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Nadine Wilkins was sleepy but keeping herself awake by doing a crossword. Her husband Peter sat in his recliner, beside her own, with his head canted back and his mouth agape. There was a low gurgling noise every time he took a breath. Baby Nicky was asleep and her son, little Ferdinand who was only 9, sat on the floor with a combination of pokemon cards, matchbox cars and G.I. Joes. The boy was pale white skinned, leucistic (though it was easier to tell people albino), with vivid red eyes that she attributed to his particular skin condition.

But that wasn't the truth.

“You ready for New Years, Ferdi?” She moved her foot to poke him and he squirmed but smiled.

“Ma.. Y2K is gonna happen. Just wait.”

“What do you know about Y2K?” Nadine laughed. “We don’t even have a computer.”

He turned his eyes to her and his pale brows lifted hopefully. “But you said we can get one right? After all the Y2K stuff happens and they fix it all? We can get internet right?”

“Yes. We can get the internet.”

Here we are in Times Square. I’m d**k Clark! It’s an amazing scene out here, it’s just started to rain..

The sound of the television was just a drone in the background but they stayed up every year and this one was a big one, Y2K and everything. Little Ferdinand insisted they stay up and he had his horns and hat set aside for just the right moment. He went back to his playing, ‘vrooming’ the cars into the Joes with ‘Kabooooossshhh!’ explosion noises. He carefully vaulted the cars over his cards, neatly stacked and in mint condition. He was very particular about those cards.

Nadine just stared at the TV and spaced out. The camera panned over the crowd as she chewed on the eraser of her pencil. She idly thought of Resolutions, maybe losing the baby weight or trying to eat healthier. Maybe go to church more. The images of the Times Square crowd just blurred past her vision until something made her super aware.

Just someone hooded. Nothing more. Just.. a hood.

Her heart hitched in her throat but it was just a hood. A man in a hood. It could be any man in a hood. There were a lot of white hoodies. Those 'gangsta' types were always wearing crazy embroidery on their coats and jeans. It was just a hood.

She was Nadine Wilkins now.

Formerly Bolinsky.

Née Hargrove.

No one in this town knew of her first marriage. Little Ferdinand knew his real dad had died. In a car accident. That’s how. He went to work one day and died on the way.

Nadine uncomfortably shifted in her chair and looked at her son. He had just been a baby then and so it hadn’t been difficult to embrace Peter as his father. She wouldn’t keep secrets from him, he should know why he was Ferdinand Jr. and there was no Ferdinand Sr. But the little boy seemed to have a well enough understanding of death. A surprisingly good grasp in fact. He asked a lot of questions but with enough repetition he'd learned to just swallow what he was told.

It had never stopped for Nadine though, the searching. Every white coat. Every hood. Every hulking man with dark hair who had just the right build would make her pause and take a breath until she realized it wasn’t him.

No. He was gone and not coming back.

She never even knew what he did for a living. He'd never told her. She just assumed it was the government but that white coat.... She never could forget it. Whenever you lost a loved one it was always the same.. the searching.

“Mom s’starting!” Ferdinand bounced up in his stocking feet and grabbed the goofy cone-shaped glittered hat. He snapped the elastic band around his chin and flinched. Already she could see the thinnest of red lines forming on his skin but he was focused on the TV. “Dad wake up! S’starting!”

He threw himself into Peter’s lap making the man snort-gurgle in surprise and jerk awake. “Wha? Uh? Oh Oh.. Okay okay..” The burly brunette man put on a sparkly bowler hat and grabbed a noisemaker. Nadine herself had a tiny tiara that said ‘Y2K’ in glitter and a small horn.

Ferdinand rocked impatiently on the carpet as the countdown started. He stayed silent and stared, not daring to count aloud until it reached ‘10’. The boy blinked, squinted, and almost pressed his face to the TV.

“What was that mom?”

“What was what hun?”

“It was like.. a thing. I dunno. A monstery thing? A .. I dunno.” His face fell when he realized he didn’t have the descriptive words for it.

“Monster? No Ferd.. that’s d**k Clark.” Peter burst into a raucous laugh and the little boy laughed too, though he was merely joining in because he didn't get the joke. Nadine chuckled but sat up, sitting her crossword aside.

“Alright.. here it goes! TEN… NINE.. EIGHT..”

She smiled as her son rocked forward with every number, his shrill voice also yelling out. His crimson eyes dancing with glee. His true father’s eyes.

“SEVEN… SIX… FIVE.. FOUR..”

Peter was now standing and grabbed her hand, forcing her to stand up. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against him. She tucked easily into his side, years together had made them fit just right.

“THREE… TWO… ONE… HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!”

Little Ferdinand threw himself around with glee, screaming and blowing his horn and tossing himself over and over on to the sofa. He’d throw himself against it, bounce off, and do it again. Nadine simply laughed and blew her horn. Peter squeezed her, reassuring her of his presence since she’d gotten that distant look in her eye.

“Happy New Year babe.” He tilted her head up for a kiss. She returned it happily and immediately forgot the heart-in-throat feeling from moments before.

“Happy New Year. Love you.”

Victoria skipped down the street very happily that she got to leave the boring party that her parents made her go were they could show her off to there friends like she was there toy. She hoped that this new year would bring changes in her favor. It was rare that she was aloud to walk around any city that they lived in especially after she had started to see the shadows. Victoria loved the smell of New York to her it was her home and glad to be back after a traveling a lot abroad. A place she was familiar with and to were she might get more chances to get out of the house as well.

She was going to saver this walk as she didn’t know when the next time she would be let out of the house on her own again, well with bodyguard in tow as well. Victoria giggled when she broke free from her guards to play a game with them. “Catch me if you can,” she called back to the guards as she ran ahead of them while wearing a dress and trying to think up a way to get her bodyguards to get her some junk food before getting back to the house. Right now life couldn’t get any better she thought.

Suddenly the 12 year-old stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted that dead body just laying there with the strange white hooded people all around when she did looked around. She didn’t know what to do and started to panic a little as she thought that there could be some of those shadows around. This was not happing, it couldn’t be happing she didn’t not want. The more she stared the more it was real to her and her memories of that night started to come back to her, the night she wanted to forget.

“Little master, you shouldn’t do that type of thing. It’s dangerous for you to be doing that,” said one of her bodyguards when they did finally caught back up to her. They hadn’t see the dead body but were more on guard when they saw all the strange people in the hoods and didn’t like it one bit. “Let’s get you home now,” he said again as the others surrounded Victoria to protect her if anything happened.

She startled a little when the bodyguard touched her but it brought her out of her thoughts and the touch calmed her enough to stop the panic attack. “That sounds like a good idea,” she replied all her happiness gone. Victoria just wanted to get back home before anything more happened and to feel safe again, to leave those hooded people to do what ever they were doing.