Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

Two days later, Brynn woke to a slight hum that she couldn’t place. What was that noise? The whole time she’d been in the house, everything else had been drowned out by the howling wind outside.

She opened her eyes to check on the fire. It took her a moment to realize the Christmas lights over the fireplace were on. I thought I’d unplugged those?

Sure enough, the hum was the return of very welcome electricity.

The first thing she did was turn the heating unit back on. It would be a relief to not have to keep the fireplace going 24-7 for a while. The sound of the hot water heater kicking on while she stood in the kitchen sent a shiver of delight over her.

The next important thing? Coffee. And plugging in her cell phone.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited kick of caffeine only made her restless.

I have to get out of this house.

Brynn knew she was going a little stir-crazy. She couldn’t even talk to Colby, as her emergency charger was dead too. But while he’d been able to get his four-wheel-drive truck home to his apartment—going very slow and sliding a few times—she knew she couldn’t get her little car out of here anytime soon.

She’d been all over the house, except for the basement room. The atmosphere was such that she just couldn’t bring herself to return there. She wasn’t sure what it was.

Common sense said that room was simply the original church set up. The history of this building was known, after all. But something about the feel of it was just...off.

Just like the pictures.

Except for a few—the weird one of the girl lying down. A couple featuring the golden masks. The one her father had written on with her in it. The rest were relatively benign. Groups of people at picnics or in fellowship halls. There was a series that she was working on now of men, she assumed, in robes and golden masks walking down some kind of tunnels. Of course, she was still trying to separate them. Part of her didn’t want to see what was in the rest of the stack.

Who knew what was on the film reels. Even if they were clean, she didn’t have a projector to play them.

But they all just felt off. She’d incorrectly assumed her father’s “evidence” would be more straight-forward.

I really need to get out of here. Think about something else.

Maybe she could get outside? Some fresh air would do her good. Walking in the Oregon forest had been a primary way to feed her soul through the years and she’d gotten away from that in the last month of her father’s life.

But we’ve just forgotten how to have fun in general. Let go of the responsibility and just enjoy yourself. Colby had been right.

Brynn layered on some of her own clothes, then the sweatpants and sweatshirt they’d found in the attic. For a moment she held the sweatshirt against her face, breathing in the remaining scent of Colby. It was amazing how much she could miss someone she’d known for less than two weeks. Was that even possible?

But she knew it was, because she felt every moment they were apart. For a woman as independent and self-reliant as she was, the recognition was scary. Unnerving. But true.

Damn it.

Her first step outside startled her a little, the frigid air stinging her lungs. Guess she’d gotten used to the insulated warmth of the house, despite the lack of electricity to boost it until this morning. Hopefully there’d be enough hot water for a shower when she returned.

For a few minutes, she just stood and let herself breathe. She’d remembered nights looking out her loft window across the fields to the woods beyond, but it had seemed a monumental distance in her memories. Now she realized that from the back porch, there was only a small strip of field that opened up to the right of the house, which must have been what she’d seen.

But behind the house, that small strip of field was easily walkable, with the forest crowding the base of the hills leading to the national part on the left. It was amazing that in all this time, Maria and her father had been able to preserve this land in its original state. It helped that the neighboring farms hadn’t been sold to build neighborhoods, like a lot of rural areas that skirted cities in the South. But then, Thornbury Woods didn’t seem to be a growing town.

Considering Colby’s remarks about the lack of options here and how he was one of the very rare people to ever return to town after leaving, she had to wonder if maybe someone wanted it that way? Small. Controllable.

She headed out across the field, thankful to not have to climb over any fences. Her boots protected her feet in the melting snow and ice combination. The biting chill in the air braced her, but also cleared the cobwebs from her brain. The bright sunshine helped melt away the paranoid thoughts she’d been living with since she’d returned here.

Yes, exactly what she needed.

The woods on the other side drew her, reminding her of her old haunts in Oregon. The minute she stepped into the dappled shade of the bare oak trees the temperature dropped once more. Brynn felt that chill all the way to her core. She paused, unnerved by the shift in mood.

Usually the woods were a place of solitude and welcome for her. This felt nothing like that. There were no nature sounds—no birds chirping, no insects, no wind. Not unusual for this time of year, but this was almost as if something had artificially silenced the natural atmosphere, as opposed to simple hibernation.

Still she pushed forward, not ready to return to the confines of the house.

Had she played in these woods as a child? Funny how she couldn’t remember much about that. Her main memories of childhood were of her father and Colby. Nothing about school or the farm, except her daddy driving her around on the tractor.

An unusually loud shuffle sounded somewhere to her left. Brynn froze, not wanting to attract the attention of an animal. She held still for a moment, then deemed it safe to keep going. Immediately more scuffling sounds and a flash of orange to her right.

That wasn’t an animal.

She knew hunting gear when she saw it, but Maria had never authorized hunting on the farm. And this was her land.

“Hello?”

That was obviously the sound of running. Someone knew they weren’t supposed to be out here. Brynn headed in that direction to check it out. Had they set up a tree stand or anything? If so, she might have to check with Maria about postings and such.

Looking into the tree canopy didn’t reveal anything. And Brynn didn’t want to get farther into the woods in case there were other hunters about. As she made her way back down a slight incline, she carefully watched the ground so she didn’t lose her footing.

That’s when she saw the cards on the ground.

No, not cards. Photos. Of her.

They were dotted across the ground as if dropped as whoever it was ran. Photos of the house. Her getting wood from the back porch. The kitchen through the window. Her asleep on the couch.

Only a slight drop of water in that one told her it was taken from outside.

Someone had been watching her.

She glanced around her, heart suddenly pounding. Were they still watching her?

Then the adrenaline kicked in and she started to run. No more worries about where her feet landed. She just ran, sprinting through the woods with the photos clutched tight in her fist.

She broke out of the tree line and into the sunshine, but didn’t slow down. All she could think about was getting to the house and locking herself inside.

Colby. She needed Colby.