Sheera's departure for the airport snuck up on the Lansens like a sudden downpour, a twenty-four-hour-span that left them completely unprepared to offer wisdom encouragement, or even a proper suitcase.

The stilted conversation of the day before had carried on into the night, making for an awkward final evening with the adopted family Sheera had grown to love.

Maddie and Ethan woke up earlier than usual on the day of Sheera's departure, leaving her to do her last-minute packing in silence. Their avoidance was a bit sad but probably for the best, as their presence would've led to questions about her plans that she could only half-honestly answer.

Sheera stuffed a few more pairs of socks into a worn out duffle bag that was beginning to fray at either end. It was the only piece of luggage in the Lansens apartment, on account of them barely having the money to get through the day-to-day let alone travel. Now it contained almost all of Sheera's meager possessions. All that remained were the contents from Sheera's keepsake shoebox. She pulled it out from under her bed, taken a moment to admire the few childhood photos of herself with her mother. She carefully slid them into the bag's outer pockets, along with some souvenirs from the places her mother had seen back in her missionary days.

Once the bag was packed she double-checked her small canvas purse for the most important item. Her crisp, unused passport was there, along with an envelope of cash. She'd applied for the passport a few years prior, when the dream of going on one of those class trips to Europe still seemed like a real possibility.

She counted the money in a focused manner, seven hundred dollars that amounted to her entire life savings. Despite giving so much of her donut-making salary to the Lansens to earn her keep, the five dollars here and there she'd carefully set aside had accumulated to what now seemed like a fortune.

Sheera's ticket to Paris had been arranged by Madam Quillfern along with accommodations at the 'Kindred complex'. The cultish sounding name was all she knew about her lodgings in Paris, an uncertainty that only added to the nervous feeling of embarking on this strange adventure.

She counted out the money again, and at the last second pulled out three hundred dollars.

She poked her head out of the room and when the coast was clear, tiptoed into Uncle Neil and Aunt Ruth's bedroom.

She emerged a few seconds later, the three hundred dollars no longer in her hands.

***

The Lansen family sat around the kitchen table. Waiting.

The sounds of rustling bags and footsteps emerge from the hallway and there she was.

Sheera Oden. Ready to save the world. Or die trying. Or fall victim to a cult. In some ways it was still unclear.

"Well I guess I should go," said Sheera, carefully avoiding eye contact with everyone at the table. "There's an airport bus that leaves from Bryant Park in half an hour."

"Actually..." said Ethan, studying his phone and scrolling the cracked screen, "it leaves every fifteen minutes." He smiled earnestly. "So you can always catch the next one."

"Thanks bud," she said, inching ever closer towards the door. The thought of spending any more time with her family was not only becoming uncomfortable, but it was creating more opportunities for questions she didn't want to answer.

"Will your phone number work in Paris?" said Uncle Neil.

Questions like that.

Sheera remembered Madam Quillfern's stern warning that no telecommunications of any kind would be permitted while she was in Paris, due to security reasons stemming from being tracked by the dangerous Shadowers. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the two-bit flip phone she'd always kept in case of emergencies. She'd been planning on discarding it at the airport, but with Uncle Neil waiting for an answer she smiled and set the phone on the table.

"This old phone won't work in Paris," she said. "So why don't you take it? It's a great way to keep in touch with everyone."

Uncle Neil studied the phone with his tool-tinkering eyes. "It would be a first..." He suddenly seemed to remember something, and whatever it was it made him push the phone across the table. "But I can't take this; you'll need it when you get back."

"Right..." Sheera mused, remembering how she'd told her family the 'internship' would last four months. When she would actually return was anyone's guess.

"You are coming back..." said Maddie. "Aren't you?"

Sheera wasn't sure if Maddie's eyes were glistening with tears or if they'd always been a little shiny, but either way she was touched.

She leaned over and gave Maddie a hug. "Of course I'm coming back," she said reassuredly, another possible lie that was quickly adding to pile.

Aunt Ruth rose from the table. "We're going to write you at your address," she said. "And we'll expect you to write back."

The address Aunt Ruth was referring to was some P.O. Box in some part of Paris she was completely unfamiliar with. According to Madam Quillfern, it was the only address they could share with family as it couldn't be tracked to their lodgings.

"Of course I'll write you back," said Sheera. It wasn't a total lie; it was simply completely undetermined.

Aunt Ruth grabbed a stuffed plastic bag from the counter and handed it to Sheera. "I packed you some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and those crackers you like. And some gummy bears." She said, with the first hint of a smile. "I've heard that airport food is extremely overpriced."

"And airplane food is disgusting!" Ethan piped in. He shrugged when he noticed everyone staring at him. "That's what they say," he said gesturing to his phone.

Sheera put her bag down and completed the final round of hugs.

She was finally beginning to process everything she would leave behind, as she wondered what the chances were of ever finding her way back...

***

Just a few hours later, Sheera sat in the departure lounge awaiting her first ever flight. This moment followed her second ever experience of leaving New York City. The only other outing had been a field trip to see how cows were milked on a farm about an hour upstate. On that day she'd learned more about the milking process then she'd ever cared to know, but the seventh grade escape from the city had been one of the greatest adventures of her life.

Until now.

Sheera unwrapped the first of six peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Aunt Ruth had thoughtfully packed. The value of whole wheat bread and protein-packed peanut butter before a long journey couldn't be emphasized enough, so she gobbled the first half with satisfaction and gratitude.

She was just about to move on to the second half when she noticed a few girls a bit older than her staring in her direction with coordinated smirks. They seemed to be out of college and freshly installed in their entry-level fashion careers, and when they noticed her staring back, they sipped their overpriced airport lattes which only barely obscured their everlasting smirks.

Sheera shrugged and munched away on the second half of her sandwich, peeking into the bag and smiling when she noticed the gummy bears.

***

Near the back of the plane by the tiny restroom, Sheera sat waiting for the rest of the passengers to struggle their way on board.

Her only experiences of planes to this point had been movies that depicted in-flight snakes or terrorists, neither of which left her with a feeling of comfort.

Her eyes widened when she recognized someone coming down the aisle.

It was one of the young men that had stood by Madam Quillfern as she'd explained the impossible circumstances of the spell book and their mission. She remembered his name as Arjun, and remembered his thick black hair flowing down in waves, framing the handsome face that reminded her of her mother's old Indian film magazines.

If Arjun recognized Sheera he didn't show it, his gaze avoiding her section of the plane entirely. He stopped in a middle section ten rows from hers, electing to keep his small black bag clutched in his arms.

Later, after a bumpy take-off and airplane food no less horrendous than what Ethan had described (but which she'd eaten anyway), Sheera noticed the woman in the aisle seat across from Arjun get up and make her way to the bathroom. Without really thinking it through, Sheera hurried down the aisle and took the woman's spot.

"Hey!" she whispered.

Arjun stared straight ahead.

"We met the other night, at the...at the thing."

"You are mistaken," he said robotically.

"Ohhh...I get it." She winked. "We didn't meet. Anyway...I was just curious about what happens when someone goes to Paris for the very first time. Madam...uhh...code name Q--"

"You do not mention her name!" he hissed.

"But I didn't! I said Madam Q!"

"Would you please shut your face?!"

A stern male flight attendant rushed over to diffuse to the conflict.

"Excuse me sir is she bothering you? Harassing you? Addressing you with aggressive language?"

Arjun glared at Sheera. "She certainly is."

Sheera gasped. "I was just asking a question!"

The flight attendant shook his head. "I'm going to have to ask you to return to your seat," he said sternly.

Sheera looked up at the flight attendant innocently. "I will okay? I will. But first I want the record to show that I wasn't doing any of the things you mentioned. It was just a case of..." she glanced at Arjun with disdain, "mistaken identity."

"The record?" said the flight attendant looking confused.

"Yes, like the official, in-flight record." Sheera had watched enough movies at her friends' houses to know how quickly things could escalate in the martial-law type setting of an aircraft.

"Please return to your seat immediately."

Sheera sighed and made her way back as the plane bumped along.

Once she safely buckled in, she unwrapped another one of Aunt Ruth's humble sandwiches, the taste of home a soothing balm to the harsh reality and strange reality that lay ahead...

***

At eight a.m. Paris time, Sheera stood at the baggage carousel, waiting for her duffle bag to roll out into the fluorescent light. As she watched each suitcase pass by in a hypnotic dance of black and burgundy and hard-shelled pink, she noticed Arjun from across the carousel, the same black bag clutched tightly in his arms. She was about to call out after him but thought better of it, still a bit wounded from the harassment accusation that would now go on her permanent flight record. Apparently.

When her bag finally appeared and she made her way out, confusion bubbled up to the surface. Would Arjun be taking her to the address Madam Quillfern had written on the piece of paper clutched in her hand?She glanced around the arrivals bay for any sight of him. There was none. This led to her other uncertainty: would anyone else arrive at the airport to receive her? A private car? A trusted guide? She scanned the various paper signs held by all manner of Parisian chauffeurs. But her name was nowhere in the mix.

Resigning herself to the fact that her solo journey would continue, she went outside for her very first breath of Parisian fresh air, which was...rather engine-exhaust like. She coughed into the piece of paper that contained the address before lining up into the taxi queue.

When her turn came up, she slid into the back of a taxi driven by a gruff unsmiling man.

"Bonjour!" she said brimming with enthusiasm. He simply nodded. She thrust the piece of paper into his face. "Je veux aller ici!"

He softened at the use of her high school level French. "On y va!"

He wasn't joking when he said "let's go," as he peeled out of the taxi lane like they were trying to out-run the apocalypse. If he only knew...

***

The taxi slowed alongside the Canal Saint-Martin. The long waterway was out of view from iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, but it contained a recognizable Parisian charm that was enough to widen the eyes of a first-time visitor.

The canal was bordered on either side by quaint cafés and restaurants, characterized by their sprawling terraces sparsely occupied at this mid morning hour. A few people strolled along the canal as they soaked in the morning sun, people who Sheera would later learn were more likely locals and expats than tourists.

Sheera consulted the hard copy map of Paris she'd photocopied from the library, examining the streets in the 10th arrondissement in comparison to where they were.

"Juste ici!" she said, pointing to the side street around the next corner.

The driver nodded. "Voila."

She paid him and as she watched him drive off, she finally took in the very first non-airport breath of Parisian fresh air. And it was magnificent.

After her allotted ten seconds of basking were over, she turned onto the side street and approached the blue double doors, her breath getting shorter with every step.

The building was secured by a door code, which Madam Quillfern had also written down for her on the piece of paper. She studied the code and typed it in, but when she pushed the heavy door nothing happened.

"What?" she said perplexed. She tried again but nothing happened. She was starting to panic now, with no phone and no further instructions, stuck in a place where she didn't know a soul.

She tried one last time but to no avail.

"Dammit!" she whispered.

All out of options with no place to go, she started knocking on the door like a maniac. About ten knocks in, the sun rays beaming onto the door disappeared as a shadow creeped up behind her.

She clenched her fists in fighting formation, but when she turned aggressively she was met with the smirking face of Arjun.

"Uhh..." she uttered. "It's....you."

"Yes. Now could you please move? You are blocking the door code."

She stepped out of the way and watched him intently, wondering what she'd typed in wrong.

To her disbelief he simply waved his hand in front of the door to the sound of a victorious 'click.'

He glanced at the paper she was holding. "That was a fake code to keep you busy if you arrived before me."

She couldn't stop staring at his hand. "How in the hell did you do that?"

He reached over her to push the door open. "Why don't you and your irritating questions head inside?"

She was about to say something else, but the magnetic pull of the mysterious compound was intoxicating.

He made sure she got inside and followed her in, as the world's entirety of Kindreds disappeared behind the big blue door...