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Saga and Casey finally had Bright Falls in their rear view, Casey behind the wheel as they drove to the airport that would take them back to Virginia. Both of them were eager to see Logan and David after all of the horror they had witnessed these past couple of days. It was strange to think that all of that had happened in less than a week, and both of their minds were in a whirl as they both tried to process everything.
Saga sat slumped in the passenger seat, elbow propped against the door, her head in her hand. Her charm bracelet hung around the sleeve of her jacket, she could hear the faint tinkle as all of the charms bumped against each other with the gentle movements of the car. She smiled hearing the noise, she looked forward to splitting up the charms with Logan, seeing which ones she would want for her matching bracelet. The thoughts were happy for a moment, but with Logan on her mind they once again turned to what had happened. To the fear in her voice over the phone, talking about the nightmare she had had, the nightmare that had almost become reality.
She glanced over at Casey, and on the surface he looked as stoic as ever. But she had been friends with him long enough to see there was more going on with him than one would think. Slight furrows in his brow, tiny twitches in his jaw. Her inspection of him was cut short as they hit a large bump, the movement causing the bracelet on her wrist to make much more noise than it had been. Casey glanced over at it, quickly returning his eyes to the road.
“Say, Anderson.” Casey said. A small smile formed on Saga’s face at the forced casualness of the question. She moved her head in her hand, so she now faced Casey instead of the window.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, about those charms…” His voice trailed off as Saga laughed.
“Courtesy of the FBC.” Casey sent an incredulous look her way. “Weird, I know. It had to do with some sort of research they were doing there, messing with the way Cauldron Lake can change reality.” Casey scoffed at that.
“I thought they only turned up after weird shit happened, not that they caused it.” He said, shaking his head.
“Hmm.” Saga took her head off of her hand, turning it back and forth in order to see all of the charms where they hung. “Just trying to figure out where I’ll say I got them all. Coffee World maybe? Some sort of big sale, buy two get two free or something?” Casey laughed at that, a genuine laugh. She smiled at the sound. “Do you want to know how they were trying to change reality? What kind of art they were using?” She looked back at him, the smile still on her face.
He sighed, thinking about it for a second. She almost didn’t think he was going to respond when he finally did. “Sure.”
“Nursery rhymes.” She kept a close eye on him to see how he would respond. Immediately his brow furrowed, and he turned to look at her fully. Seeing her smile, he got an irritated look on his face, and he quickly turned his eyes back to the road.
“Ha ha, very funny Anderson.” He hadn’t believed her. She held in a laugh, afraid that if she did she would never convince him.
“Its true. Short little nursery rhymes, I found a bunch of their paperwork talking about how they were trying to come up with the perfect rhymes that would activate the powers of the lake. There was a bit more to it, but that’s a story for another day.” She turned back to the window, the trees a blur as they drove. Her smile shrank down to a whisper as she thought back to the first one she had found, what it had made her think of. “They reminded me of the rhymes I used to read to Logan when she was little.”
She could feel it, the second she mentioned Logan’s name. Even without her powers, she had known Casey long enough now to feel the tension come off of him at the mention of her name. While Saga had never lost hope, refused to believe that her daughter was dead, Casey had eventually succumbed to the horror story. Believed that her and David’s marriage had fallen apart, that Logan was gone. The happy life the four of them had, gone. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the pain on his face as he tried to reconcile the now two conflicting sets of memories in his head. While Logan and David were far away, could chalk up what they experienced as a nightmare, Casey had been too involved for him to do the same.
Sitting in the car like they were, there was no way to wrap him in a hug. She continued watching him from the corner of her eye, his jaw clenched as he made a point to focus on the road. She shifted in her seat, and drew up her arm to set her hand on his shoulder. She held it there, giving him a reassuring squeeze, and slowly but surely the tension left his frame. She hoped that one day Casey could just say it was nothing but a nightmare as well. They sat in silence like that for a while, Saga finally removing her hand from Casey’s shoulder when she was confident that he had calmed down. But he hadn’t really calmed down, and by removing her hand everything came bubbling back to the surface.
“You never believed it.” He hissed.
Saga looked at him, brows raised in surprise at the force behind his words. She was all of a sudden hit by his confusion, swirling in his mind like storm clouds. He continued.
“You never believed it, you fought so hard against every claim that Logan was gone, the horror story never got to you. How? Was it Wake? Was it something else? How, Anderson?” His usually gruff voice had risen in pitch in his desperation. His knuckles had gone white on the steering wheel, and finally at the end he sent one look Saga’s way, pain and confusion warring on his face. Saga took a deep breath, looking down into her lap to try and compose herself after that, formulate a response. She could hear his deep breathing as she thought.
“It had nothing to do with Wake.” She wished this conversation wasn’t happened in a car, where she could look him in the face so he could see meant what she said. She hoped he could hear her sincerity, and continued.
“It’s because of my family.” She said, a small smile forming on her face.
She could feel Casey’s confusion change at that statement, the anguish coloring it disappeared. She didn’t need to be looking at him to see the baffled look on his face, it was a face she knew well. There was more silence as he mulled over what she had said.
“So…” he began, pausing between words as he tried to piece things together. “You never believed Logan was gone… because of Logan?”
Now it was Saga’s turn to be confused. She looked up from her lap, turning to look at him. She was about to ask him what he meant when it hit her. “Oh shit, I never got around to telling you, did I? Did you not hear me call Tor grandpa when we were on the beach?”
Casey’s eyebrow shot up at that, and he looked in her direction, quickly taking in the look on her face. And though he could see she was being honest, it was hard to believe.
“Yeah, but… I thought you called him that because hes old, not because you were actually related.” He said, not quiet believing his own words as he looked back to the road.
She leaned forward in her seat, turning to be able to see his entire face instead of just his profile. He gave her an irritated glance as she got in his space as he tried to keep his attention on the road. “Remember how I said in the police station I had so much to tell you?” He nodded. “When I went to Watery, to go and find “my trailer”, that’s where I first met Tor and Odin. They recognized me right away. Which, I was almost getting used to that at that point.” She huffed out a laugh. “But then Tor went on, a rant almost. Talking about the story, how it was telling lies, to try and hurt me. To make sure it didn’t come true.” Casey slid his eyes over to look at her, the disbelief still there. She opened her mouth to continue, but he held up a finger to silence her.
Using the hand he had just removed from the steering wheel, he then pressed the back of that hand against her shoulder, and gently pushed against her until her back was once again resting against her seat. She laughed at the gesture as he put his hand back, readjusting himself in his own seat.
“Continue.”
Saga spent a couple of seconds getting her giggles under control, taking a breath to settle down.
“Ok. At first I just assumed it was the story affecting them. And the booze. But then, when I got back to Bright Falls, after…” she paused, thinking about the absolute mess she had walked into. “After the FBC took Wake, I decided to go to the nursing home. They had said I could visit. And the things they knew, about me, my mom. About… everything. After a while, there was no way I could deny it any longer. Tor is my grandpa. Odin is my great-uncle. They reassured me that Logan wasn’t dead, that I could save her from the horror story.”
Casey was quiet for a long time after she finished. She let it sit, let him process what she had just told him. She thought back to the conversation she had with Tor next to the pond, how hearing him say Logan wasn’t dead had bolstered her will, her determination to save her daughter.
“So that’s why they were so willing to come and help out on the beach, huh?” He asked suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts. Not quite the response she was expecting.
A small laugh was all he got for an answer as silence once again fell over the car. The silence didn’t last though.
“You know, that only half answers my question. Actually, it raises a new one. How were they not affected by the story either? You said they actually knew about it?”
Saga’s mind came to a standstill at that. She had carefully avoided mentioning her powers, but Casey could tell she was leaving something out. Her mind was blank, how on earth did you tell someone you were psychic, or a seer as Tor and Odin had called her? That those powers had made her immune to the power of the horror story? Her face scrunched as she tried to figure something out, finally letting out a sigh in defeat.
“This may seem dramatic but, I think that is something that should wait until we’re home. Not something I want to dump on you while you’re driving.”
He chuckled. “You’re right, that is dramatic. Anderson, we’ve just gone through hell, just tell me?”
She shook her head, closing her eyes. “It’s something I’m still trying to process myself, so… trust me on this? And besides.” She thought of how Tor had said it was a family trait, how they had it, her mom had had it. Would Logan? “There’s someone else I would like tell first. Ok?” She turned to look at him, wanting him to see her expression, that she was being serious. He glanced at her, but in that short amount of time he could see what she needed him to see. He sighed, nodding.
“Ok. I trust you. You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
She smiled, settling back into her seat. She propped her head in her hand again, closing her eyes. Just wanting to relax now, for the rest of the car ride. She needed a little reprieve before getting home to her family, and all of the emotions the reunion would bring. But Casey had one more question.
“Wait, Anderson, if you discovered long lost relatives there, why didn’t we say goodbye? We could have stopped by the nursing home before we left, why didn’t we?” Saga drew in a sharp breath, not opening her eyes.
“They um… they went into the lake after me. After… after Scratch threw me in.” The silence in the car grew brittle.
“So…”
“They’re still in the dark place.” She said, almost a whisper. Her eyes were still closed, she hadn’t moved at all in that short conversation. She then heard Casey shift in his seat, and his hand came to rest on her knee, a comforting weight. She smiled, resting her free hand on his.
“I saw them there, right as I was leaving.”
“Really?”
“I tried to get them to come with me, but they said no. Something about their time up here being done?”
Casey made a sound of confusion, and she squeezed his hand.
“I don’t know either. But… there’s something about them. I think they’ll be fine.”
After a couple of seconds, Casey gave her knee a second squeeze, then moved his hand back to the steering wheel. He settled beside her, and she breathed deep, sinking deeper into her seat. She hadn’t told him everything, little things she still kept to herself. Until she felt ready to tell him. The one thing, the biggest thing. What Tor had said, that their meeting in the dark place wasn’t goodbye. That name, Tom again, instead of Wake. About something coming, they would see each other again. Did that mean they would make it out of the dark place? Unlikely, considering what Odin had said. So the other then, would she end up in the dark place again? Would something draw her back to Bright Falls, to Watery? Would it draw Casey back, since he had been touched by the dark presence? Would Logan and David be affected again too? Her brow drew together in worry. She ran her hand down her face, trying to shake the thoughts from her head. The movement caused her bracelet to jingle again, and she remembered what had started the whole line of conversation in the first place.
She went back to that moment, thinking about splitting up the charms with Logan. The thought made her smile. No matter what came next, she believed she could handle it. She had helped Wake stop the dark presence, she had saved her daughter. Her marriage was safe, Casey was safe. Soon the four of them could work on putting this all behind them, move on.
Her story would go on.