"What? Why would I need to stay?—"
"It's Sarah Brennan."
The world tilted. "What about Sarah?"
"She's missing."
The word didn't make sense. Missing. Like a sock. Like car keys. Not a six-year-old girl. Not Sarah.
"What do you mean by missing?"
"Cole said she was sitting on the porch playing with her puppets like she usually does. And then she just..." Maggie'svoice cracked. "She wasn't there anymore. Cole asked me to call you to know if, by any chance, she came to you."
The blood drained from my face. My hands went ice cold.
“No, she’s not here,” I answered, my mind already turning the gears to find a solution.
“That means she’s on the mountain trail,” Maggie stated.
"The mountain," I repeated stupidly.
"Cole's already heading to the trailhead. Search teams are mobilizing."
I was already moving. Grabbing my coat, my keys, knocking over a stack of spelling tests without caring. "I'm on my way."
"Emma—"
I hung up. There wasn't time for whatever she was going to say.
The drive to the trailhead was fifteen minutes. I made it in nine, running two stop signs and nearly sideswiping a mailbox. My brain was a broken record, playing the same horrifying loop:Sarah alone on the mountain. Sarah scared. Sarah hurt. Sarah?—
This is my fault.
The thought hit like a physical blow. My hands jerked on the steering wheel.
I pushed her away. I made her feel abandoned. I taught her that people who claim to love you will eventually leave. And now she's run to the only place that might feel like comfort, the mountain her uncle loves, the wilderness that killed my sister.
"Please," I whispered to no one, to God, to the universe. "Please let her be okay."
The trailhead parking lot was chaotic. A cluster of rangers around a map spread across a truck hood. Flashlight beams cut through the gathering dusk.
And Cole.
He stood apart from the others, a statue carved from anguish. His face was gray, his eyes wild. When he saw my car pull in, something flickered across his features: surprise, hope, and desperation.
I was out of the car and running toward him before I'd even turned off the engine.
"Emma." My name came out broken. "She's up there. Alone. She's never… she doesn't know?—"
"Where would she go?" I grabbed his arms, forcing him to focus. "Cole. Think. Where would she go?"
"The creek clearing. The one she showed you." He dragged a hand through his hair, leaving it standing in wild peaks. "But if she's not there, there's a higher spot. A rocky overlook above the creek. She calls it her sunset place. She could have gone there to—" His voice cracked. "To see where her mom would have watched sunsets."
"Then that's where we go."
I turned toward the trailhead. Every instinct I possessed screamed in protest. The mountain loomed against the darkening sky, a black mass of shadow and threat. The wilderness that haunted my nightmares.
"Emma, wait." Cole caught my arm. "You don't have to do this. The rangers?—"
