Kai made her way back into the house and started rooting around in a box of tools that were in the mudroom adjacent to the kitchen. Crow bar in hand, she came back into the kitchen and found Zephyr sitting on top of the box again.

“What’s your story?” Kai asked with narrowed eyes as she pointed the crow bar at her companion. “I’ll make you a deal. You can have the box but I get whatever’s inside.”

Zephyr, seemingly satisfied with the arrangement, hopped off the crate and onto one of the chairs. Her large blue eyes stared intently at the box, her curiosity matching Kai’s. That phrase curiosity killed the cat ran through Kai’s mind.

“Here goes nothing,” she murmured.

Finding the seam along the top, Kai wedged the tip of the crowbar into the crack and with one big push the top popped open. She did the same thing along two other edges, and when she finally pulled the top off, what she found inside left her stunned.

A stack of old black and white photographs sat inside, and the hauntingly familiar face of a young woman stared up at Kai through a pair of large dark eyes. Eyes that were just like hers. With shaking fingers, Kai reached in and pulled out the pile of weathered photographs.

She flipped through the stack one at a time and found that every picture was of the same woman. Based on the fifties style clothing and striking resemblance to both Kai and her mother, Kai could only assume this was her grandmother, Kristine.

All the photos showed a smiling young woman full of life, but it was the last picture that gave her pause.

It was an image of her grandmother with a baby in her arms and Kai was certain it was her mother, when she was an infant. Tears fell freely down Kai’s cheeks as she ran one finger over the faded image. Sniffling, she flipped the picture over to see if there was a date and while there was something written, it wasn’t what she expected.

My sweet, Katherine. The next Custodian.

“Custodian?” Kai said, confused. Her grandmother was a custodian? “Do we come from some long line of school janitors or something?”

As Kai swiped at her damp cheek with the back of her hand, she spotted a small black bag that had been hidden beneath the photos. She placed the stack of photos on the table and picked up the heavy, worn, cotton bag and felt a lump inside. Kai loosened the drawstring and turned the bag over, emptying the contents into her hand. A heavy ring made of iron, tumbled into her palm and the metal felt cool against her damp skin. Holding it between her fingers, Kai squinted and went to the light by the kitchen window to try and make out the unusual design on the round face

There were a series of four circles with some kind of lettering evenly spaced between the rings. It was so tiny and worn away by time that she’d need a magnifying glass to get a clue as to what it said. At the center of the smallest circle was what looked like a star and it had some kind of crystal in the middle.

“Why wouldn’t Jacob have given this to my mom?” she murmured.

It was beautiful. Not in a traditionally gorgeous and sparkling kind of way but beautiful, none-the-less and it was definitely old. She had no idea just how old but it really didn’t matter. This ring obviously belonged to her grandmother and that’s what made it valuable.

“Priceless.”

Smiling through her tears, Kai slipped the precious ring onto the middle finger of her right hand and found that it fit perfectly. As she held her hand up to inspect her newfound prize, a howling gust of wind ripped through the house and slammed the front door shut.

Kai yelped and spun around to see the pile of pictures blow around the room and flutter to the kitchen floor. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter behind her as she fought to still her racing heartbeat. Zephyr was nowhere to be seen and the only sound was the old cuckoo clock that ticked loudly on the wall.

She squatted down to pick up the scattered photos and as she placed them back on top of the table, her attention was captured by something written on the side of the crate. As her gaze slid over the words, the little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Custodians of the Light.