Exhaustion weighed on Tori as she stared out the window of the small plane carrying them home.
Javi sat across the aisle, looking out the opposite window. The distance between them mirrored more than just the physical space. She looked at her partner, then looked away again, swallowing and loosing a soft sigh.
She closed her eyes, her head pressed against the glass.
It was time. She knew that much.
Her father had called again at the airport. He’d simply said hello. Were things really going to change between them?
It was time. The mantra repeated in her head.
“Time for what?” she murmured to herself, shifting in her seat.
But she feared that she knew.
She knew what.
Time to go home.
The article sat open on her phone. She tried to read it, but her eyes kept glazing over. Boy lost in Tornado.
A simple headline. Back then, things hadn’t been all about scandal.
Time to go home. To see things for herself. Sammy had died, and her family had grieved. But she wasn’t going to return as a sister. No… No, she was returning as an investigator.
Her eyes narrowed shrewdly. The cellar door… it had been locked, right? Was she just misremembering? Was this recent death of another boy, also caught up in a tornado, only fueling delusion?
She shifted again, reaching up to adjust the air nozzle above her to cool her overheated mind. The sound of the air rushing through the vents overhead was the only noise in the cabin that didn't echo the storm brewing inside Tori. As she adjusted the nozzle, a memory flashed before her eyes—Sammy's mischievous grin teasing her as they played in the woods behind the house. How could she have forgotten about the locked cellar door all these years? A knot formed in her stomach, tightening with each passing moment of realization.
Glancing at Javi, she saw his profile against the window, his features softened by the dim cabin lighting. His loyalty and unwavering support had been her rock through this grueling investigation, but now a new path unfurled before her. Things were different between them, still unsettled, but not broken. At least she hoped not.
Things were different with her father, too. He’d reached out to her… he was making peace, getting himself therapy. It felt like a new start, a tentative beginning.
It was strange, all this difference.
It was time for her to be different as well, time to return to where it all began, to confront the ghosts of her past and seek answers buried deep within the tangled roots of her family history.
As the plane descended towards their destination, Tori's resolve solidified. She would reopen old wounds, unearth buried secrets, and expose the truth shrouded in shadows. The article about the boy lost in the tornado was just one piece of a larger puzzle, one that she was determined to solve.
With a steely glint in her eyes, Tori turned her attention back to her phone and began drafting a list of questions for her father. The storm outside raged on, matching the turmoil swirling within her. But Tori was ready—ready to face the storm head-on and uncover the dark mysteries that had haunted her family for far too long.