Nico's Cruse by Jennifer Kacey

ever really known
actually didn’t take her very long.
    She put all of her important documents, including all of her
contact info, passwords and manuscripts, off onto a USB stick shaped like a
ninja. Her phone she’d take with her as well.
    Yeah…that was about it.
    Contacting her attorney to handle clearing out her apartment
and finding the kitty a new home would be easy, once she figured out if her
plan would even work.
    She didn’t want to drag her clothes or anything else with
her, figuring she could buy what she needed once she got there and have it
shipped.
    Questions plagued her while she ate some toast, not tasting
any of it.
    Will I age?
    Can I still talk to Nico? Text him?
    Would the witch even accept me as a replacement for him?
I’m not anything special.
    Self-doubt had no place in her mind so every time it tried
to creep in she crumpled it up and chucked it out the proverbial window.
    Miss Priss lay in the sun cleaning her face with her paw.
Regret momentarily filled her. “I should have tried harder to find your owner.
I wish I could take you with me.”
    The problem? She assumed the laptop would let her through
but it was more a guess on her part. It’s not every day she learned the guy
she’d fallen in love with had been cursed for years and could travel through
his computer screen to see her.
    The second problem? How in the holy hell was she going to
get him to fall asleep while she talked with him, especially since he might be
kind of on to her plan if he thought hard enough about it when he woke up? Not
to mention the issue of whether he would give her the password she needed to
get to him?
    Third problem? Did mental illness reside in both of their
families and they just needed to have their heads examined? No self-doubt. Crumple…and…toss .
    She eyed the clock. Half past nine.
    She brought up her laptop to the Crossroads site,
then picked her cell up.
    After rubbing the buttons on her cell a few times, working
up the nerve she finally sent him a text. “ You there? Can we chat?” The
little rolling circle whirled then the time appeared when the message sent.
Nerves attacked her stomach, since she didn’t know if he could or would answer
her. She mentally kicked herself for not asking more questions the night
before.
    His answer appeared almost instantly. “ Yes.”
    She decided to try getting the password from him so she had
access. “ Let me connect to you this time. How do I do it?”
    His icon lit up on the dating site and he must have pushed
connect because the screen changed and the new password appeared.
    “Password?” appeared on the chat screen.
    She made a face in frustration, then gave him the new code.
    His face filled her screen when the call connected and she
tried to smile but he looked so sad.
    “Did you really think I was going to give you the password,
Rose?”
    “I’d hoped you would. I want to help you.”
    “I know you do but I’m not willing to destroy your life just
to save mine.”
    An idea popped into Rose’s mind. “Have you ever tried going
through while we talked? Like right now. Could you get through?”
    Without any hesitation he laid his hand on the screen, flat
so she could see every line and fingerprint up close and personal.
    “Many times. It only works if you fall asleep.”
    “Have any of the other women tried?” Her eyes bounced up to
his, then back to his palm.
    “Well, no. None of them even knew the dreams were real. They
didn’t know I traveled through it to visit them, much less anything about the
curse.”
    “So maybe I could get through, maybe it’s how the curse is
supposed to be broken. Maybe I could even come to you right now.”
    She reached forward to touch the screen, heart pounding away
in her chest. Her fingers slid across the surface, lining up with his on the
other end of the connection but it wasn’t anything other than just touching a
computer screen. Disappointment settled in her stomach. She shouldn’t have