6.

On a day when a child turned six years old ... a darkness truly settled in, it made itself known, a future came certain. A visitor came at a time when a fork in the road presented itself and the visitor ensured which turn would be made.

Tanya Ferguson knew something was coming though she could not know it would come on this day or that it actually had already come by such a time she had set back out on the road following a brief stop off at a small-town cafe. Yeah, she indeed knew to a degree of what would be coming and that nothing she does, or could ever do, would ever prevent it from coming though if she could delay the inevitable or sway one part of it then that would at least be something.

It would have been wishful thinking to think she had the capability to fully alter an outcome, no she may not be able to do that, but she had to do something for no one else as far as Tanya was concerned, or as far as she could see, was doing anything to stop or to indeed alter what is coming. In time she will learn, as she is learning on a day ten years from this point, she is not alone.

How do you go about having a conversation with a child, a conversation concerning future good and evil? How do you tell a child that she has been created for evil? And how do you ensure that such a child turns to goodness when her natural instinct in time will be to turn away from and go against all that is good?

In the back of a car being driven by Tanya Ferguson, Maxene Ferguson, once Maxene Grady not that a six-year-old was or is aware of a change in surname, sees the arrival of Darkness to the vehicle and is asked to keep this arrival quiet for Tanya despite knowing that a coming is on the way cannot physically see that it has come in this moment.

Darkness has handed out gifts to nine individuals, Maxene of course being one, at a time where he has a hand in their conception though there are others within the world with gifts of their own, gifts with an origin they may not be aware of or could even fathom. Tanya Ferguson is one such individual. Her gift tells her something horrible is coming and she has known of this for some time. One of the ports for future destruction is the little girl in her car. This is what led Tanya to the child to begin with and thus is why she felt it necessary to fulfill a mother's role.

A time to teach, a time to be a guide, the time to assert a motherly influence had yet to come far enough to ensure any kind of future positive outcome. This car journey is a renewal of a journey to the darkness as Tanya will soon come to discover.

Outside, the day is or has been fairly bright and dry though as a drive progresses a rain begins to fall slowly and softly at first growing strong and heavy bringing a horridly dull sky with it. It has got so heavy and dark so fast that caution is needed to continue driving. Headlights go on and the car slows but not for long. A dark and larger vehicle intimidatingly comes up behind making its presence obvious and clear.

With weather conditions as they are it would not be wise to overtake other vehicles though this large dark car has no intentions of overtaking. Tanya certainly does not like this situation. She can clearly see that harassment is on the agenda and perhaps a lot more than that too. She does not pick-up speed, she stays in her lane well away from oncoming traffic which remains in own appropriate lane.

A growing panic is difficult to ignore as there is nowhere in particular to go or turn off to for a least another few miles so there is no other choice but to keep going as is. The vehicle behind will just have to wait if it wants to pass.

Tanya checks her mirrors, indeed there is no give in the road, no room to maneuver in the hopes that the vehicle behind might actually get to pass her by if that is all it intends to do. She can see Maxene in the back, awake and alert though in no kind of distress. Then the shudder comes. The car behind has hit hers. There definitely is nowhere to go and oncoming traffic makes it impossible to use the whole width of the road.

A second shudder, stronger and more forceful than the last, Maxene continues to be calm though Tanya's stress levels are certainly on the rise. This is something much more than a simple case of impatience. Something, a rock or large stone perhaps, hits the windscreen right on Tanya's side and causes a crack and brings a brief scream. Still the child is calm, Tanya clearly isn't calm.

A third coming together and this one makes it difficult to keep the car going without crashing though Tanya does manage to keep the car somewhat steady. If another shunt were to come, especially one even stronger than what has already come then Tanya may feel lucky if she manages to avoid becoming turned over somewhere not so far up ahead.

The car behind moves in, closing in on yet another shunt, this might be it and Tanya has no idea how to prepare for what surely is inevitable. Tanya struggles to see any option as to where she may go to avoid disaster. Disaster may be coming right now whether she wants it or not. Then the oddest thing, that dark larger vehicle does not hit, this is not even half the odd thing as the why the vehicle behind has not hit is down to something seriously odd.

Tanya can see in her mirrors that the vehicle behind hers has come up off the ground. It is ... levitating, still moving forwards but levitating and in which is also falling behind ... Maxene smiles.

The forward momentum does keep the vehicle behind moving forward and as it is in the air and with a lack of control the vehicle soon ends up off road. Tanya continues to move forwards, putting distance between her and that other vehicle. As that other vehicle was up in the air Tanya noticed that Maxene had both her hands raised in front of her, palms facing upwards ... was she doing this? Surely not ... despite how it may have looked, then again ... there was that sugar container back at the café, an odd ability Tanya has been aware of for some time, but to do it with a large moving car?

There is a tunnel up ahead and there is nowhere to go but through so through it is. The tunnel is dark, even darker that the world outside with the rain pouring down as hard as it is, and there are the odd flashes of orange from the strategically placed lighting within the tunnel.

Once out of the tunnel Tanya turns to check on Maxene and panic is to be taken to a new high. The back seat seatbelt is undone and Maxene is not there, she is not anywhere within the vehicle. In her high level of anxiety Tanya is not paying attention to the road and her drifting takes her in front of a semi-truck ...

A little over twenty-four hours pass when Tanya wakes in a hospital bed, alive but with injuries that will need some time to recover from.

'Where is she?' she attempts to call out. 'Where is my daughter?'

As it is there are no records of Tanya having any children and of course it will be some time before she can go searching for Maxene. No child had been discovered within the severely damaged vehicle. Will Tanya ever find Maxene? Has she ever found her in the years since?