"You were supposed to meet me in the parking lot," Alicia said, leaning next to the cash register. She shredded a napkin and blew the pieces on the floor. After coming in to Cuppa Joe's, she had gone straight to the counter to order, ignoring Kaylee and me in the booth.

"Don't go in the woods, Brook," Kaylee had said when I stood up. "No one should go anywhere with her, she is certified cray-cray and I don't care how mad you get for me saying it."

"You said I'm crazy, too, but you go places with me."

"That's because you're nice."

"I'll see you tomorrow," I had replied.

Alicia started on another napkin at the counter. She probably would have walked out without speaking to me if I hadn't gone up to her.

"It's not even seven o'clock. You're early," I told her.

She had ordered a root beer float to go, my favorite. Betty gave her the large cup and she paid. My hands were conspicuously empty. Walking out, she brushed my arm.

"See you later, then," she said.

This had always worked so much better with Levi. There had never been friction or tension. Neither of us had made the other wait more than a couple of minutes or needed reminding to get each other something. I knew what was wrong with Alicia, but I couldn't fix it. I couldn't end her nightmares. I could try to be a better friend, but that was all.

"Betty, can I have a large black coffee to go?" I asked.

"Sure, hon," she said.

I laid four dollars on the counter to cover the coffee and the hot chocolate I hadn't had time to drink. Kaylee was studiously buried in a book and did not react when I left. She didn't understand. But, then again, she couldn't.

My float was waiting for me next to Alicia on the grass. There was an outdoor sitting area under the oaks, but she was on the edge of the parking lot curb, hands in the lawn. Probably getting chigger all over herself.

"There's something I need to know before we go tonight," I told her the back of her frizzy hair.

"There's something I wanted to discuss, too, but you can go first," she said in a small voice.

I sat down next to her, putting her coffee within her reach. "Whose idea was it to go in the forest that afternoon?"

"Mine. I had found a cave I wanted to show everyone. Near the old farmstead."

"You lied about that. You told everyone that Levi and Sean asked you to go with them."

"My dad wouldn't allow me to go in the woods, so I lied. It sounds stupid now, but I was afraid I'd get in more trouble with him if it had been my idea to go there.

"You lied to me."

"I lie to everyone all the time," she said. "Do you know how scared I am every day? How shitty I feel about what happened, how guilty that they were taken? I can't let it show, though. I did what I had to do."

I wouldn't let myself feel sorry for her. "Does 'Room 39' mean anything to you?"

"It's my turn to talk and to ask you something," she said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, except you just told me you are lying all the time. So if I don't get some answers I can believe, then I'm not going with you tonight."

"But you will. You have to. I know you liked Levi more than me or Sean, you still do. He's still your best friend and I'm just your pity project. Our last link to him and Sean is in that forest. It holds us to them and through them, you and I are held together."

"Did you play Blind Man's Blood before they were kidnapped?" I asked. Why it was so important to me, I didn't know. What would it possibly change if they had or not? "Did you?"

"It's not your turn for questions, it's mine."

"This isn't a game! Answer my question or I'm going home."

She shrugged. "It's all a game to me. It's a big game of tag and I'm running. Always running away, never It."

"You are a drama queen who is about to lose her only friend."

"I'd rather hang out with the rednecks, anyway," she said.

"They'd only use you as target practice – that's about what I'm fixing to do, myself."

Alicia actually smiled. "You'll have to catch me, first."

I had her in a headlock before she could stop smiling. She surprised me by relaxing a fraction of a second, almost leaning on me. Then, her fist shot up to back-hand my nose. I expected it. I used her head to shield mine and, laughing, let her go.

She twisted around, furious. "What the hell?"

"That's what I want to know," I snapped. "What the hell do you really remember? Why is it so important to go back every year that you would risk going alone with me? And did you guys play that damn game or not?"

She returned to her spot on the curb, picking up her coffee cup that had tipped over during our scuffle. A bit had run out of the mouth hole and made a dark line on the concrete side. She smeared it around with one finger.

"I go back every year so they know I remember them. That we remember. We keep vigil, you and me, so the bastard that took them can't take anyone else."

"We aren't exactly going to stop him with candles and bird skulls."

"He's on a crooked path that's hard to follow. We keep it that way."

"Whatever. You make us go back there every year to make yourself feel better," I said. "Sean and Levi aren't there to hear us and that psycho doesn't care if two high-school girls are invoking the powers-that-be to keep him off the streets. If he knew we were out there, he'd show up and do God knows what to us."

"You are right. We could say the words here and it would be just as useful." Alicia took a bird's skull from her rainbow colored bag. "They can hear us from here the same as in the woods."

She took a pointy pair of scissors from the bag and snipped a lock of hair off. "In this town, they would hear no matter where we were."

As strange and useless as I found her little ritual, I sat still and let her cut off a few strands of my hair, too. I sat opposite her in the bug filled grass, the words we always spoke turning around in my head.

From four to two, until two become more

We are watching

Blood spilled in dust with rain makes blood again

We are watching

Straight lines find closed doors, crooked paths to nowhere lead

Let it remain, let it stay.

Our promises

We are keeping

She set out the white candle and piled little stones around the base, then lit it with a match snapped on the concrete.

I should have felt self-conscious. Our weird ceremony was embarrassing to the extreme. We were sitting next to Cuppa Joe's for crying out loud, and normal people didn't light candles and join hands over bird skulls in the middle of parking lots (or anywhere for that matter). But I didn't feel awkward. We seemed apart from everyone else. It was almost the same sensation as earlier when I had walked into the ruined diner.

The items were ready and Alicia held her arms out, palms upwards to take my hands. This was the only time we ever really touched one another that wasn't during a fight. Not that I was particularly touchy-feely with my other friends, but there were hugs, linking arms and sometimes hair fixing. Alicia and I only touched when sparring in our self-defense class or fighting in real life.

Except for this ritual. We kept vigil, just as she said. I wasn't sure what we were watching for, since I would take off like a jack-rabbit if I thought the kidnapper was coming anywhere near us. But the years when we said the words and held hands over the burning candle, strands of hair, stones and bird skull, I believed we were brushing close to magic.

Afterwards, it had always seemed ridiculous.

"What promise are you keeping, Alicia? In the poem we recite, it ends with keeping promises."

"I promised Sean and Levi to go back for them and find them. Isn't that what you've promised them? Deep inside your heart?"

She said the last part with a slight sneer. Nothing went deep in her heart. I sighed and put my palms on hers, nodding that I was ready.

Instead of starting, though, she gripped me tighter.

"What if we didn't do it this year? I'm ready to face the truth. You and I are both survivors, but we don't want to run forever, do we? Together, we could find a way to them."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Not even the police could find where they went."

"We go now to the woods, but instead of our vigil, you help me try to remember. We can open the way to where they went."

"I still have no idea what you're talking about."

She pulled me closer. "An exchange. You want me to tell you everything I can. I need your help. You do want me to remember, don't you? You want to know more. Then come with me. Come with me and promise to help me, to do what I say and trust me. I'll be able to tell you what happened, I'm sure," she said.

"I have to promise to do what you say and trust you?" Why would I trust her after that speech?

"Because I want to try something. Instead of closing the paths, we will face the truth. Together, we can do it, we are fighters. We have been preparing for five years. I know this sounds stupid, but what if I could tell you everything? What if I remembered who took them? Wouldn't it be worth going into the woods to you?"

"You're freaking me out, Alicia, which is pretty difficult to do."

"Trust me. Come with me. We'll do it together. We'll play the game – Blind Man's Blood and do everything just as far as I can remember, and I'm sure everything after that will come back to me."

"Who will be the blind man?" Feet hobbled, eyes covered. The thought sickened me with fear.

"We can try this or not, but if we don't try, you'll never know more. Don't you want answers? Don't you want to know who took them? Because I want to see him on his knees."

"And if he's here in this town? He could follow us out there, or anywhere. It's too risky to keep going to the farmstead."

"So what if he comes? Brooklyn, I want to kill him. Don't you?"

I scoffed. "Not a very realistic goal."

"So when the piper plays, you follow, is that it?"

"If I see anyone that might be a psychotic killer – slash – kidnapper, I plan on calling the police, if that's what you're implying."

"This is the deal; we go tonight, you and me. We play Blind Man's Blood and you are the blind man. And...."

"And?" I asked.

"If it helps my memory return, and I'm sure it will, I'll tell you everything. Are you coming or not?"

I shook my hands free. I'd have to play her games, all of them, if I wanted anything from her. Was it worth it?

"All right," I said. "Deal."

***** Dedicated to rmcneary  for his support. If you enjoy gritty fighters and demons, be sure to check out his featured short story Unbroken! It does not disappoint.  I hope you enjoyed this update. Leave a comment, vote or drop me a message to let me know what you think! Hugs to all my wonderful friends and readers out there, you are absolutely wonderful people!!! ******