The silent witness

Chapter 5 – Crossed Wires

Elena felt her dad’s warning hanging over her like a lead blanket. Every shadow in Harmony Creek seemed a little darker. Every whisper? A possible threat. Did Sheriff Marlowe want to protect her? Sure. But his secrets only made her dig her heels in deeper. The truth was there, tangled up in lies and half-baked stories, and she was going to hunt it down, no matter what.

The next day, while she was restocking the library’s ancient history section (because, you know, super glamorous), Evelyn showed up. The woman had a way of appearing like a freak thunderstorm, loud, dramatic, and never welcome. Lipstick a little too red, smile just a tad too sharp.

“Elena,” Evelyn cooed, practically oozing fake sweetness. “Heard you and Noah were playing Hardy Boys down by Mill Creek. How… quaint.”

Elena’s stomach did a full Olympic somersault. How the hell did she know about that? Was Evelyn stalking her, or was Harmony Creek’s rumor machine just that fast?

“Just catching up with an old friend,” Elena muttered, acting casual.

Evelyn let out this dry, joyless laugh. “Is that what you call it? Because it looks like you’re digging up more than just old memories, sweetie. Am I wrong?”

Elena tried to keep her poker face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, don’t you?” Evelyn leaned in, eyes glinting with this nasty satisfaction. “You were there that night, Elena. The last person to see Casey. You’re the key, and you’re hiding something.”

A wave of nausea hit Elena. Evelyn was getting way too close for comfort.

“I told the cops everything,” Elena said, her voice almost gone.

“Did you, though?” Evelyn pressed, moving in closer. “Or did you protect someone? Cover something up? What are you so scared of, Elena?”

Elena’s head was spinning. She needed to get the hell away from Evelyn before she lost it.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” she mumbled, grabbing a stack of books and turning her back.

“Truth has a way of coming out, Elena!” Evelyn called after her, voice echoing through the stacks. “Whether you like it or not!”

Those words wormed their way into Elena’s thoughts, gnawing at her brain. Ugh, the worst part? Evelyn was right. Elena was hiding stuff not to protect anyone else, but because she was terrified of what she’d find if she dug too deep. Her memories of that night were a shattered mess, dangerous, sharp edges she’d tried to bury. But maybe those buried fragments were the one thing she actually needed.

That night, sleep wasn’t happening. She tossed and turned, trapped in broken dreams: headlights slicing through rain, mud everywhere, Casey’s laugh echoing, then nothing. Silence. A black hole where her memory should be.

But there was this one image that kept looping: something metal glinting under the moon, catching the streetlight. A buckle? A necklace? Who even knew?

She jolted awake, drenched in sweat, heart jackhammering in her chest. The dream felt so real, like a memory clawing its way back. Or maybe her brain was just screwing with her. Hard to tell.

The next morning, Elena was a wreck. Paranoia had her by the throat like, full-on “someone’s watching me from behind the cereal boxes” vibes. Every time she caught movement in her peripheral, she’d whip around, half-expecting to lock eyes with some creep lurking in the shadows. The library? Forget it. Every squeaky floorboard was a gunshot, every flutter of leaves outside might as well have been a SWAT team rappelling in. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d messed up somewhere and now the universe was just waiting to pounce.

Honestly, she knew she couldn’t keep going like this. Either she faced her past, or she’d end up a permanent resident of Paranoia-ville. So, yeah, hypnosis. Weird, right? But she’d read about it in those dog-eared psych books at the thrift store, and it sounded just risky enough to maybe work. So she googled around and landed on this therapist, Dr. Albright, a couple towns over. Supposedly a pro at digging up buried trauma, just what Elena needed, lucky her.

Dr. Albright turned out to be the real deal. Super chill, soft-spoken, the kind of person who could probably talk a bear out of a panic attack. Elena was a nervous mess, but Dr. Albright just smiled and told her to breathe, like it was all no big deal.

First session, Elena let herself be led into that weird floaty headspace. It was like sinking underwater, thoughts getting fuzzy, images flickering behind her eyelids. Stuff started bubbling up: random flashes, like a busted projector flicking through scenes. Casey’s face, beaming. Their laughter echoes on the bridge. The cold air, the babble of the creek. For a second, it was almost peaceful.

Then, Darkness. Something ugly. There was a shape moving in the trees. A voice, angry, hissing words she couldn’t quite grab. And then that horrible, meaty thud, and everything went black.

Elena jerked, breath caught in her throat. “I-I saw something,” she choked out, voice all shaky. “Someone was there. A shadow…” Her heart pounded like a drumline.

“Stay with it, Elena,” Dr. Albright’s voice floated somewhere in the distance. “What else comes to you? What do you remember?”

She chased the images as they slipped away, desperate, like trying to catch soap bubbles with bare hands. Her mind was a sieve, letting it all leak out.

Suddenly, something new: a flash of silver in the dark. Not a knife, not a g*n, a belt buckle. Silver skull grinning in the moonlight. Weirdly specific, right? But she KNEW that buckle.

Her eyes snapped open as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her. She’d seen that buckle before. She knew who owned it. She knew who’d been there.

And oh God, he was still in Harmony Creek.