“Almost there.” The words were quiet, loud enough for only the boy to hear. He was cheering himself on to the finish line, which came into his sight. Only a few more yards, then he would be able to stop. He would be declared a winner.

He closed his eyes as he awaited the snap of tape across his chest. He waited for the pleasure of winning a race after months of training. This would be the first time Reese Parker would win a cross country race. The taste of success was on the tip of his tongue. With this triumph, his name would be put in the school newspaper. Well… maybe not but it was a nice thought.

Reese Parker was the loser and the baby of the team. He never won a race; he had always been the fat kid in last place. After the coming of puberty and the training that he had done all summer, he was someone else. In the heat of the day, he would jog for miles, preparing for this moment. Over the course of a sweaty summer, he had lost most of the fat on his body and the extra weight that he had carried. When his sophomore year came around, Reese knew that this was his time to shine.

One second he had been sprinting off to the finish line with the tingling sensation of triumph. A second later, instead of the breaking of tape, his whole body burned as if it had been set on fire. The world turned black as Reese snapped his eyes closed against the pain. It was as if he were being ripped away from existence.

His body was thrown to the ground, his head bounced against the packed dirt. All thoughts were thrown from his mind. His chest ached as he struggled for air, the burning continued to rage through his veins. A groan escaped his mouth, sending a rumbling pain through his chest. Reese swore that he had never been in so much pain.

His heart was racing faster and faster, pain was the only feeling he had. A headache kept any new thoughts from forming. As he tried to focus on this predicament, his mind shut out any kind of communication. For a long moment, Reese could not see, his eyes were not able to open. His eyelids were shut tight, unwilling to budge.

The runner tried to move his painful body with no avail. His body still felt fire hot and his legs refused to cooperate. The only choice he had remaining was to listen.

Reese waited for the voices of the runners that had been so close on his heels; the sound of footsteps as they reached him, maybe the sound of an ambulance would be there. Except, he didn’t hear any of this, the only sound was birdsong. Something was not right; there should be people and plenty of them. Only seconds before there was cheering in the distance as he neared the finish line. He couldn’t be alone. There had to be someone coming to his rescue.

The burning feeling ebbed away slowly. The pain, on the other hand, decided to stick around. It was enough though to urge the boy to try to get to his feet. The first he had to open his eyes.

When he did the world spun for a few seconds, causing his headache to triple and his stomach to heave in a feeble attempt to puke. Once the initial shock of light and sight had gone, he tried to get upright. The process was painful; his lower back went into a series of spasms at the effort to sit up. Every joint in his body crackled and popped as if he were ninety and not fifteen. It was an accomplishment to sit up.

To examine the situation at hand, Reese had to get a good look at his surroundings.


This was deemed impossible for the world spun again as Reese was forced down to the ground. His body dug into the hard dirt as a hand held him down by the shoulder. His head started to buzz again and his sight was blurry. The person that had assaulted him was still unknown, for whoever was remained silent. The only presence that Reese felt was the hand clamped around his arm.

Time seemed to tick by slowly as Reese’s eyes finally came into focus. Not wanting to provoke his attacker, Reese attempted to only observe this person with the corner of his eye. What he saw was a firm chin and beyond that a mess of blonde hair plastered to a forehead by sweat. The little of his face that Reese could see, he was younger, maybe only a few years older than Reese himself.

“When is she going to get here? This wasn’t supposed to be my job.” The man spoke, and at first Reese wasn’t sure if he had heard him. His voice was quiet enough to be the wind. The statement was directed towards the open air in front of him. The only answer was the wind blowing through the tall grass.

Reese attempted to struggle, to face his attacker directly instead of being pinned to the ground. “Get—“ Reese tried to speak but his throat cut off all sound.

The man only responded by tightening his grip. Sharp fingernails dug into Reese’s bare arm and threatened to draw blood. “Boy, I swear that if you don’t stop moving, I will kill you before the Hunters can.” His voice came in a low whisper, it resembled a dog’s growl. “And that would get messy.” The man concluded, loosening his grip so that his fingernails no longer burrowed into Reese’s skin.

Reese did not attempt to speak again. Instead, he groaned to show his discomfort but the man refused to release his grip. It only continued to push his aching body into the ground.

The burning sensation had disappeared completely but the pain in his body remained. It hurt to breathe, his lungs stung with every shaky breath the he took in. His heart and head pumped in unison, filling his ears with thudding. Every limb attached to his body trembled in fatigue and exhaustion. At this moment, all Reese wanted to do was sleep but that was not possible. He couldn’t let his guard down.

Trying to be released seemed to be futile, so Reese relaxed and let his eyes scan the area. A jolt of recognition brought Reese’s mind from its clouded state.
This place was familiar.
It was a park that Reese often visited for the jogging path. How had he gotten here when he was supposed to be an hour away winning a cross country race?

A cool wind rustled the grass around Reese’s face. The boy forced himself to look at the horizon and noticed the accumulation of clouds. A storm? Only seconds ago, the sun had been beating down on his back. He would be suffering from sunburn any second. There wasn’t going to be any rain today.

Reese remembered when it last rained, three days ago a freak thunderstorm cancelled practice. He detested the rain; it kept him from running and improving. ‘It will end your race.’ He thought fiercely. ‘But if you were winning, what are you doing here?’ Reese could not come up with an answer to his own question. Maybe it was a dream, which seemed the most likely. This was some crazy, elaborate dream that he was going to wake from any second now.

A loud crack jolted Reese out of the fog that filled his mind. If lightning was coming, Reese shouldn’t be sitting out in an open field. He looked up at his captor, a panicked expression spreading on his face. Hopefully this man wasn’t as insane as he had been acting.

The man did not respond, rather his grip on Reese disappeared and he stood. Reese had his chance to escape but one stern glance from his captor and the runner flattened against the ground again. There was no reason to make this situation worse than it already was.

He could only watch as the blonde crossed the small distance between him and another. She was a person that Reese had not noticed before. Had she been there this whole time? Instead of the demeanor that he had given Reese, the estranged man attempted to hug the girl.

“Get lost Domino.” Her voice echoed across the field, walking on past him to approach Reese.

“Jeez, I’m sorry I covered for you.” The man’s words were almost lost the wind as he disappeared.

Reese was not the person to kid. The blonde man simply disappeared into thin-air with a crack. With a crack that could be mistaken by lightning.

The woman watched the spot from over her shoulder, motionless for a few seconds. Once she was seemed satisfied with his disappearance, she turned back to the fallen boy.

She took a couple steps before pausing, close enough that the boy could no longer see her face. Rather, he stared at her shirt. Reese felt uncomfortable, staring a girl right in the chest. He had no energy remaining to move his head away but he also didn’t want to close his eyes. It made him vulnerable.

A wave of relief hit Reese as the woman knelt down and he realized she wasn’t much of a woman in the first place. Her face was soft and still lacked the signs of aging. She seemed around the same age as the man. The runner wasn’t often good at guessing but he placed her around seventeen, maybe nineteen at the oldest. Bangs hid most of her face except for a single green eye and half of a white smile.

“You are going to be just fine.” She soothed the panicked boy. Her tone spoke of softness but there was something hidden behind it. Reese couldn’t pick it out.

“Are you—“ Reese attempted to speak again but was cut off.

“It becomes harder if you talk.”

“----“ Reese wanted to say more but couldn’t.

Her hand rubbed the spot which only minutes earlier had been locked in a death grip. She tilted her head slightly to the left; the hair fell out of her face. It stunned Reese into complete silence.

He had seen this face before. This girl was familiar; her voice reminded him of one of the strangest occurrences in his life.

”I wasn’t early this time.”She muttered, her grin growing wider. Reese knew this girl.

She was the one who disappeared into the snow.