and threw the cookies in the bathroom trashcan. The suite was nothing special, looking like a billion other hotel suites just like it in the world—soft pastel walls and nondescript decor. She went to the television in the media cabinet and pulled its cord from the wall before turning the flat screen around to face the wooden back.
Her stomach growled with hunger, protesting the fact she’d thrown out the cookies. Sue grabbed a water bottle from the mini-fridge with its five dollar price tag. She closed her eyes and gulped as the blandness of water turned to the fire of burning liquor as it passed her lips. She tried to ignore it, filling her stomach as fast as she could.
Sue fell back on the bed, still in her travel clothes and not caring. Her hand tingled, and she pulled at the ring to get it off her finger. Everything had changed the second she’d put it on. None of what happened made sense.
Her lips still burned. She waited for the world to spin, but the water turned liquor did not carry alcoholic effects, and her mind remained unhappily aware.
Chapter Four
Everything happened for a reason.
Sue wouldn’t have believed that statement five months ago, but now, as she walked along a sidewalk to look up a woman whose name she’d read in a magazine article, she hoped it was true.
She had been scared into getting on the bus.
Someone thrust the article at her.
She met Jameson, who told her where to find Heather Harrison.
Every sign screamed Freewild Cove. So here she was in North Carolina, following a historical town map that had monstrously bad proportions drawn on it, looking for Old Anderson House.
I’m officially a stalker, she thought in dejection.
What else could she do?
Her hand shook as she held the tattered black box with the antique ring. It had taken soap and a lot of pulling to get it off her finger. Hunger and exhaustion tainted each step and made it hard to concentrate. Everything she put into her mouth tasted like liquor and ash. If she’d slept at all the night before, she wouldn’t know it. She’d closed her eyes and tried, but her mind wouldn’t shut off.
Moving vans passed her on the otherwise quiet road. Sue kept her gaze on the uneven sidewalk as to not make eye contact with the people inside. Tufts of grass pushed through the cracks, and she stepped around them.
Fear lingered in her, causing her heart to beat fast. Sue expected someone to jump out at her from each tree she passed. This was insanity. She knew it. She felt it. She still kept walking.
The wind picked up, bringing with it a chill. She caught the scent of cologne, a fleeting whiff as the breeze carried it past.
In. Out. In. Out.
All she could do was walk and breathe and pray Heather Harrison didn’t think she was insane.
The faint sound of female laughter came from up the block. Sue quickened her pace. A woman stood looking toward where the moving vans had disappeared. She recognized Heather from her picture in the magazine.
Heather wore her long, dark hair pulled away from her face, and jeans with a flannel shirt. There was a natural beauty to her as if she didn’t try too hard. Broken-down moving boxes were stacked by the driveway. It seemed fitting that the looming Victorian would have a local name, Old Anderson House. The half-painted siding contrasted old and new, what had been and the possibility of what could be.
When Heather didn’t notice her and started to go inside, Sue said, “Excuse me?”
The woman turned to look at her; her expression caught between surprise and a smile. When she looked at Sue’s face, her smile dropped some into concern. Sue could well imagine what impression her wild red hair and sunken, tired eyes would give.
“I know this is going to sound strange, but…” Sue edged closer. She forgot to plan out what she was going to say. How did you explain supernatural signs leading you to a person’s front lawn? “I think I’m supposed to be here. I think I’m meant to talk to you. I keep receiving signs that all point to this house.”
Well, crap. Honesty was one way to go about it. Probably not the best way, though.
“I’m sorry?” Heather asked, confused. Why wouldn’t she be? Sue sounded like a lunatic.
“Heather?” Another woman asked from the doorway, her voice concerned. The woman looked as if she was helping Heather move but still somehow