Storms of Future Past Books One through Four

Chapter 9-1

Chapter 9

Anne closed the door to Evan’s house quietly, not sure why at first. Then she knew.

Anne still saw all three of those memories; she felt all of them.

Evan alone. Evan’s dad alone. Evan walking in on his father with the gun.

Mr. Griffith wasn’t here yet, but disaster was still coming. She looked at the closet beside the front door. Evan had never mentioned his father having a gun, but that didn’t matter.

Anne opened the door, blinking when the bright light came on. She stepped up onto a grimy tackle box. She closed her eyes, trying her best to focus on just one memory.

All three of them were still playing in her mind, still rushing toward her with devastating force.

She leaned up as far as she could, calf muscles cramped from running in the heat, grasping the doorjamb. Right there, she’d seen Evan’s father reaching right there. Her fingers felt something heavy, like bumpy leather instead of the steel she’d seen. She stood on her tiptoes and got the whole thing into her grasp.

Anne held the handgun from her memory. The light brown leather holster, embossed with some kind of western design with a dark EG in the middle, covered it almost completely, but this was the same gun. She touched the cold, oily barrel.

In her mind, she heard the crash as it fired: once, twice.

She stepped down and closed the door. Anne let her backpack slide down onto her elbow and unzipped the biggest compartment. The gun made her bag way too heavy, but it fit. She zipped her pack up, then carefully put it down beside Evan’s.

Anne concentrated on the images still screaming through her head. Evan turning his face up to her was clear and substantial, and her own tears started. The other two, the memories with the gun, felt a tiny bit lighter.

Maybe she was making some kind of difference after all. She took a deep breath and walked toward the kitchen.

When she reached up to push the door open, Anne felt an odd tingling. She stared at her hand, surprised she couldn’t see tiny blue lightning racing over her flesh. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, but it wasn’t exactly scary.

She had a sense of anticipation, of completion. No matter what happened when she opened the door, it was going to be terrible.

But Anne knew it was going to be right.