Page 34 of In Her Path

“You’ll need Piper as much as you’ll need Jake. The three of you together will make more difference than you can imagine.”

She stepped closer, willing him to be more specific. “Dad, please. We found Curtis Paige dead in City Hall. His tongue had been cut out. If you know something about who did this—”

“Answers will come to you very soon.” His smile held reassurance, but he offered no specific information. “Trust your gift, Jenna. Trust your instincts. They’ve never led you wrong.”

“That’s not enough. I don’t always understand what they show me. People are dying. I need to stop this one before—”

But her father's attention seemed to be elsewhere.

“Listen,” he said. “Do you hear that?”

At first Jenna heard nothing. But then it reached her—a low, keening moan that seemed to vibrate through the dreamscape. Jenna’s head snapped toward the noise.

“Who is that?” Jenna asked, but when she turned back, her father had begun to fade, his form becoming translucent at the edges.

“I’ve been hearing her voice for a while now,” Dad said, his voice growing distant. “It must be a woman—and I think she’s been dead just a short while. She seems to be looking for someone to help her. That can only be you. Help if you can.”

Jenna hesitated, torn between pursuing her father for clearer answers and investigating the source of that terrible sound. The moaning grew louder, more desperate. Jenna broke into a run, weaving through the dream-trees that clawed at her arms with branches too soft to harm.

The moaning guided her like a beacon, leading her toward a house she was sure she’d seen before, perhaps even visited—a two-story colonial with a wide front porch. Then near the house beneath a sky that seemed to pulse with unnatural light was a woman in a nightgown, wandering in slow, lost circles, her hands pressed against her temples as if trying to hold a single thought in place.

Jenna approached the woman from behind, her steps quickening as the cries intensified.

“Hello?” she called. “Can I help you? What’s happened?”

The woman stiffened at the sound of Jenna’s voice. She turned slowly, movements jerky and unnatural. Her face came into view—pale and contorted with what could only be described as mortal terror.

Diane Holt.

Jenna froze. This was the woman who lived here. Jenna had visited this house on more than one occasion. The councilwoman’s eyes were wide, locked on Jenna’s face with desperate intensity. Her mouth worked silently, as if she was trying to form words but couldn’t.

“Diane?” Jenna moved closer. “What happened to you?”

Diane’s mouth opened wider. Instead of words, a stream of dark blood poured out, spilling down her chin and onto the front of her nightgown. Jenna stared at the woman’s mouth in horrified fascination. Where her tongue should have been, there was only a ragged, bloody hollow.

“No!” Jenna lurched forward, reaching for Diane. “Not again! Who did this to you? Where are you?”

But Diane was already fading, her form dissolving like morning mist. As the scene around them darkened, Jenna reached for the councilwoman, her fingers passing through what would once have been solid flesh.

The world tilted sideways. Jenna felt herself falling, the ground beneath her feet suddenly gone. She gasped, the sound tearing from her throat as she plummeted through darkness.

She jerked awake with a start, her heart hammering against her ribs. The bedroom ceiling came into focus above her, pale blue in the pre-dawn light. Sweat had soaked through her t-shirt, and the sheets were tangled around her legs. She gulped air, trying to steady her breathing.

The digital clock on her nightstand read 6:15. Forty-five minutes before Jake was supposed to pick her up.

Without hesitation, she grabbed her phone from the nightstand and dialed his number. It rang three times before he answered, his voice thick with sleep.

“Jake, it’s me.” The words tumbled out. “I just had a dream. Diane Holt came to me. She was right outside her house. I’m sure she’s dead.”

“Dead? How?”

“Murdered. Her tongue, was cut out, Jake. She seemed to have been looking for me. I don’t know when she was killed, but …”

Jenna hesitated for a moment, struggling with what she and Jake needed to do next.

“We need to call it in, Jake. We need to get officers to her house.”

“And tell them what, Jenna? That she came to you in a dream?”