Chapter 15: The Cabin Beyond the Lake
The coordinates led to a remote lake surrounded by pine trees.
Claire called Daniel.
He had been released after investigators discovered inconsistencies in the video.
He and his attorney were driving toward the clinic.
Claire sent him her location.
“Wait for me,” he said.
But Ethan pointed toward the trees.
“I know this place.”
Claire looked at him.
“You’ve been here?”
“In my dreams.”
A narrow trail led to a cabin.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, dust covered the furniture, but canned food and bottled water had been recently stocked.
Photographs of Ethan covered one wall.
Some had been taken from a distance.
At school.
At a playground.
Outside Daniel’s apartment.
Claire’s fear grew.
Someone had been watching him for years.
On the table lay a journal written by Lily.
The final entry was dated two weeks earlier.
Ethan proposed today in the church. Claire said yes. Thomas was right about her.
Claire’s hands shook.
Lily had been present.
She had seen everything.
Ethan found a music box beneath the bed.
When he opened it, Lily’s voice played from a hidden recorder.
“My sweet boy, if you hear this, I’m closer than you think.”
Ethan began to cry.
“Mommy?”
A floorboard creaked behind Claire.
She turned.
A shadow moved past the window.
Claire locked the door and reached for her phone.
There was no signal.
Then smoke began slipping beneath the back door.
Someone had set fire to the cabin.
Claire grabbed Ethan and smashed a chair through the window.
As flames climbed the walls, she heard a woman shouting outside.
May you like
“Ethan!”
The voice sounded exactly like Lily.
