Prologue
Katie sat cross-legged on her bed, scrolling absentmindedly through her phone when it buzzed with an incoming call. The number was unfamiliar. She hesitated, thumb hovering over the screen. Normally she’d have let it go to voicemail, but something about the timing. Late evening, rain tapping insistently against her window, made her press accept.
“Hello?” she said, voice cautious.
“Katie, it’s me.”
A soft, trembling voice came through. Her stepmother. Katie’s heart sank.
“Linda? What’s wrong?”
A pause. Then: “It’s your father… He’s gone.”
The words hit like a blow to the chest. She sat frozen, breath catching in her throat.
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“He passed this morning,” Linda said, voice breaking. “Sudden heart failure. I’m so sorry, Katie.”
Katie had no words.
The phone slipped from her fingers onto the bed. Everything blurred, and her mind pulled her straight back to the family house. Hidden away, far from town, where her whole world had once revolved around her father. She saw the tall trees pressing in around it, sunlight slanting through the windows of her childhood room. Memories crashed over her: her mother’s laugh filling every hallway, before she’d died too soon, when Katie was only thirteen.
“Katie? Are you still there?” Linda’s voice pulled her back.
“I’m here,” Katie whispered, voice cracking. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“I understand. I need to call Casey too. I just wanted you to hear it from me first.”
Katie nodded, even though Linda couldn’t see her. “Thank you… for telling me.”
When the call ended, she sat motionless, grief heavy on her chest. Her father was gone, and with him a piece of her past she’d never fully made peace with. All she could think of was the house, its quiet halls, memories etched into every corner. She knew then she had to go back to face the life she’d left behind, and the ghost of the man her father had become.
She gripped the wheel as city lights faded, traffic giving way to the quiet dark of the countryside. The road wound ahead, shadowed by towering trees that leaned in like whispering secrets. Headlights carved a narrow path through gloom, glinting off damp asphalt.
Pine and wet earth drifted through the vents. This road, leading home deep in the woods, was as familiar as the old bridge waiting ahead. Her chest tightened. She wasn’t coming back for laughter or warmth this time. The house was just an echo now, emptied of all the joy it once held.
As she neared the bridge, nostalgia washed over her. Below, the river glinted faint under moonlight. She slowed instinctively, glancing down at water tumbling over hidden rocks. Remembering little her pressing palms to the glass, wondering how deep it went. Back then it had seemed endless, thrilling, and a little terrifying.
Tires hummed across the bridge. Lost in thought and the glint of water, she never saw the headlights rounding the bend from the other side.
The impact came like a thunderclap. Katie’s world erupted into chaos as the collision threw her hard against her seatbelt. The car spun violently, the force lifting it off the ground. For a heartbeat it felt weightless, like a leaf caught in a sudden gust, before it flipped.
The crunch of metal and shatter of glass filled her ears. Her vision blurred, catching flashes of an upside-down sky as fragments of her life tumbled along with the wreckage. She could not even scream. When the car finally crashed to earth with a deafening thud, everything went silent.
Katie’s body went limp, her head resting against the deflated airbag while blood trickled down her temple. The world around her dissolved into darkness as her consciousness slipped away, leaving only the cold, rushing sound of the river below to fill the void.
