The Spirit *TRIXYA*

Chapter 1

It's a Friday night after 1am, two young women are speeding while driving home drunk from the bar. The road is dark and winding. It's raining hard. Music is blaring while both are singing along to a pop song on the radio. They keep singing while turning to look at the other. The road starts to curve again and the driver notices at the last second and swerves to the other side of the road. She didn't see the tractor trailer coming in the other direction. The car crashes into the truck. Both women are pronounced dead at the scene.

***

Katya climbs into her bed, thinking to herself how lucky she was. She has her dream job working for one of the largest art galleries in Boston as one its registrars. She also has a great two bedroom apartment she moved into a few months ago after saving up enough money for the deposit.

It has been a lot of hard work and long nights managing and coordinating everything behind the scenes for all the art collections to be set up and taken down. She is grateful for the much needed extended vacation time that started as soon as she locked up the gallery tonight.

She looks over to the closet and sees a few boxes she still hasn't gone through since she moved in. She knows what some of them contain. One box has some old yearbooks and photo albums. Another has some sweaters she hasn't needed yet. The other boxes have things from her older cousin Anna that she no longer wanted after she decided to stop her Wicca practice a few months ago claiming she was too busy working full-time, being a wife, and a mother to her 3 children.

Katya had always been fascinated with Anna's books and crystals but her mother forbade her to get involved in that "witchy crap". Anna knew how much her cousin loved her things and decided to give them all to her including some candles, herbs, and oils she still had. She couldn't wait to go through everything but she knew she really wanted to take her time so she decided to wait till her vacation.

She yawns and decides it's time to get some sleep, sets an alarm on her phone, turns off her bedside lamp and drifts off to sleep.

Hours later, Katya woke up abruptly and with a slight gasp with her heart beating out of her chest. Her face and blonde hair were damp with sweat. Immediately she turns to her nightstand and sees it's 3:05 am. She went to touch her forehead and immediately wiped away some beads of sweat. She tries to remember what her dream was that got her so worked up but just as quickly she woke up the memory of the dream faded away. Realizing her throat feels quite dry, she gets out of bed and heads to the kitchen to have a glass of water. After feeling her throat is satisfied and much calmer, Katya heads back to her bed and falls back to sleep undisturbed.

Next Morning

A buzz from the alarm wakes Katya from her sleep at 8:00am. She yawns and tosses her covers off herself and heads to the bathroom to get ready. Today is a big day. It's day one of vacation and her best friend Ginger is visiting for the weekend. After graduation four years ago, Ginger moved to Florida from Boston to help her mom after her dad died. Katya and Ginger have stayed in touch by reaching out to each other at least once a week.

Looking in the mirror while brushing her teeth she sees that she doesn't look as rested as she should. Suddenly she remembers waking up from her dream last night. After brushing her teeth she decides to put on a pair of jeans and a black cropped sweatshirt. Finishing her makeup with her signature red lipstick she styles her blunt blonde hair so it has some slight waves and neat bangs. Noticing it's already after 9am, Katya grabs a muffin, her pack of cigarettes off the kitchen table, purse, and heads out the door to pick up Ginger at the airport.

Later That Night

"Girl I can't believe you tricked me into watching Contact again!" laughed Ginger while playfully shoving the blonde while holding her wine glass.