Not voices.
A slow, steady hum.
I turned to see a girl in the center of the room, brushing a broom across the floor with slow, deliberate strokes. She looked no older than seventeen, and her dark hair fell to her shoulders, straight and without style. Her simple, dated dress was stylish but faded at the hem. And when she moved, the light slid through her, as though she were there and not there at the same time.
“Hello,” I said.
She gave me no acknowledgment.
I pushed away from the wall and took a step closer, the floor creaking beneath my feet.
Still, she didn’t seem to notice me.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
Nothing.
As she continued to hum, the tune became clearer and more defined, and I recognized the song. It was one my mother often played when I was a child. The girl stopped sweeping and lifted her head. Her eyes met mine, dark and knowing, as if she’d expected me and wasn’t surprised.
“I’m Anne … and you are?”
“Dreaming,” I said.
“Sometimes dreams weave into reality. Did you know that?”
What I knew was that she wouldn’t be around long.
In dreams like this one, they never were.
“I’ve been searching for you,” I said.
“I know. You’ve been to the cabin twice this week.”
“Why are you here?” I asked. “Or maybe I should say, why are you still here?”
She glanced around the cabin, her gaze lingering on the beam where her initials were carved. “We’re here together.”
“Who’s here together? You and me?”
She moved a hand to her hip, nodding. “Who else would I be talking about?”
“Did you ever come to the cabin with anyone, someone you thought you could trust?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped closer, the broom fading from her hands as she moved. The air grew colder with each step she took closer to me, as if the warmth of the room recoiled from her.
“Trust means different things to different people,” she said.
“Were you murdered?”
“You’re the private investigator. What do you think?”
“I think you were.”
“Maybe you should trust your instincts, then. What else do they tell you?”
“The person who killed you also killed Audrey.”
“Audrey was smarter than she realized, but she was also naïve.”
