Chapter 1 - OLIVIA SAID YOU’D HELP US
Ethan Brooks had not driven to the cabin in eleven months.
Not since Olivia died.
The Blue Ridge Mountains looked exactly the same as they had the last time they came together.
That felt offensive.
Sunlight poured between tall pines.
Wind moved through the laurel.
The narrow gravel road curled toward the old cedar cabin as if nothing in the world had changed.
Everything in Ethan’s world had.
Olivia had been thirty-one.
Warm.
Restless.
Always collecting abandoned furniture and wounded animals.
Then one rainy night, a tractor-trailer crossed the center line outside Asheville.
The police called it instantaneous.
People said that was a mercy.
Ethan had never found the word useful.
He kept the cabin because Olivia loved it.
He avoided it because she loved it.
Now the insurance company wanted photographs after a storm damaged the roof.
So Ethan drove up alone.
His SUV rounded the last bend.
The cabin appeared through the trees.
Then a child ran into the driveway.
Ethan slammed on the brakes.
The SUV stopped inches from her.
She stood barefoot in the gravel.
Seven years old, maybe.
Dirty blonde hair.
A faded blue dress.
Mud across both knees.
She waved both arms wildly.
“STOP! PLEASE!”
Ethan threw the transmission into park.
On the porch stood another little girl.
Same face.
Same hair.
Same dress.
A twin.
She clutched a piece of stale bread against her chest and sobbed.
Ethan jumped out.
“What are you doing here?”
The first girl ran straight at him and grabbed his jacket.
“DON’T LEAVE US HERE!”
Her fingers shook violently.
Ethan looked from her face to her bare feet.
Scratches.
Dirt.
No shoes anywhere.
His grief disappeared beneath alarm.
“Who did this to you?”
The girl only cried harder.
The second twin stumbled off the porch.
“Please…”
She grabbed Ethan’s arm.
“He’ll come back!”
Ethan looked toward the tree line.
The forest suddenly felt different.
Not peaceful.
Watching.
“Who?”
Both girls recoiled.
Ethan lowered himself to one knee.
“Hey. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The first twin’s breathing came in broken little pulls.
“What’s your name?”
“Emma.”
“And your sister?”
“Ella.”
Ethan looked at the cabin.
The front door stood open.
One window had been covered from inside with a blanket.
There was no other vehicle.
No adult voice.
No movement.
He looked back at Emma.
“Where’s your mother?”
Emma started shaking.
Ella made a small desperate sound.
Then blurted:
“OLIVIA SAID YOU’D HELP US!”
Ethan stopped breathing.
The mountain air seemed to leave the driveway.
He grabbed Ella gently by the shoulders.
“What did you say?”
Ella sobbed harder.
Ethan’s voice cracked.
“How do you know Olivia?”
Both girls pointed toward a narrow forest trail behind the cabin.
Ethan turned.
A deep engine suddenly roared somewhere beyond the trees.
Emma screamed.
Ella screamed with her.
May you like
And Ethan understood one thing before he understood anything else.
Whoever the twins were afraid of had just come back.
