Fear.

Anger.

Fear.

Anger.

Surprise.

“I didn’t expect you to come back.” A man is speaking to me.

We are surrounded by darkness, yet we are awash in an eerie light. A little girl clad in white lace levitates near him. Floating weightless in the air. There is no visible means of support for her tiny body.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” I return, this time my words echo through the air instead of disappearing into nothingness as they had done before.

He is standing no more than twenty feet away from me, dressed in a dark ceremonial robe. The hood is pushed back to reveal his face, and it lay limply across his shoulders.

“I’m not disappointed,” he says. “Just surprised. I don’t know what you think you’re going to do.”

The little girl’s body is drifting about on a gentle breeze, bobbing up and down slightly but never straying far from him.

“Stop you,” I tell him evenly.

“You can’t stop me,” he says. “I told you, she’s The One.”

“Why are you doing this?” I ask.

His only response is a sour, demonic laugh.

I’m falling.

I’m screaming.

Silence.

“Rowan, so nice to see you.” Ariel Tanner is standing before me. Beside her is the same little strawberry-blonde girl holding tightly to her hand.

“Mister, why don’t you stop the bad man?” The little girl looks up at me with wide, sad eyes then turns her gaze to the right.

I follow her eyes, looking far off into the distance. There is a grove of trees surrounding a small clearing. Centered in the clearing is a hooded, robed figure standing with hands raised high. Moonlight glints from an object held in those hands. Moonlight glints from an athame. A ceremonial knife.