See How She Fights by Michelle Graves

stuff. If we stopped
her death, another reality might split off. I hadn’t seen enough episodes of
Doctor Who to fully understand paradoxes. I needed to do more research.
    “I know you’re right, but it
doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it,” his voice vibrated with anger.
    “I’m not happy about it either,
Kennan. I wish, more than anything, that I could save this girl. The best way I
can help her now is to figure out what is going on and stop it so that her soul
can be at rest.”
    As the last words left my mouth,
the car came to a rest outside the dilapidated theater. The Guardians unloaded
and, as one, surrounded me. I wondered how often they had practiced this
formation. I took them all in and noticed a familiar ninja suit in the pack of
otherwise black clad Guardians. A chuckle rose out of me involuntarily. It was
a horrible time to be laughing, but I couldn’t help myself. Ian turned and
winked at me before we began moving inside the building.
    “Remember guys, we can’t stop it.
This has to play out,” I said with more authority than I felt I deserved. They
all looked at me and nodded before continuing on.
    We reached the interior and I was
struck by the smell of old urine and the faint smell of extinguished candles.
The place had obviously been used by a few squatters. We made our way up to the
stage where the ruined body of the Seer lay abandoned. Tears welled in my eyes.
Somehow, here in reality, it was so much worse. Seeing her die in the dreaming
had not prepared me for the look of anguish that was left on her face.
    I found myself feeling unnaturally
angry about it all. The way they left her body lying there like so much trash.
She had lived a life. She was someone’s daughter. Perhaps she was someone’s
lover. Had she had a Guardian? What would happen to him? I stood staring down
at her body with tears streaming down my cheeks.
    “It never gets any easier,” Conall
said from my elbow. I had not even noticed him in the group. “If it does, then
you aren’t the person we need you to be,” he said moving away. I just loved
cryptic statements. I looked to my left to find Kennan staring down at me. His
face was strained with concern.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I’m mad. How could they just leave
her here like this? I don’t understand what kind of person would do this to
another one, Kennan. Whoever this is, whoever is doing this, I’m going to stop
them. I don’t care if it takes me the next hundred years to find them, I will.
This will not continue.”
    I paused for a moment, trying to
find my balance. These men expected me to be a leader. I had to get myself
under control. I swallowed deeply before addressing the crowd.
    “I need to know who she is. I want
her address, her known associates, her mother’s name, any information you can
give me about her.” I conjured every cop show I’d ever watched and spat out
orders, feeling ridiculous the entire time.
    “Look at you, Bossy Pants,” Ian
whispered in my ear as he walked past. I was really grateful to have him there.
Molly might want to kill him on a daily basis, but I was sure glad to have him
around.
    The Guardians set about making
calls, trying to identify the girl and get a cleanup crew to gather the body
for a proper burial. We were there for three hours before everything was
complete and we had a name for the girl. Her name was Isabelle and she had just
turned twenty-five two weeks prior to her death. I thought back to Ren’s file
and remembered that she had also just turned twenty-five.
    “How old have they all been?” I
shouted to no one in particular.
    “I believe they have all been
twenty-five, Milady,” a Guardian I didn’t know answered.
    “Just Izzy, if you don’t mind,” I
muttered.
    What was the link?  There had to be
some reason that only twenty-five-year-old Seers were being sacrificed. I felt
as though I was missing all of the outer pieces of the puzzle. I had everything
in the center but nothing on the