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Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach—something was wrong. Very wrong. She hadn’t believed she was the only one hearing the quiet.
Sadie took out her phone and messaged Charlie. When you were here, did you feel a breeze? Hear birds or insects outside?
A second later, her phone dinged. I don’t know about the wind. I remember hearing and seeing a woodpecker, though. Why?
Just wondering.
So it was only her then… She wasn’t ready to hear Skyler’s opinion on what that meant for her mental state or his sympathy.
But Skyler seemed to notice something and left her side, walking farther past her to the oak tree, then stopped in front of the hole she’d dug. “Did you do this?”
She caught up with him, running a hand through her hair. “I did. I was trying to get to the shadows. I know how this is sounding. And please don’t look at me like I need a straitjacket.”
Brushing past him, she headed toward where she’d been the night before in her dream, where she’d started to dig a second hole that morning.
“Sadie!” Skyler called as she hurried down the path.
“You can go home if you want,” Sadie shouted over her shoulder, gripping the dowsing rods. “Don’t worry about me.” She prayed something would happen, to show herself that this was real, that she wasn’t imagining any of it.
Skyler caught up with her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he walked beside her. “I’m not going home.”
She nodded, holding back the dam that wanted to burst inside of her as they reached the area with the trees in a circular formation.
“You dug another hole here?” Skyler asked, lifting his arm from her shoulders to kneel in front of it.
“I had a dream last night, and something was here—something supernatural. I know you want me to tell you it was just a dream, but it’s more than that. I was led to this hole in the ground with stairs and symbols etched into the walls. And I think I found him, but then I woke up.” Sadie confessed everything to Skyler in thorough detail, the dreams she’d had before that, River’s scent, the shadow in her bathroom vanishing through the floor.
Skyler slowly ran a hand down his face. “I don’t know—”
“You don’t have to believe me. I just needed you to listen is all. For right now, that’s all I need, Skyler.” Sadie lifted the rods, steady and determined as she walked around the space. Neither one of the rods moved. It should’ve been expected, but she begged them to do something, anything.
As she approached the partially dug hole, a shadow slinked up from the ground, traveling against her body. She couldn’t feel it, not even when it folded a hand around hers. It didn’t have a scent, so it wasn’t River, yet she knew it was one of the creatures from her dreams. The shadow slowly moved the rod to the other, making her gasp. Skyler might believe she’d hit a water source or that she’d done it herself, but her hands had remained perfectly still. And then the shadow moved the rod again, slow at first, then faster and faster.
“Are you seeing this, Skyler? A shadow is doing it!” she shouted, giddiness thriving inside her.
“I see the rod moving, but not a shadow doing it.” His eyes widened. “Can I see them?”
Sadie handed him the rods, the shadow slipping down her body before sinking back into the dirt. As Skyler held them up in the precise spot where she’d been, they didn’t budge a millimeter. The silhouettes didn’t crawl up Skyler, only stayed closer to her.
“You think I was doing it myself, don’t you?” she breathed, her gaze trained on the shadows.
“No, I was watching your hands. I’ve seen videos of people using the rods before and none are ever like that. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I believe in you, and something isn’t right here.”
“It isn’t.” Sadie picked up the shovel, but before she could resume digging, Skyler took it from her hands.
“Let me help,” he said.
Chapter Eleven
“They listen to us.”
Skyler grunted, wiping the sweat above his brow away. “I believe you, Sadie. I believe what I saw with the dowsing rods. But I think we need to give the digging a rest.”
He was right. They weren’t uncovering anything otherworldly—they weren’t reaching the staircase she’d seen in her dreams. In her dreams… And that was why … it had come while she wasn’t awake, just as the silhouettes had become the creatures.
“We should,” Sadie agreed. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll make you something to drink.”
“I need a beer or two.” He blew out a breath, raking a hand through his damp hair.
