going to be taking some psychology courses in Missoula. I want to understand why people do the things they do.” She wanted to work in the criminal justice field someday, helping agents like Mark Gallagher out on cases. Everything that had unfolded had been terrible and tragic and mind-boggling, but seeing the case being worked from up close had inspired her to do the same type of work. And she knew she’d have an advocate in Agent Gallagher.
In the meantime, she and Jak would run her guide business. To say he’d be a natural, was an understatement. Who knew the wilderness better than he did?
Harper and Rylee talked for another half hour, exchanging Christmas gifts, laughing, and reminiscing, and when Harper got up to hug her goodbye, she felt even fuller. Being in love was a wonderful miracle, but having a community surrounding her and Jak would enrich life for both of them.
Harper smiled to herself as she walked down Rylee’s steps, turning into the covered parking area, eager to get home and wait for Jak’s arrival. Just as she was removing her key from her purse, she sensed movement behind her, turning halfway as someone grabbed her from behind. She opened her mouth to scream, inhaling a big breath of something sweet and noxious as a hand went over her mouth. Terror spiked through her. She tried to lift her arm, to hit, to flail, but her body was too heavy. The world wavered, faded. Blinked out.
**********
She couldn’t see. She could barely hear. Her head roared and it was several minutes before she realized it wasn’t coming from inside her own mind, but rather, it was outside, somewhere beyond the darkness. She listened, her brain clearing, memory returning piece by piece. Water. It’s water.
She’d been leaving Rylee’s house. Someone had come up behind her. Taken her. Her heart raced, the brain fog clearing.
Whatever had been covering her head was removed suddenly, and she let out a short yelp, the sudden light blinding her. She opened her eyes, the smell of nature meeting her nose—trees, and dirt, and rushing water.
I’ve been here before.
She was standing on a cliff, a river flowing next to her, spilling into what she immediately recognized as Amity Falls.
“Beautiful up here, isn’t it?”
She whirled around so quickly, she almost stumbled over her own feet.
A large, tall man with graying streaks in his mostly black hair stood in front of her, smiling casually. Next to him was an equally tall young man with bronzed skin and dark eyes, his expression blank. “My favorite place in all of this godforsaken wilderness.” The older man smiled. “I’m Dr. Swift, by the way.” He walked toward her, but not too close. She gaped at him, her mind searching frantically to put this into context. What is happening?
“This whole thing started out with a ceremony, albeit an interrupted ceremony, and . . . it’ll end with one.” He smiled. “Of sorts. Though not in the same location, exactly. Isaac picked the first one. But he’s not here anymore to choose anything, is he?”
“Isaac?” she murmured. Isaac Driscoll chose the first location. The first ceremony? The first time she’d stood on a cliff like this. With Jak. And two other unnamed boys.
Hazy pictures filled her mind, things she’d always thought were dreams, or nightmares, or bits and pieces of her fighting her way through the wilderness . . . the voices of the hikers who found her maybe . . . her fear, the cold. It’d all swirled together in her child’s mind, creating confusion and too much that was unknown or out of context for the adult Harper to begin to understand.
His voice though. She remembered his voice. It drummed through her, triggering her brain to connect bits of memory, creating context.
“You,” she said. “It was you. That night.” She shook her head. He’d taken her . . . shot her parents? “Why?” she asked. “Why me? Why my family? What did you do to them?”
He let out a long-suffering sigh as though the whole ordeal was so terribly taxing. For the first time since Harper had opened her eyes, anger raced through her, mixing with the dread. This man. Right in front of her. He had killed her parents. Taken them from her.
“Because, Harper, your father, the sheriff, was looking into some missing kids—our missing kids—and getting far too close for comfort. We had to eliminate him.”
Eliminate him? He said it like it was nothing. Like it had been as