The old grandfather clock in the downstairs hall chimed loudly, heralding the start of a new morning. Two floors up, the cartoon duck sitting on a bedside table answered the deep gongs with a series of loud quacks, which were nicely harmonized by the tinny, squealing melody emitting from its plastic base. It was a clock designed to scare even the deepest sleeper instantly awake. Its effectiveness was proven a moment later by the unmoving lump that was buried beneath a lime green comforter, which abruptly cursed and sat up as a fist shot out from under the covers to smack the duck’s shiny head, effectively silencing its squawks.

“I hate that thing.”

The owner of the fist, one Katriana Cagley, grouchily emerged from her makeshift nest, face obscured by a tangled mess of brunette hair. She glared at the round clock face clutched between plastic wings, and dark blue eyes widened with horror. “Eight!” she squealed (sounding much like her clock at that moment), and scrambled onto her knees, picking up the clock to give it a good shake. “Who the hell reset my alarm?”

It wasn’t fair! It was Monday morning, the twenty-third of December, and the official start of Christmas vacation. She should be allowed to spend it sleeping in at least until noon, like every other seventeen-year-old in the country was probably doing. “I’m going back to sleep,” she groaned, slamming the duck back on the table and proceeding to yank the covers over her head.

She had barely touched the pillow, however, when her door was unceremoniously opened, and a shaggy blond head poked into the room. She glowered at the intruder. “Gabe, I could be naked for all you know. When are you going to learn to knock before opening the door?”

“Probably around the same time you learn to lock it.” Gabriel Noble grinned at her as he stepped into the room and closed the door. She noted that he was already fully dressed and had obviously gotten up hours before. He wore an apron over his jeans and red cashmere sweater; one of his favorites that sported the slogan, “I’m not Irish—Kiss me anyway”. A number of flour smudges on his face added to the proof that he'd been helping their foster mother make breakfast in the kitchen. Again. She wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been out helping to muck out the barn before that. Typical Gabriel, the world's most helpful doormat. She suppressed the urge to throw a pillow at him.

“Well,” he continued cheerfully, “seeing as you've successfully woken up everyone else in the house—”

“I did? Oh, good. I feel better knowing I’m not the only one being deprived of sleep.”

“—I'll leave you to go around telling them that breakfast is almost ready,” he finished, unperturbed at the interruption.

She made a face at him. “You reset my alarm, didn’t you?” She wouldn't put it past him to pull a sneaky trick like that, especially since he knew very well how much it would piss her off.

He shook his head, strands of golden hair falling into bright green eyes. “Don’t shoot the messenger! I didn’t have anything to do with that. Aren’t you going shopping with the girls this morning? One of them probably reset it because they knew you'd forget to.”

“Oh. I guess that’s true.” KC yawned and attempted to finger-comb some of the tangles out of her hair. “Kimiko said we'd leave early to avoid the Christmas rush.”

“I don’t think it matters what time you leave. There are two days left until Christmas. You won’t be avoiding much of anything.”

“Then what was the point of waking up at such an unreasonable hour?” she complained, finally managing to free her legs from the tangle of blankets. “C’mere. Wipe your face off. You look like the Pillsbury Doughboy.” She used the ratty edge of her sleeve to wipe the flour off his face, while he stood there patiently and let her do so.

The door again flew open as two girls abruptly burst into the room, nearly bowling Gabriel and KC over in the process. “Sorry, Gabe, didn’t see you there. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” A slender girl with short, coppery curls smiled breathlessly up at him, giving him her best doe-eyed glance. Then, eyeing the pair of them suspiciously, she added, “Well, I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”

“Of course not!” KC yelped, hastily stepping away.

“Brady, stop trying to cause trouble this early in the morning.” The long-haired Asian girl rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, not-so-subtly nudging the red-head away from Gabriel. “KC, are you up?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, why aren’t you ready to go?”

“Because I only woke up five minutes ago.”

Kimiko released a longsuffering sigh. “Brady, didn’t I tell you to reset her clock to no later than seven forty-five? Is she supposed to go shopping in her pajamas?”

“Oh. Well, she can change fast. She does it every time she’s late for school. Which is, like, always.” Brady answered KC’s glower with an innocent smile. “Kit-Kat, hurry up and get dressed so we can leave! We’ll be downstairs having breakfast.”

“You don’t eat breakfast, remember? And don’t call me Kit-Kat!”

Brady ignored her and turned to Gabriel hopefully. “You’re coming shopping with us, right? It’ll be more fun with you there!” She tilted her head to one side, giving him a quizzical once-over. “What are you doing in here, anyway? With the door shut, I might add. Or is it too … private to share?”

“Brady, shut up!” KC's face went red.

“Ohhhh, did she have another nightmare and you were comforting her in your big, manly arms?” She hugged herself, batting her eyelashes playfully as Gabriel’s cheeks took on a dark pink hue.

“Uh, I’m going down to finish making breakfast.”

He quickly fled the room as Brady grinned and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Hit the nail on the head, did I?”

“Don't be stupid. You know Gabe always comes into my room.” KC crossed her arms defensively, her face still ridiculously warm as she narrowed her eyes at her friend. “How do you know about those dreams, anyhow? I haven't had one since I was twelve, and you weren't even at Summersville yet.”

Kimiko suddenly seemed very interested in the patterned border lining the ceiling of the room.

Brady laughed. “Kit-Kat, if a guy as gorgeous as Gabe crawled into my bed and cuddled with me to make me feel better, I’d pretend to keep having those nightmares.”

KC threw a pillow at her. “That's disgusting! Gabe is my best friend! And he’s like, old.”

“He’s barely even twenty! What’s so old about that?”

“Well, even if I wanted to pretend—which I don't—he's known me since forever. He’d know I was faking,” she grumbled.

She could never pull one over on him, no matter how many times she tried. It was as if he possessed a sixth sense or something, especially in regards to her. Really, it was annoying the way he always seemed to know when she was hiding something; it was even more annoying when he called her on it. And even when the nightmares used to come and she'd wake up with a pillow stuffed against her mouth to muffle her crying, he was always right there to hold her until she stopped shaking. She could never remember her dreams once she was awake, but had often wondered if it was repressed memories trying to surface. She didn't remember her life from before she had arrived at Summersville. She only knew what she’d been told; her parents had died in a horrible collision which she herself had barely survived. She had no other relatives to take her in, at least none that she could remember. She’d been five years old when the accident happened, and she supposed something like that could be traumatic enough to a child to make her forget her entire life. Her very earliest memories were of when she had first met Jonathan and Annie Summers, and soon after that, Gabriel.

“Hellooo! Ground control to Major Tom!” Kimiko waved a hand in front of KC’s eyes, effectively snapping her thoughts back to the present.

“Jon is leaving in twenty minutes to drop us off in town,” Brady said. “If you’re not ready, you’ll get left behind.”

“I’ll be ready!”

Exasperated, KC pushed them out of the room and slammed the door. Within fifteen minutes, she emerged freshly washed and dressed in a pair of embroidered jeans and dark blue peasant blouse, an oversize pack slung over one shoulder. The warm, fragrant aroma of French toast reached her nose when she reached the dining room. The table was littered with the remains of that morning’s breakfast, awaiting cleanup, and Brady looked up from her place at the end, where she was digging into the last of it.

“What happened to ‘I never eat breakfast. That’s how you get fat’?” KC mimicked.

“Duh. Gabe cooked.” Brady waved a forkful of syrup-drenched toast under her nose. “Too bad you didn’t wake up on time. You could’ve had some,” she teased.

“Well, that’s okay. You can buy me lunch to make up for it. Since, you know, you’re the one who set the alarm wrong and all.”

“But I still have gifts to buy, and I’m almost out of allowance!”

“Not my problem.”

Before Brady could protest more, Jon bellowed from the hallway, “The bus is leaving in five minutes! All aboard!”

KC grabbed an apple from the basket on the counter and raced Brady to the front door, nearly running Gabriel over on the way. She noted with amusement that Brady plowed into him a little harder than was necessary, forcing him to grab her to steady their balance.

“Hi,” Brady breathed, smiling coyly up at him. “Coming with us?”

Gabriel carefully pushed her away. “I’m going to help Jon cut the Christmas tree.”

“Hey, Gabe,” KC called as she darted past, “for your own safety, you should just cave in and ask her out before she kills you trying to get your attention!”

“KC, you're so dead!” Brady squealed, lunging at her as KC, laughing, slammed the door between them.

~*~*~*~*~

Two hours later, three exhausted girls were relaxing in Aunt Laura’s Café, watching numerous shoppers scurry past the windows as tinny Christmas carols blared from hidden speakers in the ceiling. They nursed mugs of mulled cider, and the table between them was littered with shopping bags and empty sandwich plates. They’d already paid their lunch bill, and were now attempting to decide what to do next as they continuously ignored the harassed looks leveled at them by their waitress; a clear indication that they were expected to leave post-haste so more customers could be served.

“Hey, lets head over to Town Square and get our pictures taken with Santa,” Brady suggested.

“Aren’t we a little old for that?” KC scoffed.

“Not when Santa is being played by Thom Williams.”

Kimiko raised an eyebrow. “Dare I even ask how the captain of the football team got talked into that?”

“I dunno, it’s for community service or something.

“What is it this time? Driving under the influence? Drug trafficking? Robbing a gas station?”

“What does it matter? We’ll be sitting in his lap.”

“And now we see the depths of the gutter into which Brady’s mind has descended. It is indeed a gruesome thing to behold.” KC dodged a crumpled-up napkin and grinned.

“What're you so worried about, anyhow? You’re so scrawny you could still pass for twelve. Maybe you should have asked Santa for a bigger bra size this year.”

KC scowled and threw a potato chip. It hit Brady right below the eye and left a glob of dip on her cheek, and she squealed indignantly as she scrabbled for her napkin, before remembering that she’d thrown it.

“It always amazes me how you three never manage to get yourselves thrown out of here.” Gabriel’s sudden appearance caused KC to jump despite herself, while Brady looked mortified as she hastily wiped the dip off her face. Kimiko calmly sipped her cider and looked innocent.

“Well if it isn’t Daniel Boone!” KC didn’t bother to contain her snickers. “What happened? Did the tree try to molest you or something?”

Gabriel was covered head-to-foot in bits of bark, pine needles, and dirt. He looked like Tarzan’s American cousin. “Don’t be ridiculous.” He brushed a few stray needles out of his hair. “There was an overabundance of sap, that’s all.”

“So, how many chipmunks did you leave homeless this year?”

“Only a dozen or so. I’m sure their families will take them in if they ask nicely.”

“You know, one of these days you’ll be walking along, minding your own business, and all of a sudden you’ll be surrounded by a hoard of homeless, vengeance-seeking rodents.”

“I’ll take my chances.” He shot KC an amused glance. “Anyhow, we’re heading back to Summersville now. Last chance for a ride.”

“I’m going. This may be my only chance to wrap gifts without certain people poking their noses in where they don’t belong.” Kimiko started collecting her packages.

“I want to go back to the jewelry store,” Brady replied. “Kit-Kat and I decided to pool our remaining money and buy Annie that pearl necklace we saw. You want in?”

“Nah. I already bought her gift. See you back at the house.”

They left the café, to the immense relief of the hovering waitresses, and headed across the street to the waiting SUV. KC and Brady, after piling their bags into the back of the vehicle (with the firm vow to brutally murder anyone who peeked), took the plunge into the stream of Christmas shoppers and let themselves be herded along toward the jewelry store.

Suddenly, Brady stopped dead and smacked KC lightly in the arm—her usual method to gain someone’s attention—and pointed down at the sewer grate. “Hey, see that? It looks like something got tangled in the grate.”

KC knelt for a closer look. “Looks kind of like a chain or something.” It was hard to tell, given all the gutter muck covering it. “Leave it to you to sniff out a necklace that’s probably been stuck in there since the Prohibition era,” she teased.

“Oh, shove it. It’s probably from one of the stalls at the art fair last month. There were tons of jewelry vendors this year. Kit-Kat, you don’t mind dirt, right? Reach down there and get it, will you?”

“What do I look like, a Golden Retriever? Fetch it yourself, why don’t you?”

“But I just got my nails manicured. I don’t want to ruin the gloss. Pleeease, O bestest friend of mine?” Brady pouted cutely, waggling her fingers.

“Isn’t it funny how I’m always her bestest friend whenever she wants me to do something for her,” KC grumbled to herself as she stooped to dig a stick out of the muck, using it to tug the necklace from its nest of rotted leaves and ancient advertisement fliers. “This is disgusting! When is the last time anyone actually cleaned these things out? I should write a letter of complaint to the city!”

Finally, the jewelry came loose from its prison, with half a dozen damp, filthy twigs tangled in the equally filthy chain. She shook them free and held it up, dangling from the end of her stick, to examine the large, gaudy pendant attached to the chain. Her nose wrinkled with disgust. “Ew. No wonder it was left there. That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Brady grabbed the necklace with the edge of her scarf to examine it more closely. “Aw, it's broken. Doesn’t it look broken to you? The edges are all jagged,” she said, sounding disappointed.

KC reached for it, intending to wipe the caked dirt from its surface. As soon as she touched it, however, a sharp, painful jolt shot through her fingertips and straight up her arm. Her vision went blinding white. It was as though she’d touched a live wire; her entire body went rigid and every hair stood on end. She felt her skin tingle unpleasantly, as though she’d just been pinched by a thousand tiny fingers all at once. She opened her mouth to scream, but her vocal cords were frozen.

And just like that, her vision returned, the pain vanished, and she felt herself stumbling backwards, her feet tripping over the curb to send her sprawling onto the sidewalk. She blinked dazedly up at Brady, who was staring down at her with no small amount of surprise. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

~*~*~*~*~

“Hey, Gabe, be a dear and help me carry this stuff in,” Kimiko implored as she dragged the two largest shopping bags out of the SUV. When she received no answer, she turned to look questioningly at Gabriel, only to find him staring off into space with a peculiar expression fixed on his handsome face.

“Gabriel?” She waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Hey, are you in there?”

He blinked slowly, as if coming out of a trance, and looked down at her. “I’m sorry. What was it?” he mumbled, sounding disoriented.

“Um, I think maybe you should go inside and rest for a while,” she replied, a bit alarmed.

“Oh ... no, I’m okay.” He smiled reassuringly, but it looked a bit strained. “I need to help get the tree inside.” Even as he spoke, his gaze was wandering again, down the road toward town. He seemed anxious, his brow furrowing, and she could see his hands fidgeting nervously. It was almost as though he’d forgotten she was there.

“Look, I’m gonna go find Jon, okay?” She gripped his arm to gain his attention and was surprised to feel how tense his muscles were. “Just ... stay right there.” She turned and raced into the house. Jonathan was in the kitchen, pulling lunchmeat and vegetables out of the fridge. “Gabe’s acting weird,” she panted, leaning heavily on the counter. “I think he's having some sort of seizure or ... or something. I told him he should take a rest, but he wants to help with the tree.”

Jonathan frowned as he hurried outside. When he reached the SUV, however, he saw that Gabriel was gone. The tree was still tied onto the luggage rack. He looked around, scratching his head, then shrugged. Annie was probably already fussing over him the way she always did when one of her kids was sick. Well, while he was out there, he'd at least untie the tree, he decided, circling the vehicle to reach the knotted ends of the rope. That was when something caught his eye. He glanced down and whistled in amazement. A feather lay at his feet, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. It was a really big feather, the largest he’d ever seen. It was longer than the length of his arm, its quill as thick as a child’s finger. The gleaming barbs stretched smoothly on either side, surpassing the width of his hand. It wasn’t pure white as he’d initially thought, but in actuality a pale, silvery gray.

“Now what the heck kind of a bird would leave something like this behind?” he questioned softly. A swan the size of an elephant, maybe? But it was a little late in the year for swans to be flying around, elephant-sized or not. Well, he’d take it in to Annie and Gabriel. Between the two of them, they could figure out what kind of a bird it had come from. At the very least, he’d get a kick out of watching his wife scrambling around trying to locate all of her bird books and nature albums so she could solve the mystery. Grinning to himself, he reached to pick the feather up.

He had a moment to be surprised at how very light it was, despite its enormous size, before it abruptly disintegrated in his hand.

No, disintegrated wasn’t exactly the word. It simply popped, just like a soap bubble, and a shower of feather-dust drifted down onto his hand and was carried off on an unfelt breeze, glimmering in the sunlight.

It startled him enough to release an undignified yelp and fall back onto his rump, and there he sat, blinking rapidly for a long moment. Finally, his face etching in confusion, he looked around and scratched his head again. “Why am I just sitting here? What was I doing?” he mumbled, stiffly getting to his feet and brushing the back of his jeans off.

Ah, yes. The tree. Annie’d have his hide if he didn’t get it inside soon. The women were all too eager to get it set up. He sighed, preparing himself for a difficult task. It was too bad they hadn’t had any more boys arrive in Summersville lately, since the last one had been adopted out last year. He could really use some extra strength to drag the gigantic tree inside. It was amazing that he’d managed to get it tied onto the SUV at all.

~*~*~*~*~

“Wh-what just ... happened?” KC mumbled, finding it difficult to get the words out as she struggled to sit up, rubbing at her eyes. “That felt really weird.”

“KC ... uh ... wh-what is this thing doing?” Brady suddenly asked, her voice cracking.

KC looked up, and her jaw dropped in astonishment. The pendant—its chain still held in Brady’s white-knuckled grip—was now glowing a pale and sickly shade of blue. Then something caught her eye that alarmed her even more. The ground beneath Brady’s feet seemed to be vanishing, and in its place, a black, empty hole had formed. Creeping tendrils were starting to spread over the asphalt, making their way unerringly toward KC, and she scrambled back, attempting to avoid them. Brady wasn’t so lucky, however; her feet were planted firmly in the center of the weird void, and she was beginning to sink in, fast.

Brady noticed the phenomenon the same moment KC did, and she expressed her displeasure by giving voice to a high-pitched scream. She attempted to pull her feet out of the black hole into which she was being sucked, but the effort was useless. “KC, help!” she shrieked, as she sank another foot. “Pull me out!”

“Let go of the necklace!” KC gathered her limited courage to creep closer to her friend. The hole had stopped spreading now, the tendrils receding, but she was taking no chances.

“I can’t!” Brady wailed, sounding close to hysteria. “It’s stuck to my hand or something! Help me!” She was in up to her waist now, her hands scrabbling for purchase on the edge of the road, the chain still clutched in her fingers. The pendant was still glowing, and it seemed to pulse, almost like a heartbeat. KC could feel a dull ache forming in the back of her skull as she looked at it, and she quickly glanced away.

She leaned forward and grabbed Brady by the coat lapels, attempting to haul her out of the pit, but she wasn’t nearly strong enough to resist the suction. Desperately she looked around. Where was everyone? The streets were packed with shoppers. Didn’t anyone notice the gaping hole in the ground and the girl who was about to fall into it? “Somebody, help!” she shrieked, noticing a group of people a little way off. “Hey! Quick! Help us! She’s gonna fall in!”

The shoppers continued on their way, oblivious.

Brady had sunk up to her armpits by then, and she was sobbing openly. KC didn’t blame her; she felt rather like sobbing herself at the moment. Taking a deep breath, she tightened her grip on Brady’s coat and hauled back with all her strength. To her astonishment, she felt Brady come with her. “That’s it,” Brady encouraged through her sobs. “Keep pulling!”

She obeyed, putting every ounce of strength she had into her pull ... and then felt her foot slip on the wet leaves in the gutter, causing her to lose her balance and skid forward. She shrieked as she felt her leg leave solid ground. It was immediately pulled into the void, and she could feel it attempting to get the rest of her. She shrieked again. No wonder she couldn’t pull Brady out; she felt like an insect getting sucked into a vacuum hose.

Desperately, she reached out and yanked Brady’s hand from the edge, the one holding the pendant. If Brady wouldn’t let go of the thing, she’d make her let go! Already forgetting what had happened when she’d tried to touch it only moments before, she grabbed the pendant with the intent of tearing it from Brady’s stiff, trembling fingers.

This time, there was no pain or blinding light. This time, when she touched it, the pendant flashed brilliantly, and the void beneath them suddenly gaped wide, like a gigantic mouth opening in a yawn. KC’s eyes went wide with terror as she realized her mistake a moment too late, and she could only stare at Brady’s panic-stricken face as the ground left her completely. She felt herself pass through something invisible that brushed delicately at her skin like a spider’s web, and suddenly she was falling down into the endless nothingness. Her mouth opened in a scream as her vision once again went white. A great roaring filled her ears, and everything faded to black.