Being this close, she was witnessing something that perhaps no one had ever seen before, but she didn’t have time to stop and appreciate the moment. She had a job to do, and she had three, maybe five minutes before the pressure overwhelmed her and she passed out. And there was no one else around to drag her to a safe distance.

She forced her body into a relaxed standing position, shoulders loose and feet spread. She faced the light of the rift and drew the energy into herself, like a lover breathing in a kiss. She felt the burn of it sizzling through her cells and held it, focused on it with every bit of her concentration before taking a deep inhalation. She pictured the rift like a tear in fabric, holding on by the thinnest of strands. She pressed her palms to her chest as if in prayer and slid them away from her body, picturing that fabric splitting. She felt hesitation, push-back from seams that had no interest in separating and releasing more of the destabilizing force that was radiating out into Mystic Bayou. She inhaled and pushed her mind out even further, as if her own hands could grab either side of that visualized fabric and rip it apart.

The tension in her head eased the tiniest bit, and she took advantage, focusing as hard as she could on her target. The fabric ruptured and she watched the colors writhe even more frantically as the rift opened just a tiny bit more.

She smiled to her herself, reluctantly turning away from the change she’d made and jogged toward the rock circles on legs that still shook.

It wouldn’t be long now.

1

Zed

The old washtub was plotting against him, intentionally trying to mess up his day. That was the only explanation.

Zed Berend yanked at the old galvanized tub, perched precariously on top of Miss Lottie’s sun shower, but it would not budge. He was not a weak man. He was a brown bear, for shit’s sake. He’d managed to pull it off the mounts connecting it to the wooden slats that made up the shower walls, but the water kept sloshing around, the momentum working against his efforts. And he was afraid if he pulled any harder he would break the wooden slats and destroy the shower.