Echoes in the Dark

Lyla stood alone on the sidewalk, the chill of the late afternoon air doing little to distract from the phantom ache of bruises beneath her carefully applied makeup. Football players jogged off the practice field, their shouts echoing in the distance. Her gaze was fixed on Jack, the easy curve of his smile, the way he pushed the damp hair from his forehead after pulling off his helmet. He was everything she hoped for, everything she desperately needed. If only the chain-link fence separating them weren't a physical manifestation of the exhaustion that threatened to pull her down.

A sudden, vicious gust of wind tore through the air, whipping her hair across her face and stinging her eyes with dust and leaves. She squeezed them shut, the world a blur of swirling brown and grey. When her phone buzzed in her pocket, she fumbled for it, her heart lurching at the message she read. "No!" she screamed, the phone slipping from her trembling fingers, hitting the concrete with a clatter.

From the maelstrom of leaves, a small figure emerged. A little girl, no older than seven, with a cascade of strawberry ringlets, simply appeared on the sidewalk. She picked up the phone, a text tone bringing a cherubic smile to her face. The wind died as abruptly as it had begun.