She mentioned a rusted gate on the far side of the property that had been ajar for weeks.
“If they come tonight, I’ll lock every door,” she warned herself, the pen trembling.
The storm outside raged, rain hammering the roof, wind rattling the shutters.
I could hear the house sigh and creak, as if remembering every secret it held.
Flipping to the last entry, dated the night before the accident, she wrote, “I’m scared to look out, but I feel them near the lake.”
A sudden clap of thunder shook the floorboards.
The lights flickered, and for a heartbeat the room plunged into darkness.
When the bulbs steadied, a pale beam of lightning split the sky, catching a silhouette at the window.
It was just a faint outline, a figure standing in the rain, drenched, staring in.
My heart hammered; I swallowed hard, the journal trembling in my grip.
Then the house went black, the lights dying with a soft, final click.
Confronting Claire
I found Claire in the kitchen, her back turned to me, shoulders hunched over the sink.
Her teenage face was illuminated by the glow of the stove, eyes rimmed with fatigue.
“Claire, we need to talk about the journal,” I said, holding the soggy notebook out.
She turned slowly, the surprise in her eyes flickering to something darker.
“I knew you’d find that,” she whispered, voice barely above a breath.
She took the journal, flipping through the pages with trembling fingers.
Ezoic
“My mom wrote about someone watching us,” I reminded her.
Claire’s gaze dropped to the floor, and she swallowed hard.
“The night before the storm, Mom argued with a man by the lake,” she confessed.
“He wasn’t Daniel. He was… someone she’d met earlier that week.”
“I saw them from the edge of the dock. He was tall, coat dripping, voice low.”
“Mom was angry, shouting about him knowing too much.”
Claire’s eyes widened as she recalled the details.
“Noah was the only one who followed them after the argument,” she added, her voice shaking.
“He said he wanted to see what they were doing, but he never came back until now.”
I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the weight of each revelation.
Ezoic
“What did they say? Who was he?”
Claire shook her head, tears forming.
“I don’t know. Mom never told us his name. She just said… he’d help us escape.”
