Twenty Years Earlier:

On a winding mountain road west of Colorado Springs, a mountain wave drove fiercely into the face of the Rockies and a massive thunderstorm built up. The wind, hail, rain and lightning made the local roads beyond treacherous.

Miles away in her classroom, a young girl heard a loud crack of thunder a few moments after the lightning flashed ominously. The lights in the school dimmed and flickered and a cold wave passed over Charlotte. She knew that something terrible had happened...

Charlotte Janssen was standing at the whiteboard explaining the correct answer to the sixth-grade advanced math class. There was nothing too unusual about that scene except for the fact that Charlotte was nine years old and was only in the fourth grade. Her teacher smiled as the girl solved all three problems in rapid succession and confidently explained them to the class. The phone on the desk blinked and she answered it with a whisper. "Ms. Nakira, yes, yes she is here. Oh no, oh no!"

The young woman blanched and hung up the old-style phone and stood up. "Thank you, Charlotte, well done. Please gather up your things and come up here and have a seat next to my desk."

The young teacher paused to take her breath and gestured to the chair as Charlotte went to her desk and collected her school work and placed the text books and papers in her book bag. Ms. Nakira was barely able to speak as she said. "Charlotte, please sit down for a moment."

The desk phone blinked again and the teacher answered. "Yes, yes of course we'll be right there."

She stood up and gestured to a skinny blonde girl. "Taylor please help the class through the rest of lesson sixteen. I'll be right back. Charlotte, please come with me we have to go down to the office."

Charlotte stood up, looked into her teacher's eyes and knew instantly that something was wrong, terribly wrong. As Charlotte and Ms. Nakira arrived at the school's office, the young girl could tell that no one there was willing or able to take charge. The school nurse, a portly woman whom Charlotte had only spoken to once nervously asked her to sit on an old wooden chair in the corner. Over the next few minutes, landline phones rang and people's cell phones buzzed and beeped with ring tones that later in life Charlotte would remember with dread. After several hushed phone conversations and glances in her direction with sadness and pity in their eyes, Charlotte stood up and announced to all of the adults. "Okay, something bad has happened. I can see it in your eyes. Will somebody please tell me what is going on?"