Written by CBMokedi

The drive home was not so long, but it felt like forever. Neon Moon had played for the third, maybe, fourth time. Charlotte had lost count.

"Damn, I know your dad liked it. Doesn't mean you have to like it too, Grey."

Her husband chuckled without giving any comment.

"Being mysterious, I see." Charlotte reached out to ruffle his hair.

Her hand stopped midair. She decided to let the song play out. She could always change it later. Charlotte's eyes returned to the road ahead. Her mind wandered back to the conversation with Mike, the museum curator.

"The cross brings good luck, you know," Greyson said. "Maybe you can put it in a small clear case and keep it on the nightstand."

"Or I can just leave it here. You know how I am with night driving," Charlotte laughed. "I think it can help me see things better, or, at least, stop me from getting pulled over."

"Then might as well hang it on the rearview mirror or make a pendant out of it," Greyson shrugged.

"Yeah, I'm gonna lose it like that 100%. Remember my mom's necklace?"

"Oof, she was mad at you."

"Yup."

Charlotte glanced at her bag in the back seat. There, her newfound friend was sleeping in its velvet pouch. Finding a fairy cross might be a sign of good luck, according to everyone, but Charlotte seriously doubted the tiny piece of gravel could turn her life around. Nothing had been easy. From Greyson's first diagnosis to his last recurrence, it had been nothing but a cruel whirlwind. When a chronic ailment hit your life from any angle, it destroyed every thread of normalcy.

They had never had time for each other anymore. Not like before. They couldn't breathe, laugh, or cry without feeling the huge weight of mortality hanging over their heads. The chemotherapy had not helped. It had reduced Greyson to a living ghost. Most of the time, if he had not folded over the toilet and vomited his guts out, Greyson would stare at the ceiling for hours.

In the end, he couldn't even do that. His body functions had stopped, one after another. Charlotte had forbidden herself from turning away, even in the most difficult moments, but she often wondered if God had seen her relief when Greyson's fight was finally over and decided to punish her.

"You aren't thinking that again, are you?" Greyson asked. His eyes followed the moving trees outside the car window.

"What?"

"Whatever you think you could do or not do."

"Nah... I'm just slightly sick of it all. The idea of fate or destiny, I mean."

Some higher power always controlled everything and everyone. That thought irritated Charlotte and, quite honestly, broke her heart. She kept thinking of how they had no say in whatever had happened; Greyson's suffering and ultimate death were nothing but a mere chance. He was just a cog in the machine, randomly picked by some cruel deity, and there was nothing either of them could've done to change that.

"It's pissing me off, you know?" Charlotte wiped the tears running down her cheeks.

She then slapped the steering wheel before rolling down the window and screaming in the wind. That scared a group of cows who came too close to the road. Besides that, no one was around to witness her mental breakdown.

"It's ok, babe. Let it out," Greyson sighed.

"It's not... It's not ok. Nothing is."

Charlotte wept until she couldn't see clearly what was ahead. Her heart felt as if it wanted to burst. Then, as suddenly as everything started, Charlotte stopped. She took a right turn into a small dirt road and drove slowly up to the cabin.

Her now-home stood in perfect blend with its surroundings. The green pines waved, welcoming Charlotte home in the twilight hour. Killing the engine, she sat there and stared at the wooden structure. It had been their dream a long time ago. To save enough for a small cabin somewhere in the mountains, cut back on work and, eventually, move there. True outdoor living. That dream had seemed so achievable at one point.

"What's for dinner, honey?" Greyson stretched and yawned loudly.

Charlotte chuckled at the empty passenger seat before getting out of the Honda. She fumbled through her jumbo mess of a key ring. One day, she would reorganize it. One day, she would take out the gym locker key, the storage key, Greyson's library key tag, and the pick that belonged to his Yamaha electric guitar. One day, but not today. Charlotte was exhausted. She opened the door and dragged herself inside.

The stale, musty air hit Charlotte's face, reminding her that she had no food.

"You need to take care of yourself better." Greyson tut-tutted while perching on the sofa armrest.

"I don't cook. You know that," Charlotte sighed. "I just forgot to stop at Wendy's."

She scratched her head in defeat and flopped down on the couch. Charlotte stared at her reflection on the black TV screen for a good minute before slapping her knees and standing up. Her stomach growled. Another night of Hot Pocket it was then.

As she walked past the corner cabinet, Charlotte stopped. An assembly of bottles, some brown, some clear, some deep red, stood like a rowdy bunch. They judged her silently with their gleam.

When had she started spending on all these?

Charlotte opened the cabinet and grabbed a half-full bottle of Jack Daniels. Hot Pocket could wait. Behind her, through the cabinet's glass door, Greyson shook his head. His disapproval was apparent. It irked Charlotte, so she made a U-turn for the bathroom, but not without the bottle.

Her body was sticky. It was almost the end of summer, but the sun still scorched every corner of Helen during the daytime. The only bright side was this small city somehow managed to be cooler than Atlanta. Charlotte took off her blazer, pants, and everything in between. She stepped into the bathroom and turned on the water. Charlotte then pulled out her phone and typed "Fairy crosses" in the search engine.

It was quite addictive. The research. Basically, it was the same as everything Mountain Santa had told her. It was not that Charlotte didn't trust him either. She just didn't have anything better to do.

Steam slowly fogged up the small bathroom. Charlotte grabbed the forgotten Jack Daniels bottle and took a swig. Its sweet aftertaste was just what her unsettling mind needed. Charlotte then stumbled into the shower. She laughed and swayed as warm water washed over her body, tickling her toes.

"Be careful, babe." Greyson's hands hovered on both sides of her arms, making goosebumps rise on her skin.

"You're not here..." Charlotte slurred. "You're not even here..."

She reached out of the shower curtain, blindly searching for the bottle on the sink counter. Neon Moon flooded her head as soon as the brown liquid touched her lips. Charlotte had always thought the song was corny. Greyson had loved it, though. He had hummed it nonstop. Charlotte found herself humming, too.

She finally put the empty bottle down on one side of the bathtub and cursed when it got knocked over. Charlotte turned the water off and pulled the shower curtain open. She decided to crack open the bathroom window. The sun had gone down completely. Crisp mountain air flooded in, filling her lungs and her little bathroom with the scent of fresh pines. For a moment, Charlotte imagined herself standing naked in the woods, wrapped in Greyson's arms.

As she turned away, something caught in the corner of her eye.

The bathroom looked out to a patch of wild land that Charlotte had been too lazy to bother with. She saw not one, not two, but a dozen blue lights float in the air. They resembled fireflies, each one was not bigger than a dot from the distance, but something was quite different about them. They swirled, elevated, and dipped in coordination. The way they blinked reminded Charlotte of Morse code, but too bad that she couldn't understand a thing.

Charlotte wrapped herself in a bathrobe haphazardly before charging out of the bathroom, not even bothering with her Flash slippers. She ran out the front door and stood barefoot on the wrap-around porch for a moment. The wind blew her wet hair in all directions, making Charlotte sigh. She walked over to the side where the bathroom window was. The blue light dots were still there, beckoning Charlotte to come closer.

Her cabin stood right on the edge of the forest. No one in their right mind would wander in there at this hour.

Charlotte went back inside to grab her phone. She stood by the door for a second before picking up a pair of sweatpants she had left on the couch. Charlotte then put on her rain boots.

As if waiting for her, the blue light dots stayed in the exact same spot by the time she came back. They didn't attempt to move until Charlotte was right next to them. Then they fluttered away in a slow, steady rhythm.

It was not pitch black in the forest as Charlotte had thought. The full moon poured its silver light down through layers of foliage to color the forest in a deep blue hue. Charlotte waded through thick grass and bushes, some reached her waist, to a long trail. It was barely visible at all, but Charlotte could tell that someone or something had traversed it frequently a long time ago. The trail was narrow, uneven, and filled with small rocks. Once in a while, a tree or two stood out with their odd but similar shape. Their trunks bent ninety degrees before continuing to grow upward. They reminded Charlotte of giant arms making a right-turn signal.

She chuckled at the thought and followed the blue dots deeper into the forest...

WC: 1661