Mirror of Shadows by T. Lynne Tolles

front. He picked up a rock and started pounding on the back window, breaking the safety glass and gaining entrance to the car and Ella.
    “Ella? Can you hear me?” Jeremy asked as he shimmied into the back of the car and on to the ceiling, receiving no response from Ella.
    “Ella, wake up,” Jeremy insisted as he felt for a pulse on her neck and then checked to see she was breathing.
    He pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket and cut the jammed seat belt holding her upside down in the seat. He strained to hold the weight of her body as the seatbelt gave way, laying her on the ceiling in a lump. He could finally hear sirens up on the road as he started to pull Ella from the wreckage. Once they were both clear of the car and any danger, he wrapped his flannel shirt around her and rocked her in his arms. He spoke to her softly, telling her she was all right and everything would be okay as he waited for the emergency crew to make their way down to them.
    He reluctantly released her when the firemen and paramedics arrived to take over. Many ropes littered the embankment and emergency personnel were everywhere. One crew worked on hooking a winch up to the car and hoisting it out of the ravine, while another crew worked diligently on Ella, and still another team was traversing down the embankment with a basket-type contraption he supposed was to bring Ella up to the ambulance safely.
    Once atop the hill, they transferred her to the ambulance gurney and placed her inside. Jeremy hopped in with two paramedics and soon they were on their way to the hospital.
     
    *****
     
    Thankfully, Ella was fine. A broken radius bone in her left forearm, a concussion, and minor cuts and bruises. Jeremy called Marlin and even tracked down Matt at the hotel Ella had mentioned him staying at t o tell them about Ella’s accident. Marlin in turn called Patricia who never went to the hospital to check on her daughter.
    Matt showered the hospital room with flowers, much to Jeremy’s dismay. Marlin talked to the doctors, fed Boo, and drove Ella home the following day. Jeremy never left the hospital from the ride there in the ambulance to the drive back with Marlin to the accident scene to pick up his truck. In just a day’s time the truck had been ticketed for unsafe parking and abandonment. Marlin told Jeremy he would explain to the police his involvement in the rescue and was sure that the police would toss the ticket out.
    The following days were parades of police coming and going from the house interviewing Ella, Marlin, Jeremy, and than Ella again. An investigation had determined that the brakes had been tampered with. Found in the car, and suspected to have been the tool that damaged the brakes, was an exacto knife —Jeremy’s knife to be specific. No charges were being filed, at least for now.
    As if there weren’t enough flowers at the hospital, Matt had even more flowers sent to the house on a daily basis. Ella was glad to be home, though uncomfortable with a heavy cast on her forearm. She enjoyed Marlin’s visits and the yummy treats Meme sent with him everyday. It reminded her of her grandmother doting on her and she relished it. That happiness, however, was short lived for soon after she was home from the hospital, Boo went missing and Ella was terribly distraught about her tiny friend being out in the cold, in the woods by herself.
     
    *****
     
    Against doctors’ orders, Marlin’s threats, and unbeknownst to Jeremy, Ella took off into the woods around the property in pursuit of the kitten to which she had grown so attached. Armed with a can of smelly tuna, and shaking a small bag of kitty food, she roamed the woods for hours calling Boo’s name, shaking the bag of food in hopes of bringing the scared, lost kitten out from hiding.
    She hadn’t realized just how big the property was until then. She found several things on the property she didn’t know existed.
    Not too far from the main grounds of the house she found a large,