Free Shifters of Grrr 1 by Emerald Wright, Terra Wolf, Shelley Shifter, Artemis Wolffe, Wednesday Raven, Amelia Jade, Mercy May, Jacklyn Black, Rachael Slate, Eve Hunter

her eyes to more than just slits.  
    The coffee maker beeped to signal it was done just as she grabbed a towel. There was no smile on her face, not after what had happened yesterday, but at least this morning seemed to be starting off on a better foot. Perhaps she would find out that the day before had been nothing but a bad, bad dream. A nightmare, in cold harsh reality.  
    Harper sat down with her coffee, opening her laptop to see the day's news. There, in big, bold headlines was the proclamation that she hadn't been living in a dream for twenty-four hours. 'Muller L&C Campground BURNS'.  
    The laptop slammed closed so that she didn't have to read the article. It was very disconcerting to read a second-hand account of events you had witnessed firsthand. Like Harper Muller needed another reminder of how her life had shattered to pieces yesterday. Any progress made in her life had been wiped out in the fire and smoke.
    It had all started in the morning. The signs were all there, she should have just called it a day with life and come back the next. Instead,   she had tried to press on. The first sign had been when she was cleaning her full-length mirror and it had fallen over. Thankfully it had only broken into a few large fragments instead of shattering.  
    The mirror had been her grandmothers and then her mothers. Harper had hoped to one day give it to the kids she wanted to have, but now she would no longer be able to. From there the day had only escalated. A sharp brake for a traffic light had resulted in a fender bender that looked to be far more expensive than it should. Then, to top off the first half of her day, she had received an email from her bank declining her mortgage application.  
    Harper had gone to her office in the campground and had a good cry over lunch, letting loose some of the pent-up stress the day had been inducing. The last thing she had been prepared for was the shrill cry of the fire bell.  
    After an orderly evacuation, Harper had watched in horror from the entranceway as her life went up in flames. For the past five years, Muller Lodge & Campground had been her baby. She had nurtured it from an idea into a profitable business right in the heart of town. People came from far and wide to stay there for the enjoyable experience she had managed to offer.  
    Then it had vanished behind a curtain of red-orange heat, billowing smoke, and grey-black ash. It looked like the entire place was going to be a write off. Irreparable damage had been done, flattening the reception area, all half a dozen cabins, and the two dozen camping sites that she had developed from nothing.
    One of her biggest problems in developing the property had been the challenge of how to block off all the noise from the city. In the end she had planted a pattern of trees and bushes around the perimeter of the property. Over the course of five years they had eventually grown enough to provide an effective barrier from the outside world. According to the Fire Marshall, that barrier looked to still be intact. So a rebuild could happen, but Harper didn't have the money for it, and it was unlikely she would get enough from insurance to help either.
    The dream was over. All that was left today was to go in, find out the results of the Fire Marshall's report on how it had started, and then move on to something else. Perhaps, she thought, the grocery store needed a helping hand. Her eggs and bacon for breakfast helped the hangover, but didn't cure the looming depression that was building overhead.
    ***
    "This is where it all began ma'am." The Fire Marshall pointed to a place on the ground, what looked to be the remains of the fire pit.
    The two of them currently stood in the ruins of Site Fourteen. She didn't recall who had been there, but the names were likely in her record books.  
    "How did it start?" She hated how weak and dull her voice sounded, but she was still in shock over the whole thing.  
    "Unsure ma'am, we may never