The drive to the cottage took a lot longer than usual, with all of the traffic and emergency vehicles blocking the roadways. Eventually, Mitch got tired of waiting and drove across the grassy median, heading back the way they came to take a different route. Janette didn't say a word the entire time. She just stared out the window as if in a catatonic state. The rain had finally stopped when they turned into her grandmother's driveway two hours later. Mitch got out of the jeep and ran around to open the door for Janette. He helped her out of the jeep and wrapped his arms around her.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"I'm fine, Mitch. I'm just tired, that's all." Janette tried to smile but she wasn't really feeling it. She was still shaky from what had happened earlier.
Mitch walked Janette up the steps of the front porch with his arm still around her shoulder. She opened the door and they both walked inside.
Rose and Marion were sitting on the sofa watching the news when they looked up at the couple standing there, soaking wet. Rose noticed the distraught look on Janette's face and stood to go to her. "Oh my, what's wrong, dear?"
"Grandma, there was an accident on the highway," Janette said. She slid her jacket off and hung it on the coat hook next to the door.
"Yes, we were just watching it on the news. They said it was a pile up, maybe 20 cars involved. You weren't there, were you?"
Mitch looked down at Janette and hugged her to him reassuringly. "Just tell her what happened, Jan. You've got to tell her."
"Grandma," Janette took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to cry again. "I saw it before it happened."
"I see." Rose nodded her head, understanding what her granddaughter was trying to tell her.
"We were driving on the highway and it happened to us first. We were right in the middle of the accident. Right behind the truck that caused the whole thing. I don't know. I guess it was a vision, or something. The jeep flipped and we were rolling down the highway. When we stopped..." Janette wasn't sure she could continue when she felt her bottom lip began to quiver.
"Go on dear," her grandma said.
"When we stopped... Mitch was dead. There was an explosion somewhere. Maybe a car exploded, I don't know." Janette wiped a tear from her eye. "It was so real. Everything felt so real. There was glass cut into my arm. I could smell gasoline fumes and something burning. Everything was so real," she said again, before walking over to sit on the couch. The TV was on and a news crew was covering the accident. Janette reached forward and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. She clicked the TV off, unable to watch it anymore.
Rose took a seat on the recliner that was next to the couch. She didn't seem the least bit surprised at what her granddaughter had just told her. She felt almost happy that Janette was finally finding her gifts. "So you have started having visions. I was wondering when it was going to happen," she said with a faint smile in her eyes.
Janette looked at her grandmother's smug face and tried not to glare at her. She knew that she belonged to a family of witches but she had yet to experience any unusual abilities and assumed that the gift had skipped her generation. "Do you not understand what I have told you? I was there, grandma. I saw everything. People are dead and injured." She shook her head, not knowing what to think of the situation. "If this is what having visions is like, I don't want it. I don't want any part of it." She suddenly remembered seeing her mother and father in the car as they were rolling. "Why didn't you tell me that I was in the accident that killed my parents?"
"What do you mean?"
"I had a vision at the hospital. I saw the car with my parents in it and I saw myself in the back seat. When we were rolling down the highway just a couple of hours ago, I was in the back seat of their car, not the jeep. I was with them when it happened, wasn't I?" Janette had always thought that they died alone, that she had been at school or with her grandma or something. Nobody had specified either way and she had never asked. She didn't know why it mattered but she found herself suddenly angry that that detail had been kept from her.
Rose stood and began slowly pacing the room. "What should we have told you, Jan? Of course, we had always planned to tell you everything but the time never seemed right."
"Well the time is right, right now." Janette found herself getting angrier.
Mitch was still standing by the door when he saw the anxious look in Janette's eyes. He walked over and sat next to her, putting one arm around her shoulders in an effort to comfort her. "Let's stay calm, please. Just let her explain."
"Jan, it's true. You were in the car when the accident occurred. I'm not sure what happened but you didn't remember your parents afterward. We assumed that it was due to the trauma that you had been through. Sometimes when something really bad happens to someone, they block out the event completely. We wanted to tell you everything but it never seemed to be the right time." Rose laid a hand on her chest, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall.
Marion stepped up and stood next to her twin sister. "We almost lost you, Jan. After the accident, we moved here. You wouldn't even speak for the longest time. We had trouble getting you to eat for weeks. You became so thin. All you would do is sit in your room and stare at the wall. You snapped out of it after a month of being withdrawn. I'm not sure why." Marion grabbed a tissue from the box on the end table and handed it to her sister. "One morning you came bouncing into the kitchen asking for breakfast as though nothing had happened. We carefully asked you about what you remembered but you couldn't remember anything. You couldn't even remember anything about the old school you went to."
Rose dabbed at the tears in her eyes, remembering her thin, sickly little granddaughter and how she had worried about her. "I was afraid to tell you. I didn't know if it would send you back into whatever state of mind you had been in, or not. We had you back. That's all we cared about." Rose cleared her throat and sat in the chair next to the sofa. "Before the accident, you were starting to develop your abilities. You were starting to have visions and dreams. Your mother didn't want us to encourage them because of some issues she had as a child. We tried to abide by her wishes but found ourselves helping you to grow anyway we could. After the accident, though, all of your visions stopped. As far as I know, you haven't had one since, until today."
"Actually, I have been having them. I just didn't know what they were. I thought they were just dreams, or something." Janette looked at Mitch, wondering if she should tell her aunt and grandma about him.
"They already know," Mitch said when he saw the question in her eyes.
"Wait a minute," Janette said slowly with a look of disbelief. "You two know that Mitch is a werewolf?"
The twins nodded their heads. "We have known for some time now."
Janette shook her head. She didn't know if she could take any more surprises. First, the visions, then finding out that Mitch was a werewolf... what next? "What do I do about these 'visions' I am having, if that's even what they really are? Why would they have started now, after being dormant all these years?" she asked, her head beginning to throb. "Grandma, I'm serious, I don't like it. I can't live like this. It's... it's just too much." She cringed when she remembered the crying baby on the highway. Was that baby even still alive?
Janette's grandma looked at her with pity in her eyes. "I admit, it's hard at first. Your visions are different than ours." She waved a hand to her sister and herself. "We only have visions in our dreams but you seem to have them when you are awake, as well." Rose took a deep breath trying to think of the best way to explain things to Janette. "Jan, you have to learn to control them. Don't shut them out. They are too helpful. If it weren't for our visions, and yours, you likely wouldn't be here today. What do you feel when you start to have one?"
Janette remembered the pulling feeling in her chest. "Well, the last two times it happened there was a feeling in my chest as though I was being pulled by something. The first time I was actually pulled through a tunnel. But that didn't happen this last time."
Rose's eyes lit up. "Okay. So next time you feel that pulling sensation, I want you to relax. Realize that what you are seeing isn't real. Let the vision flow through your body, like a breeze. Keep the visual part of it but let the emotional part go. It's not easy. But it's necessary." Rose caught the look of uncertainty in Janette's eyes and went over to hug her. "It's not easy, at first, but you can do it. We did it. I'm sorry that I didn't prepare you better for this but we didn't know what your abilities would be. There was no way to properly prepare you until we found out what they would be."
Janette looked confused. "How will I know that it's not real? It feels so real."
"Pay close attention to the next one. I'm not sure how yours works exactly, but most of the time you will notice discrepancies in your vision. For example, a door might be in a slightly different place than in real life. Or perhaps the room will be a different color."
Janette shook her head and rubbed her temples when she felt the beginning of a headache start behind her eyes. She didn't want to deal with this right now. It could wait until later. She hugged her grandmother close. "I love you grandma. I'm sorry if I was being difficult earlier. It's just that everything seems to be happening all at once. I don't understand it."
"It's okay. I understand and I love you too. You'll get the hang of things. Just trust in yourself. You have always been a strong woman. I know you can do this."
Janette felt the need to get out into the fresh air. The rain had stopped long ago. It was already getting into the late afternoon and she needed to feed her horse before dark. She didn't like being out after dark. "I'm going to change and go out to feed Calico. Mitch, do you want to come?"
Mitch stood. "Of course." He kissed Rose on the cheek. "Thank you."
"For what?" Rose blushed.
"For being you." He left her with a look of confusion on her face and followed Janette to her bedroom. He had wanted Janette to meet his family today but was glad that he had brought her here instead. The events that morning had even him baffled. He didn't know what to do or say to calm her or explain things.
Janette closed the door of her bedroom behind them. "If you want I can throw your clothes in the dryer. It would only take a few minutes and they'd be ready to go."
