I was back, technically. Trouble was I was in terrific pain and soaking wet, lying in about four inches of muddy water, tucked in vegetation, in what seemed like — I rose a bit and peered around. Yep, I was in a marsh.

I laid my head on my arm, keeping it out of the water just barely. Everything hurt. My lips. My eyelids. My toenails. I was ice cold. How long had I been jumping, minutes? It felt like hours. I might have frostbite. I couldn’t feel anything, except everything was on fire. My hand was enclosed around something like a claw. It was the vessel. I shoved it into my purse floating in the water beside me.

Magnus had picked me up when he felt like this and carried me with men chasing him. What was I weak? Um yeah, but still, getupgetupgetup. I pulled on marsh grass to steady myself as I heaved to my feet. What was that sound — oh yeah, me, screaming. I shoved my hands over my mouth.

Alligators. Alligators were here, for sure. I scanned left and right. Closest shore was left. I somehow managed to drag myself, pulling against marsh grass, moaning. I struggled against the plough mud, squelching and squelching around and in my sneakers, grasping and pulling the hem of my heavy wool skirt. With the next step my foot splashed deep into a hole. I was in water to my chest. My skirt held me down, but there was no escaping the dress. The belt was below the water, the ties were in the back.

I pulled with all my strength against the drag of heavy gravity that was way way stronger than usual. “Aargh. Ugh. Agh—“ There it went, my shoe, disappearing into the mud. I kept trudging, the word, alligators, driving me.

I didn’t need my shoe. I was going to be okay. My house was just a couple of miles away. Because looming over my head was the lighthouse. I made it out of the marsh and fell face down in the grass with a cry, I was in the park where we played kickball. Egan’s Creek. I was home, sort of.

I slept, a sleep of nightmares and fevers and agonies, and woke up freaking out on the bank of the marsh.

It was day, probably afternoon, though this whole thing, being alive in this much pain, was way confusing. My whole existence was a lot undecipherable.

I stumbled up the grassy slope, crossed the baseball diamond to the empty parking lot, and headed for the road out front. Four cars passed me, slowing down, staring. I must have been a frightful witch of a woman, crazy, haggard, bedraggled. I walked toward the beach, thinking, if I could get there, I could walk down the beach home. For miles.

I really needed a ride. Soon. Because — one shoe.

A myriad of other reasons.

And then Haley’s car pulled up beside me. She sat and stared. Her mouth opening and closing. Then her window slid down, “Kaitlyn, what the fuck, Kaitlyn? Oh my god, Kaitlyn is it you? Crap, girlfriend…” She drove the car to the side of the road, jumped out, and ran around the car. “Kaitlyn?”

“Yeah, hi. I’ve had a bit of a disaster.” I reached for the car handle and yanked it open as she reached to open it too.

“Kaitlyn, you're back from rehab? This looks like, what happened to you?”

“What — rehab? What are you talking about?” I dropped into the seat and rested my head on the headrest. It felt good to be in a 2017 vehicle. It felt good to be sitting down. It felt good to have Haley there. She would drive me home—

“Kaitlyn, rehab. You’ve been incommunicado for four months.” She slammed my car door shut.

I stared at her as she walked around to her side of the car. As she sat down. As she started the car. “Haley, what did you say?”

“I said, you’ve been gone for four months. We all thought you were coming back months ago, that must have been a huge problem, girlfriend. And you look terrible.”

Where had I been — four months? What the— “I don’t know how to… four months?”

“These don’t look like rehab clothes. Are you in some kind of cult? Is that what’s happening? Oh my god, did you escape?”

I closed my eyes. “No, not, but can you drive me home? I’m really cold and need to change into some warm clothes, and then maybe I can explain it. Four months?”

Haley looked at the watch on her wrist. “I was meeting the boys at the Turtle. I’ll take you to my house… let me call Michael first.”

“I really want to go to my house. I need clothes, a shower, bed. And Magnus might show up there, anytime.”

“Kaitlyn, you don’t have a home anymore. You weren’t coming back; no one knew where you were, and you didn’t leave any instructions. Your parents closed it all down. It’s gone. Look, let me call Michael. I’ll take you to my house, and we’ll talk this all out. Holy crap girl, I can not believe you’re here, and dressed like that. Were you sleeping in the marsh?”

Before I could answer, she got Michael on the phone. “Hey babe, yeah, I just found Kaitlyn. . . I know, she’s just back, suddenly, I can’t believe it. . . She was just at the park on Sadler. . . I know and she’s. . . look, let me take her to my place. I won’t make it tonight… ” She listened for a few moments then said to me, “Michael and James are coming to the house, they want to know what happened too.”

I groaned.

She said into the phone, “She said, ‘great.’ Pick up beer. . . Thanks, see you in a bit.”

She tossed the phone to the console between our seats. “What the hell? I have been worried sick about you. You just left. I didn’t even know you had a problem. I thought you might be dead. Are you caught up in some criminal activity? Were you running drugs for some cartel, and now you’ve been in hiding? Because that’s really the only thing that can explain it…”

“That’s not what this is, but seriously Haley I need some warm clothes. I’m freezing.”

She started the car and turned the AC off. “It’s pretty warm out here.”

“It was really cold when I got wet.”