Page 1 of In Her Fears
PROLOGUE
Moonlight spilled over Pinecrest like liquid silver, casting long streaks of light across Teddy Rose’s bedroom floor.He checked his phone one last time—12:17 AM—before tucking it into the pocket of his hoodie.His heart drummed with both excitement and apprehension.
The rest of the house had fallen silent hours ago, his parents’ soft snores drifting from behind their closed door when he’d last crept past it.Tina was waiting, and nothing—not his parents’ rules, not the cool night air seeping through his window—would keep him from her tonight.
The window screen popped free easily.Teddy had removed and replaced it so many times that the frame had worn smooth in the exact spots where he needed to grip.He slid one leg over the sill, then the other, dangling momentarily before dropping the short distance to the roof of the back porch.The shingles were rough beneath his palms as he crawled toward the drainpipe.He’d learned the hard way that the center section creaked under weight, a lesson from his sophomore year that had nearly earned him a grounding until graduation.
A sudden gust of wind rustled the leaves in the maple tree beside the house.Teddy froze, listening for any change in the rhythm of his house’s nighttime sounds.Nothing.Just the distant hum of a car passing on the main road and the persistent chirp of crickets.
His phone vibrated in his pocket.A text from Tina: "u coming?Parents asleep" followed by three heart emojis.
Teddy grinned, typing back with one thumb while the other hand maintained his balance.“omw.15 min.”He was sure he could climb through her bedroom window without being caught by her parents.
He pocketed the phone and shimmied down the drainpipe, wincing at the metallic groan it produced around the midway point.He paused again, counting his heartbeats, waiting.When no lights flicked on inside the house, he continued his descent, dropping the last few feet to the soft grass of the backyard.
Freedom.
The night enveloped him, the full moon hanging impossibly large above the silhouette of Pinecrest University’s bell tower in the distance.He set off across the yard, ducking low beneath the kitchen window just in case.
Teddy cut through the yard next door, careful to avoid the motion-sensor lights.Old Mr.Henderson had threatened to call his parents the last time he'd been caught, and Teddy couldn't risk it tonight.As he emerged onto Cedar Street, he considered his route.The normal way—through the town's streets—would take nearly thirty minutes.But cutting through Pinecrest Cemetery would slash his trip time in half.
He checked his watch.Almost 12:30 already.The cemetery option won out easily.
Teddy jogged lightly down Cedar Street, his sneakers nearly silent against the pavement.The neighborhood transitioned gradually from residential to the edge of the university district, where the houses were older, their yards wider and more unkempt.The streets were empty, most windows dark.Pinecrest was a town that slept early, even the university crowd that was here in the summer for those crucial credits.
The wrought iron gates of Pinecrest Cemetery loomed ahead, their ornate curlicues glinting in the bright moonlight.During daylight hours, the gates stood open, welcoming visitors to the historic graveyard that predated the town itself.At night, they were supposed to be closed and locked, and he’d planned to climb the adjacent stone wall.
But not tonight.The left gate hung slightly ajar, a gap just wide enough for a person to slip through.Convenient, Teddy thought, though some small voice in the back of his mind whispered that it was strange.He silenced it.
The gate squeaked faintly as Teddy pushed it wider and slipped inside.Rows of headstones stretched before him, marble and granite monuments catching the moonlight, making some of them appear to glow from within.
The main path was gravel, which would make too much noise, so Teddy stepped onto the grass, navigating between the graves.Some dated back to the Civil War era, their inscriptions worn nearly smooth by time and weather.Others were newer, adorned with fresh flowers or small tokens left by recent mourners.
An owl called from somewhere deep in the grounds, the sound echoing oddly among the monuments.Teddy picked up his pace, suddenly eager to be through this shortcut and back on the ordinary town streets.He’d been in this cemetery dozens of times—school trips to do gravestone rubbings for history class, a few drunken dares with friends during sophomore year, even a memorial service for his English teacher’s mother last spring.
But never alone.Never at night.
He checked his phone again, using its screen as a makeshift flashlight to avoid tripping over the uneven ground.The eerie blue-white light made even the familiar monuments seem alien and threatening.The grounds were also wider than he had remembered, but Teddy knew the basic layout—straight through the oldest section, past the small stone chapel in the center, then through the newer plots, and out the back gate or over the wall if necessary.That would put him just two blocks from Tina’s house.
A branch snapped somewhere to his left.
Teddy froze, heart suddenly pounding in his throat.Stupid, he thought, forcing himself to breathe.Probably just a raccoon or a stray cat.
Still, he altered his course slightly, moving away from the sound and closer to the stone wall that marked the cemetery’s eastern boundary.That section of wall was ancient, parts of it missing entirely, reclaimed by nature over the decades.Vines crawled over what remained.
The moonlight created perfect visibility in open areas but cast impenetrable shadows beneath the scattered trees.As Teddy approached the far end of the grounds, he noticed a cluster of gnarled oak trees whose branches twisted together to form a canopy over a small clearing.Something about that dark space drew his attention—a difference in the darkness, perhaps.
He hesitated, glancing at his phone.12:41.Tina would be waiting, probably curled up in her window seat, the one with the cushions they’d picked out together at the thrift store last summer.The smart thing would be to hurry on and get to her house.But something glinted in the clearing—a brief flash of reflection that caught his eye.
Curiosity won out.
Teddy veered from his path, moving toward the oak trees.The ground sloped gently downward, creating a natural hollow.The trees here were old, their trunks massive and gnarled with age.
“Hello?”Teddy called softly, immediately regretting it.His voice sounded wrong in the stillness.
No answer came except the faint rustle of leaves.
He squinted into the shadows.There was definitely something—or someone—there, a darker shape against the trunk of the largest oak tree.A homeless person, maybe, seeking shelter for the night?Or more likely a college student who’d had too much to drink and wandered off campus, eventually passing out right here.
