Forty-one days before the Blood Moon rose, I thought I had found the answer to everything. Ever since all of this started, the only thing I wanted was for my life to go back to normal, for everybody to shut up about this whole ‘end of the world’ thing, and to just let me live. And here was Casper, handing me an envelope that supposedly would make all my wishes a reality.

“It’s how we’re gonna stop the world from ending.” That’s what he told me. That was a good thing. So why was my hand shaking so much?

“Just open it, Cress,” he said, peering at me over his black-rimmed glasses. “It’s okay, I promise.”

My fingers fumbled with the paper. I trusted Casper; trusted him with my life. But the idea of what could be inside this envelope, what could be so drastic and important that it would change the course of fate, sent shivers all through my body. “How did you get here, Cass? How did you get your memories back?” My fingers suddenly stopped pulling at the paper.

“You’re stalling. Why are you stalling?” He asked, his brows crinkled into red arches. Casper knew me better than anyone. He knew my tactics, but even he didn’t know why I was so nervous to open this thing, to theoretically put all of this nonsense behind me. And neither did I.

“We’ve all been through so much. I just-I need to know where everything stands. How are you here? What are you doing?” There was something in my voice that Casper must have equated to pleading because he sighed and motioned to a huge rock to the left of the path. “Let’s sit,” he said, and plopped down atop it. I followed, the letter like an anvil weighing at my hands. “That isn’t the first letter I got; not even close,” he said when I settled next to him. “When I came to, after…what you guys did to me, I was in a little town in Maryland called Clarity. Ironic, I know,” he smirked.

“Maryland?” I asked. “But we left you in Tennessee.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I don’t know what to tell ya, Cress. And unfortunately, that’s not the only question I’m not going to be able to answer for you.” He ran a hand through his flame kissed hair. It was shorter than he wore it back in Crestview, but it suited him. Unfortunately, there was a lingering bruise across the side of his face that wasn’t so complimentary.

“How did you get the bruise?” I asked, flinching as though his pain was my pain; cause it kinda was.

“It was nothing. I ran into a tree branch with a vendetta while I was lost in these woods trying to save your sorry ass.” He grinned. But he was lying. Just like he did with me, I knew Casper well enough to know when he was hiding the truth. Whatever happened to him, it didn’t have anything to do with a tree branch and, for whatever reason, and he didn’t want me to know about it. That realization was like barbwire in my heart. There was a time when there was nothing we kept from each other. I knew what color socks that boy had on. But it seemed times had changed. Casper didn’t feel the need to share whatever this was with me, and I couldn’t blame him. I had stripped him of his memory; done it while he was begging me not to. Maybe that’s not the kind of thing you forget very easily, even if you can manage to forgive it.

“Anyway, I was in Clarity. It’s a lot like Crestview actually. One stop light, a general store where all the old fogies get together to talk about whatever old fogies talk about, and nothing that even resembles a Starbucks; except there are a lot more Amish people than we had back in Georgia.” He looked down at the ground, as though Crestview was actually something he missed. “I was-I went to school there. I went to the prom.”

“Your name was Toby,” I said quietly. “I had a sweater of yours. I checked in on you occasionally,” I explained.

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Toby.” And the way he said it made me realize that it wasn’t Crestview he had been missing. It was Clarity. It was the life he had found after we left him there, dazed and confused on that Tennessee back road.

“Anyway, things started to happen. I guess wherever you go, there you are, ‘cause one day-while I was changing after lacrosse practice, I found this in my locker.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded wrinkled sheet of paper.

I took it, deciding not to comment on how strange it was for Casper to have had even a passing interest in lacrosse, let alone one strong enough to warrant him going to a practice. I guess Toby had a different set of interests. Sitting the former ‘world-saving’ envelope on the ground at my feet, I unfolded the faded sheet.

My Dearest,

I know there are things you do not understand, and even those that you think you do are but illusions. But I assure you, fate has a plan for all things-even I, even you. That sensation in the pit of your stomach, the one that tells you to look deeper, to peer past the veil that has been placed upon your eyes, bones, and heart, is not to be ignored. Safeguard your light and follow the River. It will lead you home. Until then, be safe my dear one. And remember that which you have no business knowing. Our love will break the anchors.

I didn’t need to look down at the signature to know who had written this. It was there in the stilted language, in the waves of reason, in the fortune cookie speak. This could only be from one person.

Be well my love,

The Girl in the Tower.

“Wendy,” I muttered, staring at the letter like it was some artifact from ancient Egypt; a reminder of a time long past that was never going to return. “She’s dead.”

“I remember,” Casper answered, knotting his fingers together. “She’s a seer, though. She must have written them ages ago and arranged to have them delivered after…Well, you remember what happened.”

“I do,” I answered with my eyes pinned to the ground. “Them? Did you say them?”

“I got a bunch of them,” Casper explained. “They just showed up in random places. The one you’re holding-that’s the first one. The rest just sort of guided me. They brought me where I needed to be, they gave me my memories back, and eventually, they got me back to you.” He took my hand and squeezed it. I couldn’t believe it; that I was actually sitting here with him, talking with him. Casper was back in my life. Thank God for Wendy.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that alone,” I answered.

“Don’t feel too bad. I wasn’t alone,” he blinked. “I had friends in Clarity, I sorta had Wendy, and I had Liv.”

My mind flashed back to the day of my (second) failed wedding. I had conjured Casper with a candle. He was in the woods-in these woods, I suppose. And he said something.
Liv was right.

“She’s a girl,” he explained, reading my face the way he always did.

“Let me guess; a cute girl with curly brown hair?” I asked.

“You
were
watching me, weren’t you?” He grinned. “Yeah, Liv took me to prom. She took me pretty much everywhere actually. There’s no way I’d have made it in Clarity if it wasn’t for that girl.”

“You like her, don’t you?” I asked, noticing the twinkle in his eyes, and sliding closer.

“Liked,” he corrected. “I’m not there anymore. It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “She never saw me that way.”

“Her loss.” I nudged his shoulder the same way he’d always nudge mine back in Crestview when I’d complain about Owen keeping me planted firmly in the friend zone. Those days seemed centuries away now.

“I know, right?” He smiled, but there was a sadness in it. Guilt pulled at me. Casper had only been in Clarity because of what I did to him, because of what I made Owen do. And here he was; heartbroken and missing it with a bruise on his face that both of us knew didn’t come from a tree branch. It was my fault, and I couldn’t fix it; no matter how much I wanted to.

“You still have a letter that’s gonna save the world you know,” he said, motioning to where the envelope sat on the ground.

I had almost forgotten about it when I turned to him and said. “The world can wait if my best friend’s not okay. Cars drive on roads, remember?”

“I never realized how corny that sounds,” he chuckled. I thumped his knuckles and he grinned. “I’m fine. Just open the letter.”

I picked it up. Somehow, after talking to Casper, it felt lighter in my hands. Maybe it was knowing that it came from Wendy and that she had always had my best interests at heart, but I wasn’t so scared anymore. “You know, you could just tell me what the letter says,” I answered.

“I really couldn’t,” Casper replied. “I never opened it. The last letter Wendy sent to me; the one that told me how to get my memory back and gave me directions on how to get here came in the same package with this one. It told me to hand this over to you and to absolutely not open it.” He leveled a stare at me from over his black-rimmed glasses. “And I know better than to go against the wishes of an eccentric seer; no matter how dead she is.” He looked down at the ground again. “Is it weird that I kinda miss her?”

“I think it would be weird if you didn’t,” I answered, tearing the seal on the envelope. My heart pounded against my ribcage as I pulled a folded sheet of paper from the envelope. Was there a chance that this message; Wendy’s last message to me, could actually help us avoid whatever apocalypse the Council thought I was responsible for? My hand started shaking again, but I wasn’t afraid this time. I was excited. I opened the folded paper, ready to devour its undoubtedly confusing contents with all the fervor of a fat kid at a breakfast buffet. And I would have…if there had actually been anything on the paper.

“It’s blank,” I said, looking from the unblemished white sheet to Casper.

“What do you mean blank?” He asked, sticking his head around so he could see.

“What do you think I mean? It’s blank; as in empty. There’s nothing on here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Casper said, grabbing the paper carefully. “It has to be a trick. Are there anchors on here or something? Maybe there’s something here that I can’t see.”

“I’d be able to see it,” I answered, snatching the paper back; albeit less carefully. “I’ve seen my fair share of anchors Cass; especially Wendy’s anchors. There’s nothing here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said, slouching against the rock. “Why would she put me through all this just to deliver a blank sheet of paper to you?”

“Because she’s Wendy,” I responded.

“Right,” Casper answered, somehow managing to slouch even more. “Is it too late to take back the ‘missing her’ part?”

“I’m sure there’s more to it than that,” I answered. “Wendy never does anything for nothing. She never
did,
I mean.” I cleared my throat. “Whatever her reasons for getting you back here, I’m glad she did,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder. It felt right having Casper here, like everything was going to be okay. I kept expecting him to say ‘me too’ or something, but he never did. I guess that made sense. Who’d wanna be back here anyway; stuck inside this gated crazy town? “I wish things were like they used to be,” I said, thinking of lazy Crestview days and nights of Scrabble tournaments with my mother and Teen Mom marathons.

“I don’t think things were ever like we thought they were, Cress,” he answered. “Not really anyway.” He slung his arm over my shoulder. “But at least we’ve got each other.” He shuffled a bit. “This is really hot, by the way.”

“What?”I lifted my head, blinking. “Cass, I know you’ve been away for a while, but you and me, we’re not-“

“Not us, you moron,” he rolled his eyes. “Your hand.”

I looked down. I had forgotten we were still holding hands.

“It’s like I’m grabbing a flat iron.”

I pulled my hand away from his and looked at it. It seemed normal, but he was right. I hadn’t noticed it before, for whatever reason, but my entire palm was hot and tingling; like it was on fire.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, looking from Casper to my hand and back again.

“If history’s any indicator, something awful and full of consequence,” he said standing. “What do I do?”

The fire in my palm grew hotter, spreading to my fingers and my wrist. “I don’t know,” I said, standing along with Casper. “It’s really starting to hurt.”

“Oh God.” Casper was nervous now. His hands had traveled back up to his hair, the way they always did when something bad or unexplainable happened; which was a lot these days. “I’m gonna go get Echo. Just try not to burst into flames okay.”

“Thanks for the imagery,” I huffed. Beads of sweat started to appear on my palm, and it began to itch. It was the strangest thing. My right hand felt like it was going to explode in a mess of heat and tingles, but my left hand felt completely normal.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed a running stream. I hadn’t seen it last night when we drug Renner to this cabin; all bloody and panting. But it was dark, maybe I had missed it. Or maybe one of the Breakers inside had pulled it up from deep within the earth. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time. Either way, it was water, very likely cool and most certainly wet. And I needed something to put out the flames that seemed to be spurting up inside my right hand.

I rushed over, leaving Wendy’s blank ‘world saving’ letter on the ground near the rock. Falling to my knees, it felt like my hand was going to melt away, as I stuck it into the water.

Big mistake. Huge mistake.

The fire in my palm blossomed into a full blown inferno. I pulled it out of the water as quickly as it had been dunked, but it was too late. Pain pulsed through my palm. I stood, moving around because it hurt too much to stand still.

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