Strength.

Courage Of Arm And Heart.

Choices Define Us.

The Path Begins.

Disorientation was the first thing Gabby felt when she exited her doorway. The world swam around her, flooded by smearing light. Nothing was solid, not until the blobs in the distance slammed to ground, formed suddenly into rigid structures dotted by stars.

No. Windows.

Clouds rushed in, knotted and dark as the sea that heaved from beneath. She stumbled, her feet finding purchase on wooden boards as a pier built itself between one step and the next. A slender hand grabbed her around the middle, and Gabby jerked aside.

“Whoa!” April, her best friend and roommate, pulled Gabby tight against her. “Did you sneak more tequila before we left the dorms?”

“Left…?” Gabby looked down. Her friend wore a dress and heels, the kind you’d wear on a night out. “Oh no.”

They were in the marina on the night Gabby vanished.

April clucked her tongue. “Jeez, you’re all flushed. Let’s get you sat down.”

Gabby was too stunned to fight as April led her to a weather worn post. Gabby took the moment to collect herself. She was in Fort Lauderdale again, at the marina, and she was Human again. Gabby frowned. She didn’t remember ever being so small and squishy, but there was no denying it. April was here on the pier, which meant… Gabby turned just in time to spot the tail lights of the car they'd taken to the marina as it pulled out of the parking lot.

“We've only just arrived,” she murmured. The yacht was ahead of them, a short walk down the pier.

"Yeah, we just got here." April leaned down to stare at her eyes, lifting her phone’s light up.

Gabby swatted it away. “What’re you doing?”

“Checking your pupils. Did you knock your head on something? You’re all loopy.”

“I’m fine—” Before they'd come to the marina, they'd been hanging out for hours, drinking a little, but mostly chatting, putting on makeup, and dancing to music in their dorm room. In retrospect, it had been the only good part of that night.

Down the pier, a yacht bobbed in the waves. A short gangplank extended from the deck, where people were dancing to loud music. Glasses clinked. There was a sound of laughter that was louder than the waves splashing against the yacht's hull.

Gabby cleared her throat. "Listen, April, we should do something else."

"What are you talking about? We went through a lot to get invited to this." April frowned at her, putting a hand to her forehead. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Gabby slapped that away too. "I'm fine. It's just..." It was just that she remembered exactly what happened on that boat, that she had no intention of repeating the experience, not at April's expense. "I think we should get out of here."

"Really? I—If you’re not feeling well, then sure. We can get you back home."

Gabby knew her friend—she was burning to get on that boat. They’d angled for an invite for ages and had only lucked on one thanks to her sorority sister, but April wasn’t Gabby’s best friend for nothing. She tore her longing gaze away from the yacht and ducked her head under Gabby's arm, helping lift her. It was unnecessary, but Gaby leaned into it, acting her heart out as they hobbled off the pier and into the parking lot just beyond.

April lifted her phone. “I’ll call a rideshare—”

Gabby stopped her. "I don’t think we’ll need it."

Ahead of them was a beat-up sedan, fifteen years old and rusted all along the bottom. Sitting in the driver's seat, staring at his cracked phone, was her brother. Chubbier and sadder than she last remembered him, he had a tired look in his eyes and his broad shoulders were slumped forward. He put down his phone and looked toward the yacht, and spotted them immediately.

He hand-cranked his window down as the girls walked closer. "Hey, Gab!” His voice was boisterous and fake. “I was just about to go in there. I promise."

Gabby laughed. "You liar. We're leaving anyways."

"Really?" She punched him through the window. "Ow!”

“Don't look so happy about that."

He rubbed his arm. "Dang you’re strong. Why’re you leaving?"

"She’s not feeling too great," April offered. She pouted. “Do you mind giving us a ride back to the dorms?”

He made a face. "Ugh. But I came all this way.”

“Shut up and drive, butthead.” Gabby opened the backseat and shuffled in, April following swiftly after, kicking away old fast food wrappers and empty soda bottles.

“Sorry about the mess. Just, um, yeah, just shove it wherever."

Gabby rolled her eyes. “I need food. Something greasy might make me feel better.”

"Ooh yeah,” April nodded eagerly. She’d always liked her brother. “Food does sound good.”

And it’ll get us far away from this place.

"All right. You twisted my arm. Where to?”

They ended up twenty minutes away at a pizza place. It was late, but the people behind the counter waved them in, exchanging excited words with her brother. He talked to them animatedly about something or other. Gabby tried to listen, but it was so boring.

"You know them?" Gabby asked when he returned with a trio of bunch of slices, some water, and a very large soda for himself.

"I went to school with their son. Helped him through a lot of classes. He's a good guy.”

“Where's he?"

"Oh, he became a lawyer. Doesn't really visit much. But I do.” He shrugged. “I come by and say hi to his folks when I can. His grandma insists that I take something home whenever I show up, so I try not to stop in too much. Feels like I’m ripping them off, you know?” He gestured to their slices. “Eat up. It’s good.”

April and Gabby traded glances, but they set to it. The moment she bit into the slice, she closed her eyes. It was good. Delicious, even. She chewed silently as the drone of the oven fans filled the small restaurant and argumentative Italian was shouted somewhere in the back. For a moment, she found peace. Whether or not this was all real didn't really matter. She'd saved her brother and her friend from a truly awful night, and that was worth celebrating.

"I haven’t had anything this good in forever,” she said.

Her brother grinned. “Told you.”

"We had pizza the other day.”

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Gabby just waved her hand at April and tried her best to enjoy her slice. She even managed to put down a full liter of water before the lights started flickering.

"What's that about?" Her brother turned in his seat. The young guy at the counter was tapping the lamps above the register, but they didn’t stop.

A cold feeling developed in the pit of Gabby’s stomach. She stood up slowly, looking past the counter into the kitchen. There, the lights had gone entirely out. She only caught a flash of an elderly Italian woman before she vanished into darkness… a shadow that swirled, slick with an oily sheen.

It crept forward.

"Get up.”

They both looked at her like she crazy. “We just sat down,” her brother said.

“It’s stuffy in here.” Gabby lifted him up by the arm, and he couldn’t resist her Strength. “How about we go eat in the park?"

"All right, all right, don't be so pushy." April followed along to the door, but her brother headed to the counter. “Just let me go say goodbye and I'll come out.”

“Nope.” Gabby hooked her arm around her brother and found it was laughably easy to force him forward. He hadn't the Strength to resist what was clearly still her strongest stat, not in this place. She hustled them out the door, trying at the same time to access her status screen. It flickered and didn't answer. But she could feel Strength in her arms and legs and her Perception wasn't lying.

Something was coming.

She pushed out of the restaurant door and into the yellowed streetlights. With swift steps, she led them across the sparse traffic and into the park on the other side of the road. Gabby risked a glance back at the pizza place—it was filled with shadow now.

Her brother said something, making April laugh. Some joke Gabby had heard a thousand times, but it drew a smile from her. She'd forgotten how easily he could make people laugh. How easy it was to just be around him. Memories of Imara flashed through her Mind, events bathed in a crimson dyed violence and all but sheathed in a golden ecstasy. She remembered hating him with such a fierceness that it was hard to comprehend now. It had felt so right, so pure, that she shuddered, shaking herself loose from the recollection.

That's not who I am anymore. Now, she was with her brother and her best friend, and things were okay. She glanced back as they pushed into the park. Whatever that was, it wasn’t following.

They ended up somewhere in the middle where the trees arched over a bridge and a thin stream. The grass was rough and coarse, nothing you'd want to sit on, but they had benches to spare. So they sat, and they talked. Gabby hadforgotten how easy it was to talk with April. Just like her brother, it was like falling into old habits.

He’d been so upset about his terrible job and his relationship with what's-her-name, there was a light in him that Gabby didn't remember seeing back on the Continent. Here, he was gentle and calm. Felix Nevarre burned, so consuming that Gabby had a hard time remembering his real name. She tried, prodding her Mind, but it wouldn't come. Who he'd become had worn through who he'd been.

Now though, it was like having her old brother back. He was younger, even though he looked older and more tired, there was a softness to him. His smile was easy.

"Honestly," her brother was saying as the last slurps of soda vanished, "I'm glad you guys walked out when you did. I don't know if you could tell, but I was having some trouble working up the courage to walk in."

"Why?" April ate a piece of crust. "It was gonna be a fun party, if only someone wasn’t so ‘sick.’"

Gabby glared.

April threw up her hands in mock defeat. “We’ve been talking about this party for weeks. A lot of the older guys on campus were going, and quite a few people we knew." She gestured to herself. “I bought this dress yesterday, and I never got to show it off!”

“It uh, looks nice,” her brother offered.

Gabby had forgotten that there were a number of girls she'd seen around campus that had been at the party. Details were fuzzy in her Mind, standing here in the midst of a Memory that had happened a lifetime ago.

"I know some of the people on that yacht, but that's the problem, isn't it?" He leaned back, staring up at the night sky through the break in the trees above them. "I knew them when I was in college, like you guys. Back before we'd ever actually done anything—I still haven’t, and they have. I mean, friends of mine own that boat right? All I own is five hundred square feet and my car. And my payment on the car is late."

April winced in sympathy. "Life's rough out here. I'm not looking forward to graduating."

"Yeah," Felix said with a resigned sigh. "Don't rush it if you don't have to. If I'd known what was waiting for me on the other side of that graduation stage, I'd have figured some way to keep earning my master's, maybe even a PhD. Who knows, I might have had several degrees by this point." He laughed, though it sounded a bit forced to Gabby.

Thunder cut him off. Above them, clouds boiled over the clear sky, and a secondary peal of distant rumbles rolled through, its lightning outlining the silhouettes of dark office buildings.

Gabby stood up. She knew the sound of that storm. It was pitch perfect copy of the one that had rolled over her as she waited for the ambulance for April. The one that had hurled lightning and snatched her away. "We need to get out of here."

"It's just a little rain. Probably a cloud break and then it'll move on," her brother said. "This is Florida, remember?"

Gabby grunted, not taking her eyes off the skies.

"You’re being so weird tonight," April said, standing and rearranging her dress. "But we should get back home.”

“Oh fine," her brother started walking. “Now where’d I park….Oh right, this way.”

He headed down a path into the park. For some reason, Gabby couldn't quite remember the way they'd come either, but her brother had been correct as he meandered, untroubled through the trees. Thunder rolled in the distance, but no rain followed. Like he’d said, not really a surprising event in Florida, but it set Gabby’s teeth on edge.

Slowly, they walked to the other side of the park, where her brother’s car was parked along the street. Her brother and April kept talking, laughing about something or other, but Gabby couldn't focus. She was too busy scanning the area, flaring her Perception for all it was worth. Nothing but shadows and trees met her senses, but each crash of thunder sent a jolt across her shoulders. A knot that tightened with every step.

"—and he took one jump on the trampoline and bam! His pants split right open."

"Really? In front of everyone at the wedding?" April dissolved into giggles.

Her brother looked proud he’d managed to make her laugh. "Yeah, it was hilarious."

"Why was there even a trampoline there?”

“For the kids.”

“So why—”

Gabby put an arm out, stopping her friend and brother as they neared the end of the paved path. Her Perception had picked up on something. Things waited in the shadows ahead, just at the walled edge of the park. She flared her stat, drawing in sensations from around them. Gabby could feel the cold presence of multiple creatures, all of them clinging to her brother’s car on the other side of the park gate.

“Why’d we stop?” Her brother craned his neck, looking just beyond the wall’s corner, and he gasped. “Holy shit.”

Each creature was made of smoke and shadow, with bundles of light like glistening stars wound within their flesh. One dragged itself across the hood, like a heavy serpent with limbs tipped with pudgy hands. All five sniffed at the car, hunkering around it like hounds hunting for a scent.

“Analyze.” Gabby winced as the screen flickered in front of her before vanishing. “That’s useless.”

“What the hell are they?” April asked.

Gabby put her hand on them both, pulling them away. “Dangerous.”

Before she could move them all back into the trees, one of the creatures lifted its head, whipping toward them as if catching their scent. It let out a blood-curdling howl.

“Run!” Gabby spun them around and took off, a hand under April and her brother’s elbows.

The monsters chased after.

The three of them darted into the manicured woods, darting off the path toward one of the distant gates. The five monstrosities were closing in, and there was nowhere to hide. Even if there was only one of the creatures, it would be more than enough to run them down.

Her brother and April were already panting, their limbs thrown awkwardly as they ran in ways that few people do past the age of fifteen. Gabby looked back. They weren’t making any headway.

She planted her feet. “Keep going!”

April stumbled to a stop. "What’re you doing?"

"I need to slow them down."

Felix gulped a breath, holding a stitch in his side. "Gabby, no. We gotta keep moving!"

She turned, facing the beasts as she lifted a hand. “Brightblade.”

A golden greatsword etched into reality, dropping into her outflung hand with a weight that belied its size. It felt mighty in her strong hands as she lifted it before her into a high guard.

April gawked. "What the hell is that?"

She adjusted her grip. “Run.”

The creatures slowed. Seen up close, they weren't voidbeasts, but they weren't godslaves either. They were something worse. Where their varied feet touched the ground it turned unstable. Grass grew and withered by turns and the very earth crumbled, torn to a crackling static as if they were splitting apart the Memory itself.

The five of them snarled at her, slowly surrounding them. Their eyes burned with a dark, purple fire.

“Gabs—!”

"I said, run!" Gabby snapped, lifting her golden blade. “Now!”

The monsters charged.