Chapter Chapter 1 — The Wrong Turn
The first thing Mara noticed was the silence.
Not the ordinary silence of an empty highway.
This was different.
There were no insects.
No wind moving through the trees.
No distant engines.
Not even the sound of her own tires seemed normal anymore.
She glanced at the dashboard.
11:47 P.M.
The headlights stretched across the narrow road, illuminating a wall of pine trees on either side. Their branches bent over the asphalt like crooked fingers.
Mara turned down the radio.
Static.
She changed the station.
More static.
"Come on..."
She pressed the power button.
The radio went completely dead.
Mara sighed and looked at her phone.
NO SERVICE.
She had expected that eventually. The mountains had been swallowing her signal for the last hour.
Still, something about this place made her uncomfortable.
She checked the GPS.
The blue line on the screen had disappeared.
Instead, there was a message:
RECALCULATING...
Mara waited.
Nothing happened.
She tapped the screen.
RECALCULATING...
"You're kidding me."
She looked through the windshield.
The road continued straight ahead.
There was no reason to be worried.
She had simply taken the wrong turn.
She would find another road eventually.
Then she saw the sign.
Her headlights caught it at the edge of the forest.
A battered wooden sign.
BLACK PINE ROAD
Mara slowed down.
"Black Pine?"
She couldn't remember seeing that name on the map.
She stopped beside it.
The sign was old enough that the letters were almost impossible to read.
But underneath the name, someone had painted a second message in red.
Mara leaned forward.
Her stomach tightened.
TURN AROUND.
She stared at it.
A warning?
A prank?
She almost laughed.
Then she noticed something.
There was fresh red paint dripping from the bottom of the letters.
Fresh.
Mara looked at the forest.
Nothing moved.
She reached for the gear shift.
Reverse.
The car rolled backward.
Then—
Knock.
Mara froze.
A single knock came from somewhere behind her.
She looked at the rearview mirror.
Nothing.
"Probably a branch."
She put the car in reverse again.
Knock.
This time, louder.
Mara's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
She slowly turned her head toward the back seat.
Empty.
Her suitcase was there.
A jacket.
A bottle of water.
Nothing else.
She swallowed.
"Okay."
She faced forward.
"Okay. Just go."
She shifted into drive.
The car moved.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Then the engine coughed.
Mara frowned.
"No."
The engine coughed again.
The dashboard lights flickered.
Then the car stopped.
Silence.
Mara turned the key.
The engine clicked.
Nothing.
Again.
Click.
Nothing.
"Please..."
She tried a third time.
Nothing.
Mara looked at the fuel gauge.
It showed half a tank.
That didn't make sense.
She tried the ignition again.
Dead.
Then her headlights went out.
The forest disappeared.
Mara sat motionless.
Her breathing became the loudest sound in the car.
She reached for her flashlight.
Before she could turn it on—
Knock.
She stopped.
Another knock.
Not from the trunk this time.
From the driver's window.
Mara slowly turned her head.
There was nothing outside.
Only darkness.
She lifted the flashlight and pointed it toward the glass.
Nothing.
She lowered it.
Knock.
Mara jumped.
The sound came again.
Three inches from her face.
She turned the flashlight toward the window.
Still nothing.
Then she saw it.
A handprint.
On the glass.
Mara stared.
Five long fingers.
The palm pressed flat against the window.
But the handprint was on the inside.
Her breath caught.
She checked the door lock.
Locked.
She checked the passenger door.
Locked.
The back doors.
Locked.
Another handprint appeared beside the first.
Then another.
One after another.
Slowly covering the window.
Mara screamed.
She grabbed the door handle and threw herself into the passenger seat.
The handprints vanished.
All of them.
Mara sat frozen, staring at the glass.
Nothing.
No fingerprints.
No marks.
Just the dark forest.
Then something whispered from the back seat.
"Mara..."
Her blood turned cold.
She knew that voice.
She hadn't heard it in twelve years.
"Mom?"
The whisper came again.
"Mara..."
She slowly looked toward the rearview mirror.
A woman was sitting in the back seat.
Mara's heart stopped.
The woman's face was hidden by darkness.
But Mara knew that face.
She knew that voice.
Her mother.
Dead for twelve years.
The woman lifted her head.
And smiled.
"Don't turn around."
Mara stared at the mirror.
"What?"
Her mother's smile disappeared.
"Whatever you hear..."
A pause.
"...don't turn around."
The interior light suddenly came on.
The back seat was empty.
Mara screamed and slammed the door open.
She ran into the forest.
She didn't care where she was going.
She didn't care about the car.
She didn't care about the road.
She only knew one thing.
Something was in the forest with her.
And behind her, from somewhere in the darkness, she heard footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Following.
Then a voice called her name.
Her mother's voice.
"Mara..."
She ran faster.
And somewhere behind her, something laughed.
