I switched off the headlights as the beat up old car rolled to a stop a few hundred yards away from a barn. What used to be a beautiful black Bentley was now scratched and dented from nearly five years on the road. It wasn't as if anyone was going to care. Well, apart from me, of course. Even then, it wasn't too big of a deal. It's not like I had actually paid for the car, and whoever had wasn't around to care anymore.

Alice sat in the car beside me. Her blonde hair was cut short, in what was my best attempt at a pixie cut. I wasn't a particularly good hairdresser. She smiled at me. It was a smile that masked a mixture of anticipation and sadness.

"Ready?" She asked.

I took a deep breath. "Ready." We got out of the car, and wandered around the back. I popped the trunk of the Bentley.

Lying inside, nestled in the scratched interior of the boot and bags full of clothes, was probably the strangest armoury you'd ever seen. I tossed a set of blood splattered motocross armour over to Alice, who slipped it on before adjusting the interior padding of a motorbike helmet. I pulled on a long, heavy woollen coat, and a set of shoulder guards, which had been cobbled together from scrap metal and old tyres. Sitting in the bottom of the trunk, was my pride and joy.

My small taser gloved had come a long way since I'd first tossed them together five years ago. The simple woollen gloves were now a pair of plated metal gauntlet. When turned on, sparks of electricity arced across its entire surface, with enough power to throw someone several feet backwards. I knew. I'd managed to do it to myself more then once. I slipped them on.

Alice practiced a swing with her baseball bat. I had made it for her as a gift a few years back. The design, while simpler then the gauntlet, was probably more effective. The metal bat wrapped in electrocuted wire had far more of an impact then the gloves. But that was probably because even after five years, I still couldn't throw a punch.

"Are you trying the tank?" Alice asked, twirling the bat in her hand.

I smirked. "Well, I have been told the tank is incredibly attractive."

"Incredibly so." She giggled, stepping around and rummaging around in the back of the car as I adjusted the gloves. She returned a moment later with a small gas tank attached to a harness, which she helped me slip into. A metal hose lead from the tank to a bronze nozzle on the edge of one of my gloves.

There was a scream from inside the barn, which was cut off. "We should move." I suggested. I slipped my pair of thermal goggles down over my eyes, and pulled my hood over my head. Alice cracked her neck, twirling the bat in a dangerous and otherwise unseen flourish. We advanced towards the barn together, switching on our gear. A large, brilliant blue arc jumped between her bat and my gloves, startling the both of us a little.

We paused outside the barn door, flickering firelight escaping from the cracks in the painted wood. The hum from before was now a rumbling chant, murmured by what sounded like dozens of people. A single voice from inside was distinguishable over the others.

"Cry not, child." It cooed. "For soon you shall be saved, as so many others in this world have been." We looked at each other through the darkness, Alice's body a pallet of oranges and greens through the thermal goggles.

"Three." I whispered.

"Ashes to ashes!" The voice yelled.

"Two." Alice nodded, bracing herself.

"Dust to dust!" The chanting crowd called back.

"One." We said together, each kicking in a door. I pressed the button connected to the tank, and a stream of gas blew from the nozzle, ignited by the blue sparks on the gauntlet, leaving me with a foot of raging flames extending from the end of my hand.

"Good evening!" I yelled. The entire barn turned to face us, our figures illuminated in shades of red and blue. "So sorry we're late!"

"Attention whore." Alice muttered. I flashed her a grin, before turning to the terrible scene before us.

We'd come to call them the Ash Cult. There were different cults all over the country, each one calling themselves something different, and each one delivering the same terror wherever they were. They believed that the devastating events of five years ago could happen again at any time, unless sacrifices are made. As long as someone was regularly burned to ash, the masses would be safe. It was sickening. Not that anyone did anything to stop them. The police were either too busy, too scared, or paid off. And thinking the Avengers would do anything about it was a joke. Ever since they managed to get half of us all killed, the frightened bastards had holed up in their little compound back in New York, leaving it to the rest of us to try and fix things.

About two dozen men and women were crowded before us in the barn. They knelt in front of a makeshift stage, upon which stood a tall man in a long black robe, with lines painted across his face in soot. Behind him, struggling and cowering on the stage, were three other people each tied to a crude pyre. A man, a woman, and their young daughter.

"Terribly sorry to interrupt, but they're coming with us." Alice called out, pointing at the terrified family with her bat.

The man on the stage blinked at us for a moment, before waving his hand in our general direction. "Get them. Let them join those before us."

The crowd charged at us. Alice swung first, knocking a man in the stomach with her bat and sending him flying backwards into the crowd, taking out another in the process. I waved the fire at a group advancing towards me, even setting one alight. He ran from the barn, screaming. "I'll clear a path, you get to the hostages." I called over to Alice. She nodded, fighting her way over to me. We walked back to back as I waved my arm in an arc to keep them at bay, Alice swinging out at anyone coming at her. I glanced over to see the leader dowsing the hostages with gasoline. "Al?" She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. "I can't get to much closer..."

"I know."

"Ready?"

I exhaled. "Yep." I pressed the button again and the flames cut off, little more than halfway towards the stage. The frenzy began as the crowd folded in.

I punched someone in the face, knocking them out cold and sending them to the ground. Alice took out three in one swing as she leapt across the dirt floor. Someone came at me with a knife, which got lodged in the chunk of tyre over my shoulder. It stayed there as its wielder flew was thrown backwards by the electric uppercut that caught him in the chest. A plank of wood slammed into my back, knocking me to the ground and seriously denting the gas tank. I rolled over in time to punch upwards at a woman as she dove at me. Her unconscious form was thrown a several feet in the air, and I rolled to avoid her as she fell.

Alice leapt up onto the stage, a sweeping kick taking the legs out from underneath the leader. She pulled a small knife from her belt and began sawing through the ropes binding the father to the pyre. He scrambled to get his gag off as soon as his hands were free. "Look out!" He yelled.

Now on my feet, I spun around to see the leader grab Alice in a choke hold, causing her to drop her bat and her knife. "Them!" She coughed, kicking the knife towards the man, who began cutting through the binds of his wife as Alice wrestled with the leader. She kicked him in the shins, breaking free of his grasp and elbowing him in the face.

In my moment of distraction, someone tackled me to the ground. How many more of these guys even were there? I wrestled as he pinned me to the ground, two others pinning my arms apart. I struggled against them as someone else approached, a rusty pitchfork raised above their head, ready to strike. I kicked upwards, knocking the fork upwards and causing the handle to slam into the top of their head like in an old Loony Tunes cartoon. I managed to reach my arms closer together before someone tried to hold them back. Closer... Closer...

The man with the pitchfork stabbed downwards again, the metal prongs sailing between the two gauntlets, causing a blinding arc to shoot between them. He dropped the pitchfork as the current hit his hands, and the rest were startled enough to get hit with some of my panicked flailing arm movements. I looked over to see Alice dive across the platform, grab her bat, and swing at the leaders knees, taking him down before scrambling up and slamming the bat into his ribs. There was an audible crack as several of them broke, and he lay limply on the stage.

"Follow me!" She called to the family, who were huddled together in the corner of the stage. She lead them onto the ground, taking out the several cultists who moved towards her. By now, over half of their unconscious forms lay on the ground around our feet, making it hard to move about. Those that were left had the brilliant idea to make their way as fast as they could out of the barn.

"That was fun." I grunted, stumbling slightly as we ran from the barn.

"Go, you need to get out of here." Alice instructed the family, slipping an arm under my shoulder to support me as I switched off the gauntlets. "We can give you a lift as far as-"

Before she could even finish, the man had scooped his daughter up in his arms and the family had disappeared into the Forrest surrounding the barn.

"I mean, at least we offered." I panted.

"They probably saw your crappy car and thought it was safer on foot."

"Come off it." I laughed, the adrenaline beginning to wear off, and the pain setting in. We could hear sirens in the distance. They weren't something we really needed to deal with right now. The police force had managed to pull themselves back together in the years since the incident. Almost too well. For the last few years the Eastern United States was practically a police state. They'd managed to calm down a little, but they really weren't fans of anyone they determined to be 'enhanced individuals'.

"My shift?" Alice asked, as we began to hastily toss our gear into the back seat of the car. We could organise it later. I nodded, throwing myself into the passenger seat. Alice kicked the car into reverse, and swerved out onto the road, speeding towards the horizon as the red and blue lights arrived at the scene behind us.

"Where we heading?" She asked.

We locked eyes for a moment. That was always the question. The answer was really never spoken aloud, but we both knew what it was. We both knew exactly where we were going. Alice turned her eyes back to the road, and for the first time in a while, I closed mine, drifting off to sleep to the sound of the humming engine and the crackling radio.

* * *

It was around noon by the time I'd woken up. Alice had stopped for a nap herself on a suburban side road. We switched seats, and I let her sleep for the remaining hours of our odyssey. We weren't the only ones on the road, but we certainly weren't far from it. Any road signs still left standing were too graffitied to make out. Slowly, a city skyline began to appear over the horizon. First one building. Then two. Then several. The suburban communities around us slowly morphed into a sprawling city. One we hadn't been to in a very long time.

"Home." Alice muttered, sitting up and stretching as a entered New York once again. The streets seemed cleaner than when we'd left. It was certainly more openly populated. People were walking around, enjoying coffee and living their lives, like nothing ever happened. It was peaceful. Calm. "It's almost..."

"Normal." I answered.

Alice smiled. "Yeah. Normal."

I squirmed in my seat. As much as the city comforted me, returned to its rightful state, it just felt... Wrong. Like everyone was just ignoring an underlying grief that dwelled amongst them, threatening to bubble back to the surface at a moments notice. I pulled the car over to the side of the road, the Hudson River visible to our left. It looked bluer, and cleaner as we stepped out of the car. Alice swore as a pod of dolphins leapt out of the water, diving back in with a splash.

"Dolphins." She laughed, grabbing my hand and pulling me forwards for a better view of the river. "Dolphins. In the Hudson."

"Less people, less pollution. More wildlife life." I sighed. We'd seen it out in the country. More wild stallions, more bears, more packs of wolves. Creatures driven into the wilderness flourishing as they reclaimed discarded habitats. It was beautiful. But it wasn't worth the cost.

Alice slipped her hand into mine. "Maybe..." She paused, looking at the city around us. There were a few odd looks cast at our bloodied clothes and beaten up old car. "Maybe we could stay."

I breathed in the clean air around us. "Maybe we could."

There was a long awkward silence between us. "What about sorting the world out ourselves?" She asked.

I sighed. That was always the plan. Or at least the short term one. Until recently we didn't know if having a long term plan was worth it. I looked bitterly up at the building in the New York skyline that had previously been Avengers Tower. "Maybe it's time we let the world sort itself out for a bit."

Alice nodded, leaning into my shoulder. "I think maybe that's a good plan."

For a moment, there was a blinding white light, accompanied by a maddening silence. And then everything was normal again.

Alice and I looked at each other. "What just-"

There was a terrible, deafening explosion.

I whirled around. A giant black shape was visible through an enormous mushroom cloud on the horizon. "That's the Avengers compound." Alice gasped, her hands covering her mouth. After another moment, she said. "Come on."

I looked at her as she threw open the drivers door of the Bentley. "Come on?"

"Yeah, come on." She ducked into the car, before ducking back out to see what was taking me so long. People were running and screaming around us, the indistinguishable shape rising above the cloud, revealing itself as a spacecraft in the distance. "Neil what are you doing?" She yelled over the noise.

"Let them handle it." I said.

"Let them handle it?" She yelled. "What do you mean, let them handle it?"

"I mean let them deal with their problems."

"We need to help-"

"What do you mean we need to help, Alice? Do you think we can save them? Because I sure don't. We get beaten up by cultists and muggers, and you think we can go against that?" I pointed frantically at the spaceship. "Hell, the last time they tried to go against something like that, half of the world died! We were this close to putting all of this stuff behind. To have a home, and food, and to not being fugitives, and you just want to run into that?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "The police are after us, because of them. I lost my family because of them, and you think I'm just going to run in and defend them?"

"Why not, Neil? They lost once. How many times did they save us before then? How many other innocent kids are going to lose their families of they lose again?"

"It's-It's suicide!"

She slammed her fist against the bonnet of the car. "Five years ago you told me that we should sort the world out ourselves. And we have tried. Hell we have almost died trying. And now this happens, and you-you chicken out?"

"Chicken out? What are you six? This is-"

"Pointless." Alice said eventually, her eyes burning with fury. She got into the car and slammed the door closed. A moment later, she opened it again, and dumped my gloves and the tank onto the ground. "Goodbye, Neil."

"Alice wait, don't-" I moved after the car as it reversed down the road, swerving around pedestrians as Alice swung onto the main road and sped towards the obliterated compound up the Hudson River.

I stood there, alone on the street, people screaming around me as they fled from the explosion. The amount of dust blowing in the air as the first shockwave hit made it hard to see. I scrambled to pick up my gauntlets before one of the panicking public did. "Chicken out." I muttered to myself. No. No I'd made the right decision. I slipped one of the gauntlets on, the other tucked under my arm, and sung the tank over my shoulder. People were embracing each other around me, crying. I was took preoccupied to really take notice. We didn't stand a chance over there. I would have died... Alice would have died. I shuddered. Alice was going to die

"Hey kid," said a voice. I jumped out of my skin, wheeling around with my gauntlet raised. An old man stood there calmly, a wide grin beneath his neat white moustache. His sunglasses twinkled in the hazy sunlight fighting its way through the dust. "Seems like you lost something pretty important back there." He chuckled, handing me my goggles. "I'd try and keep a hold of it if I were you."

I swallowed as I took the goggles. There was something strangely familiar about the old man that I couldn't place. "Y-yes... I probably should... T-Thank you."

He winked. "Go get'em kid."

I took off down the street, stumbling slightly as I put on my gear. I grabbed the door of a car, stopping someone from getting inside. "I need your car." I told him.

He stared at me. "Excuse m-"

I activated the glove, electricity arching across the plates. "I need your car." I said, a little harsher. He backed away, dropping the keys on the ground. I threw the car into reverse and took off backwards down the road, the tires screeching as I spun around, tearing down the road.

Thunder boomed overhead. Literally, over my head. Giant storm clouds, pelting rain seemed to be chasing my car towards the spacecraft. A massive bolt of lightning struck the ground directly in front of my car, causing me to almost swerve off the road. I swore, weaving back onto the road as I drew closer to the compound. I could see the lighting, now localised on a specific point ahead of me. Presumably the God of Thunder had arrived at the battle. I slammed on the breaks, the car screeching to a halt beside the beaten up Bentley.

The Avengers compound was nothing but smoking chunks of rubble emerging from the ground. I slipped the goggles on over my head, searching the building for any heat signatures as I ran through, hooking the gas tank up to the gauntlet. "Alice?" I yelled. "Alice?" A large glowing figure moved through the rubble. An incredibly large glowing figure. I chose to stay away from that. "Alice?"

A flicker of heat caught my eye. A human shape scrambled over the compound, a pulsating bat dragging behind her. There. I began to climb, scampering awkwardly over the chunks of obliterated concrete, water spilling from pipes and electricity sparking from exposed wires around me. By the time I reached the top, she was gone. I pulled off the goggles, taking in the scene before me. The lighting had stopped. Two human sized figures lay limply on the ground on either side of a far larger man. He threw a punch, throwing the third several feet through the air, a circular shield clanging against the stone. Captain America. The Avengers. Down for the count.

I took a breath, scrambling down towards the fight. I could see Alice in the distance making her way forwards, her bat crawling with electricity. Slowly, the Captain stood back up shakily. An army of monstrous creatures advanced towards us from the spaceship. "This was a terrible idea." I grunted. Then, from nowhere, orange sparks appeared in the air, widening into a circle. Then another. And another. Dozens of these giant flickering circles cut through the dust, voices and chanting emanating from within them. And then they came. Hundreds upon hundreds of people. An army, cobbled together from African tribes, sorcerer's, aliens and heroes, all gathering behind the Captain. I was swept up in the crowd, loosing sight of Alice amongst their heads. On a command drowned out by the noise, the army charged, forcing me along with them.

In a surprisingly short amount of time, I found myself isolated on the battlefield, running onwards towards a mass of impossible looking creatures. Large, black and slimy, galloping towards the us on eight limbs, each one fitted with razor sharp claws. One jumped, launching itself several feet through the air and colliding with my chest. Is eyeless, fanged maw bit down towards my neck, and I barely managed to punch upwards into its gut, sending it into the air before another set upon me. And another. I flailed outwards, scrambling to my feet as best I could, hitting anything that came near me. A creatures clawed hand ripped the tyre armour from my shoulder, cutting into my skin as it went. I ran forwards, ducking behind a woman in long flowing robes, as she sliced several creatures in half with a glowing weapon.

"Thanks." I panted, running up a ledge. I spotted her again. "Alice!" She was practically spinning in circles, hitting anything at came close with her charged weapon. I pressed the button, fire erupting from my arm as I managed to dodge another creature, burning it severely enough that it didn't bother coming at me again.

I tripped, tumbling forwards before slamming into the ground and rolling to a stop. A creature jumped on me, biting down into my shoulder. I screamed as its teeth ripped through cloth and flesh, severing the straps connecting the tank to my back, it's swinging arms ripping the hose connecting it to the nozzle. It reared its head up to bite again, before something sent it flying sideways. A figure stood above me, silhouetted in the dust, her motorbike helmet cracked and bloodied, and her sparking baseball bat hanging at her side. Alice extended a gloved hand. She pulled me up and into a hug, panting heavily behind her visor.

"I thought I was going to die without seeing you again." She said. I could hear the tears in her voice.

I hugged her back. "So did I." I pulled her back down to the ground as a creature leapt at us, sailing over our heads. I slipped off the now leaking gas tank. Alice took it, pegging it at the creature. It bounced off harmlessly its head, only confusing the creature, before landing in a small fire. The tank exploded, taking out the creature and two nearby.

"Well..." I grunted as we pulled ourselves back up. "That was pretty cool."

Alice laughed. I punched outwards, hitting a creature as Alice took a swung, taking out another. I could feel my arm going numb, warm, sticky blood soaking into my shirt. I looked up. A man, clad in a black suit, was leaping gracefully over the battle towards us, a giant gauntlet tucked under one arm. Before he could reach us however, a huge sword flew through the air, crashing into him. The armoured glove skittered across the ground, stopping a few feet away from me.

"Alice?" She knocked a creature in the head before looking over. I lunged forwards, grabbing the gauntlet and throwing it towards her. "Batter up."

Alice swung, the bat colliding with the gauntlet and launching it further down the battlefield as the man in black leapt over our heads having recovered from his fall. He managed to regather it as the ground rose up beneath him, and he disappeared from sight in the fray.

The battle raged on, as the seemingly infinite hoard of creatures continued to charge forwards. Then, without warning, hundreds of missiles began flying towards us from the ship. One slammed into the ground to our left, sending us flying backwards through the air.

My vision blurred and my head pounded. I could see a large, glowing orange shape flickering above my head, held up by a struggling man in brown robes. The rockets collided against the geometric shapes harmlessly. My ears were ringing as I shakily lifted myself up. "Alice?" My voice sounded distant, and muffled. I could see her, lying in the dirt, unmoving. I scrambled over, narrowly dodging a dark skinned woman with a spear as she screamed past me, impaling one of the creatures. I dropped back down to my knees beside Alice. "Alice? Come on wake up." I pulled the helmet from her head, it's dark visor smashed, and the jerry-rigged thermal tech sparking. Blood was running down the side of her face from a large gash on her forehead. I pulled her up, trying to lift her in my arms before my wounded shoulder gave out beneath her.

"Help!" I called out. If anyone could hear me, they didn't respond. I couldn't blame them. The wizards around us were busy holding the glowing shields above their heads, and everyone else was trying to hold back the creatures. I tried to lift Alice again. "Anybody?" I screamed.

For a moment, there was another blinding white light, accompanied by another maddening silence. And then everything was chaos again.

But only for a moment. I watched in horror as the creatures began to turn to dust, like everyone else had years ago. I pulled Alice close to my chest, closing my eyes. I couldn't let her disappear too...

Through my eyelids I could see an orange light coming from the ground beneath us. I opened my eyes as a circle of sparks appeared, and we fell through, slamming down onto a laminate floor. The battlefield, the dust filled sky, and the now exploding spaceship shrunk into nothingness as the circle closed, leaving nothing but a faded cream ceiling above us.

The world was spinning around me. A woman screamed, and several men and women crowded around me. I could feel Alice's limp form against my chest, breathing laboriously. They were talking to me. I could see their lips moving, but their voices were drowned out by a high pitched ringing. I closed my eyes, and everything went black.

* * *

It was warm. For a long, soothing moment, that was all that registered. The overwhelming, comfortable feeling of warmth. Then came the pain. Dull, throbbing pain, shooting inwards to my chest from my shoulder. As more sensations began to register, so did the memories. The white light. The cloud. The spaceship. The battle. Alice.

Alice.

I threw myself upwards, my eyes open. I immediately closed them again, blinded by the bright fluorescent lights above my head, a sharp pain in inside of my right elbow. I opened my eyes again, slower this time. I was in a hospital. Certainly a cleaner one then any I'd been in for the last few years. I was alone in the room, hooked up to an I.V as I lay in the bed. I ripped it out, my legs giving way as slid out of the bed onto the floor.

It was scarily quiet. I could see doctors and nurses running around outside in the hallways. There was a locker, tucked away in the corner of the room, with 'John Doe' written on the identification card. I wandered over and opened it up, revealing a large plastic bag. My stuff. I was shocked if hadn't been handed over to someone more important yet, or at least housed somewhere more secure. Maybe they had been too occupied with everything going on.

Slowly, painfully, I slipped into my bloody, tattered clothes, my freshly bandaged shoulder visible through the gashes in my shirt and jacket. I stepped backwards as a woman was rushed through on a trolley by several hospital staff. I dragged my bag behind me as I scanned the names of patients on the doors around me. Anyone who noticed me was too busy to care. Slowly, I opened a door labeled 'Jane Doe'. And there she stood, ressed in a hospital gown as she stared out the window into the city outside. She jumped as I entered the room, the door creaking.

"Hi." I said weakly as Alice turned to face me.

"Hi." She breathed. The cut on her forehead had been cleaned and glued shut.

We stood in silence for a while, unsure of what to say, given what had happened. "We should go." I said, breaking the silence. "B-before anyone starts asking us questions."

Alice nodded, moving slowly towards the locker. I turned to face the door as she changed, scanning the hall for anyone looking for us. "I don't think I have any answers to give them if they do." She said. "You can turn back around." Alice was flowing as I turned, dragging her armour from the locker and placing it in a bag. "I've lost my bat."

I nodded. "I uh... I can make you a new one? If you want?"

Alice hugged me as she moved towards the door, before leaning in and kissing me. In that moment, it felt like it lasted forever. In the next, it felt like it ended too soon. "Come on." She smiled, pushing open the door.

We wandered lost around the hospital, before eventually stumbling upon a fire escape. The cool evening breeze rushed past us, the sounds of the city filling the air. "Where do we go now?" Alice asked, leaning into me for warmth and support.

I wrapped an arm around her as we slowly moved down the rusted metal stairs and onto the street. "I-I might know a place." My voice was coarse. I didn't want to go there. It was somewhere I hadn't been for a very long time. I didn't even know if it was still empty. Part of me even hoped it was.

Our journey from the hospital wasn't really what you'd call long, but it felt like forever, especially when the pain medication began to wear off, and the sky around us grew darker. After what felt like hours, we emerged into the suburbs, and a few moments later, turned onto the right street. The house wasn't too dilapidated. At least, it was doing better then most. It was a decent size, but with smaller rooms then you would expect looking in from the outside. I pushed open the front door, and entered the empty hall of my old house.

Except it wasn't empty. The lights were on. I could hear movement in the next room. Hushed, panicked voices echoed from the kitchen. I slipped one of my gloves onto my hand, stepping in front of Alice. "Hello?"

A man ran from the kitchen in front of us, a dining chair brandished in his hand. "You picked the wrong house-"

My moms boyfriend Mike dropped the chair in front of me as I turned on the glove. We were both silent for a moment. "M-Mike?" I asked.

He blinked at me. "Do I..."

"Neil?"

I looked past Mike to the kitchen doorframe. There, silhouetted in the kitchen light, stood my mother, looking the exact same as the day she had disappeared five years ago. "Mom?" The gauntlet slipped off my hand as my arm fell to my side. She walked forwards, a hand reaching up and touching my cheek. "Mom, you're... you're alive."

She nodded, slowly, looking into my face, concerned and confused. "Yes, I-I'm alright... Neil what happened-"

I hugged her, laughing, practically lifting her off the ground. I let go as my shoulder began to burn, the bandages grating against the fresh wounds. "You... You were gone." The laughter slowly trickled into tears. "You were all gone for so long." I sniffed, hugging her again. She seemed confused, almost scared as I released her again. Alice slipped her hand into mine as I stepped back. She smiled at me. It was a smile of anticipation and joy. "I guess... I guess there's a lot to catch you up on..."

It was an unsettling experience as we stood there together in the hallway. But for the first time in five years, things seemed okay. Like after all this time, it was going to get better...