“Mom! Aimee poking me!”

Little sisters were ‘noying.

“Am not!”

“Kids, if you keep this up, there’ll be no dessert tonight.” Mom gave us her scary look.

“Yes, Mom,” Aimee and I said it together.

I wanted apple pie for dessert. Dad let me put i’scream on it.

The car turned, and I got dizzy. Mom screamed, and we slid like we were on ice. Dad said some bad words, but Mom didn’t yell at him. The car flipped, and I hit my head. My stomach went upside-down, and I felt like throwing up. My head hurt lots, and I started crying.

Everything went black.

Everything shifted.

I was back at the car, but I wasn’t in it. And I wasn’t a kid. I was an adult, and I was looking at the crash that had killed my parents and sister. The crash that had almost killed me.

I knew I was dreaming, just like I knew I hadn’t actually seen the wreck from this perspective, but it was still too real. I didn’t want to be here. But I needed to be here. I couldn’t remember why, only that I had to be here because there was something I needed to know.

And to do that, I needed to face my fears.

I crouched down next to the back window and looked inside.

It was me. I was so little, but I could see the man I’d become in the boy pressed up against the window. I was unconscious, but I thought I’d be coming out of it soon.

On the other side of me was Aimee.

It’d been so long since I’d seen her, so long since I’d even thought of her. It hurt to think about her. About all the things she hadn’t gotten to do. The woman she hadn’t gotten to be.

She was facing away from me, and I was glad. Her head was at an awkward angle, her neck broken, but at least I didn’t have to see her face. I could remember her the way she had been. Looking like the happy little girl she’d been.

I couldn’t see Mom either. Only her hair. It was dark like Slade’s. I didn’t know how Mom died, but I must’ve seen Aimee this way. Or my brain was just making it up, but I didn’t think that was the case. Something in my gut said that part was real.

Dad was awake.

No one had told me that. And my instincts told me it had to be a memory.

“Abigail? Abby? Sweetheart?” Dad’s voice broke. “Aimee? Blake? Kids?”

I wanted to wake up. I didn’t want to hear him when he realized everyone but me was dead. It would be awful, and I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it. But something told me to stay a little longer.

Then I heard it. Another car. I never knew who’d found us, but the guy walking toward me wasn’t who I’d pictured, mostly because the guy didn’t really have a face. He wasn’t like creepy faceless, but rather just blurry features that I couldn’t really distinguish.

As he came over to the car, I realized he wasn’t freaking out, and he wasn’t calling anyone.

Everything shifted again, and I was in the car now. A kid. But I wasn’t thinking like a kid. Not really that important. What was important was that I could see the guy’s boots outside the window. Nice boots. Expensive boots.

“Stay away from my family!” Dad yelled.

What? Why was Dad yelling at someone who could save us?

Dad was cursing now, and the guy still wasn’t leaving.

He reached inside, and Dad yelled again, and my head was hurting, and the guy was shaking him, and I heard crying, and it was me and…

I jerked awake, my heart pounding, my skin drenched with sweat. For a moment, I didn’t know where I was, then I smelled something familiar. Lavender.

Brea.

I was with Brea. At the retreat. With my brothers. Well, not exactly with them right now.

“Hey.” Brea blinked up at me. “What time is it?”

I looked over at the clock on the bedside table. “A little after midnight.”

She pushed herself up, pulling the sheet up around herself. “Are you okay?” She put her hand on my shoulder, and I caught another whiff of lavender mixed with the scent of her.

I started to say that I was fine, but I wasn’t fine, and I didn’t want to lie to Brea about it. “I remembered.”

She put her arms around me, and I leaned into her, grateful for the comfort she offered. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I need to,” I admitted. “I’ve never talked about it before. I’ve never remembered it before.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her onto my lap. We were both naked, but right now, all I needed was the feel of her skin against mine and the warmth of her body.

“I was in the car, fighting with Aimee – with my sister. Mom yelled at us. Something happened, and the car flipped. I must’ve blacked out. Then I was outside of the car, and I saw…Aimee. I couldn’t see my mom, but I knew she was gone. Dad was alive though. And awake.”

“Oh, Blake.” She kissed my shoulder.

“That wasn’t all.” I forced myself to keep going. As I spoke, I remembered more, things that I knew were true and not part of the dream. “Someone came to the car. I couldn’t see his face, but I could see out the window. I didn’t say anything because Dad was yelling again, telling the man with the boots to leave us alone.”

“The man with the boots?”

I nodded. “There was a man outside the car. I could see his boots. And then he bent over and reached into the car. He and Dad struggled, like he was trying to take something, and Dad didn’t want to let him.”

“You saw this in a dream?”

“Sort of.” I brushed back a curl. “It started as a dream, but I remember now. Real memories.”

She ran her fingers across my collarbone, and if I hadn’t been certain this memory was important, I would have had her under me and panting by now. I caught her hand and brought it to my mouth, kissing her knuckles as another part of my memory came forward.

“He took something from my dad. One of those old computer disks.” I frowned. “There was a picture on it. Three interlocking rings with something at the center.”

“What something?” Brea’s question had a strange note to it. I looked down at her. “Was it a…plant of some kind?”

The picture solidified in my head.

“A four-leaf clover.”

“Shit.”

Okay, not the reaction I was expecting.

“Brea?”

She sat up, all traces of comfort and warmth gone. She was all business now, but I didn’t know what had caused the transformation.

“We need to talk to Kevin.” She climbed out of bed.

“Now?”

“Now,” she said, her face a tight mask. “I know that logo.”