Page 39 of In Her Dreams
When Jenna finally rose to leave, Margaret walked her to the door, pausing with her hand on the knob.
“I know I’ve said this before, but I’m proud of you, Jenna,” she said, her voice soft but steady.“Not just for the job or for saving those people, but for who you are.You’ve carried so much for so long.”She hesitated, then added, “I made it harder for you, not easier.I’m sorry for that.”
Jenna surprised them both by stepping forward and embracing her mother tightly.Margaret stiffened momentarily before her arms came up to return the hug, her body trembling slightly.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Jenna promised as they pulled apart.
“I’d like that,” Margaret replied, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
The drive back through Trentville’s quiet streets gave Jenna time to process the visit.Her thoughts whirled between pride in her mother’s progress and the echoing emptiness of Piper’s absence that still haunted them both.The conversation about Jake had rattled her more than she cared to admit.First, Frank had made comments about their connection, and now her mother.Was it really that obvious to everyone except Jenna and Jake themselves?
Her phone rang, cutting through her thoughts.The dashboard display showed Melissa Stark’s name.Jenna tapped the button to accept the call through the car’s speaker system.
“Graves,” she answered, professional mode immediately engaging.
“Jenna, it’s Melissa.”The coroner’s voice sounded tired but alert.“I’ve got those lab results back on Anita Palmer.”
Jenna’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.“And?”
“Same pattern of stress hormones we found in Richard Winters.Identical, in fact.Cortisol levels through the roof, adrenaline surge so massive it would have felt like being hunted by a predator.Whatever these two experienced before death, physiologically speaking, it was the same phenomenon.”
A chill ran down Jenna’s spine despite the warm night air.“So we’re definitely looking at connected deaths.”
“Science says yes,” Melissa confirmed.“Both died from extreme terror triggering fatal cardiac events.In Palmer’s case, she was younger with no pre-existing heart condition, so it took more to push her over the edge, but the biochemical signature is the same.”
“What about toxicology?”Jenna asked, slowing to turn onto her street.
“Clean on both victims,” Melissa replied.“Whatever caused this wasn’t chemical in nature—at least not anything introduced from outside.”
After a pause, Melissa added, “I don’t understand this, Jenna.I hope you do.Or if you don’t, I hope you can figure it out.”
“Thanks, Melissa.I appreciate you calling with this.”
“Get some sleep, Sheriff.You sound exhausted.”
The call ended, and Jenna pulled into her driveway, cutting the engine.She sat for a moment in the dark car, allowing the implications of the new information to sink in.
The quiet streets of Trentville suddenly felt ominous, as if something might be watching from between the houses.Jenna’s thoughts turned to Frank’s recounting of his grandmother’s warnings—about a darkness tied to the land of Genesius County, an ancient malevolence that fed on fear and occasionally awakened to feed.
The recent string of horrific events seemed less like isolated incidents and more like manifestations of something larger.Serial killers.Human traffickers harvesting organs.People are dying of their worst fears.This small county had seen more than its share of darkness.
As Jenna unlocked her front door and stepped into her quiet house, exhaustion settled into her bones.The pieces were all there, but the full picture remained elusive.The dreamcatchers were found with both victims.Dr.Walsh’s secretive behavior.The expressions of pure terror froze on the victims’ faces.
Jenna moved through her darkened house, not bothering with lights.As she prepared for bed, her mother’s words echoed in her mind.At some point, you have to decide to really live, not just exist.
She slipped between the cool sheets, her body heavy with fatigue but her mind still racing.Tomorrow would bring new challenges, possibly new dangers.But for tonight, she would try to rest.
As Jenna’s consciousness began to drift, one final thought surfaced: what if her mother, in her stumbling journey toward recovery, had inadvertently discovered a truth that Jenna herself had been missing all along?What if the strength needed to face whatever dark force was stirring in Genesius County could only be found by fully embracing life, rather than holding part of herself in reserve?
With that unsettling question floating in her mind, Jenna finally surrendered to sleep.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jenna stood at the center of a web that stretched all the way to the horizon, its intricate patterns shifting and pulsing with an otherworldly glow.She recognized what it was immediately—a colossal dreamcatcher expanded to impossible proportions, its woven tendrils stretching beyond her field of vision.Unlike the ugly, almost menacing dreamcatchers found in the bedrooms of Richard Winters and Anita Palmer, this one possessed a terrible beauty.Each strand hummed with energy, vibrating like plucked guitar strings, sending tremors through the air.
She knew this wasn’t just any dream—it was one of those dreams, the lucid kind where the dead sought her out.
“Hello?”Her voice didn’t echo as it should have in such a vast space.Instead, it seemed to be absorbed by the network of lines, the sound becoming part of its pulsing rhythm.
