Western Ohio

Two months later

Where am I?

Riley Thornton looked at the unfamiliar forest around her, then squinted through the trees up ahead, where silvery green water wound past a small rocky beach. She ventured a little away from her Biology classmates who were laughing and joking, and moved toward the water’s edge. She loved the water. Always had. And this was certainly a beautiful place.

But it wasn’t home.

Someone laughed loudly, and Riley frowned at herself. I’ve got to shake this off. It was her second week of college at Miami of Ohio. New friendships would happen, eventually. Hopefully. But she and Reed hadn’t lingered long enough after school to meet people because their new house needed so much work. Their brother Jack insisted that the unpacking and repairs get done before anybody socialized. Riley understood all that, but without friends, her dog, and the man she hated loving, she was beyond lonely.

She glanced over at her classmates. Okay, so this is just a field trip. But maybe some of these people will turn out to be cool. She twisted her long yellow curls up under her Sooners ball cap to keep the back of her neck from sweating. 

I’ve got to try.

“Gather around, everybody!”

Their Biology professor opened the tote bag he brought with him and began passing out lab kits in little plastic bags. “These are for collecting your samples and documenting them. I want lots of details, people. If you have questions, you can ask either myself or our assisting grad student, Mr. Rainey.” He gestured to an extremely large man in his late twenties who was standing behind him.

The big guy nodded at the underclassmen.

One of the girls behind Riley squealed. “It’s Xander Rainey...”

Another girl whispered, “He is so hot!”

‘Xander Rainey’ frowned in their direction and crossed his muscled arms. His eyes, hair and close-cropped beard were all as black as his expression.

Riley shook her head. That man is the opposite of hot. He’s big, he’s old and he’s scary. She fanned the back of her neck with her instruction sheet.

“You each need ten different samples for our microbe study,” the professor informed them. “Spread out and start collecting. Be sure to document everything you take.”

The students began stooping and muttering to one another, looking for interesting specimens. Riley stopped at a small tree and carefully collected a sample. ‘Dogwood bark,’ she noted on the paper.

She stood and looked around for her next potential specimen. Nearby, two whispering girls, a blonde and a brunette, were still watching Xander, who was conferring with two guys pointing at a patch of moss.

“Who is he?” Riley asked them.

The brunette gaped at her. “You don’t know?”

“I moved here ten days ago.”

“He’s super rich,” the blonde one said, snapping her chewing gum. “Last year he donated half a million to the science department. My advisor said that wasn’t his first big donation, either.”

Well, no wonder they think he’s hot. “That was generous.”

“Where are you from? Your accent is different.”

“Oklahoma,” Riley replied.

The hulking grad student turned and frowned in their direction. Unnerved, Riley bent down to collect lichen from a nearby rock.

“I’ve never been to Oklahoma,” the blonde said. “How does it compare with Ohio?”

“They’re nothing alike. It’s very green here and there are lots of hills. Oklahoma is flatter and browner, and there’s a lot more farmland.”

Once she had her second sample labeled, Riley moved to the river’s edge and stooped to collect a vial of water. 

When she capped the vial, everything around her darkened, as if a powerful storm had moved directly overhead.

Half a second later, she saw light. Bright sky-blue light, shimmering all around her. Brilliant and beautiful. 

She blinked, and the light was gone.

What just happened?

Riley stood up and blinked again. She rubbed her eyes and turned around, looking for anything that could have caused either the darkness or the light. She moved toward the water, and away from it. But there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

The heat must be getting to me.

A sunburned guy nearby chuckled at her. “What’s your major? Modern Dance?”

Riley blushed. I’m making a fool of myself. She sat down on a nearby rock. “No. Interior Design.”

“I want everybody to have at least one sample from the river!” the professor yelled. When he spotted Riley sitting down, he frowned. “Are you finished already, Miss Thornton?”

“No, sir.” She stood up and walked toward a patch of thick mud, past Xander Rainey, who was now staring at her. And like her professor, also frowning.

These men take microbes WAY too seriously.

A bright red cardinal swooped low across the river and Sunburned Guy pointed it out to Riley with a smile. He stayed beside her as they continued bagging and labeling their finds. “Well, Riley from Oklahoma who’s studying Interior Design: tell me three things about yourself.”

Riley’s heart felt as though it sank to the bottom of the river. Oh, no… he’s flirting. She turned away and closed her eyes. A sickening soup of guilt, sadness and nausea was churning her stomach.

Three things... I’m grieving a relationship that ended years ago, I want to get over it more than anything else in the world, and I don’t think I ever will so don’t waste your time? 

Probably not a reasonable answer.

She swallowed and glanced around for ideas. “Well, I love rivers, I hate this heat, and I’d much rather listen than talk.”

He chuckled.

“I seriously need to cool off,” the gossiping brunette complained loudly. “Can we stop and sit down for a minute? Please?”

Their professor pointed to a shady section of beach in front of them. “Will that work?”

“It’s perfect.”

As everyone moved that way, Riley heard someone whisper, “I think he wants to go out with you.”

The blonde was standing right beside her. She gestured to Sunburned Guy.

Riley’s cheeks grew hotter. “It looks that way.”

They walked together toward some large rocks and sat down in the shade. Some of the other students did the same.

“Has he asked you out?”

“No. And I wouldn’t be good company.” Riley looked away. “There’s someone I care about back in Oklahoma.”

“Oh! You have a boyfriend? I’ve been encouraging him to ask you out.”

“I’m sorry. You didn’t ask, and neither did he.” And I’ve never had a boyfriend. I just wish I had.

Riley poured a little water over the back of her burning neck. She caught the gum-chewing blonde’s eye and smiled apologetically, but the girl just turned away and began whispering to the brunette again.

Ugh.

Riley inwardly sighed, then chastised herself again for feeling hopeless. So I’m not going to make friends this afternoon. But I’m out of the house for once, and it really is gorgeous here—

A loud pop echoed through the valley.

That... sounded like a gunshot.

Riley stood and walked slowly to the water’s edge. Several other students did the same, and they looked up and down the river for the source of the noise.

“That was a gun,” a guy with a neon shirt said.

“In the park? No way.” Sunburned Guy said. “It’s a blown transformer or something.”

The professor looked around. “I don’t see any power lines.” He looked around at his students. “Did any of you do that?”

The entire class seemed on edge. Only Xander Rainey looked unperturbed. He was crouched at the river’s edge with his hand over his eyes.

The heat’s getting to him, too.

“Maybe it was a car backfiring? There’s a road nearby,” the brunette suggested.

“That could be it,” Sunburned Guy said.

“It sounded like a gun to me,” Neon Shirt Guy insisted.

Sunburned Guy chuckled and shoved him toward the river. Neon Shirt Guy tottered back a few steps and fell on his butt in the water. “Hey!”

“Well, you need some sense knocked into you!”

“Knock it off,” the professor scolded. “Back to work everyone.”

The boys ignored their teacher and began wrestling in the water, both of them laughing. “You think you’re tough, eh?” “Big mistake, man!” “Oh, is that how you want to play?” A few seconds later, Sunburned Guy stumbled backward into the gum-chewing blonde next to Riley.

The girl squealed and grabbed Riley’s arm for balance. Riley leaned sideways to keep both of them steady, but the other girl was already heading toward the water, and her weight was too much. Riley stumbled forward a few steps, then fell face first into the river.

Her right hand and foot sank into the rough soil at the bottom. And through the water, she saw bright blue light shimmering above her again.

She sloshed around until her feet were beneath her and stood back up in the thigh-deep water. When she had, she rubbed her eyes, and then she gasped.

Riley was standing in a translucent dome made of light, like a giant sheet of glowing sky blue cellophane. It surrounded her for fifteen feet in every direction. And inside the glowing dome were smaller blue domes. There were three in front of her, and when she looked over her shoulder, she saw three more behind her.

Everything beyond the domes — the forest, the river, the other students — now appeared several shades darker, as if she was looking at them through a deeply tinted window.

Heart racing, Riley stepped toward the small blue dome that was directly in front of her. She wanted to touch it, to prove to herself that she wasn’t crazy. But the dome retreated as she moved forward.

What IS this?

Wading deeper into the river, she noticed more glowing things around her. Two luminous fish — one green, one yellow — darted into the blue dome and back out again, following one another down the river. A white flower with a neon pink heart glistened on the opposite shore. A glowing golden fox peered at her from behind a tree.

It was as if another world was now sitting on top of the world she already knew. And the new world was bright and beautiful. 

Riley shook with disbelief.

“I’m okay,” she heard someone behind her say.

I’m not. “Are you guys seeing this?” she asked softly.

“Seeing what?” Sunburned Guy asked her.

He can’t see it? “There’s... a fox. Over there.” Riley pointed at the animal, not sure how to describe anything else she was witnessing without sounding insane. “It’s right at the edge of the trees.”

He looked where Riley was pointing and frowned. “Where? I don’t see a fox.”

The fox took a few steps into the river toward Riley, and cocked its head at her. “You can see me?”

Holy… Riley’s knees buckled. She stumbled forward, deeper into the water, barely catching herself before she hit a large rock.

The golden fox stood up on its hind legs and began to change shape. It grew taller and thicker. The fur on its body disappeared and clothes appeared instead. Long hair grew out of the top of its head, and its face became smooth. It wasn’t a fox anymore at all. It was a woman. A glowing golden woman with dark hair and dark eyes.

The woman stared at Riley in shock.

This can’t be real... this CANNOT be real…

“Are you okay?” Sunburned Guy asked her.

“I think I hit my head when I fell,” Riley whispered.