I woke to the sound of my phone ringing. I’d been having a strangely lucid dream about paddling around a swimming pool filled with Grand Marnier with my childhood best friend while Mr. Rogers read us a Stephen King novel. The dream unraveled as I glanced at my bedside clock. It was nine in the morning. At least I’d gotten…
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I was ten minutes late to work that night. I’d gotten home from visiting Gran, sat down on my couch, and promptly fallen asleep. I hadn’t planned on falling asleep, so I hadn’t set an alarm, but the second my head hit the back of the couch, the sleeplessness of last night and the stress of this morning hit me…
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I paused outside of Gran’s door and took several deep breaths. Jakob stood just behind me. I’d agreed to let him come, even after our spat in the downstairs hallway, because he was right about the fact that I would make myself a target without him. I was less concerned with that, despite his insistence that I couldn’t take care…
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Magnolia Hills Nursing Home sat on ten well-manicured acres of rolling Texas hills. Most of it was cultivated into parkland, with vast stretches of mowed lawns dotted here and there with towering live oaks that provided a much-needed bit of shade. Quaint, split-rail fences separated one area from the next. Paths wound lazily throughout the grounds, and the staff regularly…
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“What’s going on with the nursing home?” I asked Jakob. We’d showered and were back in his bed. He’d lent me a shirt to sleep in. It had a clean lime scent and absolutely swamped my smaller frame. Outside, darkness bled from the night sky, a corona of red-gold rising in the east. It was five a.m. My eyelids were…
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