1 A RETURN HOME

Driving down the winding roads of Stonecrest I am stunned. I never thought I would ever have to drive down these roads again not after we left. Everything is so familiar yet so different at the same time, we will only be here for a couple of days I tell myself as I pull into my old house I park the car in the driveway and sigh looking over at Briana.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked her Briana left town with me when our parents and grandparents died in a car crash a year ago.

"About as ready as I will ever be." Briana replied as she hopped out of the car and went to grab her bags in the back. I sighed and got out of the car and followed Briana to the back, we finally got all of our bags out of the car and walked into my house.

"Wow." I muttered as the familiar smell of my mom's perfume and dad aftershave filled my nose.

"Nothing has changed." Briana breathed out with a small smile, she was right nothing had changed everything was still the same. It was like stepping back a year, I half expected my mom to come around the corner and ask Briana and I if we wanted some cookies.

"It even smells the same." I said fighting back tears, we put all of our stuff in our rooms and got ready for the reason we were here a old friend of ours committed sucide a couple of days ago and we were here to attend his funeral, I stared at my wavy blonde hair and blue eyes in the mirror, my I was in my black dress and heels and it reminded me of my parents and grandparents funerals.

"Are you ready to go?" Briana asked me as she stepped into the room wearing a similar black dress and heels.

"Yeah I'm ready." I mumbled as we walked down into the foyer and to the car, the car ride there was quiet and filled with sorrow, I mean we had known Oliver for years he was one of our best friends we had basically grown up together our grandparents knew each other and our parents were raised together.

As we drove past all the trees zipped by I had a few thoughts on my mind, Why would Oliver kill himself he was always a happy go lucky type of person, and why did I have this feeling of dread like something bad was about to happen, as we pulled into the funeral home parking lot I couldn't help but feel something life changing was about to happen.

"Lets go." I faltered before getting out of the car, We walked into the funeral home and I can't help but think the walk from the car to the building feels like it took years, as we walk in we see a big sign that simply says.

"In loving memory of Oliver Xavier Danford 2004-2022."

I can't help but look at it his whole life was between that dash, I mean he was only 18 and yet he is gone. As we walk into the service room I can feel the eyes on us and hear the whispers.

"Is that Elizabeth and Briana?"

"What are they doing here?"

"They showed up?"

We ignore all the whispers and walk up to the casket to pay our respects, the whispering has never bothered me like it did Briana, I was used to it. My family was pretty successful in their business so I had a decent amount of money growing up. And then the car crash happened and my world was turned upside down. The parents that I knew and loved were gone, my second set of parents and grandparents also six feet under. Sometimes I wonder what happened that night, my father was a great driver so what happened on the road that night? It left so many unanswered questions.

¨Well if it isn´t Elizabeth Rose Brightwood and Briana Grace Redwick." We turn around to see one of our old friends from high school Claire.

¨Hello Claire, how are you?" I asked her. She hadn't changed at all, her long red hair and sparkling hazel eyes. Her heart shaped face looked like it had not aged since middle school.

¨I´m good, how are you guys?" She asked us, smiling her white teeth a little bit crooked but not that you would notice if you weren't really looking, we talked for a little while before Claire left.

We were standing in the corner talking when two men approached us both looked to be around our age, they both have messy black hair compared to my wavy blonde and Briana´s straight strawberry blonde hair, one had green eyes and the other had blue eyes. They were both tall and had broad shoulders, the one with green eyes wore a black leather jacket and a white shirt with a pair of dark wash jeans and black combat boots, the one with blue eyes was wearing a AC/DC hoodie and jean jacket with black jeans and black converse.

¨Hello my name is James and this is Austin.¨ James introduces holding his hand out to me as Austin held his hand out to Briana. We both shook their respective hands and I felt a shock of electricity go up my arm.

¨Hi I am Elizabeth and this is Briana.¨ I said smiling at James, somehow I know he felt the shock too, both boys looked at each other with a small nod before looking back at us smiling.

"It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth, Briana." Austin said, running his hands through his messy hair but it fell back down into his crystal clear blue eyes.

"So did you just move back here? We know pretty much everyone here." James asked with a small but meaningful smile, his green eyes seemed to have a spark as he smiled.

"Yeah we came back today for Oliver's funeral, we were friends from school. We don't know how long we will be here though." I replied with a small smile of my own, I unconsciously ran my hand through my wavy hair as the boys looked at us with a smile.

"Oh how long have you known Oliver for?" Austin asked us with a polite smile, as he put his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

"Around kindergarten I would say." Briana answered as she nervously played with the hem of her dress. Briana had always been more nervous than me around people, but I grew up having to socialize with people due to the party's my parents went to all the time.

"Well we were recently friends, we knew him for about a year before this happened." James said as he straightened out his leather jacket and adjusted it on his shoulders.

We continued to talk for around an half an hour before we decided to go home. By the time we got home we were both tired and just ready to go to bed but decided to have dinner first.

I ended up going to the grocery store and picking up groceries before retiring home and cooking some spaghetti and garlic bread.

After we had finished eating, we brushed our teeth and changed into our sleep clothes, both of with were some old travel travel t shirts from North Carolina and some black spandex shorts from when we did gymnastics.

I went upstairs to my room, and walked into my bathroom. I sighed as I looked at myself in the mirror. I take out my contacts and put on my glasses. They are a nice pair of glasses, kinda on the circular side but I think they are nice. I take one last look at myself before I decide to go sit down on my bed and pull out a book. I read a couple of chapters before I decided to go to bed. I turn out my light and put my book away, as my head hits the pillow I almost instantly fall asleep but I swear I can smell a nice cologne before I fall asleep.

As I am asleep I am having weird lucid dreams, the same dream I have been having for weeks. It starts out Briana and I are walking down a weird hallway when we see shadow figures at the end. They look to be two men who are standing beside each other as two women walk up and join them on either side. They start walking into the forest a little ways before a black smoke surrounds them. They are struggling to get free of the smoke when they all collapse to the ground. I look around trying to figure out where I am when I see the black smoke rush at my face.

I sit up abruptly as I am woken up from my dream what is happening I have had that dream for weeks, I feel a cold chill go up my spin but I ignore it as I turn to look at the clock, it is almost midnight so I decided to just lay back down and go to sleep but I can't help but think the dream means something important.