Free Falling into Forever by Tammy Turner

When the deputies arrived, they all went back into the forest to get the body. They carried him out of the woods, and I saw a hole in his chest where his heart should have been.”
    â€œGross,” Taylor said.
    Granny June placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “My brother would not want his things disturbed,” she said softly. “Please put them back in his footlocker.” Then she turned toward the attic steps.
    Alexandra deftly placed the journal on the floor at the side of the box. She helped Taylor fold the uniform and place the boots and cap back into the metal box. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said to Taylor as she stood, hiding the journal behind her back.
    â€œYou do look a little green. Why don’t you go lie down?” Taylor suggested as they walked down the narrow attic steps together. “Get some rest. Remember, we are so not going to miss the party tonight.”
    â€œWake me up in a bit,” Alexandra told Taylor as she shut the door to her room behind her.
    Alone in her bedroom, Alexandra pulled the curtains shut and laid down on the bed with her eyes closed tight, but her stomach rocked back and forth as it had on the sailboat. Dragging herself to the bathroom, she stood over the sink and stared at her eyes, puffy from the salt water. She clung to the sink pedestal as her legs swayed beneath her, but her grip failed, and she collapsed to the tile floor.
    She had succumbed to an infinite blackness. Yet she could see a man floating in front of her. A dark robe clung to his body. He pulled the hood back from his head to reveal fangs in his gaping mouth. He pursed his lips and spit. A ball of fire flew toward her. She flung up her hands to shield her face, but the flames engulfed her body.
    A voice in the darkness called her name. “Alex,” Taylor said, “do you want a soda?” Taylor was standing over her, shaking her shoulder.
    â€œWhat?” Alexandra muttered, still staring into a fire.
    â€œI said, do you want a soda?” Taylor repeated, sitting down next to her friend on a hollow log pulled up next to the bonfire.
    Alexandra dug her bare feet into the beach sand. “Sorry,” she said. “I was, um, thinking about something else.”
    Taylor popped open the soda can and held the cool drink up to her friend’s cheeks. “Don’t scare me like that, Alex. Your face looks just like it did when I found you on the bathroom floor.”
    On the other side of the bonfire, someone turned up a radio. Taylor jumped up to dance. “I love this song,” she said. “Come on, Alex. Loosen up.” Taylor tried to pull Alexandra up from the log.
    â€œNo, thank you,” responded Alexandra, clutching the soda and planting her feet more firmly into the sand.
    â€œGo on, Alex,” said Brad. For the first time, Alexandra noticed the handsome young law student sitting next to her.
    â€œFine then,” said Taylor, reaching out for Brad’s hand and yanking him up to dance.
    The low, constant crash of the ocean lured Alexandra away from the fire. Standing up to stretch, she walked toward the dark water. As she stood in the wet sand, the waves lapped against her feet. Behind the gathering storm clouds in the sky, a full moon peeked down on the water. Lightning bursts shot through the heavens, and bursts of thunder rumbled far out over the ocean.
    Reaching in a pants pocket, Alexandra pulled out her cell phone. A new text message from her mother waited. “What are you doing?” she read aloud.
    A picture would explain it better to her mom than she could, she decided. So she turned her cell phone camera’s viewfinder toward the bonfire. No one dancing around the fire noticed the flash as Alexandra snapped their picture.
    Alexandra peered at the photograph. Taylor looked like she did not have a care in the world holding Brad’s hand, but behind her the flames