Page 22 of Mate Night Snack
Maeve’s footsteps disappeared into the dark, leaving Emmett standing alone in the hush of trees that remembered too much.
Emmett stood there a long while, staring at the carved lines like they might shift if he stared long enough.
Eventually, he touched the bark with two fingers.
It was fresh. Not even a week old. Which meant Ashwin wasn’t just watching.
He was here. Somewhere past the Veil. Waiting.
Emmett didn’t sleep that night.
The wind howled through the upper windows of his home. He sat in a worn armchair beside the cold hearth, staring at the blade laid across his lap. The edge had dulled. He’d sharpen it tomorrow.
He could still see the shape of that mark behind his eyes.
Could still feel the press of Katniss’s fingers at his chest from the night before.
Maybe someone,she had said.
His chest had never felt heavier.
She didn’t know the world she’d stepped into. Didn’t know whathehad once done to survive it. Didn’t know that monsters sometimes wore the face of the man who carried her home.
9
KATNISS
Katniss sat cross-legged on the quilt-covered bed, her podcast mic perched on the edge of her nightstand like a waiting question mark. The room around her was still, the window cracked just enough to let in the smell of damp leaves and wild mint from the garden below.
She pressed the button and the red light blinked to life.
“Audio log. Episode draft—working title:Whispers in the Pines.”
She took a breath, already feeling the tightness settle behind her ribs.
“I came to Hollow Oak looking for the truth behind a missing girl named Mabel Dorsey. Nineteen ninety-two. Vanished after school. No suspects. No body. Just a lot of quiet stares and doors that never quite close.”
Katniss shifted on the bed, brushing a curl from her face.
“And I thought I’d found a sleepy town full of gossip and secrets, the kind that unravel with a little pressure. But it’s different here. Heavier. Like every step you take shifts something underneath.”
She hesitated.
“I’ve followed whispers. Gut feelings. I’ve blacked out twice. Seen visions that don’t make sense. One was of particular man in charge of guiding me. More like guarding, based on the welcome I’ve received here. In that vision, he was dying. I thought it was inside the Hearth & Hollow Inn at first. But now… now I’m not so sure.”
Her throat tightened as she thought about the vision she had had again earlier that day. She hadn’t told anyone, just her mic right now.
“I haven’t published this one. And I might not. Something’s scratching at the inside of my instincts, telling me that if I hit upload, it’ll tip things in the wrong direction. Like this story’s not justmineto tell.”
She stared at the blinking light. Then pressed stop.
The file sat there on her screen, red and pulsing like a heartbeat. She didn’t name it. Didn’t save it. Just let it hover.
Not yet.
Katniss stood and crossed the room, pulling the curtain aside. The woods swayed gently in the wind, but the trail leading into them looked darker than usual. Like the trees leaned in a little too far tonight.
Her fingertips brushed the windowsill.
