He shook his head. “You were my challenge.”

She grinned. “Are you kidding? I wasn’t a challenge. You had me in the palm of your hand the first time I saw you playing baseball. You looked so good in the uniform.” She glanced back again as if she was being called. “Go back.”

“No,” he said.

She looked sad. “Look, I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this, but you can see things up here. Glimpses of the future. And I know for a fact that you’re going to be okay. You’re going to meet someone.” She laughed. “You only thought I was a challenge. This other girl you’ll meet is the real thing.” She sighed. “Oh, Chase. You have so much life to live. And you can do it. Don’t turn away from it.” She looked back one more time. “I have to go. My brother is calling.”

She faded. Disappeared right in front of him. The place where she’d stood held snowflakes and tiny pieces of frozen ice. Slowly it all floated to the ground.

“I’m not going back!” he muttered.

November 1, 7 p.m.

News Flash: Update

All five bodies have been recovered from the crash of the Cessna 210 in the Jasper Mountain Range

The Search and Rescue (SAR) crew found the last victim of the fatal crash among the charred remains of the Cessna 210. Family and friends of both the Tallmans and the Collinses are waiting for the bodies to be released from the morgue after autopsies so they can be taken back to Texas for burial.

Tom Phillips, Search and Rescue volunteer, was quoted saying it was “still too early to speculate as to what caused the crash, but weather could have played a part in the accident.” Phillips added he “could not imagine the heartbreak of the families involved.”

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More updates will be made when available.

Oct. 31, 5 p.m.

Chapter Eight

Chase started to walk farther into the tunnel of light. He didn’t want to be alone. To be without his father, his mother, and Mindy. She was a pain in his butt, but he loved her.

Then he heard it again. Baxter. His barking was even more persistent. He looked left, then right. Called the dog’s name. “Go get Baxter,” he heard his sister say. She stood next to him. “Go, Chase. Go.”

The dog continued to bark.

He turned to look behind him, away from the light, and that’s all it took. The power, some unknown power, pulled him back.

All the way. Back to the snow. Back to the voices. The two strange men.

Chase didn’t open his eyes. Didn’t want to. He hurt. Hurt everywhere. His head throbbed. His leg throbbed. His back ached like a charley horse.

Now he could feel below his chest, but it hurt so bad, he wished he couldn’t. You can’t turn your back on a challenge, Chase. He heard Tami’s voice in his head and remembered what she’d said about the dog collar. Slowly moving his arm, surprised he could, he found his pocket. With eyes still closed, his fingers curled around the gift Tami had given him. He traced his thumb over the words cut out in the leather.

“Told you he would make it,” someone said as if they’d seen him move. “I’ll stay with him, you go get us a body.”

Chase’s head throbbed, surely he’d misunderstood.

“Don’t you think they’ll just believe he got thrown from the crash? Animals got to him?”

“You’re forgetting, I volunteered a time or two with the Search and Rescue team. They won’t stop looking until they have the remains of all the victims. Besides, I’ve already called around. They have a body that fits our needs in the next county over. We’ll put it under what’s left of the fuel tank and light it, and they’ll never know it wasn’t him.”

Their words echoed in his head. Okay, he must be imagining things. Head injury, he thought. Then a pain hit, as if someone had a vise grip on his rib cage. It grew so intense that he screamed out. When it finally let go, he pulled Baxter’s collar up to his chest and held onto it. Then he let out a breath and tried to slip back into nothingness.

***

Chase smelled smoke. He felt cold. Colder than even the ice he rested on. Fever. He had a fever. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out. Five minutes, or five hours. It didn’t matter, he told himself. He wasn’t sure anything mattered if what he believed about his parents, sister, and Tami was true.

He didn’t know what hurt the most. His body or his heart. And then suddenly he did know. His heart. He’d lost his family. Lost his dog. Lost everyone.

All of a sudden he heard footsteps coming his way. Another pain started at the top of his neck and crawled down his spine. He arched his back and moaned.

“Come on, boy. Let’s get out of here.”

Chase felt someone pick him up as if he weighed nothing. He opened his eyes. “Put me down,” he said, the words barely a whisper.

“Sorry, son. We gotta go.”

“What about the tracks?” the other man asked.

“Run some brush over them. With this weather, the team won’t make it down here for another twelve to fifteen hours.”

Chase was suddenly lifted from the ground. Up like he was floating. No, like he was flying. He turned his head away from the man’s chest who held him close. He was about sixty feet in the air, looking down at the plane crash. The last thing he saw before he passed out again was the smoke coming from part of the wreckage.

***

November 7

Chase heard voices. He lifted his eyelids, not sure where he was. Raising his head off a pillow, he stared at the bedside table and saw the dog collar Tami had given him.

Memories started ping-ponging around his head. Tami. The plane. The crash. The light. The two men.

Grief swelled in his chest and threatened to drown him. Nothing but pride stopped him from curling up in a little ball and sobbing.

Then other vague flashes started filling his head. Time in this bed. In pain. Fever. He’d had a high fever. He recalled the man, the one who’d worn the white lab coat, the one who’d showed up at the plane crash, sitting by his side. He could almost feel him now, running cold towels over him. His words had been calming. Telling Chase that he would be okay. That the pain would end soon.

It hadn’t felt like he would be okay. He’d hurt like hell.

Chase spotted a glass beside the dog collar. He remembered the man bringing him something to drink. It had tasted like some kind of berry concoction, but better than anything he’d ever tasted. When he’d finished one glass, he’d asked for more. But the man said he couldn’t drink too much. Chase had growled at the man, sounding almost animallike, not knowing where the urge had come from.




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