Chapter 1 - Don’t
“STOP—DON’T TOUCH IT!”
Jonah Mercer’s scream shook the walls of the cabin.
Outside, rain hammered the roof.
Mara Quinn kept one hand against the side of his head.
“Hold still.”
“I CAN FEEL IT MOVING!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t!”
The lantern beside them flickered.
Mara had found Jonah two hours earlier wandering barefoot through the forest, confused and unable to hear anything except a faint humming inside his right ear.
He couldn’t remember how he reached Blackwood Mountain.
Couldn’t remember why bloodless scratches covered the back of his jacket.
Couldn’t remember the previous six days.
Then Mara saw something move.
Now she held it between the ends of a pair of tweezers.
Small.
Dark.
Thin.
Not shaped like any insect she recognized.
Jonah gripped the chair.
“Get it out!”
Mara pulled.
The thing released.
Jonah gasped.
Then every sound stopped.
Not faded.
Stopped.
The storm vanished.
The windows no longer rattled.
The trees outside no longer moved.
Jonah slowly raised his head.
“I can hear again.”
Mara didn’t answer.
The thing twisted between the tweezers.
Then a faint voice came from it.
Almost human.
“…don’t…”
Mara froze.
Jonah stared.
The lantern went black.
Something moved across the ceiling.
And from outside the cabin—
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three slow knocks sounded against the front door.
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