Gina Ranalli

HOUSE OF FALLEN TREES

CHAPTER ONE

Two men have the carcass.

Karen Lewis jolted awake, eyes wide, wondering who had spoken the words. Heart hammering, she gazed around the living room of her condo. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa while watching TV. That much she remembered. The TV was still on, though muted. Blue shadows pranced and chased each other around the ceiling, flickering like the ghosts of flames.

The phone rang loudly — louder, it seemed, than it should have been — giving Karen another start. She stared at it, sitting on a small table across the room, daring it to ring again.

It did.

Eyes darting to the digital clock beside the phone, she saw that it was 12:25 am. Who would be calling at this hour? Maybe Sean?

The thought caused her to leap up and cross the room, snatching the phone from its cradle.

“Hello?”

Static, sounding far away, as though traveling along a crossed line in another state, crackled in her ear. “Hello?” she repeated, raising her voice slightly.

A breeze ruffled her dark hair, fluttering it against her cheeks — a lover’s gentle touch — and she whirled to see that her front door was open to the night.

“What the…”

She let the phone drop into the armchair beside her and moved cautiously towards the door. Was someone in the condo with her? An intruder?

Mouth dry, pulse quickening in her temples, Karen felt a tremor in her hands and forced them into fists to quell her fear.

She knew the smart thing to do would be to get out of there, go next door and pound on her neighbor’s door until she could get in and call the police. But she hesitated at the threshold, looking out at the autumn night, the well-lighted pathway that led to the buildings in this part of the complex. The gated pool just across the well-manicured lawn, still uncovered, the surface rippling ever so slightly.

The night was silent. Not even any of the neighbors’ cats were about, stalking their phantom prey.

Turning around to face inside again, Karen was suddenly certain she was alone. There was no intruder, no rapist, murderer or thief in her home.

She was alone, just as she always was. She had no idea how she knew this, but she did; and when she decided to prove herself right by walking through the rooms of the condo, switching on lights as she went, searching for any sign of a break-in or other disruption, she was pleased that her intuition was once again correct.

Ever since childhood, she had trusted her instincts wherever they may have led, and only seldom had they brought her into the line of trouble. Satisfied the condo was indeed empty, she returned to the living room and closed the front door, flipping the deadbolt with a frown. Had the wind blown it open? It seemed so unlikely…

A crackle of static and she turned back to the receiver of the telephone, still on the chair where she’d left it. The line was still open, still transmitting from Kansas or Oklahoma or Nebraska. Some place that she imagined was desolate, devoid of life and color, especially at this time of night. The lonely hours.

Crossing the room, she grabbed the receiver and tentatively put it to her ear to listen. Just faraway static and maybe…maybe the wind. Karen sighed, began to hang up the phone, but then a voice, mixed so finely into the static it was barely audible, spoke a familiar sentence. Her heart began to crash in her chest once more as she pressed the phone hard into her ear, listening…listening…

And there…there it was again. Far, far away. The voice. A man’s voice, broken up by static and distance and perhaps time and space.

“Two men have the carcass,” he said, quite clearly this time, before the line went dead.

Karen woke to sunshine, curled up on her couch with an embroidered purple throw pillow beneath her head and a plum chenille blanket tossed over her. Outside, she could hear a squawking crow and distantly, passing traffic. She blinked against the glare, glanced at the clock and gasped when she saw it was nearly one in the afternoon. “Holy crap,” she muttered, sniffed and yawned. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so late. Probably not since her days of heavy drinking.

Slowly, she sat up, tossing the blanket aside. Her mouth felt dry as the surface of the moon. Orange juice, she thought, rising to her feet and padding into the tiny kitchen. She didn’t care about a glass — just grabbed the jug of juice from the refrigerator and carried it back to the couch with her.

She flipped the top off and dropped it to the cushion beside her, tipping the jug up and drinking deeply. Smacking her lips, she gazed without interest at the television. One of those court TV shows she found so annoying was on and she was glad she’d muted the television before falling asleep last night. Jug resting on one thigh, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes with her free hand, tried to remember what day this was. Thursday. Thursday afternoon and all was well. Except for that dream, she thought. That was one fucked up dream, for sure. One for the shrinks, probably, if she’d had a shrink, which she didn’t. Not anymore.

Those days were over. When her brother had gone missing out in Washington State five months before, Karen had pretty much lost it. She’d fallen into the deepest depression she’d ever known — unable to work, sleep, or carry on a decent conversation without eventually bringing the subject back to Sean…without fail.

This habit tended to annoy everyone around her after a while. Even her parents, the two people she felt should understand her grief better than any others. And they did understand for a while. But then they stopped understanding. Stopped wanting to talk about him and what happened to him. Stopped wanting to know, stopped wondering, stopped praying.

But Karen never stopped, didn’t want to stop. It was still too soon. And so she had found a therapist and had dutifully gone to see the woman, once a week, for three solid months.

The therapy had helped. She was able to sleep again, able to recover her lost social skills, be a member of society, and quite successfully covered up her ugly scars no one wanted to see.

She had gotten back to her writing, pounding out a long novel that was, much to her amazement, snatched up by a large publishing house that promised her boatloads of money as well as a huge advance on the next book.

True to their word, a check was cut and sent to her almost immediately. Karen still wasn’t sure what to do with the money. She’d left her crappy apartment and moved into the condo, traded in her geriatric Ford for a shiny new-to-her Cherokee, bought the best computer she could find, complete with all the latest bells and whistles, but beyond that she didn’t know what else she wanted. A bigger, fancier house, with gardens and an indoor swimming pool? A Mercedes? A trip around Europe with her special someone?

None of that was her style and besides, she’d never met that special someone and at twenty-nine was beginning to suspect she never would. Which was fine with her. She was happy with herself, with living alone. Also, she’d been doing it for so long, she just didn’t believe she could tolerate anyone else in her space for very long. She was set in her ways.

But, when she was honest with herself, she had to admit that sometimes she got lonely. Sometimes, while curled up on the couch late at night, watching a spooky movie, she wished she had someone to share the special giddy tingles that came with being scared of something silly and make-believe. Or in bed, during a particularly fierce thunderstorm, someone to cuddle up against would have been nice.

She sighed, drank more OJ. Part of her was tempted to just go back to sleep. She couldn’t think of a reason to be awake right now. Then she remembered her current novel and, more importantly, the deadline for the current novel. Groaning inwardly, she capped the juice and got up to put it away.

Despite not wanting to work — feeling too groggy and discombobulated — she knew she had to. And she knew coffee was the answer. She moved around the kitchen like an automaton, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, hair wild and sticking up in all directions, needing a good scrubbing, along with the rest of her. Waiting for the coffee to percolate, she pulled at the collar of her T-shirt, tucked her nose down inside towards her armpit and gave it a quick sniff. Not so bad, she decided. A shower could wait a while longer. Get some caffeine into her first, wake up a little, and maybe check her email. All the usual crap she did every day. As she stared at the coffee maker, willing it to brew faster, her mind returned to last night’s dream.

So peculiar.

Two men have the carcass.

What carcass? Which two men? She shivered, folding her arms across her chest. And carcass? What kind of a gruesome word was that? Who even used that word anymore? She plucked a tissue from the box on the counter, blew her nose loudly.

Just the mind of a writer, she thought as she tossed the tissue in the garbage. A creative mind working overtime, just as she had trained it to do. Pick up every little morsel of life, store it away, and pluck it from the heap whenever it may be needed. Remember every little thing, even the most insignificant.

This is what she strove to do in her life, though she knew it was an impossible goal. No one could remember everything and so, whenever she left the condo, she would always carry a pocket notebook with her, to capture and keep anything that struck her fancy. A snatch of dialog overheard in the grocery store. The look of a skater kid as he rolled down the sidewalk on his board. An ancient monolith of a truck tucked into the side yard of a rundown house, overtaken by brambles, rusting away in the sun and the rain, season after season after season. Everything was fodder. Everything was grist for the mill.

Everything, that was, ss fff, except for Sean, and she was working up to that, had promised herself she would get to it, get to him, excavate him from her subconscious and allow herself to live again in a way she hadn’t been able to in the five months he’d been gone.

The coffee finished brewing and she blew her nose again — damn fall allergies — and began to make herself a mug and start another day at the salt mines in her cluttered head.

CHAPTER TWO

Over the next several days, Karen did her best to immerse herself in her latest novel, tentatively titled Downtown Masquerade, a story about a group of street kids and the former nun who essentially saves them.

Writing, she came to learn only after spending several tens of thousands of dollars on a shrink, was really the best therapy she’d ever known. The way she felt about the process was almost religious and she often thought of it as a search for God.

Though not religious herself, she could see the correlations between God, people, and art. God was the great Creator and had made humankind in His image. People were creators and for Karen Lewis the only way to feel close to God was by creating. Writing was a prayer, a meditation, an offering, and a sacrifice. She had to do it every day or her soul would sicken; two days without the balm of words, the search for something holy, and she would barely be able to move about her day. Three days and she was lost to depression and getting out of bed became a chore she would rather not do.

And so she wrote and her characters became her best friends and sometimes her worst enemies, but she loved them all, much, she thought, the way God was reported to love all His children, good or bad.

Deep in the guts of the novel, Karen completely forgot about her strange dream — if it had been a dream — of the bizarre phone call and finding her door open to the night. She sat on her couch, computer perched on her lap while afternoon sunlight snuck in through the slats of the window blinds and fell across her face and hands while she wrote. The digital clock on the bottom right of the taskbar told her it was 3:20 and she had sat unmoving except for her fingers on the keyboard for almost two hours already. She’d meant to get up some time ago to fix herself another mug of coffee, but oddly, she wasn’t suffering from her usual caffeine withdrawal headache.

When she couldn’t have coffee, she would have iced green tea or occasionally a caffeinated energy drink. But it was her aching back causing her to wake from the world of her characters and want to get up and stretch.

She paused in her typing, glanced back over what she’d written, closed the laptop, and put it aside.

The room was growing chilly and she wanted to check the thermostat. The online weather report had said it was supposed to drop nearly ten degrees overnight and she wanted to get ahead of the cold. There was nothing worse than waking up to a chilly house.

She rose, stretched, and rubbed her hands together as she crossed the room to check the temperature. Before she got there, the phone rang. Pausing, she glanced over, the dream of a few nights ago flooding to the forefront of her brain, causing her to shiver with unease.

Snatching up the phone before it could ring again, she said, “Hello?” Her voice sounded harsh in the still, silent condo.

“Karen, it’s your mother.”

“Oh, hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“I was just calling to remind you about Sunday.”

“Sunday?”

“Your father’s birthday, remember? You agreed to meet us at that Mexican place he likes. I knew I would have to call and remind you. I swear, you’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.”

Karen ignored the dig, trying to figure out what day it was. Wasn’t it only Monday? Why would her mother be calling so early in the week? Surely she knew she’d just have to call her again as the weekend grew closer. Karen was just that way; she loathed social gatherings — especially when family was concerned — and a part of her thought maybe her subconscious made her forget the events on purpose. She scratched her forehead and said, “Aren’t you calling a little early? It’s only Monday.”

“Monday!” her mother snorted. “Karen, it’s Friday.” She sounded vaguely disgusted that her daughter would be so oblivious to the world around her.

“Friday?” Karen started. “It can’t be Friday. I got the phone call on Thursday.”

“What phone call?”

“The…oh, never mind. It’s really Friday?”

“It really is, yes. Are you okay?”

Karen was glancing around the living room as if unsure of where she was. Or for that matter, when she was. “I’m fine, Mom. Thanks for the reminder.”

“No problem. Looking forward to seeing you. It’s been an age!”

“Yeah, it has,” Karen replied absently. “See you then.”

She hung up the phone and went immediately back to the couch, flipping open the laptop once more and moving the cursor over the clock until the day and date appeared.

Friday, November 2nd.

She frowned. “Huh,” she said. “What do you know about that.” She was still puzzling over her apparent time warp when the phone rang again. What the hell? Her phone never rang this much in a week, never mind a day.

Assuming it would be her mother again, she was tempted to ignore it, but then figured she’d better not. Maybe with any amount of luck her mom would say, “Whoops. I forgot. Your father and I are moving to Tahiti on Sunday. Forget that whole birthday thing.”

Smiling to herself, she answered the phone again. “Hello?”

“Hi…,” A stranger’s voice, male, fairly young. “Can I speak to Karen Lewis?”

No longer amused, Karen said, “Probably not. Who’s this?”

“Uh…my name is Rory Luden.” The voice paused, sounding far away, which brought the strange dream back to Karen. “I was your brother’s partner.”

The words snapped Karen back to the present like a hard slap to the face.

“What?”

“Umm…Sean and I were partners.”

“Partners,” she repeated, as though she were unsure of the word’s definition. “What does that mean exactly?”

Rory didn’t answer the question, but instead said, “I was going through some of his stuff and I found an old shoebox full of papers. I don’t know how much you knew about your brother’s life here in Washington, but we’d just bought an old place out in Fallen Trees that we were planning to renovate into a bed and breakfast.”

Karen’s mind was racing. A bed and breakfast? “My parents went out there…to Washington, I mean. Did you talk to them?”

“No. We never met, but I knew they were here. The police asked me if I wanted to meet them, but given how they felt about Sean’s lifestyle, I figured it was probably best that we keep our distance.”

“His lifestyle,” Karen murmured thoughtfully.

There was an awkward silence for a long moment on the other end of the line. Finally, Rory Luden broke it by saying, “You did know he was gay, didn’t you?”

Is this part of the bizarre dream?

“I…I kind of knew, I guess,” she said at last.

“Well, the reason I’m calling is that in that shoebox I just mentioned, there was a handwritten will. Sean’s. In it he wrote that if anything should happen to him, he wanted his half of the bed and breakfast to go to you. Now, I know you’re probably not going to be interested in it, but I thought it was only fair to let you know about it.”

“My parents never said anything about a bed and breakfast.”

“Sean didn’t want them to know. He said they would try to fuck me over if anything happened to him. You know how laws are in regards to gay couples, I’m sure. Parents swoop in all the time and steal everything out from under the partner left behind, even when they wanted nothing to do with their own child when he was alive.”

Head reeling, Karen had no idea how to respond to this news.

“Okay,” she said, lamely. It was the only thing she could think of.

“Anyway, like I was saying, I know you’re probably not interested, but I wanted to be fair and at least let you know about it. I’m perfectly willing to buy out your half of the B&B. It would actually make my life a lot easier.”

“I own half of a B&B?”

The young man on the other end of the line sighed impatiently, as if this conversation was taking all of his energy and he didn’t have much left for inane questions. “That’s right. But it would probably be best for everyone involved if you didn’t mention any of it to your parents. Sean was pretty adamant that they not know too many details about his life when he was alive and I think we should respect his feelings in death as well.”

“Okay,” she said again. The words “alive” and “death” were echoing in her head like shrill church bells.

“So…if you want I can have the papers drawn up and overnight them to you. How’s Monday sound?”

“I think it sounds…fast. Maybe I should give this some thought before committing to anything.”

“You can’t be serious.” Rory scoffed. “What’s to think about? It’s not like…” He trailed off and Karen could tell he was trying to keep his temper in check. “How much time would you like?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m just hearing all this for the first time. Do you think you can give me a few days to register what you’re telling me? I don’t even know what the hell is going on here. This is completely out of the blue.”

“I understand. It took me by surprise too. Frankly, I don’t understand why Sean did it this way. Why he didn’t just will his half to me. But whatever. Like I said, this will, if you can even call it that, is just handwritten on notebook paper. I’m pretty sure it’s not legally binding. But, I’m trying to do the right thing here and respect his wishes.”

“I appreciate that,” Karen’s voice softened, thinking of Sean. “I’d like to respect his wishes too.”

Another pause, then, “So, you want to think about it then?”

“I’d like to, yes. What did you say the name of the town was again?”

“Fallen Trees. It’s a tiny town in northern Washington. Impossible to find on a map, but it’s quaint.”

Karen began digging around in the stuff on the end table, searching for a pen. She finally found one and began to frantically scribble information in margins of an old issue of TV Guide.

“Fallen Trees,” she repeated. “And your name again?”

“Rory Luden,” he replied, not sounding particularly happy.

When she finished writing it down she asked him for a phone number and address where he could be reached and he gave her both, somehow managing to contain his grumbles.

“Okay,” she said. “I guess I’ll give you a call in the next day or two.”

“Sounds good,” he replied.

But before he had a chance to hang up on her, Karen blurted, “How long were you and my brother together?”

She could sense him debating on answering the question, mulling it over, but at last he said, “About five years.”

Karen let out her amazement in a low whistle. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” he repeated. “Wow.”

A good ten seconds passed with neither of them saying anything.

“Well,” Rory said eventually. “Thanks for taking my call. It was…uh…nice talking to you.”

“Yeah. Likewise.”

Rory said goodbye and Karen remained on the line, listening to nothing, feeling dazed and half asleep, wondering what had just transpired. She stood that way for a long time, until the phone began to bleat in her ear and then she hung up, wondering what to do with herself.

After chewing her lip for an unknowable amount of time, she decided it was time for a drink. There was a bottle of red in the refrigerator that had been begging for attention for quite some time and she was going to rectify that situation right now.

CHAPTER THREE

She had learned long ago that when companionship is lacking — you have no lover, no friend, no dog, no cat, no canary — a candle flame makes for better company than some might think.

Every flame, she’d discovered, has its own unique personality. Some are wild and strong, anxious to take over the world if you let them. Others are shy, barely wanting to make themselves known, quick to extinguish their own lives the moment your back is turned. But most are somewhere in the middle — content, lazy and relaxed, flickering brightly now and then, like a dog lifting its head to listen to a far off siren, or a cat, tail slowly thumping in an absentminded half-doze.

Her laptop open on the bed beside her, completely forgotten, Karen stared into the candle flame on her night table, wineglass in hand, corked bottle standing stoically on the floor, three quarters empty.

She drained the last of her glass, contemplating what she had learned about the town of Fallen Trees, Washington. After spending nearly an hour searching the Internet for information, she wasn’t left with much. The town, established in 1899, had been built in the middle of a vast forest, in a clearing most probably caused by a forest fire speculated to have occurred at least a century prior to the first settlers coming upon it.

Though the town population had never grown much beyond a few hundred occupants, those few made a good living mining the nearby hills for copper and silver, a rarity in the Northwest. The locals were intensely secretive about the location of said mines, refusing to allow outsiders in on their profits and keeping the discovery of the mines among the initial settling families, said to number only in single digits.

Nowadays, Fallen Trees wasn’t much larger than it had been in those first decades of inhabitance. Getting to and from the town proved to be a more difficult task than most cared to endure, as it was hard miles over a mountain pass and for not much reward upon arrival.

From what Karen could gather, there was a bar in town that served as a meeting hall when the single church was in use. A doctor’s office (with one doctor), a general store, which doubled as a post office, and a small radio station with only enough bandwidth to reach the town borders on each side. As far as she could tell, Fallen Trees didn’t have a single motel, nor was there any mention of a school of any type. But surely there must be a school. Every town had children. Unless, of course, they bussed their kids to the next biggest town, which was called Indigo Bend and had a whopping thousand residents.

That was it. The end result of all her web digging, which, given the town and its lack of a library, was more than one would expect to find on such a flyspeck on a map.

Leaning over the side of the bed, Karen retrieved the wine bottle, yanked the cork out with her teeth, and poured herself another glass.

Once the bottle was safely back on the floor, she reclined against the propped up pillows and took a long satisfying swallow.

Sean.

Her baby brother, two years her junior, missing and almost certainly dead at twenty-seven.

For the thousandth time, she wondered what had become of him. Had he been murdered and if so, why? Was it one of those gay-bashing things? Had he simply wandered off to get lost in the woods and die of exposure? Before he’d gone missing, had he been happy? She had to assume so, since he’d had a longtime lover with whom he’d planned to start a business.

“More than you can say, Lewis,” she slurred, raising her glass to give herself a toast. “At least he had someone.”

Slurping more wine, she thought back to her conversation with Rory. It would be impossible to tell what a person was really like from a short telephone conversation, but she still tried to imagine him. What he looked like, the kind of person he was. Was he kind and gentle or rough and unemotional?

She had to give him credit for even calling her. If everything he said was true, he could have gone about his merry business, building up his B&B and she’d never have been the wiser.

So, he had honesty going for him, at least. Doing what Sean would have wanted, evidently. Which was strange in itself. Why would Sean will her his half of a business? Why not just will it to Rory?

It wasn’t like she needed the money. She already had plenty. Not to mention, she had absolutely no idea whatsoever about running a B&B. The thought had never even occurred to her. She could barely keep her checkbook balanced and that was something she was sure Sean knew about her. Hell…back when they were kids, she used to bribe him to do her math homework for her.

Beside her, the candle flame danced joyfully. She glanced at it, brow furrowed. “What are you so happy about? You don’t have much longer to live.”

But maybe that was worth dancing about. Not the dying, but the living. Dance while you have the chance.

She chuckled, the rhyme so unlike her. She was not an optimist by nature, though she didn’t exactly consider herself a pessimist either. She just was. “Too deep,” she croaked. “I just might need another bottle if I keep up all this deep thinking. Can’t have any deep thinking.”

She killed the contents of her glass, as if it were the same as killing the contents of her mind. She didn’t want to think about this stuff anymore. Didn’t want to dwell on Sean and what had become of him. Lord knew, she’d already done enough of that and it had gotten her nowhere except in a plush chair opposite a fucking shrink. “Definitely need more wine.”

She leaned over and poured the remains of the bottle into her glass, knowing perfectly well what they said about people who drank alone. Though what choice did she have? She was a loner; always had been, always would be. An anti-social hermit who liked it that way. People were so bothersome…so demanding of her time and energy. Time and energy she didn’t care to share. All she needed was her words, her characters. They gave her trouble sometimes, sure, but all-in-all they made for better company than anyone in the real world ever had.

She’d always lived inside her head best and saw no reason to change. Sean had been the lively one. The vivacious one, outgoing and funny. Smart and handsome. The two of them had been like night and day, yin and yang. She had to laugh now, bitterly, wondering not for the first time if her parents wished it had been her who’d disappeared. “Sorry, Mom,” she said loudly, her own voice startling her. “Sorry Daddy-O.”

She was half-tempted to call them up right now, in the middle of the damn night to announce to them that their precious baby boy was a homosexual. Wouldn’t that stick in their craw nicely?

Then she froze, wondering just what the hell had gotten into her. Why was she thinking all these ugly negative thoughts? Yes, her parents had favored Sean. Sadly, parents often cared for their sons over their daughters. It was a simple, though unfortunate, fact of life.

But it was the wine, of course, bringing out the ugly in her. The sour bitch on wheels, who dutifully kept her mouth shut and resented them all the more because of it.

“Put on a happy face!” she shouted abruptly, clambering off the bed, being careful not to spill her drink.

Maybe what she needed was some fresh air. Perhaps she should go for a walk. Any fool knew women had long ago lost the privilege of enjoying a night walk alone, but Karen didn’t give a shit about that right now. She would pity the poor fool who dared to fuck with her tonight.

Stumbling around her bedroom, she stepped into her favorite flip-flops and prepared to leave the condo, wineglass in hand. She was turning towards the doorway when the laptop on her bed bleated. She stopped, swaying slightly, and gazed down at the computer with curiosity. Someone had sent her an instant message.

Ignore it, she thought. Go on your walk. Pretend you didn’t hear it.

“That’s ridiculous,” she muttered. “It could be something important.” Though she couldn’t imagine what. Not many people had her screen name, but her publishers, agent, and editor were among those who did. As far as she could remember, her mom might have had it as well, though she was certain her parents were long since in bed by this time of night. Setting the glass on the bedside table, she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the laptop to her, turning it so she could see the screen. The instant message was from someone calling themselves SeanL14. She gasped, clicking open the IM before she could think better of it. Her eyes widened as they scanned the words typed into the message box.

Two men have the carcass.

All she could do was stare at the words, suddenly completely sober, palms growing damp as her pulse thumped in her temple, her heart a tiny terrified bird in a cage of bones.

Bing.

New message.

But not a new message. The same one, repeated.

Two men have the carcass.

She wanted to respond to whoever was doing this, ask them who the fuck they were and what they wanted, but she was paralyzed. Had her dream of the other night not been a dream at all? Had it actually happened? That distant, cracking voice on the other end of the line, repeating the phrase she was looking at right now? Had that episode been real?

Bing.

The same five words again. And then again.

Bing. Bing. Bing.

Rapid fire, the message kept repeating, over and over until she was sure she would scream. She bared her teeth at the laptop. “Stop it,” she cried. “Stop it!”

And then it stopped.

She didn’t dare blink, didn’t dare breathe. Frozen and staring, everything else forgotten in that moment. There was only her and the computer. After nearly a full minute had passed, she slowly moved her hand towards the laptop, intending to slam it shut when it bleated at her again.

The message again, abbreviated this time, coming faster than she thought possible. Could anyone type that fast?

TWOMEN.

TWOMEN.

TWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWOMEN.

Over and over and over. Filling up the entirety of the message box. The computer’s beeping became a constant drone and then, finally, she found the strength to reach out and slam the thing closed.

The beeping stopped abruptly, casting her into complete silence, the candle flame still the only source of light in the room.

She released her pent up breath in a long slow whoosh that tasted bitter on her tongue.

Sometime later — maybe five minutes, maybe sixty — she stood, picked up the candle with its excited, happy flame and left the room, leaving the laptop behind, as well as the wine.

She didn’t feel like drinking anymore. Or walking in the crisp night air. She didn’t know what she wanted now, if anything, except to sleep. She was suddenly very tired. Exhausted, really. And her head was beginning to hurt with the first twangs of a hangover.

She had to sleep, though she had no intention of sleeping in that bedroom tonight. The couch would do just fine. She would sleep and then when she woke up, she would be clear-headed enough to figure out just what the hell was going on. Maybe figure out who was playing such an evil trick on her and why.

But, sleep first. Sleep was her friend, almost a lover, and now she needed to mate with it, become one and just disappear for a time.

Disappearing sounded perfect right now.

CHAPTER FOUR

It wasn’t until the next afternoon that it occurred to her she should perhaps call the police and tell them she was being harassed. It seemed like a good idea for exactly fifteen seconds and then the reality of it slammed home. The cops wouldn’t do shit. They never did. Even if someone was physically threatening her, they probably wouldn’t do anything about it. She had no faith in the system, which was only in place to protect the guilty and punish the innocent. No faith in cops, most of whom only became cops in order to bully people and make themselves feel superior.

Karen was on her own but she didn’t think she was completely helpless. She didn’t have to take this harassment. She could try to figure out what was going on, try and make it stop, find out who was behind it and why.

The more she thought about it though, the more she drew a blank. She could think of absolutely no one who would want to pull this kind of prank, couldn’t even think of a single motive for such a thing.

Frustrated, she called and left a message for her parents saying a work thing had come up — a deadline for a short story — and she wouldn’t be able to make the birthday gathering after all.

She was relieved she didn’t have to talk to her mother in person. The woman would almost certainly have sensed the lie and pressured Karen to come clean and then proceed to guilt her into attending the birthday dinner, whether she wanted to or not.

That done, she went into her kitchen to brew coffee and took a mug of it into her office with her so she could do Internet searches on her PC. She didn’t quite have the courage yet to touch the laptop, fearing the same message would start popping up all over again.

Sipping coffee, she did her best to dig up info on Sean, which consisted of a few articles in Washington newspapers about his going missing without a trace. She found nothing she didn’t already know.

Next, she searched for anything regarding his partner, Rory Luden, and also turned up next to nothing, except that he was a summer school teacher of social studies in Indigo Bend, Washington, and often traveled to Spokane to run marathons. He had no personal website she could find and, from what she could gather, was about as private a person as she herself was. Of course, being a gay man living in East Bum Fuck Nowhere could have had something to do with that. She doubted the lumber town he called home could be an easy place to be gay in. Most small towns, she knew, were filled with less than liberal minds.

Though she continued to turn up nothing, she kept searching anyway. It wasn’t until her coffee had grown cold that she sat back with a sigh and admitted maybe she couldn’t find anything because there was nothing to find.

Drumming her fingers on the desk, she wracked her brain, doing her best to remember any friends Sean had had before he moved away to the Northwest.

She could think of no one. Even his high school friends remained elusive in her mind. She just hadn’t paid much attention to them at the time.

Maybe her mother would remember some of them, she thought. But asking her mom would be opening up a whole new can of worms to wade through.

“Fuck,” she whispered, reluctant to give up so soon.

After several minutes of trying to think her way out of the box, she decided to give it a break. Work on her novel for a while. That at least would cheer her up some.

She clicked off the Internet and went into her Microsoft Word program, opening the file called DMASQUE and scrolling down to where she had left off the last time she’d worked on it. Her eyes flicked over the words, rereading what she’d written as she grabbed her mug for a sip of coffee. The instant the liquid touched her lips, she grimaced. There was nothing worse than cold coffee, as far as she was concerned.

A new cup was in order. She went to the kitchen, refilled the mug from the still warm carafe, nuked it a minute for good measure, then returned to her office, chilly hands wrapped around the hot porcelain.

The mug tumbled from her hands, splashing her lower body with hot coffee, but Karen barely noticed.

On the screen, the words TWO MEN HAVE THE CARCASS were repeated endlessly on the page, the cursor blinking at the end of an unfinished line: TWO MEN.

Still, Karen did not scream. She sank to her knees, a squeak of confusion escaping her throat.

She was losing her mind.

That was the only explanation that made sense. Hallucinating, maybe. Or asleep. This could be a dream.

She clung to that thought like the victim of a shipwreck clinging to a rotten wooden board in a vast black sea, no moon, no stars, no land in sight.

Just sleeping. Dreaming. A very bad dream, but still just a dream.

On the floor, she curled into the fetal position and closed her eyes, lips moving silently, repeating the word “Asleep” over and over, until she finally was.

When she awoke, she realized she was cold and wet. Sitting up, she remembered everything and saw that she had curled up on the floor in a puddle of coffee, among broken shards of the mug she’d dropped.

Running a hand over her mouth, she stared suspiciously through the dark up at her computer monitor. It was blank.

No matter.

She knew what she had to do now.

Whether Sean was dead or alive didn’t matter anymore. She had to find him. That was what her subconscious had been trying to tell her with all its sleight of hand tricks. Trying to wake her up to the reality of the situation. No one was doing anything to find her brother — or his remains, if that turned out to be the case. Everyone had given up, even her parents. But Karen couldn’t give up. Didn’t want to, though if anyone had said this to her a few days before, she would have scoffed and said, “The past is the past. We can’t wallow in it.” And she believed that still, but now she knew the situation with Sean wasn’t the past at all. It was the present. It would only be the past once he was found and buried, if that’s what it came to. Otherwise, it would continue to haunt her.

She couldn’t allow that. She needed to know the truth. And there was only one place she could go to find it: Fallen Trees, Washington. Sean’s last known residence, his last known connection to the world and the people in his life. Groaning at the stiffness in her body, Karen got to her feet, massaging the back of her neck with one hand. She would clean up the coffee and broken mug later. Right now, she had a phone call to make.

In the living room, she clicked on a table lamp and found Rory’s phone number immediately, something that was a bit unusual for her in the chaotic state of her condo.

She picked up the phone and dialed the number she’d jotted down, suddenly certain the line would go dead or an automated voice would tell her the number had been disconnected, was no longer in service. Something.

But three thousand miles away in Washington State, a phone rang. It rang half a dozen times and just as Karen was about to hang up, frustrated there was no voicemail on which to leave a message, a groggy male voice said, “Hello?”

“Rory?”

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

“It’s Karen Lewis.” She waited for his reply, but received none. “Sean’s sister.”

“I know,” he said. “Do you realize what time it is?”

She glanced at the clock. “It’s five AM. Which would make it…” She tried to calculate the time difference.

“Two o’clock,” he answered for her and sighed loudly. Maybe he was yawning.

With her free hand, she scratched her forehead. “Sorry. I didn’t think about the time.”

Rory cleared his throat and Karen heard the rustle of bed sheets. “What can I do for you, Karen?”

“I want to come out there,” she said. “See the B&B. Meet you. See where my brother lived.”

More silence on the other end of the line. Finally, sounding genuinely confused, he asked, “Why?”

“Wouldn’t you? If you were in my shoes?”

“I…yeah, I guess so. But—”

“No. No buts. I have to do this, Rory.” She hesitated, reluctant to show any weakness. “It would mean a lot to me.”

Rory didn’t say anything for a long time, long enough to make Karen suspect he’d hung up on her. At last, he asked, “What about your parents?”

“What about them?”

“Do they know you plan to come out?”

“No.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way, if you can. That’s one headache I don’t need.”

She ignored the implication that she was a headache to him and said, “That’s fine. I have no intention of telling them anything. They probably won’t even know I’m out of town.”

“How long do you intend to stay?”

“I have no idea,” she said honestly. “However long it takes, I suppose.”

“However long what takes?”

She thought about it. “I’m not sure. I guess I’ll know when I get there.”

Once more, his silence revealed more to her than words ever could.

“I won’t be any trouble,” she said. “At least, I’ll try not to be.”

“Okay,” he replied, the reluctance in his voice all too obvious. “Just don’t expect much.”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean the house. It’s not quite finished.”

“Oh, I don’t care about that. I probably won’t want to spend more than a few hours looking the place over.”

“You don’t understand,” he said slowly. “The house is in the middle of the forest. The road doesn’t even go all the way up to it. You have to hike onto the property.”

She was somewhat taken aback by this new information. “Jesus. You really are out in the boonies then.”

“That’s one way of putting it. But, I’m down in the town now. I have a small house I rent. You’re welcome to the sofa if you like, but I’m telling you, getting to the house is a pain in the ass. If you go up there, you won’t want to hike back down the same day, especially now that it’s getting darker earlier. And colder.”

She chuckled uneasily. “You make it sound like it’s on the moon.”

“It may as well be. There’s hot water and electricity, but no phone lines.”

“That’s no problem. I’ll bring my cell.”

It was Rory’s turn to laugh. “And no cell towers either.”

“Oh. Well…I’m sure I’ll make do. I’m not one for much company anyway.”

“Good, because you won’t find it up there. I haven’t been there myself for about a week.”

“I see.” They were silent for a few moments, and then Karen wanted to get to the practicalities. “So…where should I fly into?”

He sniffed. “Spokane. Call me back when you book a flight. I’ll pick you up.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I can take a cab.”

He laughed again. “To Fallen Trees? No, I’ll pick you up.”

“Ok, then,” she said, doing her best to sound friendly and appreciative. “I’ll call you back with the info once I get it.”

“Cool. And Karen?”

“Yeah?”

“Pack something warm.”

She smiled. “Will do. Go back to sleep.”

“I heard that,” he said.

She disconnected long enough to dig out the phone number of her travel agent. No phone service, she thought. Out in the middle of nowhere. No people around. What she had initially found slightly alarming was now sounding more and more appealing to her.

Think of it as a writer’s retreat, she thought. If nothing else, maybe I’ll be able to finish my novel.

Suddenly in a better mood than she had been before calling Rory, she went to clean up the mess in her office, then shower and call the travel agent.

The day brightened around her and the unease that had been plaguing her — words like carcass and men—began to fade a bit. Not completely. They were still there, somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach, but she did her best to ignore them and, for the most part, was successful.

CHAPTER FIVE

The cross-country non-stop flight was uneventful and Karen spent most of it buried in the laptop she’d forced herself to bring/carry/open/work on. She drank several glasses of white wine and became completely lost in her fictitious world, barely glancing up when the captain announced the time and weather in Spokane. It wasn’t until the captain insisted everyone shut off all electrical devices that she closed the computer and looked around at her traveling companions, a dazed expression on her face.

It was Tuesday, 5:50 pm PST.

She was surprised by how dark and cold it was when she crossed the tarmac, canvas bag slung over one shoulder, computer bag slung over the other.

Rory had said he would meet her in baggage claim and not to worry about the fact that she had no idea what he looked like.

“I’ll know you,” he’d said over the phone. “I’ve seen pictures.”

She was surprised to hear Sean even owned any pictures from his past life, never mind actually showed them to people.

Once she arrived at baggage claim, she felt odd and conspicuous. He could have been anyone, watching her from afar or standing right beside her. For the first time, she began to wonder about the wisdom in traveling across the country to meet a man she didn’t know, had only spoken to on the phone, both times only briefly.

“Karen,” a voice spoke from behind her.

She turned, already smiling politely.

Rory Luden was quite handsome, as she’d known he would be. Maybe mid-thirties, tall, receding dark blond hair, blue eyes, and the full lips of a movie star. He held out his hand. “I’m Rory. Good to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Karen said as they shook, eyeing another man who stood beside Rory regarding her quizzically.

“This is my friend, Saul,” Rory said. “He just came along for the ride.”

Saul was shorter than Rory, darker and stockier. “Nice to meet you,” Karen said, inwardly cringing. Now she was about to get into a car with two strange men. This instantly brought back the phrase that had been taunting her: Two men have the carcass.

Were these the two men?

She tried to keep her face neutral while her mind raced. Was her phone in the computer bag?

“You’re definitely a Lewis,” Saul told her, suddenly smiling with impossibly bright teeth. “I would have known it even if I didn’t know it.”

She looked at him blankly.

“You look just like your brother,” he explained, giving Rory a quick, concerned glance.

“That she does,” Rory agreed. “Can I take your bags for you?”

Maybe the phone was in the bag with her clothes and toiletries? “Uh…no, thank you. I’m fine.”

“You’re sure? They look pretty heavy.”

“You must be beat from the flight,” Saul added, reaching for the computer bag. “Let us help you.” He tugged the bag from her shoulder, their eyes meeting for an instant when she wouldn’t let the bag go. She saw something flash in those dark eyes. Suspicion? Offense? She couldn’t be sure…

And then Rory was helping himself to her other bag and she relented to both of them.

“Thank you,” she said awkwardly.

“The car isn’t too far,” Rory said and began walking towards the airport exit.

“I’ll even let you have shotgun.” Saul smiled at her from over his shoulder.

“Thanks.” Karen returned the smile weakly.

She trailed behind them slowly, doing her best to calm herself. She knew she was being ridiculous — at least, she hoped she was. After all, this Rory guy was someone who Sean had held very dear and though she and Sean were never what you’d call best friends, she thought she knew him pretty well.

But what proof do you have that these guys even knew Sean? This Rory character just called you up out of the blue. You’d never heard of him before. For all you know, this could be one of those writer/stalker deals. You could end up like that poor bastard in Misery.

This last thought made her laugh aloud, causing the men to turn back to her, their faces puzzled.

“Sorry,” she said. “I guess I’m a little jetlagged.”

“Been there, done that,” Saul said. “The time zones are a bitch.”

They were outside in the brisk air, crossing a crowded parking garage. Her breath puffed out before her in wispy plumes. The cold made her feel better, less claustrophobic and nervous. She took great gulps of it as discreetly as possible.

“We have to take an elevator up a couple of decks,” Rory said, aiming them towards the side of the garage.

This is it, she thought, now more amused by her wild imagination than actually frightened. If they’re gonna rape and murder you, it will probably be in the elevator. Another, less amused voice, responded: Not if they’re going to take you to some secluded house in the woods and torture you first. What if they’re into making snuff films, for Christ’s sake? You don’t know these guys from Adam.

Then, the most disturbing voice of all: Don’t forget, girly. Two men have the carcass.

It took every fiber of willpower in her body not to run screaming for the nearest exit. But part of her remained rational, knew she had seen way too many horror movies, read way too many horror books. Couple that with already having a vivid imagination, being in a very odd circumstance, and you were bound to breed paranoia.

At the elevator, Rory pushed the Up button and the three of them were joined by a middle-aged couple pulling suitcases behind themselves. The couple offered tired smiles to the trio but said nothing.

The five of them stepped into the elevator, Karen secretly breathing a sigh of relief, though she had no idea why she should. She was about to get into a car with these two strangers and be taken God knew where.

East Bum Fuck, remember?

Yes. East Bum Fuck. Where, for whatever reason, her brother had chosen to settle and live his life, far away from his past, in a place where it couldn’t touch him, no matter how long and spidery its fingers were.

On the third level of the parking garage, the men led her to an older model red Jeep Cherokee. Once she’d settled into the front passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt, she realized just how exhausted she was. It was tempting to just close her eyes and tell Rory to wake her when they arrived, but she fought against it.

“I’m anxious to see Fallen Trees,” she said, not liking the silence as Rory started the engine and drove out of the garage.

“We’re probably not going to get there tonight,” Rory said. “May as well just stay in Indigo Bend at Saul’s house. It’s a lot closer and you’ll have a room all to yourself. We’ll head up to Fallen Trees in the morning.”

Karen was surprised by this turn of events, but tried not to show it. “Sounds good to me,” she said, too tired to think of anything more conversational. She was beginning to relax and get a grip on her paranoia. After all, she had been the one to call Rory and tell him she was coming out, not the other way around. She was imposing herself on him, with little regard to how he felt about the situation. She simply hadn’t given him a choice in the matter. Rory turned the radio on. Soft jazz drifted from the speakers, further lulling Karen into relaxation. Gazing out at the night as it sped by, she took in as much of the scenery as the darkness allowed. This was her brother’s chosen place. His chosen state. She waited to see if she could feel his spirit here somehow, but after concentrating for several moments, all she could really feel was a chill.

“Would you mind turning on the heat?” she asked Rory.

“No problem.”

The Jeep’s heater kicked on and slowly her chill began to dissipate. She also began to wake up a little more. Unlike a lot of people she knew, it was the cold that made her sleepy, rather than warmth. She sat up straighter in her seat, watching the freeway unravel before them.

“Lots of trees,” she marveled aloud.

“Yeah, for now,” Rory said. “Can’t say what future Washington residents will have if the lumber companies have their way.”

Karen turned to look at him. “Oh?”

“The further away from the city we get, you’ll see what I mean.”

“Clear-cutting,” Saul put in from the backseat. “If you care anything at all about nature, the sight of it can break your heart.”

“What’s clear-cutting?” she asked.

Saul went on to explain to her the decimation of entire forests for the mighty buck. It was obvious how he felt about it: enraged. He talked for a long time and as he did so, Karen wondered if her brother had become an environmentalist while he’d been out here. Saul paused and she was just about to ask them that when Rory jumped in and announced, “Welcome to Indigo Bend, home of the Indy 500’s high school football team. They’re county champs.”

Karen nodded, trying to look impressed.

The town was dark as they drove along what appeared to be a main drag. Shops lined either side of the road, all locked up tight for the night.

“Things roll up early around here, I see,” she said.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Saul replied. “Except for a few bars. They stay open till at least two. Sometimes later, if the owner feels like it. No one pays much attention to the rules around here.”

“No police?” she asked.

Saul laughed. “Well, technically, yeah, we have a sheriff and a couple other bumblers in brown but dollars to donuts, all four of them are in one of the bars as we speak.”

Karen raised an eyebrow. “That must do wonders for your feelings of safety. I take it that means your neighborhood watches must be working double-time.”

He laughed again. “I guess you could say that, if your idea of a neighborhood watch is if someone gets woken up by hearing a raccoon tip over their trash can and comes running outside in their tighty-whities holding a shotgun and ready to blast away anything that moves.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Must be a pretty low raccoon population then, eh?”

This time the three of them laughed as Rory turned down a dark side street and, seconds later, pulled into a short driveway behind a Toyota pickup.

“Home, sweet home,” Saul said as Rory turned off the engine.

“That wasn’t too bad of a drive,” Karen remarked. “I figured we’d be on the road for hours.”

“One hour,” Rory said. “You probably didn’t notice since Saul was talking your ear off about clear-cutting and all the injustices humanity thrusts upon the natural world.”

“Hey, it’s important shit,” Saul said, climbing out of the Jeep. Rory and Karen followed suit, the guys grabbing her bags for her.

Saul’s house looked a little worse for wear, but was neat and small, a little clapboard number with a modest front porch.

“Watch your step,” Saul told her. “A couple of those slate slabs are cracked.”

She did as she was told, though she was more interested in the towering pine trees surrounding the house. Hell, they seemed to surround the entire town, or at least what she had seen of it on the drive in.

Before entering the house, she gave the autumn air one final sniff, relishing the pine scent and general cleanness of the place. If one could judge a town solely on its smell, then she could completely understand why Sean loved it here. There was something invigorating about it and she looked forward to seeing the place — as well as Fallen Trees — in the daylight.

CHAPTER SIX

Later that evening, the three of them sat on the front porch with mugs of Earl Grey spiked with whiskey. The air was chilly and through the towering pines they could see a starry sky hanging low and ominous.

“So, I take it you and Sean were close?” Saul asked Karen.

She sipped her tea. “When we were kids we were, yeah.”

“Huh.” Rory shifted in his chair. “He didn’t talk very much about his past. I got the feeling that…well, that you weren’t close at all.”

“I guess we drifted apart over the years,” she admitted. “I’m sure that was more my fault than his. I’m a bit of a loner these days.”

“Sean was never actually Mr. Sociable either,” Saul said.

Rory shot him a look. “He’s sociable enough.”

Karen couldn’t help but notice Rory’s tense slip. Did he believe Sean was out in the world somewhere? After all these months?

“Besides,” Rory went on, “The Lantern isn’t exactly the friendliest place on the planet. Unless you’re a native.” He looked at Karen. “And unless you were born here, you’re never a native.”

“It’s not that bad,” Rory assured her. “Saul is exaggerating, as usual.”

Amused, Karen smiled at them. The two seemed to have a rapport that went back a long time. More like brothers than friends and she said as much.

After clearing his throat, Rory said, “Why don’t you tell us more about Sean as a kid? That should be good for a laugh or two. You said you were close then?”

“Pretty close, I guess.” Karen gazed deep into the depths of her mug. “Sean was always a shy kid. And small for his age. I remember being very overprotective of him when we were young. The other kids were always giving him a hard time in school. We used to have a connection back then. It was really quite odd. Whenever he was in trouble, I just, somehow…knew.”

She let herself be carried away by the nearly faded memories, amazed at how long it had been since she’d thought about her childhood with her brother. Rory and Saul didn’t interrupt as she told them about one day in particular. A spring when she was twelve and Sean was ten.

She’d been walking home from another day at South Junior High School, swinging her backpack, lost inside a story she’d been making up in her head to pass the time when she’d suddenly thought of Sean and a feeling of dread had overcome her. Without giving it a second thought, she’d reversed direction and began running towards the elementary school where she knew Sean was. He’d joined the school choir that year and had been staying late to practice with them.

Karen had no idea what was happening to her brother — only that he was in trouble and needed her and, sure enough, when she’d reached the school, having raced around to the back where the cafeteria was, she found a group of about six boys outside surrounding him, shoving him back and forth between them.

“Hey!” Karen had shouted as she ran towards them. “Leave him alone!”

And then the pack had turned on her instead, one of them going so far as to jump on her back, trying to bring her down.

It was that day Karen had learned that kicking a boy in the crotch, as her father had advised under such circumstances, was not nearly as easy in execution as it was in theory. Males, even at that early age, had already mastered the twist and block and she wasn’t able to land even a single kick that found its target.

The boys, jeering and taunting, calling Sean “faggot” and herself “dyke” and “whore,” had continued their assault until a teacher on his way to his car in the nearby parking lot had finally put an end to it.

Karen had been enraged by the end, while Sean struggled not to cry, and together they’d walked home, bruised but more humiliated than hurt.

To make matters worse, the parent of one of the boys had called their mother and complained that Karen had attempted to beat him up while hurling insults at him.

Both she and Sean had vehemently denied the accusation, trying to tell their side of the story, but their mother had wanted to hear none of it and Karen had been punished.

Drinking down the rest of her tea, she was surprised to find herself angry all over again when she’d finished relating the story to Saul and Rory. It seemed to sum up her entire relationship with her parents. She remembered now why she didn’t like to dwell on her past and at least partly why that relationship had always been strained to the point of breaking.

She did her best to put her parents out of her mind and focus solely on Sean and other examples of their seemingly psychic connection.

All the times Sean had run away from home, it had been his sister who always knew where to find him, no matter how often he changed his hiding place.

When he’d been sad or scared or worried, Karen had known, even when she hadn’t been in his presence, and she’d gone to him to soothe or comfort him, to ease his mind in the best way another child could.

Lost in these thoughts, she spoke in the same way she wrote — forgetting where she was until it was time to breathe again. Then she looked around as if she’d just woken up from a long sleep, surprised to find herself in the company of others, blinking like a person coming up from a state of hypnosis.

After a long moment, Saul said, “Wow. That was a hell of a story.” He looked at Rory. “Did you know about any of this?”

Rory shook his head, looking nearly as dazed as Karen. “I wish I had.”

“Too bad you weren’t here when Sean first disappeared,” Saul said to Karen. “Maybe that ‘psychic connection’ would have done us some good.”

But Karen was skeptical. “I doubt it. Like I said, Sean and I kind of lost that connection after a while.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Rory said in a scoffing tone. “There’s no such thing as a psychic connection anyway.”

Saul ignored him, keeping his attention on Karen. “It reminds me of what you sometimes read about twins. How they always know when the other is upset and can sometimes even feel the pain the other is feeling.”

“Well,” she said, “I never felt his physical pain, but other than that, I guess it’s a pretty good comparison to make.”

“Did it go both ways? Could he sense when you were upset?”

“Not as much. At least he didn’t share it if he could. I always assumed that was because I was older and was expected by my parents to be his protector.”

“Interesting,” Saul replied.

The three of them fell into a silence then, each thinking his or her own thoughts about Sean and the boy or man he had been. Several minutes passed and then Saul got to his feet. “I think I need a refill,” he said. “This time maybe with a little more whiskey than tea. Can I get more for either of you guys?”

Karen and Rory both handed over their mugs and agreed to another round. It wasn’t until he had gone back inside that Karen saw Rory staring off into the woods, his eyes glistening. She sat forward in her chair and touched his knee.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head sadly. “I just can’t believe he didn’t tell me some of this stuff.”

“Maybe…” she began, uncertain of what she was going to say until the words were tumbling out of her mouth. “Maybe he didn’t want to think about those days any more than I did. I wouldn’t take it personally. He just had a rough time back then.”

“I’m not talking about mean parents or school bullies. I’m talking about you. Being his protector.” Rory sniffed loudly but refused to let any tears fall. “I thought that was my role. I mean…I thought I was the only one who he’d ever…” He trailed off, his eyes hardening.

“Who he’d ever needed?” she guessed.

He nodded. “You have no idea how hard we looked for him when he first disappeared. How hard I looked. Search parties. Private investigators. Posters, T-shirts, bumper stickers. The whole nine yards. And when everyone said it was hopeless…when everyone else had given up, I still soldiered on alone. I looked everywhere I could think of. I even contacted his old boyfriends that I knew about. Hell, I’m still looking for him. In every stranger’s face I see, on the goddamn television…I just don’t know what else to do.”

Rory finally broke down then, leaning over and sobbing into his hands.

Karen got up and sat in the chair Saul had previously occupied, stroking Rory’s back silently. She knew there were no words she could say to calm him and didn’t even attempt it.

Eventually Saul returned with their mugs and when he saw what was happening, he too said nothing. Just handed Karen her drink while setting Rory’s on the porch floor beside his chair and waited for the flood of tears to abate.

The wait seemed long, but neither Saul nor Karen complained. Instead, they watched the sky darken around them while the air grew chillier and the sound of a man weeping slowly subsided.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The morning dawned gray and wet, as mornings in the Northwest often do. The smell of coffee tickled Karen’s nose as she opened her eyes, momentarily confused by the sight of the faded floral wallpaper all around her. Then she remembered: she was in Washington, in some guy named Saul’s tiny spare bedroom. The room could barely contain the twin bed and a scarred wooden dresser against one wall.

She sat up, inhaled the luscious coffee scent, and looked out the one window at the overcast day. She could see pines, of course, and not much else. Just a corner of the house next door.

At first she was amazed by the total and complete silence of her surroundings, but as she pricked her ears she was able to hear murmurings coming from beyond the bedroom door. The guys were obviously up and trying to keep their voices low so as not to disturb their guest.

After a long, leisurely stretch, she tossed the covers aside and hopped out of bed, anxious to begin the day and see the B&B at last. She wished the spare bedroom came with its own private bath, but in a house so small, she wasn’t particularly surprised that it didn’t.

No matter. She wasn’t the kind of woman who slept in slinky nightgowns anyway. She wore a pair of old blue boxers and a Boston Red Sox T-shirt.

She dug around in her bag for her toothbrush and exited the room, which was just off the kitchen.

Rory and Saul were seated at a round kitchen table, each drinking coffee from non-matching ceramic mugs. Boys after my own heart, she thought, giving them a sleepy smile. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Rory said, raising his cup to her. “Coffee’s on if you drink it.”

“I have tea too, if you’d prefer that,” Saul said.

“Oh, I’m a coffee gal,” she said. “I couldn’t function without it.”

The men exchanged a smile and she looked at them wonderingly. “Just like Sean,” Rory explained. “He drank coffee almost non-stop. Even if it was eleven o’clock at night, he had to have his java.”

“Huh,” she said, trying to remember if this little detail about her brother was one she’d already known or if it was news to her.

“Hope you don’t mind organic toothpaste,” Saul interrupted her thought, gesturing at the pink toothbrush she held.

She smiled again. “That’s fine. I’m ashamed I forgot to brush last night. I can’t remember the last time that happened.”

“You were pretty wiped,” Rory said, getting up to refill his mug. “Do you take cream and sugar in your coffee?”

“Soy creamer and raw sugar,” Saul said, as if this were extremely important information.

“Perfect,” she said. “I guess I’ll take a shower first, though, if that’s okay.”

“Of course.” Saul rose from his chair. “I’ll just get you some fresh towels.”

She thanked him yet again before returning to her room for her bag and fresh clothes.

After a quick shower, she was even more anxious to get going but managed to sit still with the men and enjoy the coffee waiting for her when she emerged from the bathroom, hair damp and smelling of fresh peaches. By the time everyone was ready to hit the road it was just after nine AM. She was convinced this was a new record for her, as she usually didn’t get out of bed before eleven.

Once more piled into the Jeep, they began their trek to Fallen Trees in good spirits, talking animatedly about each of their various occupations. She was surprised when Rory told her that in addition to his summer school duties he also owned the one and only bar in Fallen Trees, The Lantern.

“It was called The Juniper Lantern when I bought the place ten years ago, but I shortened it, ‘cause I thought the name might sound more faggy with a fag running it.” Both he and Saul laughed heartily at this. “Anyway, now with the B&B in the works, the townsfolk are joking that pretty soon I’ll own half of Fallen Trees.”

“The bar does pretty good then?” Karen asked.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I don’t think we have a single non-drinker in the whole place. Pretty much everyone comes into The Lantern at least once a day, even if it’s just to talk to someone else.”

“If they leave their house at all,” Saul added, “They’re in the Lantern.”

Karen turned in her seat to look at him. “You’re there a lot too, huh?”

“The Lantern? Sometimes.”

She grinned at him. “I meant Fallen Trees.”

“Ohhhh,” he laughed again. If there was one thing she was learning about Saul, it was that he was the quickest person to laugh or smile she’d ever known in her entire life. “Well, I’m there when Rory wants me there. I’m a contractor by trade, so I’ve been helping him out with the B&B.”

“Ah,” she said. “So, just how rugged is this place? I know you said there’s no phone service…”

“It’s not that bad, really,” Rory said. “Just needs some fairly minor repairs throughout the house. New paint in every room. It’s mostly the road up that needs the most work. No one has used it in something like thirty years so it’s completely overgrown. A bunch of trees have fallen across it that need to be removed. Stuff like that.”

“That’s why it’s hard to get to, huh?”

“That would be why, yep.”

“Could be a benefit once we open the joint though,” Saul said. “If you want privacy, it’s definitely the place to be.”

“Yeah,” Rory agreed. “You won’t find anywhere more private than in there.”

“Sounds like the perfect writer’s retreat,” Karen said, voicing her earlier thoughts.

She saw Rory look in the rearview mirror and exchange a glance with Saul. Then he said, “Well, when we’re all settled and open up, you’re more than welcome to come stay with us.”

“Be quite a trek from New York, though,” Saul said.

“Boston,” Rory told him. “She’s from Boston.”

“Right. Boston. Hey, I was close. I got the coast right.”

Rory looked at Karen briefly. “Everyone out here thinks the whole East Coast is New York. You’ll get used to it.” She laughed and reached for a water bottle for a sip. Saul had made sure each of them had received one before vacating his house.

“That’s okay,” she said, recapping the bottle. “When people back East think of the West Coast, it’s pretty much just California they’re thinking of. California and earthquakes.”

As they drove, the more woodsy their surroundings became. The houses and businesses became fewer until there were none visible from the road.

Saul leaned forward, poking his head out from between the front seats. “Spooky, huh?” Karen nodded, watching the trees as they sped by. They seemed to grow taller and thicker the further they went, just as the day around them grew more gloomy, a thick white fog settling across the land.

“The incline isn’t enough to notice,” Rory said, “But we’re climbing in elevation.”

“Is it always like this?” she asked.

“Only about nine months out of the year,” Rory replied in such a tone that Karen was unsure if he was joking or not.

“Wow,” she said.

“Just be thankful it’s not raining,” Saul said. “Yet.”

Karen knew the Northwest was known for its drenching winters, but she didn’t mind the rain as much as most people did. Most days she found it soothing and enjoyed writing while listening to the rain and wind pelting her windows and roof. She also liked going to sleep to the sound of rain, but she was uncertain of how she’d react to months upon months with no sunshine in sight. She supposed even the biggest rain lover might find it tedious and depressing after a while.

“They say the Northwest has the highest suicide rate in the country,” Saul said.

Rory groaned. “Don’t go telling her shit like that, Saul.” To Karen he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, Saul is a bit of a gloomy Gus.”

“Hey, it’s a fact,” Saul said. “The world can be an ugly place, especially when people are involved.”

Karen kept her mouth shut, uncertain of how to take that statement. Rory shook his head in dismay. It was clear he had heard it all before and was getting bored with it.

They traveled in silence for several miles, the woods around them growing in density, the fog not dissipating in the slightest. After a long while, Saul spoke from the backseat again, his voice low. “You should tell her about the house, Rory.”

Rory frowned, shifted in his seat, and said nothing.

Karen silently counted to ten before asking, “What about the house?”

Sighing, Rory leaned forward, clicked on the radio. He searched the airwaves for nearly a minute trying to find something that wasn’t static. Frustrated, he snapped if off again. “The house has a bit of an ugly history,” he said abruptly, waving his right hand dismissively. “Ancient history. Nothing to worry about.”

“Unless you ask some of the locals,” Saul put in.

Glancing over his shoulder, Rory’s eyes shot daggers into the backseat at his friend. He faced front again, his expression grim. “Yeah, some of the locals can be a little whacko sometimes.”

“Whacko how?” Karen asked.

“They believe in curses,” Saul said. “For starters. They never wanted anyone to buy that old house and they’ve been giving Rory a lot of shit for it. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to burn the place down, actually.”

“They probably would,” Rory stated. “If they weren’t afraid the whole forest would go up with it.”

“Most of them won’t even go up there.”

“Well,” Karen said. “You said it was a long hike.”

“These aren’t the kind of people who are afraid of long walks in the woods,” Rory said. “They just hate the house.”

“Even though none of them are old enough to have even been alive when…when what happened, happened.” Saul was starting to sound a little spooked himself. “They just know the stories their grandparents told them.”

Karen waited patiently to hear the stories, but both men had fallen silent. She chewed her lip for a while before blurting, “Well, what happened?”

Rory cleared his throat and said, “Good job bringing this up, Saul. Appreciate it.”

“Hey, I was just making conversation,” Saul replied.

Karen said, “You guys are gonna make me run around this tiny town asking the locals about it? What, is it supposed to be haunted or something?”

“Or something,” Rory said. “It’s the guy that built it back in 1866. He was…a little…how should I put this delicately?”

“He was a sick bastard,” Saul jumped to the rescue. “Really fucked in the head.”

“Well, that was delicate,” Rory groaned.

Karen laughed. “Sick, huh? Like, how? Sacrificing virgins? Goats? Praying to the devil? Thinking he was the devil?”

Rory glanced at her sideways.

She shrugged. “Hey, I write fiction and I’ve seen a lot of horror movies.”

“Well…” he replied, before trailing off.

“Kind of,” Saul said. “I mean, something like that.”

“A devil worshipper?” She couldn’t keep the amusement out of her voice. “That’s all you got for me?”

Neither of them responded as the Jeep approached a crossroads and Rory made a left turn.

“It’s all nonsense,” he said at last. “Just a bunch of folks telling ghost stories to keep their kids from wandering into the woods to smoke weed or get laid or whatever it is that kids do these days.”

“Drink beer,” Saul added helpfully.

“Yeah, drink beer,” Rory repeated, turning his head towards Karen and nodding in agreement.

She thought about this for a moment before responding. “But, Saul said they’re giving you a hard time for buying the place. That sounds like more than people just wanting to put a scare into their kids.”

“I don’t know,” Rory said, sounding frustrated. “Maybe they think opening the B&B will give the kids a destination.”

She nodded silently, but didn’t believe him. She knew there was more to the story than what Rory was telling but decided to let it go for now. She didn’t want to upset the guy and besides, she was only here to check out where her brother had been; nothing more. She had no real notion of actually estimating the value of the old house or anything like that. She couldn’t have cared less about Sean’s handwritten will, to the point where it never even occurred to her to ask to see it. All she wanted was to feel close to her brother one last night, put the nightmares to rest, if that was possible. See through his eyes if she could.

It was strange, but sitting in this car with these two men, these virtual strangers, riding down an old road cut through a thick and rolling forest, it was the nearest she’d been to her brother in almost five years. And, she realized with some dismay, that it was the first time she really felt his absence, a vacant spot located somewhere in her chest, in her heart and in her mind.

For the first time she actually missed the little shit. Missed him with a deep pounding ache that caused tears to spring unexpectedly to her eyes. She turned away from Rory, pretended to be fascinated by the passing trees.

Sean, her mind screamed. Where the fuck are you?

CHAPTER EIGHT

They rolled into the town of Fallen Trees a little after noon, all three of them anxious to get out of the Jeep, stretch, and find a bathroom, which was their main reason for stopping in the town proper at all.

Rory parked the Jeep in front of The Lantern and they walked inside single file, like weary time-travelers eager to find their way back home.

The men were greeted with many hellos from bar patrons and a young pretty waitress Saul introduced as Nikki.

Karen smiled politely, said “Hi, nice to meet you,” and then made a beeline for the restroom.

When she came back out, the guys were seated at the bar and she was mildly annoyed to see that Saul now had a mug of beer in front of him. As she approached, he grinned at her and said, “All that driving makes a man thirsty.”

“I can see that.”

She slipped onto the stool beside him, putting herself between him and Rory, who, she was happy to note, was not drinking a beer, but talking in low tones to the bartender, an older guy with gray hair, dressed in jeans and a red flannel shirt.

“Well, Rory,” the bartender was saying, “You know that shipment of salmon was supposed to be here this morning. Come dinner time, you’re gonna have a lot of hungry folks wanting their fish and getting all the more cranky the longer they have to wait for it.”

“I’ll call the distributor right away, Mike,” Rory assured the guy. “I don’t know why you didn’t leave a message on my cell about this.”

“I tried,” the man insisted. “But it just kept saying you weren’t available. You know how I feel about those dang unreliable things.”

“Mike hates technology,” Saul whispered into Karen’s ear and gave her a mischievous smile before taking a gulp of his beer.

“You’re damn right Mike does,” Mike said loudly, turning to them. “I’m only sixty-six, Saul. I ain’t deaf yet.”

Karen cracked up as Saul made a show of trying to hide behind her.

“You can’t trust those gadgets,” Mike said to Karen, as if they’d been lifelong pals. “Mark my words, those things’ll let you down when you need ‘em most. A good old-fashioned solid telephone line you can actually touch. That’s what I like. None of this satellite bullshit.”

“Okay, Mike,” Saul said. “We get the picture. No cell phones for you.”

Mike scowled at him before returning his attention to Rory.

“He thinks he’s Paul Bunyan,” Saul said, raising his voice so the whole bar could hear.

Karen gazed around the place. There were two booths by the front plate-glass window and another two against the back wall. About three tables with chairs were set up in the middle of the room on the far side of a lone pool table and exactly six stools in front of the bar. “This is a pretty small place,” she said.

“Yeah, but you should see it come six o’clock,” Saul said. “The whole frigging town shows up. Standing room only.”

“And I take it they serve food?” She referred to the conversation Mike was having with Rory.

“Mostly just burgers and potato salad. Occasionally something special will come in, like salmon or lamb or some shit. Place goes crazy on those nights. They’re like a bunch of rabid hungry dogs. Not that I’m one to insult dogs. You want a beer?”

“Um…no.” She’d seriously had to think about it. A beer was sounding pretty good, but she didn’t want to stay here any longer than they had to. “I’d really just like to get to the house as soon as possible.”

This statement caused a cloud to pass over Saul’s face and he made no reply, choosing instead to concentrate on the contents of his frosty mug.

Karen took the time to study the people. There were about ten of them in all, a few seated at the bar, drinking, a few more shooting pool and two couples in the booths. They all looked vaguely the same as Mike the bartender. Flannel shirts, jeans, work boots. They looked like a hearty bunch, the kind of people used to hard work and hard winters, all pale-skinned as if they never saw the sun, and living up here, Karen supposed that was the truth. A good portion of the men sported heavy beards while the women wore haggard looks. Most of them were staring back at Karen with curiosity. Some stared with unmistakable suspicion, though she didn’t think it was her per se. She thought it was because she was with Rory and Saul. She got the distinct feeling they were outsiders here — tolerated, but probably not much more than that.

The guys themselves seemed oblivious to the scrutinizing eyes. Most likely they were so used to it, it no longer fazed them.

“Well,” Rory said, slipping off the stool. “I’d love to stay here and haggle with you all day, Mike, but we have places to be.”

Mike’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going up there, aren’t you?”

“We are,” Rory confirmed. “Drink down that brew, Saul. I want to get up there before four.”

“What happens at four?” Karen asked. She was surprised when it was Mike who answered her.

“Gets dark,” he said. “Dark as a damn womb up there.”

Karen raised her eyebrows. “Well, that sounds pretty dark.”

Mike remained grim as Saul drained the mug and slapped a five on the counter. “For you, my good man,” he said to Mike with an exaggerated British accent. “And all your kind hospitality.”

The bartender grunted at him, scooped up the bill and then turned his back on them, pretending to take a sudden interest on the bottles lined up behind him.

Back outside, Karen did her best to make her voice low and spooky. “Dark as a woooomb!” Saul laughed, but Rory remained serious, climbing into the driver’s seat without even cracking a smile. Karen assumed it was because he was irritated about the salmon delivery, or lack thereof.

Inside the Jeep once more, she said, “Interesting crowd in there. I got the feeling they don’t care much for outsiders.”

“They’re automatically leery of strangers,” Saul said as Rory started the engine and pulled out onto the road.

“Why is that?” she asked.

Saul shrugged. “Small town. They’re used to knowing everybody. It’s nothing personal.” Rory snapped the radio on and a strong male voice boomed out of the speakers. “…carcass.”

Karen felt her blood turn to ice-water, her eyes widening, staring at the radio.

The voice continued: “So, if anyone wants a nice fat venison steak, give old Mac Gershon a buzz and tell him to put you down for some. That buck was a big one.” The voice stopped talking and a second later Miles Davis oozed out into the air like a long swallow of fine, smoky whiskey.

Rory opened his mouth to say something, glancing at Karen. Whatever he was about to say, he abruptly changed his mind when he saw her paper-white face. “Are you okay?”

She continued to watch the radio as if waiting for it to sprout a hand and grab her knee.

“Karen?” Rory said. He snapped his fingers in front of her face.

She flinched, her eyes darting from the radio to Rory’s face. “That man on the radio…”

Perplexed, he said, “Yeah, that’s Terry King. He’s the town DJ. What’s the matter?”

She thought about it, thought about telling him about the dream, if that’s what it had been. The words on her computer screen. But in the end, she just shook her head and said, “Nothing. He just sounded familiar for a second.”

Rory nodded, though his eyes remained concerned and he shot Saul a look via the rearview.

It took them less than ten minutes to get to what appeared to Karen to be an old utility road that hadn’t been used in at least a decade. Rory turned onto the road, bumping over clumps of earth and stone before setting the tires into the twin ruts that made the actual road.

Karen rubbed her face with both hands, suddenly drained and wondering just what the hell she was doing out here in Washington. She should be back home, working on the new book, drinking coffee during the day, wine at night. Relishing her solitude and privacy, not having to be social with anyone. Living her perfect little hermit life instead of tooling around in the woods hoping to find a hint of who her lost brother might have been. What really happened to him…

Then it occurred to her: This whole trip, this town and its people. There might actually be a story in here somewhere. Maybe not a novel; maybe just a short story, six or seven thousand words. But still…inspiration was everywhere. And she hadn’t even seen the house yet.

Maybe, just maybe, this entire trip wouldn’t be a waste, even if she didn’t find a single thread of information about Sean. The whole haunted house angle could turn into something, she was sure. And ever since childhood, she’d loved a good haunted house tale and had wanted to try her hand at one. Why not now? It could be fun and she might even be able to get her publisher to foot the bill. She could say she was on a research trip.

Forgetting all about the guy on the radio, she sat up straighter in her seat, began looking at the passing forest with new, writer’s eyes. Taking in as much as she could, trying to commit certain things to memory. A big boulder on the side of the road, a white spray-painted skull and cross-bones decorating its face. The impossible greenness of this new world, so unlike New England in autumn. The thick gabardine-gray of the sky, mostly blotted out by the overhanging pine branches, some of which had been sheared off in one storm or another and lay in the road, causing the Jeep to bump and lurch and jostle the passengers within. Lost in thought, she didn’t even notice as they approached a huge downed tree blocking the road.

“Well, this is where the hike begins,” Rory said, jolting Karen out of her thoughts. Her mouth fell open when she saw the size of the fallen tree.

“Holy shit,” she said. “It’s as wide as a school bus.”

“Yeah,” Rory agreed. “And probably in the vicinity of five centuries old.”

She gaped at him. “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope,” Saul put in, climbing out of the Jeep. “She was probably the grand old madam of this forest until something fierce ate away her roots until she couldn’t hold on to the earth anymore.” His tone was one of sadness, as if he were talking about a much loved aunt who had succumbed to a devastating disease.

Rory and Karen emerged from the vehicle and went around to the back of the Jeep to pull out their various bags. Saul stood beside the downed tree, his face thoughtful.

A moment later the other two joined him and the three stood silent, gazing down at the old tree as if looking at a fresh grave. All around them, the forest was silent. Perhaps it too, was in mourning. She and Rory waited while Saul went and retrieved his own bags from the Jeep before coming back and leaping onto the dead tree in a single bound. He grinned down at them, his time of bereavement over, as though he’d paid his respects and was now moving on with his life.

“Imagine climbing this old lady when she was still standing. Probably could have seen all the way into Idaho.”

Then he hopped down the other side, a little boy excited to get on with the adventure. As she followed, Karen wondered why he seemed so enthusiastic all of a sudden, when he was clearly ambivalent about their final destination. When she questioned him, however, his response made as much sense as it could have.

“I’m not thinking about the house,” he said. “I need to take a piss.”

And with that he darted off into the woods.

“You should have gone before we left The Lantern,” Rory called after him.

Saul ignored him, disappearing behind a fat blue spruce.

Shaking his head, Rory looked at Karen and said, “Kids, huh?”

She smiled, glad to see the ride had improved his mood somewhat.

A minute later, Saul emerged, yanking up his zipper. “Whew,” he said. “Damn beer.”

CHAPTER NINE

The hike took over two hours, what with all the stumbling and climbing over more downed trees and wading through foliage allowed to grow wild for decades. Huge ferns and bramble bushes did their best to keep the trio from moving forward but move forward they did, Karen taking mental notes all the while.

It was because she was paying such close attention to her surroundings that she noticed the crows at all. There seemed to be an abundance of them — roosting in the pines all around them, walking around on the ground just past the tree line. A few flapping by above them, taking off from one branch to land on another further up the road.

She made a face, trying to recall what crows were symbolic of in literature. She couldn’t think of it off the top of her head, but had a feeling she might be able to use it if anything ever came of this tiny nugget of an idea for a new book. She’d have to remember to look up crows and their meaning on the Internet when they arrived at the house.

Saul followed her gaze with his own. “Tricksters,” he said. “In Native-American folklore.”

Surprised, Karen said, “Were you just reading my mind?”

“I know that look you had on your face. I get the same look when I study blueprints.”

“Ah. Well, there are a lot of them, huh? The crows, I mean.”

“There’s a lot of everything the further away you get from people. Don’t be surprised if you see an elk or two. I once saw a whole herd of them grazing in a clearing a half mile or so behind the house. Lots of deer out here too. Once in a great while, you’ll get to see moose. Bobcats. Grizzlies.”

Rory smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t listen to him, Karen. This guy is so full of shit, his eyes are brown. You might see a deer. But probably, not including those crows, the most wildlife you’ll see are some squirrels, maybe a raccoon, or an opossum.”

“Hawks and falcons, too,” Saul said. “And I did see the elk.”

Rolling his eyes, Rory said, “Okay, okay. Maybe you’ll see an elk.”

But Karen was hardly listening to the two of them bicker. Movement just beyond the tree line had caught her eye and it was definitely no crow. It was low to the ground, with red fur, a long bushy tail and a black snout.

“What about dogs?” she asked.

“Dogs?” the men said in unison. Then understanding cleared Saul’s face. He looked at Rory and said, “Dusty.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rory nodded. “Dusty.”

Karen watched the dog, barely visible in the shadows of the woods, trotting along, pacing them. “Dusty,” she repeated. “Male or female?”

“Female,” Saul said. “She used to belong to an asshole in town named Richard Mallack. He had her for a good year and that dog never once saw the inside of his house. Kept her chained to a doghouse 24/7, every season, every kind of weather. His kids used to shoot BB guns at her. I was bitching about his treatment of that dog one night in The Lantern and Mike — the guy you met — got pissed off enough to go and snatch the dog from Mallack’s backyard. But, of course, she was skittish as all hell and not housebroken, which Mike was annoyed about. Anyway, he let her roam free and she just took off, came to live out here on her own where there are no people to torment her.”

“Jesus,” Karen said. “The poor thing.”

“Yeah, I tried to catch her a couple times myself, but no go. I don’t think she likes men much and I can’t say I blame her.”

“And Dusty just lives out here? How does she eat?”

“I guess she must hunt. Not sure,” Saul answered. “I suppose she might trek into town at night, get into trash cans and whatnot, but nobody ever sees her down there anymore.”

Karen watched the dog as it kept pace with them, keeping a safe distance. She thought Dusty definitely had an air about her — she seemed ready to bolt at the slightest hint of danger.

“One time,” Saul went on, “I was out in the woods and she damn near attacked me.”

“Really?” Karen asked. “She seems so timid.”

“She is. Problem was, some ruffian from in town must have had his way with her and then left her high and dry.” She looked at him, confused. Saul laughed. “She had a litter of pups. I was just wandering around like I do, minding my own business, and I got too close to where she’d hid ‘em. Get this — they were inside a hollowed out log.”

“Wow.” Karen was impressed. “Is that where she lived?”

He shrugged. “I guess it’s where she slept at the time. Eventually, when they were old enough, I gathered ‘em up and brought them into Indigo Bend with me. Found ‘em good homes.” Apparently Saul was able to read Karen’s face quite well by now because he quickly followed up with, “It was for the best. Can’t have a whole litter running around these woods. Something would have eaten them sooner or later. Not to mention they would have bred like rabbits, making the situation even worse.”

She thought about that, then asked, “But what about Dusty? Didn’t she wonder where her babies went?”

Saul smiled sadly. “I’m sure she did for a while. Not a lot you can do about that though.”

Karen sighed. “She must have been worried sick. Thinking that a cougar or something got them.”

“Okay,” Rory cut in. “Enough, you two. Animals don’t have the same emotions as people. You don’t have to get all teary eyed about her feelings.”

Neither Saul nor Karen responded to this remark but they exchanged a knowing glance that said, shows what he knows. After a few minutes, the dog fell back, but continued to trail behind them for the rest of their journey. It wasn’t until they came into the clearing where the house was that she disappeared for destinations unknown. The house itself was a sight to behold.

Karen’s breath caught in her chest when they stepped out of the brush and there it was, looming before them like the fossil of some prehistoric colossal beast. It seemed hugely out of place here in a vast green forest, the way London Bridge must have looked in the middle of the desert.

“Home sweet home,” Rory smiled. “Not what you were expecting?”

“It’s…” Karen started. “It’s a ship.”

“Amazing, huh? The guy who built it was a captain and known to be quite eccentric.”

The three of them moved forward across a long grown-over and mostly dissolved circular driveway, Karen with her head back, gawking up at the stern.

“Amazing is one way to put it,” she agreed. “It looks like a real ship.”

“From the outside, it is a real ship,” Rory agreed. “But there are only a few rooms inside where the shape of the house is obvious.”

Karen nodded, mute.

“The guy’s name was Captain Frank Storm. Legend has it he was a pirate.”

At this, she had to laugh. “In 1899 America? And people actually believe that?”

“I don’t know if people believe it,” Rory said. “But I’m pretty sure they don’t disbelieve it either.”

“Interesting,” Karen said. “And Frank Storm is a great character name. Surely it’s made up.”

Neither man responded, already climbing up the rickety steps to the wide wraparound porch, which was built to look like a ship’s deck, the railings finely scrolled and weathered as if they’d spent many years at sea; water, wind, and sun sanding them down to a velvety softness.

Saul saw her admiring the railings. “We’re gonna keep all that. Beautiful, huh?”

“Very.”

Unlocking the front door, Rory stepped aside, making a grand gesture with his hand. “All aboard.”

Karen stepped over the threshold first, into darkness that was almost, though not quite, complete.

“Light switch on the right,” Rory said, coming up behind her.

She reached out, touching the wall with her fingers until they found the old-fashioned switch with two copper buttons. She had to push the top button hard to get it to depress and then the front room filled with an orangey glow, as if it had been lit suddenly by candles rather than electric lights.

Moving into the room, Karen shivered. “A little drafty,” she said, more to herself than to anyone else. The temperature change was odd though, as it felt colder inside than it had outside.

Rory and Saul followed her in and Saul closed the door behind them. All three of them immediately set the bags they’d been lugging over their shoulders on the hardwood floor with sounds of relief.

“You should’ve seen it when I had to bring tools up here,” Saul told her cheerfully. “Just about broke my damn back.”

The foyer they were in was a relatively small room, coat racks hanging from one wall, a basket in the corner containing a single twisted mahogany cane and a black umbrella, a rubber mat on the floor beside it, most likely the place where Frank Storm had placed his boots after coming in from particularly wet or muddy adventures.

“Is all this original?” Karen asked. It certainly looked original.

“This stuff is, yeah,” Rory said. “The place came furnished, if you can believe that. Some of the stuff was crap though and we carted a lot of it out into the little barn at the back of the property.”

“Stable,” Saul corrected him.

“Whatever. But Sean and I really wanted to salvage as much of the Captain’s stuff as we could, thinking it would lend an air of authenticity to the B&B.”

“Do you actually get tourists up here?” Karen asked.

His face fell, as if this was a sore subject with him. “Not many at this point, but that’s because Fallen Trees doesn’t have much to offer yet. I’m working on that.”

“Rory really will own Fallen Trees when all is said and done,” Saul said, giving Rory a pat on the back. “He’s a regular entrepreneur.”

Karen smiled. “Very impressive.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see,” Rory said. “Let me show you the rest of the place.”

CHAPTER TEN

The most extraordinary feature of the Captain’s bedroom was not the huge, wrap-around windows stretching from floor to ceiling. Nor was it the antique Persian rug decorating the floor, currently unprotected though Karen had no idea why. Nor did she care. Her attention was instead fixed on the mural painted on the ceiling above the historic four-poster bed.

“It’s astounding,” she said quietly, as though she’d entered a church and did not wish to disturb the parishioners.

“Yes, it is,” Rory agreed, standing beside her, his head bent back, his eyes shining with pride. “It’s his wife.”

“He must have been heartbroken to lose her,” Karen said. “To paint her portrait on the ceiling above his bed. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“It may have been painted before her death,” Rory told her. “We’re not sure yet.”

“Hmm.” Karen looked down at the large bed. It looked inviting, with its over-sized pillows and old-fashioned blue and white patchwork quilt. “May I?”

“Be my guest.” Rory smiled.

She gingerly sat on the bed. For some reason, she was afraid it would collapse beneath her due to its age but, of course, that was a ridiculous fear. Rory slept in it on a regular basis and it obviously held his weight.

Sensing her trepidation, Rory said, “Relax. That bed is older than some of the trees in the forest. Probably made from trees in the forest. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s delicate.”

Returning his smile, she lay back, her head on the nearest pillow, eyes studying the mural above her. “She was a beautiful woman.”

“She was,” he said. “Not my type, but beautiful nonetheless.”

Chuckling politely at his joke, Karen made no reply. After a moment, she said, “Do you know who painted it?”

“No,” Rory said. “It never occurred to me to try to find out. Maybe I should, huh?”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

“Everything about this place has been so hard to track down. It’s like they were a family of ghosts. So little is known about them. Most of the townies either didn’t know they were out here or they didn’t want to know.”

Karen looked at him. “Why do you suppose that was?”

“No clue. Probably just afraid of eccentrics. That part hasn’t really changed much around here. The people in Fallen Trees don’t care much for different.”

“Ah.” She thought about Sean then, wondering how he’d fit in with the townies. If he had fit in at all. Somehow, she doubted it.

Rory consulted his watch. “Well, would you look at that. I think we can safely say the sun is past the yardarm. Up for a cocktail?”

A cocktail sounded wonderful and Karen said as much. “But, I like this room. Mind if I hang out in here a little while longer?”

“Not at all.” He smiled at her again and for a second, she thought it might actually be genuine. “Try not to fall asleep though. That bed is mighty comfy.”

“Will do. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

Once Rory had left, Karen returned her full attention to the mural above the bed. Though cracked and fading in places, it had stood the test of time remarkably well, especially considering all the windows in this room. How had the sunlight not damaged it more?

Maybe it never hit the ceiling in a way that it could, she thought, gazing into Mrs. Storm’s fierce blue eyes. It was still peculiar though. Almost as peculiar as having your wife’s portrait painted above your bed in the first place.

The painting was of a beautiful, dark-haired woman in a high-collared cream dress. High cheekbones, full lips, her expression serious; perhaps even grim. Quite a stunning woman, as Karen had noted previously. Maybe somewhere around 30 years of age, though there were hints of growing crow’s feet and laugh lines. Age was hard to determine even in the clearest of portraits from that era.

Karen put her hands behind her head and turned her attention to the windows and the spectacular view of the forest around them. Everything was green out there, except for the sky, which remained a dense, almost oppressive gray.

It must be gorgeous here when the weather is clear, she thought. So much different than what I’m used to.

She would have been content to continue ruminating on the beauty of her surroundings but her thoughts were interrupted when a thin shower of dust fell down onto her face, a few specks landing in her right eye.

Flinching, she blinked furiously and rubbed the eye, about to get up and head to the bathroom to flush it out.

But before she could, her left eye naturally rolled up and she saw the painting of Mrs. Storm above. She stopped rubbing her eye and stared up at the ceiling.

Either she was crazy or the fine, barely noticeable cracks in the paint had grown, becoming thicker — more obvious.

“What the…?” She frowned, her irritated eye forgotten, and attempted to push herself up onto her elbows.

She could barely move. Her arms, neck and legs worked fine but it was as though her back and buttocks had become glued to the bed. Instantly terrified, she cried out, struggling to sit up while above her the ceiling cracked further, the paint and plaster raining down on her, coating her entire body with white powder.

Looking up, she saw that the wife of Captain Storm no longer looked grim, her eyes no longer vacantly staring into some unseen past.

Mrs. Storm was now smiling, the faded intense blue eyes gazing directly down on Karen’s horrified, dust covered face.

Karen’s whimpers blossomed into screams as the ceiling broke apart, larger and larger chunks of old wood and plaster crashed down on her…around her…bouncing off the bed and onto the floor with deafening thuds. She tried to protect her face, her eyes, while plaster dust choked off her screams and she found herself gagging despite the nearly paralyzing panic. It sounded as if the world was ending and then the mural began to peel free from the rest of the ceiling, as though it weren’t made of paint at all, but paper, like a poster cut into the shape of a woman from the waist up.

It came down fast, blanketing Karen, Mrs. Storm’s smiling face pressed against her own, blocking out the light, and Karen discovered it wasn’t made of paper at all, but more of some sort of dark membranous skin which quickly spread, wrapping itself around her head and torso, tightening itself until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything at all except feel the frantic pounding of her heart…

Blind.

She was blind and suffocating. Still trying to scream, she kicked her legs, pushing against the mattress until she rolled off the bed and hit the floor, landing painfully on her left shoulder.

Thrashing wildly, she barely heard someone shouting her name until it sounded as though the lips were pressed right to her ear.

“Karen! Wake up!”

Light immediately filled her vision and she was free, shrieking, her body drenched in perspiration.

Saul crouched beside her on the floor, shaking her by the right shoulder, his brown eyes wide with concern. “You had a nightmare, but it’s over now.”

“No.” Karen shook her head as the tears broke free and she raised a hand to wipe them away, certain her fingers would come away covered in plaster dust. She choked out a sob when she saw they were clean. “It wasn’t a nightmare. It was real.”

It had been real, hadn’t it?

Her eyes went immediately to the mural above the bed. It was just as it had been when she’d first entered the room with Rory. The ceiling around it was perfectly intact with only a few thin cracks to show its age.

“But…”

It couldn’t have been a dream. It had been so terrifying. She’d never had a dream even remotely like it.

“Come on,” Saul said. “Let’s get you up.”

He helped her into a sitting position and she winced at the pain in her shoulder. She knew she’d have a bruise there come tomorrow.

“What was the dream about?”

It was Rory, standing at the foot of the bed, surprising her. She hadn’t even known he was in the room with them.

“I…” She began. “It was…”

Saul, sensing her reluctance, said, “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

And she didn’t want to. How could she? They probably already thought she was insane.

When Saul assisted her to her feet and suggested she sit on the bed, she eyed the mural once more and refused. “I’m okay,” she said. “I can stand.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I could probably use some aspirin though. My head is killing me.”

“I’ll get it,” Rory said and disappeared into the bathroom.

She looked again at the mural with suspicion — a look which Saul caught.

“It’s kind of creepy, isn’t it?” he asked. “Painting your wife above your bed?”

“Yeah,” she replied slowly. “Creepy.”

Her heart was finally beginning to return to its normal pace when Rory returned from the bathroom with two ibuprofen tablets and a small glass of water, which she accepted gratefully.

Then a thought occurred to her. “How long was I…uh…asleep for?” she asked Rory.

He glanced at his watch. “Not long. Half an hour maybe.”

“Half an hour,” she repeated. “Odd.”

“What’s odd about it?” he asked.

“I’m a bona fide insomniac. I’m never able to fall asleep in half an hour, much less enter a deep dream state.”

Rory looked skeptical. “Well, this time I guess you did.”

“Maybe the fresh air cured you,” Saul added, offering a smile. “It’s been known to do that, you know.”

“Maybe,” Karen said, handing the glass back to Rory. She did her best to return Saul’s smile, but she was very much aware of Mrs. Storm hovering over them all and though she resisted glancing upward again, she couldn’t help but wonder if the painted woman in the cream-colored dress was also smiling.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Drinks forgotten, the three of them trudged down the stairs while outside darkness was quickly descending. It seemed that within a matter of minutes, the day had grown sullen and windy. The sound of trees swaying and lashing against each other could be heard in every room they entered.

“I hope we don’t lose power,” Rory said when they’d returned to the living room, an absolutely enormous space with a stone fireplace large enough to burn an entire armchair without taking it apart.

A pale floral patterned divan sat beneath the front bay windows while a matching lounger rested next to the fireplace. A single end table, carved out of a huge hunk of driftwood stood in a far corner, an antique oil lamp atop it. Other than these few items, the immense room remained empty.

“Most of the other stuff was beyond saving,” Rory said, sitting down on the divan. “Moths or other bugs had gotten into it.”

“Mice too,” Saul said, yawning. “Nesting inside the guts of the furniture.”

Karen felt a twinge of alarm. “The beds upstairs?”

Rory waved away her distress. “All the mattresses and bedding are new, don’t worry. The rest of the beds are original though.” He stopped, tilted his head as if listening intently to the wind outside, then added almost to himself, “Sean really loved the Captain’s bed. As you saw, it’s obscenely large.”

Karen agreed. “Yeah, you could probably sleep four or five people in it quite comfortably.”

“They wouldn’t even knock elbows,” Saul laughed.

Karen sat down beside Rory, stretching her legs out in front of her and scrunching down a bit. “Sounds pretty nasty outside.”

“This is nothing,” Saul told her, taking the lounger. “A real wind storm will scare the crap out of you around here.”

“Yep,” Rory agreed. “With any luck, we’ll have one while you’re here.”

She laughed. “Thanks a lot. I don’t really think I need to have the crap scared out of me though.”

The statement made her remember the dream, if that’s what it had been. The strange phone call. How afraid had she been then? Not very…at least, not at first. Not until her computer had grown a mind of its own. If there was one thing she was grateful for here though, it was the lack of phones.

And she couldn’t deny feeling safer in the presence of men. She was pretty sure a lot of women would find that to be offensive, and it probably was, but a lot of women would also feel the exact same way she did. There was no denying that having a guy around made a woman statistically safer. And so, as was often the case with some things, two had to be better than one.

Though, if she was losing her mind, she doubted these two would be able to do much to save her. Especially not Rory. He seemed a tad insensitive, more like a macho guy than Sean had ever been. It occurred to her maybe that was what Sean had been attracted to in the first place. Rory seemed so self-assured, so confident and as far as she knew, those qualities had not exactly been running rampant in Sean. He’d been quiet, shy until he was comfortable with a person, much more involved with the arts than she was back when they’d been growing up. Sean used to be a musician, studying piano and guitar, and as a teenager he’d had a garage rock band called…Damn, she couldn’t remember. Something Catalyst. She smiled at the memory of their dad always yelling at Sean and his two band mates to “Quiet the hell down!”

“Care to share?” Rory asked, startling her. “You were just staring off into space smiling.”

“Oh.” Her smile widened even as her face grew warm with embarrassment. “I was just thinking about Sean. He used to be in a band when he was in high school. I can’t for the life of me remember what they called themselves though.”

“Euphoric Catalyst,” Rory said without hesitation.

“That’s it! Wow…they were pretty terrible.”

Rory laughed. “He told me they were pretty good. He had an old cassette tape of a practice or a show or something. He wanted me to listen to it, but I never did.” His voice dropped an octave. “Now I wish I had.”

She knew how he felt and reached out to squeeze his knee. Rory tried to smile at the gesture, but then, before any of them knew what was happening, his eyes welled up with tears which spilled down his cheeks to drip off his chin.

Just the sight of him in that state made Karen want to weep herself.

Saul shifted uncomfortably and began to study the ceiling.

“I’m sorry,” Rory sniffed. “I thought all my crying was over. It’s just that…”

“What?” Karen asked.

“You really do look like him. You have the same brown eyes, the same smile.”

She almost apologized, but realized how ludicrous that would sound. Rory went on. “In a way, it’s great having you here. It’s like having a piece of Sean back. But in another way…”

She nodded. “I know.”

“Fuck!” Rory shouted suddenly, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “So much for being a brave little soldier.”

At this, Saul chuckled and Karen gave him a confused look. “It’s something Sean used to say,” he explained. “He said his dad…I mean, YOUR dad…would always tell him to be a brave little soldier when he was a kid.”

“Ah.” Karen smiled a little at the memory. “He did used to say that. Every time we fell down or got in a fight with a neighborhood kid or had a nightmare.”

“That’s what he told us,” Rory said. “No offense, but from what I’ve heard your dad was kind of a dick.”

“There’s really no ‘kind of’ about it,” she replied. “He was a major dick when we were growing up. He’s mellowed out over the years, though.” Both men laughed at this and Karen was relieved Rory had stopped crying. The last thing she wanted was for her presence to be difficult for him.

“I’m hungry,” Saul announced, jumping to his feet. “Let’s see what we can forage up, shall we?”

“Yes!” Karen also rose. “I’m starving.”

“We don’t have too much fresh food,” Rory said. “But we have plenty of canned and dried goods. Soups, cereal, oatmeal, stuff like that.”

“Canned soup sounds like the perfect thing right about now,” she said. “Anything to get rid of this chill in my bones.”

“Amen,” Saul said and led the way through the house towards the kitchen and a hot meal.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The night came on like something alive and hungry, scratching at the windows, swirling through the eaves, scrabbling up the outer walls of the house, searching for a way inside. In the kitchen, the three of them sat at a cheap folding table blowing on large bowls of soup, chicken noodle for Rory and vegetable for Karen and Saul.

After the first spoonful, Karen said, “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Hot soup for a cold night.”

Saul cocked an eyebrow at her. “You do realize it’s only November, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but it’s so chilly,” Karen replied with a shiver.

“I thought you New Englanders were supposed to be a hearty bunch.”

“I suppose. I guess I’m just used to it snowing when it’s this cold.”

“It’s only forty-five degrees, Karen,” Rory told her, joining the conversation. “Maybe you’re coming down with a bug?”

She considered it. “I feel okay.” But that wasn’t entirely true. Physically, she felt fine, except for the chill, but emotionally she was on edge. She didn’t like the way the house was getting darker and no amount of lights seemed to help brighten it. Saul, who sat directly across from her, no more than two or three feet away, remained in shadow, his face obscured when he bent to his bowl. Several times, she’d glanced up at the overhead light, only to get a sharp pain behind her eyes, making her look away with a grimace. And each time she did so, the room seemed that much darker around them. She could feel a headache coming on, which at first she’d assumed was due to hunger, but now that she was eating, she thought it had more to do with the lighting in the house. It was hurting her eyes. She ate hurriedly, not because she was starving but because she was so tired. She figured she still hadn’t adjusted to the time difference and was looking forward to just going up to the room Rory had assigned her and perhaps getting some alone time with either her laptop or a paperback before settling in for a good hard crash.

There wasn’t much conversation at the table and part of her was grateful for that. She’d already been more social than she had been in months, and though she didn’t think she was coming across as particularly inept in that department, she knew she wasn’t being a chatterbox either. But maybe these guys didn’t mind. She was pretty sure Rory didn’t anyway. He struck her as being more of a loner, like herself.

When the meal was finished, Karen offered to help with cleaning up, but the guys would have none of it.

“You’re a guest,” Rory said. “The first one to stay at House of Fallen Trees and I’m going to treat you as such. I’m just sorry I couldn’t have made you a better meal.”

“Well, it’s a bed and breakfast,” she replied. “So, I expect a breakfast with all the fixings in the morning.”

He laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Excellent. But, for now, I think I’m going to go up to my room. Probably call it a night. I’m beat.”

Rory nodded. “You remember which one it is?”

“Yep. I’m fairly confident I won’t get lost. If I do, I’ll scream bloody murder until you find me.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but the expression on his face told her instantly that it had been a bad one. “Sorry,” she said. “Fuck, I can be so stupid. Talking without thinking.”

“It’s okay,” he tried to reassure her. “No harm done.”

They said their goodnights awkwardly and she left the kitchen, walked through a good-sized empty dining room with a slate floor, and back into the living room where the massive staircase was located.

The house had three floors, not including the basement (and, she assumed, an attic), which she hadn’t seen but Saul had told her was an oddity in itself, because it was packed floor to ceiling with old junk no one wanted to go through. Consequently, they went down there as infrequently as possible. Saul had only been down there to check the status of the foundation from the inside.

“What I could check anyway. Then I got the hell out of there,” he’d told her earlier. “Place gave me the creeps.” Naturally, this had only made Karen curious about the basement and she intended to explore it the following day.

The room she’d been given was up on the second floor and she climbed the stairs wearily, gripping the banister with one hand while keeping her eyes on her feet. It was dark on the stairs and she didn’t feel like taking a tumble back down them.

When she reached the second floor, she paused at the head of the staircase, listening to the wind. It sounded so much louder up here, presumably because she was almost level with the treetops at this height. Why had the Captain, Frank Storm — she chuckled again at the obviously made up name — built what was evidently his dream house in the middle of a forest? Why not on some bluff overlooking the ocean? Puzzling, to say the least.

But Karen enjoyed a good puzzle; it was how she looked at her novels. They were all puzzles to be solved. Each one, a mystery when she began it, with no idea of how she would get to the end. She always managed it though, always figured out the puzzle, whether it was plot or character motivation or whatever. It always came to her eventually and she knew it would come to her here as well. Even if the absolute truth didn’t reveal itself, she would be able to fill in the blank spaces with her mind and be satisfied. It was how she lived her professional life and she knew she was pretty good at it.

She listened to the wind a moment longer before moving off towards her bedroom down the hall. Every so often along the wall, there was a porthole built into it, which was peculiar to say the least. Small round windows with which a person could peek into the majority of the rooms, though there weren’t nearly as many placed on the outer walls.

Strange indeed.

When she reached her room, she stepped inside and closed the door, casting herself into complete darkness. Reaching for the light switch, she was surprised to find there was none. “Dammit,” she whispered, carefully crossing the room to where she remembered the night table to be, hands stretched out before her, blind feelers she hoped would save her shins from any collisions. She found the bed before the night table but from there the rest was easy. Sitting on the edge of it, she explored the table until her fingers found and twisted the light switch on a small brass lamp with a frosted glass shade that did little to illuminate the room.

Despite the dimness, she could see enough of the room to be impressed for the second time. The bed she sat on was an antique canopy, as were the other furnishings, including a beautifully and intricately carved redwood hope chest which was snug up against the wall opposite the foot of the bed.

Who had this room belonged to when the Captain had lived here? Not him — his room was on the third floor and far more spacious and masculine than this one. Though Karen didn’t find this room to be particularly feminine either. The wallpaper was decorated with a woodsy motif — no big surprise there — and the heavy drapes were a midnight blue that matched a floor runner leading from the far side of the bed to the threshold of the bathroom.

Bath.

Now there was a welcoming word if she’d ever heard one. Rory had told her on the drive up that, though they had hot water, in actuality it didn’t run much more than warm.

She decided she didn’t care. Even a little warmth would be better than none at all. She’d take a bath, brush her teeth and hair and then return to the bed, power up the laptop and see if she couldn’t start writing what she hoped would be a long detailed journal of her experiences here in Fallen Trees. With any luck, being able to look at and study words on a screen, she might uncover clues about Sean’s disappearance. Maybe see something that no one else had yet seen.

She stood up, walked into the bathroom, and turned on the tub’s faucet. Leaning over with her hand under the flow of water, it seemed as though she’d had to wait a very long time before the water began to warm up. But it did warm up and she plugged the tub and began to undress, gazing at herself in the clouded mirror over the sink. Beneath her eyes, gray pouches were evident and her mouth looked drawn down, as though being pulled by invisible strings.

Karen frowned at her mirror image. Yes, she was tired, but shit. She didn’t feel nearly as bad as she looked.

She reached around her back to unhook her bra, letting it drop to the floor just as the sound of male laughter caused her to yelp and whirl around, instinctively covering her breasts with folded arms.

Goosebumps popped up all over her flesh as she poked her head out the bathroom door, expecting to see Rory or, more likely, Saul, sitting on the bed, having a good chuckle over one thing or another. But there was no one.

Her eyes went to the door — still closed — and the travel bags she’d placed in the center of the bed when Rory had first shown her the room upon their arrival. Nothing appeared to be disturbed.

She shivered, colder than ever, listened in the bathroom doorway to see if the sound of laughter would be repeated. When it wasn’t, she chalked it up to a tired and overactive imagination coupled with the loudness of the water running in the bathtub and the trees thrashing against each other outside.

This time, she closed the bathroom and, though she thought she was being ridiculously silly, used the eye-hook lock to prevent anyone from barging in on her.

Like who? She asked herself, only partly amused. One of the two gay guys downstairs?

She turned off the faucet and stepped carefully into the warm water, sitting down, immediately immersed in what had to be the coziest spot in the entire house right now.

Sinking down low until only her face from the nose up remained above the water level, Karen sighed, causing bubbles to boil up around her head.

The warm water instantly soothed her aching muscles, letting her know just how much of a workout she’d gotten on the trek up here.

If only I could have some hot water, she thought. Scalding. Now that would be heaven. It seemed like mere minutes had passed and already the water was growing tepid. Soon it would be cold and unless she wanted to keep refilling the tub, she should move on from the soaking stage to the scrubbing one.

Reaching for the new bar of soap Rory had provided for her, her hand stopped in mid-air as a dog began to bark ferociously. Outside. Dusty, of course. She doubted there were any other dogs freely roaming the woods, but why did the dog sound so hysterical?

Maybe ran into a raccoon or a deer. Nothing the dog hadn’t run into before, in all probability.

Still, the barking made Karen uneasy and she quickly finished her bath, dried herself with a starched white towel and hurried into the bedroom to put on her night clothes.

By the time she finished dressing the barking had faded into the night until it was completely gone, with only the sounds of the wind remaining.

That poor pooch, Karen thought, scrubbing at her damp head with the towel. She couldn’t blame Saul for despising the townie who had allowed his children to abuse and neglect the animal. Though she didn’t have any pets herself, it wasn’t because she disliked animals. Just the opposite, in fact. She was too afraid of the emotional attachment that came with them. Knowing she would come to love an animal like family — hell, probably more than family, given her hostile upbringing — just to watch it grow old and die. She didn’t see the point in putting herself through that kind of inevitable heartbreak.

Once her hair was dry enough, she hung the towel on the doorknob and crawled beneath the covers of the bed, reaching for her computer bag as she did.

She made herself comfortable, propping two plump pillows against the headboard, and powered up the computer. While she waited for it to boot up, she listened once more to the wind, which seemed to be dying down at last. Thank God. The last thing she needed was a two ton pine to come crashing down on her head.

When the computer was ready, she opened a new Word document and titled it HOUSE OF FALLEN TREES, for lack of anything better. She thought for a moment and then began at the beginning, with the phone call from Rory. She knew this wasn’t the actual beginning of the story. The actual beginning started with Sean’s disappearance six months ago, but she didn’t think she could handle writing all that out just now. She would come back to it later.

As she typed, she fell into the familiar trance most professional writers find themselves in once they tumble into the white of the screen or paper, vanishing from the present world into one made up entirely in their own minds and escaping through their fingertips. In a sense, it was almost the same as automatic writing in that the writers become unaware of their physical bodies and the world around them. She had gone as many as ten hours straight, lost in space and time, unaware she’d grown tired, hungry, thirsty or even that her bladder needed to be emptied.

To the non-writer it probably sounded like some form of self-torture, but to writers, it was sheer bliss and a state they wished for every single time they sat down to do their jobs.

She entered that state now, bringing herself back to her condo the evening before Rory had called. The night she’d woken to the sound of the phone, heard a bizarre message, her door open to the night.

Her surroundings faded before her. She no longer sat in a canopy bed in an ancient and strange house in the middle of nowhere in Washington. There was only the white screen, the black words racing to fill it up, the gentle tapping of the keyboard.

All else was lost.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It was after midnight when she looked up from her computer, her memories of the events so far now out of her system and stored as she clicked the SAVE button for the last time that night. She couldn’t believe that despite feeling so exhausted all day, she’d still been able to get it all down without a single yawn.

But now she barely had the energy to put the laptop aside. A walk to the bathroom was out of the question, at least for a couple minutes. Just a few minutes…she would close her eyes, only to give them a little rest. They were burning inside her skull and they needed a rest…

She jerked awake in the dark. Had she shut off the light? She couldn’t remember doing so.

The laptop was still open on the bed beside her, its screensaver dancing loops of color across it. The light thrown by the open computer was weak but enough to see shapes by. Groaning, she tossed the covers off and got out of bed, aiming for the bathroom like a drunk on a tossing ship.

A ship, she thought. Now that’s funny…

She did her business without turning on any lights and made it back into the bed without stumbling over anything. She debated on closing the laptop but realized the feeble light thrown by it was comforting in this strange place. She rolled over, her back to it so it wouldn’t keep her awake but she could still have the benefit of a nightlight. Closing her eyes, she snuggled down into the bed, feeling almost happy for a reason she couldn’t define and was too tired to puzzle out.

Maybe it was being here. Yes, the place was odd, but it also had a certain old world charm about it. And it was Sean’s…

The touch on her forearm was feather-light, so light it was barely perceivable, could have been mistaken for the fall of a cotton sheet across the skin, had it not been for the heat it radiated.

Close to the precipice of sleep, she opened her eyes slowly, not even a squint, closed them again, opened them again.

The hand on her arm was illuminated by the screensaver, clearly masculine and whiter than the petals of a new daisy. She could clearly see the cuff at the wrist — some dark-colored flannel — and then she was screaming, sitting up fast and screaming, reaching for the lamp beside the bed and screaming, fumbling fingers in the dark, screaming, screaming until she found the light switch and, despite it being a low watt bulb, the room flooded with light, plenty enough to see by and she was alone…alone in the room and still screaming, screaming, heart beating painfully, throat searing with her screams until the bedroom door flew open and Saul was there, his face terrified and confused and half asleep, dressed in a white tank-top and blue boxers.

Dear God…only Saul. Crossing the room. Putting a strong brown hand on her shoulder, brown eyes blinking fast as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He was speaking — she could see that — but she couldn’t hear him, though she’d stopped screaming by now. Instead, she burst into tears, wrapping her trembling arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest, dampening his shirt with her tears, already feeling like a foolish, weak woman, jumping at shadows.

But, she had seen it. She knew she had. She just didn’t know who or what or how and that was the terrifying part.

In the kitchen, Rory poured them all mugs of tea, which Karen accepted gratefully, wrapping her hands around the ceramic as if it were some sort of talisman that would keep her safe. Now dressed in sweatpants over his boxers, Saul watched her closely, worry creasing his brow. “It was just a dream, Karen. Nothing more.”

“It wasn’t a dream,” she said firmly, looking away from his face and into the depths of her steaming mug. “I wasn’t even asleep.”

“You must have been asleep,” Rory said, sitting down across from her. “You just don’t know it.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t.”

She could sense them exchanging glances but she was sure she’d seen what she’d seen. She was positive it had not been a dream.

“So…what?” Rory asked. “There’s a man hiding in the house?”

“Obviously,” she snapped, harsher than she’d intended to.

Rory had put on a robe and given her one as well. Sean’s old robe. It was soft and warm and comfortable, if a little too large for her frame. Unfortunately it was also flannel, which she found unnerving and pushed the sleeves up to her elbows despite the chill in the air.

“That’s impossible,” Rory said.

“Why?” she countered. “Why is it impossible?”

He let out an exasperated moan. “It just is! All the doors are locked! Don’t you think we would have noticed a strange man in the house? Or heard him?”

“Evidently not.” Then, as the thought occurred to her, she spoke it hopefully. “Maybe it’s a homeless person. Maybe he lives in the basement and only comes out at night! You said yourselves that you don’t go down there.”

“We don’t go down there often,” Rory corrected. “I didn’t say we never go down there.”

“Well, it’s possible! Why are you so quick to dismiss it as a possibility?”

Rory looked at Saul with a pleading expression. “Jump in here anytime, Saul.”

Saul sipped his tea and said nothing.

“See?” Karen said, taking his silence for agreement with her. “He’s not saying it’s impossible!”

“I’m sure you were dreaming,” Saul said quietly, barely speaking above a whisper.

Karen gaped at him as though betrayed by a confidante. “What? I told you, I wasn’t dreaming. I was awake!”

“Okay, fine, you were awake!” Rory was practically shouting. “But, I’m telling you there is no one in this house but the three of us!”

Karen opened her mouth again, intending to argue further, but she saw it was useless. There would be no convincing them. It was best to just drop it, drink her tea and try to stop freaking out. Otherwise, they would think she was either insane or prone to fits of hysteria and since she was neither, she knew to make her case, she would have to remain calm and rational and just drop it for now.

It had occurred to her that she should insist on conducting a search of the entire house, from top to bottom, but now she knew the suggestion would only frustrate them further. If she wanted to do that, she’d be doing it on her own.

She’d have to risk coming against the intruder alone and the mere thought filled her with dread.

“Okay,” she said at last. “You’re probably right. It was just remnants of a dream. I’m sorry I got so hysterical about it. I guess I’m just a little jumpy.”

Both men nodded, Saul looking relieved, but Rory’s eyes narrowed just a fraction, just enough to let Karen know he wasn’t buying her sudden about-face. He knew she was full of shit, that she didn’t believe for a single second it had been a dream. From that point on Saul tried to make small talk but neither Karen nor Rory were very receptive to his attempts.

Eventually, Rory excused himself. “I’m going back to bed, if you two don’t mind. I’ll be a total bitch tomorrow if I don’t get my eight hours.”

Karen managed to muster up a smile and wished him a good night. It wasn’t long after that she finished her tea and bid Saul goodnight as well.

She was far from anxious to return to her bedroom, but what choice did she have? Besides, what if they were right? What if it had been a dream? It’s not like it was completely outside the realm of possibility. She’d had lucid dreams before and though what she’d experienced didn’t feel anything like those past dreams, who was she to say it couldn’t have been one nonetheless? It wasn’t like she was an expert on them, for Christ’s sake.

Back in her room, she went around turning on every light, though they still did little to keep back the oppressive darkness. It was too thick and loomed heavily in places where the light should have easily banished it.

Not brave enough to try sleeping again just yet, she opened her laptop and wrote down this latest incident. She suspected she would feel like a complete fool when she reread it at some later date, but for now, she wanted to keep the journal as honest as possible.

When she was done, she played several rounds of spider solitaire before her eyelids grew too heavy to keep open.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Karen blinked awake early the next morning for one of two reasons, either she’d been having an odd dream involving a dark room where she huddled in fear, listening to predatory voices on the other side of the walls as the beams of flashlights played back and forth outside a solitary window.

She’d been hunted, but by who or why, she had no idea.

The other reason she may have woken up was an unusually urgent need to pee.

Glancing at the bedside clock, she was startled to discover it was just past 5:00 a.m. and still quite dark outside.

She groaned, flipped the bedding back and made her way to the bathroom, stumbling and weaving a bit, as though she were not only drunk but also in a sea-tossed ship. The thought almost made her giggle — she was after all on a ship of sorts.

When she finished in the bathroom, she returned to the bed where she lay restlessly for over an hour before she finally gave up and accepted that she was awake for good.

Without bothering to shower, she dressed and padded quietly down to the kitchen, making her way through the gloom as carefully as possible, unwilling to turn on any lights just yet.

Helping herself to a glass of orange juice, she sat at the table sipping and thinking about the dream that was most probably the reason she was up at this ridiculous hour.

What did it mean, if anything, and who had been hunting her? And, why?

So strange.

She pondered the dream, trying to puzzle it out, until she finished the juice and finally concluded that it was pointless to try to decipher the workings of her slumbering mind. It was just one of those things. There was no reason or meaning.

Once her glass was rinsed, she briefly debated putting on a pot of coffee, then rejected the idea. Maybe she’d want to return to bed soon. In fact, she already did want to go back to bed, but she still felt too awake at the moment.

Gazing out the window at the shrouded morning, she drummed her fingers against the countertop, thinking. Several minutes passed before she resigned herself to the fact that if she was awake anyway, she may as well be getting some work done.

Silent as a wraith, she moved through the house, wondering when the men would wake up. Not that it mattered. She knew neither of them would disturb her if she was in her room with the door closed. They would probably assume she’d never even been up.

Back in her bedroom, she pulled out the laptop, waited for it to power-up and then opened the document file containing her latest book.

She carefully read over the last page, fingers hovering over the keyboard, and when she’d finished re-reading what she’d written and her brain was back in her fictional world, she began to type with an almost magical speed.

Lost in the land of make believe, Karen didn’t look up again until 8:45, surprised, as she often was, that she’d been able to disappear inside her head for so long.

She listened for the sounds of movement in the house, but heard nothing and assumed the men were still asleep. Despite its size, the house had an odd way of amplifying noise — particularly voices — and she was positive if the guys had been talking she could have easily heard at least murmurs.

Putting aside the laptop, she rose and stretched. The idea of coffee was irresistible now and besides, her belly was rumbling up a storm.

She left the room, anxious for the caffeine and maybe a couple of slices of toast and jam and, coincidentally, she heard a voice drift down to her from the floor above.

Oh, good, she thought. They’re up.

She paused in the hallway, head cocked, listening, waiting for the second voice she knew would come.

But there was no second voice. Only the first, speaking low, then pausing as if listening to a reply she couldn’t hear.

Immediately, she knew one of them — probably Saul — had somehow managed to get a cell signal and was chatting on the phone.

Thank God.

She began climbing the stairs. Though she didn’t need to call anyone, it was still comforting to know that she could call out if she wanted — or needed — to.

At the top of the staircase, she hesitated, looking down the long dim hallway, first in one direction and then the other, trying to determine if the voice was coming from the left or the right.

When the voice spoke again, she knew it wasn’t Saul and her chest tightened painfully. She held her breath, peering down the hall to the left.

More murmurs. This time she was able to make out a single word:

“…crawling…”

Slowly, she forced herself forward. One foot in front of the other, almost shuffling. Her mouth had gone dry, her palms damp. She suddenly felt as though she were moving through a dreamscape. A nightmare…

She’d determined where the voice was coming from, three doors down on the left.

What Rory had said was Captain Storm’s office.

With every step closer, more words floated to her through the ether, but still no more than broken fractions.

“…everyone asleep…”

“…hiding in…”

“…angry…insects…”

When she reached the door, she found it slightly ajar. Leaning forward, she peered inside, seeing only darkness, and the whispered murmurs abruptly ceased.

With trembling fingertips, she pushed the door carefully, letting her eyes adjust to the gloom as she did.

“Hello?” she said softly. “Saul?”

She knew she was being ridiculous. Knew it wasn’t Saul she’d heard, but she was beyond caring. If her suspicions were correct…

The room was empty.

She reached for a light switch and squinted in the sudden illumination.

The office was exactly how it had been when she’d first seen it, when Rory had given her a tour of the house. At least, it appeared to be the same. But, still, she couldn’t shake the feeling something was amiss.

Crossing the threshold, she glanced around the room, taking care to look behind both the door and the huge mahogany desk on the off chance someone may have been hiding there.

No one was.

Imagination, then. What she had thought was a person speaking was either an over-active, stressed mind or perhaps just the wind or creaking support beams. Or who knew what. But, it hadn’t been a person. That much was now clear.

Still…

She went to a large framed map on the south wall. The edges yellowed with age but still easily read, the map was probably three feet by four feet, mostly in varying shades of browns and greens.

It appeared to be a layout of the surrounding area, with Indigo Bend to the southwest and a large black X in the middle of empty forest land, the X presumably signifying where the house now stood.

Besides its age, there was only one other thing remarkable about the map: the thin red lines crisscrossing it. Perfectly straight, there must have been a dozen or more of them going in every direction. The black X stood directly on top of the spot where six of the lines seemed to intersect and converge.

“That’s been here since the beginning.”

Karen spun around to see Rory standing by the Captain’s desk, dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, his hair tousled and falling over one eye.

“It’s something else, isn’t it?” he asked. When Karen was still too startled to reply immediately, he asked, “What are you doing?”

She was tempted to ask what does it look like, but instead turned back to the map, tapping the X with a finger. “‘You are here’ I assume?”

“Yep.” Rory joined her at the map, sleepy eyes traveling over it with only mild interest. “Still haven’t gotten around to researching it much though. No clue about the lines.”

Karen frowned at the map. “I think they might be ley lines.”

“What?”

“Ley lines. I don’t know a whole lot about them, except that they’re supposedly alignments of holy places — churches and whatnot — dating back to ancient times. Some people still believe the places where they intersect are somehow magical.”

Rory sniffed and rubbed his cheek. “Magical how?”

“Maybe magical isn’t the right word. But possessing a certain…I don’t know…cosmic energy, I guess. Like I said, I don’t know much about them. But I do remember reading that some people believe that vortexes can form at the spots where the lines intersect and that those places are often ripe for paranormal activity.”

“Are you serious?” Rory laughed. “And who are these ‘people’?”

Karen shrugged. “Psychics, mediums. Sensitives.”

“Ah,” he said. “That explains everything.”

She gave him a quizzical look, but said nothing.

Rory laughed again. “You’re not going to tell me you believe in that kind of stuff, are you?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, turning her attention back to the map. “But I wouldn’t say I don’t believe.”

“You actually think we’re sitting on some kind of vortex?” He tapped the X on the map just as she had done a couple minutes before. “That we’re being sucked into a magical realm?”

“No. Of course not. But…” She let the word hang, unsure of how to continue.

Rory watched, waiting for her to complete the sentence, but when it became apparent she wasn’t going to, he stretched and yawned. “Well, I need some coffee. You want some?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He turned and left the room, leaving Karen alone once more. Her mind immediately went back to the voice which had drawn her here in the first place. Chewing her lower lip, she glanced back at the map, the wheels of her mind spinning…spinning…

She stood there for a long moment, and finally decided that sometime today she would see what else she could learn about ley lines, if anything. That was, if the internet would cooperate. And, she knew, that was one hell of a big if.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Downstairs in the kitchen, Karen grabbed a cup of coffee and turned to the window over the sink. The morning was another dreary one, the churning clouds alternating between dark gray and blinding white.

At the edge of the property, she saw the red dog, Dusty, sitting quietly, watching fat crows as they paced the yard like sentinels.

Probably digging for worms, she thought, while the dog perhaps was waiting for an opportunity to pounce on one and make it her breakfast.

She had to think about what her next move would be regarding Sean. Carrying the hot mug into the living room, she paused to examine some of the old photographs decorating the walls in every room of the house. They were all sepia portraits of people sitting or standing stiffly, staring into the camera grimly, and she wondered, not for the first time, why people in old photos never smiled. Were their lives so miserable back then or was it considered in poor taste to look happy in a photograph? It occurred to her she might want to research this oddity at some point, to fulfill her curiosity if nothing else.

Sipping her coffee, she moved slowly from room to room, fascinated by the photographs. Men in dark suits, seated while women, presumably their wives, stood at their sides wearing high-collared frilly white blouses and long dark skirts, hair always piled high atop their heads, while the majority of the men sported thin mustaches or sometimes full beards.

“Creepy, huh?”

Karen jerked to find Saul peering over her shoulder, also studying the old photos.

She resisted the urge to scold him for sneaking up on her and instead said, “Have you noticed there are no children in these photos?”

Saul shook his head, his short dark hair damp from a recent shower. “Not down here. The ones with the kids are all upstairs. You didn’t notice?”

“No.”

“But it is weird,” Saul said. “The ones upstairs are all kids. I mean, like, only kids in the pictures, and down here, there’s only adults. Like the families never posed all together or something.”

“Strange,” she agreed. “So, supposing you wanted to, you couldn’t tell which kids belonged to which adults.”

“I guess. Unless maybe they have names written on the back. I don’t know, but Rory probably does.”

“Who hung them up this way? Kids up and adults down?”

Saul wrinkled his nose in concentration. “Rory, probably. Maybe Sean. Why?”

“I was just wondering if they were already here when they bought the house.”

“No clue.”

Karen tuned back to the wall of photos. “Or they could have just visited antique shops and bought them. Maybe they didn’t come with the house at all.”

Saul smiled a little. “Curious one, aren’t you?”

“Occupational hazard, I suppose. Besides, it’s not like there’s a lot to do around here.”

“Isn’t that what you expected? I mean, the place is a B&B that probably won’t be opened for business until late spring or early summer.”

“Why is that?” She faced him once more. “I mean, the place isn’t in that bad of shape. Rory really gave the impression that it was falling down when I first spoke to him on the phone.”

He looked away from her face, down at his work boots. “Yeah, well, Rory is a perfectionist and this is his latest pet project. Probably just didn’t want anyone seeing it until it’s perfect.”

“Or,” she ventured. “He was trying to discourage me from coming out here.”

Saul didn’t seem to know how to respond to that and Karen began to wonder if he just didn’t want to speak the truth aloud or if he really didn’t know the answer.

Finally, he said, “Well, you do look an awful lot like Sean. Maybe he thought your being here would be too painful.”

It was a good pat answer, she thought, though she still remained unconvinced of its truth. But, since it was probably the best answer she was going to get for now, she decided to let the subject drop. She gestured with her mug towards the kitchen. “Fresh coffee.”

Saul surprised her then by leaning forward and giving her cheek a peck, his entire face beaming as he said, “Ah. You’re an angel sent straight down from heaven. Bless you.”

She made a face as he retreated to the kitchen. “Rory made it,” she muttered. He certainly was an odd duck, but she was pretty certain she liked him. He was cute, polite, and gentle. She wondered if he was indeed gay, though she didn’t know why it mattered to her.

Because of Sean, she thought suddenly. If Saul and Rory are a couple, when exactly did they become one? How soon after Sean’s disappearance? More things to ponder. She returned her attention to the wall, sipping her coffee with a thoughtful expression.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The day never brightened beyond that of the dusk of a cloudy day, which left Karen feeling gloomy and alone, but still determined to find some trace of Sean, some vibe, whether it revealed that he was near or far.

She roamed the house freely, Rory and Saul off doing she didn’t know what, but she was happy to be left to her own devices.

Once she finished examining all the photographs, which proved interesting but ultimately a waste of time, there was only one place she felt immediately drawn to: the basement. Suspecting Rory would discourage her from exploring down there, she took it upon herself to make her own way down.

The door leading to the basement was not in the kitchen as it is in almost every other house, but for some mysterious reason, in the living room. She thought it odd, but didn’t ponder it for long. She was quickly learning the Captain was eccentric in so many ways that most of them would probably never be revealed to her or anyone else. She had a feeling even his family, assuming he’d had one, were left in the dark when it came to the workings of his mind.

She listened at the bottom of the grand staircase before moving to the basement door, ears cocked for the sound of conversation between the two men that would hopefully ensure they would be detained long enough for her to take a peek downstairs without being reprimanded or scolded like a child.

At the top of the stairs, she peered down into total blackness, feeling for a light switch, but not being particularly surprised when she didn’t find one.

This sent her back to the kitchen for one of the candles she’d seen that morning while looking for spoons for the coffee. A small box of wooden matches was located in the same drawer and she helped herself, putting the entire box in the front pocket of her pants after lighting the white taper candle. Trudging back to the living room, she paused only briefly at the stairs, couldn’t hear anything and wasn’t particularly surprised. The house was so enormous the guys could have been anywhere. Probably they had moved from the second floor to the third and were discussing plans for new rugs or curtains or wallpaper.

She returned to the basement door, and had to open it again. Odd, she thought. She couldn’t recall closing it when she went to retrieve the candle and matches. She wondered briefly if that meant either Rory or Saul had been by, saw the door open, and closed it. If so, that would mean she’d just missed seeing them by seconds. The other possibility — the more probable one, in fact — was that she’d just shut the door without thinking about it and now couldn’t remember having done so.

No matter. She opened it again, holding the lit candle out before her and took the first tentative step down. The old wooden staircase creaked under her weight but she knew it was safe. Rory would have certainly mentioned it if it hadn’t been.

To ensure she wouldn’t be interrupted in her exploration, she turned and closed the door behind herself, darkness falling on her like a heavy object, and only the small circle of light cast by the candle revealed she was not, in fact, buried alive. Carefully, she began descending the stairs, pushing any feelings of claustrophobia to the back of her mind, concentrating only on her footing.

She reached the bottom only to discover herself on a small landing. A turn to the left revealed yet another staircase. She took a deep breath, her belly suddenly twitching with nervousness beyond any rational explanation and started down this second staircase, holding fast to the railing with one hand and the candle with the other. She felt as though she were descending deep into catacombs, going down deeper and deeper into the earth and when she moved the candle to examine the wall, she saw it was not concrete or even stone, but hard-packed dirt, as if this basement had always been here, just a huge hole dug into the ground, and then someone — the Captain — had built the house on top of it.

Letting go of the wooden railing on the outside of the staircase, she touched the dirt wall with cautious fingers, expecting to feel cold damp earth but her fingers came away dry and when she rubbed her thumb across the pads there was not even the slightest trace of grit, as if she had touched a painted wall.

Yet another strange thing about this house, she thought, grabbing the railing again and continuing downward. When she came to a second landing, she was less surprised than she’d been at the first, but still thought it was peculiar. Exactly how deep was this basement?

Her answer came a minute later when she struck bottom, stepping off the last stair into what was, as far as she could tell with her pathetic candle flame, one large, cavernous room.

Moving slowly, she saw a couple of small tables to her right, each with a brass plate atop it and three ruby-red candles placed on the plates. She used her own candle to light these smaller ones and turned around to face the center of the room. What she saw there, only hinted-at shadows before, made her breath catch in her throat. Two oblong boxes resting on some sort of stone pedestals. Side by side, dark wood, lids down.

Coffins.

I will not scream, she told herself. I will not scream. Will not scream. Will not scream.

Air hissed out from between her clenched teeth but she kept her promise and didn’t scream. She stood rooted to the ground, afraid to move, her mind reeling.

It was true. Her dream or premonition or whatever it had been, was true after all.

Sean had to be in one of those caskets.

Two men did indeed have the carcass.

She stood there trembling for a long time, gradually becoming aware the basement was colder than upstairs. She could see her breath down here, as though she were standing in a freezer.

She had to open those coffins. Had to see what was inside. Who was inside, though her heart already knew and didn’t want to see. Her poor brother. Poor baby Sean. Missing for all this time. Why had the police not found him in such an obvious place?

The thought startled her out of her trance. It was a good question. Surely, the investigating team would have searched the house. That would have been standard procedure. They would have interviewed Rory and probably Saul and who knew how many others from town.

Karen closed her eyes, suddenly wanting nothing more than to go to sleep, forget she’d seen these coffins, find solace in some dream world, and not mention anything to the men she suspected of murdering her brother. Sleeping would be so welcome…she was so tired now… Reluctantly, she opened her eyes again. The coffins were still there, dark and foreboding, and all at once she realized she was standing in a crypt.

“Jesus,” she whispered. Taking a final deep breath, she steeled herself and moved forward to the nearest casket. With the heel of her free hand, she pushed the lid up, shocked it wasn’t nailed shut.

But when she saw what was inside, she knew why the casket had been so easy to open.

Nothing.

Just red satin padding and pillow. The casket was empty. She released the breath she’d been holding, closed the lid, and moved slowly to the neighboring casket. The second coffin made a creaking sound, the lid seemingly heavier than the first, and her belly immediately coiled into a tight acidy ball.

But when the lid was pushed open and she moved the candle in order to see within the black depths, she saw that it too was empty.

“What the fuck?”

The emptiness of the coffins did nothing to ease her tension. She still only wanted to sleep. It’s the stress, she thought. Stress always makes me tired. She actually found herself looking into the second casket with longing, wishing she could just crawl inside and curl up. It would be so easy…she’d be out before she knew it.

The only thing stopping her from doing exactly that was the knowledge that these caskets had almost definitely held dead bodies at some point, even if they were empty now. Perhaps they’d even been dug up out of the ground in some distant era, cleaned up, maybe re-stained, the insides reupholstered.

She had to get back upstairs. Maybe lie down on the sofa in the living room. She remembered there was a handmade afghan thrown over the back of it. That would suit her just fine.

And if the men were there? If they saw her emerging from the basement? What then? Would they kill her too? Knowing that she knew?

She considered this possibility and found she didn’t much care either way. If they did kill her, then at least she could stop worrying and sleep. That would be a blessed relief. Eyes drooping, she turned away from the caskets, crossed the hard-packed dirt floor to the staircase and began the long climb up. It did occur to her to blow out the candles she’d lit down there, but now that she was already ascending, she couldn’t be bothered to go back down. Maybe if she saw one of the guys she would mention there were lit candles in the basement, but maybe not. She would decide when she saw them. If she saw them.

Of course, if she did see them, they would have plenty of explaining to do. Why was she even concerned about the candles when she had just seen two coffins?

She wasn’t thinking clearly. Maybe it was her sleepiness affecting her rational thought patterns, but it seemed like more than that. She wondered yet again if perhaps she was losing her mind.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she half-expected to discover herself locked in this basement, left to starve to death in the dark and cold.

The fear woke her up a bit and she reached for the doorknob quickly, almost in a panic, but it turned easily in her hand. The door creaked open and she was back in the living room, snapping out of her dreamlike state the moment the door closed behind her.

Standing in the gray light filtering in through the front windows, she blinked rapidly, pulse tapping out an SOS in her wrists.

Totally awake now, it occurred to her she may have just experienced some sort of fugue. Or perhaps she’d been sleepwalking. The headache that had been nagging at her temples bowed back into the shadows like a butler who’d been waved away.

Spinning around, she glared at the closed basement door as if offended by its existence. When had the fugue begun? She remembered studying the various photographs and crossed the room to look at them again.

The first photograph she’d seen that day had been of a lone handsome man, seated sideways in a chair, holding a violin by the neck, propping it up on one thigh with his left hand, while his right held the bow. He’d been dark-haired, wearing a dark suit and tie, and looked to be in his early twenties perhaps.

Now, the photograph was different.

She swallowed what felt like a wedge of wood in her throat, eyes going wide at the sight of the violinist. No longer handsome, his face and hands were now stark white and horribly wrinkled and deformed. His eyes sat too low on his face and too far apart from each other, resting where his cheekbones should have been. What could be seen of his nose was no more than a vertical slash in the middle of his face, thin, the edges ragged and raw.

He had no lips to speak of, his teeth fully exposed, small and sharp in the round hole of his mouth.

She felt her belly do a slow underwater somersault. She closed her eyes, swaying on her feet, clenching her teeth, trying to will the contents of her stomach to remain where they were. She took several deep breaths through her nose before she was brave enough to open her eyes again, certain the violinist would be back to normal. But he wasn’t.

He was still a monster and as her gaze wandered away from the photograph, traveling down the line of photos on the wall, she could see that all of them had undergone a similar transformation.

They were all monsters, but Karen didn’t let her eyes focus too closely on any of the rest. Didn’t think her sanity could take if she saw them… changed…mutated…

Instead, telling herself to remain calm and not run, she walked slowly away from the wall, towards the staircase, knowing—praying—that Rory and Saul were just on the next floor up.

They weren’t far and she needed them. Needed them to see what she saw. But she didn’t obey herself for long and had only gone a few steps before breaking into a run, stumbling up the stairs, half shouting, half crying out their names.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

She knew how it sounded. Of course she did. But what could she do? It was the truth, dammit, and they had to see.

Karen fully expected the photographs downstairs to look perfectly normal once she’d dragged both Rory and Saul down to look at them, but as it turned out, that wasn’t necessary.

In her haste to get to the men, she had sped through the upstairs hallway, not even glancing at the photos lining those walls, and Rory had stepped out of one of the bedrooms first, holding paint swatches in one hand, Saul right behind him, hands in pockets. “You have to see them!” Karen cried. “I’m not going crazy! They’re monsters!”

“What?” Rory asked, his cheeks flooding with color.

“Coffins in the basement and the pictures are monsters!”

She fell into him, feeling like a fool, like a terrified buffoon of a woman in a gothic horror novel, certain she had to get it out of her before she fainted. Because she knew she was only moments away from passing out. Just like that night in her office… “The pictures are of monsters,” she said and then surprised herself by not fainting but vomiting instead, turning her head to the side at the very last instant to avoid puking on Rory.

“Whoa!” Saul stepped around Rory and grabbed her with both arms around the waist, staying behind her, holding her up as she doubled over, spewing the contents of her belly all over the antique Oriental floor runner while tears of terror and humiliation spilled down her face.

“It’s okay, Karen,” he said. “You’re okay.”

Over her head, Rory said, “What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Saul replied, not loosening his grip on her even after her retching became dry heaves. “Food poisoning?”

Karen sank to her knees, taking Saul to the floor with her. She was openly sobbing now, terrified she was losing her mind, but when she tried to look up at Rory, she saw the photographs on the wall behind him. Her cries became wails of anguish as she pointed and screamed, “LOOK!”

She knew they wouldn’t see what she saw. How could they? They were sane and she was not. She needed medical attention. A hospital. Meds and restraints.

“Holy fuck!” Saul blurted, untangling himself from her and trying to stand. His words were nearly drowned out by Karen’s howls but Rory heard enough to turn around and look in the direction Karen was pointing as Saul stared in wide-eyed wonder.

“Jesus,” he whispered and the color that had only moments before flushed his face now bleached out as if it had never been there. He reached quivering fingertips towards the glass of the nearest photo, but stopped just before they made contact. He looked over his shoulder, first at Saul and then down at Karen before returning his full attention to first the same photograph and then the entire wall.

Karen’s red-rimmed eyes traced his slow path. Though she couldn’t see every photograph from her position on the floor, she could tell by the faces of her new friends that each and every one of them had changed.

They were no longer pictures of long-dead, unsmiling children in dresses and suits. Though they still wore the same clothing, the creatures inside the clothes were distinctly not human.

Half an hour later, the three of them sat in the kitchen, visibly shaken and uncertain of what to do with themselves.

“Someone must have come in here before we arrived,” Rory said. “Messed with the pictures…I don’t…could have been days ago for all we know.”

Karen shook her head. “No! I told you, I’d just looked at them before I went down to the basement and they were all normal.”

“Before you went down to the basement,” Rory repeated. “The basement with the coffins.”

“That’s right.” Her voice was stronger now, though her eyes remained puffy and red.

“There’s nothing but junk in the basement, Karen.”

Several seconds ticked by, Karen trying to decide how to respond to this lie. Finally, she simply said, “You’re wrong.”

Rory glared at her and Karen suspected he thought she may have had something to do with the changes in the photographs.

Saul, sensing the tension, quickly said, “Maybe whoever defaced the photos was also in the basement.”

Rory’s eyes darted to his friend and he snapped, “That’s fucking ridiculous. Who the fuck would bring caskets down to the basement? And even more importantly, why?”

“If you think I’m lying,” Karen interrupted, “why not just go down there and see for yourself?”

“Well, obviously, I’m gonna have to,” Rory told her, sounding snotty and petulant.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said. But she didn’t know if she really was ready. Her headache was coming back and her stomach still gave a lurch every so often. The chill from the house seemed to have taken up permanent residence in her bones and she grimaced every time she noticed her hands trembling.

“Why would I make something like this up, Rory?” she demanded. She was getting angry now and it felt good. So much better than feeling like a fearful, reprimanded child. “If you think I’m full of shit, why don’t you just go down there and see for yourself?”

Rory’s lips pressed together in a hard white line. She could tell he was just as pissed as she was. But did he actually think she ran around the house vandalizing every last photograph into something gruesome? The idea alone was beyond comprehension.

“I think we should go down there, Rory,” Saul said. “If there’s someone in the house—”

“There’s no one in the fucking house,” Rory snapped, his eyes never leaving Karen’s.

“Oh,” she said. “So, we’re back to thinking I’m crazy, right? Not only did I imagine someone touching me last night, but now I’m imagining entire scenarios involving coffins and creepy pictures. Is that right, Rory? You think I’m just some fucking nut-job who needs to be institutionalized?”

“I didn’t say that,” he replied.

“You didn’t have to.” Karen stared right back, chin raised defiantly.

Saul cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “Arguing about it isn’t gonna help, guys,” he said. He touched Rory’s shoulder to get the other man to look at him. “Let’s just go check it out. No harm, no foul, okay?”

Reluctantly, Rory said, “Fine,” pushing his chair back from the table so its feet made sharp scraping sounds against the linoleum. “Let’s go.”

Karen stood up, unsure of what she wanted to do. “I’ll wait here,” she said at last. “Well, in the living room.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Rory told her as he left the kitchen.

Saul gave her a sympathetic look as he followed Rory out to the living room, Karen trailing behind the two, wringing her chilly hands.

There was no further discussion on the matter. Rory opened the basement door and stood at the threshold, reaching around to flick a light switch. Karen’s stomach did another flop as she remembered there had been no light switch when she went down. She was about to say something about it when Rory, after flicking the switch several times, said, “Damn. Bulb must have blown. We’re gonna need a flashlight.”

Like a magician, Saul pulled a red Mini-Mag from the breast pocket of his shirt. “Got you covered, partner,” he drawled in a very poor imitation of John Wayne, doing his best to lighten the mood. Rory was not amused. He took the flashlight, turned it on and started down the stairs without a word. Saul glanced back at Karen once, shrugged, then followed his friend down into the darkness below.

Continuing to rub her hands together for warmth, Karen paced back and forth in front of the door, listening as the men clomped down the old wooden staircase, neither of them speaking. She glanced nervously at the old photograph of the violinist, still mutated into an abomination, as were all the other portraits around him.

Now that the initial shock had worn off, she was curious as to whether or not the original photographs themselves had been tampered with or if they were entirely new photos. Peering closely at the face of the violinist, so close her nose nearly bumped the glass, she couldn’t see any evidence of tampering. It didn’t look to her as though someone had painted or scribbled over the photo, or erased the face and hands to draw the altered versions over them.

Frowning, she took a step away from the wall and heard a startled yelp from the basement, followed by shouts and curses and the sound of boots pounding stairs.

She whirled towards the door just as Saul burst through it, ripping off his shirt, the buttons clattering onto the floor, pinging off the wall and the nearby end table.

“Jesus, fuck!” he screamed, ripping the garment from his body and throwing it to the floor as if it were on fire. The T-shirt he wore beneath it was next, pulled over his head with such violence Karen heard the fabric tear and then Rory was there, also ripping the clothes from his body.

“What happened?” Karen asked, watching the men strip naked without even pausing to consider her presence. “What’s wrong?”

“Fleas!” Rory cried. “A huge nest of fucking fleas!”

She looked down at the clothes they had discarded, stooping over a little, and then she saw them. Swarms of tiny black fleas crawling and hopping over the fabric and each other, moving across the shirts like a single entity. A tiny black wave covering everything.

“Oh my God,” she said, utterly horrified.

“Fuck!” Saul screamed, dancing around, trying to rip the leg of his jeans over his boot. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Rory, quicker at undressing than Saul, was slapping his own head, shaking his hair, scratching at his chest, underarms, and pubic region.

“Shower,” Karen said quickly. “Go get in the shower! Both of you!”

Both men looked at Karen as if noticing her for the first time, but still didn’t care about being nude in front of her.

“Go!” she screamed, pointing at the stairs, already noticing small red welts puffing up all over their bodies.

They ran, both of them, one behind the other, pale buttocks racing each other up the staircase as Karen ran for the kitchen, throwing open cabinets and drawers until she found a box of black plastic garbage bags, which she snatched with one hand while the other was already reaching for the box of matches she’d found earlier.

Back in the living room, she despised the idea of touching the infested clothing, but knew it had to be done. The quicker the better, she told herself and, trying not to look at the teeming insects, she bundled the clothes up into one of the bags as fast as she could, hissing slightly when she felt the quick little stabs of pain as the fleas bit into her hands and wrists.

Once all the clothing was in the bag, she ran for the front door, bag held out before her the way some people carry a dirty diaper.

Quickly, she yanked the door open and dashed outside.

She looked around the front yard frantically, searching for a spot far enough away from any trees to set the bag alight without causing a fire hazard. The only place she trusted was right in the middle of the flagstone walkway, so she dropped the bag down, pulled out a single match, struck it and once lit, let it fall. At first, it didn’t seem the clothes would burn — the plastic bag only melted and smoldered a bit — but finally, after dropping several more matches onto the heap, Saul’s shirt caught and from there, it was as if the entire bundle was drenched in gasoline.

The cold and gray forgotten, she stood over the burning pile, watching nervously as a few sparks broke free and shot high into the boughs of the nearby pines. It was several minutes before what had happened really sunk in.

Fleas.

A huge nest of fleas, Rory had said. How peculiar, she thought. When she had been in the basement, she hadn’t noticed even a single flea bite, never mind an entire swarm of them attacking.

She was still mulling this over when both Saul and Rory emerged from the house, dressed, hair damp and plastered to their heads. They joined Karen in the middle of the walkway, looking down at the burning pile of clothes. She could tell by their faces how disturbed they both were by the incident and thought she had a pretty good idea of how they felt. Weird happenings were beginning to be a regular part of her existence.

“You didn’t mention anything about fleas,” Rory said eventually.

“That’s because I didn’t know about them,” she said.

“How could you not have known? They were everywhere. All over everything.”

She could only look at him apologetically.

“Maybe they just hatched,” Saul offered, not raising his dark eyes from the smoldering pile of clothes. “Or whatever it is fleas do. Maybe it has something to do with the weather.”

Both Karen and Rory looked at him skeptically before facing each other again.

“And, just so you know,” Rory said. “There were no coffins.”

“What?” Her face fell.

“Just a bunch of old junk, just like it was the last time we were down there.”

“That can’t be!” Her voice rose to an almost hysterical pitch. “I saw them! I touched them!”

“Well, if you did, they’re not there now.”

“But…” She tried for words that wouldn’t come. Finally, she managed. “You went all the way down?”

“Yeah, we went all the way down.”

“All three staircases? I mean, all the way to the dirt floor? You saw the candles?”

The two men gave each other a fleeting glance before returning their attention to Karen.

“Three staircases?” Rory asked.

Karen didn’t like the sound of his voice when he said it. She already knew what it would be followed with and she liked that even less.

“Karen,” he said. “There’s only one staircase. About ten steps.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Karen could only take his word for it. There was no way in hell she was going back down there, no matter if it would be caskets or an attack of swarming fleas that would be waiting for her. “There’s something very fucked up about your house,” she told him, knowing perfectly well she was overstating the obvious.

The three of them stood shivering in the cold until the burning clothing became nothing more than a pile of ash in the middle of the flagstone walkway.

Out of the corner of her eye, Karen saw the fox-red dog peering at them warily from the edge of the woods. When she turned to look at it face-on, the dog backed up a step, as if afraid to be seen.

Taking a few slow steps in its direction, Karen stooped and made low cooing sounds, holding one hand out straight, inviting the dog to come sniff her.

The dog lowered her head, nostrils flaring, trying to catch Karen’s scent from a distance of twenty feet. She seemed tense, ready to spring away if anyone made any sudden movements.

“Dusty,” Karen said softly. “Come here, girl.”

She didn’t know why making friends with the local stray seemed important to her all of a sudden, but it did. Maybe because the dog was real, something solid and incapable of feeding her a line of bullshit. Behind her, she sensed the men backing up, perhaps to give the dog a more secure feeling about coming forward. Karen remembered Saul saying how Dusty didn’t seem to be too crazy about men.

“It’s okay,” Karen told her. “I won’t hurt you.”

Then it occurred to her the dog was almost definitely hungry. Despite a thick, fluffy coat of fur, Karen could still clearly make out the dog’s ribs and hip bones.

“Do we have anything to give her?” she called gently over her shoulder.

There was a moment as Rory considered it. “I guess we could give her some hot dogs. I don’t know what else she’d like.”

“She’d probably like anything at this point,” Saul said. “I’ll go see what I can find.”

“It’s freezing out here,” Rory said. “I’m gonna go get something to clean up that mess.”

Karen knew without turning that he was referring to the pile of still smoldering ashes.

“Do you want me to bring you a sweater or something?” Rory asked.

“Sure,” she replied without taking her eyes off the skittish dog. She heard the men’s footsteps as they climbed the porch steps, still watching the dog for any hint of trust.

“Aw, fuck,” Saul said. “God dammit. We’re locked out.”

Rory let out an annoyed groan of disgust. “You’re shitting me. That’s impossible.”

“See for yourself,” Saul replied.

Karen straightened up and finally looked away from Dusty to see Rory and Saul taking turns with the doorknob.

“Fuck me,” Rory said angrily. “How could this have happened? It’s a fucking deadbolt.”

Feeling the now familiar sinking feeling in her stomach, Karen didn’t want to give voice to how she thought it may have happened, but couldn’t seem to stop the words from coming out. “Someone locked us out on purpose.”

Both men turned to look at her. Rory rolled his eyes, but Saul seemed genuinely worried that she might be right. At least, that’s what Karen was hoping his expression meant. She supposed, realistically, he was probably just worried about how the hell they were going to get back inside.

“Come on,” Rory said to Saul. “Let’s start looking for an open window or something.” They clomped back down the porch steps and disappeared around the far side of the house.

Karen turned back to the forest line only to discover, with a large amount of disappointment, that Dusty had vanished back into the woods.

She stood there, uncertain of what her next move should be. Follow the men or follow the dog, try to get Dusty to trust her. A chilly breeze stirred her hair and rather than make her want to go back in the house, it made her all the more worried for the dog. “You’re being insane,” she muttered to herself as she began walking into the woods.

Somehow, the further in she went, the warmer the temperature seemed to become and she found she wasn’t shivering quite as much.

Stepping carefully around trees, exposed roots, brush, and the occasional stone, she called out to the dog, saying her name repeatedly. It was dark in the woods and getting darker as the distance between herself and the house increased. Her eyes adjusted as she traveled and she felt a sense of peace come over her.

Had Sean known these woods well? Had he walked past these very trees, stepped over this very rock? Was he still in here somewhere, held by the soft earth like a mother holding a child? She didn’t want to think about that but couldn’t help it.

Would it be so bad, she wondered, to have your final resting place be somewhere like this, rather than a sterile cemetery surrounded by complete strangers for all eternity?

She had heard of “green” funerals, where the deceased is wrapped in canvas and buried in a place very much like this, though designated by the state as an official burial ground. It would be nice, she thought. To recycle yourself that way. Feed the earth and the roots of the tree you were buried beneath and in turn, the insects, the worms, who would then feed the birds and so on. Would that not, in its own way, make a person truly part of the universe, some little speck of self flying off into the sky to live another day and continue to nurture a world so badly in need of care? The idea made her smile and she thought when this was all over she would look into having a green burial herself. She’d always thought she would prefer to be cremated but now she knew her body would be serving a purpose by returning to the earth from which it came.

“Dusty,” she called softly. “Come here, girl.”

She stopped, listening for any sounds of rustling in the woods. There was nothing, not even bird song.

Strange.

Walking again, her feet crunched over pine needles and moss grown frosty with the cold. She didn’t think the dog would have gone far, but who knew? Maybe that hollow log Saul had told her about was somewhere nearby and Dusty was hiding inside it, hoping the strange woman calling out to her would go away.

Karen had the sudden uneasy feeling that, if Dusty felt her territory was being invaded, she might actually attack her. Given the dog was so shy and skittish, Karen doubted anything like that would actually happen, but you could never be sure. For all she knew, the dog had had another litter and could be protecting it as she had done in the past.

For probably the hundredth time in her life, Karen wished she wore a watch. How much time had passed since she’d entered the woods? The light seemed to have dwindled somewhat, but not enough to make her think she had been wandering the forest for more than, say, twenty minutes or so. Regardless, though, she knew she should turn back. She, like everyone else, had heard countless stories of people becoming lost in the woods, even though they had just barely veered off the designated path. But she was smarter than that. She’d made sure she had kept walking in a relatively straight line, steering herself around the various blockades only to continue on in a western direction once she was on the other side of them.

Still, she knew it could happen to people much more familiar with their surroundings than she currently was and she had no desire to end up like them: cold, scared, hungry, alone.

Lost.

Reluctantly, she stopped walking again, looking around for anything that could be a fallen tree, a log in which a frightened abused dog might take a tiny bit of solace. She saw nothing. Just ferns and tall pines, their boughs hanging low and heavy, their trunks and branches covered in moss an almost magical shade of brilliant emerald green. She studied the green, taking a mental picture of it, storing it away so she could later recall it and do her best to describe it with words, though she already knew words would prove woefully lacking when it came to such wild beauty.

“Okay, Dusty,” she called out. “You win. We won’t make friends today, but I’ve got my eye on you.” Despite feeling foolish, she smiled. She had no idea why she was even interested in the dog. She remembered her previous thought about how animals, even worse than people, would inevitably break a human heart just by the simple act of loving and leaving. Of course, unlike people, they made no promises to stay either. They simply were, always living in the moment, giving no thought to the future beyond hoping for a tossed French fry or a good scratch behind the ear. She envied their simplicity, their constant state of Zen.

She turned around, intending to head back in the direction she’d come, only to find a tree directly behind her. She’d almost walked into it.

“What the…” She looked up at the tree, into its highest branches and then down, seeing its thick roots digging into the ground at her feet.

She shook her head slightly, stepping around the tree and continuing on her way. It wasn’t long before she came to a cluster of trees, so thick and close together she knew for certain she hadn’t passed this way before. Frowning, she looked behind her, double checking to see if the sun was now at her back.

It was.

“Okay,” she said aloud. “I guess I wasn’t staying in as straight of a line as I thought I was.” But still…she couldn’t have veered one way or the other that much, could she? She thought she’d been being very careful.

The air around her was growing chilly once again and she began to wonder if the chill was actually coming from within rather than without. She was getting that sleepy, disconnected feeling again and considered finding a rock to sit on for a while. That sounded nice.

She looked off to her left and saw a ragged maroon loveseat, off-white stuffing poking out of the cushion seams and various tears in the armrests.

Karen smiled, wondering how on earth she had missed seeing that. It looked so cozy and soft, like the worn furniture in her college dorm. Perfectly broken in.

And she was so sleepy. She walked to the loveseat like a woman in a trance, eyes narrowed to drowsy slits. Her nose and ears felt very cold — much colder than a Washington November had any right to be — but she could curl up on the loveseat, warming herself with her own body heat.

She reached the loveseat and immediately lay down on it, her hands beneath her cheek making an adequate pillow, her butt pressed into the back of the loveseat and instantly warming it to her body temperature.

This must have been put here by someone who knew people would eventually come along, tired and in need of a quick catnap. A wise and thoughtful person. And the mysterious Samaritan — whoever it was — also maintained the loveseat well enough to at least keep the pine needles and fallen leaves off it. It was conveniently free of any kind of bird droppings as well, which Karen was quite happy about as she closed her eyes, snuggling down deeper into the soft, velvety cushions.

Just a quick nap and then she’d be back on her way, back to the house and the guys. She just needed a little rest and to warm herself up a bit…

She knew, as she’d always known, that she and sleep were intimate friends, lovers almost, and it could soothe her when nothing else could and so she welcomed it almost as eagerly as it welcomed her.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

She didn’t quite make it though.

There was some distant noise distracting her from surfing beneath the waves of sleep, drowning in a comforting curl.

She refused to acknowledge the sound at first, stubbornly squeezing her eyes shut as if the act would somehow squeeze her ears shut as well.

Bizarre rustling sounds, as though someone — or something her deep mind screamed from some distant and undiscovered planet — were kicking their way through deep drifts of dead leaves. Crackling, snapping noises, but she would not give in to her curiosity. Her exhaustion was too heavy a burden and needed to be taken care of first. After her nap, she would look. She would open her eyes and see what the strange sounds were all about. She buried her face into the crook of her elbow, feeling her own warmth there…and darkness. So sweetly dark and warm…

But then another noise attacked her with such ferocity she jerked up, eyes wide.

The ground beneath her body was cold — nearly frozen — and the trees were almost upon her, crowding in close, some of them mere inches from her body. Five trees in all, surrounding her as though they were the fat bars of a very small cage. Beyond them, Dusty the dog barked shrilly at her…or at them, Karen couldn’t tell which. She saw the dog clearly, about twenty feet away and not daring to come any closer.

The trees were…were what? Alive? Of course they were. All trees are alive. But these trees, she thought…they’re malevolent. Evil. And alive in a way no other trees were.

She was somewhat grateful for her dulled senses now. She was sure if she had had all her wits about her, she would have run screaming into the descending night to disappear forever. Besides the grogginess, the only thing keeping her relatively calm was the dog. The dog was real. It saw what she saw and sensed what she sensed.

Something more than just evil. Something ancient and sleepy, but waking up and waking up hungry.

Slowly, Karen first sat, then stood, ignoring the dead leaves and pine needles in her hair, the dirt covering the side of her body that had lain against the cold ground. Some instinct was telling her to move slowly, slip past the trees surrounding her. Step carefully, do not touch them, do not step on any exposed roots. Do not wake them further.

Insanity, she thought. It’s the only explanation.

The dog continued to bark, apparently unaware her protests could cause the trees to become more aware of the presence of “outsiders”, which is what Karen assumed she was to whatever entity ruled these woods.

She stared hard at the dog, trying to will her to silence, but Dusty only took a step back and barked louder, more urgently.

Karen judged the distance between the trees directly in front of her. The space between them was wide enough for her to fit through, but barely. She took a deep breath, held it and slipped between them like a soaped up convict escaping naked from between the bars of his prison cell.

Once she was on the other side of the tree cage, she bolted through the forest as fast as she could, racing past the dog who spun, startled, barking hysterically before breaking into its own run, keeping pace with Karen for a moment before darting ahead, a reddish blur in the faltering light. Follow the dog, Karen told herself. Follow her, she knows the way.

Dusty easily leapt over and around low shrubs, logs and rocks, weaving her way around trees Karen was positive had not been there when she’d first ventured into the woods.

Stupid, she thought, breathing hard, legs and arms pumping, praying she wouldn’t fall. If she fell, she knew it would be over. There were things moving behind her; she could sense them. Behind her and to either side as well.

Karen ran, sometimes with only a flash of the dog’s bushy tail to lead the way.

There was movement above her now, flashes of shadows crossing the ground just before her feet pounded down on it, dark figures moving up there, but she didn’t dare look up, didn’t take her eyes off the fleeing dog for more than just fear of tripping. For fear of seeing.

And then they broke through, coming out of the edge of the woods slightly north of where she’d gone in.

Dusty skidded to a stop just short of the walkway, whirled and barked at Karen as if urging her forward, warning her she wasn’t quite clear yet, just a little further, and Karen, eyes on the dog, forgot her balance just long enough for the toes of her left foot to catch something and the next thing she knew, she was sailing though the air, perpendicular to the ground for what seemed like a long, long time and then crashing down hard, knees and elbows colliding with the ground a mere instant before her chin hit. Her teeth clacked together hard as her back was bent into a U shape — impossible, she thought through the intense and immediate pain — backs are not supposed to do this. She groaned in pain, tasting dirt in her mouth, but thankfully, no blood and she hadn’t heard anything snap. She did however hear a distinct shuffling sound near her face and when she looked up, Dusty was there, sniffing cautiously.

“I think I’m okay,” she told the dog, rolling onto her back with a grimace. “Just got the wind knocked out of me.” Trying to move made her lower back shriek with rage. “Fuck!” she hissed and instantly regretted it as it caused the dog to fall back a little ways. Breathing hard, Karen turned her head to look at Dusty. “Don’t like cussing, huh? I don’t blame you. It’s a terrible habit.”

She knew she must be in some kind of shock — knew it because she wasn’t leaping to her feet and taking off again, screaming bloody murder that the woods were alive and trying to eat her. Which, she was convinced, was exactly what had happened.

Karen raised her hand to the dog. “I think we’ve already proven that you’re a faster runner than I am,” she said. “If I try anything iffy you can always take off like a bolt of lightning.”

The dog tilted her head to one side and Karen had the impression Dusty was truly trying to understand what was being said to her, listening carefully for even a single word she might recognize.

“It’s okay,” Karen said reassuringly. “I promise.”

Dusty came forward only as far as she needed to, stretching out her neck until her cold damp nose touched the tips of Karen’s fingers, sniffing intently.

Karen couldn’t help but smile. “Good girl,” she said and meant it, suddenly realizing the dog had almost certainly saved her, leading the way to safety. Well, as safe as she could be, she supposed.

“I think we’re gonna be friends after all,” Karen said. “I’m not so bad. You’ll see.”

The dog seemed to consider this for a moment, wet brown eyes watching Karen with what she hoped was now more interest than fear. “You’re a good girl,” Karen said before taking in a gulp of brisk November air and forcing herself to sit up, wincing at the pain in her lower back. She realized it wasn’t only her back that hurt now. It felt like every part of her had been hit repeatedly with a hammer. Even her eyes were sore. “This place is kicking my ass,” she muttered.

“Karen?”

It was Saul, rounding the near side of the house.

At the sound of his voice, Dusty began to bark frantically but surprised Karen by not running away. Instead, she took a step closer to Karen, as if to protect her from the approaching man.

Karen held up her hand to Saul, giving him a STOP gesture. He froze, his eyes on the dog.

With a slow tentative hand, Karen reached out and touched the dog’s flank. Dusty barely looked around, still barking at Saul.

“It’s alright,” Karen told the animal, stroking her matted fur. “He’s a friend.”

Dusty remained unconvinced, but the barking slowed down and soon stopped when she saw Saul was coming no closer.

“Wow,” Saul said, clearly amazed Karen was being permitted to touch the stray. “First time I’ve seen that.” He watched a moment longer before the general oddness of the situation dawned on him. He seemed to realize the state Karen was in and asked, “What happened?”

She was unsure of how to respond, knowing the truth would never be believed. “I got a little lost in the woods,” she said finally.

He frowned. “Why did you go in there?”

Karen nodded at Dusty. “I went after her.”

“And you caught her?” Saul was clearly amazed at this turn of events.

“Not exactly, but she did show me the way out again.”

“Cool,” he nodded. “I told you she was a smart one.”

Smarter than you think, Karen said to herself. Surviving in these possessed woods for so long on her own. She asked, “You guys find an open window?”

“No.” He forgot himself, probably thinking it was awkward to have a conversation with someone who stood about thirty feet away from him, and took a step forward. Immediately, Dusty began barking again and Saul stopped, holding up his hands in surrender. “Sorry,” he said loudly over the din. “I’m not moving.”

Karen smiled a little at this and when Dusty finally stopped barking, said, “We girls have to stick together.”

Chuckling, Saul said, “I guess so. But anyway, no, we didn’t find an open window, which was weird because, according to Rory, nothing was locked.”

She made a face, her hand still moving methodically over the dog. “What does that mean, nothing was locked?”

“Just what I said. Up until a week or so ago, Rory was keeping all the windows open to air out the place. The smell of must and mold in there was nauseating. But when it started getting cold, he just closed the windows without locking them.”

“That seems kind of dangerous,” she said. “Anyone could have come in.” The thought excited her for a moment, thinking they’d discovered how someone could have entered the house and remained hidden, coming out only to toy with them when they were otherwise occupied. Then she remembered the forest, the trees that had moved to block her path and surround her like a pack of predators circling their prey.

“Nah,” Saul said. “No one comes out here, which I guess is why he thought leaving everything open in the first place would be okay.”

“What about animals? He could have come back to find a family of raccoons had taken up residence.”

Saul shrugged. “Either that didn’t enter his mind or he didn’t think it would happen. And it didn’t. The point is, everything was unlocked when we all came out here and then, seconds later, the entire house was locked. From the inside.”

The thought gave Karen a chill. “How could that be?”

“He thinks what you were saying before might be true now. That there really is someone in the house.”

She shivered, despite not quite believing in that theory herself any more. Moving as slowly as she could without alarming the dog, she stood up, brushing herself off. Various parts of her body shrieked their protest but she just couldn’t sit on the ground any more. She could only look at Saul, uncertain of how to respond. “What do you think?” she asked at last.

Running a hand through his thick dark hair, he said, “I don’t know what to think. Maybe he locked everything up and just forgot.”

“And the front door just bolted itself behind us?”

He shook his head, obviously frustrated. “Beats the shit out of me.” He gave the stubble on his cheek a quick rub before adding, “But I can’t think of another explanation.”

“Another explanation besides the one that the door did it itself?”

“Oh, I don’t think the door did it, exactly.”

“No? Then what?”

Saul shuffled his feet like a little boy being forced to confess to having cheated on a math test. “I come from a long line of…uh…I guess you’d say superstitious people.”

Karen nodded encouragingly. “A lot of people do.”

“Yeah, but my family…let’s just say there was a lot of talk about spirits and spells, cursing someone with the evil eye, that kind of thing.”

“Old world stuff, huh?”

“You could say that, yeah.”

“And you believe in that that sort of thing?”

“Well, it’s kinda hard not to when it’s being shoved down your throat from the time you can understand words. I mean, I’ve tried to put it behind me…I know it’s a bunch of superstitious crap…but there’s this little part of me…” He trailed off, sounding a tad guilty to Karen.

“A part of you that can’t escape it?” she volunteered.

“A part of me that wonders. What if it’s not bullshit? What if we really do share the world with things we can’t see?”

“Spirits, you mean?”

He nodded. “Or demons.”

Karen thought this over. “If that were true, then there would have to be angels as well.”

“You don’t believe in angels?”

She looked down at the dog still standing beside her, watching Saul with tense wariness.

“Actually,” she said, “I think I do.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Rory had regained access to the B&B by breaking a window at the back of the house, unlocking it and crawling in among the broken glass. Somehow he had escaped this feat without sustaining a single scratch.

He sat moodily at the table, watching the dog lying at Karen’s feet. It had taken her nearly a whole hour and an entire package of hotdogs to coax the dog inside the house and even then, only if the men remained what the dog must have considered a safe distance away.

As it was, Karen had had to pull her chair to the other side of the room, sitting in front of the stove while the men remained at the table. It was awkward, but Dusty would not go any closer to them, so Karen made do, holding a bowl of canned chili on her lap.

She had no idea why the dog had chosen to trust her but supposed it might have had something to do with the event in the woods. Perhaps Dusty had sensed Karen’s vulnerability and therefore concluded they were kindred spirits. At least, this is what Karen wanted to believe, as she herself felt as though she and the dog were somehow linked now, after having been chased through the woods by God only knew what. If nothing else, she knew the dog knew the truth. She wasn’t crazy. These things really were happening, as impossible as that seemed. It also helped to know Saul wasn’t above questioning what could or couldn’t be real. Rory, on the other hand, was at a loss. He still didn’t want to quite believe a stranger was hidden away in the house somewhere, nor was he willing to acknowledge anything supernatural was going on.

“Well,” Saul said, licking chili sauce from his lips. “I think maybe we should just go back to town for a while. Settle our nerves a bit.”

“I don’t need to settle my nerves,” Rory said. “What I need is to figure out what the fuck is going on. Who defaced those photographs? They’re antiques, for Christ’s sake! Irreplaceable!”

Dusty growled low in her throat without bothering to lift her head from her paws. Rory scowled at the dog before continuing. “I have to get to the bottom of this.”

“How can you get to the bottom of something when you don’t even know what’s going on?” Karen asked.

“I’m starting to get an idea,” he replied.

Both Karen and Saul looked up from their bowls with surprise. Rory said, “I’ve never felt particularly welcomed in this town. The only reason The Lantern does as well as it does is because they have nowhere else to go. But, with this place…well, let’s just say that the townsfolk don’t really see the point. As far as they’re concerned, it’ll just be a nuisance, bringing strangers into their town. They don’t care very much for strangers. Not to mention, it’s probably crossed their minds that a fag will probably only attract more fags. Before they know it, Fallen Trees will be a great northern gay Mecca, like P-town is on the East Coast.”

Raising her eyebrows, Karen said, “You think this is about homophobia?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Most things are.”

“That’s not true at all,” Saul protested. “There are plenty of people in Fallen Trees who like you and aren’t the slightest bit homophobic.”

Rory shook his head, pushing his bowl away from him. “No, they like you, Saul. They don’t like me. They tolerate me, but maybe the idea of this B&B is something they can no longer tolerate.”

“Okay, hold up,” Karen said. “I thought it would be rude to ask before but, Saul, are you gay?”

He playfully wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Why? You want to go on a date?”

“Very funny,” she replied.

“Actually,” he said. “I hate labels, but I suppose in order not to blow minds too much I just say I’m bi.”

She nodded, took another bite of her chili.

“That’s it?” Saul asked. “You’re not gonna say anything about it?”

Karen swallowed. “What’s to say?”

“I figured you might say, ‘I knew it all along’ or ‘I had no idea’. Something along those lines.”

“I didn’t know it all along,” she responded. “How could I have?”

“It’s because you’re so ‘straight-acting’,” Rory told him, actually smiling a little for a change.

“Screw you,” Saul said. To Karen he said, “Rory knows how much I hate that term. ‘Straight-acting.’ If there’s one thing that’ll turn me off about a guy, it’s when he calls another guy ‘straight-acting.’ It irks the shit outta me.”

With no idea how to respond to this, Karen thought it best to say nothing and took another bite of chili. She wondered vaguely if Sean had been ‘straight-acting’.

“Maybe we should get back to the issue at hand,” Rory said. “I don’t even know what we’re talking about anymore.”

“I thought we were talking about your persecution complex,” Saul said.

Rory wasn’t amused. After a long sigh, he said, “Okay. I think I’m just gonna go to bed now. I’m beat and frankly, I need some time away from you two ghost busters.”

Saul and Karen exchanged a glance.

“Who said anything about ghosts?” Saul asked as Rory stood up and brought his bowl to the sink.

“I heard you talking outside,” Rory replied. “Spirits and all that shit. Give me a break.”

The statement seemed to make Saul bristle. “You got another explanation?”

“No,” Rory said. “Not yet. But I will find out what’s going on and I can guarantee that it won’t have anything to do with spookies.”

“Spookies?” Saul asked.

Rory ran water into his bowl, wiped his hands on a dish towel. “Superstitions. Whatever you want to call them. You guys need to think about this. Think about how silly that sounds.”

“Given the things that are happening,” Karen piped in. “I don’t think it’s silly at all.”

“Well,” Rory told her. “That’s where you and I differ. There’s always a rational explanation, even if you don’t know what it is.”

Saul laughed, a jagged sound. “The house locking us out in seconds flat? You have a ‘rational explanation’ for that?”

Rory took several seconds to answer. “No,” he said finally. “I’ll admit that’s weird. And I guess maybe Karen was right all along. Someone was in the house.”

“I think I was wrong, actually,” Karen said, setting her bowl on the stovetop and reaching for her water glass. “I agree with your earlier assessment. No one could be in here without us being aware of their presence. No living person anyway.”

This time, Rory actually laughed and to Karen, it sounded like genuine amusement, which didn’t please her.

“Are you hearing yourself?” Rory asked. “‘No living person.’” He laughed again. “I have to keep reminding myself you’re a writer.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

He shrugged. “You have an over-active imagination? That’s what Sean always said.”

Karen didn’t like where this was going. Not one bit. She rose to her feet and the dog abruptly stood up with her, on alert. “Sean said that? What else did he say?”

Rory shifted his weight uncomfortably, then lifted his chin. “He said that he sometimes worried about your… stability.”

“Is that so?” Karen couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice now. “My stability?”

“He said you’ve always been anti-social and he thought it wasn’t good for you. That you spent way too much time in your head and had forgotten how to be with people. How to relate to other humans.”

“Sounds like he said quite a bit.”

“Not really. That was pretty much the gist of it.”

The two of them stood staring at each other, neither one wanting to be the first to drop their gaze.

Saul watched the exchange nervously and cleared his throat. “I think I need a drink.”

Rory glared at Karen a moment longer, then said, “You know where the whiskey is. Good night to both of you.” Dusty growled again, lowering her head slightly. Grinning sourly down at the dog, Rory said, “And goodnight to you too, Precious.” He flashed a last challenging glance at Karen before turning away and leaving the room. Karen, Saul, and Dusty all listened to his retreat as his footfalls faded away.

“Holy shit,” Saul said a moment later. “That was awkward.”

Karen chuckled. She couldn’t help it. “You think?”

He stood, stretched, brought his bowl to the sink and faced her. “Care to join me in a little libation?”

She smiled at him, couldn’t help but notice just how damned attractive he really was. “Hell, yes, I would. You wouldn’t happen to have a joint to go along with it, would ya?”

Saul laughed. “I’m afraid not.”

“Cigar? Cigarette?”

“Nope. Sorry. I like pretty pink lungs, personally. I didn’t know you smoked.”

“I don’t. But it sure as fuck seems like a good time to start.”

“Yeah,” he said as he reached in a cabinet for a bottle of Jack. “I hear that.” They brought the bottle and two glasses into the living room and settled together on the sofa. Neither one of them scolded the dog when she jumped onto the lounger and curled up, ever watchful and wary.

The silence as they drank was surprisingly comfortable, each lost in their own thoughts for the first several swallows of the burning whiskey.

Karen felt another headache coming on and hoped the booze would stave it off for a while. At least she didn’t feel particularly sleepy at the moment, which, as far as she was concerned, could only be a good thing.

Sitting beside her with his glass held on one knee, Saul used his free hand to rub his nose every fifteen seconds or so until Karen giggled.

“You know what they say about an itchy nose, don’t you?” she asked.

He squinted at her. “No, what?”

“You’re either going to kiss a lover or get into a fight.” She smiled coyly around the rim of her glass as she tipped it to her mouth.

Saul gave this some consideration before saying, “Well, we’re not lovers, so I guess I’d better put on my boxing gloves.”

“Ouch.” She could already feel the alcohol making her bolder than she would have been otherwise. But was she really attracted to Saul? Or was it just the circumstances? True, he was a nice guy, and very good looking, but still. She knew she couldn’t deal with even a hint of romantic entanglement right now. In fact, she didn’t think she’d be equipped to handle romance in her everyday life. Not for quite some time.

Grinning mischievously, Saul said, “You think I’m hot, don’t you?”

“Ha! Don’t flatter yourself, bi-boy.”

He laughed and Dusty’s ears pricked up as she watched them from across the room.

Saul’s laughter was cut short as he rubbed his nose again. “Damn. My nose is so fucking itchy.”

She giggled again. “I have no idea why I find that to be so amusing.”

Ignoring her, Saul put his glass on the floor and then rubbed his nose vigorously before moving on to scratch his head, then reaching down to his right shin and rubbing at it through the denim of his jeans.

Karen stopped laughing as he scratched at his neck. “Are you allergic to anything?”

“Not that I know of,” he said, back to using his whole palm to rub his nose. “This is fucked up.”

Dusty lifted her head and whined at them.

Karen looked at the dog, then back to Saul. “You’re not allergic to dogs are you?”

“Hell, no. I’ve had dogs my whole life.”

“Do you have a dog now?” She was fairly certain he didn’t. She’d spent her first night in Washington at his house and had seen no evidence of a dog.

“No.” He was using his right hand to scratch at the inner part of his left wrist. “Fuck. Maybe I should go take a shower.”

“Do you know if there’s any Benadryl in the house?” Karen asked. “That’s usually the best thing if it’s an allergic reaction.”

“I don’t know. Can you scratch my back, please? Left shoulder blade.”

“Sure.” Karen put her glass down as he twisted on the sofa. She pulled up his shirt, exposing a perfectly toned brown back with a dark tribal sun tattoo in the upper center of it.

She scratched his back where he directed, moving from his shoulder blade down to the left side of his ribcage, then up to the other shoulder blade and back again. Saul groaned, she couldn’t tell if it was in frustration or pleasure. He was still busily trying to scratch half a dozen other parts of his body while she worked on his back.

“God dammit,” he cursed. “What the fuck…”

Dusty jumped off the lounger and gave Karen a pleading look, whimpering quietly. Karen said, “I think I’d better take the dog out. You said she’s not housebroken and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say Rory wouldn’t appreciate any dog accidents on his antique rugs.”

“Yeah,” Saul nodded, though she didn’t think he was listening to her at all.

She watched him trying to scratch everywhere at once for a few seconds longer before getting to her feet. “If you don’t want to look for the allergy med, I’ll see if I have any in my bag when I get back, okay?”

“Okay, yeah. Sure. Thanks.”

Worried now, Karen went to the front door, the dog automatically following her. Casting one last glance over her shoulder at Saul, who was paying no attention to her whatsoever, completely absorbed in itches, she unbolted the door and stepped out into the full-blown night with tiny icicles of dread forming in her blood.

Closing the door behind her, she thought, now what?

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The moment they were out the door, the dog ran off into the darkness and Karen knew she wouldn’t be back that night, preferring instead whatever little nest she’d made for herself in some safe corner of the surrounding area.

Karen was sad to see her go and even felt a twinge of fear at the animal’s departure. And betrayal. As if they had already been lifelong friends and Dusty was abandoning Karen to whatever horrific thing that might assault her next.

She didn’t have long to feel sorry for herself though, because after standing in the dark for no more than five minutes, trying to mentally will the dog to return, the screaming began.

It was coming from inside the house and Karen whirled, raced up the porch stairs two at a time and burst through the door and back into the living room to find Saul naked and writhing on the floor, stripped of all his clothing, raking bloody tracks over his skin with his fingernails. An instant later, she was at his side, kneeling down, terrified at the sight of what he was doing to himself as well as the obvious agony he was in.

Rory pounded down the stairs, wearing only sweatpants, shouting, “What’s wrong?”

Karen shook her head helplessly as Rory crouched beside her. “He just started scratching himself. He said his nose was itchy and now this!”

Saul rolled around on the floor, tears squirting from his eyes as he shrieked and cried, carving every inch of skin within his reach. His chest, belly, arms, legs, face, neck, feet, buttocks and even his genitals were beading up with blood, the skin accordioned from merciless gouging.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Rory yelled. “What do we do?”

“Do you have any Benadryl?” Karen asked.

“What? No! I mean, I don’t know. Maybe!”

Frustrated, Karen rose and ran upstairs, trying to block out the sound of Saul’s screams. She flew through the hall and straight into her room, into the bathroom where she ripped open the small cloth bag she kept her toiletries in. She dumped the contents out into the sink, sifting through all the useless crap until she spotted the foil packet with the antihistamines, each pink and white pill in its own separate blister bubble.

She snatched it up and sprinted back down to the living room where Saul continued to bellow in misery, Rory scratching him in places the other man couldn’t reach himself.

“Harder!” Saul screamed. “Do it harder!”

“I can’t! You’re already bleeding!”

Karen fell to her knees beside the men, popping pills from the packet and shouting, “Swallow these, Saul!” She pushed two into his mouth. “Swallow them!”

Saul, probably not even registering what was being asked of him, did it anyway, with barely a pause of his flailing hands as they tried to scratch everywhere at once.

“Will he need a hospital?” Rory asked, real panic shining in his huge wet eyes.

“We’d better hope not,” Karen replied. “Let’s try to get him into a tub. We’re going to need baking soda.” As an afterthought, she added, “And oatmeal, if you’ve got it.” She didn’t know exactly what kind of oatmeal was necessary but she remembered her mother giving her oatmeal baths when she was a kid and had sunburns, poison ivy, or particularly bad encounters with insects, usually mosquitoes or bees.

Twenty minutes later, Saul sat up to his chin in a warm bath seasoned with baking soda, Epsom salts, and packaged instant oatmeal, though Karen doubted the last ingredient would do much good. Rory sat on the closed toilet lid, watching his friend while Karen leaned against the doorjamb feeling inadequate and foolish for not knowing what to do in such an emergency.

She said as much and Rory responded without looking away from Saul. “You know more than me. I don’t even have the right kind of pills to give him.”

“Comes from a lifetime of allergies,” she said dismissively.

For his part, Saul had finally stopped thrashing around and digging burrows into his skin, though he had hissed viciously when his wounds had hit the warm water. Now he lay back, his eyes closed while the rest of his body gave an occasional twitch. His arms gripped the sides of the claw-footed tub and Karen knew it was taking every ounce of his willpower to not continue raking at himself.

“You think it was the fleas?” Rory asked quietly.

“I guess it’s possible,” Karen replied. “But I’ve sure as hell never seen a reaction like that, especially since he doesn’t appear to have any hives, except for the welts he gave himself. And if it was the fleas, why didn’t they start biting me too? I was sitting on the couch right beside him.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Saul said suddenly, surprising them both. “I’m not deaf, you know.”

“How do you feel?” Rory asked him.

“Like I’ve been flayed by a giant cheese grater.”

“Do you feel feverish?” Karen asked, stepping further into the room. When he shook his head, she said. “What about breathing?”

“I seem to be doing that.” Saul opened his eyes and tried to smile at her, but she could see it was a huge effort for him. His cheeks had not been spared the wrath of his furious fingernails any more than any other part of him had.

“Cute,” she said. “I mean, are you having any trouble? Your airways don’t feel swollen or anything?”

He shook his head again, closing his eyes once more.

Karen noticed Rory staring at her in bug-eyed horror. “Why are you asking him that?”

“Trouble breathing is a symptom of allergic reaction.”

“Shit. Why didn’t you mention that before?” Rory asked.

She shrugged. “I guess I assumed you knew. Not to mention, I didn’t want to think about it unless we really had to. I don’t know about you, but giving someone an emergency tracheotomy isn’t something I have a lot of experience in.”

Rory’s face darkened with anger, though Karen was fairly certain it wasn’t directed at her. “What the fuck is going on?” he demanded. “Everything is all fucked up now. This house…” He trailed off, unable — or unwilling — to finish the thought aloud.

“What about the house?” she prodded.

“I don’t know. I just know I’m sick of all this weird shit that’s been happening. It makes no sense.”

“Well, I wouldn’t disagree with that,” she replied.

“Nothing’s been right since you got here,” he said. Karen looked at him, startled he would be so blunt. He saw the look and said, “That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”

“How did you mean it?”

“It’s just that…I don’t know. Like the powers that be don’t want you here or something. And I know how crazy that sounds but…there it is.”

“I would never have been here in the first place if you hadn’t called me.”

“What?” he said sharply. “You called me.”

Karen stared at him. “Um, no, you called me.”

Puzzled, he almost smiled, but at the last instant frowned instead. “Are you kidding me?”

“Rory, you called me and told me about Sean’s papers. Don’t you remember?”

He got to his feet, stepped towards her. In the small bathroom, he didn’t need to take many steps before he was in her face. “What the fuck are you trying to pull?”

She could see he meant it. He really didn’t remember calling her.

“I…” She had no idea what to say.

“You’re the one who called me,” he insisted. “Saying that you found his papers. A handwritten will, you said.” Now the anger in his face was directed at her, making her more nervous by the minute. “So,” he continued. “I’m gonna ask you again: what the fuck kind of game are you playing?”

She swallowed a lump in her throat. She licked her lips, which seemed unusually dry. “I guess I’m just a little confused,” she said slowly. “With everything that’s been going on.” She did her best to fake a chuckle, rubbing her forehead. “God, you know, I just can’t believe how exhausted I am. I’m sorry. Of course I remember…calling you, I mean.”

“Right,” he said, leaning forward until their noses were mere inches apart, his blue eyes fixed intently on hers, scanning for any trace of a lie. After a moment, he pulled back, smiled without showing his teeth. “I figured you’d remember if I jarred your memory enough. No offense but Sean did warn me that you were a little flighty.”

She nodded, almost ready to make an excuse to get the hell out of the cloistered bathroom until what he’d said made her wonder. “He warned you?”

Rory, who had turned back to study Saul now faced her again. “What’s that?”

“You said Sean warned you about me. When did he do that?”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, who knows? Probably a couple years ago.”

“Why would he have done that?” she asked, brows knitting together.

Rory raised his hands in a half-shrug. “He thought you were a little flighty?” He smirked as though making a joke, but Karen could clearly see the malice he intended with his words. He wanted her to see it. But why?

“It seems strange though,” she went on, determined not to be intimidated by him. “That he would say something like that when he had no intention of us meeting.”

“Yeah, well, that was Sean. Always pulling stuff out of his hat for no apparent reason.”

“Uh huh.” She glanced around him to see if Saul was having any kind of reaction to this odd conversation, but the other man’s eyes remained closed. She decided to give him a prompt. “How you doing over there, Saul?”

Without so much as flinching, without even opening his eyes, Saul replied, “I think you two need to get a room.”

Rory laughed, a harsh, barking sound that was much too loud in this small space. “I have a room. And I think I’m going to head up there right now, if it’s okay with everyone. I mean, if you think you’ll be okay, Saul? No midnight treks through the woods and to the nearest hospital? Think you can handle that for me, buddy?”

At this, Saul did open his eyes, giving Rory an odd look. “Yeah,” he said. “I think I’m feeling better. I’ll be okay.”

“Good to hear.” Rory grinned predatorily. “Because, like our good friend Ms. Lewis here, I’m beat. I just don’t want to get dragged out of bed because someone is screaming again. You know what I mean?”

Saul miraculously pulled a smile out of somewhere. “No worries, man. I’m fine. Have a good rest.”

Rory nodded, moving past Karen, but stopped in the hallway and turned back to them. His smile reminded Karen of the shark in Jaws. “You kids be good now. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He pointed at Karen. “Especially you. I haven’t been able to get in his pants for six months and I’d be pretty devastated to find out you’d stolen him from me while I was sleeping.”

Feeling herself bristle at this uncalled for crap, Karen almost opened her mouth to tell him off, but ultimately decided against doing so. At least for now. Instead, she did her best to return his smile with an obnoxiously sour one of her own. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said.

“Excellent.” And then he was gone, his footsteps fading off down the hall.

She waited a moment, then quietly went to the doorway and poked her head out to be sure he was really gone, half expecting him to lunge out from around the corner, wielding a knife and a maniacal grin. But the hall was empty and she released a long-held breath that had been beginning to make her chest ache.

She closed the door before turning to Saul. “What the fuck was that about?” she whispered.

Reaching for a face cloth hanging from the soap dish on the wall, Saul dunked it into the water, soaking it, before draping it over his face, giving absolutely no indication he’d even heard the question.

“Saul?” she said, louder this time.

“Mmm?”

“I asked what that was all about?”

“What?”

She couldn’t believe this. Had he really not been paying attention to the exchange that had just happened less than six feet from where he sat? “That shit with Rory,” she said, not even attempting to hide her exasperation. “Saying I called him. Was he serious?”

Beneath the damp face cloth, Saul laughed softly.

“What’s so funny?”

“I was just remembering what he said about you trying to get in my pants.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said sarcastically. “That was hilarious.” She ran a hand through her hair, dismayed that her fingers encountered so many snarls. She looked down at the bath tub enviously for a few seconds before saying, “So, was that his idea of amusing? Saying I called him up out of the blue, claiming to have Sean’s papers and all that nonsense? I mean, come on. What kind of game is he playing?”

Saul laughed again, sounding very far away. “Isn’t that what he said about you? That you’re playing a game?”

“Yeah, but I’m not. I’m not the one making shit up for who the fuck even knows why. Because he thinks its funny, I guess.”

“But you did,” Saul said.

She sighed loudly. “Did what?”

“You did call him first.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Karen paced her bedroom, fists clenching and unclenching, wishing she could punch or kick something. Anything would do, but mostly she was wishing she could kick those two assholes in the fucking teeth. Why were they doing this to her, fucking with her this way? Was it some insurance scam? Some revenge plot? But against who and why? She’d never even met Rory before so she knew whatever was going on couldn’t have anything to do with her. Unless…

Unless he thought he was avenging Sean somehow.

But what had she ever done to Sean? Nothing she could think of that warranted this kind of insanity. Just typical brother/sister shit every person with a sibling goes through. And all of that stuff was ancient history. She’d barely even seen her brother in what…five years? Maybe more?

Of course, she supposed it was possible that was the problem right there. Though Sean had never said anything to her about wishing she’d visit, had never asked her to, maybe Rory thought she should have. Hell, maybe Sean actually complained to Rory that his family never made the trip out west to see him. For all she knew, it was a big deal to Sean. She went over to the dresser and took a sip of the whiskey she’d helped herself to before coming to her room. She’d gone back down to the living room and taken her glass and the bottle back up with her and now she was just beginning to feel its effects. The booze was taking a bit of the edge off which was exactly what she needed right now.

How dare Rory have said such things to her, all but accusing her of…of what? Screwing up his plans for the B&B somehow? He probably thought she’d brought a jar of piranha fleas smuggled in her suitcase and then released them while she’d been in the basement, knowing full well they could eat a person alive.

She felt like bellowing a loud maniacal laugh, loud enough for him to hear from his room down the hall, letting him know how evil she was and how well her plan was working.

The thought amused her a great deal as she sat down on the edge of the bed, sipping her drink and smiling to the empty room. Imagining herself as an evil villain was kind of fun, she thought. Perhaps she should write a story from a super-villain’s perspective. The prospect was entertaining.

She considered it for a while, but knew before she could write anything enjoyable, she had to get back to her journal about this visit to Falling Trees. Setting the glass on the night table, she crossed the room and brought the bottle back, putting it beside the glass so it would be within easy reach. No longer particularly tired, she made herself comfortable on the bed with her laptop, opened the document, and sat there chewing her lower lip for a while. After drumming her fingers lightly on the keyboard for several minutes, she reached for her glass and took a long swallow, draining it. As she removed the glass from her lips, she looked up to see a figure across the room. The empty glass clattered onto the computer before rolling off onto the bed.

Karen gasped as her lungs seemed to freeze inside her chest.

The figure appeared to be a frail old man, his back to her, kneeling before the cedar hope chest. His back heaved gently; he was weeping, though Karen heard nothing. Face in hands, the old man’s bald and spotted head bobbed slightly with each silent intake of breath.

Feeling a trembling beginning in her hands, Karen wanted nothing more than to cover her face, will this apparition away, snap out of it goddammit! She closed her eyes, opened them again, but the old man remained, seemingly oblivious to her presence and now the hope chest wasn’t a hope chest at all anymore. No. No, it was a coffin now. A coffin just like the ones she’d seen in the basement and the old man’s body shook and shook, devastated by the death of…who?

Without even thinking about it, on the verge of tears, she reached for the empty glass beside her on the bed, wrapped her hand around it and screamed aloud as she threw it across the room at the old man’s flannel back. The glass passed right through him and shattered against the coffin which was once again a hope chest and then he was gone as though he’d never been there at all.

She raised a shaky hand to her mouth, biting down hard on the knuckles to keep herself from screaming again.

Her heart felt like a machine gun shattering her ribcage in an attempt to escape her body, her eyes wide and unblinking, ears pricked for a sound, any sound, but most especially the sound of approaching footsteps from the hall.

Surely, Rory had heard her scream. Why wasn’t he coming to investigate? Saul could have been knocked out from the Benadryl or just plain exhaustion, but where was Rory? Why was he not responding?

She considered the possibility her cry of terror hadn’t been as loud as it had sounded to her own ears, in her state of paralytic fear.

Still in her lap, the computer chirped. She glanced down, the screen flashing so blindingly bright she brought a hand up to shield her eyes. A second later, she dropped the hand to see a scene playing out on the screen, a scene from a movie. A scene starring her brother Sean, who was naked in a bright patch of sunlight, surrounded by trees.

Sean was down on all fours, another naked man behind him, fucking him, pounding him hard enough to make him cry out in pain. The man pressed his face into Sean’s back, concealing his identity, one hand on Sean’s hip while the other held a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back with every thrust.

Dirty, covered in pine needles and patches of sticky sap, Sean opened his eyes and appeared to look directly at Karen, his eyes pleading.

In the blink of an eye, his entire agonized face filled up the screen, battered black in places, and he spoke, his voice amazingly calm, his teeth smeared red with blood, as he said, “Two men have the carcass.”

Karen choked down a cry as the camera pulled back again, showing the same scene, Sean being fucked, possibly raped by the unknown man. She grabbed the laptop by the screen, intending to throw it across the room the same way she’d thrown the glass and then another figure stepped into the scene, entering on the right, closer to the camera than her brother and his assailant.

A cloaked figure in a dark robe, hood raised, immediately bringing to mind the Grim Reaper. An instant later, as if reading Karen’s mind and playing to her thoughts, the head raised up, revealing a skeleton face, just bone, empty black sockets where eyes and nose had once been.

She felt something inside her mind snap and her mouth moved wordlessly as a single trickle of blood began to ooze its way down from the top of the screen, thick and slow and so unbelievably red. Unsure if it was part of the movie — if it was a movie — or actually coming out of her computer, she reached out, fingers shaking worse than any palsy victim’s ever had, but at the last instant she drew her hand away, not waiting to know for sure, certain that if her fingers came away red she would disappear so deep inside herself she would never again know reality and be forever locked away in the dark.

Hissing, she tossed the computer away, off her lap, off the bed. It crashed against the dresser and hit the floor with a heavy thud. She was dismayed to see it remained open, though the screen had gone dark. “Jesus,” she gasped. “Jesus. Fuck.” Breathing hard as hot tears spilled down her cheeks, she again willed herself not to scream, not to cry out in any way, though she had no idea how she was managing it. Insane, she thought. You really, truly are insane.

No, another stronger voice shouted from somewhere inside her head. Remember the photographs. Rory and Saul saw them too. It’s not you, it’s this…place. It’s cursed, haunted. But by what? By who? And why?

The answer was there, of course. Had been there all along. It was the Captain. Captain Frank Storm. That’s who she’d just seen, kneeling before the hope chest/coffin.

She waited until her heart had settled into as normal a rhythm as she thought she was going to get out of it, swung her legs off the bed, never taking her gaze from the computer on the floor.

The blood was gone, so it had been part of the show after all. Knowing there was no way in hell she’d be able to sleep tonight, she retrieved the glass from the floor, relieved it hadn’t broken, and poured herself another shot. The whiskey scorched her throat going down and almost came back up again. She coughed and sputtered, but managed to keep the burning fluid in her belly. She needed to get out of here, out of this room. She grabbed the bottle and left, hurrying downstairs, thankful the hall lights were still on. As she hit the bottom step, she heard an odd creaking sound that made her pause, ready to run back up if she had to.

The creaking came again, slow and lazy, as if something were rocking in a relaxed, leisurely way. But what? There was no rocking chair in the living room, which was what immediately sprang to mind. She stood stock-still, listening to the sound as it reached its listless crescendo before fading again, never growing very loud.

It was, she realized, as if the walls themselves were creaking under some unknown weight and the sound beneath the creaking — a very gentle splashing — gave it all away.

She was listening to the slow easy sound of waves splashing sleepily against the hull of a ship, the ship itself creaking under the pressure of the water sloshing against it. She sank down into a sitting position on the stair. The whiskey was threatening to come up again and her head had begun to pound like a new hangover.

“You hear that?”

She nearly jumped out of her skin, leaping to her feet and spinning around to see Saul at the top of the staircase. The sight of him both relieved and frightened her.

Wanting to proceed with caution, she asked, “Do I hear what?”

He smiled crookedly at her, a painful sight that went beyond all the ugly scratches covering his skin. “It was a dark and stormy night,” he said as he began to descend the stairs, one hand grazing the banister absently. “We were standing on the deck. The ship was sinking and the Captain said to me, ‘Tell me a story, my son.’ And so I began. ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’ We were standing on the deck. The ship was sinking and the Captain said to me, ‘Tell me a story, my son.’ And so I began. ‘It was a dark and stormy night—’”

“Stop it,” Karen snapped.

Saul stopped, that half smile still on his face but Karen could see his dark eyes were haunted. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, she had already backed across the living room, trying to keep her distance.

“Sorry,” he said. “I guess all this,” he gestured around the room and she knew he was referring to the ship sounds the house was now making, “is getting to me.”

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He peered at her, as if noticing her body language for the first time. “Are you afraid of me?”

She suspected a trick question and had no idea which would be the right answer, so she said nothing.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Karen,” he said. “Look at me.” He held his arms out to her, turning them so she could see the fronts and backs. “Look what I did to myself. I’m just as much a victim here as you are.”

Watching him carefully, she said, “I’m not a victim.”

Dropping his arms to his sides once more, he said, “No?”

“No. Sean was a victim though and I will find out what happened to him.”

“This is all so strange, don’t you think?”

Again, she didn’t know what the preferred response would be and remained silent.

“I guess my grandmother was right all those years ago,” he continued, crossing the room to sit on the couch, taking care to give Karen a wide berth, almost as though he were just as afraid of her as she was of him. “She used to spout on about all that hooey. Angry spirits getting their revenge, lost souls wandering the earth, not even knowing they’re dead.” He sighed heavily, as though he’d never been so tired in all his life. “Do you think that’s what’s happening here? Angry spirits?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, impressed with how steady her voice sounded as the house creaked and groaned around them. “But obviously it all has something to do with the Captain who built this place.”

Saul smiled weakly again. “Yeah, I think you’re right about that. But what does it have to do with Sean? And even more importantly, what does it have to do with you?”

“I don’t know,” she said again. “What makes you think it has anything to do with me?”

“Because the house wasn’t like this until you got here. That’s what Rory was trying to say in his not-so-elegant way.”

Karen folded her arms over her chest.

When he realized she wasn’t going to reply, Saul asked, “You’ve been having hallucinations, haven’t you?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you talking about what happened in the basement? Because that wasn’t a hallucination.”

“Yes, it was, Karen. You know it was. Rory and I went down there, remember? No caskets, no coffins, no candles. Just a bunch of junk.”

“Junk and fleas,” she corrected.

He pointed a brown finger at her. “Exactly. The fleas.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked impatiently.

“You hallucinated coffins, I hallucinated flea bites. Or something. I’m not totally sure what that itching attack was about, but I think it had something to do with the fleas.”

Karen was getting tired of standing and walked slowly to the lounger to sit down. “You’re saying you think the allergic reaction was just in your mind?”

“Yes. Like the coffins were in yours.”

She didn’t bother to argue with him about it anymore. “So, what’s your point?”

He leaned forward on the couch, his face suddenly animated. “You’ve had other hallucinations.”

Knowing he must have heard the commotion in her room just before she’d come downstairs, she did her best to keep her expression blank. “And how do you know that?”

“Because I’ve had others too.”

Skeptically, she asked, “What kind of hallucinations?”

Saul’s face darkened slightly, and Karen was unsure what that meant. Was he embarrassed?

Shifting on the sofa, he clasped his hands together, rested his elbows on his thighs. “First, let me ask you a question,” he said.

She waited while Saul seemed to grow even more uncomfortable. At last he said, “Forget the question. I’ll just tell you what I know.” After clearing his throat, he said, “You and I have made love every night since we got here.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Blinking, Karen was certain she must have heard him incorrectly. Perhaps the alcohol was affecting her more than she’d assumed.

“Excuse me?”

Saul’s smile was sheepish as he shook a finger at her. “Now, see, I knew you were going to react this way.”

“I’m reacting this way because you’re full of shit.”

“No,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’m not. That’s my point. You and I go at it like fucking rabbits every night, but then the next day, I see you and you act like it never happened.”

“That’s because it didn’t happen,” she said, feeling angrier than she wanted to.

“To you it never happened,” he said. “It didn’t take me long to figure that out. No woman could be so casual and distant about it the morning after, if you know what I mean.”

She tried not to think about the egotism in that statement and said, “So, you’re saying the house made you think you were fucking me?”

Smiling again, he said, “Well, I thought it was a little more romantic than that but essentially, yes.”

She sat back in the lounger, unsure of how she should feel right now. Violated? Flattered? And then there was the very real possibility he was just making all this up, fucking with her for whatever twisted reason he may have. Maybe to get a confession out of her. Could he possibly think she was really behind all these odd events?

Of course, she thought. Just listen to the house right now. How could anyone be pulling this kind of hoax? Hidden speakers?

She supposed it was possible. Maybe he was the one perpetrating the hoax and accusing her to get the attention off himself?

Fuck! She was so confused. All around her, the house groaned like an old pirate ship sailing some vast black sea and here she was trying to figure out if she was being accused of something. Now that she was really thinking about it, she knew she had bigger things to worry about.

This was no hoax and if what Saul was saying was true, then she no longer had to worry about her sanity. Right?

Right?

The rasping of water against wood grew louder and both she and Saul looked around. When the sound subsided a moment later, he said, “I need me grog.” He walked off, heading towards the kitchen and was already out of sight before Karen even got the joke. Once she did, she jumped up and went after him, finding him pulling a beer out of the fridge. “Want one?” he asked without turning around.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It wasn’t that long ago that I was thinking the Jack Daniels wasn’t agreeing with me.”

He chuckled, closing the refrigerator door with his hip while twisting the cap off the brown bottle. “A little seasick, were ya? Maybe you puked over the edge—” He stopped speaking abruptly, all the color draining from his face. “Oh my God.”

Karen frowned. “What?”

Saul practically threw the beer onto the counter top and hurried over to the back door. With his hand on the knob, he turned to look at her. “Why didn’t we think of this before?”

“What?” she repeated. And then she knew. Her jaw dropped. “Don’t open the door!” she cried, rushing over to him.

“We have to know,” he said.

She shook her head. “No, we don’t. And even if…if it’s true, it’ll just be another hallucination.”

“I have to know.”

Karen grabbed his arm. “Please don’t, Saul. I don’t think I could stand it. Not after everything else that’s happened tonight.”

“What else?” he asked, facing her full-on.

She hesitated. “I’ll tell you if you don’t open that door. Not yet.” She could see him debating as his eyes studied hers.

Finally, his hand came off the doorknob and he said, “I guess I am pretty thirsty for that beer and I have a feeling that if I look out there, I probably won’t be in the mood to do any drinking.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe I’ll join you after all.”

They sat down at the table, each with a cold Miller Lite. Karen drank the first one fast, begging the powers that be to help dull her senses as fast as possible. She didn’t want to know what was outside, nor did she want to see Saul’s face when she told him about the old man upstairs and the mini-movie the laptop had showed her.

She told the story quickly, not looking up, pulling the soggy label off the beer with her thumbnail. By the time she was finished, the house seemed to have ceased its groaning and Saul evidently had forgotten his need to see what was beyond these walls.

He surprised her by saying, “We have to get out of here. Tomorrow. Hike back down to the truck and get the fuck out of here. Hell, I doubt I’ll ever come near this place again. Fallen Trees can kiss my ass goodbye forever.”

Karen killed the beer remaining in her bottle. “What about Rory?”

“We’ll have to get him to come with us.”

“Well, yeah, but where is he now?”

Saul shrugged. “Sleeping I guess.”

“He didn’t hear the house having its little identity crisis? Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”

“He takes Trazodone.” Saul sipped his beer. “Helps him sleep since…uh, since Sean vanished.”

Karen was quite familiar with Trazodone. She’d been prescribed it herself on more than one occasion. Continuing to play with the beer label, she said, “I have to be honest. I don’t know what the hell Sean saw in that guy.”

Saul offered her his crooked smile once more. “I’m pretty sure Rory didn’t know either. But I know they loved each other. I guess it was a case of opposites attract.”

“I guess the hell so. You want another beer?”

He turned in his seat, glanced at the back door almost longingly, then said, “Sure, why not.”

She got them each a new beer and sat down again. “There’s no way in hell I’m gonna be sleeping tonight.”

“I have a feeling it’ll be a while before I sleep at all, even after I’m out of here.”

They drank in silence for a few minutes and then Karen, probably with the help of the alcohol in her system, asked the question she’d been dying to ask ever since her arrival in Washington. “So…you and Rory. Are you guys… you know…”

“A couple?” he supplied for her. “No. He’s not my type.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “You have a type?”

“Not really,” he laughed. “I mean, other than being brilliant, attractive, hilarious and saintly, no, I don’t have a type.”

Karen smiled at him, raising her beer. “Sounds like we have the same type. Here’s to the flawless.”

“That’s something worth drinking to.” They clanked their bottles together and each took a long swallow, almost as if they were competing to see who could drink the most, the fastest. It feels like we’re just a couple of frat boys pounding a few brews on the eve of the big game, she thought, more than a little amused. And then another thought occurred to her and she couldn’t hide her grin.

“What?” Saul asked, spotting it immediately. “What’s so funny?”

“I, uh…was just thinking about your type.”

“And?”

“And…you thought…you and I…” She burst out laughing and was amazed at how good it felt. No, not just good. It felt great. When had she last laughed? Certainly not that long ago. Yesterday maybe? The day before? Then why the hell did it feel like decades? Centuries?

Saul was turning purple, he was blushing so furiously. “Yeah, well, the pickings are slim around here,” he joked.

“You have a crush on me,” she giggled.

“I do not! It was just…you know…sex.”

“Sure it was.”

“It was! You even said so.”

“The phrase that comes to mind right about now is so apropos that I can’t even utter it.”

“What phrase?”

“In your dreams!” she shouted happily. “Isn’t it ironic? Don’t ya think?”

Shaking his head, Saul replied with the expected line, “Yeah, I really do think.”

“Sounds like you two are really hitting it off.”

They both looked up, startled to see Rory standing in the doorway.

“Hey, man,” Saul said. “Sorry. Did we wake you?”

“As a matter of fact, you did. And I can see you’re drinking all the beer and you didn’t even invite me.”

“You were sleeping, dude.”

“Actually, I wasn’t. I was listening to the house.”

“You heard it?” Karen sat up straighter.

“Hard to miss,” Rory said as he went to the refrigerator and got himself a beer. He came back to the table and sat next to Saul. He regarded his friend with what almost appeared to be disgust. “And all these nights, I thought it was me you were fucking.”

Saul nearly choked on his mouthful of beer, all the amusement that had been in his face gone in an instant. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, “You were eavesdropping?”

“Is it really eavesdropping when it’s your own house?” Rory asked.

“So, you didn’t really hear the house?” Karen asked. “You were just talking about us?”

“I did hear you talking about hearing the house. Does that count?”

Every second, Karen thought. Every fucking second, I like him less and less. Before she even knew she was going to do it, she stood up so suddenly the chair she’d been in fell over as she shouted, “What the fuck did you do with my brother?”

In a flash, Saul was on his feet, ready to break up a brawl, though he needn’t have worried. Rory didn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he chuckled. “You need to keep the little woman in line, Saul. She’s like a rabid pit bull.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Saul snapped at him.

“A pit bull bitch,” Rory said and sipped his beer.

“You need to shut up right now!” Saul jabbed a finger at Rory. “You’re not yourself, man.”

“I’m not myself? I think it’s you who’s not himself. Why are you defending her? She just fucking accused me of having something to do with Sean’s disappearance!” Rory was angry now and could no longer feign indifference. In a way, seeing him like that made Karen feel better. If he was outraged at the accusation, maybe it meant he really hadn’t had anything to do with Sean going missing.

“We need to get out of here,” Saul said. “The sooner the better.”

“Why?” Rory asked. “Because you got itchy for a while? Let me tell you something right now, Saul. There is this little thing known as the power of suggestion. It’s really an interesting concept and I’ve never actually seen it put into practice until now.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Saul demanded.

“I’m talking about how everything was fine around here until she showed up. You know damn well how Sean used to always talk about his crazy sister, the reclusive writer. How she used to make him feel crazy too with all her senseless ramblings.”

“That’s a lie!” Karen shouted.

“No, it isn’t,” Rory told her. “He said you were a fucking loon and obviously he was right.” To Saul, he said, “And now it’s happening to you too, probably because of all that crap your family brainwashed you with when you were a kid. It made you susceptible to the ravings of a madwoman.”

Saul and Karen exchanged glances.

Rory continued, “And, in case you’re forgetting, Saul, I am paying you to be here. You work for me.” When no one replied, he added, “Now we all just have to calm the hell down. Can we agree to do that?”

Karen didn’t think she could stand to be in this man’s presence any longer. “I’m tired,” she said. “I guess I’ll go to bed. Saul, if you’re staying up, please wake me at first light.”

Saul nodded. “No problem. But are you sure? I mean…about being alone up there?”

She hadn’t really considered that, but now that she was reminded of it she realized she most definitely didn’t want to go back up to that room. “I guess I’ll try to sleep on the couch for a while.”

“Good,” he said. “I think we should all stay as close together as possible.”

Rory laughed. “I feel like I’m in a teen slasher flick.”

Karen considered telling him to fuck off, but couldn’t be bothered. “Whatever.”

The moment she left the kitchen, throughout the entire house, the lights went out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“This is not good,” Saul said from the dark kitchen.

The instant the lights were extinguished, Karen had reversed direction and gone back to the room where the men were. “What the hell?” she asked.

As if replying to her, a gust of wind slammed the outside of the house, rattling the trees together.

“There’s your answer,” Rory said. “Sounds like a wind storm is kicking up.”

Karen felt her belly roll over. “Wind storm?”

“They’re pretty common this time of year,” Saul told her. She could already hear him rummaging around in one of the drawers. A second later and he was striking a match and lighting a candle. A corona of golden light bloomed around him. “I’m sure it’ll start raining soon too.” He handed Karen the candle he was holding and used its flame to light another, which he passed to Rory before lighting one for himself.

“Every room has at least two candles in holders,” Rory said, standing up. “We should all take a floor and light them too.”

“What for?” Karen asked. “I think we should just stay here and sit tight. No use in lighting up rooms we won’t even be in.”

“Who says we won’t be in them?” Rory said.

“Why would we be?”

“You never know,” he replied. “We might be running from spookies before the night is over.”

Resisting the urge to flip him the finger, she said, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you to never leave a candle unattended?”

“Yeah, she also told me that Jesus was my Savior and that I would grow up to sell insurance like my dad and marry a nice girl and have good Christian children. Then she found out I was gay and told me I was an abomination and would be burning in hellfire for all eternity. I guess you could say I’ve learned to disregard all the stuff she told me.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “But maybe you should tell me why you feel we need to light every room in the house. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

In the glow of orange candlelight, Rory said, “We’re a ship lost at sea. If there is any hope of being seen and rescued by another ship, we’ll have to make ourselves as visible as possible, which means we light all the candles and put them on the windowsills. Happy now?”

Karen and Saul stared at him for a long time, open mouthed, unsure if he was being serious or not.

Rory groaned impatiently. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it myself.” He left the kitchen, taking a third of the light with him.

“What the hell?” Karen said again, but she could see that Saul had no answers for her.

“I guess we should help him,” Saul whispered.

“Really?” Karen was surprised, but kept her voice low. “I’ve never heard of the tradition of putting a candle in every window before.”

“Neither have I. But I have a feeling that he knows more about this place than we do. And even though he said he didn’t hear the sounds of a rocking ship, I think he believed we did. He knows more than he’s telling us.”

“Well, no shit. Do you think he knows about Sean?”

“I doubt it.” He took Karen’s free hand with his own. “Come on, let’s get this over with.” He tried tugging her along but Karen resisted him. He stopped, looking back at her.

“I have a really bad feeling about this,” she said.

He hesitated before replying. “It’ll be okay. I don’t think anything can hurt us.”

“Oh, really?” She moved her candle so it shone on the back of his gouged hand. “What would you call this?”

“My own doing.”

She couldn’t think of a suitable argument for that. Instead, she asked, “Do they hurt? The scratches?”

“They sting a bit, yeah.”

“We should clean them up with alcohol or something.”

“We will. Let’s just get this crap with the candles over with first, okay?”

Distressed that her attempt to distract him had failed, she sighed and said, “Okay. But I don’t want us to separate.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t.”

She nodded reluctantly and they started off, Saul calling out for Rory to determine the other man’s location in the house.

“Still downstairs,” Rory called back. “In the Captain’s quarters.” Karen and Saul immediately froze at this news. The Captain’s Quarters? Then the sound of Rory chuckling drifted to them beneath the sound of the lashing wind. “In the library,” he called.

“Okay,” Saul called back after a moment. “Karen and I will take the third floor. That way we’ll all be able to meet on the second.”

“Good thinking, Mate.” Rory still sounded amused.

“This is ridiculous,” Karen muttered, gripping Saul’s hand much harder than necessary but she couldn’t help herself. As they climbed the stairs to the third floor, she kept her gaze on the floor, not wanting to look up and see those grotesquely altered photographs again.

At the top, Saul said, “I’ll take the rooms on the left. You take the ones on the right.”

“I thought we agreed not to separate?”

“I’ll be right across the hall and we’ll meet in front of the threshold of every new room. We won’t be apart for more than a minute, tops.”

“You said we wouldn’t separate,” Karen repeated, hating the tinge of panic in her voice.

Saul did his best to give her a reassuring smile. “You know, at some point one of us is going to have to pee, especially after all that beer we drank.”

That was one thing she didn’t need to be reminded of. She’d had to pee for the last twenty minutes. “Okay,” she said. “But we meet at every threshold.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart and—”

“Don’t say another word,” she interrupted. “I don’t want us having any more bad luck than we already do.”

“Try to think of all this as good luck,” he said optimistically. “For all we know, the house could have eaten us by now.”

She licked her lips. “How do you know it hasn’t?”

“Because, we’re not drowning in digestive juices.”

This got a smile out of her, made her realize how silly she was being. She let go of his hand and they each went their separate ways, Saul disappearing into a dark room on the left and Karen turning into what she soon realized was an office of some sort. Probably where Rory did his paperwork and whatever else it was he had to do to get a B&B up and running.

Karen didn’t bother attempting to take in her surroundings, but made a beeline for the window on the far side of the room. She had to swerve around a monolith of an old oak desk to do it, but she immediately saw the votive candle precariously balanced on the porthole’s windowsill. The glass was small and ruby-red, perhaps an antique. She quickly lit the candle within it and turned to leave, catching a glimpse of a framed photograph on the desk. She almost averted her gaze instinctively, but before she had a chance to, she caught the smiling face of her brother. She paused, felt her heart stutter, considered ignoring it but at the last second reached for the photo, holding her candle close to the glass.

Sean was grinning up at the camera from a stooped position, his brown hair messy and falling into his eyes. He was shirtless, wearing cut-off blue jeans and canvas sneakers, holding a paint roller which dripped white paint into a tray. Beneath him was a white-spattered drop cloth.

He looked beautiful and happy and very, very much alive. It made her heart ache, not only because she was almost certain he was dead, but also because she had neglected to get to know him better when she had the chance.

“Where are you?” she whispered, feeling the prick of tears in the corner of her eyes.

“Right here,” came the reply. Karen gasped, dropping the framed photo onto the desk where it clattered loudly. She whirled around, shoving the candle out in front of her, searching the darkness in the direction the voice had come from.

Over in the far corner she could make out movement, but barely. Heart hammering, she screamed for Saul, but the instant his name was past her lips, the office door slammed shut.

Paralyzed, Karen couldn’t think, couldn’t figure out what to do. Out of the darkness came a grunt and a cry of pain, followed by a wet smacking sound.

She backed up, colliding with the wall beside the window where she’d just seconds before lit the candle. From far away, she could hear the pounding of a fist on wood, someone shouting her name. Part of her knew it was Saul, trying to get in, but another part — the part present in this room at this moment — focused only on what she couldn’t see and could barely hear.

More strange sounds — flesh hitting flesh and whimpers and ragged breathing — came from the corner. Shadows moved, rocking fast. “Oh God,” she moaned. “Please, no.”

As if in response to her pleading, the candle in her hand flared brightly, as did the one behind her, illuminating the room until she could see the figures in the corner just well enough to recognize her brother.

“Sean!” she cried. He looked up at her from his position on the floor, on all fours, naked, being pounded from behind, just as he had been in the vision she’d seen on the laptop. His hair matted and sweaty, stuck to his forehead, one eye swollen shut while the other filled with blood that spilled down his cheek in a slow rivulet. Mouth pulverized and pulled back in a grimace of agony, he seemed to be searching for where the voice was coming from, just as she had been searching moments before. “Sean, I’m right here!” She moved forward as her words caused Sean’s rapist to look up at her, revealing his own face, twisted in sexual, predatory release.

The rapist was Sean, holding himself by the hips, fucking himself with such violent force that Karen could clearly see the blood flowing down the inside of Sean’s — the victim Sean’s — thighs.

Her brother. Both men, her brother.

“TWO MEN HAVE THE CARCASS!” a voice hissed directly into her ear, so close she could feel air brushing her cheek.

She reeled away, screaming, raising the candle in that direction. A shadow flittered away to where the candlelight couldn’t touch it.

“None of this is real,” she whispered. “Just hallucinations.” But where Sean — both Sean’s — had just been, there was now a little girl in an old fashioned high-collared white dress. The girl stared at Karen and began walking towards her.

But no, that wasn’t quite right. She wasn’t getting any closer to Karen, though her legs were clearly moving in a walking motion. She was walking, but going nowhere.

Karen’s whole body began to shake as her bladder let go. Warmth oozed down her legs, but she hardly noticed. Her eyes were on the walking girl and, as Karen watched, the little girl held her right arm straight out from the side of her body. Beginning at the shoulder, the arm writhed under the sleeve of the dress in a way that was definitely not normal.

The arm grew wider, fatter, tearing the fabric of the sleeve, splitting the skin beneath it. There was no blood, but Karen could clearly make out the bone beneath the skin.

But no. Not quite bone. It was too dark to be bone, even in this light she could see that.

As if some invisible zipper were opening in the child’s arm, the skin fell away, disappearing completely before it hit the floor and whatever it was inside the arm began to grow tendrils that shot off from the main stem.

A branch, Karen realized. A tree branch was sprouting from the child’s shoulder as the girl stood there and simply stared at her, seemingly oblivious to what her body was doing.

Soon the child held her other arm out from her side and it too began to morph before Karen’s eyes.

“No.” Karen shook her head. “No.” The word, at first a soft mewling sound, quickly became the shriek of the terminally insane. Karen pressed the heels of her hands hard against her closed eyes, sinking to the floor where she remained for an unknowable amount of time.

She’d screamed herself raw long ago, it seemed, when she felt something touch her. She made no sound, resisted having her hands pulled away from her face, but the grip around her wrists was too strong.

Light punched against her closed eyelids and she squeezed her eyes tightly closed, not wanting to see the next horror, knowing her mind would snap if she did, snap and drift away like so much useless space trash floating through oblivion for all eternity.

She heard voices, but made no attempt to understand them, blocking them out. She would listen no more. She would see no more. She would feel nothing ever again, forget everything, become no more than a collapsed star falling in on herself and away from herself, never to return.

Never to return.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Karen’s head snapped back on her neck, hard enough to cause pain as the muscles were pulled.

A vile smell assaulted her nostrils and her eyes opened, watering furiously. She shook her head, trying to get away from the bitter scent.

“I think she’s back,” a voice said.

She knew that voice. It belonged to a handsome dark man with kind eyes and bright straight teeth he flashed whenever he smiled, which was often.

Getting her eyes to focus was a challenge but as she blinked the tears away, the foul stench retreated and the handsome man’s face was inches from her own. She was not particularly surprised to see him smiling.

“Welcome back,” Saul said. “We thought we’d lost you for a minute there.”

Karen tried to speak, found her mouth was filled with what could only be moon dust, so dry it had never known moisture in all the time of its existence.

Looking around, she saw she was no longer in the office on the third floor of the house, but back in her own room, on the second floor, lying on the bed. Rory stood at the foot of the bed, watching her with tired eyes.

Saul sat beside her. He held a tiny object up to her face so she could see it. “Smelling salts,” he said. “We didn’t know what to do so we went through your stuff, figuring since you had the Benadryl you’d probably have something for fainting too. You are one prepared lady.”

She wanted to tell him she hadn’t fainted, that she’d only backed away from the world and had done it intentionally and didn’t appreciate being pulled forward again.

“Here, drink some water.” He held a bottle to her lips and tipped it until her mouth filled with the cool sweet liquid and washed away the desert dryness coating her tongue.

“You’ll probably want a shower soon,” Saul said, taking the bottle away and setting it on the night table. She remembered peeing herself and felt her face burn.

“What happened in there?” Rory asked.

Karen’s eyes darted to him and away again. She didn’t want to remember and talking about it would bring it all back to the surface. Instead of answering him, she asked, “How long have I been out?”

“About an hour,” Saul said.

“Why did you lock yourself in my office, Karen?” Rory wanted to know. “Were you looking for something?”

She glared at him. “I didn’t lock myself in your goddamn office.”

“Oh, you didn’t? Then why was it locked when Saul tried to get in?” Looking away, she made no response. “If I didn’t have the key,” he went on, “we would have had to break the door down.”

For the first time, she noticed the lights were on. “The electricity came back.”

“Yeah,” Saul said. “Not sure for how long though. The wind is really kicking up out there.”

Karen cocked her head, becoming aware of the loud gusts shaking the trees around the house. “I want to go home,” she said suddenly. The revelation irritated her. She had come to find out what happened to her brother and was just now discovering the price of the truth was too steep. She was a coward.

“I want to go home too,” Saul said.

“Yes.” Rory began pacing at the foot of the bed. “We all want to go home. It turns out we came here for fucking nothing.”

Karen didn’t want to deal with him any more, and the only way she could think to get rid of him was to announce that she wanted to bathe, which wasn’t a lie, but it would also mean being alone, which she definitely didn’t want.

“You want to tell us what happened in there?” Saul asked, also ignoring Rory’s outburst.

“No,” she said. “But I will anyway.” She closed her eyes, searching for a single grain of courage. A minute ticked by, the wind howling with rage and she said, “I saw Sean.”

Rory stopped his pacing and stared at her.

Quickly, she added, “Not the real Sean, but some…I don’t know…apparition of him I guess.”

“You’re saying you saw his ghost?” Rory asked, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.

“I guess. I don’t know. Maybe I saw what the house wanted me to see.”

Rolling his eyes, Rory tossed his hands into the air. “Here we go again.”

Saul said, “You’re not helping anything, Rory.”

“No? Well, that’s probably because I’m not trying to help anything. She’s basically accusing me of killing my partner of five years!”

“She is not!”

“Are you blind? That’s been her purpose all along! She came here already thinking I’d done something to Sean! Why can’t you see that?”

“That’s not true,” Karen said. “But you can believe whatever you want to believe.”

“Oh, you think I want to believe my partner’s sister thinks I’m a fucking murderer? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“She didn’t say that,” Saul said, standing up.

“She may as well have.”

“What the fuck is your problem, man?” Saul asked, stepping closer to Rory, fists clenched.

Karen saw where this was going and spoke up quickly. “I think I want that bath now,” she said. “Saul, would you mind staying in here while I take it?”

It took him a few seconds to stop staring down Rory, but when he did, he said, “Yeah, no problem. I won’t go anywhere.”

Karen got up and went to the bathroom, closing the door and praying those two didn’t start beating the crap out of each other. She ran the tub and stripped out of her damp, urine-smelling clothes, much more comfortable being alone now the lights were back on. But, judging by the sound of the wind, they wouldn’t remain on for much longer, so she had to make her bath a quick one.

With the water running, she couldn’t tell what the guys were saying in the bedroom, but she could hear them talking, which meant they weren’t shouting. That, at least, was a good sign.

She lowered herself into the tub and washed quickly, not wanting to be naked when the electricity failed again. She was in and out in five minutes, not bothering to wash her hair.

Breathing a sigh of relief once she’d toweled off and stepped into her robe, she opened the door just as a tremendous cracking sound came from outside.

Saul, alone in the room now, leapt from the bed, hand held up to her in a stop gesture.

“Tree falling,” he said, head cocked, listening.

What seemed like a long time later, a loud thud shook the house as Karen’s eyes widened in alarm. “Yep,” he said, as if she’d spoken. “Close by too.”

“Fuck,” she said.

He looked at her, vaguely amused. “It happens. We’re in the woods.”

“But why does it have to happen now?”

Saul went to the porthole, looked out. “It’ll be dawn soon. We can try hiking down out of here, but I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?”

“If it’ll be too dangerous. These winds must be at least sixty miles an hour, which is a pretty serious thing around here. Not to mention, it’s the first wind storm of the season.”

“So?”

“So, that means that a lot of branches will be coming down and, as you just heard, some trees too.”

“I don’t care about that,” she said impatiently. “I just want to get the hell out of here.”

Saul ran a hand over his stubbled cheeks. “You don’t get it. A tree falls on you, you’re dead.”

She scoffed. “I think I can get out of the way of a falling tree, Saul. You think I’d just stand there? Hell, I’ll run the entire way back to the truck if I have to.”

“It’s just not a good idea,” he said.

“And staying here is?”

Evidently thinking this conversation was just going in circles, he changed the subject. “Why don’t you tell me what you saw in Rory’s office?”

She shook her head. “I told you. I saw Sean.”

“You saw Sean?”

“Yes.”

“And what was he doing? Did he speak to you?”

She crossed the room and sat on the bed, pulling her robe tighter around her body. “No, he didn’t say anything.”

“Well, what was happening? What was he doing?”

She wanted to shout at him for badgering her, for forcing her to say things she didn’t want to say, but found she didn’t have the strength for yelling anymore. “I think…I think he was being raped.”

“Raped? By who?”

“By…himself.”

Saul raised his eyebrows. “How does that work?”

“Look, it’s what I saw, okay? Don’t ask me to explain it!”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” He sat on the bed beside her. “It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, that’s all.”

“Does any of this make sense? Saul, in case you haven’t noticed, this is one fucked up house we’re in and I’m starting to wonder if we’re gonna make it out of here alive.”

Taken aback, Saul draped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t say that. Of course we’re gonna make it out alive.”

Karen made a face, clearly not believing him.

“Unless a tree falls on us, of course,” he joked.

She didn’t laugh. “I want to get out of here.”

“We will. As soon as the sun comes up.”

“You said it would be up soon. Let’s just leave now. We can travel a little ways in the dark and then the sun will be up and we’ll already be halfway there.” The longer she spoke, the more this plan sounded logical to her. “We can take flashlights. We’ll be fine!”

“I think it would probably be better if we just wait. Maybe get a little shuteye first. I know I could use it.”

She felt her heart sink. “For fuck’s sake, Saul. You can sleep when you get home!”

He sighed and it had to be the weariest sound she’d ever heard in her life. “It’s too dangerous,” he said firmly.

She scowled, crossed her arms like a petulant child. “Maybe I’ll just go by myself then.”

“You know I can’t let you do that.”

“You can’t let me do that? I’m sorry — did I miss the part where you’re in charge of what I do and don’t do?”

“I’m not going to keep arguing with you about this, Karen.” As if in agreement with him, a huge gust of wind slammed the house and what could only be a branch — a big one — crashed down on the roof. Karen flinched. Sympathetically, Saul said, “Keep in mind that we’re on the second floor and it sounded that loud. Imagine if we were upstairs.”

“Seems to me we might be safer outside,” she said dryly.

“Sure, until one of those things clocks you in the head. Then you won’t be able to fight with me any more.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Karen emerged from the hot shower feeling refreshed and awake. She wrapped a fresh towel around herself and began to wipe condensation off the mirror above the sink with her hand.

The moment her hand came into contact with the glass, it cracked beneath her fingers.

She gasped in surprise and yanked her hand away. Her first thought was that she’d put too much pressure on the old mirror — a thought which she quickly dismissed as being absurd. It wasn’t as if she’d punched the damn thing…

Studying the crack, which ran from the upper left corner of the small mirror to lower right, she raised her hand to touch it again, but even before she made physical contact with it another crack appeared, crisscrossing the first.

“Holy shit.”

She took a step back, confusion creasing her forehead.

The mirror cracked again…and then again and as she stared, the fear just beginning to tingle in her veins, the cracks began to ooze a dark red fluid.

Blood, she realized as it dribbled down the mirror and dripped—tap, tap, tap—onto the back of the sink.

Not possible, her mind cried while her body backed up even further, until she was against the opposite wall, eyes widening with fear. Losing it. No other explanation. I’m just losing it…

She wanted to shout for Rory…for Saul…but the fear of them running and finding she’d been screaming and hysterical for no reason whatsoever prevented her from doing so.

She could be crazy, but if that was the case, she wanted to be quietly so. Not a blabbering idiot, not some lunatic schizophrenic yelling at hallucinations and drooling down the front of her shirt.

Please, she begged herself. Just stop.

She forced herself to not hear the cracking sounds, the blood drip-drip-dripping, covering her ears with her hands. She made herself close her eyes and count until she reached twenty. Then it would be gone. The mirror would be normal once more and she could think. She needed to think, goddammit.

Beginning her count, she tried to get her breathing back to normal, to relax and put all thoughts of insanity out of her head. She was simply overtired…jetlagged…

At twenty, she opened her eyes to find that even more cracks had formed, more blood had spilled onto the sink, flowing over the side of the pristine porcelain now, dripping onto the gray and white tiled floor and puddling there, collecting in the spaces between the tiles and slowly traveling towards her bare feet.

She sucked air into her lungs and began to step forward, hand reaching out to the mirror and her cracked red reflection.

“It’s not real,” she whispered. “It cannot be real.”

The moment her foot came down and touched the pooling blood, she grimaced and then the entire bathroom floor gave way, plummeting her downwards into nothingness. She didn’t have time to scream, no time to react in any way at all. She was simply falling through darkest space, the sound of the splintering floorboards ringing in her ears even as they fell with her.

Arms pin-wheeling, she was dimly aware of the urge to vomit and in the next millisecond, she hit bottom, landing squarely on her tailbone.

Face pinched in pain, she immediately attempted to stand up and found she couldn’t. Instead, she looked around to discover she’d fallen into the Captain’s office, having missed falling on top of his desk by mere inches.

She groaned and put a hand to her lower back, hoping she wasn’t seriously hurt. How had this happened? On the floor around her, she expected to see broken floorboards and other evidence of a collapsed floor, but there was nothing. Just the immaculate Persian rug. Tilting her head, she saw the ceiling above her was intact.

A dream then?

But she knew better. This was no dream. The pain in her backside told her that.

And furthermore…

How had she fallen from the bathroom on the second floor to end up in the office on the third floor?

The question nearly stopped her heart.

What the fuck was going on?

Pain or no pain, she climbed to her feet with the intention of getting the hell out of there but froze when she saw the notebooks scattered across the top of the desk. They hadn’t been there on her previous visit to this room, and she doubted Rory or Saul had even been in here since then. And even if they had, why would they have left half a dozen notebooks out in the open this way?

She stepped closer to the desk and saw they were journal-type notebooks, some of them more battered than others. Older, with creases and doodles scarring their covers.

She could not deny her curiosity and when she flipped open one of the covers, her breath caught in her throat. Despite the many years since she’d last seen it, the handwriting of her brother was unmistakable.

Her eyes quickly scanned the first lines and without even realizing it, she sank into the ornate desk chair, now oblivious to the pain in her lower spine.

The entries were undated and it took her a while to put the notebooks in what she guessed was some kind of order but when she’d done so, she had to blink back tears. The things Sean had written about were disturbing to say the least.

Turning another page in the last book, she read:

“Now that they’re both dead, I have nothing to keep me here and yet I feel I cannot escape. To leave here would be to leave my last memories of my beloved family and I simply cannot bring myself to do that. They both loved this house as much as I did and it would be a betrayal to them, and to myself, to flee in the face of heartbreak. That is not something Melinda would have wanted. ‘The Forest Sea’ is what she used to call our beloved home, always with that small smile and her eyes glowing as emerald as the pines surrounding us.

No, I must stay here and somehow battle on through the heartache. For them. For myself. They died here and so shall I…”

Karen gasped at the last sentence, her heart sinking, the strange event that had brought her to this room and to these notebooks completely forgotten. She stared at her brother’s handwriting for a long time before turning to the last page of the notebook.

There, scrawled in black ink as though written by a drunkard, the words screamed up at her and somehow she wasn’t particularly surprised.

“TWO MEN HAVE THE CARCASS!!! TWO MEN HAVE THE CARCASS! TWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWOMENTWO-”

She slapped the book closed and gathered them all up in her arms, racing from the room as if chased by demons.

“Rory!” she shouted. “Rory!”

By the time she’d reached the bottom of the stairs, both Rory and Saul were there, expressions of alarm on their faces.

“Jesus, Karen!” Rory asked. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Panting, she held the notebooks out for him to see. “Why didn’t you tell me about these?”

He frowned, looking more confused than ever. “What? What are they?”

“Sean’s notebooks!” she barked. “Why would you keep this from me?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Saul came forward, reaching for the notebooks, but she pulled them away and burst into tears. “He was fucking insane! How could you have let that happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“No,” Rory insisted. “He was fine! Why would you even think that?”

“It’s all here!” She held the notebooks up once more. “Right fucking here! He thought he was your precious fucking Captain! Does that sound like a sane mind to you?”

“Let me see them, Karen,” Saul prodded gently, extending his hand once more.

Her eyes found his and she snarled. “Did you know about this too? You did, didn’t you? How could you not have? It’s right here!”

“I didn’t know anything,” Saul said in the same soothing tone. “Please. Just show us what you found.”

A moment passed, her cheeks flushed with anger and grief and then she shoved the notebooks at Saul’s chest before sinking to the bottom riser and sobbing freely. “He killed himself. He’s dead. He killed himself.”

“No!” Rory suddenly shouted. “Sean is alive! He never would have hurt himself! He loved me! He loved this house!”

“The Captain loved this house!” she yelled back.

Rory stalked to the other side of the room, breathing hard, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

With one of the notebooks open in his hands, Saul asked Karen where she’d found them.

“In the Captain’s office. They were on the desk.”

“I’ve never even seen those before,” Rory said, still clearly infuriated.

Saul rapidly began turning pages, his face darkening as he did. “Maybe you should, Rory.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Rory rushed over to his side and snatched the top notebook away from him. He couldn’t have read more than a few lines when he threw the notebook across the room. “This is bullshit! Those aren’t Sean’s.”

“It’s his writing,” Karen insisted.

Rory’s jaw worked up and down. He wanted to argue but she suspected he was out of words. Finally, when he spoke, it was barely above a whisper. “Sean did not kill himself.”

That said, he stormed through the living room and out of sight.

Saul carried the notebooks over to the sofa and sat with them on his lap, reading. Karen watched his face very carefully, looking for signs of…she wasn’t sure what. When she couldn’t stand his lack of expression for another second, she said, “He was crazy, wasn’t he?”

He looked up at her sadly. “I don’t think you should bring this up to Rory again. At least, not for a while. Let him read these when he’s ready, once he’s calmed down.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Sitting back on the sofa, Saul released a long sigh. He thought about his answer for a long time before replying. “My grandmother used to say that we’re all surrounded by spirits, all the time. She believed that they can affect our moods because we breathe them in and out, absorb them through our skin. That sometimes they can overcome us.”

She frowned at him, confused. “I don’t get it.”

“Well,” he said, and set the notebooks on the cushion beside him. “It basically boils down to this. Either Sean was crazy. Or…”

“Or what?”

“Remember I said don’t mention this to Rory.”

“Or what?”

“Or he was…I guess, for lack of a better term…he was possessed.”

Karen stared at him. “Possessed.”

He shrugged. “I’m just saying what my grandmother believed and it seems like those are our only two choices. Which do you prefer?”

But she didn’t know which she preferred. And, she supposed, she never would.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Saul smiled. “What do you say we go make a pot of coffee while the electricity is still on?”

Reluctantly, she said, “Okay. Just let me get dressed first.”

Saul waited in the hallway while she pulled on jeans, a white cable-knit sweater and her sneakers. She felt silly, asking him to wait in the hall when she’d seen him completely naked, but she was modest and couldn’t help feeling awkward about the tables being turned.

He knows you peed your pants, for crying out loud. Seeing your tits is probably not going to faze him.

Nevertheless, she felt better with him out of the room, though she wasn’t so brave that she closed the door. When she was finished, they went downstairs together and found Rory already in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Hope you like eggs and sausage,” he said, sounding almost friendly. “After all, it might be your last meal.”

“Very funny,” Saul said and somewhere out in the forest, not very far away at all, another tree fell.

The power stayed on just long enough for Rory to finish cooking, which they all agreed was a minor blessing, and they had to eat their meal by candlelight, listening to what sounded like a war going on all around them. Near and far, explosions shook the house and occasionally they could hear glass breaking somewhere above them.

“This is a bad one,” Saul said, looking worriedly up at the ceiling.

“Bad for my wallet, especially,” Rory said around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “Replacing all the broken windows is gonna cost me an arm and a leg.”

Karen couldn’t tell if he was trying to make light of the situation or if he really was worried about money. She just kept her thoughts to herself, concentrated on shoveling the food down as fast as possible and worried about the stray, Dusty, out in this ugly storm. The poor thing. She must be terrified.

Another bomb went off, so close she cried out and dropped her fork, spilling food into her lap. “Damn!”

“I think that was the garage,” Saul said. Rory looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.

“You have insurance, don’t you?” Karen asked.

“Yeah, but…” He trailed off and she knew he was thinking about Sean.

“What if a tree hits the house?” she asked.

“This house has stood through a hundred years of wind storms,” Rory answered. “It will stand through this one too.”

Saul didn’t seem as convinced, which didn’t make Karen feel any better.

The sun had risen now, though it was hard to tell that it had. The sky remained a dark angry gray and the daylight barely penetrated the windows. Karen was beginning to lose her enthusiasm for trying to get to the truck in this storm, but she still didn’t like the idea of staying in the house any longer either. She knew she couldn’t take another night here and when it came right down to it, thought she would prefer risking her life outside over suffering more of the nightmare visions she’d had only a few hours ago.

“How long do these things usually last?” she asked.

“Not usually more than a day, thank God,” Saul said. “I’d be willing to bet this will be over soon.”

“It better be,” Rory said, his eyes finding the porthole over the sink. “I just can’t believe this shit.”

“It’s crappy luck for sure,” Saul agreed.

Luck. The word almost made Karen laugh aloud, but she sipped her coffee instead. A dead brother. Sanity that was shaky at best. Not exactly what she would call luck but in a way, these things were no different than they had been before she’d ever arrived. Before Rory had called her. Or…if what he said was true — before she had called him.

Could that be possible? Did she have Sean’s hand-written will somewhere?

Maybe the answer was in Rory’s office. Maybe that was why he’d been so weird about her being in there earlier. Was he afraid she had been looking for the paper? Or, more importantly, afraid she’d found it?

Outside the wind howled like something alive and ravenous, something with sharp teeth and a very bad temper. At this point she had to wonder if that’s exactly what it was.

Another crashing tree and she spilled her coffee down the front of her sweater, yelping with fright.

“Fuck this,” she spat, standing up abruptly. “I’m getting out of here even if I have to walk every step of the way.”

Saul rose and protested, as she knew he would, but she pushed him aside and kept walking, heading for the front door.

“You can’t just leave,” he said, keeping pace with her.

“No? Watch me.”

He grabbed her arm, but she shook herself free, snapping, “Don’t touch me! I have to get out of here! Don’t you get it?”

“No, I don’t fucking get it!” He was shouting now, she realized. They both were.

She stopped and faced him. “I think this fucking house wants to kill me. I think it killed Sean and that’s what this has been about. I’m leaving.”

“That makes no sense, Karen. A house can’t hold a grudge. You’re talking crazy!”

She raised her hands. “Because I am crazy, remember? My own brother even thought I was.”

Reaching the front door, she yanked it open before he could stop her and a blast of wind hit her like a truck, knocking her backwards, and if Saul hadn’t been there to grab her, she would probably have landed square on her ass.

A dervish of pine needles, dead leaves, and small branches whipped past them and they both raised their hands to shield their eyes, but not before they saw what was out there.

Trees.

So many trees had encroached upon the house, effectively surrounding them, close enough to touch, snuggled right up to the porch. A wall of trees, impossibly close to each other, in a way they could never have survived in nature, their branches and roots entwined with each other so it was impossible to tell which of the low hanging branches belonged to which tree.

Wind pounded them back from the doorway, still spewing all manner of debris at them and, squinting against the assault, she clearly saw something moving out there, winding its way around the trunks of the pines, barely able to squeeze past them. A flash of red moving forward, towards them, towards the porch, the open door.

Barking hysterically, the dog bolted up the steps, over the threshold and past them. Karen and Saul, once they realized what it was, barely gave the animal a passing glance, too entranced by the trees.

The front door slammed closed, Rory panting with the effort, shoving his shoulder against it and then all was still again.

The three of them stood looking around at the mess all over the floor and on the furniture.

“It’s not the house that doesn’t want us to leave,” Rory said. “It’s the forest.”

Karen pulled strands of hair out of her mouth. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

The men looked at her.

“Why would an entire forest be angry at us?” she explained. “You said yourself that that dog has lived in the woods for how long? A year? Two years? How could that be possible if the forest was haunted or pissed off or whatever the hell you think it is?”

“What then?” Saul asked.

“I don’t know. The house itself? Maybe its energy is strong enough to control the woods around us.”

“I thought we agreed the house was only making us see things that aren’t real.” She shook her head, unable to answer. She had to admit she was just grasping at straws and had no idea what she was talking about. It was the writer in her trying to come up with a motive for something she knew nothing about. Addressing Rory, she asked, “What do you know about Frank Storm?”

For the first time since she’d met him, Rory looked guilty of something. “Only what I’ve managed to dig up on the guy since I bought this place, which isn’t much. I’ve already told Saul most of it.”

“So?” she asked. “What? Was he a murderer or anything like that?”

“No!” Rory actually sounded offended at the idea. “He was just a sailor. He had a family. A wife and a daughter. This was after his sailing days. He built this house to look as much like a ship as he could, missing his sailing days I guess. This was before any of the rest of the town was erected. He was one of the forefathers.”

Saul, having heard all this before, focused on looking out the front portholes, his face ashen, presumably at the sight of all those trees crowding up against the house.

“Go on,” Karen said.

Shaking his head, clearly not seeing the point in getting into all this ancient history, Rory said, “Apparently, the girl got sick and died. Something called typhus. Supposedly it shouldn’t have killed her, but since they were out here in the middle of nowhere, they couldn’t get the kid to a doctor. It just got worse and worse. And apparently, it was during a terrible wind storm.” He said this last sentence slowly, as if he was really listening to himself instead of just relating a story he’d told a dozen times before. He cleared his throat nervously before adding, “I’ve researched typhus a little. The article said it was caused by lice and…uh…fleas and another name for it was ‘Ship Fever’.”

Karen’s jaw dropped and Saul spun away from the window. “You never told me that.”

Rory shrugged. “I guess I didn’t think anything of it. Once they realized the kid was so sick, storm or no storm, she was probably gonna die. There was no place to take her. There was no town at all. The closest place was Indigo Bend.”

“What happened after that?” Karen asked.

“His wife died of the same thing a couple months later. That’s pretty much all I know.”

“He must have been devastated.”

“Probably. What difference does it make?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. For whatever reason though, the story made her less embarrassed about the horrible things she’d seen in Rory’s office and she told them about seeing Sean and about the little girl who’d sprouted branches from her shoulders.

The two men gaped at her. “You should have told us this before,” Saul said.

She went over and sat on the couch, rubbing her face with her hands. Her voice was muffled when she spoke. “I still wasn’t convinced it was the house. I mean, I thought it was partly the house, but mostly I figured I was just losing my mind.”

Rory stared at Saul, his eyes traveling up and down the other man’s scratched arms. “Typhus must cause itching.”

Saul looked down at himself, the color draining from his face. “You think that’s what I have?”

By now Karen had dropped her hands, watching them as they stood by the front door. There was something tickling at the corners of her mind, some answer not quite within reach yet.

The coffins in the basement.

The fleas. Saul’s mysterious all-over itch. The little girl.

Sean.

“What happened to Storm?” she asked suddenly. “After his wife died, I mean.”

Rory didn’t seem particularly eager to answer the question but did nonetheless. “He killed himself in the basement.”

“Really.” It was a statement, not a question. Karen chewed her lower lip, thinking hard. Finally, she asked, “How do you know the wife really had typhus?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how do you know? They were out here all alone. Could he have killed her?”

He gave her a mildly disgusted look. “Why the fuck would he have done that?”

She shrugged. “Happens all the time. Some men would rather kill their wives than have them leave.”

“I’m pretty sure she just got sick and died,” Rory said.

“Hmm.”

“Jesus. This isn’t one of your books, Karen. Not everything is a diabolical murder mystery.”

“I don’t write mysteries,” she said absently. But there was a mystery here, some answer, a puzzle piece that continued to elude her.

“Maybe we should have a séance,” Rory suggested sarcastically. “Then you can talk to the Captain yourself and ask him if he killed his wife.”

Karen’s eyes narrowed to slits. She wished he would stop talking for a minute so she could think. If she had been writing this story…then what? What would the characters’ motives be? What would be the theme? Something more than death or even an afterlife? From somewhere in the house, the dog began barking again. All three of them looked towards the sound, which was coming from the back. Probably the kitchen.

More pine needles and twigs began rolling along the floor, pushed by a wind also coming from that direction.

“Shit,” Rory said. “The back door must have blown open.”

The three of them ran in that direction and as soon as they hit the kitchen, sure enough, the door was open to the storm. Dusty stood under the table, barking wildly, peeking out from between the legs of the chairs.

Smart dog, Karen thought as Rory started to close the door, his blond hair being blown off his face, the tails of his shirt flapping loosely. Outside, someone screamed and this time, Karen knew it wasn’t just the house playing tricks on them. The trio all looked at each other, shocked and amazed.

“Don’t close it,” Saul shouted, running forward and gripping the door, holding it open as he tried to shield his face from the battering wind and see out into the back yard at the same time.

Trees had crept up against the house on this side as well, nestled right up to the porch so the trunks actually touched the wooden railing.

Karen ran to stand behind Saul, peering over his shoulder into the storm, trying to see around the tree trunks.

“Someone’s out there,” Saul said.

Behind them, Rory cursed. “What the fuck is going on? How could anyone be out there?”

But regardless of what he thought, someone was indeed out there. Both Karen and Saul saw movement far back towards what had previously been the edge of the woods but was now just deeper, darker woods.

A figure, stooped and loping through the trees, dodging fallen branches, hands raised above its head in a feeble attempt to protect it.

Squinting, Karen struggled to see the figure more clearly. Definitely human and naked by the looks of it, though it was hard to tell from this distance. A dark-skinned man, she thought, screaming and running.

As they watched, the figure reversed direction and then was bolting towards the house, towards them for a moment before veering off to the right.

“Oh my God,” Karen whispered.

Saul finished the thought for her. “It’s Sean.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Karen shoved herself past Saul, screaming her brother’s name as she stepped out onto the porch, already trying to figure out a way past these trees, to get out there and reach him.

Saul was already way ahead of her, vaulting the porch railing and squeezing out from between two pines. Karen tried to follow the way he’d gone, but hands gripped her shoulders and held her back.

“No,” Rory shouted. “It’s too dangerous out there.”

As if to prove him right, from somewhere above something cracked and a branch began its long descent, knocking into other branches on its way down until dozens of them of various sizes crashed onto the porch roof and rolled off.

“Let me go!” Karen screamed, struggling to free herself of his grip.

“You want to get killed too?” Rory yelled in her ear. “Saul will get him!” Karen twisted around as best she could, intending to punch him if she had to but when she saw his face, she froze. Rory was crying, tears streaming from his eyes and blowing back across his cheeks towards his ears. The sight of him brought tears to Karen’s eyes as well, and she turned back to see if she could spot either Sean or Saul, but realized that wherever they now were, it was out of their line of sight.

She raised a hand to her mouth, sobbing now, the ache in her so fierce and jagged she felt as if her heart was being torn from her body, a pain so deep and excruciating she knew nothing could ever hurt so badly unless it had been latent, there all along, allowed to fester and bleed under the surface, growing in size; an infection that couldn’t help but explode in a drowning rush of anguish the moment it suffered even the slightest prick.

Shouts from somewhere out there reached them — Saul was yelling the word “Stop!” repeatedly, as well as Sean’s name. Another crash and a cry of pain and then only the wind for entirely too long.

Both Karen and Rory held their breath, choking back their sobs, eyes straining for any sight of movement out there in the gloom.

The dog had found the courage to come out from the table and stood shivering against Karen’s thigh, periodically letting out a shrill bark.

Karen was certain they’d lost both men to the storm when they heard a loud grunt to their left and ran to that side of the porch, peering over the edge to a small area where no tree stood.

Rolling on the ground, Saul fought with Sean, who Karen could now see was so filthy he had appeared to be dark-skinned from a distance.

Saul was doing his best not to hurt Sean, who kept striking out with fists and feet in an attempt to escape. Blood streamed from Saul’s nose, pine needles and dirt already mixed up with it, caking on his upper lip. Rory leapt over the rail to help subdue Sean, which made Sean struggle all the harder, making strange grunts and animal sounds.

“Sean!” Karen screamed, throwing a leg over the rail, intending to drop down and assist if she could.

Sean didn’t even glance up at the sound of his name, eyes rolling and terrified, fighting with the men as if he’d never seen them before in his life.

It wasn’t until Dusty, sticking her head through the slats of railing, barked twice, that Sean looked up and recognition showed in his wild eyes. He tossed back a sharp elbow, nailing Rory in the mouth and at the same time reached behind him, grabbing Saul’s crotch and giving it a vicious twist. Rory fell backwards onto his ass, blood spurting out from between his fingers as he covered his mouth, eyes crunched closed in pain while Saul howled loud enough to raise the dead, releasing Sean to cup his balls with both hands.

Karen dragged the leg she’d had hanging over the railing back as Sean pounced up, gripping the railing with both grimy hands and vaulting himself over onto the porch with the agility of a monkey.

He rolled on the plank floor of the porch, snarled up at Karen and scuttled over to Dusty. Karen reeled back a foot, intending to kick her brother square in the ribs before he was able to attack the dog. Her foot stopped mid-kick when she saw Dusty rush forward to meet him, yipping not with fear or fury, but happily, covering Sean’s face with long laps, tail wagging with excitement.

Sean, laughing, rolled around with the dog, though his eyes kept darting up to Karen, ensuring she had no intention of coming any closer.

She kept her distance, crying again now as she realized her brother was alive, but not her brother at all anymore, not really.

He was as wild as any animal now, scrawny to the point of emaciation, every bone joint in his body prominent, along with his ribs, collar and hip bones.

Crouching down, she kept her distance, but called to the dog, wanting Sean to see that if the dog trusted her, so could he.

It took saying her name nearly a dozen times, but Dusty finally turned from Sean and trotted over to Karen, giving her face a single tentative lap while Sean made a bleating sound of distress.

Another fat branch hit the roof of the porch and Dusty yelped, running back to Sean with her tail between her legs. He wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck, looking up with terror.

“It’s safer inside,” Karen yelled over the wind, pointing to the open doorway. Sean looked into the kitchen beyond, then back at Karen. He didn’t know that behind him, still on the ground, Rory stood watching them, a smear of blood on his chin. Saul was just beginning to get up, his face screwed up in a grimace of pain.

Karen slowly made her way inside, stopping in the doorway to call to the dog again.

“Come here, girl. Come on, Dusty. It’s okay.”

Dusty looked from her to Sean, uncertain, and Sean grabbed her around her furry neck once more, pulling her to him, trying to keep her back. His eyes still darted to and fro and Karen realized he was more afraid of the house than he was the storm. She couldn’t much blame him in that regard. But she had a feeling that if she got the dog inside, the man would follow and what was the best way to get a hungry animal to come to you when it otherwise wouldn’t have?

She raised a hand to stop Saul and Rory from climbing back onto the porch. She could see they were whispering to each other and though she couldn’t hear their words she knew perfectly well they planned to jump Sean while he was focused on her. Jump and what? Subdue him somehow? Tie him up? Knock him out?

None of the things they could be thinking sounded as good to her as her own plan did and she gave them a pleading look, still holding up her hand. Then she showed them only her index finger: wait.

With deliberate slowness, she turned her back on Sean and went into the house. The instant she crossed into the kitchen, she hurried over to the fridge, pulled it open, and began rummaging for any kind of meat she could find. She knew there were steaks and frozen chicken in the freezer but she needed something that would smell better, not like ice. A deli package sat on the bottom shelf. She ripped it open as if it were she who was starving. Inside, slices of white turkey, untouched. Maybe as much as a pound.

Tossing aside the paper, she raced back to the door and was relieved to see Saul and Rory still on the ground, both of them covering their heads and gazing up worriedly. More branches tumbled down around them, occasionally clipping one or the other on the head, neck or shoulders. Karen tossed a slice of turkey at Dusty’s feet and the dog stretched out her neck to sniff before pulling herself free of Sean’s arms, gobbling down the meat in a single swallow. Smiling, Karen quickly threw down the next slice, closer to her own feet. The dog came forward, ate it even faster than she had the first slice.

Sean was making that horrible bleating sound again, arms outstretched, reaching for his only friend, begging her to come back.

Karen had to trust that he loved the dog enough to follow her inside, that his love for the animal would outweigh his fear of the house.

A third piece of meat thrown to the porch floor, then a fourth, each one a couple feet closer to the inside of the kitchen.

“Good girl, Dusty,” she cooed soothingly. “Good girl. Come on.”

And Dusty came.

Karen didn’t know why the dog had taken a liking to her. Perhaps she smelled similar to her brother? Was she automatically one of the pack due to her relation to Sean?

She didn’t suppose it mattered much. All that mattered was that her plan was working. The dog was coming…closer and closer…and Sean, perhaps thinking the kitchen door would slam shut and Dusty would be trapped alone in the house with strangers, came with her.

Another few slices of meat and the dog was in the kitchen, happy to be out of the wind, but still casting nervous glances over her shoulder at the open door, swallowing the meat whole.

Sean, crouched like a Neanderthal, hesitated in the doorway, but Karen continued to move backwards, moving out of the kitchen now and taking the dog with her. He hesitated, then scrambled forward into the kitchen, crab-like, hooting and crying, begging for his dog to return to his side.

Behind him, Saul and Rory appeared in the doorway, each sporting their separate battle wounds, effectively blocking Sean’s escape should he try to flee back into the storm.

Karen continued to feed the dog. They were backing into the living room now and the package of meat only had a few slices remaining.

But those few slices were all it took. Sean crept after them, keeping his body low, eyes focused on Karen as if she were about to do something awful to the dog and he would be ready for it, ready to lunge and take out her throat if need be.

Rory closed and locked the kitchen door, biting back the emotions warring on his face: relief and sorrow. Dusty swallowed the last bit of meat and when she realized there would be no more coming, spun around to return to Sean, happily, tongue lolling now. Sean smiled, started to turn and saw Saul standing there, hands upraised.

“Relax, Sean,” he said. “It’s me, Saul. You remember? Saul.”

But Sean clearly did not remember. He screamed and leapt, tackling Saul, driving him back against a wall with such force the nearby photographs hanging there weaved precariously on their nails.

Another fight ensued, Rory jumping forward, trying to restrain Sean, while Karen grabbed the dog and wrestled with her to keep her out of it.

Sean was screaming nonsense, but at one point Karen thought she heard the phrase “old man” come out of his mouth. But most likely, it was just jumbled sounds coupled with the wailing wind and the hammering branches continuing to batter the house.

A minute later and Saul and Rory had Sean down on the floor, pinning him there, saying reassuring things, but they needn’t have. He had stopped struggling and when Karen approached, leaning over to see his face, she saw that his eyes were open, but he was already gone. Not dead; his chest still rose and fell rapidly, but gone just the same. Gone somewhere deep inside his mind as effectively as if a curtain had fallen over his eyes.

She recognized the place because she herself had been there not long ago. Curled up inside herself so she knew nothing of her surroundings and that was just how she wanted it. And, she saw, how her brother wanted it too.

“Let him go,” she said.

Both men looked up at her, surprised.

“Not a good idea,” Saul said.

“Let him go!” she insisted and finally they obliged, standing up and stepping back, both of them ready to jump back down if they had to.

Karen kneeled beside her brother, gently placed a hand on his burning forehead. His eyes stared off at nothing — at least nothing she could see. Dusty came over, sniffed his face and chest, licked his chin, and still he had no reaction at all.

Leaning forward, Karen whispered, “Don’t let him have you, Sean. You’re stronger than that. He was a bad man. I know he was, but you’re stronger than he is. Do you hear me? He can’t win if you don’t let him.”

She could sense Saul and Rory shifting their weight uncomfortably behind her and knew how insane she sounded, but she didn’t care. She wanted her brother back. Needed him back. Grasping one of his bony hands in hers, she was suddenly assaulted with a vision jolting her like a thousand bolts of electricity and she knew she was seeing what Sean had seen. What had driven him over the edge.

Crows in a dark gray sky, flying up there with the dead leaves that floated and drifted, carried by powerful winds. The crows circling lower and lower until at last they landed on the ground and low-hanging branches of the pines. But these were no normal crows. Oh, no. These were big bastards with huge human eyes that stared, bore through you like the sins of the past, and human hands, small like a child’s, but very, very human, clutching at the ground, at the branches, small fingers twitching, blood caked beneath the nails. Tiny wrists and forearms that disappeared into the feathered black bellies of the birds which stared and cawed and took a young man’s sanity with them when they decided to swoop back into the angry sky, dropping beads of blood onto the upturned face that watched them go.

Karen cried out, releasing her brother’s hand, immediately overcome with terror, blinking, forcing herself back into the present. She was not in that bizarre haunted past, but here with two others, here in the House of Fallen Trees where not everyone came and then left intact.

Two men have the carcass, she thought and finally knew what it meant.

The men did have the carcass of her brother and one of the men was Frank Storm, who she knew was more than just an eccentric sailor, but the other was Sean himself. The real Sean, who remained deep down in the darkness where light couldn’t touch him ever again.

All that remained was this poor imitation of her brother, skeletal and frail, haunted, unblinking eyes which chose not to see her or anything else except for a mangy stray dog. Karen watched as Dusty lay down beside Sean, resting her chin on his chest, watching the rest of them with roving brown eyes and Karen knew the dog wouldn’t move from Sean’s side again. Maybe she was even regretting having eaten the turkey Karen had tossed her.

That’s nuts, Karen told herself as she stood up and listened to the wind. She’s just a dog. Do you really think she regrets anything?

But, she supposed anything was possible. After all, they were two strays now and they had found each other, loved and protected each other for at least the last six months. Maybe they would continue to do so forever.

Glancing at Saul and Rory she said, “Sounds like the wind is dying down a bit.”

Rory sank to his knees and began to weep. He stayed on one side of Sean while the dog stayed on the other. They both gave the appearance of guarding the dead.

Saul sighed. “We should be able to get out of here soon.” As an afterthought, he added, “Finally.”

“Yeah,” Karen agreed, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Finally.” But in truth, she knew she wouldn’t be able to leave now. Technically, she owned half this house and after all… she had family here.

EPILOGUE

14 MONTHS LATER

Karen was in her office writing when the door bell rang a little after noon on a Wednesday in January. She stopped writing, head cocked, and listened to the dog bark downstairs. Waiting to hear the sound of voices, she was mildly irritated when, a moment later, the bell rang again.

Sighing, she rolled her chair back, exited the room, and made her way down to the door, passing though the living room where Sean sat on the couch watching TV. Dusty sprawled beside him, her head in his lap, also not willing to rise, preferring to do her guard dog routine from a relaxed position. He stroked her back absently, engrossed in whatever he was watching.

Karen didn’t bother saying anything to him. They’d been sharing the small house on the outskirts of Fallen Trees for five months now and she knew better than to expect too much from him.

In the kitchen, she peered out the window in the door and saw Rory. He offered a smile and held up a rainbow bouquet of roses for her to see.

“Happy hump day,” he announced when she opened the door.

She laughed, gave him a hug and invited him inside, eyeing the flowers. “I assume those are for Sean?”

“Nope. They’re for you.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, though she couldn’t help but smile as he handed them to her. “Really? What’s the occasion?”

“No occasion. I just saw them in the market and they spoke your name.”

Karen raised an eyebrow. “I hope not literally.”

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them and not because she saw the pained looked in his eyes. It was a bad joke and after everything they’d been through — particularly Sean and herself — she should know better.

An awkward silence fell upon them, until she broke it by saying, “I should find a vase for these.”

As she began searching the cupboards, he asked, “How is he today?”

“He’s good. Glued to the television, as usual.”

“I’m gonna go say hi.”

“Okay.”

She finally found a vase under the sink and busied herself with the flowers. She did her best to not eavesdrop on what was being said in the other room, but it was difficult. She knew Sean would be happy to see Rory, of course. He always was. The hard part came when it was time for Rory to leave and Sean wanted to go with him. Even now, after everything that had happened, her brother still wanted to go back to that house.

When he had been committed to Western State Hospital in Tacoma, one of the doctors there had told her the house was a drug to Sean and he…well, he was a junkie. Despite knowing it would almost certainly kill him eventually, he still craved it…needed it. He probably always would.

Sean had spent nearly nine months in that place and the whole thing had been exhausting and traumatic for everyone involved. There had been countless court hearings, going back and forth. Sometimes he wanted to be in there, sometimes he didn’t. When he didn’t, it had been pure hell for Rory and herself.

But all that was behind them now, or so it seemed, and thank God for that. There had been times when Karen had felt so guilty about him being in there, she had been sick with it. After all, if her brother had been insane, what did that make her?

She’d wanted to take him back East with her initially, but the way he’d begged her not to had broken her down. When he’d been in the hospital in Tacoma, she’d stayed nearby, renting a small room — a stay she’d thought would be shorter than it had turned out to be, but she hadn’t complained. Having him back was such a miracle she didn’t dare complain about anything.

“I’m ready now!”

The shout from the other room almost startled her into dropping the vase as she was carrying it over to the windowsill. Instead, she put it on the counter and hurried to the living room to see what was happening.

Both Sean and Rory stood in the middle of the room, facing each other. Neither one even glanced in her direction when she entered.

“I’m not so sure about that, Sean,” Rory was saying.

Sean shook his head in disgust. “You don’t trust me? You don’t fucking trust me?”

“What’s going on?” Karen asked.

“He wants to go back to the house,” Rory said. “He thinks he’s ready.”

“I’m right fucking here!” Sean snapped. “Stop talking about me as though I were a child!”

“Calm down, Sean,” Karen said. She noticed Dusty cowering in a corner and told her brother, “Look. You’re upsetting the dog.”

It was the one thing that, without fail, could get him to relax. He immediately went to comfort his pet, leaving Rory and Karen looking worriedly at each other.

After a long moment, Rory whispered, “Maybe he is ready.”

Karen glared at him. Without bothering to lower her voice, she said, “He is never returning to that place.”

“Yes I am,” Sean said, scratching the dog’s neck. “It’s my home. I have to go back sometime.”

“Bullshit!” The loudness of her voice surprised even her. “That place nearly killed you, Sean!”

“I was unstable,” he replied, much calmer now, probably for Dusty’s sake. “It wasn’t the house’s fault.”

But it was the house’s fault and she, of all people, knew it. “I’m sorry, Sean. But I won’t allow it.”

His eyes shot red hot daggers at her. “You can’t control me, Karen. Not forever.”

And of course, he was right.

It was only a couple days after that he told her he was going, whether she liked it or not. She could tell there was no winning this fight. Not anymore. One way or another, he would go and Karen finally decided that since she couldn’t stop him, the only option left was to accompany him.

By then, the road to the house was nearly complete and they were able to drive up, parking in a small lot in the side yard. It was a little over forty-eight hours since Rory’s visit but when he stepped onto the front porch to greet them that Friday afternoon, Karen thought he looked different somehow. Older, maybe.

“Hey!” Sean yelled happily, as he rounded the corner of the house and saw his lover standing there. “The place looks great.”

Karen had to agree, though she eyed the trees warily. By the time she and the guys had been ready to take Sean out of there the morning that followed the insanely bizarre night of what she had come to think of as ‘the storm,’ those ancient pines had all moved back to their original places. They stood proud and tall and no one would have ever believed they’d moved. She couldn’t believe it herself, now.

She stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched the two men embrace.

“Thanks,” Rory said. “We’re almost ready to open her up. The website goes live tomorrow.”

“Very cool,” Sean said, ending the hug.

Saul stepped out of the house, grinning from ear to ear, drying his hands on a dishtowel. The dying sunlight glinted off his teeth and made his black hair shine. “The Lewis family has arrived at last,” he said, sounding happy.

He gave Sean a big bear hug while Karen climbed the steps and then he gave her a squeeze as well. “Welcome!” he said. “Hope you guys are hungry.”

“I am,” she replied and it wasn’t a total lie. Though she felt as if she were about to leap out of her skin with nervousness, her belly was rumbling and even out here she could smell the Italian spices. “Starving.”

“I love a woman with an appetite.” He winked at her and Karen felt herself grinning back at him. She couldn’t deny the fact that he was really quite a handsome fellow and it had been so long since she…

“Home at last!” Sean yelled joyfully, startling her out of her thoughts. He abruptly ran into the house and an image of him as a little boy on Christmas morning came flooding back to her all at once.

Maybe everything will be okay after all, she thought. Who’s to say there’s no such thing as a happy ending?

She, Rory, and Saul all followed him inside.

The first thing that struck her was how bright and beautiful it all was now. It had been so gloomy once upon a time. Now, the drapes were drawn back and everything sparkled. Everything was new.

“It’s gorgeous,” she said, and for reasons unknown to her, began to tear up.

Without words, Saul evidently understood what she was feeling because he held out his hand for her to take. “How about a tour?” he asked.

Karen nodded and together they climbed the staircase as Rory went off towards the kitchen in search of Sean.

On the second floor, she noticed all the vintage portraits had finally been removed from the walls. Probably the only solid evidence of the supernatural goings on that had occurred more than a year ago. She considered saying something about it to Saul, but decided against it. Of course the portraits were gone. What she considered evidence, Rory probably considered the work of mysterious vandals. And really, isn’t that exactly what it had been?

“…so everything’s been restored to how it originally was,” Saul was saying. “At least, how we think it originally was. There’s no way to know for sure, but according to the research we’ve done, it’s pretty damn close.”

“Can I see my old room?” she asked suddenly. She had no idea why she wanted to see that room, but she did. It was almost as though it were calling out to her…pulling her…

“Sure,” Saul said, a little uncertainly. “But we didn’t need to do much in there. Just replaced the mattress, that kind of thing.”

Good, she thought and began striding in the direction of the room.

When she reached it, she heard Rory call Saul from downstairs, but his voice sounded further away than that.

“Saul! I think your garlic bread might be burning!”

“Argh!” Saul groaned. “If it doesn’t come out of the toaster or a cardboard box, Rory is useless. I’ll be right back.”

Karen smiled but didn’t pay him much mind, not even bothering to hesitate in her urgency to get to the room she wanted to see.

But an odd thing happened when she reached the threshold. She stopped and felt the crushing weight of loss…of guilt…

Beginning to cry, she went into the room, wondering…no, hoping…an oil lamp was nearby because it was dark in here and she didn’t want to be alone in the dark and she was certain Emily didn’t either.

Stop it! she chastised herself. You know Emmy is gone. Why do you torture yourself this way?

She crossed the room to touch the chenille bedspread, frowning just a little. Something was different in here, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Never mind. You’re a sick woman. Go to bed.

And she was sick, but not nearly as sick as Frank, who was probably out in the woods right this very second, doing Lord only knew what.

Talking to the trees. He says he talks to the trees.

Preposterous. He was sick with grief, naturally. Emmy had only been gone a few weeks…

Feeling dizzy and hot, she knew she should go back to bed. Venturing around the house like this would only be the death of her, especially with Frank most probably out of hearing range.

Yes, back to bed was a good idea.

She turned and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Stopping, she peered closer at her reflection, the dark hair piled messily on top of her head, the blue eyes which had once been so bright, now all the color bleached out of them. Looking so old, when she was, in reality, so young.

Attempting to neaten her hair, she caught herself frowning and knew that just wouldn’t do. Frank hated to see her frown, even now after all they’d been through. And so she forced herself to smile. It was thin and weak and very clearly fake but she loved her husband and for him, she would do anything.

About the Author

Gina Ranalli is the author of Chemical Gardens, Suicide Girls in the Afterlife, Wall of Kiss, Mother Puncher, Praise the Dead and Sky Tongues. She lives in the Seattle area and you can visit her on the web at www.ginaranalli.com. Bring cake.

Also by Gina Ranalli

Novels

Chemical Gardens

Suicide Girls in the Afterlife

Wall of Kiss

Mother Puncher

Swarm of Flying Eyeballs

Sky Tongues

Praise the Dead

Peppermint Twist (forthcoming)

Still Life with Vibrator (forthcoming)

Collections

13 Thorns (with Gus Fink)

Winner of the Wonderland Award

Content

Gina Ranalli
HOUSE OF FALLEN TREES

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

EPILOGUE