Yesterday's Gone: Season One

about. What do you think?”
    Paola studied her mom, then Will. “I think they’re talking about me. I think Will knows something, and I don’t think my mom wants to believe it.”
    Luca played his final card and smiled. They couldn't see his sad spiders, and had no idea that Paola was kind of right. Luca knew what Will knew, that something bad was still gonna happen. Only difference was, Luca didn’t know what the bad thing would be. He suspected that Will did , though.  

    * * * *

MARY OLSON

    Any plans they had on leaving the Drury Inn were nixed when the creatures began multiplying outside. On the advice of Will, the group decided to wait. For what, though, nobody knew. Will said they should wait until the next morning. When asked why, he couldn’t elaborate beyond a feeling. John insisted that things wouldn’t get any better and they ought to leave immediately, as planned. Desmond, however, said that since Will (and Luca) were driven by dreams to fly from California to there to save a girl they didn’t even know, Will was obviously tapped into something that none of the Warson Woods group understood.
    John wasn’t happy about it, but since everyone else agreed, he kept his grumbling to a minimum... so far.
    Though the bleakers had let Will and Luca pass into the hotel unharmed, nobody was willing to take the chance that they’d allow them to leave with such ease. For one, the creatures sounded as if they’d grown angrier. Their shrieks grew louder, their clicking more incessant. And in some cases, when one of the group passed by a window or the front doors, the creatures hissed at them.
    Since they weren’t going anywhere, Mary and the group decided to kill some time while getting to know their new guests.

    Mary sat in the bar sipping a soda as she watched Paola playing cards with the boys, a smile on the girl’s face, almost as if she’d managed to temporarily shed the horror of the last few days. Laughter rolled in a circle, from Jimmy to Luca to Paola and back to Jimmy. It was impossible to tell her daughter had been at the edge of death a few hours before.
    But Paola hadn’t died. Something had happened.  
    Paola didn’t remember much, though. She remembered her father calling her out of the hotel in her sleep. But the man wasn’t really her father. She thought she’d been dreaming, but also knew she wasn’t. Something visited her. Paola knew it. And Mary sensed it. Something had invaded her child’s soul. And while Luca had somehow saved her, Mary couldn’t be certain that whatever happened wouldn’t happen again. Or that the danger was gone.  
    Once your child is threatened, especially by something so mysterious, Mary figured, you never really feel completely safe again.
    Paola’s laughter rang through the room; beautiful music Mary had been longing to hear. She was happy to see her smiling, covering her mouth as Jimmy flaunted his loud personality. Jimmy was such a talker, but the last several days had worn on his voice. It was nice to see him stepping into his natural rhythm again. The group could certainly use the humor.
    Mary wished she wasn’t so suspicious of Luca. But she felt hot, and the guilt was a parka wrapped around her. He had dropped from the heavens and rescued her daughter with barely a word. She should feel nothing but grateful.  
    And she was, but grateful didn’t soothe the knowing inside her. The knowing that said something was horribly off about the boy. And not just the aging. Sure, that was weirder than Koontz, but she could almost accept that. Life didn’t come with free lunches, and perhaps the price of saving Paola was paid in age. It was amazing the boy had been willing to pay it. That should have been enough for Mary.  
    But it wasn’t.  
    Her instincts said something was wrong. Really wrong.  
    “Mind if I sit?” Will said, taking a seat next to her.
    “Of course not.”  
    Will smiled then sat. “Long morning?”
    “You could say that.” Mary couldn’t help but smile. Something was undeniably warm about the old man. Wild, but sweet. Her instincts said shelter .  
    “Looking forward to leaving, I imagine,” Will said.
    “Yeah, I don’t even care what happens. I just don’t want it to happen here.”  
    “Where’s home for you?”  
    “Here, Missouri. You?”
    “Everywhere, anywhere where there’s interesting people. I never stay long enough to get bored, though.”
    Mary changed the subject to the one she’d been wanting