Page 30 of In Her Mind

“Is this where you’re buried?” Jenna asked, her voice cutting sharper now, edged with urgency. The spectral figures seemed poised to answer, their mouths opening in unison—yet instead of words, the mournful cry of a distant train horn pierced the night. It was the same haunting sound that she had heard in a previous dream.

Jenna’s body tensed, her gaze snapping toward the source of the sound. Yet there were no tracks in sight, only the thickening woods and the endless night. Her chest tightened with the realization that this dream, like so many before it, held a message—a puzzle piece in a larger, darker picture that she was compelled to solve.

She pivoted towards the plaintive wail of the train horn, its mournful sound slicing through the foggy silence of the night. Her feet carried her away from the spectral clearing, the grave-shaped hollows fading into a distant memory as she stepped back toward the oak tree. The dream’s persistent logic drew her eyes to an anomaly in the landscape—a set of railroad tracks nowlay beside the oak tree, materializing as if conjured by her own subconscious.

The train headlight pierced the darkness, casting a focused beam that illuminated the oak’s trunk. Upon the pruning scar, letters glowed with an eerie permanence: SV + NS. Jenna’s heart raced; the initials seemed to burn themselves into her retinas, a fixed message in this ever-shifting dreamscape. She stepped closer, drawn by a force beyond reason, her mind working furiously to decode the significance of those carvings.

As the locomotive’s light swelled closer, Jenna’s gaze was torn from the tree to a familiar sight down the tracks. A railroad crossing gate was closing, its red lights flashing rhythmically, warning of the train’s imminent passage. A sign accompanied the flashing gate, and with a sharp intake of breath, Jenna recognized the location—it was real, tangible, a place she had passed countless times in the waking world.

“I know that place!” she gasped aloud, her voice echoing strangely in the thick air.

Without warning, the scene evaporated, dissolving like mist under the relentless sun. Jenna’s eyes snapped open, the morning light flooding her bedroom with soft hues of dawn. She lay still for a moment, chest heaving, as the remnants of the dream clung to her like cobwebs. It was as vivid and intense as reality itself, writing every detail into her mind with indelible ink.

She rose from her bed, a sense of purpose propelling her forward. That crossing, those initials—they were clues, breadcrumbs leading her towards an answer that had eluded her thus far. Jenna knew, with an unshakeable certainty borne of years seeking answers in the shadows of the unexplained, what her next move must be.

Jenna’s hand shook slightly as she reached for the cellphone resting on her nightstand. The digits of the clock glowed 5:17AM, casting a faint light in the dimness of early dawn. With deliberate motions, she swiped the screen to life and navigated to her recent calls, tapping on Deputy Jake Hawkins’ contact.

“Jake, you up?” Her voice was steady despite the racing thoughts fueled by the vivid dream.

A rustle of sheets crackled over the line before his response came, tinged with the grogginess of interrupted sleep. “Yeah, I’m up now. What’s going on?”

“Good,” Jenna replied with an urgency that mirrored the pounding of her heart. “Get ready. I’ll be there in twenty to pick you up.”

She could almost picture Jake sitting up in bed.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, though her mind still echoed with the phantom sounds of the train horn from her dream. “We’ve got someplace to go.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The familiar landscape unfolded before Jenna, just as it had in her dream. Ahead was the railroad crossing, its sign weathered by time, the gate poised open as if waiting for a train that might never come. But this was no dream; the tang of pine in the cool morning air was undeniably real, as was the somewhat skeptical deputy she’d brought along with her.

She brought the cruiser to a stop at the side of the road and killed the engine.

“Here,” she said tersely. “This is where my dream led me. I recognized this place when I saw it.”

Jake scanned the area, then glanced at Jenna, his expression unreadable. Without a word, they stepped out of the car, and Jenna led the way as they walked along the tracks. She stopped when she spotted the old oak tree near the tracks.

A branch that once threatened to encroach upon the steel rails had been amputated long ago, leaving behind a scar that bore a weathered cryptic message: “SV + NS.”

“Same as in your dream?” Jake’s voice held a note of skepticism, though Jenna knew he was trying to keep an open mind.

“Exactly the same,” Jenna confirmed, the wood rough under Jenna’s fingertips as she traced the carved initials. “Except that the initials were freshly cut.”

Jake frowned as he studied the carvings. ““Any idea who ‘SV’ and ‘NS’ might be?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “But I intend to find out.” The uncertainty was a stark reminder that even with her unique insights, some answers still remained hidden.

“I’ve seen that same tree in two dreams now,” Jenna said, her voice low. “And those initials...they were so clear last night.”

She gazed around the area, remembering the women who had led her past the tree.

“I saw something more,” she said. “Let’s see if I’m right about what that was.”

Jenna motioned for Jake to follow her as she stepped off the path and deeper into the woods. The morning light filtered through the dense foliage, casting an eerie glow upon the forest floor. The ground sloped gently, leading them away from the train tracks. They arrived at a small clearing where the earth itself seemed to tell a grim tale.

There, two mounds rose ominously from the ground. Despite being overgrown with tangled weeds, their shapes were too deliberate, too calculated to be anything fashioned by naturealone. The air seemed to have unsettling stillness, as if even nature itself held its breath in fear of disturbing whatever lay beneath the surface.

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