Chapter 1
1060 Words
Prologue — October 1997
Marin Holloway's POV
The woods didn’t whisper that night. They howled.
Twelve-year-old Marin Holloway stood barefoot on the edge of the treeline, her heart pounding as she clutched her jacket tight around her. The wind whipped through the darkened pines like wild fingers, pulling at her clothes, making her shiver. The flashlight in her hand flickered once—then died.
“Great,” she muttered to herself.
But it wasn’t just the flashlight that was failing her tonight. There was something in the air, something off. The moon was high, but the shadows cast by the trees swallowed it whole, leaving her in a cloak of blackness. The only light came from the distant glow of the town, far behind her.
Someone was watching her. She could feel it, the hair on the back of her neck rising.
Her sister’s voice had called out to her—soft, like a laugh carried on the wind. Marin had known better, but curiosity had gotten the better of her.
She had followed the sound deeper into the woods, through thick underbrush, and now—now she was lost.
The wind died, and the world around her fell still, the way it did just before something terrible happened.
Behind her, the church bell tolled midnight.
Bang.
Marin spun around, the noise of a branch snapping echoing through the forest. Her breath hitched in her chest, and for a moment, she froze—straining to hear any other sound, any movement.
Then, ahead of her, the shadows moved.
A figure, a silhouette, creeping forward through the thick darkness. The air felt wrong, thicker, colder.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she stepped back, the sound of her footsteps muffled by the moss and dirt beneath her feet. She was certain she had been alone. She had to be. But the figure ahead of her wasn’t alone. It was never alone.
The wind picked up again, pushing against her skin. Her breath came faster, the chill biting at her bones, her legs stiff as she looked to run. But there was nowhere to go. She was trapped.
Then—silence.
The figure was gone.
No movement. No sound. Just a cold breath of wind that swept through the forest like a warning.
And that was when the trees whispered her name.
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Present Day
Detective Elise Granger's POV
Twenty-seven years later
There are few things worse than a cold case file. Especially one that starts with the phrase: Missing. Presumed dead.
Detective Elise Granger flipped open the yellowed file, the paper crackling under her fingertips. Marin Holloway’s school portrait stared up at her—young, wide-eyed, full of life. Until she wasn’t.
The photo was decades old now. The smiling face of a girl who’d never gotten to grow up. A face frozen in time. The case file itself had been shoved to the back of the archives for years. Most people had forgotten about it.
But Elise couldn’t. Not completely.
Her fingers hovered over the file for a moment, the weight of the case pressing in on her chest. She hated the unsolved ones, the ones that left too many questions dangling in the air. And this one was no different.
Why now?
She muttered the question to herself, but there was no answer. Only the faint hum of the overhead fluorescent lights and the distant sound of her own heartbeat.
The case wasn’t the only thing bothering her tonight, though. The real reason she couldn’t shake the cold grip around her chest was the anonymous letter that had arrived at the station just the night before. The letter she’d barely had time to look at before it sent a chill racing up her spine.
She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out the envelope, now creased at the edges. She tore it open, holding her breath, her fingers trembling ever so slightly.
The handwriting was blocky, uneven—trembling.
"Marin Holloway was taken. She wasn’t the only one."
She blinked at the words, the paper feeling heavier with each word she read. There was a second part to the note, written in a different hand, as if added later. A warning, perhaps?
"It’s happening again."
Her mind raced, trying to piece it together. It’s happening again. But what did that mean? How could it be happening again? Marin had been missing for twenty-seven years. The case had been declared cold for nearly as long, buried under layers of old files and half-remembered conversations.
Someone wanted her to revisit it.
Elise’s gaze shifted to the file on her desk. The photo. The words. Everything about the case felt like it was crawling up her spine. The truth had never been found. And now someone wanted her to find it.
But why her?
Elise’s fingers tightened on the letter, crinkling the edges as her thoughts churned. Her father had been the one to oversee Marin’s case all those years ago—before he had died. And he had never solved it. Never even gotten close.
But someone thought she could.
"Detective Granger?" a voice called from the doorway. Elise looked up to see Officer Davis standing there, a wary expression on his face. His dark eyes flicked nervously between the letter and her.
She quickly shoved the letter back into the drawer, closing it with a snap. "Yeah?"
"Someone’s here to see you," Davis said. "A reporter. About the Marin case."
A chill crept over her, and she straightened in her chair. It was too soon. She hadn’t even started to dig.
"Who?"
"A local. Says she’s got information on the case."
Elise’s mind raced. The town hadn’t thought about Marin in years, not really. Not since the whispers of her disappearance had faded into nothing. But now, something—someone—was making sure the past wouldn’t stay buried.
Her fingers clenched the edge of the desk, and she could feel her pulse quicken. It was happening again.
She stood, pushing past Officer Davis without saying another word, her thoughts already spiraling toward the unknown. The air in the room seemed to thicken, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention.
She didn’t know it yet, but Holloway Pines had never let go of its secrets. And those secrets were coming for her now.
- Writer
