┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

Ben's head was racing as his wife and younger sister told him about the crazy lady that approached Cal in the streets. Although Cal was safe in his room playing with Kayla and Olive, Ben's paternal instincts made him want to barge into his room and hug him tight, shielding him from danger. "Tell me exactly what she said."

Grace shook her head, "I don't remember, I wasn't really paying any attention to what she was saying. I mainly just wanted to get Cal away from her."

"I remember," Cassie squinted her eyes as she tried to remember what the middle-age woman was saying. "It was a pray of some sort. 'He is here, he is risen,'" she quoted the lady, remembering the thrilling scene. "She was acting as if Cal was some sort of saint."

"It was scary."

"But he's fine?" Ben looked at Cal's bedroom.

"As fine as can be expected after chemo and a crazy lady praying in your face."

Ben exhaled, at least Cal is at home and safe, "We will get past this soon enough. I'm gonna figure it out."

"We shouldn't have to get past this! You, Cal and Michaela deserve privacy but the news is acting as if you're some type of criminal!" Cassie's hands were shaking as she balled her fist, it's not fair. After five and a half years, her family is back but the news won't leave them alone. Cassie just wanted them to be a normal family again but the news was making that impossible.

Ben turned off the television as it once again started talking about flight 828 and the explosion. "I know, I just want things to go back to normal too and it will. We just need to wait it out. I give the news a month tops, after that they will find the next mystery or scandal to report about."

Grace played with her necklace as she looked up at Cal's bedroom, the sound of Kayla and his laughter echoing down  the stairs. "I don't think I can wait that long, Ben. I need to know that Cal is going to be safe."

"He is safe, Grace, I promise. This'll die down. We just need to be extra vigilant until it does." Ben kissed Grace's forehead as he hugged her reassuringly.

Grace shook her head, "And what if it doesn't? You've seen the news. The whole world is obsessing over us. People can go online and find out where we live."

"And it doesn't help that you just so happened to be there when the plane exploded," Cassie muttered underneath her breath. Ben glared at Cassie, "What? I'm just saying! It doesn't look good that you and Michaela just magically appeared when the plane exploded. To a lot of people it would look like you had something to do with the explosion."

Ben sighed, he ran a hand through his dirty blond locks. Cassie stared at him, waiting for him to defend himself or explain why he and Michaela were there when the plane exploded but he did neither of those things. Ben turned to Grace, his face serious, "I'm not going to let anything happen to this family, I promise."

"I know."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"Knock, knock." Cassie stood at the basement door, she needed to get some washing out but she didn't want to invade her sister's space as that's where Michaela has been sleeping since the plane come back.

"Just a moment," she heard Michaela shout from inside the room. Suddenly she heard moving around and a loud bang.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just dropped my laptop. You can come in!"

"What?" Cassie walked in the room and look at her sister's old laptop, it was some laptop that was popular in 2013 but now looks like a piece of junk.

Michaela shook it off, "It's fine, I checked."

"Okay..." Cassie looked at the laptop, there was no way that piece of junk made that loud noise and didn't break." I just need to do some washing..." she pointed at the washing machine near Michaela's bed.

"Right, I'll get out of your way."

Cassie's stomach dropped as she saw Michaela's face, the girl's face was stained with tears, her eyes red and puffy. "Michaela, are you okay?"

Michaela nodded, "I'm fine, all good. I'll just leave now-"

"No, you don't need to do that," Cassie sat down on Michaela's bed. "I know that we weren't the closest but you're my older-... wait, younger? sister. If something is bothering you, I want to help, or at least bitch about it with you."

Michaela chuckled, even before the place disappeared, it had been a long time since Cassie and her bitched about their problems together. "I was just looking at Lourdes' Facebook."

"You saw her birthday messages?"

"Yeah... For five and a half years she sent heart-warming messages to a ghost, and I can't even look at her."

"Mick, she's married to your fiancé, you can't blame yourself for being uncomfortable around them."

Michaela sighed as she pulled on the long sleeves of her hoodie, "He wasn't even my fiancé, Cass! I didn't give him an answer! God, I'm so stupid. I should've just said yes."

"Why didn't you?"

"The timing. The crash had just happened and I was on probation at work, plus Jared always wanted kids while I didn't." Michaela chuckled bitterly, "But if I knew what was going to happen, if I knew that flight 828 would disappear, I would've said yes."

Cassie hugged her sister, wrapping her arms around her tightly, "Do you remember what mum used to say?"

"Yeah. All good things,-"

"Come to those who wait," Cassie smiled, four years ago their mother passed. Cassie had never been close to Karen, Karen was a religious woman, she was kind and only wanted the best for her children but Cassie was confused and still trying to figure herself out, she wasted most of their last years avoiding her mother.

Michaela looked at the cushion on her bed which was embroidered with the same words, "It was her favourite verse."

"Things may be a mess now, but it will get better, you just need to wait."

Michaela looked at Cassie, before the plane Cassie was Michaela's irresponsible, twenty-two year old younger sister, Michaela used to spend her nights picking Cassie up from parties, holding up her hair as she vomited the alcohol which she had spent all night drinking. She used to always look after her, make sure she was okay when she was too much of a mess to do it herself, now Cassie's the one looking after Michaela.

"Good things came to you," Michaela grinned, "You turned out amazing, you got your degree, you're an amazing mum, how did you do it?"

"It was Olive and Kayla. Olive needed someone to look after her, Grace was trying but she was depressed and could barely get out of bed for a whole year. Seeing Olive trying to look after herself and me being heavily pregnant with Kayla... it was a wake up call. I moved in with Grace and Olive and started to get my shit together. It didn't happen straight away but I knew that I couldn't give up because now I had two little girls depending on me."

"You're amazing Cass. I couldn't imagine how hard that must have been."

Cassie shook her head, a small chuckle escaping her lips, "I wouldn't change it, Grace is my best friend now. And now you, Ben and Cal are back, everything worked out."

"All good things come to those who wait."

"Exactly! I waited and now I have my siblings and nephew back! All you have to do now is wait, your time will come. I promise you Mick, you'll find someone you love just as much as Jared, maybe even more!"

Michaela's phone rang, the younger blonde haired girl looked down at her phone, her soft expression hardening. "It's Jared's work phone. I gotta go in, thank you Cassie. I needed this."

Cassie nodded, "Always, I love you Mick. I'm sorry, I wasn't a better sister in the past."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"You can't watch movies all day," Christy said as she walked into the house, she looked at MJ who hadn't moved in the last eight hours that she was at work.

MJ kept watching her movie, it was Iron Man 2 and she was on her fourth watch of it today. "Why not? You work all day and Amber's studying while I have literally nothing to do."

Christy looked at Amber who had been quiet watching the movie with MJ, much to MJ's dismay. Christy nodded at MJ, encouraging Amber to say something.

The dark-skinned girl cleared her throat as she straightened in her seat, "About that. MJ, we've been talking and think it would be best if you start school."

MJ scoffed, "You're joking right?"

MJ glared at Amber, causing her to lose all confidence in the plan that Christy and she had created together. Amber crossed her arms, "You need something to do, you can't just watch Marvel movies all day."

"I'm not going back to school, no fucking way. School was a nightmare, mainly because of you," MJ spat as she stood up, her movie ruined.

Christy stood in front of MJ, blocking her from going to the room that they had given MJ. "M, please. I get it, middle school was hard, I remember. But you can't blame Amber for the past, she's changed."

"It isn't as far in the past for me as it is for you," MJ whispered bitterly before walking around Christy.

MJ didn't look back, she didn't need to. She knew that they were disappointed in her and she didn't blame them. It's not that MJ wants to hate Amber, it's just that every time MJ looks at Amber, her blood pressure rises. She remembers the year of bullying and isolation she endured because of Amber, and she can't let it go.

When MJ got to her room she slammed the door and threw herself on her bed. "Ow," she cried as the back of her head hit something hard and square.

Her eyes widened as she realised what it was, "Shit! No, no," MJ dug through the blankets as she searched for the object. MJ's search comes to an end as she finds the hard object she was looking for. Her hands wrapped around the phone that Amber gave MJ, "Please, don't be broken," she whispered to herself.

MJ flipped the phone around.

Suddenly her vision blurs as she sees a slide in front of her with the initials m and c on it. MJ gasped as her vision came back to her and the slide was gone. "Holy shit."

MJ looked at the phone. She tried turning it again, holding it might trigger the same reaction but nothing happened. She tried it a few more times but nothing.

MJ lays down on her bed as she tries to recall the vision, a park with the initials m and c engraved on the slide. "Miller Park," she whispered to herself as she remembered the park she and Christy used to always play at. "But why does it want me to go there?"

MJ shrugged before jumping off the bed and grabbing her skateboard, 'at least it gets me out of the house,' she thought.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

MJ looked at the park, in the last five and a half years, nothing had changed. The slide was the same faded yellow and one of the swings still had a missing chain. MJ walked up to the slide and carved it was the same initials from her vision. "I'm here!" She yelled as she threw her arms in the air, "Can I have some type of instructions?" The wind blew against her ombre auburn hair as she waited for some kind of sign, but nothing. She kicked her foot against the pine bark mulch, she thought about the castles she and Christy used to make it. MJ wondered what Christy would say about her being here, that last time that they were at this park together, MJ was telling Christy that she was going to her Tía's.

MJ moved from the slide, over to the swing, she sat on the old swing and kicked herself off of the ground. In the air, her mind began to wonder, 'why did i get a calling to come here? is there another missing girl? has someone been murdered? should i call michaela and ben?' Every question she asked herself, had an unclear answer. She thought about the possibility of calling the Stone Siblings but her calling was about a park that she and her best friend used to go to, it seemed too personal to get two strangers involved.

MJ swings through the air, she feels the wind pushing into her face. MJ's grip on the chain of the swing loosens as she prepares herself to jump.

one, two...

She counted the number of times the swing swung backwards, creating a rhythm for herself.

three.

FIVE AND A HALF YEARS AGO

MJ let go of the swing as she ousted herself forward. She flew through the air and for a short moment it felt as if she was floating, she forgot about all her worries as her feet were off the ground.

The moment of calm came crashing down as she landed. MJ attempted to land on her feet but she slipped and landed on her knees. "Woah! M, I think that's your new record!" MJ looked at her knee, she had grazed it and she was bleeding lightly. "MJ, are you okay?"

MJ turned to her freckled friend, "Yeah, it's only a graze." She turned back to the swing, her eyes widened as she realised how far she had jumped. "Woah, that's like three whole metres."

"I know!" Christy ran up to MJ and gave her a hand, "Come on, it's my turn."

MJ used Christy's hand to stand up, she flinched as she placed pressure on her right leg, "Shit, it hurts."

Christy held MJ's hand tightly causing MJ to blush lightly. "We should go home, it might be broken."

MJ shook her head, "No! I don't want to go home."

"MJ, you need to talk to them. It's not fair that you're going to Jamaica because of Amber, did you even tell them what she said?"

MJ frowned as she let go of Christy's hand, she wrapped her arms around her body, hugging herself tightly. "I didn't want to give them another thing to worry about, if they knew that Amber was bullying us, they would freak. My mum's in the hospital with Carlos, she doesn't need to be worrying about me."

"MJ, my parents have five kids, trust me, your parents can worry about both you and Carlos." MJ shook her head, "Your father is so nice, MJ-"

"Christy, just drop it!"

"Okay," Christy replied.

MJ sighed as she walked over to the slide, "I'm not trying to be rude, I just don't want to talk to them about it. I haven't told them yet."

"Why haven't you?"

"I don't know," MJ played with the bracelet on her wrist, rolling the beads between her fingers as she avoided looking at her friend. "I always get bullied, at every school I go to. I guess I just wanted my parents to think that I could be normal."

Christy sat down next to MJ, "Normal is boring."

"Thanks."

22 NOVEMBER, 2018

MJ landed on her feet, her vision blurred as she saw the same calling, the slide with the m & c initials on it. MJ looked over at the slide, nothing about it was any different, it's still the same boring slide. Maybe she is going crazy, maybe the Pyler sisters was a flood, maybe the voice actually did want her to let the dogs free and the sisters being kidnapped was just a coincidence.

MJ kicked a rock at the slide. The rock hit something hard, catching MJ's attention.

MJ walked up to the slide and crawled underneath it, following where the rock went. MJ's eyes widened as she found a sallow grave, "Please don't be a dead body," she whispered to herself as she began to dig up the grave.

The grave was only small, not even a metre deep. As she dug through it, she found a shoebox. MJ grabbed it and pulled herself out of the hole.

"MJ," it says on the front in familiar cursive writing, "Christy..."

MJ opened the shoe box and found piles of letters, pictures and other small items. MJ grabbed the first letter and began to read it.

MJ,

I miss you so much. It's been four years, I just graduated high school, I wish you could had done the same. Amber graduated with me, we're both going to college, I plan on studying art and she's going to do physics and biology. We're moving in together too, I know that you hated Amber, we both did, but she's changed, and I hope that wherever you are, you're happy for us.

It took me a long time to move on from you, you were my best friend and the person I could always count on, I loved you and you deserved more time.

I'm writing to you for the last time, I think I'm finally at peace with your death and I like to believe that you've found peace too. I know your not a ghost because Amber hasn't been haunted yet.

This is me saying goodbye, thank you for everything, I am so grateful that I got to know you.

Love, Christina.

Underneath the letter is a picture of Amber and Christy at their graduation. MJ smiled as she looked at the picture of Christy in her graduation gown, smiling and kissing Amber.

MJ wished she was there, she wished that she shared this moment with Christy instead of being five and a half years behind her. She sighed, grabbing out the phone that Amber gave her.

She typed a few letters in before pressing send: i'll do it.