Shifted Fate (Amy)

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I slammed the door behind me and put my back against it. I allowed a few more sobs to escape my mouth before I let a smile

dance across my lips. I grabbed the box of letters and I walked up the stairs, sealing the house with a few words as I went. I would

get to these letters later. But I had a little girl wanting to spend some time with me.

I grabbed the box full of Rick's mutterings and managed to finagle the doors open to the cabin. I put the box of my letters on my

bed, promising myself that I would read them tonight. Or at least a few of them before I carried Rick's box down the stairs.

I looked around and found...no one. "Hello?" I dropped the box on the living room floor and then I headed outside. "Hello?"

"Punch. Kick. Twist under. Good!" I heard my mom calling out and I turned the corner, only to see my mom training Carly. Toya

and Wendy were sparring with each other a little off to the side, but Carly was red faced and smiling.

I watched for a few minutes, watching her form and listening to her little grunts. It brought me back to when my dad was training

1. me. "Kick baby girl. Higher. Good." His smile always made me feel like I overcome a mountain.

Carly was cheering as she landed a high kick. "I did it!" I clapped, and she whirled. "Amy!" She ran over to me and jumped into

my arms. "Did you see? Did you see me?"

I hugged her close. "I did." I put her on the ground. "You did really great."

She looked between my mom and me. "Are you ready to do paperwork?" She looked antsy, like she had to pee. I just laughed.

"Go finish your training. I can work by myself until you are finished." I tugged on her hair.

She bit her lip. "Are you sure? I did promise to help you." She bounced on her toes.

I dropped down into a crouch. "I'm sure. Training is important. Paperwork can wait."

Still, she looked unsure. “But paperwork is important.”

I pinched her cheek. "It is, but I can handle it on my own for a little while. Now, get back to grandma Ainsley and finish your training." I leaned in and kissed her forehead before I stood back up and I pushed her back to my mom.

She looked at me and I watched her eyes tighten. She mouthed 'You okay?'. I nodded and turned back to the house. "One second baby." I heard footsteps running after me, and my mom spun me around. "I know you said you're okay, but your eyes are red andnoveldrama

puffy."

I smiled. "I had to give a little performance, is all." I kissed her cheek. "I'm okay. Really. Go back to Carly. I'll tell you all about it

later."

She looked at me for a moment before she agreed. "If you're sure."

"I am." I nodded before I went back inside. I grabbed a quick drink of water, then went back into the living room and dug into the

box

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I pulled everything out and started to organize again, but this time I took a

different approach. I sorted the code from random

mutterings. I didn't read anything. I just focused on separating code from not code.

I don't know how long I was there, but everyone came in after a while. Carly came over. "What can I do?"

I pulled her next to me. "You can do what I'm doing so that I can start reading." I pulled out two pieces of paper. "This one." I

showed her a line of code. "See how it has these random squiggles that aren't letters and random numbers?"

"Yeah." She looked at the paper.

I showed her the second paper. "And this one is just a random sentence."

"Yeah." She looked between the two piles. "So the weird stuff goes in one, and the normal words in another?" She looked back at

me to make sure she was right.

"Exactly." I pushed the big stack over to her and her eyes grew round.

"Holy." She looked over the papers and then back to the other piles. "Okay!" She started in and I pulled the code to me.

I figured if there was going to be a hidden message, it would be in the code. My mom sat down and started reading the regular

notes, figuring she could at least tell me if there was something weird about it. We searched for hours and found nothing. I sat

back and rubbed my eyes. What were we missing?

My mom furrowed her brow. "What the heck does this mean?" She handed me a paper with random letters on it. I looked at it and

saw 'gur cnffjbq sbe gur onpxqbbe vf bcny'. I furrowed my brow for a second.

"It's a code." I stared at it for a moment, going through all the secret codes Rick taught me as a joke. I ripped a paper and went

through all of them until one made sense. "The password for the backdoor is opal."