megan continued, trying to make her daughter understand. "Because I know what men who seek notoriety are capable of. I know that the little people like you and I are stepping stones to their greater glory."

The dinging sound of the elevator door opening broke the tension of the conversation. The ride three floors down seemed to stretch on for long minutes, with no words spoken between the two of them. In fact, it wasn't until they had gotten to the car that either Tuesday or Megan had said anything to each other. Suddenly, Tuesday's excitement got the better of her and she continued her spirited account of the events of her session for her mother, as well as she could recall, every minute, every detail. She told the story of how she could see everything from every angle, and how she saved the child from not one, but two horrible fates. Her mother listened carefully and took mental note of the tale, making sure to try and understand what had occurred in her session, just in case she needed to testify against Doctor Frederiksen for messing up her daughter's mind. After Tuesday had finished her account of what had happened, she suggested that she be rewarded for her efforts.

"Why don't we get some ice cream?" Tuesday asked as innocently as she could possibly muster, "And then go hang out at the mall? Wouldn't that be fun?

Megan brightened up at the idea of a mother/daughter date. "Yeah, that would be fun." She answered. "I'm off work today, and we could use some fun time together!"

The next few hours were spent window shopping in the Tres Riveras Mall, trying on new clothing, and speculating upon the motivations of other people walking by as they sat on a bench. Both Tuesday and Megan were laughing and joking when a mall cop walked by, looking at them briefly before moving on down the corridor. This reminded Tuesday of Douglas Downe's visit the week before, which she hadn't yet told her mother about. Now was as good of a time as any other.

"We had a visitor the other night." Tuesday mentioned casually, hoping to pique her mother's interest just enough to avoid any possible wrath from the revelation she was about to give. Megan did perk up just slightly, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Who?", Megan asked inquisitively, perking up wondering who it was who might have come calling. "Was it Marie?"

"No, Mom." Tuesday said with a little caution in her voice. "It was Officer Downe."

Megan huffed a sigh of disgust, wishing it had been anybody else. "Uggh, what did he want?"

It's not that Megan hated Douglas Downe, in fact she found him to be somewhat charming when he wasn't acting like a belligerent authority figure. The two of them had some history, as they had spent a weekend together a few years prior. Douglas had very much wanted to become romantically involved with Megan, but she did not return that sentiment. She initially hadn't been interested in his advances being he was a police officer and she was a drug fueled prostitute, though Douglas didn't know that at the time. He had come into Tuck's Diner many times on his break, and had flirted endlessly with her, hoping to take her out sometime. Each day that he arrived, he would flirt, and ask her out, and she would politely decline, and the process would repeat itself. One particular Thursday, Douglas came in to the diner with his charm turned all the way to eleven, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Megan finally caved and decided to go out with him on one date. What Megan didn't know was that "one date" had meant an entire weekend with Douglas at a beautiful cabin retreat at a mountain lake. He picked her up on Friday and took her to the cabin, where the two of them hit it off quickly. It wasn't long before the two spent less time doing lake activities and more time doing bedroom activities.

One thing had led to another, and before they knew it, they were caught up in their passion for one another. Megan must have been genuinely interested in him because this had been the first time she had been with a man that she didn't trade herself for money or drugs in a long time. She did find him attractive and charming, and he was exceptionally good at fulfilling her physical desires. But Douglas was quite observant, and was hoping to become a detective on the Cadence Falls Police Force one day, so one of the first things he had noticed about her was that she had track marks on her arm, though he was much too polite to mention it right then. The next things he had noticed was her scars, followed by her stretch marks, but in his mind, he had found these things about her to be unique and beautiful. He made a mental note of these things, but didn't mention any of them until they were on their way back to Cadence Falls on Sunday evening. He had attempted to express to her that he thought her imperfections made her beautiful, and she became angry at him for saying so. When the topic of the stretch marks came up, this was the first that Douglas had heard about Megan's daughter. And he was legitimately shocked that in all the months he had come to Tuck's Diner and gotten to know her, this was the first time he had ever heard of her daughter. One would think that a child would be more of a priority in a person's life. Upon learning about this hidden piece of Megan's life, Douglas queried her about the track marks, to which Megan had confessed she was a heroin addict. Megan might have been more open to that exact conversation had she not gone the whole weekend without getting her fix and wasn't having a predominantly nasty set of withdrawals. When Douglas dropped her off, the two of them had mutually decided that they probably shouldn't see each other again.

And while Megan didn't want to date him, she craved his body in ways she never thought she would, and the two of them would get together at random times to take care of each other's needs. Douglas was better than a clear majority of Megan's paying customers were, and he was the only person to get it "on the house". She even had a nickname for him that she shared with him and her friend Marie, she called him Freebie.

But each time the two of them got together, it always ended in some tragic argument about her kicking the drugs and stop selling herself, and she got mad at him for the better part of two weeks until she found herself desiring him again. For Douglas, their meetings had become much more than physical, and he found himself caring more about Megan Moxley than he should. He began to open dialogue with her about how he felt and wanted something more, and each time she would rebuff him, turning him away, angry at him until she got over it, and the scenario would replay itself every couple of weeks. And so, the two of them were constantly in and out of each other's lives, she would invite him back in, and he would express his concern for her, and then she would back off and throw him out again. This was the way of things.

Tuesday became nervous at the prospect of revealing the information that Douglas Downe had imparted upon her. "He said that he needs to talk to you."

"I'm sure he's got more than talking on his mind." Megan snapped back, still furious with him about having entered her home and destroying her stash.

Tuesday, having heard other kids talk about the subject at school, knew exactly what her mother had meant by that comment. "Ewww, No!" She squealed. "No, he wants to talk about something else." Tuesday laughed a little nervous laugh.

Megan's countenance completely changed, "Do you know what it is?" She asked in an icy tone that made the polar glaciers seem like a tropical island. "Did he tell you?"

"He needs to know who supplied the drugs you were selling?" Tuesday blurted out, just trying to avoid the seriousness of the topic.

"No!" Megan stated firmly, a look of trepidation on her face. "I'm not a rat! I won't do it."

"You have to, Mom!", Tuesday countered with extreme concern, attempting to coerce her mother into doing what was best for the both of them. "They're going to kill you once they realize their shipment is missing!"

Megan began to feel her anger growing inside her, filling her up with a blinding rage that was not easily controlled. "Why doesn't he just mind his own business?", she snarled.

"He cares about you, Mom!" Tuesday cut her off, as directly to the point as she could before hitting her with some reality. "He's a cop, you know he could have thrown you in jail for the things he knows you're involved in. But he hasn't because he cares about you and wants to see you clean yourself up. So why don't you cooperate and give him the information he needs to save your life?"

"Or maybe he's just setting me up for the fall?" Megan snapped back, her suspicions getting the better of her. "Maybe he wants to lock me up with the rest of them."

Tuesday couldn't roll her eyes any harder if she had tried to. "You would show a lot of progress if you cooperate with him. You have to trust him to do the right thing."

"No dice." Megan replied, denying any chance at revealing who her suppliers are. "I'm not going to do it, and that's the end of that discussion."

Tuesday was not in the mood to push her mother any further on the subject, she had delivered the message, and now it was up to Megan to do something about it, if she chose to do so. Tuesday understood the seriousness of the situation, and knew how stubborn her mother could be when she chose not to do things. Tuesday wished inside her heart that Megan would simply cooperate, and let that be the end of it. Whether it was a matter of pride, or of the heart, or whatever it was, Tuesday hoped that her mother could rise above it and do what needed to be done in order to survive this ordeal. But she also knew that nothing ever came easy with her mother, or happened the way she had hoped they would, and whatever would transpire she had hoped that the results would be minimal at best.

In the next moment, Megan had pretended that the conversation had even taken place, and was back to focusing on having fun with her daughter. In fact, Megan was suggesting coffee as both their next refreshment, and as a way to change the subject from Douglas Downe and his insipid snooping. The two of them walked down to the other end of the mall where the Cadence Falls Coffee Company brewed the freshest local blend of coffee of anywhere in the area. There were two locations for the coffee shop, one in the Tres Riveras Mall and the other in the Millwork Tavern, both served premium coffee that was smoother and not as burned tasting as the larger chains were providing. The atmosphere in the Cadence Falls Coffee Company was dimly lit, warm, and had a rustic design to it. The couches and comfortable chairs were set up in secluded areas to provide privacy for their patrons. It was a great place for Tuesday and her mother to just catch up with each other's lives without all the formal stress of being at home.

## II

### HARD QUESTIONS AND UNEASY ANSWERS

The two of them were seated on a loveseat, isolated in one of the crannies of the building, discussing everything from the Jackson Twins and their asinine behavior, to that liar McCauley, to Tuesday's overall grades. Tuesday told her mom all about her date with Jason, and how she had met his brothers and her close brush with Principal McCauley. Her mom just laughed at Tuesday's recent adventures, wishing that her little girl wasn't growing up so quickly. Since Megan was in such a loquacious mood, Tuesday thought that it might be time to learn answers to some questions she had about her for a long time, but hadn't had the courage to ask. Megan found a moment of clarity in her present situation, and felt like expressing it, which opened the door for Tuesday to take that train of thought down the tracks as far as would be permitted.

"You know, I thought kicking the drugs would be more difficult than this." Megan confessed, feeling stronger on her stance than she thought she ever would. "So far, I'm doing alright. Yeah, I'm going to be okay."

"That's great, Mom!" Tuesday responded supportively, slipping into a sense of nervousness, gearing up for a serious discussion. "I want to ask you some serious questions. Is that alright?"

"I don't know." Megan retorted, shaking her head in doubt, "What do you mean by serious?"

Tuesday was struggling to find the right words as she knew that the wrong approach would push her mother into a corner and she wouldn't get the answers she needed. "You know; the questions kids want to know about themselves when they are my age. Things that all kids want to know about eventually."

Megan's eyes became wide, completely taking the meaning in a different direction than originally intended. "Oh gosh, honey! You are too young to be thinking about boys like that!!"

"No, Mom!!" Tuesday interrupted before her mother's assumption would take her on a path that she didn't intend to go. It's not that she didn't want to know about boys, now especially that she had one, she most certainly did. But this was not the time for _that_ talk, she had other things on her mind, and needed the answers. "There are things I need to know about me. About our family. You know, those things."

Megan's previously locked eyes dropped to the floor in shame, knowing that she would have to recollect a past that she wasn't comfortable reliving. "Oh. Those questions." Megan uttered, too ashamed to look at her daughter. "You want to know about your father, don't you?"

"Yeah." Tuesday responded, shaking her head, and reaching for her coffee.

"I mean; I really don't know what to say." Megan confessed, clearly attempting to dodge the question. "I don't know why you need to know this stuff?"

Tuesday thought about it for a moment. _"Why is this so important to me?"_ She began to run ideas through her head and concluded that her father might be the key to the problems in her life. If she knew who her father was, she could track him down one day and find out if he might share some of the same complications that she did. For her, it was worth a shot at the possibility of discovering where the origin of her difficulties began. "Please, Mom." Tuesday entreated her mother with a quiet anxiety in her voice.

"Alright, I'll tell you what little I know about your father." Megan yielded, trying mentally to pick and choose the pieces of her sordid tale she wanted to tell. "I used to take these drugs. . ."

"I know all about the drugs." Tuesday interrupted, somewhat impatient, like a kid waiting to unwrap their birthday present. "I want to know about my father."

"Do you want to hear this or not?" Megan spoke, scolding her daughter with her eyes, shooting her a look that indicated she had better not interrupt again. "I'm getting to that, so hold on, would you?"

Tuesday felt bad for having disturbed her mother, and realized she needed to display a little patience with this story. "I'm sorry, please go on."

"It's just difficult to talk about these things." Megan defended herself, her eyes began to welling up a little bit, but she would not allow the tears to fall. "It was such a painful part of my life."

Tuesday wanted to do her very best to be supportive of her mother, and was proud of the progress she had made so far and so she was determined to do everything she could to help Megan unload this baggage. "Mom, I want to be a part of your life. Whatever it is, it can't be enough to keep a secret from your favorite daughter all your life." Tuesday had always loved using the "favorite daughter" line as it made her feel like she was the most important kid in the whole wide world.

"You're my _only_ daughter." Megan managed to spit the words out, half laughing, half crying.

Tuesday laughed too. "I guess that makes me your favorite one then, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess it does." Megan said, laughing and shaking her head. She came down off her laughter and continued to relay her story to her daughter. "I used to take these drugs, not drugs that one would normally take. I signed up for a trial to take drugs for a pharmaceutical company, drugs that I was told were a new form of birth control. I was paid very well for testing the drug for them, and I was able to afford an apartment for myself. I have a whole file of paperwork on it in the chest in my room in case I had to sue somebody over it, but I never look at that pile of old, bad memories.

Megan stared down at the table as she talked. Of the lowest points in her life, this was the beginning of the lowest chapter in her life. She suddenly felt ashamed for the path her life had taken and the consequences it has had for her only child. She would have changed long ago if she hadn't set her pain so deeply in stone and had rooted her resolve to bury that suffering so deeply that it would never face the light of day again.

"I was already taking a lot of illegal drugs at the time." Megan continued, her voice becoming strained from the stress of recalling the events of this point of her life. "The doctors had warned me not to use anything in conjunction with what they were testing on me, but I was young and wanted to party, and didn't want to listen. Eventually I had a bad episode and realized it was better to pay to do the experimental drug under a doctor's care than it was to mix street drugs with what I was using."

Tuesday felt she had to interject so her mother would know she was paying attention. "That sounds like a good decision.", she said, focused on what Megan was saying, sipping on her mocha.

"I cleaned up quite a lot, and I met a nice guy, his name was Daniel." Megan went on, becoming a little agitated about talking about her life in this way. It felt to her as if the top of an enormous scab was being ripped off her flesh and the blood was flowing freely again. "We were involved for several months; I must have been about 20 at the time. Daniel and I got serious pretty quickly, and he seemed to love me so much that he begged me to start a family with him. I wasn't ready for a kid yet, and he seemed to understand more and more as time went on that I just wanted to take things slowly, because I was afraid of messing it up. For once I was as happy as I can ever remember being."

"That doesn't sound too bad, Mom." Tuesday countered, trying to alleviate any of the pain that her mother might have felt at the moment. "Was this Daniel guy my father?"

"I honestly don't know, sweetie, he could have been. We had some very careless interactions with each other after a while, not to say that you were an accident or anything." Megan stated as if it were an attempt to dodge a bullet. She was clearly hoping to avoid that exact question. "Everything was great between us, or so I thought. One day I came home, and he was angry at me. He had found out about the experimental drug trial I was participating in and just flipped out. I'd never seen him so angry, he thrashed the apartment and left with just a few simple belongings. He said I would never see him again, and true to his word, I never did hear from him again. It was like he disappeared from the face of the Earth."

"That's so odd that he would vanish like that." Tuesday said, watching her mother intently, taking yet another sip of her mocha. "Didn't Daniel love you enough to make that work? Couldn't he have given you a shot to redeem yourself?"

"He did love me, and I loved him." Megan explained, cupping her hands around her own pumpkin spice latte. "It's my own fault for continuing to take the drug. I didn't think that he would find out, I was being so cautious. But he had found one of my payment stubs for the money I was earning by using their product, and just freaked out. He just packed and left without another word. I was completely heartbroken."

"That seems awfully cold." Tuesday said, a bit of anger written all over her face.

Megan turned her face away from her daughter so she couldn't see the shame upon it. Tuesday reached out and placed her hand gently upon her mother's shoulder to give her an indication that she would support her through this discussion.

"It's alright Mom." Tuesday offered, hoping to bequeath some level of solace upon her mother. "I love you, and that's never going to change."

Megan reached up and gripped her daughter's hand, holding it, while gently rubbing her thumb up and down the side of Tuesday's hand and forearm. For the first time, it had occurred to Megan that her daughter was getting old enough to have serious conversations with, and that the two of them could likely confide in one another for many years to come. This was only a foundation, but she could imagine the magnificent palace the two of them would one day build together. Only a couple of weeks ago, neither of them would have imagined the two of them would be sitting anywhere together besides home, much less be having conversations of this magnitude. Megan felt a large swell of gratitude rise inside her for the blessings that had been bestowed upon her. It was a feeling she couldn't easily quantify or explain, not even to herself.

"Mom, you're the best friend I've ever had." Tuesday stated, feeling a little weepy herself. "Thank you for sharing that with me."

"Oh, you're welcome." Megan spoke quietly, the conversation clearly had taken its toll, leaving her introspective about the past. "I hope some of your questions were answered."

"What happened after that?" Tuesday asked, glued to the tale that her mother was in the middle of telling.

"Can we save it for another time?" Megan requested of Tuesday, feeling defeated and somewhat cold herself. "I just can't right now."

Tuesday isn't sure that she's ready to back down quite yet. "I've still got more to ask; why can't we do it right now?"

Megan turned back around and faced her daughter directly and Tuesday could see for the first time that she had indeed been crying as indicated by the streaks of mascara running down her Mom's face. "Look, honey. I just need some time to figure out how to put it all into words." Megan responded, her hands visibly shaking at the thought of the events of her younger days. "I haven't given any thought to these things in a long, long time, and it's a very painful period of my life. I just need a little time with it."

Tuesday sighed, letting her breath sound out audibly, but only just slightly, realizing that this would not be the day that she finds answers to the questions she was looking for. "It's okay, Mom. I understand." She told her mother confidently and informatively, "I can wait for you."

Megan wraps her arms around Tuesday and the two embraced in a long hug, knowing that the events of the day had been important to them both. It was a beginning, and a step to greater things in their lives. Tuesday was certain of it, it all felt different and better than it had before. The entire dynamic in their lives had been set on an entirely new and original trajectory, one from which there was now no turning back.

But most importantly, Tuesday now had a name that she might think of as her father. _"His name was Daniel."_ Tuesday speculated to herself, wondering if this guy could have been the one. Something didn't sit right with Tuesday about the tale her mother had told, about the way Daniel had left her. It didn't add up, and she suspected that there was a part of the story that her mother had neglected to tell her, something she was either keeping for herself, or was lost from her memory due to the passage of time. For Megan, it could have been too many highs ago to tell the story with complete accuracy, but Tuesday was bright enough to realize that either way, something was missing.

Megan also sensed that her relationship with her daughter had reached a turning point, but wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. The closer the two of them became, the more she would have to reveal, and Megan wasn't certain that she would ever fully be prepared when that day arrived.

## III

### TUCKING TUESDAY IN

After finishing their coffee and discussion, Megan and Tuesday Moxley left the Cadence Falls Coffee Company and the Tres Riveras Mall, going home for the night, with a brief stop at Minami Teriyaki on the way home to pick up dinner. When the they arrived home, they ate their food, and watched some television for the night, laying to rest the events of the day behind them. When ten o'clock rolled around, Tuesday found that she was unable to keep her eyes open as she stared at the television, trying to catch a little of the local news. Her efforts increasingly failed her, as she began to doze off on the sofa, Megan nudging her to go and get herself ready for bed.

Tuesday stumbled from the couch and upstairs to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and changed into her nightgown, and trudged tiredly into her room. Megan came up the stairs and into her room a moment later to say good night to her.

Megan stood next to Tuesday's bed, handing Winston to her and tucking her in for the night. Her first thought had been to wonder why she had neglected such an important task for all those years. She had been truly blessed to have such a great and wonderful child. It was such a shame that other people in Cadence Falls hadn't been able to see it. But then again, Megan had reconciled it in her own mind that the people in Cadence Falls were all somehow related to each other and were a bunch of inbred kinfolk. Except for her and Tuesday. While she had been able to earn a living, she had paid for her habits off the sweat and tears of the citizens of Cadence Falls and The Devil's City, she truly had little regard for them. Part of it was the way that her daughter had been treated for all those years. Yes, she was responsible for her poor parenting skills, but she absolutely loathed many of the people of the area for their treatment of her daughter. Even now, Megan just looked at Tuesday in her bed and was completely over the moon about how well Tuesday had turned out.

"Did you have a good time today?" Megan queried her daughter, wishing each day could be as amazing as this one had.

"No." Tuesday replied, doing her best to keep her poker face completely intact. When her mother shot back with that shocked and dismayed look of hers, Tuesday countered. "I had a _great_ day!" She placed special emphasis upon the word _great_.

"Oh you!!" Megan retorted, grabbing one of the pillows from the bed and lightly assaulted her with it. "I'm glad you did, we both needed that." She finished saying, holding onto the moment.

"I'm going to get a good night's sleep!" Tuesday cheerfully stated. "Thanks to Doctor Frederiksen."

Megan walked slowly from the side of the bed and over toward the window, looking outside it to make sure they weren't being watched before speaking. "I don't trust Doctor Frederiksen." She stated plainly with no hint of illusion in her voice. "I think he's up to something. Anybody who would agree to treat somebody without getting paid is obviously up to something."

Tuesday felt her defenses rise a little bit, much in the same way they do when she is confronted by the Jackson Twins. "Mom, he's just trying to help, that's all it is." She explained carefully. "You've got to let go of all that paranoia that you've been holding onto for all of these years."

It had been such a great day so in order not to spoil it, Megan decided to throw the fight and just agree with Tuesday on this for the moment. "Oh sugar, I guess you're right." She admitted. "He is a professional and he is helping you. And you're right, I need to let it go, but there's something about him I'm having a hard time trusting, and can't quite figure it out."

Megan walks back around to the side of the bed and pulls the blankets securely over Tuesday's body. In return, Tuesday squeezes her mother's hand in reassurance, smiling to let her know that everything will be alright. "Don't let it worry you, Mom!" Tuesday said in attempt to quench her mother' fears about Doctor Frederiksen, though she felt it best if she didn't mention his name directly to her. "For the first time, I feel as if I am beginning to understand. I'm thinking about my problems differently than I have before."

"Understand?" Megan asked inquisitively, failing to comprehend what her daughter was trying to tell her. "Understand what?"

Tuesday tried hard to think about what Doctor Frederiksen might say in response to her mother's query, though with Megan's dislike of the man, speaking like him might not be the best idea. "That this could be a gift, not the curse that I've always thought it was. I walked out of that office and for once I could see the bigger picture."

"I don't know if I believe Doctor Frederiksen is the right guy to help you or not." Megan admitted, trying to illustrate her point to her daughter. "After all I've seen you go through with this I'm going to have a tough time believing this is anything but a curse. I'm so glad that you're learning to deal with this, but I'm only asking that you please be careful."

Tuesday is already ahead of her mother, nodding her head in agreement. This moment felt to Tuesday as if a wall had come tumbling down between them. Was her mother actually giving her constructive advice? "Thanks for the advice, Mom." Tuesday offered her most sincere gratitude.

"Hey, isn't that what mothers are for?" Megan asked, looking into her daughter's eyes and savoring the moment between them. "I wish I had realized all of this much sooner than now."

Tuesday didn't want to hear her mother doubting herself in any measure, it just wouldn't do if they were planning to beat the odds. "You're doing just fine, Mom!" Tuesday lamented, "I'm very proud of you."

Just then Megan's eyes brightened up a little bit, remembering something she had wanted to do when they got home. "Hold on a second, I'll be right back." Megan said enthusiastically, barely able to contain the excitement she had.

Tuesday waited in her room for what seemed like ten minutes or so, when at last her mother reappeared with a small item clearly clutched in her fist. Megan Moxley had a light in her eye that Tuesday was unfamiliar with, a look that was completely alien to her. She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but she had a feeling that she was about to find out.

Megan knelt down beside the bed and extended her arm and opened her hand which revealed a white gold ring on a chain of cheap looking imitation gold. "A good person once owned this ring." Megan said, the light leaving her eyes as her gaze became lost and had begun studying the shadows, looking to see the past reflected there. She paused ever so briefly, and then looked back at Tuesday. "I want it to belong to another good person. You want it?"

Tuesday looked deep into her mother's eyes with an understanding that surpassed any previous moment that she and her mother had experienced to this point. Tuesday didn't know where this ring had come from, or who had given it to her mother, or for what purpose but Megan seemingly wanted her daughter to have it. Tuesday had assumed that this must have been an extremely important heirloom for her mother because she had seen her mother pawn various pieces of jewelry and other items of value over the years, but had never once seen this particular ring. _"Did this belong to my father?"_ Tuesday silently wondered to herself, not daring the words to cross the threshold of her lips. No reasons were spoken between the two of them as to why she was given this ring, but Tuesday wasn't going to turn down such an important item from her mother. The last thing her mother had given her that wasn't an absolute necessity was that ratty old bear, Winston, who sat there on the bed witnessing the entire account. All Tuesday could do was nod her head in awe, and reach out to gently pluck the ring from the hand of her mother. Tuesday reached up and spread the chain out, placing it over her head to hang from her neck. She tucked the ring under her shirt to keep it close to her heart.

"Thanks Mom. I promise that I'll take good care of it." Tuesday promised, reaching out and wrapping her pinky around her mother's to bind her word in the eternal grip of the pinky swear. Megan is happy to hear positivity coming from her daughter instead of the tears, nagging and complaining that usually accompanied her every day. Maybe things are turning around. Megan thought to herself. She smiled at her daughter one more time for the night as she leaned in and gave her a hug. The embrace was warm and inviting, and Megan just wanted to hold on for the rest of her life. She had time to make up for, an exorbitant amount of lost time, and wasn't sure what the best way to do it was going to be. She had lost so much time with her over the years, putting her selfish needs before the needs of her daughter. Megan was astonished over the outpouring of feeling she was undergoing, it was something completely new for her and it as if it had all been held back and somebody turned on the faucet, releasing the water to the extent that it flooded everything around her in pure, raw, and unadulterated emotion. She had spent years perfecting the ability to suppress her emotions, and now they were surfacing and kicking her in the behind, difficult to cope with. While she loved the sensations she was feeling for her daughter, these passions were a little too overwhelming to be experiencing all at once. She hadn't expected it to come back in one big rush. She needed a good cry to balance out what she was feeling, and that couldn't happen until Tuesday was asleep.

"We should be getting some sleep now don't you think?" Megan asked her daughter. We have to try and get you back in school tomorrow."

Tuesday sat there smiling at her mother. "Yes, I think so." Was all that Tuesday could manage to say.

"Good night, and sweet dreams." Megan wished her daughter, with a soft smile.

"Definitely." Tuesday replied. And with that, she laid herself down in her bed, rolling over and grabbing hold of Winston.

Megan turned out the light and left the room. It wasn't long until Tuesday was fast asleep.

## CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I

### BACK TO SCHOOL

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1995

The pair of them had awoken early the next morning to go have their fateful meeting with Principal McCauley and Samuel Thornton to get Tuesday back into school. Neither Megan nor Tuesday had relished the idea of the meeting, in fact they would have both skipped it altogether if it would have been their decision to make, but Doctor Frederiksen felt that Tuesday's education was too important to toss along the side of the road, and had made all the arrangements for the meeting, so they were practically RSVP'd as it was, even if they didn't think he could take time from his busy schedule to be there to mediate for them.

The morning had gone by without incident. Showers were taken, breakfast was made, eaten and cleaned up after, and Tuesday watched some television after that. She had always loved catching _The Jerry Springer Show_ because no matter her life had seemed on the outside, there was always somebody on that show whose life had seemed a little more peculiar. Until lately, Tuesday had wondered when she watched _Jerry_ how a woman couldn't possibly know who was the father of her baby, and why these people had degraded themselves by having fistfights on national television. It was great entertainment though, watching low class humans sock each other in the face for the dumbest reasons. When that show had ended and the news at noon had come on, this signaled that it was time to go to the dreaded Cadence Falls High School and try to get herself reenrolled.

It was a rainy day in Cadence Falls, and so Tuesday bundled up in her warmest hoody and blue jeans. She wanted to just get it done and over with. _"Only a few more years of high school, and then I'm off to college."_ Tuesday thought to herself.

Tuesday couldn't wait for college. Even with things getting better for her in Cadence Falls, she honestly had no plan to stay in the town that had mistreated her so badly. She had already taken the initiative to look at schools far, far away from the cold and the rain of Cadence Falls. She had looked at places like Tuscaloosa Alabama, Jacksonville Florida or even possibly Columbia University in New York, but her school record had already made that last choice practically impossible for her. She had exceptionally good grades, even if she didn't have very good staff at her school to nurture and support her. She knew that her grades were going to be her ticket as far away from Cadence Falls as she could get.

This was just her first year in high school, and she wanted to make a bigger impression right out of the gate. She had thought that high school would signal the end of Principal McCauley, but it had somehow managed to escape her attention that he was the Principal of both the middle school and the high school. Whether this had become a recent development or not, she had no idea. All she knew was that the many years in elementary school and two and a half years she had suffered him in middle school was the worst kind of hell outside of her nightmares themselves, now she was going to be shackled to him for a few more years in high school. The whole thought angered and frustrated her to no end to no end.

She gathered her supplies and placed them into her backpack, getting herself ready to go. The last thing she prepared was Winston, fitting him snugly into the pouch she had made for him. She went downstairs to find her mother, who had spent the morning cleaning the house from top to bottom, at least in the mediocre fashion that Megan had thought of as complete.

"Hey Mom!", Tuesday called out. "I'm ready to go."

Megan nodded to the affirmative and put away her cleaning supplies, put on her jacket and grabbed her purse and keys. Megan locked the house and the two of them walked around the edge of the house where the car was parked.

The old car that Megan Moxley used to get around was a beat up old beast. There was always something going wrong with it, and likely Megan could have bought four new cars with the costs of repairs that she had put into this one. One always knew when Megan Moxley was coming down the road, signaled by a series of backfires, black smoke, and a hasty dash to refill fluids to keep it from overheating or seizing. Tuesday climbed into the passenger side and struggled to get the door to close into its frame properly, forcing her to attempt closing the door two more times before it had socketed securely enough to be considered fastened. Megan got into the car, and made a couple of attempts to latch the seat belt, as it tended to give her trouble from time to time. After a minor struggle and a few expletives, the seat belt latched and she put the key into the ignition and twisted it. Thankfully, the car started on the first attempt. It wasn't always so, the car tended to be an unpredictable creature.

Megan cautiously backed out of the driveway, and the two of them drove to the school without any further incident. When they arrived at Cadence Falls High School, they parked the car and walked into the office waiting area, and were greeted by that troll Jimmy Waite. She wouldn't have minded seeing Jimmy Waite if he hadn't strong armed her and Jason during their last encounter. Tuesday was almost certain that Jimmy Waite had been sent to greet them by that liar McCauley because he knew the mere stench of his presence would rattle her to her core. Tuesday wasn't about to give Jimmy the satisfaction.

Jimmy had instructed them to wait in the waiting area until Principal McCauley could see them, standing at the end of the room, puffing up his chest and eyeballing her. Megan took notice of him right away and snickered out loud.

"What's so funny, Mom." Tuesday asked inquisitively, wondering what was so funny to her mother.

"You don't want to know." Megan replied, still giggling so Jimmy could hear. Then she went on to say, loud enough for Jimmy to hear, "Let's just say he's not as much of a man as he thinks he is."

Jimmy Waite's face turned an exceeding shade of crimson excused himself from the room. Tuesday was becoming more and more impressed with her mother all the time. If Tuesday had known that was all it had taken to dispatch Jimmy Waite, she would have done it a long time ago. _"I guess there's the silver lining of your mother having been a prostitute"._ Tuesday thought to herself, amused that Jimmy was going to be much timid from now on toward her.

Just then the outer door opened, and much to both Megan and Tuesday's surprise, in walked Doctor Frederiksen. Megan certainly wasn't expecting him to be present at this meeting, but for the moment she could put aside her suspicions and work with him to face Principal McCauley, who was the common enemy on this day.

At almost the same time, before anybody could greet one another, Principal McCauley emerged from his office and herded his three visitors inside, assigning seats as they entered his chamber. In what felt like an act of cruelty to Tuesday, he made her sit on the far side of the room by herself. Doctor Frederiksen was unimpressed with Principal McCauley's posturing. The Principal clearly had an illusion that his power was absolute and couldn't be challenged, that he held supreme authority over the school and any who set foot in it. They were joined by Samuel Thornton, who was also surprised to see his old classmate and colleague was present at the meeting.

After introductions were made, Doctor Frederiksen spoke with his usual direct approach, "I'm going to come right to the point gentlemen, my patient's education is critically important to her, and she has fulfilled what you have asked of her and sought out treatment with a therapist, now it should be only fair that she be allowed to return to school."

"I don't think you're in full possession of the facts in this case, Doctor." Began Principal McCauley. "Your patient was expelled for acting out violently and threatening faculty and other students."

Tuesday's eyes widened in disbelief of the blatant lie that had just spewed out of Principal McCauley's mouth. She couldn't contain her words as they exploded forth from her mouth. "Yes, there was an incident on the bus, but I was told that I couldn't come back until I got counselling, and I have. So, what's the problem?"

"I'll handle this, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen cut her off. It was a good thing that Doctor Frederiksen was taking control of the situation because Megan felt an exceedingly cold urge to split that fancy oak desk of his in two by slamming Principal McCauley's oversized melon into it hard, fast and repeatedly until she had achieved the desired result to leave him twitching in a bloody heap on the floor.

"We have very strict rules about threats and violence at this school." Principal McCauley defended his position. "Have you tried to get her into school across the river at The Devil's City?

That was more than Megan could take. "My daughter will NOT be going to school in The Devil's City." She spoke assertively, her fists clenched, ready to make that desk breaking a reality at a moment's notice.

"Calm down, Megan, I've got this handled." Doctor Frederiksen said in a relaxing tone of voice, one that washed over her, calming her anger. She sat back in her seat waiting to see what trick the psychologist had up his sleeve. Whatever it was, she hoped that Doctor Frederiksen was able to stick it to that liar McCauley so badly that it would publicly humiliate him for years to come. Principal McCauley sat behind his desk, smiling that smug grin of his. Doctor Frederiksen reached down into his briefcase and pulled out a thick file and placed it gingerly upon Principal McCauley's desk, flipping the cover open and thumbed through some pages in which he had made many notes.

"It says here. . ." Doctor Frederiksen began, pulling out a pair of well-worn bifocals with round lenses and gold wire frames and fitting them onto his narrow face. "You first began your professional relationship with my patient in the fall of 1987. Let me get this straight, you've brought her into your office on several technically minor infractions including spilling a few drops of water on the floor from the water fountain, eating her breakfast in her first period class, for disagreeing with the Jackson girls, and several times for having a variety of reactions to her condition."

"What can I say? She's a very disruptive child." Principal McCauley stated, holding Doctor Frederiksen's feet to the fire. "She's always starting fights with the Jackson girls, and causes disturbances with her outbursts. This is counterproductive of the way this school should operate."

"What I am seeing here is a pattern of abuse of authority based upon your personal dislike of her." Doctor Frederiksen countered, pointing his words directly at Principal McCauley as an accusation. The Principal did not like being accused of this.

"I'm not sure I appreciate what you're insinuating." Principal McCauley shot back, his ire beginning to rise. "I don't dislike her at all. I saw her at the football game the other night after I had expelled her, and didn't have her arrested when it was within my right to do so. What are you getting at here?"

"I am not insinuating anything." Doctor Frederiksen pressed his advantage. "I am telling you that you are engaging in discriminatory practices against my patient based upon her psychological condition. You can either correct this, or I can give my professional assessment directly to the district attorney, where I would have no issues with testifying on behalf of my client. I also have acquaintances on the school board who might be interested in this assessment as well."

"Get out of here!" Principal McCauley shouted, frantically waving his hand toward the door in a grand gesture of dismissal. "Go ahead and talk to the district attorney, you don't have anything solid on me. You're just speculating evidence based upon your own biased observations." He began to reach for his intercom to get Jimmy Waite and his goons to come and escort them out when he was interrupted by another voice.

"They're right, sir." Samuel Thornton humbly spoke up. "And I've been a witness to it. You have discriminated against this girl, and I must stand up for what is right. I cannot allow you continue to do this."

Principal McCauley was shocked into disbelief. He couldn't believe that one of his best and most trusted staff would turn on him like this. "You're fired, Sam!" Principal McCauley screamed, offering threats of his own. "I'll be putting the recommendation into the school board later this afternoon. You can pack your things and leave now."

Samuel Thornton walked over to Tuesday and knelt in front of her chair, looking into her eyes with a deep regret in his. "I'm sorry, Tuesday." Sam offered, "I should have spoken up sooner. I've always tried to do everything I can for you, but I was just too late." Tuesday smiled, and then extended her hand, shaking his, showing him that all was well between them. Megan's face broke into a wide smile; she could hardly contain her energy at the idea of Principal McCauley getting what was coming to him. Tuesday was just trying to keep up with everything that was going on.

Sam then turned to Principal McCauley, "You'll have my resignation in half an hour." He said poignantly, taking the power back into his own hands. "I can't be involved with an abusive person like yourself anyway, it would be bad for my career." Principal McCauley's mouth dropped open and directly to the floor. Never in his career, had he ever been treated like this, not from students, not from parents, and certainly not from his staff.

Doctor Frederiksen motioned to Samuel Thornton before he left the room, "Come by my office later, I might know of an opening at a clinic in Seattle, and I'd be happy to put in a good word for you, since you're looking for work."

"Thank you." Sam Thornton gratefully replied. "I'll come by later and I can give you a statement regarding all of this as well."

Principal McCauley was beside himself with rage. "This meeting is over!" He shrieked, getting up from his chair and reaching for the button on the intercom. "Get out!"

Tuesday reached down inside of herself and found the courage to speak to Principal McCauley. "Why does it have to be like this?" She asked earnestly. "I've gotten into therapy, and I just want to go to school. I want to get good grades and go to a college far away from here after I graduate."

Principal McCauley seemed to calm down, sitting back down and pulling his hand away from the intercom, focusing on what Tuesday had to say. "Your grades have never been the issue. You are a distraction to this student body and cannot be allowed here any longer."

Taking a cue from Doctor Frederiksen, Tuesday continued to plead her case. "But those disruptions are beyond my control, but I'm learning how to control it in therapy." Tuesday explained. "If you give me an honest chance, I promise to work hard and not be a problem to anybody anymore." She spoke in a slow and clear voice so her intentions could not be mistaken, and even Doctor Frederiksen himself had to admit how impressed with how effective her voice technique was.

Principal McCauley slumped forward in his chair and put his elbows on his desk, burying his face in his hands. Who was he to deny a child her education? Maybe Doctor Frederiksen had been right about him and he had been abusive and overly judgmental toward Tuesday. "Alright." Principal McCauley exhaled sharply. "You can come back to school here. Go ahead and go to class."

Tuesday's face lit up as she stood up excitedly from her chair. "Thank you!" She replied, her face filled with an expression of gratitude. "I won't disappoint you."

"But one disruption, only one. . . "Principal McCauley warned, a stern look upon his face, one that meant business. "And you're out of here for good. This will be the final chance I give you."

Tuesday grabbed her backpack and headed out for class. She got her late slip from the office and then let herself quietly into her classroom. The first person to notice her come in was Jason Alkali, who could not contain his exhilaration over seeing her back in school. Jason tried to address her, but Tuesday cut him off.

"I'll tell you later!" Tuesday whispered excitedly, a glint in her eyes as she looked at Jason. She couldn't wait for school to get finished for the day so she could do just that.

## II

### SLIPPING

As Tuesday left the office for the classroom, Megan made a point to break the ice with Principal McCauley by thanking him for letting her back into school. Doctor Frederiksen made no such attempt at civility with Principal McCauley.

"Thank you." Megan said as sweetly as she could muster up, waving the metaphorical white flag. "You did the right thing, and she's going to make you so proud."

Principal McCauley sneered at Megan with contempt. "The words of a drugged-out hooker don't mean much to me." Doctor Frederiksen's head cocked to the side at the mention of this, and he certainly did not approve of the Principal baiting the mother of his client.

Megan felt an anger rising within her, and that anger had become visibly apparent as Doctor Frederiksen had taken notice of it too almost as soon as he had turned his attention back to her. He understood what a hothead Megan could be, but denied her the opportunity to lash out against Principal McCauley. "Let's go Megan, he's not worth your time or your words." Doctor Frederiksen consoled her, speaking as a friend instead of just her daughter's therapist.

The pair of them left the office and walked out to the parking lot, Megan still spewing off under her breath about what a worthless human being Principal McCauley was and what things she wanted to slam his head into. Even Doctor Frederiksen uncharacteristically chuckled a little bit at Megan's long string of empty threats. The rare slice of humanity exhibited by Doctor Frederiksen hadn't escaped Megan's attention, and she had felt comfortable enough to warm up to him, if only in this moment. How could she not show him some gratitude after he had represented her daughter the way he had? He had really gone to bat for her and hit an absolute home run. She felt that she owed him better than she had given him.

"Look, Doctor Frederiksen." She began, struggling to find the right words to express what she was feeling. "It seems that I might have been wrong about you. Nobody has ever done as much for my daughter as you're doing, and it means the world to her, and to me."

"Thank you." Doctor Frederiksen replied solemnly, a gentle demeanor settling over him. "We're on the same team, I'm glad we could find some common ground and get onto the same page today."

"Yeah, we are." Megan agreed wholeheartedly, feeling embarrassed by her recent distrust of him. "I just don't trust very easily, but today you have earned mine. I'll be sure to have Tuesday to her appointment tomorrow. We'll see you then."

"I'm looking forward to seeing her again." Doctor Frederiksen admitted, ecstatic about the prospect of what his patent was learning to accomplish. "I can't wait to see what progress we are going to make."

Both nodded in agreement, and with that, Megan Moxley and Anthony Frederiksen took their leave of each other.

The bell rang and Tuesday's first afternoon back at school let out for the day. And true to her word, she tracked down Jason and filled him in on all the juicy details. She caught up with him outside getting ready to get onto the bus back to their neighborhood, and just in time too. Jason was getting ready to board the bus, and she almost missed him.

"Jason! Hey, Jason!" Tuesday called out, as loud as she could, trying to get his attention. Fortunately for her, he heard her and jumped out of the line, running over to greet her with one of his big bear hugs.

"Would you like to walk me home, Mister?" She asked him playfully, hoping that he was up for the hike.

"Oh yeah, of course I would!" Jason replied enthusiastically, grabbing her by the hand. "Lead the way!"

The two of them walked in the drizzle, not caring about getting wet, but just enjoyed each other's company. Tuesday gave a feisty account of her therapy session, about how she was able to change her dream and saved the child instead of witnessing a gruesome death, and about her meeting with Principal McCauley earlier in the day, and how Samuel Thornton quit his job because standing up for her was the right thing to do. She also told him how Principal McCauley had seen them at the football game and had made the choice to do nothing.

What Tuesday hadn't chosen to Jason that she had chosen to take the longer route back to her house. She wasn't certain if he knew it or not, but he didn't seem to mind too much, given his present company. When at last the two of them had reached her house, he told her goodnight and gave her one of those luscious hugs that she craved so much. He had to get home and help his mother with dinner. It was taco night for the foster kids, and it was his turn to help with the prep duties. Another hug was shared between them, and they had agreed to meet at the bus stop in the morning.

Tuesday turned and stepped onto the front porch of the house that she and her mother had resided in for so long, watching Jason walk down the driveway, turning and disappearing altogether as he moved up the hill toward his house. Tuesday let out a sigh of relief, thinking that things might be transpiring better in her life than they had in a very long time. She stood there on the porch, just soaking in the moment. The cool autumn rain was symbolic to her of the washing away of the past, that a new future was imminent and making itself known to her each and every day. Just a couple of weeks ago, she couldn't imagine having made another friend, much less a boy who seemed interested in her. She didn't even want to attend another therapy session, and if she had done so, couldn't imagine that it would have made much of a difference in her life. She thought she would still be looking after herself instead of building the meaningful relationship with her mother that she had always dreamed of. Not everything was perfect, but her situation had created dramatic improvements over what it had been, by leaps and bounds. For the first time since she could remember, Tuesday was looking forward to tomorrow, and she felt immersed in the cool water of this new stress-free lifestyle. She kept her eyes on that road, wishing that Jason might come back for only just a moment, but it didn't happen. She let out a soft sigh, and turned to go into her house.

Tuesday stepped through the door into the darkened living room, closing it gently behind her. She called out for he mom but did not get an answer. Tuesday looked in the kitchen and laundry areas, but still no sign of her. She called out again, and still no answer.

Tuesday climbed the stairs and went up to her mother's room, where she found Megan, sitting in a corner on the floor. Her long, stringy hair was pulled forward and it obscured her face, Tuesday could tell that she had been weeping. Next to her on the floor laid a syringe, but Tuesday couldn't ascertain if it had been recently used or not.

"Mom?" Tuesday asked wide-eyed and quietly, slowly stepping closer to Megan. "Is everything alright?"

"No." Megan whispered, barely audible, wishing that she were as alone as she felt at that moment.

"What happened, Mom?" Tuesday probed, looking for an answer and trying to be as gentle and understanding as she could be. "Did you use today?"

There was a long pause in which Megan's weeping had escalated into outright sobbing. "Isn't that what drugged out hookers are supposed to do?" Megan answered, choking the words out as she slumped to the floor in a heap. "I'm a disappointment to everyone around me."

Tuesday grabbed a blanket as she passed the bed, and then draped it over her mother, sitting down next to her. It was clear to Tuesday that Megan had relapsed, though what she wasn't sure of, was why. She had seemed so clear and happy just that very morning, and had done a great job of staying clean thus far. What could have pushed her to this? She placed her arm around her mother, just consoling her as best as she knew how to. "It's alright." Tuesday said soothingly, trying to console Megan in the best way she knew how to. "Just tell me what happened, so we can make it right."

The sobbing continued for another couple of minutes. Tuesday knew that she had to let her mother work through whatever it was that was affecting her, but wondered how long it was going to take her mother to gather her senses and come to a place where she could communicate. Megan kept apologizing repeatedly for having used again. "I'm sorry, baby!" She wept, apologetically repeating herself, pure and heartfelt. "I wish I was the mother you deserve."

"You are the mother I deserve." Tuesday countered, trying to be as understanding and direct as she could be. "What happened to you today?"

Tuesday could see her mother's temper beginning to flare up, "McCauley!", Megan roared, and repeated his name several times. "I'm just a drugged-out hooker."

"What did Principal McCauley do to you?" Tuesday queried, thinking that she might be on the right track.

"Doctor Frederiksen saw the whole thing!" Megan cried, tears streaming down her face. "I tried to be civil! I tried to be nice! He disregarded me as if I were a piece of human excrement!!"

"What did he say?" Tuesday asked quietly, trying to deescalate the situation.

Megan raised her head up and looked at her daughter. "I tried to thank him for allowing you back into school, and he told me that the words of a drugged-out hooker didn't mean anything to him."

"Uggh, he's such a weasel!" Tuesday replied, shaking her head, realizing that this sounds exactly like something that liar McCauley would do or say. "Don't let him get to you, Mom. You can't let a guy like that win."

"I'm sorry that I disappointed you." Megan said, said between her bouts of crying. "I thought I could do this, but apparently, I was wrong."

Tuesday was determined to hold the line and not relent on her mother's sobriety. "You had a relapse." She stated boldly and directly. "It's not the end of the world. I've found my Mom, and I'm not going to give her up, so it's time to get back on the horse so we can ride off into the sunset together."

Megan felt profoundly affected by her daughter's words. "I love you!" She said wiping her tears from her eyes. "I don't know how you have the strength to save us both, but thank God you do!"

The remainder of the evening was spent sobering Megan up. Tuesday prepared some food and brought it to her, and then they watched television together, snuggling on Megan's bed with the drug letting go of her soul with each passing hour.

A true awakening had occurred within Megan Moxley and this was the beginning of her sobriety in earnest. Never again would she allow somebody to push her buttons the way that Principal McCauley had. Her daughter had demonstrated to her that the two of them could get through anything together, and now there was a fire inside of her that was ready to consume anything that stood in their way. Never again would she relapse, she couldn't. Her relationship with her daughter meant too much to her to give it up over the words of petty and jealous cowards like Principal McCauley.

## III

### DARK WHISPERINGS

That night, Tuesday slept seemingly soundly. She did not toss and turn, but she did dream. That night she dreamt of a taxi that would have hit a bicyclist, but she could make the bike levitate over the top of the taxi's path, missing it as it screeched around a corner. The bicycle was placed gently down on the ground behind the taxi. The cheering throng of onlookers thought it was nothing short of a miracle.

The next dream Tuesday had was the same dream she had previously about the airplane crashing. She found she may perhaps slow the scene down in her dream, and even rewind and replay it as if she were watching a videotape on a VCR. She could walk down the aisle, and see that it was indeed her that was sitting in the seat on the plane. Much to her astonishment, it was Jason who was sitting next to her. The two of them were holding hands, and they were praying silently amidst the cacophony erupting around them. But no matter how hard she had tried, she could not affect the outcome of this particular dream. The two of them seemed to be happy and completely at peace with one another, and the situation around them. It had always ended the same way, with the cabin erupting into flame and the scene faded into darkness. There was no pain felt, or no point of view from innocent bystanders. If this was to be her fate, she had apparently accepted it at the point that it happened, and there would be no point in denying it on the day that it came.

As the dream ended, and faded to black, Tuesday heard a voice in her mind. It was low-pitched, whispery, cold, and guttural, and it spoke directly to her.

"Tuesday." The voice hissed in hateful intensity, the last syllable dragged out. "Tuesday Moxley."

Tuesday felt paralyzed with fright and fear, as if the voice had made her somehow unable to move. She felt icy claws upon her skin as the voice spoke again.

"I am coming for you." It said, and then she remembered nothing about it.

## CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I

### THE MORNING EDITION

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1995

Tuesday Moxley woke refreshed and ready for another day of school. She woke up feeling happy, remembering that she had changed her dream about saving the bicyclist all by herself without any guidance from Doctor Frederiksen. She also recalled her dream of the passenger airliner, and even though she had died in the dream, she was not upset or disturbed by it. She was however curious as to why she could not change the outcome of that particular dream, only able to watch it and replay it over. It was something she was going to have to ask Doctor Frederiksen about when she got a chance.

The one thing that Tuesday was able to take away from that dream was that Jason was there with her, and they were holding hands. Did this mean that the two of them were meant to be together? She had hoped so with all her heart. What was she supposed to take away from that? The two would be together until their dying day? Maybe the entire dream was symbolic of that, at least that's what she wanted to think. She didn't have much experience with boys as Jason was the first boy that had ever paid any attention to her. But what if Jason were the only boy she was ever to be with, for her entire life. At the moment, that didn't seem like such a bad thing to her. She didn't want to read too much into it, but that thought certainly made her heart swell with happiness.

After showering and getting dressed, Tuesday came downstairs where surprisingly her mother had already been awake, preparing breakfast for her.

"Hey baby girl!" Megan greeted her cheerfully, pouring some fresh coffee into a cup for her as she did so. "How did you sleep?"

"Really good, actually." Tuesday replied.

Megan seemed somewhat nervous, and was shaking just a little bit. Tuesday thought it might have had something to do with her relapse from the night before, but realized that she kept focusing her attention between Tuesday and the folded newspaper sitting on the table.

"What is it, Mom?" Tuesday asked, her voice changing to a more serious tone. "What's wrong?"

"You really should take a look at the morning edition." Megan replied, unsure of what else to say.

"Why Mom?" Tuesday pressed for an answer. "What is it?"

"I think it would be better if you just looked at it." Megan responded, seemingly still in a state of confusion.

Tuesday sluggishly extended her arm and gripped the newspaper, pulling it toward her opening it up to reveal a headline that seemed familiar to her.

ALLEGED CHILD KILLER DIES BY HIS OWN KNIFE.

Beneath the headline, Tuesday inspected a picture of a woman holding a child in front of a frozen lake, giving a statement to a police officer, and that police officer was Douglas Downe. As she skimmed the details of the article, it said that the killer had slipped on some wet grass while attacking the child and that witnesses had said the lake had miraculously frozen over to keep the child from sliding in and drowning. The newspaper was throwing around terms like "divine intervention" and "miracles" to describe what had happened. The color drained from Tuesday's face as she made an attempt to determine whether or not she was still dreaming, or whether nor not this was actually happening.

"Is this for real?" Tuesday managed to ask in shock and disbelief.

Megan nodded her head to the affirmative. "Yeah." She replied, not knowing what to say. "I got it out of the paper box a little bit ago."

Tuesday was silent for several minutes, trying to put it together in her mind. What was going on? The outcome had still turned out like she had dreamed it. Was this her curse, that she would be linked to the future no matter how she affected it? Why could she not escape this? Why hadn't things turned out like Doctor Frederiksen had said they would? Every line of thought Tuesday went over in her mind brought her back to the same inevitable question; had she physically just changed the future?

Tuesday was finally able to think clearly enough to speak, "Mom, this is big!" She stated in complete and total bewilderment. "Do you know what just happened here?"

"Yeah." Megan replied, exasperated by the revelation that had just came to fruition. "I've been thinking about it for the last twenty minutes."

Tuesday was sure she knew what had happened, but couldn't quite believe it herself. She needed to hear the words from a rational adult in order to make sense of the reality that she had apparently created. "So, what does this mean?" She asked, fishing for the same answer from her mother that she herself had arrived at. "Why is my dream still ending up the way that I dreamed it, even after I changed it?"

"I don't know." Megan stated, throwing her hands up in a defensive posture. "Maybe it's divine intervention like the newspaper says."

Tuesday looked her mother directly into her eyes before addressing her further. "I think that I may have changed the future."

"Yeah." Megan shook her head in agreement. "I think you're right."

The two of them were too freaked out to say anything further about it.

## II

### QUESTIONS AT THE NEXT SESSION

Tuesday spent the day in school with a lot of anxiety and much on her mind. She knew that she would be seeing Doctor Frederiksen after school, and she had much to ask him about. She needed to know why things were still ending up exactly like she had dreamed them. She needed answers, and she needed them soon.

Of course, the other kids at school were all talking about it, how the lake had frozen over on an afternoon that was 65 degrees. Thankfully, nobody had suspected that Tuesday had been responsible for such an event, as it was completely out of the realm of possibility for her to have done anything like that. As far as they were concerned, Tuesday had nightmares and people died. This was something completely different, so she kept to herself, as she normally did, as not to arouse any of their suspicions. If they even thought that she was responsible for this act, who knows what they might have been capable of? She could have ended up burned at the stake like a witch for all she knew.

The only person she talked to at school that day was Jason, and even then, she didn't discuss what had happened other than agreeing that the event was just plain odd. When at last school had let out, Megan was already outside in the car to pick up Tuesday for appointment with Doctor Frederiksen.

The two of them talked about their day with each other, but tried to avoid the subject from the newspaper as best as they could. It was difficult because Megan's customers had been buzzing about the frozen lake and the dead child killer all day long at Tuck's Diner. Whenever the subject was brought up, she replied with "Yeah, that's weird.", and went on with her duties as if nothing had happened.

It had been an uncomfortable day for the two of them, knowing what had happened and keeping an airtight lid on it. Both were sure that Doctor Frederiksen was already more than aware of what had transpired, everyone knew what had happened but nobody knew why it had happened. They were absolutely hoping to keep this a secret because Tuesday didn't need to be treated like any more of a pariah than she already was.

When they had arrived at The Millwork Tavern, Tuesday signed in for her appointment. When she was at the desk, she overheard Michelle on the phone talking about how the lake had frozen over and nobody knew why. Tuesday was certain at that point that Doctor Frederiksen had kept her secret, if indeed he had put two and two together and come up with the answer of the frozen lake. She couldn't wait to get back to the office and discuss this new set of circumstances with him.

It seemed like no time at all was wasted in getting called back to Doctor Frederiksen's office. He greeted her and took her right back to the room with the daybed in it, where Tuesday got herself comfortable and ready to discuss the events of the day with him. As it turned out, Doctor Frederiksen was already aware of the death of the child killer and the frozen lake, and had been anticipating discussing these events at the appointment with her. Tuesday began to recall her morning with him.

"I got up this morning and my Mom showed me the newspaper." Tuesday began, somewhat anxious about how to proceed with her wording. "It seems that things still happen the way I dream them."

Doctor Frederiksen nodded his head, scribbling notes in his notebook at a energetic pace, as he acknowledged what she was saying. "Very interesting." He concurred, speaking in a way that was empathetic to her situation. "No matter what happens, you see the future either way, whether you change it or not."

"It certainly seems that way." Tuesday admitted, shaking her head, fidgeting nervously with her fingers. "But what I want to know is why this is happening this way."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them, Doctor Frederiksen was lost deep inside his thoughts on the issue. Tuesday sat uncomfortably on the daybed, wondering what Doctor Frederiksen's thoughts on the matter would be. More than that though, she was thinking about her own consequences to these events.

Before she had learned some basic dream control techniques, her life had been completely unmanageable to the point where she couldn't cope with her dreams or her reality. The last few days had brought her changes that she could have only hoped and dreamed for, and she didn't want to let go of those things. But now an entirely new aspect to her problems had popped up, and had created an entirely new set of circumstances. On the surface, this new reality seemed awesomely cool to her. Upon deeper examination, much of which she had spent the day focusing on, it wasn't as much of a blessing as it had turned out to be. The persistent thought rang out loudly in her mind, that while she had saved that child from a killer, who would have caused unspeakable pain in many lives, a life was still taken, and she wasn't as settled with it as she anticipated she might be.

In her previous nightmares, the deaths of the victims were not of Tuesday's doing and she had always been powerless to stop them from happening. This was a completely different animal to her. If she had known that the situation would still play itself out in reality the way she changed her dream to be, she never would have caused an action that would have caused the death of the killer. This was something to be cognizant of now that the actions in her dreams would have real world percussions. An overwhelming sense of remorse had been on her mind all day, and when the other kids at school looked at her, she felt for the first time like the murderer they had always claimed her to be. Ironically, if anybody at school had suspected Tuesday's involvement, not one person had the nerve to say anything to her about it, not even the usually vocal Jackson Twins. This was not a sentiment she was ready to share with Doctor Frederiksen, as she didn't know how much personal information to give him on matters such as these. Tuesday had even wondered if there was some unwritten rule in the use of her future seeing ability, regardless of whether she controlled it or not, that if somebody was destined to die, another person would have to take that person's place for an outcome to manifest itself. This was something she was going to have to put to the test, and see if she could create an outcome where everybody involved would live to tell the tale. If she couldn't, she knew that this would be the curse that she had always suspected it was. But this was something to strive toward.

Tuesday's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Doctor Frederiksen, who broke the silence with a new line of questioning. "Do you remember when I told you that everybody has the ability to tap into the future?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, prompting her to remember what he had taught her.

"Yes." Tuesday replied, quietly and reverently. "I remember."

"Excellent, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen continued, looking through his notes as he was speaking. "And you remember that your brain automatically decodes signs for you?"

"Yup yup." Tuesday replied, nodding her head to the affirmative.

"This has taught us that no matter what you dream, no matter how you change it, your dreams still become the future." Doctor Frederiksen conceded, astonished by the reality of the words he had just spoken.

"Does that mean that I can control the future then?" Tuesday asked, her breath baited with anticipation for the answer to come.

"It certainly appears that you can." Doctor Frederiksen admitted, hopeful of experimenting further with this newfound revelation. "Would you like to continue?"

Another brief silence momentarily shot up a wall between them. Tuesday desperately wanted to further explore something she had only touched the surface of, but not at the cost of human lives. She thought that she probably should break that barrier and confess how she was feeling about the death of the child killer, as it was causing her some apprehension in working toward the progression of her wellness.

"Yes." Tuesday said warily. "But I need to discuss something first."

"What is it, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, his curiosity piqued.

"I've been thinking about this all morning, since I saw the newspaper." Tuesday began. "When I used to have my nightmares, and people died, all I wanted to do was to save their lives. Now I've discovered that power, and I did save a life. But it was at the cost of another life. Before today, I don't feel like I've ever taken a life. I've seen many people die, but it was beyond my control. The child killer died as a result of my actions. I realize that when I dreamed the death of the child killer, I thought I was only changing my dream, I didn't know that I was going to change the future."

Doctor Frederiksen scribbled down notes as she spoke, nodding his head slightly, and going back and forth between eye contact, and the legal pad on the clipboard on his lap. "You're telling me that you're feeling some guilt over the death of the child killer?"

"Yes, sir." Tuesday replied quietly, her head looking down at the floor.

"I honestly don't think either of us could have predicted this would be the case." Doctor Frederiksen stated, trying to console his patient's feelings of guilt. "This is a wholly unprecedented standard in the field of dream therapy. My hypothesis concluded that if you changed your dream, you wouldn't have the same dream as the subsequent events, and you would be free of your nightmares. I never expected that changing your dreams would change the future."

"I didn't either." Tuesday confessed, rolling the possibilities around in her mind. "I mean, that's impossible, isn't it?

"Apparently, it isn't." Doctor Frederiksen marveled at their content and maturity of their discussion. Here was a patient who had extreme nightmares, some psychosis attached to the nightmares, and while it was a case that was one in a ten million, recent events have elevated it to a case of one in seven billion."

Tuesday seemed unimpressed by this, or simply didn't understand the numbers that were in her favor. Either way, she wanted to state her position on the subject. "I want to see where we can go with this, but I need to be more careful." Tuesday said confidently. "I can't and won't be the cause of anybody's death."

"That is ethically the precise way to proceed, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen told her, beaming with pride at the maturity being displayed by his young patient. "Now, are you ready to continue your journey? To open your eyes and see things that you've never seen before?"

Doctor Frederiksen's words were intoxicating to Tuesday, drawing her in and building anticipation for the next lesion. She had wondered, only for a second, if this is how addiction had felt for her mother. "Yes, show me more!"

## III

### GUIDANCE

The procedure for getting Tuesday back into hypnosis was much smoother than the previous time, mostly because Tuesday's anxieties regarding the process weren't as intense as they had been the first time. In fact, it didn't take much effort at all on the part of Doctor Frederiksen to get her into that state, and soon she was under the power of his suggestion.

When Tuesday awoke in her dream, she found herself in a trashy and dirty alley downtown in The Devil's City. The tightly enclosed space smelled of refuse and rotted leftovers having been thrown into the dumpsters that lined the backstreet. Sleeping under the protection of cardboard boxes and newspapers, some of the local transients were trying to find shelter from the incessant drizzle, empty bottles of cheap wine littered in a random fashion around them, with only the rats as a witness to the squalor they lived in. Ascending the backs of the buildings were several wrought iron fire escapes, many of them set into old brickwork that had fallen into dilapidation and looked as if they could not support the weight of more than a person or two at a time. Tuesday shuddered to think what would happen if there had been a fire in one of those buildings and many people needed to get out of the structure at one time. The overcast, late afternoon light dimly lit the alley, and the wet pavement glistened in what little light there was.

Tuesday didn't particularly care for The Devil's City as it had a reputation for violence, theft, and drugs. Cadence Falls and The Devil's City bordered one another, but were separated by a good-sized river that featured a large enough channel to bring lumber down from the higher logging towns. The Devil's City was a large river port that primarily exported paper from the mills there. The lumber companies would load their logs onto barges and set them to sail down to The Devil's City, where the paper mills would pay for them to use in their production. The longshoremen would often turn a blind eye for cash so opium and heroin could be imported from Asia, and marijuana from Central and South America. This fueled the drug trade in The Devil's City. Tuesday suspected that at one point her mother knew much more about those operations than a lot of people did. While the Jackson Consortium was a legitimate face of business in The Devil's City, the true rulers of the urban area were the opulent and decadent Corelle Family who allegedly had ties to a street gang called The Blackbirds. There wasn't an ounce of dirty business in The Devil's City that the Corelle Family didn't have their fingers in, one way or another, and they always got their cut of everything. The Jackson Family dealt in legitimate business and came from old money and were prone to shady dealings from time to time, but the Corelle Family manipulated their way to the top of The Devil's City through deceit and corruption.

Tuesday wasn't entirely sure why her subconscious had placed her here in The Devil's City, but whatever the reason was, she was sure that she would need Doctor Frederiksen's guidance through this encounter. She took a moment to survey her surroundings, opening herself up to the environment around her and allowing it to become familiar to her. For being such a dingy location, Tuesday felt as if there was a peacefulness to it, save the sound of homeless people having brash conversation about adult subjects that she didn't want to hear about. When Tuesday felt as if she had seen there was all to see, she knew that it was time to bring in the Doctor.

"Doctor Frederiksen, you're invited in." Tuesday called out, letting him know that he was invited into her dream world once again.

The moment she had spoken the words, the image of Doctor Frederiksen appeared right next to her. He looked around, though he could not actually see the environment he was in. He could only ascertain what was going on through her description of the environment, which she took a moment to fill him in on.

"It is very important that you explain the details of your surroundings to me, as I cannot actually see what you are seeing Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen said somberly. "I appear in your dream so that your mind actually understands that I am communicating with you, even though I am speaking to you in the natural world."

Tuesday nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"To control your surroundings, you must completely get to know your environment." Doctor Frederiksen tutored her, attempting to make the process feel more natural to Tuesday. "You must become intimate with your environment, to feel that it's existence is more than just a part of a system. You must feel as if you're an artist, painting every element in your world to your liking. Reach out and feel every stick and stone around you, and if you listen closely, you will hear the thoughts of the people around you. If you empathize, you will feel and understand each emotion, which is why you feel the pain or joy these people experience. If you open your senses, they will overwhelm you and you can smell, taste, hear, touch and as you have already learned, see what others in your dream can sense. You must feel as if you are a god, and you are recreating the world the way you want it to be."

"How do I do that?" Tuesday looked at Doctor Frederiksen, crinkling her nose up. "I'm not exactly sure how I did it last time."

"Do not think about your environment." Doctor Frederiksen stated, the confidence of leadership ringing in his voice. "Feel your environment and you will soon master it."

A light visibly came on inside Tuesday's mind as she seemed to grasp the concept of what Doctor Frederiksen was saying. She shook her head slowly, continuing to listen to what he had to say on the subject.

"The reason your nightmares have all been so intense is because you're emotionally connected to them." Doctor Frederiksen continued, speaking slowly and deliberately so his meaning could not be misunderstood. "You feel the pain that the people in your dreams feel, you feel all of their emotions, their joy, their hate, their anxiety, and most of all their physical pain. This is what you will use to fuel your own power."

"So, it works more on an emotional level than an intellectual level?" Tuesday asked, seeking validation for what he had just taught her. "Feel it, don't think it?

"Yes, Exactly!" Doctor Frederiksen replied, overjoyed at the thought that she might have just connected with her ability. "But you still must be diligent about what you are doing in the dream world, especially now that you know that your actions have consequences in the real world as well."

The thought was sobering to Tuesday. She wasn't certain that she wanted that kind of power, and knew that if she were pushed, she could very well alter the fabric of reality. But she decided to shelve the thought to save for their inevitable discussion later. She returned her attention to Doctor Frederiksen, and listened to what he had to say next.

"Do you see that fire escape up there?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, gesturing up to the back of the building, high above the street.

Tuesday tilted her head back and looked up at it, inspecting the height of the building above her. "Yes, of course."

"Feel and imagine yourself up on that fire escape." Doctor Frederiksen instructed, coming across as some sort of real world Yoda. "Feel that you are looking down on this very spot from that point of view."

Tuesday had begun to wonder what she had gotten herself into. Was she seeing a therapist, or was she attending some sort of mysticism seminar. The only way she would find the answers was to follow Doctor Frederiksen's guidance, wherever it might lead her.

## IV

### TESTING THE THEORY

Tuesday squeezed her eyes tightly closed and reached deep inside of herself, hoping to understand what it was that Doctor Frederiksen was trying to teach her. She worked to tap into the emotions that he had told her about and tried to think what it would feel like to be up on that fire escape, looking down at where Doctor Frederiksen was standing. She tried to imagine the way the light angled down into the alley, the way the shadows married it and settled in its patterns. She tried to feel every single puddle in the alley, every piece of trash, every dumpster, every door, every nook and every cranny. When she opened her eyes, she found herself looking down at the very sight that she had imagined.

"I did it!" Tuesday squealed with excitement, having accomplished something new. "Did I fly up here?"

"No, you didn't fly." Doctor Frederiksen explained, choosing his words very carefully. "It was more like you transported yourself up there. You were down here, you disappeared, and then reappeared up there."

"Well, do you think I could fly?" Tuesday asked, the excitement in her voice reaching fever pitch, as she looked up to the clouds and off to the horizon. "I've always wanted to fly. Sometimes I sit awake at night and wish that I had wings to fly myself far away from everything going on in this world."

"You seem emotionally attached enough to the notion." Doctor Frederiksen coached, chucking to himself. "If this is what your heart truly desires, why don't you give it a try.

Doctor Frederiksen was exceptionally pleased to see his patient making so much progress in such a short amount of time. When they were doing their in-dream sessions, he preferred to think of her less as a patient and more as a student. He had been theorizing about much of this stuff for a long, long time, and it was happy to finally find a patient with who he could truly explore his theories with.

Doctor Frederiksen had graduated from Harvard University, Valedictorian of his class in the field of Psychiatry, particularly the study of children and young adults. To pay for his student loans, he had worked for a pharmaceutical company in Whatcom County, helping to research and develop new drugs to help with anxiety, depression and psychosis, but it wasn't long until he had been promoted and was the lead on his research team. He studied the effects of medications on patients for a few years, but found that he preferred to treat the actual patient, instead of treating the symptoms. He left the company he was working for and began a practice in Renton, outside of Seattle to treat children and young adults.

As he began to develop a history with his patients, he began to understand the subconscious link between their nightmares and their behaviors, causing him to research these ideas much more extensively. He understood that hypnosis was the way to unlock the psyche of the subconscious mind, and soon began to find the answers he was seeking. He had always hoped to find a patient who had premonition style nightmares, and was very curious about where his therapy could lead with that. After many years of successfully treating children and young adults in Renton, a case file came across his desk about a girl who had debilitating nightmares, to the point that seemed as if she might have the very premonitions that he had been hoping to research. He did all he could to gather information on the case, and studied case notes from other therapists who had little or no luck with the girl or her case. And then it seemed as if she had fallen off the radar, so the time was right for Doctor Frederiksen to move his practice to Cadence Falls, where he might have the opportunity to work with this girl, should she resurface in the psychological world. He reestablished his office in The Millwork Tavern, and put out a few feelers, and as luck would have it, an old classmate of his had been hired as a counselor at Cadence Falls High School. He contacted his old friend, and had then asked him to keep an eye out for the girl he was looking for, and to make a referral to him should she need future counselling. It wasn't long before Tuesday had surfaced, and the seed had been planted. In just a few short sessions, Tuesday had exceeded his expectations by more than a country mile. Her progress was nothing short of astounding to him.

When Doctor Frederiksen looked back up at the fire escape, he saw Tuesday squeezing her eyes tightly together, imagining what it would be like to fly. Instinctively her arms raised themselves up and extended out to her sides, where they hung loosely for a moment. A gentle breeze rushed into the alley which caught Tuesday's hair and clothing, blowing and rippling it. A look of intense concentration crossed Tuesday's face and then it suddenly relaxed as her toes lifted from the steel grating of the fire escape. Her body floated six feet over and beyond the edge of the fire escape, and when she opened her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was seeing!

"Doctor Frederiksen, look!" Tuesday cried out, tears of joy filling her eyes. "I'm flying! Look at me, I'm flying!"

Doctor Frederiksen couldn't have been prouder of her at that very moment. "Yes, Miss Moxley!" He beamed with pride. "I see that!"

Tuesday then flew off with an incredible burst of speed, twisting and turning as she glided on the breeze. She flew up from The Devil's city, high into the sky, until she could see the Cadence Falls on the other side of the river. She then aimed herself toward her hometown and it wasn't long until she was flying through her neighborhood on the hill. She streaked above the houses, and made her way to where Jason's home was at, stopping long enough to see him inside, helping with one of the foster children there who appeared to be disabled in some way or another. Tuesday felt her soft spot for Jason growing even more. He was truly a compassionate human being, and she felt very fortunate to know him.

She then flew up and away from Jason's house and down near the main street off the interstate where The Millwork Tavern was located. She levitated herself in front of the window at the end of the corridor long enough to see her mother sitting there waiting patiently for her to finish her session. As she was waiting, a young man entered the waiting area and checked in who seemed to know her mother. A short, but unintelligible conversation transpired between the two that seemed to leave Megan uneasy. This would be something she would have to ask her mother about later.

Realizing that she was short on time left for this session, Tuesday decided that she had better return to the alley in The Devil's City to finish her lesson for today. She was almost certain that there would be more to what she was supposed to learn than flying around Cadence Falls spying on the people she cared about.

When Tuesday arrived back at the alley, she found Doctor Frederiksen there, patiently waiting for her to return, a smile of satisfaction spread across his face. She levitated at the end of the alley, as if she were a superhero, waiting to leap into action.

Suddenly her Osprey Vision snapped into focus and revealed a drunken transient, passed out in the alley under a large pile of industrial paper and cardboard. As her vision reached the man, it snapped to the other end of the alley, where a very large garbage truck had just turned in and was approaching the homeless man at a high rate of speed. Realizing the danger, Tuesday sprang into action without a second thought, flying down in a desperate attempt to reach the sleeping bum before the truck ran over him, and likely killing him, unbeknownst to the driver. Realizing there was no way she was going to reach the truck in time, she closed her eyes, focusing on the truck itself, not thinking, just acting.

The garbage truck came to a dead halt in the alley just short of killing the transient to the astonishment of the driver. Smoke billowed out from under the hood, and so the driver got out of his truck to investigate what might have caused the problem. A few obvious curse words escaped his lips as he climbed down out of the driver's seat, and his boots landed on the asphalt with a dull thud. When he opened the hood of the truck, he was not prepared for what he saw, the entire internal workings of the vehicle had been fused together into one metal sphere, all its components mashed together, from the engine, to the transmission, to the driveline and every other part as well.

The garbage truck driver spewed out a long string of profanities at seeing this, thinking that he was going to get fired. The noise of the driver caused the homeless man to wake up, who crawled out from underneath the paper and cardboard, looking to see what all the commotion was about. When the driver spotted him, and had realized what had just happened, he dropped to his knees and began to pray, asking for forgiveness, having witnessed what he could only classify as divine intervention.

Tuesday drifted over to where Doctor Frederiksen was standing and hovered just off the ground next to where he was standing. Doctor Frederiksen realized that not only was she gifted, she had now learned to take control of a situation when the need was present.

"You saved that transient." Doctor Frederiksen marveled at her accomplishment. "How did you know he was under all of that debris?"

"My Osprey Vision alerted me to his presence." Tuesday replied not quite believing it herself. "I knew I couldn't let him be killed."

Tuesday then positioned herself directly in front of Doctor Frederiksen to address him directly. "I'm tired of the accidents. I'm sick of the suffering." Tuesday began, her voice sounding stronger and more dedicated than it previously had. "But most of all, I don't want to see any more of this. I've seen too much death, much more than somebody of my age should have to. I've felt the pain and the loss of the loved ones left behind, and I don't want to bear that burden anymore. From now on, if I can save a life, I will choose to."

Doctor Frederiksen doesn't know where this sudden change in Tuesday came from, but he is looking on her with a new-found respect. If Doctor Frederiksen didn't know any better, it would certainly appear that the two of them created a superhero, one with the infinite power to do anything she wanted.

For the first time, Doctor Frederiksen didn't know whether to be encouraging, or to be frightened. But what he did know was that he absolutely commended her decision to save lives. "That is a very mature decision, Miss Moxley." He said to her, realizing that his therapy with her had taken a turn into some very uncharted waters.

As the two of them were speaking, the sky grew very dark, and everything around them creeped down to nearly a standstill. The only thing still moving in any sort of normal capacity was the two of them. And as the environment around them began to darken, a large black cloaked figure wearing a hood emerged from the dusk. The figure stood ten feet tall, and its cloak was tattered and torn, and it smelled like a dead animal that had spent too many days baking in the hot sun after it had died. Its cloak had sleeves, but no hands came out of it. It only had the wispy illusion of bony looking hands one of which was raised, pointing at Doctor Frederiksen. The figure also had no feet, but the cloak simply floated, just a few inches off the ground.

"Your presence is no longer needed, Doctor." The figure hissed as it teleported twenty feet from its previous position, instantaneously reaching Doctor Frederiksen and with its ghostly palm shoving him hard, pushing him completely out of Tuesday's dream. At that point, Doctor Frederiksen was no longer visible to her, and could not hear him at all, not even from the therapy room. It was as if he was completely cut off from her and could not guide her.

It didn't take Tuesday long to realize that this was the same dark voice she had heard in one of her dreams. "Why are you here?" Tuesday screamed, feeling the fear rise up inside of her again, which dropped her from the spot she was levitating down to the ground. "What do you want?"

## CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I

### THE APPARITION

The apparition stood in front of Tuesday, not answering her questions in any timely manner. The two faced off for a good moment before the creature addressed her again, the fear in Tuesday continuing to rise inside of her.

"Tuesday." The phantom hissed, its voice causing her physical pain when it spoke her name. "I forewarned that I was coming for you."

Tuesday remembered the feeling of those icy talons on her skin, the taunting sound of its hissy voice, but most of all she remembered being paralyzed with fear. "Who are you?" Tuesday screamed, hoping to obtain an answer from the creature. She had to scream, in her mind the environment around her became a maelstrom of noise, a roar that she had to project her words over the top of. The rumble of everything around Tuesday was deafening and she couldn't hear anything, save for the painful voice of The Nightmare. "What do you want from me?"

Tuesday tried to dig deep insider herself to stifle the fear that was holding her back. If she was afraid, her power would be useless to her, and she would not be able to fight this creature. Even worse, The Nightmare could clearly see how afraid Tuesday was, and fed into that fear to make itself stronger. Tuesday didn't know what to do, and wished that Doctor Frederiksen was still there to guide her.

"You have cheated me, Tuesday." The Nightmare spoke, aiming the pain of its voice right into her mind, increasing the volume of the environment, which began to swirl and distort as it moved counter clockwise around her. "You have awakened me from my slumber, and now your will is mine to control."

Tuesday then spoke up loudly, in an attempt bluff The Nightmare. "I WILL NOT fear you." Her challenge to The Nightmare did not have the intended effect she was hoping that it would, as she felt herself weakening, even as she spoke the words. She dropped to her knees, as if she had been forced to kneel by The Nightmare.

"You will dread me, Tuesday!" The Nightmare reasserting its position, the icy talons of its voice taking hold of her once again. "You will fear not only me, but you will also fear yourself."

Tuesday's mind couldn't focus in the unmusicality of her environment, the lack of harmony siphoning her spirit and sense of resistance. But somewhere inside of herself, she found the courage to speak against The Nightmare again. "NO!" She cried as she somehow struggled back onto her feet. "I am in control here!"

The Nightmare began to laugh with a sound that caused even more pain than its words did. Its amusement grew into malfeasance, and Tuesday was forced back to her knees from the pain The Nightmare's laughter was causing. "You dare challenge me?" The creature said, pressing its advantage. "Let me show you how little control you have. Let me show you what you are capable of?"

Tuesday wasn't sure what The Nightmare meant by that, but she was sure that she was about to find out, whether she wanted to or not.

## II

### THE NIGHTMARE'S CONTROL

The Nightmare extended his arm toward Tuesday and the environment shifted and morphed around them. When everything had quieted and settled, they were in a location that was familiar to Tuesday, though she hadn't seen it in many years. The inside of the house was large and extravagantly decorated with pictures of their family's generations adorning the walls. It didn't take Tuesday long to realize that they were in the house of Thomas Jackson.

"Why did you bring me here?" Tuesday asked, not knowing what The Nightmare had intended. "What is the purpose of this?"

The Nightmare came direct and to the point with her. "You swindled me out of a life today, so you're going to give me two." The Nightmare would have appeared to be pleased with himself, if he had a face within that hood to make such a gesture.

Tuesday couldn't believe what she was hearing. This creature clearly felt a sense of entitlement, and that all life and death belonged to it. "You think that I'm going to kill somebody for you, you're gravely mistaken."

"You will slaughter whomever I choose." The Nightmare commanded, its hissy voice pressing into her thoughts, violating her in a way she had never felt before. "And there is nothing you can do to hinder it."

"I am not going to kill anybody, and you cannot make me!" Tuesday countered, trying to muster up as much of her resistance as she could between bouts of physical pain caused by the voice of The Nightmare.

"That is where you are mistaken." The Nightmare stated, cold and calculating in his approach to her. "You will kill who I request you to, or I will force you kill somebody you cherish."

At that moment, Serina and Jessica appeared at the top of the staircase, beginning their descent down to the main floor, discussing which one of them had the better boyfriend by comparing observations they had made. The pair of them were giggling and chattering excitedly and had soon reached the main floor of the house and walked out to the back yard to sit in the sun while they were waiting for their boyfriends to arrive. The Nightmare followed them outside, hot on their heels and Tuesday felt a strong compulsion to follow them.

"Kill them." The Nightmare said, extending his arm in Tuesday's direction. "Kill them both."

Dreadful thoughts began to permeate Tuesday's mind, and she was having great difficulty blocking them out. The more brutal the thought she had entertained was, the more she feared it, and lost more and more of her defensive control. She had thoughts of the two of them disconnecting the tennis net and hanging themselves in it, thoughts of them slipping into the pool and drowning, thoughts of breaking every single bone in their bodies one at a time and crushing them like insects. Each thought that crept into Tuesday's brain, she worked hard to push to the back of her mind so that they would not occur.

"You abhor them and you crave their deaths." The Nightmare taunted, trying to incite negative emotion within Tuesday. "You declared it yourself."

"Stop it!" Tuesday screamed trying to clear her mind of every dark thought that entered it. "Make it stop!"

The Nightmare was unsympathetic to her pleas. "You can make it stop, when these two wretched adolescents are deceased."

The roulette of wicked thoughts kept spinning within Tuesday's mind, each fate for the Jackson Twins worse than the one that preceded it. And then came the thought that Tuesday could not fight back, a thought that had run through her mind so many times in the past. She tried desperately to shut it out, but the preconceived notion had already played through her mind dozens of times throughout the years, and she relished the thought each time she visualized it. She could no longer hold back the thought of a gunman creeping into their back yard, trying to kill them.

No sooner had Tuesday relented to the thought of the gunman, he emerged from the bushes, looking around to make sure his path to the house was clear. He was undoubtedly taken by surprise seeing the twins in the yard and so without taking aim, he fired three shots blindly, one of which caught Jessica in the head, putting her down on the ground. Tuesday instantaneously shrieked in agony as the pain of the gunshot ripped through her own mind, slamming her body to the ground as well, flailing from the pain caused by her own malicious intent.

Serina cried out, hoping somebody, anybody would hear her. Somebody did her, and it was the man with the gun who had just put down her sister, who was now staring her down, committed to ending her life as well. Serina rotated on her heel, turning toward the house, running as fast as she could to escape the killer, the gunman hot on her heels. The pain subsided almost instantly, which was an indication that Jessica had died from the wound she had sustained, and thankfully her passing had been quick. Tuesday knew that Serina wouldn't stand a chance if she didn't try harder to gather her courage to defeat this thing that was causing her to do unspeakable harm to these girls. Picking herself up from the ground, she tried to find the quiet spot in her mind so she could make something happen that would give Serina a chance to escape. Recovering from the momentary pain of the gunshot, she squeezed her eyes closed, and tried to put that fear in the back of her mind for only a second so she could focus and exert some control over the situation. What Tuesday needed to do was draw The Nightmare's attention to her, so she could have a window to defend Serina. Calling out to the creature, she seemingly surrendered to it, bluffing, causing it to drop its guard for just a second. This was the window of opportunity that Tuesday needed.

In that split-second moment of serenity, Tuesday and was able to send a solid wood lawn chair flying into the path of the gunman, who was intent upon killing Serina. The lawn chair hit the gunman with enough force to knock him down for a few seconds, and that was all the time that Serina needed to get herself into the house and lock the door behind her. The Nightmare screeched its discontent, sending waves of fear cascading through Tuesday while the dazed gunman got back on his feet and confused as to what was happening and where he was.

"Do not cross me, girl!" The Nightmare roared, refocusing his control over Tuesday's thoughts, causing her to think of the gunman reacquiring his target. The gunman ran toward the house, and found the door was locked, and he was not able to get inside.

The Nightmare howled with rage at Tuesday's intervention in the situation. His rage forced Tuesday to the ground with the sensory pain it caused, her vision doubling as the fear intensified itself twice as hard as it had before. She couldn't see or think straight, but knew that she had to fight through it. She might have disliked Serina, but she did not deserve this fate, and she had to do whatever she could to save her.

The gunman frantically slammed his shoulder against the hardwood door, but it wouldn't budge. Instead, he fired a shot into the plate glass window on the back of the house, allowing him entry, but also setting off a series of alarms. This did not deter the gunman, who now was intent upon killing the only witness to his crime.

The Nightmare's control was too strong to for Tuesday to resist, and she would need a clear distraction to divert his attention from controlling her. It was clear to her that if she could not find a way to overcome The Nightmare's control, Serina would be joining her sister very soon. She dug deep within herself and thought of the happiest thing she could think of. What she arrived at was the moment that Jason had come to rescue her from the very girl she was attempting to save. She lived in that moment for just a second, using it to distract herself from The Nightmare's aural onslaught. And in that moment, everything around her melted away for a brief flash of a second.

Tuesday had found just enough strength to pull away from The Nightmare to ring the doorbell on the front of the house. The Nightmare turned to wonder who might be arriving and if he would be gaining some extra souls, turning to see might be arriving.

Before The Nightmare realized what was happening, Tuesday regained just enough control to get the gunman to turn his weapon on himself. The gun discharged into the head of the gunman, slumping his lifeless body to the floor instantly, sending another shockwave of deadly pain coursing through Tuesday's own head. Tuesday dropped to the ground, the final thoughts and agony of the gunman tearing through her. But the gunman had no intention of dying with the grace and dignity that Jessica had, as Tuesday laid out on the lawn, enduring the slow, drawn out discomfort of the gunman's passing.

The Nightmare was wholly displeased. When the gunman had finally passed, Tuesday regained her senses and made a stand to her feet, defiantly addressing The Nightmare. "You now have two lives." Tuesday said, frantically gathering the courage to further resist The Nightmare and his command over her thoughts and her fears.

"You have cheated me yet again!" The Nightmare screeched, his anger was completely beyond any sense of reckoning. "I have two lives. For your insolence, you will have no reminiscence of this outside of the dream world. You will have a sickening sensation in your stomach and the familiarity that you're somehow connected to it this as punishment for your insubordination."

The Nightmare released control of Tuesday's mind, and faded into oblivion, his voice calling out to her as he disappeared. "Next time, you will do as I ask, or you will execute somebody you treasure."

As the light returned to the sky, Tuesday crumpled into a heap on the ground and began sobbing furiously, feeling the loss of Jessica, knowing she wouldn't know anything about it once she woke up. Tuesday had wondered, not for the first time, if this power was a gift, or if it was a curse.

## III

### SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT

Doctor Frederiksen woke Tuesday from her hypnotic state, full of questions that needed answering. He had made several observations after being removed from her dream that had him very concerned. While she hadn't vocally said anything, she seemed to be thrashing around a lot, her heart rate elevated, and her blood pressure rose.

Tuesday sat up, groggy and shaking, a sick feeling dwelled in the pit of her stomach. She had a blank expression upon her face which seemed to indicate confusion at what had just happened. Doctor Frederiksen was quick to search for whatever answers he could find.

"Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, clearly concerned about her well-being. "Are you alright?" He had to repeat himself several times.

Tuesday did not reply at first, staring off into space and trying to make some sort of sense in her memory gap. Her eyes darted back and forth, trying to remember memories that were no longer there. Finally, her mouth began to move, but words were not coming from it at first. A moment later, she seemed to come to her senses as she was fully able to comprehend what Doctor Frederiksen was asking her. _"Are you alright?"_

"I think so." Tuesday replied, unsteady in her words. "I feel like something has gone terribly wrong."

The Doctor's interest piqued, hearing her words. "Gone terribly wrong, how?"

Tuesday paused for a moment and squinted her eyes, as if trying to recall something that was no longer there. "I can't explain how, but I know that something horrible has happened."

"Miss Moxley, something did go wrong during the session." Doctor Frederiksen admitted candidly, trying his best to figure out how to explain his disappearance from her dream. "I was coaching you and suddenly you shut me out of your mind. I couldn't reach you."

Tuesday took a moment to retreat inside herself, thinking about what had happened. She knew that was not what had happened, but couldn't quite connect all the dots. "No, I don't think I did it deliberately." She confessed, trying to piece it all together. "I think you forcefully ejected from my mind."

Doctor Frederiksen seemed somewhat confused by her choice of words. "Forcefully ejected, Miss Moxley?"

Tuesday tried to be as descriptive as she could, based upon the images her scattered memories had provided. "Yeah, it was as if a giant hand came and just ripped you out of my dream."

Doctor Frederiksen returned to his own chair and stared at her, stroking his chin in deep thought as he listened to Tuesday speak. "I don't know what happened, and I can't remember any of it." She struggled to get out. "I can't explain it, I just don't know."

"Interesting." Was the only thing Doctor Frederiksen managed to vocalize.

Doctor Frederiksen grabbed his notes and began to go back over them again, trying to figure out what went wrong with the session, occasionally looking back up at Tuesday, who still had the same blank expression on her face that she did when she woke back up. A long silence is shared between the two of them, with Tuesday trying to remember what had occurred within her dream, and Doctor Frederiksen poring over his notes to see if there might have been anything that triggered her to toss him out. The process was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.

Doctor Frederiksen reached over to answer it, and spoke with a police officer, who was on the other end. "I told you no interruptions when I am with a client." He said assertively. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were my receptionist."

Tuesday tried to make sense of the garbled voice on the other end of the phone but couldn't understand what it was they were saying. "Officer Downe?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, after a short pause. "Regarding a client? Which one?"

This snapped Tuesday back to reality, and her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She desperately wanted to know what that phone call was about, and why they would be calling him.

"Oh no, what happened?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, seemingly worried about the information being relayed to him. "An accident?"

Tuesday listened intently, trying to hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but could only extrapolate from what she was hearing Doctor Frederiksen say on his end of the line. "An armed gunman isn't what I would call an accident." It all seemed so vague, yet familiar at the same time. And why did she feel the overwhelming urge that she wanted to throw up?

"Uh huh, alright. I'll have that ready in the morning." Doctor Frederiksen said, shuffling some file folders around and preparing to hang the phone. "Alright, goodbye."

He hung up the phone with a solemn look upon his face and was visibly upset. "I'm sorry, I have to call it quits for today." He said with a sadness in his voice. "One of my other clients has been murdered."

" _Murdered?"_ Tuesday thought to herself as she managed to squeeze her eyes closed, trying to come to terms with her fragmented memory. Thinking back on all the things in her session, the last thing she could remember was flying and then saving the homeless man, and Doctor Frederiksen getting ripped out of her dream. Little flashes of unfamiliar things raced through her mind, a swimming pool, a lawn chair, a grand staircase. None of it helped her. She concentrated harder and caught a glimpse of a shattered pane of glass and a brief glimpse of Serina Jackson. While she couldn't put it all together, she knew that the Jackson Twins were somehow involved with this.

"Doctor Frederiksen?" Tuesday spoke timidly, trying to gather the courage to ask him a question. "Were the Jackson Twins your clients?"

"Tuesday, I can't tell you that, I have confidentiality laws I have to follow." Doctor Frederiksen answered in a somber tone, but the flabbergasted look on his face practically confirmed the answer to Tuesday's question.

"This was no accident." Tuesday admitted, though she couldn't comprehend how she knew that. "I just somehow know that it isn't."

Doctor Frederiksen was taken back by what Tuesday had to say and relented on the information he couldn't give her. "How did you know this?" He asked her, desperate for an answer. "Did you see this happen?"

"I must have seen this happen." Tuesday confessed, shutting her eyes again, trying desperately to recall the events of her dream therapy session. "But for the life of me, I can only remember snippets of it. For some reason, it's blocked out of my memory. It's very frustrating."

"Yes, Jessica and Serina were seeing me." Doctor Frederiksen explained. "Samuel Thornton referred them to me for counseling because they are bullies, and he had hoped they could work through some of their issues of anxiety. Can you tell me anything else?"

"Serina is safe, that's all I know." Tuesday said, wishing she could offer him more than that.

Doctor Frederiksen bowed his head slightly in a moment of thanks and reverence, as a tear fell from his cheek. He looks away from Tuesday but addresses her again. "I will see you next week." He told her, taking time to process what had just happened. Tuesday walked across the room and gave Doctor Frederiksen a hug, the look in his eyes told her that the pain and sadness will not be easily settled.

Tuesday turned and left the office, making her way back out to the reception area. Upon seeing her mother, she felt sadness and guilt, but could not explain why. She slowly raised her head to look her directly in the eyes. "I'm ready to go home, Mom"

## IV

### A VISIT FROM A FRIEND

Tuesday sat on the couch in the darkened living room of her home, curled up in a blanket, frustrated, trying to work through the events of her therapy session in her mind. She kept going over the details again and again, hoping to make some sense out of the fragmented images that would come to her. It all seemed so dark and frightening, but the maddening thing was that she couldn't put those pieces together into any semblance of order. She hadn't told her mother about Jessica's death, but she suspected that Megan and everybody else would know about it soon enough. Tuesday kept taking the pictures she could remember, and attempted to place them in a different order so she could glean some sort of information from them. But no matter how hard she tried, it was not to be. She gave it one more attempt, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Tuesday was reluctant to go to the door and answer it, but the knocking persisted and so she got up from the couch sauntered across the room, pulling the door over. It was Jason Alkali. If there was ever a time that she was happy to see Jason, it was at that very moment.

"Jason!" Tuesday squealed with delight, her mood instantly changing from its previously gloomy state to bright and sunny.

"Hi-ya Tuesday!" Jason replied, his voice full of his usual enthusiasm. "Whatcha been up to lately?" Before answering him, she stepped aside and showed him into the living room where the two sat on the couch near, but not too near one another in case Megan was lurking around hoping to catch them in another embarrassing moment.

"Oh, you know. Therapy. Stuff." Tuesday responded, her voice trailing off a little bit, looking at the floor a little shyly. "The same old freaky agenda."

"I've missed you." Jason admitted, commanding her attention. The butterflies in her stomach took full flight as he said the words. It was nice to be missed, and she couldn't recall anybody ever having missed her before. "I thought I should come by and see how my best friend has been doing." He continued with a flirtatiousness in his voice that was not missed by Tuesday. It was time to play along.

"Your _best friend_? Since when?" Tuesday asked with a funny look on her face, clearly playing with him.

"Or girlfriend, if you prefer?" Jason said, smirking. He certainly knew how to up the ante when the situation called for it. Tuesday was beginning to think that making her blush was his new full-time job.

" _Girlfriend_?" Tuesday managed to ask, before grabbing the blanket from the couch to hide her face behind. She knew that she really liked Jason. And knew that she wanted much more with him than just a friendship. The date the two of them went on was just about as perfect of a moment as she had ever experienced in her entire life, and she wanted to get to know him on a deeper level, so she could build on having many more days with her. But was this his way of asking her out? If it was, she thought it was completely adorable. She had hoped he wasn't just playing, because having a boyfriend who liked her and understood her was one of the things that her heart desired above all else. Not an hour went by that she didn't think about that date, about how they had almost kissed, if her mother hadn't been so nosy. She had made a promise to herself to earn that kiss before the year ended.

Apparently, Jason was somewhat embarrassed by her asking for clarification and tried his best to change the subject. "Okay, okay." He stammered, thinking of the best way to say what he came to say. "The truth is, I miss you. I miss you a lot. You're the only one around here who isn't completely self-absorbed."

An awkward pause was shared between them, enough to allow Tuesday to peek out from behind the blanket she had placed over her head. It took a few seconds, but Tuesday summoned up the courage to make eye contact with Jason again, as he continued talking.

"And because, you know, I really do like you more than a friend." Jason said, faltering somewhat with his usually perfect speech. "I really do."

Tuesday felt the embarrassment returning, but refused to look away. Was this it? Was this the moment she had been waiting for? Was she about to become something that she had only dreamt about? She truly did desire this, and now that it appeared to be happening, her doubts began to creep into her mind. Was that normal?

"So, let me get this straight?" Tuesday asked bashfully, the redness factor of her face increasing exponentially. "You came over here to ask me out, right?" She didn't know any other way other than being direct about it, because if this was about to happen, she wanted to live in that moment.

Jason thought about what Tuesday just said, and in a split second, his confidence returned to him, and he blurted out, "Well, okay. I guess, if you insist." His eyes were locked onto hers, with a glint that outshined the sun.

Tuesday was ready to scream for joy inside her mind, but she needed to lay the details of this arrangement out for him, so there would be no mistake about what he was getting himself into. Jason needed to know that she was damaged and that was what he would be taking on if he chose a relationship with her.

"You know, I don't even really know you that well." Tuesday began, trying to pull the right words out of the air as not to destroy this moment completely. "And I have all these problems. . ."

"Yeah, and?" Jason interrupted, demonstrating that her problems would not be an issue with him.

"And we don't really know each other that well." Tuesday continued, desperate to say the things she needed to say, but Jason wouldn't stop interrupting.

"You said that already." Jason countered, realizing that she was stalling to give him a response.

"The thing is." Tuesday said, raising the volume of her voice just a little bit so she could get over his continued interruptions. "The thing is, that nobody has ever liked me well enough to be my friend until you came along."

"Yeah, and?" Jason went off again, trying to get her to stop overthinking the process and to listen with her heart.

Tuesday stopped what she was saying for a moment and pondered over her thought, looked him in his eyes, and made a powerful connection. And suddenly it hit her. She knew that she would never complete and total happiness in the other areas of her life, so why shouldn't she have it in this facet of her life? Jason was somebody who came along and seemed to care for her unconditionally, and accepts her for who she is. He seemed as if he was attracted to her, and she knew that she certainly was attracted to him, so what was the hang up? Jason could look past all the freakiness straight into her heart and be a companion who would support both her good days and her bad ones. And Tuesday knew that there was the part of her that longed for male companionship, to have somebody to hold hands with at school, and just for once maybe other people would be jealous of her for once. She could tell other people that she had a boyfriend. Without thinking about it, she extended her arms forward and grabbed his hands with hers.

"Yes, I'll be your girlfriend." Tuesday told Jason, unafraid of the words that were coming out of her mouth. The two of them smiled as they looked at one another, and then embraced in a long hug. When the two of them parted, she turned and laid back against him, allowing him to put his arms around her as they sat together on the sofa. The whole sensation felt completely new to Tuesday, and she wasn't certain what to do now that they were a couple, as she had no experience in matters of the heart. So she did what she instinctively knew to do, and continued talking.

"I've been seeing this therapist.' Tuesday began, trying to decide the least strange way of explaining her progress. "He's the one who got me back into school. He's teaching me how to get this thing under control so I won't be so freaky."

"I don't think you're freaky at all." Jason told her in a compassionate tone. "I've never thought that."

Tuesday found herself blushing again. Jason seemed to have that effect on her, the ability to change the color of her skin upon speaking to her. "You haven't known me _that_ long." Tuesday shot back, giggling a little bit. She liked to remind him of this, because it was completely beyond any sense of reason to her how the two of them had not known each other very long, but had grown so close. Was this how relationships worked? One day people are strangers, and the next day they're infatuated with each another? She had to assume that this was how it worked for everyone, being that this was her first experience with it. She hadn't even gotten the opportunity to view love through her mother's interactions with men, because she clearly wasn't in love with them, though she might have enjoyed some of their company more than others. But she was decidedly not the best role model to base a relationship off. She had no other friends to see their interactions with their boyfriend, and didn't spend much time observing others, only what she saw in her dreams. Her focus snapped from her thoughts back on Jason as he tried to explain what he meant.

"No, I haven't." Jason explained, trying to find the most delicate way to express what he was trying to say. "I don't judge you by your problems. I judge you by who you are and what you do."

The creature of doubt creeped back into Tuesday's mind as her curiosity had gotten the better of her. "You don't just feel sorry for me, do you?" She asked, hoping that this wasn't the case.

"Well no, of course not." Jason replied, much to Tuesday's relief. "And yes, a little bit." Tuesday wondered if Jason could be any vaguer than this.

"What do you mean?" Tuesday shot back, hoping not to have this conversation, particularly on a day as wonderful as that one had been.

"I mean, it's hard not to feel sorry for somebody who suffers as much as you do." Jason stated, trying to get his point across as gently as he could, tiptoeing around the question. "But I don't feel sorry for you in the way that you think."

Tuesday was a little irked by Jason's statement, and pulled away from him. Was everything he had felt for he based on pity, because he had felt sorry for her? She felt herself in a vulnerable position, as if the next words he would say could make or break everything. In her frustration, she lashed out at him. "Pity is pity regardless of what form it takes." Tuesday pointed out to him, trying to make the meaning of her words plain so they could not be misunderstood. "I don't need pity, I need understanding. Don't you get it?"

Jason knew that he had crossed a line, but he wanted to be completely honest with her, regardless of how it made her feel at that moment, and immediately defended his point of view. "I want to understand, I really do." He told her, trying to keep his impatience in check. "I don't want to treat you like other people do. I like you, I really, truly do, and the last thing I want to do is screw things up with you."

Tuesday looked in Jason's eyes and saw the tears welling up, indicating that there was truth in his words. She felt embarrassment that she hadn't simply trusted him instead of questioning his motives. "I'm sorry." She managed to say, placing a hand on the side of his face. "I should have just trusted you, but I don't know how to react when somebody gets close to me like this. I've been alone for so long that I don't know how to trust easily. But I promise, you are making that process much easier."

Realizing that she might have said too much, Tuesday stops speaking and turns herself back around and leans up against him again, his arms move back around her as she feels the warmth of his body overtake her.

"You know." Jason said, softening his tone. "Everything is going to be alright."

"I believe you." Tuesday replied with a sigh. "For the first time, I finally trust somebody who isn't a therapist, or who isn't my mother."

The pair of them sat on the couch for the next hour, holding one another and enjoying each other's company.

Tuesday turned on the television for her and Jason to watch. The news was on, the top story was about the daughter of a local business owner who had been murdered by a gunman whose clear motive was to rob the house and didn't expect the teenagers to be home, and tried to kill them both. When he couldn't kill the other, he had apparently turned the gun on himself. Jason was shocked when he saw the story on television. Tuesday sat there, with Jason still holding her and wept inconsolably. Jason did his best to comfort her, and his presence alone was comfort enough. But Tuesday's thoughts returned to the events of the session that afternoon, trying to piece the puzzle together now that she had new information.

Looking at the time, Jason decided that he needed to get home. The two stood up from the couch, with Tuesday still a little weepy.

"I know Jessica wasn't your friend." Jason said in the most somber and respectful way he could. "But I'm sorry that this happened to her."

"I am too." Tuesday confessed, as Jason wiped a tear from her eye. The two of them embraced and said goodnight to each other. Jason walked out the door and disappeared into the darkness.

Tuesday's mind was swirling in a vortex of conflicting emotions, and she wondered if she would ever get it all sorted out. In the end, she decided that a good night's sleep would be the best thing for her. She gently closed the door and made her way up to her room, thinking about the events of the evening.

## CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I

### AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1995

The next day at school was one heartbreaking scenario after another. Tuesday desperately wanted to talk to Serina and find out what exactly had happened, but she was understandably absent until further notice. It was probably best that she steered clear of Serina until everything calmed down. Everywhere in the school, students were visibly shaken by the murder of Jessica Jackson, and it seemed that there was no remedy to their sadness.

There was no information that Tuesday could glean from the talk in the hallways that was reliable enough for her to determine what had truly happened beyond what she had heard on the news. The students all had their own version of what was going on, some of their theories seemed plausible while others were outlandish and ridiculous. Strangely, Tuesday had not been a suspect of this fatal tragedy, and if she was, nobody was saying it. It all seemed like an open and shut case of a robbery gone wrong. It also helped that Tuesday had not come to school raving about the incident days before it happened like some sort of madwoman as she had done so often in the past.

Jason was particularly comforting to Tuesday between classes, snuggling up to her in the halls and walking around with his hand clasped firmly in hers. The two of them were officially a couple, but nobody in school seemed to notice or care as they were all too stricken with grief to pay attention to anything else. Maybe it was for the better, Tuesday was certain that this would have drawn extreme criticism from her detractors. But eventually they would all see it, and on that day, she knew that the price would have to be paid. But it would be a small price that would not affect her happiness.

After school, Tuesday and Jason walked home together, and it seemed as if the word on the street was talk of the death of Jessica Jackson. Many of the folk in the town talked about it, and it seemed they were happy that the gunman turned his weapon on himself, and that the "filthy dog" got what he deserved. But somehow, many felt that the man would never serve justice for his crime, and that was not satisfying to the rest of the people.

" _It is a horrible thing to have a classmate murdered, even if it's somebody you aren't friends with."_ Tuesday thought to herself. She knew that she would never be able to settle the score with Jessica and bury the hatchet. She had now felt guilty for wishing death on her only a couple of weeks ago, and knew that she could never take that comment back, no matter how hard she apologized for it. A bus full of kids heard her say it, and now she had gotten her wish, and now she had wished she hadn't. The walk home was kind of quiet between the two of them, with little to no conversation. What could be said about the event that hadn't already been said? Apart from the outlandish conspiracy theories, what was there to even say? Tuesday knew that she was connected to the event in some way, but still couldn't piece the whole thing together, even though she had heard what she had thought was the whole story. She knew that she had seen it happen in real-time, but could only see flashes of it. Even if she could tell somebody that she had been a part of it, who would believe her? She didn't quite believe it herself.

As Jason and Tuesday reached her house, Jason said goodbye for the day, and kissed her on the forehead. It wasn't the kiss she was hoping for, but knowing Jason, he wanted to save that moment for a very special occasion, being the gentleman that he was. Tuesday's stomach tied itself in a knot as she watched him walk down that driveway, as he had so many times before, but was also excited, because she couldn't wait to see him again.

Tuesday turned and walked into the front door of the house into the living room, and her mother was waiting for her with a homemade dinner prepared.

Megan Moxley had somehow sensed that her daughter had had a rough day. She had heard the discussion amongst the town folk about the death of Jessica Jackson and just known that the school kids were going to blame Tuesday for it in one way or another. She had taken her duty to love and care for her daughter to heart much more seriously since making a conscious decision to live clean and sober. The extravagant meal of consisting of various comfort foods was a sign of that.

"Hey baby, how was your day?" Megan asked, concerned that she might have been bullied during the events of the day.

"It was pretty good, actually." Tuesday replied as she set her backpack down and began to remove her hoody. "All things considering."

"So, I see Jason dropped you off." Megan said in a way that was half teasing and half probing for information. "Has he asked you out yet?"

Tuesday's level of embarrassment went from zero to a hundred in about one second, grabbing her hoody back off the couch and hiding her crimson face behind it. Megan immediately knew what the answer was, but had to ask anyway. "He did, didn't he?"

Tuesday visibly shook her head indicating the affirmative from behind her hoody, lowering it slowly. She then realized that there was nothing to be embarrassed about, that she was very proud to have a boyfriend like Jason, who was kind to her and treated her with respect. "Yeah." Tuesday admitted. "He asked me out last night."

Megan squealed with excitement. Her little girl now had her first boyfriend! The was now just as much of a celebratory meal as it was a comfort meal. "Oh honey!" Megan said, softening her tone to be genuinely joyful for the experience her daughter was going through. "I'm so happy that you could find such a good guy!"

"Me too, Mom." Tuesday replied, trying to brush off the subject a little bit. Her mother wasn't having it though.

Megan was so excited about the fact that Tuesday now had a boyfriend that she wanted to know more, and began penetrating for further details. "So, tell me about him!" She queried, hoping to know more.

"What's there to tell?" Tuesday reacted dismissively, sitting down to enjoy some of the food her mother had prepared. "He's a boy, he moved here from Phoenix, and he's very nice to me."

"Yeah, I know." Megan said, getting a little defensive for her daughter. "But is he polite? Does he know his boundaries? Does he know what no means?"

Tuesday rolled her eyes at what her mother was asking, "Yes, Mom."

"Look, I just don't want some boy to interfere with the progress you're making." Megan asserted, sounding like she might actually be on the same page with Doctor Frederiksen. "I just want what's best for you, that's all."

Tuesday picked up her fork, and began to eat, talking with her mouth full, "He won't." She said, with a spoonful of mashed potatoes in her cheeks. "He wants to help me get through this too."

"Honey, this is a big adjustment period for you." Megan continued, not letting up on the concern she was showing for her daughter. "There's just so much on your plate right now, and I'm not just talking about your dinner.'

Tuesday was beginning to become visibly upset by her mother's continued probing into her private life and felt that the topic of Jason was beginning to become an argument, and if that was the case, it would be an argument that she would not win. Tuesday put her fork down and looked her mother right in the face. "Why can't you just be happy for me?" She asked, her voice raised, and directed right at her mother. "I finally have the one thing I wanted the most, and that's a friend."

"I am happy for you!" Megan stated, defending her position. "I just don't want you getting burned out on too much at once. These sessions are a lot and I don't think you should cloud the issue with emotion."

"My sessions are already emotional, Mom!" Tuesday snapped back. "And I don't even want to talk to Doctor Frederiksen about Jason. He is the one perfect thing in my life, and I don't even want to try and change or fix that, so it's better if he didn't know about Jason."

Megan slowed herself down, listening to the words of her daughter and tried to understand her point of view. "Look, I didn't mean to upset you." Megan admitted, trying to regain peace and composure at the dinner table. "And I'm not saying that you can't see Jason. I'm just asking you to please, please be careful."

Tuesday looks again at her mother and realizes that she is speaking volumes of truth based upon her own experiences. She realizes that she isn't quite yet accustomed to her mother looking out for her the way she is, and that she currently has not one, not two, but three people who are all looking out for her. A few weeks ago, she could not have imagined that even one person would care about her, much less three. First Jason came along and stood up for her, and then Doctor Frederiksen cared enough about her to help her solve her problems, and now her mother was gaining more clarity and perspective every day, and seemed to genuinely care about her for the first time in her life. They say that good things come in threes, and this was clearly true for Tuesday. She realized she was wrong to be defensive and combative with her mother on this subject, as her Mom was just looking to protect her.

"I'll be careful, Mom." Tuesday assured her mother. "I promise I will."

The two of them sat and ate dinner together, talking, laughing and joking about the events of the last couple of weeks. Neither of the two of them could ever remember having shared a better and more enjoyable meal with one another.

## II

### SECRETS REVEALED

When dinner had finished up, the two cleaned up the kitchen and dining area together, still discussing stories and events with one another. Many of the things Megan talked about were things that had happened to her when she was using, so some of them didn't make a lot of sense to Tuesday, but she got the gist of them. Many of the things that Megan mentioned, she told to Tuesday as cautionary tales, so she would know what to look for when people came to her with certain intentions, and how she could avoid being taken advantage of. It came off as a little preachy to Tuesday, but she listened and nodded, taking advantage of the wisdom that her mother was attempting to impart upon her.

"I wouldn't say anything if I didn't know this from experience." Megan kept saying repeatedly, as if to drive the point home. "I just don't want you to end up like I did."

Tuesday had felt as if she had had enough lecturing by that point and decided it was time to turn the conversation back to the present day for just a moment. "Speaking of you, how's the rehabilitation going?" Tuesday asked, pointedly and directly.

Megan was somewhat apprehensive and shocked, taken aback by the question, "Well. . ." She began, stumbling around for the right words like a blind man in a darkened room looking for a light switch. "It's easier some days than it is on other days."

"You haven't had another relapse, have you?" Tuesday inquired, trying to sound more concerned and less invasive about the question.

"No." Megan replied, some doubt and hesitation in her speech. "No, nothing like that. The other night when I got off work, Marie wanted me to go out and get messed up with her and meet this guy to score a bag."

Tuesday's eyes went wide as if she was getting ready to hear something that she didn't want to hear, and found herself interrupting her mother. "You didn't do it, did you?" Tuesday said in an interrogative fashion.

"No, I didn't." Megan confessed, a little bit of sadness in her voice. "But part of me really wanted to. My mind and body both screamed for it, but I couldn't bear the thought of disappointing you again. I've been such a disappointment for so long."

"You're doing fine, Mom, and I couldn't be prouder." Tuesday said, trying to console her mother, who had tears forming in her eyes.

"I didn't do it." Megan said, attempting to place an exclamation mark on the end of her story. "So now Marie is a little mad at me."

"She'll just have to get over it, won't she?" Tuesday shot back, trying to make light of the situation.

Megan laughed just a little bit, "Yeah, I guess she will."

The two of them shared a moment of silence which got Tuesday thinking about their conversation from the other day. It seemed as if Megan's defenses were down, so Tuesday pressed her advantage, hoping to gain the answers she was looking for.

"Mom, would this be a good time to continue our discussion from the other day?" Tuesday asked quietly, hoping to push her mother to talk about it some more. "I really want to know about your past, about how I was born."

Megan looked away, trying to avoid the topic, but Tuesday wasn't about to let her slide on this. Megan knew it too, she knew that she would have to talk to her daughter about this stuff sooner or later. Tuesday reached out, and put her hand on her mother's shoulder, trying to console her regarding the situation. "I don't know, honey." Megan began. "Once I tell you these things, it isn't something that I can take back. It's not something that can be undone, and you might not forgive me for what I will end up telling you."

Megan's level of anxiety began to rise, and Tuesday was empathetic to it, knowing that she needed to console her in any way she could. But she knew that she needed to press on, she needed these answers so she could find the answers to her own problems. It was time for her to know and to understand who she was, and to grow from the information that her mother would give her.

"Mom, whatever happened, it's in the past." Tuesday whispered softly and empathetically to her mother. "And I promise that I will forgive you for it."

"You have to understand that this was a very turbulent time in my life." Megan admitted, not believing that the word she was speaking were essentially coming out of her mouth. "I don't people knowing these things about me."

"Your secret is safe with me, Mom." Tuesday promised, hoping that she would take a leap of faith and tell her the rest of the story. "What happened after the guy broke up with you?"

Megan stops for a moment, closes her eyes and tries to relive the situation, trying to recall details and faces that had been long forgotten. "I'm not proud of these things I've done, especially this." Megan began, choosing her words carefully, allowing them to spill from her mouth in a slow and deliberate pattern of broken sentences. "I try not to remember because this was the most painful time of my life. It was the time of my life that set me on this dark path."

Tuesday could see that Megan was getting emotionally worked up as she was speaking, building up to something that she wasn't sure she could even talk about after all these years. "The day he left me. . ." Megan sustained, her speech breaking up as the pain of the memories flooded back into her head. "I was so. . .angry. . .upset, and hurt. I went out and scored some dope, as much as I could buy with the money I had. Various things, some coke, some acid, smoked some pot, and had a big bottle of liquor. I used it all, because I just wanted to kill that thing inside of me that was always messing up. I downed the rest of what I had of the experimental drug too. I just wanted to die."

Megan began weeping, and the further she got into her tale, the emotional response escalated even further. "When I ran out of what I had, and it didn't kill me, I recalled some talk of a party that was going to happen that night down the street. I stumbled down the street for what seemed like hours and met these guys who were going to the same party I was, at least that's what they said. And I liked the attention from these guys at first, because I had just gotten my heart broken, and the four of them were so nice."

Tuesday interjected, trying to keep all the facts straight in her mind. "So, you met these guys and went to a party with them?" She asked, trying to gain clarification.

Megan's breathing became quicker, and she was clearly anxious reliving this, but somehow found the bravery to continue "Yeah. It was so nice to be noticed, you know? And so, I went to the party, and there were a lot of people there, most were just drinking, but there were some drugs involved. This was the first time I rammed something into my arm, and I wasn't prepared for how strong that was. I lost control of everything.

A brief and awkward silence ensued between the two of them.

Megan's weeping had escalated into blown sobbing by this point, and Tuesday grabbed a tissue, wiping the tears from her eyes and consoled her the best she could. A moment later, Megan went on with the story. "They seemed nice enough when I first met them, they were flirting with me, but I didn't think too much of it at the time because boys used to do that a lot. One of them was particularly charming, and I kind of liked him, you know? We were dancing and having fun, and for a moment, I had forgotten about how awful like was. He seemed so wonderful that it made it seem that moving on was going to be easy, that I could go on with my life. He said he wanted to be alone with me, so we went out back to the guest house, away from the party. When we got back there, his friends were waiting and they. . . they. . ."

Megan's voice trailed off into a faint whisper as the tears began to stream down her face. Tuesday puts her arms around her mother, trying to comfort her, guessing in her mind what had happened next, but she wanted to hear her mother say it. "What Mom, what happened?"

"They raped me." Megan whispered quietly, so only her and Tuesday could hear the words.

Tuesday's eyes went wide in disbelief as she was having difficulty wrapping her mind around this concept. Tuesday had experienced rape through some of the nightmares she had over the years, and knew what it did to the victim. She knew the pain well, the helplessness of one's power being stripped from them and abused and then discarded. She had only dreamed of rape a few times, but those nightmares had left a much deeper scar on her than many of the deaths she had witnessed, and she wholly did not wish that pain on any living being. Except now, to learn that her mother had been a victim of that very abuse, that suffering, it was more than Tuesday could bear. She just couldn't have imagined that this would have ever happened to her mother.

"Oh my gosh, Mom!" Tuesday said, squeezing her arms tighter around her mother, trying her best to console her. "I'm so sorry. . ."

"They raped me!" Her voice returned from the whisper, peppered with rage, gaining in intensity like a hurricane that had blown into warmer waters. "All four of them, they raped me. They raped me and they beat me. They broke both of my legs and I could barely move, and they continued to rape me, repeatedly, over the next couple of days! They violated me in every way that they could think of!"

The hurricane in Megan's mind intensified as her the words continued to spill from her mouth, the volume of her voice rising and with venom in her words. Though Tuesday had witnessed rape in her nightmares, it was nothing like what her mother was describing. She had no words, but simply kept holding her mother tightly.

"When they were done with me, when they decided that I couldn't do anything else for them, they took me out of town and threw my naked body down into a ravine where nobody would ever find me, so that I would die and nobody would ever know of their crimes. The fall into the ravine broke my left arm, and impaled my right leg on a large stick. I heard the four of them laughing as they departed, one of them throwing an empty beer can at me as a final insult."

Megan was so upset at the memory of those days that she was visibly shaking in fear. Fear that at any moment, those men might bust through that door and do it all over again. Fear that they would well and truly finish what they had begun. Fear that she would have to experience the suffering all over again. In her mind, she was reliving that experience, and it was something that she was clearly not going to come to terms with, probably at any point in her life. Tuesday felt remorse for having pushed her mother to tell this story, and hoped that this wouldn't cause a relapse.

"I laid in that ravine for three days, waiting to die." Megan cried, trying her best to spit the words from her mouth. "I remember trying to scream out for someone to hear me, but I couldn't be heard over the roar of the traffic from that far below."

"What did you do?" Tuesday asked, timidly, hoping not to stir up her mother any more than she already had by setting her on the course to telling this tale.

"It was very hot that week, triple digit heat." Megan explained crying, tears streaming down her face. "I laid there, baking in the sun for three days. Fortunately, I had fallen next to a creek where I could get water, otherwise I would have been dead. That discarded beer can turned out to be a good thing, as it allowed me to get water from the creek with my one good arm."

Megan paused for a moment, looking to the heavens for an answer, perhaps trying to consult a higher power. She took a deep breath and continued. "I waited and waited for somebody to hear me, to rescue me. And when it didn't happen, I simply gave up and had resigned myself to the fact that I would die in that gully. I prayed to God to save me. I prayed more earnestly and honestly than I had ever prayed before. I promised Him that if I could be saved, that I would live my life for Him, all I needed was a miracle from Him. And I waited and waited for that miracle. And when I had given up waiting for a miracle, the first of many had happened."

"What was it, Mom? Tuesday asked inquisitively, holding her breath for the answer. "What happened?"

"A man had to pull over on the road at the top of the ravine because he had a flat tire. I was very weak at the time, and I had just given up and decided that I would die there, when I heard him up there, having a fit about a flat tire, but I called out to him, and I guess he heard me. The last thing I wanted at the time was to be touched by a man, but he hauled up that sheer rock wall. He was very patient with me, even though I was screaming in pain and taking cheap shots at him. I passed out before he got me to the top of that rocky face and onto the side of the road."

Tuesday couldn't have imagined that her mother had gone through this kind of agony and had lived with this for as long as she had. She had no idea that her mother had been through such an ordeal, and had felt bad for her. She had witnessed and experienced much in her premonitions, but nothing like her mother had described. To be as horrendously abused as her mother had been, she couldn't have imagined it in her worst nightmares.

Megan seemed to calm down, as the shock in her story winded down. "I awoke several weeks later in a hospital in Seattle. I couldn't speak right away after I had woken up, and the doctors were convinced that the level of trauma that I had suffered might not make speaking ever possible for me again."

At this point, Tuesday had forgotten that she was looking for answers to her own history, fully engrossed in the story her mother was telling her. She continued to hold her mother as the tale began to wrap itself up. "It was a couple of weeks after I had awakened, that my speech began to return to me, and soon I received a visit by the police, who wanted to know how I had ended up in the state that I was in. They asked me all kinds of questions about the suspects, what I knew about them, if I had seen them before. I told them that I was under the influence of various substances, and couldn't properly identify them. To this day, I wouldn't know any of them if they walked up to me and asked me out on a date. There was nothing the police could really do about it."

Tuesday felt some anger welling up inside of her. "So, they got away with it then?"

"Yeah baby, they got away with it." Megan admitted.

Tuesday knew first hand that life did not possess a sense of fairness or justice, and that sometimes people were allowed to get away with far more than they would be allowed to, but this was in excess of what life should have allowed. There was no justice here, there was not even a shot at vengeance, and that made Tuesday somehow angrier than she had ever been in her entire life. _"If I could use this power to avenge my mother, I would do it in a heartbeat."_ Tuesday thought to herself, hatred swelling within her heart. _"These men need to pay for their crimes."_

Megan released herself from her daughter's grasp and turned to face Tuesday. "While I was in the hospital recovering, I found out that I was pregnant." She admitted, a look of sadness on her face. "For weeks, I had been on a morphine drip for the pain, but as soon as they had found out I was carrying a child, all of that had stopped. By that time, I had become heavily dependent on the drug, and the pain was too unmanageable to live without it. I have an entire medical transcript on the experimental drug therapy, the injuries I sustained, and treatment in my cedar chest. I never look at it, but kept it if I needed evidence for a legal recourse. I gave the hospital a fake name and have used it ever since, hoping that the animals who did that to me would never find me. Marie was the only person who knew where I was, and so she began to bring heroin injections to ease the pain, but in small doses. I confided in a nurse at the hospital, and she did a little digging for me and was able to get the information about the experimental drug from the pharmaceutical company, but I've never even looked at it because it brings back too many unpleasant memories."

"You were using drugs while you were pregnant with me?!" Tuesday questioned, somewhat irritated at the response she knew she was inevitably going to get.

"Baby, you have to understand the amount of pain I was in." Megan said, trying to reassure her daughter the best way she knew how to. "I couldn't cope with my injuries. I certainly couldn't cope with my paranoia. I was very suspicious of everyone around me, particularly men, and looked at them as being by attackers. I wouldn't be hurt by them again, and if they knew I was alive, I was certain that they would come and finish me off. Marie had an aunt here in Cadence Falls, so when I was released from the hospital, we came to live with her, far away from the northern part of the State where everything had happened. I moved away to protect us."

"This is how I was conceived?" Tuesday queried, putting it out there plain and simple.

"Yeah, baby. That's how you were brought into the world." Megan replied, releasing a sigh of relief and getting herself back into some sense of order after having told that part of her tale. "It's not like I never wanted to have you, I just wasn't ready for you at the time. And I don't look at you and think of my rapists, I look at you and think that throughout that, you were my miracle."

Tuesday smiles a little bit at the remark. Most of her life she never felt like a blessing or a miracle to her mother. She always seemed like an inconvenience, like a part of her mother's life that, until recently, she tried hard to avoid. It was no wonder that she had better skills than other kids of her age, she practically had raised herself with her mother having been too busy for her.

"After you were born," Megan continued, finding the words coming easier. "I got fixed so I couldn't have any more kids. I know that you've always wanted a sibling, and I'm sorry for that. My reasons were purely selfish."

"I didn't know that you couldn't have any more kids." Tuesday confessed, somewhat surprised at that revelation.

"I was able to take what little money I had saved and made a down payment on this house." Megan said, motioning to their home around them. "What I didn't realize is that they payments and bills would be much more than I could afford from a part time salary at Tuck's Diner. At that point I had to do what I had to do to make ends meet."

"Even if it meant doing illegal things?" Tuesday grilled her, a serious look on her face.

"I had already been through the worst sexual ordeal imaginable, so I figured nothing worse could possibly happen to me, and I flipped a switch in my mind to make everything consensual, so long as I wasn't sober. I got high, so I could entertain my clients, so I could make money to pay the bills, only the higher I got, the more I needed, so I needed to entertain more clients to make more money. The entire thing became an excessive vicious cycle. But there was one other thing about my pregnancy you need to know, and I don't think you're going to like what I'm going to tell you about it."

Tuesday stepped back, surprised to hear that her mother was still interested in discussing this further. Megan was not one to own up to the events of her life, but on that day, she was laying it all out onto the table for her daughter's consumption, to take what she wanted and leave the rest. "There's more?" Tuesday asked, astonished. "What do you mean?"

"I went to the doctor while I was pregnant with you." Megan explained, once again looking for the right words to articulate what had occurred. "I was having some complications with you, so I got an ultrasound done. You were trashing around in the womb as a fetus, sometimes very violently. It was suggested by one of the doctors that you were having nightmares before you were even born. Another doctor suggested that was virtually impossible because an unborn fetus would have to context or understanding of the world to have a dream that made any sense to them.

Megan felt a huge sense of remorse in relaying this part of the story, as Tuesday's eyes widen, beginning to gain an understanding of what might be wrong with her. Seeing the look on her daughter's face, Megan's guilt intensified itself, as she began to get tears in her eyes again. She went on with her explanation, choosing her words carefully. "After you were born, you were still dreaming. The doctors ran some tests and discovered that you were using almost twice as much of your brain than an adult human being would use. They were questioning me about how you came into the world and sent me to a shrink. They had also determined that you had a birth defect that caused you to think faster and learn things more quickly than other children. Your motor skills developed more rapidly than the other kids. You were literally running circles around them while they were still crawling."

"How come I don't feel any smarter than the rest of them?" Tuesday inquired. "Why do I feel like they're more in control than I am?"

"I don't know." Megan sustained, trying her best to explain the past to her inquisitive daughter. "After a lot of therapy, I finally felt comfortable enough to tell them about my drug and rape experiences." Megan's words began to come more sluggishly, with more resistance. "These are the reasons I've never stopped doing drugs. I just don't want to face the reality of the things I've done. I have so much guilt over the things that have happened that I can't stop blaming myself, even after all these years. None of the sex, none of the drugs could cover up the pain of what I was really feeling, even all these years later."

Tuesday wasn't about to sit back and let her mother be so hard on herself. She certainly couldn't control the things that happened to her all those years ago, and she shouldn't be blaming herself for it now. Tuesday was miserable to see that this was what was the cause of her mother's downfall, and was impressed that she could finally find the strength to rise above it now. "But Mom, none of this is your fault." Tuesday justified it to her mother. "You were the victim, you didn't ask to be raped, beaten and left for dead."

In an instant, Megan's countenance transformed, and her voice raised, fueled by years of pain and internalized rage. "That's not what I blame myself for!" She roared at her daughter. "I blame myself for having taken my life so nonchalantly that nothing really mattered to me! I blame myself for not thinking of the consequences of my actions! I blame myself for having a lifestyle obsession! I blame myself most of all because the doctors say you're some kind of fluke, that you are the way you are because I had the perfect mixture of various chemicals in my system at the time you were conceived! But most of all, I blame myself for not having lived a normal lifestyle and causing my daughter to have a birth defect that makes her life anything but normal! It's all in the file, you can read it whenever you want to! It's my fault, and mine alone!"

For the first time, everything is crystal clear to Tuesday. She had dug deep into the heart of her mother's self-destructive behavior and had been forced to face a darkness as equally terrifying as her own nightmares. Knowing the truth of her origins, it was up to her whether she would take these harsh realities with her to her next appointment with Doctor Frederiksen or not. But for that moment, she needed time alone, time to process all this new information. Time to think and reflect upon her existence and what her world is all about. She looked at her mother, calm again, who was clearly remorseful of the actions of her past, tears falling gently from her cheeks.

"I love you baby girl." Megan pleaded for forgiveness. "I'm so sorry!"

Tuesday didn't say a word as she looked at her mother, her lip quivering ever so slightly. When she can no longer contain her composure, she took off up the stairs like a shot, running to her room and slamming her door behind her, leaving Megan on the slumped upon the couch crying, curled up into as tiny of a ball as she could get.

## III

### A CONSCIOUS RIPPLE

Tuesday sat in her room, trying to recall everything that her mother had told her about her past. It was a lot of information, most of it was unpleasant to say the least. She couldn't believe what her mother had been through, and was in awe of the revelations that were laid before her. She didn't blame her mother for anything, in fact, she needed to let her know that at the earliest possible convenience, but for now she really needed the time to process everything.

It's not every day that you find out you are a product of a vicious rape, it's not every day that you discover the reason you are the way you are is because of a perfect storm. And so, Tuesday spent the remainder of the evening in her room, wondering if this is the way life was supposed to be. She couldn't even completely imagine the emotional roller coaster she had been on as of late, such happiness with Jason, such joy that her mother was cleaning up her life, and such satisfaction that she was working with a therapist who truly understood her problems and had solutions for dealing with them. All of this was juxtaposed against her anxiety at being back in school and earning the best grades she could, her anguish over the death of Jessica Jackson, and how her confusion about her origins.

One thing she took away from her discussion with her mother was that she would never know who her father was, and while she was saddened by this, she could put the notion of having a relationship with her father to bed now that she knew there was no definitive answer to his identity, nor would there ever be. In her mind, she reconciled her father to be her mother's lost love instead of one of her mother's attackers. This gave her much more peace than the thought that her father was somebody who nearly destroyed her mother. And that's the story she wanted to tell herself was the truth, after all, from the information that her mother gave her, there was a twenty percent chance, and those odds were as good as any of the others.

It wasn't long before she found herself getting ready for bed, changing into her nightgown and grabbing Winston to settle in for the night. Covering herself up, and laying her head down on her pillow, she suddenly felt as if something was not right. A cold feeling crawled down her spine, as she sat back up. She could not shake the sensation that something was coming, and it would be coming soon. Tuesday had never felt this before, not outside one of her dreams anyway. The sense was so strong that it drained her energy, and soon found herself drifting off, despite the uneasiness she was feeling.

It wasn't long before she was dreaming. She needed to examine what it was she was sensing, and why it came as such a threat. Suddenly, everything flooded back to her, the entire incident at the Jackson House, The Nightmare, and its insidious control over her, and how she had been forced to summon a gunman to kill Jessica. She realized that whatever she was going to do, she needed to proceed carefully so that she would not attract the attention of The Nightmare.

Tuesday found herself taking flight, through the darkened streets of The Devil's City, looking for the thing that made the hair on the back of her neck raise. During her flight, she felt compelled to visit a warehouse out on the docks of the river, where the longshoremen would load and unload goods for shipping or receiving. As Tuesday skimmed above the waters of the Columbia River, she began to investigate the activity on the wharf.

While flying over the river, Tuesday suddenly snapped into Osprey Vision, and saw exactly what she was looking for on the docks. There were several men guns, about twenty by Tuesday's reckoning, and they were loading into three sinister looking GMC Suburban vehicles leaving for destination unknown. She needed to find out where they were going, and since her Osprey Vision had alerted her to their location, she flew over to the wharf with great speed.

There was some unintelligible conversation happening amongst the men, all who appeared to be armed with what appeared to be automatic rifles, as near as Tuesday could ascertain. She kept listening and then honed in on a voice in what was to be the lead vehicle, who appeared to be in charge.

"Are you guys ready?" The gruff voice of Dimitris Corelle sounded off, trying to get his men organized. "Nobody screws The Blackbirds outta that much money! Moxley's gotta pay for this. With her life. And get the kid too."

Tuesday understood immediately what was happening, it was as Douglas Downe had predicted. _"The people who Mom used to work for are coming for her!"_ Tuesday thought to herself in desperation. She took off like a shot into the sky and back to her house, seeing the last of the goons get into the last Suburban out of the corner of her eye, and watching them take to the streets. She would beat them there by a several minutes, and when they got there, they would have surprises waiting for them.

## CHAPTER NINETEEN

I

### A DEFENSIVE SHOW OF POWER

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1995

" _So much for not attracting The Nightmare."_ Tuesday thought to herself. She didn't know how she was going to get around that. She would have to kill at least two of the attackers to pay for the blood of her and her mother, and she didn't look forward to that. If she tried to save all the lives, then The Nightmare would come and demand two of his choosing, and she couldn't bear the thought of losing anybody else she knew. What if The Nightmare made her kill Doctor Frederiksen, or Jason? She couldn't stand the thought of it, so she knew she was going to have to take two of the lives of the mobsters who were coming to kill them.

Faster and faster Tuesday flew, through the dark, reaching speeds she didn't think she could reach until she reached her front yard. _"This isn't going to be pretty."_ Tuesday thought to herself, trying to think of a strategy that she could use to take out The Blackbirds without drawing attention and waking all the neighbors. But then perhaps, maybe what she needed was to make a spectacle of the entire thing, to send a crystal-clear message that her mother was no longer to be messed with. The entire town needed to know that Megan Moxley was no longer a target for their suspicion, their ridicule, or their harassment.

When she reached her house, Tuesday perched herself up on the roof, where she had the high ground. A good vantage point would give her a tactical advantage, to monitor every aspect of the situation, even though The Blackbirds would not be able to see her. Of course, Osprey Vision would give her an edge with seeing the dug in targets, and the best way to nullify them. And while she hadn't quite planned how to proceed in the defense of her home, she knew that her objective would be to keep all targets out of the house itself, and keep them off balance. Tuesday felt real fear that her mother might be killed or injured in this attack, so priority one for her, was to protect herself at all costs, because if they managed to wake her, she wouldn't have the power to protect anybody. Priority two was to keep the invaders away from her mother at all costs. Tuesday had to do whatever she could imagine to keep her mother safe. The time for planning ended as the first of the Suburban's appeared down the road, blocking off the far end of the street.

The second Suburban appeared at the other end of the block, turning in and pulling up to the house, while the third closed off the street where the previous one had come in. Should the plan go awry, there would be no escape.

Tuesday smiled a little, trying to boost her confidence. She was looking forward to the challenge of stopping some really bad guys, and saving her mother's life. _"Time to put on my game face."_ Tuesday thought to herself, as she began to think of a variety of defensive measures to protect the house.

Three groups of two men departed from the Suburban in flanking formation, making their way up the drive way to the house. Tuesday spotted them immediately and decided to have some fun with them, by imagining a sprinkler system on the lawn which she used to soak them. Unaware of the presence of the sprinkler heads, the gunmen found themselves unexpectedly being drenched in water. They were not pleased, but they were undeterred in their approach to the house. The first Suburban came up from the far end of the street and began to unload, waiting for orders.

Tuesday decided that she was done playing around as the thought of defending her mother occurred to her. As the first teams made their way to the top of the driveway, the ground began to rumble without warning, so much so that the assailants lost their footing and fell to the ground. Apparently, the entire neighborhood felt the tremor as lights began coming on, and dogs began barking in the distance. As the rumbling continued, several large stones began to rise from the ground creating a solid perimeter around the house, a wall that was nearly impenetrable. As the rocks grew into place and the wall was completely formed around the house, the rumbling and shaking ceased, leaving the aggressors picking themselves off the ground, staring in astonishment.

Osprey Vision snapped into focus, inside the house where Megan was stirring from the shaking that had just occurred outside. Tuesday could not allow her mother to wake her, no matter what. It was imperative that she stayed asleep until these antagonists were neutralized for good. As Megan got up from the bed, her first thought was to go and see if her daughter was alright, so she tried to leave the room.

Tuesday was on it. She thought about the door fused to the door frame, so that it would not open, and by the time Megan arrived at her bedroom door, it was stuck tightly and would not budge. Her Osprey Vision soon snapped back outside for the moment, alerting her to the danger of the third Suburban arriving in front of the house. There were now eighteen men on her front lawn, all with orders to execute her and her mother, trying to discover a way to get around the rocks that were blocking them from getting into the house. One of the men brought out a rocket propelled grenade, and placed it on his shoulder to fire at the rocks.

"That's gonna wake me up!" Tuesday thought to herself as she watched the goon take aim at the rocks. Tuesday instantly thought about soundproofing her room, to keep the explosion and any other audio interference from waking her. Her bedroom was instantly sealed in a protective cocoon of soundproofing, that would keep her snoozing away until she was ready to wake up. The assassin fired the rocket, which did not escape Tuesday's attention, transforming it in flight to a water balloon, which splattered harmlessly on the rocks. Tuesday giggled to herself, marveling at the use of her power.

The neighbors were beginning to come outside and see what the commotion was about. Tuesday knew that the neighbors were innocent bystanders in this, so she moved to protect them from The Blackbirds, by turning taking the far side of the street and bending it up sideways at a ninety-degree angle, turning the Suburbans on their sides. The turned road formed a protective barrier between the neighbor's houses across the street and the mercenaries who were doing their best to get into the Moxley house. The sound of the road bending on its side was deafening to The Blackbirds, but barely audible to the neighbors. Tuesday had designed it that way to keep from alerting any more suspicion to the neighbors, and to cause damage to the invaders.

Megan was still working furiously at her door, doing her best to get it open and check on Tuesday, but it would not shunt in the slightest. She was feeling desperate to get to her daughter and see if she was alright. Like a flash, she flew across the room to her window and threw the curtain open, only to discover there was a large stone directly in front of it, blocking her from going out that way. The stone appeared to go all the way down to the ground, and was as large as the entire house, as well as she could ascertain. Screaming in frustration, Megan began pounding at the wall and began screaming for her daughter. "Tuesday!! Honey, are you alright!!"

"Never better, Mom!" Tuesday replied calmly, Megan hearing her daughter's voice in her head. "Calm down, I've got this."

Had Megan just imagined her daughter speaking to her? And why were there rocks around the house? And why wouldn't her door open? Megan let out a roar of frustration, which apparently, The Blackbirds Boss could hear from out by road. Either that, or he had chosen that exact moment to address her.

"Moxley?" The Blackbirds Boss yelled toward the rocks where the house should be. "We've got your kid, give us what you owe us, and she can go home."

Megan froze upon hearing the words come out of his mouth. _"How did they get Tuesday?"_ She wondered, puzzled by the statement.

"Come out, and we will give her to you!" The crime boss reasserted.

"They're lying, Mom." Tuesday spoke again inside her mother's head. "I'm fine, don't worry about me, and don't go out there."

Infuriated by the deception of The Blackbirds, Tuesday squeezed her eyes shut, thinking of the most imaginative way to bring closure to the situation, and quickly.

Suddenly, the sound was sucked out of everything, leaving a deafening silence. The Blackbirds looked around, confused, not knowing what to expect next. The next sound they heard was the rustling of the grass and the leaves, followed by the cracking of the asphalt wall behind them. They could hear the rushing of water, and the grumble of the air blowing, tempestuously in every direction. The Blackbirds were ordered to stand their ground, but some of them weren't having it, too freaked out by that point to carry out the orders they were given.

And just then, it felt as if the whole environment came alive.

## II

### BLACKBIRDS IN A TREE

Though they could not see her, Tuesday stood atop her vantage point, a calm spot in the center of a mighty cacophony, controlling everything happening below. The pavement from the road, which was still sanding on its side, began to move in toward the front lawn, sending dead, dried leaves as projectiles in the direction of The Blackbirds, cutting across their arms and drawing their blood, which dripped to the ground. As the asphalt wall moved in, it flanked the sides of the yard, enclosing the criminals between the wall and the rocks surrounding the house until they were circled up with the two trees from the yard enclosed with them.

The trees in the yard began to rumble, their limbs whipping and knocking one of the assailants off his feet and onto the ground. The other Blackbirds turned and looked in astonishment, stark looks of horror upon their faces. They began to run in every direction but were trapped inside the wall as the limbs of the trees twisted and moved, creaking and groaning as they pummeled their targets. Mighty roots arose from the ground and twisted themselves around the legs of the trespassers, breaking and snapping their limbs as easily as one would break spaghetti noodles to place in a boiling pot. They needed a clear message, never to come here again, never to mess with Megan Moxley or her freaky kid, and Tuesday was going to deliver that message as strongly as she could.

One of the more defiant Blackbirds began firing his weapon at the tree, which clearly did not please it. A limb from the shot forward toward the accoster and struck the weapon, breaking it into four of five different pieces. The branch moved toward the man, grabbing him around the neck, and ripped his head from his shoulders, and dumping it on the ground. Some of the other Blackbirds took notice of this, and began to flee toward the edges of the wall with as much speed as they could muster, but there was no escape as the grass rippled in the opposite direction they were trying to escape, sending them back toward the trees. The Blackbird Boss stood insolently against the onslaught of the trees, firing his weapon at them and shouting obscenities. A root snaked its way underground toward the unsuspecting crime boss, shooting up from the ground and wrapping itself around his legs, dropping him down instantly as it pulled him toward the tree. One of the branches from the tree arrowed down toward him, wrapping itself around his torso, cleaving his body from his legs. The branch then discarded the upper half of the boss' body into a group of Blackbirds taking refuge near the rocks at the house, filling them with dread. It was all over in less than a minute and had occurred so quickly that most of The Blackbirds were caught off guard. Apart from the dead, the remainder of them had been wrapped up by the limbs and branches, and picked up from the ground to await the arrival of the authorities.

## III

THE ARRIVAL OF CADENCE FALLS' FINEST

It wasn't long before sirens were heard in the distance. The Cadence Falls Police Department was coming to investigate what was going on. Tuesday could hear them coming, as so she concentrated hard and put everything back in order. The rocks around the house subsided into the ground, the road went back to the way it was, and Megan's door unstuck itself. The only things she left out of place were the three Suburbans sitting on their sides in the front yard, and The Blackbirds, who were tied up in the trees.

As soon as Megan's door came free, it popped open, and she ran to check on Tuesday, who was still asleep in her room. She woke her daughter up, and the two of them went outside to see an incredible sight. The trees on their front lawn were filled with men. Men who were apparently unable to free themselves from those trees.

A moment later, the Cadence Falls Police arrived, their blue and red lights cutting an uncomfortable swath in the darkness. One of the first to leave his car was Douglas Downe, who was more interested in Megan's well-being than the random sight of humans who were tied up in a tree. He rushed up to her, checking her condition, hoping that she was unharmed.

"Megan, are you alright?" Douglas Downe asked her, clearly afraid for her. "Is everything okay?"

Megan could see the concern on his face, she could tell that he was absolutely terrified of what had happened, and was thankful for her safety. This was a side of him she had never witnessed before, and she kind of liked it. "Yeah." She replied, trying to lower her defenses just a little bit. "I'm good. We're good."

"Girl, you can't scare me like that!" Douglas said, walking up to and wrapping his arms around her.

Megan was genuinely and appreciatively thankful for him, and wanted to show it. "I'm sorry Doug." She said, changing her voice to a much softer tone. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Megan stood up to her tippy toes, and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you!"

As the other officers arrived on the scene and tried to figure out how to get The Blackbirds out of the tree, Doug pulled Megan aside to take a statement from her. She didn't really know anything about what had happened other than there were giant stones around the house, that the boss had tried to bluff her, and that she was locked in her room. The whole thing seemed quite unbelievable to Douglas Downe, who kept going back over it with her to see if he missed anything. He asked Tuesday if she wanted to make a statement, and all she had offered him was that she had been asleep the entire time.

The neighbors were much more forthcoming with their statements, talking about the road turning on its side, and large rocks and trees attacking henchmen. The statements from the witnesses had all sounded like something from a fantasy novel, and the police knew they couldn't use those reports.

Then there was the matter of the two dead Blackbirds. Despite the word of several witnesses who had seen the entire ordeal from their upper bedroom windows it was problematic for the police chief to accept the truth that The Blackbirds were cloven apart by a tree. The whole thing was too farfetched to comprehend.

It wasn't long before the fire department arrived and pulled up onto the lawn and began removing The Blackbirds from the trees, one at a time. Strangely, when The Blackbirds had tried to fight their way out of the limbs, they wouldn't budge, but when the firefighters touched the branches, they released their grip on the criminals as if they were surrendering their prey to another authority, who were then cuffed and put into the police cars.

After the last of the statements had been taken, and the last of The Blackbirds had been released from the tree and taken into custody, Megan walked up to the spot where Douglas Downe was looking over the crime scene one last time, trying to make sense of everything that had transpired.

"I was thinking." Megan began with some nervousness in her voice that she had never known in the past. "I've been thinking that I've been so unfair to you." It was true. All Douglas Downe had ever been to her was nice and supportive, and she had thanked him by breaking the law, using him and discarding him when she was done having her fun with him. She suddenly had an awakening, realizing how wrong she had been, and knew that she needed to make amends with the only man who had faith that she could find the strength change all along.

"Don't worry yourself about it." Doug replied, turning to look at her. "It's in the past, so forget about it."

"No." Megan said, shaking her head. "You've been so good to me, and I've been a spoiled rotten child."

"If you say so." Doug said, teasing her and trying to lighten the mood. The two of them laughed for a quick moment.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Megan told him, looking directly into his big, brown eyes. "And if you want to, I'd like to give us an honest chance." Megan couldn't believe that she found herself asking for this moment, she certainly didn't deserve another round with him, and she knew it.

"I'd like that." Doug replied, a slow smile stretching across his face. "How about lunch in a day or two?" Megan felt a swell of happiness inside her that she wasn't aware existed upon hearing the words of the police officer. She knew that if she was going to truly clean up her life, she would need a good support system. It seemed to her that Douglas Downe and her daughter Tuesday would make an excellent foundation for the support system she was looking for. It was time to use Doug in a positive way than all the negative ways she had in the past.

"Yes!" Megan responded enthusiastically. "Just so long as we don't go to Tuck's Diner." The last thing Megan wanted was to have a date at her place of employment and have to suffer all the teasing that came with that.

"Deal." Doug said, with a slight smile forming. "I've got to get back to work, I'll call you later, okay?"

Tuesday sat off to the side, just admiring an exceptional beautiful moment, and wished that all moments could be this moment. Megan had turned away from Douglas Downe and began walking over to Tuesday, trying to process everything that had happened over the course of the last several hours.

"Tuesday, are you alright, sweetheart?" Megan asked, leaning down next to where Tuesday had been sitting on the front porch. She extended her arms to hold her daughter close to her, thankful that they had come through this ordeal without so much as a scratch.

"Yeah Mom, I'm fine." Tuesday confessed, trying to be dismissive of the set of supernatural events they had just gone through. "I slept through everything."

But that wasn't what Megan was talking about, and it dawned on Tuesday that her mother had been looking for other answers. "Look, about last night. . ." Megan began, earnestly. She never got the chance to finish as Tuesday cut her off in mid-sentence.

"It's okay, Mom." Tuesday replied, trying to explain her feelings as best as she could. "I'm not angry with you at all, I'm just a little disappointed, that's all."

Megan immediately became worried that she had failed her daughter on some monumental level that she couldn't have foreseen or understood. "You're disappointed in me?" She asked, her lip quivering a little bit in anticipation of the sting of the answer she was expecting to receive.

"No Mom, I'm not disappointed in you at all." Tuesday admitted, realizing that her words were primed to do some damage if not correctly chosen. "In fact, I couldn't be more proud of you these last few weeks." It was true, the change in her mother had been like night and day, and Tuesday was beginning to have the kind of relationship with her mother she had always dreamed of. Instead of disconnected and intoxicated, her mother was interested in her, and focused, and above all, attentive to her needs. But perhaps the most important thing of all was that she could feel the love from her mother for the first time since she could remember.

"I was so excited to find out who my father was, you know?" Tuesday continued, offering up a clarification for her disenchantment of the situation. "I've always dreamed of meeting him, since I was a little girl. It was a shock to find out that you don't even know who he was. It's not like you want to take any of those guys on Maury Povich or anything like that, I don't blame you."

Megan was quick to reply, looking for something that she had never asked for before. "I was hoping that you could find forgiveness in your heart, for the problems that I've caused you." She seemed truthfully remorseful over everything that her daughter had been through, from her neglect of her, to the dangers she had put her through, including her nightmares. Throughout her life, Megan hadn't known forgiveness. She certainly didn't offer forgiveness, and had never been forgiven for anything significant. She had contemplated the scope and reach of the damage she had done to others, and the thought was a sobering reminder that no life needed a newer trajectory more than hers did.

"Oh Mom, there's nothing to forgive." Tuesday said, her eyes welling up with tears as she found herself unconsciously reaching her arms around her mother. "It's all in the past, and it's something we can't change.'

The two of them sat together on the porch sharing their morning together, until it was time for Tuesday to get ready for school. Tuesday couldn't remember a time of her life that was better than that morning had been, and it was a memory that she would cherish for the rest of her life.

## ACT III

### CONQUERING THE FEAR

## CHAPTER TWENTY

I

### A WELL-DESERVED BEATING

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1995

Word had spread all over school that morning regarding the rumors of supernatural occurrences that had happened at Tuesday's house over the course of the night. The other kids had come to their own conclusions as to what had happened, and assumed that Tuesday must have had something to do with it all. Many of the other students were avoiding her like she had contracted the Ebola virus, walking wide circles around her in the hall, as if they were afraid of what might happen to them if they had contact with her. She noticed it the moment she had gotten on the bus, that the other kids were back to secluding themselves from her and talking to each other in hushed whispers.

Fortunately for Tuesday, Jason wasn't jumping to any conclusions and was happy to see her on the bus. He came right over and sat by her, almost as if he were oblivious to anything that had transpired. "Hi ya, Tuesday!" Jason bounced up to her, in his usually chipper and happy mood. "Mind if I sit with you?"

Tuesday was glad to have the company, even just a couple of minutes of the icy attitudes from the other kids was enough to make her long for another real human being to notice her. "I can't think of better company, mister!" She replied to him, feeling relieved to have him close to her.

Tuesday found that Jason could make nearly every moment better in her life. She had come to rely on his practical approach to being a compassionate human being, one who seemed interested in her problems and always showed up as a soothing balm when the rash of life was stinging her the most. It was as if he had some sort of warning system that alerted him when she was having a bad moment and he came to the rescue as if he were some sort of superhero. She wished that she had his kind of super powers more than the ones she had been given.

This very morning was just another fine example of how much of a curse her gift could be, and she had desperately hoped that this wouldn't be one of those days in school that plagued her with incessant harassment from the other students. Even if it was, it made her infinitely happy in a small part of her soul to know that she would not be alone in that misery, that Jason would stand by her side and protect her from whatever came her way, as best as he could. Just having him on the bus was a reminder of how wonderful he had been to her, and that as first boyfriends went, she couldn't have done better than Jason Alkali. She could feel a deepening of her feelings for him, and to some degree, it had frightened her. She couldn't bear the thought of being that close to him and something happening to him. Now that she was awake again, her fragmented memory was all that she had left of the events at the Jackson house. Tuesday didn't want anything to happen to Jason, and especially didn't want her memories of him to be fractured in any way, shape or form. She had prized every single moment that the two of them had spent together, and was hoping that she could make even better ones as time went on.

But Jason was so hard not to get close to with his boyish charm, and with his kind and convincing smile. She was beginning to find him irresistible in a way that her limited experience with boys would not allow her to explain. Was this the beginning of love? She didn't know for sure, as she had never been in love. It was driving her crazy though, because she wanted to talk to him about it, but didn't know if he felt the same. The "what-ifs" were the unquantifiable part of the multiple equations that ran through her mind when she thought about Jason. She knew with her experience with people that there was always more to people than what they seemed to be on the surface, but Jason seemed so different, like his motivations were pure and was exactly what he seemed to be. But how could she be sure of that? She held back, with a small voice inside her telling her that she would know the right time to tell him how she was feeling, and when that time came, it would be an instant she would never fail to recall.

During the bus ride to school, Tuesday held Jason's hand and told him in hushed and quieted tones about how she had vanquished a drug dealing mafia by herself. Jason wasn't sure he believed it all, but admitted that he had felt the ground shake over the course of the night, which seemed to coincide with Tuesday's tale.

When the pair of them had reached school, Tuesday and Jason had gone their separate ways for their classes. While the other pupils were clearly avoiding Tuesday, none of them had gone out of their way to start trouble with her.

Not until after third period was over anyway.

The bell had rung and the third period class let out, filling the corridors with kids and young adults. Tuesday grabbed her backpack, with Winston firmly attached in his travelling pocket and made her way out to the hall, where she spotted Serina Jackson making her way through the crowd of kids. Upon spying Serina, Tuesday knew that she had to get a moment with her, hoping to piece together the puzzle of what had happened at their home. Tuesday moved through the crowd to where Serina was trying to get into her fourth period class and stopped her.

"Serina!! Serina!!" Tuesday called out, hoping to capture her attention. After calling out a few more times, Serina looked around and heard Tuesday trying to get her attention and stopped to see what she wanted.

"Yeah?" Serina asked, rolling her eyes when she realized it was Tuesday trying to get her attention. "What do you want?"

Tuesday knew that the conversation she was about to have would require very delicate tact and compassion, otherwise it could end in disaster. But Tuesday's inquisitiveness far outweighed any sense of fear she had of Serina, or what she might do to her. "Can we talk for a minute?" Tuesday asked, almost not believing that the words had come from her mouth.

Serina stopped cold in her tracks. "Why?" She said in a frosty, almost dismissive tone. Serina questioned Tuesday's motives in her mind, wondering exactly what it was that Freak Girl wanted to discuss with her. "I've got to go to class, I don't have time to talk to you."

"Please, Serina!" Tuesday pleaded, trying to find the words to negotiate a conversation with her rival. The two of them had been enemies for many years, so it was equally uncomfortable for the two of them to even want to speak to one another, yet Tuesday was offering the olive branch to Serina, hoping to compare notes regarding what had happened with Jessica. "I need to talk, privately."

Something about the way Tuesday mentioned the word privately had struck a sudden interest in Serina, and she reluctantly agreed to talk to her. "Okay, let's do it." Serina surrendered, as if an underlying curiosity was eating at her, wanting to know what her adversary had to say.

Tuesday and Serina had snuck into the basketball gymnasium where the sunlight, low on the autumn horizon came in through the upper windows, poorly illuminating the expansive room in the darkness. The two went down to the far end of the gym, where they would not be easily heard by anybody who might be walking by outside the doors that led back to the school corridors. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the low lighting in the room, but found themselves near the stage at the far end of the sports center which doubled its use as an auditorium. The fourth period bell sounded as the two of them faced off toward one another with a tension that was visible even in the terrible lighting.

"What do you want, Tuesday?" Serina asked, demanding answers for why she was about to receive a tardy for fourth period.

"Look, I know we haven't been friends for a long time." Tuesday began, tiptoeing through the minefield of words, greatly hoping not to step on a wrong one. "And I'm really sorry about your sister."

"You're sorry?" Serina huffed, annoyed by having to come all the way out to the gym to hear this. "I've heard this so many times over the last few days. Everybody's sorry. They don't know what it's like to lose a sister. She was my twin, it's as if half of me has died."

Tears were beginning to fall from Serina's eyes and down her face as she opened up about her experience to the last person she ever thought she would be talking to. "Can you tell me what happened?" Tuesday asked softly. "I really need to know."

"Why do you care?" Serina demanded to know. "We aren't friends, you don't like me, and I don't like you. My sister didn't like you either."

"I need to know." Tuesday said, hoping that the next words wouldn't come as too much of a shock to Serina in her already damaged state of mind. "I think I dreamt about it, but I can't remember it."

Serina instantly became angry upon hearing about this. "You dreamt about it? And you didn't tell anybody about it?" She asserted, raising her voice to an uncomfortable level.

"I can't remember all of it." Tuesday confessed, trying to calm Serina down. "Only bits and pieces."

Serina wasn't buying it. "You've had all these freaky dreams for years, you saw everything coming, and made yourself look like a fool raving about all these things, but the one time that it happens to me, and you can't remember it?" Serina emphasized her point by getting a little louder and balling up her fists, her anger beginning to take control of her.

"I want to remember it!" Tuesday said, shielding her words carefully, hoping to not further anger Serina. "If I could have remembered it, I would have warned you."

"Would you?" Serina asked, her voice spitting venom. "Would you really? After all the beatings we've given you over the years, would you have really told us? I think you did remember, and you didn't tell us because you hate us that much! You said it yourself on the bus, you wanted us dead!"

"I was angry when I said that!" Tuesday shot back, trying to reason with Serina. "I never meant for anything to happen to you, and I'm sorry that it did. And I wish with all my heart I could take back those words, but it wouldn't change anything between us."

"But you still said it!" Serina proclaimed, stinging Tuesday with that truth repeatedly. "And now my sister is dead." Serina crumpled to the floor, tears flowing from her eyes like rivers down the curves of her face. Tuesday knelt beside her and placed her hand on Serina's shoulder, trying to comfort her as best as she could.

Serina spent the next few minutes gently sobbing, to the point that she could not speak properly. Tuesday rubbed her hand on her shoulder, hoping that it would be as helpful as it could. After a few moments, Serina seemed to calm down and began to tell Tuesday what had happened at her home.

"Jess and I had just gotten home from school, and we were going to go out with our boyfriends to get something to eat." Serina began, staring blankly into the darkened gym, trying to recall the exact events of what had happened. "We got changed to go out, and decided to wait out in the back by the pool and get some air. This crazy guy with a gun came out of the bushed, I'm not sure if he expected us to be there, and so he fired a few shots in our direction. One of them hit Jess in the head. I can still see her body falling to the ground, in like slow motion, like some movie or something."

Tuesday was listening intently to Serina's story, clinging to every word she said. "What happened next?" She whispered.

"I heard the shots, and I saw her fall. I reacted and began running back to the house." Serina said, trying to remember how it all exactly happened. "He began to chase me with that gun in his hand. Somehow the wind caught one of the lawn chairs and it hit him. It knocked him down and gave me enough time to get into the house. As I locked the door, I looked back out, hoping that Jess was somehow moving, but she wasn't and there was blood everywhere! So I ran toward my father's room where he keeps his guns, hoping to defend myself. As I ran, I heard another shot and the glass shattered, and the psycho came in through the broken window on the door. And then the doorbell ring, and I thought to myself, that somebody heard what was going on, and that I was saved. Next thing I knew, the guy shot himself in the head. I ran back over to the door and opened it, but nobody was there. I haven't told anybody about the doorbell, and I don't know why I'm telling you about it now. I thought it was my guardian angel, what other explanation could there be! Nobody was there!"

Serina went back to sobbing for several moments. Tuesday couldn't believe what she had heard. Why couldn't she remember any of this, other than a few still frames of a gunman? The story made sense to her, but what she couldn't understand was why she couldn't save them both with the amount of control she had. She stopped twenty armed gunmen at her house, why couldn't she prevent one from killing Jessica Jackson? The thought haunted her the more that she thought about it. What was the missing piece of the puzzle? What was it about the event that she could not recall? Her head swam with the possibilities, but none of them made any sense to her.

Serina seemed in that moment to snap back to her senses, and her anger overtook her again, having just relived the entire murder of her twin sister. Instantly, she flew into a blind rage and began to attack Tuesday. Serina was landing blows that were hitting harder and were more focused than anything Tuesday had ever encountered from her before. She could not defend herself from Serina's onslaught of punches and kicks. Tuesday fell to the ground, curling herself into a fetal position while Serina stomped on her repeatedly. Tuesday felt a rib crack, and then another, but she made no effort to fight back. It wasn't long before Tuesday had lost consciousness completely.

## II

### LAST CHANCE SQUANDERED

The next thing that Tuesday was aware of was a cold feeling pressed firmly against her head. She slowly opened her eyes, flooding her senses with brilliant, bright light, which at first was painful to her eyes. She moved to sit up and realized that her body was in a significant amount of pain, particularly in her ribs which was making it difficult to breath without a degree of discomfort. When her eyes finally adjusted, she realized that she was in the school infirmary being treated for injury. It was at that moment that Tuesday realized that it was foolish to think that she could ever have a regular conversation with Serina Jackson, and she most likely never would.

The school nurse entered the room, and realized that Tuesday was awake. "How are you feeling?" She asked, half-heartedly caring about Tuesday's condition. It was clear she was doing her job because she had to, and for no other reason.

"How did I get here?" Tuesday inquired, still piecing together what had happened. Serina's attack had come so swiftly and without warning that Tuesday had lost consciousness before she had fully realized what had happened. She vaguely recalled Serina lashing out.

"Serina Jackson told Principal McCauley where you were." The nurse replied, shaking her head. "You never should have picked on her like that. In my opinion, you deserve this."

Tuesday had wondered what it was that Serina had said. Serina and her sister had always had it out for her, and reveled in their ability to get Tuesday into whatever trouble they could. She had a feeling that she was about to find out what sort of tempestuous lies were brewing in Serina's mind. The nurse finished examining Tuesday's injuries and noted them in her school medical transcript. When she was finished, she flipped the file closed the nurse handed Tuesday a slip of paper to take to Principal McCauley. Tuesday reached out and accepted the document, but was not eager to take it to its destination.

Tuesday left the infirmary and made her way down to the office, where she checked in and postponed her day in the waiting area. The wait, as always, felt like it lasted an eternity. She remembered the last time she had sat in the waiting area, and Jason was there. She found herself wishing that Jason were there now. He had a way of putting everything into the proper prospective for her. He was the calm center of her chaotic world. She knew that her quality of life had become much better since he had come into it, and for that, she was exceedingly thankful.

After a moderate wait, Tuesday was called back into Principal McCauley's office. She walked down the corridor to the office that she had visited far too many times in the past. A girl her age shouldn't be as familiar with the stroll back to that office as she was, it nagged at her that she knew how many steps it was from the waiting area to the Principal's door, the musty scent of that hallway and how it always made her nose a little stuffy, and the short of the fluorescent lighting that buzzed and flickered, distorting her perception of her surroundings. She shouldn't have an intimate knowledge of these things, but here she was, yet again, on her way to debate with Principal McCauley.

Tuesday reached the door, and pushed it open ever so slightly, hoping to get a feel for Principal McCauley's mood before she entered the room. He did not appear to be pleased. Tuesday knew she was at a disadvantage, not knowing what exactly it was that Serina had told him. Judging by what the school nurse had said, it wasn't good. She finally had gotten her senses back enough to remember what had completely happened, but from experience she knew that no matter what she said, McCauley wasn't going to listen to a word she said, so she wondered what the point of this entire charade would be.

"Come in, Miss Moxley." Principal McCauley said in that way that crawled down her spine in a slimy and uncomfortable manner. "I've been waiting for you."

Tuesday walked up to the desk and handed the paper to Principal McCauley. He reached out and accepted the paper, but would not look her in the eyes. "Thank you." He said as he placed the form on the desk in front of him, glancing over it once or twice.

"Look." Tuesday said making an attempt to level with the Principal. "I don't know what Serina told you, but I promise I wasn't looking for trouble with her."

"Miss Moxley." Principal McCauley cut her off getting right to the point. "I am aware of what happened. You convinced Serina Jackson to go to the gymnasium with you under the false pretenses of friendship, and then told her how you felt about her sister's death. It's no wonder she beat you to a pulp, I probably would have too."

"But, I didn't. . ." Tuesday pleaded, but the Principal wouldn't allow her to get a word in edgewise.

"I warned you. I told you if you disrupted this school one more time, that you would not be welcome here. And between the talk of the incidents at your home last night, and now what you've done to Serina, I have no choice but to permanently expel you.' Principal McCauley explained, a smile spread across his face as he was taking joy in the words coming from his mouth.

"Please." Tuesday pleaded, tears forming at the edges of your eyes. "I didn't do anything. I met with Serina to offer my condolences, not to fight with her."

"I've heard enough of your petty excuses." Principal McCauley shot back at Tuesday. "You've been nothing but trouble in this school system for years, and this ends today."

"Please, just listen to what I have to say!" Tuesday implored, begging Principal McCauley to listen to her side of the story, but he wasn't having it.

"I will not listen to another word from your treacherous little mouth!" Principal McCauley erupted into a rage. "Do you know what I had to deal with from Serina? Do you even know what you did to that poor girl? You told her that you had wished she and her sister were both dead, and now one of them is! You went and rubbed that right in her face! When one of my faculty found her, she was so emotionally distraught over what you had said to her that we had to have her mother come and pick her up! Her family is threatening to sue the school because we couldn't protect their daughter from you! Now get out of my office and out of this school, and don't ever come back, or I'll have you arrested!"

"I hate you!" Tuesday fired back, her temper rising to a level that she didn't know she could have. "You're the most unprofessional piece of human trash I've ever known! You have no compassion for anybody! You're a liar and you're biased toward the families of the rich kids and you treat the poor kids like garbage! You should be burned alive for what you said to my mother!"

Just then, Jimmy Waite came up and grabbed Tuesday from behind, picking her body up from the ground, which caused her to roar in pain. The squeezing Jimmy Waite was placing on her was agony on her broken ribs. Tuesday was surprised at the strength of McCauley's goon as she began to flail and thrash around in his grip, despite the excruciating pain she was in, still screaming at the Principal. "You'll be hearing from my therapist soon, and he will have your job you piece of crap!"

"Get her out of here!" Principal McCauley screamed, continuing to taunt Tuesday. "You have nobody to blame for this but yourself!"

Tuesday balled up her fist and thrust it downward, catching Jimmy Waite in the groin, causing him to let go of her, doubling him over in pain as she refocused her verbal attack on Principal McCauley. "I'll see you in court, you worthless pile of camel dung! I can't wait until you get what's coming to you!"

Jimmy Waite made another attempt to grab Tuesday from the floor, but she kicked his hand away and stormed out of the office, screaming about Principal McCauley being a lying fascist dictator. Tuesday made no effort to clean out her locker, she just walked off the property and walked home at a brisk pace, with only the cold November air to put a chill on her temper. Despite her injuries, the walk seemed to take her no time at all, and soon she found herself on the lawn, walking past the police tape and the evidence markers that had been left behind and into the house where she spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening alone.

## III

### WHITE FLAG

Later that evening, Megan had returned home from work and found Tuesday sitting on the couch playing her Nintendo, frustratingly shooting the pixelated characters running around on the screen. She could tell that something was bothering Tuesday, and went over and sat beside her, hoping to console her daughter and find some answers.

"Hey there." Megan opened the dialogue in a chipper tone of voice. "How was your day?"

"I don't really want to talk about it." Tuesday replied, furiously mashing buttons on her controller, trying to make an effort to beat a level boss.

"Did something happen today?" Megan's voice changed, becoming more serious when she noticed the large bruise on her daughter's face. "What happened?"

Tuesday knew that her mother wasn't going to let up on her until she talked, so she paused her game and put the controller down, turning to talk to her mother. "Today started out great, other than the whole incident with the police and everything." Tuesday began, telling her mother of the events of the day. "I got on the bus, and people were talking about it, but not to me, because they think I'm a freak. When I got to school there were whispers about what had happened, but I didn't let it bother me too much. Then I saw Serina Jackson, and I needed to talk to her, so we went to the gym to talk privately. I know I shouldn't have, but I needed answers from her, answers that only she could give me. So, we talked, and then next thing I know, she snapped and just started beating on me. I passed out and woke up in the infirmary, and was treated for two broken ribs and some bruising from where Serina had kicked me."

"She broke your ribs!!" Megan asked, mixed with anger and concern. "This has gone too far, Serina Jackson's parents are going to hear from us soon!"

"Mom, no!" Tuesday pleaded, trying to refocus Megan on her story. "So, I had to go see that liar McCauley, and he expelled me. Apparently, while I was passed out on the gym floor, Serina twisted the truth and told him that I was teasing her about her sister's death and deserved to be attacked."

"Did you say that?" Megan asked, probing for answers for the day's events. "Just tell me the truth and I'll believe you."

"No, Mom." Tuesday responded, her eyes full of truth. "I didn't tease her at all."

Megan's temper suddenly went from zero to one-thousand. "That's it!! I'm getting a lawyer and I'm suing him and that entire school!" Her threats were short-lived as they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Megan walked across the room and opened the door, and there was Serina and her mother, Alicia Jackson. Tuesday seemed to curl up into a ball on the couch at the sight of them, as Megan stood in defense of her daughter.

"Hello, can we talk?" Serina's mother asked in a polite tone of voice. Megan was surprised to see them there, but her temper had not yet subsided.

"What's there to talk about?" Megan snapped. "Hasn't your daughter already done enough?"

"I don't know what you've been told." Alicia said, still polite and calm. "I'd like to work this out, once and for all."

This seemed to snap Megan back to her senses, so she invited them to come in and sit down, which they graciously did. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Megan offered, trying to be as amicable as she possibly could.

"Water would be fine." Alicia answered.

Megan disappeared into the kitchen and soon returned with four glasses filled with ice and a pitcher of water. She handed glasses to each of them and poured the liquid into the cups. Alicia was ready to get down to business.

"I didn't come here to start a fight." Alicia announced. "I came to make amends with you. Our daughters used to be friends once."

"That was a long time ago." Megan answered, looking at her drink, swirling the water in the cup as she thought back to the days when their kids were close friends.

Tuesday and Serina sat on opposite ends of the couch, refusing to look at one another while their mother's spoke to each other. "I heard what happened today, and came to apologize for my daughter's actions." Alicia stated with a genuine look of concern upon her face. "I don't know what brought our children to this place of hatred, but we need to end it now."

"My daughter was expelled today because Serina didn't tell the truth." Megan said, accusing Serina of a lie that had cost Tuesday her education. "Your daughters have bullied her for years because of her disability, and I'm supposed to just believe that you want to put this behind us?"

Alicia was surprised by what Megan was saying, and moved to clear it up. "That's not what she told Principal McCauley. Go on, Serina. Tell him what you said."

Serina sat on her end of the couch, looking nervous and uncomfortable as she began to speak. "After I attacked Tuesday, I went to the office and confessed what I had done. I told him that I was angry, and that I left Tuesday in the gym, passed out."

"Go on.", Alicia said, prodding her daughter to continue her confession.

"I was so upset about what I had done." Serina admitted, becoming visibly agitated as she spoke. "I told him that I started the trouble, and that I didn't want Tuesday to get into trouble. He began to question me about the conversation we had, and I told him what we had said."

"Wait?" Tuesday piped up, confused by what Serina was saying. "You told him the truth? And he still expelled me?" Her anger was beginning to visibly show in her face as it became a shade of red that she wasn't prepared for.

"Yeah, I told him exactly what happened." Serina confessed. "I don't know why you wanted to talk to me, but after I exploded, I realized that you were only trying to help me, and I felt awful about attacking you, so I went to get help for you. And then I heard you were expelled and that McCauley used my words against you."

"That liar McCauley needs to get his butt kicked!" Tuesday stated, in a much louder voice than before.

"That's a discussion for another time." Megan countered, trying to keep Tuesday focused on the present matter.

As far as Megan was concerned, this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and they were going to go to the school board if they had to. Megan knew that somebody like Patrick McCauley was a menace to the school system and had to be relieved. After the personal attack that he had made on her, she was more than ready to get him fired, but now that he had willfully acted against her daughter, it was a formal act of war between the two of them that he had declared. Megan would relish the day that Patrick McCauley would be terminated, and it was looking as if she would have support from Alicia Jackson in the matter, it was all but a certainty that it would happen.

"Principal McCauley has been a problem for Tuesday for years." Megan acknowledged, thinking back to the numerous incidents Tuesday had with him over the years. "I wonder what else he has been dishonest about?"

Serina stood up and walked over to Tuesday, and looked at her for a moment, taking stock of who this girl in front of her really was. "I'm sorry, Tuesday." Serina said remorsefully. "I'm sorry for everything."

"Me too." Tuesday replied, standing up to look at Serina. "I'm sorry it all went this way."

The two girls embraced each other in a gesture of peace. Serina was careful not to squeeze Tuesday too tightly as not to hurt her ribs any more than she already had. The hug was quick, but meaningful. "I'm not going to tease you anymore." Serina promised, feeling as though a weight lifted from her shoulders. "We've both been through too much to continue on like this. And while I didn't understand what we were talking about, you were the only one who came to me like you really, truly cared. And that means a lot to me."

"I'm happy to have helped you." Tuesday answered, realizing that her life was about to drastically improve in the future. While the parents continued planning their attack on Principal McCauley's job, Tuesday and Serina went up to her room to catch up on everything, and to try to pick up where they had left off. After a pleasant evening of visiting, the Jacksons said their goodbyes went home. While Tuesday was happy about this new evidence, that Serina had not intentionally gone to get her kicked out of school, she couldn't help but think of Principal McCauley and knew that he was going to get what was coming to him, one way or another.

Tuesday secluded herself at home for the weekend, hoping to avoid any questions about suspension, about trees, and especially about drug dealers. She received brief visits from both Serina and Jason over the weekend, both concerned about what she was going to do about school, to which Tuesday had resigned herself that she would most likely have to finish up school in The Devil's City, which she was not looking forward to.

Tuesday had to admit to herself how pleasant it was that she and Serina had managed to work out their differences, and the two of them could mourn the loss of Jessica together. Tuesday had even agreed to go the Jessica's funeral with Serina's family, and though it wasn't something she was looking forward to, she felt that it was her personal responsibility to present herself there, if for no other reason than to put her mind at ease.

## IV

### VENGEANCE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1995

Tuesday slept in Monday morning since she didn't have to be up early for school. She spent the morning cleaning up around the house, hoping to surprise her mother by sparing her the effort of doing so herself. When the afternoon arrived, she prepared herself for her appointment with Doctor Frederiksen and was anticipating what it was she might learn from him on this day. When it was time to leave, she grabbed her backpack with Winston and walked to The Millwork Tavern with plenty of time to stop by Tuck's Diner to check in with her mother.

When she arrived at Doctor Frederiksen's office, Michelle had already checked her in and sent her straight back. Tuesday was becoming a common face around the office and had a good track record of keeping her appointments so they were beginning to give her preferential treatment. It didn't hurt that Doctor Frederiksen himself was writing a memoir on his interactions with Tuesday for his next international bestseller. Being the bread and butter of Doctor Frederiksen's career certainly didn't hurt either.

Tuesday walked down the hall that led to Doctor Frederiksen's office and let herself in when she reached the door. He looked happy to see her.

"Miss Moxley!" Doctor Frederiksen greeted her warmly. "Come in! How are you?"

"Could be better." Tuesday replied with a glimmer of hope in her voice. "I had a long talk with my Mom the other night and learned some things that I wish that I didn't know."

"Take a seat, would you?" Doctor Frederiksen said politely. "Would you like to talk about those things?"

"Well, some of it is my Mom's personal business." Tuesday admitted. "But some of it is about me as well."

"Would you care to elaborate?" Doctor Frederiksen pressed her for more information.

"I'll tell you the stuff about me." Tuesday countered, trying to level with him the best she could. "For starters, I don't know who my father is. I've always wanted to know and there's really no chance of finding out that information now. And it turns out that my condition is a product of my mother's lifestyle, or so she seems to theorize."

"You are a product of her lifestyle?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, trying to understand what Tuesday was telling him. "Could you explain that further for me?"

Tuesday felt as if she were walking on thin ice and that she might have said too much already. Despite there being a doctor/patient confidentiality law in place to prevent Doctor Frederiksen from going out and telling all of hers or her mother's business to anybody, Tuesday felt that the trust between her and her mother was still too fragile to break, even to tell it to her shrink.

"No, I'm not going to get into my mother's personal business." Tuesday asserted her position on the matter. "But all I can say is that it isn't every kid who learns they are a horrendous accident."

Doctor Frederiksen suddenly seemed more concerned than he previously had been. "If this is something that pertains to you in any way, you should let me know what it is." He said, probing her further for information. "I can't help you unless I know the whole truth."

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, I would tell you if I could." Tuesday defended herself as not to give away her mother's secret. "I don't want to betray my mother's trust. We have only begun bonding with each other, and I think that our foundation is still somewhat fragile."

"If you say so, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen said, backing off the topic by changing the subject. "Has anything else happened this week? Would you like to tell me about men in your trees?"

Tuesday spent the next several minutes regaling Doctor Frederiksen with the tale of how she had saved her mother and herself from The Blackbirds, but how the entire neighborhood had awakened to witness the whole ordeal. She explained every moment of it in full detail, including the premonition she had received about the event itself. She recalled how she had flown to The Devil's City, to the wharf and how she had seen them plan their attack and how she had cut loose with her imagination to stop them. She told him what she had done to keep her and her mother safe during the attack and how the trees wrapped up eighteen of the twenty men and had killed the other two. This piqued Doctor Frederiksen's curiosity slightly.

"So, you killed two of those men in the process?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, puzzled as to why she would have done this. "I thought that you wanted to save lives."

"Their blood had to be paid to spare my mother and I." Tuesday said, not knowing or understanding why it had to be that way. She tried to think about why and kept coming up to a dead end when she thought about it.

"Their blood had to be paid?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, seeking clarification for what Tuesday was saying. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not sure." Tuesday confessed, still trying to recall the exact meaning of why she had said that. "It feels like fate. If I am going to spare somebody who is going to die, then another must take the place of the victim. But I don't know why."

"That seems kind of grim." Doctor Frederiksen said, hoping that Tuesday didn't actually believe what she was saying. "Where are you getting these ideas from?"

"I . . . I don't know." Tuesday said, reaching inside herself for an answer, but it kept eluding her.

"Let's change the subject, shall we?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, hoping to get into something that didn't rely on some sort of mysticism to answer questions. "I see you were expelled again."

Tuesday felt the anger rise inside of her again. "That's a huge misunderstanding. My Mom is going to take care of that and have that idiot's job." Tuesday said. She was actually hoping that she wouldn't have to talk about this with Doctor Frederiksen until there was some sort of legal thing paperwork put into play so she could back up what she was saying with, cold, hard facts.

"It sounds like you've had quite an interesting week." Doctor Frederiksen stated, proud of the progression his pupil was making. "Are you ready to begin your next session?"

"I'm ready, let's do it!" Tuesday boldly replied, ready for anything that anybody could throw at her.

Tuesday laid back onto the couch feeling relaxed, and it wasn't long before she was under Doctor Frederiksen's hypnosis. She was soon dreaming and she had invited him into her dream again so he could guide her in the use of her power. The pair found themselves on the top of the luxurious Arlington Hotel in downtown of The Devil's City. Doctor Frederiksen was full of his good advice.

"You've learned that emotion holds the key to your power." Doctor Frederiksen began, trying to explain the negative side of everything that she has learned. "But your anger and your hatred, your dark side, can drive you to do terrible and evil things."

It was then that Tuesday remembered The Nightmare, and how it had made her kill Jessica. She was confused as to why she couldn't remember that in the real world, but every time that she dreamed, she knew that she would have to appease The Nightmare with blood to keep it sated. Each time she would save a life, a life would have to be taken keep the balance.

"I think I've already met my dark side." Tuesday told Doctor Frederiksen. "It's called The Nightmare, and it demands that I take a life for each life that I save. That's what I mean by paying the blood."

"Tell me more!" The Doctor seemed intensely interested in what Tuesday had to say. "You seem to have a good understanding of it in the dream world, so why can't you explain it in the real world?"

"It blocks my memory of interactions with it so I can only remember it when I'm dreaming." Tuesday proclaimed, looking around warily, hoping not to attract its attention. "Last week, when I saved the man in the alley, it made me take two lives to pay for the one I saved. The intended targets were Jessica and Serina, but I only killed one of them and made the gunman turn the weapon on himself." Speaking the words brought fear back into Tuesday's mind. It was the first time that she had admitted that she was responsible for Jessica's death, and it frightened her to no end that her power could be manipulated through her fear.

And then the sky grew dark again, and Doctor Frederiksen disappeared. Tuesday was not looking forward to what was coming. It wasn't long until The Nightmare drifted in front of her, full of his usual hatred and malevolence. Before he got the chance to speak, Tuesday stated her position.

"I remember now!" Tuesday screamed at The Nightmare. "You made me kill Jessica, but I saved her sister! I can oppose you, and I will oppose you!"

"Foolish girl!" The Nightmare roared, immediately drilling the fear back into her mind. "Oppose me all you want, but I control this world."

The pain of The Nightmare's voice seared into her brain, making it difficult for Tuesday to concentrate or to think beyond the discordance of its hissy shrieks. The banshee wail of its voice was too much for Tuesday to bear as she succumbed to her fear once again. "I have someone for you to kill." The Nightmare commanded gleefully. "And I don't think that you'll protest this victim too much."

"I will not kill for you!" Tuesday managed to say, trying to speak her words into reality. Tuesday had learned from another therapist she had once seen about the power of speaking words into reality, though the technique didn't really work for her as well as she had hoped it would at the time. Over the years, she had seen a large variety of therapists with several different ideas, none who were as successful as Doctor Frederiksen had been.

It didn't take Doctor Frederiksen to realize that he'd been kicked from Tuesday's dream again. He found himself taking clear and concise notes on Tuesday's REM patterns and her physical movements while she was under the hypnosis. He had thought of waking her up so that she would not be affected by whatever it was that was about to transpire in her dream world, but had feared in the precious seconds since he'd been removed from the dream that it had quite possibly already occurred. Many dreams only last mere seconds in the real world but seem to stretch on for a what the dreamer perceives to be a normal amount of time in their dream. And while Tuesday had been thrashing momentarily, it had ended and Doctor Frederiksen thought it best to document any change in her physical condition over the next several moments.

Tuesday's reality in her dream had changed from the rooftop she had recently been standing on to the waiting area of the office at Cadence Falls High School. Every vivid detail was there, brought to life by Tuesday's mind, The Nightmare floating beside her, revealing her next target, who walked out of the door at the end of the hallway, holding a small stack of file folders.

Upon seeing Patrick McCauley, Tuesday felt her rage and anger building within her. He had that same smug grin on his face when he had expelled her only the previous day, and the more Tuesday looked at it, the more her hatred of him festered in her heart. And then Tuesday realized something. Her hatred gave her the ability to overcome her fear. The voice of The Nightmare was significantly less damaging to her when she was feeling hatred toward another being.

"I've brought you a gift, my dear." The Nightmare taunted her, knowing full well that the rage and loathing that Tuesday possessed for this man was beyond all sense of reason. Tuesday knew it too.

"We don't have to be enemies." The Nightmare hissed, goading her into doing what he wanted to do. "Give in to your revulsion for this man, and let me have him."

Tuesday realized that The Nightmare was giving her permission to kill Principal McCauley, and it was an urge that she had great difficulty fighting back. "I can't kill him, its wrong." Tuesday said, not even truly believing it for herself.

"We could work together." The Nightmare explained, still tempting Tuesday to kill Patrick McCauley. "You can save the good people who deserve to be saved, and you could give me the ones who aren't worth saving."

Is that how it really worked? Was this temptation placed before her feet to make the world a better place? _"I'm fourteen years old."_ Tuesday thought to herself. _"Who am I to say who lives and who dies?"_ Tuesday wondered why that responsibility was being placed upon her. It's too much for one person to determine who lives and who dies, based on the whims of a dark figure who craves souls. If she were to use her power to indiscriminately kill for The Nightmare, what would be the cost? What is the measure of a man? What makes a man good, or what makes a man bad, and who was she to judge those qualities in a human?

Tuesday's thoughts turned to her mother. For years, she had been addicted to drugs, she sold herself to random men, had been involved in many thefts, and used people for what they could do for her instead of valuing them for the people they truly were. There was no doubt in Tuesday's mind that her mother had been a bad person, and had done some very bad things in her life. Was her Mom the kind of person that The Nightmare wanted her to reap? What if she did reap souls like her mother for The Nightmare? What if she had reaped her mother? Megan Moxley had been given a tremendous second chance in life and was working to change the trajectory of the path she was on to another path. Shouldn't everybody have a shot at redemption? Tuesday knew by killing the very people that The Nightmare wanted her to kill, that those people would never get the opportunity to redeem themselves. They've done bad things, sure. But had their sins warranted a death penalty?

"I want to show you something." The Nightmare said to Tuesday, as if he had heard her internal dialogue. "We will come back to Mr. McCauley."

The scene shifted to another school, one that Tuesday recognized was in The Devil's City. This was where she feared she would have to go to school. The school was not as nice, or as clean or organized as Cadence Falls High School was, and the students seemed a little more aggressive and vulgar than the kids she was used to attending school with. The Nightmare walked Tuesday over to a darkened and secluded nook in the hallway, where a boy about Tuesday's age sat alone, bruises on his arms and face, and hoping that nobody would notice him on that day.

Tuesday recognized the look on the boy's face. He had been relentlessly bullied by the other kids to the point that solitude was preferential to contact with other humans. She knew this feeling well, and she felt sorry for the boy. "Why are you showing me this?" Tuesday asked curiously, wondering what the connection was.

"His name is David Peatross." The Nightmare stated, sounding compassionate instead of menacing. "He will one day be responsible for the deaths of many people."

"How many people?" Tuesday responded, doubt clearly in her voice. "Why do you think so?"

"He has internalized his rage, allowing it to fester within his heart." The Nightmare returned, making a wide sweeping gesture toward the boy with his hand. "One day he will unleash it and will kill others."

Tuesday was beside herself. She recognized and understood this boy too well, and couldn't see that he would lash out in a way that would end the lives of people. But then she thought about the anger and grief she had internalized, and that it drove her to nurture and foster a community of hatred against everybody she had ever known, until recently. She pitied the boy, but in the twinkling of an eye, she understood for just a second how he might become what The Nightmare said he would become.

"He suffered the same kind of authoritarian abuse that you did." The Nightmare commented. "He has suffered greatly and will kill other people one day, unless you kill him first."

"How many people will he kill?" Tuesday said, staring at the boy, the rage growing inside her again. "And why will he kill them?"

The Nightmare was dismissive of Tuesday's questions and answered as vaguely as he could. "Who can say how many? It has yet to be determined." His hissy voice sounded almost normal, sympathetic. "He will kill them because he will have completely lost faith in humans."

"And this could have been my future?" Tuesday asked, pondering the possibilities to herself, wondering if she could have been pushed to that point.

"This is what Patrick McCauley was molding you to be." The Nightmare reacted to Tuesday's question. "You weren't the first, and you will not be the last."

Tuesday stood before the nook where David Peatross was hiding from the other students who were walking by, tears forming in her eyes. These were not tears of sadness, they were tears of fury, and she could feel it budding inside of her, growing into a malice that was not easily tamable. Suddenly, something within Tuesday changed, and she found herself seeking justice for not only what had been done to her, but for the other nameless faces out there, the ones who never had the power to stand up for themselves, and the forthcoming students who never would.

"I will be the last." Tuesday said, her voice lowering to a menacing tone. "This ends now! Take me back, I have business with Principal McCauley!"

In an instant, they found themselves back at Cadence Falls High School, where Principal McCauley was about to lecture the student body at what appeared to be an impromptu student rally. He had just gotten up from his seat to go to the microphone to address the crowd of students. Tuesday was primed and ready to strike at him, ready to take her personal revenge for years of damage at the hands of this brute. But suddenly, curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she stopped cold in her tracks to hear what he had to say.

Principal McCauley passionately expressed to the student assembly about the greatness of the school and how the factors that held the school back were an object of the past. To Tuesday, it seemed like more posturing and preening, per usual with McCauley, and just hearing his awful voice was enough to make her want to slash him into tiny pieces with nothing but a thought. But she would have to wait for the opportune moment to strike at him, as it would be unfair to the students in the crowd to witness the gruesome demise that she was still planning in her mind. It was always McCauley's style to preach about how perfect everything is, and how he can make things better for the students, as if in his mind, he was some sort of a messiah. The real problem with him was that he always took much longer to make a point than he needed to, and that was mostly because he had to take the time to pat himself on the back. In that sense, he lived up to his name.

And then McCauley got around to the primary element of his speech, the very reason he had called the assembly together. He had spoken about how he had finally gotten rid of the last of the disruptive schoolchildren in the institute and how Cadence Falls High School was going to live up to a higher standard. Tuesday couldn't believe the words she was hearing coming from the mouth of the lying vermin. And then Patrick McCauley made his fatal mistake, he mentioned Tuesday by name.

"We won't have to deal with drama from kids like Tuesday Moxley anymore." McCauley shouted into the microphone. "Her melodramatic fairy tales will no longer disrupt this student body!"

At that point, Tuesday stopped thinking about what the students would witness and began acting, and she was going to take her time to make certain that she was going to put Patrick McCauley through as much suffering as he had put her through. While she hadn't really thought about a plan, she decided to improvise her approach and be as supernaturally impracticable about it as she could, but would create a masterpiece of a visual effect.

The first thing Tuesday thought about Principal McCauley's big toe, and visualized it bending back upon the top of his foot. No sooner than she thought it, Principal McCauley screamed out in intense pain, having heard the toe crack and break inside his shoe. A few seconds later, another toe fractured, and then a finger splintered, and another finger broke, as he tumbled precariously to the hardwood gymnasium floor, writhing in excruciating agony. The other students were stunned and confused as to what was transpiring before them, and some disorganized murmuring in the audience was the only other sound beyond McCauley's cries of discomfort. Tuesday felt a small amount of satisfaction watching the person who had persecuted her for so many years at last getting his comeuppance. The Nightmare was also pleased.

Tuesday then slowly grinded all the bones in his body into a fine powder, making any sort of movement impossible for him as the shape left his body and he became a pile of skin and organs on the floor. Students eyes went wide in revulsion, unable to comprehend what was transpiring right before their eyes, and began shoving their way down the stands to escape for fear that they might suffer the same fate. But they could not abscond from the scene. A thick, clear glass partition had somehow blocked off the bottom of the bleachers, caging the students in so they could only watch in disgust at what was happening to their Principal.

The double doors exploded open at the far side of the gym and a great pack of black wolves came running into the expanse, their teeth gnashing through their snarls and growls. While there were other faculty in the gymnasium, the wolves only seemed fixated on the most helpless of the targets, as predators who hunt in groups often do. In this case the hunters were after the feeble, formless body of Patrick McCauley. The lead wolf reached the blob that was once Principal McCauley in seconds, and tore into his flesh, ripping a large chunk out of him, he let out an earsplitting scream of absolute anguish, as the wolf swallowed the gratuitous sized piece of meat it had just removed from the host. The remainder of the pack converged on him, as one of the larger males went directly for his throat, silencing McCauley's shrieks and reducing them to a wet, bloody gurgle. The entire assembly was in complete shock as to what was going on, and were in total disbelief of what they were witnessing, as many of the students pounded on the impenetrable glass barrier that blocked their way to freedom from this horrific nightmare. The faculty wanted to help, but would not venture close enough to the wolves for fear of being consumed themselves. Probably out of all the faculty present, Tuesday was delighted the most by the sight of a large wet spot forming on the front of Jimmy Waite's pants. She laughed maniacally at the brute who had only been following orders. _"Not so tough now, are you?"_ Tuesday joyfully thought to herself. She stood in the center of the maelstrom, feeding off the fear she was feeling from the students and faculty who were present to witness this demonstration of her supremacy. If any one of them had actually been able to see her presence, they would have been completely terrified of her

Tuesday turned her attention back to Principal McCauley and would not allow him to die until the wolves had consumed enough of him that keeping him alive any longer would be naturally impossible. And when the wolves had reached the point where they were about to finish off their prey, Tuesday granted Principal McCauley the mercy of stopping his heart. She could literally visualize her hand reaching into his chest, wrapping her steely fingers around it, crushing it, and stopping it completely and utterly. The Nightmare found itself to even be a little disgusted by the effort that Tuesday had put into her first intentional kill, but reveled in her ability to take a life.

Tuesday looked at The Nightmare and screamed at it, "I will not kill for you! If I kill, it's because I want to do it!"

"Your terms are acceptable." The Nightmare replied, waiting for the wrath he would be able to inflict upon the soul of Patrick McCauley. "You will have no memory of this in the world of the living."

The Nightmare faded away and the world seemed to snap back into focus once again. The scene shifted again from Cadence Falls High School back to the rooftop where she had previously been standing with Doctor Frederiksen. She took a great deal of time on the top of that roof to understand the consequences of her choice. Principal McCauley was going to die, if he hadn't already, and she was fairly certain that there was nothing she could do to change that now. Even if she had wanted to, The Nightmare would intervene and make it virtually impossible for her to do so, so there was no point in trying that. She sat on that building and wept for quite a long period. She wasn't aware of the passing of time, only of her actions. Her regret wasn't tied to the victim she had chosen, it was linked to the action itself. What concerned her the most was that she would enjoy killing, and that she would make justifications to kill others in the name of justice for those who couldn't defend themselves. Tuesday knew that she had only scratched the surface with her new-found abilities, and if she couldn't control the emotions she felt for people, then there would be a good chance that she would be doing more killing. And she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted that responsibility.

Tuesday knew that she could stop wars by dispatching world leaders, or even entire armies. She thought about the good that could come from her power, about how she could change the course of human history with only a thought. She could cause crops to grow in barren lands to feed multitudes of starving people, and make rivers flow wild, teeming with fish and wildlife, ripe for consumption. After thinking for a good long while, Tuesday realized that there probably wasn't a single problem on the face of the Earth that she couldn't solve for mankind.

But then Tuesday realized that she was only a teenage girl, and that she wanted to live the life of a normal teenage girl. And while some teenage girls harbor thoughts of harming teachers and school faculty, none that she knew of ever had actually done it. This thought gnawed at her mind. She reminded herself that she was young, and that she had the most amazing boyfriend in the entire world.

" _Oh my gosh!!"_ The thought suddenly occurred to Tuesday. _"Jason was at that assembly! He saw everything!"_

Nothing had ever affected Tuesday the way that the realization that Jason had witnessed her destructive capabilities first hand. She began to panic, breaking down and crying like she never had before, fearing that he would know and understand what had happened and she would lose him forever. She just wanted to wake up, and put the whole ordeal behind her.

It wasn't long before she found herself waking up back on the couch of Doctor Frederiksen's office, an uneasy feeling creeping in her stomach coupled with grogginess and confusion. Tuesday's hands were shaking and she was exceptionally disoriented. When a young girl feels like that, there's only one thing that will make her feel better.

"I need my mother!" Tuesday cried out, the sick feeling in her stomach not subsiding.

## V

### FEELINGS OF DREAD

Doctor Frederiksen looked down at Tuesday with a deep look of concern upon his face and could tell that something was clearly wrong. "What is it?" He asked, trying to ascertain what was happening. "What's wrong?"

Tuesday wasn't receptive to help from him right then as she reasserted her demand, "I don't know, I can't explain it. I just need to talk to my mother!"

Doctor Frederiksen was not one to give up easily though, "Maybe I can help you, if you tell me what's wrong." He said, sounding as soothing as he could.

"Nothing against you, Doctor." Tuesday made her point plain and clear, "I just need my mother!"

Doctor Frederiksen had a strange look on his face, one that Tuesday wasn't sure how to interpret. It was a look of both confusion and of anger. It was the kind of look that somebody gets when they feel betrayed. It was a look that melted into a vengeful little smile, and then back into his wizened, kindly features. He speaks to her again, his voice coming across as paternal, trying to give her the guidance she is looking for.

"Miss Moxley, I am not your enemy." Doctor Frederiksen said reassuringly. "I am only here to help you."

"I know you are, Doctor." Tuesday replied dismissively. "But right now, I am scared to death, and I need my mother!"

Doctor Frederiksen nodded his head, noting that there was nothing more that he could do for her on that day. He walked over to the door of the office and opened it for her. "I guess I'll see you next time then?" Tuesday nodded her head to the affirmative and ran out the door to the waiting area. She ran out of The Millwork Tavern and down the street to Tuck's Diner where her mother was working.

Megan could sense there was something wrong with her daughter the moment she walked in the door. As soon as Tuesday spied her mother, she ran directly to her and clung to her in a way that made Megan feel like something was truly wrong with her daughter. Megan requested a break, prepared Tuesday a mug of hot cocoa, and brought it over to a booth where the two of them could talk.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Megan asked, hoping to sate her curiosity about her daughter's presence. "You look like you're frightened. What's wrong?"

"I am, Mom!" Tuesday replied, looking frantic and jittery. "I feel that something dreadful has happened, or will happen, and somehow I am responsible for it."

"That's not possible." Megan scoffed at the suggestion. "How are you responsible for the things going on? I thought that's what you and Doctor Frederiksen were working on?"

"We are." Tuesday replied, her teary eyes darted back and forth, as if she were trying to remember something. "But I can't shake the feeling that something isn't right."

"What do you mean, something isn't right?" Megan asked, seeking clarification for Tuesday's remarks.

"I don't know." Tuesday confessed, looking confused. "It's like I can't remember what we have been working on. It's frustrating because things have happened, and I know in my heart that I know something about it, but I'm not able to remember things. I've had two sessions now where I can only remember flashes of what has happened."

"I knew that hypnosis thing would butcher your brain!" Megan insisted, her concern was mixed with the indignation that she was right. "What do you want me to do about it? I don't know much about all of this therapeutic psychobabble."

"Could you talk to Doctor Frederiksen for me?" Tuesday meekly asked, sipping on her cocoa. "Could you relay some of the fear and doubt that I am having."

"Oh yeah, I'll talk to him." Megan said, possessing a sense of self confidence that Tuesday hadn't heard from her mother in a long time. "I think it is time that we ended our sessions with him."

"No, not quite yet." Tuesday replied, shaking her head. "I need a couple of more sessions, and I know that I'm making progress. I can feel it. Right now, I just can't help but feeling that there are things that I just cannot remember."

The two of them sat quietly in the booth, enjoying the remainder of Megan's break. Megan had never felt closer to her daughter than she had at that moment in time.

## VI

### COPING WITH GUILT

Tuesday left Tuck's diner sometime later, after having consumed copious amounts of the cocoa provided by her mother. The best thing about the cocoa at Tuck's was the refills, which Tuesday took full advantage of every chance she got. While her mother helped to set her mind at ease, she felt that she needed a second opinion, so after she left Tuck's Diner, her destination was Jason's house.

When Tuesday had arrived later at Jason's house, she knocked on the door, which was answered by a woman she assumed was Jason's mother. "Hello, Mrs. Alkali." Tuesday said, mustering up her most respectful and complimentary greeting. "Is Jason here?"

"Oh, hi. You must be Tuesday!" Jason's mother cheerfully said. "Come on in, I'm Lauren, let me go get him. He came home from school early today because he wasn't feeling well.

Lauren Alkali was in her late forties, and appeared to be in excellent shape for her age. She had lived a happy and fulfilled life with her husband, moving around the country, going wherever Jim's job had taken them. It had always been her dream to care for underprivileged and challenged children, and took a compassionate approach to doing so. She was very careful to raise her own boys to be an example to other kids, instead of tearing down others for their mistakes. This was evident in the way Jason had interacted with Tuesday. Tuesday had noticed it too, and had made a mental note that when she was going to have children one day that she would make the same conscious effort to raise worthy and respectful humans, as opposed to many of the people she had the unfortunate opportunity to encounter. Tuesday wasn't certain what had brought the Alkali family to her small corner of the world, but every day she grew more and more thankful that they had connected. It was the beginning of a change that she knew was going to affect her over the course of a lifetime.

A minute later, Jason came down the stairs, and despite how he was feeling, was ecstatic at seeing Tuesday. The two of them willfully embraced one another, just happy to spend any kind of time together.

"I need to talk to you." Tuesday told Jason. "I am having problems with my therapy, and need another opinion."

"Alright, let's go into the kitchen." Jason answered, motioning her to a room off to the left of the entry way. "I'd be happy to listen."

Over the course of the next several minutes, Tuesday relayed everything she could recollect about her therapy sessions, the flashes she remembered from the Jackson house and the snippets she could recall from the gymnasium.

"What happened at the gym?" Jason asked in a puzzled manner. "I haven't heard about anything."

"I can't remember." Tuesday retorted, her sense of urgency increasing. "If it hasn't happened yet, it will tomorrow. Please, just stay home from school tomorrow, I can't remember what will transpire, but something is going to happen in the gym tomorrow."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Jason said, coughing a little as the words tried to escape his lips. "Let me think about what you've said, and come see me tomorrow, you know, to check up on me."

"I'd like that." Tuesday said. "It's getting late, so I had better head back to my place, my Mom will be home soon."

"I heard you patched things up with Serina." Jason said as Tuesday was standing up to leave. "She could use a friend with everything she's been through lately."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too." Tuesday responded, shaking her head in agreement. "And honestly, I'm happy that's one less thing I have to deal with."

"You are an amazing girl, Tuesday." Jason proclaimed, that addictive smile crossing his face. "I wish I had just a little bit of the strength that you have."

Tuesday's face became slightly flushed hearing these words coming from Jason. "Aww, thanks!" She declared, trying to brush off the compliment before she became even more embarrassed. "I am only doing what I think any person should do for another person." She reached out and grabbed Jason's hand, locking fingers with his as the two began to move toward the front door of the residence.

The two of them came together in a long hug which lasted quite a while. Their hands slid apart as Tuesday stepped back and outside the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mister." She announced, looking forward to what the day might bring for her.

As she walked down the driveway from Jason's house, it was his turn to stand in the door, watching her disappear into the darkness. He stood there smiling for a good while after she disappeared.

When Tuesday arrived home, she had discovered that her mother wasn't there yet when she remembered that this was to be the night of her date with Douglas Downe. She felt a genuine happiness for her mother. It wasn't long ago that Megan's life had been completely unmanageable, and now that she was clean, she had more clarity than ever before. Things that didn't mean much to her before were suddenly the most important things in her life, and she was becoming a functioning human being, with a complete emotional spectrum. Tuesday was exceedingly proud of the progress her mother had made, and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Spending the evening in her room, Tuesday took the time to study from some books she had in a stack in her room. She loved learning things, but reading often made her drowsy, especially in the evening hours. It wasn't long before her thoughts drifted, and she soon fell fast asleep.

Soon, Tuesday found herself wide-awake in her dream, remembering the gruesome details of events that would be coming soon. She went back over the details of the events, hoping to think of a way to alert herself as to what would be happening. She knew that she didn't want herself or Jason physically anywhere near Cadence Falls High School, so she needed to think of a way to prevent that very thing from happening. On one hand, she was happy that it was set back a day, that way she had time to prepare herself for what was to come. She was also thankful that Jason wasn't feeling so well, and that he would be staying home.

Tuesday began to wonder what the difference was in the triggering mechanisms between what had happened with Jessica Jackson, and what was going to happen with Principal McCauley. Jessica's death seemed to happen in real-time, running concurrently with her dream, or at the very least she dreamt it minutes before it had happened. The same was the case with The Blackbirds, she slept, and found herself flying around and took appropriate action on the matter. There was no way to tell, but she surmised that she had changed the future in both cases, even if she had dreamed them only minutes before they occurred. The dream about Principal McCauley was clearly set an entire day later. Tuesday thought long and hard on the problem, and wondered if there was a way to pinpoint an exact moment in time to set her dreams in. She knew it would require a context to place her dreams into, and she would have to have some sort of understanding of that moment, and the people who inhabited it. So far, her dreams seemed to be on autopilot, directing her to moments where tragedy occurred.

Speaking of tragedy, she wondered if she would be paid a visit by The Nightmare. She was really learning to hate him, and knew that without his goading, it was likely that she never would have killed Principal McCauley. The Nightmare had opened the door to her hatred and let it out to play, and that was something that Tuesday wasn't sure she could ever allow again. Even in her dream, where she could remember things, she was still missing some fragments from both incidents, the one with Jessica, and now even more so with the forthcoming incident with Patrick McCauley. If there was a way to access that dream again, and change it, she might be spared the guilt of taking McCauley's life, but the more she thought about it, the less she could accomplish on that front. It seemed to her that his fate was sealed. Tuesday desired that she had Doctor Frederiksen beside her to help her make sense of everything. He had a way of making her understand, teaching her how to do all the things that her brain wouldn't do for itself. She had learned one thing without Doctor Frederiksen though, that her hatred gave her the ability to overcome The Nightmare to a certain degree. She found that the stronger that her hated toward somebody was, the less control that The Nightmare had when she exerted that hatred, as if it were fueling her and giving her the power to break free.

The thought had occurred to Tuesday that if an emotion as strong as hatred could cause her to break free, could there be other emotions that would give her the power to do it? She hadn't felt anything as strong as the hatred she felt for Principal McCauley. He had been pushing her for years, since she first began having her problems in third grade. He had been relentless in his mistreatment of her, to the point of being abusive. There was a good chance that Principal McCauley had a heavy hand in swaying the public opinion of her. Tuesday had always felt that he never liked her, from the moment they met, her earliest memories of him always seemed as if he had nothing but contempt for her. Even if she could change the event, she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't try again at another time. And that was what really scared her. If she had harbored this much hatred for a human being, and could end their life in any way she could imagine, what could stop her from becoming exactly what The Nightmare was apparently grooming her to become? She needed some clarity on the matter, but didn't know where to begin. And what was it that The Nightmare had told her, that if she wouldn't cooperate, she would force her to kill somebody she truly cared about. Tuesday couldn't endure the thought of being driven to murder Jason or her mother, that just wasn't going to happen.

Tuesday's thoughts turned to young David Peatross, and so she flew to The Devil's City and perched outside his window, where he was sleeping peacefully. She envied him in that moment, the ability to sleep and to put all the world behind her. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept that peacefully. Probably, in David's world, sleep was the purest form of escapism he was able to engage in. He spent his days being bullied by other kids because of the choices his parents had made. Like Megan, David's father was an alcoholic, but where Megan had never struck Tuesday more than to give her a spanking, David's father was physically abusive to him. Tuesday could see so much of herself in this boy, and wondered where he found the strength to carry on. She longed to look into his future and wondered how he might turn out. She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, she found herself looking at a bearded man who somewhat resembled David, though the light had gone out of his eyes, and he was ordering the execution of other people.

Could Tuesday have been set upon this path as well? Could she become an instrument of evil? She wondered if the deaths of Jessica Jackson and Patrick McCauley would degrade her spirit to the point where she might commit real world evil. One thing she learned was that she could change the future, and if she could set David on another path, there might be hope for some sort of redemption for her. Snapping back to the present, or possibly minutes before the present, she found herself back outside of David's room, his father bursting through the door, drunk and belligerent, with a belt clenched in his fist, intent upon beating his son with it. Tuesday was not about to let that happen.

Tuesday slowed down the time around her to give herself the time to think of a good alternative to killing David's father and decided that the best course of action was to change his genetic makeup in such a way where he would no longer feel the addiction of alcohol. Tuesday reached deep inside his body, and began to try to understand what his DNA, and how he had been predisposed to the dependence. Taking a moment, she repaired the mutation in his genetics, and then reprogrammed his brain to let go of the desire and need for the drink completely. She bled the compulsion from his system so thoroughly that it stopped him dead in his tracks, looked down and didn't understand what it was that he was doing with a belt in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the other. He remembered all of the terrible things he had done to his son, and did not understand why he would have chosen alcohol over his son.

Tuesday beamed with pride, knowing the special gift that David was about to receive. She had recently began building a relationship with her own mother after an addiction, so she fully appreciated the happiness that David was going to experience. The kid deserved it.

Tuesday looked around, fully expecting an intervention from The Nightmare, but it did not happen. Feeling satisfied that she had done a great deed, she flew off into the night, looking for other people she could help. Tuesday knew that she had to make a conscious choice to keep her hatred under control and to not allow it to let her kill any more people. If she could continue to help people like David Peatross, Tuesday thought that there might be hope for her own soul.

Tuesday suddenly recalled the clock on the wall of the gymnasium, having caught a glimpse of it at the very moment when the wolves burst through the door. The clock read 1:56 PM. It suddenly occurred to her that she could write a letter and leave it on her desk. She visualized herself back in her room, scrawling on a post-it note on her desk, a message that simply said:

Jason's house, take chicken soup, 1:45 PM.

And Tuesday placed it prominently where she would see it in the morning. When the wolves came to attack, She and Jason would be at his house, enjoying chicken soup and would hear about the attack the way the rest of the community did, on the local news.

## CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I

### A LEAP OF FAITH

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1995

Strangely enough, it was Halloween, and as luck would have it, Tuesday had found the note she had left for herself, and thought it was a funny reminder to go over there and do something sweet for him. She remembered that she had left the note for herself in her dream, but could not remember the reason. In the end, she felt it was best not to defy her own advice, and left the house in enough time to march down to Tuck's Diner to see if she could procure the best chicken soup she had ever remembered having.

Megan was already at work and surprised to see her daughter, thinking that she might have had other plans. Tuesday explained to her that Jason was sick and that she needed to get some chicken soup to lift both his health and his spirits. Megan just thought that was the sweetest thing she could imagine.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you!" Megan teased, hoping to turn her daughter's face a glorious shade of crimson in front of her co-workers. "Though I imagine that seeing you would probably lift his spirits more than anything."

Sure enough, Tuesday's face went beet red, and she began to protest her mother's teasing, "Mom, stop!" She cried out, turning away from her and everybody else in the diner. "Hurry, and get the soup, I have to be there at 1:45."

Megan pulled some tip money out of her apron and gave it to Tuesday to pay for the soup, which she had generously heaped into a half-gallon container for the two of them to share. She placed the container into a paper bag, and threw some salt and pepper packets, some saltine crackers and a couple of plastic spoons into it. Tuesday paid for the soup, grabbed the bag from the counter and turned to leave, hoping to reach her destination on time.

"Say hello to your boyfriend for me." Megan said, getting one last shot in before Tuesday walked out the door, however that remark did not embarrass her in the least. If anything, Tuesday was proud to be Jason's girlfriend. She couldn't ask for a better guy, and she wanted to demonstrate her care for him by bringing him soup to help him feel better. The whole thought of a boyfriend was still somewhat alien to her, she didn't know exactly how she was supposed to act, or react around this boy, but she knew it was something she didn't want to overthink.

Tuesday reached Jason's house a few minutes early, so she knocked on the door and he came and answered it, wrapped in a blanket, his stuffy voice raising in pitch to validate his excitement. "Hi Tuesday!" Jason said as enthusiastically as he could muster. "I'm glad you're here, I can use the company."

"I thought you could use some companionship." Tuesday replied, holding up the bag of goods she had brought. "And some chicken soup."

Jason's eyes went wide realizing that she had brought chicken soup for her. "You're the most thoughtful girl I know." Jason declared, anticipating the goodness that was about to come out of that bag. "Thank you, I love chicken soup!"

"You're welcome." Tuesday responded with a smile. He had just melted her heart with that comment about being thoughtful. She always knew that she would make somebody happy one day, but nobody in Cadence Falls was willing to give her a chance. This new boy had seemingly come out of nowhere, and in no time at all, had stolen her heart. She was certain that she had fallen completely and totally in love with him, but she didn't want to be the first to tell him. She had seen other girls tell guys that around school and it had frightened them away, and that was the last thing she wanted to do with Jason. She wanted to make sure that he felt as she did before she told him so, but the waiting was tearing her apart. She hadn't even kissed him yet. It always seemed as if one thing or another had kept that from happening. He was sick right now, so Tuesday didn't see it happening in the immediate future, but she had already spent a lot of time scheming ways in her mind how to obtain that elusive first kiss.

Tuesday's thoughts were interrupted by a boisterous sneeze that had come from Jason, which he promptly apologized for. The two of them took seats at the table in the breakfast nook, where they could sit comfortably and eat the soup provided by Tuesday. The pair joked and laughed, and Tuesday made every funny face she could to make Jason feel better. After the two of them had finished eating, they went into the living room and snuggled together on the couch watching television. Even though Jason was sick, Tuesday was in complete paradise just spending an afternoon at his home with him. His mother had errands to run and wasn't home, so she felt that she was happy to take care of him when he wasn't well enough to look after himself. This was the world that Tuesday one day wanted, to have somebody who comprehends her, and who she equally understands. It was perfect afternoon which lasted until his mother got home from picking up the foster kids from the elementary school. Jason's mother seemed kind of frantic as she came into the living room.

"Did you guys hear what happened?" Lauren Alkali inquired, seeing if the two of them had any information that she didn't have. "Principal McCauley was attacked and killed by wolves!!"

"What! When?" both Tuesday and Jason asked in complete shock and surprise.

"This afternoon at school." Lauren replied, in disbelief of what she was saying. "It happened during a school assembly. I hope John and James didn't have to see that."

The next several minutes were spent discussing what little was known about the actual events, but Tuesday felt a sick feeling in her gut that it was no accident, knowing that she had something to do with it. She didn't say much, but spent her time thinking about what her role in the attack might have been. Though she knew she had some involvement, she managed to keep a fairly good poker face, and she wished that they would just drop the topic altogether, but kept on at it, as if it were the only thing in the world that there was to discuss.

Soon, James and John arrived home, much to Lauren's relief, but they brought new information with them that rekindled the discussion. Tuesday had heard enough, and decided that it was getting near time for her to go home because her mother would be off work soon. She pulled Jason close to her and told him that she had to leave, and that she would check on him again over the weekend. The two of them engaged in their usual embrace, and Tuesday could tell that Jason wanted more, but wasn't about to do anything that might heap days of teasing by his family upon him. Instead, he settled for the long hug, and the two parted and went their separate ways for the night.

Tuesday walked down the driveway and noticed that it was much colder than usual outside. It was quickly becoming dark and the first flakes of snow for the season had begun to fall, drifting gently from the sky, dancing on the breeze before settling softly upon the grass. Tuesday walked home slowly, enjoying the moment, and trying to put the thought out of her mind that Principal McCauley would no longer be troubling anybody, ever again. This comforted her, and even though she knew that she had something to do with this, she felt justified for the years of misapplication he had dealt her. In her mind, the whole thing was reconciled. He had gotten what he had deserved.

When Tuesday reached her house, she could see that the lights were on, which meant that her mother was home from work. She stepped inside the door into the entry way and brushed the snow off her of her hoody, and removed it, hanging it up to dry, calling out for her mother as she did so.

"Mom, I'm home!" Tuesday called out, wondering where her mother might be. She didn't have to look very hard to find Megan, who was sitting on the couch watching television. Tuesday bounded across the room and planted herself on the sofa, cuddled up next to her mother.

"How'd it go with Jason?" Megan questioned Tuesday with a serious tone.

"We had a great afternoon together." Tuesday replied, trying to convince her mother that it was strictly innocent. "Until we found out that Principal McCauley died today."

Megan's attention turned from the television and completely piqued upon hearing this revelation. "What?! How did that happen?" She asked, looking to satisfy her curiosity.

"I guess he was attacked by a pack of wolves during a student rally." Tuesday confided in her mother. "I guess they tore him to shreds, though why they would want to eat something as nasty as him is beyond my sense of reckoning."

The two of them shared a laugh, trying to find a moment of levity in all the stress. "I can't say I'm sad about it." Megan confessed, placing her disdain for the man clearly on display. "He's been so unpleasant to us both."

"Yeah, me either." Tuesday agreed, shaking her head. "So, how are you doing, Mom?" Tuesday said, trying to change the subject.

"I'm doing pretty good." Megan admitted, feeling for the first time like she was fully in control of her life. "You know, kicking these drugs has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but it has been worth every minute of it."

"What do you mean?" Tuesday asked, somewhat perplexed.

"It hasn't been easy." Megan began, letting out a sigh of relief. "Somedays, the withdrawals just kill me. I get sweaty and shaky, and sometimes feel just plain sick to the point that I don't even want to get out of bed. I know that getting a fix would solve all those problems, but it isn't worth losing everything in my life over. It's time that I kept a promise that I made to God, that I would live a better life. He kept his end of the bargain and saved me, but I haven't been very loyal and kept my word on this end."

"Mom, you're doing fine!" Tuesday said, cheering her mother on for her wonderful deeds over the last few weeks. Tuesday was nothing, if not supportive of her mother.

"I've wallowed in self-pity for far too long." Megan admitted, as if she were trying to shake that image she previously had of herself. "It's time that I discover what life is all about instead of running from it. I mean, if I had known that having such a meaningful relationship with you was a better high than any of those drugs, I would have quit years ago.

Tuesday walked to the window and looked out at the falling snow. What her mother was saying affected her greatly, and she didn't want to interrupt her with some emotional outburst, so it was best if she turned away and let her finish pouring out her heart before she interjected something else.

"I guess for all these years, I was trying to escape my pain." Megan sustained, sounding more sincere and hopeful than Tuesday had ever heard her be. "You know, out of all of the things that has happened in my life, it was all distractions. Everything was meant to deter me from the truth, the reality of it all. And because of that, I forgot to look right in front of me to see what I already had."

"You know, Mom, I'm very proud of you." Tuesday interjected, trying to demonstrate a level of empathy that she didn't know she could tap into. "You've done what most people can't do, and you've accomplished it in such a short time. I know that you struggle with it, and I know that it isn't easy for you, but you're doing a great job! You've taken a huge leap of faith, and it's paid off for you, and I wish others could see the things that I see in you."

Megan considered what her daughter was telling her, and it seemed like they were finally on the same page. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm so very sorry that I've been so stupid throughout the years." Megan went on, explaining her position. "You are without a doubt, the best thing that's ever happened in my life. No drug can compare, no man can compare, no party can compare to having a daughter like you."

"Yeah, I couldn't imagine having any other Mom either." Tuesday acknowledged, tears forming in the wells of her big brown eyes. "Can you believe that together, we have helped to heal one another?

Megan nodded her head in agreement. "It's kind of a miracle. But yeah, I guess you're right."

An awkward pause filled the space between them, and then mother and daughter came together, holding on to one another as if this would be the last opportunity they would ever get to do so, neither wanting to let go of the other. On that snowy night, the once impassible rift between Megan Moxley and her daughter was finally bridged, and the two of them knew that they would be unstoppable from that day on.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry for everything." Megan whispered, tears streaming down her face. "And that I love you, and I believe this is the beginning of something great and wonderful between us."

"Yes, Mom!" Tuesday stated, sobbing uncontrollably. "I believe this is a new beginning."

The two of them held each other a while longer, and then pulled apart long enough to realize that this was quite possibly the first time they'd both shared tears of joy together. It was a very personal moment for the two of them, something that deeply affected them for the rest of their lives. The two of them sat together on the couch, watching the snowfall through the window, holding each other until it was time for Tuesday to go to bed.

A few hours had passed, and it was time for Tuesday to go to bed. "Well, look at the time." Megan said, realizing that the time that had slipped away was worth more to her than anything in the world. "You have an appointment with Doctor Frederiksen tomorrow morning."

Tuesday was feeling tired after the emotional roller coaster ride she had been on for the day. "Yeah, I know." Tuesday stated quietly, yawning wide as she stood up from the couch. "Good night, Mom. I love you."

"I love you too." Megan returned, a look of contentedness upon her face.

A funny little smile crossed Tuesday's face as she plotted an autopilot course toward her room, floating on her own private cloud as she did so.

Tuesday changed into her nightgown and climbed into bed, snuggling Winston tightly as she drifted off to sleep. It wasn't long before she found herself dreaming again, but this time she was having one of those strange dreams that she occasionally entertained.

Her dream placed her within a large crowd of people, many who were largely built and filthy dirty, staring up to a man on a mountain under a molten red sky. Black clouds of smoke and ash filled the air making it difficult to breathe, but the man on the mountain was resolute and defiant in his stand. As the haze drifted by, Tuesday realized that it wasn't like any other mountain she'd ever seen, but appeared to be a pyramid, larger than her mind could allow her to comprehend. The world was in flames around them, with raging rivers of magma that were channeled, carrying it to different parts of the city around them. There were large structures crashed upon the surface, and to Tuesday it looked like something out of a science fiction movie.

The man on the pyramid was screaming out, addressing the people, but she could not understand their language. The crowd, which surrounded the structure, was chanting something, she didn't know what, but it sounded like a name, _"Ahh-kool-lie"_ What did it mean? Many times, before this, Tuesday had dreamed this very dream, but never as vivid as this. Suddenly, Tuesday's Osprey Vision activated and zipped her up to the top of the pyramid for a better look, and she couldn't believe what she saw. The man at the summit of the pyramid bared some resemblance to Jason's brother John, only much older as an adult. It couldn't be. Tuesday's mind had played some grueling tricks on her in the past, but none as strange as this one. She wondered what the meaning of this was. Tuesday's thought process was interrupted by the sound of a large explosion, so loud and terrifying that it jarred her loose from the dream and woke her right out of her sleep.

Tuesday trotted down to the kitchen and prepared a glass of warm milk for herself to set her mind at ease so she could go back to sleep. _"What was that dream about?"_ Tuesday silently wondered to herself as she drank down the last of her milk, rinsed her glass and placed it into the sink, and went back to her room where she slept soundly for the remainder of the night.

## II

### A MOTHER'S LOVE

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1995

When the alarm went off, Tuesday did not want to get out of her warm bed, but did so anyway. When she looked outside, there was an accumulation of what appeared to be nearly seven inches of snow on the ground. She squealed with excitement, making a promise to herself that she would have to drag her mother out to play in it with her when her appointment was over. As soon as Tuesday had gotten herself dressed and ready to go, she spent the next several moments thinking about the events of the last few weeks, and how two people who caused problems in her life had died tragically. She knew that it wouldn't be long before people began to connect the dots and point fingers at her. She felt some remorse over Jessica's death, having a bigger picture to deal with than before, but she was still completely lost about Principal McCauley. She knew in her mind that she was involved, even if she struggled to remember the details of it. This was something she was going to have to ask Doctor Frederiksen about at their appointment later in the morning.

When Tuesday came downstairs, she had discovered that her mother had prepared bacon and black coffee for breakfast, which made Tuesday exceptionally happy. The two were in pleasant moods, had a good conversation over breakfast and made plans to go and see "Toy Story" together when it would be released a couple of weeks later. After breakfast, Tuesday went upstairs and dressed herself in the warmest ensemble she could put together. Soon, she was ready to go and have her appointment with Doctor Frederiksen.

Tuesday and Megan came out from the house and trudged their way through the snow to where the car was parked, and scraped the ice from the automobile so they could see where they were going. Once they got into the car, Megan's shivering hands fumbled for the car keys, so they could get going. Most people in Cadence Falls did not drive in the snow, as it was a rare occurrence for them and did not possess the adequate skill to do so. This however, did not deter Megan Moxley. She had too much to do on that day to allow something like a little frozen precipitation to stop her from accomplishing her goals. When she finally persuaded the keys to cooperate with her, she slid the starter key into the ignition and turned it. Nothing happened.

"C'mon you cold blooded, piece of junk!" Megan yelled at the car, as if it would somehow hear her command and do as she needed it to. She pumped the gas a few times and the car started to turn over. A few more attempts, and the car finally started.

Megan had to rock the car into forward and reverse a few times to build up enough momentum to get past the snow in the driveway, having to restart the beast a few times in the process. Tuesday was shivering in the passenger seat, adjusting the knobs on the console in an effort to get the heat to blast out of the vents and provide the warmth she so desperately sought. When Megan finally got enough traction and reverse speed, she gunned it down the driveway, praying that another vehicle would not come sliding down the snowy road as she reached it. Fortunately for her, the road was clear as the back end of the car fishtailed its way onto the street.

Megan drove to the appointment, while Tuesday incessantly changed the channels on the radio listening to random songs and enjoying themselves, in spite of the car, which only had to be restarted four times on the way to The Millwork Tavern. The snow made for slow going, but they finally reached their destination in time for Tuesday's appointment. Megan parked the car and went with Tuesday up to Doctor Frederiksen's office to have a word with him.

When Tuesday and Megan reached Doctor Frederiksen's office, Michelle greeted them with her usual lack of enthusiasm. "Hello, I'll let Anthony know that you're here." She said, reaching over to buzz the intercom.

"Could you tell him that I need a word with him, Please." Megan politely asked, hoping that Michelle would relay the message.

Michelle informed Doctor Frederiksen that his patient had arrived and that her mother needed to speak with him. A few minutes later, he emerged from the back corridor and welcomed them.

"Hello, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen met them with a fervor that more than made up for Michelle's lack of interest. "How are you on this cold and snowy day?"

"I'm good." Tuesday said, her mother cutting her off before she could add anything further to the conversation.

"I need to speak with you, Doctor." Megan stated assertively, trying to impress upon him the importance of the conversation she wished to have. "It's very important."

There was the slightest flash of annoyance on the face of Doctor Frederiksen, almost too quick to catch if one didn't know what they were looking for. But Megan had caught it, and she knew that he likely had anticipated what Megan would be discussing with him, and he wasn't going to like it.

"Very well." Doctor Frederiksen said with a sigh. "Come on back, and we can talk."

Doctor Frederiksen led Megan down the corridor to his office, where he opened the door and invited her to sit in a plush chair to the side of his desk. Megan sat down and made herself comfortable, and in an instant, went through a laundry list of various approaches she might take to tell the Doctor what it was she needed to say that wouldn't end with him outsmarting her, and leaving her demands unmet.

"What can I do for you today, Megan?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, taking a seat in his chair behind his desk.

"I have some concerns about Tuesday's therapy." Megan opened the conversation, trying not to show a lack of confidence in her ability to defend what she believed was best for her daughter. "She's been having these memory lapses. I don't know if they have anything to do with the hypnosis or not, but I don't want to take any chances. I want this to be her last session for now."

"I do not think that is wise." Doctor Frederiksen countered, getting right to the point. "Cutting short her time here when she has only just stepped on the road to her recovery could be damaging to her."

Megan expected some resistance to her statement, but didn't expect him to come out swinging with both arms. "It doesn't matter." Megan defended her point of view. "I don't feel comfortable with the way she's been acting. I'm just being cautious as a parent. I've only begun to make things right with her, and I'd just die if anything happened to her."

Doctor Frederiksen turned on his concerned therapeutic voice. "I both appreciate and understand your concern for your child. You said it yourself, that you didn't know if the hypnosis was the problem or not, and that you're being cautious. You're allowing your fear of loss to make an irrational decision about something that is ultimately going to help her in the long run. In my professional opinion, I think that what's best for Tuesday is more time in therapy with me."

"No, I don't think so." Megan said, placing her demands on the table and not budging from her position. "I thank you for your generosity and everything that you have done. You've made far more progress than anybody else has, but I think it would be best if we backed off and didn't continue the hypnosis sessions. She needs some time and space to get her mind back together."

Doctor Frederiksen stared at her with a look that rivaled the frigid ice outside. Megan knew that there was no way she was going to budge on the situation, and Doctor Frederiksen knew it too. Megan had recently experienced the joys of parenthood and in her awakening, she realized that it was her right and responsibility as a parent to do what is best for her child. If that meant pulling her away from therapy, then that was what had to be done. Something snapped inside of Megan that made her fiercely defend her child.

"You know, I don't have to sit here and be badgered by you." Megan said, raising her voice to a level that she wasn't expecting to speak at. "Tuesday is _my_ daughter and I think that I know what's best for her. After today, you are done with her for a while. If new problems arise, then we may or may not return, depending on how things go today. That's my final word on the matter."

Doctor Frederiksen's eyes narrow just a bit, and that icy look he gave her intensified to a degree of coldness Megan had not previously known. "You are the parent." Doctor Frederiksen said, his stance changing to that of the victim. "And you do have the final decision on this. If that is what you wish, then today will be her last session."

Megan stood up from her chair, extending a hand of professional courtesy to Doctor Frederiksen "Thank you, Doctor. That will be all."

For the briefest of moments, Megan eyes Doctor Frederiksen with serious suspicion as he reached out to shake her hand. Suddenly, the trust she felt for him at the school had all but disappeared, leaving fragments of doubt in its wake. It wasn't that she completely distrusted him, her love for her daughter was a new sensation for her that she couldn't conceive of allowing Tuesday to continue a situation that was causing her such internal turmoil.

Megan and Doctor Frederiksen released their unsteady handshake, refusing to take their eyes off one another. Megan was the first to eventually break eye contact, as she turned to walk out of the room and back to the waiting area.

When Megan returned to the sofa that her daughter was sitting on, she informed Tuesday of the nature of her conversation with Doctor Frederiksen. "Tuesday, honey." Megan said, sweetening her voice to soften the blow of what was about to transpire. "This is going to be your last session with Doctor Frederiksen for a while. I think that we can start handling this together, just you and I."

"But, why?" Tuesday protested, bewildered about what was going on. "We are making such good progress, except for these memory lapses."

"That's just it." Megan responded, showing all the love and concern she could for her child. "I'd rather be safe than sorry, you know what I mean?"

Tuesday recognized that this was a crucial junction in their relationship, and that if she didn't allow her mother the power to look out for her, and do what was best for her, it might send the wrong signal, and Megan would think of it as a rejection. The last thing she needed to do was to create a gap between them, and drive her back to her old habits. She would never allow that to happen again, so in that fraction of a moment, she made the choice to sacrifice her therapy sessions for the time being to give her mother the power to have confidence to make healthy decisions for the two of them.

"Yeah, I guess." Tuesday commented, disappointment ringing in her voice. "I think I need more therapy, but I trust you to do what you think is right."

"Excellent." Megan said, kissing her daughter on the forehead. "Go in with the Doctor, do what you need to do. I've got some errands to run. I'll be back in two hours to pick you up."

"Okay, Mom." Tuesday said, as she stood up to go back to her last appointment with Doctor Frederiksen. "I'll see you when you get back. I love you."

"I love you too!" Megan called out as Tuesday disappeared into the corridor leading to Doctor Frederiksen's office.

Megan felt as if she was truly coming into her own as a parent, and felt some pride that she made an executive decision that she felt was in her daughter's best interest. If the future held more days like this one, Megan had decided that she was all in. She smiled as the door closed, taking pride in what an amazing daughter she really, truly had. Megan walked out of the office, and went to where her car was parked outside The Millwork Tavern to accomplish the tasks she needed to get done, a sense of hope and purpose in her steps.

Megan unlocked her car and climbed inside of it, placing her seatbelt on. She removed her keys from her purse and started the car without a problem. She put the car in gear and drove nearly half a block, and then it died again, sending Megan into a string of expletives that would make the men at the local timber union blush.

"Stupid car." Megan pleaded, pumping the gas pedal and attempting repeated turns of her ignition key. "Start, will you!"

After a few unsuccessful attempts, the engine finally roared to life, billowing a cloud of black smoke from the tailpipe that filled the air with its noxious odor. Keeping her dignity and composure, Megan drove off to take care of her business, looking forward to getting it done so she could use the remainder of her paycheck to take Tuesday out to dinner. It was the happiest thought that she could think of.

## III

THE FINAL SESSION?

Tuesday entered Doctor Frederiksen's office, still standing where Megan had left him, internally fuming over her decision to terminate Tuesday's sessions. The first thing Tuesday noticed when she entered the office was that the light was significantly dimmer than it usually was, and that Doctor Frederiksen's had long and sorrowful face, a look of disappointment. He was quick to address Tuesday, his voice cold and mechanical.

"Your mother says that she would like today to be your final session." Doctor Frederiksen began. "Do you know why?"

Tuesday moved to take a seat in the same chair that her mother had been sitting only minutes before. "No, I don't." She confessed, trying to get a read on the Doctor. "I wanted to continue, but she is being very cautious about things. My memory lapses are frightening to her."

"Tell me about those, if you would please." The Doctor asked, digging deeper for information, moving around his desk toward his chair. "The only way we can continue, is if we can prove to your mother that we can solve this problem today."

"I'm having problems remembering some of the dreams I've had." Tuesday began, trying to pull the words she was looking for out of thin air. "I know that I'm somehow connected to recent events. I know that I've had dreams about them, but I can't remember them. I see flashes of things, images. I have a pretty good handle on what happened with Jessica. Her sister filled in the blanks for me, but some things are still missing."

"Interesting." Doctor Frederiksen responded, taking a seat. "And what did. . .Serina, is that her name? What did she tell you?"

"Yes, Serina. She said that a gunman killed her sister and tried to kill her too." Tuesday relayed the information to Doctor Frederiksen. "She said that some strange things happened, that a lawn chair flew up and knocked the gunman down, giving her time to escape. She also said that the doorbell rang, and upon hearing it, the gunman shot himself in the head. When she ran to the door, nobody was there. She thought it was some kind of miracle."

"Do you believe in miracles, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen came directly to the point. "If you do, how can you be certain you have any involvement with that incident at all? If you don't, and you believe you're the cause of that girl's death, how can you prove it?"

Tuesday scratched her head, thinking about what Doctor Frederiksen was telling her. "So, either it was a miracle, or I have to prove that I had a hand in it?" Tuesday questioned him. "How can I prove it if I can't remember it?"

"We must do that in dream therapy." Doctor Frederiksen coached her. "You and I, together."

"And then there's the other occurrence." Tuesday admitted, coming clean about how she felt regarding Principal McCauley. "I feel that I'm somehow involved with Principal McCauley's death. I hated that man more than I've ever hated anybody. The circumstances of his death are too bizarre for that to be a random incident. I'm convinced that I had something to do with that, and it's just a matter of time before somebody figures it out."

"Yes, I heard about that on the news last night." Doctor Frederiksen proclaimed, trying to dismiss it as a random wild animal attack. "I don't know much about what happened, but they said he was attacked by wolves. I think we can find the answers together. And since this is going to be our final session, let's make it count. Are you ready to begin?"

Tuesday let out a breath, not entirely sure if she should or not. Taking a second to ponder over it, she knew that the only way she was going to right the wrongs, was to get inside of the situation and examine it from every angle possible. And to do that, she would need Doctor Frederiksen's guidance.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Tuesday said, looking forward to finding some answers to the holes in her memory.

Doctor Frederiksen stood up from his chair and guided Tuesday into the darkened room where the couch is set up. He fitted her with the electrodes for the EKG and brain wave monitors, so he could communicate with her in her dream. Doctor Frederiksen asked if she was comfortable.

"Yeah, I think so." Tuesday responded wearily, wiggling in her spot to find the place where she would be the most comfortable. Doctor Frederiksen began the countdown to Tuesday's final session, sounding as monotonous and deliberate as he possibly could. It wasn't long before Tuesday found herself completely under the suggestive power of Doctor Frederiksen and he was asking for permission to come into her dream, which she fully granted him.

"Here we go again, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen commented, stating the obvious. "Let us hope that I will not be kicked out of your dream this time."

"Yup yup." Tuesday responded, wondering what the Doctor had in store for her for the day. "Here we are, now what are we gonna do?"

"Before we begin today's exercise, I want to discuss a theory about your dreams." Doctor Frederiksen announced. "There is a theory in the dream therapy community that says all your reality is something that you're dreaming."

Tuesday seemed exceptionally confused by what Doctor Frederiksen was trying to tell her, as she scrunched up her face, thinking what the meaning of his words might be. When she couldn't conclude the findings on her own, she stiffened up her body, and put on a professional tone of voice, clearly mocking Doctor Frederiksen. "Would you care to elaborate?"

If the impression had bothered Doctor Frederiksen, he certainly didn't show it, as he continued to expand his theory about dreams and realities. "There are scientists out there who are studying genetic cloning, or doctors who perform abortions, or judges and juries who hand out death sentences." Doctor Frederiksen explained, hoping that Tuesday would follow his line of thinking to its logical conclusion. "For each of these examples there are people who oppose what they are doing, they say that they are playing god, if you follow me."

"I get what you're saying." Tuesday replied, not understanding what these examples relate to her particularly unique condition. "There are people out there doing unethical things, I get it."

"Ethical. Unethical. These are labels that are slapped on these actions to make them fit into agendas and ideologies." Doctor Frederiksen explained, becoming very philosophical at that point. "None of it is truly right, and none of it is truly wrong, it just _is_. Right and wrong have nothing to do with what I'm trying to teach you. So in essence, what you are doing is the same thing they are doing. While they're playing god, you are dreaming god."

"Dreaming god?" Tuesday asked, crinkling her nose, trying to understand the meaning of the words that Doctor Frederiksen placed before her. "What's that?"

"It is the term that I've coined for your condition." Doctor Frederiksen elucidated, as if he were about to reveal the plot of a scary movie. "It is a term that explains everything all too well."

"I still don't understand." Tuesday admitted, shaking her head.

Doctor Frederiksen knew he was going to have to be patient and go over it with Tuesday again until she could comprehend what he was saying. "Instead of playing god with genetics, or unborn fetuses, or death penalties, you are playing god with the future. Your exceptionally unique case may very well be the epitome of that theory. Your ability to dream unequivocally creates the reality in which you live. Fate is tethered to the things you are able to dream."

Tuesday felt a sense of uneasiness crawling up down her spine as she realized the truth of Doctor Frederiksen's words. For the first time, she understood that she was now in complete and absolute control of not only her destiny, but also the destiny of everybody else on the planet, the weight of that responsibility was too great for Tuesday to bear.

"My ability to dream will also affect every living being on Earth." Tuesday spoke, allowing the words to slip from the boundaries of her lips. Thinking it was one thing, but to say the words brought the concept to life like never before. She began to imagine the good she could do for the world, she could end poverty, get the homeless off the street, and defy powerful people who had less than honest intentions for their constituents. Thoughts such as these made her drunk with her power, and she knew that she had the ability to take the world and change it into what she wanted it to be, only by dreaming it. But suddenly, she remembered that her power had recently been manipulated, and that it could be again. She remembered what a curse her abilities could be, and became afraid of the things she could be made to do. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by confirmation from Doctor Frederiksen.

"Yes." Doctor Frederiksen stated simply. "You are the one who is responsible for the fate of any person you dream about."

Tuesday snapped her eyes closed, trying to process all the new data that was being fed into her mind. "Before in our earlier sessions, you called this a gift."

"It is a mighty gift." Doctor Frederiksen agreed, shaking his head to the affirmative.

Tuesday opened her eyes and focused right on Doctor Frederiksen. "When you tell me that I can control the fate of all humankind, I think of it as a curse." Tuesday spoke assertively, eloquently making her point. "I don't want the power to control fate. I have never wanted it."

"Child, it has been given to you whether you've chosen it or not." Doctor Frederiksen countered, trying to convince Tuesday that she has abilities that most only dream of having. "It isn't going away, so you might as well accept it and do some good with it."

"I can't just accept it." Tuesday yelled back at Doctor Frederiksen. "It's too much responsibility for one human being, let alone a teenage girl!"

"You are allowing your fears to create these unnecessary dark perceptions for you." Doctor Frederiksen stated compassionately, trying to explain that positive side of what he had to say. "This isn't as bad as it seems."

Tuesday wasn't going to accept what Doctor Frederiksen had to say, she couldn't. "Yeah, I am afraid. Is that what you want to hear?" Tuesday shot back at him. "I'm afraid and my fear makes my power uncontrollable. My dark side has come out twice now, and has made me do terrible things. Do not stand there and tell me what an honor it is to have this power, don't stand there and wish that you were in my shoes, because if you were, I'm not so sure you could handle it. I fear making the wrong choices and condemning my soul in the process, losing my humanity and actually thinking that I may be a god."

Doctor Frederiksen had certainly become intoxicated with Tuesday's power, with a wild look in his eyes that Tuesday hadn't seen before. He continued to seduce her with the possibilities of what could be, and to show her how powerful she had become, and how to unlock her power even further.

"Don't you understand, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen said, his voice becoming silky smooth and as slippery as a nightcrawler. "Don't you see that once you harness the fear, it can be used to fuel your power? You will truly be unstoppable. You could have the world at your fingertips if you chose to!"

Tuesday stared at Doctor Frederiksen and found truth in the words that he was saying. She did need to conquer her fear, and rise above the darkness. But it would not be by abusing her power and destroying the world. She reached deep inside herself, looking for a piece of serenity, and oddly enough, saw the face of her mother, gently looking at her and telling her how much faith she has that Tuesday will do the right thing. In that moment in her mind, the entire matter was reconciled.

"You don't know what it's like." Tuesday admitted, speaking calmly and confidently. "When I use this power, I feel this darkness. My darkness. It comes out of me and makes me do things that I don't want to do."

"That is your fear speaking!" Doctor Frederiksen coached, sounding like some sort of twisted Mister Miyagi. "Gain control of it, do not allow your fear to control you. You will not fulfill your dreams until you defeat that fear and embrace your gift."

Tuesday instantly recognizes what it is that Doctor Frederiksen is trying to achieve, and she refused to succumb to his taunting, whether his intention was to help her or not. She needed to come clean to him, now that she could remember. She knew when she returned to the physical world, her memories would be lost again.

"No. I will not fight the darkness with darkness." Tuesday shouted, taking a stand for herself. "We will have to find another way to defeat this problem."

"Miss Moxley, it is the only way." Doctor Frederiksen returned, trying to explain in a way that might make more sense to her. "This darkness can only be fought by darkness. Light and dark equals itself out. If you have a dim candle, the light from it casts a dim shadow on the wall. In the brightest part of the day, the bright sun casts the darkest shadow. The brighter that you shine, the darker the shadow that you fight will be."

"I know about the darkness." Tuesday explained, becoming emotional. "The darkness forced me to kill Jessica Jackson! The darkness seduced me into killing Principal McCauley! This fear takes control of me and forces me to do evil things! I cannot allow it to control me anymore, and I need to get this curse under control before it makes me do something worse."

"You're telling me that you have awakened something inside of you that is making you kill people?" Doctor Frederiksen clarified, hoping to understand Tuesday's plight a little more thoroughly. "You're telling me that you're not in control when this thing takes hold?"

"Yes, exactly!" Tuesday said, breaking down crying. "I don't want anybody else to die!"

Almost on cue, the world around the two of them began to darken, but this time Doctor Frederiksen was not ejected from the session. Doctor Frederiksen looked around, frightened, and looking to back out of the therapy session, but had nowhere to run. Suddenly a dark shape grew from the ground, rising and looking back and forth between Tuesday and the Doctor.

"You've decided to spill our secret." The Nightmare hissed in complete malice, causing them both to collapse to the ground in pain. "Now you must kill the Doctor for me. Nobody must know of our plans."

Tuesday seemed confused by what The Nightmare was telling her. "We don't have any plans, you wretched creature!"

"You will kill the Doctor." The Nightmare hissed, sending another shockwave of pain coursing through their bodies.

"Fight him Miss Moxley!" Doctor Frederiksen pleaded, more terrified than he had ever been in his life. "Get your fear under control!"

"I can't!" Tuesday confessed, writing on the ground in agony as another scream assaulted their aural senses. "I could only fight him when I felt extreme hatred."

Tuesday fought through the pain and the screaming and tried to find that place of serenity where her mother was so proud of her, but felt disconnected from it. "I will not kill for you!" Tuesday said, her voice commanding confidence, but gave into her fear of the creature. "I will not kill this man, no matter what you make me do! First Jessica, and then Principal McCauley, where does it end? No more!"

The Nightmare howled in rage. "They both had it coming! They made your life a miserable existence! As I recall, you wished the Jackson girls were dead on the bus. And Principal McCauley, you savored his death, so don't think you're so innocent."

While the Nightmare was focused on his diatribe, Tuesday extended an arm and shoved Doctor Frederiksen from the dream and back into the real world, expelling her from the warfare she was about to face. The Nightmare was displeased. "He knows too much and needs to die!" He roared, making his meaning clear.

"I'm not going to kill him!" Tuesday shot back. "I'm not going to kill anybody."

"You will kill for me again." The Nightmare commanded, hissing and roaring its words, stabbing Tuesday with them, piercing her like cold steel. "You will kill whenever I want you to, because you cannot defeat me in this world."

"I will not play your sadistic games!" Tuesday screamed, trying to elevate her voice over the pain and the unmusicality of The Nightmare's torturous vocalizations. "I was wrong for ever having allowed you to control me!"

"You allowed nothing!" The Nightmare countered, laughing at the thought that Tuesday believed she had any power over him. "You cheated me out of one life today. I warned you not to defy me, now you will pay the price."

The Nightmare loomed large over Tuesday, enveloping her in the blackness of its appearance and when the light returned, she was standing near a rail crossing out near the edge of The Devil's City. The crossing was very icy, and cars were having some difficulty getting up and over the tracks. It was cold outside, but in that moment, Tuesday realized that it was even colder inside of herself, as The Nightmare had appeared to take up residence in her own body. She could see everything going on, but had no control over her actions whatsoever. This was not acceptable to Tuesday, not in the slightest.

Cars kept filing over the railway one by one. The snow began to fall again as the cars kept coming across the rail crossing, until Tuesday spotted the last car in the line. It was her mother's car. She suddenly realized who it was that The Nightmare wanted her to kill as anxiety twisted her stomach into a sick knot.

"No, please!" Tuesday pleaded with The Nightmare inside her mind, the fear of loss gripping her tightly to the point it was difficult to breathe. "Don't make me do this! I beg you, please STOP!!" In her mind, she was screaming, but her mind was thinking thoughts that were beyond her control. As Megan's car pulled up onto the slippery ice covering the railroad crossing, Tuesday thought about the engine of the car dying. No sooner had her mind thought of it, the engine died and stopped dead across the tracks. She found herself thinking of the traction disappearing from the tires. Nobody in the real world would have noticed it, but the moment she thought about it, the tires went completely bald, and would not move upon the ice.

Tuesday desperately fought the battle inside her head to regain control of her thoughts, which The Nightmare had hijacked from her. The only thing she could hear in her head was the laughter of The Nightmare, who was taunting her and drawing out the events that were about to play out. Through the laughter, Tuesday heard a distant howling sound, or what she thought was a howling sound, she couldn't be certain through the volume of the laughing. As the noise sounded again, it became much clearer, and Tuesday realized that a train was approaching the crossing, barreling down on the crossing at a great rate of speed.

At the moment that the vehicle had died, Megan threw her hands in the air and incessantly cursed it again. She had problems with the car the day she had acquired it, and it drank her bank account dry trying to pay for repairs. In the past, she used to trade favors for repairs, or discounts on repairs, but that would not be the case now or in the future. She knew that she needed another car, a more reliable one that would serve both Tuesday's and her needs for the next few years. And then she would need to focus on buying another car for Tuesday when she was old enough to drive. But she had to make this car work for her until she got all her ducks in a row, and that wouldn't be for several months.

Megan pumped the gas and tried starting the car again. Nothing happened. Another time, still nothing. She pounded her hands on the steering wheel in frustration, and that's when she heard the horn of a train sounding nearby. Realizing that the situation was desperate, she attempted several more times to start the car, without success.

Tuesday was trying to find a loophole in The Nightmare's control that she could use to break free long enough to get her mother out of the path of the oncoming train. "Please!" Tuesday beseeched The Nightmare, hoping to reach a part of humanity within him. "I need her! I can't live without her!"

The Nightmare had no emotional center that could be reached. "Your defiance brought us here." It susurrated, cold in its speech. "She is going to die, whether you want her to or not.'

Megan kept turning the key in the car, repeatedly, trying to get the car started. She pumped the gas and turned the key, and suddenly the engine rumbled to life, and she stepped on the gas. The bald tires spun on the ice, turning her car at an awkward angle on the road, placing her more in peril on the railroad tracks.

Tuesday felt some joy that the car started, realizing that her mother's fate would not be met on those railroad tracks on that icy autumn day. And then she found herself thinking the most unimaginable thing. The completely died. Megan pounded on the steering wheel, and realized that she would need to abandon ship. She reached for her seatbelt to unlock it from its clasp, but it wouldn't budge because The Nightmare had forced her to imagine that the seatbelt button was stuck. Tuesday fought back against The Nightmare as best as she could, trying to bluff him, hoping it would distract him long enough to take control of her thoughts and release her mother from the car.

"I'll do what you want me to do! Please, just don't make me kill my mother." Tuesday said, negotiating her mother's life for somebody else's. The Nightmare's interest piqued for a moment, listening to what she had to say. She could feel the pressure in her mind lessen, and she thought about the seatbelt springing open, much to the chagrin of The Nightmare.

Megan felt the seatbelt detach from the clasp, and reached over to grab her purse before bailing from the car. The train was nearly on top of her as she reached out to grab the door handle to escape the doomed vehicle.

Tuesday ran from the position she was standing next to the rail crossing to the spot outside Megan's driver's side door pounding on it from the dream world. Inside her mind, Tuesday was locked in a battle of wills with The Nightmare, struggling to save her mother's life. Tuesday's momentary victory with the seat belt was shattered as The Nightmare regained control of her mind, causing her to think about the door handle breaking off in her mother's hand, filling her with an urgent sense of dread.

"Do not defy me, child!" The Nightmare wailed, sending another upsurge of agony through her mind, blotting out her senses and dropping her to her knees outside the door of the car.

Tuesday gathered as much of her strength as she could, standing to her feet again, and shouting at The Nightmare with every ounce of hatred she could muster up. "I will not let you kill her!"

"You should realize by now that you do not have a choice!" The Nightmare answered, taunting Tuesday, and reasserting his authority over her for only a couple more seconds.

Megan reached for the door handle, and pulled it, hoping to free herself from the car. She yanked it with all her might, and the handle came off in her hand. She knew that this was going to be her final moments, and that she would never see her daughter again.

It was a split second before the train impacted the car that The Nightmare released his hold on Tuesday, and suddenly time seemed to crawl. That last second felt as if many seconds had passed. Megan placed the palm of her hand on the window, the light from the train bearing down on her.

"Tuesday, baby, I love you!" Megan had the time to say, thinking of the thing that had mattered the most to her. "I'm sorry for everything." And in that moment, when the time seemed to stretch out, Megan thought she could see Tuesday outside her window, extending her hand and placing her matching palm on the other side of the glass as the snowflakes fell in slow motion around her, illuminated by the light of the oncoming train.

"Me too, Mom." Tuesday cried out, wishing she could stop this inevitable moment from occurring. "I'm sorry!"

Time resumed back to normal and the train passed through Tuesday's immaterial body and slammed into the car on the tracks, the sound of twisting metal screeching, breaking the silence of that cold autumn day. At first, Tuesday could feel the agony of her mother's physical death, as the wave of it ripped through her own body, shattering her sense of being. She had felt the deaths of many people, but none were as emotionally and physically intense as Megan's had been. Perhaps their connection made the pain as unbearable as it was, or perhaps it was the train, ripping and twisting Megan's body apart, in that nanosecond of impact. And suddenly, the pain was gone, and Tuesday feels a peace settle over where her mother had been in her heart. She crumpled down into the snow into a fetal position, and cried like she never had before as The Nightmare stood above her.

"I warned you not to disobey me." The Nightmare hissed, stabbing Tuesday with the icy talons of its words. "Now you have paid the price for your rebelliousness. You will remember. You will remember everything. Every victim and every incident. You will remember today, and every day from now that you are a murderer. That is the punishment for defiance."

Tuesday raised her head up from the snow, and looked directly at The Nightmare, sending her a message that it would not soon forget. "I hate you!!" She screamed, directing her vitriol at the hideous creature standing before her. "You killed my mother, and I will be the end of you!" Tuesday could feel the hatred rising in her to a level she had not felt before and found herself instinctively raising her hand up to defy the monster yet again. No sooner than Tuesday raised her hands, blue flames shot out from them, engulfing The Nightmare's arm in a brilliant fire that caused it to screech in pain. The Nightmare had not anticipated this power from Tuesday, and fled, returning the world to its normal appearance, as emergency vehicles arrived to evaluate the scene.

Tuesday couldn't allow herself to watch as she screamed for Doctor Frederiksen awaken her from her state of hypnosis. He could tell by looking at her that something had gone terribly wrong in her encounter with the creature as tears were falling from her closed eyes. The answers he was looking for would soon come, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to hear about what had transpired between Tuesday and the dark creature.

## IV

### THE UNTIMELY END OF MEGAN MOXLEY

Tuesday woke from her hypnosis with an intense look of hatred and suffering in her eyes. Doctor Frederiksen noticed it immediately and did the best he could to comfort Tuesday, but she soon began crying inconsolably, his hand shaking uncontrollably while he reached out to rub her shoulder to calm her. He squeezed it into a ball, hoping to stop it from shaking any more than it was.

"Miss Moxley, what's wrong?" He asked her, rubbing her shoulders, trying to relax her from the stress of her dream. "You were thrashing around in your spot during that session. I was pushed out again, and you were screaming something about your mother."

When Tuesday calmed down enough to talk, she began speaking in a cold tone that scared Doctor Frederiksen, looking him straight in the face with a look that is meant to kill. "She's dead! They're all dead! And I'm going to hunt down that creature and kill it!"

"The creature from your dream?" Doctor Frederiksen clarified, trying not to stir up Tuesday's emotions any further than they already were.

"Yeah, that thing in my dreams." Tuesday said, her eyes darting back and forth across the room, as if she were on the lookout for some sort of enemy attack to happen. "It makes me kill people. I'm going to hunt it down and end its pathetic life. It made me kill her!"

"Who?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, searching for the answers. "Who did it make you kill?"

Tuesday suddenly flew into a frenzied rage, balling her hands up into fists. "My mother!" Tuesday screamed jumping up from the couch, looking as if she could fight something right then and there. "She's dead, don't you get it? That thing made me kill my own mother!" She fell to the floor and pulled herself over to the corner, retracting into a tiny ball, distraught, tears cascading down her face like the waterfall her hometown was named after.

Doctor Frederiksen cautiously approached Tuesday, who was now sobbing quite loudly in the corner doing his best to empathize with her. "How did she die?" He asked Tuesday as compassionately as he could manage.

"She was crushed by a train." Tuesday succeeded in saying between loud bouts of crying. "That creature made me kill my own mother! It made me kill Jessica Jackson! It manipulated me into killing Principal McCauley!"

Doctor Frederiksen seemed somewhat confused. "How did it make you kill Jessica when you were here with me at the time?" He asked, hoping to push her just far enough to get the answers he needed without going too far overboard. "And you didn't kill Principal McCauley, he was killed by wolves."

"You don't understand!" Tuesday screamed defiantly, trying to make Doctor Frederiksen comprehend what she was telling him. "That beast can take control of me and make me use my power in whatever way it wants me to! It made me kill all of them!"

Doctor Frederiksen shook his head in absolute disbelief. He could not conceive of the concept that Tuesday's dark side had gained sentience in her dreams and controlled her to do unspeakable things. He thought of many things he could try to do to help Tuesday move past this, but decided that in the end, being a friend was probably the best he could hope for. "What can we do about this?" Doctor Frederiksen asked somberly.

"Get the police on the scene." Tuesday said gravely, already knowing that there was nothing they could do for her mother. "There won't be much of her left to identify when they arrive."

"I. . . I don't know what to say." Doctor Frederiksen said, doing his best to empathize with Tuesday to help her cope with her loss.

"I've condemned myself." Tuesday stated, throwing all the blame she could imagine at herself. "I can feel the hand of the Devil grasping my throat. NO matter what I do now, I've lost everything, including my soul."

Doctor Frederiksen was not a religious person, but Tuesday's words affected him deeply. For the first time in his life, he considered the possibility of the existence of God, and felt that Tuesday really believed that she had moved to a place that was possibly beyond redemption. It was at that moment that Anthony Frederiksen decided that he needed to place any assumptions or judgments he had about Tuesday and her abilities aside, and focus on helping her to heal from this. Maybe her mother had been right, maybe the hypnosis sessions needed to be put on hold for a while.

"Doctor Frederiksen?" Tuesday piped up, trying to get his attention. "Could you call somebody for me?"

"Yes, of course." Doctor Frederiksen replied, a deep look of concern on his face. "Who do you want me to call?"

"A police officer." Tuesday stated, her hands shaking as tears began to fall from her eyes again. "His name is Douglas Downe."

How would she ever explain this to him?

## CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I

### A DRIVE WITH DOUGLAS DOWNE

Tuesday sat alone in the waiting area holding Winston tightly, waiting for Douglas Downe to come and pick her up from Doctor Frederiksen's office. Inside her mind, the voice of The Nightmare continued to taunt her, twisting the knife in her wound, reminding her that she was the one at fault for her mother's death. After about an hour, Douglas Downe came into the office and without a word he walked directly up to Tuesday and held her like she had never been held before. After a few minutes, Tuesday pulled away from him, and saw that he had tear streaks on his face, truly saddened about the events of the day. Doctor Frederiksen emerged from the back to appraise the police officer on what he knew about Megan's death.

"Hello Officer, I'm Anthony Frederiksen." The shrink announced himself, trying to get his foot in the door with Douglas Downe. "I am Tuesday's therapist; my office will assist you in any way we can." He made sure to place an emphasis on that last part loudly enough that Michelle would hear what he had said.

Douglas stood up, and put his left and on Tuesday's shoulder, and extended his right, giving the Doctor a good, firm handshake. "Pleasure to meet you." Douglas said, pulling his hand back and standing near Tuesday, almost as if her was protecting her from Doctor Frederiksen. "I'm going to get this girl out of her and find her a place to stay, if I need anything from you, I'll be sure to contact you."

Doctor Frederiksen felt uneasy about the way the police officer had dismissed him so easily, but wanted to explain the situation. "This patient is under my care, and it was her mother's wish that I continue therapy with her. Now, she's going to need it more than ever, wouldn't you agree?" Doctor Frederiksen reached into his inside pocket and revealed a business card, which he handed to the police officer. Douglas accepted the card and put it in his shirt pocket where he could find it if he needed it.

Tuesday's eyes went wide, her head turning back and forth between Douglas Downe standing next to her, and Doctor Frederiksen where he was standing a few feet in front of her. She knew that he was lying, and she desperately wanted to call him out on it, but Doctor Frederiksen was right in the sense that she would need more therapy, especially since she would have to cope with the loss of her mother, but that small voice in the back of her mind told her that she wasn't sure that he should be the one to continue her therapy.

Tuesday looked up at Douglas Downe's imposing figure, and the look on his face told her that he wasn't buying Doctor Frederiksen's story either. Michelle, who was also nearby, looked up from the desk with a look of confusion on her face. Doctor Frederiksen was clearly bluffing, but in the moment, nobody wanted to call him out on his bluff.

"It's been a long day for Tuesday." Douglas asserted, looking at Doctor Frederiksen with an authoritarian look upon his face, hoping that he might back off. "I'm going to get her settled, and then we can discuss therapy options once she gets on track. I'll call you if I need anything."

With that, Douglas Downe turned to leave, and motioned Tuesday to follow him, leaving Doctor Frederiksen and his hollow demands back in his office. The two of them left The Millwork Tavern to where Douglas Downe's squad car was parked on the street and entered the vehicle. The police officer wasted no time in telling Tuesday what he thought of Doctor Frederiksen.

"That guy's a real piece of work!" Douglas stated, raising his voice, but not too much that it might frighten Tuesday. "I can't believe that he would just lie to me like that!"

"You knew he was lying?" Tuesday asked timidly, realizing that it was good that somebody was on her side for a change. "How did you know?"

"I had lunch with your mother yesterday." Douglas Downe was forthcoming with the details. "We talked about a lot of things, one of them being how she didn't trust this therapist you were seeing. She told me that she was going to cut you loose from his sessions because you were having some problems."

"She told you that?" Tuesday questioned, not sure what was the truth and what was a lie.

"Yeah." Douglas replied somberly. "We talked about a lot of things this week."

"She said you guys were seeing each other again." Tuesday confessed, feeling not only sad for her loss, but for his too. "I was really happy for both of you."

"You know, I've been interested in her for so long." Douglas said, tears welling up in his eyes again. "I fell in love with her a long time ago, but it was impossible for us before, I'm a cop and she was into some bad things. I could always see there was a good person under all of that addiction and bad influence. I don't know what broke her and made her that way, but I was so glad to see her finally cleaning up her life."

"Yeah, me too." Tuesday muttered, showing interest while she continued to listen to what Douglas had to say about her mother.

"You know, it's a tragic irony." Douglas sustained, trying to get his thoughts out in the open in some sort of rational order. "I mean, she was going so far down the tubes that you were bound to end up in the care of the State probably sooner than later. And when she cleans up her life, here you go anyway. It's just miserable, you know what I mean?"

"I was really proud of how far she had come." Tuesday admitted, tears starting to fall down her face. "She's worked so hard this last month or so, and now she's. . . she's gone."

"You have every right to be proud of her." Douglas Downe told Tuesday, trying to change the tone of his voice to a more upbeat one. "She's been doing some outpatient rehab, going to meetings and stuff. We've gotten some very positive reports on her treatment in the last couple of weeks. A while back, she got into some trouble by being around the wrong people. There was a knife fight outside the bar, and she was there. Not a part of the action or anything. But she was there and she was in sad shape. I took her to my place for the night so she could detox, and boy, was she angry with me for keeping her at my house until she was sober enough to leave. When she left in the morning, I suggested that she check herself into some sort of outpatient rehab."

"I imagine she was pretty ticked about that." Tuesday laughed, choking back her tears. "She always hated being told what to do."

"No, she liked to think of herself as being independent." Douglass stated, continuing to talk to Tuesday as she looked out at the flurries of snow blowing up against the sides of the road. "I lost track of her for a while, work kept me pretty busy, but I always meant to check up on her. Then I discovered that the department wanted to get her off the streets permanently, so they were building a case against her."

"You told me about that!" Tuesday replied, trying her best to remember the series of events that had led them here. "And then she overdosed, and was in the hospital."

"Yeah, fast forward to this week." Douglas continued, pulling around the corner leading to the Cadence Falls Police Department. "The night the drug dealers attacked your home, I was fearful for her safety, and yours too. When I saw her that night I could see there was something in her core that wasn't there before, something different about her. There was so much improvement and I was so impressed with the way she handled things. It was completely surprising that she asked me out to eat with her, and so I went a day or so later with her on a date. I asked her if her overdose had been a key element in the changes she was making in her life."

"Well?" Tuesday asked, hanging on every word that Douglass was telling her. "What did she say?"

"She told me that the overdose had nothing to do with her decision." Douglas confided in Tuesday, finding the words coming a little harder than they did before. "She told me that she made a promise to her little girl. She said that looking out for you was her new number one concern. She told me that she was hopeful things would work between us this time, because she needed to fill that void that was in both of your lives, and that she was thinking about long term goals. I told her that I wouldn't mind having the job."

Douglas became a little quiet, and Tuesday could tell that he was upset by talking about the hope that Megan had planted within him. It was then that she realized that Douglas was just as much of a victim as she had been in all of this, and her heart ached twice as much, for her loss and for his. He reached up with the sleeve of his uniform and wiped the tears from his face as they turned into the police station, suddenly he changed the subject, trying to be about business.

"I have to take you to the station to do some paperwork on you." Douglas said bluntly, not pulling any punches. "Is that okay?"

Tuesday's anxiety shot up hearing this, fearing that he knew that she had been responsible for her mother's death. She did her best to keep a straight face, but Douglas could tell that she was terrified. "I'm not in trouble, am I?" Tuesday managed to ask, hoping that he wasn't about to throw her in jail. The more she thought about it though, the more she deserved to go to jail. She had been forced to kill her own mother, though if she confessed that to anybody, who would believe it?

"No, you're not in any trouble." Douglas answered back, trying to reassure her that this was just a procedural visit. "We just need to figure out what to do with you for the time being."

"What do you mean?" Tuesday asked, not liking the sound of what Douglas was saying. "You have to figure out what to do with me?"

"Yeah, we have to find you a place to stay." Douglas said, putting it all out there for her. "You might have to stay in Juvenile Detention tonight, but I promise, we will find you a place tomorrow."

Tuesday's defenses shot up like a rocket on the Fourth of July. "Juvenile Detention?" She asked, becoming more and more uneasy as the seconds passed. "I'm not a criminal, so why do I have to be locked up like one?"

Douglas chuckled at Tuesday's assumption and did his best to calm her nervousness. "No, no. We're not locking you up!" Douglas said reassuringly, hoping to get back on Tuesday's good side. "We are just placing you in protective custody until we can find a foster home with an open spot for you."

Suddenly, Tuesday's mind flashed on Jason, and how her parents operated a foster home for children who had been through much worse than she had. The answer was so obvious! Tuesday suddenly became excited with the possibility that she might get to see Jason soon. He might possibly be the only one who could console her. He had a way of doing that. She knew that Lauren Alkali would take her in, she just knew it!

"Excuse me, Douglas?" Tuesday spoke up timidly, hoping to relay her information to him. "I know of a new foster care provider here in town. Can I request being placed with them?"

Douglas pulled the squad car to a stop in the basement of the police station, parking in his assigned spot, acknowledging the information that Tuesday imparted upon him. "If they have a space for you, you may have just made my job a lot easier." He said with a look of relief upon his face. "We will go and do the paperwork and give them a call to see if they have a room for you."

It wasn't long before Tuesday was sitting at Douglas' desk, and he was filling out reports regarding the accident, which he had a difficult time containing himself emotionally over while his hand scribbled information on the stack of paperwork. Tuesday answered the questions he had for her, mostly having to do with addresses and social security numbers and things of that nature. When he had finally finished, he asked Tuesday to go wait outside of his office while he called the Alkali family about a possible residence for her.

Despite the tragedy, Tuesday was experiencing, the day did have a silver lining. She couldn't wait to see Jason, but she dreading explaining to him what had happened to her mother. Everything depended on whether they had a room for her or not. She could see Douglas Downe through the window of his office, talking on the phone with the Alkali house, and spent several minutes on the phone with Lauren on the other end. Meanwhile Tuesday sat nervously in a chair, squeezing Winston's hand, hoping for a quick and favorable resolution.

After what seemed like an eternity, Douglas hung up the phone and opened the office door, a grim look on his face. He sat beside Tuesday, pausing for a moment, and then took a deep breath before filling her in on what he had learned.

## II

### HOME FOR THE LAST TIME

"I talked to Lauren Alkali." Douglas began, trying to find the best way to tell her what his conversation entailed. "They have a room at their house for you, but it will only be temporarily, like maybe a week or two."

"I don't mean to seem ungrateful." Tuesday said, asking for clarification. "But why only a couple of weeks?"

"She told me that you and her son are romantically involved." Douglas confessed, trying to break the news to Tuesday as best he could. "That's more than she's legally allowed to do so she and I are working on another option."

"Which option is that?" Tuesday asked, confused about what her future might bring to her. "Where will I go?"

"I've got an idea." Douglas told her, his face brightening up a little. "I am going to adopt you. The Alkalis are going to help me with that. "I feel as if I made a commitment to your Mom, and I want to be the man she thought I was and follow through. It is the best way I can think to honor her memory."

Tuesday couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was only a more than an hour or so before that she had learned that he was serious enough about her mother that he was willing to marry her, now he wanted to adopt her? The variables of the situation were too numerous for her to think about with an objective mind. Tuesday knew that she would have to take some time with this. Douglas could sense Tuesday's apprehension by the look on her face.

"I mean, if you want to." Douglas said, trying to explain. "I've seen what happens to orphans your age, they get swallowed by the system and become apathetic to the world. I want to take you in, and give you a fighting chance. But I'll give you some time with this, I mean there's only so much you can put yourself through in one day."

Tears began inexplicably falling from Tuesday's eyes again, and she knew what Douglas was telling her was true. "I'll honestly think about it." She told him, extending her pinky out to make a promise with him. He reached his hand out and entwined his pinky finger with hers, a sad smile upon his face.

"Pinky swear?" Tuesday asked, recalling how she had made such an oath with her mother only a couple of weeks prior.

"Pinky swear." Douglas answered.

The entwining of the pinky fingers lingered on a few more seconds as Tuesday and Douglas Downe shared a moment of understanding between the two of them. This cop, who she had only met a month ago, was willing to take her in and care for her like she was his own. Tuesday could not fathom how one man could have been so wonderful to her mother, especially back in a time when Megan didn't invite preferential treatment from anybody. This guy had put his job on the line, warning Tuesday about the drug raid they were planning, had bet it all to protect her Mom and her. This guy wanted more from Megan than any of the other guys wanted from her. He wanted her to clean up her life, and believed that there was something great festering under Megan's harsh exterior. She refused to believe it, or even see it for the longest time, but Douglas had been completely in love with her. He was even planning on being the Dad that Tuesday never had. And even though Megan was gone, he still wanted that job. The thought of this sent Tuesday into another round of tears, which Douglas noticed immediately and walked into his office, returning with a box of tissues.

"You can keep the box, okay? I have a feeling you're going to need them." Douglas stated compassionately. "The paperwork is done, if you're ready to go."

Tuesday looked up at Douglas and it was all so clear. This guy would look out for her, and would work to make her as happy as he had aspired to make her mother. In fact, Tuesday thought of it as a no-brainer. "You know what?" Tuesday asked, tears streaming down her face. "I accept your invitation. You're going to be the best dad in the world!"

Tuesday bounced off the seat she was sitting in and up into Douglas' arms, where she found the strength to cry tears of joy on the worst day of her life. "Thank you so much!" Tuesday blubbered out, fitting her gratitude in between sobs. He just held her until she was ready to let go.

When she finally did turn loose of him, they headed back down to the basement where his squad care was waiting for them to carry them to the Alkali house, which would be her home for a couple of weeks. Tuesday knew she needed a few things from her house.

"Do you mind if we swing by my house and pick up some things?" Tuesday asked, looking tired as if the emotional roller coaster ride was catching up to her.

"I don't see a problem with that." Douglas replied, smiling at the girl who would bring new meaning to his life.

They pulled out from the garage, and drove across town without much conversation to be had. When they reached Tuesday's house, Douglas pulled into the driveway and let her out of the car.

Tuesday jumped out, the late autumn sun beginning to set behind her as her shoes crunched through the snow on the lawn in her walk to the door. She got her key from her bag and put it into the lock, opening the door. It felt so strange to Tuesday to walk into the house and know that her mother would never set foot inside it again. The thought made her lip quiver again, but she fought back the tears. Maybe one day she could tell Douglas about the circumstances of her mother's death, but that would have to wait. She knew that the tears she had spent the afternoon shedding were not completely in sadness. She felt guilt, hatred, loss, and blamed it all on herself. The next time she encountered The Nightmare, she would make it suffer as she had suffered. She would exact her vengeance on that foul creature, and it would not be swift, she would take her time with it, and destroy it as slowly as one could imagine they could. She needed the power to defeat it, and it was time that she had begun to heed the teachings of Doctor Frederiksen and hate that monster in a way that she never hated any other living thing. It was time to let her dark out to play.

Tuesday looked around her dimly lit home and flipped on a light switch to get her clean clothing out of the laundry. She gathered her most important items, and vowed to come and pack the rest of them as soon as she could. _"What am I going to do with all of this stuff?"_ Tuesday silently thought to herself, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. She suddenly felt overwhelmed by the entire day, and wished more than anything that her mother was there to make everything alright. She walked up the stairs and into her mother's room, where the unmade bed invited her for another good cry. She flopped down on the bed, and immediately sensed her mother's scent on the pillows and blanket, enveloped herself in it, and she finally let out all the pain, the rage, the frustration, the loss and the guilt of the day.

Tuesday cried for the better part of the next fifteen minutes, not holding back anything. She just couldn't believe her mother was gone. She laid upon her mother's bed, kicking and trashing and just letting it all out, every guilty thought, every regret, and the thought of every moment with her mother that she had ever taken for granted, none of which she would ever get back again.

When Tuesday found that she could get herself under control, she sat up on the bed and saw a stack of papers on the dresser on the other side of the room. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she stood up and walked over to the dresser and found a file folder, with about half of the pages turned upside down on the left-hand side, and half turned right side up on the right-hand side. This must have been the file that her mother told her about from back when she was taking the experimental drug. She looked at it, and wondered if there was more to her mother's secrets than she had previously thought. Her mother had clearly been reading it, but what Tuesday was curious about was the timing. _"Why was she looking at this? Why now?"_

Tuesday knew that there was something in there that filled in the blanks of her mother's backstory, and her own personal history. She reached out for the file, her hand hovering over it for a moment, hesitating. This file was a virtual Pandora's Box of information, that when read, could not be forgotten, and Tuesday knew that it might very well taint her perception of her mother. Tuesday felt haunted in the presence of the folder, as if her mother's ghosts had come back to haunt her. Tuesday reconciled her thought in a flash, _"Whoever she was then was not who she was when she died."_

Tuesday stacked the papers back together and closed the folder, scooping it up and shoving it into her bag to take with her. She also walked back over to her mother's bed, folding up her blanket to take with her. She piled the items she planned to take with her by the door as she made a last-minute sweep of the house to see if there was anything she had forgotten. Spying a few odds and ends, she put them together with the other things and turned on the porch light so she could find her way back to the squad car with her belongings.

Tuesday opened up the door and began tossing her belongings out onto the porch, catching Douglas' eye from the squad car. "Hey, you need some help?" He called out to her, sounding concerned. "I was getting a little worried about you."

"Yeah, I could use some help." Tuesday admitted.

Douglas was on the porch in a flash, helping Tuesday carry the bags of clothing and accessories to the car. It wasn't long before they had it loaded up, and Tuesday locked the door to the house again. She walked away from the house but turned to look at it again, a deep sadness penetrating her heart. She knew she would have to come back and deal with it at some point, but she wouldn't put any more thought into it until she was ready to. She knew that she needed to distance herself from it and take life a day at a time, starting with this very night. Douglas Downe pulled out of the driveway, the house disappeared from their line of sight as they put distance between themselves and the property. Tuesday felt as if she had left a piece of herself in that house, neglected and alone, and it would starve to death in there with nobody to look after it.

And Tuesday knew that it was going to be a long and difficult night.

## III

### THE ALKALI HOUSE

Tuesday and Douglas arrived at the Alkali House, getting themselves out of the car and walking up to the doorway, anxiety filling Tuesday's mind once again. Her apprehension was getting the better of her, as she slowed down her walk toward the house, each step seeming to take longer than the one before it. The entire trek to their door seemed as if it took a lifetime, but before they knew it, they were there, and Douglas was ringing the doorbell. Instead of the doorbell, Tuesday heard the insidious laughter of The Nightmare in her head, which snapped her focus back to the moment that her mother was killed, and the rage welled up within her. She forced it back down into herself again, as the door opened.

"Oh hello, Tuesday!" Lauren said, being as complimentary and inviting as she could be. "We are so glad to have you here, won't you please come inside?" Tuesday smiled politely at Lauren, clearly nervous with no comprehension on what she should expect.

Lauren knew full well that Tuesday was suffering immensely and that she would be for a while. She had experience talking with children who had lost their parents, and knew that there were no easy answers when it came to counseling their grief. In her experience, it was better to not bring it up at all until Tuesday was ready to talk about it. If she would ever be ready to talk about it. It was her best policy to treat everything as business as usual, and when Tuesday was ready, then they would have a long discussion about it.

A few minutes later Douglas began unloading Tuesday's belongings, with the help of John and Jason. After a few trips back and forth from the car to the house, they finally were able to bring everything in. The last trip Douglas made back to the car for some paperwork that he needed Lauren to sign, stating that she would be providing temporary foster care to Tuesday. After all the paperwork was signed, Tuesday said goodbye to Douglas Downe for the night, and expressed to him that she was hopeful that their new life would be good for them both. He hugged her tightly, saying nothing, but letting his actions do the talking. When he let go of her, she found herself smiling, first because she was looking forward to having such an incredible dad, and secondly because Jason had suddenly appeared in the foyer, helping to move her things to her room.

Tuesday took comfort in the fact that Jason would be instantly available for the next couple of weeks, that he could help her with her grieving in a way that nobody else could. Jason got her in a way that nobody else did, and she was excruciatingly thankful for his presence in Cadence Falls. She didn't know what had made his parents choose Cadence Falls, but Jason was truly a blessing in her life, a blessing that she would never forget.

Douglas pulled Lauren aside for a moment and thanked her for helping him out with Tuesday and that she had agreed to go through with the custody with him. "Yeah, I think she's been through quite a lot more than just her mother's death." Douglas told her, Lauren nodding as he continued to explain his position. "She isn't saying what it is, but whatever you can do to comfort her over the weekend, that would be great."

"I'll see what I can find out." Lauren agreed, hoping to learn something from the boys. "I'm not going to expect a whole lot from her at this stage."

"She's seeing a shrink and he's fairly insistent that she continue seeing him." Douglas stated, shaking his head. "Her mother was going to cut ties with the guy, and I don't trust him. If she wants to see him, that's her choice, but don't let this guy goad you into thinking that her seeing him was her mother's wishes, because it wasn't."

Douglas reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the business card that Doctor Frederiksen had given him, and handed it to Lauren Alkali.

"Okay, thank you." Lauren responded, her attention shifting between the business card and the police officer. "If I have any problems, I'll let you know, but she's a pretty sweet kid, so I doubt she'll be too much to handle."

"Thank you again." Douglas Downe said, getting his clipboard back in order, before turning his attention to Tuesday. "Do you want to go get a burger on Saturday? And maybe we could do some other things too?"

Tuesday looked at him, nodding her head. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Okay, I'll come by around eleven or so." Douglas promised Tuesday giving her another hug before he turned to leave. "Anywhere you want to go. Good night, sleep well, okay?"

"I'll try." Tuesday replied.

Officer Downe departed from the Alkali House as Tuesday watched him leave. Just over a month ago, she would have never guessed that there were so many people who cared for her. In fact, she had become so accustomed to looking after herself and mistreated by other people that she had written off humanity completely. She thought for a while that she didn't have the capacity to love and care for other people, because she certainly wasn't feeling that from anybody else, including her own mother.

But all of that had changed and she had several people she could recently depend on. There was Jason, who had restored her faith in people. There was Doctor Frederiksen who was intelligent and kind, and even though he lied to the police, she was certain that it was just in her best interest. And of course, there was Douglas Downe, who was a true blessing in disguise, her knight in shining armor. Now the Alkali family was taking her in. And of course, the cherry on the top was her mother, and how she had finally gotten her life together and given her the relationship that she had always dreamed of.

Well, until The Nightmare had stolen it from her. Every single time the thought crossed her mind, she began to feel her hatred festering inside of her like one of those giant pimples, red and sore, filling with pus, but not yet ready to explode. When she did explode, she was going to make sure The Nightmare would drown in her hate.

Tuesday's thoughts were interrupted by Lauren, who closed the front door and mentioned something about cookies and milk, which Tuesday nodded to the affirmative for. She realized that she hadn't eaten since breakfast and that was many hours ago, so when Lauren mentioned food, she wasn't about to turn it down. She took the cookies and the milk and gobbled it up rather quickly, much to Lauren's amazement.

"I apologize that we couldn't keep you longer." Lauren began, explaining the procedure to her. "You're dating my son, so I can't legally take you in a foster child, for health and safety reasons. I hope you understand. But you'll always be a part of our family, and we will always try to help you in any way we can. I have two other foster kids here besides our sons. We are currently hosting two girls, Ashley and Susan, and James we adopted. Like you, he lost his parents."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Tuesday responded, understanding how he must have felt. "How did they die?"

"It was over the summer, actually." Lauren confessed. "We met them while we were camping, and while the boys were out hiking, my husband and I decided to climb the rock face with James' parents. Their rope was faulty and it snapped, and they fell on the rocks below. I felt so helpless, you know, watching them fall and not being able to do anything about it."

"Oh no!" Tuesday replied, feeling bad for James, and what he was going through. "I can't imagine losing both parents."

"Yeah we did." Lauren admitted, smiling as she looked off into the other room at James. "He's a great kid. He and John are best buddies. They're practically inseparable. When we couldn't find any more of their family, we decided that James should stay with us."

Lauren gave Tuesday the tour of the house, and told her about the areas that she was allowed to go into and the spaces that off limits to her completely. Lauren then put down the ground rules with Jason that they couldn't be alone with each other in their rooms, that if they wanted to spend time together, it had to be in the common areas. Lauren explained that it wasn't personal, she just didn't want to risk losing her foster care provider license, and that if the two of them wanted to go somewhere away from the house alone, that would be acceptable too.

Lauren showed Tuesday the laundry area, and told her that she would be responsible for washing her own clothes, and that she would also be responsible for rinsing off her own dishes, and that there would be a rotational schedule regarding who loads and unloads the dishwasher. It wasn't that Lauren wanted to impose tasks on Tuesday, or any of her foster children for that matter, she felt it was important to teach them how to take care of themselves. Tuesday had been looking after herself for a long time, so the idea of doing it was old hat to her, though she was too polite to brush Lauren off by acting like a know-it-all.

When at last Lauren had finished her orientation, she let her go and visit with the other kids, but there was only one of them she wanted to talk to, and that was Jason. She had a lot to fill him in on, but first, she had to go and put her room in order.

Tuesday wondered if her life would ever be normal. _"Would it always be like this?"_ She thought to herself, unpacking her bags. When she reached into her backpack, she quickly remembered that she had placed the folder in there that outlined her mother's past, and was apprehensive to read it. She pulled the thick folder out of her backpack and placed it on the nightstand next to her bed, tears beginning to form in her eyes again. As she was finishing, there was a knock on her door. She wiped her tears from her face as well as she could, stood up and walked across the room, opening the door.

It was Jason, and he looked like he was ready to talk to her.

## CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I

### AN OVERDUE EXPLANATION

As ready as Tuesday was to talk to Jason, her apprehension got the better of her seeing him in front of her door. Everything was jumbled up in her head, and she felt like she needed a day or two to get her thoughts together, and tried to explain it to him the best way she could without upsetting him.

"Hey, Baby!" Tuesday said, a look of relief on her face, stepping up to Jason and wrapping her arms around him.

"What's going on, Tuesday?" Jason asked, seemingly never more concerned for her well-being than he was at that moment.

Tuesday paused and squeezed him a little tighter before exhaling sharply. "I want to tell you, but I need to get my thoughts in order first." She admitted to him, hoping that he would understand her need for time. "Please, just hold me."

"I understand, and I promise I won't push you." Jason agreed, moving his arms around her and holding her in the hall outside her room. "Whenever you're ready."

Tuesday and Jason went down to the sofa in the common area and watched some television for the evening to take their minds off the stress of the day. Jason brought in some snacks for the two of them to share, for which Tuesday was exceptionally grateful for. She gobbled them down, but didn't say much to Jason for the duration of the evening. Tuesday's nightfall was spent on that sofa, curled up in Jason's arms, and breaking into inaudible little sobs whenever she saw something on the television that had reminded her of her mother. Tuesday had thought that she and her mother didn't have that much history together until recently, but strangely, everything seemed to remind her of the times they had spent together, and each memento was a cold and cruel slap in her face, a recollection of what had been robbed from her. Each time she began to cry again, Jason held her a little tighter and rubbed her hand across her back in an effort to comfort her. When she had enough of the television, she told Jason that she was tired and needed to get some rest, which he agreed would be best for her.

Tuesday stood up from the couch, hugging Jason one last time for the night. "I promise, I won't always be like this." She softly whispered to him, squeezing him tightly. "And thank you for just being here for me tonight."

"You're welcome, Tuesday." Jason said with a sad smile. "I'm here if you need anything, okay?"

"Thank you, sweetie." Tuesday answered, feeling the warmth of his through his shirt, loosely running her fingers through his hair. "I'll see you tomorrow, mmkay?"

"You bet!" Jason replied, getting that cocky tone in his voice that she loved so much. "It's a date!"

The two of them shared a laugh, and then Jason walked Tuesday up to her room. They said goodnight to each other, and found it difficult to leave each other's presence. Tuesday desired in the deepest places of her heart that she could spend the whole night with Jason so he could hold her and comfort her. Jason couldn't stand to see Tuesday suffering, and wished that he could just stay with her to make her feel better. But rules were rules, and Tuesday didn't want to be responsible for causing any more harm to anybody else, so she stepped into her room and closed the door.

Tuesday went over and sat down on her bed, covering herself up with her blanket and pulling Winston close. "You know old buddy, Jason isn't going to replace you." She confided in her best friend for life. "I'm afraid you'll be stuck with me for the rest of our lives."

She giggled a little, and remembered that her mother had gotten her that bear, which reminded her that the thick folder full of her mother's paperwork was sitting next to her bed. She reached her hands over to the nightstand and hefted the tome over her bed and onto her lap. She paused before flipping open the cover of the folder, unsure of what she would discover inside. It took her a few minutes to work up the courage, thinking it would be like the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered if she should just shut her eyes and not look at it.

After some internal struggle, Tuesday realized that her mother must have dug the paperwork out of the chest and was looking it over so she could give her the rest of the answers she had been searching for. She opened the file and thumbed through it, much of it covering her mother's injuries and treatment for them in a manner that used far too much medical jargon for Tuesday's comprehension. As she got further in the file, she found a padded manila envelope, still sealed, which sent Tuesday's curiosity into the stratosphere. She opened it, and there was information from a company called _ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals_ regarding Megan's use of the experimental drug she was taking for them. The envelope contained a file folder and a ledger of substances prescribed to somebody named Megan Ackerman, with the prescribing doctors name redacted in each entry. Flipping the front cover open, she began to read the first page, which discussed at length a list of test subjects for an experimental drug that, in theory, would make it possible for the subject to have offspring that would utilize a larger percentage of their brain than the average person would. The presiding doctor's name was redacted on the form, to maintain some sort of secrecy. The page contained a short list of candidates, which Tuesday read the page and the list of names.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Phase II – Find a Viable Host for BN-243

February 5, 1980

After months of clinical trials, we have narrowed the list of viable candidate hosts for BN-243 down to these subjects. These females were chosen based upon their illegal chemical dependency paired with their high probability of fertility, making them the most likely candidates to carry our test child through to full term. Each of them will be assigned a male counterpart who has been prepped for the procedure, using BX-147 in the preliminary stages of Phase I.

These candidate's physiology has been tested and will be the most effective of the hundreds of females we screened during the clinical trials. Having been tested with both the placebo and the tamest strain of BN-243, these candidates demonstrated the least resistance to the drug and their immune system did not fight off the presence of the drug in their body. Doctor Anthony Frederiksen was most pleased with these eleven subjects and wants to begin pairing the females up with their male counterparts within 60 days of the introduction of full strength of the BN-243 strain into their system, and then tapering off to a capsule form to sustain the levels of the drug in the female's systems.

Sarah Janson

Dina Morales

Katrina Goode

Jennifer Harrison

Rosemary Sullivan

Donna Jenkins

Amanda Vaughn

Cynthia Glover

Megan Ackerman

Tina Roscoe

Laura Silverstein

The bottom of the first form was signed with an illegible scribble, and dated in the year 1980, which Tuesday realized would have been the year she would have been conceived. After reading the form completely, Tuesday skimmed back down the list, and realized that her mother's name was not on the list. It didn't make any sense to her. Then she had remembered her mother had told her that she had lied about her name at the hospital to keep the rapists from finding her. Looking back over the list again the name listed that she suspected was her mother had to be _Megan Ackerman_. Tuesday couldn't believe what she was reading, that her mother had essentially been a guinea pig for some crooked pharmaceutical company to experiment on. She put the first form down and picked up the next form, and wasn't sure that she liked it any better.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Phase III – Pairing of BX-147 and BN-243 Subjects

April 18, 1980

The 60-day trial of the injections of BN-243 has been successfully implemented in the female subjects and they will be moving forward with the less potent capsule form of the drug from here on out. The females believe that they are experimenting with a new form of birth control, which should keep them from taking precautions against pregnancy through other various forms of birth control for the duration of our experiment. The male specimens are primed, and the alterations to the DNA have been made in accordance with the instructions of Anthony Frederiksen, who is the manager and doctor overseeing this project. Each of the male subjects will be paired with a female subject, which studies have shown which males are the most highly compatible with the females both physically and attractively.

Sarah Jason will be paired with Brian Summers

Dina Morales will be paired with Robert Long

Katrina Goode will be paired with Alex Jacobi

Jennifer Harrison will be paired with Shane Bennett

Rosemary Sullivan will be paired with Ronald Clifton

Donna Jenkins will be paired with Lee Hayes

Amanda Vaughn will be paired with Jeffrey Vanderhoof

Cynthia Glover will be paired with Jasper Franklin

Megan Ackerman will be paired with Daniel Price

Tina Roscoe will be paired with Andy Davis

Laura Silverstein will be paired with Don Timmons

The males are aware of their assignments and have studied the research materials provided to them regarding the interests and behavior of the females they have been assigned. The males have signed contracts and will be compensated for their time and effort, and will not be forced to stay with the female unless he so chooses to. Pairing will commence on April 21, for which Doctor Frederiksen will be monitoring the situations for each specimen couple very closely and making a determination on which will have the highest opportunity for success. Phase IV will commence upon proof of conception of a child specimen, where the female host will be given a referral to our own prenatal services to monitor the growth of the fetus.

Tuesday found herself in complete and utter disbelief of what she was reading. Had her mother unknowingly been a part of some insidious plot to engineer her birth? Tuesday found herself going back over the second document again to figure out who Megan Ackerman had been paired with. It was somebody named Daniel Price. _"Could Daniel Price be my father?"_ Tuesday wondered to herself as she felt her eyes closing, luring her closer to sleep. She decided that it was time to put the reading down for the night and get some sleep because she had a hamburger date around lunch time the next morning. She put the folder back together and put it in a drawer in the nightstand, definitely intrigued by what she read, but too tired to read any more. It wasn't long before she fell asleep.

Tuesday didn't sleep well that night, haunted by visions of a train passing through her immaterial form and smashing the car, the crash and the sound of twisting metal still fresh on her mind. She slept an hour at a time, waking to the sound of the laughter of The Nightmare, which infuriated her each time she thought she could hear it. She had wondered if she would ever get a peaceful night's sleep again.

Tuesday spent most of Thursday and Friday in her room, wanting nothing more than to sleep the day away, and found that it was difficult. She spent part of her day reading the medical examinations which detailed in depth the extent of her mother's injuries sustained at the hands of her attackers. It was gruesome to read through it, and it was quite a round of discovery to learn what it had taken to get make her mother functional again. She even found the page from when they had told Megan that she was pregnant. Tuesday felt the moment overtake her, surreal and sobering. She desperately tried to live in that moment in her mind to try and feel what her mother must have felt when she was told that she was pregnant by the nurse who was taking such exceptional care of her. The revelation caused Tuesday to have to fight back her tears again, realizing that she was the child that her mother had never fully prepared for. One of the notes on the page stated that Megan wanted to name her daughter "Tuesday", first because it was the day that one miracle had happened and her life was spared, and secondly because her child was yet another miracle. Tuesday felt sheepish, having been so wrong in her assumption that her mother hadn't put any thought into her name, and whimpered silently to herself, realizing that her name had a great and wonderful meaning after all.

Also for the first time, Tuesday could understand why Megan wanted no memory of these events, and felt connected to her mother in a way that she never had. It was no wonder that she wanted to numb herself and forget this, and Tuesday was not surprised by the persona that her mother had created, big and terrifying. It was all an elaborate shell that she had created to protect herself from the evil of the world. Megan Moxley felt that it was better to become darker than the world around her, that way she could not be hurt by it again. Though she cherished the time she and her mother had recently spent together, part of Tuesday had felt guilty that she had taken that away her defenses from her mother. If she hadn't, it was likely that her mother would still be alive.

Before Tuesday knew it, it was dark and she found that she was tired from all the reading and thinking she had done throughout the day. Her eyelids became heavy and she found it difficult to focus on the pages, so she placed the file on the nightstand, and reached for Winston, covering herself up and passing out for the night.

Saturday morning came much sooner than Tuesday had anticipated when Jason came knocking at her door, offering her breakfast. She got up and went downstairs and ate with the rest of the family, but her mind wasn't truly there. She was thinking of her mother and what files from the pharmaceutical company had said. She wanted to get back to reading them, but it would have to wait until later that night.

After she cleaned her breakfast plate and put it in the dishwasher, Tuesday went back upstairs and got herself a shower, cleaning all the salty residue from her face and arms leftover from the crying she had done. But in spite of herself, her thoughts turned to that tragic moment on the rail crossing, and she released another helping of liquid sadness, curled into a ball in the tub, the hot shower water washing over her as she gently wept.

After her shower, Tuesday went into her room and got dressed, picking out an ensemble that would be warm enough in the lingering snow and cold weather outside. She went downstairs and watched television until Douglas Downe had arrived, promptly at eleven for their day out together.

Tuesday left with Douglas Downe and they went to the mall where he bought her some new jeans and a warmer coat than the hoody she was wearing. She picked out a thick black coat with a fur lining around the hood and was fitted with many pockets to store the various things she carried with her from time to time. And it fit her perfectly. Tuesday showed her gratitude to Douglas by thanking him and giving him a quick hug.

The two of them drove across the bridge and across the State line to Oregon where he took her out to a secluded location in the woods and taught her how to handle a handgun should the need to use one ever arise. They fired off some target shots together for a little while, and then drove back across the river to The Devil's City where Douglas made good on his promise to buy her a hamburger. Tuesday ordered a meal which included a large bacon double cheeseburger, French fries and a strawberry banana milkshake with a cherry on the top of it.

Only for a moment, Tuesday had managed to take her mind off the fact that her mother was gone and lived in the present, allowing herself to come out without pain our guilt. Douglas saw it, and knew that he had accomplished something wonderful.

Tuesday arrived back at the Alkali House sometime after eight o'clock, and went right to her room. She thought about reading more of the pharma file, but wasn't in the mood to spoil the day she had. She wanted the time alone to reflect on things, and to think about her day with Douglas. She spent many hours thinking about everything, about the way that her mother had died, about the nightmares she had, about the first time she remembered having a nightmare that physically happened. She thought about the Jackson girls, and how they had treated her so badly over the years, and she thought about Principal McCauley, who even though she had hated him, was beginning to see how wrong she was for ending his life and reign of terror in such a brutal fashion. She began to place the pieces of the puzzle together, and saw a long string of events, building one on top of another, on top of another to reach this crescendo that was leading to some inexplicable destination, unknown to Tuesday.

In her mind, Tuesday knew that she had the power to look and see where it was this was all leading, but did not want to attract the attention of that hideous creature who made her do things she didn't truly want to do. Even now, she could still hear it in her head, laughing. Incessant laughter, and it never stopped. It was taunting her, reminding her that it took control of her actions and stole the most important thing in her life away from her. Every time she thought about it, she could feel her hate growing, even stronger and more than the she had harbored toward Principal McCauley. She would use that hate to drive it away, but for the moment, she was in mourning, and wanted to avoid that particular confrontation until she had a clear understanding of what she was dealing with.

After a few hours, Tuesday fell fast asleep. She slept hard that night, her mind and body too tired to continue without a good night's sleep. She did find herself dreaming again though, regardless of whether she wanted to or not, and it wasn't long before she took flight. She whipped through the streets of Cadence Falls, wrapping herself in the peace of mind that flying offered her. She began to think about how she might have condemned her soul by killing her mother and for some reason, her thoughts turned to David Peatross.

Instead of going and looking in on David, she wanted to see where it was his life was heading, being that he wasn't so very different from her. Both had been bullied, neglected and cast aside. She needed to know where his life was going, and if her life would be going in the same direction.

The scenery around her changed, and suddenly she was witnessing a montage of terrible acts of violence, warfare and disease. David Peatross was an adult, wearing a long beard and carrying what looked like an assault rifle. He was commanding legions of men in what appeared to be the Middle-East, who were reveling and cheering the defeat of The United States. A moment later, she saw David give a command, from a confined space, and nuclear weapons fired from their silos, destroying the entirety of the planet. Refusing to witness anything further, Tuesday turned her focus back to the present and the vision of war melted and gave way to a clear starry night with a black sky.

Tuesday couldn't believe that David would destroy the world like that, and couldn't imagine what he had been through to push him to that dark place. In that moment, Tuesday pledged to herself that there would be no more killing from her, and that She would defeat that creature and use her power to only help people. It had swayed her point of view to the point of recklessness and extreme carelessness. She flew back to the Alkali House and knew that she would have much to talk with Jason about. She was ready. She had to be ready.

## II

### A THEORY FROM A FIRST LOVE

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1995

When she awoke the next morning, she bounced out of bed, feeling sad, but refreshed. After getting a shower and getting dressed, she found Jason sitting on the sofa watching professional wrestling. Tuesday adored professional wrestling, so she joined him on the couch, watching large men pummel one another until the show was over.

"Hey Jason?" Tuesday said, trying to get his full attention. "I'm ready to talk."

Jason was still riding the wave of wrestling excitement and it took him a moment to realize what Tuesday had said. When it dawned on him, his demeanor changed from messing around to attentive and serious. Tuesday loved this about him, he could be what she needed him to be at the drop of a hat. It was one of his more endearing traits.

"Yeah, I mean. Yeah!" Jason spouted out excitedly. "Let's go into the breakfast nook where we won't be disturbed."

Tuesday and Jason walked to the other end of the house to the secluded room off the other end of the kitchen. Jason was fairly certain that the breakfast nook was one of those gray areas as far as the rules were concerned, being that there was no enclosed door or bed inside, he thought it would be a safe place to talk. When they arrived in the breakfast nook, Jason pulled out a chair for Tuesday, and then pushed it in as she sat down. He walked around the other side of the table and sat down directly across from her.

"So, what's going on, Tuesday?" Jason asked Tuesday, feeling fully concerned for her. "Whatever happened, you know you can trust me."

"You know, all my life, I just wanted a relationship with my Mom." Tuesday began, the tears instantly welling up in her eyes. "And now she's gone."

"What happened, sweetie?" Jason asked, reaching his hands across the table to hold hers. "What's wrong? Help me understand."

"I killed my mother." Tuesday said, breaking down into a full-fledged meltdown having heard the actual words escape her lips. "I killed her and I didn't even want to. But I couldn't stop myself!"

Jason lost the plot as soon as Tuesday began to explain it. "I don't mean to be skeptical, but how could you have killed her? She was hit by a train, wasn't she?"

Tuesday became frantic and escalated into a full-blown panic. Jason stood up and walked around the table, placing his arm around her and helping her to sort it all out. She slides off the chair and into the corner of the room, covering her face with her hands, Jason still trying his best to comfort her. He pulled one of the decorative dish cloths from the wall and used it to sop up her tears, which seemed to be in endless supply. After about twenty minutes, Tuesday is able to regain her composure somewhat and continue relaying her tale to Jason.

"Jason, do you remember the day I met you? Tuesday asked, peering into his big, blue eyes.

"It wasn't that long ago, so yeah, I remember." Jason replied, trying to interject a dose of humor to the situation.

"Do you remember there was something that I didn't want to talk about?" Tuesday said, revisiting the day she had met him at the bus stop and the subsequent ride to school that had followed.

"Yeah, I remember." Jason said.

"I'm ready to tell you my secrets." Tuesday remarked, still staring at Jason as a cool, calm washed over her. "If you're ready to listen to them."

Jason felt the pressure mounting and the seriousness of the situation building to a point of no return. He suspected that Tuesday was about to tell him something that she hadn't even told anybody, not even her mother. He made a point to get honest about the discussion they were having, because he knew that he would only get one shot at this to make it happen, and screwing things up with Tuesday was the last thing in the world he wanted to happen.

"Yeah, you know I want to hear about you." Jason confessed, giving Tuesday his full and undivided attention. "I care about you!"

Tuesday's lip quivered a little bit as she began to tell Jason a story about the first time she remembered her nightmares. "I once had a friend, her name was Kara." She began, trying to recall every detail of the incident. "It was Kara's birthday, she was turning six so her parents had a slumber party for her at her house with her friends. Kara was my best friend, so of course, I was invited to the party. Serina and Jessica were also invited to the party, we all used to be friends once."

"It's hard to imagine you guys were all friends at one time." Jason commented, trying to think what that might have looked like. "Sorry, please continue."

"We were all at the slumber party." Tuesday said, grasping for memories of what that night had brought so she could tell her tale with sincerity and truth. "That was the first night that I had one of my nightmares. I had a horrible dream that the house was going to explode, something to do with the gas hookup in the house and the pilot light. The nightmare was so vivid and real, I could feel the flames and the force of the explosion tearing through everybody, ripping them apart and burning them. I woke up screaming, and wouldn't go back to sleep so her parents called my mom, who was too busy to come to my rescue in a timely manner. When she finally did arrive, she was furious with me. At the time, I didn't understand why. My mother yanked my arm and pulled me across the yard, practically throwing me into the car. As we sat out on the street, I explained what was going to happen, and she didn't believe me. As we started to pull away, the house exploded and burned to the ground. Kara and her father were both killed, her mother was badly burned. Serina and Jessica had also been picked up by their mother, so they escaped the blast, but saw it just like we did."

"Wow! That's terrible, Tuesday!" Jason said, trying to console her the best he could. "You didn't kill those people, it was an accident."

"I know I didn't kill them." Tuesday countered, trying to explain what had happened. "I was only six years old, and I still feel guilty about it to this day."

Jason sat in front of Tuesday, rubbing her shoulder as she continued to speak. "What I am going to tell you next, I need you to believe and just take on faith that this is the truth."

Jason nodded his head in approval. "You know that I believe you, and that I trust you."

"I have a special gift, as Doctor Frederiksen calls it." Tuesday announced. "I am able to dream the future."

"You pretty much just confirmed that with the slumber party story." Jason acknowledged, trying to stay serious and focused on what Tuesday was saying.

"Think, Jason!" Tuesday snapped, feeling as if he wasn't giving her his full attention. "Remember the day we met each other? Can you remember the accident with the car? I dreamed that too. That's how I _knew_ that accident would be at that exact place at that exact time. That's why the Jackson girls call me a murderer and a number of other foul things."

"But you didn't kill Kara." Jason replied, trying to talk some sense into Tuesday. "You only dreamed about her, same with the car wreck."

Tuesday shook her head in agreement with Jason. "Okay, so you understand that!" She explained, trying to figure out the best way to make her point. "I only foreseen those events, and many more events like that. I've been seeing Doctor Frederiksen, he's this child psychologist who specializes in dream therapy through hypnosis. He taught me how to control my dreams, which would change their outcomes."

Jason seemed confused about the whole process, but asked anyway. "What's wrong with that?"

"The outcomes I've been changing become the future." Tuesday clarified, trying to clue him in on what had happened. "I can choose what I dream about. I can do _anything_ when I am dreaming and it always happens, no matter what!"

"You can tap into the future and change it?" Jason queried excitedly. "You're like some kind of cool superhero!"

"I'm no superhero." Tuesday stated, completely unimpressed with Jason's reasoning skills. "I don't want this power, and I've never wanted it!"

"Do you know that people would kill for the ability to do what you can do?" Jason asked, still in awe over Tuesday's revelation.

"I think that somebody is killing for it." Tuesday admitted, trying to talk the concept through to a conclusion. "I have a few theories, but I'm not smart enough to put all the pieces together. I'm not clever enough to defeat this monster. Somewhere along the way, I lost control of what I am doing. There is this terrible creature that has a power over me, who makes me kill people. It made me kill Jessica. It made me kill Principal McCauley, and it made me kill my own mother!"

Jason stepped back from Tuesday a couple of feet as the full realization of what she had just told him had begun to sink in. A small part of him was legitimately frightened. What could she do to him if he did something that displeased her? What could she do to anybody who stood in her way? Tuesday could sense his fear of her, and reached out for him, grabbing his arm and pulling him close, giving him a look of reassurance.

"You don't have to worry about me!" Tuesday confided in Jason. "I will never hurt you. Please, just take that on faith and trust me."

"I trust you, Tuesday!" Jason said proudly, regaining his composure. "The thought just scared me a little bit, you know?"

Jason wrapped his arms around her again, holding her close, the two of them thinking about the conversation they had just had when an idea suddenly occurred to Jason.

"You know, if you have this power, and you can dream of the future and change it, why couldn't you dream of the past and change it too?" Jason suggested, throwing the idea out there even if it was too far-fetched to pursue.

"I don't know." Tuesday admitted, dumbfounded that this was just now being brought to her attention. "I guess I've never thought about it before. I'm going to have to try this at my next session."

"Well, maybe you should." Jason confessed, showing that maturity of his that was beyond his years. "As much as I enjoy having you here, I would prefer your mother were still alive and you were happy with both of us."

Suddenly, Jason got a wicked grin on his face as he began to think about the ramifications of his idea. "You know, by changing the past, you could actually cheat the Devil, if you wanted to."

"You're such a goofball!" Tuesday said, teasing Jason.

"Well, one of us has to think like a superhero!" Jason countered, standing up and placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest.

The two of them shared a good laugh, and spent the rest of the day in each other's company watching football, the Seattle Seahawks versus the New York Giants, with Seattle winning the game 30-28, which seemed to lift everybody's spirits. Though Jason was not as happy because he was still a fan of the Arizona Cardinals, who had lost their game to the Denver Broncos at a crushing defeat of 38-6. Despite Tuesday's random bouts of sadness over her mother, everybody seemed to have a good time. After the game was over, Tuesday decided that she needed to go for a walk, so she headed out for several hours alone, collecting her thoughts. When she returned to the Alkali House, she ate her dinner and then retreated to her room, her thoughts on the remainder of the file that her mother had left out, and she had found. She knew there would be answers to her problems in there somewhere.

## III

### TEARS IN THE DARK

Tuesday closed the door to her bedroom and made herself comfortable on the bed. She dug the folder containing the information about her mother out of the drawer, and began to look it over. Before going back to the pharmaceutical information, she wanted to understand the extent of her mother's injuries and examined her medical chart. Even though her understanding of it was limited, it didn't take a genius to comprehend how severe her mother's injuries truly had been. It had taken many months for Megan to recover, a ton of physical therapy and more pain management than she could imagine to get her back to the world of the living. After reading the chart, Tuesday was amazed that her mother hadn't died a long time ago.

But soon her curiosity turned back toward the case file from the pharmaceutical company. Tuesday put on her game face and examined the file, re-reading the first two documents in case she had missed anything. She hated that the names of the staff and doctors were redacted, and desperately wished to know whose name resided behind those black boxes. All she could do was read on, reliving a horror that her mother hadn't even known about.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #347843-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

May 25, 1980

The specimens, Ackerman and Price are cohabitating much better than any of the other control groups are. These two seem to have established a bond with each other beyond the physical that most of the others haven't been able to achieve. While this is good for the pairing, Anthony feels that the emotional bond might somehow undo everything he has been working so hard to achieve. We should keep closer surveillance on them to make sure it all goes to plan, as they seem to have the best odds at success.

ST

" _I wonder who ST is?"_ She thought to herself, thinking that it might be a clue to the answer of the redacted name. Tuesday flipped the page and read the next one.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #347879-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

June 14, 1980

Still no conception in this pairing, as the female seems doesn't seem to allow her male counterpart to inseminate her, and sabotages every effort that he makes to do so. Doctor Frederiksen is insistent that he wants results from this pairing, and hopes that the result can be achievable in the next thirty days. The female is having trouble sleeping, so Dr. Frederiksen prescribed her Temazepam to help her sleep better.

ST

"Ewww, gross!" Tuesday thought to herself, trying not to imagine what the purpose of having a baby with a bigger brain might be. She reached out for the next update in the pile.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #347993-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

July 10, 1980

Still no conception in this pairing. The male seems as if he has become attached to his female counterpart and is having second thoughts about the process as he is now taking part in the sabotage of the process. The male spends a lot of time with the female, and seems to have developed a strong emotional attachment to her. The male is conflicted about his role in this project, a side effect that we did not expect. Anthony Frederiksen thinks that we should terminate this pairing as they've become emotionally contaminated. I don't think that we should euthanize them, but Anthony is in charge and if that's the route he wants to go, then we must put some pressure on the male to perform his duty. We can't have these specimens out in the world with what they are carrying in their systems.

ST

These memos were beginning to make Tuesday feel ill. How could they have so little regard for human life? Though she was sickened by what she was reading, Tuesday felt compelled to read on, so she went on to the next page.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #348641-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

July 31, 1980

We may have achieved conception in this pairing as the female has become more receptive to the idea of bearing offspring with the male. There is no certainty until the female gets herself tested, but after Doctor Frederiksen threatened the male known as Price, he has been inseminating the female, convincing her that he wants a family with her. She has accepted his emotional outpouring and has allowed him to do what must be done. When the male is alone, he questions everything he's done to the female and thinks he can no longer continue the charade. If the male explains to the female what is happening, termination will be imminent.

ST

" _What kind of sick people was my Mom involved with?"_ Tuesday wondered to herself, finding it difficult to imagine that people could be toyed with in this manner. While Megan had confirmed that she hadn't read the files, it wasn't hard to understand why she harbored such a healthy distrust of people. Tuesday flipped to the next file in the folder.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #348684-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

August 1, 1980

The male known as Price has been acting erratically all day, and Anthony is concerned that he might destroy years of research. Dr. Frederiksen called a meeting with specimen Price today, to discover what the issue might be. The male, Price says that he has developed strong emotions toward the female, Ackerman, and does not wish to continue to lie to her. He feels that impregnating her with a child that will be taken from them, never to be seen again would be something that neither of them would recover from. The male has voiced his concerns and wishes to live a legitimate life with the female, and to raise a proper family with them. Anthony Frederiksen told the male that if he was going to be non-compliant, that he and the female would both be terminated and new test subjects would be found. The male, did not appreciate being threatened and stormed out of the office, returning to the residence where he and Ackerman reside together.

ST

Tuesday began to get a better sense of what happened between her mother and that old boyfriend of hers. She turned to the next page to confirm her suspicions.

ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals

Case File #348725-45

Ackerman, Megan / Price, Daniel

August 2, 1980

What a day this has been. If Doctor Frederiksen finds out what happened, he will be furious. The male specimen couldn't take it anymore, and broke things off with the female, making an excuse about her drug abuse. The male known as Price became agitated and abandoned the female known as Ackerman, and we had to terminate him because he was threatening to go to the police. I did not agree with this decision. Specimen Ackerman consumed every pill and drink in her house, clearly distraught, and is now wandering the streets. We have lost track of her current whereabouts, but are hoping to reacquire her again soon. All the test subjects will now have to be terminated as we cannot risk them living in public and procreating with other people. We do not know the appropriate level of risk involved with their integration into the world would cause, and the control environment we have created is in danger of being exposed. For the safety and security of not only our company, but the people of this community, termination is the only way we insure that an unlikely, uncontrolled outcome is completely avoided.

Initiate Omega Protocol 156.

ST

That was the last entry in the file. It was in that moment that Tuesday had given up all hope when she found another piece of paper stuck to the back of the last page. It was a yellow copy of a hand-written prescription made out to Megan Ackerman for a low-level dosage of Temazepam, which was consistent with the notes in the story. But Tuesday had not been prepared for what she read on the back handwritten prescription. The individual's name was not redacted.

The prescribing doctor was Anthony Frederiksen.

"No! It can't be?" Tuesday thought to herself, her mind spinning with thoughts that enraged her to the point where she could no longer contain herself emotionally. She wept silently in her bed under the moonlight streaming into her window, wishing that name on that prescription had been anybody but him. She wanted to turn him into the police for what he had done, but who would believe her? Nobody even knew who Megan Ackerman was, except possibly Marie.

Had Doctor Frederiksen engineered her entire existence? Had he tracked them down after all these years and followed them to Cadence Falls? How long had he known? He said he had his eye on Tuesday for quite a while. And who was "ST"? Tuesday thought long and hard about it, and finally the answer jumped into her head. It had to be Samuel Thornton. She had wondered what he meant the last time she saw him, _"I'm sorry, Tuesday. I should have spoken up sooner. I've always tried to do everything I can for you, but I was just too late."_. At the time that didn't make a lot of sense, but he must have been the person who leaked the file to the nurse from the pharmaceutical company. It had to be him who leaked it. And Samuel Thornton had stuck the yellow copy of the prescription in the folder so the redacted name could be linked to the notes. This was the smoking gun! Had Samuel Thornton really been watching out for her and her mother for all these years? Surely Doctor Frederiksen had no suspicion that this file had even existed or leaked, because it appeared that he had no compunction about killing people who had gotten in his way, such as Daniel Price. If Doctor Frederiksen had known of Sam's betrayal, Tuesday realized that the doctor would have most certainly had him killed.

The thoughts kept racing through Tuesday's mind, and though it had seemed that Megan Ackerman had never physically met Anthony Frederiksen, it was now so obvious that he must have known who she was the moment she walked into that office. He had wanted to terminate her many years ago, it must have been pleasing to him that fate would have played this hand for him, and he would get another chance. While he had appeared sympathetic to Tuesday following her mother's death, he must have inwardly been cheering The Nightmare for accomplishing what he had failed to do so many years ago. Doctor Frederiksen had wanted Megan Ackerman out of the picture so he could take control of her child and study the child how he saw fit to.

Tuesday realized that she was that child, and that Doctor Frederiksen was getting everything he ever wanted. But now Douglas Downe wanted to adopt her, and didn't want her having any association with the therapist, whom he clearly didn't trust. Would The Nightmare force her to kill Douglas Downe as well? Thinking back on the day her mother had died, there had to be a link between her choosing that exact day to end her therapy, and her subsequent death, it was too strange to just be a coincidence.

Tuesday realized that she was probably overthinking the scenario, as she tended to do. There was no way that The Nightmare and Doctor Frederiksen could be linked. The Nightmare had wanted her to kill him after all, and when she had disobeyed, he forced her to kill another target that was more personal to her. She found herself growing mentally fatigued from the process of putting it all together, and decided that she needed to call it a night.

Tuesday put the papers back into the folder and placed it back into the drawer, wishing that she hadn't learned the things that she had discovered. Tuesday had wondered that if Daniel Price had to be terminated for his attack of conscience, were the men at the party who raped her mother also sent by Doctor Frederiksen to terminate her as well? The thought, which before was impossible, now lay square within the realm of possibility, and Tuesday wondered what else the he would be capable of.

Tuesday felt her rage growing inside of her as the tears began to fall freely from her face, so many that she could not easily contain them. It was time to make another appointment with Doctor Frederiksen, and this time she would be asking the questions.

## IV

### A TOKEN FOR THE FUTURE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1995

Monday morning in the Alkali House was always a busy time. After the passing of the weekend, and everybody had gotten the chance to relax, it was always difficult to get back into the swing of things. The whole house felt as if it had become a living, breathing, pulsating machine, working on getting motivated for the week ahead. The kids in the house were especially excited because this would be their final week of school before their Christmas break, where they would get a few weeks off. While everybody else was getting ready for school, Tuesday wanted to get a last-minute appointment with Doctor Frederiksen, there were answers she needed from him, and they would be answers that he wasn't going to give her willingly, most likely. Tuesday stood at the door, with her jacket on and her backpack, containing some snack foods and her trusty pal, Winston.

Jason casually strolled up to the door, getting his jacket on to leave when Tuesday placed her hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey." Tuesday said, gazing into Jason's big, blue eyes, wishing that she could live in this moment with him forever and ever. "I wanted to thank you for helping me out yesterday. That conversation meant a lot to me."

"No problem." Jason shrugged off the remark. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"Friends?" Tuesday replied, smacking him playfully in the arm, smiling slyly. "I thought you were my _boyfriend?_ "

Jason blushed a little, seeing his game turned back on him. "Yeah, of course I am!"

"Before you go, I wanted to give you something." Tuesday boldly stated, reaching up and pulling the chain holding the ring out from under her hoody. "I want you to have this ring." Tuesday pulled the chain up over her head and when the ring dangled freely from the chain, she slowly extended her arm, offering it to him.

"What's this for?" Jason asked quizzically, failing to understand why she would give him the ring.

"I heard that a good person once owned this ring." Tuesday admitted, sad about parting with an heirloom her mother had given her, but confident in her decision to give it to Jason. "I want it to belong to another good person."

Jason reached out and graciously accepted the gift that his girlfriend had bestowed upon him, and spent a second or two inspecting it before he put it around his neck and under his shirt. Tuesday reached out and grabbed both of his hands with a look of confidence and fierce determination in her eyes, but Jason could tell that there was more to her countenance than met the eye.

"Tuesday, what is it?" Jason got up the nerve to ask her. "Is something wrong?"

Tuesday shook her head, thinking about all the time she had spent with Jason and how much it had truly meant to her. She knew that she could never have had the strength to do what she needed to do without Jason being such a solid beacon of hope and truth in her life. "No, nothing's wrong." She said, attempting to brush aside the obvious elephant in the room. "I'm just trying to thank the only boy I've ever loved."

" _Loved?"_ Jason thought to himself, which sounded so past-tense to him. He suddenly realized that she was planning something, and likely, would not be returning from it. Jason caught the school bus pulling up outside, and tried to wrap up the conversation as best as he could. "It just sounds so, I don't know, final." He confessed to her, a look of worry upon his face. "Like this is the last time we will see each other.'

Tuesday squeezed his hands reassuringly, "We will be together again." She promised him, looking him directly in the eyes. "If not in this life, then in another. Every time you look at that ring, I want you to remember that."

Without hesitation, she leaned forward and up on her toes just a little bit and kissed him, connecting gently with him. In that moment, she realized that she truly had fallen in love with him, and that she wasn't afraid of being hurt by him in any way, shape or form. Her fear was that her power would destroy something as precious and as pure as Jason, and she couldn't allow that to happen. Killing her mother had almost broken her, she couldn't bear the thought of having to kill Jason too, so she had to take a stand, one that would protect him at all costs, even if it meant she had to die to do it. These thoughts crossed her mind while she felt his lips pressed against hers, and his hand softly upon her face. It was a moment that she wished would never end, locked in that kiss, her first and possibly her last.

The bus driver honked the horn, indicating that Jason needed to hurry, so he reluctantly pulled back from her, with a bittersweet smile on his face. "Hey." He said quietly, looking deep into her brown eyes. "I love you. Go do what you have to do, and don't be afraid, okay?"

"If I do not return, there is a file of paperwork in the drawer and it needs to be given to that police officer, Douglas Downe. Give it _only_ to him." Tuesday requested of him, letting go of his hands so he could leave for school. "I love you too, and thanks for everything."

Jason tromped across the slushy yard toward the bus, looking back at her, a joyful yet gloomy look on his face, as he boarded the conveyance to school. Tuesday watched the bus disappear down the street, wishing that she lived a normal life and that she could sit on that bus with him every day for the rest of their academic lives together. She knew that the fight ahead would be hers, and hers alone. Well, hers and Winston's fight, anyway. She looked down and saw that ratty old bear's head poking out of her backpack, and gave him a melancholy look. "Well Winston, it's just you and me now."

Tuesday picked up the backpack and trudged out into the weather, deciding on a long walk around town to clear her thoughts and her mind before her confrontation with Doctor Frederiksen. During her walk, she found that she had come to love Cadence Falls more than she thought she had, and was thankful for the blessings that the last couple of months had brought her. Choosing to focus on the positive instead of the negatives, she walked on, admiring the beauty in everything around her.

Tuesday knew that she didn't really have a plan on how she was going to approach this confrontation, but knew that Doctor Frederiksen had to answer for his crimes, and whatever form of punishment that took, she was willing to offer it to him. She needed answers for the crimes he had committed against her mother fifteen years earlier, and would use any methods in her power to get them.

As Tuesday walked along, she found herself at the top of the hill where she had witnessed the accident with Jake's car and thought about how far she had come in such a short period, yet it seemed so long ago. Taking the time to stop at the coffee stand, Tuesday ordered herself a mocha latte, which Cassie, the barista, made for her.

"I'm sorry to hear about your Mom." Cassie said, addressing Tuesday with care and concern in her voice, handing the hot beverage to Tuesday. "It's on the house, okay?"

"Thank you." Tuesday said, nodding.

"You take care of yourself, okay?" Cassie called out as Tuesday walked off.

"I will." Tuesday replied, choosing to walk directly down the hill toward the scene of that horrific accident, taking a sip off her latte.

When she reached the spot where Jake's car hit the tree, she stared intently at it for a long, hard moment, wishing that things had not ended the way they did. Jennifer Cox seemed like a good mother to her child, and Jake Miller was going to spend his entire life with Brooke. Instead of blaming herself, Tuesday wondered why these sorts of accidents surrounded her. Was this something that happened everywhere and she would be powerless to change it? Or did The Nightmare really have a quota that he was destined to fill, and had been connected to her all along? Was The Nightmare giving her a demonstration of what fate truly had in store for people? Or was she truly having premonitions that showed her the future? It was bad enough when she was seeing the future, but once she began to change things, The Nightmare clearly had objections to that. Was everything supposed to happen the way it was supposed to happen? Why did she feel the pain of the victims, and why could she never physically appear in any of these premonitions other than a shadowy black and white figure that nobody else could see? What if the hand of God was truly in these people's lives, and it was just their chosen time to depart the world? If she was the product of a perfect storm of chemical mixture, how could she change that? What if Jason Alkali had been sent to her to set her on the right path? What was it that he said? _"You know, if you have this power, and you can dream of the future and change it, why couldn't you dream of the past and change it too?"_

When Tuesday told Jason that she hadn't really thought about it, she meant it. Even after he had suggested it, she still simply dismissed the thought, thinking it was just words. But she was not only controlling her dreams, she was changing the outcome of them in the physical world as well. Tuesday had seen enough time travel movies to know that if you mess with the past, you would inexorably change the present, and sometimes not for the better. The last thing she needed was a Biff Tannen to rule the world.

But what if, instead of changing the course of her life, she changed the course of somebody else's life? It had to be somebody who would never cause a significant change in the world, somebody whose life she could save before it was destroyed. If she could change that day, would Jake and Brooke continue to be infinitely happy? Would Jennifer be raising the child who would invent the microchip that would change the future? She had already considered the future of David Peatross, and found terror there, and that was over nothing she had ever caused to happen. But she knew at this very moment, if she were to sleep and focus on Jake Miller or Jennifer Cox, there would be no futures to see for them. The only way to change that would be to dream of the past and alter their course to keep them from ever being at that exact location, at that exact time. All she would need to do was delay them for thirty seconds at the most, and Jennifer would have never run into her friend, or Jake would have had to wait longer in the coffee drive-thru behind another car, changing the relative locations of everything around him, and causing him to take the time to get his things together better before pulling out of that coffee shop.

There was no time to experiment with it, to perfect her idea. She allowed herself a minute of reflection on the lives lost at that spot, and then began walking down the street again to The Millwork Tavern. Gathering all the courage she could, Tuesday mentally prepared herself with her discussion with Doctor Frederiksen.

## CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I

### AN UNSCHEDULED APPOINTMENT

Tuesday arrived at The Millwork Tavern at about ten-thirty in the morning, quietly walking in the door to Doctor Frederiksen's office. Michelle spotted her immediately looked over her schedule, noting that there was no time for her that day. Tuesday began to go into a fit of hysterics over the possibility of being unable to see Doctor Frederiksen, and began to hyper-ventilate a little bit, putting on a good show.

"I need to see Doctor Frederiksen!" Tuesday demanded, laboring her breathing in a show of desperation.

"I'm sorry, Tuesday!" Michelle explained, trying to be as apologetic as she could be. "He is completely booked for the day."

"You don't understand!" Tuesday shouted, intentionally attempting to cause a scene with the two other patients who were sitting in the waiting area. "My Mom is dead and he told me that I could see him whenever I needed to, and I really need to see him right now!" Tuesday worked up some tears, which wasn't a difficult stretch for her because all she had to do was think of her mother.

Michelle went to cut Tuesday off, but was silenced when Doctor Frederiksen walked through the doors, as if it had been preordained. He immediately caught the gist of what was being discussed between his receptionist and his patient, and walked over to them to clear up the misunderstanding. The sight of him caused Tuesday to panic, suddenly causing her to feel uneasy about this whole appointment. Tuesday knew that she had the upper-hand, that she had knowledge of the events that Doctor Frederiksen was certain were long buried. If Tuesday had anything to say about it, those particular skeletons were about to come back and haunt him.

"If Miss Moxley needs to see me, I can make the time for her." Doctor Frederiksen commanded, making his meaning clear.

"But sir, Vincent, your ten forty-five is already here." Michelle replied. "He's sitting right over there."

Doctor Frederiksen walked over to where Vincent was sitting and looked at him. "Do you mind if we reschedule? He asked his patient. "I really need to work with her, and I'll waive the fees on your next two appointments if you can reschedule."

Vincent seemed amicable to the idea of waiving fees and shook his head in agreement. "That'll be alright, I guess."

The next couple of minutes were spent with Doctor Frederiksen, Michelle and Vincent hammering out the specifics of when he was going to be rescheduled and verifying that he wouldn't be paying for the next few sessions. After they cleared everything up, Doctor Frederiksen motioned to Tuesday, who was sitting on the floor by the wall, her knees scrunched to her chest and rocking front to back, knocking her head gently on the wall, creating a rhythmical percussive sound.

Doctor Frederiksen motioned to Tuesday for her to come to the back, but she lingered for a few seconds before getting up to follow him. She had wondered at that moment if her performance had been good enough to warrant winning one of those gold statues that they give away in Hollywood.

As Tuesday followed Doctor Frederiksen back to his office, time seemed to stand still. She knew that once she opened Doctor Frederiksen's can of dark secrets, there would be no turning back. Anxiety crept into her mind as she made a desperate attempt to consider whether she should turn back or not.

No. She couldn't. There was no way she could turn back now. She needed to change things, and she needed to avenge her mother's death at the hands of that hideous creature. She needed to see to it that both Doctor Frederiksen and The Nightmare would be punished for their sins, and that she could give her mother the peace she deserved.

Reaching the door to his office, Doctor Frederiksen opened it, and held it so Tuesday could enter. She sat in her usual seat and the Doctor went around the desk, taking a seat in his large chair, her eyes boring holes through him, though she hoped it wasn't as noticeable as she felt that it was.

"How was your first weekend in the foster home?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, seemingly compassionate, to the extent that Tuesday had wondered if the man sitting before her could have been the same person who had "terminated test subjects" so many years before.

"It was alright." Tuesday admitted, acting as if she were withdrawn from the conversation. "But I miss my mother terribly."

"It's only been a few days, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen said soothingly, his voice slippery and silky in tone. "Time will heal these wounds."

"You're right, Doctor." Tuesday agreed, shaking her head. "I've been thinking a lot about time lately."

"In what way, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, curiously.

"I've been thinking that time is the answer to saving lives." Tuesday explained, trying to sound more intelligent on the subject than she really was. "I feel like everything is assigned its place in time, and that in order to counter accidents, one must only budge their physical location back or forward a few seconds to alter their fate."

"That is a very astute observation, Miss Moxley." Doctor Frederiksen proclaimed, a smile on his face. "I am very impressed with this thought."

"I'm here to conquer my nightmares." Tuesday said, her voice monotonous and cold. "I need another dream session to achieve that."

Doctor Frederiksen looked at her with some concern, not certain if she was ready to attempt hypnosis again so soon after her recent tragedy. "Are you sure you're ready?" He asked, scribbling a few lines on his notepad. "What if something else happens?"

"I'm not afraid. I can take care of myself." Tuesday admitted, mustering all the confidence in her words she could. "What else have I got to lose?"

Those last words rang out inside Doctor Frederiksen's mind. _"What else does she have to lose?"_ He thought repeatedly. "If you think you're ready to try again, it sounds as if you have conquered your fear."

"I am." Tuesday confessed, her voice still icy. "I'm no longer afraid."

Tuesday stood up and went into the hypnosis chamber, taking Winston with her, and holding him tightly. Each step toward the hypnosis room filled her with more and more hatred for Doctor Frederiksen, who she was reasonably certain deliberately knew who she was, and who her mother was. What had he told her when they met? _"My eye has been on you for some time now, Miss Moxley. Despite my sincerest efforts at procuring your case, my efforts have gone mostly unnoticed up to this point."_ The words had taken on a completely different meaning to her after discovering that he might have been the architect of her birth. Tuesday wondered if her mother had even suspected that this guy had been a part of her own past, and that the two of them had been pawns in an ongoing, twisted game.

Tuesday laid down on the sofa gripping Winston while Doctor Frederiksen tried to hook up the EKG leads and mind sensors to monitor her activity, his hand shaking as he did so. This did not go unnoticed by Tuesday, who glimpsed the flesh on his hand appeared to be immolated.

"What happened to your hand?" Tuesday asked, curious about what was wrong with the doctor.

"I was putting a log in the fireplace this weekend, and my hand slipped." Doctor Frederiksen answered, still working on attaching the leads to Tuesday's forehead. "It's nothing to worry about. Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes, I'm ready." Tuesday answered still looking at Doctor Frederiksen's hand, watching it shake as he began his countdown to place her into a deep state of hypnotic suggestion. Tuesday tried her best to relax, and focused on the words as she felt herself drift to sleep.

Tuesday awoke in her dream to find herself standing in the same park where she had saved the child from the murderer. The sun was coming out, and the snow was melting as the water from the slush ran down the banks and added to the water in the lake. Before being prompted to, Tuesday invited Doctor Frederiksen into her dream, saving him the trouble of asking her to do it himself.

Doctor Frederiksen materialized in front of her, looking around at the scenery around him. Tuesday stood there, her eyes closed, focusing on something, waiting for some of words of guidance to slip from his lying mouth.

"What would you like to do first, Miss Moxley?" Doctor Frederiksen asked her, curious about the nature of the entire session. "It's your show today."

"I would like to think of the past." Tuesday announced, opening up her eyes and staring intently at him.

"The past?" Doctor Frederiksen questioned, a puzzled look on his face. "What on Earth for, child?"

"I have a theory." Tuesday admitted, looking around the park to see who might be around. "I want to test it out."

"Why do you want to hold on to the past?" Doctor Frederiksen queried, reasserting his dominance of the situation over her. "You have such control over the future!"

"Just wait and see." Tuesday said, disappearing and leaving the doctor alone in the park.

Suddenly, Doctor Frederiksen realized that Tuesday had gone to another place, but wasn't there with her. It was dark, and she was alongside a street. Down at the end of the street, there was a house, and it appeared there was a party happening. A moment later, a ghost from his past came walking up the sidewalk toward Tuesday, who was clutching Winston for support. It was Megan Ackerman accompanied by four young men. She was just as he had remembered her, as if no time had passed at all. Tuesday was going to have a discussion with her.

This could not be allowed to continue.

## II

### THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1980

The nearby house was filled with people coming and going, loud music emanating from within, and permeated with the smell of booze and smokes of various kinds. Megan Ackerman was coming up the street to attend the party followed by her entourage of boys, who were laughing and joking with her. She was in high spirits, looking forward to going to the party and blowing off the terrible events she had experienced earlier that week. Doctor Frederiksen knew exactly what Tuesday was attempting to do.

"Miss Moxley, what are we doing here?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, rhetorically. "Let's work on streamlining your power so you can save lives."

Tuesday ignored him as she approached Megan and the four boys. "It's really you, isn't it?" She marveled, looking at how young and healthy her mother was.

Megan Ackerman stopped in her tracks, looking at the girl who spoke to her, and seemed to have a lot of resemblance to her. "Isn't it a little late for you to be out, little girl?"

The four young men began laughing at Megan's dismissal of Tuesday, but Tuesday knew who they were and what their part in this tale was destined to be. She could feel her hatred for these men rising as thoughts of the notes in her mother's medical charts began to spring into her mind. Though she knew what they were planning to do, they hadn't done it by this point, and even though the thought enraged her to no end, she could not kill innocent men.

"You four need to leave, and you need to leave now!" Tuesday commanded, not just telling them what to do, but putting images into their minds about what would happen to them if they harmed this young woman. The men scurried off to the party like the rats they were, leaving Megan alone to talk with Tuesday, with Doctor Frederiksen observing from the future.

"Oh, freaking wonderful!" Megan shouted, expressing her frustration. "I'm supposed to go to that party with them, now I probably can't even get in."

Instantaneously, Doctor Frederiksen makes a plea to Tuesday. "Miss Moxley, you can't do this!" He screamed at her, which only she could hear in her head. "This could destroy all that you have worked to build!"

Megan began to walk off, toward the party and away from where Tuesday was standing. "Wait! Where are you going?" Tuesday called out to Megan, trying to reacquire her attention. "I need to talk to you!"

"Why would I want to talk to some kid?" Megan rebuffed Tuesday, walking away from her in a dismissive fashion. "If I'm lucky, I can make it up to those guys and still get into that party."

Tuesday ran down the block, moving in front of Megan to block her, trying to be empathetic in her speech. "You shouldn't go there, it looks like it could be dangerous." Tuesday tried telling Megan without giving too much away.

"Dangerous for you, maybe." Megan spoke without a care in the world. "Not for me, I'm going to have some fun in there."

Tuesday repositioned herself to block Megan, who was becoming increasingly frustrated with this child's attempts to ruin her night and make her life worse than it already was. "Look, I know you're going through a rough time right now." Tuesday plead with Megan, hoping the sincerity in her voice would shine through enough to demonstrate how much she truly cared about her. "This isn't the answer!"

No such luck. Tuesday's claim of understanding her plight sent Megan into a fit of anger, propelling Megan to level of frustration that Tuesday had become all too familiar with over the years. "You don't know what I'm going through!" Megan screamed, practically spitting her words all over Tuesday. "You don't know who I am! Who are you to judge me? Just take your teddy bear and leave me alone!"

Suddenly, the darkness of that August night felt a little darker, and the temperature felt much cooler. Instinctively, Tuesday knew what was coming and what was about to happen, almost as if it was scripted. Tuesday looked at Megan, changing her tone suddenly.

"Megan, find cover and stay down!" Tuesday shrieked, hoping to protect her mother at all costs. Megan ran and hid behind a parked car, fearful of what was happening around her.

The sky split apart, and The Nightmare rained down, slamming onto the street in front of them, causing the ground to shake. Tuesday stood her ground, truly unafraid of The Nightmare, relishing her opportunity to avenge the death of her mother.

## III

### AN ENEMY REVEALED

Everybody at the party was oblivious to the events happening just down the street. If they had come out and had seen anything, they would have run for their very lives. The fact that Megan Ackerman hadn't run, but only hid was of some concern to Tuesday, but she was focused on destroying this creature, once and for all.

"I'm no longer afraid of you!" Tuesday called out bravely. "You can no longer control me, and the only life that will be lost here is yours!"

The Nightmare laughed, and while Megan was affected by it, Tuesday stood her ground, unaffected by it for the first time. "That's what you keep telling me, child, yet people keep dying."

"You can't make me kill her!" Tuesday reasoned with The Nightmare, spitting her hatred at him. "If you make me kill her this time, I will die too!"

The Nightmare stopped and thought about this for a moment. Was it possible this girl had this creature in check? The Nightmare wasn't so unprepared that it didn't have a backup plan, and Tuesday knew it, which was what made it such a dangerous adversary. "You're clever, but who says that I want to kill her?" The Nightmare hissed, taunting Tuesday, it's powers were greater than just physical control of her. "I can make you go anywhere and kill anybody that I desire!"

Tuesday recalled how manipulative the creature could be. It didn't take much effort to convince Tuesday to kill Principal McCauley, and it seemed as if the monster were gearing its voice up to manipulate her to kill again.

"I thought you would have learned not to cross me when you killed your mother!" The Nightmare seethed. "Is another lesson in order? Perhaps that boy?" The Nightmare extended its hand toward Tuesday, moving to take control over her as it had done so many times before. Tuesday was completely unaffected by the control of The Nightmare, so it moved toward her to get inside of her.

The mention of Jason sparked Tuesday's hatred and desperation to protect the last living thing in the world that she loved. As The Nightmare approached her, Tuesday balled up her fists thrust out at her sides, consuming them in the blue flames. The Nightmare stopped dead in its tracks, shying away from the unnatural fire emanating from Tuesday's hands. The Nightmare took up a more defensive stance, enlarging his size by twice as much, ready to do battle with Tuesday.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Tuesday shouted. Before she realized what she was doing, Tuesday found herself running at top speed toward The Nightmare, punching it with her flaming hands as hard as she could. Everywhere that her fists contacted it, the fire burned out the blackness of it, and it became a brilliant, glowing white.

The Nightmare howled in pain, as the power of its evil hemorrhaged from its body, spilling out onto the street in a thick black ooze that ran down the gutter and into the sewer. The creature flailed wildly, trying to land a blow on Tuesday but couldn't circumvent his way around the flames that were causing him so much harm.

Tuesday kept punching the phantasm, transforming it into a beautiful creature with each blow she landed. The sound coming from The Nightmare was excruciatingly deafening, but Tuesday was unaffected by it, allowing her love for Jason and for her mother to fuel the flames of her attacks. The Nightmare returned to its regular size, and Tuesday landed a blow inside the hood where the face should be, cleansing the nearly last of the blackness from its soul. The creature slumped to its knees on the ground, defeated, the last shred of darkness speaking out.

"Don't you know who I am?" The Nightmare said, breathing heavily as it labored to get its words out. "Don't you know what I could do to you?"

Tuesday stepped forward, ready to deliver the final blow to The Nightmare. "I do know you are, Doctor Frederiksen."

With that, she punched The Nightmare one last time with everything she had, separating the form of a man from the creature with enough force to throw him many yards away. The Nightmare, who had transformed into a brilliant white creature of beauty and light rose and stood near Tuesday.

A specter of Doctor Frederiksen stood to his feet, looking smug. "It appears you've figured out my secret."

"I know more secrets than you think!" Tuesday screamed at him, trying to goad him into a one on one confrontation with her. "I know what you did to this young woman!" She stated, making a grand gesture in the direction of Megan Ackerman.

"Step into my office, then." Doctor Frederiksen taunted invitingly. "Come back to where you left me, and let's discuss it."

Tuesday ran to where Megan Ackerman was hiding, terrified. "Stay right here, whatever you do, don't go to that party." Tuesday told her. "I have to come back here and save you!" Megan nodded in agreement, realizing what she had just witnessed was far beyond any drug she ever encountered.

Tuesday spared no further words as she brought herself back to the park where she had left the crooked therapist waiting. She hoped that she could think creatively enough to defeat him, but the prospect seemed exceptionally bleak to her.

If Tuesday couldn't defeat Doctor Frederiksen, she shuddered to think of what he might continue to do to her, but what he might do if he were to encounter another child with the abilities that she had. The responsibility weighed heavily upon her, and she couldn't imagine the price of her failure.

## CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I

### SHOWDOWN WITH A SUPERIOR MIND

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1995

Doctor Frederiksen circled around Tuesday, sizing her up to see what she was made of. Tuesday seethed with hatred for him, for the man who had forced her to sacrifice her soul though the brutal murder of others. She needed answers, and had to buy time, so she began to talk about what she knew.

"I know about ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals!" Tuesday began, trying to get a rise out of the doctor.

"Oh, good for you." Doctor Frederiksen replied snidely. "You know about a company with a proven track record of success, a pillar in the business community. So, what?"

Tuesday dismissed his arrogance as she continued. "I know about BN-243, I know what you did to Daniel Price, and I know that you engineered my entire existence though illegal experimentation."

"You're quite resourceful, how did you come by this information?" Doctor Frederiksen asked, his curiosity piqued at the amount of knowledge that Tuesday seemed to have acquired, but made no effort to deny what the teenager had said. "Did you travel back in time to see that too?"

"Let's just say that your skeletons aren't as securely fitted into your closet as you thought they were." Tuesday announced, still waiting for a reaction from the doctor, who was pacing back and forth, tapping his finger in his chin, as if he were in deep thought.

"You have no proof of these claims." Doctor Frederiksen exclaimed, brushing it off as being a purely fictitious fantasy, dreamed up by a girl with no credibility. "Who would believe that I would do such a thing?"

"If I have no proof, then you have nothing to fear." Tuesday alleged, trying to get him to confess his involvement. "Daniel Price decided not to go along with your scheme anymore, didn't he? He was getting too close to Megan, and wanted to tell her the truth, isn't that right?"

"Daniel Price was killed by drug addicts." Doctor Frederiksen countered, trying to throw Tuesday off the scent. "The Whatcom County Police Reports state that he was murdered during a robbery. Case closed."

"Only we both know that isn't the truth." Tuesday said, refuting Doctor Frederiksen's claim. "We know you killed him because he was threatening to go to the police regarding your illegal experiments.

Doctor Frederiksen sighed for a moment, looking Tuesday in the eyes before relenting to her questioning. "I pulled those inferior children from the streets." He admitted casually, spitting his contempt toward them at Tuesday. "They were all homeless, drug addicted, and had no direction in life. I offered them each a job doing a drug trial, which would enhance the female embryos, which would create children with special abilities. Nobody cared if they lived or died. Nobody, save me."

"That's a crock and you know it!" Tuesday shouted back at him, trying to set the story straight. "I know about Omega Protocol 156, you didn't care about them at all. The only thing I can figure is that my mother never met you when she was contracted to do the drug trials through ConcepTech."

"No, she had never met me, the nurses worked with her. And yes, I killed Daniel Price." Doctor Frederiksen confessed, coming clean about the matter. "I tried to kill Megan Ackerman too, but she had disappeared. I paid some miscreant lowlifes to track her down and to kill her, to make sure that she was never seen again. It wasn't hard, they hit the bars and found her pretty quickly, and invited her to a party. Megan Ackerman could never turn down a party. I heard those guys had some fun with her first, passed her around like the whore she was, before they dumped her into that ravine to die."

Tuesday instantly flew into an inconsolable rage, realizing that the author of her mother's lifelong pain was standing before her, and had pretended to want what was best for her. "It was you?" Tuesday screamed at Doctor Frederiksen, questioning everything she thought she had ever known about him. "You've had your hand in our lives the entire time!"

"That's technically not true." Doctor Frederiksen continued explaining, filling in all the blanks for Tuesday, as if he were stalling. "I assumed that Megan had died from her injuries, and didn't pursue it any further. Then about six years ago, I began hearing stories of a crazy girl, who thought she was having nightmares about the future. At first I had dismissed it, thinking that it wasn't possible. As the stories became more prevalent, I began investigating the transcripts as you moved from one therapist to another. It wasn't until your first day here that I truly connected the dots. When I walked out that door, I couldn't believe that Megan Ackerman was alive, and her daughter was going to be my patient."

"You were playing us from the moment we met you!" Tuesday shouted, not backing down from her aggressive stance.

"You want to kill me, don't you?" Doctor Frederiksen taunted Tuesday, trying to lure her into the sweet seduction of revenge.

"I should have killed you when I was given the choice!" Tuesday lamented, her eyes piercing him like the sharpest surgical knives. "If I had known you were bluffing to throw me off the scent of killing my Mom, I would have killed you in a heartbeat."

"That's an opportunity that you will not given a second shot at." Doctor Frederiksen said snidely, his cruelty now unmasked for Tuesday to witness firsthand. "You've learned to control the past now too, and that's dangerous. But don't worry, it is something you will forget by the time you wake up. So long as you are under my hypnosis, your power is mine to control."

"I know something about hypnosis." Tuesday stated, a devious and wicked smile upon her face. "I have to hear what you're telling me to do, and I made myself deaf in the present world before I invited you in. I can't hear a word you're saying in that room."

Tuesday felt a small sense of consolation when she saw the smile melt from Doctor Frederiksen's face, realizing that he no longer had any control over her at all. He became all at once puzzled and confused. "How are you communicating with me then?" Doctor Frederiksen asked.

"I've discovered that I could not only change the future, but the past and the present as well." Tuesday explained, a look of determination written all over her. "I've learned to multitask, so while we are having this conversation here, I can also be monitoring you in the present second, free of the influence of my body. I can filter out the effect of the hypnosis and still communicate using my body."

"Aren't you clever?" Doctor Frederiksen shrieked at her, angrier than she had ever seen him. "I'm afraid it's time for you to join your mother."

"I thought you might say something like that." Tuesday said, proud that she had gotten the upper hand on the therapist who had trained her. "And you ought to know that today was the first time I've ever considered looking into the past."

Back in the hypnosis chamber Doctor Frederiksen had stood up from his chair, his body shaking, and was preparing an unknown compound, which he planned to inject Tuesday with. It appeared that his body was covered in more of the mysterious burns, as if he had been in a fight with a person whose fists were on fire. He had prepared for this endgame and fi he could not have his prize, then he would destroy it so that nobody could have it. But hearing Tuesday admit that this day had been the first time she had dreamed of the past to change it, sparked his curiosity. "What do you mean, Miss Moxley? If you didn't go to the past to find out what happened, how did you learn of ConcepTech Pharmaceuticals?

"I have a file." Tuesday proudly proclaimed, knowing that the revelation would make her a target of Doctor Frederiksen's wrath in the real world. "A heavily redacted, but detailed file, with enough evidence in it to link you to everything, including the murders of 21 people. And if I don't arrive at a specific location at a specific time today, that file will be given to the police."

Doctor Frederiksen's face turned to solemn rage. "Stupid girl!", he roared in fury, his voice at a volume that Tuesday had never heard from him before. "Do you think I'm an idiot? If I let you go, then you'll turn the file in yourself, and if I kill you, somebody else is going to turn it in. Either way, I'm going to jail, which means that my body count will increase by one today."

Doctor Frederiksen finished mixing his unusual cocktail and filled the syringe with it, tapping the air bubbles out of it, just out of habit. As he reached for Tuesdays arm to inject liquid death into it, something gripped his own arm, picking him up from the floor and tossing him out into his main office where he landed hard on his desk with a loud crash. When he picked himself up, he could not believe what he saw emerging from the hypnosis room.

It appeared to be The Nightmare, but was clad entirely in white, which gave off an eerie, bright glow as it moved through the doorway of the hypnosis chamber, sealing the entrance off as it moved past it. The Nightmare had its sights set on Doctor Frederiksen, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it.

## II

### A PLEA FOR MERCY

As soon as Doctor Frederiksen had gotten back on his feet, he ran toward the door, but The Nightmare was there in an instant, blocking his only means of escape. He swung his arm furiously at The Nightmare, trying to buy himself enough time to get out that door, but his punch was no match for its lightning quick reflexes. The Nightmare's hand was up in an instant, and caught the balled-up fist in its hand, squeezing it hard enough to crack the fingers in Doctor Frederiksen's hand, and then twisted it, snapping the wrist. Doctor Frederiksen cried out in pain as the pain upon hearing the cracking sound of first his fingers, and then his wrist being separated from his arm.

"Please!" Doctor Frederiksen pleaded, trying to find some sort of humanity within The Nightmare. "Don't do this!"

The Nightmare spoke back to Doctor Frederiksen, but instead of a hissing voice, it spoke in Tuesday's voice. "You were going to kill me!" She screamed, pressing her advantage even further by causing him the same pain that he had caused her through The Nightmare's voice. "You've made me kill other people, now it's your turn!"

Doctor Frederiksen used his other hand to try to block out the onslaught of sound coming from Tuesday through The Nightmare, but was unsuccessful as his broken hand was still being held tightly in the grasp of the apparition. Doctor Frederiksen screamed as Tuesday spoke. "The world needs to know of your crimes!" Aural pain cascaded through his mind, making it unable for him to think properly. The louder and more intensely Tuesday spoke, the more painful it was for Doctor Frederiksen.

"Please, Tuesday!" Doctor Frederiksen beseeched, trying to appeal to her better nature. "I was wrong to try and twist you into something you're not! Have mercy on me!"

The Nightmare thrust Doctor Frederiksen's arm in a swift, upward motion that carried him from the ground at an incredible rate of speed and bounced him off the ceiling of the office where he landed rigid on the polished hardwood floor, screaming in discomfort.

Out in the reception area, Michelle heard the uproar and Doctor Frederiksen's screams and sprang from her chair to investigate what the commotion was about. Tuesday immediately sensed this and sealed the door which led to the corridor to Doctor Frederiksen's office, fortifying her position for the opposition she knew would inevitably come. Tuesday then refocused her attention back on Doctor Frederiksen, who was still asking for mercy.

The Nightmare circled around the position on the floor where Doctor Frederiksen was lying, his good arm raised in a defensive posture, as Tuesday's voice tore through him again, searing his soul with both the pain and the truth of her words.

"Jessica didn't even get time to ask for mercy!" Tuesday bellowed, making her meaning plain and clear. "You made me shoot her in the head before she knew what was happening!"

Doctor Frederiksen, out of breath, attempted to make a half-hearted apology for Jessica. "I'm sorry!" He yelled, panting and squeezing his eyes, trying to shut out the pain. "I was only trying to help you! Those bullies were making your life impossible, and needed to be taken care of!"

Hearing those words come from Doctor Frederiksen's mouth enraged her even further, as The Nightmare reached down to scoop him up from the floor again and in one swift motion flung him over into the corner where his body broke a large Cobalt glassware vase, which left shards of broken glass embedded in the side of his torso.

The Doctor bellowed out again, as his body impacted the wall behind the vase, sliding him down the wall and to the floor again. Tuesday spoke yet again, this time focusing her anger into her voice, causing Doctor Frederiksen to feel as if his head was going to explode from the impact of her words.

"Enough of your pretentious lies!" Tuesday commanded, driving her point right into the most sensitive parts of Doctor Frederiksen's mind. In a flash, The Nightmare was on him again, picking him up and slamming him through the desk, breaking it in half with the impact of his weight.

Michelle had managed to get the security from The Millwork Tavern to come to the office. When they arrived, she explained the situation to them, that Doctor Frederiksen was having a session with an unstable patient who might be trying to kill him. One of the building's security officers tried to get the door to the corridor open while the other called 911 and alerted the police to the situation at the therapist's office, loud crashes and screams being heard from beyond the door.

Doctor Frederiksen had given up trying to reason with Tuesday and worked toward the next most sensible action, trying to alert somebody else to come and help him. Who would believe that a ten-foot-tall creature of light was trying to kill him? It almost sounded too crazy for even him to believe. One thing was certain, he knew if he got out of this alive he would most assuredly make sure that Tuesday Moxley would go to prison for a long, long time. He stood to his feet and called out for help, and he didn't care who came, so long as they could get him out alive.

"Help me!!" Doctor Frederiksen screamed, hoping that anybody would hear the words come from his mouth. "Tuesday Moxley is trying to kill me! Please, anybody! Help me!!"

In that second, Doctor Frederiksen spied a potted plant sailing across the room toward him out of the corner of his eye. It had been thrown by the arm of The Nightmare, and hit Doctor Frederiksen squarely in his stomach, doubling him over, dropping him to the floor again and knocking the wind completely out of him.

Tuesday continued to use The Nightmare as her personal judge, jury and executioner as she read off the next in her list of charges. "You made me kill Principal McCauley!" Tuesday roared through the voice of The Nightmare so powerful that it ripped clothing and exposed layers of skin from Doctor Frederiksen's arms and face.

"Not guilty." Doctor Frederiksen coughed, still trying to get his breath back from the punch in the gut from the plant. "You did that yourself."

"I would never have done that on my own!" Tuesday countered, her rage on point, forcing Doctor Frederiksen to cover his ears again as the resonance of The Nightmare tore through him again so painfully that it forced him to vomit on the floor of his office. "You manipulated me! You tested me to see how powerful I would become!"

"Please God, help me!" Doctor Frederiksen begged for his life, playing up the melodrama as best as he could for anybody who might be listening. "Show me mercy Tuesday, please!"

"I doubt even God would show you mercy, Doctor." Tuesday replied, lessening the intensity on which she was speaking through The Nightmare.

The Cadence Falls Police Department arrived on the scene at The Millwork Tavern and found their way to the third floor where building security was working feverishly to get through the door and into the corridor to the office. When the police observed the situation, two of them went back to their car and got a battering ram from the trunk to open the passage for them.

Tuesday was immediately aware of the arrival of the police, and needed to end this before Douglas arrived and became a witness to what was going on. She wasn't done with Doctor Frederiksen when she heard the battering ram pounding on the door, knocking it loose from its hinges. She needed another line of defense, and had to think of it fast.

## III

### DOWN CADENCE FALLS

The door leading into the corridor to Doctor Frederiksen's office busted into pieces and landed in what appeared to be water on the other side. The officers stared into the hallway and saw deep water where there should have been floor, and were confused on how to further proceed. The water seemed to be about twenty feet deep, much deeper than a man could walk. And getting the battering ram down there would be impossible as the water came right to the level where the floor was, and there would be no way to use it once they got it there. The approach would be problematic, there was no way around it.

Inside the office, Tuesday's confrontation with Doctor Frederiksen continued to escalate into a maelstrom of contempt and malevolence. The Nightmare was across the room again, on him, quick as a flash and lifted him into the air by his throat, but not choking off his air. Tuesday needed him to talk.

Unfortunately, all Doctor Frederiksen was repeatedly saying was "Please, spare me!". Tuesday was in no mood for his whimpering and pitiful pleas for mercy.

"Why should I spare you?" Tuesday asked, softening her tone completely so that he would not be affected by The Nightmare. "You've destroyed my life. If you think there's a good reason you think that I should spare your life, you had better tell me now."

Doctor Frederiksen's eyes darted back and forth, thinking of the best and most calmingly reassuring answer he could think of. "Because, you and I could have the whole world together." He began, trying to manipulate Tuesday's sense of greed. "We could have whatever we want, we could do whatever we want. Together, we would be unstoppable, if you could only let go."

For a moment, it seemed as if Tuesday was considering what he was offering.

"We can change the world together, we can burn this one down and build a better one." Doctor Frederiksen challenged her to think of the possibilities. "You could take people out who are destroying the world, or you could bring back anybody you can imagine. Your power is limitless."

"I've learned the secret to this power, doctor." Tuesday countered, still thinking of the things he was telling her. "Why would I need you to twist my mind any further?"

Doctor Frederiksen knew that Tuesday was listening to what he was saying when he felt The Nightmare's grip loosen a little. _"Am I getting through to her?"_ He thought to himself, hoping that together they could undo any of the damage they've caused together.

"You are the one with the power, I am the one with the vision." Doctor Frederiksen persuaded seductively, explaining his position for Tuesday, so she could understand. "I created you, and I can lead you to anything you want. I can give you the whole world."

"I had the whole world." Tuesday screamed, her rage re-intensifying into a swirling storm of hatred and malice. "And you took it from me when you forced me to kill my mother!"

There was no time for more pleas, no time for a defensive reaction, no time for a goodbye. The Nightmare turned toward the plate glass window at the end of the room, and almost before Doctor Anthony Frederiksen knew what was happening, he was travelling through that window at a high velocity, time pausing for a moment as he hung in the air, looking at the waterfall springing out from below the building and admiring its beauty, the last thing he would ever see.

"I hope that was the ending you had planned for your international bestseller." Tuesday remarked as Doctor Frederiksen disappeared from her view. She felt the pain of his impact below, but instead of suffering that pain, she allowed herself to take pleasure in it, knowing that small amount of pain was meaningless compared to what he had inflicted up on others.

Doctor Frederiksen did not scream as he fell from the third story of The Millwork Tavern down another five-hundred and twenty feet beyond, making a dull thud on the rocks below, breaking the bones in his body as he was tossed about the weight and agitation of thousands of gallons of water a minute. When a rescue team would find him later that day, they concluded that there was no way he could have survived that fall, and any injuries he had previously sustained were inconclusive due to the damage he had taken from the abuse of Cadence Falls.

The police had arrived outside the door, treading water, and hoping to find a way to get inside. Tuesday realized that they were knocking, hoping that somebody would come and open it for her. She knew she didn't have much time.

Time.

That was the answer. She needed to get back to 1980 and warn her mother not to go to that party, and it needed to happen before the police could access the office and wake up the deaf girl in the hypnosis chamber.

## CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I

### FAITH RESTORED

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1980

Tuesday reappeared in Bellingham Washington in the year 1980, Megan Ackerman was still waiting in her hiding place, still looking scared. Tuesday had aligned her departure and arrival so that they were almost seamless events, so to Megan's point of view, she had returned at almost the same second she left. Megan seemed both relieved and perplexed at the same time, running out from her hiding place to greet Tuesday.

"Is that thing gone?" Megan asked, somewhat frantically. "Will it be back?"

"No." Tuesday chuckled, feeling a sense of relief herself. "I don't think we'll ever see that thing again."

"Who are you?" Megan questioned Tuesday excitedly.

"Look, we don't have a lot of time together." Tuesday explained, trying to impress upon Megan the importance of the situation. "There are things that I need to talk to you about."

"I don't even know you." Megan said dismissively, trying to understand what the urgency was all about. "Why do you have to talk to me so badly?"

"There are just some things you have to take on faith." Tuesday said, recalling something her mother once told her. "This is one of those things.

Megan suddenly seemed less suspicious and more relaxed, open to conversation with Tuesday. Looking at the girl now, Megan felt a familiarity with her, one that she didn't share with a lot of people. She realized that this girl, whatever it was she came to tell her, might be important enough to listen to, so she opened her mind and decided that faith would lead her.

"Okay, first thing you need to do is not go to that party tonight." Tuesday said in a tone of authority. "If you continue the path that you're on, if you go to that party, you will find nothing but pain and suffering. This is a moment that will define and change your life for the worse."

"I don't understand." Megan queried, prying for a more obvious answer. "What do you mean by a defining moment?"

Tuesday knew that she was going to have to spell it out for her. It seemed as if whatever had happened with her before ConcepTech had already taken hold. Doctor Frederiksen said that the test subjects he picked were all drug abusers that nobody would miss. She hated to think that her mother could have already been that far gone. "If you go to that party, you will be kidnapped and gang raped." Tuesday announced, hoping that Megan would take the meaning of it clearly and plainly.

"Don't be so dramatic." Megan retorted, feigning ignorance of the thought that such an event was within the realm of probability.

"I'm not being dramatic." Tuesday countered, trying her best to bring Megan up to speed on the situation. "You've been taking this experimental drug, and the experiment is a failure. Those guys you came here with, they were hired to rape you and throw you in a ravine to die."

"Wait? What?!" Megan asked, shocked by the conversation that this girl was having with her. "How do you know all of this?"

"The man you were dating, Daniel." Tuesday explained, trying not to sound insensitive. "He didn't leave you because you were on a drug. He left because the two of you were pawns in an experiment, and he cared about you too much to let that company hurt you by forcing you to have a child together and taking it away. He decided to leave to protect you. And they killed him for it."

"How do you know about Daniel?" Megan questioned Tuesday, becoming a little frightened. "Who are you?"

"I am your daughter." Tuesday answered, the truth reflecting in her eyes.

Megan started to become anxious, as if the events of the evening had taken their toll on her. "You can't be my daughter." She stated, trying to make light of everything. "I'm not old enough to have a child your age.

"Again, faith." Tuesday commented.

Megan sat quietly for a moment, considering everything that Tuesday had said to her, running the possibilities through her mind. In the end, she decided that after all she had seen tonight, listening to a girl who fought a giant black monster with flaming fists was in her best interests.

"The next thing you need to do is kick the drugs." Tuesday commanded to Megan. "You're not just hurting yourself, you're hurting everybody around you."

"You don't know what I've been through." Megan replied, trying to justify her actions to Tuesday. "It hurts too much, and I'd rather not deal with it."

"You have to deal with it!" Tuesday continued, "My life depends on it."

"So, let's say that you really are my daughter?" Megan asked, looking for answers to Tuesday's existence in her world. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to rescue you!" Tuesday said, frustrated. "If you go to that party, these guys will rape you and you will become pregnant with me."

"Oh, I see." Megan responded, looking Tuesday up and down. "You seem like the kind of kid that a parent would be proud of."

"If you have me, one day I will be forced to kill you." Tuesday lamented, expressing the sadness of her loss. "I can't let that happen. I love you too much to let that happen when I can save your life right now!"

"You'll kill me?" Megan asked quizzically, wondering what Tuesday meant by that. "Isn't it your choice if you kill me or not?"

"No! I won't have a choice!" Tuesday replied, feeling anxious about reliving the whole event over again. "You will die, and I will be adopted sooner or later by the man you loved, and I must continue to deal with a manipulative psychopath."

Megan suddenly went into full-blown panic mode, as she realizes that the information she is being given is too much for her to process. Tuesday continues to urge her to not attend the party.

"Take what things you have with you, don't go home." Tuesday cautioned Megan. "Move south to a town called Cadence Falls. There is a police officer there that frequents a diner called Tuck's named Douglas Downe. He will fall in love with you, but only when you are clean and sober. He can protect you. Do not come back here for any reason."

Megan suddenly realizes the truth of the matter. "If I don't go to that party, you will never exist." Megan said, sharing her epiphany with Tuesday.

"That's a necessary risk." Tuesday confessed, tears welling in her eyes a little bit. "But I need to do this to save you! Please, Mom. Understand that I have to do this.

"I can't allow you to trade your life for mine!" Megan shot back, trying to level with the teenager in front of her. "No matter what the cost is."

Tuesday suddenly realized that it was going to take more than pleading to make Megan see her point of view, she needed to give a full explanation of what the problem is. "I have a gift, which is more like a curse." Tuesday began, trying to explain it thoroughly in as few words as she could. "But it can be exploited and used in evil ways. I don't want to live my life like that. They are coming and when they figure out how to get to where I am physically at, they will wake me up and I will be arrested and tried for murder. Don't you understand, I've killed people! I've tainted my soul, and this is the only way to cheat the Devil. He cannot own a soul that never existed! Please, Mom. Just go to Cadence Falls and spare both of our lives!"

Megan sat down, thinking long and hard about what the girl claiming to be her daughter just told her. She knew there was truth in Tuesday's words, and knew what had to be done, even if she didn't have the courage to do it. Megan knew if that was a pivotal moment in her life, where a change had to be made, this was going to be the moment. And it would be something she would hold onto for the rest of her life.

## II

### A RACE AGAINST TIME

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1995

After deliberating over what should be done about the water in the corridor, the police decided that the best course of action was to bust through a wall on the opposite side of the corridor, unlock the door and bridge the water with some heavy two by fours, so they could use the battering ram to get the door open.

The police used the battering ram on the wall, breaking a large hole in it, allowing them access to the adjacent office. Douglas Downe arrived on the scene shortly after Doctor Frederiksen's tragic tumble down Cadence Falls. The other officers explained to him that Tuesday was allegedly responsible for the death of the therapist, but he would not believe that. They had primarily called him on scene to see if they could convince her to open the door and surrender.

The Captain handed Douglas the bullhorn and told him that it was imperative that he convinced her to open the door for them so they could process the scene of the crime. Reluctantly, Douglas took hold of the bullhorn and began talking to her while the other officers began bridging the gap to the office of Doctor Frederiksen.

"You know, Tuesday." Douglas began. "I'm sorry about what went down with your Mom. I wished I had gotten a better opportunity with her, to see who she really was. I was just finding out about her, and about you when she died. So, you do what you gotta do, and I'll have your back out here, okay? I love you, kid!"

The Captain immediately ripped the bullhorn from Douglas' hand, as the police just finished bridging the gap to bring in the battering ram. Michelle smiled, relishing the thought of Tuesday Moxley finally getting her comeuppance at long last.

## III

### A DAUGHTER'S LOVE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1980

Tuesday's thoughts turned toward Doctor Frederiksen's office for a brief second, and realized that they were getting close to breaking down the door. When that happened, the only obstacle left in their way would be the door to the hypnosis chamber, which was still being protected by The Nightmare as a last line of defense. She sent a thought to The Nightmare and instructed it not to harm a single soul coming into that room, only to frighten them away.

"Look Mom, we haven't much time, so I need you to listen." Tuesday began, time was ticking by quickly, and she hoped that she would have the opportunity to say everything that needed to be said. "Promise me that you will get off the drugs and get yourself back into school. Find a good career doing something you love to do."

"I won't disappoint you, I promise." Megan said, tears starting to stream down her face.

Back in the corridor, the police broke through the door to Doctor Frederiksen's office with the battering ram and streamed into the area to arrest Tuesday. They found no sign of the young girl, but instead found two other things they did not expect. The first was another door, sealed tightly, almost as if the wood had fused itself together and had become one solid piece with the wall. The second, and this was the more disturbing of the two, was a large ghastly white creature, covered in what appeared to be human blood, and it was guarding the door. In all their years on the police force, they had never seen anything like it, nor would they ever see such a thing again. Gathering their courage and their nightsticks, they charged headlong into the creature, pounding away at it, and until enough of them could keep it occupied to get the door open. It didn't seem to have any inclination toward harming the police, but it certainly wasn't going to allow them anywhere near that door.

Tuesday could sense that her time with her mother was drawing to a close, and if she couldn't accomplish her task before the police reached her, then her life was going to become more unmanageable than it had ever been. She would not allow that to happen.

## IV

### ANOTHER TOKEN FOR THE FUTURE

Megan Ackerman exhaled a deep breath, and she knew that it was time to make her decision. Tuesday looked down at Winston, who she had almost forgotten was with her the entire time, and realized that this was something that needed passed down to Megan's children one day. Though Tuesday might not live on, that ratty old bear certainly would.

"One day, you're going to have another child." Tuesday promised Megan, her eyes full of tears. "You will be a great mother, and your daughter will bring you joy! I want her to have this."

Tuesday extended her arms, in a moment of complete selflessness, and offered Winston to Megan. Megan gently plucked the teddy bear from Tuesday's hands, as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Thank you." Megan simply said, fighting back the full flow of her tears.

"His name is Winston." Tuesday explained. "I named him after a pack of cigarettes you bought the same day you bought him. I know your daughter will take excellent care of Winston. Every time you look at him, remember your promise."

Megan can no longer contain her emotions, as she lets go of the pain of her past, letting it run down her face in salty streams of emotion. She gripped Winston tightly, turning to walk away from the block where the party was happening. "I will always remember." Megan called back to Tuesday. "I will remember how you gave your life to save mine!"

Without thinking, while there was one last minute of time left, Tuesday ran to Megan Ackerman and hugged her tightly. The two of them let go of one another and shared some tears as they walked toward the Amtrak station that would take Megan south to Cadence Falls.

As soon as Megan stepped up and bought the ticket for the train, Tuesday vanished into the night.

"Can I get a name for the ticket, please?" The ticket agent asked Megan, getting everything in order.

Megan thought about it for a second, and then replied.

"Megan Moxley, please." She answered

The train arrived and Megan took a leap of faith that led her to the most wonderful times of her life, stretched out ahead of her in ways that she couldn't imagine.

## EPILOGUE

### A NEW DAY DAWNS

### (SIXTEEN YEARS LATER)

## E P I L O G U E

SIXTEEN YEARS LATER

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1996

Megan Moxley-Downe stepped out of the door of her family's home, hoping to catch her husband before he pulled away in his squad car for another day of work. She was dressed professionally, trying to wave him down, the diamond on her wedding ring glinting in the morning sunlight.

"Remember honey, Tuesday's got her Autumn program tonight." Megan called out to him, Douglas Downe waving in acknowledgment as he pulled away.

Fourteen-year-old Tuesday Downe burst through the front door and ran to her mother's minivan, ready to face another day of school, her trusty pal Winston in tow. Walking down the sidewalk to carpool with them was Tuesday's boyfriend Jason Alkali, his jacket open, which revealed a ring on a chain, which Megan had given Tuesday only weeks before.

Tuesday felt that the ring was a good fit for Jason, and knew that it would their love, along with the ring, would transcend both space and time.

As they drove to school, the sun was peeking through the clouds, as they discussed what their families would be doing a few weeks later for Thanksgiving. It wasn't long before Megan had reached Cadence Falls High School where Tuesday and Jason got out of the car to go to class where they were greeted by their friends Jessica and Serina Jackson. After saying goodbye to the kids, Megan drove off to work at the Moxley Realty Agency she had established, to work another day selling homes to families who needed them. Tuesday and Jason waved back, and turned with their friends to walk into the school building.

Watching them walk together, hand in hand, Serina wished that she could find a love like Tuesday and Jason had, and placed them on a high pedestal to establish her own standards on what she would one day look for in a boyfriend. She would not settle for less than what Tuesday and Jason had together, and knew that he was out there, but she would have to wait to find him, but she was young and knew that there would be plenty of time to seek what she was longing for.

Jason gave Tuesday a quick kiss, telling her how much he loved her, and then headed off to his class, disappearing into the crowd. Tuesday watched him go, anticipating the plans that the two of them had made after school at the Cadence Falls Coffee Company at The Millwork Tavern.

On the way to class, Tuesday, Jessica and Serina bumped into Principal McCauley in the hallway, who had stopped to wish them all a very good day. He seemed relaxed and happy that another day of school was happening, and everything was going so well.

As the three of them entered their classroom, they took their seats and opened their history textbooks. They all moved forward throughout the years with adventures unforeseen ahead of them.

###

## GALLERY

This picture is a personal favorite of mine. I don't know why but the standing up version perfectly captures the essence of Tuesday Moxley, alone and isolated. When Jerry Clement drew this, I felt that he really understood the character, even though hardly any of the screenplay had been written by that point.

This piece is called "The Fighting Foot Scene". Jerry drew it based off Megan trying to calm Tuesday down after her initial nightmare in the story. While Tuesday is portrayed here a lot smaller than she is meant to be, everybody loved the foot coming right out of the picture at them. This was one of the most popular pieces Jerry did for the story.

Originally, Jason's last name was "Braddock". I fully admit that I was watching one of the Chuck Norris Missing in Action films when I decided to use Braddock as his last name. Jerry used to hang around with our group at Bumpers, a local restaurant, and he would draw these characters on anything he had handy. This was drawn on the back of a piece of paper that we used to call "The Blurb". It was a news brief that was placed on the tables for the customers to read. We would use them for everything under the sun during our hours of consuming coffee in that establishment. It's evident that this was one of the blurbs, as they typeset shown through the scan of the drawing. As far as Jason goes, I feel that Jerry got the character spot on.

This is a shot of Megan Moxley in her work uniform at Tuck's Diner. She is seen here having a bit of a heroin withdrawal, as she is shaking while she is working on the clock. I've always pictured that Megan was waiting to get off her shift to go and get high. Tuck's Diner was originally called "Rump's" in the script, and in fact, the name kind of stuck with some of my friends as the diner was basically based upon Bumpers, where we would all hang out at the time.

This is another shot of Megan, overworked and underpaid. She needed to have a sketchy appearance, and to always seem worn out, which was one of her many justifications for her drug addiction. I never really knew where to draw the line with Megan, she needed to appear cracked out like a drug addict would, but also needed to maintain a level of class so that men would be attracted enough to her to pay for her services. This was drawn before her character was developed, and she doesn't have the scars from her traumatic incident at the beginning of the story.

This is another favorite. I liked the idea that Tuesday and Jason would sneak away to random places and get to know one another better. I adore Jerry's depictions of how Winston was always present in Tuesday's arm, even when she was spending time with Jason. When the story was originally written, Tuesday was only twelve years old, and as I was developing the story, I felt that age was too young for her to experience the things she was going to deal with throughout the story. Yeah, I know. twelve-year-old kids are in relationships, but it didn't feel natural to me at the time to have Tuesday that young. So, I bumped her up to fourteen, which allowed me to place her at an age that was more socially appropriate for her to be at. It also gave her a couple more years of experience and I could do a lot more with her character.

This is a close-up of Tuesday, where she was nervous about going to bed. I originally envisioned her with this short hairstyle where she didn't have to do a lot to keep it in order. She's the kind of girl who doesn't care about fashions and trends, and in her solitude, forges her own path. Ultimately, I went with another hairstyle because it didn't seem appropriate for 1995.

This is Tuesday in her room after one of her nightmares. In the original story, Tuesday often had to deal with the aftermath of her nightmares herself, as her mother was usually never present when they occurred. There was always some question as to how far I would push the envelope with Megan's self-serving ways. I didn't want her to be so far gone that she didn't acknowledge that she had a daughter at all, but I needed her to be selfish enough that she could blow Tuesday off for a couple days at a time. This image really captures her solitude and loneliness.

This is another concept piece of Tuesday where we were playing around with her hair and nightgown ideas, trying to make her more age appropriate. There were so many ideas available to use, it was just a matter of striking the right balance between all of them.

Doctor Frederiksen went through a variety of changes to get where he is in the story. Originally, he was named Dr. Theodore Nathaniel Hayes, and he was going to be the classical Freudian style psychiatrist with a gray suit, glasses and a beard. As his needs changed for the story, he dressed less down, and his beard was trimmed back to just his chin. It was an attempt to make him more modern and relatable to the patients he worked with, particularly children. His name was changed because I saw a character on a television show named Theodore Hayes, and I didn't want to copy them. So, his name was changed to Viktor Anthony Frederiksen. For the longest time, I was going with Viktor Frederiksen, but decided that it sounded too much like Victor Frankenstein, and gave too much of the plot away with just his name. I ended up using the middle name as his first name, and Doctor Anthony Frederiksen was born.

The many expressions of Doctor Theodore Nathaniel Hayes. Jerry was always practicing his skills with drawing this character, and wanted to storyboard him with a wide range of emotions, so he tried some different things with him to demonstrate that. I really loved the idea of the arching eyebrow, there was a lot that the character could do with that, but it would have made casting him much more interesting, as we would have had to find a guy with the correct features and the ability to emote using an eyebrow. Jerry Clement is a fantastic artist, and has gone on to become a tattoo artist, whose work is just incredible. Many of my friends have ink done by him, and nobody has any complaints whatsoever.

This is the first drawing my friend Erika Radcliffe (Now Ankenman) did for the project. She was enamored with the character and felt herself drawn to Tuesday in a lot of different ways. This drawing is part of the original nightmare I had that inspired _Dreaming god_ , which is retold in chapter one of the book. Erika was very inspired by anime art, and read many manga books, particularly _Chobits_ , which her art style in her drawings for _Dreaming god_ is very reminiscent of.

Erika always was full of ideas and played with a variety of different things, including hairstyles for Tuesday, and when it came to Winston, she became the utmost authority on what Winston should and should not be. She had taken the teddy bear to heart to the point she had even began shopping around for various bears she felt would be suitable for the prop for Winston, including this bear below, which Erika photographed at Willow Grove park outside Longview Washington, the town that was the inspiration for "The Devil's City".

Photo by Erika Ankenman

This is a digital mockup I created of Megan Moxley using an old animated chatroom called IMVU. I don't even know if it's a thing anymore, but I got a free trial to it back when they first began doing it, and the idea popped in my head to make an additional account to create digital versions of the characters for Dreaming god. Unfortunately, the program was buggy and slow on the PC I had at the time, and so I only created Megan, Tuesday's mother. I'm sure if the program had run better for me, I'm sure that I would have done a lot more with it.

### ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rik Johnston grew up in a rural community in the state of Idaho. During those years, he discovered that he loved writing stories about far away worlds, about military commandos and about time travel. He honed his skill under the tutelage of his high school English teacher, who recognized a degree of talent, and agreed to publish some of his stories in the local newspaper. The stories that he wrote became the basis for _The Chronicles of John Alkali_ , an idea that he has developed throughout the years.

Rik spent a good deal of his life in Southwest Washington State, where his storytelling desires had morphed into a dream of independent filmmaking. He wrote a screenplay for what would have been his first film called _Dreaming god_ , but instead is has now adapted that screenplay for his first full-length novel.

Rik Johnston currently resides in Mobile Alabama with his wife. He has three beautiful daughters, eight wonderful grandchildren and three cats. Rik enjoys playing guitar, attending his church, and likes cinema and video games. Rik is currently attending college to learn how to repair computers and how to manage large computer networks.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank the following people for being a part of this process throughout the years. My Mom, for allowing me to think creatively and encouraging the use of my imagination at the earliest age. Andy Frostensen, who was a good friend who always gave me honest criticism of my work. Margaret Brackenbury, who helped me to realize my potential and who first published my work. James Schmoyer, who was one of the first in my adult life who said he'd be interested in my stories. The staff at the Longview Public Library, who put up with me for months on end while I worked on my screenplay. Jerry Clement, Erika Ankenman, Strieyels Knight, and Shaun Fletcher for their interest and participation in the project. My co-workers at Borders Express, Gary, Elisa, Tammy, Carrie, Mishel, Cathy, Donna, and Cassandra who always pushed me to take my writing further. I'd like to thank my good friends Erika Ankenman, Kyle Powers, Christopher and Michael Shindel, Stephanie Johnson, John McGregor Alicia Wharton and Julie Miller for just being awesome friends, even when I wasn't a very awesome person. I must thank my beautiful children Angi, Kimi and Emily for being an inspiration in my life. I want to seriously thank my wife Cherie for the hours she puts up with me ticking away on my laptop to accomplish this, I love you and you mean the world to me. I'd like to thank my church family at Covenant Life Church, Jesse and Apryl White, Mark and Regina Jackson, Lisa and James Scott, Darrel and Trina Davis, Fran and Andrew Threatt, Michael and Faye Brugh Abby White, Trae White, Tyler Scott, Indiana Scott, and Ka'Tyia and Nevaeh Davis, for showing me truth and providing a steady light to steer by. And I'd like to thank Yahweh for each and every day being a blessing in some capacity or another, to Him be the Praise.

Rik Johnston

Mobile Alabama

### OTHER STORIES BY RIK JOHNSTON

### BOOKS

THE BOOK OF THE SPHERE:

AN HISTORICAL COMPANION TO

THE CHRONICLES OF JOHN ALKALI

### SHORT STORIES

THE HIDDEN TRIBE

THE UNITY BELL

FORGERY OF THE

XUMANFELIAN WASTELAND

Available at Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes & Noble,  
Kobo and other eBook Retailers.

### COMING SOON

A QUEST FOR VENGEANCE

THE CYPHER OF MIGSAARI

