The sun hung high in the sky, casting a brutal heat across the backroads as the trio trudged along the cracked asphalt. Dust clung to their shoes, sweat dampened their clothes, and the silence between them had grown heavier with every step. The sleepy town they passed through barely counted as a blip on the map, a ghost town at best.
"There," Nathan pointed ahead. An old, beat-up gas station stood crookedly beside the road. Its sign was half-missing, swaying slightly in the wind, and the windows were either shattered or clouded with grime. The place looked like it hadn’t seen a customer in a decade.
"Great," Peter said dryly. "A murder shack. Exactly what we needed."
Nathan ignored the sarcasm and guided them toward the shaded side of the building. Rory wiped sweat from her brow and let
