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Shit.
They’re gone.
My kids are gone and they turned into bears and I think I’m going completely crazy.
What the fuck do I do now?
I run around the little campsite and try to find some clues.
Something.
Anything.
I just need a lone, single clue to tell me what’s going on and why I’m feeling this way.
Seriously.
Where have my kids gone?
“Think, Theresa,” I tell myself. “Think.”
I was sitting around the campfire with them when it happened. Silas changed first. He was laughing one second, and the next...he was a bear. He was a little brown bear cub and he was covered in fur. Sebastian went next, but the situation was the same. His entire body was covered in fur, and he was bigger, and his overalls stretched and stretched over the bigger body until everything just tore and fell to the floor.
I must have passed out because when I woke up, they were gone.
“Am I going crazy?” I whisper out loud, but even as I do, I realize that I’m not crazy because the clothes are still here. They’re shredded and damaged. Both of my kids left their clothing behind, but not themselves. We’re far from home. I mean, we’re in the mountains. Where is there to go?
Storm Haven isn’t far. It’s maybe a thirty minute walk, but I don’t think the boys would go there. We only drove through it so we could park at the lodge there before hiking the rest of the way to our campsite. I mean, this was supposed to be a fun and relaxing weekend. It wasn’t supposed to be a nightmare.
I wasn’t supposed to lose them.
Tears threaten to spill, but I shove those emotions down. I can feel sad or scared or like a bad mom later. Once I find my boys: that’s when I’ll allow myself to feel anxious or stressed.
Not until then.
Not a moment sooner.
I take a deep breath and look around the campsite once more. I’m no hunter. I’m not anyone special. I mean, I’m a romance writer, for dragon’s sake. What the hell do I know about being stuck in the woods?
Only, I wrote a book a few months ago about some campers who discovered a secret treasure while they were on vacation in the wilderness, so maybe I can use that.
The first thing I do is get my phone and my watch. I pocket the phone. There’s no service here, but there might be later. Then I get my watch and put it on my wrist. From what I can tell, I wasn’t out for very long, but when I opened my eyes, I was very groggy, and I lay next to the campsite for about half an hour, just dozing in and out of consciousness. Yeah, that can’t be good for me.
“Okay,” I say out loud. “First, figure out where they went. Nope,” I hold up my finger, as though I’m having some sort of revelation, and more importantly, that there’s someone here to see it. “First, get some clothing.”
If I find them and they’ve somehow managed to change back into their little boy forms, then I’m going to need clothing for these kids. They’re five-year-olds, after all. They aren’t bears. Not really. Whatever’s happening has to have some sort of normal, logical explanation.
It’s just that I haven’t heard of the explanation.
And I haven’t heard of anyone who can just change into a bear.
I grab my knapsack and shove a pair of clothing in it. The little shoulder bag is something I planned to use for day hikes and walking around. It’s big enough for clothing, but just barely, and I can’t fit anything else in there.
When I go back to where the campfire was, I realize that it’s almost completely dead. Night is upon us, and my kids are out there. They’re out there and they’re lost and they’re probably scared and shit!
Okay, so maybe I actually am a bad mom.
Taking a deep breath, I start walking away from the campfire. In my book, my characters looked for footprints and things like broken twigs to figure out which direction to go. I swing my flashlight around until I spot what look like bear tracks.
