It was the front window on the driver's side that the guy smashed. Abby screamed, but she didn't use her deadly ring. She didn't want to have to use it. She didn't want to kill anybody. She just wanted everyone to leave her and her family alone.  

     "You don't understand, lady!" the forest woman yelled. "We've got to get into town! It's an emergency!" 

     "But I don't see an emergency!" Abby yelled back. "Is someone hurt? Is there someone in the woods that..."

     "The trees are filled with demons!" one of the forest men yelled.  

     "The Devil himself is rising from the..."

     "Look!" Abby yelled, pointing into the sky. "That's Daddy's SUV! He should be..." 

     She didn't even get to the end of the sentence before Gramps landed next to them on the road.

     The forest people melted back into the woods.

     The door to the SUV opened, and Gramps stumbled out. He all but collapsed against the side of his shiny blue vehicle. 

     "What's wrong with you?" Abby asked. "Why are you doing that? Where's your strength?" 

     "The warper, I..."

​     "You used your time warper?" 

     "It was the...I felt I had to..."  

     "Everyone in the SUV," Abby told her three children. "We're getting the hell out of here." 

     Alison said, "But our cars, they'll..." 

     "We'll come back and get 'em later, after all this is over." 

     "But later I wanted to..." 

     "Into the SUV!" 

    Once inside, they found a place for Gramps to rest. The SUV rose, then flew in the direction of its destination.

     "You told the SUV to take us home, right?" Abby asked her father. 

     "Uh, in a...Yes." 

     "No!" Abby snapped. "We are not going back to the compound, Gramps!" 

     "With all my heart, I do not believe we have a choice," Gramps replied. A seizure overcame him. His next words came out through gritted teeth. "Until all this is over, I need to know that..."

     "I'm out," Alison said. She huddled in her car seat, her arms wrapped tight around herself. "I'm eighteen-years old now, and I don't have to live with my family if I don't want to."

     Abby said, "Sweetheart, you can't..."

     "No. Don't start that."

​     Gramps said, "This would be the worst possible time to..."   

     "No! That's exactly what...what you just...I didn't come up with this idea just now. I've been thinking about this ever since last year." 

     "We all have," Cathy said. 

     "I haven't," Skip said. 

     "Do you realize what it's like to be surrounded by kids at school that you kind of like and kind of want to get to know just because they're, you know, quote-unquote, 'normal'?" Alison asked. "Why is that something I have to need but can never have?" 

     Gramps went to answer, but then his body went into another twisting spasm. 

     "When we land this thing I'm leaving," Alison said, "and there's nothing any of you can do to stop me."   

​                                                       CONTINUE