“Are you okay now?”

  She nodded. “This way’s better.”

  “Okay. We’ll keep going this way.” He kept glancing up at the mirror, half-expecting to see something chasing after them, but everything was perfectly normal back there. As far as he could see, anyway. “But we’re not getting any closer to home this way…” They were heading west, not south. “Maybe I can circle around on Gulfer Lake Road…”

  Olivia reached down into the floorboard at her feet and picked up her dropped phone. Then she frowned at it as she recalled something she’d forgotten. Yesterday, at the wedding, after the woman with the sunflower tattoos—Erin Laplede, she recalled, her name engraved in her very thoughts now—gave her the charm. As she watched her walk away, she had the same kind of feeling at that moment, too. A sudden and overwhelming sense of something terrible about to happen. A feeling of impending doom.

  And now Erin Laplede was dead.

  Her heart sank. Was that what that feeling meant? Was she sensing not her own peril, but that woman’s? Did that strange, psychic part of her mind know that she was walking away to her death?

  Oh god…

  She wasn’t sure she could handle such a thought. If she’d understood what that feeling meant at that moment, could she have saved her? Was it her fault Erin Laplede was dead?

  No. She couldn’t dwell on such hypothetical horrors. She had no idea how this psychic thing worked. No one had ever explained it to her.

  But it was an odd coincidence, that woman turning up dead within hours of that moment…

  “Still okay?” asked Wayne.

  She nodded. “It’s gone now.”

  “Good.” He glanced around. He couldn’t’ remember the last time he drove through Dunnen like this. He never went anywhere in town. Once in a great while he’d gas up back by the intersection. Two or three times his mom had sent them to the grocery store for something she needed. But the vast majority of the time, he drove straight through Dunnen, right through that intersection back there, to and from his parents’ property a few miles on up the road.

  There were a lot of old memories he wasn’t expecting to see tonight. There was the street that led to the high school. There was the bowling alley his dad used to take them to when they were younger. There was the old ice cream parlor. It’d changed names several times, but had otherwise stayed pretty much the same as long as he could remember.

  His gaze lingered on the family restaurant as he drove past it. Memories flickered through the back of his mind in rapid succession, too quickly to really dwell on any single one, but more than enough to send a flutter through his heart.

  He didn’t always see eye to eye with his family, but there were other reasons he never wanted to come back to Dunnen.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He glanced over at her, surprised. “For what? Don’t pretend that psychic stuff isn’t real. We both saw some crazy shit down in those tunnels. If you felt something, I’m not ignoring it.”

  She smiled. He loved that smile. It was such a pretty smile. He dearly hoped he never lived to see a day when he wouldn’t get to see her smile like that. “Thanks. I appreciate that you believe me. But I know you don’t really like being back here.”

  He shrugged. “Forget about it. We’re just taking a little detour, that’s all.”

  But she wasn’t going to forget about it. She saw the way his gaze lingered on the family restaurant. She knew what that place was to him. Back in his old life. Before Briar Hills. Before the Temple. Before her.

  Gail used to work there…

  But that was a complicated subject.

  He drove past the industrial park and the fairgrounds and beyond the city limits, back out into the woods.

  Olivia tried Nicole’s phone again and again it went to voicemail. Then she tried Andrea’s phone again, with the same result. “I wish one of them would pick up.” It was frustrating not being able to get in touch with at least one of them.

  “Maybe Andrea’s at work.”

  “Maybe…”

  “And you just never know with Nicole.”

  “I know…” She sighed and looked up at the winding road unraveling before them. “Something just feels really off about all this, though. I mean doesn’t it?”

  “I’m not sure what to think right now, to be honest.” He still hadn’t wrapped his head around the fact that he’d been dead twice now.

  The highway rolled on for several miles as the two of them fell silent.

  It had been quite a few years now since Wayne had been out this way. His friend Brent used to live around here…

  How far was it to the lake again? He didn’t remember it being this long, but he knew it was out past the trailer park and he was just now passing that. Why was it that everything from your childhood always felt so much smaller once you grew up except for driving distances?

  “There’s no way I’m bothering Brandy and Albert on their honeymoon, but I want so badly to just call and have her tell me everything’s okay.”

  “I know what you mean. But that’s definitely not the kind of news I’d want to be bothered with on my honeymoon. Even if I didn’t know the woman.”

  “Exactly. But I just know I’m going to worry about it until I hear from her.”

  “Right.” She was always so kind and caring. He loved that about her.

  “That’s why I just want Nicole to answer her stupid phone already. Seriously, why isn’t she—oh no!” She sat up straight again, her pretty brown eyes wide with sudden fright. “Turn around! Now!”

  “What?” Wayne stomped on the brake and pulled off onto the narrow shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s in front of us! Turn around!”

  “What’s in front of us?”

  “I don’t know! Just turn around! Quick!”

  He looked back to make sure no one was behind them, then made a U-turn and headed back the other way.

  It was a good thing traffic was light tonight.

  Olivia turned and stared out the back window. Like last time, she couldn’t see anything to justify her sudden fright, but she was somehow very certain that if they’d continued on in that direction, something very bad would’ve happened to them.

  “Was it the same thing you felt on the other side of town?” wondered Wayne.

  “I don’t know.”

  “How did it get in front of us?”

  “I don’t know!”

  He glanced over at her, saw the fear on her lovely face, and forced himself to focus. “I’m sorry. Of course you don’t know. I don’t expect you to know. I’m just asking the questions that are in my head.”

  “It’s fine. I get it.”

  “I’m just…starting to freak out a little here.”

  “Yeah.” She turned those worried eyes on him now. “Me, too.”

  Whatever she was feeling with her psychic sense had now prevented them from taking the main highway south and taking the lake road. He used to know where all these little county roads went, but it’d been so long, he couldn’t quite remember which was which. And he didn’t care for the thought of venturing deeper into the wilderness.

  What were they supposed to do?

  “I’m scared,” she whimpered.

  He reached over and took her hand. “We’re okay,” he assured her. “We’ve been through some scary shit before. We can handle whatever this is.”

  She nodded. If he said it would be okay, she was more than willing to believe him. He was her hero after all. He came for her when she was trapped in Gilbert House. And he came for her when she was trapped in the Wood. And he even came back from the dead for her. If Wayne said it was going to be all right, then it was going to be all right.

  Again, they passed the trailer park. There was another highway just a mile or two farther that circled around Dunnen to the north, up past his parents’ property. It was way out of their way, but maybe that would finally let them lose whatever this was she kept feeling.

  But again, she gasped and grabbed the dashboard. “Stop!”

  He cursed and pulled onto the shoulder again, the Explorer’s tires skidding in the gravel. “Again?” He looked up at his rearview. How did it get around them? Was there more than one? What was happening out here?

  “Turn around!” she squealed.

  “And go where? We just turned back this way.”

  “I don’t know! But we can’t stay here!”

  Again, he cut the wheel hard and circled back the other way.

  Olivia turned around in her seat again and looked back. What was happening? What was her psychic brain sensing?

  Wayne’s heart was really pounding now. What was he supposed to do? Where were they supposed to go? It felt like something was boxing them in, corralling them like cattle to the slaughter. “Is it still back there?”

  “I don’t know! I think so…” She looked back at him, those eyes glistening with tears. “What do we do?”

  But now it was his turn to not know. What could they do? Where could they go?

  Then he caught sight of the trailer park entrance again. It wasn’t an open highway leading them to safety, but there were people there. Maybe they could hide.

  “Hold tight.” He pressed down on the brake and turned into the gravel drive, past the faded, hand-painted sign that had been standing at the entrance of the trailer park for as long as he could remember, the one that read in bright pink, capital letters, “NORA’S LILAC GROVE.”

  Chapter 3

  Wayne had never been inside the trailer park before. He’d passed by it countless times, but he’d never had any reason to enter. He wasn’t friends with anyone who lived here. He didn’t think he’d ever heard of anyone he knew living here, now that he was thinking about it. In fact, he couldn’t remember if he’d ever even seen anyone enter or leave it. He couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone walking around outside any of the homes visible from the road. He’d never really thought about it before, but now it almost seemed like he’d never seen proof that anyone actually lived here.

  And yet it certainly looked lived-in. These mobile homes weren’t abandoned. There were bulky, window air conditioners humming away in most of them, dripping condensation into clusters of weeds below. A few of the dandelion-choked lawns were even recently mowed. There were dusty, but perfectly modern vehicles parked in driveways and under rickety carports. There were toys scattered around. There were lots of little flowerbeds and scruffy gardens bristling with tomatoes and peppers and squash that someone was obviously tending.

  But where were the people? He hadn’t yet seen a single soul. And Nora’s Lilac Grove was a lot bigger than it looked from the road. The gravel drive went way back, winding through the many mobile homes and campers parked among the overgrown weeds and bushes. And it branched off many times, meaning it stretched much farther than they could see. It looked like the sort of place a person could get very lost in.

  The only living thing in sight was a scrawny and rather unfriendly looking gray and white tabby cat perched atop the roof of an old Toyota pickup truck, watching them as they passed by.

  “Can you feel anything about this place?” he asked as he eyed a plastic kiddie pool filled with dirty water.

  Olivia shook her head. “Not since we turned around.” She looked out at the passing scenery. Some of the homes here were deserted. Doors hung open, windows were broken. One was canted dramatically to one side. “Feels weird here, though, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Where is everybody?”

  “Maybe it’s hot and buggy, like at your mom’s?”

  “Maybe.”

  She leaned closer to the window and looked up at the sky. There were a lot of power lines strung overhead, crisscrossing at every angle. To her, it looked like a great, steel net stretched over them. All the trees had been chopped back to accommodate them, so that there wasn’t a pretty one to be seen among the countless utility poles and old television antennas.

  “How did I not know all this was here?” wondered Wayne as he drove past an old school bus someone had converted into a home. “I mean, I knew it was here. That there was a trailer park here. But it’s so big. I feel like you could almost fit all of Dunnen in here.”

  Olivia was staring out over the low rooftops at a row of enormous powerline towers in the distance. It all felt oddly familiar somehow, like she’d seen something like this before somewhere…

  The gravel drive split and Wayne turned left without thinking about it. It just felt like the way he was supposed to go, as if he’d done this before…except he was still quite sure he’d never been inside this trailer park until now…

  The ruined husk of a burned trailer loomed like a bad omen on the side of the road, surrounded by piles of garbage peeking out over tall weeds and tangled brush.

  “I think…” said Olivia as she stared at the blackened remains of the porch. Then she shook her head. No. That was just silly.

  But then, as they moved on, Wayne said it for her: “This is going to sound ridiculous, but I think I dreamed about this place last night.”

  She turned and stared at him, surprised.

  “I didn’t remember it until just now, but…I really feel like I was here…just before I woke up.”

  “Oh my god… Me too!”

  He glanced over at her, one eyebrow raised. “Really?”

  She pointed back at the burned-out trailer. “I remember that!” Then she pointed up at those distant powerlines. “And I remember those!”

  “Well that’s probably not a good thing…”

  She pouted at him again. “Don’t say that.”

  “Sorry.”

  Weird dreams weren’t exactly a new thing for him. He started having a lot of them right after returning from the temple. He’d never thought much of it. They were mixed in with plenty of nightmares of that place. Mostly about the monsters they encountered down there. The troll-like thing that attacked them in Gilbert House. Those deadly, razor-scaled hounds. The murderous Caggo. And of course all those zombies… (And he wasn’t alone. Olivia had far more nightmares than he did, and no one could blame her. She went through more than all the rest of them combined, after all.) When it came to those other dreams, the ones that he barely remembered except for weird little snippets of craziness that he couldn’t describe if he wanted to, he simply dismissed them. As far as he was concerned, he was just happy they weren’t nightmares. But never in all his life had he found something in his waking world and recalled seeing it in a dream. So this was a little different. And he didn’t think he cared much for it.

  Ahead of them, the lawns were shrinking, the boxy homes crowding closer to the main drive. He found himself slowing down and zigzagging between parked cars. Had he found a dead end? Was he going to have to turn the Explorer around? Would he even be able to?

  A long double-wide appeared before him, painted a garish shade of green. It looked like there was a clearing just beyond it and he immediately realized that he knew what was back there. A healthy patch of lush green lawn separated these final mobile homes from the dense forest at the back of the park.

  And there was something else there as well…

  “I know where we are,” whispered Olivia, more to herself than to him.

  Wayne nodded. He did too. His jaw set, he crept past the ugly green trailer and onto the lawn behind it, where he finally came to a stop.

  The two of them sat there, staring through the windshield at the twelve-foot-tall stone angel standing before them, her wings outstretched across the blazing sky.

  “What’s going on?” asked Olivia.

  He didn’t know. But he remembered quite clearly now that he was here in his dream last night. In his rush to get out the door and his worry about the obnoxious, two-hour drive ahead of them, he forgot it almost immediately. It was, after all, only a dream. But now that dream had rushed back to him. It was as vivid as it was when he first awoke. In it, he was standing at the foot of that angel, with Olivia at his side, looking up at those empty, expressionless eyes.

  And something was calling out to them.

  Something was beckoning them to this very place.

  “This is where we’re supposed to be,” sighed Olivia. She pointed past the statue, toward a gap between the trees there. A set of stone steps descended into a narrow valley shaded by the reaching limbs of the surrounding forest.

  Wayne glanced over at her. “We don’t know that,” he argued, but it was a lie. He knew it as well as she did.

  “I’ve already analyzed it. I know that we can get out and we can walk past that statue and down those steps. Thinking about doing that fills me with dread. I don’t know what’s down there, but I feel very strongly that it’s going to be scary.” Then she turned her soft eyes on him. “But when I think about turning around and going back…” He watched as those beautiful eyes shimmered with tears. “That thought terrifies me. Like I know, deep in my soul, that it’ll be the last thing we ever do.”

  He stared at her for a moment, his mind racing. Then, finally, he nodded. “Okay then. Twist my arm.” He looked up through the windshield at the statue again. “Forward it is.”

  Chapter 4

  Wayne killed the engine and opened his door into the stifling heat. The sounds of cicadas and crickets and birds bombarded him, along with the droning of nearby air conditioners and the distant barking of someone’s dog. But he heard no traffic noises of any kind, not even in the distance. Nor did he hear any voices. No one nearby was talking or shouting. No children were laughing. In spite of the fact that he was literally standing within a few yards of the ugly green trailer, he felt as if he were lost in the wilderness with no way home.

  Olivia stepped beneath the angel’s outstretched wing and looked down the long, steep stairway beyond. The forest seemed to yawn open around those steps like some great, monstrous maw, swallowing the path forward as it plunged down into the shadowy valley far below.

  “Well that’s…ominous,” grumbled Wayne.

  She nodded. “I’m scared.”

 

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