IN THE LAND OF drugs, booze, and sex, Chicago was home. Growing up, I had been a decent child, but everything shifted for me when I turned eighteen. I ran with the wrong crowd, the kind that even the police wouldn't walk past on the streets without going for their mace. While I'd grown up in the cold, beautifully screwed-up city of Illinois, I didn't feel a connection to it. Even as I stood inside the bar where I'd worked as a bartender for the past year.

   Dark Star was an okay place of business. The owner was a Russian bitch with a great set of tits, but she always found a way to make sure I was taken care of. The woman was even willing to give me six weeks' pay in advance after all the crap that's happened with my family. Two and a half months was hardly enough time to move on.

   Hearing the distant siren of a police car, I'm pulled out of my thoughts and placed back into reality. Standing outside my childhood home in the freezing cold of Chicago, I released the breath I had been holding in. It didn't feel right to leave the house unblessed for the next family to live in it, so I quickly whispered a quick blessing spell to override the dark, haunting memories that would reside within the walls.

   A chilling wind blows my loose hair into my face, making me turn my back to the breeze only to face the last few boxes I had packed from the house for the move. I looked around for my sister, whom I had asked to put the boxes in the car. Quickly spotting Aslan, a few feet from the car's open trunk, standing in front of her boyfriend Lucas Wu of two years.

   At least she had something good holding her up.

   "Aslan, I thought I told you to put away these boxes!" I shouted, shaking my head when the seventeen-year-old ignored me, her older sibling. Her now legal guardian.

   I grabbed the two boxes from the curb and quickly packed them into the trunk before closing it. I walked around the car to the driver's side, opening the door only to curse when a piece of paper from the dashboard flew out of the car and down the street. Knowing it was the address of my destination, I chased after it, hoping to catch it before the wind blew it into the sewers. A car honked at me as I reached for it, making me jump and turn around to face the speeding driver.

   "Fuck you, asshole!" I shouted angrily, giving the elderly woman the middle finger.

   "I believe this is yours, Ms. Graves." A womanly voice sounds behind me, causing me to turn around and see a gypsy woman handing me the piece of paper I'd been chasing after.

   "Shit, thanks." I reach for it, a smile on my full lips. The woman pulls it away, catching my hand between her freezing fingers.

   "Only chaos awaits you in Saintpines, Lavina," the gypsy whispers, her grip tightening. "Don't go there."

   "What the. . ." I gasp, "Let me go, lady, or I'll kick your ass." I meant it, too.

"This is a warning, Lavina Graves, if you return to your birthplace, chaos and death will welcome you."

   The gypsy releases her grip and crumbles the paper before tossing it into the snow on the curb. I grab the crumpled paper and turn to the gypsy, ready to speak my mind entirely, but the gypsy is gone. Looking up and down the street, I'm surprised not to see the woman anywhere as if she had vanished into thin air. Turning back to the car, I straighten the paper, only to see the address blacked out. Magic. I could feel it humming around the paper in my hand. Groaning in frustration, I toss the paper to the side. Nothing was going to stop me from getting my sister away from the nightmare we had lived in for the past few years and, even more horribly, the past almost three months.

   "C'mon, we gotta get going, love birds." I sing, passing the teenage couple, making out. Grabbing my sister by the hood of her jacket, Aslan gasps as she walks backward from the love of her life.

   "I'll FaceTime you when I arrive where I'm going, baby!" Aslan shouts, climbing into the car through the driver's side.

   I shake my head and brush the dirt off my seat before climbing in and starting the car. I hated when she did that knowing I had leather seats. Lucas began to wave over the engine's roar, and once my 69 Dodge Charger sped down the road, he yelled out his love.

   "I LOVE YOU, ASLAN GRAVES!"

. . . .

The air is colder on the highway, the road hard to see due to the fog rolling in from the trees on either side, and the nearly full moon didn't offer any help. I flick the high beams on, hoping it'll make it easier on my eyes, but to no avail. The map had directed me to this highway, Route 56, as a direct way to Saintpines, Oregon. By the looks of it, the surrounding forest almost overtook the highway, but it didn't stop the sign that said, 'Now Entering Saintpines, Oregon.'

   Static had long filtered through the speakers once Aslan's phone died. I was more than a little shocked when the aux cord worked in my car; on good days, I was lucky to get one damn channel to work.

   "Oh, let me play some music, Lav. My phone has a good battery. It'll last." I mimic my sister in a low whisper, not wanting to wake that beast.

   A snore sounded from the right side of the car as if Aslan had heard me through her dream. Rolling my eyes, I unplugged the aux cord, enjoying the silence that followed. It'd been around forty-eight hours since we'd stopped for rest, and it was beginning to catch up to me. My mother had always told me that magic wasn't meant to be used to make life easier. It was supposed to heal, protect, and nurture the things we loved and cherished.

   Feeling sleep beginning to take over, my eyes became heavier and heavier, and I was soon fast asleep at the wheel. It was no longer than a minute when a blaring horn woke me, and headlights blinded me. Quickly steering out of the semis way and getting back into my lane, I had to shake my head as the sign of a motel appeared ahead.

   Pulling up to the motel, adrenaline pumping through my veins at the near-death experience, I brush my hair out of my face and take deep breaths. Trying to calm my racing heart, I rest my head on the steering wheel, closing my eyes.

   "Where are we?" Aslan wakes up, looking around the nearly deserted parking lot of the motel aside from the truck and jeep facing the highway. It was not visible, with only two street lamps on either side of the entry.

   How the fuck can you sleep through the blaring horn of a semi? I think to myself bitterly. Our parents should have taught Aslan how to drive, but now the responsibility has fallen onto my shoulders.

   "Motel, a couple of miles back, we entered Saintpines. Head inside and get us a room, will you?" I hand my sister forty dollars and watch as Aslan enters the office for a room.

   Finding a parking spot a few spots from the office, I grab the two duffel bags from the backseat and get out of the car. Leaning against the hood, I quickly tie my hair up into a bun despite the freezing temperatures of Oregon. I didn't think it would be so cold during this time of the year, but winter was only a few months away. Crossing my arms, I watch as Aslan walks out of the office with an apple and swings a room key around her forefinger. I know she bribed her way into the fruit.

   "Room?"

   "Eight. It's only one bed, so I call dibs on the right side." Aslan calls out over her shoulder as she passes me. I hadn't shared a bed with anyone since before I left college, and it wasn't just sleeping that made me share it.

   Quickly unlocking and opening the door, Aslan sheds her jacket and boots by the window before jumping into bed and turning the TV on. I put the duffel bags in the chair of the only table and cursed when I realized I'd forgotten to lock the car. Running back outside, I quickly closed and locked the doors before returning to the room. Stopping in front of the door, a feeling of being watched made the hairs of my neck stand on end. I looked over my shoulder around the parking lot and the trees across the highway, only to find nothing. Something was out there; I couldn't see it.

   "Close the door, dude, it's cold." Aslan breaks the silence, making me enter the room and close the door behind me.

   Shedding my jacket and boots as my sister had, I pull the sleeves of my sweater over my fingers as I climb into the bed next to Aslan. Wrapping the thick blankets over my feet and sighing into the pillow, I close her eyes and soon enter the dark world of sleep. It was the only time I would feel at peace for just a few hours.

   However, I couldn't shake the feeling I had gotten before closing the door. It was unsettling.